Sea of Stars

Luke and Alex talk Sea of Stars.

Prepare to be transported back to the golden era of turn-based games with Sea of Stars from Sabotage Studios. This episode, we’re diving into this modern classic that pays homage to the JRPGs we all loved. With its captivating art style, a roster of formidable enemies, and dynamic game mechanics, Sea of Stars is more than just a game; it’s a journey through nostalgia and innovation.

Released in 2023, Sea of Stars stands out as a testament to Sabotage Studios' craftsmanship, marrying old-school charm with modern sensibilities. The game's alluring art, challenging puzzles, and pulse-pounding boss battles have already garnered attention in the gaming community, earning it notable accolades.

Navigating the new challenges of fatherhood, Alex and Luke find solace and excitement in the immersive world of Sea of Stars. Between diapers and late-night feedings, they explore the game’s engaging mechanics, like the badge indicating correct inputs - a small but significant touch that adds to the gameplay experience.

But that’s not all! We also reminisce about The Messenger, another hit from Sabotage. Plus, we'll dish out on PlateUp!’s rogue-like cooking adventures and share a hilarious Madden anecdote about relocating the Texans to Anchorage. And don't miss our thoughts on the buzz around the rumored live-action Zelda movie and the enchanting Super Mario Bros. Mario Wonder game.

From the strategic depths of Sea of Stars to the quirky kitchens of PlateUp!, this episode is a wild ride through the gaming landscape, peppered with our personal anecdotes of balancing gaming passions with the demands of parenthood.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by pacifiers – because sometimes, the fiercest warriors (and newest dads) need a little tranquility.

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Low Five Gaming is a Studio Low Five Production.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hello and welcome back.
Here are your two hosts with norust at all or no baby spit up
on any of their clothing.
This is the low five podcast.
My name is Luke Yo what up,luke?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Good to be back.
Did I ever take a break, though, man?
I don't know.
People heard me last month.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, it was an Alden , a live pod.
That was totally recorded theday of and posted.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, how you doing big dog, how you holding up.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Man, I'm good, dude, I'm good.
I'm happy to be doing this.
Like you said, let's see how welook, what kind of form we're
in.
Man, it took a little breakhere, so it's like a beyond
paternity leave.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
I said that's like a like I have a dog.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Your paternity leave.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
People start taking paternity leaves and quit
society, but continue.
That's a real thing.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
People should get paternity leaves.
Man, I love that you shouldlike.
Dogs need that, cats too.
Whatever people need that weneed to be better to our people.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
I mean, that's true, but would you like to explain
why you've been less gamified?
Yes, those who don't follow youon the socials.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
We welcomed our son Elton into the world.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Alex and I were brothers.
We did not welcome his childtogether.
It was him and his wife forclarification.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So yeah, well, you sent some like welcoming texts
and messages.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I welcome him as well , but just to clarify.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yes, luke and I are not lovers, we are brothers.
His children are his own, I amthe uncle and I have now given
him a nephew.
Amongst you know the other, theother titles that Elton
carries- Hell yeah, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
So but yeah, he came early, man, he came early.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
You kind of threw my plans around.
I guess that's a.
That's a thing in the family.
Of course you have twins, sothat's a little bit more
expected.
Elton was to term so like hedidn't come too early or
anything.
He wasn't technically a premiumbaby, but he did come 20 days
early, so he kind of rocked ourworld.
Some of the things I had set upto you know for example,
finishing this game or theoriginal podcast date of it, but

(02:22):
you know that's chill.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
We're still happy to be here.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Low Five Gaming is a book club style podcast where we
, you know we dive into a gameand I'm just going to be honest
with you Sometimes you pick up abook and you do not finish it.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Even though the book was kind of lit.
That's just not the point.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
And sometimes when you gather, you pretend you
finished the book and you seehow far the other person got and
let them carry the load.
And I was curious today if thatwas going to be the case, if
you would have rolled thecredits on this one the night.
Pretend I got further than Idid.
What's that Castlevania gamethat we played?
In about three quarters of theway through the pod I found out
you're halfway through, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
I thought to be fair, I thought I was like four
fifths of the way through.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
I just have an experience with this one man.
I was kind of looking at theblood stain, that's right, great
.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
So this is both a great games.
You, you know we have our.
We joke that we have ourpodcast homework because there's
so many games and we have splitattentions to many things in
life and sometimes other gamesget in the way and then
sometimes you know you havebabies sooner than you thought
you would and the homeworkbecomes staying alive and making

(03:30):
money for little baby tosurvive.
So you still did all yourhomework.
It just changed a little bit.
But hey, we're here for Sea ofStars, which is the second game
from sabotage studios.
Sabotage studios Indie darlingkind of a little template that I

(03:58):
love as far as they came outpreviously with the messenger,
which you have talked about inprevious podcasts and I've
played a little bit of it.
It is a ninja guide and loveletter.
I think is probably thequickest way to explain what it
is, but it's kind of like thatnew era of polished throwback
games and it's really cool, hassuper crunchy music, really fun

(04:19):
art and then this is like a.
They basically made a lot ofmoney on that game and it
appears as if they poured thatmoney into Sea of Stars, which
is another love letter to gamespast, another one of these high
end retro style games, and thistime it is a love letter to
JRPGs.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yes sir, and just to hark back to last month's
episode, my solo debut, I'mtalking about collection stuff.
Man, sure, the messenger, thephysical version of the
messenger, they put it out on aspecial reserve games.
I want to say so it's like alimited run.
There's limited run games, itdoesn't matter.
It's just point is they had asmall run of the physical cards
that that physical cart forswitch dude goes for like 250

(05:01):
bucks.
Wow, wild, I'm like I have adigitally.
I'm not going to buy it forthat amount of coin.
But you know, for those thatare interested in collecting,
keep your eyes out on Sea ofStars, because that is also
getting put out via specialreserve games.
They're not, they're notsponsoring us or anything.
But for those collecting headsthat love this game or like
really curious about this game,snake that shit up, man.

(05:21):
It's going to drop beforeswitch and probably some other
platforms, but I know for surethe switch card is coming early
2024.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
And a part of the reason that I wanted to even
play the messengers, because Iwas enjoying Sea of Stars so
much.
I had heard you talk about itand I just had never gotten
around to picking it up.
But when Sea of Stars wasreleased, the messenger was put
on sale for I want to say like$5, which was an absolute steal.
So it's very cool.
One of the reasons so why whythis game.

(05:50):
It was on Game Pass and itlooked really cool yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Day one.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
I picked it up just before Starfield came out and I
was I was, you know, I wasplaying on it and I was like
this is really fun.
And then, even when I picked upStarfield, for a while I
couldn't even get into it.
So that's when we were decidingwhat the next Pottos be I was
like barely getting intoStarfield.
And then I was the reason oneof the reasons I couldn't get
into it is cause I was grindingon Sea of Stars so hard.
So I was like, hey, this is,this is pretty cool.

(06:18):
I love this retro.
I love just the whole era thatwe're in of studios, just like
looking forward or lookingbackwards, but with modern tools
, and just like kind ofrecreating these original games.
I won't get too deep into thestory because it's it's mostly
JRPG nonsense.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
It's fun though, man, I've heard some.
I've heard a few people on theinternet snap these two soaked
about the story.
But I'm like what do you expect, dude?

Speaker 1 (06:41):
it's.
It's it's like cute and it'slike what I would kind of more
or less expect from like a JRPG.
You know you have like yourchosen ones.
You're like these twins thatare like born of the sun and the
moon or some nonsense like that, and like you're these special
prodigy in this training.
So you got your grumpy OG who'slike the rules you're following

(07:03):
and you have to defeat somesoul reapers or something on a
solstice, you know, like ifyou're confused already, that's
the point.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Like it's just kind of like yeah, we go.
And just like got it.
I think like the most faircritique I've heard of the story
is just that it leans too hardinto like the stories of its
inspiration.
So like Chrono Trigger andstuff like that, Like I think it
mirrors it pretty closely to myunderstanding.
Chrono Trigger is one of mygaming sins.

(07:32):
Man, I've never touched thatgame.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Never played it it's was that a Super Nintendo game?

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yes, sir.
Yeah, it's one of the.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
It's a beloved Super Nintendo JRPG NESs were still
around when I was a kid, likeyou know on what happened, or a
friend might, but Quiteliterally I've seen like one
SNES in the wild and it's likeas an adult.
So I don't feel any guilt youhave one or you have like the
retro.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I bought one.
No, I've got both those, bothof those things, but but I I
needed I don't have, I don'thave a strong cart collection
for the Super Nintendo, but I,you know, we were Sega boys
growing up.
We were.
We were gifted a Sega from aneighbor, so that was the.
That was a platform we got toplay.
Mostly, it's like you said,super Nintendo was.
Majority of that was done ateither family or friends houses,

(08:20):
but it was just like I don'tknow man, like it was, just like
I had Just needed it for thecollection, so I threw it in
there.
It's, it's an amazing system,dude.
It's sexy too.
Like I think it looks good.
Do you think it's a good?

Speaker 1 (08:36):
It's very cool, but I just, you know I don't run into
him.
So the Chrono trigger yes, Iheard that there's a huge
inspiration from that.
For me, what hits closer tohome is more of how it tickles
the childhood of Pokemon likeand Pokemon sister JRPG.
You're running into enemies,you're building up your stats.
It doesn't have that same levelof, obviously, collection and

(08:59):
Customability, but it's it'sstill cool in the stat bases.
One game it reminds me ofheavily that I absolutely adore
is Paper Mario, specifically thethousand-year door, which is
getting a remake, and I'mgetting pretty, pretty ignorant
about that'll be pretty sick,but we can get into that a
little bit.
That's kind of why I chose itas far as it throws back to a

(09:19):
lot of games that I like.
I haven't played a JRPG in areally long time.
I would say it's notnecessarily my niche, but that
doesn't mean that I don'toccasionally like to swim in
those waters.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
So for the same way, man.
I think that you know like Irespect them, but it really
takes, like it's been a long.
I used to be more willing todive into those worlds.
I want to say, you know, likeback back in the back in the day
, but you know, when you get agood one, you know I put like
about 20 hours into Pokemon, red, fire, red A couple months back

(09:50):
, and that's just the thing withlike RPGs, jrpgs in general,
like once they got their hooksin, you Like it could be a lot
of fun and for me it's likethey're definitely they fall
into that comfort food category.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
That's kind of where the Pokemon comes in of.
Just like you kind of know whatyou're doing.
You don't get lost in this game, although bigger in scope, I
think, than I originally.
I want to say it's like a 30,25 to 40 ish hour game.
I'm sure if you're superfocused you could get it done
under 30, but it seems like it'sa 30 to 40 hour game.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
I'm pretty sure that how long the beat says it's 25
ish hours of beat, which meansit's probably more like 35 for
me.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Same, because I checked and you were at like 20
and I was at like 16 to 18 and Iwas like I looked at a guide to
Now's a little over halfwaythere, so it kind of makes sense
, but it is.
I guess the word I would use isit's more compact, which I
thought was really cool, andthat definitely went into my
decision.
It seemed like a streamlinedprocess of, so it's a love
letter, but that doesn't meanthat it didn't take any of what

(10:49):
no longer works in those typesof things.
It definitely trimmed some ofthat.
So Before we move on, I justwant to talk about some some of
my all-time JRPGs.
I mentioned Pokemon and PaperMario, but before we move on, I
did do got to mention FinalFantasy 10 and once again remind
the audience that you're abutthole and you wouldn't let me
use the guide or help me withFinal Fantasy 10 because you're
jealous that I was gonna beat itbefore you, so pretend like you

(11:11):
could read that.
Anyways, bro, that's why Ineeded your help.
You butthole.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
It's like not only do you want the guide, you want me
to read the guide to you.
Come on.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
I.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Was trying to be.
I didn't, I was trying to beatthat game before you.
I could have my little brothercoming in soup and do it all
that extra time.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
So stupid is.
What I remember most is that Icouldn't handle like the chocobo
nonsense.
Therefore I couldn't get likesome super sword for Titus and
then no one needs to hear this.
But if you played that game youmight remember some of that.
It's kind of funny, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
I like I beat it eventually when I that game's
all about the bliss ball anyways, bro.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Dude, we'll get into all time or now we won't rank
them, but this game has a prettycool JRPG side game as well.
But I like turn-based stuff,dude.
I think turn-based stuff isunnecessarily reviled.
I understand why games likeFinal Fantasy have kind of
evolved and Kind of gone awayfrom it.
I understand how peoplecritique turn-based stuff, but,

(12:13):
especially as a dad dude,turn-based stuff is sick.
I'm gonna need to set down hiscontroller.
I'm gonna need to pause, likethis current gen, that one of
the coolest things about it isjust the save state stuff and
how you can just like rest yoursystem and Pick it up in the
middle of whatever you weredoing, right.
So that, combined with likejust loving me a turn-based game

(12:34):
, made this a pretty cool dealTo pick as a game.
And then I know I had a nicemoment where I was hyping this
game up in the discord and Imight have forgotten About that.
So then I played this game forlike a day.
I was like Alex, have you heardabout?
See a star dude?
It's so cool.
And then you definitely didn'tscold me.
So what draw your eye to thisgame before it was selected for
the pod?

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yeah, dude, I mean, you mentioned earlier the
Sabotage games, so like I had myeye on it when, when it got
announced that that they weredropping this, I was, I was all
over it, dude.
I love the messenger, so I wasexcited to see that they're
doing something new and I alsolove the idea of Kind of the
harking back to, you know,pulling from the RPGs of old and

(13:15):
bring it to a new audience andAdding some of that new.
You know it's quality of lifeflavor, is it just like was I
was ready for it.
You know, it's kind of like yousaid, man, we don't play JRPGs
all the time and it's one ofthose things where it's like I
was primed for it.
I knew I knew that I wouldprobably like it because of the
studio and and the art where Ithink I might have saw who knows

(13:37):
if it was a Direct or somethingwhat I saw.
Yeah, it was probably a direct.
They were showing some of thegameplay in our work and it's
just a beautiful game, man.
Like it's got that retro bitlike thing going on the and it's
it's so, it's.
It really, really checks a lotof the boxes For like a game
that's gonna get your boy, alex,excited.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Well, that'll transition us nicely to what we
like about the game.
The first thing I jotted downwas just the art.
Both the character sprites andthe background and environments
are super cool.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I'm not the greatest at explaining these things, but
it's definitely like a high-end,polished version of what you
would have expected, even likeFrom the GameCube with my Paper
Mario thousand year door.
It's like it's very specificart style, hearkening back to
that SNES era kind of thatchrono trigger I'm even though I
haven't played like thosecharacter sprites look a lot
like what I've seen from ChronoTrigger.
Does that feel pretty on base?

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, and I think it like also gives like Chrono,
trigger your final fan likeearly final fantasies, yeah, or
like mid mid, I don't know.
Man, final fantasy got so manygames out there so it's hard to
hit with at the time period, solike Like Super Nintendo era,
era of Final Fantasy sure, kindof the pretty Final Fantasy 10.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
I want to say correct .
And then the art, even like thecharacter designs, like your
enemy designs, like I when I wasplaying today, is a little
refresher.
I Really love the enemy variety.
To like the enemy variety inthe sets and the way that their
moves are animated, like all ofthat is Really diverse
throughout these differentlevels and it's really cool.
And I was like it was kind oflate September, mid late

(15:10):
September getting into Octoberwhen I was playing the heaviest
and I went through like thathaunted like house vibe play.
So yeah, the spirits and likethe vibes there were super cool.
Like I really loved thatthematic level it was a lot of
game all around.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I would say, yeah, I say it's extremely linear, which
I think is another thing thatexcited me about it like I'm in
this stage of life.
That's comforting dude, I mean Ilove being open, an open world
game in an open world, rpg orwhatever.
But like the I, there wassomething refreshing about it
being able to just go figure outlike the maze of the path.
So the, the way that the youknow it's linear, but this game

(15:44):
also encourages you to pokearound a lot where, where you
are, because there's thesewithout getting too far into the
Weeds, is like these cockrainbow conch, like cock shells
that you pick up.
Buck those Dude.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
They're like yeah, no for sure, I feel that, but at
the same time I can, but it'slike aggressive.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, so, like I don't think I've hit that like
mean backtracking Part that likeyou've spoken of, and I've
definitely heard that to be apain point for folks.
But it's also weird because Itook a big break, you know,
because my son was born so Iwasn't like playing all the time
, so I almost had this like rest.
So I feel like I don't know,I'm just not gonna have that
same experience because I said,like I said it down for my own

(16:21):
reasons, whereas, like I haven'thit that burnout that I think a
lot of people are hittingbecause of this.
But yes, so I have 100% heardand hear all the folks saying
that the those shells are a painin the ass.
At the same time, dude, likewith my little collector brain,
like I'm like if I see somethingin the corner, I'm like, oh,
that's probably one of thosedeals, I gotta go figure out how

(16:41):
to get it, and then I'll seeyou spend the next like 15 and
20 minutes Poking around town sofiguring out what angle to like
jump down to whatever level,that things, that, and and then
in the end you get.
You get one of those damnshells, dude, and there's a
further going on those shells.
It's like girl, did you do theone where you you give the kid
who's fishing it like you gethim no and I missed out on it
too.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
I went after you talked about it.
Yeah good fishing mechanic.
By the way, love me is this pod.
Loyalists will know I'm a bigfan of a good fishing mechanic
and every JRPG needs one.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
I understand that so it's a big figure out, yes, but
what's a decent?

Speaker 1 (17:17):
thought it's a fresh, it's cool.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
It's cool.
There's like it's no red headto, but it's pretty.
No, there's like this sparkly,like stream or whatever.
Do you got to like pull yourrod to keep the fish in the
stream and then it pulls up,it's, it's pretty dope and it's
like I'll be addicting andthere's not really much of a
reason to do it Otherwise youother than like flaying the fish
and then you can use them forrecipes, I assume.
Yeah, but there's this.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
I'm not a game, you know in general, yeah, do you
want to do that?
No, that's okay.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
All right, but if you go swimming up the docks and
whatever that town is I can'tremember the end of town right
now but if you go podcasts, it'sall good, he goes swimming deep
enough out there you run intothis boat where this kid and his
dad are fishing, like theytalked to the kid and he saw,
pissed off because he doesn'tlike fishing, and he's like oh
man, my dad won't like, let usbe done until we catch 30 fish.

(18:02):
So you, if you have fishfillets, you can like give them
your fillets.
And you got to get 30, which isno small amount.
So I had to do like two runs togive them all, give them all
the flays he needs and then andthen he ends up giving you one
of these rainbow conscious whichI'm like what?
Because I'm like I'm awarebecause of the internet that

(18:23):
there's a.
They have purpose later.
But where I am right now, right,they don't have purpose.
So so it's like really like oneof those things where you like
put in time, figure these thingsout.
You're like I hope to gatherthere's a payoff on these things
, and it sounds like there is,but it also sounds like I Don't
know.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
We'll see how good I've been about collecting them
all the game Also does have likespecial weapons and things like
that that upgrade your stats.
So I'm always like, ooh, if Igrind on this, I'll get like a
cool new sword and that's likerainbow, and I'm like damn it.
But yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Dude.
I want to give a quick nod tojust the love.
Like I've mentioned that, I'vedefinitely heard some gripes
about this game on theInternet's but overall and
especially in the media thatI've get fed because I get fed a
bunch of video game stuff, sure, but I've seen a bunch of
positive stuff around this gameand how inviting it is.
Like a one article that kind ofI Like saw the other day that

(19:16):
really stuck out was this dude.
He was writing about how thisgame see if stars Open up the
door for his daughter to startplaying video games and jrpgs or
whatever.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Because it is.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Because, you know, because of those things we've
been talking about, because ofthe, the art style, because,
like, the characters Like thatare in and are really fun and
approach.
We haven't even really talkedabout the personalities yet, but
I think they've got really funpersonalities.
It's just like a reallyinviting game and I think,
overall, like I've seen a lot ofdiscourse around this game just
being a super inviting game Forfolks, I've seen, like a lot of

(19:48):
people in my my like Instagramcircles or whatever, a lot of
cozy gamers playing this gamelike it hits the.
It's the gamut.
I think the gamer gamers, thepeople that are like looking for
your chrono trigger orsomething like that, is like
they.
They feel a little bit let downthat it maybe didn't hit that
Crunchiness that they werehoping for.
But you know, go pay, live, alive or something I don't know.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah sure, and I'd say too that, like we've
mentioned the general vibes andthe coziness, the music is a big
part of that music.
Super cool dude.
It's all original compositionand it's just really well done.
And I want to say that themessenger, it's the same thing.
They put a lot of effort intotheir music and that's a big
part of the overall package andit's like it's really cool.

(20:31):
Like I play a lot of games withlike a podcast on, and I still
do that one with this onebecause, as we get more
ingrained with technology, I'mmore of a smooth brain who needs
multiple inputs at all times.
But I love it.
I love the music.
The sound effects are cool,although my favorite thing to do
is transitions us to the activeturn based combat.
I'll add like paper Mario, youput an impote when you do the

(20:54):
moon ring and it bounces off anenemy and bounces back, like I
love to be like hey, hey, babe,it's your favorite thing, cause
it's so obnoxious as it'sbouncing around the screen and
it's making the noise and it'syeah it's for this.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
There's some accessibility features that I'll
bring up right now.
Do you use any of those?
Do you switch any of them on?

Speaker 1 (21:10):
No, not, I think there's like there's a little
badge thing, so like it shows mewhen I did the input correctly
for like yeah, that thing.
I think that's cool.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
That's the only one that I keep on as well, and it's
the other ones, don't they?
They do, yeah.
So I mean they can make thegame a little easier but they
might, like you know, kind ofthey might nerf another boom or
something like that.
So it's interesting stuff, butthat one in particular, like I
definitely it did maybe help mefind my cause.
The whole point of it is itshows you when you hit the
perfect response.
So it's very like paper Mario.

(21:38):
When you're in that combat,like it's, a timing thing
becomes a time based, likealmost rhythm feature of the
game.
Right, so like this, what itdoes is like this star sprite
that like a shooting star likeshoots up whenever you hit it
correctly and it like triggersthe fact that, like you've,
you've hit that rhythm correctlyand I keep it on.
I don't even know how much itactually helped me learn the
timing, I just think it lookspretty.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Looks pretty and also like sometimes you're like
where am I, why am I justgetting owned?
And you're like it does help mefind the timing.
And also you know, just likepaper Mario, when you're getting
attacked, you got to time itpretty well.
And that gets pretty trickybecause I'm a little bit of a
little bit of a spaz on that one.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
I'm always like yeah, that also speaks to like the
nice variety of the you know onenear attacks and to the enemies
in the game, because thathappens to me too, man, like I
can get in a pretty good flow oncertain baddies, like I know
what their attacks like, likethe bubble drop like when you
know that attack, yeah, but see,like I know when that one's

(22:38):
going to hurt me, so like.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
I can tell you I might not have all the time.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
But you know everybody's got different one.
There's different attacks, thatI still have no idea what the
timing is.
So Right.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
I would say.
Another really cool thing isthat.
So the combat overall.
It helps it keep it freshbetter than a lot of games.
I would say that the bossbattles, too, are really, really
cool.
Like I'm super into thematicboss battles and the different
things you got to do.
I haven't died too many times,like it's not too hard, but you
can mess up and slip up.
And you got to like switchbetween your party.

(23:09):
Probably should have mentionedthat.
You know it's a typical partysystem game, but it's pretty
easy to get to the hang of it.
It's pretty cool.
You do different combos withone another, so I like it a lot.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, and we were.
So we were just speaking to therhythm Paper Mario aspect, to
the turn based combat.
But another big part of thisgame and I'm pretty sure it's
like a chrono trigger, not tothat or whatever, but the
there's basically you get thebaddies and then it'll show you
a series of different attacksthat will essentially make it so
that they'll lose a turn orlike yeah, there's a special

(23:42):
attack, pretty much Right.
So I like that a lot.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
It's a little puzzle you got to figure out.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, so you hit the right sequences you got to.
Like it starts.
It just forces you to be alittle bit more strategic about
how you're, how you're goingabout the battle.
It's good, man.
Like I think it's really fun,like it really.
You know, every time you go init's not Whereas you brought up
like I mean granted, this is along time ago, but like the
original Pokemon, game Boy gameslike you can just go in there
and, essentially, if you have,you know, an attack that's

(24:07):
strong enough and a Pokemonthat's strong enough, you just
like you.
Just the grind is basically justattack, attack, attack, attack.
Whereas a game like this itforces you to think about OK,
should I use some sort of shieldhere?
Should I be getting one of myother you know, parties, then my
party members some food or likeshould I be like bumping up
someone's like mana or whatever?
It's just cool, man.

(24:28):
Like every time that I go intoa battle, like it's like a
little puzzle and I like that,as opposed to just like the
grind of like all right, justgot to tear this one down.
Like it makes it fun.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, and they also pace the battles pretty well.
It's not like in the modern eralike the grindy stuff gets just
routinely destroyed criticallyRight.
So I would say they did apretty good job of there's a
nice balance of battles, it'snot too much.
I like the way that you explorethe environment.
It's not like the diorama stylequite that you see being really
popular right now, but it'spretty close where, like you're

(25:02):
walking over tightrope bridgesand you're scaling mountains and
stuff and it's just the way.
It just looks super cute theway that you're going through it
.
And some of the inputs are kindof satisfying, like your little
grappling hook, your littlegust push.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
And it encourages you to interact with the
environment too.
You know, because you have tolike you're not just like moving
, you're not just walkingthrough it Like you can you act
to jump up to the ledge or, youknow, shoot the grappling hook.
So I think that is cool.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
And the cooking.
How cute is the art for thecooking dude.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
How you hold on to it and it slowly progresses and
kind of shows you the process ofdoing the cooking.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
I just thought that was like aesthetically intensely
pleasing and very cute.
It is cool.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
The more complex the the more complex the recipe like
, the longer it will take to.
It's just kind of fun, thethings like that it's.
It's intensely pleasing andwholesome.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
I can't really explain other than that just to
see the little like clay brickoven thing that they're like
cooking in and the little likeit getting prepared and it's the
art they chose to use there isreally really cute.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, and then this is like speaks to the layers of
the game too, because you startto learn more recipes, like you
find recipes out in the wild,that kind of thing.
Like it's on surface level, itseems like it's maybe not the
deepest thing, but then, like,when you start to peel back the
layers, you're like shit.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
There's a lot going on with this game, which is our
great introduction to wheels, aspectacular turn-based mini game
within the game Dude.
I still not entirely sure howto play wheels, but I love it.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
I don't know at all, but I like it too.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
And you when you're into a new area you have to like
challenge the person at thetable to get like a new person.
So this is all pretty standard.
It's an old Blitzball which Iguess people all think of
differently, but it was great.
It's all fanatics over here.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
I love pro.
Where does a pro Blitzball pod?

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Pro Blitzball pod, but wheels, I think better than
Gwent, I think we can say thatDude, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Gwent is king, gwent is trash.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Let's just move on from there.
Yeah, and then I don't know howI haven't just erupted thus far
, but Gar is the best, cutestcharacter of all time.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
So Gar, I think it's just.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Gar, isn't it, or is it?
Garrel Got an L at the end ofhis name.
Pretty sure Garrel is just aking and I love him.
He's great dude.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
He's a little some.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, pirate chef.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
He's incredibly wholesome and like the I think
we mentioned at the head.
We're not going to get too intothe story, so I don't think we
have to do much of that, butlike I do think that Garrel
makes this story.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, and he's not one of the chosen one.
He's just your best friend whowaits for you and you know
everyone tells him he can't.
But he's just too You're anoptimistic to be held down and
you know what.
We all need a little bit moreGarrel in our lives.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
So there.
So how many playable charactershave you unlocked?
I've got, I've gotten up tofour.
I think there's six in four.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, I know there's more, but it's just, you know, a
mysterious pirate lady who'snot the pirate lady.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
I know that's like a spoiler.
That is not a spoiler becauseit's so obvious in the game and
that becomes like a fun joke inthe game too, Like when when she
does like, reveals dude, it'sso great.
She like tells them and thenlike Valerie and Zale, who are
the two souls as warriors, Ithink it's.
I don't remember which one ofthem, but they're like yeah, we
know, yeah, we know for a longtime, but you know the point is

(28:10):
is like you're a good guy andyou're hanging with us, so like
that's all we care about.
It's all love dogs, so but thatis, I think, that like from my
understanding, because, like,I'm right around the part, I
just finished the Vespirin part,so, like the pirate ship
business, I'm just yeah, thatwas, that was a cool section.

(28:30):
So I'm just beyond that now andas far as, like, you're
starting to like learn that, andthat's another thing that I
think of Testament too.
The story of this game thatwe're not going to talk about is
it has layers of itself.
Once you have an idea of what'shappening, like they start to
introduce new elements that arelike OK, interesting and the
Geese on movement is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
It's like a trope based in a good way, so like
it's a little obvious.
It's like definitely, onceagain, it's not trying to be
like blow your mind withcraziness, but it's just like
it's very much a love letter toget past, totally Anything you
don't particularly care for.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Hmm, no man, it's a full send for me, I think, like
the, but that is that saidwithout finishing the game.
Like I mentioned, I know I'mwell aware of the, this
backtracking pain point thatfolks have.
I don't think I've hit thatquite yet, or maybe it's just
because, like, I didn't mindgoing backwards to a couple of
things because I took a longbreak.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
There was one section I thought was egregious, but at
the end of the day it was fine.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah, I think it's a it's.
Yeah, I don't know, I thinkit's one of those things.
Man, I think like this is arecurring theme on our pod, but
we just have so many games todaythat you know it's.
It can be annoying to us when agame commands more of our time,
when we were like I just wantto move on, whereas, like, if
you are, I think this game liketotally presents itself as like

(29:56):
getting sucked into its world.
And I don't.
I don't think it's rushed, Idon't think it's drawn out too
far yet.
But, that said, according tothis guide, I was looking at it.
I'm about halfway through.
So, you know, maybe I'll have adifferent take in our in the
inside question next month.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah it.
Um, I don't want to say Idragged on, but like I just got
distracted and it's hard, likewhenever I booted up.
I'm always happy that I do, butI always like get drawn into
more addictive games and I'mjust too scattershot to really
fully invest.
And then I should have, when itwas going hot, I should have
just leaned into it and then Iwould have been done by now.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
So I have a little bit of guilt there but I truly
enjoyed it all.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
I have it on game pass.
So like obviously, if you havegame pass and you have the time
for it, full send If it goes onsale, like I actually like have
some people I know that I'm likejust play this game, buy it, do
it Sure dollars less, like youneed to do it and For me I'm
actually contemplating gettingrid of game pass.
So like I kind of want to beatthis before I do that.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
So right on.
Yeah, I would like to, justbecause I have.
I'm so like far enough in itwhere I don't want to like start
over right yet.
I also want to be that on gamepass.
But that said, I'm 100% gonnaget the physical copy for switch
.
So it's, I would like this gameto be in my collection.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Just so you can sell it for 250 dollars.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
I do.
You got to listen to my Podcast.
I collected again, I did, I'msure I'm sure you did.
You had early access to youknow, like here's the deal, like
I love it and I love likeseeing the value of certain
things, but at the same time,like I'm never gonna sell me
this shit, dude.
Yeah, what do you think them?
Bro?

(31:35):
Should we take a little breakand hear from our on-station
sponsor?

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
As you know, I'm a new dad, you're a dad and you
know who's our on.
Special sponsor of the month.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Who would that be?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
sponsoring all these new dads out here.
Pacifiers, bro Nooks nookspassies.
Whatever you want to call themsuffer your rave children.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's weird.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Hey man, they're making it, they're soothing your
mood, they're making you happyat the rave.
I'm all for it, I'm a hundredpercent full send.
Put that past fire in yourmouth.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
I would also like to shout out miss Rachel, the only
reason I was allowed to poop anddo things when I'm watching the
boys.
She's a YouTube star, if you'renot aware she's.
She's an icon, so also apacifiers.
And miss Rachel for allowingparents to poop That'll that'll
help you later down the road.
Your baby don't care about missRachel yet but he will.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
This is a heavy daddy gamer sponsorship.
I'll tell you what heavy dadsdude, dude, I don't know what it
is.
Oh man, like there's thisdiscourse out there that, like,
don't use pacifiers as like athing.
I don't even know where Ipicked that up.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
There's some dental ramifications if they haven't
too long and you also got to getrid of them eventually.
So if you don't want to do that, find a different way to pacify
your child.
But if you're like the rest ofus, just sweet, sweet pacifiers
dude, if that's a didn't have abad fire he does.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
you suck him out his hands anyways.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
This is also true.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
So I'm like whatever, bro, get those hands out of
your mouth.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
As a teacher, I say as a teacher I do run into kids
who still suck on their thumbs.
Occasionally I'm like hey, stopthat.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
I'm gonna be back on teeth full on fist for my boy
man.
He's probably he's got.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
He's got big old hands too.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Mm-hmm long thingies.
We're gonna fill out though manthree pounds since birth.
Wow shoot 97 percentile forheight.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Shouts out to booby milk as well.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Booby milk be doing it for him, our little milk
monster.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Well, alright, dude, this unsanctioned sponsors is
parents surviving and babies bein chill.
Yes, that's a pacifier, fast,miss Rachel it.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Or if you're a kid or a raven dull that just wants to
do the pacifier thing, hey, youknow, if it stops you from
grinding your teeth to take itall that, molly go for it.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
It's not my life, but you know what go for it live
your life.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Live your life, people.
That's what it's about.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Yeah, be safe, but also sure.
Yeah, you push some boundariesif you want a little bit you
know that's fun what are yougonna do Back to a regularly
scheduled program, all righttime for some side quests in.

(34:34):
So the first question is canAlex even play games?
How does one even side quest?
What have you been up to?

Speaker 2 (34:40):
I'm Doug.
I've been starting to play moregames now, but no, when I, when
, when the little boys firstboard, I was like I was also
working a lot.
Unfortunately, I just had tomanage both those things slash,
fortunately at the same timetablet sword, but yeah, dude.
So I was like I was likefalling on on on Starfield,

(35:02):
falling on on On the sea ofstars there for a bit.
I have not picked up Starfieldsince my boy was born and it's
not even because I like I stillenjoy that game.
I think it's dope, but it's.
It's just such a big, vast,crazy game that like I have
anxiety about jumping back in.

(35:22):
It was just stupid like.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
But it's a long time to get comfortable.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
The criticisms of the game, like at first when you
start playing, I know you aresuper gung-ho, and then I feel
like the criticisms like youwere like fuck, those people are
unreasonable.
And then they slowly caught upwith you.
I struggled for like the firstfive hours to understand and be
fluid in the world I thinkthat's the best way to put.
It is like it's intensely notfluid and that kind of drives me

(35:50):
nuts.
The loading screen thing isreal and like on a nice system.
It's not like the longest way,it's just very clunky and you
don't feel free and you feellike there's so much that you
don't even know where to go.
So if you can find purpose,it's a really fun game.
I accidentally got caughtsmuggling contraband into and I
didn't even know I hadcontraband on my ship, like I

(36:10):
literally thought I was beingframed.
But then that got me caught upin this whole like faction quest
between the I was at theCrimson Fleet, yep, and like the
space Marines whatever theirnarc asses are called and I do.
That mission has been reallycool, digging up dirt on one and
being kind of a double agent.

(36:30):
I've actually really liked that.
But it leads into another superannoying thing in the game,
which is that I want to smugglewhile I have access to the
Crimson Fleet.
I want, I want to be a smuggler, make some money, but when you
go to upgrade your ship youcan't buy parts unless you have
a certain like they're lockedbehind Abilities that are like
super deep into the ability treeand I'm like you need me to
play for how many hours before Ican unlock the ability to more

(36:53):
accurately store my cargo?
Like I have the money, so thegame's just like riddled with
design choices where I'm likethis is not cool.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
It bugs me because I'll be stealing ships and then
you like the same thing thatconsider your ship contraband If
you go into a star system thatyou know.
And that scans you, but you cango and pay to get the ship
registered If you like.
Know if you'd like to navigatesomewhere that's not being
handled by whatever thosefuckers are called the FCC.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Cyberpunk City.
What's that one called neon orwhatever.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, I don't even know if neon neon might actually
stand you too, man, but the but.
But it cost.
It costs hella money.
So like the whole idea is likeI wanted to steal cool ships,
maybe keep some, maybe, you know, sell some, but you can only
sell them after you pay the feeto like register the ship.
It's not worth it, but you know.
So, even though we're talkingabout it not really a side
question, mind, because I thinkthe the like idea that if I pick

(37:48):
this thing up, like I would, Iwould want to spend a chunk of
time to get Immersed into thatworld again and I just haven't
had it in me.
I need to play games that, orI've just chosen the game, the
little game that I have.
I've chosen games that aren'tquite as immersive as as
Starfield.
So I have picked up not notnearly a month hours as you, bro
, but I did get to play in somesleigh.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
We're school finally indoctrinated.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
It's been cool, man.
It's a for a turn-based gameand for a very like passive,
like.
That is fun, dude.
It's that one.
That one is cool.
I, like I said, I've got about300 hours before I can really
talk to you about it, but I'mnot there yet.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
I might be like in the neighborhood, but I'm not
there yet.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
You're pretty well on your way, man.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Shut up.
250 isn't that big of a deal.
It's like.
It's like neighborhood of sieve.
It's getting like at this pointin time.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
The.
My major gaming side quest,though, is a game called plate
up.
It's a.
It's a really cool rogue likecooking game, kind of like
Overcooked I would say it'sprobably it's its strongest
partner in in game likeness.
But that was that was hooked upby the homie, isaiah, and good
ups, thanks, isaiah.

(38:59):
That was that game actuallypulled me back in the game I
hadn't played at all.
I just like didn't have, didn'thave an in me with everything
going on, and then I started onthe on the steam deck.
I had just like little spurtsat night where it's like the
baby was down and I wasn't quiteready to go to bed, so I'd pick
that up and I would do thesecooking runs.
Man, and plate up is dope.
So everybody, keep your keepyour eye on it because it is

(39:20):
coming to council.
They had a plan for late lastmonth, but they, you know, is
development shit, so they, theypush that back.
It is available on steam.
I like overcooked it is.
You can play up with fourpeople.
So like, basically, what you dois you own this, you own a
restaurant and you're trying tomake that restaurant work, and
you've got these, these runsthat you go on and you take care

(39:41):
of your customers.
You cook whatever the item isthat you're working on at that
point in time.
You just build up and like keepupgrading your restaurant over
the amount of these days, but ifyou miss a table or if you get
a dust, just disgruntled table,it kills your run and so it's
super addicting runs, dude, andit's it's like it's pretty cool.
It's like have you ever Try the?
It's got like kind of a coolanimation.

(40:01):
It's like kind of that roundedlike you know, like the Life
bags from the game of life kindof looks like a chunky, chunky
version of that.
Like it's or like I don't knowif you ever play human fall flat
like similar, there'ssimilarities, but it's more of a
top-down Deal.
It's.
It's fun though, dude, and it'slike I said, it's a rogue.
Like these runs are ridiculous.
You get you get yourself makingthese pizzas and then you get

(40:24):
it gets it, layers it right, soit's like pretty simple at first
, like it make cheese pizzas,then I'll introduce more recipes
to you.
So you start like having to domore prep work and stuff.
It's hard, man, like it's.
You know I can get about five,six, seven days in with the food
items, the steaks, the pizzas,some of the other stuff that I'm
able to Cook now soundsintensely stressful.
Dude.
But it is so funny because,because I am, I do work

(40:46):
part-time in the serviceindustry.
It's like so funny that I wastaking like Continue, yeah, in
the industry dope.
And Isaiah's definitely.
He's a cook dude, so it's sofunny that I got this cook being
like dude.
You play this game.
Basically Ridiculousness of ourof the service industry.
But it's a great game, man.
I'm looking forward to come.
Coming to council, I tweeted atthem and they say they assure

(41:09):
me that it is coming, they justneed a little bit more time and
it will likely drop a game passthere saying to.
So that's cool too, man.
If you don't drop game passwe'll.
We'll get some runs going, shit.
I don't know, I might even makea game of the month, so maybe
I'll just gift it to you becauseI say gifted it to me.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
There we go.
What's the general price shegoes for?

Speaker 2 (41:28):
20 bucks full price.
But they've seen some nice like50% of sales already.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
So That'd be reasonable dude is worth it.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
20 bucks, bro.
It's full send on this game.
Like it's great.
I'm super excited to see whereit goes and I haven't done any
of the multiplayer yet, likeI've just been super like having
fun with it by myself of.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Obviously the spire, did you view?

Speaker 2 (41:49):
unlocked all four characters, yet oh, there's only
four characters, yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
I mean on the PC, it's like a whole different
world with different updates,but also like a lot of mods.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
But you have yeah, characters, yeah, the last one
is to do with the orbs, right.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Nope, so you have the three characters the last one
is the lady.
She's the watch.
She's the watcher.
Do you have a favorite of thethree?

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Yeah, I like the orb dude.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Orbs dude school.
The defect he's a little bitmore not niche, but you gotta do
some specific stuff with himbut yeah, I like his moveset
like I don't know, it's the orbstuff school.
I figured you would have beenthe sorority guy ironclad, if I
would have pegged you for him.
He's definitely the easiest toacclimate to, in my opinion.
So I'm a little surprised.

(42:33):
But look at you.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Mm-hmm, just to move and evolve a dude, have you be
act three yet?
No, I don't think so Okay.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
It's hard and actually takes a while, and then
there's just a whole anotherlayer open.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
In fact I know I have not, I've only, I've only
gotten to act.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Two Well, my first game is Starfield, so do you.
If you want to talk more aboutStarfield, you're certainly
welcome to, but I Let me see thereal quick.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
I also picked up Mario Strikers.
That games harder than.
I thought it would be dude.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah, it seemed mostly online focused, so that's
the reason I never picked it up.
It looked really cool, but itseemed like it was made to be
played almost entirely online.
Is that?
Is that the fact?

Speaker 2 (43:11):
I don't know, I think no, I think it's like you can
definitely play against thecomputers.
I can see where online makewill probably be the most fun
for folks, so I mean, does ithave like a story mode or like
different challenges?

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Is it like Mario Golf , where it's good but a massive
disappointment?

Speaker 2 (43:25):
No, it's more gameplay focused than the story.
I think like I haven't, Ihaven't spent too much time on
it.
It has a grueling tutorial,dude.
So like I like didn't evenfinish a tutorial because it's
so long, and then I was like I'mjust gonna play some, like you
know, exhibition games, and thenI got my ass whipped.
I'm like, oh, maybe I shouldfinish the tutorial.
So I want to bring that one upbecause that one is, and that

(43:46):
one is like a cool game thatI've had my eye on for a while.
And then the the physical, wenton sale, pretty a pretty deep
discount.
So I was like, okay, it's time,dude, it was like half off,
which is pretty cool forphysical.
I know right, yeah, that soundsmy right.
It's pretty close to worth.
Or, yeah, 30 dude and thenother outside the gaming world.
Oh, I've been watching a lot ofshows because that's easy to

(44:09):
watch shows with the baby whenhe's when he's nap trapped you,
yeah.
In addition that I've alsostarted a doctor, making him
into Star Wars, so we've watchedepisodes one, two, three and
four together, which means I'vewatched him.
He's just kind of assimilated.
And, and the wife, he hasstarted picked up the picked up

(44:30):
the cues on that one.
She started them on the HarryPotter series and I think he's
gone through, like May or maybeone through three of those
already.
Do these?
He's getting it in, I.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Dropped off hard, like as kids we were both really
, even though you weren't reallya kid.
You're more in the high schoolrange like really hardcore Harry
Potter fan and then Over timeI've just deeply fallen off and
like it's only grown to likeDisney adult status.
But for friggin Harry Potterland.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
I mean, you say I was a.
I used to say I was in highschool, but when I have the book
first dropped, dude, I wasdefinitely in grade school.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Yeah, or like early middle school, but like even
like a burn, because those bookslike become more mature as you
mature, so like.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I think the last book dropped when I was in college.
So yeah, it's a big chunk of achunk of my life.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
You're right, but so for me?
I was thinking about it and Ireally have not cared.
Jk Rowling.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah, her personal antics aside.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
I Simply just kind of fell off when they started
making the movies.
I just you know, if you maketoo many movies, I just I just
drop out entirely, and theMarvel universe is another
example of that.
But so then, yeah, like I wasreally into it, but then I was
talking to a buddy about, likeTyler, friend of the pod.
He's talking about how he'sgonna want to model reading, cuz
he never liked reading thatmuch, but he wants his daughter

(45:47):
to be really into it.
Time work, dad stuff.
We've just go full, dad pod.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Read to my son last night yeah, there we go, I'm
gonna muscle them.
Not so, didn't there?
And and I was just thinking Iwas going on, but he was chill
about it the world building,harry Potter and like Star Wars.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
They're like very simple stories but just the
world building is really fun forlittle kids so.
I'll definitely drop my toocool for school attitude when
the boys get a little older andlet them enjoy the throws of
Harry Potter and Star Wars likeit.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
The other one is a series though.
I finished a morning showPhenomenal I think it was.
Like it's on Apple TV.
It's great there's.
Season 3 is the best season ofall three of them Dude it's.
It's a lot of fun.
Basically I won't.
I won't go to and into that one, but that that was a great
series in my opinion.
And Loki bro, I finished up.
Loki, I know you just saidyou're off the Mario or the

(46:38):
Mario you're off the Marvel tip,but Loki do it is dope.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Five to six years behind on Marvel.
So at this point I think I'mgood this one's this one?

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Yeah, no, for sure, this one is interesting.
I'm not gonna do any.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna avoid anymajor spoilers here and just say
, good that it is Aside enoughfrom it's.
It's not.
It's adjacent, obviously,because it's in the universe,
but it's aside from all theother stories that have been
going on Within Marvel and itkicks off something new.

(47:11):
So it could be, this could be amajor, and it's apparently
being based off of a similar runthat recently has been Quite
loved in the comic books.
Around the same, the same deal,but it essentially kicks off
and you know, multiverse shit,so many, all the verses.
It's you this endless content.

(47:32):
There's this genius of thesefucking companies.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Yeah, I think they also like spread themselves.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Oh yeah, dude, it's not working.
I mean to your, to your pointwith the Marvel stuff, like I
think, overall it's not, it'snot as sustainable to do it for
movies.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
But you know they got a few hits.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
All right man.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
When we were playing see a star, as I mentioned, it
was getting in the way of megetting into Starfield and then
I finally got into Starfield andthen I got in the way of my Sea
of Stars.
I already kind of railed on it,slash, talked about how I did
really appreciate it, because itis super cool, it's just also
super.
Finish it and not smoothStarfield.
No, okay, and I feel like I'lltry it again, like maybe next
year, or like when I have a lullof games and it's like on sale

(48:14):
on something, I'll buy itactually, and then just like
maybe, because I think like it'sa game, that I can see them
like adding quality or lifestuff to it over the years and
like.
DLC things and like Reallyfixing some of the things that
make it kind of boring, but it'sso vast it just makes me think
of like they were so ambitiousthat it kind of got in their way
and it really makes youappreciate like people make fun

(48:36):
of like Bethesda forre-releasing Skyrim for so many
years and I'm like that game wasso good, yeah, like like the
replay abilities insane and likehow you go into these dungeons
and they're not always superunique, but they're like they
give you some pretty uniquevibes a lot, even if there's a
lot of reused assets and thenlike Starfield Kind of got in
trouble for you know, reusingstuff and making things just

(48:58):
feel kind of blah and empty.
But also it does give you asense of wonder.
So it is really cool and thereis possible levels of Things to
do and the gunplay can begratifying.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
So like I do think I'll try to go back, but but I'm
also not a big first-personshooter fan typically, so it's
like I don't have.
You know, it's not like I'mlike.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
I like enough.
The dialogue stuff I think canbe good.
All this gate isn't really on asystem I can play just yet and
it's nowhere in that category,but like I kind of like when you
can talk yourself out ofsituations and do different
things like that.
They does an okay job ofdifferent things like that, so I
like it, it's good.
But like when someone says it'slike a seven out of ten, that
feels pretty fair.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
But then Madden, you know, you've been fired a madden
again, bro.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh god, yeah, yeah so I refuse, I refuse to pay full
price for Madden.
But there was like a pre Amazonjust had like that two-day sale
in the middle of October.
Sure like a pre-amazon day saleor whatever.
So it was like another is theonly physical copies I own on
the Xbox or Madden yeah, dude,digitally they don't go on sale

(50:07):
or they didn't.
But I could get physical copyfor like half off.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
So I was like, yeah, yes that's what I did with 2k
and I did.
I can't even hate on you,because come Black Friday
Thanksgiving time I'll probablyscoop the new 2k yeah and it's
cool, right, it's like it's fun.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
They did not make any great improvements really to
the modes that I play oranything really, so it's once
again Infuriating, but also likeI know what I want and it's
okay that I spend $40 to getaccess to my crack cocaine.
Sweet, sweet heroin whateveryou want to call it, because
Madden is forever cool.
To take a team and build a teamover time and get your players

(50:43):
better that gameplay loop.
I'm just super addicted to Funtimes, though.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Are you playing as man, the T-Swifts oh?

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Oh, dude, I wish that's.
That should be our ownsanctioned sponsor.
Love Taylor Swift and Travis.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Oh, you want, you want to put this at a time
capsule dude Travis Kelsey downin Argentina changing lyrics for
man oh, heart melting.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
And the internet discourse that's dissing them.
You know, just enjoy life alittle bit, man.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Do get out of here the sportsman.
Like fuck this guy, we'rebringing husband and wife.
I'm sure he's working out onthere.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
We're uniting so many people in the world with their
love that I'm here for it.
No, dude, so they're cute dude,I can't even lie.
Yeah, no, dude, travis is sohot anyway.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
His brother.
His brother wasn't the runningfor people magazines hottest
person the year.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
I can see that as, like Jason Kelsey's, got some
daddy vibes for you got thedaddy vibes.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
He was he's.
He responded to it, though he'slike what the hell?

Speaker 1 (51:43):
that's crazy, like I'm not even the hottest guy in
my family but anyway, I DecidedI was tired of playing as the
Vikings all the time.
I've done that the last fewyears in a row, where I just
make them good over time.
So I took a team and I had, Italked with some buddies and I
was like what team is the mostreplaceable team in the league?
So I had to think about likewhat like.

(52:05):
So I took the Houston Texans,because their logo sucks Raiders
right now.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
But yeah, but being in.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Vegas.
That's cool, like they'reclassic jerseys, so like you
don't want your league to nothave the Raiders, but like I've
never looked at the Texans logoand been like this is cool and
you know, everybody knows it'sall Dallas in Texas.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
The Texans are second-class citizens in their
own state.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
So I moved them to drumroll Anchorage Alaska.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
I'm sure the pale Big fan base the reason I chose to.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
So.
In this version of man youcan't create teams.
You choose from a bunch ofpresets.
Okay and one of them is thelumberjacks, and there's a plaid
design on the back of thehelmet.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
I was like let's go dude.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
So I was gonna move to like, I think, literally
Argentina or Hawaii.
And then none of the logosreally matched up.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
They looked like high school team logos and I think
I'll let you bring a team Out ofthis, out of the United States.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Yeah, there's a bunch of options like that, like you
can be in, like Tokyo, I'd be noGermany.
So I chose Anchorage because itfit with the logo the best.
Yeah yeah, so the Anchoragelumberjacks and it's pretty dope
dude, I love it, you pack thatstadium, or what oh yeah, I yeah
, and fans are rabid.
They got nothing better to do.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
There's doing.
New Madden still allow you tochange the pricing of the
concessions and all that kind ofshit to make money.
Yeah, it's a really bad featurethat they Do why why did they
put a business simulator in thatgame to begin with?

Speaker 1 (53:33):
and if they do, they should make it better, cuz, like
I'm not gonna get it in thenitty-gritty, no one's here to
hear about how the salary capand bonus structure can
eventually bone you over in the.
But that's yeah game flawed.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
They need to.
Let me make a game as long aswe were sprinkling in a whole
bunch of things to date thispodcast.
When be mania, dude fucking a,haven't been his first man for
just lost to the Timberwolveswho kid dude.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
I know he's had a couple duty at a like his first
dude.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
He had his first five games.
He was on fire.
He's that a couple rough onesand one against the Timberwolves
, and we won our last five athome.
But I love it.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
I need you to also Google chat home.
Grin cuz he's only a little bitshorter and he's a Minnesota
white boy and he's also a gangly, strange, odd-looking player
who can do a bunch of swaggerstuff like 19.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
He's.
I can't believe it.
He's 19 year old boys.
I'm so old now that I'm likeholy shit, they're so little.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Sometimes I'm playing fancy football.
I'm like this dude's washed,like he's been in league for way
too long, like he's gonna falloff any day now.
And then I look at his age.
I'm like he is younger than me.
All right, do it.
I bring up.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
I bring a wimmy though, because it is pure 99,
like maybe 2009, 2000, what wasthe first PC and be live game
ahead.
But he is like the spin imageof maybe 20 thinner with stuff.
Yeah, he's probably thinner,Dude.
I used to make him beefier andstronger, but he's got a couple
years.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
That was my deal with the creative player man.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Yeah, I create a player and that's like that's
what when it is Dude, it's likesomeone create a player and drop
them in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
It's pretty funny that his reach Metaphorically,
not his physical reach, which ispterodactyl esque, but like his
reach to get like you're notYou're not like a basketball
casual, but you're pretty,pretty strong casual, like
you're not super in it, so likethe fact that like you're all
excited about it and likepeople's great Don't follow the

(55:23):
league, or pretty like I'm surehe's huge on social media Just
because he's so wild to watch.
So I think that's pretty coolslash, interesting to see.
But anyway my last game which,if you would have bought it, we
should have made it the pod.
But you know, wait on it for alittle bit.
Mario wonder fun game dude.
It's the mushroom trip of agame dude.
Have you watched any gameplayor listen anything about it?

Speaker 2 (55:44):
No, I'm pretty fresh on it, dude.
I know that I know people, Ilove it and I know it's the
fastest selling 2d Mario game Ofall time, according to Nintendo
.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Yeah, it's the post Nintendo Mario movie.
Glow up for sure.
They made this one like insecret, which is classic
Nintendo, just not even lettingyou know.
They're cooking up straightfire and they just kind of
dropped it within the same year.
They announced it and it's it'syour.
It's the rebirth of anotherrebirth of their 2d format.
It makes me think about thenext Mario maker a lot and how
you can choose the wonder andthat'll be fun.
But basically in the middle ofevery level you have like this

(56:17):
wonder thing that pops off likesome trippy stuff, so it's like
you know the mushroomsequivalent of, but it's like a
fun flavor, so like it's beenreally fun.
Dude, it's been a nice palettecleanser.
Like I have my switch next tothat's on my bed stand, so like
I'll play for like 10 minutes toa half an hour before bed and
then on the weekends I've beenwaking up.

(56:37):
Before the boys wake up I'd bepopping it on.
So strong.
Recommend dude, beautiful game,tons of fun.
If my boys were a little bitolder I'd be Another Tyler
mentioned, but his daughterloves to watch him play.
She's not quite old enough topick up the sticks, but she's
like play another level andshe's super into it, so it's.
Nintendo done, did it again.
Which brings me to my lasttalking point my both excitement

(56:59):
and scathing disappointment atthe live action Zelda movie.
Why is it?

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yes, I don't know gonna watch it.
I'm gonna be high for it.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
But why if?

Speaker 2 (57:07):
if Tom Hiddleston is in this movie, I quit okay, so
you think it's live action name.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
What's the what's little Tom?

Speaker 2 (57:13):
It was in school, but you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Tom Holland.
If Tom is like, I quit.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Dude, I don't know why the internet, internet has
been so thirsty for that tohappen.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
I mean, I kind of see it, but I mean he's boyish, so
I'll give him that.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
But yeah, I will see.
I I have a feeling.
Well, I was gonna say thatthey'll probably.
I was like I think I just hopethat they go like totally off
script and like just go likesmall names and, like you know,
give it to like original StarWars treatment where it's like
who the fuck are these people?
And then they blow up and beawesome.
But I'm gonna get Chris.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Pratt to be well.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
That's what I was gonna say the fact that they
have like Chris Pratt andeverybody else in the Mario
movie.
They'll probably go big namesagain.
I don't know, man, I would youthink it's live action in the
sense that it's like real people, or will it be live action to
the sense like Disney be calling, like Lion King live action,
which is, I didn't see any ofthose.
Well they're, they're fine,like there's nothing wrong with

(58:07):
the original.
So it's like why well, I knowwhy so you make that money?

Speaker 1 (58:11):
But like you also keep the IP for like copyright
stuff sure sure the movies, sothat's a huge motivator.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
But like.
So the I'll just use the LionKing example, though is like
it's live action, because itlooks real, but it's still all
computer animated, like lionsand shit.
So I mean, that could be whatthey do, I guess, like put it in
a real setting, but then, haveyou know, animated characters.
I doubt it, though, but whoknows, we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Yeah, I just like dude, like the way they did the
Mario movie, like there's noreason they couldn't just pick
like a more realistic art stylefor like.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Dude, they should have gone.
They should have gone straight.
Like you know, like anime cast,like the, even if it was like
the American animation, likethat Castlevania shit we got
going on, which I started.
The Most reason one is beendope, but I watched all.
I was in the hospital.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Yeah, or like the the Witcher.
Yep, that's their like kind ofAmerican anime and that's gonna
be really cool.
Except for now, netflix is ontheir bullshit and they're
trying to get me to pay for itseparately, and that's stupid,
what.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
It's like the household thing now, where they
finally cracked down on that, orit's made it to us where we
have.
Oh, You've been leeching.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
You've been leeching Netflix for a long time.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
It's been linked.
It's been linked into the phonebill, so I just, but now it's
like this is not the householdand I'm like it out of here.
Dude like what is hilarious soI'm actually really butthurt and
I think it's really stupid andwe should protest Netflix even
now that they finally did that.

(59:44):
They have some things I want towatch and I find that
frustrating.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Super Mario RPG on the horizon too.
Man, I think that drops like intwo days of recording something
like that.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Yeah, that one Really into it, but I wonder how long
I'll wait, because it's fullprice, isn't it's like I do.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
That's like there's a bunch of good Nintendo games
coming on right now wonder RPG.
I'm very interested by thatpeach game.
They got around the corner.
Next year though but it's likeit's one of those deals where I
know that they'll if Nintendo,so they'll they'll have physical
versions of those games for awhile, for a long time.
So I'm not I'm not chopping outthe bit to get them right out

(01:00:26):
the door, but I do want them all, I I.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Feel that though definitely need them all, but
also Fuck you.
Netflix and also Anime is cool.
Why don't we just do animationstyle?
I don't want to see superawkward, like real acting, like
I just can't see the Zelda movienot being awkward now or just
kind of like corny dude, it'llbe hella corny, you ever seen
clips of the?

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
the cartoon that's out like came a long-ass time
ago?
The zealous shit yes, it's sofunny.
I hope it's.
This is gringy as that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
That's what I want out of this now like at some
point, like it just better be.
I just I don't know why youwouldn't the Mario movie, like I
also see like sights, like atalk, who keep bringing up how,
like the story was underwhelming.
I'm like what do we, what arewe doing here?

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
What do you know?

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
I'm like as an author .
As an author, I think it likeif you wanted to critique it,
sure, but like that's, that'sall.
Just leave it there, dude, it'sfine.
It was a good time.
I enjoyed myself, didn't youLike?

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
come on, yeah it is beautiful to platforming game.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
It's not supposed to have an elaborate.
Even with Mario Wonder they'relike another pretty flat story.
I'm like dude Bowser does somestuff.
I gotta go through some levels,like that's the fun.
I'm here for it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Let's not complicate it Dude, the idea that people
want.
People just aren't able to like.
You got to be able tocompartmentalize your games, man
.
You like it's like a platformer.
Be happy about the gameplay andthen you know you got.
You're like open-world storygame Like I.
Yes, you're allowed to be alittle upset about Starfield
story, but not fucking Mario'sand I don't even mind Starfield

(01:02:01):
story.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Yeah, it's been fine.
I got so subtract orsidetracked it by the Crimson
Fleet stuff.
I like never even unlocked thepowers or did the stupid
floating temple orb thing people.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
That is.
It is wack dude, it's like, itis whatever.
It's just like.
Why did you make this mechanicso tedious?

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
And also like how are you coming up with all these
good ideas?
And then you're like dude, weneed something.
They're like how about the samefloaty orb time thing?
A bunch of times People love itand it's like who?
Yeah, loves this I haven't evengotten the one yet.
So I Dude, I got so sidetrackedit by the Crimson Fleet stuff
of being a double agent that,like I was all I was all all

(01:02:42):
over the place doing nonsense.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Oh man, Do you fired up that?
You fired up that BC man?
Oh, I guess you could do I'mtrying to get some.
I started some cyberpunk too Inmy downtime.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
I I'm on sale about Black Friday, cuz it never I've
been waiting for it to dropbelow half off and it just
hasn't and now with thedifferent stuff.
I'm guessing that I'll justwait until the next time it does
and I'll buy it on the boxbecause it's looking awesome
dude dude.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
I think we're gonna have to send that this coming
year.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
That's definitely in the forecast, but all right, I
guess you know.
As we wrap it up here.
Do you even want to tease somepotential, or do you need some
days to marinate on what yournext game will be, cuz it is
your selection.
Collector boy.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
It is.
Yeah, I've been, I've beenthinking about doing, I've been
thinking about having to sendthe messenger dude, that game
takes 10 to 15 hours to beat,which means probably 20.
You know, that is that, so thatthat might be it.
Otherwise I don't know.
Super Mario RPG is tempting butI don't really want to run out
and buy that right now.

(01:03:47):
I don't know, let me, let methink a little bit.
But I'll have something on the15th.
I'll drop for everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
I was playing the messenger and it was kicking my
butt absolutely.
So I guess I will need thatBecause it gets grinding.
It's hard.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
That's about midway through.
It definitely gets a lot moredifficult and the bosses are
tough.
It's one of the.
I mean it's that's that type ofgame, man, it's, it's, it's.
It can be hard, but it'srewarding when you when you get
it, you feel great yeah.
Another one down.
Thanks everybody for tuning in,Checking us out.
Check out our old stuff herefor our new stuff.

(01:04:24):
You know I'll write us in thediscord.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Follow us on social media back baby.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
Oh, oh dang, he's some nasty.
I cannot believe they broughtdude.
I knew it.
I always knew they would neverplay.
Why they always do that?
Why is that?
Why is that their deal?

Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
It's really weird, makes no sense get yourself a
big rib.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
Send us a picture of your big rib when it comes out
everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
Yeah, quit acting like you're better than it All
right, peace.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
This is the Triforce of wisdom link the evil wizard.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Ganon has the Triforce of power.
Whoever gets both try forceswill rule this land forever.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
You must help me link .
Hey for you, zelda, anythingJob hero.

(01:06:01):
Hey, excuse me, princess.