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Your Perfect Game - Roguelight, Soulslike, and FPS.mp3
19 Plays5 months ago
Join Dave and Jake as they hash out what their perfect games would be as part of a new series! This week we cover our ideal roguelike, soulslike, and FPS aspects that would need to be included to make a "perfect" game!
Intro:
- Hollow Knight OST - Reflection
Outro:
- Hollow Knight OST - White Palace
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Transcript
Challenges of Blizzard Season
00:00:35
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake and I'm joined by my co-host as always, Dave. How's it going to tonight, Dave? I'm straight yeeted, my guy. Oh, my gosh. Where where were you thrown?
00:00:50
Speaker
Approximately here. Hmm. It is. It is a miracle. I landed in my chair. That is good. As long as you've got heating, because we are in the midst of Blizzard season. ah Yeah, i I need to talk about that as somebody who has a dog and takes them out multiple times a day. Rookie mistake. It sucked. It sucked a lot.
00:01:12
Speaker
But like she loves the weather. It's very cute. She she did like a 360 as we were walking back. Uh huh. but Yeah, we also had like a lean into the wind moment this morning where it like blew my hood off like what's happened Yeah, the wind chill out there is like crazy it um It like I it caught the front door There's like the outer door and then the actual storm door or whatever It's been like I was like is there a branch hitting the house and I'm pretty sure it's not a branch I checked I trimmed some of the branches and stuff and there's still like that knocking sound so either
00:01:50
Speaker
I think it's the door. It could be maybe a chair or something like that's being shifted by the wind or ghosts. Did you ever find the ghosts? I haven't seen the ghosts yet. So yeah, that's the issue. What if wind was ghosts? They just had somewhere to be really fast.
Winter's Impact on Nature
00:02:10
Speaker
It's just like this torrent of souls. Yeah. yeah and That's why it chills you. That is.
00:02:17
Speaker
An explanation I would definitely tell kids. That's what it is. Wind is just ghosts. Relaxing summer breeze. Relatively happy ghosts. Winter. Very angry ghosts. Um, yeah.
00:02:35
Speaker
No, that's fair. but No, it has been very cold. It has been cold. Had to go out a lot, or you've just been kind of like bundling up inside? Well, it's been pretty standard. Yeah. I'm going to take the garbage out after this, but I hope that the ghosts are appeased at such a time. um And otherwise, I'm pretty much staying inside. The nice thing is when it gets really cold, both I want to stay inside, but also nature is like This is a great time to die. So the weeds or grass or plant life, various other things I'd normally need to be concerned about, they just take care of themselves. so I think they just turn off for a little bit. like We're going to literally chill while this is going on yeah and we'll be back.
00:03:21
Speaker
They do come back. It's the inconvenient thing is I was just like, I remember when I first, um, had to deal with weeds outside and stuff like that. I was like, well, winter's coming, right? So like, those will go away. right Spring will happen. That's not going to be a problem anymore.
Gardening Woes
00:03:38
Speaker
No, they just come back. They just just reanimate.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, weeds are prettyt pretty hearty. ah I remember we needed to put down like tarp and mulch in a certain area of like, hey, hopefully this will make sure that like nothing else grows around these plants. like Maybe deprived of oxygen and light. and All things nutritious there's the composting plants i'm the willing to go on record to say that yeah very fair Um, have you ever tried to pull out a rose bush? Uh not pull out a rose bush
00:04:19
Speaker
Those are the worst. Have you? I would imagine they are known. I mean, the thorn part sucked obviously, but like you can kind of like knock off the thorns and use gloves. Still a huge pain in the ass, but like the roots go like deep, deep down. Ah, okay. Hmm. Interesting.
00:04:41
Speaker
I don't remember if we pulled the whole thing out or if we're at a point where like just grabbed like the branch cutter and we'll hope that fixes it. Yeah. Like something else there instead. I don't think you get ah zombie rose bushes just coming back to me. Just leave this part of the roots of me. You can't feed him after midnight. Uh huh. Exactly. Oh my gosh.
00:05:08
Speaker
feed They're feeding it, and then they're going to feed me. yeah no ah But otherwise, we've been pretty good. and Stay in warm, playing games.
00:05:20
Speaker
um Diverse thing that you have been playing that you'd like to share or just stuff.
Gaming Talk: Inscryption
00:05:27
Speaker
I don't want to share all no I Was I've been playing inscription excellent game um Haven't beat it yet. So not much to say there um but also any actual discussion of inscription would require even at this point a spoiler alert because the thing that's funny the thing I will mention is like I've been spoiled on almost nothing for inscription. Really. And as I continue through the game, I'm surprised. I'm surprised that I wasn't spoiled on like anything because there's a lot to spoil in that game. But what I have noticed from this studio with their
00:06:09
Speaker
first two games of being Pony Island in inscription. Yeah. And I assume they're going to do in po Pony Island to whenever that's out is they're good at like setting a stage of like, this is the game. You're like, OK. And you're like, this is the game. I'm like, yep, no, I got you. ahha This and then it just like turns everything upside down and starts going to the table, 100 miles. It's like, ah, but no, I mean, it's really engaging.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely one i want to I want to talk about at some point because it deserves the full spoiler. um But yeah, the the what I've been telling people is the production value is the thing that kind of surprises me. It doesn't feel like an indie game at all. but like no Artistically, and then what they pull off and what they accomplish, I'm just like,
00:07:00
Speaker
is This is one of those Dave the Diver type situations where they're kind of like sweet they're like on a technicality in indie game, but this is actually like an 80 person studio in South Korea. um But I guess it's not. so ah Yeah. um I was playing drug dealer simulator. I started that up again. I did. I looked and I was like, when did I last play this? Because I was like, OK, before I get into this, there was a second drug dealer simulator that came out um this year. So maybe I just play that instead. I like look at the reviews and stuff and I'm like, yeah, it's not really doesn't really seem like it would be as good.
00:07:40
Speaker
And it's been literally a year. The last time I played it was like in January, which means I probably started around this time. And now I'm just kind of curious if I have like a one year cycle for drug dealer simulator. There's just, it gets cold. You're like, <unk>s I can sell bricks. Um, what about you? Have you played anything
Exploring Roguelike Games
00:08:04
Speaker
of note recently?
00:08:05
Speaker
um A little bit of Binding of Isaac, yeah again, which I didn't retain any skill that I had in it once upon a time. um That's been kind of cool to get back into a little bit. I did a round of RoboQuest, because I saw people playing that. I just wanted to refresh myself. A little bit more Vampire Survivors, some Lorne's Lure. I got as far as I'm going to get in it.
00:08:34
Speaker
Um, which is either ominous or negative or anti-spoiler wall. I don't know. I will say there.
00:08:45
Speaker
um I've hit a timed section. Gotcha. And up until this point in the game, that has not been a thing. Um, so it's like, Hey, put all these things you've learned to the test. And I'm like, learn. Oh, you misunderstand me. sir Yeah.
00:09:05
Speaker
No, that's fair. i have found That is my one critique of inscription so far, is there have been a couple things where it's like, hey, here's a puzzle, and then here's a little bit more complicated version of that puzzle.
00:09:17
Speaker
and I say this with utmost derision, but it's basically like the, um, crap. I forget about the real name of the game. all right I mean, I think of the looker, but what's the actual non the witness. Thank you. I was like, I'm thinking of the parody, but not the Jonathan flow game.
00:09:38
Speaker
Um, it's very witness esque in that because like, it's really easy to accidentally progress and not actually understand what the mechanics are. I mean, I've done that. I'm with you with and other games. Yeah. So I'm with you with that on that for blow Lauren, Lauren's lure, Lauren's lure, hard to say.
00:09:59
Speaker
I'm just going to stop talking about this game or call it LL because every time I pronounce it, I'm like, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence, Lawrence um but he was going to try and do some made up german as like ah feel like i'm going to say something accidentally stupid but yeah and the pretty easy to do when you're put of him pretending to speak other languages vayner schnitz um Entirely wrong 100% Yeah But I mean we've talked about some of this stuff that maybe We were less a fan of in some of these games ah But we covered a lot of games if you had to pick one of these to dissect the genre Because we're gonna we're gonna play doctor on it and create a Frankenstein game. That is the best type of that
00:10:52
Speaker
um What kind of genre would you start with? You could use one that we've covered already, maybe in this episode is a starting space or something else if something comes to mind. Don't know don't do to this genre always say something like binding of Isaac is fairly straightforward as far as its mechanics and Everything it has as far as like basic items bombs and keys Click on like the currency. So the the rogue like genre um
00:11:24
Speaker
Any qualifiers on that to like focus in? or I was kind of thinking like room progression specifically. OK. Yeah. and yeah um So you picked it. I'm going to suggest a cat an attribute that I think that those games need. um You can disagree with me.
00:11:44
Speaker
um Randomness. so That's my underhanded softball opening. I really think randomness helps add to ah the variety between each gameplay session. and Rogue like should have RNG. They're called RNG like for a reason. um But yeah, if if you don't have that variety, it becomes a very short game. Sure. um So basically just adding in that randomness allows you to expand it a lot. yeah And Isaac was initially based off of a Legend of Zelda, like where you have that top down view, you go between rooms, they have like some traps or like basic enemies. Right. um And they did their kind of like dark twist on it.
00:12:31
Speaker
as it far of being like, oh, you're a child who's trapped in the basement crying at things. Yeah. I never put that together, but it was just it's really reminiscent of like the old Zelda's or the yeah like handheld Zelda games.
00:12:45
Speaker
ah But basically, they had that initial game Binding of Isaac and then they just kind of kept building upon it. In the same way that Vampire Survivors had a, here's your MVP model, your minimum viable product that is engaging enough.
00:13:02
Speaker
and then they They have a structure or format where you can keep building upon it. It's iterative. Right. ah Without taking anything away. Kind of like with fall guys, just adding in, hey, new season. So we're adding some new levels to the pool. Right.
00:13:18
Speaker
Um, I guess for the next part then. So we know RNG is part of our ideal rogue, like we're we've softballed that one. We've walked it into the goal. Uh, but, um, Is there an implementation of that? That's better than other implementations as far as RNG and a rogue, like, like, how can they make it a more perfect union of mechanics? Um, Hmm. Uh, I think.
00:13:45
Speaker
And I actually have one if you need time. Taking vampire survivors example, and I know we've talked about this separately, but you need a way to... Oh, what's the word?
00:13:57
Speaker
You need ah a way to kind of like seed some of the RNG. Yeah. Have some of that manipulation because it sucks to start out with like a new binding of Isaac run. And you're like, oh, I need damage to help me clear things faster. And they're like, do you want to see through walls? I'm like, no. Uh huh.
00:14:16
Speaker
Do you want a fly that's not really going to go where you want it to? Or maybe it'll it'll let you know that a rock is shiny. yeah What? No. So it feels bad to get those things when you're going for a specific type of run or you just want something more aggressive.
00:14:32
Speaker
So a way to kind of shape that as you go, or if it can kind of lean into the RNG of like, hey, we you're trying to do a lot of elemental damage as far as poison, we're going to give you more poison items. That seems to be your your thing, right? Or just weights it a little bit so somebody can get where they're trying to go instead of having just a a very weird run. Yeah, I definitely see this because I played like I mean, we're talking kind of about room by room RPGs. Inviting device is a perfect example. If the pool gets too wide, eventually it's just like ah it it going for a particular type of run is like, well, you better hope that you're starting with it, right? you got it like There's a reason that you can reroll the first room so many times, but it's also sort of
00:15:25
Speaker
I guess I could say lazy. It's sort of lazy gameplay design to be like... to design a game in such a way that you think that your players are going to want to reroll the first room repeatedly, you know. Well, I mean, to be fair, it is just a reset. You could do it on any part of the run. Doesn't have to be the first room. Right. But it's very fast. Right. Yes. I mean, it's somebody who definitely if I'm playing Isaac and I have the D6, I'm like, give me the item room. Give me the item room. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:58
Speaker
um But like I want to compare this to RoboQuest, which is so far. It's actually even further going back and replaying it recently. It's so much further in the RNG curating spectrum on the RNG curating spectrum that I found if I was like, I want to have a build where I use this exact type of weapon.
00:16:21
Speaker
And that's going to be the weapon that's viable and used at the end of the game. um I could do that. I had like the flare gun plus melee recon build for like three runs, I think, in a row. And some of it was just like, oh, I just need any flare gun. And then um like I can use some of the in-game options to spend power cells and things like that to just make it a good one.
00:16:46
Speaker
right um And it was almost like it's almost completely removed RNG from, like if I happen to get good RNG, I guess I could have spent the resources somewhere else, but instead I could pretty much choose to end with almost the exact same build um for each of these runs, which is crazy. Yeah, that is nice.
00:17:07
Speaker
um In something like Hades specifically, um
00:17:15
Speaker
One thing I like that they do as far as like when they're giving you the options is the sacrifice. And I think RoboQuest does this too, maybe not directly. right um But it's like, hey, we see you're kind of building this. What if we gave you this? And it might be something very shiny. um yeah like Maybe I should change my build up because this seems like a really good weapon. Yeah.
00:17:38
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it is nice to have the option to say like, Hey, I'm really trying to do explosives with this character. I already have a thumper and then just kind of upgrade the thumper. And then you're able to roll some of the passive modifiers until you get something you like. Yeah. And that's just a currency you get throughout the runs. And it's just, it's nice. Cause you don't feel like you're stuck in something that sucks and you have to wait for like, is there anything good here? No. ah Yeah.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to concur with the Hades point. I was actually thinking of the exact same one. They try to tempt you away from your current build, but they give you commiserate or even enhanced progression or something else where it's like, yeah, I mean, option one, your power level five, but here's a power level seven alternative that's going to require you to just stop doing what you're doing. Well, see, here's the strat if you're doing that. Um,
00:18:36
Speaker
If you don't see like a good option from this specific guide and you have an open slot, take a shitty something, take a shitty dash. Your bill doesn't have to be around dash, but then later be like, Hey, do you want to get rid of that shitty dash for this dash? right more Oh, well I guess I will. Rags to riches story. You're like, but I love this dash. So all right. Okay. Sure. Yeah. i could with it headline No, that's
Appeal of Souls-like Games
00:19:04
Speaker
funny.
00:19:04
Speaker
I do like that approach that I think that would be my ideal, because on one hand, I like being able to tailor my experience. the The worst case scenario is you don't get what you want at all. And it just feels like this was a wasted run. And a lot of a lot of roguelikes are run like that, where it's like, well, dang, everything sucks. And so this run is just trashed. Right. um I just kind of hate that gameplay design.
00:19:30
Speaker
um But i almost i still don I think that RoboQuest actually goes too far on the power fantasy of making every run feel like you become unstoppable. um But it's also kind of meant to not be a 1,000-hour game, I think, like Binding of Isaac is. So I can understand arguments against it.
00:19:53
Speaker
Hades though, that's my perfect. Give me the Faustian bargains that require me to sacrifice what I have. um Or Hades one, you know, deals with them chaos, stuff like that. Like, let me risk it. Control! Yeah, exactly. yeah Shadow the Hedgehog actually is one of the deities. Hades one, if I recall correctly. Hello, son of ha son of Hades. ah um Where are the Latinas?
00:20:21
Speaker
That's what he's known for. That was his line, yeah. Every time, every time he picked him. um Anything else on Roguelike? So you want to pick on a different genre, try to perfect it. ah I do want to deep ah sorry dig a little bit deeper on the Falsian bargain thing. Sure. It is nice to have a risk reward option in any capacity. Yeah. When we were doing Oh god, I'm never gonna remember the name of this game. You could be a beaver, you could throw throwing stars, you could have... A beaver with throwing stars? You could be a lion and have like a lightning sniper rifle. What in the world? Did I play this?
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, it was a first person shooter in the in the world. Very Chinese design. Oh, oh, yeah, gunfire reborn. Thank you. Never was going to get there. I hope some listeners like, oh, that's that's obviously gunfire. You know, what's funny is this is the second time that I someone couldn't remember gunfire reborn and I reminded them of them like the last week.
00:21:24
Speaker
That game just eight just exists just below the subconscious i think for people. What I love is that I forget the same stuff. Like what's I have it now, but blasphemous is like the the one that I will always forget. But it is nice to have that because.
00:21:42
Speaker
as you unlock things and get better no and to have better runs. And one of the ways to do that is to take on an extra challenge for an extra currency, another weapon, an item drop, whatever it's going to be in that game. um Or you might have to sacrifice some health to do something or.
00:22:02
Speaker
It's just, it's, I like to play risky later because if I've kind of quote unquote mastered, um, the movement and attacks and I feel pretty comfortable in that, I'm like, yeah, just slap on the damage, please. Give me cool stuff.
00:22:21
Speaker
and your skill plus the damage will carry. It doesn't matter if you have 50 health, you're not going to get hit. Exactly. Right. um Yeah, I agree 100 percent. It's also this kind of feeds into customizable difficulty, which I know we talked about a long time ago. um But that's a massive deal for games, right? Like you should basically have an easy mode or a normal mode that most people can clear. um It doesn't mean that those people have to see all of the content in your games.
00:22:49
Speaker
that's And I'm not saying that that's true for all genres. right I'm not saying that like Dark Souls or Elden Ring needs an easy mode. That already exists, and it's called playing the game a certain way. right um But and playing the game playing the game the way I played it, for Shadow of the Earth Tree, that is basically it. Just summon everybody you can.
00:23:09
Speaker
um But in Roguelikes in particular, um like you said, it's ah it's it's it can be difficult um to have the game be in a situation where it's challenging. People don't feel like they're redoing the same thing. It's still engaging. um And there's a reason to play it on the harder mode.
00:23:32
Speaker
um Unless the game is is just really, really good, and then the difficulty alone may be the reason that people do it on the harder mode, I'm thinking of Hades 1 again, because Hades because is going to come up for all of these. um where it's just like, oh, okay, well, you just keep making the game irrationally more difficult. We're not giving you anything for it anymore. Just have fun, I guess. a High score, I guess. Then now there's a leaderboard. Never mattered before, but if you care now, I guess you can- I think it got to like heat 30-ish.
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah, right maybe. But I know some people got to like 45 or something crazy. Yeah, there was a whole big deal. um We might have even covered it where there was a somebody had beaten Hades with like maximum heat, I think, which is like insane, actually its insane. And it wasn't something that happened like within a month or some other semi reasonable, but hardcore amount of time. It was like a year after the game came out and it was possible, technically possible to do so.
00:24:33
Speaker
Jesus also, I don't explain for anybody who's not familiar with Hades one. I'm sorry to hear that's unfortunate right play that one We're talking about it a lot in our ideal of before you start a run you can basically Get more heat um By opting into these. Oh, I want enemies to have more health. I want them to deal more damage I want them to be faster. I want to be penalized per room or when I get rewards I all that stuff like that. And it, it adds up a lot. Even only doing a couple, you're like, Oh, I did give that person extra damage. I'm taking extra trap damage. I'm in Asphodel. I hate it here. Yeah. And you can only have yourself to blame because you have to willing willingly opt into it. And it's not keeping you from finishing the story. It's not keeping you from unlocks.
00:25:26
Speaker
It's just, if you want to hurt, yeah I will say, Hey, these two, at least those rewards you a little bit. Yeah. That's fair. I mean, like, I think in my ideal, if you do get rewards for it, it should be in the form of accelerated progression, not like one-offs. Um, like you shouldn't feel like you're missing the game or some, uh, part of the game. If you can wrap it up.
00:25:54
Speaker
I think Hades One did this, Hades Two definitely does. I just like endgame cosmetic stuff to know that I have done it or I've bought all the items to be like, oh, I've done enough runs. um So like technically, I did one of those challenge type things enough and I got a statue in my base. Nice. And that's cool. And it's not like I go and look at it every time. but It's just I put in the extra effort. I get this minor benefit. That's just for me. Mm hmm. Yeah. No, that's fair. And I I mean, like what that reminds me of is the sort of thing other games would charge you money for. Right. You're like, OK, well, you got a microtransaction. They say, do you want you want your zagreus to have ah extra goose down pillows or whatever? Like you spend money on that. But no, super giant to peer for that.
00:26:47
Speaker
Um, did you not get the the actual sex scenes, um dlz? Oh, I yeah, I guess I had the I had the the the entry tier version of the game. I didn't pay for premium They have like the the steam comments are all just like hey You should go to this site to unlock the actual scenes patch your uh patch your your your hades game. Um, no No, I agree with that one. I feel good on roguelikes. Yeah, I think that's a pretty good spot. I mean, to just say meta progression is very important also, but that's kind of like, yeah, obviously.
00:27:29
Speaker
um And not all games necessarily have it or necessarily need it because there are Roguelikes that exist out there where knowledge is the progression. And knowing what you do when you start the game um is so much more important than some numerical advantage. Noita. Noita is like that.
00:27:52
Speaker
um Can't even remember the name of the game that I played a good chunk of time. It's like a basic game on Steam. Oh well, can't remember. It's fine, but there's a lot of games like that. Um, so yeah, Roguelikes are good. You want to pick the next genre? I can throw a concept at you for the genre. What are we going to do? for Let's do Soul Slakes. Okay.
00:28:20
Speaker
I mean, it's our favorite thing. We talk about all the time. Hot gases named after it. What can we do to beef up souls? Like, what you got? What's the what what is necessary for souls? Like, so souls. We're just going to continue to open with but the ah the basic things. No, um a risky currency.
00:28:42
Speaker
something that you can lose, you you gain by progressing through the game, and you lose um by temporary setbacks in the game, but you can reclaim um if you're successful, if you redeem yourself, basically. I think that's really key key for Souls' likes. This is the corpse run for anybody. Yes. If you go back and recover your body, you can get said currency back.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yes, exactly. And this is this is essential for Souls like not just because it's the way it has been done, but because it lee it it basically sets the tension for your moment to moment gameplay. um And it makes without this, there's no stakes, right? Like.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, if you could run at something indefinitely, which you definitely can do. Yeah. um But if you just beat a big boss, you get like a huge chunk of souls. You're like, I got to cash this in. Right. Because it doesn't make sense to walk around with all of this extra stuff. But sometimes you're like, I'll be fine. Mm hmm.
00:29:46
Speaker
It introduces a lever or like a progress bar basically for risk management in the game that would just be completely absent if it wasn't there, right? Because say there's an example of a imagine dark souls, but you don't get souls when you kill enemies.
00:30:01
Speaker
Um, and you only got souls like when you killed bosses and it's like, okay. And then you, you have to spend them or whatever. It's just level up points and you, you kill a boss, you get five level up points, you can't lose them. And so everything about the game can be scaled basically. Cause they're like, okay, these bosses will be available. We expect there'll be like level 40 or whatever. Um,
00:30:22
Speaker
But now, when you're working your way through a level, you've killed a bunch of enemies, you're not gaining these souls that ah will start to burn a hole in your pocket that you're risking by continuing to try to progress. um Now, it's like, oh, you beat a boss, like you said, and you have that question of, do I progress? Should I spend the souls now? Is there something else I need to buy?
00:30:44
Speaker
um You complete a corpse run and you realized, they're like, oh crap, I was running around with 125,000 souls um for some stupid reason.
00:30:56
Speaker
And I successfully got my corpse run and it was like tense for a bit there. Maybe you almost died, right? Um, now you're like, okay, well, I'm going to walk back, right? I've learned my lesson. This is going, I'm going to, it's going to inform my future gameplay decisions because I've tempted fate and I was almost punished for it. Or maybe you were punished for it, right? I've, I've definitely lost a hundred K at a time, if not more. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
00:31:25
Speaker
So it's kind of funny. It's kind of Mimi to be like, what's one of the most important things in souls games. But honestly, the risk of losing what you have is kind of the core DNA at the middle of all of it. It's that, and one could argue difficulty.
00:31:44
Speaker
I'm going to agree to the first part and disagree on the second. Sure. um I don't think they need to be difficult. I think they should have a level of difficulty and, you know, progress that along the way to be like, oh, they're better. or They're higher level scaling, if you will. Right. um But I think it's for me, it's having cool, unique bosses. OK.
00:32:11
Speaker
Like it's really nice to go in and you're like, what the fuck is this? And they have a different moveset from the last boss you saw. They look different. The boss room's different. um And you kind of have to figure out, oh, what's the attack pattern? What's the trick I can do here? Is there anything I can do here? Or... Maybe you just have like a really bad build. You're like, I've got to change some stuff around to handle this specific boss. Yeah. I think that's fair to say. right like um There are a lot of games that have come out that don't have a lot of highly impactful boss fights. But especially in- They should be memorable. They should be. Even if they suck. like Dark Souls 1, Gaping Dragon.
00:32:58
Speaker
um That boss sucks. There's nothing about that boss that's designed in a fun way or an interesting way. like like The design of the actual boss. Cool. Yeah. um Everything about fighting the boss sucks ass. Yeah. it's It's not even that it's like dangerously difficult or anything. Like you can die to it. There's plenty of ways to die to it. But it's also like once you just know how to beat it, there's nothing interesting going on in the fight.
00:33:29
Speaker
But visually, when it crawls up into the area, and you're like, that's too big to fight. That's a big, that's a big how do how am I in the same weight class as that thing, right?
00:33:43
Speaker
um Scale is something that FromSoft absolutely loves to play around with. Yeah, Eldering is fucking huge, dude. Like, those trees, tall AF. Uh-huh, uh-huh.
00:33:59
Speaker
No, it's obviously a really great example because for me, that's the current pinnacle of souls legs. Yeah. Would you agree or is there another candidate for you for the pinnacle of souls legs? I mean, alder sorry, shadow of the archery. Yes. I actually really liked that last boss, even though like I hated that last boss. No, it's.
00:34:22
Speaker
It's really funny, too, because like, so I want to you disagreed on difficulty. So my defensive difficulty, because I agree with your boss's thing. I think that those need to be an act. They have to be a component of it. But for the same reason, the difficulty does is they play with that.
00:34:39
Speaker
risk slider. um If you have a tremendously easy game, then your mechanics about losing souls don't matter, right? yeah You're no longer dealing with tension. And it's kind of the true with but it's also true with bosses, but almost in the opposite direction from a mechanical perspective. Because what is the very first thing any sane person does as soon as they start fighting a boss in one of these games?
00:35:06
Speaker
You unequip all your gear and you die. you just you You die, you lose your souls, that's fine. You have to just baseline that expectation. This is the first state to obtaining the state of zen-ness that is necessary to defeat a boss. um Because if you go back to the boss fight and you have no souls, you're just you're just a naked monk. It's fine. You have no possessions. You have no expectations.
00:35:34
Speaker
At some point, the boss will fall is the course of nature. You'll get there. But if instead you go to the boss fight and you're like, I have 500,000 souls. I got to grab them. Okay. Now we got to beat the boss. All right. No. All right. He killed me again. I'm going to run back to the boss. ah Better not die any way on the way to the boss. All right. ah Let me run past the boss or grab my 500,000 souls. Okay. Now we're risking it all again. No, that's not the way of the month. So.
00:36:04
Speaker
I want to agree with Way of the Monk, where you should cash in, ready yourself, and then do multiple attempts of a boss. I guess to kind of see what you're saying with difficulty as well, I would agree with that. um There does need to be challenge. Otherwise, of what success is there? Right.
00:36:23
Speaker
um Actually, going back to your first point, I'm going to kick you in the shins a little bit. Sure. Throw throw ah some sand at you. Right. And also, no, I'll stop there. Another crab's treasure. Right. Oh, wait, no, that had currency too, shit. Yeah.
00:36:41
Speaker
Nope. You're right. It's got the microplastics. The one thing that another crab's treasure does allow you to do, though, is it pretty much allows you to turn off the difficulty if you want. Right. like Yes. There are plenty of ways to completely mitigate anything difficult in the game outside of maybe platforming ah certain sections. But even then, I think there's settings. um Well, the thing is, with another crab's treasure, you don't lose microplastics, do you?
00:37:11
Speaker
I think you do. Yeah. You have to claim them back when you can reclaim your shell. Oh, yep, you're right. right Yeah. but ah But there is a setting. You can turn that off. um You can you can absolutely turn it off in the accessibility settings the same with gun gun Crab walked at me with a Glock. Yeah um You can just change the settings so that when you die to you just keep all your microplastics easy toggle That's nice. Um, I think it's
00:37:43
Speaker
nice to have as far as an accessibility thing. Again, I don't think everything needs to be like just get good. Yes. I do think there needs to be a level of like do you do need to um be skilled enough to beat said boss, ah whether it's through accidental dumb lock. But like there is some learning of the movements.
00:38:04
Speaker
um
00:38:07
Speaker
I guess the important thing is like another crab's treasure can actually fulfill all of the boxes for my but so far that we've covered for like good game or our ideal souls like and having the option to turn some of those things off is actually fine, right? Because you're not forcing me to turn those things off, right? It's not like losing microplastics isn't part of the gameplay. It's not like difficult bosses isn't part of the gameplay. It's you have options to play the game a different way if you want.
00:38:40
Speaker
But also the default experience is pretty challenging. And these things are in play. um I think that would that would hold true for Dark Souls, even if it would be like off brand for FromSoft to be like, hey, here's an accessibility menu. And you could just turn on no clip for some reason. Or you could one shot boss. You could get a rocket launcher or something like that.
00:39:04
Speaker
um I think that the community would be less accepting of it for that compared to like, uh, shiny little crab game with, you know, SpongeBob aspirations, but like, um, giving people options is not going to lower your rating on my list for the ideal game.
00:39:27
Speaker
Like I understand if as a studio, you want to say, that's not how we're going to do things. yeah I think it needs, this is the experience, right? Yes. Sure. Um, and then just take with that, whatever reception it gets. Exactly. Um, because if you don't want that audience where they want to play a little bit differently or have some accessibility, uh, hurdles that you're not going to sustain on one part, kind of a dick move. Um, but on the other hand,
00:39:58
Speaker
that's your choice. Right. choice How do you feel about lies of P as far as corpse runs? Cause when we were talking about the boss in again, for anybody who's not aware in dark souls, if you die in the boss room,
00:40:16
Speaker
That's where your souls are. Right. And you have to go back to the boss. And once you're in the boss room, you can't leave. Yeah. So you basically have to keep doing boss attempts if you want to try and save those souls. Right. Or bring us. Yeah. Just come around. Come around. There are ways to get around it. But in the lives of P, I did not know until I died of the first boss and then like, oh my God, like my souls are outside the boss door. Yeah. So you don't actually lose anything.
00:40:45
Speaker
I think it's fine. Honestly, it's, it's a faster, it's yeah. I mean, I'm going to ask you cause you were saying about stakes, right? You're balancing risk, reward.
00:41:00
Speaker
I mean, it's it is more casual, obviously, right? It's a Pinocchio game, of course it is. But it does it does mitigate some unfairness, I guess. I'm using the term unfairness kind of specifically. But like in these games, you can get ambushed. You can be ambushed by bosses sometimes, right? like um Not all of us have developed our boss arena sense yeah to be like this room seems kind of big maybe I should like just backtrack to the bonfire um And sometimes you know you get hit with a fog gate that you weren't expecting
00:41:34
Speaker
um Liza P basically says like yeah, we can hit you with those moments whenever you want if you think that it's cheap and that you died um It's never gonna cost you your souls or whatever. They were in that game, right? Mm-hmm Your P essence or whatever it's called um Your erigo, yeah, there we go. Thank you. There we go But by I would concede that yes, you are moving the investment slider a little bit further back because you know that at least to a boss, you'll have the option to run back to the place where you died, um, kill the enemies on the way there. Maybe that's a risk. And then if you want to backtrack and spend it, right. But you open it with Homeward Bone. And so technically like, yeah, in some scenarios you had a similar situation in Dark Souls. Um,
00:42:30
Speaker
Though that might not be guaranteed based off of animation times and when you're getting hit what you're getting hit with. but yeah um I'm going to argue for me personally, yeah I like having with those unique bosses, unique areas or distinct areas.
00:42:50
Speaker
Like, I don't want everything to be like a a washed out World War Two map. Like, give me the fire region, give me the ice zone. ah We have to go to the mountain to do whatever. Just different things so that when I arrive, I am intrigued to explore. Right. Like when you went into the the painting for Ashes of Ariandel,
00:43:16
Speaker
I was like, it's a lot of snow out here. And then you go and it it changes kind of entirely when you get to the the bird town. Yeah.
00:43:27
Speaker
Yeah, the series is full of moments like that. And it's kind of like it's because it wants to cultivate a sense of curiosity and wonder. And like variety is is necessary for that. like I've never played Kingsfield. But I also know that visually, Kingsfield has nothing going on for it. yeah It is very, very basic. The hardware was very, very basic. They have taken advantage of some things since then.
00:43:53
Speaker
um I mean, I guess if I were to be critical in a more recent game, there's a lot of stuff in Armored Core that looks very samey. um Not all of it. They do have some different terrain and stuff, but there's just a lot of destroyed buildings in Armored Core. Yeah, it's very war setting. Ah, there's destroyed buildings. Ah, there's snow everywhere. like can can ah Compare that to...
00:44:16
Speaker
This is ah a dumb older, this is for the older already older audience, but emerging from the sewers and oblivion when you're like, what is a 3D game? Or um you get through the tutorial l area and Elden Ring and you're like, oh, it actually is an open world that wasn't just marketing, right? You see all the the the beauty and the lights and stuff like that. and Um, I agree with you. I agree with 100% and the perfect example in the soul series. Um, Oh, we're already at it. Let's go ahead. Go ahead. I'm a dark souls to apologize. And one of the gripes that a lot of people, i I agree with it to a certain extent have with that game is that the level architecture doesn't make any sense.
00:44:58
Speaker
Like you go from the windmill poison area. um You to go up an elevator and you end up in a lava area. And it's like, what happened here? And if you look at the map.
00:45:13
Speaker
There's not a justification for how this all works. Maybe you could say you're in a caldera, maybe? No, it doesn't really work. But who cares because they're throwing different areas at you. That's more important in some ways than ah Geological consistency. Yes. I feel like if you're always looking for geological consistency, you might be a little too nitpicky. Yeah. yeah But my go to example of a good example of this is in Elden Ring. The first time you take the elevator down into Siafra. Yeah. um So good.
00:45:51
Speaker
it's like It's just like a long elevator ride. I'm like, okay. Welcome to hell. You're starting to see like this all these lights, like this beautiful sky underneath the earth. It's just done in such a way where you're like, wow. yeah like and Then I was very engaged. I wanted to explore.
00:46:10
Speaker
um It's Ash Lake on crack, is what Ciafra is. FromSoft likes to reuse motifs and ideas and stuff. If you play their games, you'll realize that there's basically an NPC that's in all of them.
00:46:29
Speaker
but like Dark Souls 1, similar vibe, you know going down, i a hidden wall behind a hidden wall, you know illusory wall behind a illusory wall. And you're like, well, this doesn't seem like it's necessary. Also you were just in Blighttown, right? Like, so nothing is motivational at this point. And you end up on this beach surrounded by water with a Hydra and like world trees growing in the distance all around you. And you're like, this is a massive open space and
00:47:03
Speaker
The hollow earth vibes, basically, I guess is what we're describing. Like, that's an awesome and I mean awesome in like the traditional sense. Inspiring awe. Yeah. Site. Yeah. Yeah. And then also having your enemies kind of themed in a a way that suits it. Like. The mudmen in Siafra. Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:47:28
Speaker
Like it just kind of fits. And then when you get to like the more open areas with like the planes, you have these like druids, shamans, spectral druids. um You have your lightning balls. You have the archers who don't miss you. Right. So yeah, it was fun. But it's it it it can be oppressive at times, too, but.
00:47:51
Speaker
It is also super, it's super interesting to see like, oh, okay, this map was gigantic. Also, there's another one and it's underground, right? Yes. like I think scale, I think can always be a little bit awesome if done correctly.
00:48:09
Speaker
Cause usually with any type of game, your focus is on where your character is looking on the screen or you'd have maybe a top down view of something. So when you really pull the camera back to be like, this is how big the game world is. It's like, Oh, we're all, we're just a dime space, man. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Again, scale, scale is a big thing to play with. Um,
00:48:35
Speaker
I actually think of like an anti-example almost for like Siafra of a game that didn't really nail it for me. um And it's not a Souls-like game, but it is open a world. So Tears of the Kingdom also had an underground area. And their specific thing is like it exactly mirrors inverse, the overworld.
00:48:59
Speaker
Um, so like where land, where water was above land is below and the opposite. And so there's, there's a lot of interesting things that play around that, but the area is also super dark and kind of the mechanic is like lighting it up. Um, like with, uh, big beacons, basically dark souls too. Um,
00:49:20
Speaker
um But it's so much less inspiring because like the default state is just so dark. Yeah. um And she offers like. It's the night sky underground, that's what we didn't mention that, but it's like it's literally constellations you're looking at in this in the sky, and it's just it has visual impact that tears the kingdom doesn't even touch ah for its underground area.
00:49:47
Speaker
um So they were going for other things. That's fine, but wow factor. Yeah. Interesting areas.
Variety in Game Environments
00:49:55
Speaker
Very important and like tied to that kind of like interesting enemies and bosses. Yeah, exactly.
00:50:03
Speaker
Like I don't want to fight the same thing everywhere I go because once you learn how to kill them, you're like, I'm going to owe the dogs and come up and lunge at me and let me dash back and then stab it. Cool. It's just the same thing all the time. So having that variety really helps, but I don't want to have like if I'm in Lothric. Yeah. We'll fight some nights. Cool. on I don't want to do that when I'm fighting like witches. And I forgot their call, but they have the big hats.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah. And they're like the worst enemy. They're basically the um catacombs, little golems, statues, gargoyles. Sorry. Gotcha. Right. Yeah. Hate those fuckers. Yeah. No, it's fair.
00:50:51
Speaker
um But let's see, anything else for Souls-likes that needs to be included there? I don't think multiplayer qualifies. I think you can have a perfect Souls-like with or without it. Yeah, it's optional. um let me What did Remnant 2 do that we can really ah draw from? Draw from, yeah.
00:51:14
Speaker
But I mean, credit to Remnant 2, all of the areas were very well designed, very cool. When you had a boss fight, it really did feel like the culmination of that level. And all of the bosses were very unique. I remember we got to the cube boss and we're like, oh, this is a puzzle. Yeah, this is literally just a pattern puzzle. um That was cool. Yeah. ah Creativity obviously is going to be in any, uh, ideal game. I think it was nice to have a, you can't just shoot it boss and you had to kind of work around the mechanic. Yeah. And that one also scaled if you're playing like solo, um, it was, there's few more, uh, far fewer weak points to hit on the various cubes. So they kind of like, it would have been really, really tedious if it didn't scale. So that was nice to see. Um,
00:52:11
Speaker
I guess this is also kind of an auto fill in, but progression, both in roguelikes and in souls-likes is pretty essential. I don't know if I would ever really play a souls-like where there was no progression.
00:52:27
Speaker
Bro, I have a story for you about a separate game. yeah Yeah, it is nice to level up and a lot of that is for item requirements. Yeah. If I want to use the big heavy sword, I got to be leveling strength to actually be able to use it.
00:52:44
Speaker
The only doubt I would inject into my own argument is Sekiro, basically, because like Sekiro is excellent. Sekiro has progression. It does, but it's not not the same. Yeah, it's not you selecting. It's like you get a health beat. You get an extra sip of your.
00:53:03
Speaker
sake or gourd. You do more damage, but we're never going to tell you how much damage you're actually doing anyways. So trust us. Yes. Um, I mean, you can, you can feel it if you have not done it. Oh, that's true. Yeah.
00:53:19
Speaker
But yeah, it is nice to actually progress because if you go back to the level one area because you want to look for a certain item or something, it shouldn't be a slog. You've been here. You've crushed this. You beat the boss of this area. You should be able to go through, cut down the enemies you've already seen before and kind of explore. Right.
00:53:40
Speaker
And i think I think people may say like, oh, of course, but progression would be a fill in for any game, right? But actually not. Like some of the some really big, really fun games don't have persistent progression or it's just like little highs. ah Sea of Thieves doesn't have anything like that. Maybe you get like some cosmetics, but there's no power progression. um Like even Helldivers or games like that, they basically are built around models of punting you back down to, even if you're getting other gear and stuff like that, it's not like you're so much more powerful than you were when you started. It's other options and things like that. Or, you know, Dota or whatever. Temporary progression in Dota's case, but then it sets you back.
00:54:24
Speaker
um if you don't join at level 25 you're like how's it going guys yeah like you can do technically passive things in dota that don't matter yeah you can be like oh i play this many games i've done these challenges on these characters um But that kind of shows like, hey, I understand this character. So you assume that that person is going to play that character pretty well. Right. Sometimes. That's not the case, but true. You know, man, it feels like this would have to basically be a series to cover all of the genres that we could cover.
00:55:00
Speaker
I'm trying to think because we've got literally just to recap for the people who are still with us, we've covered souls likes and we covered roguelikes and room kind of kind of room based roguelikes. I kind of i I have a probable lightning round genre because I don't think either of us are super into it.
What Makes a Great FPS?
00:55:24
Speaker
um
00:55:27
Speaker
But I thought about making a joke in the instance and it's just like hentai games. But no, it was yeah. First person shooters. Oh, I got this one. You're going to say it's your RPGs. That would be it was fast. It's got to be over 100 hours.
00:55:46
Speaker
Your characters have to talk a lot. However much you want them to talk, they need to talk more than that. um or side Stop digging in. you you All right. FPS. um What is an FPS need to be? And we're going to say maybe like main genre FPS because there's a lot of like bio shocks and FPS. No, it's a first person game. Yes.
00:56:13
Speaker
I think a big part of this, and you're going to agree with me when I give the example, the weapon should feel impactful because everything you're doing is gun based. You are shooting. Right. If it's hordes of zombies, I want to feel like I'm blowing them down with a chain gun or if I'm hitting with a shotgun, they're going to be blown to bits. Yeah. I'm thinking of a sniper rifle. Maybe it hits some ones behind them. Yeah. um Bolt-action snipers always feel better than magazine-fed snipers in video games. No, it feels great. um But yeah, it should feel like you're actually doing something. Like, I'm sure you've played some Flash FPSs back in the day. Yeah. And it's kind of like fall over and you're like, what? You're shooting peas at them or something. Yeah.
00:57:03
Speaker
Yeah. And like older video games, like gold and I had that issue. Uh-huh. That's kind of like a limited technology at the time. The muzzle flash is actually what you're giving them a seizure, basically at the end of the, the, the rifle.
00:57:18
Speaker
Yeah, um I think weapons should feel like weapons. I agree. Yeah. No incident agree. i'm Also going to throw in um satisfying reloads ah for whatever type of first person shooter you're making. If it's meant to be super stylish, I want to see guns spinning, you know, do the Terminator thing um like those are all completely valid. um Or even if you don't have reloads, but spot style is the thing.
00:57:46
Speaker
um then i have the reload button that just plays the animation. ah Dave was showing me that earlier. ah Dusk, right? I think it has the reload button for a game that does not have reloads. Yeah. It just, whatever gun you have, it does like a little spin. Yeah. But each one is specific to that weapon. It might be an American thing.
00:58:08
Speaker
I don't know, but there's I do have a little bit of a perverse satisfaction for like really accurate or really detailed sounding reload sounds in games. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but it just sounds good like expanded shells or whatever hit the ground. You like hear magazine clicks and stuff like that. It's just perfect.
00:58:31
Speaker
I think I grew up with like a World War II dad where he's like, I'm going to learn all the history of World War II. I learned about guns to a degree. I've shot some guns in my time. um And like, I understand some of the appeal, but like it's definitely the
00:58:52
Speaker
if you have done anything with guns, it just feels good to have it be a little more realistic. Yeah. And the reload thing for me is kind of like an overwatch or something else where it's like, hey, I just need to like fiddle. Yeah. Something. Yeah. Because if you're going through a level, let's say in Ghost Runner, some of the parts are platforming, some of the parts are fighting. There's sometimes just like some in between parts. Yeah. In other games might have some.
00:59:21
Speaker
We don't have anything immediately right here. Maybe you're walking and somebody is talking to you or maybe something else is going on, but just to have like, Oh, I can jump around. Oh, I can fiddle with my thing. I could reload my gun. Yeah. Just something. Yeah.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, holding holding W to go from A to B and then nothing happening in the interim of any interest whatsoever. We're past that in games. We don't need that anymore. give us Our attention does not last that long anymore. Give us something.
00:59:56
Speaker
um But like in something like Ghost Runner, your main weapon is this sword. Yeah. Which it's not like he's holding it out all the time. Yeah. It's kind of like off to the side. So it is kind of nice to I think there's a button to literally just inspect the sword. Yeah. Yeah. Because you have this really cool and diverse sword cosmetics and you can spend the time to appreciate it. Yeah.
01:00:21
Speaker
I might have mentioned it, but there's literally a mod for Cyberpunk 2077. The first time that you take a a weapon out, there's a cool animation for it. And some of the weapons have excellent animations. They're just very cool. um But you'll never see that animation again with the default game. And this mod literally just gives you a button. You can just press. um Or you can make it so it like happens sometimes when you reload or whatever. um So when you take the weapon out, it's just you do the cool gun thing. um And it's just...
01:00:53
Speaker
The universe was made so that if you go at people with a katana and you cut them all down in like point two seconds with a stand of Eastern or something like that. um And it's just you and then all of them fall to the ground behind you in that like Hollywood cliche. ah You need to have a button to just like do the cool sword thing before you see that. Right. Like you have to. You have to. It's nice to have a Not like maybe like a ton or like a style on them. Yeah. But or like maybe you could level really well. You just want to have your in game victory dance. Yeah. Give them something.
01:01:29
Speaker
It's like, it's, it speaks to it that like, I want that button in my freaking single player game, right? Like no one else is looking at this, but me. Yeah. But you can't tell me that like using Johnny Silverhand's handgun, like hand cannon, hand cannon is more accurately um is not super satisfying for all of the reasons we've described. Um,
01:01:54
Speaker
Lightning round other things in a first-person shooter probably some sort of multiplayer um That's the one thing Call of Duty has Yeah, I don't really like cod and I haven't played it in a decade but um That was the big thing. That was the big thing. Yeah, I think multiplayer and having different people you're playing against each time, kind of like we're talking with roguelikes. It's a fresh experience every time. And if it's just single player. You have some I mean, Halo is a good game. I like Halo. I've heard good things. so
01:02:34
Speaker
But a lot of my fun with Halo is not in the campaign. It was multiplayer, yeah playing against my friends or strangers on the internet. like this is our This is our best FPS. So even if it's even even if there's things that I enjoy that don't meet these criteria, the best one, yeah, it would have multiplayer. It would be addictive. It would be given COD to run for its money.
01:02:58
Speaker
It would probably have a, um, something like the spec ops, um, thing that cod had for a while there. Um, cause I still remember with great enthusiasm, the AC one 30 missions, or you just have one person running on the ground and the other person trying their best to not blow them up with all of the fire power they have. It's just very fun. Um, anything else stand out for our lightning round FPS?
01:03:29
Speaker
Probably progression, kill perks, take them or leave them. Eh, it depends on the type of game. Yeah. um I'm going to leverage again, kind of talked about the other games, but like settings options. Yeah. Because Everybody hates fucking motion blur or other things. Some people like a really big field of view because they're sociopaths or just other things to make it easier for you to play and enjoy the game. Yeah. Because it sucks to be like, oh, it's stuck at this resolution. This is my mouse sensitivity. It's a lot that can't change anything here. Mouse acceleration enabled by default. You have to put in a config file outside the game to disable it. Looking at you stock or two.
01:04:12
Speaker
But yeah, like game should be fun. So we should be trying to remove stupid barriers of entry as much as possible. I agree. I definitely agree. Let's just make that a standard for future games for everybody. Yeah. Give people settings options, too. We give them graphics options. What's your monitor? What resolutions do you need us to be at? OK, do that for other things. Yeah, we have PCs. That's what we're talking about. Exactly. You said settings options. I would also say setting. There's a lot of good settings out there, but our ideal game doesn't take place in World War II.
01:04:47
Speaker
What? That's the one we can rule out because we've already done it too many times. um I think that one's fair to say, at least for myself. And yeah, but like something like Back 4 Blood, I really did enjoy because one, you have the threat, that's your motivation, and you are going around to different ah elaborate settings. And it felt connected to me. Yeah.
01:05:16
Speaker
Yeah. Um, my perfect one has regenerating health. I'll say it. I've reached that point in my life where I don't want to look for a med pack. Um, give me the red on the side of my screen and then let it fade away over time. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. It didn't kill me in five seconds. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. Um, yeah.
01:05:40
Speaker
anything else for the shooter, I would say actually single player story. You should also have a good and compelling single player story um in the perfect setting because that single player story should be getting you into the world, getting you familiar with mechanics, and then you can jump into the multiplayer. Yeah, because something like um going back to James Bond Nightfire. Yeah.
01:06:05
Speaker
It meant a lot more. I was picking these characters when I knew who they were from the story. Right. Not to say it had a good story, but it meant more to me in the same way a lot of the smash characters I picked unfamiliar with their game to some degree, which is why I'll never play Pit. Hey, because you're familiar with the game. I don't know that much about Kid Icarus. So maybe that's the reason I'll play Dark Pit from time to time. But but yeah.
01:06:33
Speaker
Anything else for first person shooter? I think we can close that one out. Everything else would be aspects we would say in other genres, maybe. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Listener Engagement
01:06:42
Speaker
That's three and three is the magic number. It's all you guys get. um What other genres do you want us to cover in this now recurring series?
01:06:53
Speaker
um i was thinking Oh, that's for the audience. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah You can answer too, but we can we should answer that one on the side and then use it to plan future episodes But you know if you guys want to help us plant plan flan if you want to help us flan I don't know what that means playing future episodes Let us know what genres would you like to cover or maybe some of the things that we covered for these genres? ah didn't encapsulate your perfect version of that game and Uh, citizen your opinions, let us know soapstone podcast at gmail dot.com or post them to Facebook at facebook dot.com slash soapstone podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. What is Animal Crossing count as?