Metaphor: ReFantazio Review

In this episode of Game Pass Grab Bag, we dive into a detailed review of Metaphor: ReFantazio, exploring its gameplay mechanics, story, character development, and the social commentary embedded within the game. We discuss the challenges of the RPG genre, the graphics and art style, and the audio experience, while also sharing our personal experiences and ratings of the game. The conversation highlights the game's strengths and weaknesses, particularly in relation to its pacing and dialogue choices, and concludes with our final thoughts and scores.

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Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hello again everyone, welcome toanother episode of Game Pass
Grab Bag, your weekly podcast reviewing games for the Game
Pass collection bring you 3D perspective of varying skill
range. I am the candidate for the
throne, Andrew with me the only candidate.
The only throne he's a candidatefor is the toilet Keith.
Hello. And with me, the Queen to my
throne, returning with us, Liz the noob.

(00:30):
They shouldn't have given me a fart noise.
Actually, for all the time you use them.
I should have gotten one for that.
Oh, OK, sorry. Thank you.
You can tell it's been a while because I was trying to look at
the mic without moving it because I didn't want like the
noise and I just completely wentcross eyes.
This week was a couple of peoplerequested we played it, but I

(00:52):
mean, it's also been on my list for quite a while.
But this week we played MetaphorRefantasio by Studio 0, which is
an offshoot from Atlas. So this is very much an Atlas
RPG. Metaphor Refantasio is a turn
based JRPG where you are playinga no name protagonist who is

(01:12):
trying to win back the throne because the Prince is under a
curse and you're trying to essentially save the throne for
him and try to break his curse so he can return to power.
Going around whether or not thisis a game or pass, I will start
this off so metaphor Refintasio as I said this is this has been
on my list. I know this is a lot of people's
game of the year last year, so Iwas very excited to see this We

(01:36):
have done one yeah. We only did 1 Atlas studio game
right? Yes, Persona. 3/5.
Yeah, there's five like reload 5or.
Something, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Persona 5 Reload, that's it Yeah, but yes, so I knew a

(01:58):
little bit of Atlas studio and things they do.
So Metaphor Refintasio, if you've know the studio, you
probably know this game. If you do not, Long story short,
I I'm overall giving this a game, but you know, this is a
turn based JRBG. If you're someone who doesn't
like this style, this game will not sway you.
And I also will say overall I'm a little disappointed in

(02:19):
metaphor Refintasio. It does a couple cardinal sins
that really irritate me in an RPG that I'll get into.
Specifically my big one is fake choices.
I hate when a game gives me dialogue choices and it doesn't
do anything that that's one of the things that really irritates
me when it comes to an RPG. But overall though, I, I did
enjoy my time with it, It definitely takes its time to

(02:42):
warm up to. Like I, I was like 4 hours in
and I'm like, I'm not getting this game.
It it took probably about the, the 8 hour mark when I was like,
OK, this is fun. I'm liking this now.
But yeah, so it's a game. So this was on my radar in the
in the, in the sense that I, youknow, it was, this was, this was

(03:03):
the game of the year last year. I ended up taking the title, if
I recall, and it should have been Bilatro, but I'm not going
to go into that. It's not what we're here for.
We're here for metaphor. But it was a game that I knew
was highly acclaimed. A lot of people really like this
game, and I already knew that itreally was just not going to be

(03:26):
for me. And again, I know we're here to
talk about metaphor, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time
talking about Clare Obscure and then, and I don't want to make
this in. The two games you already said,
Bilatera and Clare Obscure, you've been saying it.
But it is. But it is so difficult that
we're playing these so close together for me to separate
them, even though they're wildlydifferent from each other just

(03:47):
in terms of how they play out. It's hard for me to separate the
two and to want to keep going with metaphor.
I was starting to get some of the that kind of rhythm and flow
of the immerse. I was starting to enjoy some of
it. But it I'm with with what Andrew
is saying, like it takes so longto get rolling that if you don't

(04:08):
really care for the style game, like you're just not going to do
it. What's easily over 800 Dimitri.
I don't I don't even know at this point.
Dimitri in the chat asked how many powers?
I haven't Blastro, so I just I don't even want to know how many
that is. I so I didn't actually give an
an official answer. I I think I'm just going to have

(04:29):
to give this a pass and and I there are there are things I
like about it and it's I'm not going to sit here and do a big
complaining, you know, rag on this game pass.
It's just it doesn't do anythingfor me to kind of drive to to
get the hooks into it. I could see myself playing a
little bit more of it actually, because again, having have

(04:50):
starting to feel like a little bit of fun with it.
But at the same token, like I, I, I don't see myself trying to
like push through the what, 100 plus hours that this game would
take to beat so. I ain't going to give it a game,
but I'm kind of lukewarm with itright now.
Like I'm glad that I played it and I enjoyed my time, but now I
want to play other things. Just to dream my valley.

(05:14):
Do you know what? I actually, I'm kind of bored
with it. I really want to find another
game. But the big thing for me, I
agree with your critique, Andrew, But the big thing for
me, I don't like timed events. I don't like having that
structure of like if you go in the dungeons and you can't do
anything at night, or you can dolike something in the afternoon,
something at night, and then you'll have a certain amount of

(05:36):
days. And just like, I just want to be
like let loose and talk to whoever I want whenever I want.
And but it's funny because I'm kind of the opposite in real
life where I kind of like havinga deadline.
Like it pushes me to do like, you know, chores I don't like.
But when it comes to gaming, I don't really like that.

(05:58):
We we all played Persona. I don't know if you guys
remember. Do you guys remember?
Did you like Persona? I think I like Persona better
and I think the main reason was the characters.
It was Persona 3 Reload is what we did.
OK, I could have, I could have sworn it was 5, but I'll believe
you if you're looking it up. I I don't think I did.

(06:19):
I think I was maybe fine on it if I remember, but I don't think
I really particularly cared for it because I think similarly is
that we had just either finishedor we're starting like a dragon.
And so I was kind of in that same boat of like, oh, I have a

(06:43):
RPG that I'm having more fun playing and I'd rather play
that. But immediately, like I, I knew
that this game was made by the same makers as Persona just
because I knew that fact. But this game might as well be
in the Persona world. And that wasn't my immediate
annoyance with this that your your first introduction to your

(07:06):
level up. I was like, OK, so this is
persona. I just don't have a gun.
I'm not shooting myself in the head.
I'm ripping my heart out and screaming into it apparently is.
I was gonna. Say I'm like, what's with?
What's with the Atlas Studio always have these really
grotesque transforming powers? Yeah, you have to.
Just more like morbidly murder yourself, like you're it's so

(07:27):
bizarre. And immediately I was like, OK,
so this is persona and just everything about it felt the
same from there. And I'm sure that there's a the
games, you know, 100 plus hours.It's huge.
It's I'm sure there's so many things that vary and differ off
of persona, but I'm I'm with Lizon I don't really like this.
What is the slice of life RPG? Is that the terminology where

(07:50):
it's like you have to go around and like, you know, like you're
saying, like go talk to this person this time and do this and
then, oh, you've got a, a test on Tuesday, except it's not
Tuesday. It's flemety day.
And I have to remember what thiswhole new calendar that's
made-up on, you know, the 4th day of Findy 9 in in the fourth

(08:12):
season of the the 9th blood son.And I'm like, I don't know what
any of this means. And you want me to set my
schedule around when I'm supposed to go meet someone on
these made-up date. Now it's I don't, I don't like
that personally and it doesn't do much for me.
Yeah, just remember they have the what is it the academia
where where more is in this game, But it's like the sleepy

(08:34):
time place in Persona 3 Reload. Yeah, you kind of like go off to
this, this. Sleepy time place.
Is I? I don't really remember it that
well. Did.
You just say your house. No, I thought when he dreamt he
went to that place in his mind. Oh, oh, the the Velvet Room is
what it was called. In Persona 3 that that reminds
me of where Moore is. Yes, Yeah, Academia, exactly.

(08:57):
Academia, it's another thing. It's it's like it's not even
original. And that's anyways I'm going to.
I'm going to stop for a minute now I'm getting fired up.
I think that Persona 3 had a funny character and I feel like
that was really missing. I understand that the story is

(09:18):
very dark and stuff which I I need to say something kind of
rude I. About what?
I cannot take the main villain seriously with that hair.
It doesn't matter if it's a a man or woman wearing that hair.
Like how long? That weird little like center
thing. It's like a wolf cut like that
Louis. I always struggle when I see

(09:39):
Louis. I get like Louise Louis.
I'm like I always like my mind can't figure out what the name.
Is mines Brandon and Brendan? Yeah, but do you know what I'm
talking about? Like you look at him and you're
just like, I can't take you seriously.
This was like eyeliner. Like no villain would take that.
It's. Kind of like David Bowie.

(10:00):
Yeah, but I felt like as seriousas it was, I felt like they
needed something in it, especially because it gets sad
pretty early on. And the first character that
dies, I knew it was going to happen.
And that, that's kind of a bummer when you can anticipate
that and know that. You know, and for the record,
David Bowie plays an excellent villain.

(10:21):
Don't disrespect his Labyrinth performance.
He's. Not especially when you see his
his crotch almost the entire movie too.
That that's just, that's just helps keep you, keep you at
ease. He's the exception and he can be
anything he wants to be. All right, but let's get into
the story. Well, actually before we get
into the story, I want to make an announcement real quick to go

(10:43):
off a real quick and you know, tangent here.
Not really tangent, but we officially have a website.
It is now up. So go to gamepassgrabbag.com and
it'll bring you to our show or website and it'll have the list
of all the previous shows and wewill try to have transcripts of
it. So it's kind of easier to go
through if you want to go past episodes.
And it'll also be putting up ourscores.

(11:04):
So if you ever want to see what we gave a game instead of going
through the entire episode, go to check out our website.
We should have it posted there. Are you checking out now Keith
too? Is this your first time checking
out our website? No.
OK, but anyway, so the story of Metaphor Refantasia, as I said,
you were playing this kind of nameless protagonist.
Eventually you get to create your name, which will be my

(11:25):
first stripe of this episode when we get into that.
You play this nameless characterwho has this book, which books
are kind of outlawed or kind of forbidden?
They're they're kind of rare. Well, it's weird.
People kept saying they were rare, but people literally had
bookshelves of books behind themand they're like, oh, you have a
novel. This is rare.
It's like it's all these books behind.
You. Yours is rare because it's a

(11:46):
fantasy. OK.
And, and at least that was what I gathered.
You know, you've played for morethan I have, but that was the
what I was understanding whenever I was so like, oh, it's
mystical. It's a fantasy, which is, which
is an interesting little twist. I will give this fun little like
a kind of fun storytelling thing.
It every year you have these what, 8 tribes and you know,
they're all fantasy. No, how many tribes are?

(12:08):
I thought they said 8 but I think there's more anyways they
I want. To say there's like. 12 from
from our perspective here, this basically the game does this
whole weird meta thing where it's like we're playing a
fantasy game where they're calling the fantasy characters
humans and then there's like you're they're talking to you as
the meta human character outsideof the anyway, I don't.

(12:31):
Go on. And the Utopia Stories reading
kind of sounds like it's supposed to be like.
Earth, yeah, like, not really like fantasy as we would call
it, but it's fantasy to them because there's no magic and
there's not like it's just humans.
And yeah, so it's a fun little like, oh, they're, they're
looking at us. But yeah, so you have this, this
story that tells of a utopia of a place where everyone gets

(12:53):
together and along because here in this world, a metaphor.
Yeah. There's 8 or so many tribes of
different races and species. And there's just a whole lot of
racism. Everyone kind of essentially
hates each other. In which I will say this is one
of my gripes about the story. Well, I'll get into it after I
explain more of the story. But anyway, the king just
recently got assassinated and the Prince was I was supposed to

(13:14):
take over the throne, was put under a curse and he's kind of
in a comatose state. And so you don't know this, this
curse is kind of draining his magic and slowly killing him.
So you're basically given a secret mission to go in and try
to kill the person who cast the spell, which is Louise, who was
the main bad guy, the main antagonist of this game who

(13:35):
openly admits that I assassinated everyone.
And I, you know, they're, they're weak and we need to have
power and I need to take the crown because there's these
monster creatures called humans that are very grotesque and have
been wiping out villages all throughout the land.
And the king has done nothing about it.
So now we need a strong leader to take him out.
But that is just basically the premise of the story.

(13:58):
There's a little bit more to it,but now I guess it's fine to
say. So overall, though, you are
trying to win the crown. There's a competition that's
going on and you are trying to win the crown for the Prince.
Since the Prince can't compete since he's under a coma, you're
trying to win the crown for him so he can take over when you
break the curse and able to killLouise.
And you win it by approval of the people, right?

(14:19):
Yes. So it is your job to basically
go around and help all these people because you are what's
known as an Elda, which is supposedly the lowest considered
species of all the tribes. I don't know, I guess this is
going to be my first complaint about the story is so this whole
game deals with a whole lot of racism.
You know, every tribe seems to hate each other.

(14:40):
And this book gives you a big compendium of all these
different things of explaining these tribes and blah, blah
blah. As me and Keith already kind of
figured out, I wasn't sure how many tribes there are, and I
can't tell where tribes are in the totem pole.
I feel like everyone hates each other, which is like, this game
has like too much racism. I feel like sometimes, and I
know what you're saying. Hey, there's no such thing as

(15:02):
too much racism. And normally I'd agree with you
but this time I find it really annoying.
That's a joke but I'd like. Seriously though it's like how
does anyone do anything? Everyone apparently hates each
other. Like who?
Who's the higher up people I don't know.
I mean, there's got to be at some point in the story where

(15:22):
they kind of breakdown what thisactual cat.
Like, I, I see them more as a caste system.
Like, yeah, like, it is ultimately racism because it's
built on, you know, never animal.
Like they're all mostly animals,but they're not all animals.
I don't know, again, because there's like the cat people
right away and nobody likes the cat people, but they like you

(15:43):
less. And are you a dear people?
No, I don't know the people. You are the horns.
I'm assuming they're the higheston the totem pole.
Yeah, everyone likes them because that's what, Yeah, the
horn people. And I think the elves are kind
of like the second. Yeah, but you got the winked
people. But you wouldn't.
Believe it that the video game writes you to be the worst one.

(16:04):
No matter the one thing that youneed to know, you're the worst
one. Everybody hates you.
But by the end of the game, everybody doesn't hate you.
And that's kind of the storylineof the game, right?
150 hours to make people not hate you.
There is also religion too, because I don't like that people
with the boxes and like the third eye, don't they have like

(16:26):
their own religion? Yep, they're considered pagans
because the main religion is syncotism, but those that tribe
doesn't believe in that, they believe in different gods, so
they're considered pagans. Which talking to them and
learning about their religion isan entire event of the day
because you only have like 2 sections of the day where you
can do stuff. Yeah.
So they're like, Oh well, if youwant to do anything else, I can
talk to you later. And it's like, really?

(16:47):
That's going to take the entire afternoon not to be rude.
I don't know, Liz, you could talk.
But yeah, overall, I I got to say the story it, it took a
while for it to kind of even then, as Keith kind of said,
going off of Clear Obscure, I remember with the Clear Obscure
episode where I'm like, you know, every JRPG, the thing that
always kind of irritates me is it's such a long setup.

(17:09):
And that's what metaphor is. It is a very long setup of
building this world, explaining these caste system, these these
races, the king, the power he has what igniters are it just
explained just exposition and it's just.
Wait, but isn't it kind of the opposite to where where I'm at
in the game? Like the story is already

(17:31):
unfolded and now it's just you're just trying to to win,
yes, and get people on your side.
So I feel like they give away everything at the beginning.
Yeah, but I was just saying it took, it took hours though.
You're going through this whole thing.
That is a weird like pacing and flow, though is a is A at least
what I'm sounds like you're saying was.
I don't want to speak for you, but like and I and I agree like

(17:53):
it. Thanks for mansplaining.
Front load the whole thing with hours and hours of exposition
and talking and this and that, and then just go, all right,
well, now I'll just make everyone like you for the next
75 hours or so. Yeah, that's what I was going to
say. Like 75 hours of what story
would there be? You know what I mean?
Like right now, like I'm almost at the necromancer, like I'm

(18:13):
almost through the dungeon and it's like, OK, So what other bad
guy am I going to have to deal with after that?
Because I'm going to be fightingturn pace turn based on BG.
So I mean, I just don't understand where it's going.
I mean, you got to win the crown.
And you talk to people and you and stuff like that and you see
your crown growing. But it's just, I feel like
there, there needs to be more coming up ahead, right?

(18:34):
Yeah, I mean, the whole, So the whole thing is you're going on a
Grand Tour around the entire country doing these trials to
win the favor of the people. It's hosted by the church.
Everyone becomes these contestants.
And you're trying to go to thesemajor cities with a certain
goal. So the first one, you're trying
to bring the head of a monster. Whoever has the biggest monster

(18:54):
wins the competition of like that trial.
Then the next one, you're tryingto get these Pagan idols, that
which they are considered holy relics, and so you're
essentially going to loot one ofthe tribes and kind of wipe out
the people. So it's like, it's kind of dark,
but you're just essentially going around doing these trials
to win the favor of the people. Weird weird concept because they
make it very clear like royal blood is it is a big deal like

(19:19):
you're a royal blood it like it has magical power.
She shouldn't have even been able to be stabbed this and that
and like, and then the next kingis just I don't know, it's a
popularity contest of who can ofof The Amazing Race basically
like. It's like what a?
Weird that's how you're going todecide the next holy king and

(19:41):
all these or sending them on holy wars apparently if they're
sending them out to take out Pagan villages and stuff like.
Speed a little bit just. Like here, we're just going to
start our own crusades real quick, and then you could be the
next king. Well, I don't want to give a
spoiler, but I also thought too with when I talked about the
first character dying how unfortunate it was with the.

(20:05):
Storyline. Yeah.
And it's like he's doing I I shouldn't spoil it, but I was
just like, really? That's, that's how you're going
to kill that character that is cold.
Oh man. So now I'm curious if I think
it's cool too that. So I, I wanted to focus on doing
like the small quests and not going to the dungeon, which then

(20:28):
you were told me like, no, you have to do it by a certain time.
And I was like, Oh man, I guess I'm not doing that anymore.
But one of the strangers gave mea tip about the monsters and the
dungeon And I'm so glad because you're like, Oh, this person's
like, you need to use light magic.
This one's not good with melee and stuff.
And I, it was so helpful. And for me it like was like, I
just want to talk to people. I don't want to go to the

(20:51):
dungeons. I found talking the most boring
part. No 'cause like for instance like
And also, how weird is it that everyone looks down on you but
this guy is giving you free information?
Oh no, you have. To pay them.
You have to pay. I was just going to say, just
correct me though. Yeah, but he's giving you.
He couldn't give you the wrong information.
Well. That's what sort of thing is
kind of funny about like the racism in this game.

(21:11):
Literally you get people that you're like, oh, gross, you're
in Elda and you're like, I want to help.
Oh, OK, you can help me. And then you help them.
They're like, I'm sorry I was racist to you.
I will now support you. It's just like, that wasn't very
hard. Literally someone's like, oh,
you're gross and you oh, can youbuy me flowers?
And you buy them flowers. I'm like, OK, I want you to be
king now. It's like that all.
That's all it took for you to walk me to be king.

(21:33):
I bought you flowers. Like Dang.
That was one of the questions. Changed my life.
Yeah. It's like, all right, One guy
wanted a toothbrush, and I got him a toothbrush, and now he
wants me to be king. All right, See.
I just got serious ones with like, oh, my daughter will die
if she doesn't get this medicine.
So that's why I'm oh, I wish I'dgotten some of the the lighter.
Ones even still, well, I mean, Iguess if it's death medicine.

(21:56):
So I'm just like, I don't know if someone's like, hey, I got
your kids some ibuprofen at the store that you needed.
Thank you like like I'm just. You should be president.
Like I'm going to DoorDash from children's ibuprofen, be like
this guy, this guy right here, that is presidential right
there. I feel like you should say that
next time you get like, DoorDash, be like this guy.

(22:18):
You should be president, like incredibly my McDonald's.
Good job, man. But yeah, let's get into the
gameplay though. So if you've played Metaphor or
sorry, if you've played Persona,it is still very much the setup
of how that's kind of done whereyou have a day night cycle.
You have moments where you can either upgrade your characters

(22:39):
like personality traits. So you have your like 5 virtues
of tolerance, wisdom, imagination, courage.
And what was the last one? I don't know whatever.
But either way, when you're doing it, you're trying to
because these are considered royal virtues.
So you want to improve your character with that, but you're
also loving up your main character getting stats.

(22:59):
But what's unique about this game from different Persona
games is everyone has archetypes, which is essentially
a class Mage, you know, warrior knight, you have, you know, like
the the sniper. Healer.
Healer like these different and you can change them on the fly.
So nobody is kind of stuck to what they are like in Persona.

(23:21):
They kind of worry. I mean your, your main character
was kind of a wild card can do whatever, but this everyone can
do whatever. So I could just switch things up
on the fly of like, OK, now I want like 3 healers and one tank
or whatever. Everyone's a sniper, you know,
or mix it all up. So you're going around in a
dungeons. You know, if we go through a
dungeon, it takes a whole day cycle.
You're on a time limit. If you end up like reaching the

(23:42):
end without completing your goal, game over.
You got to load a previous save,but essentially you're going
through the dungeon trying to reach a goal and endpoint.
You know, depending where you are in the game is what
different The goal is the beginning area.
You're trying to stop a necromancer, but you're going in
kind of a free world. You can see the enemies if
you're strong enough. This was my favorite feature.
If you're strong enough, you canjust open world, melee the

(24:04):
enemy, instantly kill them, boom, you get XP and gold and
everything. So you can kind of quickly level
up your characters by going to the lower parts of the dungeon,
just wiping everything out and progressing.
But if you fight a bigger monster, you obviously go
through a turn based, typical turn based RPG, find the enemy's
weak points, you get bonus moves, so on so forth.

(24:24):
Typical RPG stuff. You've said your character
doesn't automatically like throwyou at the enemy to do melee in
the dungeons. No, that was you.
You had a sword that let you teleport.
I you. Know I think it was just like my
who my character was because I switched my weapon multiple
times and it always let me do that.
I don't know your character was doing a dash.
And it locks on, does the dash and it goes from enemy to enemy

(24:46):
to enemy. Yeah, so.
You can lock in, you can lock onwith the buttons, yeah.
But maybe that's just why it wasn't locking on.
That could could be it. But either way I always love
doing the gunner because it was arranged and I could range shot
all the enemies and think about.That's kind of cool, but I
didn't really all right. I did like that aspect of it,

(25:06):
which, like you said, I guess iskind of just another persona
reskinned, but it's it's a it's a nice little little different
way to shake things up. You know, you're just going to
run around a mash X to quickly clear enemies out of an area.
But I also I, I went ahead and Ijust said I'm just going to play
this game on easy. I said I'm not going to get to

(25:27):
the end of this game no matter what happens.
So I'm just going to try to get through as much of it as quickly
as possible. That's.
What? You did this right?
You were on easy. I what?
Were you on easy? I was on easy.
Yeah. And then again from that point
to what I was honestly doing tooreally with the battles as I was
just auto battling it out just like Yep, auto battle go.

(25:49):
Yeah, I just got to an enemy that like kicked my butt real
good, which I have a question. So I I understand like at the
end of the game you need to win over the favor of the people.
What if you don't? Is there a time limit for the
whole game in general or is it just like you you get?
Technically, I guess. Oh, OK.

(26:10):
I mean, because there's always like these checkpoints multiple
times in the game. So like anytime you're going to
a new area, they say like, hey, this is your objective and you
need to complete this objective.By that time, so as long as you
complete the objectives, yeah. Yeah, because like if you see
the main quest is for you to save the prints and that says no
deadline. So technically you don't have a
deadline for it. Oh OK, I have something that

(26:32):
bothered me in this game and I Ireally don't like when games do
this. When you go to a shop and they
have such limited stock that youcan't get any, there's like one
item that's $40,000. Everything else I had already.
Yeah, everything's. Everything's like a dollar and
then you like what I am. It's really expensive.
Yeah. And so for me, I'm because I had
all like the upgraded stuff and it's like make something that is

(26:56):
a little bit more expensive thatI can save for or something.
But like don't make it like too like maybe it's because I was on
easy. Did it happen to you, Andrew?
Yeah, it always probably is because you're on easy.
I was going to say every time you go to a shop they have like
3 or 4 purple items that are really good and they're very
expensive compared to everythingelse.
Oh, must because I was on easy. But no, I I forgot to mention

(27:17):
it, but yeah, so a lot of this game does a lot of talking.
And as I said, the beginning, this game Cardinal Sin for me
and RPG is fake dialogue choices.
I cannot stand it. It takes me out so quickly when
they're like case in point, thisone really irritated me.
You kind of try to trick the badguy by having him think that
you're on his side. And so he literally says one

(27:38):
point, what's your real mission?And so I have like 3 options.
One's literally like, I'm here to kill you and save the Prince.
So it's like, OK, I'm going to do that.
And I click it and they just go no, you should rethink your
choices. And I'm like, why give me the
option? Like it always irritates when
the game does that. It gives you 3 options.
I literally click the two that were obviously you shouldn't be

(27:59):
picking. And if they haven't picked it,
they go, you should rethink yourchoice.
What I will say eventually it opens up and when you're doing
stuff with your companions, they're like, oh, if you pick a
nicer dialogue with your companions, you get rewarded
with some currency, which is still not a good system because
then it's making me be nice to my companions and it's.
Like it's really I want. To be a jerk to them, it's

(28:20):
really I want to be racist. Picking the right answer, then
at that point, then about picking a choice.
Yeah, but there are also consequences to being a jerk,
though, Andrew like usually in life, if you're nice to people,
things tend to go more your way.So I mean, it's, it's kind of
true in the game too. But it doesn't do anything.
I I just don't get rewarded. It's my friends are.

(28:41):
Never giving me money for being nice to them, yeah.
I've never had them like that's true, Keith.
You know what? Thanks Keith, for complimenting
my shirt. You want 5 bucks?
Yeah, I do. But they, they might help you
move. They might, you know, babysit
your dog or something. Well, that's the thing.
These people are essentially putting their lives up for risk
for me, but I could be a jerk tothem and they'll still do that

(29:02):
for. Me.
They all have their own reasons.They all just want to save the
Prince. No one you know first stole or
stroll. Whatever his name is, it's
revenge. I mean, yes, they all have their
kind of, they're kind of a lot of people, yeah, are the enemy
of my enemies, my friend kind ofmentality that they all do have
their kind of different point oflike what they're there for.

(29:26):
But their end goal is they all hate Louise.
So what is Louise? Yes.
Or Louis. Gosh.
I keep saying. Louis.
I thought it was Louise. I think it's Louise because it's
it's he's royal. It's got to be a little fancy.
You can't just be Louis. No offence, Louis is up there.

(29:46):
Lou. Yeah, it's called.
Lou LO, Louis. Yeah, I'd call that Louise.
I'm pretty sure it's Louise. I'm like 90% shit.
Don't make me question it. I love that's been your thing.
It's now calling me out on things in this podcast.
What if? Ever since the few episodes

(30:08):
you're on, you always want to make sure you call me out on
things. Oh, I mean, that's kind of true.
But I also, I always, you know, tattle on myself, which I'm like
deaf Today. I, I just realized that's like
the second or third time I'm like, what?
What? No, Andrew was watching me help
our daughter play a video game and I was just smashing any
through the dialogue and it tookme like a good two minutes to

(30:31):
realize that it was just repeating the same dialogue
over. And over again, she literally
kept talking to the same person.Andrew was actually laughing out
loud, like usually he doesn't think I'm funny.
While you weren't trying to be funny, let's not give yourself
too much credit less. But I do like, I mean, you

(30:52):
didn't haven't really got to watch me play new games in a
while. Yeah.
So it must have been a real treat for you.
It was Barbie. It wasn't much of a treat.
I meant this game. OK, yes.
Oh my gosh, you. Look fun.
Oh no. Barbie loses the same time
let's. Not do an episode on that.

(31:14):
Aaron can do that episode. You guys can do that with Aaron.
Me and Aaron together on that one.
There's two Barbie guys. Dimitri says it's pronounced Lou
is. Louise.
Yeah, Louis and Stardew is Lewis, but I also thought it was
spelled the other way too. Maybe anyway, but all right, so

(31:39):
this is one thing. They're kind of your team with
this gameplay. Keith got a hinted at it.
You know this game, so time to beat is looking at 66 to 87
hours I'm at. So luckily we've been able to
play this game for about 3 weeksbecause before it came out, I
remember people saying, oh, if you play the demo, it can carry
your save, your save file over. So I was like great, so I

(32:02):
actually started the demo. It does like the first five
hours of it. So I was like cool, I'll play
the demo. And sure enough, yeah, I was
able to get ahead and then when the game finally hit Game Pass
carried my save over. But so I'm at like 28 hours of
playtime and I got to say I think maybe 20 hour or 8 hours
of that was actual gameplay. There is a lot of me just

(32:24):
sitting and hitting a through dialogue.
I. Know fairness you can skip, but
I mean the point of the game is to.
Which I started to skip if I am not talking to a main person and
I'm hitting start and skipping that dialogue because it is I I
don't care about your history. I I don't care about your sick
child's. Wow, I'm going to get you.

(32:45):
Flowers and you're going to be happy about it.
Want me to be king? I'm just going to.
I'm going to skip. This I'm going to and I started
thinking of Burger King for you.Yeah, yeah.
So like that's, and so like someof the dialogue is pretty good.
I actually do kind of like thesecharacters.
I I'm not going to give the nameaway, but the 4th companion was

(33:05):
my favorite. This is this will be another
good plane. I have a little bit with the
companions, but once he got introduced, I was like, this is
a cool person. I really like his sad back
story, interesting character. I was like, this is cool.
Whatever first was like about this game and a lot of JRBGS,
they all do this and you know, Iso don't fully fault this game,
but I thought it was going in a different route.

(33:27):
Everyone, like I said, could be any archetype.
So nobody's stuck being oh Hulkenberg, she doesn't have to
always be the tank. She can, she could be a maid,
she could be a shooter, she can be whatever you want her to be.
Obviously each character is better at some roles because you
know you have stat points. Hulkenberg has more health
points, so you may want her up front, but you don't have to.
So I was like, cool, I'm just going to get 4 companions or

(33:50):
four people I could play with and I could just switch them out
and I don't have to worry because I always hate that when
you have to bench people becauseonce you get too many people,
you always have that choice of who's going to sit on the bench.
I don't like that. And so I thought that's what
this game was doing. Then I got a fifth companion.
I had to bench somebody and thatkind of made me sad.
So I at first was excited that that metaphor was doing this, of

(34:12):
this is it. These are your companions, you
can switch them any way you want.
Nope. Now I got to bench people.
No. So close metaphor.
Unless I missed it, do the the companions always auto attack?
No, yeah, you definitely had hadsomething said on that.
You're gay. Yeah.

(34:32):
Because you can. Hit Y for their magic melee or
you can team up and hit A. No, I see the back.
Like. Now.
Now they went. No, once they did get their
magic, that's when. OK.
Yes, yes. They were.
Tutorial they auto attack. Yes, I take that back.
So they they didn't, no, they did.
But they they, they at least auto levelled their stuff,

(34:54):
right? Did you get off the?
Tutorial I did. OK.
Probably not much further, but Idid.
Yeah they do auto level. You pick your own like what you
want the points to go to. Yeah, well, your character, you,
you pick. Yeah.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. OK.
So at least that part I was right about, OK.
Which I got to say, I did not think the points mattered.

(35:19):
So my character, I don't know. Have you been spreading your
points out? I think it would just like I
felt like it was like highlighting 1 and I would just
pick the one that was highlighted.
But and also at that point if ifI can't pick what the what my
companions are doing, why even bother showing me what levelled
up for them? It doesn't truthfully matter.
I guess, yeah, when you level up, you get one point that's

(35:43):
allocated in a like a specific area, but then you get one point
where you can choose where it goes.
So I, I try to do something different.
I almost put all of my points inluck because luck's like, oh, it
increases the chance of items dropping when you defeat an
enemy, and it also improves likeyour crit chance.
So I was like, all right, cool, I'm going to do something
different. All luck and also a lot of
agility and I don't see much difference.

(36:03):
Agility you're supposed to be able to have higher dodge.
My character barely dodges, so Ifeel like the stats don't do
that much. At least it was negligible.
I felt like so with the main character when I was putting
stuff into strength mostly at one point because I was like,
oh, his melee is really weak. I really didn't notice much
improvement. And then it was weird because

(36:25):
Hulkenberg, I felt like she was super strong and her magic was
strong. Like she was just the best
because I had her as a healer. She just was the strongest all
around and I couldn't get my character to really even match
her, which I just thought was weird that putting all those
points and it didn't really affect it.
Oh, I I remembered another thing.

(36:46):
I kind of want to give negative on this game.
What I feel like I'm being negative in this game.
I actually did like legitimately.
Like I mean you put 28 hours. Into it and I actually really
was enjoying this, but this is asingle player game and this game
lets you pick your protagonist'sname.
This game has a very strong filter and it was irritating me.

(37:06):
I went through like 20 choices. I always try to test out a games
filter. Let me be immature and name my
character like Fardy Mcfartson or something like that.
And it was like multiple times the same's not accepted, the
same's not accepted. I first, of course, I started
with harsh names and it's like, OK, I understand you don't want
me to use, you know, racial slurs or something.
I obviously I because I like to test the waters, but then I kept

(37:28):
going and it's like Nope, can't do that.
Then I literally was going to like fart face.
Nope, not accepted. I was like are you kidding me?
Like I am doing like PG names why?
Like this is a single player game.
Let me be immature. This supposed to be a fantasy
game. Let me be let me create farty
Mcfart said. Here I landed, I I laid it on
stupid and and it's actually pretty hilarious because people

(37:49):
are like, hey, stupid, do you think you can handle that
stupid? Yeah, you did that to my Disney
dream like character and all of a sudden I was like, why is
everybody calling me stupid? That doesn't seem very Disney.
Well, there's two names there's like the name you name yourself,
which get and then there's the name of your character self.
So I so the one that was like the the me holding the

(38:11):
controller version, that one I Igot to scuzz but I don't I don't
really know how. But.
But I had to spell scuzz as. That's a very 90s C.
UHZ it wouldn't let me do 2 ZS so I had to spell scuzz weird to
get scuzz butt and then I tried to beef smellington but I didn't
have enough space so it the nameis just beef smell and I was

(38:33):
like I'm leaving that. Beep smell.
So again, it's very amusing whenpeople are like, hey, beef
smell. That's what I highly recommend.
Like I, if you could do I, I like I said, I thought stupid
actually worked out pretty good because it is always funny when
people are like it's they're trying to have a serious
conversation, but it just soundslike they're burning me.

(38:54):
They're like, man, I'm really proud of you, stupid.
Well, the first, the first pointthat they refer to your name
like the other name too is funnybecause it's they're like
talking about like some scroll and he's like, I can't interpret
anything except for one word andit's the name you put in.
So for mine it was like scuzz butt.
He's like, I just know in my heart that that's what it means.

(39:15):
See this, it's, I know it's childish, but this is what I
like. I love doing just stupid names.
But this game went way too strong of a filter.
And I think the reason for it isbecause you there is an online
component kind of where you can see where people chose things or
people did for team loadout. That is a really cool feature.
I did like that. Really.

(39:35):
I never used it. I don't care what somebody did.
I don't care if somebody went togo talk to the guy about his
history. Like, I don't.
I'm going to do what I want to do, yeah.
I'm, I'm talking about I thoughtlike when you're saying like the
setup as far as like what build they used going.
Into that I used that many once.Whether or not it's really
functionally necessary to like get through it, I think it's a

(39:57):
neat feature. I I think I think it's cool when
they can take a game that is 100% single player and
incorporate some, just some level of like community to it.
Even if it's like not, hey, I'm going to look up what these
bills are something, you know, like that would be really
cumbersome. I think it's kind of cool that
you're just like, hey, give me aquick kit of like what people

(40:19):
did, what difficulty they did, and maybe I can just bounce some
ideas whether or not I'm going to copy their thing.
I at least, you know, I can see what other people did.
I think it's. I think it's neat at least.
But it's just so I think that's why there's like a filter on the
names, but it's still I don't think if it really displays your
name. And even then that's that's
dumb. OK, like so Demetrius, want to

(40:39):
know some of my examples? I remember my first one I really
want to do was big Wiener. It wouldn't let me do that.
Then I try to do Mike Roch wouldn't couldn't do that.
What was the other one? I think I did.
I think I did huge jugs. That wasn't accepted, but I
think I think it's because I puta space.
I don't know if it just wouldn'tallow spaces.

(41:01):
Nah, spaces right, because I got.
Well then I then I beef. So OK, well then I try to do pen
island. One word that didn't get
accepted. It's like, come on.
I literally did like so many. Choices.
They anticipated Someone Like You.
Andrew exactly why can't I be Pen Island?
Yeah, I didn't think about it. It's it probably is because of

(41:23):
that one small online feature. I didn't do Mike Hunt.
No, I just did Mike Rotch. Wait.
I don't get Mike Hunt. My gosh, that was perfect.
You instantly do. I cannot believe you just did

(41:47):
that last. You're.
So smart. Lose the noob, everyone.
That was perfect. Oh, my glasses are fogging up
all right. But yeah, so over the gameplay

(42:10):
back on course. Yeah, I don't think there's any
on course after that. I got to say though, what I do
like about the gameplay though, it's it's very challenging.
So I played on normal and the game does tell you beforehand,
hey, make sure you're prepared. So you really got to make sure
you optimize your time and make sure your team is levelled up.
Well. It's also kind of sucks because
there was one point I was kind of stuck on a guy.

(42:32):
It took me about eight tries andwhatever reason the saving was
awful. It I had to go through like I
kept having to skip through likethis massive dialogue, but I
eventually finally beat the bossjust with like my build.
I was. I just had to keep switching my
team around and figure out the best way to optimize fighting
this boss and I was able to takehim out, but it just kind of
stunk because it's like, oh, do you want to reset where you're

(42:54):
like 6 days back and you could level up your team better.
So if you do not prepare, you can get really punished in this
game. But I I do like the challenge of
this game. I thought the bosses were
actually made me work and how tofigure out and use items.
Like you really have to manage your mana and make sure you
bring mana recovery items because it's they can get heavy.

(43:16):
I was always looking for those in the shops and stuff.
They're hard to find, yeah, but graphics?
I mean, I already touched on thehair my my judgy comment.
You did? Oh, Louise's hair.
Yeah. Yeah.
The wolf cut. Yeah, I.

(43:37):
I honestly I like this game likeart style because this is the
thing I hated when we play Persona 3.
You are seeing like 5 locations,even the dungeon is just
repeating over and over and overand over again.
This game I at least I really appreciate it.
It is much more globetrotting. You're seeing different locales,
different towns, different dungeons.

(44:00):
Monster variety was much higher.I really liked actually
exploring this game because, yeah, Persona, like I, I'm close
to beating Persona 3. I every once while I go back
into it and kind of work on it, but it's just seeing the same
thing over and over again. But in metaphor, no, there's a
lot going on. I do like this game's art style.
I do like this world building. It's a little heavy to get

(44:21):
through, but once it kind of gets going, you understand
what's going on. I think this game did a really
good job. I like to settle things too,
like when you're walking throughtown, you can tell like who's
having heated conversations, who's like.
Oh yeah, the the random bubbles that are appearing.
Yeah. And then also, I know this is
like really silly, but I love when a game shows you when
you're going fast. Yeah, like it does.

(44:43):
Like the little lines behind you?
Yeah, when you're running. Because there are some games
where I can't tell if I'm going fast or not, like Minecraft.
Like Minecraft? So then here's a, here's a
question then. If a game didn't actually
improve your speed but just put those lines, do you think you
would notice then? No, absolutely not.

(45:04):
Absolutely not. But yeah, I did like the art
style. And I will say there's something
about the way that Galica would like shoot her legs out that was
a little funny, too. Did you guys feel like that?
A little bit, yes. Yeah, there's something, there
was something odd there. Oh OK, but I have a complaint
about one thing about the graphics.
So when characters are talking, you obviously see their 3D

(45:26):
models on the screen talking, but there's also like a
cardboard cut out of their face that says the dialogue at the
bottom of the screen and that will change and convey the
emotions. But the 3D models do not change
and convey their emotions. There is one scene where 2
characters are in a heated debate, but their characters are
still that deadpan face looking and just going ba ba ba ba ba.
But it's their portraits at the bottom that are expressing their

(45:48):
emotions that. Always weirds me out.
Yeah, and it's just like he could put a little effort to put
emotions on the 3D models. Yeah.
I agree with that. That really bothers me.
I'm sorry, I feel like I'm beingsuper negative of this game.
Just no, I mean, truthfully, I, I, I won't, I won't even go into
my full thoughts. I just I, I think you're just

(46:10):
looking at it from a realistic standpoint and if there's
nothing wrong with it and this isn't and, and it's funny
because I, I feel like I haven't.
Well, I, I've had my few rants here and there, but overall,
like it's not I, I, I guess I just don't understand what made
everyone rave about this game because to me, but again,
personally, this is just personain a different world.
And I and I that's what I just, I'm I'm struggling to understand

(46:34):
where this is like the this amazing game that everyone is
like so blown away by, I guess. And actually it was it was
astrobot that one game of the year last year.
I just. Remember about this, but I mean,
I got to say I, I, I don't see where you're coming from, Keith,

(46:54):
but I do I I see why, because persona fans like this is
obviously something it's a breath of fresh air for persona
fans, but I, I mean, I see it. I think this game is better than
Astrobot. That's fair.
I I don't I've never even watched a video on Astrobot.
I had no interest in it. It just looked like a
platformer. Yeah, fun little platformer.

(47:15):
Nothing wrong with that, but that's a that's not really
that's a real, real tangent. We don't need to get on.
But yeah, I just. I think it's just, yeah, when
you're like, you sound negative because you're pointing out
things that like, how dare you say a flaw in metaphor.
And it's like, no, it's there's things that the game didn't do
well, you can love so much aboutit, but I think it's realistic

(47:38):
to be like, yeah, there's so many.
Like there's eight different forms of dialogue happening on
the screen. At that point, you have your 3D
model, your 2D model, your, youraudio, your text.
And then sometimes the text in the in the audio don't match up.
And then sometimes there's no audio with the text and you have
to and that's it. It doesn't happen a lot, but it
happens enough that I, I can't stand that.

(47:58):
It's another one of those thingsthat, well, I'm already kind of
like, all right, this is a lot of story.
I'm pretty checking out. Give me 3 different ways to try
to absorb the story, like different mediums in that way.
And now I'm, I'm so, so out of it.
So that's another thing. I did think of something good

(48:21):
about the game The Cat. Oh, you do get to bath it.
Kind of messed me up when I was in the dungeon zone and I
thought that I could go back to where it was and it was like,
no, that's not a room. That's just a cat.
Just the cat. I'm not going to hold against
the cat. It was my own, you know,
inability to listen. Also, I want to correct myself

(48:44):
earlier. I was like, well, yeah, you must
have liked if you put 20 hours into it.
That's not true. Andrew put 20 hours into a game
he hates and like you're becoming.
Like clicker, I wonder how? Many hours you put into that.
And I've told Aaron, I told Aaron in our previous episode,
or it was 2 episodes ago where Iwas like Cookie Clicker, it's
not a buy, Don't get Cookie Clicker.

(49:04):
No, don't. You would buy it though probably
you did have hours you put into it.
Yeah, I already did buy it. You did buy it.
It was 5 bucks. I had credit.
I did not actually spend money. Liz, do not worry.
I did not actually spend money. I had credit.
I, I don't care. I just can't believe that you
that you spend money on it. That's.
Wild. It's because of nostalgia.
It got me with the nostalgia because Keith bought it first.

(49:25):
It's I was like, well, the Keithbought it, I need to buy it.
I can't let Keith get achievements I don't have.
Keith's wife let him get it, whycan't mine?
She doesn't manage my Xbox credits.
I have Xbox credits too. That's that way I didn't have to
ask. But you're the same boat.
You don't like cookie cooker either?

(49:47):
No, it's really not that good. It's not.
Yeah. Compared to other idol games I'm
like, this isn't that very good.Did 1010 it's because you can't
even leave it going with your controller there because your
controller shuts off and then itfreezes and then it doesn't run
in the background until you progress far enough that you
finally unlock it and then you can shut the game off and it
will run in the background. That's a whole lot of work, and
right now I. Do a cookie clicker episode,

(50:08):
Keith. I'm, I'm telling you, it's a
matter of time. It's going to come to to Game
Pass because. I bought it.
That's Cookie Clicker. I'm telling you, I bought it.
It's I I wasted $5.00 of Xbox credit on that.
It is coming to game Pass everyone.
Just you wait. You're welcome.
You're welcome. You get cookie clicker now.

(50:28):
But anyway, the audio, I will say I do like this case of
music. It's it's a bit different.
See, I didn't like it when you went to academia and visited
more that. Music.
Too intense for what was going on.
It was way too much. I think it's funny.
The bow music was always too intense, but I kind of dug it.

(50:49):
You're fighting like literally like it's literally like a
squirrel. But the music, like it's just
like he's saying he's singing inJapanese, but it literally just
sounds like a guy just. It's very intense, yes, it it
really does get to be very intense music, but then it's
also very generic, like JRPG music at points, just very just
like a casual flute in the background.

(51:12):
OK, that's that's very. Called casual flute.
Just casual flute #1. Was this the game with like the
random Scottish accents? Yes.
Yes, it was Scottish, Irish, British.
Yeah, sure. OK, Yeah.
But for me I wish that I didn't do it in English and just had
like the English subtitles. So you wish you did like
original Japanese? Yeah.

(51:33):
Everyone always swears by it. Everyone always says if you do
Persona game always do Japanese.Because you can't so.
This isn't a Persona game, Andrew, This is metaphor.
Don't, I'm sorry. And Atlas RPG.
How about that, Keith? Any Atlas RPG?
You should do that's fine, just it was a Persona game because I
was told it's not a Persona game.
I mean the voice acting wasn't bad, but I just kind of

(51:55):
regretted that I. Yeah, it it, it was kind of
jarring to hear somebody speaking like a Cockney accent.
And it's just like, oh, OK. Like, where did this come from?
I'm glad apparently Scotland exists in this world.
Or, you know, England. But yeah, the soundtrack though,
overall is, is solid. 61 tracks over 2 hours of music in the

(52:16):
plays. Almost every song, every song at
least has over 100,000 downloads.
But a couple of these songs havealmost like half a million
plays. Oh, this one is 1.2 million
plays, 3,000,000 plays. Yeah.
So some of these songs are, are really good.
I'm not going to play them because Aaron and Keith yelled
at me for it. Well, then you play them really
loudly. Yeah, what you did when we were

(52:39):
setting up for the podcast, all of a sudden blaring through my.
Yeah, I scared Liz with it. It was actually pretty funny
fully recorded that but anyway, let's get our final thoughts
here some oh wait achievements. I didn't talk about that.
The achievements are good typical RPG you're obviously
going to have to be playing a lot of this game to get the

(53:00):
achievements. There are a handful that are
missable too, so go through the list and look at them.
Actually, no, I shouldn't say that because there is obviously
a lot of secret achievements that are kind of spoilers, but
the ones that aren't spoilers obviously invisible, so don't
reveal things. Did you say I missed some
because I did the demo? Yes, well, I guess this isn't

(53:20):
much of an issue now for people who are playing Game Pass.
That's the only thing that kind of stunk.
If you played the demo, as I said, to get ahead and like
start playing this game, the achievements didn't carry over.
So Liz, yeah, beat the whole beginning section of going
through the Fort, going through The Cave, getting a follower.
That's like 4 achievements rightthere that she didn't get
because she played the demo. Thanks, Andrew.

(53:41):
Are you really that upset? Liz.
Nice, Andrew. But looking at achievements
Andrew, you got 16 out of 44 with 160 out of 1000 gamer
score. 160 after playing like 28hours.
Yeah, you got four with 40 points and then I got it says 4
with 40, but you told me I missed a couple.
Yeah, but yeah, cheers are bad. So anyway, let's get into our

(54:04):
final thoughts. Like a metaphor refentasia.
I said this is a game. If you're not AJ for G fan, this
will not sway you. It's definitely a slow burn get,
you know, buckled up and, you know, get ready for hitting a
whole lot of a through a whole lot of dialogue.
Once the game finally release the rains, go explore the town

(54:24):
and talk to people, the game started to click with me.
I was like, OK, I'm starting to get this.
But it overall, it really wasn'tuntil I went to the next major
town. That's when the game Foley was
like, I'm having a lot of fun. I like what this is doing, you
know, being able to travel back to towns, doing these other side
quests, bounty hunts. I'm like, this is fun.
I am liking this now. But yeah, it just at that point

(54:46):
though, it's like 10 hours of gameplay and I was like, OK, now
I'm liking it. So you got to be prepared.
I I can see why people absolutely love this game,
especially if you're a persona fan.
This is a no brainer. You're going to absolutely love
this game. But yeah, it's if I had to pick
in turn based RPG, I'm still going to go with clear obscure.

(55:08):
But this is a really good game. 100% see why people had this as
a game of the year last year, but it's not going to be clear
obscure for me. For me, though, this is this is
an 88. I had a lot of fun with it.
The story is relatively generic of kingdoms and Peril, and
you're trying to save it. It does open up more with its
characters and its class systemsand stuff like that.

(55:29):
It's very heavy, kind of confusing up a lot of points, as
I say, with everyone being racist with everybody.
But yeah, it was still I like this world I want.
I'm definitely keep playing this.
So just playing it as I was going through it, I immediately
started to figure out that yes, this is one of those just you

(55:50):
got to get through, you know, 10hours of it.
And I've said it before and I I'll say it again.
That does nothing for me doing making me get 10 hours into a
game before it really starts to open up the reins for me.
Doesn't doesn't do a whole lot. And that's fine for for for you

(56:12):
or and anyone. It is fine for I, I, I don't
want to knock it. It's just I, I, I couldn't not
get behind it. I was starting to.
And for that, maybe I will pick this up a little bit here and
there, but I, there's just so many other games that are coming
to Game pass right now and have come to game Pass along with

(56:36):
this. I'm just like I, I have other
things I'd write, really just rather be doing.
And you know, I'd rather go playanother 35.8 days of bilatro
than another 35 minutes of metaphor probably.
That's probably dramatic, but itstands still.
Give it an 80. But I am I am hanging on to my

(56:56):
pass. I think I was actually going to
give it an 80 and I think it's because of where I'm at now
where I kind of want to give it a less of a score.
But the way they you sound, it gets even better after.
And so I'm kind of like I think 80 is a good middle for me for
now. And also, did you guys want to

(57:19):
know what you gave Persona 3 or you guys are not interested?
If you have it, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Andrew, game with an
85. So you gave this an 88.
Yeah. And then Keith, you did a pass
with a 79 and then I did a game with 89.
So I, I mean, I did like that game more.
I think really, I thought it wasmore interesting.

(57:40):
I like the characters more. See, I think, I think you would
like it if you got to the seconddown because the story of that
one is also way better. But you know, I put like 8 to 10
hours. That's a long time to put.
No, it is. And that's kind of what I'm
saying. Like this.
Unfortunately it takes time to get its teeth into you.
This isn't the type of set up for a game that I like, you know

(58:03):
the time stuff and but looking at Metacritic for Series X, it's
92 from critics and 9 for users,so really high.
Their 4th Co host. No, not all man.
Metacritic. We haven't done that in forever.
Glad to have you back Liz. Which, yeah, so this is back

(58:27):
because from popular demand, a lot of people were asking where
Liz was. So here she is.
She's still alive. No, I made you regret it.
But Liz already knows a handful of games she's doing, especially
with the showcase that happened.What games do you think you're
going to be playing, Liz? So what?
I didn't get to watch the showcase.
I actually really do want to watch it though, because that's
usually what gets me all excitedabout games.
But you told me about Outer Worlds 2 Grounded 2, and what

(58:50):
was the other one you told me? Tony Hawk.
Yeah, I used to play the Tony Hawk skateboarding games when I
was a kid. So I kind of want to, you know,
see how bad I am at that. But I want, I want to actually
watch the showcase and see what's coming out because I
don't know, I've been into gaming lately and I'm kind of
sick of, you know, Stardew and Disney.

(59:11):
For a week, give it a week and then you'll be back into them.
Then you'll be like, Liz, come on the podcast, like, oh, but
I'm really into Disney can have this new event.
Literally, literally, Liz was like, yeah, I'm getting sick of
Dreamite Valley. She's like, I need a new game.
So I was like, all right, you liked Persona, how about this
game? And literally as soon as we
started this podcast, she went back to Disney and I'm like.
I started playing it a lot more and she always needs my help and

(59:33):
I'm mining for her and I'm like oh I wonder where I'm at in my
game so it's not like I just randomly pick it up.
Yeah, this will be making more of an appearance.
We missed having her, especiallywith her.
It's saying names in the chat here.
Come on, Liz, you put up a couple more.
No. I'm good, thank.
You, I mean, you might as well just go ahead and give us that
elephant noise. I mean, you've already you've

(59:56):
already made this an M rated podcast for the night, so you
might as well give us an elephant noise.
Do you know what I think? I think I'll save that for a
game I'm super excited about. Yeah, make sure you listen to
our Age of Empires episode if you want to get the reference of
listener Elephant Noise. But yeah, we'll wrap it up here.
As I said, the beginning episode, make sure go to

(01:00:16):
gamepassgrabag.com. Check out our website, see the
scores of our previous games. It's still a bit of a work in
progress, but overall it's there.
Thank you so much Donnie for whipping it up together.
So make sure you show him some love.
Say thank you to Donnie. But yet you can find our link
tree, link tree slash GBGB to all of our stuff.
Check out our YouTube or Twitch.It would you know, try to have

(01:00:40):
some streams on there. We live record every Wednesday
around 9:00 EST Come join us andour live game like our live
chats here. We always love having people,
but I've been your hardcore gamer host.
You can find me an Xbox Live at Firebirds 0952.
I've been Keith, I put. People are wondering when you're

(01:01:01):
leaving Keith. I know, right?
True. It was kind of funny.
The Discord would be more excited that Liz is coming.
He's like, I'm still here. I've been gone for a couple
episodes. I'll be back in crickets.
That's right. Love you too, guys.
Glad to be here. Liz, you can go.
We love that with you. And I'm Liz, a noob gamertag

(01:01:23):
common. I'm Dean and I'm on Twitter and
Instagram. Atlas noob news is EW.
Glad to have you back, Liz. It's that EWB.
Bye, guys. They take our baby for staying
to sleep the entire time too. Oh we love you all.
We'll see you again next week. Bye bye.