Greg Sestero's "Miracle Valley"

On this week's Level Select we are joined by Actor, Writer, Producer, and Director Greg Sestero. Greg is best known for his role on The Room by Tommy Wiseau and his novel turned film The Disaster Artist, but today we're excited to talk to him about his latest film Miracle Valley, and some surprising connections he has to the video game industry.

Find Miracle Valley on Tubi!
https://tubitv.com/movies/683307/miracle-valley

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Welcome to Level Select, a semiweekly show about games and game development.
I'm your host Fred Wood, andI'm your host Michael Deviar. If you're
new to the show, welcome.Every episode we discussed the games we're excited
about and the things that are goingon with game development. We definitely don't
get sidetracked here at all. Definitelynot at all. This week we get

(00:34):
super sidetracked. But we've got aspecial, kind of a special episode for
everyone. You've probably already seen thetitle and clicked on it and going what
why? Also, how how haveyou done? Yeah? How? Being
the biggest one, the story isunfortunately not that interesting. I don't know,
it's kind of interesting. We'll talkabout it afterwards. But yeah,

(00:56):
But we have actor, writer,and producer and rector Grexistero from the Room
Fame best friends. He's been onHaunting a blight manner and he's got a
new movie out called Miracle Valley.Now you might be asking why, why,
why why is Grexistero on our showof all shows? Trust me,

(01:21):
it will make sense by the endof the interview. In some honestly very
surprising ways. I could not haveanticipated what happens, and we won't keep
you from that. But just aheads up, there are some light spoilers
for his new film Miracle Value,which you can and should watch on TB

(01:42):
which is a completely free streaming service. Yes, you can find links in
the description probably to that. Sothe movie was blast very fun if you
like kind of like seventies grindhouse throwbackswith just some insane twists and dirts.
It is a very, very fun, very campy watched that. Yeah,
I just I thoroughly enjoyed. Ifyou're looking for an absolute train wreck,

(02:07):
I'm happy to say you won't findit. So but yeah, we won't
keep you from that. So hereyou guys go, Fred and me for
real talking to Greg Cistero. It'snot a bit, it's not a bit.
So Fred and I have a specialguest for the show today, some

(02:29):
one that has been in a varietyof famous films, ranging from things like
The Room to Best Friends to thenow recently released Miracle Valley. Please welcome
to the show, Greg Cistero.Thank you for joining us today, Thank
you for having me. Yeah,of course, as we were just talking

(02:50):
before we started recording, we justwatched a Miracle Valley last night and had
a blast with it. You know, you were talking about, you know,
it being based off of some ofthe research that you've been doing in
Cold Sand, where you were livingat the time. So I guess I
just wanted to start off with thatis what was the initial thrust of the
initial inspiration for getting this film made. Obviously you talk about having a love

(03:15):
for certain types of films, butlike, what was the I guess the
the first colonel that popped to startmaking Miracle Valley. So I had written
the book The Disaster Artist, andwith that, my goal truly was for
that movie, that story to beturned into a film. So I'd kind

(03:36):
of taken you know, step bystep. I was in this, you
know, obviously in the movie calledThe Room that was considered the worst movie
ever. And it's like, obviouslyyou got to find an interesting pivot.
I alway, because I, youknow, my first love of storytelling.
I wrote a script, a homealone sequel that I based in Disney World
when I was twelve, and Isent it to John Hughes and he sent

(03:59):
me this really sweet back and soand then as I wanted to get in
acting, you know, you makeI did retro Puppetmaster which was bizarre.
And then I did The Room,which obviously is what it is. So
I wrote the book, you know, to kind of get my story out
there. And once that was receivedwell received, and the disastrous movie got

(04:20):
made, I thought, hey,horror. The horror genre has always been
one of my favorites. I rememberwatching Nightmare on Elm Street, you know,
as a kid, and just beingso fascinated with those stories. Friday,
Friday the thirteenth, getting a grouptogether and I thought, hey,
I've been around, I've been incinemas around the world, and I love

(04:41):
to see an audience participate with thefilm and that environment. I was like,
horror gives you a chance to dothat. It gives you sort of
the liberties to work with comedy,to work with drama, to take risks,
and the horror audience and horror fansare very supportive. So I thought,
hey, now that I've sort ofwork through the Room and the Disaster
Artist, I am going to makea horror movie. I know kind of

(05:08):
the shared language stories that I kindof want to work and I loved Psycho,
Don't Breathe, Hereditary, The HillsHave Eyes. I collected a bunch
of horror movies, and I movedto the middle of nowhere in Arizona.
I rented this ranch and I gotthere with the only sort of goal and

(05:30):
knowledge that I was gonna make afilm by the end of the year.
And that was sort of very Itwas really exciting, but at the same
time challenging because you're living in thisbeautiful, remote area and you're like,
I need to write a script andI need to make a movie. Let's
get started. And so I cameacross this cult that was based in that

(05:53):
region that I was living, andit's sort of an underground type of story.
Then, and I visited this churchthat it was abandoned out in the
valley in the middle of nowhere,and it had been looted, things that
had been taken out of there,and just the shell of this church existed.
And so I did research. Italked to the guys that were still
living there, trying to bring itback to life. And so the whole

(06:15):
thing was this preacher believed that hecould bring people back from the dead based
on their blood type, and apparentlythere was blood trafficking, human trafficking,
and it was such a weird storythat I hadn't really heard yet, and
I was like, okay, Iwant to I want to try to tackle
a horror movie about a cult.And so I started writing the script,
studied horror movies. I was livingout there at night. I would study

(06:36):
the house, the lighting, kindof utilizing all the environment around me to
tell the story. And sure enoughwe ended up making the movie just as
the pandemic was happening. Oh gosh, she has finished it in time,
which was sort of a lesson becausepeople are like, oh, you know,
you don't need to make it now, just wait a month or wait

(06:57):
six months. And I was like, you know, you're ever going to
be fully ready to make a movie, Let's just do it. And sure
enough we made it. Pandemic happened, and we were able to work on
post production the entire time during thepandemic. So horror again, it's something
that I feel like people have somuch fun with. Halloween is always my
favorite season. People are so into, you know, just giving random movies

(07:20):
a chance. That's what I lovewith horrors, Like it doesn't really matter
there's names, if they're people justlike, you know, to watch horror
movies. And so that's what Ithought with this movie, it's a chance
to go out and do something totallydifferent than challenge yourself. I'd had experience
with writing and producing and all thatwhen we made Best Friends, the movie

(07:41):
that came out a couple of yearsago through Lionsgate. Learned a lot through
that, and I was like,Okay, now the next thing I want
to take on. I want totry to do the whole writer director star.
I wasn't going to be in thismovie initially, but as we were
down there, as I was gettingcloser to the story, I was like,
you know, probably easier for meto just step in and and do
it. And so yeah, weare able to pull it off. And

(08:03):
finally it's coming out during horror season, um, several years later, and
so people have been having fun withit, which is great. You know.
I think if you see the Roomand the disaster US, you're like,
what the hell is this going tobe? But I think, um,
you know, so far people havebeen enjoying it. You mentioned the
accessibility of horror that and that it'sjust a thing that like anybody can get

(08:24):
into. And so this is launchingon two B, which is a streaming
service. I love the fact thatyou sent me a link and I coicked
it and immediately was able to startwatching it. And then I was able
to send it to Mike and we'reable to start watching it together immediately.
Isn't that kind of crazy how welive in a time now Before you'd have

(08:45):
to get like a VHS and Ihave a VCR and yeah, and then
the se wouldn't work or your VCRwould would glitch. And now you literally
can upload something through a service andwatch it, you know, jump right
into it. Yeah. Absolutely,Like we live in a world of post
scarcity. When it comes to likeentertainment, there is almost too many things

(09:07):
that you want to watch, toomany things you want to play, and
removing barriers to entry is like thething that can get people in the door.
And yeah, it was a great, like just a great experience.
I got home last night and wasjust ready to have a good time and
we gave it a spend That actuallydives into the next question I was going
to ask, is with the distributionmodel on to be how important was that

(09:31):
to you to get that going.Was that like a deal that they came
to you with or was it adecision that you made just to try to
make the film as available to peopleas possible. Well, we're doing some
like advanced screenings, we did filmfestivals, we did some premiers in Europe,
Portugal, Berlin, we went allaround, and so we're slowly rolling

(09:52):
it out first through an outstream afew streaming services. So we're starting with
to be as exclusive and we're goingto be going to am on in other
countries as well. But it's funny. I didn't really know too much about
to Be, so somewhere maybe ayear ago, and oddly I found out
about it through my parents. They'relike during the pandemic. They're like,
we're watching this thing to Be.It's got so many fun movies we can't

(10:13):
stop watching. And I was like, what, what's that? And then
a friend of mine who works inproduction, distribution and reppering films, he's
like, to Be is such agreat business model because it gives the filmmaker
a platform. You have more accessibility, more options, And the more I
looked into it, it was justsomething that I think people, especially with

(10:33):
horror, people really jump into it, which is really cool. So it's
a great start absolutely and jumping ontothat with the accessibility in a couple of
interviews, you talk about how youreally enjoy being a part of and making
movies that played more to the crowdand allow the crowd to kind of have
this interactive experience, and how thatwas something that was initially born out of

(10:54):
the Room, but it's just somethingthat you've just taken with you into your
filmmaking career. I guess what's thelike, what drove that initially? Was
it just the response to movies likeThe Room and that sort of cult nature
or was there something else involved thatkind of gave you that more audience first
rather than you know, I wouldsay, like snob film critic first focus.

(11:16):
Yeah, I mean I started,I guess technically in horror, if
you want to call it that.But I did a movie called Retro Puppetmaster,
which is in the in the Horroruniverse, and it's just the people's
passion for those movies is I mean, twenty years later, people are still
have the Blu Ray the original vhs. So I always love passionate fans because
they will get into the details,that will appreciate the nuances. And then

(11:39):
when it comes to cults, I'vejust always been fascinated, you know,
terror in the Jungle Wild Country,the Manson Cult. I've just always been
fascinated why people joined cults, andso, you know, Hereditary had come
out a few others, and Iwas like, you know, I was
in Iceland with my friend Rick,who played Father Ji, and we were

(12:01):
looking up like weird stuff that youknow, had come askin of underground stories
about random you know, whether it'shuman trafficking or cults, and we came
across this thing about rare blood typesand people like having a certain blood type
that you can actually use to healpeople, and there's these people are kept

(12:22):
in close quarters where they're not mixingwith the rest of the world, and
we just kind of love that idea. And then I, you know,
as I was putting it together,it's random. I was at this convention,
this horror convention, which was myfirst time I'd ever done that,
and ironically there I met Kate Siegel, which ended up led leading me to
be on The Haunting of Blind Manner, which is a great series on Netflix.

(12:43):
But I these people came up tome, this family and like,
we have rare blood types and wenever get sick, and then they were
going, you know, talked aboutit, so it's just funny that this
was going into the pandemic. Wehad no idea, but the movie has
ties to what we've kind of gonethrough the last two years. But it
was really just sort of researching weirdunderground cults and then kind of going in
that direction. You mentioned father JakeMan. What an intense, manic energy

(13:07):
he brings to like every scene he'sin. Yeah, he's he's pretty pretty
much absolutely fantastic. Yeah he's,uh, he was. He was awesome.
He's a good friend of mine.We met um years ago and he
was like the first male supermodel.Actually, no kidding, I'm back in
the utes. Yeah, he's he'ssuch such a fun guy. He's really

(13:28):
got one of the best sense ofhumors I've ever come across. And so
we thought, hey, he's thisbiker in real life, like a biker
priest. Is something that I waslike, I would love to see you
play and so we just we justwent out and worked on it, and
then you know, that's he's heirbrings so much to to any film that
he's a part of, and hehasn't worked in a long time, so
this is sort of like his first, you know, role in years.

(13:50):
Sana. That also explains why he'sjust so part of my French so damn
shredded like that guy was Jack,Yeah, other Jacks. Yeah, you
know what there is? Yeah,there you go. Yeah, of course
build building off you. You know, with all the research that you've done,
you've been described, you've just selfdescribed yourself in a lot of interviews
as sort of a student of cinemaand just wanting to learn as much as

(14:15):
you can, no matter of theproduction you're on, especially with you know,
your recent appearances on Blin Manner anddoing that stuff. How intimidating was
it to step into not just writing, not just acting, but also directing
this movie. I mean, anyone of those things is already a mountain
to climb, but you just decidedto basically put all the major responsibilities on

(14:37):
your back and just carry this wholething forward. Yeah. Like I said,
I had experience with writing and producingbest friends. That taught me a
lot. Obviously, when I wroteThe Disaster Artists they made the movie,
I was on set a lot,so I got a feel for, you
know, how to do it right, The passion they put into that movie,
how much fun they had, howhard they work so I had a
good amount of prep and then whenit came to making Miracle Valley, I

(15:01):
just was kind of up for thefun of it. I didn't really think
too much. I've learned that youcan't control the outcome of the movie.
You can just control the experience.And I was like, you know,
I've studied horror. I've had alot of time to live in this environment,
to memorize sort of the visuals inthe story. This is a it's
a good time to do it.And really casting, when it comes to

(15:22):
directing, your biggest job is casting. If you cast the right actors,
you could be in any environment andthe story will be told in a good
way. And so when we hadRick playing Father Jake and some of the
other roles, like I knew theywould be able to help tell the story.
I think it's a lot harder directinga scene where everybody's lost and they

(15:45):
don't quite get what's happening. Butwhen you have actors that get it,
that are giving their all, Ithink it makes your job a lot easier.
I did actually want to bring upanother performance and this is going to
hedge a little bit into spoiler territories, but Luisa Torres when she reappeared of
the film later on towards the endof the second act beginning of the third
that energy that you know, wementioned manic energy with Rick Edwards performance,

(16:07):
but she brings a sort of almosta whist where I'm looking for that like
dangerous unhingedness to that performance. Forreally how little she's in the film up
until that point, her character instantlyis established. How hard was it trying
to get that kind of performance,that kind of energy out of the actors
that needed to bring those very intense, very frantic moments in the film.

(16:33):
Yeah, Louisa is somebody that'd knownfor a while. She's really really we're
going to really passionate and I knewher strength and she did. You know,
each actor kind of brought their ownvibe to the movie with how they
they're kind of their take on howtheir character would kill somebody, and you
know, we just collaborated a loton on certain scenes. And I think

(16:55):
when you give the actor some leashand some space to to have a voice,
I think it really opened them up. That's awesome. I am curious
the walking around with a person's limb. Whose idea was that? In the
script or was that something that shecame up with that was some of that
was sort of come up with onthe spot. Like you know, it
wasn't really my idea. I thoughtit was sort of insane, and then

(17:15):
the more we got into editing,the more people enjoy it. I will
say it is one of my favoritemoments in the film. It was it
was surprising. Yeah, yeah,it was one of those things that we
were like, all right, peopleseem to dig it. I guess we
gotta go with what the audience wants, and so we rolled with that.
Yeah. Like I said, horrorsit kind of a genre where you got

(17:36):
to know when to push it andI'm new, I mean, I'm generally
new to it, and so luckilywe had more voices here to kind of
help guide that. That's awesome,and you mentioned earlier before we talked,
you know, wanting to bring thatsort of seventies grindhouse style horror vibe to
this and that is readily apparent,along with some of the other inspirations that

(17:56):
you've mentioned over over the course ofour conversation. But are there any other
films, any other I guess inspirationsin the movie that you've not gotten a
chance to talk about or that aren'treadily apparent within the work. I again,
I think it was The Hills HaveEyes as one that I really loved,
Race with the Devil, I wouldstudy those. I also loved a

(18:17):
movie that came out in nineteen ninetyseven called Breakdown, and that was a
movie with Kurt Russell that I reallyliked. Um but it had sort of
the thriller veering into horror vibe,and I really I really liked that movie
as well. So I started studyingthose and we always try to do in

(18:38):
homage in any movie that I doto those films that I that I studied,
and so that's those are something thatI watched. Don't Breathe was another
one that I thought was really fantastic. Oh phenomenal, Yes, And so
that was another one that kept attension, kept the unpredictability. I love
the idea of killing off characters earlycourse in a shocking way. Because of

(19:00):
course Psycho is a movie that Ithought did that really well. So I
just um, yeah, again,I tried to follow the fun of movies
that I loved, and I knewwhat I knew, the length, I
knew I wanted to be ninety minutesor less. I feel like a lot
of times horror movies will go on, you know, into some time where
I feel like we don't need itto be as long. So I thought

(19:21):
that those are some of the thingsI wanted to focus on. There's a
bit where your character David is findingthis guy in part of the I say
the second act climax without giving awaytoo much, We're like the lighting and
the colors of the film get alot more to that, like almost Dario
Argento Giallo stylings. Was that intentionalor was that just you guys having fun

(19:44):
and playing around with the way thatyou're able to use light and color and
an action sequence. Yeah, wehad worked in um we'd studied some of
those scenes. I think grain Roomwas one of them where we wanted to
play the scene where he get youknow, where my character is looking for
some weird stuff and we were actuallyup in the mountains. It was like

(20:07):
probably an hour and a half upthe mountain and we were out there as
freezing cold. We were in thishouse that had been abandoned, It hadn't
been touched in a hundred years.It looked how you would have you would
dream a haunted house would look likeit was falling apart. The guy who
owned the property was like, youreally want to put yourself through this?

(20:27):
You really want to go up there? The bats that are living in the
ceiling. You got you gotta signsomething that tells me if you guys you
know, get injured, I'm notresponsible. He was like, I'd be
sure you want to do this.So we went up there. It was
freezing cold. We cleaned up thewhole house, we put the lights,
you know, we we we turnedit into the you know, I'm a
big Horror Knights fan. We turnedit into sort of a Horror Knight's maze

(20:49):
and just went up there and andI you know, obviously the scene is
kind of crazy, but I leftwith some bruises and it was the last
scene we shot. But it wasyou know, definitely amdag to Argento and
a little bit of inspiration from fromGreen Room. That's awesome. Yeah.
I was gonna say, the thephysicality that not just you, but everyone
gets involved in in this film.I mean I can imagine everyone was coming

(21:12):
out of this movie a little soreat the end. Yeah, there's you
know, obviously father Jake does histhing, and it's a very physical movie.
There were stunts. We just hada great group of people that you
know, they were they were justexcited to make a movie. We had
a great team. We were livingout in the desert in the middle of

(21:33):
nowhere as like this troop. Whenwe'd rehearse, we'd party. It was
just a really fun time making thismovie. Like I said, I'm so
glad we got it done just asthe pandemic was happening. Yeah. Absolutely.
Um again, that kind of coversthe bulk of my questions. I
know you've got I mean, you'vegot several things coming out. I mean
you've got Big Shark coming coming outnext that next year or is that going
to be a later later on downthe line. So Big Shark was just

(21:57):
a trailer that we made. Ithink it was like three over three years
ago and got sort of released outthere. But it's it's you know,
it's just a trailer. But Iam. I am working on a UFO
abduction film, which has been alot of fun that I've been researching as

(22:17):
well, So I'm hoping to makethat next year. I also did a
movie called Infrared, which is ontwo be at the moment. It's a
found footage paranormal movie. It's okay, sick. I want to check that
out later. Yeah, very verybizarre, but I think that might be
an interesting thing for you guys tocheck out, oh for sure. And

(22:40):
yeah, UFO abduction movie is calledForbidden Sky, and I hope to make
that next year. Yeah. Iwent to the seventy fifth anniversary Roswell Crash
earlier this year and just been,you know, kind of diving into that
whole culture. So I think it'ssomething that you guys will appreciate. If
you like Miracle Valley, it'll beright up your rally. Fantastic, That's

(23:02):
fantastic. Yeah, I think thatkind of wraps up the bulk of my
questions. Fred, if you wantto take over with yours, Well,
you know, this is of coursea video game podcast, so we got
to talk a little bit about videogames. You mentioned that you are an
enthusiast of games and all that.What's your what's your like relationship with games
nowadays? So? I um,I was always a huge video game fan.

(23:25):
I grew up obviously playing Colliko wasthe first game system that I was
on. I loved games like RiverRaid always loved sports games. Um,
and then obviously I migrated to theoriginal Nintendo Legends of Zelda sports games.
Obviously, I love that I endedup working. I worked in at Sega

(23:48):
of America. My friend was ahis dad was vice president. But it's
been my summers working for Sega.Is that Ms Kleinsky. It was Thomas
Kolinsky's partner. So my summer wasspent playing video games, answering phones.

(24:10):
So I was there for Sega,the Sega CD, the Sega Saturn Um.
I mean, it was the dreamjob. I literally played video games.
We played Madden, we'd play Sonic, I'd answer phones, talk to
all these people about video games.It was. It was incredible, awesome,
and so ben I switched over toSuper Nintendo. First Superstar Wars.

(24:37):
That was my favorite game to thatpoint I did. I played Superstar Wars,
Super Empire, Super Turn of theJedi, and then I got into
PlayStation when Grand Theft Auto three cameout and I thought that was one of
that series change games for me.It was like the Free Rome, Grand
Theft Auto three. I'd do thecheet cos and kind of get a drop

(25:02):
a tank and you know, retrackthe world there and do missions and get
your leads and weapon sheets, andthen obviously By City and every Grand Theft
auto game I played just through andthrough and was obsessed with it, and
then Red Dead, Redemption, LeNoir, I loved Uncharted three, Dead
Space was great, and then recentlyI always sports games. I love the

(25:23):
NBA games, but recently the lastof us I thought was terrific. And
then one of my all time favoritevideo games all time that I played.
It was a couple of years ago, was Limbo Limbo phenomenal game. Yeah,
it's Limbo and Inside or two ofthe two of the most creative,
unique games I've ever played. Yeah, I'm I'm very excited. Jeffy Carlson,

(25:48):
who is one of the main developerson that one or on both of
those games, has moved on towork on this game where you're a Scarab
in this like horror world and itlooks cool as hell. So I'm excited
to see what else is coming outof those guys soon. Yeah. It's
um, it's scary, it's cool. It's just oh man, it's so

(26:10):
I played those games. As Iwas playing them, I would just think
to myself, like, oh dude, this is This is incredible, This
is amazing, this is awesome.Um, I just yeah, I just
absolutely loved it. Um in everyway, has making a video game ever
been a passion of yours or somethingthat you've ever wanted to do? Yeah?
I mean I, um, there'sa room video game, which is

(26:32):
kind of funny. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, video games again is
something that I I absolutely love.Um, So hopefully someday I'll be able
to do something cool. I'm tryingto think. Yeah. Yeah, I
mean, honestly, Limbo and Insidekind of inspired me a little bit with
film, so to tie in thosethemes and visuals, I thought there were

(26:56):
that that brilliant, in that captivating. That's awesome. I'm glad to hear
that. Yeah. When you hadagreed to do the show, I was
like, I hope that when weasked him if he plays video games,
he doesn't just say no and thenhang up the call. But no,
that's that's fantastic. The fact thatyou worked at Sega in like one of

(27:17):
the golden eras of that company,that's that's amazing. It was a it
was a dream man. It wasyou know, the summer of ninety two
and ninety three, Sega. Wasthat its peak? Um, you know,
we we were just basically my buddyand I just again hanging out.
We were fourteen, hanging out witha bunch of game testers getting to try

(27:37):
out games early. You know,I'd play all ranges of games. People
call me up. I'd have abinder there. I'd be like, hey,
I'm stuck on Metroid or something like, oh what do you think about
Metroid? And let me see whereyou're at. And I go through all
the game tips. So I hadall the game sheets and everything, and
the whole goal there was to beon a call like keep your call all

(28:00):
times down and that's how you getprogress. But we were Yeah, we
were with the vice president's you knowson, and so we we go over
after our day and waiting Tom Kolinski'soffice and and just hang out. And
it was like, man, itwas tough when you know, after the
couple of summers that I did that, we weren't able to um work there

(28:21):
again. We were pretty spoiled.But um, but man, someone I'll
never forget for sure, that's reallyawesome. I who knows. I may
ask you more questions in the futurewhen I when I can think of them.
There's a lot of a lot ofquestions from folks that are excited about
the early nineties of video game development, because while people talk a lot about

(28:42):
the history of games from the twothousands and up and the early eighties and
stuff like, all of that's prettywell documented, but the early Sega and
Nintendo nineties days, like, thereare not at as many public stories about
those days. So that's really cool. Yeah, I think I don't know.
I think Sega had some good moments, um and you think Super Nintendo

(29:03):
ended up being a better system,just because I thought the Superstar Wars games
at that time were just oh yeah, man, they were the Star Wars
games you dreamed about as a kid, and they delivered big time. And
uh, I just think Sega therewas some good moments there. It was
a little bit of a stiff system. I think in some ways. Yeah,
you know, Ledges of Zelda theoriginal Nintendo you know that hit me

(29:26):
harder than any really game on Sega. I think Seg got a more polished
product. Anythink, like when youbought it, you'd get altered beast,
you know, in these games thatsort of looked nice, but when you
get down to it, there wasn'ta ton there. I like some of
the sports games, but yeah,Sega it was cool, and I think
people love Sonic. I looking back, I think Mario was a better game.

(29:48):
Wow, my heart hearts Sonic fans. I think you just completely dunked
on his entire childhood there. Imean I started on Mario, and I
think Dak got me into video gamesin a way that by the time I
got to Sonic, it was Sonicwas Mario was just more raw. It
was like you could see the constructionof the video game and the challenge it

(30:14):
took to like break through in thesedifferent worlds. Sonic was like the polished,
colorful, poppy version, and Ithink once I'd gotten through that,
at that age I was at Iwas ready for something different. Although Sonic
I think it is probably aged better. I just I think because Mario was

(30:37):
the one that got me. Youalways fall in love with the video game
that challenged you the most. Ithink Mario did that. But it's been
a long time since I played Sonic, so I can't. I'm just you
know, looking on looking back,I did like a game called Echo the
Dolphin that came out on Sega.What a weird game a while after.

(30:57):
It was such a weird game.I'd love the idea of that. I'm
not sure if it fully it wasfully pulled off, but I thought there
were some coople things there. Ialso like there was One of the weirdest
video games I've ever played was agame called Strider. It was a sixteen
meg megabyte game, which was bigat the time. It was so weird.

(31:18):
It was like a little bit oflike Inside at the time, but
didn't do it as well or charming, but it was a game I played
a lot. And then I alsoloved Donkey Kong Country, which was another
game at the time. The graphicswas like pretty insane for that time.
For sure, I gotta go backand play Sonic. I think based on
what I don't know. Here's thething, though, I don't know that

(31:40):
it holds up. You might beright. Like Mario games now still feel
as good as they did back then. Sonic does feel a little dated nowadays.
I'm just still a big fan ofthat weird blue headshog since I was
a child, so I see that. So, yeah, you were a
little bit probably before, so thatwas like your Mario. I feel like
probably yeah, yeah, First thefirst game I ever owned myself, I

(32:05):
think was Sonic that Chug too.So that was while you were working at
Sega that summer. That's awesome.Yeah, that's right. I was there
for the whole thing. Well cool, Thanks so much for joining us,
Greg, This has been an absolutedelight and a privilege. I thanks so
much for saying yes to this anytime, and thanks for watching the film and

(32:27):
supporting it. And you know,I think, hey, maybe someday there'll
be a Miracle Valley video game.Oh yeah, I would play the hell
out of that. Well. Thanksguys, keep in touch, we'll do
and please reach out when when whenthe Alien Abduction film comes out, because
we will be there for sure,absolutely absolutely, you got it. Greg,

(32:53):
sistera used to work for Sega,which is that part? I don't
know. He felt like a justa baseball bat to the face. Not
even just the that he used towork for Sega, but like just the
instant depth of knowledge he was talkingabout, and like the like culture dynamics
and like stuff like that. Iwas. And obviously he got a couple

(33:15):
of little things wrong here and theretalking about Metroid in the game guides segment,
But like the dude was around inthe early nineties in a semi professional
capacity working at Sega of America,and that's bonkers. Yeah, that's what
a what a career path. Iam going to keep sending him dms asking

(33:38):
about small bits of Sega history,like I want to know if he like
he said he was around for likethe Saturn, which means he knows about
how the Saturn was just dropped atan E three, Like, Hey,
we're releasing this thing despite the factthat you guys, well you didn't,
but some consumers just about the Segathirty X, like I want to I

(34:00):
want to know, like I wantto hear the office drama and uh,
yeah, Greg, if you're listeningto this, I think this is just
our way of saying we would loveto have you back. Oh yeah,
for sure, and like you cantalk about whatever film you want and I
will watch any movie you throwed me. So yeah, keep them coming.

(34:22):
We don't want to call too muchof attention to it. But uh,
Mike and I have both had somepretty rough weeks recently, so that is
why things have not been as regularas we would normally schedule it. Hopefully
we can get back into the saddle. Yeah, this brought us out of
retirement. Yeah, yeah, andhopefully we'll we'll stay out yea for the

(34:45):
time being. We also have otherguests lined up and we have the technology.
Yeah, just mouth to me,do we and yeah, yeah,
we've got one for sure, andthen some others. I'm not gonna say
it on the show, because wehave they can tell me while we're doing
with the show that I am peopleyou already said yes to, like forever

(35:07):
ago, that was like forever ago. It'll be fine, it'll be fine.
All right, They're all good people. I don't doubt that you have
an incredible way of sniffing out goodpeople from bad. So so I do
want to shout out yesterday I wason Giant Bomb as of recording, I

(35:27):
was on Giant Bomb, and todaywe had Greg Cistero on the podcast,
and I think that's probably peaking.Like I don't think that it gets higher
from here right now. But AndrewAndrew also fred Wood professional game developer working
on Delta Rid with Toby Fox.Yeah. We we just raised three hundred
and twenty two thousand dollars for charityvia Child's Play, which kicks ass.

(35:51):
So yeah, okay, fine,it's been a good week. I don't
think there's more coming immediately, butlet me let this just be a testament
to y'all. If there's something thatyou want to do, just ask,
because that is one hundred percent howall this happened so far. Yeah,
just send an email, send atweet, make things happen, Mike.

(36:14):
If you played any video games lately, I've not been playing much new,
but I do want to revisit somethingthat we talked about it on the show
a while back, and that's TotalWar Warhammer three because when it first had
released and we were talking about it, I did not have glowing things to
say, and with the recent updatesin the release, in the release of

(36:37):
the Immortal Empire's campaign, I didwant to go back and give it its
fair shake because I cleaned up justabout every issue that I have had with
that's the game so far. Itwas like primarily a lack of content,
right right. It was primarily alack of content and really just not enjoying
the main campaign as it was,and the content incredible, especially with the

(37:00):
release with one of its first dealcpacks, which brought in a lot of
new generals and reworkings to army types. Um yeah, so I did want
to give it its fair do thatthat game has for me anyways, really
really turned itself around. Um otherwise, I you know, at the content

(37:20):
level that it was at. Ione PC completed Vampire Saviors, so uh
uh not Vampire Savior. That's acompletely different Vampire Survivors. Yeah, Vampire
Savior is Dark Stalkers, and Ihave no reason to boot that game up.
It's dead. Oh it'll come backsome day, They'll make another one
for sure. But yeah, onehundred percent completed Vampire Survivors. I have

(37:43):
a suggestion for a game for youto play instead. Okay, now that
you've finished Vampire Survivors. Hollow Cure. What is that? Hollow Cure is
an indie, unlicensed hollow Live likev tuber game that is Vampire Survivors but
v tabers. It is I thinkmore fun and better than Vampire Survivors.

(38:13):
I also, I introduced our friendLevi to Vampire Survivors, and that's the
only game I've seen them playing lately, so it seems like people are enjoying
Yeah. Yeah, I'm try tothink of I'm been playing anything else.
I mean, elden Ring is eachis now the eternal replacement for Dark Souls.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, ohactually you know what. I mentioned

(38:34):
this in the Level select server,which you should all join, and oh
yeah, we have a discord.You should come hang out with us and
talk about the things you like.Yeah, because they might be things we'd
like. Yeah, it's like afterI mentioned it, I wouldn't booter back
up way of the same urai too. That game kicks ass, And if
you haven't played the first two games, you really should because they're super underrated
PS two classics. They're also hardas hell to find. Legitimately, to

(38:58):
be fair, I have had mycopy like since it came out, and
watching that game go from being likefive dollar bargain bin nothing to like kind
of a rare collector's item is bafflingto me. But yeah, that game
rules. You should check it out. And then I also played through Guitar

(39:21):
Roo Man again recently because it's goodstuff. Probably still, without question to
date, my favorite rhythm game ever. Have you played Trumbone Simulator or whatever?
I have seeded me too. Ineed to pick it up. I
want that game with a plastic peripheralof some sort or a theremin would be

(39:42):
perfect for that game. Yeah.The fact that that game now exists in
the post peripheral era, like Crushingthe Soul, absolutely criminal. Um.
I played a game I was aboutto say that is similar. It is
not. But I played a rhythmgame for the first time that I've seen
before and have been interested in,called tun of Them. I don't know

(40:04):
that any of that one. SoTuna Them is this game that has like
you've got a lot large horizontal lightbar in front of you, and you've
got your classic style like notes orfrets coming down the board at you,
and you tap different parts of thislight strip to the rhythm of or two
to the music that's coming to isplaying like a large like virtual piano.

(40:29):
Okay, cool. But also thereare moments in the game where you have
to lift your hands up and thereare sensors on the side and so you're
doing like theremin like motions. Okay, that's neat. So it was at
San Japan, which I went toSan Japan for a day and a half
and then horrible things happen and Igot to play it for a bit there.

(40:51):
And the variety of music in thatgame is buck wild. So you've
got your you've got your J pop, you've got your K pop, you've
got your video game music, you'vegot your anime music, you've got the
offspring. Yeah it is kick ass. Why not. Yeah, it's got
undertail music in it, if that'swhat you're looking for, and I was,
of course, yeah, no itwas. It was fucking awesome.

(41:15):
The other hot new video game I'mplaying, which is only slightly newer than
June of Them, is the originalJudgment. Now that it's on PC,
game is so good. I wishit was called Judge Eyes because that's a
better name. Yeah, but howare you liking it? It's kind of
not a better name. I haveonly just now gotten back to the point

(41:37):
that I was when I was playingon my Xbox earlier this year, which
is slightly further than I got whenI was playing on PS four when it
launched. I just yeah, okay, I've bought that game four times.
I got it on PS four theday I came out. Sure, I
got it on Google Stadia when itwas ten dollars, and then I got

(41:57):
it on Xbox, and then whenI came out on Xbox, like I'm
gonna finally finish this, and they'relike, well, what if it's out
on PC. Now I'm gonna finallyfinish this, And then I guess I'm
gonna finally finish this. And soI've been playing it primarily on my computer,
but that game runs great on theSteam deck. Oh really, Okay,
so it's like play for a bitduring the day, go climb in

(42:19):
bed, play a little bit ofthat on the way out. Yeah,
it's great, that's awesome. Whatdo you think of the What do you
think of Kiriu's new hair in theYakuza eight reveal or sorry Yakuza is dead?
They are now calling it like adragon We're full on yeah. Yeah.
Part of me is like, wow, that's stupid as hell. The

(42:43):
other part of me is, hell, yeah, we're calling it what it's
always supposed to. Yeah, No, it kicks ass. Yeah, you're
a fan of the P four protaghair. I I don't know how I
feel about Cosmic Kreu returning to theYakuza series after he had a fan fantastic
exit in six. I'm a littlenervous about that. Yeah, and a

(43:04):
great appearance in seven. But thefact that they're doing shin Yaka is a
game that tells the story between thosegames. All right, sure, cool,
I'm on board. And more importantly, we're what's the one set in
Feudal Japan? We're getting Asian?Yes, yeah, we're getting Asian,
which I am so pumped for becausethat game looks bunkers. I am glad

(43:29):
that they are expanding it and remakingit and introducing characters that came out in
yakas the games after that game.Yeah, just like fan favorites that from
zero and stuff. The thing Iam also like and seven, like their
characters from seven in there too,right, yes, yeah, yeah,
and seven? Yeah yeah. Thething I am like astounded by is the

(43:50):
out Like how big is this teamthat they were just like, oh yeah,
we're gonna have like three games outin the next two years. It's
no big built Seven didn't come outthat long ago. Yeah, no,
for real, Like seven came outlong enough ago that they're on the normal
uh rgg schedule. The fact thatthey're doing three games at once is absolutely
bucked. Well, why it's beena great Tokyo Game Show or his E

(44:14):
three this year was kind of notgreat? I holy crap, this TGS
speaking speaking honestly, I forgot Ethree happened. Well, it technically didn't,
to be fair, but like theyou know, oh god, I
just got so used to calling itJeff Keeley's beach break. I don't remember,
Yeah, Jeff Killy's beach party,right, yeah, we invited all

(44:37):
his friends, right right? Uh? That yeah, I just completely forgot
about there. There was some goodstuff there from Microsoft, was there?
Can you name any of them?Not anymore, but I've got like a
feeling in my heart that it wascool. No, buts was has been
fantastic. I'm honestly. The thingI was surprised about with with TGS,

(44:57):
I guess before we move on,is that, like, I'm surprised what
I'm softwarees Gott cooking didn't come outbecause like we all kind of know what
it is. Yeah, we allkind of know what it is. But
I think I'm wondering if they havepushed that a little to the backburner to
make DLC for blood born, forblood born, you know, the one
I meant. Sorry, I keepthinking about blood born PC and how that's

(45:21):
definitely not happening never ever. Ikind of I kind of feel like the
announcement gets pushed back if it wasgoing to happen every time a new rumor
pops up about it, right,because like, dude, it's been eight
years. I don't I don't know. Yeah, I'll play that game eventually.
Well, good runs a little smoothon PS five. I bet I
bet it would run a lot smootheron PS five if it had a patch.

(45:42):
Yeah, you know, yep,just saying no, I I TJS
got me to spend two hundred dollars. I bought in one transaction Yakaza easton
the Judgment collection, which was JudgmentJudge or Judgment Judgment sorry Judge Lost Judgment,
and the DLC for a Lost Judgment. Yeah, and I pre ordered

(46:05):
Sonic Frontiers. What are you?What are your thoughts on that game?
Listen that every time they show memore of it, I like it less
No, oh no, because Ijust like stopped looking at it because I
was like, this seems like it'sgonna be a bummer. It might be
like really good though. Yeah,And that's kind of what I'm hoping,
right, I'm kind of hoping thatwe revisit this conversation. And like a

(46:28):
few months after Greg Cistera dunked onSonic, it's time for Sonic to get
Her revival. Sonic fans rise up. Please, no, please, Sonic
fans, sit down. You reallydon't need to do anything. You need
to just beat chill. Yeah.Yeah, video games are great. I've
been having a lot of fun withthem. I mean since the last time

(46:51):
we recorded and posted a new episode. Let me look at the list.
I beat Undertail in the new MercyMode, I beat all of Sonic Origins,
I beat Ai Thesomnian Files one andtwo, I beat Neon White,
I beat thirteen Sentinels, and Istarted playing live alive Curse to Golf Vampire
Survivors, and have played a tonof Fortnite. So but shout out to

(47:14):
Curse to Golf. Hell yeah,made by several friends of the show.
Yeah, that game rules. Ifyou are not playing Curse to Golf,
you need to check it out.Gotta play Curse to Golf. It's good
stuff, so good god, whata fun game. I think that should
probably do it for us, everybodythat was here, for Greg, who's
probably left at this point right now. Yeah, probably shout outs to a

(47:37):
front of the show, Greg Cistera. Really just wonderful to have you.
Yeah, And I guess that bringsus to the end of this week's episode,
Please if you've got the time,reviews on Apple Podcasts and tell a
friend boat. Doing both those thingshelps us out a ton. As we
mentioned earlier, we've got a discordchannel. If you'd like to make some
new friends, you can find thatby visiting our website at level select dot

(47:59):
cool. Then, if you wantto write into the show with questions,
ideas, and whatever else, youcan do so by visiting level select dot
cool or by ready into mail atlevel select dot cool. We thank them
every time, but our theme songis the Level select theme song by Toby
Fox, So thank you so muchfor composing that theme song. It's it's

(48:20):
silly that you decided to do thatfor us a little bit, but we're
thankful. Nonetheless, this has beenmine and this has been Fred, and
thanks for listening. We'll see younext time.