Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
DLC Fatigue, Lost Game Secrets, and Why Pixel Art is Still Kew
84 Plays2 days ago
In this episode, we talk about how older games handled secrets, cut content, and unfinished ideas compared to how modern DLC works today. That turns into a bigger discussion about project scope, why some games feel overbuilt, and how smaller experiences still hit harder. We also get into pixel art, JRPG nostalgia, and why people care way too much about how others enjoy anime and games.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 135
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 135 of Unqualified Game Chat. I am your host with the most, but I'm Baroque, Ezra Lopez. And with me today is my six-year-old, packed shirt-wearing, best friend, Spencer, the Legacy.
00:00:45
Speaker
Kon bon wa, everybody. how we doing? I say that because it's 6.34 p.m. here, so it is evening where I am. It's already dark out.
00:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, the time's changing for me right now.
The Annoyance of Time Changes
00:01:00
Speaker
I think going to have to do that clock thing. Do you do the clock thing? the clock thing, unfortunately. Oh, yes, this is going to be the bad one where you lose an hour.
00:01:10
Speaker
You know who invented that? Hitler. Hitler.
00:01:15
Speaker
That's what feels like, am I right, ladies and gentlemen? he's ruined so much of my life. I will ruin this. ah No, no, a good guy. Benjamin Franklin. bold Oh, he he was going he was going into offices ah back in the day and like he he was realizing that um the factories because they didn't have lights back then that they had to shut down early when the when the times change or when the the days got shorter. um Because like we need to be working.
00:01:46
Speaker
working Yeah, all the budget would go towards keeping the place lit and no one wanted to pay for all those those lights. So they moved the time so that it was brighter outside so that people could continue working in the dark.
00:02:01
Speaker
And Franklin. And isn't he on one your dollars or coins? Yeah, dude. Yeah. He's ah he's on the hundo, but isn't that isn't that brilliant? Yeah. That is pretty crazy. yeah That's fucking brilliant.
00:02:13
Speaker
that's fucking That's fucking brilliant. Like, hey guys, this isn't working for us. We need to save money. like Let's just change the rules change of the entire world. And everyone was like, that sounds good to me. no issues there. It's not going to get annoying when electricity is invented. Fucking suck in 200 years when none of this fucking
East Coast Snow Challenges
00:02:36
Speaker
matters. Um... It's also getting warm here, thankfully. i think tomorrow's the last day for a while where it's going to be in the negative temperatures. so
00:02:46
Speaker
Hopefully shit's going to melt because we've gotten over 12 feet of snow in my town this year. Oh, man. It's been rough. The East Coast. i don't I don't. I'm not jealous of you at all over there. that is I've shoveled so many times this fucking year.
00:03:00
Speaker
People are snowboarding in New York down Empire State Building. Yeah. It looks like it looks like the day after tomorrow, that the poster where it's all icy. Yeah. Yeah. the What's her name? The lady with the late Statue Liberty. J.J. J. Hall snowboarding down it.
00:03:18
Speaker
sure Hell yeah. Who played his dad in that movie? I haven't thought about that movie. fucking Kurt Russell. Was it Kurt Russell? No, it was someone who was the day after. It was Dennis Quaid. It's fucking Quaid, bro. It was?
00:03:35
Speaker
I haven't seen that movie since like the 2000s. I can't believe I knew that. ah What a fall from grace, though. but Yeah, that's rough one. That's a rough one. Poor Jack Quaid. He's probably like, ooh, that's not great.
00:03:49
Speaker
We miss you, Quaid. You know what? Jack Quaid, great actor. I'll give, you know, he's, he, ah and I think he's one of the people who was like, yeah, I am an FO baby, but I'm trying hard. And you know what? I respect the hell out of being able to be like,
00:04:03
Speaker
Yeah, I absolutely got this position because my dad's fucking Dennis Quaid, but i'm do I'm working. I'm
James Woods: Talent and Controversy
00:04:08
Speaker
doing it. And you know what he is? He's a good actor. So you know, kind of bummed me out ah that that turned bad was the voice of Hades from ah ah James Woods. Yeah, yeah. James Woods. He's pretty nuts, which is a shame because he is a great actor. He's such a good actor. Why'd you to, you have to do that? He went, he went, he went crazy a while, like pre-Trump, I think. Right. Yeah. So he was, he was in it for the love of the game.
00:04:31
Speaker
He was, yeah, for that he was good. He was ah smart to sign whatever deal he had on that Hades character. Yeah. with disney yeah Well, cause at the time when he was like, I want to play him in everything. Disney was like, holy fuck, James Woods is going to do it all that rocks. And now it's flipped to them. Like, well, James, God damn it. James Wood is back here.
00:04:49
Speaker
let's just have a wifi try to sell some snake oil yeah let's make sure he can't tweet while he's recording yeah oh if you're new to this podcast it is a video game podcast recorded every week and posted to podcast services on thursdays sometimes fridays he voices hades and kingdom hearts that's video game related we're still we're on track do your favorite hades uh quote yeah What's the one um when you play Kingdom Hearts 2 and he does that weird animation where he goes and then he says what does he say?
00:05:26
Speaker
i can hear it. I can fucking hear it. Feel the Feel heat. Feel the heat. I remember that. ah and we we we If you want this show a week early, you can get it on Patreon. If you want it with everyone else, you can just wait a week.
00:05:45
Speaker
but Also to the the audio listeners, when I said he does this, I did a funny little jig that he does. yeah and I forget that we have audio listeners. Why don't you go watch the the Hades? What is it?
00:05:59
Speaker
but It's the Underworld, right? the yeah yeah and you're running You're trying to escape with Oren, and he does that. yeah Right. Good scene. that was all That's a great scene. You know what? Great.
Nostalgic Video Games
00:06:09
Speaker
Right. Wait, wait to remind me again. two two shows in a row. Yeah. Kingdom Hearts two is a good game.
00:06:16
Speaker
Game. It is. Yeah. I was like so thrilled. to Wow. Cloud looks like Advent Children. That's so cool. And then they're like Orin and he's my second favorite Final Fantasy character. So i was like, holy shit. This game was made for me. Well, even the fact that he's in the underworld, man, like how, how smart, how, how smart.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah. It's such a, there's, I was, I recently reviewed a kingdom hearts or kingdom hearts. Legacy of K to defiance.
00:06:49
Speaker
Yeah. You'll, you have to play like all of them, which is crazy. Cause they haven't did the remaster of blood Omen two, which is, Anyway, the problem with an earlier one than the one they just put out, like there's a gap between.
00:07:03
Speaker
OK, so the first one is Blood Omen and then it goes Soul Reaver and and then it goes Blood Omen 2 and then Soul Reaver 2 and then Defiance. Oh, so there is the middle just missing.
00:07:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, Blood Omen 2 is actually takes past takes place in the past where Kane is trying to fix what he messed up in soul reaver. But it's dude, it's funny because like amy Hennings wrote the whole thing and it is, it is so like the brilliance of this woman who can pen, ah vampiric,
00:07:46
Speaker
ah incredible story because you're not playing still you're not like you're not playing it for the gameplay No, you're not. You're playing it for the world. You're playing it for every, every room you walk in cut scene, Raziel, like talking about the history of these, of these things on the wall, what this means, what that means. And you're like, Whoa, like I know everything about this world and I'm playing a fucking video game. And that happened on the PS one with soul reaver for me. And, uh, and then I picked up blood omen and it was funny because I grew up with my brother and we're always like opposite each other. So because these games were technically separated, he played blood Omen and I played soul. So I was Raziel and he was Kane kind of, even though Lieutenant, but we pretended they were brothers kind of. Yeah.
00:08:34
Speaker
Um, defiance is a funny game because it's just like a shit. It's just like your typical, like old PS2 story about like crystal dynamics games, especially. But, uh,
Modern vs. Past Gaming Experiences
00:08:46
Speaker
Hella cut content, you know, just like stages they had to just not even incorporate, you know, like parts of the game they couldn't even animate. And I look back at that and I'm like, well, that sucks.
00:09:01
Speaker
It's cool to know that in hindsight, but. I like the idea that video games back then were that and they were, they're not like, Hey, we put out this game, but in six months, yeah we're going to, we're going to have the DLC that adds the two stages back. Like, yeah I love, i love, i love a time where developers don't have that choice. Give us, no give us what it is and then start working on what's next. Like you got to pack everything they can in before launch and then the use the rest. Like, yeah, exactly. That was a cool. And there was a mystific, like a very mystifying kind of quality to it where like,
00:09:35
Speaker
I remember games like ah you know Kingdom Hearts 2 where people would be like to but Buzz and Woody were in Final Mix as a summon and you could see their untextured models or like i remember another huge one was was Brawl when Brawl came out and people were like there's data for Dixie Kong and Mewtwo and it was such like a cool exciting thing of like who was almost in it and like that, yeah, that, that doesn't really, that doesn't really happen anymore. a because no people, they know that people will look through the files and B, because they're like, well, instead of implementing this now, we'll just put it in in two months on a season pass. And it's, yeah, yeah, it's a shame. It's so, ah it's, it's so unfair to the consumer and the developer who the developer definitely has deadlines that they need to to hit. And they have a publisher and probably people who are telling him what to do with those deadlines. But yeah,
00:10:28
Speaker
I think ambition needs to be scaled back a little bit. I don't think, I think, I think teams are trying to do the most when they can do that that just as well with doing a little less. Yeah. Especially for their first projects.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah. I think I don't need games. like play games I don't. Games like Claire Obscure are, are, are not the norm. No. I think, yeah,
00:10:56
Speaker
A game like Claire Obscure is built from a team who had a pretty good asset library. Yeah. That goes a long way. Yeah, and then had time to play around with that asset library to make it not look like an asset library. Yeah.
00:11:11
Speaker
And maybe they used to make AI generated stuff in there. But I'm saying like that's a team that used the tools that they had available to them to make the best quality product that they could make.
00:11:23
Speaker
But um i think I think a recent game that I played that that that resonates with the sentiment so well is a Planet of Lana, where I just reviewed Planet of Lana 2.
00:11:35
Speaker
And I watched a developer interview months ago on this. is like So much of what was left out of Planet of Lana, they included in Planet of Lana 2, like ah possessing it's very old machinery, um controlling your your your partner your your partner easier. And like the results was a very clever sequel that didn't, didn't try to be something else. Didn't try to incorporate fucking deck building or like some weird.
00:12:11
Speaker
Yeah, it was, it was the same game. with more and better. It showed, it wasn't like, Hey, we got this planet of Lana DLC that lets you control movie even easier. No one's fuck that game. That game's out already. Let's move on. Like I love, I love moving on. I, I, I don't want, I beat, at the end of my, uh, resident, I'm sorry. I'm talking, uh, I, I, sorry. I'm going on tangent here.
00:12:38
Speaker
No, no. At the end of my resident evil nine review, I put now what's next. And I, I was joking, but I absolutely feel that way. You know, it's like, you know, DLC like today, wasn't it revealed or ah leaked or something? Yeah. like yeah Then, there but it I don't want the village DLC. Cause it's like, i don't just put it in the fucking. Yeah.
00:12:58
Speaker
Get him put it in the next game. Like, stop like, like, if you you know I will say the Resident Evil 7 DLC I liked because it wasn't something clearly cut you from the base game. It was like, here's insane blackjack that rounds out the story that wouldn't make sense in the base game. And here's a mode where you play as Jack's brother and you punch crocodiles with robot fists. And I was like, okay, yeah, it'd be really fucking weird if either of those was in the base game.
00:13:27
Speaker
So that's listen' interesting. Wasn't there one with like the girl did this you're Chris in one. You could yeah play as Ashley or something? or one of the the Oh! Yeah, I think there was. God, that was wild one. maybe that was yeah i think what Was that Village? or was that ah Oh, I think the Village plays his daughter, but I haven't that's right i haven't played that yet. oh That's the one that that you could do the third person with. That's why i remember that. that was the one they That was when they got that ready for 9, I assume. when they're Okay, interesting. I still need to... I'm in the editing mind still, but this weekend, hopefully, or next week, I'm goingnna start 9. going
00:14:02
Speaker
have a grand old time. I'll be able to talk in all the relevant hind internet conversations. but We'll have a ah a spoiler cast. Spoiler cast. whoa the ah Spoiler cast. We're spoiling it all today.
00:14:15
Speaker
if you haven't played this game, take your headphones off right now. We're spoiling shit. Leon dies. Leon dies. Leon dies. I don't know if that's before anyone says he's never, but he has not played the game. He does not know. I have no clue. And also it would be psychotic if they killed fucking Leon in a resident evil game. So it's that I made that up as a far fetched crazy thing.
00:14:38
Speaker
Um,
Manga and Anime Preferences
00:14:39
Speaker
but yeah, no, I agree. I think that, uh, I think that... I mean, it's not really a hot take to be like, I think DLC has gone a little bit too far. um But I do think that... it Wasn't that the big rumor coming into the game, though, is that Leon dies?
00:14:53
Speaker
Isn't that what everyone says? mean, that gets people excited. Like, I don't want my favorite character. yeah i have to play it. I have to fucking... And that was like basically every... remember when God of War Ragnarok came out, people were like, does Kratos And it was like, anytime any sequel comes out, especially when it's like a mentor character that you like, fucking reading Jujutsu Kaisen every week, everyone was like, is Kojiro gonna die this week? Is he gonna die this week? So it's, you know, it's... I think that's just people are terrified of their favorite characters dying. I can't read Jujutsu Kaisen anymore because when the characters die, I can't really take it, man.
00:15:24
Speaker
i ah I still read leaks and stuff weekly for Modulo, and it's...
00:15:31
Speaker
Well, I i enjoyed good chunk of Jujutsu Kaisen and I am very content with what I enjoyed. Chainsaw Man does the same thing to me. Chainsaw Man got a bit, yeah. it's a i love I love the characters too much. They're so cool.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah. They're so cool. you know what? One piece never disappoints every week. I got, you know, you're right. i write ah Why don't we just rewatch? Let's just rewatch. what pray I'm like, what is he doing now? Holy shit. Um, but yeah, no, it's, uh,
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think that I do miss like cut content and and stuff like that. where it was I miss like secrets. I miss fucking... yeah I always admonish the lack of secret characters and stuff like that. The director's cut.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah, I remember playing like Melee and Brawl and being like, I don't know who's in this. like You would unlock someone and it was cool. Brawl, I mean brawley could have known it because I think they had the dojo already, but I was not looking at it.
00:16:31
Speaker
um but debt like especially when it was, whether it was a character you knew or not, you'd like, oh, who's, like with Marth, you're like, I don't know who that is. But then you like Fire Emblem because of that. Or you go, oh shit, they they put in, who's unlockable in Brawl? Oh yeah, like Sonic. it's up Everyone knew Sonic and Snake were in it.
00:16:49
Speaker
But like, characters like that popping up in the story and you being like, oh all of them are from Pikmin. was like, wow. what You can't emulate that anymore. That moment of like, I have no clue who's in this game. And I can't wait to find out. It's incredible to me. Like when the things, the games that we get that don't get the updated version, like armored core, like that is a series that historically will get, uh, an updated release, you know, yeah like, like you have armored core three or whatever, but then you have like last Raven and the Atlas approach.
00:17:24
Speaker
yeah they yeah they Yeah, you have like the two different versions of the Armored Core 2, you know, and and the first one too. um But they haven't done that with the new one. Yeah, I guess they haven't. I just need to play that. it's ah My friend was telling me just last week he was he was bugging me to play it, so I should. but um Maybe they're waiting for you part of they're waiting yeah The second I play the base game, they're going to release the updated version. um but yeah no it's ah It is weird. because like
00:17:55
Speaker
I don't know. there's a I saw last or the last couple days. Again, I haven't played Resident Evil 9. But I saw IGN or someone was like, no one has solved the last puzzle yet in Resident Evil 9. And everyone's trying to. And I was like, I didn't know that still happen.
00:18:12
Speaker
I didn't know yeah that there was still a little wonder in the world of games. I thought that people would have fucking datamined it and been like, you do this. So you know what? There is a there might be a little... I think someone saw it yesterday or something. But you know what? I think it very cool that there was a brief period where people didn't know exactly And again, i don't know the context of the last puzzle or anything about it, but the idea that any part of a AAA modern game was a mystery to people briefly was...
The Thrill of Early Game Reviews
00:18:43
Speaker
And that like communities came together to figure it out was very cool. And it reminded me of like 2005 a lot. I think, I think Bailey, our editor in chief kind of gets off a little bit on, on, on that kind of like,
00:18:57
Speaker
first dibs like like discovering something for the first time or like and i think we get that a lot like reviewing games because we're some of the first people to play these games through in the entire world and i think bailey gets a good like kick out of uh getting the platinums of the that he's reviewing so that is an exciting thing So, yeah, so he'll like do like the the Legend of Heroes games and ah and he'll platinum them before everybody. And yeah, and I think he likes that puzzle solving thing where he sees a trophy and he's like, oh, well, I don't have a guide for this, but yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker
I have a general idea and in I think he likes that. I think he likes, I think he really enjoys. um It's a very exciting field. Cause I remember with ah the first insomniac Spider-Man, I think I'm like the 25th person in the world, the platinum or something. this is The big thing for reviewers was ah one of the trophies is like visit uncle Ben's grave and no one knew where where it was. Cause there's multiple cemeteries and multiple graves in each cemetery. so I remember I was like swinging around. I was like,
00:20:03
Speaker
where where the fuck is this grave? i need i want This is the last thing I need. I'm not even like a huge trophy guy anymore, but i like at the time, i remember being really excited and being like, this is so cool. i have no clue where this is. I can't go to... to 8 game 8 or whatever. like I used to guide for that. so yeah Yeah. I can't use PowerPix yet because there's nothing yet. yeah there it was very that is you know That is one of the the less talk though perks of of reviewing. is ah Sure, it can be frustrating when you're like, how do I proceed? I need to meet a deadline. But it's also very cool to be like, wow.
00:20:38
Speaker
you're You're discovering things as a as it comes out. The only thing is um in review guides and embargo guides, ah you kind of learn the hard way when you start out that they just say, don't mention these spoilers and list all the spoilers. ah yeah So definitely a gamer. Don't mention so-and-so. yeah break up leon dying and then like you're in that you're like okay okay um so i can't wait to see that scene they yeah nintendo nintendo does it a lot with theirs yeah because they have after your first couple times you're like okay i'm not gonna yeah i'm not gonna read completely spoiled uh xenoblade for me really that through that review that's a lame one to spoil
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 spoiled the entire game for me. when And that's such a shame because the way the story unfolds in that game is so cool. That's such a shame. i love the ending of that game. The whole, once you get to the up, up,
00:21:35
Speaker
i should I should play that game on Switch 2. That was my least favorite thing is the performance. yeah Yeah, probably runs great. oh no I don't like how you have to switch blades for like the puzzles where it's like, you need five of this stat. it's like, they're in my fucking bag. let Just use them from there. But otherwise... People hated the gotcha shit too. I was okay with it.
00:21:54
Speaker
i'm ok You know what? I i think ah we've come to a point now where gambling is so prominent in everything that having a little gotcha system where you don't have to, there's no way to pay any real money, but you get the thrill of a gotcha game. I think that's fine. i think's i think it's great. Cause yeah, I would like it to be maybe like after you've opened 500, you can just get cosmos because that is the one. That's what you're looking for. But um I do. It is fun to to be like, who'd I get? Who'd I get? Who'd get? And then there is like that little elite feeling of like, I got a rare one
00:22:30
Speaker
that other people don't have. But yeah, yeah no, it's... ah I don't mind it. I think a lot of Xenoblade 2's critiques were of its time, and I think it's aged very well. I think it's a very good game that a lot of people would enjoy more than they think. Because yeah especially the the prequel DLC that you could get on the Golden Country, God, that is incredible.
00:22:55
Speaker
Incredible. If you have never played Xenoblade 2, play it and play we just ranted about DLC but Xenoblade does DLC really well where it's like a full fucking story that is like it's entire separate game and it works. that Torna? The Torna DLC? Yeah I love Torna. That's such a good I think that's like a better story than Xenoblade 2 and Xenoblade 2 I think has a good story.
00:23:17
Speaker
Right. i love I love any story from like uh, a young person setting off on it an adventure. I don't give a shit. Shown in shit in my veins. Fucking do it every time. i don't yeah care.
00:23:35
Speaker
you know what? Young person trying to change. to mentions Let's get back to amnesia. Throw that in there too. I'm okay with amnesian there And you know what? Let the, let them have a moment where everything goes wrong.
00:23:48
Speaker
And then they have to grow from that. The hero's journey style. Give it all to me. Dude, it's so simple. Yeah. get And then just like folks just like throw in something really like personal so yeah is it so that it resonates with everybody.
00:24:05
Speaker
And that's all you really need. All the Christian imagery and names, I love it. As it someone who was raised Catholic, it's great to see the fucking... I'm not a religious person, but there is a lot of interesting societal weight behind Christian symbolic like symbols like...
00:24:22
Speaker
so that the Evangelion, like Hideaki Anno, he fucking nailed it where he's like, i just did it because looks cool. And it does. And it carries that way where you're like, wow, crosses. Wow. In Torn of the main character is Adam. And he's like the precursor to ah wow. And then the three of the character's name is Noah. And it's wow. Yeah.
00:24:41
Speaker
don't know. I yeah throw in religious, to every religion. i don't care. Religion an interesting thing. now mostly because when like Xenosaga was coming out, we couldn't have it. So they censored all that shit. Yeah. so Yeah. Now they like beside separate where they just spell it different. So Adam is like a D D AM or like a D AMM. And it's like, okay. I mean, if that's what we you got to do to get it by, sure. i remember what I, I remember what I learned.
00:25:04
Speaker
I think I had like inner, I had like dial up internet at 13, but I remember learning that La Pacelle was censored. I was like in some game facts like forum and I was like looking up like a guide for it and they're like, Oh yeah, all the crosses were removed. And I remember pretty being being pretty mad those moments when you're a kid and you like learn about censorship are so interesting because you like you deep dive into too the thing that that made me learn about that was one piece because the four kids one was so censored and watch that and i'd reach out and jump and i'd be like this is these are different things and then you go and you google like oh the pokemon cut censored dark content like and then you you fall down that rabbit hole and when you do that as everything seems so like secret and magical and crazy that's i think i was better off not knowing to be honest yeah although i love i love my four kids history dude love listen four kids was a fucking mess but
00:26:04
Speaker
Dude, if I watch Cardcaptor Sakura, those early episodes, Cardcaptor of Mystic Adventure. It's like, I have to watch the four kids version. And I've seen the redubbed, relocalized versions that I think and n NIS America did them when they were doing anime.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah. But like, Yeah, I'm fine with four kids. I can be like, I know they're objectively better. Like, I love the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. I think it's an excellent story, and it's way darker, and I think that's super interesting. But I really love the four kids. It's all nostalgia. I know that. yeah And I know it's not as good.
00:26:41
Speaker
But the the the voices and the goofy censorship and shit are so nostalgic to me that I'm like, wow, this is... And then it's fun when they come back later, like the the movie they did of Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Side of Dimensions, where they got the old English cast, but they didn't censor stuff, and you're like, o what the who You posted it the other day, the DigiWod movie with the opening. She's got... That's how i know that that is ever that how i learned what that song is. that' where It shows what all the kids are doing. Kari goes to the birthday party and Joe's trying to get on the train, but it keeps going.
00:27:17
Speaker
That, yeah, that is so. It doesn't look good. It doesn't work at all. Anytime. yet I remember watching that. je I think of all star because in the movie it plays fucking all star when he's dancing with Willis.
00:27:33
Speaker
and They tried so hard. They tried so hard. Pre-Shrek, by the Pre-Shrek All-Star. um They tried so hard to be... They did. The Digimon thing exactly the same as Yu-Gi-Oh! The Digimon sub is an infinitely better story. Yeah. And the theme song is beautiful and incredibly moving.
00:27:50
Speaker
But... We're the kids! We're the kids! The English one is so... no It's so like dear to my heart that I i i do watch it English because I'm like, I know...
00:28:02
Speaker
that the Japanese one's better. And I, I prefer the Japanese song and I prefer the Japanese ending. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But I fucking love all the voices in digital and like pepper breath. Oh, go on. And like, it's just, it's so burned into my skull. I can't fucking.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it's funny because like people like to like drag like English localization a lot over the years and dubs over subs and stuff like that. But yeah,
00:28:30
Speaker
i I will tell you, i don't judge any any way you ingest this media, yeah ingest it. And don't let anyone tell you how to ingest the media. Because, I mean, fuck the fuck are they? They're watching anime in their room? Fucking loser. I'm watching it anime in my room yeah on my terms.
00:28:53
Speaker
And everyone you don't even have to have, like, reason. You can just prefer... Like it doesn't matter why you prefer what you preferred is like, if you're enjoying it, people drag us, people drag us. If we like play the game with English dubs and they'll be like, right when I heard the English dub, I turned this off.
00:29:10
Speaker
I have a weird... i was talking to my friend about it where like typically as I got older I preferred subs but there's some things where like I tried to find why. like oh if it's a set in Japan I only like subs. But that's not true because Persona I don't care if it's dubbed. That's fine. But Yakuza I can't do dubbed.
00:29:27
Speaker
So i I really don't know what it is per franchise that makes me choose sub or dub. but Maybe because you like that noir mobby that noir mobby like Plus you can't be Japanese voiced.
00:29:44
Speaker
Right. It does. It does give you that, um that definite like, and I mean, Yakuza was just, but didn't have a dub for a very long time. Right. Didn't, I mean, originally when it came here, it had a weird fucking dub with like Mark Hamill as Majima.
00:30:00
Speaker
That's right. But then, yeah, once that once the resurgence happened and it came back with zero, it didn't have dubs until I think. It have dubs at zero. the The first RPG one, like, seven, I think was the first one to be dubbed.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. No one liked that. Yeah. And again, like i don't like, I don't care for the dubs of Yoxu, but if you do, i do fine that's fine. Yeah. I'll, like, razz my friends about it because we're friends and it's fun to It's fun with each other, but I don't actually care what you, as long as you're enjoying it. is I think, I think people like us have fun with the critique of it, but I think there is people that take it a little too far or a hundred percent serious. And I want yeah yeah, I don't care as much as I'll joke about it because it's fun to joke about it because life is like really serious too much. And sometimes you just gotta joke about shit.
00:30:48
Speaker
Um, Like, I'm not trying to offend, like do what you want. do I um i won think I like subs because they're closer for Japanese stuff. It's like, Oh, this is like who the the creator wanted to voice this character.
00:31:04
Speaker
But even then, like if it's like, Oh, only dubs available. I'm like, okay, I'll just watch the dub. Like it's not a, it's not a hard and fast fucking it's ah it's not that serious. It's anime. It's more than 12 episodes. I will ah watch the dub. If it's only 12 episodes, interesting I will read the sub.
00:31:19
Speaker
It's interesting because it's an investment. If I'm watching 24 episodes, I'm not going to be paying attention to the whole time. So I'm going to just, I'm going to like listen to it a lot while it's playing on like a second screen. But if it subs and it's only 12 episodes, I can engage like before bed. I can watch an episode before bed. Meanwhile, me with the 1000 Japanese episodes of one piece under my arm, I'm psychotic. Ha ha ha.
00:31:41
Speaker
It's just psychotic. and I've even flipped on something. Like obviously I grew up with Dragon Ball in English. But when Super started, i really flipped where I was like, I watched it in Japanese for the first time because i was like, I don't want to wait for new Dragon Ball after all these years. So I'm going to watch it in Japanese.
00:32:01
Speaker
And then I was like, wait, these Japanese voices fucking slap. And now it feels weird for me to go back to listen to the, which is crazy to think about. Like, it truly is like totally random. But once you get used to Japanese Goku, you can't. i love Japanese Goku. Yeah. Like, I love Japanese Goku. it's it's such like a childlike like hick simple yeah it truly fits like the purity of goku yeah absolutely right vegeta's vegeta's voice actor for english and japanese are pretty good they're both perfect pretty yeah they're probably good rio horikawa god damn that guy can fucking yell and chris the bot god damn that guy can fucking yell perfect voices
00:32:40
Speaker
I want to ask you before we run out before we close the show um yes you reviewed Scott Pilgrim e EX I did and ah so for background I've been a big Scott Pilgrim guy since I think when the movie was coming out I was going to in lesbian with me even and I'm in lesbians. Use the L word, Scott. Lesbian? The other L word. Lesbians? um I think I was going into grade nine. i was going into high school when that movie came out, and I read the books. ah I think I have them on the shelf over
Ezra's Experience with Scott Pilgrim Game
00:33:12
Speaker
there. but
00:33:13
Speaker
And it became a very foundational piece of media, partially because they are enjoyable and partially because it takes place in Toronto. So I was like, oh, that you don't When you're Canadian, you don't see a lot of things take place where you live. I imagine in America, you kind of take it for granted. You're like, yeah, that's New York. Yeah, that's LA. Because everything happens there because most media is made there. but when i hear when i heard most i I did hear that most move new movies are being filmed in London now because they have a bunch of tax write-offs. Oh, yeah. That's why. Same with Vancouver here. um Yeah, you guys got bunch of tax. Like, The Boys and stuff is all filmed in Toronto, and they pretend it's not Toronto. They pretend it's fucking Chicago or whatever. Yeah. But, yeah, like, recent stuff like like Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie, and, well, even Nirvana, the band, the show, and Scott Pilgrim um are all very unapologetically, like, in Toronto, and it's very cool. So this game, again, um
00:34:09
Speaker
is is in Toronto and there was, it was so fun to, because you just run around. This one's not level linear level based. Like the first one, it's like a open hub that you run through, which i don't know if that was my favorite choice, but, um,
00:34:25
Speaker
I did like, like there's tons of very blatantly like Toronto stores and landmarks that like there's a huge, it's called honest X's in the game and it has, it's the sign with all the lights and stuff. And that's based on honest ads, which was a very famous Toronto, huge like discount wholesale store that had a billion light bulbs on its sign. It was a wonderful landmark. The yeah sign was made out of light bulbs. Yeah, it was it was it was like the most Toronto thing ever. Part of the story of the in the books, like one of the fights takes place in Honest Eds. I used to go there all the time.
00:35:03
Speaker
um it got I think in 2016, they tore it down and built condos, which sucks. um But it's truly like running by that and in the Scott Pilgrim game, going to getting to go in and like buy items. I was like, wow, that's...
00:35:17
Speaker
That's cool. And they have Shoppers Drug Mart, which is like the Canadian CVS. And they have all these little things where I'm like, wow, this is when I go to Toronto, this is just what it is. And it's, I don't know, that really, that went a long way for me seeing all the, ah all the cool little landmarks. And there's even like little references to,
00:35:38
Speaker
Toronto and and even one to Nirvana the band and stuff. So it was, I don't know. Did you play with friends? I did. I played a little bit with my friends and, uh, admittedly we weren't paying it. we were just fucking around. so yeah, that's how it goes. It took a long time. And this is, you have to pay a bit of attention in this one. It's not, again, it's not linear level based. So like you might have to go buy an item to get in this one area, things like that. See, yeah I was, I was supposed to review, um,
00:36:07
Speaker
Scott Pilgrim, but like, I don't think I was liking it to be honest. And I think it's cause I started playing it and I've only played two hours.
00:36:18
Speaker
Okay. But I started playing it and, um, I didn't like the messiness. I wanted the linear air linear structure. I didn't like this whole like, Oh, there's an exclamation point on that person's head. I have to go talk to them or something. Yeah. I don't think it works like the onboarding. The first hour is messy, dude. I don't know where I'm at.
00:36:38
Speaker
i don't know what I'm doing. And I'm sure, like you said, like you fall into that, like you'll fall into the rhythm of what, but, but in my first hour of playing it, I was being asked to do like, everything and i had no idea what goal what what what was i doing going in through like the portal you know like i didn't really know i agree it's it is i would have preferred it to be linear especially because that's what a beat-em-up typically is because the combat itself and everything is tons of fun it's just the getting from place so there's a lot of going back and forth as the game goes on where it's like go to this end of toronto go to this end and there's not enough
00:37:15
Speaker
places to make that so consistently interesting. Yeah. I noticed, I noticed for me, like ah when the battles happened, they happen on one screen. Most of the time, instead of like you're traveling through like a, yeah. Like streets of rage.
00:37:30
Speaker
Right, right. One way. um i mean, ah can yeah plots to the ah uniqueness, I guess. of Yeah, I respect that they tried something new, and I'm sure they can iterate on what worked in their next game, because ah they also did Shredder's Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion. So they're pretty great.
00:37:50
Speaker
more Tribute? Yeah, Tribute Games. Dude, they did ah pan Panzer Paladin, I think. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, dude. Whoa, what a great like indie team, to be honest. They know what they're doing.
00:38:07
Speaker
you can't You can't overstate human beings who know how to do pixel art in 2026. Incredible. good, hand-fucking-made pixel art.
00:38:20
Speaker
Square Enix doesn't want to do it anymore. Like, like like it fucking sucks. It's a lot of work. It is a lot of but it looks so nice. It looks so sick. And it's fun to make pixel art. I made a bunch of it a couple years ago for fun, and it's it's really, like, it is a lot of work, but i think when you're...
00:38:36
Speaker
I think you lost all developers when you said for fun because they're all, they're all, yeah that's big I mean, Hey, I'm not, but yeah it's almost like gamified art where you're like, as you fill, like ah as you do a leg or after you've done like a base, like shape that you're aiming for, then it's like, Ooh, I filled in this section. Ooh, I filled in this. And it's, it feels more exciting than i think drawing, but Yeah, no, it's a i I think a lot of franchises could stand to go back to
The Charm of Pixel Art
00:39:07
Speaker
Pixel. I think Pokemon should 100% go back to Pixel. I think they should too. I did whatever how they're putting in three d i think footing in Well, I think the problem with going back to 2D at this point is that so many, you would have to reiterate on the on the formula so much that it's true you would have to do something that Square Enix hasn't done with HD 2D. You're going to have to do something that one of these indie teams hasn't done with their Pokemon ripoffs.
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's true. If they stay just do the Let's Go style. That's the best 3D they've ever had. um But I would... Honestly, I wouldn't even be mad if they went back to fucking black 2, white 2 pixel art. I'd be like, okay, that's great. I'd be so okay with that.
00:39:47
Speaker
I'd be completely okay with it. Because the game would run properly too. But you know what? They're taking a long time on winds and waves. ah So I'm going to give them... Let let them cook. going to give them a little...
00:40:00
Speaker
ah Slack. Because yeah maybe... I'm not going to go as far as i say I'm optimistic. I'm cautiously optimistic that that this will be a good one. Because know what? Pocopia looks excellent.
00:40:13
Speaker
So Pokemon's still pumping out fun spinoffs. Maybe they can still pump off pump out fun mainline games. um one One of my favorite bits to do is when like four-year-olds are talking about how much they love Pokemon. I like to say, ah dude, I'm 36. I don't really play Pokemon anymore.
00:40:31
Speaker
and And I was like, I just don't think I'm allowed to because like I'm too old. And I like to see the reaction. not good I do play Bogod, but like yeah I like to just see like yeah just yeah i just like see if they get really defensive and how like how they respond to it. Because it is...
00:40:48
Speaker
i I tried it with the Mario movie and people did get... yeah Which is crazy because the Mario movie was fine, but it is very much like a children's movie. Yeah, but be sick. I'm not acting like fuck Sonic 3 is elevated like I love Sonic and i'm not...
00:41:06
Speaker
i'll do what time of want eat the opening you see but One time was in a movie theater and this guy, while the Sonic trailer was playing, got up and reenacted as Sonic the trailer in front of me.
00:41:18
Speaker
No care in the world. And then afterwards just sat down and enjoyed the rest of of the movie. If you're watching this podcast, guy who did that, you can be a guest host for an episode. Reach out. We will 100% on the show. The first guest host you'll be this show. The first host will be Sonic Theater Guy. Dude, you know how people are fucking mad they can't be on this show?
00:41:38
Speaker
Like the fact that that ones of them, ones of them, dude, the fact that they, that I have to say, no, sorry, it's a me and Spencer show. Oh, I know. I did see, I did see in the business email, Timothy Chalamet wanted beyond. Right.
00:41:52
Speaker
that We don't do that right now. yeah but then he put out yeah photo seth rogen Seth Rogen wanted to throw yeah about his his ah his studio season and i was like, oh i was yeah i want well no We have to talk about Bathing Suit and Pokemon. so yeah we got to keep We don't have for that.
00:42:12
Speaker
We got Sabinfire and DC Fat Cat to impress. It's true. Losey. Losey. I saw Losey comment. I check the comments in every video. i do voiceover edit to make sure I didn't make any mistakes because I'm neurotic.
00:42:28
Speaker
And I saw Losey like, wow, it's Ains Banza. And that was nice of you, Losey. Thank think you did a really good job on that top 10. Thank you. Was that last night? but so Yeah. Two days ago. I think I recorded that right after I recorded the Ace Bonanza that I'm editing. I like to take my time with those ones because like downloading those trailers, it's so long. Oh yeah, fuck. So I like to break up the word. I'll write it one day and and you saved me a day because you did the audio that day. Then I wrote it.
00:42:54
Speaker
um But um it's fun to write that because you get to like put on a mask. Like I don't have to critique these games. I can just have fun. Like i could just give them like objective info.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's so much fun. It's it's it reminds me of like. early days of like G four and yeah. And I get to put on my Nintendo direct voice from like, that's what I want to explore the new so game on.
00:43:20
Speaker
I love that. I love being hyped about games. I think that it's crazy that people spend so much time on content creators and streamers. that are so anti-video game. Yeah, they're just people. They're not doing anything fresh or new or exciting. They're just like, yo, I think this game kind of fucking sucks and it's cool. It's that's nothing. It's cool to have with the production. Be like, get ready for a brand new installment in a classic franchise. Oh, fuck. I love that shit. Yeah, dude.
00:43:51
Speaker
I want to play every fucking video game. I want to play them all. i I might not like them. That's part of art. That's part of art. It's consuming art. It doesn't resonate with you.
00:44:05
Speaker
um What did you give ah Scott Pilgrim before we we move on? I give it a four or five.
00:44:12
Speaker
i should I should continue playing it. Yeah. super state When it, when it got, when it started getting too big, I was like, fuck, I don't have time for this. And I had to, I had to like play where I knew planet of Lana two was an eight hour game.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah. So you could, because they told me that before. So I, I could, I could realistically squeeze that in. I did not, I did not have a feel for how long Scott, Scott, about five hours. So you can, yeah, you probably have a few hours left.
00:44:41
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Okay. I need, and another thing I like to understand before I review a game is the game loop. And if I don't understand the game loop, yeah, you have to settle in. I do back off of the review a little bit and I have dropped reviews because I'm like, fuck, I play this, I play this game, but I really do not understand. I don't get it yet. I do not get it You have to like a game to get it, but you do have to get it to like, right. You have to get it in an informed way.
00:45:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Um, Anyway, let's wrap it up. All right. All right. You won't get a show next week because I'll be at GDC. You might get a show the week after, but here's a little Here's a little insider.
00:45:23
Speaker
Spencer and I are going to PAX motherfucking East this month. Should we do an in-person? Dude. but At the Airbnb? We might do. well you might get You guys might get a live. A live show. Oh, fuck.
00:45:38
Speaker
That's dangerous. Not live show. Not a live And in-person. And yeah. An in-person podcast. Podcast. We'll see. it's a very its PAX is so tiring.
00:45:49
Speaker
I got to start making my schedule. I'm getting the emails now. So I got to look. have one screen, the map of the venue. So I can go, how can I get here to here in 15 minutes? And then, yeah.
00:46:00
Speaker
All right. let's see you when we see you. Bye, everyone. Bye.
00:46:20
Speaker
um z pixel