0085 toranopon

toranopon is a newer member of C3, but brings considerable Splatoon experience and a legendary gaming collection. toranopon wanted to talk Splatoon 3, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Underhero as their three games.

You can find all of toranopon's links at c3.gg/toranopon Our hosts' links can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠c3.gg/rey⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠c3.gg/dan⁠ The show is Executive Produced by Channel 3 Founder Joel Willis who can be found at ⁠⁠⁠c3.gg/joel⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our theme song is provided by Castor Garden. Find all of their tracks on Spotify by simply going to ⁠⁠⁠c3.gg/castorgardenmusic⁠⁠⁠⁠ or find all of their links at ⁠⁠⁠c3.gg/castorgarden⁠⁠⁠⁠

ALSO! https://adam-evalt.itch.io/neoclassical-mystery is a music package that our own castorgarden put together for game developers. Go check it out or contact Castor Garden for your own custom music package.

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Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Channel 3 is the future Welcome crew to What are Your 3A

(00:30):
Channel 3 podcast where we take a member of the Channel 3
community, discuss three games of their choosing, go through
some honorable mentions, some other odds and ends, have a nice
little video game discussion. I'm Dan with me as always, Ray.
What's going on, everybody? Tonight's guest basically shows
up because of the collection of games that they've talked about

(00:52):
the the games that they've requested to kind of add into
our library. They were just different.
And we said, well, let's, let's get this person on.
Let's talk about these games. So it is the one and only Toron
upon. How are you doing today?
Pretty pretty good, all things considered.
We are happy to have you here and we're going to jump right

(01:14):
into these games. And of course, when I say, hey,
all these new and cool differentgames, so we're going to start
with Splatoon 3. Totally new and different.
No one's ever talked about this game before.
Clearly this is, is this like your top game?
It's definitely the one I feel you've posted the most about on

(01:35):
Channel 3. So part of that is because I
play Splatoon 3 competitively, so I've got my own team, We go
to the low level tournaments andstuff and I do some coaching on
the side for other teams as well.
So it's so when I play often. No doubt you've you've posted

(01:56):
up. You just posted recently how you
have 24 star weapons now. There'll be 21 at this point.
Last Friday I was able to get another another four-star and.
So is is this kind of like a? Is it like, is that like a side
thing to just to be able to say,hey, I can play all these
different weapons, 'cause I would think being on a, on a

(02:18):
professional team, you, you probably lock in on like a, a
certain couple of weapons that, that are your best with, right?
So yeah, there's I I do have my main weapons like Dynamo,
roller, heavy edit, ballpoint ones I'm really good at, but all
these extra ones it really just me either learning something new

(02:38):
for fun or trying to kind of just broaden my horizons.
Does learning the new weapons, Iwould assume, does that help you
against opponents kind of havingan idea of what they are going
to do with the weapons? Oh, most definitely.
That's part of the reason I havestarted playing so many weapons
is because I can learn the strategies of others.

(03:00):
Once you know how to play a weapon in Splatoon, most other
people are going to play that weapon very similarly or exactly
the same, so you can really start to lock down on how
they're going to play. And so let let's move back
Splatoon 3. Is this like, did you just kind
of jump into this game here or have you been a fan of the the

(03:21):
series? So I've been a fan of the series
since the very first game. I went out and got it on release
day and I've been playing the series ever since.
When, when did it become? When did you like have an idea
of, hey, maybe I'm pretty decentat this and I kind of want to
see how far I can go with it? So all all the way up until

(03:48):
Splatoon 3 it I was really just a casual player.
Played for most of the lifespan of the game and then dropped it
once the support dropped. Went on to other things but once
I started playing Splatoon 3, myhigh school actually started an
E sports team right around the start of the game.

(04:09):
So a few of my friends kind of came in and they were bugging me
trying to get me to join the team and towards the end of the
year I finally gave in and joined the team.
Little did I know I was the bestperson on the team and almost
instantly was given the role of captain upon joining and it just
kind of grew from there. How do how does a Splatoon team

(04:31):
set up? Obviously, you know, I noticed
the foursomes. Are there specific roles on the
team? Like is there some one person
kind of directing everybody to the support roles?
Like what? How does?
How does that breakdown happen? So there's roughly 5 different
like weapon roles. You have your Slayer, your

(04:53):
support, your skirmacher, your sweat, and one other which I
can't remember, so it's probablynot that important.
But typically you have a team ofone back line, couple front
lines, and someone who kind of sticks towards the middle.

(05:13):
And it can be any combination ofthe roles I had just mentioned.
But you just try and balance it out.
So you've got one person who's playing support, a couple front
liners, and one who's just kind of there to switch up on however
the situation happens to shake out.
What's what's your role generally when you're playing?
So I typically play the the switch role or midline because

(05:41):
that's just what I feel more most comfortable in.
Like Dynamo is a weapon that's got a lot of range but does
really bad in in a close up fight, but it can if it really
has to. So I usually just kind of hang
around trying to support the team mates and then when push
comes to shove, I put forward and kind of drive a push.

(06:03):
I just. Want to ask like?
What? What did you play?
What did you play that led up tothis that, you know, gave you
the skills, the talents like I Ilisten you the fact that you
were in high school in Splatoon was there.
I'm aware this is a real old yeller situation for me and Ray

(06:25):
just wants to tie me to the shedand and end it.
But what I'm just curious about,like I, I jumped in in two and
tried to play two and, and I, I'll, I'll dabble in three and
I, you know, I know that the Jews of the world out there and,
and the really good Splatoon players tell you motion controls
are the way to go. I have not had experience in

(06:46):
motion controls in my life. Right?
That like that, say, hey, listen, here's how I'm going to,
here's how I'm going to play this.
And the best Splatoon players have that, which I assume you
know, you do, but you know, so, So what, what was it?
Was it just like Splatoon? Got your attention, got your
time, you grinded with it? Did you just have something
click like how? How did that happen?

(07:07):
Not being old was step one. Congratulations, you nailed that
one. Thanks Ray, I saved you an
answer there. But don't don't worry Tori.
Tori can take shots at you Ray. Just real careful where you
tread today. Your question is way better than
the question I was going to ask.I remembered it now, but yours
are way better. Let's go with that.
So like, are we, are we thinkinglike, how did I make the push to

(07:28):
become a competitive player? Yeah, just like, was there
something that led to it becauseSplatoons differently.
I mean, you know, you have your,your, your shooters, your first
person shooters over time, you're over the shoulders, all
this stuff. But Splatoon brought in the
element of the motion controls, which like the we had motion
control games before that, but it's not the same as the way
none of it felt felt the same the way that you play Splatoon,

(07:51):
like none of it like you did motion controls in a first
person shooter. You didn't move the entire
screen with you the way that Splatoon moves, like you would
just point at the screen. You wouldn't be, There's a
different way that Splatoon feels and handles.
And how did you get your brain to adapt to that, to the to the
point of being useful? So really I think it kind of

(08:13):
boils down to the first game, The first game you're whenever
you play any of the Splatoon games, you're immediately forced
to use motion controls right outof the get go.
You can turn them off once you get out of the tutorial, but
they force you to start with them at least.
So when I played one, I never turned them off and I just kind

(08:34):
of learned and from there it became muscle memory.
I I bought a controller just because I didn't have one with
motion controllers. I bought a motion controller
just for Splatoon. I mean to, to me it feels like a
mouse like it, it feels like thesame thing.
I'm just clicking button and I'mjust, I'm clicking the trigger
instead of the mouse. Essentially.
That's how, that's how it feels,right?
I just have to hold the mouse with two hands and and not shake

(08:57):
my hands. Make sure I'm pointing in the
correct direction at all times. So sorry this is just reminded
me of something funny. The first Splatoon game, one of
their recommended controller options was you to take a Wii U
Pro controller and to rubber band a Wii mote to the back of

(09:18):
it to get motion controls with aphysical controller.
That was an official controller style for fucking one.
Dan, you had the Wii UI? Don't know.
I don't even. I don't.
No, I didn't. You didn't.
Have a Wii U. No.
Oh good, that. Was the dark ages for me anyway,
like the dark ages, the Wii U last is so so short.

(09:39):
My kids were born and that was and it was in and out like so.
That is. The way you came and went and
died, I don't know what to tell you.
How does how does practice work?Do you play like do do you play
rank mode? Sometimes I feel like some pro
players end up not playing rank.They do more kind of custom
games to practice. Do you, how do you, how do you

(09:59):
go about practicing and just kind of playing?
So usually for solo practice, I will almost always run either
Anarchy, which is their standardized rank modes or X
battles, which is like the high tier right modes.
When when I practice with my team, usually will run Anarchy

(10:23):
just because it's really easy torun that.
Sometimes we'll go on to like Sendu Inc, which is the
competitive hub for Splatoon andwe'll play against other teams.
And sometimes we'll jump into private battles and play against
each other just to like practiceour call outs and noticed how
each of us play so we can find our downsides and build off of

(10:45):
that. So as somebody who has 21
four-star weapons, are there any, any weapons that that you
say that you say, doll, there's like we don't use these in
ranked in, in our, in our pro games.
Like there's just no point to this one.
There's definitely a lot of those, but Splatoon does a
really good job at making all the weapons pretty balanced so

(11:09):
that if you're really good with a weapon that's typically
considered pretty bad, you can still do very well with it.
And let me let me finish with a question that has nothing to do
with any of this multiplayer talk whatsoever.
I feel like the stories in thesegames don't get talked about a
lot. Do do you enjoy the story?

(11:31):
You just made a face like that'scrazy.
You do you enjoy the stories of these games?
I mean, I low I I never opened the story.
I don't play that much but I feel like I never hear much
about the story mode in these games because the multiplayer
does so well and can do so many things.
Right, the the multiplayer is definitely the main mode, but
the story modes are not something that should be slept

(11:54):
on. The the way that Nintendo is
able to craft the lore and storyof Splatoon, they almost do it
in a way without telling it to you.
The first two games, their main story modes were what, you
caught you, some old guy finds you a random kid off the street

(12:17):
and tells him to go fight the Octarians.
Like that's the main story, but all the lore is gathered through
secret collectibles throughout the levels in the form of sunken
scrolls, which is a really unique way of doing that.
And it works really well. Split into actual expansion kind
of builds on that where you're kind of shuttled through these
little challenges and a lot of the lore is gotten through

(12:41):
these. In between the challenges.
There's like a like a text messages you can read between
multiple characters which give you a lot of lore.
And when you complete a challenge without skipping it or
restarting it, you get a little thing called the mem cake, which
have little bits of lore becausethey're supposed to be extracted

(13:01):
memories. Splatoon 3 kind of does
something similar. Once you fully complete each
area by completing every level, you get a like a data log which
you get to read, which kind of tells you about the downfall of
humanity and how that plays intothe story, which is all right.
Side Order does the kind of the exact same thing where you

(13:26):
complete enough weapons throughout the challenges and
you'll get dev logs which talk about the members and all that.
But the main story building in Splatoon, at least that I love,
is the backgrounds of the multiplayer stages.
There is so much lore hidden in the background of multiplayer

(13:48):
stages it's it's shocking how much they were able to fit in
without actually telling you anything.
One of the new stages they addedin Three Lemuria Hub is the
final stage. You can see a train station map
in the background and players were able to use that map to

(14:09):
basically tie together the entire world, which we had never
done before that map had been released.
Any any chance for a Splatoon 4?I think, well, I think it's
extremely likely it's one of Nintendo's top online games.
A lot of the reasons that peoplethink they aren't going to do a
four is because the storyline from Splatoon one through 3 has

(14:33):
all been connected and it has been confirmed that this will be
the end of that storyline. But it they never said that we
wouldn't get a four. So I think it's like, I think
it's pretty likely the upcoming system, whatever that may be.
Listen, the The Legend of Zelda will will continue to link
stories one way or the other, regardless of how many times it

(14:56):
it may have finished and not finished.
Watch your tone. Ray, I tell you, you tell me all
they've they've they've completed the story of one
through 3 is it's completely meaningless to to Nintendo.
I'll say that right now. All right, that's fairpoint.

(15:18):
A mystery untold, a journey through ancient caverns and her
turmoils that become outward strengths.
These kinds of stories need a seldom yet comforting pack of
music to bring the players closer to your characters as
they set forth on a mysterious journey.
My name is Adam Evolt, otherwiseknown as Casta Garden, and I
just put on my first music assetpack over on itch dot IO called

(15:41):
Neoclassical Mystery is available for download for your
next indie game dev project. I hope these tracks find you
well and it is time to unfold your mystery.
All right, well, let's move on to your second game, Zenoblade
Chronicles 24.1, rated on Channel 3, but I think we're

(16:03):
just going to start off asking about your username based on
this one. All right, so during my first
playthrough of Zenoblade, you know, I got to Tor Goth and you
meet Torah, and he was at that point in the story, like, I
don't know, before the first half, he's the Comic Relief.
He's just there to be funny. He's there to lighten the mood.

(16:26):
And I was like, cool. I really like this character
later in the game. He is the most powerful
character in the entire game andcan kill super bosses in one
special move. He is destroyer of worlds in the
Xenoblade 2 world specifically because of how Monolithoft

(16:49):
decided to make his character customization.
So that ended up becoming my username.
I'm. I'm amazed you were able to get
it that many, you know, that many places.
I feel like that was something that would be taken pretty
easily, but you're, you're able to jump right on that.
So I, I want to start with this one that you had the Wii U.

(17:13):
Did you play the original Zeno Bay Chronicles on the Wii?
I'm really just kind of curious,you know, you've got from a
Chronicles perspective, you've got 123, you've got X in here.
So you kind of got the, the four, four games in this set.
And obviously, you know, there's, there's a, a larger
universe that, that, that's out there, but you picked 2 for a
reason. I'm curious what that reason is.

(17:35):
So out of all the games I playedthrough them all, I loved them
all, but two left a mark on me. I think it is easily one of my
favorite games of all time, if not my favorite game of all
time, and it's just something special about everything in the
game that just really left a mark on me.

(17:58):
This from a an RPG perspective. Zeno Blades is part of the
ongoing trend of their more action oriented, right?
They're they're not turn based. The actions happening here.
Xenoblades, if I, if I may go sofar as to make a generalized
comment about the series. Much heavier in the cinematics

(18:19):
than a lot of other series are. I think like you've frankly,
like by the time you get to three, there's like 30 minute
unbroken cutscenes. Basically.
So you're, you're, you're in a cinematic experience as much as
anything, right? Yeah, a close friend of a close
friend of mine who absolutely loves the series, him and I

(18:40):
often poke fun at the fact that how you can sit down and start
playing and 30 minutes in and you're still going to watch the
same cutscene. But.
I think I heard the end of three.
I did. I did not play through three.
I'm I'm working on one again, but I think I heard like 45
minutes like no joke in three towards the end you've got a

(19:02):
straight cutscene that's 45 minutes long something that
it's. Over.
Oh yeah, there's there's a couple of those.
Yeah, that's that is something else all together.
So. All right, so jumping back here,
how did you wander into the series as a whole?
So a a YouTube I watch was this is back right when the game

(19:23):
released. He was he.
He was paid by Nintendo, or at least was sent a copy to kind of
drum up some hype for it. Yeah, they used to have a pretty
big like program as far as like a lot of folks they would have
out there, they would send. Contracts and stuff.
Yeah, it was very big back, Yeah, yeah, very big back when
Xenoblade 2 released. But he picked up the game and he

(19:47):
could not get very far because, frankly, the game has terrible
tutorials. There's a lot of issues it
within the first, like two or three chapters that if you don't
know how to play the game, you're going to struggle.
But from the little bit that I saw of the game within the first
couple chapters in him struggling so much to get

(20:07):
through it, there was something about the world and the music
and the characters that just captivated me.
So I was like, I'm going to do it.
I bought the game. And the rest of history.
So I, I mean, they're, they're relatively independent.
So had you not played one or X? Because I, I just kind of
assumed that you would have played X on the Wii, since my
first question was going to be, did you have a Wii U?

(20:29):
But with Splatoon you did, obviously.
But had you, had you not played any of the Xenoblade games
before that? No Xenoblade Two was my
introduction to the series. Nintendo's got to bring that
program back. They, they, they, they were
desperate at the end of the Wii U days.
And this was an early entry for the Switch days.
So they were still there. But by what, 2019, I think they

(20:51):
had, they, they had whacked thatprogram.
They said, we don't need this anymore.
We're riding high, baby. We're we're good.
Oh yeah, switch came out, they posting now?
So have you gone back and playedthe other games in the series at
this point or are you just rolling?
With two, yeah, I've, I've went back and played everything but X

(21:11):
because X is kind of removed andit's on the Wii U and I don't
really feel like booting that upand playing through that right
now. You're the closest thing we had
to a full Wii U supporter, and even you just leave it in the
box, huh? Look, I love the Wii U, It was a
huge part of my childhood. But it's the Wii.
UI loved watching Ray get kickedin the teeth.

(21:32):
When you said that, that was that was great to see someone
else go through that. That's a beautiful thing to see.
It was like, it was like you yanked Ray's beard and just
pulled into his microphone and slapped his face off of it.
Nice job. Tora what?
What? What exact age range are you
'cause? I'm I'm I'm 18 right now.
Oh, eighteen. You're even younger than I
thought. OK.

(21:52):
Amazing. Yeah.
Yeah, Ray. Ray's not good at math.
No, no. Well, it felt like I was
talking. It feels like I'm speaking not,
not just stylistically to my youngest brother, but even he's
20, four now. So yeah, yeah, I'm old.
Don't worry, I'm I'm an I'm an old soul and a young body.
I'm sure I'm sure as you have seen from my collection, let.

(22:13):
Me tell you, that's not helping me at all.
All right, you know what? I can't go any further than like
I, I have to ask because I was Ihad it down in the quest
section. Like we got to talk about the
collection, but like, no, I'm, we're, we're sidebar and we're
breaking format here. And I need to understand this.
I need to understand how you amass this collection.
You you, I mean, you've been sharing things like store demo

(22:33):
units and you have prototypes from vendors of like silk screen
promotional materials or not even I I don't even know if some
of them were promotional or intended for sale, but whatever.
Like you had what was it the Zelda and the spirit tracks like
promotional screen printed case?Yep, it was a.
It was a demo case that never made it to production.

(22:55):
How like what, what, how, what explain, explain this like,
'cause you, you, you, it's not that you just share like, oh, I
have this one case. Like you share this holding a
picture in front of a shelving unit of just like the entire
mother collection, including games that were not released in

(23:16):
the United States. And, and AI tagged Rad Dad in
one of the posts because he, he's the, the, the biggest
earthbound mother fan I know of in general.
And you just got this other stuff casually in the
background. So it's not like, Oh yeah, I
got, I got my hands on this one demo unit from a store.
I got my hands on this one. You know, I thing I got tossed
in a dumpster behind a random, random promotional company.

(23:39):
Like you've got a, you've got a pile of this stuff and it's,
it's neatly organized. I don't mean pile like you've
got a very neat, orderly collection with a wide variety
of materials in there. And I need to understand what
happened, how and why. All right, so it all started
with, believe it or not, Skylanders.

(24:02):
So back when Skylanders was in the head of its popularity, I
freaking loved it. That had tons and tons of stuff.
Eventually I stopped playing it,so we brought it into a local,
local like video game store. It's kind of in the ghetto.
It's in rough area. So we brought all of our stuff
there and we traded it in. And according to the store

(24:25):
owner, I had the spot of most instore credit of all time because
of the trade in because there was just so much.
Oh, you sold early then too? Yeah.
So I'm pretty sure I still hold that title.
We still talk about it today. But I went to that store and I

(24:48):
ended up buying Game Boy Advanceand a bunch of random Game Boy
games. From there, I just kind of
continued to collect, whether itwas more Game Boy games, some
other stuff. Eventually I moved on.
Like my my parents wanted me to experience like what they had

(25:10):
for when they were kids. So we got an NESSNES N64, got
all the extra stuff. Did they get you the wood panel
CRTTV to go with it too or I don't even mean like the whole
family room unit. That's not like a a three foot
wide one. Do they just get you like the
wood panel like a a station wagon box or?

(25:30):
There my grandmother did have ACRT, which we took and that
became what I played everything on.
So like after we got all those home consoles, it was a few
years before we actually continued to collect anything.

(25:51):
We moved into a new house and wehad we had an upper loft which
wasn't used. So we decided to throw up some
shelves and start collecting again.
We at the start, we would just buy big bundles, take the few
things that we wanted and sell the rest and make back the

(26:12):
money. Eventually that turned into
Switch, Switch trades during COVID because Switches were all
the all the rage then. So we would buy Switches, post
them on Facebook and say we'll trade you for any vintage video
games you got. And that really bolstered our
collection. After that, we started to go to

(26:36):
video game conventions like the Midwest Gaming Classic, C, CAG,
some of the other ones in our area, and we started to get some
more like heavy hitters and we started to see people with these
like store displays and stuff that would bring them in and
showcase their collections. We then found somebody local

(26:59):
with a world of Nintendo store display cabinet like that would
be in like a Toys-R-Us, Best Buy, KB Toys, whatever you don't
get to. Use that name KB Toys and act
like no, you don't get to do that.
Go on. All right.

(27:21):
So we from from that point, we continued to collect more and
more and our collection just through and now we're kind of to
today where most of the stuff we're getting is either very
rare or something super obscure like the Super Mario Brothers

(27:43):
power shower shower head or prototype game cartridges or
prototype cases or a complete inbox copies of Earthbound.
Sorry I had to Google the vintage super super The Mario
brothers shower power handheld shower ages 6 it up with built

(28:07):
in skull protection. Yes Oh my God.
Oh, that is that's. One of my favorite things in the
collection. So was this something the family
was doing kind of before all of that?
You just kind of had some of it lingering and then just went to
OverDrive. Kinda it was we, my family

(28:30):
didn't, we didn't really have any hobbies when we were moving
into our new house. So Vincent video game collecting
just kind of became my father and I's hobby and it just kind
of spiraled out from there. And now we're on to arcades.
So nice. You can say we like arcade.
We we like video games. Fair enough.

(28:52):
I just, I, I had questions and and again.
So the the things you have teased us with are beautiful in
the background. Sure.
We're clear. It's it's well organized,
maintained. Yeah, I can't, I can't wait.
But back-to-back to Zeno, back-to-back to Zeno Blade.
So Zeno Blade and the the seriesthere.

(29:14):
So just like are are these the characters that stuck with you
most? This was the story that stuck
with you the most. Was just like that impactful
when you get to the end of like it's you're you're running a
marathon with this one. This is not a short game.
This is a game. You're spending time with these
characters. Everybody's getting an arc in
the game. Oh yeah, it's, it's easily an 80
hour game. At least that was what it took

(29:36):
me to just get to the end of thestory, not doing any of the
extras. But it was definitely the
characters, the environments, the gameplay that just really
stuck with me, and specifically the music.
Something about Xenoblade 2's music compared to the rest of
the series blows me out of the water to this day.

(30:00):
It's one of the best composed soundtracks I've ever heard, and
I think that's part of the reason why I love the game so
much. Yeah, the music can go along,
can go a long way, there's no question about that.
And again, there's a lot of stuff happening in the game too,
and you get the the combination there where the music starts to
just remind you of things. The music can be listened to

(30:21):
independently of the of the gameitself.
It it can be. It can be big.
Yeah, there's the the the world itself and how much of the game
there is. It's definitely a vast world to
explore. There's so many secrets to find,
so many areas to explore, enemies to encounter, unique

(30:45):
monsters, which I would like to get to in a SEC.
But another thing or another part about it that really sticks
with me is the blade quests. Every rare blade in the game
gets their own storyline. So it's not just the main
characters, it's not just the main blades, It's every like
minor, major character. They get their complete, their

(31:07):
own complete storyline that talks about their history, what
they want to accomplish. It's it adds so much to the game
and unless you're on top of it, you usually don't get to see
that in your first playthrough. So let's talk to let's talk the
monsters, talk to unique creatures in this one, because

(31:30):
there there's a lot of you can see inspiration from other media
across anime, across other, across other mediums.
But you see with a lot of these the beasts, the monsters, the
machines that you're coming across.
And I, I know that some of the voice performances get a little

(31:52):
bit knocked in this one, but I think they generally have
generally when you're dealing with the villains and the
monsters and the the bad guys, you got some pretty good voice
acting that's happening with some of those, I think.
Yeah, so I'll get to monsters ina second, but voice acting
first. Yeah, there's definitely,
there's some rough parts in the voice acting.

(32:13):
Some people don't like it. I like it.
I think it's good. And something that really makes
me laugh is the main villain also did Percy from Thomas the
Tank Engine and no matter how many times I think about that,
it never ceases to put me on thefloor laughing.

(32:36):
I'm so angry at you for putting that song in my head now.
All right, so unique monsters. Part of what makes Xenoblade 2's
worlds or Xenoblade as a series in the world so immersive and so
memorable are the unique monsters that you find along the

(32:56):
way that have special names, some of my favorites being
Territorial Rotbart and Machine Gun Julio.
The Machine Gun Julio is a bird.It has no mechanics.
It's just a bird, but all these unique monsters give you these
optional challenges throughout your playthrough.

(33:17):
They above their like their their name.
They have like a little header that marks them as a different
enemy. So you know when you're
encountering a unique monster and typically they're much
higher level than the area that you're currently in.
So you have to come back to fight these things.
But again, you you can see them.Coming.
You don't just get ambushed. You're not stuck there.
You're able to escape. So it's not one of those things

(33:38):
like my game is ruined because Igot cornered here.
So yeah. Well, for the most part in the
first area I I mentioned territorial Rock Bart earlier.
This is a massive like 8 foot story gorilla that will actively
hunt you down from halfway across the map.
And you will most definitely dieto it your first playthrough

(34:04):
because it just controls the main path to the first town.
So most of the time you can see them coming except the Rot Bart
which will attack you. And this has been a joke
throughout the entire series. Each game has a had a giant
gorilla that is there to pummel you.
But other than that, when you can see them coming, you know,

(34:28):
and you typically make a mental note and when you come back,
you, you can take them out and you get really, really good
gear. So you are very greatly rewarded
for backtracking and coming backand fighting these unique
monsters. And you can fight them as many
times as you want. Once you take them out, once a
little gravestone appears and you can actually speed run your

(34:51):
takedowns of them because it marks your your time.
So let me be dead in peace. No, no I will not.
Should bring them back, take them out again.
Ray, I want to ask you a question, real quick question
for Ray. Ray, this is a game again,
probably about an 80 hour base story.
You can easily cross 100 close to $1.20.

(35:14):
You're talking about a wide color palette, the scope of some
of these creatures you're battling.
As mentioned, you're talking about the size of buildings and,
and you're engaging them and you're seeing wide vistas and
seeing across the map and there's active environments and
things that are happening whether you're there or not.
They're they're kind of in motion.
Things are happening. How big do you think the final

(35:35):
size is for this one on the Switch?
On the Switch ZW 2 let's see I I, I want to say that Nintendo
decides to not be as efficient with this as they are with their
biggest game. So let's go with let's go with
20 gigs, let's say 20. Tor This is an obsession of ours

(35:56):
since we found out that Breath of the Wild was like, I mean,
here's the Kingdom was like a a six or eight GB game with the
scope of it. And Mario Wonder was like a four
GB game that you can't get updates for a lot of games that
are that size anymore. But do you know how big this one
is? Tor.

(36:17):
I based on download size becauseyou know, maybe not the smartest
choice. I bought it digitally at first
copy. Now I buy everything but that's
great choice. But I want to say it's 40 plus
just based on the download size.It's up so much size on the

(36:40):
Switch. I think download.
Might be a little bigger. The card itself is 13 I think.
Ray. 13 even that you see even, I mean, you know what, even with
tiers being, you know, somethingthat's like double, it's almost
double tiers depending on where you get where it is.
So like I said, not as efficient, but still smaller
than I thought I need. To double check this, yeah,

(37:02):
physical, physical cartridge forthat's 13 gigs.
The download the download's going to be a little different,
but yeah, 1313.2 to 13.7 is the switch file size.
And there's a lot in the game. Go ahead.
I can't. I can't wait till Call of Duty
drops in a few weeks and it's a A-250.
First of all, well, they've already, they've already

(37:24):
announced. Yeah, I know.
They they took it down a peg. I know, I know.
No, no, no, no new announcement.They said.
Hey, we're going to set it up sothat you can download in pieces.
They they already announced you can download Call of Duty Black
Ops 7. Coming out in 40 years.

(37:44):
No, they said six. You'll though you'll basically
be able to download sections of it because it's so long because
they just know like that they can't.
They gave me hey, just go like get 200 and ones I think they're
going to like section it off. Hey, you can download this piece
of it and then this piece later on in a couple years.
Get that last piece. So sorry, Tori, I've I've

(38:04):
derailed your your Zeno conversation here with just one,
you, you crossed into the the collection and two that that
just the right because I got curious.
I never looked up what the file size of this thing is and it's
it's every everywhere I'm seeingit's a 1313 under 14 gig file
size. Nintendo, I think Nintendo
really needs to start. I think they need to push that

(38:26):
topic more. I just let people know that we
just like, we're just more efficient than ever.
They don't brag that shit. Don't care about it.
That's not, that's a. Company culture thing, you're
never going to see it. They're not going to do it.
It's. They're not.
Going to brag? That's that's why they still
don't talk to Sony. Like ever since I'm telling you,
Crash Bandicoot crashing their their company cafeteria, they've

(38:47):
never forgiven. They've never forgiven those ads
from the 90s. The arrogance of them.
So Tora, any, any parting thoughts on Xeno?
How do you sell somebody? How do you sell somebody on
Xenoblade Chronicles? Again, we're because it could be
intimidating, right? Like we, we talk, we talk with
some folks like, listen, these 8000 hour games.

(39:07):
It's it's a commitment that's required there.
The switch is a selling point for me because like you can take
it with you. You don't have to be strapped on
the TVI do think if you're on the TV, though, you can
appreciate the vistas, you can appreciate the color and the
scope of everything. But but sell, sell somebody on
this? So for, you know, Blade is I'm

(39:30):
trying trying to find the best, best way to encapsulate
everything that the game does inlike a short little statement.
It's it's a journey about freedom.
Almost you you take this group of ragtag people, a kid working

(39:52):
salvaging job, a former terrorist, a member of the like,
Royal Army, an exiled Prince, and oh, who else?
We got some random guy who savedyou from the government.
And you take this crew and take on the world.

(40:14):
It's from every environment thatevery environment you travel
through is beautiful in its own right.
These, these grand worlds draw you in and make you feel like
you're part of the story, like you're, you're feeling
everything that these charactersare feeling as you experience at

(40:34):
all. It's it's an experience that I
don't think any other game, at least that I have played, has
been able to capture. It's it's truly something
special, and Monolith continues to make those experiences.
Excellent. Well, let let's go a different
direction now, sort of slightly like step aside here.
Your third game you've picked todiscuss with us here is under

(40:57):
Hero. Again, not under tail, just so
everyone is clear under Hero a very different color palettes of
this game first and foremost, most importantly, but a side
scrolling 2D role-playing game. Some quirky characters in here.
Another game I'm guessing the music is going to come up for as

(41:18):
the soundtrack is a a pretty bigone here.
But I think this one came out in2020.
And so, you know, we're we're we've taken a wide journey here
from Splatoon 3 and you know, online Nintendo shooter to an
epic role action role-playing game.
And now we're going into Under Hero, see, and this was a swap

(41:40):
for you. You had swapped this with
another game to say that Under Hero was taking the slot, right?
Right, Yeah. So initially my thought was,
yeah, my, my initial thought wasto put in It'll Do, which is one
of my favorite little puzzle games, but it's kind of on the
don't. Take Ray's, don't take Ray's
Thunder. He's he's got he's ready for
that game. We're we're still covering it.

(42:01):
All right. Don't go.
Don't go too deep there. We'll, we'll we got the throne.
It'll. Do got the throne?
So yeah, under Hero is really, it's really special for an indie
game. Like it's, it's it's hard to
describe because it takes everything that like your normal

(42:26):
hero adventure would take like you're the hero, you're going to
go take out the bad guy, save the Princess and flips it on A
tag. So like you know, you first
start as the hero and you're you're walking through the bad
guy castle and you're get your triumphant walk to the final
boss room and you are basically the goomba of this world.

(42:49):
You're placed right before the final boss to drop some health
potions and basically you're just there to die.
So you know, the hero walks up and stops by your two Co
workers. Also, two practically goombas
and you drop a chandelier on allof them.
You take out the hero, you take out your two total ones.

(43:12):
Yeah, a very bloody sequence. They're gone.
They're in paste, pledged. You then walk over and you pick
up the basically the the hero's weapon and you get another enemy

(43:33):
comes up and reports you to the boss.
He congratulates you and you're kind of set out on your
adventure to set up for the nexthero, but really you're building
up your strength to take on the final boss.
Turn based combat back for this one.
Timing this one. This one's got a rhythm element,

(43:53):
right? You get you you get bonuses for
attacking with the beat. So yeah, that's it's kind of a
it's a side mechanic in this game, but every overworld song
is also the battle song. So you get to hear the same song
the whole time. And once you get into a battle

(44:16):
it you get a little bit of an extra beat, but when you hit
with the beat you deal extra damage.
You get a groovy hit, but it's not at all a mechanic that you
need to master to do well at thegame.
I've played through the game like 8 times and I've done fine
without mastering it. So it's an extra will play.

(44:40):
So scheme there, there's visually there's some comps to
monster boy for me that that I Ikind of get that vibe from it.
I haven't played this one personally yet, though I'm I'm
very intrigued by this one because gets a it's a manageable
size. It appears.
We'll say we'll say in here in the grand scheme of things.
But also, you know, I, I've talked a few times and I talked

(45:01):
about Xenoblade having life and colour and Splatoon has the same
thing. You don't have the Skyrim of the
word. You don't have the fallout grey
drab games here. You've got you've got your neons
in here. You've got your, your, your
colour and flourish to these things.
I'm I'm very intrigued by by this.
So my question for you is how did you find this one?

(45:23):
Right. So one one of somebody I watched
on YouTube was randomly just onesummer day doing a live stream
on this game. He was only in the like the
first area. He doesn't play games for very
long. But I basically clicked on it.
I was bored and everything aboutthe game kind of captured me.

(45:49):
It was a really unique take, at least to me, on an RPG, making
it a like almost a 2D platformerrather than like your standard
like almost Chrono Trigger, likewalking around, find an enemy,
you fight them on the field. It's you still fight them on the
field, but it's in a 2D setting which makes things really
interesting. Yeah, it's it's not like Zelda 2

(46:09):
where yeah, you had the side scrolling element of it, but
this this one goes still has this one has a stopped element
to it. You still have turn based action
for this right? Yeah.
So you come across an enemy, or in your case, one of your
coworkers, and you you come to awhole stop.

(46:30):
You can you can talk to him, youcan bribe him to not fight you.
And then you basically you startthe fight from there.
You can do a bunch of actions before you fight.
And then once you get into the fight, you're locked into the
fight and you can attack with multiple two different of
different things like you can use sword, you can use
slingshot, you can use hammer however you want.

(46:50):
Slingshot range, hammer, slow but powerful sword, your
standard attack. And it just, I don't know,
something about it was interesting to me and made me
want to play it because I'm I'm sucker for indie games by way
too many love them all. Yeah, you're you're more than

(47:11):
welcome here in that game. Again, for a game that like I
think high end is 15 or $16.00 and available all over the
place. Yeah, that's you can't argue
some of these things, especiallyjust wander.
You find somebody who's playing,find somebody who's playing it.
You want to check it out? So so the soundtrack, tell me
about the soundtrack for this one.
Is that something that this gameis is pretty well known for?

(47:34):
So the soundtrack is incredible.Like I said, again, there's a
lot of the songs are like you, you hear the songs for quite a
while because the your main areathemes are also your main battle
themes. So like the first area, you're
going to hear that for like a solid trying to think first area

(47:58):
takes like an hour and a half. So you're hearing that song for
quite a while. It's just every composition in
the game is so good. I don't, I can't off the top of
my head think of any bad ones. I love the the chapter 3 songs,
specifically the I think it's called like as green as the

(48:18):
jungle or something or as green as green leaves can be.
Something along those lines is one of my favorites.
Greg the Great is really good too.
It's just they take such a wide kind of scope with their with
the soundtrack. It starts from like almost
elevator music in your first in like your hub area and you go to

(48:45):
like, you know, your standard grasslands kind of theme.
And then you go to a like a which one call like an
orchestrated soundtrack for the for chapter 3, which is like a
Big Island with volcano on it. And then all these songs kind of
come back together in your finalchapter with complete remixes of

(49:11):
each song, which almost bring a new funk to the songs, which
actually that was 100% their point because each of the remix
songs is called funky, whatever version or whatever the name of
the song was. OK, so let's go to the honorable
mentions now. And the first was the game that
got bumped because of under Hero.

(49:32):
We are talking about It'll do. And I, I had to look this one
up, but I looked at it and the thought it was very Legend of
Zelda, kind of old school Legendof Zelda vibe.
That's the look it had to me. But then like that it was a hand
drawn style. And I thought of Binding of
Isaac or Castle Crashers. Just it's like it almost doesn't

(49:54):
take it. It doesn't take itself too
seriously and it's kind of like it.
That's very feels like the vibe of this game here.
So yeah, it'll do is very, very classic Zelda style.
That was 100% what they were going for.
The whole game is filled with puzzles and stuff.
It's fun. But like you said, that first

(50:17):
glance the game looks like it doesn't take itself very
seriously and that is 100% what it does.
The humor in this game is almostit almost makes fun of the
things that don't make sense in Zelda games.
Like you walk along you, you, you walk along with It'll and
her flying fox companion Tipsy, who is drunk off of health

(50:41):
potions constantly, hence the name.
But you, you walk through this dungeon and It'll does not take
herself seriously or anything inthe dungeon seriously.
She will argue with enemies, make faces at statues, Burke the

(51:01):
AP, the ABC's to annoy enemies. What else does she do?
She picks up a heart and eats itand tipsy asks where she got it
and the only thing she says is 5second roll.
Nothing about this game is takenseriously and that's 100% what I
love about it. Yeah, I mean, even one of the

(51:24):
the close is like, oh, so we just beat stuff up till the till
we saw the puzzle. Got it.
Yeah. It's like, no, yeah, it's just
all right. Let's just keep hitting things
eventually. Something I'll smash things and
in the second game they very much continue that humor in the
final dungeon, she literally oneof the doors is locked so she
goes around the side and breaks through the wall.

(51:48):
They they stick with this, not taking classic Zelda very
seriously humor, and they do it very well.
So this is this is obviously kind of the theme, especially
here with the honorable mentions.
How do you how do you come upon all these indie games?
Do you type in indie on Steam and see what's showing up

(52:09):
recently or so? How do you how do you get these?
So sometimes it is a case like that where I run through the
Steam queue and I find some stuff.
Some of these come from indie world showcases that Nintendo
hold that I'm like, that looks cool.
Drop it on a wish list and then get it whenever it comes out.
But like for specifically, it'lldo.

(52:32):
That was just something I happened upon in the Wii UE
shop. It's just I was scrolling
through looking for fun games and I found it.
I got it, loved it, and I have played through it probably over
20 Times Now. So yeah.
So and you play and that's on the Wii U.
You played it, right? Because it is on the it's.

(52:54):
It's on the Switch. Yep, it's on the Switch.
It's on PC. It's on pretty much every
console. It's on, I did.
Initially play it on the Wii. U it says it's on mobile mobile
that's that's that's what the influence saying here that's
iOS. I don't know if it is both iOS
or Android, but it does say. Mobile.
Look it up. And I kind of, I mean, I am

(53:14):
inclined to believe it that it'll do.
Let's see, it'll do. It doesn't doesn't show up when
I search it in the App Store. It has a Google Play review
though. OK, it's on Google Play.
OK. It it is on Google Play Yeah, it
is at at least at least on Google Play 4.3 out of five on

(53:34):
Google Play. So you can play this right on
your phone if you feel like it, which I'm kind of doing a little
more. This is a 5 star game for you.
So like this is just everything you want in a game.
How how how strong of a 5 star is it'll do?
Cool. OK.
If I had to put it compared to like some of my top games of all

(53:54):
time, I would probably place it right around like the like maybe
7 seven to 10, like 6:50 range would probably be where I place
it. It's just overall fun.
It doesn't take itself seriously.
And at the end of the day, that's what I want from a game.
I don't want to come home from whatever I'm doing being

(54:16):
stressed out and play something that's going to stress me out or
give me some dark, depressing story.
I want something that I can comeback to play and laugh about,
and it'll do Does that very well.
I. I feel so attacked and unsafe
right now in this conversation. I I like this after the fire

(54:38):
watch conversation of like someone posting on like am I
going to feel better play No that Firewatch is not a game you
go to play if you want to feel. Happy.
No, you're not going to feel happy.
Don't. Don't do it.
I play. Clearly I'm playing too many
games where I don't feel happy afterwards.
This this is my. It's just a me problem at this
point. All right, on to your second
honorable mention, Angels with Scaly Wings.

(55:02):
We're into the visual novel realm at this point.
Again, I'm noticing the trend ofsome clean, colorful animation.
We've got some unique music to this game.
So again, just all the things that you have, all the all the
history you have at your fingertips and this is the one
that we go with for number 2. So tell us about it.

(55:23):
All right, so if you're talking to me, you're not going to get
away without me mentioning at least one visual novel and
Angels with Scaly Wings. I think is it's a really good
job at being for everyone. It it tells a really unique
story. You're a human who.

(55:43):
Yeah. You're human, transported to the
Dragon world basically as an ambassador.
Yeah, pretty much. Earth was destroyed by solar
flare, and you were. You're an ambassador, and you
have to go to this other world to trade for efficient energy
sources. At least that's what it starts
out to be. You get further in, you start to
meet different. Well, I guess I can't really say
people. You meet different Dragons and

(56:06):
you you start to get to know each of these different
characters in their own way. Eventually the other ambassador
that's in the world with you goes missing and people start
getting murdered. So it's you then have to
basically survive in this world because you can't leave at this

(56:29):
point. The portal shut down.
You still need to complete what you came here to do, but you
also you have to find a way to spend your time.
So you go and meet with each of these different Dragons and you
get to know them better and you basically influence how you're
going to end up or how they're going to end up.
Have you played through this multiple times or they're

(56:50):
branches to the story? I mean, that's where some of the
some of the older visual novels lose me up.
The less choose your own adventure and more just kind of
reading through. Where does this one go as far as
giving you branching storylines,options and and how things play?
Out so so Angela Skelly wings kind of does this.

(57:11):
Well, it does it in a somewhat unique way.
Basically, your first playthrough, you can.
There's no restrictions to what your first playthrough can be.
The only restriction is it can'tbe the true ending.
So you go through and you do whatever ending, good, bad,
neutral evil of any character because each character has a
good and bad ending. So you go through and you do

(57:34):
these endings and you find out that you are in a basically a
time loop. Each time you complete this,
you're going back to the moment that you stepped foot in the
world, because the only way you can get out of it is by getting
to the true ending. So you have to go through and
you have to basically save each of the different main characters

(57:56):
because if you either don't follow their route or get their
bad ending, they die in some way, either off screen or
because of your actions. So by getting each good ending,
you kind of save them and lock them in without.

(58:16):
So basically they're not able todie once you get their good
ending. So you're encouraged to play
through each ending to basicallytry and get this perfect ending.
And the true ending does a good job at wrapping it all up,
giving everyone. A happy ending.
But they add in a little secret that you can kind of delve

(58:39):
further into the more of the game.
By going the extra mile after you've done the true ending.
I I have to ask because again, you, you, you've brought some
very unique games to the table here.
This what, what's the story for this one?
Was this YouTube? Was this a steam deep dive?

(59:00):
Was this a a studio that caught your eye or just a random
recommendation? So this was one that I just kind
of stumbled upon while looking for some other stuff.
It just kind of showed up as a search result on Google and I
was like, what's this? Clicked on it and I was like,
that looks kind of fun, got it. And now I love visual novels.

(59:24):
So it was just kind of a a a random happen upon.
And one, one we'll mention, we have pseudo Regalia.
That's all I'm going to say. This one, I think that there's
people that are going to be happy that I say this because
it's absolutely it's a compliment of this game and it's

(59:45):
definitely a shot at the Nintendo 64, but I'm watching
gameplay this and this is this is basically what Nintendo
wished all their Nintendo 64 platformers looks like that When
I I played it and I even like the walls of it.
I was like this was like what they were.
This is what they hoped it was happening.
It was a brand new game. This was last year, 2023.

(01:00:07):
So tell us about this game, about a goat.
That walks on two legs because Ialso just played a new game that
was a gold go on two legs. Maybe that's just like the
popular animal right now. Tell tell us about pseudo
regalia. So Pseudo Regalia is 3D
platformer metroidvania childlike an N64 game, and it

(01:00:32):
does a really good job at doing that.
I, it's the game does a really nice job at embracing its
sequence breaks because there was, there's multiple times and
I was playing it that I got to areas I definitely should not
have been. And they almost encouraged me to

(01:00:53):
get there without the required ability.
I couldn't do anything there, but they encouraged me to get
there. It's, it's, it's a short, it's a
short but sweet game. It's a lot of fun throughout the
whole thing. I was able to beat it within, I
don't know, four hours, but it'sdefinitely one that I would

(01:01:13):
recommend that people check out if they like 3D platform or
store Metroidvanias. Now without, because it's still,
you know, it's still a brand newgame.
It only came out last year. Without spoiling it though, I
know how it finishes. How did you feel about the
ending of this game? When you when you find out the
ending, essentially. That sucks, I guess.

(01:01:41):
I guess I wasn't. I can't say I was satisfied, but
I wasn't disappointed either. It was just kind of one that I
was like, well that's, that's anOK ending I suppose.
Even bad by any standards, but maybe not what I hoped for.
Although I guess I can't really say I knew what I hoped for.

(01:02:02):
So kind of kind of neutral on the ending I.
Will say, yeah, it's one of thatthat game if if you know, if you
want to go play it again, it's short so you know, you can go
through it and do it, but it's one of those endings that I
think people like either really enjoy that type of ending or
they get, you know, upset by it essentially.

(01:02:23):
It's one of those it's one of those choose a side kind of
endings, the way the the twist of that one, but the play, the
gameplay itself, like very smooth, very like you, you feel
good about your platforming, right?
You don't you're not upset. They're like, wow, this did not,
you know, this didn't respond tome the way I wanted it to, like
everything feels the way it should.

(01:02:44):
Yeah, it's it's very, very smooth running game.
It, the platforming aspects of it almost remind me of Celeste
in a way where you can kind of like chain together your
different moves and either gain a lot of distance or gain a lot
of height. And it's, I don't know, the

(01:03:05):
movement in it just feels satisfying.
There's no other good way to saythat it's just really, really
satisfying for a platformer. All right, now we're going to
talk about the future, a game that you're looking forward to.
We're going to stay in the indierealm and go with a small
independent sequel here, The Legend of Zelda, Echoes of

(01:03:27):
Wisdom. Doesn't get smaller than this,
right? So.
My favorite indie developer, Nintendo.
So I, I have been, I've been on a on my soapbox and Nintendo has
has wisely decided to no longer announce games more than six
months out. I thank them for their service
there, that they don't allow anything to get over hyped in

(01:03:50):
that regard. That way they don't allow people
to get upset about extended development times.
They may still take five years to develop a game, but guess
what? Who cares?
It's going to show up when they're going to tell us about
when they're going to tell us about it.
So we got this reveal in a recent direct from Nintendo.
What was your reaction when theydropped this and said, hey,
remember when we did the remake of Lynx Awakening?

(01:04:11):
We kept it. We're rolling with it.
So honestly, at first first glance, like the opening scene
where Lynx walking through the tunnel up to go fight again and
save Zelda, I was admittedly very disappointed because I I
didn't the remake of Lynx awakening was good.

(01:04:35):
I thought it was fun, but I wasn't a fan of the art style.
So going into another like this classic style Zelda game, which
is something I've wanted for a really long time.
Where to see come back is it wasa little disappointed that it
was in that same kind of art style.
But the further the trailer wentwent on and the more footage

(01:04:56):
that we're getting to see, like as of recently they dropped
another trailer video that showssome more games.
The traversal, the how to, how to traverse the countryside on
the horse, basically, yeah. That I've increasingly becoming
more and more excited specifically because, you know,
we can finally play a Zelda. This is actually The Legend of

(01:05:17):
Zelda now. And hey.
You don't have a CDI and all of that in all that gear you've got
in the house. I had a chance to get a boxed
one once but it was very, very expensive.
You now have to find that in thewind of the wand of Gamelon.
Now is your punishment for the comment you just made.

(01:05:38):
I I I have played a little bit of Wand of Gamelon at the
Midwest Gaming Classic. So sorry to hear that.
I'm amazed Nintendo didn't send a a an assassin out to take you
down for that. I'm I'm surprised the lawyer
wasn't there with a cease and desist if they if they knew that
was happening. I've been avoiding them for the

(01:05:59):
time being. No one gave out my location.
So again, I think those cowards should have deemed this the wand
of Gamelon, not not whatever whatever name they gave to to
Zelda's wand is not the wand of Gamelon.
I'm angry about that. The Tri wand.
Yeah, they they whatever the Triwand, whatever.

(01:06:20):
No, you cowards, you should havetaken it back.
So any. So anyway, so you're getting a
mix of to your point, like you're getting some top down
historical Zelda action. We're getting a mix of the the
new literal shine they put on the Game Boy classic game and
then you're also getting, you know, open figure it out.

(01:06:44):
You'll kind of work your way through this game.
I think there's that, you know, there's not one path that you're
going to be able to take in order how to defeat an enemy or
solve a boss concern. Or I mean, let's I'm sure
they're play testing this one into oblivion.
But I'm sure there's you're going to be a week into this
game and someone's going to be like, I built 17 tables and I

(01:07:05):
went and fought the final boss and or you know, something,
something obnoxious like that. I built tables covering high
rule from east to West and we have covered the entire space.
There's going to be something like that there.
So they're they're kind of mixing old and new and, and
where, how do you feel about that?
And like where? Where's old in your history that
like you're getting all these things colliding now?

(01:07:28):
I this, I love that they're bringing back this like top down
classic feel. It's it's the Zelda I have known
and loved for so long. But I love that they're bringing
in this kind of modern feel, like bringing in the ability to
just kind of go anywhere whenever you want and traverse

(01:07:51):
Hyrule by stacking beds because I don't know, but why not?
You're not going to stop me, Nintendo.
I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.
But the the whole bringing in almost like a Breath of the wild
tears of the Kingdom feel to a classic game is really exciting

(01:08:12):
to me. The being able to experiment
with random objects that I get to find, like I don't know, I
can take a potted plant and use that to block the wind so I can
walk through this tunnel. Or instead of blocking the wind,
I could just build the staircaseof beds again because if it
ain't broke, don't fix it. And getting to copy enemies I

(01:08:36):
think will be cool, but I'm not sure how much how much that's
going to get utilized speaking that you can like pick up
enemies and drop them off a ledge or into a hole like by
another enemy. So I feel like there's some
unique combinations that we could get there, but I don't

(01:08:59):
know. It's I'm very excited, but I'm
also kind of mixed on how it's going to end up with players
creativity. Although knowing Nintendo,
they'll play, test it and make sure that there's nothing that
they don't want us to do that wecan do.
I, I am sitting here, my unreasonable expectation for

(01:09:20):
this game is trying to figure out what they're going to do
because between tears of the Kingdom not telling us about the
depths at all, that they had thetrailers and everything was
skybound and you thought that was going to be the game.
And Skyward, I'd like, you know,those Skyward sword vibes we
were, we were talking about repeatedly with people and then

(01:09:42):
you find out like, Oh no, they built the entire, they, they
built a negative high rule underneath of the entire game.
And then I, I loved Pickman 4 and they hid 50% of the game
after the credits. Like you, you get the credits
and like, no, no, you're not youyou actually maybe like 60% of
the game that's after the credits.
Like no, no, you think you'd be the game?

(01:10:02):
No, we got, we got another 50% of the game that's back here we
didn't tell you about. And I feel like Nintendo has
been consistently doing that to us of like, no, no, no, no, I
know what you thought we did. We did this and I'm just I'm I'm
sitting here dying like what arethey going to?
What are they going to do? Are we going to get Zeld?
We're going to get link in the shadow world?
I I just want to know like, are we playing dual games at the

(01:10:24):
same time? Are we not?
How am I going to feel about that?
Or it's just going to be Zeld and either way I'm content.
I just I don't know what they'regoing to do now.
I'm just I'm I'm I feel like I'mwaiting for them to pull some
kind of a trick on this because they've been doing that with
everything. What was the one for one?
There was something for wonder too, Ray, that I was like, they
they dropped this in here and didn't tell us and I can't
remember what it was. Wonder Wonder had something

(01:10:44):
similar also. What I mean the what?
Just the. The wonder the scope of the.
Flowers. Yeah, the wonder flowers
themselves were sometimes felt like an extra half of a level.
With with entirely different play styles.
Yeah, you had the, you had the, you had top down levels out of
nowhere. Yeah.
Oh, no, now the levels on the wall, yeah, it was entire.

(01:11:04):
That's what it was. It was just the, the fact that
they built like 57 different control scheme games hiding in
the background of that. That was, that was the one they
hit in there. They they've been doing this and
I'm waiting to see what they're doing now.
And at the background as a level, but also there was some
foregrounds. There were levels in the game
too. There was so many, there was so
many pieces to each level. It didn't even, it didn't make

(01:11:25):
sense. You could fit so much into it.
All right. Well, Tori, at this point we
take a quest, a question from the Channel 3 History books to
pick for you to discuss. And I, I don't think I really
asked this when we talked through your collection.
So I, I usually prepare a few questions and decide where I'm
going to go with it. But the one I want to ask you
what, what's your favorite piecein your gaming collection there?

(01:11:47):
Oh that's tough. I mean my my go to thought is my
one of two in existence 2 point campus switch, but I feel like
that's always my go to My the world of Nintendo display
cabinet is definitely up there too because it just looks super

(01:12:08):
freaking cool. What?
Wait, where did you while you'rethinking about that the the two
point campus, What was that likea giveaway like a a raffle prize
or something like you got a holdof?
So yeah, so they're a while backthey teach that they were going
to give away 2 themed switches and one themed Xbox and events.

(01:12:32):
They gave away one and they and they gave away the Xbox and then
they teach that they were going to give away the other switch at
some point. And it happened to be for the
first DLC. So it was submit your submit a
space themed joke and have a chance to win.
So I went in with a college space themed joke because I was

(01:12:56):
like, that'll give me the best chance.
It was Why doesn't the Sun need to go to college?
Because it already has a milliondegrees.
And apparently that was funny enough that they thought I won,
so they sent me a switch. But that's not your answer.
You're still thinking about something else.

(01:13:16):
What's the thing that tops that?So it doesn't really top it
anything in like Rarity, but it has to be my reply letter from
Nintendo when I sent them the letter at the end of my first

(01:13:40):
playthrough of Earthbound. At the end of the first
playthrough of Earthbound, you might know this.
You can go back to the first drugstore and you can talk to
Ruffini the Dog, who has the spirit of a game developer
trapped in the body. And he tells you to write a
letter to Nintendo and address it to Ruffini the dog to get a

(01:14:01):
reply and kind of hear about some of the other upcoming games
from the developers, Earthbound.So, you know, back in, I think
it was 93 that Earthbound released.
Yeah. Long before you existed, Yes, I
know. Yeah, before Ray was born.
Too, Ray. I know Ray.

(01:14:21):
Relax. No, no, not 93.
I was there. I was around already.
Fine, whatever. So you could send in this letter
and I think it was it was E toy who would send a reply.
And a handful of people did thisand got some cool replies.

(01:14:42):
But you know, I think this was 2019, I want to say.
The better part of three decadesafter the game came out, yes.
Right. And I'm like, all right, what's
going to happen if I send a letter to Ruffini, the dog at
Nintendo America? Are they going to send a reply?

(01:15:04):
Are they not going to do anything?
So I sent in a letter and they sent a reply.
And it's, I mean, the reply wasn't anything special.
It was like, thanks for playing Earthbound.
We're glad you enjoyed it. I think in that letter I
mentioned bringing Earthbound tothe Switch, and they're like,
we'll take that into consideration.

(01:15:27):
And then they were like, all right, thanks.
Here's some bookmarks, a little postcard.
I think it was like Mario Bookmark and Pokémon Sun and
Moon postcard, because that's whatever they had leftover to
just send back to people, Yeah. Whatever the panicking intern
you said, what is this letter that I have to respond to?

(01:15:48):
Go. Go to the closet.
Yeah, let's. See what we can give her.
So I got that back and that's it's just a very like
sentimental piece of the collection for me.
Just because it's something fromNintendo.
It's not really worth anything, but it's just a really cool

(01:16:08):
piece that Nintendo was. They actually sent me a reply
regarding Earthbound and actually kind of talked about
it. It's, it's one of those cool
things where like, you know, youhear all these stories about
like Nintendo nailing somebody to the wall for, you know, for,
for pirating and selling their stuff, which again, let me be
clear, there's a difference between somebody who's emulating
it for themselves and someone who's selling someone else's

(01:16:31):
stuff. And there's a lot of a lot of
pieces of that. But then like, you hear stories
like, you know, the, the what was it like somebody's
grandmother's Game Boy broke andthey pulled one out of the
warehouse that they had still sitting around.
Or like, again, you're talking about better part of 30 years
later, someone, someone pulled the trigger and wrote a letter
of this like one off Easter egg hiding in the back of a Super

(01:16:54):
Nintendo game. And to your point, I wasn't even
thinking about the fact that wasbefore they put the Super
Nintendo online on the Switch. So it wasn't like, you know, I
mean, listen, they, I know they did, you know, porch through the
years on the the Wii and EU and everything.
But that's not, you know, that doesn't mean anybody really took
the time to like, oh, let me write a letter to this.

(01:17:14):
And it may have been a panickingintern, like running to the
promotional closet and grabbing whatever they had in there,
which, hey, good for them. But that's still pretty cool
that they stopped and took the time.
And like that could have gone into the round file and just
like threw in the trash can and called it a day.
But it's just it's funny that they did take some semblance of
time to be like, listen, we committed to this thirty years

(01:17:36):
ago. We are going to honor our
commitments and here we go. Yeah, it's, it's nice to see
that Nintendo, despite how much some Nintendo, some of us
Nintendo fans may joke about howNintendo doesn't care about us.
They don't give us things that we want.
But when you, it's like a littlethings like this that it's just

(01:17:58):
makes me love Nintendo so much. Do you do you have the letters
still? I do.
You'll, you'll have to, I mean hide the hide the name and
address and everything, but you'll have to, you'll have to
share that or, and or if you DM it to me, that'll be the clue
for the Monday before I had a different clue in mind for the
Monday before your episode drops.

(01:18:20):
So now I'm like, no, maybe I gota, you know, cut again, cut off
the the anything confidential onthere?
But that might be. Yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll totally,
I'll totally send it over and and then I'll, I'll post it
after the the episode here gets posted.
But yeah, it hasn't, you haven'tbeen able to see it in any of
the collection posts I've done because it's like it's hidden

(01:18:41):
behind the copy of Earthbound. So no one's been able to see it
so far. But yeah, I'll send it over to
you. And last question we ask
everybody, what's been your favorite feature on Channel 3?
Oh, I I got to say just the quest.
The quest overall has been my favorite.

(01:19:03):
The quest give me an incentive to jump on and interact with the
community each day, whether it'sfor just saying who would be a
better wedding caterer or eithercooking Mama or a Dave the Diver
or like the that was such an. Incredibly stupid one I put

(01:19:26):
together. I don't know what I I was
thinking. That's the, but that's the.
But that is the example that Tora went with.
Like that was. That's the one that stuck out.
That's the one you. Went with oh God, sorry,
continue on. You're talking about the
question. I just the fact that you pulled
that one out because I also had your one of the other options.
I was going to ask you who the better moving help was between

(01:19:48):
Lincoln Steve, but I was like, no, I and I'm glad I went with
the one I went with, but that's so ridiculous.
You pulled out Dave the diver and Cookie Mama.
But yeah, the. The quest again just really give
me a point to interact with and it really really makes me feel

(01:20:08):
involved in everything, even when I don't have something to
post that day. Yeah, it's true.
Even you bring that up like I never, I never know which ones
are are going to be hits and which ones aren't.
I, I put some up and thinking like, oh man, I came up with
just the greatest question of all time and five people answer
it and then, you know, there's athrowaway one and.

(01:20:31):
And one of those laughed at Brian saying Fortnite.
Yeah, you get like one of the you have 50 responses to you.
It's like these passionate answers about and I was like, I
put that in at 1:00 in the morning because I needed, I had
a day with nothing on it. But apparently that was that was
what's on everyone's mind. So it is very funny how those

(01:20:52):
how they work out. Yeah, I feel like in part to the
wedding caterer one as why that one stuck out to me so much was
because that was one of the first ones that I answered.
I think it was my second day on the site that I answered that
one. Oh thank God you stuck around.

(01:21:14):
Oh, man. And with that, we've made it to
the end of another 43 podcast Torah.
Thank you for being our guest tonight.
You can find a podcast at C3 dotGG slash podcast dropping every
Wednesday morning at 3:33 AM Eastern on all the major
platforms, including Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Podcast.
I'm Ray Dan puts this all together.
Our theme song is by Caster Garden and for our executive

(01:21:35):
producer, Joel Willis. Have a good day everybody.
Channel 3.