Episode 44 – Another Wild Week in Gaming

Transcript

neocharge: What's up everybody and welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the weekly conversational podcast all about video games that's unedited, unfiltered, and unhinged. I'm one of your hosts, Matt Stenson, NeoCharge on PSN, and joining me, as always, we're on episode number 44, Retro Gaming Encyclopedia, Bob Harriman, Leon Lyon Hartley on PSN.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.

neocharge: What's up, dude?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you know, just another day of paradise, man. keeping Keeping real busy lately. Work is kind of blown up. My professional life, of course, in a good way, not not a bad way.

Leon Lionheartly: um and So suddenly things just got really busy, um which impacts my gaming time.

neocharge: Good.

Leon Lionheartly: But, you know, the the perpetual issue. I want to be an adult so I can use adult money to play games, but then I don't have time to play games.

neocharge: That's the circle of life right there. Also joining us, ah he's he's pretty much a regular at this point in the third chair, Alex Meese. He did the intro. He's a wizard on the keyboard. He has all kinds of talent when it comes to making music. Goatlord Sreobix on PSN. What's up, dude?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, it is so weird to hear you say on PSN now. I'm still not used to that.

neocharge: I didn't know, right?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh.

neocharge: it

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, nothing nothing much.

neocharge: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Pretty much just life. Work's kind of changed a lot. There's a lot going on now. So I have actually more time to play video games. um We recently redid my game room.

neocharge: Heck yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So I've got my old consoles up here. i'm still trying to figure out the layout of everything.

neocharge: Yeah, dude.

Goatlord-Sriobix: But yeah, right next to my N64.

neocharge: The original n NES front and center. I love it. And a Pikachu Those are rare.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh yeah. I've had that thing since I was five years old and I've held onto to it and taken care of it.

neocharge: Repping the retro stuff. I love it.

Leon Lionheartly: you you Speaking of the Pikachu, Matt, did you so did I send you that ah that picture um once again?

neocharge: White one.

Leon Lionheartly: So you remember the last ah Pokemon set? My wife started cracking open and she got she got the hit.

neocharge: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, she opened her...

neocharge: Ascended Heroes.

Leon Lionheartly: she No, that was the one before Ascended Heroes.

neocharge: Phantasma Flames.

Leon Lionheartly: Phantasmal. She opened her first pack of Ascended Heroes today.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That was our first pack.

Leon Lionheartly: Pulled the Pikachu EX card, which is like a $350 card.

neocharge: Which...

neocharge: this the The Sir, the Secret and Illustration Rare?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Holy shit! She got some hot fingers, dude.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Pikachu EX number 277 out of Ascended Heroes.

neocharge: Oh my god. I heard that set's huge. It's like 544 fucking cards.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, it's massive.

neocharge: Nah.

Leon Lionheartly: That's what she said.

neocharge: Nah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: yeah Yeah, it is ah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yo...

neocharge: Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. because that's like she She pulled two hits. Usually the secret illustration rares are the hits. She pulled the Charizard and now the Pikachu. Dude, they're the goats. Charizard and Pikachu and Gengar.

neocharge: Of course, they're like the most popular. Eevee's pretty popular too. But... Man, it's always those Charizards and Pikachus that are the the super expensive cards. I got out of it, dude. I can't do it. They're bringing out fucking sets every two months. And these these sets are like 500 plus. like I remember when sets were 64 cards, bro.

Leon Lionheartly: Amen to that. i I'm with you, dude. i I'm 100%.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: I think it's gotten a little crazy, but um you know what? If it keeps her happy and it allows me to play all the games I want, ah who am I to fucking argue?

neocharge: There you go. And we've been playing a lot of games. We've been playing some new ones. We've all been playing one game that we're going have a spoiler cast on at some point. We're still organizing that. But Bob and I dived into some new games, and so did you, Alex. So we'll talk all about those. ah Before we get into it, how's your how's your week been?

neocharge: What are you drinking?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, well, ah this evening, I am going to thank, was it JK Liquors? That's near your place.

neocharge: Nice.

Leon Lionheartly: ah They came in clutch.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: I was really running behind from dinner, or I mean from work this evening, right into recording. And from the very local Red Lake Brewing here in Colorado Springs, the Cinnamon Roll, which is an oatmeal pastry stout.

Leon Lionheartly: Let me tell you, this is pretty much Cinnamon Toast Crunch in a can.

neocharge: I think i was i was talking about this before. I think I had it on tap at Redleg and you were with me.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes.

neocharge: So I'm going need you save a can of that for me. Uh, and I'll save you one too.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: Uh, but we, we still got to do the liquor store run for me to buy your six pack because boy, Oh boy, Pocopia, what a, what a fucking hit this month at, uh, or last month that it released, uh, man, that's sitting at fucking 89 on Metacritic.

Leon Lionheartly: the

neocharge: Holy shit. Or open critic.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's insane.

neocharge: Crazy.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Absolutely and

neocharge: Yeah. It's up there with resident evil requiem. Uh, I hope it's like one, just just keep it one point below Requiem. I want Requiem to be be on the top. Come on.

Leon Lionheartly: Nah, nah. Let it be a 92. I want those fantasy points.

neocharge: yes

neocharge: trouble True, true. Alex, what are you drinking? How's life been? How's your week been?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Like I said, week's been good. I ah found the other day at Walmart of all places, Dragon's Milk came out with a new, um I guess my camera's up here now, a new stout.

neocharge: Knew what?

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's a coffee chocolate stout. It's a collaboration with Mad Cat Coffee.

neocharge: o

Goatlord-Sriobix: And it's actually really good. Like, this is my second four-pack of them now, and I'm loving it.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. Those are strong ones, too, aren't they? Aren't they like 10%? Oh,

Goatlord-Sriobix: But yeah, their their entire line is 11%, yeah.

neocharge: ohha yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, man.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. And they're like really smooth stouts, too.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Dragon's Milk is awesome. It's almost like left-hand, some of their nitro stouts, but they're just so smooth. I love Dragon's Milk.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: And just like fuck a fucking cool name, right?

Goatlord-Sriobix: who

neocharge: What are you drinking?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.

neocharge: I'm drinking Dragon's Milk. ah Well, I'm sorry, what? Yeah, you heard me.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: ah Hell yeah. ah I'm also staying local, Bob. I have one, what, 15 minutes from me, 10 minutes from your brewery you're drinking, and that is a Bristol Brewing Company over in Ivy Wilds.

neocharge: ah They have an incredible Oktoberfest called Red Baron, and it's a Vienna-style lager.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. Yep.

neocharge: So, I mean, this is this is a red right there. Look at that. People on the camera, it's a red beer ah and it's delicious. It's got, it's very full flavored. And dude, there's something that hits different when you drink out of a bottle.

neocharge: Right? Dragon's milk is out of a bottle. So, yeah, it's interesting. ah Life's been good. i I smell some change coming. I don't know. I feel it my bones.

neocharge: Something's changing. I don't know if it's like recent events or what, but ah I recently came from dinner. I think I had the best ramen I've ever had in my life, and it's definitely the best ramen in Colorado Springs.

neocharge: So, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Did that come on recommendation from our local foodie?

neocharge: Actually, no. This time, i heard about it, he heard about it, and I just recommended it to him. And he's like, ooh, I gotta try that. So, yes!

Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, my, my, my, how the turns have tabled.

neocharge: how they How the tables turn, or the turntables.

Leon Lionheartly: it

neocharge: ah But no, dude, it was super unique ramen. The broth was so creamy. And the noodles, they tasted like they had just made them like just then. The egg, i don't know how big of a fan of you guys are of ramen, but I like break this shit down.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: The egg, you can tell they they soaked it in soy sauce. So it's a soy sauce soaked egg. And the yolk was just super creamy. It's got seaweeds, it's got some mushrooms, the pork belly.

neocharge: fell apart, melts your mouth. It's just the the best ramen I've ever had. ah It was very unique. So Jinya starts with a J, downtown Colorado Springs. So this episode brought to you by Jinya.

neocharge: No, I'm kidding.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: No, it's not sponsored.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Hey, if you're good place to...

neocharge: I just had some bomb ass ramen like, of I don't know, 25 minutes ago. So yeah. ah Other than that, yeahp snowboarding, gaming, and drinking some beer.

neocharge: And of course, we're here to talk about it with you all. So ah yeah, let's see Spoiler cast. It's in the works.

neocharge: We're getting it organized. ah Resident Evil Requiem. We've all beat it. we Most of us, I mean, 90% of us have platinumed it. You're you're getting so close, Alex.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah Yeah, I'm real close.

neocharge: um And we have a lot to say about it. And we've been discussing off the cast, of course, and we want to talk about it with you all. We're just organizing it in, i don't know, probably sometime next week. That's that's ah what we're trying to target.

neocharge: Maybe a Thursday release right before the main podcast on Friday. Who knows? So if you've played and you've beat Resident Evil Requiem front to back, you listen to spoiler cast. If you haven't, don't listen to the spoiler cast. Go play the game because it's really good.

Leon Lionheartly: Spoiler, it's really fucking good.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And that's the end of the spoiler cast.

neocharge: So... right? Thanks so much for listening. It's been no. ah

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah

neocharge: Yeah, we we just finished that. And I, ah Bob and I jumped into our games that we agreed we would both play. And we're going to talk about a new game that just came out that everybody loves. So ah let's, let's get right into it. Before that, though, ah thanks for being a ah community member of discord, if you are, and if you aren't. Hey, Bob,

neocharge: where can Where can people join the Discord and see um all of our awesome social media posts and everything like that?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you mean where you can see me struggle with my old man syndrome online at ah the Twitch streams? um You just pop into your browser.

Leon Lionheartly: You go to shapesofgaming.com. You will find the landing page that will take you to all of our links, which include the places where you can hear us, um the Discord, as previously mentioned, You can hear and watch ah us play on the Shapes of Gaming Twitch channel and, you know, come in, have a conversation, and enjoy.

Leon Lionheartly: We like to laugh. We have a good time, drink beer, all that good stuff. But yeah, definitely check it out, ShapesofGaming.com.

neocharge: Oh yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: And while you're there, you know, leave us a nice little comment. Give us that thumbs up, ah the heart emoji, whatever that platform you're listening on has. Please go check it out once again at ShapesofGaming.com.

neocharge: Love it. Yes. And one other thing, if you have beat ah Requiem, we do have a poll, a Resident Evil Requiem. We have a poll in the spoiler channel. Okay? It's in there. I'm not going to go into what it is, but it's ah in the spoiler channel. If you've beat Requiem, go into the spoiler channel.

neocharge: Go i do that poll because we are curious. That's all i'm going to say.

Leon Lionheartly: Absolutely, man.

neocharge: So...

Leon Lionheartly: and and And before I forget, folks, um my kid's going to kill me if i if I don't mention this since they got that started. On the landing page, you will see all the socials, but the one that's not in there is the TikTok.

Leon Lionheartly: We do have a TikTok.

neocharge: Oh, I need to do that.

Leon Lionheartly: It has not been linked. We are working on that. um And that is an emerging playground. um Thankfully, I've got Gen Alphas in here that can help me yeah do that stuff. Z, sorry. See, I'm getting yelled at, right? Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm old man. All right. I'm a millennial. I'm i'm an elder millennial folks. All right.

neocharge: man, it's Gen Z, no cap.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah Well

neocharge: Bet, bet, bet.

Leon Lionheartly: played, sir. Well played.

neocharge: No, oh no.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah,

neocharge: ah he did the 6-7 thing. Oh, God. um

Goatlord-Sriobix: he did.

neocharge: Yeah, no, i live I live with Gen Zs, too.

Goatlord-Sriobix: We'll do it again later.

neocharge: and just it's It's constant bet and no cap. And I'm like, yeah, cool. but like

Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't know how you guys stand hanging out with me.

neocharge: ah but

Goatlord-Sriobix: Jesus.

neocharge: No, it's fine. It's fine. Generational gaps are fine as long as it's not like Gen Alpha.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, just hang out with my old man friends, drink beer, and play video games.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: See?

neocharge: Exactly.

Leon Lionheartly: okay There you go.

neocharge: Exactly.

Leon Lionheartly: Be an old soul with us. Well, I'll even light up a cigar with you.

neocharge: we are... Oh, exactly. We are so close to being in Gen X. like I think one of the best generations in the last fucking 50 years, 60 years. We're like barely millennials. so And millennial we've seen shit, dude.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Millennials have seen shit. i was yeah I was in high school when 9-11 happened.

Leon Lionheartly: And then

neocharge: So, yeah. And it just keeps...

Goatlord-Sriobix: I was five.

neocharge: Yeah, yeah. So, but hey, anyone of all ages is welcome here. is I mean, 18 plus probably because we're, I mean, being an adult because we cuss and we talk about adult things. So, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, definitely. ah that's That's your little... it's It's in the tag, folks. It says explicit for a reason.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um I'm not going to tell you how to parent. ah It's not my my job.

neocharge: No.

Leon Lionheartly: But just remember, we we don't have a limit.

neocharge: Mm-mm.

Leon Lionheartly: Only two limits here. We stay away from other politics and we stay away from religion. But outside of that, it's pretty much free game.

neocharge: Yep.

neocharge: Exactly. Exactly. so yes, uh, We have been on Twitch a lot. Bob has been streaming a game he's going to talk all about. Two games, actually, he's going to talk all about. We streamed Neo. He streamed Resident Evil Requiem. ah We've been streaming a lot on the channel, so you can see that at twitch.tv forward slash shapes of gaming. We've been having a blast. and we yeah Anytime we play a co-op game, we're on there, so it's fun.

neocharge: ah What do you say we get into the news? we got We got some items, and then we'll get into what we're playing. Yeah. yeah

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. And then yeah keep on moving on and going to play some games. Yeah, I i absolutely agree.

neocharge: That's what we do.

Leon Lionheartly: Let's go do that.

neocharge: Dude, I am itching to play the game I'm playing that I'm going to talk all about. Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I've got two of them. I'm over here just scratching.

neocharge: I'm

Leon Lionheartly: I got i got to i got to get ah all kinds in um But yeah let's...

neocharge: and both at the same time.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah You know, sleep is for the weak.

neocharge: Exactly. One with your feet and one with your hands. Right.

Leon Lionheartly: I got two controllers going. ah No, but let's go ahead and we'll start off of this because we did tease it ah last time.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Well, last episode we were on because the announcement hadn't broken yet. um This... ah I'm pulling it from Daniel Kormer, but naturally it's out there. um This came from Bandai Namako, if you remember last week. They teased a new RPG was coming. um There was a lot of speculation. um It's funny, now that you mention it, there was another game that could have been possible, but didn't match the art style.

Leon Lionheartly: And we'll talk about that later.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um But...

neocharge: well

Leon Lionheartly: We are getting not a Tales game, folks. ah We are getting a new Sword Art Online game, a new RPG called Echoes of Ancrad. I believe I'm saying that correct, my phone fellow weeb.

neocharge: Maybe.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's Aincrad.

Leon Lionheartly: Ancrad. Dang, I was this close. um But ah looks ah you're dealing with a floating castle. it looks cool. um I'm not going to lie. um There is no release date yet.

Leon Lionheartly: This is still just a, hey, we are working. Oh, no, never mind. I apologize. I was thinking of a different game. ah This is announced for July 10th of this year.

neocharge: July, right?

Leon Lionheartly: it dropped out of the middle of nowhere. um I watched Sword Art Online, the original, like the OG Season 1 stuff back in the day. Watched a little bit of the next iteration, of you if you will.

Leon Lionheartly: Have you watched any of the... Are familiar with the material, Matt?

neocharge: I'm not. ah I'm pretty salty. This isn't Tails, but I'm happy for the people that are excited. It's Sword Art Online.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. right. So I know you have, Alex, right? You you you know so you know Sword Art.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Listen, man. Okay, so I've got a character tattooed on my body. I've got all of the games and several figures up there.

neocharge: shoot. Boom, boom.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm a massive fan of the IP.

neocharge: We got a super fan here. I had no idea.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah, absolutely. yeah i mean

neocharge: you're excited at this about this announcement then?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, and no, I've read a little bit, probably a little bit more into it than Bob has at this point.

neocharge: Okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah From what I gather, like they're they're releasing this game, and the rumor the going thing going around the rumor mill right now is that it's just going be the first two floors of... The 109 Cread Castle.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And I'm like, well, you could make an entire game out of that. ah SEO fans have been wanting a full length game for a long time and you haven't given it to us.

neocharge: Okay.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you're right. i knew i thought I knew that name and recognized that tower. So i did did so I'll give you the backup um're real quick, the the premise, if you will, Matt.

Leon Lionheartly: So Sword Art Online, everybody's injected into a virtual reality game, an MMO. Literally, it's an MMO um where they're injected in kind of like, think more like Matrix.

neocharge: Like.hack?

Leon Lionheartly: They're literally jack jacking themselves in.

neocharge: Sure.

Leon Lionheartly: Ooh.

neocharge: Okay.

Leon Lionheartly: i

neocharge: Oh! so

Leon Lionheartly: So, Aincrad is the tower in the first season, and there's a whole there's a whole story and all this, and I'm not going to get into that.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Bye.

Leon Lionheartly: But the idea is everybody was leveling up their characters by fighting through the floors, and they wanted to be the first ones to get out. So, that was the premise that sold me when I first wanted to watch the anime, and it's evolved a little bit beyond my taste, just...

Leon Lionheartly: from my perspective, but this actually sounds interesting. I will be keeping a watchful eye on it because you are going through a castle floor by floor by floor to reach the top and enemies progressively are supposed to get harder.

neocharge: Oh, okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah Yeah. the the

neocharge: Last.

Goatlord-Sriobix: The premise has been touched in two of the Sword Art Online games so far, but nobody like there hasn't been one where you got to fully make your own character and play as your own character the whole way through.

Goatlord-Sriobix: like the Previous titles, you were able to make your own character. you were still in CGI scenes as... another as the main character of Sword Art Online, so it was a little rough sometimes.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: If they get the gameplay down and the graphics are good enough, I think it'll be a hit with the community, but I don't see this really being a high-scoring game. They typically aren't.

neocharge: Gotcha. So like what, 70s? Because I saw the the other ones were like 70s.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I could see in the seventy s yeah. I

neocharge: well But who fucking knows with reviewers nowadays? The reviewer landscape is just, I don't know what's going on with it. Like, I don't even, exactly.

Goatlord-Sriobix: mean, it's half AI now.

neocharge: I don't even want to talk about marathon score because it doesn't matter because there's no one of note that has voted. But the the fact that people have voted and they have weight, it has a score now.

neocharge: Don't go don't look, because Bungie has already been like, hey, don't ah don't score it to the legit outlets until the the raid, cryo, whatever, comes out.

neocharge: They did this with Destiny and Vault of Glass. Vault of Glass was the highlight of Destiny, Vanilla Destiny, Destiny 1.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: It was what you were building up to, and they're doing the same thing with Marathon. so yeah i don't Dude, review scores are hit or miss now. It's crazy.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

neocharge: So, okay, cool. Well, I'm not excited for this, but I'm excited for people that are excited. And I love to see the the RPG and the limelight. I was really hoping for tails because we're due for a new tails game and I'm, I'm itching.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

neocharge: Well, and I'm not actually not itching for a tails game anymore and I'll talk why. So, but I, I would love a new tails. I'm always down for it. Maybe a summer announcement.

neocharge: Who knows? Who knows?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah. You know what you can get excited for, Matt?

neocharge: What?

Leon Lionheartly: Our next announcement. ah

neocharge: Oh yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: This is a follow-up. So last week, um there was the Capcom Spotlight event that was streamed. There was some good news, ah reiteration of ah of experiences or titles, rather, that are already coming out. We were hoping for Animusha to get a release date.

Leon Lionheartly: That didn't happen. We saw additional content and support for um for Street Fighter 6.

neocharge: Crazy.

Leon Lionheartly: We're getting you know more monster Monster Hunter Stories 3, Twisted Reflection, which will have which already has a score by the time, like as of right now. um It's looking really solid, things of that nature.

Leon Lionheartly: But the highlight of the show... for me, and I know it is for you, Matt, is they re did an overview trailer again of Pragmata, which which was supposed to be April 24th.

Leon Lionheartly: And at the very end of the trailer, they dropped that piece of paper and then scratched out April 24th and said, sorry. And i my heart sank for a minute.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes, they did.

neocharge: Because they did this before.

Leon Lionheartly: yes they did

neocharge: They said, yeah, they said, sorry. And then they scratched out the date and put 2026. They're like, oh, so this time is good news.

Leon Lionheartly: we We got the opposite of that.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: And instead of being the April 24th, Pragmata's new release date has actually been moved up a week now to April 17th of this year.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: And boy, oh boy, let me tell you this much. Saros, you are going to be taking a backseat because Pragmata has entered the building.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Dang, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: That's where I'm at.

neocharge: I'm going to play them both. And this is this is ah exciting for me because they pushed it out of Saros' window. And I was like ah what like, it was conflicting because it was a week out.

neocharge: And I was like, I don't want to play Pragmata for like a week and then go right into Saros. So this is incredible news.

Goatlord-Sriobix: you've got two weeks.

neocharge: Exactly. Two weeks is two weeks is doable.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Especially depending on what it's 20 hour game. Who knows, right?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: But Yeah. ah i and very I didn't watch any of it. Like, I saw Pragmata come up, and I was like, oh, and I listened to it. And then I heard them, like, go into the date, and i was like, ooh.

neocharge: So you watched the stuff, right, Bob? And it's it looks...

Leon Lionheartly: Yes.

neocharge: What are your thoughts?

Leon Lionheartly: ah So this game, I do not know how, because when we first saw the, not the initial reveal trailer several years ago, but when it we saw the next trailer last year at summer, i didn't want to say summer game fest, but don't quote me.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.

neocharge: Hell yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: It might have been Game Awards. I was like, that looks good, but there's something about it with the frame rate and everything else.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, it was Game Awards.

Leon Lionheartly: And then they showed the next trailer, and it looked better, and the frame rate looked polished, more locked 60. Excuse me. And then they showed the yeah next one. And then this one, I'm like, oh my gosh.

Leon Lionheartly: Dude, yeah I know you looked away. Be prepared to have your mind blown. This looks gorgeous.

neocharge: oh yeah

Leon Lionheartly: I am here day one.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It really does.

Leon Lionheartly: ah I'm assuming you're getting this on day one, right, Alex?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I already have it pre-ordered. I'm actually really happy that they moved the date up because I had Pragmata and Seros both pre-ordered.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So now I can play them both.

Leon Lionheartly: All right.

neocharge: Me too.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So it it works out phenomenally.

neocharge: Heck yeah. So you're in the same boat there. This hits all that the cool checkboxes, right?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: So we've been getting... and I mean, it's it's not bad, but we have mainly beginning sequels of of ah current IPs.

neocharge: of of existing IPs or remasters or remakes. And this is none of them. It's a new IP from a well-known developer and it's AAA and it's sci-fi.

neocharge: So, and it's not a sequel.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: It's not a remaster. It's not a remake.

Leon Lionheartly: you

neocharge: It's like, we got so many of these on PS4, right? Horizon Zero Dawn. Ghost of Tsushima, Bloodborne, Death Stranding, right? Like new IPs we've never heard before that they're amazing big IPs now.

neocharge: So I'm always excited when to see games like this and developers take a risk. It's honestly a risk with a new IP because ah a sequel remaster or remake is usually a safe bet, right?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: But this is a risk in, man, everything I've seen, everything I've played. I played Sketchbook, which is cool. Alex, have you played the Sketchbook demo?

Goatlord-Sriobix: I have not, no.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: e i would I would recommend it. ah i it's it's going to be awesome. I think it's going to be really cool, and i you love to see them polish it, and it's running it running well now.

neocharge: Same thing happened with Claire. When we saw one of the trailers, it was I was like, oh, that's rough. But then you get it in your hands, they polish it. So I think it's in the polishing phase.

neocharge: I mean, it should be going gold here soon. So ah yeah, I couldn't be more excited. We're all super excited for this game.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Absolutely, dude. this is I'm so happy that they moved it up to the 17th. Not only did take it out of Saros' path, but this gives me a like a greedy reason because, as you know, gentlemen, this was number one overall draft pick this year for me.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: It was. Numero uno.

Leon Lionheartly: So... Yep. Capcom between, let's see, you got this, you've got Animusha, you've got Pragmata, we've got Resident Evil, we've got ah Monster Hunter stories that just came out.

Leon Lionheartly: And right now, spoiler, it's sitting in an 85 on OpenCritic. Capcom is on a generational run right now.

neocharge: Yeah, there are

Leon Lionheartly: ah Their stocks are soaring fucking high.

neocharge: Damn it. Should have bought it. Stocks are risky though, but oh yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: i I'm thinking metaphorically. It's possible. But did you see, as a side note, um that ah Nintendo's stock jumped like 10 or 13% thanks to Yeah. No.

Leon Lionheartly: It was...

neocharge: Really? Huh?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

neocharge: Okay. Well, uh, good on game freak. Cause they were, they did that, right? Game freak was part of that.

Leon Lionheartly: no

neocharge: No.

Leon Lionheartly: no it wasn't

neocharge: Every spot of the, what we're talking about to talk about. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Talk about, yeah, that on there. But no, this was the same team out of Koei that did Dragon Quest Builders 2.

neocharge: That's right. That's right. Yeah. So got another banger. I've been hearing nothing but good things about it. It's definitely not even close to my preferred genre. um I mean, the the the game that I'd probably say I played and enjoyed that was even close to this was Harvest Moon, Back to Nature.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes. um Oh, you know, well, I'll cover that in some other time.

neocharge: So...

Leon Lionheartly: can talk offline, but there was news about a Harvest Moon game that was announced, and I think I got a release date, by the way.

neocharge: Hmm, okay.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes.

neocharge: The newer ones, eh, the newer ones, I mean, I think the last two have hit, and then there was a spinoff, Story of Seasons, by the same devs or the same people from the developer. ah I don't know.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes.

neocharge: I don't i don't need another farm sim.

Leon Lionheartly: Well, it's either that or a destiny.

neocharge: So, exactly, right?

Goatlord-Sriobix: wow.

neocharge: Oh my god, dude, I dropped so many hours into Back to Nature. Oh,

Leon Lionheartly: You know, aside, and not to distract us, but i talked to I was talking to a friend today. He wanted to complain. um He's been trying to work on the platinum for first Berserker Kazan, you know, that game that came out in January of 2025.

neocharge: m

neocharge: Wow.

Leon Lionheartly: He's one trophy away. I think it's one trophy right now.

neocharge: Dang.

Leon Lionheartly: He's put 1,700 fucking hours into that game.

Goatlord-Sriobix: wow

neocharge: Holy shit.

Leon Lionheartly: ye ah

neocharge: That's a lot, especially for a single player. like just so i That game is based off of another i p right? It's based in...

Leon Lionheartly: And the binder.

neocharge: What is it? ah it's It's a story within another IP that's not a video game. I forget what it is. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: I believe so. um I think that is correct. And just for frame of reference, he is this is the same guy who's platinumed Caesar Salad on PSN, by the way.

Leon Lionheartly: He has platinumed every Souls-like game I can think of.

neocharge: m

Leon Lionheartly: he platinumed lies at He's platinum Elden Ring and all of these. And he said this... He's platinum Sekiro. And he said this is his favorite Souls-like of all time.

neocharge: Wow.

Leon Lionheartly: And there's a fight a boss fight in there that is absolutely his favorite of all time. So...

neocharge: Wow. I played the demo. I liked it. i I just... I wasn't in the mood for another Souls game. But when I am, i think it's still on my list.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: So, yeah. First Berserker, Kazan.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Definitely go check that out. But yeah, man. um Let's see. What else do we got here? And let's see anything else for um for Capcom there. Any other highlights from you, gentlemen? That was the big news for me.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I mean, what we yeah.

neocharge: ah the The new Robot Master. the Well, not they they showed the silhouettes of all the Robot Masters for Mega Man Duel Override, essentially Mega Man 12.

neocharge: But they also showed us six of the fan entries for the Robot Master that were designed by a fan.

neocharge: So they showed us the six finalists, which they they all look really cool. I have a favorite.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I was going to ask. what what what do you i See, gentlemen, I knew we'd all have one.

Goatlord-Sriobix: but they do too.

Leon Lionheartly: All right, Matt, what which one are you going for?

neocharge: ah The firefighter.

Leon Lionheartly: Valveman?

neocharge: Yes, foul man.

Leon Lionheartly: What about you, Alex?

neocharge: Either that one the first or the first one, the one with like the crazy hair. That was cool, too.

Goatlord-Sriobix: it's like the flower hair. Yeah, that one was pretty cool.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah for me For me, it's the vacuum cleaner made whatever one. that's I like that one a lot.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: and I'm like...

neocharge: I bet you do. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: but Listen, what gets me going gets me going. If it's a Mega Man character, so be it.

Leon Lionheartly: nothing

neocharge: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: But no, that's it's it's a pretty cool design.

Leon Lionheartly: Sure.

Goatlord-Sriobix: it was between that one and Cactus Man, I think it was the was the one that they had named it. I really liked both of those designs. I'd be happy if either one of those won. But like I think it was, what, six of them? All six of them were phenomenal.

neocharge: Yeah, they are.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'd bed be cool with any of them in a game.

neocharge: o Agreed. How about you, Bob?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, I'm with Valve, man, dude. That thing looks like a that design looks like a Mega Man boss.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: I mean, they all do, and they're all wonderful, but there's something just about it.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Goatlord-Sriobix: thats Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: It's it's hard to describe when you're talking about the the the design of a Mega Man ah boss, ah one of the Robot Masters.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: It's hard to describe that. That's it. That's what we're looking for. um It's an X-Factor, and I think that one has it.

neocharge: Yeah, I do too. It was crazy. They showed us a silhouette of all ah the the seven other robot masters and the the art we saw it now. Was that Capcom looking at these fan designs and basically doing a derivative of that design in their style? Because these all looked fucking professional from like the the development team.

Leon Lionheartly: No. So from my understanding, these were as the submissions came through, which is just awesome because that tells you, for those that may not be aware, this has been going on since the NES era of Mega Man.

neocharge: That's incredible.

Leon Lionheartly: Since Mega Man 2, I want to say, don't quote me on that one, where

neocharge: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I think so. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, where there there was ah boss designs being done by the community. This is one of the very few times we've gotten in North America. It was usually isolated to Japan. um And then this just tells you how much the industry has grown in terms of artistic expression and capabilities out there.

Leon Lionheartly: um But yeah, those six silhouettes, and umm like they showed up, they or the other six, I'm like, stop.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Or the seven silhouettes, I'm like, stop. I don't need to see any more, please.

neocharge: ah Right, right. yeah Just so many incredibly talented people out there. So I love that Capcom is doing this and good on them. You know, going out to the fan base and saying, hey, make us a robot master.

neocharge: You could be in our game. That's so cool.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yes sir So the the characters, I looked it up, that like the most notable ones that were either initially fan designs or submitted by fans, um it goes all the way back because Cut Man, Fire Man, Ice Man, Like Man, Guts Man, and Bomb Man were all fan designs.

neocharge: Wow.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah that That takes you a long ways back.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That goes way back. That's first game for for most of those.

neocharge: Wow. That's awesome. Did they do it in 11?

Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't know if they did. I don't think so. I didn't hear anything about it.

neocharge: 11 had some cool ones. I really, I really liked 11. So yeah. Awesome. um Yeah. Other than that, ah they, they announced the new Mega collection that you're excited for, right?

Leon Lionheartly: um Well, the this has been announced for a while. um They just gave it some more information yeah they gave us more information on it.

neocharge: Okay. Give a release date.

Leon Lionheartly: there's no Actually, yes ah and I know what you're talking about, Mega Man Star Force ah um Legacy Collection.

neocharge: Mm

Leon Lionheartly: ah collection release date.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: ah That was announced already. March 27th. um If you...

neocharge: hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: How do I put this nicely? If you want to show Capcom some support, um definitely go check this game out. um But just know that the Star Force collection is in the... It's adjacent to the Battle Network ah games, but this is where they moved from like ah an isometric 2D plane to more like an isometric three d um And it's quite frankly, not as good. So-

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: if so

neocharge: Let's see.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Bob was actually over just the other day and I was like, you know, ah because I was watching the Capcom showcase because I finally got around to it. And i was like, you know what, bro? I've never heard somebody say, you know what? My favorite Mega Man is Star Force.

neocharge: So one of the, yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's not the dog in the games, but they're they're not the greatest.

neocharge: Gotcha. There no Mega Man 2 or Mega Man X.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah, no.

Leon Lionheartly: No, no, not even close.

neocharge: Gotcha.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Or six if you're one of those crazy guys.

Leon Lionheartly: Uh, they,

neocharge: Okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Like me.

neocharge: Nice. Yeah. ah ah It was a good show. It was like, what, 40 minutes or something like that? Pretty jam-packed. We watched it live. ah The Mega Man stuff was cool. The Pragmata stuff was super cool.

neocharge: But other than that, it was pretty neat and tidy and ah just announcing things for things that ah have already been announced. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep.

neocharge: Yeah, I'm excited to see what they're doing with Devil May Cry. I'm gonna excited see what they're doing with Okami 2.

neocharge: I'm excited to see if they're going to do Breath of Fire. Because I don't know if you remember, but Capcom sent out a survey like two, three years ago. And they said, what IP would you like to see return?

neocharge: And I think the top three were Mega Man, Okami, and Breath of Fire. So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: I would not complain about a Breath of Fire game.

neocharge: Dude, Breath of Fire is good. It's a great turn-based RPG.

Goatlord-Sriobix: money

neocharge: So I think we talked about it in our 32-bit episode because it's on p s one

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: So yeah I played the GBA. I played PS1. I would love a Breath of Fire game. So well ah we'll see what they do. But other than that, solid show. It was fun.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah I agree. I'm wondering if publishers, I've been seeing this trend and I wonder if it's going to continue as publishers saying, why wait for Nintendo or PlayStation or Xbox or or Jeff Keighley, for that matter?

neocharge: e

Leon Lionheartly: Let's just fucking do our own thing. And i you know what? I'm okay with this.

neocharge: Yeah, me too. I like the big events. I like the variety at the big events. But, I mean, we have an event tomorrow, which is technically yesterday. If you're listening to this Friday.

neocharge: Jesus. ah Thursday, 2 p.m. MST. got the future game show. So.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep, that was actually the next one of the items on the news, so we can just dive right into that if you guys would like.

neocharge: Oh.

Leon Lionheartly: ah

neocharge: I totally meant that as a segue.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, this was announced as of when we're recording, but it'll be ah this Thursday, um airing in North America at 1 p.m.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: Pacific Standard Time. So ah this means...

neocharge: So March 12th.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep, March 12th, which means ah by the time this goes live, it's already passed, and we'll we'll probablyll talk about it next week. um It's going to be presented by actors Devorah Wild, known for Split Fiction, Claire Obscure, and Baldur's Gate 3, and Shani Mathiasen from Lego Batman Legacy, Wuthering Waves, and Dragon Quest eleven

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: This is talking about going over 40 games across the various platforms um with two games guaranteed confirmed to be at this is the Life is Strange Reunion and Directive 8020.

Leon Lionheartly: I will be keeping an eye out because this is going to look like a lot of smaller smaller titles, but this is where you get some of those hidden gems.

neocharge: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, nothing crazy, but I think we'll we'll have some good announcements there. So who was she in Claire Obscure?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, that is a great question. I do know that's where she was. I knew she's that name. um So let me look that up for you. ah yeah Oh,

neocharge: I'm just wondering because i am my owl was Jennifer English and she was in Claire Obscure and Baldur's Gate too. so

Leon Lionheartly: oh oh, I don't know if I want to say I'll put it this Okay.

neocharge: Who was she?

neocharge: Oh, okay. i you are you You answer my question. It's fine. I know what you're talking about. and But yeah, it's a spoiler.

Leon Lionheartly: okay

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm lost.

Leon Lionheartly: ah Yeah.

neocharge: You've ah played the game seven times. You know who we're talking about.

Leon Lionheartly: how but how about i do ah How about I do this for you ah there, gentlemen?

neocharge: Yeah. yeah

Leon Lionheartly: I'll drop this in the chat for you there so you can kind of see what it's getting.

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um I don't want to talk about the two.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, okay.

neocharge: yeah Yeah, I knew.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: I knew. yeah I was like, oh, her. Cool. All right. Nice.

Goatlord-Sriobix: What?

neocharge: That's cool.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Is that really in Baldur's Gate? Huh?

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: Yeah, that's ah another.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I did not notice those were the same characters, but you know, hey whatever.

neocharge: Yeah. Sorry, you're lost listeners, but it's for your own good. if you If you are lost and you don't know who we're talking about, go play Claire Obscure. Hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: Why haven't you played it? It's game of the year last year.

neocharge: Right? Why haven't you played a game of the fucking decade?

Goatlord-Sriobix: I

neocharge: So...

Leon Lionheartly: you But yeah, gentlemen.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i don't know if we've had Game of the Decade yet.

neocharge: Well, it depends on where the decade starts.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, true.

neocharge: Right? So, yeah. It's a really good game. Go play it. So, yeah. Future game show. It's going to be awesome. I'll tune in.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.

neocharge: I'll tune in. What? 2 p.m. tomorrow?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, um our time.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: So hopefully, knock ah or cross your fingers, I should be able to watch it. And maybe we can jump in a Discord call.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um If not, worst case, I'll be watching it passively.

neocharge: Yeah, maybe now.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: So look into that.

neocharge: well so ah Just letting everyone one know, we'll we'll start a Discord call, and you can all be sad because you missed it, because this is going to go live after we do it.

Leon Lionheartly: that's good.

Leon Lionheartly: oh that's scar

neocharge: We'll put an announcement in Discord tonight, meaning two days ago.

Leon Lionheartly: ah

Leon Lionheartly: uber

neocharge: This is so confusing.

Leon Lionheartly: ah When did we start the time travel arc? When the fuck did this happen?

neocharge: Right? ah Where are we? Fucking Australia? no

Leon Lionheartly: ah No, but that's where we'll expand the Chiral Network next.

neocharge: That's right. Right.

Leon Lionheartly: well That one's not.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Spoilers. yeah

neocharge: yeah they They showed part of it in marketing material.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I know, I know, I know, I know.

neocharge: Yeah, some.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Well, um so before we, now that we've had the good news, unfortunately, we need to get into some unfortunate news um and get into some sad stuff here.

neocharge: Ah.

Leon Lionheartly: Let's, let's ah go ahead and put in the sad part of the, set of the, of the sandwich here on the news.

neocharge: La, la, la, la, la.

Leon Lionheartly: I'll drop this in here for you. I'm sure you heard about this already, Alex. paul ah um So last year at the Gabe Awards, we got a trailer um from a new studio founded by the Yakuza series creator, Toshiniro Nagoshi.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. yep

Leon Lionheartly: And unfortunately, called and it was called Gang of Dragon. And I'm going to tell you, they said in the trailer originally, this thing was in-engine. I was really hyped. We're talking Yakuza.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: And unfortunately, it was broke that the funding but from Netties has been pulled. um ah ah Suddenly, um due NetEase allegedly made the decision after discovering that the project needed an additional 7 billion yen, ah approximately 44.4 million dollars in U.S.

Leon Lionheartly: s funding to continue and reach completion. um It looks like the studio head is still looking for additional funders, but 44 million to finish game.

neocharge: hmm

neocharge: That's a lot.

Leon Lionheartly: That's a spinoff from Yakuza, which sells well, but I don't know if it's going to be viable. Plus, you've already got the sunk cost. So, gentlemen, unfortunately, i think this one may not be coming out.

neocharge: Yeah, it looked really cool. But yeah, that's a bummer.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: I hate to see it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: it Put some Fs in the chat for it.

neocharge: because

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.

neocharge: yep

Leon Lionheartly: okay

neocharge: How do you guys feel about this chat?

Leon Lionheartly: you

neocharge: What's your thoughts, chat?

Leon Lionheartly: it's I mean it's this is really sad because I know you haven't played a Yakuza game ah Matt ah you have you Alex yeah and I could tell you this if you know the Yakuza games are just stupid popcorn fun I

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I have.

Goatlord-Sriobix: They are.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: This does really suck for the fans of the Yakuza franchise, but, you know, honestly, you know,

neocharge: ah

neocharge: Does it? Because there's so many Yakuza games coming out. I mean...

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah, but I don't know.

neocharge: Yeah, this is like that that Project Century. What it fuck? Stranger than Heaven. I think they called it.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

neocharge: That's coming out. So, yeah. who Who knows what kind of development hell this game was in. But I mean, what we saw, the snippet we saw, if it was an engine, looks really cool.

neocharge: So.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, really, really, really realistic.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Pretty good.

neocharge: Yeah. Bummer when a ah game ah we are excited for or have our eye on doesn't come out, but. It's way of the business, unfortunately. It sucks that people are going to lose their jobs. That sucks too. so

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, on a much lighter note, that means that we're now two for two on ah dead games from last year's Game Awards.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: Oh, geez. Yeah. Woo.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, crap. Yeah, you're right. Damn it. yeah That's unfortunate. It's a bit of and's been some rough ones.

neocharge: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It really has them.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: Looking at you, Sands of Time. You were this close.

neocharge: My no. God. They should just, I mean, man.

Leon Lionheartly: we know

neocharge: Who knows what happened there?

Leon Lionheartly: Wouldn't that be funny if that was a that was a game kind of like the Star Fox 2 of this generation, where the game was complete and ready to ship, and then the publisher said no, so then we'll see it in 25 years ah on some kind of like retro console PS5 classic bullshit or whatever?

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. Man.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm a little little sad about that Sands of Time one there.

Leon Lionheartly: Who knows?

neocharge: Ugh.

Leon Lionheartly: Maybe I'll even... Yeah, just a little bit.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Just

Leon Lionheartly: Well...

Goatlord-Sriobix: tried to pull out my old Prince of Persia games there for a second.

neocharge: Mm-hmm. Do i see Darksiders 2? Do I see Death Scythe there?

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah Yeah, Darksiders 2 is up here.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's one of my display games.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I have that in Oblivion as my display games up there for PS3.

neocharge: Hell yeah, it is.

neocharge: You gotta help me talk Bob into playing it soon.

Leon Lionheartly: I own it.

neocharge: I know.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I've got a physical copy for each of them.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'll just hand them out at this point.

Leon Lionheartly: Uh,

neocharge: Oh, yeah. 2 is great. So, yeah. ah Rip Gang of Dragon. That sucks.

Leon Lionheartly: ah And unfortunately, we have to keep the bad news going. let's just Let's just get this out of the way.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i mean

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: What good news?

Leon Lionheartly: yeah let's Let's do this before we finish off with some more deeper topics um to discuss. um ah This is coming from Game Informer is where I ah pulled it, but they're reporting through IGN here. um Battlefield Studios hit with layoffs after successful Battlefield 6 launch. quote, EA has laid off an unknown number of employees across various teams that make up Battlefield Studios, which recently launched battlefields ah Battlefield 6 last year, IGN reports. According to IGN's Rebecca Valentine, staff members from DICE, Criterion, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studios were let go as part of what EA calls a realignment. These teams will remain operational as they continue to support Battlefield 6, which, by the way, was the best-selling game in 2025.

neocharge: I don't understand it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay, so...

Leon Lionheartly: So even if you win, you lose. um you You sound like you got some hot take here, Alex.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So...

Leon Lionheartly: Take her away.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Fucking realignment for what? For another Madden game? Do they want to push out all these sports games? You killed Call of Duty! Just keep the shit going!

Leon Lionheartly: I think...

Goatlord-Sriobix: DICE has consistently made the best realistic shooters of all time. And you're gonna can people? Noob!

Leon Lionheartly: I think I have a... so i think i think I think I know what's going on, gentlemen. um And this this sucks.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Smoking crack, that's what's going on.

Leon Lionheartly: No, no. All right. So EA, it was noted when we talked about this ah shit almost four months ago. So I don't know.

Goatlord-Sriobix: ju

Leon Lionheartly: You do the math on number of episodes, right? um That remember, EA... was given a, not a forced buyout, but a a buyout by the Saudi ah sovereign government fund.

Leon Lionheartly: And EA at the time was already $2 billion in debt. And this ah leveraged buyout, that's the word I'm looking for, leveraged buyout was going to pound ah hit them with another $20 billion in ah debt that they were going to have to dig out of. the This, I think, is a ripple effect because we still haven't heard anything.

Leon Lionheartly: I know the US government um has had motions to have the FCC look into that deal and and close it. But as far as we know, it was approved by the board. It was approved by the shareholders, which means EA is literally bleeding money right now.

Leon Lionheartly: And they're sitting on more more debt than I can even un fathom.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: like I can't imagine $20 billion of anything, let alone $20 billion. 20 billion dollars that I owe ah debtors, man. um So I think that's what this is, which kind of sucks. This this is probably hitting morale battlefield.

Leon Lionheartly: The next battlefield is probably not going to look as good. um That means support is going to be limited. But I think that's what's going on here.

neocharge: Yeah. I can't even fathom 1 billion. like It's crazy like how long it takes to count to like a million, but then like the the length of time it takes to count to a billion, it's nuts. like A billion is unfathomable, let alone 20. Fucking crazy.

neocharge: Just a ridiculous amount of money. Yeah. Yeah, i don't ah this is probably because they're in the middle of a buyout, they're hemorrhaging money, but they have a successful IP here with Battlefield, and it's dominating in the space where Call of Duty used to dominate.

neocharge: they they like They have the high ground now.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.

neocharge: And they they have traction and they need to keep that up. And if they they slip, I mean, Call Duty might take over again.

Leon Lionheartly: Exactly.

neocharge: Who knows? i don't know what the fuck's Call of Duty's doing now. But like they have a so you make a successful game and then you get laid off? that's That's shitty.

Leon Lionheartly: Well, you you know what you know what the real twist in this um is, despite the fact that ah Battlefield sold so well, um and the fact that Call of Duty set ah Black Ops 7 was quite frankly panned and and was bleeding players, it still ended up being one.

Leon Lionheartly: Call of Duty Black Ops 7 still ended up being in the top three best-selling games of 2025.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: So,

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: it you know

neocharge: It's because it's got the name, but i've i heard I've heard nothing but bad things about it.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: So people bought it because of the name. They're like, oh new Call Duty. and My annual Call of Duty, got to get that. And then they're like, what the fuck is this?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Well, just be like me and buy every other Call of Duty, and then you're a lot happier with the franchise.

neocharge: Or be like me and buy none of the Call of Duties and play other games.

Leon Lionheartly: so It's funny, man.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: People can't, they can't help themselves.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I've actually enjoyed Black Ops 7, but I'm also playing Black Ops 7 with my brothers, so it's a little different.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: If I was playing it by myself, I'd probably fucking hate it.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: I was going to say, you were what, like three when the first Call of Duty came out anyways?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, here, rub it in. it wasn't playing on Windows 97.

Leon Lionheartly: hey

neocharge: ah ah Oh, man.

Leon Lionheartly: Back in my day, first-person shooters didn't have an X-axis or a Z-axis.

neocharge: Back in my day.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: remember when called you, was good. i I touched on a couple campaigns on the 360, but other than that, haven't played any Call Duties. i i not Just not my thing, right?

neocharge: ah I've heard good things about the old ones, bad things about the new ones, and ah I didn't like their cadence coming out. I thought it was a lot of ah rinse and repeat, copy and paste, and i just hope everyone learns. Let's just say that.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yep I can tell you which cods were shit and which ones were good and there has not been a ah good one since modern warfare 2019

neocharge: Dang.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, Wow.

neocharge: Okay. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, because Vanguard was terrible. Cold War was terrible. Modern Warfare 2 was terrible.

neocharge: No.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Modern Warfare 3 was terrible.

neocharge: Remember, that was our...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Black Ops 6 and 7 were terrible.

neocharge: Wasn't Black Ops 7 our closer for one of Summer Game Fest?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: ah Yes, it was. Xbox event specifically, it was.

neocharge: um Xbox event. Yeah. Dude, these closers. They got to step up their game.

Leon Lionheartly: ah Oh, that's terrible. But you know I got to say, RIP and peace for those that were affected.

neocharge: I know.

Leon Lionheartly: and that We still haven't gotten the actual numbers, but I have a feeling this is going to continue to to happen over at EA. And this is why you don't let a leverage buyout happen, let alone by a foreign private equity firm.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: This is something I've been screaming.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: i know I'm not the only one for the last six months when this news broke.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Yep. No, I think we both had disdain for it. All had disdain for it when it was ah announced that they were buying them. So, ah bold strategy, Cotton. We'll see how it works out for them.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Not well.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep. yeah ah All right. Well, now that we're... I think that's out of the yeah the bad news. um let's let's look at let's get Let's get into some ah more thought-provoking stuff, if you will.

neocharge: Yay.

Leon Lionheartly: um This is coming from Video Games Chronicle. um This was noted ah this week specifically. um But according to the PlayStation Store's price tracker, PS Prices, which has detected price changes across 100 different games, um we are seeing...

Leon Lionheartly: Sony um start to roll out dynamic pricing um on the sale of certain games outside of the markets that do not include the US and Japan, which of course are the core gaming markets for Sony at this time. So so we're seeing a variation of upwards to 17%, depending on the game and the individual. um It should be noted that these are not for the MSRP prices of games. These are specifically for games when they're on sale. um So if you go to wishlist something, you'll get a notification that says, hey, your game that you wishlisted is on sale. um

Leon Lionheartly: Gentlemen, this is... ah I've been seeing... i want to Let me back up. um I have gotten queries about this privately from people outside of our little circle here. um And I do want to clear the air and say key, the two key things. This is not the US and this is not affecting Japan. So it's not major markets because of ah regulations that are required. Also, this does not include the MSRP pricing. This is only for games that are on sale. um So before we get into the dooms Doom, Doom, Doom,

Leon Lionheartly: viewing if you will um at Matt how are you feeling about this do really even care to be honest

neocharge: Well, doesn't affect me right now, but when it does, I'll care very much. ah This is not good practice. Everything should be fair market value for everyone. And ah i mean, if it was on if it was going on the other side, like, oh, you spend a lot of money.

neocharge: Well, ah we're going to give you some discounts, right? Oh, you don't spend a lot of money? You're going to pay more? like what What is that? And I think they're going the the way of, oh, you spend a lot of money on this specific specific IP. We can squeeze a few more dollars out of you because we know you're going to buy it. That's fucked.

neocharge: I don't like it. I don't like the practice. It's greedy. It's deceiving. It's predatory. ah And I really hope it doesn't make it... I hope it falls flat on its face.

neocharge: It fails wherever they're testing this in whatever market.

Leon Lionheartly: Hello.

neocharge: I'm glad it's not for MSRP. But man, I i hate this. And Amazon does it. ah They already do it. so And it sucks.

neocharge: Because i mean AI, the algorithm, they're they're doing algorithms. And they're like saying, oh, you buy this specific stuff? Well, you're you're definitely you have like a percentage to buy this item. So we can crank it up a few dollars and you're guaranteed to buy it. Even if it's a little more.

neocharge: It sucks. I hate it. it's ah Like I said, it's predatory and...

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: i don't I don't like it at all. So ah it's it's greedy on the the can not the or the yeah the corporation, and it's anti-consumer.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: So I don't like it. there's It's just ah dumb. I don't get it. I don't understand it other than people the corporations just squeezing a few more bucks out of people when we're already being squeezed a few more bucks here and there, like everywhere, right?

Leon Lionheartly: I

neocharge: Like inflation's crazy.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

neocharge: Gas prices are crazy. Food prices are crazy. And they're like, Oh, maybe we'll ah squeeze a few more bucks out of you to, so our CEO can buy another fucking yacht.

neocharge: It's like, fuck off.

Leon Lionheartly: love being with you.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So, so my problem that i

neocharge: And you know what? This is another reason you should buy physical. Because guess what?

Goatlord-Sriobix: yep.

neocharge: When you go buy physical at Best Buy, they can't track that. Now they can track your playing it. So that might be a factor. Like, for example, I buy a lot of Resident Evil games, even physical, if it's in your history and the Resident Evil game goes on sale.

Leon Lionheartly: I saw you.

neocharge: Oh, he's a Resident Evil fan. Oh, he's got maybe a platinum in lot of these Resident Evils. Let's crank it up a few bucks for him. So, fuck off.

Goatlord-Sriobix: See, that that's innately where I have a problem. Like, if I go to buy a brand new game and they're going to charge me $10 Yeah,

neocharge: not It's not for brand new games. MSRP is, yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah I know, but the the the problem that I see is, like, potentially this could end up becoming for brand new games.

neocharge: Right. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: If you can make money off of it for games that have been out, you can sure as hell make money off of it off of games that are coming out. And that's the problem that I see.

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Like... I would personally hate it if i were to if I were to sit here and wait and wait and wait for the next Tomb Raider to come out, and then I go to buy it, and it's $10 more expensive for me than it is for you or Bob.

neocharge: yeah well

Goatlord-Sriobix: Just because I play them all the time.

Leon Lionheartly: I...

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's fucked up.

neocharge: Yeah, it's very fucked up.

Goatlord-Sriobix: To put it lightly.

Leon Lionheartly: I would say this. I would hope... So my two thoughts on this to that is, one, that would be... I think that would be fucking suicidal by Sony to do that for games that are like day one games. Because if I'm a third-party publisher, let's say Capcom, who's on a streak right now, and then all of a sudden, you're doing dynamic pricing across the realm, this has the potential for you to impact my sales because somebody might not buy my game because the pricing... that we accept as an industry standard and say, hey, my game is going to be $70 or whatever. Sony will get their 30%. Sony's getting greedy and it's going to potentially impact my sales. Guess what I'm going to do as a publisher, especially if I've got leverage like Capcom or Square Enix. I'm going to tell you going fuck off and then I'm never going to release my games on your platform and then you're going to end up hurting in the long run. So Sony, go ahead and do it. I dare you on new games. I don't think they will because that's suicide.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: And secondly, oh, go ahead.

neocharge: ah Even sales is just stupid.

Leon Lionheartly: well Let's see, here's where I'm thinking. It could be used just for good. I know that the narcissist and everybody's looking at it in the room is this is ah a way to squeeze extra dollar out of the consumer. But this can be used for good in a way, um if you if you if you think about it. So we're looking at markets like Europe and Southeast Asia and things of that nature. Well, you have games that traditionally never really... like If you go... it ah Let me back up. Let me put it to you like this. Go onto your PlayStation right now and go to the top 10 games in your country. um The top 10 games in the country, in the country i think i ah I think maybe two of them um that are advertised to me are ones that I actually give two craps about.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: And I don't mean that in a bad way. i just I'm not a Madden. I'm not an NBA. I'm not a Gran Turismo guy, right? So if you look at that, But then if you go, I guarantee you, and we see this in the top download list, if you look at the European sales charts, the games are wildly different.

Leon Lionheartly: So maybe there's an opportunity there to provide a little bit of an extra discount or incentive for European players to buy a game that might not necessarily be something that's popular in their market.

Leon Lionheartly: And then, exactly, then you can generate hype and you can generate people getting wanting to buy more of these types of games and spread the field, if you will.

neocharge: If they go the other way, that's awesome.

neocharge: Yes.

neocharge: Yeah, if they go the other way, that's cool. you know If you get a little bit more of a discount, but yeah, if they're going like the the greedy way. i don't know. Didn't fucking like, when does it stop, man? When does this greed stop?

neocharge: I don't understand. Like CEOs and, and, and C level people make so much money. And like the V bucks for Fortnite just went up in price. It's just like, Oh yeah. Epic definitely is hurting for money.

neocharge: It's like, get the fuck out of here.

Leon Lionheartly: It's funny when you look at that because V-Bucks went up in pricing, but then you look at Roblox that's just as popular, if not ah more popular, and they're losing $100 million dollars a quarter.

neocharge: Fuck. Fuck.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah. It's just like... People get... When they're in a specific... i don't know. You could say tax bracket or income level.

neocharge: They just get so blind to like humanity. It's just like...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Dude... like at Most everyone is is struggling right now. And a lot of people are trying to like afford their next meal.

neocharge: right ah Thankfully, none of us are there.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: ah we're We're grateful that we're in our situations. And we're pretty well off. But like it's just such a disparity between the super rich and the super poor. It sucks.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. My my ah one final takeaway on this topic, guys. um If Sony is going to do something like this, they need to be they need to be increasing the percentage that they're giving to their, or to the publishers and developers to these games as well.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It can't just be for Sony on the back end. Because what ah the the bad way that the bad thing that I see happening with this is Sony increases prices on their storefront so they get a larger cut and it doesn't affect the it doesn't affect the income of the publishers or the developers.

Leon Lionheartly: Good point.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And that's just not cool at that point. it's It's really not, because if, like, say, Sandfall releases their next game, Claire Obscure Expedition 60 or whatever, and they price it at $40, but Sony says, hey, if you want to play this new Sandfall game, you have to spend $60 on our storefront, and Sony's pocketing an extra $20, Sandfall's making less money. That's not cool. That's fucked up.

Goatlord-Sriobix: There needs to be an even split between the companies.

neocharge: Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It needs to still be the same proportion that it was before.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I agree. No, that's, that's very, well very well, a good point. Um, but as we know, if I'm not mistaken, this is not the first time Sony's done something like this. Um, in fact, they were called out for it last time. So maybe this is just a ah return to, can we get away with this? Um, and in in the world of the internet, you're not getting, people are going to notice. So, um, hopefully, hopefully that doesn't become a trend. I agree with you gentlemen on that front, at least not for a force of evil.

Leon Lionheartly: Um,

Goatlord-Sriobix: And the the the other thing too, if Sony wants to make more money off their store, just do what Steam does. Put things on sale so often that people are never wanting a game on sale.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: like dude i can I can go on Steam right now and I guarantee you there's 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 games that aren't adult-only hentai titles and things like that that are under $10.

Goatlord-Sriobix: There's AAA games I can get on Steam right now for $9.99 or $4.99, things like that. And you can't do that on the PlayStation Store. They need to kind of take that perspective as well.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Because if the developers are willing to do it for Steam, the developers will be willing to do it for Sony. There's a reason why they're not.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep. No, you're right. that's that and And Steam succeeds ah because it is such a... ah I don't want to say... How do I put this? Libertarian storefront um on that front?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, dude, and Gabe Newell is one of the richest men in the in the world right now. He's one of the richest men in the world.

Leon Lionheartly: And he's...

Leon Lionheartly: He's about to earn a lot more money from the state of New York, but we'll talk about that as more news breaks free.

Goatlord-Sriobix: and a

Leon Lionheartly: um ah there's There's a little bit there, but we'll we'll continue to wait until things actually ah trickle down.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I can't wait to talk about that one. I've been itching. I've been itching, Bob.

Leon Lionheartly: ah Yeah, no, that's your point. Anything else to say, gentlemen? If not, I got one last piece of news. Matt, I know this is not going to be yours, but our listeners are going to definitely want to hear this.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay.

neocharge: Yeah, we got to talk about Pokemon news too.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah, we got that. Oh, I apologize. You're right. We got more Pokemon to cover. So let me get through this last piece so that we can go into Pokemon and then we'll get into so on and we'll go from there. um

neocharge: Sounds good.

Leon Lionheartly: So ah we've had two different news pieces back to back. As you guys remember last week, we may have talked about it. If not, here's your announcement. ah Microsoft confirmed its next generation gaming console, codenamed Project Helix, and that it would be running both Xbox and PC games. um As you may or may not know, the GDC Game Developers Council is happening ah this week.

Leon Lionheartly: And naturally, people can't keep their mouth quiet when you hear things. um So this is coming through Video video Games Chronicle. ah Microsoft shared some new details on Project Helix and reiterated that it will run both Xbox and PC games. Speaking during a session at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Jason Rowland, VP Next Generation, confirmed that Helix will be ah powered by a custom AMD SoC with next-gen ray tracing performance.

Leon Lionheartly: According to Rowland, Helix will offer an order of magnitude increase in ray tracing performance capable beyond what's currently possible with the Xbox Series X and S.

neocharge: right.

Leon Lionheartly: Development kits will be dispatched next year. um and more importantly you will be able to run pc games um what do we know about that who knows um my guess is game pass pc but um i don't know matt is this new move the needle for you in any interest uh with the returning and the bridge of xbox

Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.

neocharge: Dude, ray tracing is so 2025. We're in path tracing now, bro. Like, we're doing we're doing path tracing. Ray tracing is so 2025. Now, ah I'll just say quickly, because i I really don't care about this. Where have we heard this before?

neocharge: Introducing Project Scorpio. Introducing Project Scarlet.

Leon Lionheartly: o

neocharge: Introducing Project Natal. Uh...

Leon Lionheartly: You know your history, my friend.

neocharge: And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah. And they're like, oh, yeah, it's going to do all of this. And it's going to be the latest and greatest. And it's going to be the the most powerful console out there.

neocharge: o Well, Series X is more powerful than the PS5. Xbox One is more powerful than the PS4. But PS4, PS5 have some of the best looking games.

neocharge: Like, it doesn't... yeah Why is Xbox making another box? I don't know. I'm very biased with this, so I'm not going to talk about it a lot, but I really don't give a shit.

neocharge: And I don't, this thing's going to be a thousand dollars plus and not even the least bit interested in it.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, oh.

neocharge: So ah we'll, we'll see how it works out for them. And I don't know why they're doing this and i don't know if they even know what they're doing.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Honestly, Matt, at this point, I couldn't agree more. like ah As a reformed PC player to PS5 now, like i don't get me wrong, I get it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: PC has the largest library possible. But that's got to be a fucking licensing nightmare. That has to be a licensing nightmare. Not to mention, if you're so sitting here talking about next-gen ray tracing, you can't do it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I know Xbox can't do it. we We all have seen what Xbox is actually capable of. We know they can't do it.

neocharge: Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay, they can't even get their storefront down to reasonable prices for a normal human being. Let alone get male ray tracing. Granted, they've got AMD to help them out, but I guarantee you Sony's putting more money in AMD's pocket than Microsoft ever will.

neocharge: PlayStation is partnering with AMD with Project Amethyst. So like,

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, PlayStation's been with AMD and with the PS5 as well. Like, it's...

neocharge: mm-hmm. Yeah, like PlayStation is is working with AMD to produce ah a like new technology. So AMD, Xbox is AMD's fucking side project. Xbox is AMD's side bitch.

neocharge: Okay. Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um Even further down than a side bitch at this point, because AMD is also gaming PCs, AI integration, all kinds of things. And honestly, i don't know if the market's even there for Xbox players. Do they give a shit anymore?

neocharge: Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Most Xbox people that wanted to play PC games just moved to PC anyway. That's what I did.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: i I think that's what they're trying to do, though.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Like...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Well, if you integrate both of them, now now now all of a sudden what you're doing is you're trying to compete with something that doesn't exist yet until the Steam deck or the steam machine comes out.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, they no, you're absolutely right. its Who knows what the play is?

Goatlord-Sriobix: and all And all Valve has to do is price that Steam machine lower than than Microsoft can price that Xbox, and we know that they're going to price it to high hell. So it's it's not even really a competition.

neocharge: ah yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: They're competing with nobody but themselves.

neocharge: I mean, at the least, it sounds like it's going to $1,000+. It could drop $11.99.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: If you want next-gen ray tracing, you're talking current AMD architecture. And I'll tell you right now, gentlemen, these graphics cards AMD has now and graphics cards NVIDIA has now aren't fitting in a goddamn home console.

Goatlord-Sriobix: You're not going to get next-generation ray tracing.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: yeah They're the size of a home console.

Goatlord-Sriobix: You're going to get 2023's ray tracing.

neocharge: They're the size of a fucking Wii.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Dude, my graphics card I have in my PC now is not even current generation, and it's larger than my Nintendo 64, lengthwise.

Leon Lionheartly: Holy crap.

Goatlord-Sriobix: like It's not small. like these These things aren't...

neocharge: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: like You can't cram this down into a console and get the thermal performance or the thermals required to get it to run efficiently...

neocharge: Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: and have it running at less than a thousand watts.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: You you can't do it. these think PC performs like it does because it overclocks, not because Xbox performed some silicon wizardry and got their stuff to work better than anybody else's.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: We're reaching the point in consoles where they're only going to get but so much better.

neocharge: Right.

neocharge: Right. I mean, technology keeps moving forward, so we'll see what they do.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: I mean, we'll probably see this in a couple years tops, like maybe maybe three.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Who knows?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Like when they're talking about like project names and code names. And let's be honest, it's not going to have a cool name like Helix. Because I mean, what? Scarlett was Xbox One.

neocharge: And.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah What are they going to call it? Xbox 2?

neocharge: Right. Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Like, come You ran out of numbers. You couldn't go past 360, apparently. You're like, Valve can count can't count very high.

neocharge: sit

Leon Lionheartly: No, they named their...

Goatlord-Sriobix: So...

neocharge: introducing xbox box

Leon Lionheartly: They named their...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Xbox Cube.

Leon Lionheartly: They named their...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Like...

Leon Lionheartly: They named their consoles just the way Microsoft names its Windows machines.

neocharge: right xbox 27 or something like that yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: 95, 96, 97, Vista, 7, 8, 10,

Leon Lionheartly: this right the joke there That was the joke with the ah with the Xbox One because the 360 everybody was like, well, they're just going to call it the Xbox 720.

Goatlord-Sriobix: <unk> eight ten

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah. And dude, software sells hardware and Xbox has been lacking on hardware.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: They're not going to go exclusive again. So if they're releasing their latest and greatest games on their console and PS five or PS six, why do you need an Xbox?

neocharge: Cause you can either play it on PC.

Goatlord-Sriobix: don't.

neocharge: Like, Why do you need this box that's going to be more expensive than the home console competition and try and compete with ah a market that is more expensive but can do more and is more modular?

neocharge: like I don't understand it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, yeah you're you're not going to get a PC guy to switch to your hybrid console, period, end of story.

neocharge: No. No.

Goatlord-Sriobix: like it I'm a rare oddity where I went back to a console. it's It just doesn't happen.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: you're not You're not going to get it to happen going from a PC to an Xbox when PC players know how bad Windows is now. We know how Microsoft treats their treats their consumers.

neocharge: Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: We're not going to do that.

neocharge: Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: there's There's no point in it

neocharge: We'll see. We'll see how it works out.

Leon Lionheartly: we'll see we'll see at the end of the day i think gentlemen in order to xbox really to like develop their next console um when we chat about this matt offline is they need a mark cerny they they absolutely need a wizard uh

neocharge: Oh, yeah. A wizard. he's ah He's a wizard.

neocharge: So...

Leon Lionheartly: God, he's a genius in that regard. But yeah, we'll see. We'll patiently await. We'll know more maybe at the end of the year, but probably next year by the time we actually hear anything um as to what's going on on that side of the front. um And that's all the news, folks. ah So or at least for me. So I'm going to kick it over to you, gentlemen, and let you do what you got to do.

neocharge: Oh, boy. ah Yeah. I mean, we had a ah Pokemon Presents for the 30th anniversary. 30th. thirtieth Yeah. 30th anniversary. Jesus, man. I was 10 when I played my first Pokemon game. So ah we got a Pokemon Presents. What? Like a week ago? Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. up

neocharge: and there was a a whole lot of stuff in there. There was a couple cool things at the end. But other than that, I mean...

neocharge: ah the The takeaway, we can get to it last, but ah we we got like a new Pokemon game. But they they went over the TCG stuff. ah They went over this Pokemon XP event in San Diego, which looks cool. ah They gave us and they gave us ah Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen, which was leaked like two days before and was on the fucking eShop.

neocharge: or a week before. It was leaked a week before. i i got a text that was like, ah why is FireRed LeafGreen on the eShop? Check your Switch. And I was like, no way. And I did.

neocharge: and I was like, ah somebody checked the wrong box here. And yep, exactly.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Somebody's getting fired. yeah

neocharge: So ah yeah, Pokemon FireReddit and LeafGreen.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank

neocharge: I like how they did this. I like how it's not part of and NSO, so on Nintendo Switch Online. And I like that it's a just a standalone purchase for $20. So it's a little high, but I mean, for what you're getting, dude.

neocharge: FireRed and LeafGreen are a remake, a GBA remake of some of the best Pokemon games ever made. Let's be honest, Red and Blue. So they released Red and Green in Japan. And so they did FireRed, LeafGreen in 32-bit graphics or... so Yeah. don No, 16-bit graphics rather than 8-bit.

neocharge: ah And it's but well one of my faves. FireRed is incredible. So those are out now. You can buy those. ah They went into some of the... ah Pokemon Day, matt Pokemon Masters EX, that's a mobile game.

neocharge: ah They touched on Pokemon Sleep. have you heard Have you heard of Pokemon Sleep? Have you seen this thing where like it's a sleep tracker and you can level up Pokemon while you sleep?

Leon Lionheartly: what

neocharge: Yeah, dude, it's i I haven't used it. I have have only seen advertisements during these events. But yeah, it's a sleep tracker where you can level up Pokemon. um There was news on Pokemon Cafe Remix. You can look at all the the news. There was a bunch of stuff ah at Pokemon.com.

neocharge: And a big one, they are doing ah they are bringing XD Gale of Darkness to the Nintendo GameCube Classic.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Hell yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: Yeah. So this is going to make the physical version tank, which I recently sold. Ha!

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm actually happy that the physical version is going to tank because I've always wanted to own a copy.

neocharge: Yeah, so Pokemon XEGAL Darkness is the sequel to Pokemon Coliseum, and they're both great games, third-person action or turn-based RPGs, just like Pokemon, ah but in the 3D engine on GameCube.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Both fantastic games. I played them front to back, and i mean... it's one of the only It's one of the few ways you can get Lugia. So you can also get Lugia from SoulSilver.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Yeah. ah They showed us the Mega Garchomp Y version from the Mega Dimension dlc Dude, I haven't even played Legends EA, and they haven't really announced any new Pokemon for them. They haven't added anything to the Pokedex, so I'm like, it's just all variants, and this DLC is all variants reused.

neocharge: Sounds like it's like recycled content in the ah the city, and they've just like... done different color skins.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

neocharge: It looks a little like, oh, okay. So this had an even lower budget than your original game had. So, ah poet yeah yeah, it does.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. no And it shows.

neocharge: ah They touched on Pokemon Pocopia, the number one, the best rated Pokemon game of all time, apparently.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: ah Yeah, they...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Such wild thing to say.

neocharge: I know. ah Pokemon TCG got some love.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: ah They showed a new set coming out, which has got a pretty sweet Mewtwo in there.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, it does.

neocharge: We got a release date for Pokemon Champions. Pokemon Champions, our next arena style, like Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Battle Revolutions, Pokemon Coliseum. ah Pokemon Champions is releasing April 2026.

neocharge: ah Don't know if we got a specific release date, but we got a month. So ah i'm I'm excited because it's in the draft. i't I'm not probably not going to get it because i i don't know. I might drop this because I heard a piece of news. It's a subscription model.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Ooh.

Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, really?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Ouch.

neocharge: Yeah, and it has price tiers, of and the the tiers constitute how many Pokemon you can store in the game. And I'm like, bro, you already have a subscription model, and it's called Pokemon Home.

neocharge: What are you doing? What's going on here?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, that and that's like ah the reason I dropped off, ah what is it, Pokemon Go? Because after a while, I ran out of storage and I'd have to fucking buy it with premium currency because I wasn't able to keep I was like, nope, you lost me.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: It's

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I still love Pokemon Go.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I can't really say much.

neocharge: Yeah. So, oh man, just more more greed from companies.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i still play Pokemon Go.

Leon Lionheartly: so...

neocharge: I pay 15 bucks a year for Pokemon Home because I have my...

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's all it is?

neocharge: Yes, it is.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I need to sign up for that. to

neocharge: Yes. So I have my original Charizard from FireRed in Pokemon Home.

Leon Lionheartly: Holy shit.

neocharge: I traded up and some of the trade ah methods, like from going to GBA to DS and then from DS to 3DS, like I went from Game Boy Advance all the way up to Switch to put it in Pokemon Home. So yeah, I have like my originals from FireRed, the original cart version of FireRed.

Leon Lionheartly: He's transferred his Charizard so many times it's going to end up as a missing number at one point due to a glitch out.

neocharge: Right?

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's a throwback for the old fans right there.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. Oh, gee. ah Yeah, his I named him Draco, and he's level 92. So, not a level 100. I have my main team that I bring into all the Pokemon games, endgame, and just wipe the floor with everyone.

neocharge: So, um my main team consists of Charizard, Gengar, Metagross, Fear Alligator,

Leon Lionheartly: girl and

neocharge: uh, Glade. and there's one more. Who is it? I don't know. I'll, I forget, but I have, I have two others that are, uh, on the bench, but I bring them in for like end game stuff. I don't bring them in to finish the game. That's ah cheating in my opinion. And I mean, you can't like, uh, when you play Pokemon games, you, your badges,

neocharge: constitute who listens to you and how high a level. So you can't bring a level 80 in and just wipe the floor with everyone because first badge is like Pokemon up to level 20 will obey you. So yeah. um Yeah. Oh, Tyranitar.

neocharge: Tyranitar.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Ah, good old guitar.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. you seen

neocharge: So yeah, a breadth of types and good types and very high. They've all been EV trained and everything like that. So yeah. ah Alex, before I get into the last piece of big news, were were you excited or Bob, were you excited for any of this, these ah minor announcements in the Pokemon event?

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i mean...

Leon Lionheartly: no but that's because i'm not um and i mean that because i'm just like i'm adjacent and i'm cursed to be ah i say cursed in ah in a in a loving way folks i'm not being mean to being surrounded by pokemon fans without being that guy so i'm squidward in the meme uh staring through the vents as everybody's having a great time uh when it comes to pokemon um but i will say the thing that really makes me happy is to see za uh or not za but um

neocharge: Sure.

neocharge: Sure.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: Bocopia.

Leon Lionheartly: butco not just pacopia but the gamecube one gale of darkness yep xd finally get released because i know how beloved that is to the fans um and fun fact this is just my fun fact for you folks matt what makes that game so interesting in the pokemon series

neocharge: XT.

neocharge: Uh, it's got what?

Leon Lionheartly: about it's specifically about where it takes place

neocharge: Oh, yeah. Like, uh, Gen 2, Chihoto.

Leon Lionheartly: No, Gale of Darkness, and correct me if I'm wrong, isn't this the one that is the first one that took place outside of Japan because it was based on ah the the yeah southwest of America?

neocharge: Hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: Or am I thinking of another one?

neocharge: Um,

neocharge: I mean, jen Gen 5 was based out of New York.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, but before that, this was this was before, it should have been before that. This ah should be the one that based off of the southwest of Arizona of America.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: Okay. Gotcha.

Leon Lionheartly: if i'm If I'm not mistaken. Because this is where they introduced the Shadow Pokemon.

neocharge: Yes. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep, it is.

neocharge: There's a lot of there's a lot of Gen 2 Pokemon you can get in this. Like high like final evolution, but you have to cleanse them first and all kinds of shit. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep. This was the first one that was inspired from outside of Japan.

neocharge: Okay.

Leon Lionheartly: It was the one that was the southwest of America. um So I know people really love it because of the tone and the location. It held a special place for them.

neocharge: Yes. Gotcha. Cool. That is a cool fun fact. Okay. Nice. Alex, how about you? Any takeaways?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Honestly, not really. like The TCG stuff's really cool. like Obviously, like I'm a collector and I have my own card shop and everything. But it's it's it's another Pokemon set.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yay!

neocharge: getting stale, isn't it? Getting real fucking stale.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I'm at the point I can't even get sets from three sets ago from distributors anymore. like It's that bad now. So it's kind of rough.

neocharge: Yeah. The hobby's getting little ruined. So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's why I stick with indie TCGs for things I'm selling. like I love Pokemon. I really do. But there's a certain subset of people.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: We call them douchebags. Some people call them scalpers. And it's kind of ruining a lot of the Pokemon stuff.

Leon Lionheartly: so

neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's not just the TCG. It's also the games. It's also any type of merch surrounding it.

neocharge: Yes.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And

neocharge: Oh,

Goatlord-Sriobix: it kind of leaves a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth. And that's actually why, like, I know you've touched briefly on fire red being like $20. I'm happy to spend $20 on fire red. Cause it's $150 for a damn cart.

neocharge: so yeah, me too.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Now just like art without a box. It's insane.

neocharge: Wow, loose. Holy crap.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Jeez. I recently sold my complete ah Emerald edition. That is, yeah, it's crazy.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh.

neocharge: It was like, it's $900 now. i sold like two years ago it's fucking stupid.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I'm blessed to still have my Emerald, but, like, dude, I wish I had kept my FireRed in the green.

neocharge: Complete?

Goatlord-Sriobix: No, not complete.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I was a kid.

neocharge: Yeah, complete.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I didn't keep the boxes.

neocharge: Right, right. I did.

Goatlord-Sriobix: When those games came out, I was very much a kid. I wasn't a teenager or an adult like you guys were already.

neocharge: Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, Emerald came out, ah what, 2000, no, yeah, 04. dows no knight yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: No.

neocharge: oh four

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, 04, somewhere around there.

neocharge: Yeah, i was I was an adult. for well i kept I kept some of my boxes.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Ladies and gentlemen, I was eight years old.

neocharge: Oh, my God. Jesus. oh It hurts me right in the fucking age. Anyway,

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah Right in the age.

neocharge: they they ended this event how we all thought they were going to end it. And...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank God they did.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. yeah And we got Generation 10. ah Pokemon Winds and Waves. ah It is a brand new Pokemon set in a island-type setting with a lot of islands, a lot of water.

neocharge: ah And they showed us the starters. And it is coming out 2027. so yeah I thought it would release this fall, but it sounds like they might be taking their time on it. What we saw looks way better than Scarlet and Violet does, like way better. And thank God it is a Switch 2 exclusive game.

Goatlord-Sriobix: dude, I'm on the opposite side of that fence where I'm like, fuck Pokemon's going to make me buy another console.

neocharge: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Already happened to me in this house.

neocharge: Yep. Recently, yeah. Vokopia. Welcome to the Switch 2 family again. ah Yeah, i've I've been revisiting Violet a little bit. it Dude, if you haven't played Scarlet or Violet, they're good games and they run very well on Switch 2.

neocharge: Would not recommend them on Switch 1. For some weird reason, i don't know why, maybe the gameplay just hooked me and maybe I'm just like a Pokemon stan. I don't know. But I played Violet and then Scarlet back to back, front to back on the original Switch OLED.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, you poor soul.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh my goodness.

Goatlord-Sriobix: You poor soul.

neocharge: I don't know why.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay.

neocharge: I guess I had played so much that I was like blind to all the faults, but that game runs like complete garbage. Bad. and But on Switch 2, it's flawless.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, when we...

neocharge: so

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, when we love what we love, sometimes we ignore the red flags.

neocharge: It's true. Oh, God. Story of my life. No.

neocharge: ah But yeah, Pokemon Winds and Waves look awesome. We got all three starters. Shocker, it's Grass, Fire, and Water again.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Who would have thought?

neocharge: love I know. And we got another Grass Bird, which where we already got Rowlet, man. From Gen 7, which is island-themed.

neocharge: Come on!

Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't give a damn. but Give me the green angry bird. All right.

neocharge: Browl.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I have already chosen my starter.

neocharge: Soap.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's going to be, I'm going to get both. I have to get both and I'm going to get a switch too, because I have to play this damn game, but I'm going to have Brout on one.

neocharge: Yeah, me too. Yep. Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And then i'm forgetting the lizard, but I have to get the lizard too.

neocharge: Nice.

neocharge: Gequa.

Goatlord-Sriobix: oh

neocharge: Gequa. we got our Pokemon starters. We got the Leaf Grassbird Brout. Looks like an angry bird. ah And then we got a little Fire Dog. Another Fire Dog. Looks like a Pomeranian. And his name's Pombomb.

neocharge: and we got... What?

Leon Lionheartly: don't we already have a but pomeranian poke okay all right all right pom pom purin yeah pom pom purin isn't it yeah yeah something like that

neocharge: Yes. No, we have a... ah Fuck, what are what are they called?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Scottish Terrier.

neocharge: Yeah, we have a... No.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Hmm.

neocharge: That's not a Pokemon. That's not a Pokemon. Pom Pom Purion? That's... Yeah, look that up. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: oh do you never mind disregard i'm a retard

neocharge: know Yeah.

neocharge: like that's not a Pokemon, Bob. Alright, now I gotta know.

Leon Lionheartly: well Dude, this is how... big i'm it's no No, no, no, no, no.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's a Squishmallow!

neocharge: Now I gotta know. ah

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's a Squishmallow!

Leon Lionheartly: I remember where I heard it from now.

neocharge: Where?

Leon Lionheartly: He's... the skin No, it's going to be even worse.

neocharge: Corgi. We have a Corgi. What?

Leon Lionheartly: It's going to be even worse. It's from Hello Kitty.

neocharge: Oh, Jesus. Bob, is there something you'd like to tell us?

Goatlord-Sriobix: He's been playing a lot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm surrounded

neocharge: My goodness.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm the dad who wants to play the next God of War, but I'm being told about the latest door of ah door of the Explorer shit. So sometimes those lines do cross over. All right.

neocharge: are are you Are you a brony?

Leon Lionheartly: I'm sorry. Oh, God.

neocharge: Oh, man. No, ah this is our first...

Leon Lionheartly: You know what? Hold on. Hold on.

neocharge: pump Go ahead.

Leon Lionheartly: I need to see if this mic works.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: I need to turn it up for you.

neocharge: This is our first fire Pomeranian, Palm Bomb.

Leon Lionheartly: again

Leon Lionheartly: All right.

neocharge: the And then my starter is going to be the water gecko called Gequa. ah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, yeah, my starter's typically the water type.

neocharge: My starter is typically the fire type. So... Yeah. Okay, he's

Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't want that Pomeranian to turn into a bipedal humanoid, and I feel like that's exactly what's going to happen.

neocharge: going to turn into the Doge the doge dog.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Ha ha ha ha

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: The Sheeta Inu. Yeah. ah Yeah, these these look generic as fuck. But who knows what their evolutions look like. I was very impressed with the presentation of this game.

neocharge: ah Fool me once, though. have I still have my eye on it. I'll probably get both versions. And I'm the guy that like will get my hands on another Switch 2 and get all three starters in my first playthrough.

neocharge: Because there's something called Time to Trade. And it's when you start the game and when you how long it takes where you can trade the Pokemon to another game. And usually it's about one to two hours. So I will start the game on. I'll start my main game, pick my starter, and then on another console, I'll start the game, pick my starter.

neocharge: just blast through and then trade that starter to my main game and then do it again. And it takes about six hours, but then I'm playing the Pokemon with all three starters.

Leon Lionheartly: Holy crap.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: i never That's some deep steve cut lore. then all right I have to ask a question, my friend.

neocharge: Yep. Please.

Leon Lionheartly: all right so If this is going to end up being another 125, 150 Pokemon, I don't know what their iterations are, what would the magic number be on total Pokemon across all generations? Okay.

neocharge: We're at 1,025 right now. i have them. ah This would crank it up to either or Who knows?

neocharge: ah six x y was the smallest poco ah polkedex we've got at like sixty new pokemon but the last ah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Damn, it was even smaller than Johto?

neocharge: oh yeah jodo was 100, and that's pretty average. So Gen 5 was the most at like 152 or 155 or something like that. So the last generation, Gen 9, Scarlet and Violet, was around 80.

neocharge: So probably between 80 and 100. So we'll be sitting at around 1,100 new Pokemon. yeah, yeah. new pokemon

Leon Lionheartly: God bless.

neocharge: so yeah yeah ah I dude Pokemon is an IP that I've probably sunk the most time into it's the IP that I have spent a lot of my life with since a very young age like I was the exact right age when Pokemon released like Pokemon released in 1998 in the u I was years it

Goatlord-Sriobix: I was two.

neocharge: like damnmit

Leon Lionheartly: I knew it was coming.

neocharge: oh

neocharge: i No, but it's like between 10 and 13 is the exact right age for Pokemon. Then you grow up with it. So ah original 151 are still the goat.

neocharge: You know, Charizard, Gengar, all, you know, Pikachu, Eevee. They're still the goats. Gen 3 got pretty close. Gen 3 is great. ah But things started falling off around Gen 6.

neocharge: But i've I've played every single mainline. Before I played every single mainline at launch, I did not play Scarlet Violet at launch. I waited for them to fix it. And they never fixed it. So I was like, well, okay, I guess I'm going to play. And then they brought out the Switch 2. And it runs gorgeously and beautifully on the Switch 2. So, dude, if this game has any sort of frame rate issues, I'm going to buy it day one and play the shit out of it.

Leon Lionheartly: You know what?

neocharge: so

Leon Lionheartly: I still salute you, man. That is some dedication. ah That's some next level dedication, dude.

neocharge: it's I don't know what it is. And that's what is... ah pulling me to this current game I'm playing because it's got some Pokemon, uh, esque battling in it, which, uh, I can't wait to talk about. So yeah, we finally got winds and waves. Uh, the, the names have been leaked or had been leaked. So we knew it was, uh, winds and waves, but it was confirmed. And,

neocharge: i Yeah, I'll probably start wins first. i'm ah I think I'm a wins kind of guy. How about you, Alex? How about you, Bob? Are you going to play at day one? Are you excited? Are we going be battling and trading?

Goatlord-Sriobix: He's going to do it because we're going to peer pressure him into it.

neocharge: That's fucking right. We are.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm probably to grab waves first.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh,

Goatlord-Sriobix: um It seems like my brothers are picking up both picking up ah wins, so I'm going to pick up waves just so like I can trade with them and we'll have like...

neocharge: Okay. Yep.

neocharge: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, you know. You know how Pokemon is. you're not going to have You're going to have game exclusives.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. And then they're going to they're going to release paid DLC with an exclusive per DLC.

Goatlord-Sriobix: and like I like to be on the other side of the fence.

neocharge: And guess what? When you buy the DLC, it's not for each version. You have to buy the DLC for each fucking version. So there's four different DLCs for the last two generations of Pokemon.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay, so you're not you're not spending a bunch of money in the TCG, but you're definitely helping them out in the back then.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: it

neocharge: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: You can't scalp a DLC, Bob.

neocharge: yeah

neocharge: Yeah. ah Cool. So you'll do waves. I'll do wins. Bob, if you were to... What would you do? Wins or waves? Who would your starter be?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Bob.

Leon Lionheartly: I tell you what, um ah how about this? I'll cut a deal with you. and we yeah we yeah so Since this no, no, this in if I'm not mistaken, right?

neocharge: Oh.

neocharge: We already got a deal going.

neocharge: Okay. we're We're setting up for it. All right. Let's hear it.

Leon Lionheartly: how How about this? Instead of buying a second Switch 2, I pick a JRPG that you have to play complete next year on the condition that I'll buy the other version that you need and then use it.

neocharge: oh I'm buying both versions yeah yes yes oh okay okay okay yep

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, okay. Well, that's what I'm saying. do Didn't you need this time to trade stuff that's going on? I'd be willing to i'd be willing to help you out yeah using my Switch 2 if we can and leverage it under which means I have to play Pokemon.

Leon Lionheartly: At the very least. At the very least for a little bit and you can get into that trade. In exchange, I'll pick a JRPG that you have to finish next year. Not in Platinum, but finish.

neocharge: hmm Okay. All right.

Leon Lionheartly: Think about it. We got time. um To answer your question, it i'm going I'm a Blastoise guy.

neocharge: Yeah. We got time.

Leon Lionheartly: You know I'm fucking going Water Lizard.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: There's going to be something with that that effect.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Lizard.

Leon Lionheartly: And you've got Waves.

Goatlord-Sriobix: and

Leon Lionheartly: like That kind of sells itself in my opinion.

neocharge: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Lizard.

neocharge: Gequa. Gequa and waves.

Leon Lionheartly: ga what as long as he doesn't As long as he doesn't end up be if throwing a ninja star around the battlefield.

neocharge: Gequa.

Leon Lionheartly: um You know what I'm talking about, folks. i think

neocharge: Oh, Grandinja's awesome.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, but don't do it again.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, dude, come on.

Leon Lionheartly: Just like don't do it again, right?

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. ah So there's there's a theory going on ah going that like the all the types across all the generations have a specific theme.

neocharge: And the water theme is all the water starters have a weapon on their final evolution. So, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh.

neocharge: Samurott has a samurai sword as a horn. like And then Greninja has a ninja star. So, Polina's tried it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Napoleon has a trident. Last twice, obviously cannons.

neocharge: Yup. Yup.

Leon Lionheartly: Hmm.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Well, what does Swampert have then?

neocharge: Swampert.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Muscles?

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: mega He mega evolves into Hulk Hogan, so I guess he kind of has muscles.

neocharge: Yeah. I don't know. I think this started like Gen 4 or something.

Goatlord-Sriobix: it's

neocharge: So, yeah. And then Primarina has the ball. So, we'll see.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I don't know. i don't know. That's awesome. I mean, maybe maybe that was my appeal to Blastoise initially. I was like, no other Pokemon has a gun or some kind of weapon. And wait, they gave the turtle they gave the turtle water cannons?

neocharge: right

Leon Lionheartly: Fuck yeah.

neocharge: oh yeah blast toys is awesome so yeah winds and waves announced not this holiday season uh so i dropped it from the draft uh 2027 i'm sure it's going to hit holiday season my theory is nintendo's going to have the big three in the next three years uh

Goatlord-Sriobix: Unfortunately.

neocharge: But, I mean, Mario Day came and went. So, son of a bitch.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: Who fucking knows what they're doing? But who i I honestly think we'll get the next 3D Mario this year, this holiday season.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: Pokemon next holiday season. The next Zelda. holiday season 2028. So we'll see. But this trailer impressed me. Pokemon has never looked better.

neocharge: ah They said it was all in engine. The water physics look great. ah The character models look great. I mean, their shadow detail, There's detail in the trees. like Just go look at like the the launch trailer for Scarlet and Violet, which like they showed a Pokemon running at 15 frames a second in the background.

neocharge: And look at this trailer. It's night and day. So it doesn't look anything like Resident Evil Requiem or anything like that. And this comes out a year and a half later. But... it looks good for Pokemon.

neocharge: So I just hope it runs well.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Just hit hit the 60 frames. Like, just at least hit the 60 frames. or At least 30 locked, you know? So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

neocharge: I'm just excited to see a new generation. I'm always excited for a new generation of Pokemon. They're going to drip Vetus information the next year and a half. We'll see the new legendaries because they got to announce the new legendaries because they'll be on the box. um I honestly think the wind one is going to look like the dragon from Studio Ghibli.

neocharge: ah And the water one might be, I don't know. We got some silhouettes, some little ah teaser Easter eggs in there. So, We'll see. We'll see.

neocharge: ah I was very happy with this final announcement, and I'm a huge fan of Pokemon. ah This is kind of sparking me to get the remaining nine I need to complete and catch them all.

neocharge: ah So but one of them, literally, I have to play the entirety of Pokemon Ultra Sun again, which is 40 hours on the 3DS.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: No. no

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Dude, I played almost the entirety of Ultra Sun during the load times of Anthem.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh my God.

Leon Lionheartly: Holy crap.

neocharge: Well, Anthem load times were nuts. like Anthem is a great game. You can't even play it anymore. I got the Platinum. It's super rare. Can't even get it anymore. But Anthem load times were like sometimes...

neocharge: two, three minutes. So I was just sitting there staring at the screen. and I'm like, I'm going to fucking because, dude, I love Nintendo's handhelds. They're like pick up and play. And when you're done, you close lid, put them down and then you go back. They're ready to go.

neocharge: It's just brilliant. DS is one of the DS Lite, one of the best handhelds ever made. So, yeah, ah I might be on a little bit of a Pokemon journey going up to winds and waves. I always do this.

neocharge: I don't know why.

Leon Lionheartly: Because because you've been doing the you were at you were at the right age when Pokemon Fever hit, dude.

neocharge: I have fun.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, you love the

neocharge: I've been playing Pokemon for 28 years. So... 30! thirty No. Yeah, 28. Yeah, 28 years. Almost 30 years. Almost as old as fucking Pokemon is. I've been playing it.

neocharge: Like, I was there with the original GBA. Had the Link Cable. Trading with my friends with the Link Cable. You gotta trade fucking Haunter to get Gengar. You gotta trade...

neocharge: a Graveler to get Golem. it's It's just... it Pokemon's awesome. I love the IP. And it was my first turn-based JRPG.

Leon Lionheartly: So i I have to ask a question, if I may.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So

neocharge: What?

Leon Lionheartly: since you you played You said you played so ah during load times in Anthems.

neocharge: Yes.

Leon Lionheartly: It was because it was Sun and Moon, you said, right?

neocharge: Ultra, son.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, Ultra Sun and Moon. Okay, yeah, I have to ask. I was going to ask then, did you do the same thing with Final Fantasy XV load screens back then?

neocharge: No.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm just curious because I'm imagining that in my head.

neocharge: So...

Leon Lionheartly: it was like two minutes. Here's Matt over here. I'm going to go ahead and catch my next Pokemon.

neocharge: Right. No. I was one of the early adopters that put an SSD in my PS4 Pro.

Leon Lionheartly: You son of a bitch. That's a good move.

neocharge: through Yep. And it cut the load times like in a third. So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So Matt, you've been playing Pokemon for 28 years, huh?

neocharge: It was something like that.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I'm 29.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh,

Leon Lionheartly: man.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Sorry.

neocharge: You're as old as my Pokemon experience.

Goatlord-Sriobix: and this ah Yeah, sorry.

neocharge: oh

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I know that's a reoccurring theme this episode, but it's just been, it's been too ripe constantly.

neocharge: No, I love it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: I love it. And, you know, hey, you're never too old to game. and You're never too old. to Dude, the game I'm playing now is it's a children's game. It's it's it's like you you play as children.

neocharge: Like, but I'm still loving it and I don't give a fuck. I don't care because it's fun, it's whimsical, and it's comfy, and I love it. And I still love Harry Potter. and I still love Pokemon.

neocharge: And i probably won't grow out of it, in quotes, grow out of it because so just i I'm a child at heart. So I pay my bills. I have a full-time fucking career. you know I got a good financial situation going. I adult, but you know what? I still play Pokemon. And I don't give a fuck who...

neocharge: who looks down upon that. Cause I'll just laugh and be like, I'm having a good time. So yeah,

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. I'm kind of doing that same move with the game I'm playing this week. So...

neocharge: exactly.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Which we can get into.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i I definitely am.

neocharge: Let's get into what we're playing.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I definitely am.

neocharge: Yeah. So, yeah. Let's get into what we're playing. enough i Dude, I could do a whole cast on Pokemon. We almost did. ah and i could like i haven't even gone into the fact that I have a living Pokedex.

neocharge: Let me explain what a living Pokedex is real quick for about 15 minutes.

Leon Lionheartly: and ah

neocharge: I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Leon Lionheartly: So if we ever need a filler, we'll just start talking about Pokemon.

neocharge: Let's move on. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Got it.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: ah No, you're good.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: Who wants to take over this week ah or start it out, should I say, for what we're playing? How do you feel, Matt? ah Because you and i are playing completely different games. And I don't know exactly what you're on, Alex. so I don't think there's any crossover this week.

Goatlord-Sriobix: No, there's not.

neocharge: Right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: As far as I'm aware. ah Aside from like Requiem.

neocharge: Alex, kick us off.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I think we all fit. Okay. Yeah. So obviously I've i've been playing Requiem slowly, but I recently got all of my old consoles working again. So I've been playing one of the greatest video games of all time, courtesy of Bob.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh yeah. Greatest video games of all time, courtesy of Bob. This is Mega Man 2 for NES.

neocharge: Nice.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I've been playing the crap out of it. I also have the Legacy Collection as well.

neocharge: On original hardware. Impressive.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, it runs like a dream.

neocharge: Impressive.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um

neocharge: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Now that my n NES is fixed. um I've also been playing, this is my, if you want to say what my first Pokemon games were, because we can go into this topic because I've been playing them both.

neocharge: Let me guess. Pokemon Snap.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep, Pokemon Snap. And Hey You Pikachu, that came with my N64.

neocharge: I saw 64. Oh, hey, you Pikachu.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So the thing that had

Leon Lionheartly: Oh my goodness.

neocharge: Nice. Heck yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: so the only thing that i had

neocharge: I still want to play that that Snap sequel for Switch, but I haven't got around to it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I still prefer this one. I have it on Switch.

neocharge: Of course, of course.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I prefer the original one. um

neocharge: Dude, I played the shit out of the original Pokemon Snap.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, so Snap and Hey You Pikachu, I got when I was a kid when my parents got me my N64 that you guys see here. I'll post a picture of it in Discord for anybody that's curious. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And I still play on original hardware. I always will. there's still my Some of my original save files as a kid are still on there. Like, hey, you Pikachu, save slot one is the same one I had when I was a kid.

neocharge: It's awesome.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um Pokemon Snap has been overwritten a million and a half times. um But yeah, I've got this guy... It's where I play most of my my games lately. That's in my n NES. And then I've been playing Requiem.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I've been playing the Mega Man Legacy Collection because I don't physically own a NES copy of Mega Man 6 because who does? Aside from Bob. um Who does? like That shit's expensive as hell.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um And then I've been playing... I know I've talked about it a little bit. Let me get these guys down.

Leon Lionheartly: He's going through all of the classics, man.

neocharge: Dude, that's a stack of n NES games.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um Matt, you'll love this one.

neocharge: Oh, hell yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: ca me two simons quest I have beaten it twice now, and I regret nothing.

neocharge: Yep.

neocharge: Beautiful. Dude, okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Love this.

neocharge: You need to play Bloodstained Curse of the Moon and Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 2.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, the Bloodstained games? I'm actually not the biggest fan. I'll play them, but they're not...

neocharge: Well, no, no, no. No, no, no. Not Bloodstained Ritual of the Night.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.

neocharge: Bloodstained Curse of the Moon.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay. Okay.

neocharge: You've played it, Bob. It's NES style.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes. do.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay, let me look this up real quick.

neocharge: And it's it's modeled off of 2 and 3. So they're phenomenal. And they're really good. And they're made by IGA.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Ooh.

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah, that is NES style. Yeah, you know what?

neocharge: Uh-huh.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'll i'll pick that up. ill I'll just get that on Steam.

neocharge: Hell yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah um Yeah, I've been playing those. Other than that, it hasn't really been anything crazy new other than Requiem. I'm kind of... And I'm going through like my trophy cleanup right now for some of my games. like I'm currently working on the Spyro 1.

neocharge: I saw on Spyro.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I'm working on the Spyro 1 plat because I got the Spyro 3 one.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm going to get one and then two, and then I'll call those good until I want to play them again.

neocharge: Nice.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um ah Other than that, it's just been like my classic stuff. I've been... living it up. I think my, my NES coming back from repairs was the greatest thing that's happened to me in a while, aside from getting a PS five, but, um, um, yeah.

neocharge: nice What was wrong with it? Did they say what they fixed? Was it a board issue?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Uh, so it's the picture processing unit, the PPU in the, uh, NES that causes all kinds of issues. Um, It causes really bad. it wasn't artifacting at the time, but it was like pixel bleed over all kinds of nastiness.

neocharge: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: I suspected it was a problem. So I sent it in to get repaired. They sent it back to me and then I quickly found out which games of mine were actually actually had problems versus my console.

Leon Lionheartly: I don't

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So like I no longer have a copy of Final Fantasy one because I sold it to somebody who could repair it. I'm going to buy another copy of Final Fantasy one that is working.

neocharge: Nice.

neocharge: There you go.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um My

neocharge: Uh,

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, my Dragon Quest game or Dragon Warrior games are working fine. Super Mario has issues here and there, but it kind of is what it is. And then my copy of Zelda 2 Adventures of Link, that one has a lot of issues.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: Okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's the card itself, though.

neocharge: Lots of retro stuff. I love it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: What's the what's sort what's the update on the PS5? how How are you enjoying it?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I'm loving it. So... ah so I'm enjoying it enough, and I've been playing a certain game enough that now Aurora is very much egging me on to get a second one, which will probably her Pro.

neocharge: Love to see it. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: um But we're looking at getting a Pro and an OLED.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: We'll keep the base PS5 upstairs. We'll put the OLED and Pro in our bedroom so she can play all the Resident Evil games because I made a deal with her I told you guys about. I'd get her a Resident Evil birthday cake if she plays every game Leon was on.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And I sweetened the deal a little bit more and told her she had to plat Resident Evil 4.

neocharge: Yep.

neocharge: Now you can save for six. You can save the section Leon is in and that's it. She doesn't have to play the whole game.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes, I was going to say, please.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, that's pretty fair.

neocharge: Okay, okay so 6, in its defense, is a good game.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, that's pretty fair.

neocharge: It partially a good Resident Evil. There is a good Resident Evil section in 6. I'd say 30% of the game is a good Resident Evil game. It's an okay Resident Evil game. i All in all, it's a bad Resident Evil game, but it is still a good game. It is it a it is enjoyable co-op. And Bob and i were actually talking about maybe revisiting it.

Leon Lionheartly: I would.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It would be a fun one to revisit down the line.

Leon Lionheartly: Let's do it.

neocharge: Let's do it. Yeah. Dude, i I had a blast with Leon's section. ah But yeah, there's some sections in there that just like, this is not Resident Evil.

neocharge: This is fucking Call of Duty. So.

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah Yeah. Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, so she's wanting to play through all the Resident Evils. I'm getting her into some other games too. Like, i she caught caught me playing Darksiders 2 that you mentioned up there.

neocharge: Cool.

Goatlord-Sriobix: So I've talked to her about

neocharge: Oh, you've been recently playing it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Nice.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's why it's up there. Oblivion's also up there because that's my my most frequently played PS3 game.

neocharge: you

Goatlord-Sriobix: aside from So I've got my shelves. like My top shelf is like I play them all the time, and it's literally just Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2.

neocharge: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: But like but ah yeah, no, she caught me.

neocharge: Nice. Dude, Darksiders 2 is so good. I really liked it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: ah Would you say... I'd say it has some Elder Scroll DNA in there, doesn't it?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, it does. Absolutely.

neocharge: Yeah, Bob.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Darksiders 2 is probably one of my favorite PS3 games.

Leon Lionheartly: Hmm.

neocharge: think Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: If I'm being completely honest. It's one I wish...

neocharge: There's a PS4 version. You have the PS4 version, right, Bob?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I do. And i I can't get distracted right now.

neocharge: No, no, no.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, you can.

neocharge: Just...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, you can. It's okay. It's okay.

neocharge: No, further down the line. You just got to do two and then three and then you'll be ready for four. so So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: maybe Genesis in there. I'll play with you. It'll be a good stream game.

Leon Lionheartly: right. Yeah, let's do it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, it would be.

neocharge: So... Yeah. So, cool.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, it's just been classic stuff for me.

neocharge: All right.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's been pretty much it other than Requiem. mean but not Let's be honest here, like even Requiem feels like 4 to me, so it's like I'm playing a classic Resident Evil at this point.

neocharge: So fucking good.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, well, we'll get more into that one on the spoiler cast. I've got some really big takes on Requiem.

neocharge: Yes, we will. So targeting getting that recorded next week.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Maybe. Who knows? but well We'll get it out for you all. ah and I mean, it's on the heels of the release when it came out like a week and a half ago or something like that. So totally fine.

neocharge: Totally fine. People are still playing it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, and you Madmin platted it already. like, fuck.

neocharge: Yeah, no. I went even further. I 100%ed the fucking thing. Like, got all the challenges, all the unlockables. I just, I 100%ed it front to back.

neocharge: so

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, my my current playthrough, my Insanity playthrough, that'll be my 100% one as well because everything else has already been done.

neocharge: Nice. Yes. So there's a tricky challenge in there. 42 hours.

Leon Lionheartly: What was your total playtime, Matt? Do you know?

neocharge: forty two hours

Leon Lionheartly: All right. Yep. Same here.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: The difference between yeah difference between you and I is I did it in five days.

neocharge: Really? Nice.

neocharge: Holy crap. Yeah, mine took about a woa nine days.

Leon Lionheartly: oh

neocharge: ah hey Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i I think Bob was a three quarters of the way to the plat by the time I finished my first playthrough. It was kind of insane.

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. yeah Crazy. ah Bob, do you want to go next? You want me to go next?

Leon Lionheartly: um I'll go next because I know you... i want to hear all about Nino. Like, I... like i

neocharge: I want to hear all about tails.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, so do I.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay. All right. so ah So we'll start there. and As we indicated, you know, when I decided we'd start our exchange games for the year, um this for me was assigned as Tales of Bergeria.

Leon Lionheartly: I got the remastered on Best Buy. it was pretty cheap um and it was great.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: It came in like right at the tail end of my Leon sprint, ah if you will. ah over on Requiem.

neocharge: Beautiful.

Leon Lionheartly: So I said, screw it. I might as well get started. I've got until now and April, essentially, free to do what I want. um

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Hit the backlog if I need to.

neocharge: We got to we got a drought in July, too, it seems like. For now, right?

Leon Lionheartly: For now, but exactly like you said, for now, I need to do it now because we still don't have a date for things like Fable and Halo. And those are kind of and those are going to just be lightning strikes that are going to throw everything else to the side.

neocharge: Halo, yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, those are dropping everything in place.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.

neocharge: Dude, what is... when ah Halo is not going to hit holiday season. They can't. They can't compete with GTA. So, like, they... If we don't hear something from Halo, I think it's getting delayed to to into 2027.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I think there's a good chance because you're right. You do not want to put the Master Chief up against GTA 6. I don't want to see ah MC get slaughtered like that um because even I'm not dumb enough to to to like be like, yeah let's release a game.

neocharge: Right. Exactly. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: then now I know better.

neocharge: The only thing that can compete with GTA would be Mario. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, because they don't pull the same audience.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes.

neocharge: It's a time economy, though, so...

Leon Lionheartly: There's no...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: But, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: and And Nintendo's going to sell otherwise. I mean, you said earlier, Matt, Scarlet and Violet ran like crap, but they still sold 45 million copies.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: I don't understand.

Leon Lionheartly: Make it make sense.

neocharge: And I was one of them. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: ah

neocharge: I know.

Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, no. Because of that, I started Tales of Bruggeria and Remastered. um This... is a new experience. I played Arise. I don't remember much, but I can remember how it made me feel because this is why you look at your trophy list, folks.

Leon Lionheartly: um I did get the platinum for it.

neocharge: Love that.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm only missing like two trophies from the DLC.

Goatlord-Sriobix: you

Leon Lionheartly: And I'm not a DLC guy typically, so I'm not very worried about it.

neocharge: You did play the DLC.

Leon Lionheartly: No, no, I don't have those ones because I typically, yeah, because I i don't go for DLC typically, so it's kind of tough to to keep up with that.

neocharge: Oh, you're missing the whole list. Got it. Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um But I thought, all right, let's give this a shot. This came out in 2016, I want to say, um on the PS, the original on PS3, and then I got a PS4 port.

neocharge: The original.

Leon Lionheartly: um And then now on the PS5, got a remaster. So this is technically the third release or edition of this. um This is an action RPG um that goes, spans back a long time, ah many, many decades.

neocharge: Yep. Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: It's one of the it's one of the pioneers for the action RPG genre really in that area. ah if you if you go look at the history. um This one, you are playing a... I'm going to give you kind of the premise here because I don't have media material, but you are playing an individual who goes through an incident. um The world is full of demons, ah is what they call them in this game. I'll give you the equivalent of calling them monsters, if you will. um Demon Blight is spreading throughout the land. Based on that, you are there's factions trying to stop it, and there's a bunch of political stuff that comes in.

Leon Lionheartly: um And that's kind of where you sit. I'm about 10 hours in. ah This game sings on the PS5 Pro for the remaster.

neocharge: I bet. Right.

Leon Lionheartly: um The animations, ah so it's a remastering, so don't expect a remake, folks. This is not a Metal Gear ah ah Delta, if you will.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: um So if you look at it from that lens, graphically, it looks amazing. I booted up my PS4 version recently for comparison, and it's rough if you play the older editions, but this one, um it's almost like high-definition, 3D, late 3D era um RPG.

Leon Lionheartly: um So you're starting to get to where it's not quite high def, but it's its it's right on there. You look at some of the clothing line and you see a little bit of blurring of where a shirt might, ah like the details might be for buttons or something, but everything else pops.

Leon Lionheartly: um And it's very colorful.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: So I absolutely love that. um I've gotten up to, and I'm trying to stay around for spoilers.

neocharge: Cool.

Leon Lionheartly: i'm ah I've got four party members um and they each have their own unique stories um and personalities that I kind of i kind of like. um There are some I like a lot more than others.

Leon Lionheartly: um personally. um We talked about this. You know who I who i like. I also like the new character, Velvet.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um I appreciate um her drive.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: It's a little bit of a different angle um so far where I'm at. It's like, hey, this is my short-term goal. I'm waiting for them to pull the blind and do a classic RPG of, well, now you go get the fight god.

Leon Lionheartly: So we'll see. No spoilering. I don't even know. I'm just going there. I'm fully expecting that.

neocharge: Sure.

neocharge: Yeah. Gotcha. um Cool. So how many hours and are you?

Leon Lionheartly: About 10, give or take, ah depending on pauses.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: I did do some streaming for this. um

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: And I got to say, this game has a slow start, folks. Kind of like Dragon Quest VII Reimagined.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: um they throw a lot at you really fast. So this is, and this is just not saying bad, but they just know that coming into this is you're going to get a lot of stuff out the gate. um But if you really are patient and you work with it and you pay attention and you kind of start to see a pattern, particularly with things like the way combat goes um and um how you're supposed to handle it, because this is not a...

Leon Lionheartly: or action RPG like Final Fantasy VII Remake. Here you have specific buttons that you can press that lead into combos and those moves use resources and you have to understand how that can ramp up in battle while still exploiting weaknesses. And then you have magic from other users on top of that. So you really got to pay attention very close to like ah Final Fantasy 12.

Leon Lionheartly: If when you were programming your your NPCs, if you know, or your party members, if you remember that logic system. um So just know that the gambit system, that's it.

neocharge: The gambit system.

Leon Lionheartly: But once it clicks, it clicks good. And all of a sudden you're like, oh shit, I can do this move into this and then I hope be able to do this and this can do this, which now I know here.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um So for example, I kind of saw the pattern where I have each four of the buttons that you can input. They're all dedicated to a specific, um for me, um element type, if you will.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Exactly. Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: And then you can see which ones get replaced in that tree as you level up.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: If you understand that, then it starts to click a lot more and it's like, oh, this game gets good suddenly. um

neocharge: nothing Awesome.

Leon Lionheartly: You're not lying. You're not lying about the music. um i havet I don't think I've heard a repeated soundtrack. I'm not a big musical guy, but I can tell you there's some really good fucking bangers in there for what I've heard.

neocharge: Awesome.

Leon Lionheartly: Some standout ones, very more rock adjacent, and I appreciate that really So I... um so i've i Love that little side of it. um There's a massive collect-a-thon in this game, if you're paying attention. um Resource after resource after resource.

Leon Lionheartly: ah If you like loot, you're going to get loot. You're going to get loot for equipment all the fucking time, and then you're going to have to figure out what you've got to do with it.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: You've got to understand shared loot. um There's the Final Fantasy IX. Hello, you popped up um on the equipment where you're earning resources, abilities, if you will, points to master skills, and then there's crafting included.

Leon Lionheartly: um It's got all of the JRPG dropes that I kind of like, the cat the the traps of a good one, where I'm like, I spent too much time playing triple triad on a Final Fantasy VIII, for example. or or king Queen's Blood in in ah remake i'm sorry Rebirth.

Leon Lionheartly: It has those trappings, but it has them all over the place and in different areas.

neocharge: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: So I'm always like, ooh, piece of candy. Ooh, piece of candy. And I love that. It scratches the right side of my brain. um It just takes a while. That's what I would say. um So far, I can't tell you much ah about the story. I'll know more when I get to it. But right now,

Leon Lionheartly: That's the biggest complaint. It takes a while to get going and then you're going to have that aha moment and then you're going to appreciate it. So Tales of Berseria Remastered, definitely highly recommend.

Leon Lionheartly: I think it's like an 81 on the critic scores. And right now my feelings are at an eight, maybe a little bit more than that. This is a solid, solid game.

neocharge: Good. Yeah. ah You're just scratching the surface, man. I showed you my time and I still haven't platinumed it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.

neocharge: 122 hours. so ah

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, that's one of those games where you don't ever have to plot it, dude.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah i Exactly.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Velvet is one of, like, the best, is in my opinion, probably the best main character in the entire Tales franchise. Like, I love her.

neocharge: one of yeah for sure she it's It just has such a dark story, which I appreciate.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It really does. Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. um I appreciate the way...

neocharge: So.

Leon Lionheartly: One thing aside before I move on from mine, or I have anything else to say is, the one thing I kind of like, and it's so silly, are the skits. And you know what I mean, Matt.

neocharge: Yeah. Of course.

Leon Lionheartly: Because you're having the conversations...

neocharge: Every Tales game has it.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay, yeah, because everybody's talking and they're doing a group chat and you have two NPCs that which should be facing each other, but they do the skits on a comic book style.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: So the and the characters are just kind of staring at the screen like it's a ah a sitcom and you can almost hear the audience laughing every time they make a joke.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: I fucking love that shit.

neocharge: of And there's plenty of them in there.

Goatlord-Sriobix: oh yeah. Mm-hmm.

neocharge: So I think, I mean, yeah, older Tales games, probably ones you'll probably never play. Symphonia has like 400 skits in the entire game.

Leon Lionheartly: Holy shit.

neocharge: so So that gives you an idea. Like they're everywhere and they're dynamic too. So if you go to a specific area of the map, it'll pop up and you hit the trackpad and it'll play the skit and it'll give you some lore into either the area or the character's feelings of that area.

neocharge: It's awesome.

Leon Lionheartly: Please let me get Xenoblade Chronicles. I'll leave it at this. Get me a Xenoblade Chronicles remaster for you because everything that you love about Tales is damn near in the original Xenoblade Chronicles.

neocharge: a

Leon Lionheartly: um And it took me...

neocharge: Okay. They all sit at first.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah, it is actually in the original Xenoblade, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: 212 hours in a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 alone.

neocharge: Dang.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm telling you, man. you always do the fucking They're mad-ass games. But yeah, Tales of Berseria remastered.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Somebody really likes Shulk.

Leon Lionheartly: Loving it.

neocharge: Awesome. sweet

Goatlord-Sriobix: Jesus.

neocharge: Okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

neocharge: Yeah. The cast in Bergeri is just amazing. So you have yet to have the full party. So you're your way.

Goatlord-Sriobix: No, he hasn't.

neocharge: yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. i

Leon Lionheartly: I suspected.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I wish... Yeah, let let me know when you finish it.

neocharge: ah yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: I would love to talk about Bergeria, dude. I love that game.

Leon Lionheartly: All right.

neocharge: yep

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's probably my second favorite Tales game, but it's probably the one I have the most time in.

neocharge: well

neocharge: I think it's my second as well. ah And a lot of Arise took from the combat style of Bergeria. So a lot of what Bergeria did, Arise built upon.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.

neocharge: So Bergeria did it first. And yeah I didn't play Bergeria on launch. I was actually late to the game and I played the PS4 version. ah But yeah, I'd say it's either my second or third favorite Tales. So we'll have to like to grab some beers when you finish and talk all about it.

neocharge: So yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh yeah, for sure.

Leon Lionheartly: When I get there, this is going to be, it's going be a while folks.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: You have all year.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes, I do. Which is why I wanted to get started on it now.

neocharge: So. Yeah. Which ah fueled me to start mine. do ah Do you want to talk about the other game before I get into my stuff?

Leon Lionheartly: ah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The other reason I haven't even gotten further into Bergeria and I, I,

neocharge: The slow, the slow descent into madness.

Leon Lionheartly: o

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. um So ah I know we played the server slam um and i was, we both weren't hot on it. I know it's not your thing. I was, I was kind of still split on marathon and I couldn't decide.

neocharge: I think.

Leon Lionheartly: um And then, sitting down last night, I was just like, I need a change of pace. um Started the group chat still blowing up about marathon. Bo's talking all about it.

neocharge: he

Leon Lionheartly: He's like, how much I love it, all this. And I'm like, okay, that's cool. But I need more. And then... he and the rest of the team kind of got to me because Bo was like, dude, Marathon is on site. And I finally understood with the server slam what that meant because in these extraction shooters, you know there's always that that wild card of, oh, can you talk your opponent down from not killing you so you can just get this looted item and complete this mission or do whatever this, right?

Leon Lionheartly: The problem is, and I don't know about Arc Raider specifically, what Bungie did is you have these factions, right? And in these factions, you have to complete missions. Matt, there are missions for things like executing opponents, which is something can only do against other players.

Leon Lionheartly: So Bungie created a on-site um culture, which is you don't negotiate opponents.

neocharge: ah Okay.

Leon Lionheartly: um And I've seen this multiple times where people are just begging and then you just, the the if the player's like, sorry, kid, this ain't Ark Raiders and just stabs them in the chest.

neocharge: Oh, no. Oh, no.

Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, I love this. ah so it clicked. it clicked. and it clicked really hard, um really fast, and I have slowly begun the descent and the madness that is Marathon Fever. um I think this game is critically underrated ah for what's currently on the market.

Leon Lionheartly: um Some people, i don't I think they're either A, they're not real,

neocharge: They're trolling.

Leon Lionheartly: they're trolls or C they don't like they just don't play games because yeah they don't have taste ah this game looks gorgeous it runs amazing I've had zero issues with server connections online I

neocharge: don't taste. Oh,

Leon Lionheartly: if it is a classic bungee in terms of shooting, they, once again, we knew they would nail it and they surprised they fucking nailed it.

neocharge: I am.

Leon Lionheartly: Um, there are some things with UI that I'd like them to clean up a little bit. Um, it gets a little cluttered. Um, and, ah But if you could just modify some of the texting, give us a or an icon that says this is a, I don't know, loot, this is a gun, this is a mod, this is a whatever.

Leon Lionheartly: If they can make those a little bit bigger and less and instead of that small transparency that they have, it would make it more readable. And then that makes it easier when you're trying to loot and you're trying to get through, just makes things a little bit more efficient and easier for the player.

Leon Lionheartly: um There are...

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Some issues with, how do I put this? um i I have some problems with um not just the UI, um but I guess you could say

Leon Lionheartly: it's kind of the visual style, but it's not the UI. And it it might be a me issue is sometimes the colors are a little rough on my old man eyes. um And the contrast kind of makes it go, what the fuck is that?

neocharge: Oh.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, that's a door.

neocharge: It's making my eyes hurt.

Leon Lionheartly: Hey, I'm just saying.

neocharge: Ha ha ha ha.

Leon Lionheartly: Granddad old eyes ah struggle with this. It could also be because maybe I'm used to playing first-person games where you're usually in a cave and you're a sad dad talking to his son or something. ah So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's okay, Pappy.

Leon Lionheartly: ah Who knows?

Goatlord-Sriobix: You'll be all right out there.

Leon Lionheartly: So... I guess that's what it is. But when i when it when it doesn't bother me, it's like, oh my God, this game is gorgeous. um And it's so much fun to play with people. There's a lot going on. The onboarding is the other thing that I would say is the issue um with it.

Leon Lionheartly: There's not much in terms of it. You get a quick tutorial. It lasts five minutes and it doesn't explain anything else. And they're like, go forth. Good luck, fucker. ah And that that is a little rough.

neocharge: boom

Leon Lionheartly: So give a marathon a little bit of a time, just like Berseria.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: Give it a little bit of time. um And I promise eventually you'll yeah sit with it.

neocharge: Sit with it for a bit.

Leon Lionheartly: And then after about five hours, if you're not liking it and you did a couple of matches, all right, maybe it's not for you. But once you hit that mark, you'll know, you'll feel it and you go, oh man, it's good to be playing this game.

neocharge: Definitely. I like the art style. We played the server slam. I learned it's definitely not for me. Just not a, I'm not a PVP guy. So, ah but I'm rooting for it and I'm, I'm hearing nothing but good things. I'm not even paying attention to the score. There's a bunch of charges on there that have scored it. It's nothing. So there's no big outlets there. The raid isn't even out yet. And I like what Bungie is doing. And I've, I've watched some of your gameplay ah it looks awesome, man. It reminds me of destiny. It's like, Oh, it makes me miss destiny a little bit. I'm not going to lie.

Leon Lionheartly: Dude, the class system is amazing.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Don't do it.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah You know what I found is my favorite class, surprisingly, ah and I say this because I know it's not your style anyways, is the medic one.

neocharge: What?

neocharge: Ah, okay. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: So you can throw out these many these medical drones and then all I do is I go, hey, Bo, hey, other person in our party or whatever, I know you guys shoot better than me.

neocharge: I'm,

Leon Lionheartly: Here's a healing drone so you can stay topped off. And then your alt is like you use this defibrillator thing and you're supposed to be able to bring your allies back for revive quicker.

neocharge: Okay.

Leon Lionheartly: Well, Mason told me as a heads up, you can use it offensively as well, just like you're playing a Battlefield 6 game. So there are moments, there's a moment, I wish I forgot to clip it, where I just go up and go, beep, boom, and knock the other team down.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: That's amazing. Yeah, I heard this. This is definitely better with friends and people that have played it and are familiar with it. They help with that onboarding, right?

neocharge: So, because I heard...

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Don't make me get another Bungie game, man.

Leon Lionheartly: ah Dude, it's fun. I'm telling i'm telling you. it is it therere The people that you're hearing on the discourse, that's what I'm saying.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's $40. it's forty dollars It's almost worth it.

Leon Lionheartly: the disccourse The people that are crying about it right now are idiots. They don't know what they're talking about. I am not a first-person shooter guy, at least online. I'm a boomer shooter, but not an online competitive shooter guy. And even I can see the beauty of this because I think the last one I played realistically was Titanfall.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. I played some Titan, Paul.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Jesus.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah. I played Destiny Crucible.

Leon Lionheartly: This one.

neocharge: um I didn't really enjoy it. It was fun, though. Control was fun, especially with the Sunsinger Warlock.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude.

neocharge: Throw a fucking solar grenade in there and just burn everyone. yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh dude. I miss crucible sometimes, but I'm not going back to destiny.

neocharge: on

Goatlord-Sriobix: Fuck that.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you didn't hear the last what the last map is supposed to be?

neocharge: No.

Leon Lionheartly: That hasn't been released?

neocharge: A raid.

Leon Lionheartly: It's a raid. And you're going to need a certain value. This is what's really cool.

neocharge: Just like Vault of Glass, Alex.

Leon Lionheartly: Just like your your loadout, your loadout.

neocharge: Yup. I know.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I remember both of glass back in my day.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Shit.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm just saying your loadout will have to be a certain dollar amount in value to even enter it.

neocharge: so cool. i Dude, you guys got to play that. You got to stream it. And that's going to be awesome.

Leon Lionheartly: Dude, that's high stakes because you're going PvP, VE, raid.

neocharge: I know.

Leon Lionheartly: so you a With a certain amount that's required. So you can't go and do what I'm doing and go with a pony out ah outfit. So you're high stakes on it.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: If you lose it, it's fucking gone.

neocharge: What I'm wondering is, are they going to force the PvP aspect into collaborating to get to the next room where you then fight each other?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Damn.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, dude, that'd be so sick.

Leon Lionheartly: oh

Goatlord-Sriobix: That'd be so sick.

neocharge: Think about, like ah think about like I don't know, King's Fall or Vault of Glass. You have to do the puzzle, and then in the next room, instead of fighting a boss, you fight each other.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, my God, dude.

Leon Lionheartly: That would be amazing. Or... what oh dude, that would be fun. Because I'm just...

neocharge: It's probably like it start it starts with like eight teams, and then it just funnels in, and it's like the last team gets the loot of the raid.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, my God.

neocharge: Uh-huh. And each puzzle, like, It's like an eight-team puzzle and then a six-team puzzle or like a four-team puzzle and then a two-team. Like, I can see them doing this.

neocharge: And this is just getting me excited talking about it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: o

neocharge: Fuck.

Goatlord-Sriobix: don Let me buy another fucking bunch of games.

Leon Lionheartly: Join us.

neocharge: Raids?

Leon Lionheartly: Join us.

neocharge: Oh. No, no, no. PvP isn't my thing. But raids were some of the best and most fun co-op I've ever had in a video game. Ever.

neocharge: Ever.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, oh oh I'll come over sometime with my ah Destiny Vault of Glass jacket.

neocharge: You have the jacket.

Goatlord-Sriobix: if In case... Yep, I do have the jacket. i can I'll bring it by sometime, dude.

neocharge: Bro.

Goatlord-Sriobix: You'll fucking love that shit.

neocharge: it Didn't you have to like have like the first 250 clears to get that jacket?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Yeah, that's uh-huh.

Leon Lionheartly: Holy shit.

neocharge: Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. You have to.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Little baby Alex said nothing but play video games.

neocharge: Dang, we got to talk more destiny then. ah

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I could talk Destiny.

neocharge: I.

Goatlord-Sriobix: We can have a whole cast, a whole, not just an episode.

neocharge: You did.

Goatlord-Sriobix: We gotta have a whole podcast about Destiny, dude.

neocharge: Did you play on PC?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: Of course, yeah. I played on PlayStation. I got the trophy where you have to flawless the Vault of Glass. Bob, there's six people in the raid team.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Jesus Christ.

neocharge: And if one person dies, it voids the trophy.

Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.

neocharge: in ah In a Vault of Glass raid with six people, your average amount of deaths are around 200 150.

Leon Lionheartly: oh

neocharge: two one fifty

Leon Lionheartly: ah

neocharge: We flawlessed it. Caleb was on the raid team. We flawlessed it. And we also flawlessed Crota's End, too.

Goatlord-Sriobix: du its Dude, it's such an insane raid.

neocharge: So I do...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, I was so happy when they brought it back for Destiny 2.

neocharge: It is. It's so fun.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It still wasn't the same, but it was so awesome to do it again.

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. i I can't wait to see what Marathon does with the raid mechanics. That was like the... the the the crown jewel of like any new destiny content was the raid.

neocharge: Like Forsaken had last wish. One of my favorite raids. D one had bolts of glass. Uh, and then, Oh, so good.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Last Wish was really good raid too, actually. I'm thinking about it. That was so good.

neocharge: The guns. Yep. And then D two had the Leviathan. So yeah, um, you better, you better be streaming that.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: was going to say, yeah, stopped Destiny with, I forget what raid it was where Vex Mythoclast dropped, but I got my Vex Mythoclast.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: Vault of Glass.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. That was in Destiny 2, yeah.

neocharge: Yeah, yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep, yep.

neocharge: D2 brought back Vault of Glass because they brought back Venus. so

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep, that's that's when I was like, I've peaked.

neocharge: yeah dama

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm done. Yeah,

neocharge: This is why I forget what I sometimes have for breakfast because it's just Pokemon and Destiny knowledge all up in there. Just that's it.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah I love it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: dude. I think it it it took me like 11 runs, 11 12 runs or something like that for me to get Vex to drop for me. And I was like, I'm done. I'm never touching this fucking raid again.

neocharge: yeah At Gjallarhorn.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.

neocharge: Gjallarhorn and Crota's End. Yep. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: God.

neocharge: Man.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, we could... Shit, we could talk Destiny for hours.

neocharge: o you got to You got to go to Time Wasted in Destiny and send me your stats and I'll do the same. I want to see this. I'm around 3,000 hours or something like that.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, now I'm curious.

neocharge: hours or something like that

Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't think I have that much. I have... I have, like, 1,100 hours in Destiny 2 and maybe... Maybe to in Destiny 1.

neocharge: Yeah. I think I have close to 2,500 in D1 and then like five or six in D2. So I fell off.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, you have a lot.

neocharge: Yeah. So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: You have a lot. I could check your PlayStation profile right now and find out how many Destiny 2 hours you have.

neocharge: Do it. But Marathon, man, I'm glad it's good. I'm glad Bungie's firing on cylinders again. Don't look at the scores yet until the the raid comes out because they specifically told the the outlets that actually matter, that the the professional review outlets, like, hey,

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, yeah.

neocharge: We've been through this before. You reviewed D1 and you gave it low scores. Then Vault of Glass came out and you're like, oh, this is so good. I see what they were trying to do. I would probably give it like an 80 or 90 now.

neocharge: ah So hold off until the raid for a marathon.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: So cool. Yeah. ah Keep streaming it. I love watching it, especially that raid, dude, man.

Goatlord-Sriobix: No.

neocharge: I am like the Squidward meme. I'm like... But...

Goatlord-Sriobix: When the raid comes out, we'll that's when we'll get mad on it.

Leon Lionheartly: You know what?

neocharge: ah No. No, I can't.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: I can't. the re So I told Bob, so the game I'm playing and the reason I didn't play this game on launch or the remaster is because of Destiny.

Leon Lionheartly: ah Oh.

neocharge: But i yeah, I... ah Is there anything else you want to say about Marathon? You loving it?

Leon Lionheartly: ah in ah Dude, I absolutely am. I'll just say this much. It's taking it's filling a gap that I needed filled, which was the League of Legends one. Because like i'm I'm pretty much all but out.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: And i've so i for frame of reference, I've sunk 5,000 hours into League over the last 10 years.

neocharge: Gotcha.

Leon Lionheartly: um So I needed something to kind of backfill that filler. And I think destiny might or Marathon might be it

neocharge: So Alex, that me he's out of league. Now you're into marathon. See how that works? you guys You're going to transition from league to marathon.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I can't.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: But but i'm I'm just now getting good.

Leon Lionheartly: I

neocharge: Well, yeah, I...

Goatlord-Sriobix: ah yeah It took me years, but I'm finally getting good at League of Legends. like I can't just leave it.

neocharge: Goodness. Leave it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: no

neocharge: Leave it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Nope. Nope.

neocharge: No, I'm...

Goatlord-Sriobix: You guys have heard of the Steam Machine. I've got my League Machine right here.

neocharge: Nice. i'm I'm thrilled for Bungie. Can't wait to see what they do and how they support this for hopefully the next decade like they did Destiny. And i hope the success of Marathon fuels them to do Destiny 3. And I hope Destiny 3 doesn't go the Destiny 2 route.

neocharge: And they stick to the original Vision. Because the original Vision was a three-player co-op, story-driven, narrative-heavy game.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: uh, game with a pretty much like halo, like halo three, right? With a, with a PVP element, not into the actual game. So if there's a PVP element, totally fine with that. Just kind of like halo.

neocharge: Right? So, um, yeah, well, we have a watchful eye on you, Bungie, and now you are a first party and, you are a S tier developer in my eyes and I can't wait to see what you do.

neocharge: So cool. The reason I didn't play the game I'm playing now is because I was playing a Bungie game, Destiny. But yeah, you started playing Bergeria. So I said, okay, well, I have 50 days until Pragmata releases.

neocharge: You used to have 62, but now it's 50 57.

Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.

neocharge: Yeah. fifty seven ah At the time, it was 50 days before Progmodo releases. I was like, okay, well, you know what? I'm finally going to start Ni No Kuni, Wrath of the White Witch.

neocharge: ah This game originally released in 2013? twenty teen 2011 in Japan, 2013 in North America.

neocharge: ah And then a remaster was released in 2019 for the PS4. So that is the version I'm playing.

neocharge: ah This is a game made by Level 5 and published by Bandai Namco. Oh, where have we heard them before? Oh, they published Tales as well. Huh.

neocharge: ah I'm seeing so many parallels between Tails and Ni No Kuni.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.

neocharge: I'm playing on the PS5. I'm playing the PS4 version on my PS5 Pro, and it is an action-based JRPG. A lot like Tails. ah Okay, so how do I explain this game?

neocharge: Let's just talk about the inspirations of this game that I have seen. ah Tails, The Legend of Zelda.

Leon Lionheartly: Hmm.

neocharge: Harry Potter and Studio Ghibli is part of it. So Studio Ghibli does the art and the cut scenes and they did all the designs.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: So it's a, and Pokemon. So that's the big one. Pokemon. It's an amalgamation of pretty much everything I love.

neocharge: And why the fuck I didn't play this game, I don't know. So many people told me to play, oh, it's Studio Ghibli Pokemon. And I was probably like, oh, I'm playing Pokemon right now. I don't need to play Pokemon. I needed to play this game.

neocharge: This game is incredible. And it's funny because Bob was like, yeah, I'll play Brageria. And I'm like, okay, cool. Well, I guess I'll start Nino Cooney then. I've played more Nino Cooney than Bob has played Tails.

Leon Lionheartly: you ah ah

neocharge: I'm about 15 hours in ah This is my only game I'm playing. and i You know, why why should you listen to why I like this game and my recommendation on my ultimate recommendation?

neocharge: i You know, i've i I, of course, have only scratched the surface, but I'm big into JRPGs. I've played many JRPGs over the year, including Tales and Final Fantasy, ah some Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest 11.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: And I am a huge fan of Harry Potter. Uh, uh, and I'm a huge Pokemon fan. We just talked about, I've probably sunk more Pokemon hours in a Pokemon than I have in a destiny, uh, all games.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: Yeah, man, like diamond alone. I think I'm like 250 hours. That's one game of 10. I've played mainlines or nine. I've played no 10. Cause there were ultra sun 11 and black and white too. uh,

neocharge: So I'm pretty versed in the genre. The JRPG is one of my favorite genres. And ah I've played every single Zelda ever made. ah This story is very Zelda inspired.

neocharge: And I'm just, ah i know a lot about the inspirations and the content that I'm playing. So yeah, ah This is Pokemon made by Studio Ghibli with a Legend of Zelda story and Harry Potter inspirations.

neocharge: mixed with some Tails combat. So Pokemon, you have turn-based combat. This, well, you got the Legends series that has the action-based combat, but this is an action-based RPG, so it's not a turn-based Pokemon-like game. So they mix the Pokemon, you know, catching and battling into an action JRPG. So first off, the story, holy shit, story is incredible.

neocharge: It's amazing. ah You go around and you collect like essences of people's hearts ah and you can take from people if they have an abundance of it and then give it to people that need it.

Leon Lionheartly: Amen.

neocharge: And they do this. they They tell this story with little ah side stories very well. Like the last story I saw, I teared up.

neocharge: Like it it hit me. And I was like, holy shit, this is beautiful. And it's beautifully told. And it has the Studio Ghibli style. And then the cut scenes are basically a Studio Ghibli presentation, like a movie. And if you're not familiar with Studio Ghibli, dude, I mean, some of the notables, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle,

neocharge: ah most recently, The Boy and the Heron. if If you like a story that makes you rethink your life and existence and has so many hidden messages and meetings and some of the best animation in the 80s and now, ah Studio Ghibli is is masterfully crafted for for that kind of stuff. So, Studio Ghibli animated and did all the designs for this. So, that's That's already awesome. That kind of is what pulled me in. I own this twice. I own the physical version and I was like, I wonder if have the digital version. Yep, I do.

neocharge: So probably bought it on sale and I'm glad I did. So yeah, you you you're Oliver. You can name him in the beginning, but I just named him.

neocharge: oliver ah Oliver. So i like I like sticking with that. But you can also name your little familiars. So you go around and you fight these familiars. And then you have your own familiars that you fight no the monsters with. So it's like Pokemon.

neocharge: right ah And it's an isekai. So it's an isekai story, which you start in the real world, then you get sucked into another world. This is in the marketing. It's in the trailer. And there's actually a Nino Kuni movie on Netflix I watched that I'm seeing some parallels, but the game is way better.

neocharge: Game's way better. So you get sucked into this world, ah and they give you this book, The wizarding the Wizard's Companion. And holy shit, the detail in this book.

neocharge: And it has chapters. And like if you want to see most of the monsters in the game, you can go in and like see complete details of all of them. And this is kind of where the Harry Potter lore comes in because you're you're a wizard and you get a a wand and then you get a book that's...

neocharge: like beautifully crafted in depth.

Leon Lionheartly: But

neocharge: And it's your, basically your game manual. And throughout the game, they reference it. They're like, go look in your manual and and see if you can find this. And then what is it? and I love that. Tunic did that.

neocharge: And I love the fact, like a digital manual that you can reference at any time.

Goatlord-Sriobix: then

neocharge: Because I'll go and I'll be...

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah dude

neocharge: Yeah, it's amazing. And I downloaded the PDF and I like i didn't start reading it because there So it has missing pages like Tunic did. And then you you gather the pages.

neocharge: ah You get spells. There's alchemy, witchcrafting. And you can craft new weapons, new items. Yeah. You can feed your little familiars like candy and treats to level up their stats. You can evolve them.

neocharge: like It's fucking Pokemon.

Leon Lionheartly: I've

neocharge: And... you can They call it metamorphous metamorphose. Metamorphose. They metamorphose. and ah each little familiar has its own like type. ah And each move has its own type. It's basically Pokemon. The difference with Pokemon, though, you share health.

neocharge: So you go into battle, and Oliver goes into battle. He has his own health bar. And then when you throw out a familiar that fights for you, you control that familiar. And...

neocharge: they, you, you choose a move and then they do that move. Well, if they get hit, you share health with them.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: So your, your entire party, it's like if you had a Pokemon party of six and everyone shared health, that's a little tricky. That's a little tricky. And you do get extra party members.

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah

neocharge: I don't know how many you get. I have an idea. I'm not going to spoil who's in my party now. Cause it was a huge surprise to me. Uh, even though I like watch some of the trailers, I was like, Oh shit. I forgot. Apparently, uh,

neocharge: But another thing, when they evolve, they have ah three evolution paths. Shocker, Pokemon, right? When they evolve, they go back to the level one. And I'm like, at first, I was like, oh, I don't like that.

neocharge: But they make it work. And they their base stats don't go back to their original base stats at their original form.

neocharge: Their base stats go around like where they were level 10 on their original form. So you're constantly building. And like you'll be fighting level 20s with a level 1, and all of a sudden you're just level 5 with one battle.

neocharge: So...

Leon Lionheartly: you You know, this is what this is why I've been screaming. I'll give you this. What you just described there with the minions and all that, um this is the reason I've told you some of the Persona and SMT games are you right up your alley, and I'll leave it like that.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: Okay. Like Persona 5? Because I'm interested in that one.

Leon Lionheartly: and Yes. So let's put it this way.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, absolutely.

neocharge: Okay.

Leon Lionheartly: That exists in a very unique way.

neocharge: Okay.

Leon Lionheartly: um and

neocharge: I'm a big fan of the Pokemon mechanics. I like... They do it well. And the the monsters are cool. Like, I have a little guy. He's called Mighty. M-I-T-E-Y.

Leon Lionheartly: I love that name.

neocharge: Yeah. And he's wrecking shop, man. And then my other ah playable character, ah that person has two others. So you you have two of them going in at the same time. I assume there's going to be more. ah And, man, it's whimsical.

neocharge: it's It's just like it reminds me of like the Harry Potter feeling like you're a wizard that just got cast into this new world and you're learning how to be a wizard and like you're a special one and you're important and you're you're given a book that you're supposed to study and you go through trials and man, the the combat is so fun. I wish there was a little more impact when they they hit.

neocharge: it feels it It kind of feels like they're just like meh, meh, meh. I wish there was a little more impact there. The boss designs, so fun. Apparently, because I got the remaster on PS4, I got like a ticket to have some pretty high-level fucking monsters that I probably shouldn't have.

neocharge: I was i was wrecking shots.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: was like, oh that boss was so easy. And I was like, I probably shouldn't use these. Let's let's put these in the... the

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: the little fucking sewer thing that they have or whatever. It's like, it's, it's like your box, your box, you, you put your Pokemon in your box and you have a three reserves. So each character has three familiars and then you have your three reserves. So and each familiar has one of four signs. You have star, star,

neocharge: uh, sun, moon, and planet. I haven't seen planet yet, but they all, it's like fire, water, grass, right? They all are weak and good against each other. And it's pretty easy to learn. And then like the, the manual, end game manual, the wizards companion has a nice little graph that I like took a picture of and I reference it. I used to reference it. Now I know like stars good against sun. Sun's good against moon. Moon's good against star.

neocharge: So yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: That

neocharge: Uh, And then planet is good against all of them. And then they have double types. So you can have a double star. I recently caught a double star and yes, you can catch them. You serenade them.

neocharge: Uh, And you you catch these familiars, and then they have ah they have evolution strings. And i think every single one evolves. other Rather than ah Pokemon, you have your ones that don't evolve.

neocharge: From what I've seen, every single one has a three-stage evolution. which is super cool. And the last evolution, i haven't done it yet, but it can go one of two ways, which are two very different types.

neocharge: So I'm not there yet. I haven't done the third evolution, but oh man, I'm having a blast with it. Dude.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm so glad to hear that. Just wait until he has a living Pokédex for this game there, Alex, because it's going to happen. it's go to fuck it happen i'll tell you I'll tell you to you like this, Matt. There's a reason I've been saying, a keeping my mouth shut, but but just telling you to play this game.

Leon Lionheartly: um And then there are a multitude of reasons.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: So every time you you text us and you... ah yeah yeah you'll be like, wait, there's fucking Pokemon? I'm like, yes. And then you're like, can I can i catch these creatures on the map?

Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, yes. And you're like, wait, what's this book? And i'm like, yes. There's a reason, dude. I'm like, this is a badass game. So I've been trying to let you discover how great this game is naturally.

neocharge: It really is. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Hopefully I'm doing that with Tales of Bergeria with you.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.

neocharge: i haven't really said lot, right?

Leon Lionheartly: No, and i'm I'm finding my stride, and I appreciate that.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um And for the the listeners to kind of like, Matt spent 20 minutes ago, he could spend another 30 gushing about this game. To indicate like the level of greatness that is Ni No Kuni, the original, um it's sitting on, an so the second one, there is a sequel.

Leon Lionheartly: It is not well it's considered not as good. um I'd love it, but that's not the point. It came out, Ni No Kuni, the original, came out before OpenCritic. So I'm going to use Metacritic as a reference for you, Matt.

neocharge: yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: The second one, which is the weaker of the two, is sitting at an 81 on Metacritic with the first one sitting at an 86. All right, you're still following me?

neocharge: oh yeah Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: The second one, only exists on OpenCritic. On OpenCritic, the second one has an 87. So the first one, if it was on OpenCritic equivalent, is it sitting at like on the mid-90s?

Leon Lionheartly: That's how fucking good this game is.

neocharge: Yeah. it's It's so good. And the remaster, like you're experiencing in Bergeria, the remaster it looks so gorgeous. The colors pop. it's You're playing a Studio Ghibli movie.

neocharge: ah And it runs beautifully, 60 frames. Some of the animations are... ah weird. Like when you transfer the heart, it's like it's in 30 frames. But other than that, just minor, minor gripes, nothing game breaking or anything like that.

neocharge: And the soundtrack.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, dude, I was waiting for you to talk about that. Go on. Pop off.

neocharge: The sound. i was saving the best for last. Dude, like i was telling you when I was playing Dragon Quest VII, when I like went into that, was like, ooh, we got a volcano town. you know It's going to be like this cool, ah nope, same shit.

neocharge: I did the same with Ni No Kuni, and I was like, ooh, a volcano town, and like this ah desert oasis thing. I wonder, and then I heard it, and I'm like, yeah. ah This is a straight up like Gerudo meets one of the desert towns in Tales.

neocharge: ah This music is gorgeous. The title screen like just pops off with orchestral like... butnatatata it's ah It's great.

neocharge: Very versatile music. ah the The Familiar Evolutions, they do just reskin them. Sometimes they get some different assets, but ah i don't know.

neocharge: It works though. it works. And I'm just, i i like find one and then I go to the wizard's companion and I'm like, Ooh, what's this little guy? And who's he evolved into? And what's his evolution string? Or like I get a new item and I'm like, Ooh, I want to go into the wizard's companion. I'm constantly going into the wizard's companion. I think you hopped on my stream and was like, Oh, I see you're in the wizard's companion again. And I'm like, Yup. Yup. So, ah yeah, the soundtrack is is straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie mixed with Tails, some Zelda in there, ah Dragon Quest. I mean, Dragon Quest has some bangers. I wish it was more versatile, but...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I would say the soundtrack's more derivative of like Dragon Quest 1 and 2, if any of them.

neocharge: Yeah, gotcha. Okay, cool. But... Yeah, ah the it has a world map that you traverse. I'm having a blast doing that.

neocharge: ah Yeah, man, just incredible. Incredible game. ah It would... Nice. Dragon Warrior 1 for NES.

neocharge: Beautiful. Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: That's my probably my favorite one.

neocharge: it might be my game of the year. It's not my game of the year per se. Cause I mean, it, it released in 2019, but it might be my favorite game. I play this year. It's just, but I don't write.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, that's phenomenal, dude.

neocharge: I don't know. We're in fucking, we're in March. So who knows? Right. But I mean, this game is fucking hitting like,

Goatlord-Sriobix: I...

neocharge: It's hitting all the boxes and scratching all the itches. And I was like, Oh, I've, I've had an itch for a tails going to play a tails game. Well, this is scratching that itch. It's very, very tails. Like when they come from, when they go out of a, like a cut scene of them talking into like the actual gameplay, I am just waiting for the skit icon to come up on the top left.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.

neocharge: Like, It's super Tales-inspired. So, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: Because Symphonia, Vesperia, there were a lot Tales games that came out before this. And Bandai Namco had a hand in it. So, yeah, dude. Wonderful, wonderful recommendation. This might be a better recommendation than ah when Ryan recommended Nier Automata to me.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah. they i I'll say there's a reason. i how do I put this?

Goatlord-Sriobix: okay

Leon Lionheartly: This is why I was pushing you so hard last year. Because i want I know it's good. And I wanted to see you struggle a little bit because how fucking good Claire is. I wanted to put up my best competitor I can think of that would be the game that Matt would go, ooh, wait a minute. And this was the one that I was like, in a different world, if you played that mid middle of year last year, how would you be feeling?

neocharge: wo

Leon Lionheartly: Would you be going, Nino Cooney is my personal favorite of the year, but we all know Claire's the winner. I wanted to throw you ah trip you up a little

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah. I mean, I, I beat Claire front to back and I've put 15 hours into an 80 hour game. That's Nino Cooney. So I can't compare yet ah But this has everything I fucking love. Like Zelda is one of my favorite IPs of all time.

neocharge: Tales is top three JRPGs. I love Harry Potter to death. I love the theme. I love the books. I read the books like I was Harry Potter's age when I read the books going like through the years. I still have the books.

neocharge: ah And I... I love Pokemon like we talked about. So it's just, it's hitting every fucking single thing I love like deeply.

Goatlord-Sriobix: m

neocharge: And it's just combining. And I'm a huge fan of Studio Ghibli. I love his shit. Like it's it's just like a, a amalgamation of like these deep rooted loves of nerd culture.

neocharge: I have, and they just put it all together in a video game. So man,

Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: I love it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude, it's it's straight up Totoro meets Potter meets Dragon Quest. It's insane.

neocharge: He's Pokemon.

Goatlord-Sriobix: And meets Pokemon.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, that too. Like, I'm glad you're finally on it, dude.

neocharge: Yeah. So, dude.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm really glad you're finally on it.

neocharge: Me too. And I'm just, i'm I want to like go back in time and be like, hey, don't get off of Destiny. What are you doing?

Leon Lionheartly: ah

neocharge: Go play fucking Ni No Kuni. So I'm dude, so many, you're not the only one that's recommended that like everyone's like, dude, why haven't you played this game? And I'm like, Oh, I, I own it.

neocharge: I'll get to it one day. I knew like, it's an 80, a hundred hour. And I'm like, ah, it's just, it's a, it's an investment. Right. But what the fuck?

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's a worthwhile investment at the end of the day.

Leon Lionheartly: I love it. I love it.

neocharge: So yeah. Uh, I'll report back, of course, next cast, of course, because I'm going to be playing this for probably four casts. And yeah, i might I might get that living, familiar dex.

Leon Lionheartly: You will. You will by the end. You know you will, dude. This is going to be a... Why did I spend 400 hours on this? Because you had to get every version.

neocharge: Yep. Yep. It's just engaging. Keeps me coming back, and I'm about to play more of it. so And maybe watch some marathon as I grind. So grinding's even fun.

neocharge: I'm having a blast grinding.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: So yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's not Dragon Quest grinding for sure, dude.

neocharge: Yeah.

Goatlord-Sriobix: it, um even a goldy but a goldie I can recommend if you like old action RPGs.

neocharge: No, I, I, I like turn-based RPGs, but action RPGs. don't know, man. They're

neocharge: what? Star ocean.

Goatlord-Sriobix: No, it's you can get it on Switch with the SNK 40th Anniversary Edition.

neocharge: Hmm.

Goatlord-Sriobix: For 40th anniversary, it comes with like 30 games or some shit. This is Crystallis.

neocharge: Yeah. Oh, okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I highly recommend, actually.

neocharge: Gotcha.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's an old, top-down action RPG.

neocharge: Okay, cool. All

Leon Lionheartly: and One of the progenitors.

Goatlord-Sriobix: I highly highly, highly, highly recommend it.

neocharge: right. Good deal. Yeah. So, yep. That's my gushing on Nino Cooney for like 30 minutes. Sorry.

Leon Lionheartly: it

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's fine. We got to listen to Bob. We're into a marathon for 30 minutes.

neocharge: That's true.

Leon Lionheartly: the

Goatlord-Sriobix: did

neocharge: And I'm glad you're enjoying Bergeria.

Leon Lionheartly: That's fair.

neocharge: I want you to... like like I'm like getting excited and like, oh what's to do the same with me for Bergeria. I'd love that. Be like, oh! cause spoil You can spoil the shit out of it with me.

neocharge: right Play that game front to back. I've almost platinumed it. so

Leon Lionheartly: yeah oh i we'll be we'll we'll chat we'll chat on that because um i'm i'm enjoying it like a fine glass of wine man just slowly taking my sips with it um and it's really helping

neocharge: You can do the same.

neocharge: Cool. Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, Bob, for me, play Zillia. That's my personal favorite in the Tales.

neocharge: Oh, really?

Goatlord-Sriobix: it Play Zillia.

neocharge: Okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: Okay.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i think I think he'd probably really like Zillia.

Leon Lionheartly: hmm

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's a little older, but think he'd probably enjoy it.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay.

neocharge: Zillia is good. I never played the sequel. I played the original.

Goatlord-Sriobix: i I liked the sequel. the The remaster looks tempting, but I'm...

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, there is a remaster for it.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.

neocharge: it's It hasn't released yet, or has it?

Goatlord-Sriobix: Zillia 2? Yeah, no, I don't think it's released yet.

neocharge: Has Zillia Remastered released?

Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't know. Oh

neocharge: We'll have to look into that. The next... Grace's. Grace's is so good, too. Have you...

Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah. Grace's is really good.

neocharge: Yeah. what will We'll...

Goatlord-Sriobix: i mean, they're all good, but yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay.

neocharge: So... Ah, Zestaria. Mmm. Mmm.

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's okay.

neocharge: I know. yeah all All subjective, right? Yeah. So...

Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. It's okay.

neocharge: um

Goatlord-Sriobix: It's, it's not the greatest. It's not the worst game in the world by any means.

neocharge: yeah

Goatlord-Sriobix: So that,

Leon Lionheartly: Oh,

neocharge: so

Goatlord-Sriobix: oh

Leon Lionheartly: it

neocharge: uh, back to marathon. We started a channel in discord, uh, and we have a marathon channel. So if you're playing marathon and looking for someone to play with, uh, go on that channel and you can find people in the community and, uh, we can all play together and I'll talk about marathon if you want.

neocharge: Um, I might start a Nino Cooney channel, who knows, but it might, might not be a lot of people that have played Nino Cooney. So, uh, maybe a tails channel. I don't know. We'll get crazy with it. But ah i I think I've i've talked about Nino Cooney enough. And what do you say we get the hell out of here?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, let's go do it, man.

neocharge: And I'm going to go play Nino Cooney.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. yeah

neocharge: So, ah yeah, that's been...

Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't know what else.

neocharge: Heck, yeah. I want to talk more tales with you after this.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: um That's been episode 44. And yeah, were we're getting a spoiler cast gathered for you. we're We're getting it coordinated and we'll probably have that release for Resident Evil 9 Requiem sometime next week. So look forward to that.

neocharge: And yeah, thanks so much for listening and have a great evening, morning, night. Keep the conversation going. Do everything. Have a good one.

Leon Lionheartly: Peace.

Goatlord-Sriobix: Later.