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S2 Ep144: Talkcast - February 2021
72 Plays5 years ago
Join Dave and Jake as they crack into Nintendo Direct and give their impressions, and then catch up on everything else going on!
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Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
https://www.facebook.com/SoapstonePodcast/
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Transcript
Introduction and Snowy Adventures
00:00:53
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host is always Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? It's going tired. Very tired. I understand that. Had a bit of a case of shoveling, shovel into snow.
00:01:10
Speaker
Or by that, I mean like realizing there's a layer of ice on top of everything and just sighing into my mask and then slowly shoveling it with some music onto my ear. Ooh. Music would be the advanced track. I was just out there freezing to death.
00:01:26
Speaker
Oh yeah, I did get some of that too. By the way, you know those bike gloves we got, um, four years ago? Those are still my only pair of gloves. Yeah. So your hand touches some ice and you're like, Hmm, why are my fingers burning? Are those the, um, those were the like touch sensitive ones, the ones you can like touch smartphones and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That was the whole impetus was like, Oh, I can still like drive with my phone or the GPS, but like change Spotify.
00:01:54
Speaker
It doesn't really work for me, but part of the issue is because I've also got like a like screen cover that reduces touch sensitivity ton already. So the combination of those two things and the gloves don't really help. I actually I ordered winter gloves, waterproof ones, because I just realized that
00:02:13
Speaker
I'm kind of just putting myself through undue stress every time I have to brush snow off the car and the clothes get wet. That's part of our rite of passage as guys is just like, I mean, it's worked in the past, I'll do it again. Yeah, I mean, I'm still wearing sneakers and like getting snow packed in the side. Seriously? Okay, I'm not that bad. I'm taking out my, granted they're hiking boots and not snow boots, and then I'll wear an under layer of clothing.
00:02:42
Speaker
But then I essentially just double up on hoodies. Then I'm like, hope my midriff doesn't show. Yeah. Most people actually wear an underlay of clothing. It's just undergarments, you know, standard thing.
00:02:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's great for trapping in whatever warm air is near my body versus a breeze comes by and I start swearing profusely. Yeah, I do at least have a winter coat, which is pretty nice. The last time we went out, we were going to Trader Joe's and we had to stand outside because they've got the line to go in. They can only have some people in at a time.
00:03:18
Speaker
And my wife was like, hey, do you want like a warmer coat? Because I was just wearing my like basic hoodie I bought in Poland, which is great hoodie, but not the warmest thing. And I'm like, nah, it's fine. And like on the way there, there's like a little bit of a chill, a little bit of a breeze. I'm like, I am a fool.
00:03:37
Speaker
I have learned nothing since childhood, uh, you know, going on 30 years and I still haven't figured out that outside is cold when there's snow on the ground. So. Yeah. There are times though where it's like snow can be out and you can honestly just walk around. Like you still have warmer clothing on, but you don't need to be fully bundled up. Yeah. Sunshiny days.
00:04:03
Speaker
I think it was like a in the twenties today. So did not want to be out very long. Yeah. It's like not to complain super a lot compared to everybody. Like there's people like including friends that have had a lot of issues in Texas. I've got coworkers, you know, in Texas and they're having a time with it, you know, going on a week or whatever without water,
Nintendo Direct Reactions
00:04:30
Speaker
like access to running water. It's,
00:04:32
Speaker
absolute mess for them. So I don't want to diminish all of that. But my life sucks. No, I'm just kidding. After after I cleared the car off, I went and got Taco Bell and there was no one else in line. It was amazing. The food was fresh. So count your blessings.
00:04:51
Speaker
defined fresh. Was it was it warm? I mean, they were like freshly made tacos. There is a difference between like usually Taco Bell's not that bad, but we've all had like a stale taco, I think. And that wasn't the case here. I've had the congealed kind from the fridge as breakfast and been like, yeah, less good. So you need it. Yeah.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, like every time I talk with food about people like here's some cool gourmet shit that I'm gonna eat at a restaurant This is before times or maybe I'll make myself to treat myself But then other like the next meal I could have cold beefaroni from the can and be like, okay. Yeah You gotta have some lows to highlight the highs. That's just that's how life is. I
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just I'm waiting for that moment. Yeah, speaking of lows and highs, though, Nintendo Direct happened as of this recording yesterday. How emotionally sated are you with the the news to come out of Nintendo Direct? Has it changed your outlook in life?
00:06:06
Speaker
No, for me, it was mostly underwhelming. It was nice for me to see anytime there's like a new Smash character, I'm like, okay, where are they gonna fit in? Will I like their play style? Are they gonna be cheap? And then no more heroes actually getting a release date.
00:06:27
Speaker
Cause that had one of the best trailers at E3. Oh my gosh. I was like, holy fuck. That's like, yeah. And I enjoyed the previous two. So I like when, uh, I like Nintendo direct. It's kind of like a concentrated part of the issue I have with E3, I should say, um, is even though it's broken out into like different presentations, there's a lot of like pomp and circumstance and like people walking out on stage and.
00:06:54
Speaker
I mean, if you're gonna like watch the event, it's a multi-day event, usually like two to three days, I think, right? And like, I don't care. So like the announcements I care about, but I'll read them in a summary, you know, afterwards, I'll check the trailers for whatever seems interesting. But Nintendo Direct at least doesn't go that route. And I appreciate it for that.
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, I like the more direct approach that they do, but I think it's more of the difference between current media versus older media. Where it made sense to have this whole event and you get all these interested parties and it's like, oh hey, we're having the next such and such event coming up in like two hours. People are like, oh my God, I gotta be the first one to see it. But now it's like we can stream that on the internet whenever. What I don't like about Nintendo Direct though is
00:07:46
Speaker
A lot of it seems like dumb stuff they don't care about. Granted, I'm not Nintendo's target demo. I get that. Right. But when they're having just a random person on the streets, you can read this in English, right? And they're like, yeah. I'm like, here it goes.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that they're their English voice person. He has he has I think he's also translator because or they just have a person for it because I've heard this guy's voice before. He at least has some like an outside Nintendo enthusiasm or like a little bit of flair. He's like the person who's getting more tips at a bar or something like that because he's interacting with people. That's what comes across in the voice last week.
00:08:32
Speaker
We have the global launch for the Super Mario 3D World plus Bowser's Fury game. Next, we have another game to show you.
00:08:41
Speaker
I at least appreciate
Nintendo Switch and Remastering Classics
00:08:43
Speaker
a little bit of that enthusiasm, but I mean, it's all pre-produced, so it's happening live. Nintendo would never let that happen. Right, yeah. That red shirt guy comes up or whatever. You have phones, right? But now that I've bashed people's speaking patterns, were there any titles or announcements that you were excited for that caught your eye?
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think there was like, um, there's a few I wanted to mention and others I like, I'm not a hundred percent sure on. Um, it is a range, but the ones that are probably more interesting for me. So Skyward scored HD, uh, was announced for July and I, this is one thing Nintendo does that other publishers like have done in the past. It still occasionally happens, but like announce a game and then release it within like a quarter or two.
00:09:36
Speaker
That's really nice. And I hate the opposite a lot, where people announce games super early. They're like, there will be an Elder Scrolls VI. And we're like, you had to, you know, of course there will be an Elder Scrolls VI, but you haven't even started working on it yet. Why get us excited, right?
00:09:52
Speaker
So, some of these titles have quicker turnarounds. I didn't play Skyward Sword back in the day because I went N64 was my last Nintendo console and then Switch. I feel like that whole era a lot of people missed.
00:10:08
Speaker
Like I know some people played 360 because that was the big thing for a lot of Halo 3 in my group back in like high school days. I mean, I just don't know many people who played Switch. Again, it's out of like that brief instance of Smash.
00:10:24
Speaker
I have a lot of friends who were picking up Switch titles like Skyward Sword. When you say Switch, it was like Wii or GameCube. Sorry, sorry, Wii. Yeah. I didn't see Wii wasn't a gamer console to me. No. And I was happy with PC, so I didn't see the need for it. There weren't any titles that really came out. I'm like, oh my god. It's just, what's the song? It's like, will you? I'm like, meh, OK. We just won't check it out then.
00:10:53
Speaker
Usually for like non PC consoles, which is just consoles, I guess, by the way, they're defined. Like I've got like I let the titles weight build up until there's like the breaking point. It's like, oh, there's all these games that want to play for PS4. The supports give out.
00:11:10
Speaker
I run out, I buy the console, I buy all the games, and I have them ready to play. It was basically what happened with PS4. And I never had that kind of impetus for we, or even GameCube, which I think had a better lineup. GameCube had a lot of good titles. It just was kind of spaced out.
00:11:30
Speaker
So it's nice though, from the way Nintendo's been remastering, making HD versions of their games, like the old Zelda classics. And they're really just bringing everything into the Switch. The tagline for Ultimate was like, everyone's here.
00:11:49
Speaker
Um, and that's also just been Nintendo's approach to the switch. Just be like, let's just remaster like everything. Let's just make it so like, if you never played a game console before a switch is a really good option, uh, to catch up on whatever's going on. I like that. I'm getting value out of it. Yeah. And between that and the arcade and them remastering things. Mm-hmm.
00:12:14
Speaker
I mean, it seems like it's really hard to go back. Right, and it's handheld, so. Yeah. It's like, it's freaking good. It's a good idea. Have you ever had really bad shits and you're like, well, there is a silver lining. That silver lining is the switch. Nintendo should run with that. That's a great commercial.
00:12:34
Speaker
They start getting paired up with Toshi ads. It's like, listen, everyone has some butt stuff going on, right? But yeah, I love Zelda. And I've heard good things about Skyward Sword. We have friends that are big fans of it, Ian, in particular. So yeah, this is a likely pickup for me, where I haven't picked up the remasters for Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask, because I played both of those games. And they're really good. I enjoyed them. But I knew I wouldn't really put the time into them now.
00:13:04
Speaker
It's fairly dated at this point, but if they had a remaster and it's more intuitive control wise, maybe that'd be better. I don't know how you'd really change Z targeting with a chain link though at this point. Right. Yeah. I don't know. They clearly put a lot of effort into the control schemes.
00:13:25
Speaker
which they should because
Gaming Announcements and Community Reactions
00:13:27
Speaker
they've had every single possible option as a control scheme across their consoles up to this point. So they've got the expertise for that at least. So I kind of expected to run pretty well and play pretty well. And the other thing I wanted to mention quickly as my first two before I ask you is Outer Wilds, which obviously
00:13:49
Speaker
I already love this game. I'm not going to buy it on Switch, but if you haven't played it and for some reason you'd rather play on Switch than PC or Xbox or whatever, it's coming summer. Freaking great. There you go. What did you want to say about some of the titles here? Oh, um.
00:14:10
Speaker
If not, I will continue with Stubbs the Zombie. I was going to say, a lot of these ones that they mentioned look dumb to me. OK, which one? Which ones look dumb? Let me fight you. All of the ones I didn't mention. You haven't mentioned any of them yet. OK, so they're all done. Project Triangle. OK. Whatever the fuck. Tactics. Doesn't look good. It just looks like a JRPG.
00:14:40
Speaker
And I'm going to use that as a blanket statement of it's an anime game where they try and dramaticize things going on. And it technically has turn based fighting. And that's the game. And it would be like a. For me, it just seems like a time sink and I wouldn't get value out of it personally. Right. That's fair. But I mean, counterpoint, you talk about how good shiny enforces and that was a tactics game. These are both tactics games.
00:15:06
Speaker
I enjoyed Shining Force when I played it, but holy fuck, it's not good. Like I've gone back to try playing it on, I think there's an emulator through Steam for Sega games. And everything about is like really flashy, takes forever to do your turns. And then if your main character dies, you have to redo the whole fucking fight. What? No. Don't let Magnus die or whatever his name is.
00:15:35
Speaker
None of it's good. Yeah, I'm a kind of similar boat. This could be a really good tactics game, but I'm not really a tactics game fan. I listen to the Advance Wars OST, so that's pretty nice. But I don't know. When you're like, hey, our tactics game has high ground, I'm like, that's not new, is it? This has existed as a thing, I think. But all other ones have been flat. Right.
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Nothing particularly exciting about it. They didn't have a release date. It's a Square Enix title. Also they say Enix. Square Enix? Yeah, Square Enix. They said Enix consistently through the director. Now I'm doubting reality. That kind of decanonizes Squenix and I refuse to accept that. Squenix is just weird, right? That sounds like you're squinting. Squenix.
00:16:31
Speaker
So yeah, that one that one's a little bit I agree with that one. That's probably mediocre. Is there something else that Uh, so you kind of glance over Because so far the only I didn't really grow up with stubs. Mm-hmm
00:16:47
Speaker
I don't know what the fuck neon white is kind of weird and bad. I want to tell you about Stubbs though. Hit me. Unless they do a lot of work on the game, I don't actually think people should play it because it wasn't particularly
00:17:04
Speaker
like super the controls were bad on pc that's why they put it came out on consoles it's a 15 year old game for the un indoctrinated to stubs the zombie but it's like this 1950s style like utopia fiction uh where you play as a zombie screwing everything up in this 1950s utopia um and there was just like a bunch of cool powers every time you like turn someone into a zombie their ai
00:17:30
Speaker
would have them continue to cause chaos as they're attacking the military or civilians or whatever. You could throw your spleen as a grenade. You can detach your arm and throw it and then control the arm as it climbs up walls in the ceiling. Jump on top of somebody and then mind control them with your hand. There is some cool old gameplay standpoint. There is cool stuff like that. But then the gameplay itself is kind of mediocre.
00:18:01
Speaker
I'm hoping that they cleaned a lot of that up, uh, for the switch release. Cause it'll be disappointing if it's disappointing. That's true of many things. Yeah. Would this be like a destroy all humans type title for you?
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think like similar vibes ruining an idyllic like town or like city or whatever. A lot of so like one of the one of the plot I think of Stubbs the Zombie is like your character Stubbs like falls in love with this
00:18:39
Speaker
at first sight with this 1950s woman, college student or something like that and kills her boyfriend and then tries to find her and at the end of it, she turns into a zombie and they're together or whatever. I guess spoilers for subs a zombie, but nobody cares. I'm not even going to put it in the description.
00:19:02
Speaker
Hey, I know I merged your boyfriend and stalked you, but, you know. Right. Well, it turns out he was a pretty nice guy. So that's that's the justification. I don't know. It's a weird game. Don't take life advice from subs the zombie. So, yeah, that one's that one's also kind of mediocre.
00:19:23
Speaker
I was actually going to say Monster Hunter Rise. I don't want to play this game. Same. I've really enjoyed playing world on and off with some friends, but overall Monster Hunter is kind of a slog to me.
00:19:43
Speaker
I don't know. I just I'm not being pulled in by this new title. I also don't like that it's on the switch. I mean, I could hook it up to like this monitor here. It just seems to have like a different.
00:19:56
Speaker
pacing to it. I don't know. Yeah, the graphics are worse. I actually couldn't. I bought a Monster Hunter. I think it was Monster Hunter 3 or 4 Ultimate or something like that for the Game Boy Advanced SP, whatever the flip one was.
00:20:17
Speaker
Can't remember exactly. It was a large one. It's the last thing before Switch. It was DS the wide one. I think SP is the flip. OK, I'm going to look at it. So it was probably that. But it was it was a large version of it. And I was like, this game seems like it has a lot of depth and there's stuff in here I would enjoy, but I don't like playing this on a handheld.
00:20:37
Speaker
And while technically I could play Monster Hunter Rise on a big screen, like on a switch, they are making all of the concessions like in the engine and things like that. They're de-resing things. The graphics are worse. They're going to have to have like significant improvements to gameplay to really make me want to play it. And that's not what the series is about. Like they re-release it all the time. Yeah. So also Nintendo Online.
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point, right? It's not ever been great. It has not ever been great. So I was ready to disagree with some of your picks and
00:21:18
Speaker
So far, I haven't actually seen this before. The other one I kind of threw shade at was Neon White. This one, I actually looked at it a little bit afterwards. I think it could be interesting. So the premise is it's a first-person game where you get abilities through picking up cards. And when you pick up a card, it gives you a certain number of use of those abilities. And that ability could be dash forward really fast, I think called Godspeed, jump up really high, shoot this particular type of attack.
00:21:48
Speaker
And so the gameplay seems to be making a run out of picking up these abilities, moving through a level and killing all the enemies. Which is interesting, but I don't know if I would enjoy it.
00:22:08
Speaker
It feels kind of, I mean, I'm sure you can control the movement, but it almost feels kind of rail shootery for if you have to go a certain route to get certain powerups. I'm not sure how many options you have. If maybe you don't have the super jump, maybe you can go a different way, do something else. Yeah. But it seemed very kind of linear and scripted for at least what was shown in the trailer.
00:22:34
Speaker
It seemed more like things were happening on a rhythm. Right. Or maybe that was just how they synced the audio for the trailer. Yeah, I don't think it like immediately has any requirements to sync up to the audio. I think they're doing that for the trailer. But it seems like there's conflicting game design ideas. Like one of them is these cards have limited use and you can use them to traverse the environment. And the other one is like
00:23:01
Speaker
That means that there's routes, right? Like there is a best route to get points or whatever you care about through the level. And the only game I played recently where I care about runs at all was, um, uh, crap blade, whatever it is, blade runner, not blade runner, something runner, ghost runner, ghost runner. One of those runners really liked that game. Recommend that can't remember the name of it though.
00:23:29
Speaker
And so like, I don't know. Yeah. I, maybe I should have looked at this list and been like, this is a good one. Hades. Hades is game. Hades, Hades has been a game though. True. But now they have a physical copy, which I might.
00:23:47
Speaker
I'm considering getting just to have because it also goes with an art book, which that's really the hook. Yeah, it's already out on digital for Switch for its 1.0 release. But if you like having games on a shelf, which I kind of do, because it's like, here's my stuff versus everything is just digitally somewhere, which is why my desktop just has all of my files.
00:24:17
Speaker
I've known people who literally do that, so they're the worst. Can't joke. It was really freaking bad. But yeah, their office was also a mess. This is back when I worked for the university. But one I'm actually not sure about yet. Some positives, some negatives. Breath of the Wild, news later this year. Who cares? It's not coming up yet. Until there's news. Again, I don't care.
00:24:45
Speaker
I'll buy the game when it comes out though. Splatoon 3 was announced to be released next year and I had not played any of the Splatoon's. But people say they're freaking good and now I'm kind of curious if there is some
00:25:00
Speaker
revision to the formula, like people literally competitively play Splatoon. Well, we say competitive, but we know how Nintendo is on anything competitive in the Nintendo space. But from everything I've seen about it, it seems, did you ever play Tony Hawk? This is the tag game, right? Yeah. Where if you did a trick on a certain
00:25:22
Speaker
What would you even say? Like a surface? Sometimes it's like a grind rail, sometimes it's a half pipe, et cetera. You would tag it with a certain color. So it seems like you have a different weapons in your arsenal to cover
00:25:37
Speaker
the level in your color of paint, but you can also hit people with your weapons to kind of stop them from painting. So that simple concept sounds pretty engaging on its own. You can interact with your paint too. Like submerge yourself in your paint for quick travel or whatever. There's advantages to having uninterrupted surfaces of your color and things like that. Which is interesting.
00:26:07
Speaker
It's a unique take on it, which I think is where Nintendo tends to like excel as if they really polish up a unique idea. And they're like, yeah, like arms. That was the thing. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's about that's about all I can say about arms. You know, it's a punching game. Yeah. Speaking of arms, though, one of the characters in arms is Min Min.
00:26:34
Speaker
which is also a character in Smash. And then another character in Smash was recently announced for Smash, as recently as this Nintendo Direct we're speaking of. We're getting to it, ladies and gentlemen. Hold on. And it's a Mishra slash Pyra Switch character.
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I know nothing about JRPGs. So big shrug for me. Again, I'd have to see, I need to see the Sakurai video of how she plays. Yeah.
00:27:08
Speaker
Sakurai is not even gonna go over the moveset. He's just gonna talk about like how he got this character past like the Japanese censors. He's been going full till on the the amount of sexual content that this character is kind of known for. Yeah, I mean like I don't know.
00:27:31
Speaker
I don't want to like die on this hill because I think complaining past a certain point becomes detrimental in its own way. Like people should be able to make whatever they want here. But my personal take is that like this game
00:27:50
Speaker
What is it? Crap. No, my brain gets stuck on it. It's like it's. Xenoblade? Xenoblade. I was like the word Xeno, is there a cross in there? Xenophobia. Xenophobia. That's Xenoblade Chronicles 2. That's the game that they came from.
00:28:07
Speaker
Um, like it's the most like fan servicey, like uncomfortable nonsense. And like, I don't hate that exists. It's just weird when it gets brought into smash for me, like, and I realized smash has weird characters, but I'm going to throw you under the bus once you're done. I mean, you very, very well can. And I, I don't think they're a bad inclusion.
00:28:34
Speaker
I think there's, any other inclusion would have been better almost, but... Oh, I agree with the... That the pick could have been better. Because everyone's reaction has been like, oh, what? They have a sword? They're an anime character? Cool.
Valheim and Indie Game Impressions
00:28:48
Speaker
It's sort of like the meme argument in a way though. Like the Reddit, like the subreddit was going to explode. It was anyone with a sword, right? Yeah. But we got Sephiroth.
00:28:59
Speaker
as the last character. That's the peak. There isn't going to be a better sword character or like a sword character that's even interesting by comparison because it's freaking Sephiroth. So anyways, you can throw me under the bus now. I just I think the art style is really dumb.
00:29:21
Speaker
I think everything about them is trash so far from what little I know. Yeah. But me throwing you under the bus was just going to say you play Bayonetta. That's true. The Bayonetta is cool. Right. But fanservicey? Holy fuck dude. No fanservice there. Can we talk about those with the ass in the air? Face down, ass up. Yeah, it's it's it's hilarious. I guess
00:29:51
Speaker
It is definitely a double standard that I have. And I'm sure that if I played Xenoblade, I would very much be, I'd have way more investment in this character being added. And I played A level of Bayonetta, so that's where that investment comes from.
00:30:08
Speaker
I don't know. Bayonetta seems like a more interesting character to me. Oh, yeah, definitely. What I know about this character. Like Bayonetta has got a lot going on. She's incredibly cool in her own right. Like super deadly, super dangerous, like mixed motivations, not like a good person, in quotes. And I love edgelords. And this inclusion just seems like
00:30:37
Speaker
This is someone's anime sword waifu. Yeah. Yeah. I a hundred percent agree. I feel like sometimes characters are just made to be like, and this is the one with the boobs, but we're not objectifying them. They can hold their own. Yeah. And you're like, Oh yes, saved it. That's the telling thing for me is like they had to tone it down to get the character into smash.
00:31:03
Speaker
And this isn't the first time that happened. They also toned down snakes butt. But hey, they also removed Steve's steak. That's true. That was pretty egregious though. That was the most egregious. That was the funniest thing. So freaking good. Yeah, I don't know. We won't really know until we play the character. I think that she'll probably end up being really fun and probably playing a fair amount, but
00:31:29
Speaker
Also, yeah, I am calling it now because, like, Jake also said about Sephiroth, like, I don't know, their moves just doesn't seem like he's a love Sephiroth. So I'm also calling it now that I think you're going to enjoy playing this character when they come out. Probably. Yeah, probably. We'll see, though. It's there's only two more slots for this DLC fighter pack. So that's the other part of it is like the character is probably fine. Maybe great.
00:31:57
Speaker
They have to prove themselves. I'm not giving them any leeway by default, but there's only two more left. This would have been our third last slot, right? So I don't think, I believe to my recollection, there was going to be any other fighter packs after this. And so if we're looking at like the last
00:32:17
Speaker
three people being added to Smash. Everyone that feels kind of like lukewarm or meh is like a gut punch to who it could have been, right? That's the other half of it. Who are you looking at for the next two spots though? I mean, I know we literally talked about like, if it was someone from Supergiant like Zagreus. That'd be so cool. I don't think it would happen, especially in like the last two slots.
00:32:47
Speaker
Um, a lot of people have been saying Master Chief or forever. Um, I mean, that's been everybody's thing, but Master Chief was in his own fighting game when X-Box tried to do that shit. There's also like a PlayStation All-Stars because we're like, we gotta have one too. Um, I don't think it's gonna do that. Um, but yeah, I guess, I guess character's kind of in that space. I don't know.
00:33:15
Speaker
I know if I were to look at a list, at least from what I've regarded from like some YouTube comments here and there. And myself personally, I would love to see Hollow Knight be in there. Ooh, yeah. That would be really cool. The Knight, but if we're being some sort of sword wielder, really? No, no, he's a nail wielder.
00:33:37
Speaker
But to be fair, that would be like most of his kit. Um, that would be kind of cool, but also kind of take away from Hollow Knight. But yeah, Zagger's would be another one. Anybody who has like more than a single weapon and you've got a theory craft, this would be their side B. This would be their recovery. Right. Does Lincoln the game yet? They should probably have at least one link, right? That's pretty popular Nintendo character.
00:34:05
Speaker
Yeah, they should. Long last. We need long. Long, yeah. The last one should actually be a Waluigi. Just. That would be. It would destroy the fan base. It would destroy the fan base. But it shouldn't be the second to last one. It has to be the actual last one. Yeah. Everyone's here.
00:34:27
Speaker
Yeah, like they have Bowser. They have Bowser Jr. They have Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Wario, Yoshi. I'm surprised I'm remembering all of these, but they don't have fucking Waluigi. Right. Maybe they'll do like a toad instead. But I could theoretically see another Mario character. I can also see there was talks of another Street Fighter character.
00:34:53
Speaker
Mm hmm. I could see that. I just wish if they did that, they kind of played differently. Because at least as far as I've seen, I can't and rear are kind of like exactly the same. Terry at least has a lot, a lot of differences. I'm smiling. What'd you find? I'm looking at a list. It was a survey and there was a bunch of options for top things right in from Metal Gear.
00:35:18
Speaker
Also pretty cool, I like riding. Another Metal Gear character would be nice. Let's see, a Dr. Eggman from Sonic aka Robotnik for the intellectuals out there. Doomguy from Doom that has released on Nintendo stuff. It would be great if they took the new one and you just had like lethal grabs. If you just grabbed somebody and they were already at like 100%, which is the instant kill percent for a lot of
00:35:42
Speaker
Smash attacks, if he grabs you at 100% he actually just executes your character. It gets held in like a red orb stroke. This is clearly an old list because Dark Samus is on here. And I feel like nobody told them. I feel like that one's actually included. Viewtiful Tro. Vault Boy from Fallout, that's not going to happen.
00:36:09
Speaker
Is Beautiful Joe already in it as like a me skin? Because usually if they do that, it's kind of like, they're not doing it. Like when they had the Geno me skin from Super Mario RPG, I think, everyone's like, Oh, okay. It's not happening. Just like when people are theorizing, like maybe it'll be Travis touchdown. And they're like, here's a little version of him.
00:36:34
Speaker
Yeah, if you're a spirit, you're still eligible, but if you make it in as a cosmetic, then probably not. Steve was on this list too, so he made it in. Spyro as a possible option. Spyro could be cool. I mean, I guess Rareware property is already in there, so. Yeah. Kratos. Is Kratos under that IP? I have no idea. I feel like Kratos shouldn't be on this list. I feel like Kratos was also in the Xbox game, but we were alluding to
00:37:05
Speaker
I really like some of these. Gordon Freeman is a meme pick to be on this list. That's freaking dumb. What's his moveset? He uses a crowbar. Sora from Kingdom Hearts. That's more viable than a lot of these. I mean, they do like sword characters, so. Oh, Hollow Knight, yeah. They use on this list, too. And then Solaire of Astora from the Dark Souls series.
00:37:35
Speaker
I'm just saying. I don't see that happening personally to put that out there. Shadow the Hedgehog, that would be great. He should, he should just have. Just for the memes. But like I want it to be shadow from Shadow the Hedgehog, not from Sonic Adventure Battle 2. Like I want him to have guns in a fucking motorcycle because they did that.
00:37:59
Speaker
I realize that like Zelda is really represented here. But Skull Kid from Zelda is on this list. Yeah. And if it was Skull Kid with Majora's Mask. Yeah. That would be sweet. This is like this is pushed itself. This is pushing Raiden down a slot possibly on my personal wish list now. I feel like it's going to be for something else they want to promote. I know that that's the reality.
00:38:29
Speaker
It's actually funny how many of these made it on the list. Sans as a cosmetic for the Gunner. The other one on this list that made it was Sephiroth. Rayman. I heard a lot of people talking about Rayman. I feel there's still a lot of good things that they can choose from for the last two. I just hope it's better.
00:38:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I'd like to see something like a little bit different, I think. Yeah, if it's Battletoad, that would be pretty different. Bandana Waddle Dee is also on this list. I only point this one out because I saw someone else mention this on the Reddit thread. Is that Fighter Waddle Dee? I think so, yeah, yeah. Fuck yeah. I played a lot of Kirby growing up with my cousin.
00:39:24
Speaker
I remember Samurai Showdown. I think that's a game. Maybe that was a minigame. But basically it was just like a reaction time thing, as a lot of the minigames were. But I got decently good at them for like the three people I played against. But I enjoyed that a lot. And he's not going to make it in here because he's a boss, but Mark's from Kirby also.
00:39:51
Speaker
Which is like the darkest I think Nintendo can make a character and get away with it. They literally had to tone down his inclusion and smash. Because he was terrifying. He's absolutely terrifying. Two adults, let alone children.
00:40:08
Speaker
I know hopefully we can do craft a little more in future stuff if we get something teased. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's so I did hear word that there would be another smash after this one. I guess that'd be smash six, right? Oh, yeah, at least that's what I read online. Is that they didn't end in the franchise?
00:40:37
Speaker
I don't think there's much information there. Oh wait. Wait, is this actually... Okay, nevermind. No, this is announced. Smash Bros. Super Smash Bros. Endless Dreams is
Blizzcon and Hearthstone Updates
00:40:53
Speaker
what I'm looking at. Is this real? It's not been announced, so I don't think so.
00:41:01
Speaker
I kind of doubt it, right? That can't be real. I know there's occasionally leaks from Nintendo. Yeah. Very few and far between. But yeah, anyways, it seems like there would be another one, but I don't think they would bring the whole roster back like they did for Ultimate.
00:41:21
Speaker
So from my perspective, like ultimate feels like the last one because it's the last one that has literally every character. So I think unless they have a new console, they're probably not going to do another one. Yeah. That's all TBD.
00:41:42
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I would. It's kind of weird to say, given like how on the fence about DLC or like negative towards DLC, we've been for a while or I have been, I should say. But a lot of that feels like it's because that DLC kind of nickel and dimes you. I don't hate the idea of like Challenger packs continuing for a while. Like I would pay 20 bucks a year or whatever for another set of Smash characters if they were interesting.
00:42:12
Speaker
Because I played a game a ton, right? Yeah, I think it comes down to like how much value you get out of it. So like when Dark Souls had a DLC, that was actually a sizable amount of content. And it was really fun to explore and play. But some other DLCs just kind of like, we added one more mission, go. And it's like, that was a once and done thing. You don't get the same benefit out of it. Whereas if you get a new fighter in the DLC pack,
00:42:38
Speaker
you will play them multiple times unless they suck and then you won't play them. Sorry, Min Min, Banjo. I think I played Banjo Min Min once and I was just like, I'm gonna put this in the Duck Hunt category, you can fuck off. Not for me. I think I played Duck Hunt more than both of those characters, but
00:42:59
Speaker
Yeah, anyways, that's the Smash corner. If more Smash news comes up, you can bet that we'll probably cover it. Or fake rumors, as is the case of Smash 6, apparently. But yeah, that was the main takeaway from the Nintendo Direct for me, at least, obviously, since we're pretty involved in the Smash scene, I think.
00:43:21
Speaker
We play at least once a week. I think that counts. What have you been playing outside of Smash though? In between the once a week I see you on Thursday. So the main thing worth mentioning is Valheim.
00:43:39
Speaker
which I played a lot of, I think like 77 hours with friends and friends of the show and guests, Dan and Ian. And we completed all the content in the early access thing, took 77 hours, as I said, and it's surprisingly good.
00:44:03
Speaker
but also not surprising anymore because it's been like 13 days since it was out and it sold over 2 million copies on Steam. Wow. I saw a trailer a couple of weeks back and it didn't really
00:44:17
Speaker
look that interesting or polished to me. So like what's the hook? Why did you? What do you like about it? What is it? Almost as many hours and that is like 2077. I mean, it's true though, right? Like I put a lot of hours in 2077 and had vacation for that. I didn't have vacation for this game. I just played it a ton.
00:44:40
Speaker
So it's a survival crafting early access horseman of the apocalypse type game like that. But really a focus on lower tech, dodging in a stamina bar and things like that and parrying like from Dark Souls. And really just super thoughtful mechanics.
00:45:03
Speaker
Which is vague and stupid to say. I was going to let you elaborate. Right, but progression. You have a very limited list of things you can create, but you find a new ingredient and it's like, hey, now that you've touched this item,
00:45:22
Speaker
Here's the crafting table for everything that like uses that item. And so you keep like, Oh, here's the first time we found this rare mineral. Boom. The full crafting list got updated. Here's a new tier of items you can create. Um.
00:45:39
Speaker
And so it kind of feels like you're always discovering new and improved like ways to make things. Um, there's base building, which is above like significantly above average, I think rivaling like seven days. And there's not even that many items to make. It just feels really good. Um,
00:45:59
Speaker
and large world like boss fights where you have to like summon in the boss. And then they're usually very large and tough fights you have to prepare for with food and potions and stuff. And I don't know, it's really just, it's just fun to play and relaxing. Nice.
00:46:18
Speaker
Yeah, I, I almost, so we talked about it cause I told you about the game, right? And I was like, I don't think pick it up yet. And this is the issue sometimes when I'm looking at games, it's like, I'm known for getting people to buy into games and then I quit it. Um, basically, as soon as other people start playing that, I told to start playing the game and I've tried to break that habit.
00:46:46
Speaker
So you played for 77 hours in spite of yourself. When we talked about it, I was like, I don't know if I can recommend it or not, because it's really slow. Like it feels really casually paced. And sometimes you just don't make progress until you figure something out. But as a whole, the game is really satisfying. So like those hours don't feel wasted.
00:47:16
Speaker
I mean, I agreed with your assessment of it for whether or not it'd be a thing for me. And yeah, it's not same way to see if these wasn't like.
00:47:29
Speaker
It still seems like a cool thing. I'm glad it sold two million for early access. That's kind of nuts. Yeah. It's like, it's very small team, like Swedish developers. I think it was like five people or something like that. Oh, wow. Yeah. But yeah, like I've seen it pop up with a lot of people who like I'm friends with on Steam, but I don't really know who they are type thing. Like I don't have an alias for them. Like what the fuck is that? And then it's been popping up on Twitch and stuff as well. Mm-hmm.
00:48:00
Speaker
It's kind of escalated. It's not a massive streamer game. It's nothing like Among Us, Fall Guys, or any of those really popular streamer games. Streaming went up a bit and then kind of plateaued. But the purchase numbers just continued to grow linearly and not drop off. So they have a lot of money to play with now, I think. Yeah, hopefully they can add more cool content for that player base.
00:48:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's also surprisingly like fully featured, like 77 hours of content, like not just making stuff up until we reached the end of what was actually in the game. So I have high hopes for it. Definitely like circle back in half a year, maybe a year and maybe grab a group of people and dive back in. But yeah.
00:48:54
Speaker
It's worth the 20 or 25 bucks it is. It's very inexpensive for the amount of hours you put in. What have you been playing recently, though? I see you've added interesting things to the list. I don't know what they are. Oh, there was a sale recently. So occasionally I will scan those for, oh, God, we need episode content. What can we get? I believe
Dota Anime Excitement and Comparisons
00:49:16
Speaker
none of these are actually
00:49:18
Speaker
like full episode worthy. But there were some things on my wish list or things that people had mentioned that sounded cool. So I figured I'd check them out on the cheap. The first one's Donut County. Okay.
00:49:30
Speaker
which is basically people order donuts, but a donut is actually a hole in the ground. And when the hole in the ground, if something falls in, it gets bigger. So you're basically playing around as this hole as you consume. It's like a black hole. Okay. Yeah, it's like a reverse
00:49:50
Speaker
Katamari? Katamari? Yeah, okay. Gotcha. It's kind of in that vein. It's essentially a puzzle game, but it's just, it's cute in style. It's fairly short and simple, but it's, it's very charming. I just like the premise that, uh, someone orders a donut in the world and says, yeah, they, they sort of explained that in the course of the game. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a nice,
00:50:21
Speaker
What? Two, three hours tops? Did you beat it? You beat it already? Oh, yeah. I also beat Journey, which is also two hours. But that's been on my list because it's BAFTA acclaimed. It has all these fucking awards. This is a story emotional type game, right?
00:50:43
Speaker
Yes, artsy, vague. Yeah. Like there are story notes as you see like hieroglyphics or flashbacks, but there's no dialogue or anything like that. So it's kind of an inferred meeting.
00:50:59
Speaker
Um, but that was also really charming, very visually appealing. Um, and controlling things felt really fun because you kind of just jump around and you can kind of like sing. Um, and you can use your singing to like activate some nearby things, like little shrap scraps of cloth, and you can grow your scarf longer, which means you can glide further.
00:51:29
Speaker
I don't know, certain parts of it were just fun or like they had really cool shots in the game. But it's again, like it's a one-off you played for two hours on like Saturday morning.
00:51:46
Speaker
I don't think I'll ever go back and play it or necessarily recommend it to people, but I enjoyed that a little bit. Just how short it is. Yeah, it's good, but if you didn't play it, I don't think you're missing out. Right. But if you like that type of thing, it's a good pickup. Gotcha. It's usually around 10 to 15. Probably more is worthily on the 10 side. Right.
00:52:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's like, as I grow older, I'm fine playing shorter games. But if you start getting like really short, like this is, this could be a demo for a game in length. I'm like, I start to think about how much they cost again. Yeah. It's really the experience you have with it. Right. Yeah. I mean, if it's a life changing two hours, then, you know, it's probably still a good pickup.
00:52:41
Speaker
Yeah, it was just like, that was pretty, that was fun. Now we're done. There you go. It's the artistic talent. It's rubbing off on you and causing you to speak in verse.
00:52:57
Speaker
Yeah. I guess we've kind of been taking a break, a little bit of a split, playing other games, things like that. We've been doing some Overwatch again. That's true. I enjoy that. I'm still very much on a fuck Blizzard. I don't give a fuck about their announcements. Speaking of Blizzard announcements. No, why not? We'll ride this segue. Blizzcon's tomorrow, as of this recording. That's going to be online only.
00:53:23
Speaker
So red shirt guy shouldn't show up for this one. Um, it's good for blizzard because he's been tearing them apart. Uh, I don't know exactly what to look for in this. There's going to be stuff for wow. I think there was some leaks about that. I don't care. It's wow. Yeah, it's well, we have a couple of people who play overwatch. That's really the only reason I picked it back up again is just to be social with this group of discord. Um,
00:53:54
Speaker
There could be Hearthstone. Are they still doing stuff for that?
00:53:58
Speaker
Yeah, Hearthstone's got, uh, I actually started playing it a little bit recently, but by playing it, I mean doing the single player content that doesn't use my cards. Like you just play with like pre-made stuff through campaigns and whatnot. And I accidentally unlocked demon hunter as a class because they added that one, um, Illidan. Um, I was like, Oh, that's cool. But again, I'm playing the single player content, so I'm not using him or his cards. Um,
00:54:28
Speaker
And then once I did that, I remembered like, oh, yeah, they did add them to the game like two years ago, whenever the last time I checked Hearthstone news was. And the single player stuff, I think, still fine. It's fun and doesn't cost anything, which is nice. But the major change,
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:54:46
Speaker
which is not live yet, but it will be with the next expansion, is the introduction of a core set.
00:54:52
Speaker
Not a corset, but a core set, which I think, you can correct me if I'm wrong after I describe it, functions similarly to magics, where it's like... So in Hearthstone, they had a classic set and a basic set. And basic was all the cards you got for free, just automatically. And classic is all the cards that would never rotate out, but you had to get them from packs.
00:55:18
Speaker
They're getting rid of both of those concepts and replacing it with a core set, which is all of these cards are legal. Regardless what expansions come out, you can play these, but we might rotate what cards are in it. And I'm like, that's fine. Opens up some design space, whatever. And they're like, and we're just gonna make it free. They're like, oh.
00:55:41
Speaker
That's actually really good. It's like some like 230 cards or something like that, that if you just make a Hearthstone account and you get your class to like level 10, which is really easy, they give you the whole everything. Which is surprisingly generous.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah, usually you have to grind in those a lot to be able to fill out decks, at least with like Magic the Gathering online or Arena. Arena is the one. Online is the other shitty debacle. I will give you like very, as you play through like some quote unquote campaign, here's your mono black deck and then you can use that as part of your card pool to make something you actually want.
00:56:29
Speaker
Yeah. To answer your core question, as far as physical magic is concerned, they have block rotation. So not that Zach would ever listen to it, but he could correct me if I'm wrong. Right in, let us know. A given set will have three blocks. So first block will be a set, another block will be a thing, but they'll also do core sets.
00:56:56
Speaker
where Core Set still bring back like, hey, this is 2014's Core Set. So they'll bring back some cards that were around and legal previously to be a part of play. So I think they use that to be like, hey, here's some old standbys, but we still want to have it like tournament legal. Right.
00:57:18
Speaker
Gotcha. So they're not introducing new cards necessarily. They're reprints of. Not always. I think they do add some new cards in there as well. Again, I'd have to double check it. Right. But a lot of times they are relying on older cards that already exist to help shape and balance a format.
00:57:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely a unique take on it, I think. We've talked about trading card games in the past, digital ones, we had an entire episode on it. And it's pretty rare that they're like, the core relevant cards are just, you just have these.
00:58:01
Speaker
So I think it's a step in the right direction for Hearthstone because it means that people who haven't played in three years could jump back in the game and like just have a relevant deck. Yeah. It sucks to jump into something that you find out is pay to win and you're like, I just wanted to play.
00:58:20
Speaker
Right. I mean, for people that are still boycotting, you know, some Blizzard games or transactions, financial transactions or whatever, this really won't sway them or necessarily shouldn't. Everyone maintain their convictions. But as far as the game is considered, I've spent a lot of money on Hearthstone, not recently, but years ago. I think it's definitely a step in the right direction because everybody else was way more competitive for a long period of time.
00:58:52
Speaker
So yeah, the No Man's Sky got an update. I'm not going to talk about it, but I always have to mention it. It's in every talk cast. I think they're like, Hey, here's another major update where we had major features to the game. Let me add my classic reaction to No Man's Sky update.
00:59:09
Speaker
That's fair. And then the last one, saving the biggest news for the end of the episode. There's a Dota anime. Yeah. I don't know. I like Dota. I like some anime. Actually, I like some Dota. I like some anime. That's more perfect.
00:59:35
Speaker
But when they've done other anime, like Castlevania anime, I don't know which team's doing it. Castlevania anime is fucking the best thing in the world and I love it. Love it so much. Then they did Blood of Zeus, which I recommended some people check out. I don't think anybody did, but I don't think they're really missing out because it's fine and that's just really where it is, that's it. But I don't know where they're going with a fucking Dota anime.
01:00:05
Speaker
Cause like some other big e-sports like League have definitely branched out in some other directions as far as let's have our characters in another game. Let's do a KDA promo. Let's have these cool cinematics. And Dota's like, get them with a fucking anime. So it's based around Dragon Knight, who is not the coolest lore character. Um, but I think there are going to be some other characters in the show from the Dota universe.
01:00:34
Speaker
There has to be, right? I've heard of Mirana and Invoker making appearances, but I really don't know anything beyond that. There's a pretty short trailer. Yeah, it's mostly like a teaser. I'm hoping this lands better than Artifact did. Statistically, it has to.
01:00:56
Speaker
artifact went to land and then they just like no clipped into the ground. They just straight down vanished out of sight. Slacks held out his hands as the sand seeped through them. I realize this the moment has passed, but I don't care. Frederator is the studio that made Castlevania. So it's technically not anime, I guess, since that's in the US. But they're known for such things as my life as a teenage robot.
01:01:23
Speaker
Adventure Time, Bravest Warriors. Oh, yeah. And Castlevania. A twist. Good on them. But wait, do we know which studio is doing this? Oh, that's a great question. I mean, obviously they're in affiliation with Valve for license reasons. But I forget if it was Studio MIR.
01:01:53
Speaker
And that doesn't mean anything to me. They're self-creating based in soul. They've made such things as The Legend of Korra, Dynamite, The Boondocks, Young Justice Outsiders, and DOTA Dragon's Blood, some other stuff too. I mean, Boondocks is fucking awesome. Obviously, The Legend of Korra, also super solid. But Dynamite's also pretty good.
01:02:19
Speaker
Well, I haven't seen animated black dynamite. It's very similar to I think movies that were also animated. Well, yeah, there's the live action movie, but it's very it's the same thing. OK. Yeah. That's actually a really good studio for anything. OK. Well, at least they know how to animate. That's good. Yeah.
01:02:40
Speaker
So yeah, I'm just curious to see what direction it goes in because why? Why is this a thing? Yeah, they've also made shorts for League of Legends, which is hilarious. Traders. Yeah, I know. Right. Bard Mountain and Road to the Cup. Apparently not familiar with those, but. Yeah, I don't know. It's it's just a bag of question marks for me.
01:03:06
Speaker
Um, who knows what the anime will end up like? It's weird that like, I guess Dota is this big, right? Like they've been top three steam, steam games for like forever. It makes valve all of the money that valve makes after rounding. We're going to find out that the anime is in place of TI for this year. Mm-hmm.
01:03:30
Speaker
Where'd my battle pass money go? Don't worry. We've paid the studio. Well, what's going to happen is you'll buy your battle pass and they'll give you access to the season of the anime. Oh my God. It'll be like Disney plus and the Mandalorian.
01:03:46
Speaker
Oh my gosh. One other subscription service, but it's just the Dota Battle Pass and it gives you all these other benefits. You can only watch the show in client. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I don't know. We'll see where that goes, but that's the hotness. That's the hottest news. That's what people come here once a month for. I would love if somebody only tuned in like once a month or like, I don't care about the other stuff. I just, I want to know what's going on with them.
01:04:13
Speaker
What's going on in the news? What do they care about? I'm not sure why I'm giving them this nasally voice, but that's what our listeners do sound like though. The voices gets higher and higher as they continue to question us. Oh man. Well, thank you guys for listening to another talk cast. Um, always fun to go over the news with you all collectively. I wish you guys would contribute a little bit more, but you know, that's fine.
01:04:42
Speaker
As always, if you want to contribute a little bit more, you can send in those personal contributions or join the joint contribution of Facebook at facebook.com slash soapstone podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Be there.