T.O.T. - FF Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles - Atelier - Blippo - Ninja - Transformers - And More! - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you grow up with them?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Next PlayStation star Boss, Canton said, any CV do you
like to think you would win in a fight between
Batman and the mass star Chick, Comic Skays, movies, music
can TV.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
They're gonna tell you wether think you need. Superheroes are nothing,
Cat sharp back.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
They're gonna save the world, Domcakes, Comic Skays, movies, music
can TV. They're gonna tell you wetherthing you need superheroes

(00:42):
are nothing, Cat sharp back, They're gonna say the world
dom Da swear, can't cake.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Swear, can't cake.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
Well Low, Hello, Hello, and welcome out to another review
show here this week in geek dot Net. I am
Alex the producer. We have a few games to review
and hear from myself, and we've got a few other
items from Birdman to include as well that just weren't
going to make it onto the regular show, either this
past week show or next week's show, as it is

(01:21):
all crammed pretty close together. Now. A lot of cool
stuff coming out, so we wanted to make sure that
we at least talked about some random I got some
indie games here, We've got some double A stuff from
larger publishers, we've got some cool toys and different like
smart home type ee stuff from Birdman and here, I

(01:43):
believe as well. And that's pretty much the only way
we could fit this was having this come out on
a Friday instead of you know, early in the week.
So we're having this. I'll come back at the end
just to sort of recap what's going on on the show.
But we are now ring spooky seasons, so expect some
cool Halloween stuff all throughout the month of October. But

(02:06):
before we get to that, I'll make sure that we
have something every single week and I'll describe it as
we go along. But before that, we may as well
get into the reviews here very quickly, and we've got
something for myself, and I'll sort of well criss cross
between reviews for myself and from Birdman, and I'll come
back right after these reviews right here on this week

(02:26):
in geek dot Net. Alex the producer here and our
friends at MicroID sent a PS five review copy of
Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile for us to check out.
And I had a pretty fun time playing this. This
is just a quick review. I don't want to go
into too much because it's a narrative game that will
spoil it. If you're a big fan of the Agatha

(02:48):
Christie books, know this that there is, you know, more
fleshed out things to do here. It takes some liberties
with the source material, but not so much that it
would be egregious. It flushes things out. You have the
ability to play as two protagonists, so you play as
Poro and Jane Royce and you basically have two different

(03:09):
play through areas that you get perspectives on how everything
is playing out, and then they'll converge and you have,
you know, interesting final act. Now. It has more investigative
aspects than in the original novel because it gives you
more interactivity. There is a confrontation system where you can

(03:33):
pressure people and leaning on them to give you more leverage,
and it's actually a pretty neat system. There is a
mind map system, as they're calling it, and that's where
you collect all the clues and you can piece it
together and figure out what's going on. It is probably
best to go into this, you know, not necessarily knowing

(03:54):
the original you know, books and everything, and then it's
as I always suggest when it comes to these, unless,
of course you're a big if you're a super fan,
you're just gonna want to play it anyway. But I'm
always of the belief that it's always good to play
the games first if they're based on books, and then
go back and read the books and then find the
differences because it lends to a better interactive experience. As

(04:16):
far as the production values here, they're pretty good. A
lot of these investigative detective games they always feel like
they're a generation or two behind. Not this case. The
graphics are pretty well established in like the double a
higher end category of quality. I'm it was very impressed.
Audio direction is good too. The atmosphere feel is great.

(04:41):
Controls are exactly what you'd expect. As far as accessibility options,
there's some. It's not like super robust, but it's enough
that you can get by if you've got specific needs.
As far as what is available, you can get it
digitally obviously, if you do happen to pick it up physically.
There is a limited physical edition, and that includes the game,

(05:06):
as well as a forty eight page art book, a bookmark,
and the game's original soundtrack in digital format. There's also
a digital Deluxe edition, which is the same stuff, but
in digital formats. It's available on PS five, Xbox Series systems,
Nintendo Switch, and PC regardless of where you play it.

(05:27):
I don't suspect there's going to be a major drop
in quality. Maybe Switch in partable mode might drop it
a little bit, but at the pace this game plays,
it doesn't matter if it's like thirty FPS or something.
You're not going to encounter any major issues. It's just
a fun detective adventure game and I do recommend it.
I would say it doesn't matter if you've played any

(05:49):
previous games based on Agatha Christie's works. You can sort
of just jump right in. You'd have a pretty good time.
It's the producer here and our friends over at Koa
Techmo Games have sent a review copy of Aelisleriana, The
Red Alchemist and the White Guardian. Sorry, a lot of

(06:09):
their games into being a mouthful when it comes to
tongue twisters, and this is the newest Italia game to
hit home consoles. I'm not going to be doing any
major spoilers in this quickie review whatsoever, but I will
say this, it's a little bit different than the feelings

(06:30):
that you get in the style of gameplay that you
have with the more recent i would say, larger budget
itellier titles like The Rise of Titles and so on.
It is available on basically every platform, and if you
do happen to end up getting it and playing it
on like PC, you can run it not on a potato,

(06:52):
but it'll run on older harbor Like it's recommending a
ten fifty TI as the the oldest card. That's like,
what is it like eight nine years old now at
this point, and that's of course to play it at
like seven to twenty p thirty, but you can do it.
And like the minimum CPU that they're recommending is an
eighty one hundred or like basically an eighth gen I three.

(07:16):
We're on sixteenth gen, so you know, it's like an
eight year old CPU will work just fine. So because
of that, you know, you get to understand what you're
sort of expecting this. This is sort of a return
to like an older style of game, if that makes

(07:37):
any sense in the field of the loop. But what
you have here is you are still doing like item remixing,
you are doing turn based combat battles. It's sort of
a hodgepodge mix of previous titles in that sense, you're
controlling characters. You're The loop itself is you have the

(08:00):
main characters of Slade Clauselister, Clause Lighter, Sorry, Tongue Twister,
as well as the other characters in this that you're
returning to your hometown and you end up how do

(08:21):
I say this without spoiling You have a mysterious tool
called the Geist Corp, which could open entrances to dimensional
paths that lead to alternate dimensions. And the basic game
loop is you have two game cycles. You focus on
exploring the world, gathering all the ingredients, synthesizing all your items,

(08:45):
as well as fighting the monsters during the exploration. The
second part is you move the story forward by developing
those items merging them. You have a shop management in
town development, which is pretty fun. You learn new recipes,
you sell them, and the idea is to progress the

(09:08):
story by making more items and building up the town
and all that. It's pretty cool. You explore the continent
by going to different locales and finding things. It has
all the elements of previous games, but it does feel,
at least to me a little bit on more of

(09:28):
a budget side of things. Still, that doesn't mean it's bad.
It's just not as like Triple A as some of
the other ones in the series. That being said, the
loop is pretty engrossing and I found myself pulled into
play pretty well. I'm not going to go too in
depth into the battle systems. If you've played previous titles
in the franchise, you know what you're coming into. It

(09:49):
is a pretty good starting point if you're new to
the franchise because unlike the Rise of series where there's
multiples or you know, where do you jump in? Do
you have to start at the beginning or anything, You
can pretty much just jump into this as a completely
new vanilla player and get an idea for what the
franchise offers and have a pretty good time. So I
would recommend it, especially since it runs on all modern hardware,

(10:09):
and then even if you have an older PC, you
can get it to run on fairly low to modest settings.
So I would say worth checking out. Don't sleep on it.
If you're really on the fence, maybe wait for a
sale and then see, you know, if it's something that
you'd really like to get into yourself.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Hey guys, this is Mike the Birdman here.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
I'm here to talking about something we got sent from
our friends over at Shark Ninja, and this is something
really cool for those of you going back to school
or looking to maybe spend one or two more days
up at the CODs before you close it up for
the season.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
I would be talking about the Ninja.

Speaker 5 (10:45):
Frost Vault forty five court wheeled cooler with dry zone.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
This is in the white color. This is actually pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
So this is a nice size cooler for camping, beach day,
road trips, or more likely your dorm room.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Be real here, we've all been there. Trust me, you're
gonna like this.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
So this thing has rugged wheels, it's a pretty nice
handle for easy movement in all terrain. This thing would
actually be kind of nice to bring out to a
baseball game or a tailgate party.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Hint, hint, wink wink. Go birds just saying.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
There's also a secure locking mechanism that keeps everything sealed
and cool for a very long time. My wife actually
used this to defrost our freezer just a couple of
days ago, and we were really surprised how cool it
kept everything like it was.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
You would never know, like that's how cool it kept everything.

Speaker 5 (11:37):
With the frost Vault technology, it transfers stuff into a
dry zone to keep food cool and dry, and it
keeps things that around under forty degrees fahrenheit for literal days.
It also has premium ice retention, so this means it's
literally gonna.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Hold ice for days.

Speaker 5 (11:54):
So if you're going out on a campus trip, or
if you're gonna have an awesome party in your dorm room,
you don't got to worry about that.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
This thing is also ridiculously high capacity. Forty five quarts.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
Means you can fit up to sixty eight cans in
this thing with no ice, or thirty cans with ice.
Heavy duty construction. I'm not saying you could elbow drop
this thing from the top rope, but yeah, let's just
say this would be an effective weapon in WWE.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I think this is pretty cool, so you can easily
enjoy a.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
Cool beverage or store your cold items if your next
outdoor cookout or gathering, or like I said, hey it's
party time in the dorm, but please drink responsibly because
that's what you should do. Be kind to your resident
advisors because I used to be one, so hey, once again,
you should check this out. This is the Ninja Frost
Vault This is a forty five quart wheeled cooler with

(12:46):
dry zone.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Be sure to check this out's the producer here, which
just a quickie review. This is for Blipo Plus, which
is marketed as an FMV cable TV simular later. Now,
this is one of the weirdest things I've ever had
a chance to look at before. If you're wondering what

(13:07):
this is, this originated on the play date. You know,
the hand crank system, which I wish we had a
chance to check out, but you know, in the long
dayly just stuff that's come out in the last few years.
We didn't get a chance to check out that system,
but it's always been on my list. I know we
have some friends that have it. Well, this is the
Nintendo Switch version of that quote unquote game or game experience.

(13:30):
I was sent a review code to check out, and
it's also available on Steam. But I figured, you know what,
it's something I'll check out on my Switch and specifically
I'm playing it on my Switch to in bed before
bed and what this is. It takes somewhere about six
to ten hours to do, you know, a playthrough, but

(13:53):
it is like aliens making TV shows that then find
out that we're picking up their signals, so they start
trying to market their shows towards US, and everything looks
like like some people would say maybe like a like
local access TV, but it's more like a little bit

(14:14):
of that, like in what is an interdimensional cable on
like Rick and Morty, mixed with like British TV shows
from the late seventies through the early nineties like a
Never Wear or like Red Dwarf meets some of the
weird stuff that we saw on Canadian TV like Lex

(14:35):
and just like the weird, strange, low budget but high
concept TV shows Doctor Who, Sapphire and Steel a UFO
for or the kind of like wacky stuff you'd see
on like Round the Twist, which is an Australian TV

(14:56):
show that got broadcasting Canada as well. Just the out
out there stuff and you're sort of more experiencing it
than you are playing it, and you basically the loop
as you watch a bunch of stuff, experience the whole thing,
and then a new pack it gets get delivered to you.
So it is a very strange thing to try to

(15:16):
actually like describe, and since I can't, I will just
say this it is a hoot. I don't know if
you'd want to play this in an altered state of
mind or not. Maybe I went in stone cold sober,
But depending on where you live, I think if you
had a few drinks you might be even more confused.
I think if you partook in some like cannabis, it

(15:39):
might be good, but again I'm not recommending that depending
on where you're from. I mean, hey, this is Canada.
It's recreational use of cannabis has been legal for what
is it now, seven years something like that. So if
that's that's your deal, and you live in a country
where it is perfectly legal to do so, thumbs up
and try that, or maybe not because it'll freaky, but regardless,

(16:02):
it is a really fun, weird, unique experience. If you
like like FMV style games from the nineties mixed with
like nineteen eighties low budget sci fi local access TV sensibilities,
then this is probably gonna be for you, and you'll have,
you know, a good chuckle throughout it, and you'll probably

(16:23):
want to go back and play again and at least
share with friends and have them do it. So I
would say check it out. Our friends over it, and
I guess America sent a review copy of Dskaya seven
Complete for us to checkout. Now, we've talked about many
Diskaia games in the past, and in this case you're
probably wondering what makes this one complete and or different. Well,

(16:49):
I can say this that this is a switch to version.
So this is something that's made you know, Bespoke to
work on the switch to take advantage of its hardware capabilities.
So what you're getting over if you know, for instance,
this was a switch one game, you'd be getting blurrier,
text limited, tendp YadA, YadA YadA. This takes advantage of

(17:11):
what the hardware is able to do, obviously higher resolution,
higher frame rates, more consistently. What this includes as well
is all the previously released DLC, as well as some
new content, including a story called The Never Time Support Force.
There's some gameplay features you can remove stat caps, as

(17:31):
well as free access to main character exclusive hell mode,
and an all new Ultraparwerful superbrastshakabal. Well, that's a tongue
twister for me, So I don't need to go too
into depth because I believe we reviewed it in the past.
You know, you're getting the base game, everything else included.

(17:53):
It's sort of like a big, you know, amalgamation of everything,
and they do these pretty well when they do make
complete additions and they pour them to other systems, and
this is a really solid release. Obviously, it's very crisp
visually on the switch to both importable and on TV
doc mode. The audio sounds to me less compressed than
the previous version. We are also including the fact that

(18:15):
it's got all the DLC just included as part of it.
Is great. If you're somebody that is looking for like
a physical edition, you can order from them. It's the
Complete you Doo Edition that includes the game the Lucky Slumbercat,
which is a physical, you know, collectible as well as

(18:36):
a folding fan and a collector's box. Or if you're
going digital like we did, it's not a gigantic game
to download, which is always great. It does load snappy.
It does take advantage of all the features on the
switch too, So if you're looking for a tactic with larpage,
you're a big fan of the Disguis series, or if
you just want to jump in, it's a good one

(18:57):
to pick up and play because it is a native
switch to version that works quite well.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
Devastated Hey, guys.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
This is Mike the Birdman here, and once again Hasbro
has sent over some really cool things for us to
take a look at from their Transformers Studio series line.
And I was actually going to review these as two
separate products, but I'm just gonna kind of give you
my impressions overall. Now that I have the full complete
combiner for the Transformers Studio Series eighty six Devastator, these

(19:44):
guys sent over Scavenger and Mixmaster, and I've collected Bone Crusher, Hook,
long Haul, and Scrapper, and this is easily probably their
best combiner I think they've made so far. It looks
a lot like the animation model from the Transformers nineteen

(20:04):
eighty six movie, very g one accurate. That lime green
just pops right out at you. All the parts fit
together really nicely. Of the two figures that I got
sent separately from this review, Scavenger and mix Master, I'd
probably say I like mix Master more. I just like

(20:24):
the way he transforms. It's really simple, it's really intuitive,
and out of the all the combatic cons so far,
I would say long Haul's probably my favorite. Again, he's
so big and chunky and he literally forms the torso
of Devastator. But when you see how all these pieces

(20:45):
fit together, there's very little parts forming outside of that,
like purple thing on his chest, and it's kind of
ingenius where they hide the head of Devastator and everything,
and how his arms all work and how they hats
to the body. Maybe if I did have one small complaint,
maybe just how tight the arms could be might be

(21:07):
something they could fix in the future. With these kind
of integrated combiners that they're doing. I'll be very curious
to see how Bruticus comes out in the future. But
in terms of a actual combiner for the studio series,
this is really good. I mean it looks so good

(21:27):
on a shelf. He is stupid posable, which is really cool.
He even has his big dumb like purple gun that
he had in the show. And I guess if I
did have another small complaint, I wish he had better hands.
I'm sure some third porty like DNA Designs will do
something with that. I'm pretty sure it'll happen. There's even

(21:50):
people that are three D printing their own parts that
they're missing for Devastator because, as as I've mentioned in
a different some of the distribution for the different pieces
of Devastator have been hard to come by in Canada
and the US, so make sure you're checking with your

(22:11):
local retailers.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Your Walmart, your Targets, your Walgreens.

Speaker 5 (22:14):
In Canada, eb Games, Walmart, other places like that, local
toy stores, but also online retailers as well, people like
Big Bad Toy Store, et cetera, et cetera. There are
tons of places to order from. I tend to try
to go local if I can, just because I'm impatientness
just kind of the way that I am. But in

(22:37):
terms of engineering, I really like this, and even their
individual bot modes look so good. Scrapper was the first
one that I got, and I was really impressed. And
I heard a lot of people talking crap about bone Crusher,
but I really liked him despite him being kind of simple.
I just liked how he looked like it's like the

(22:59):
show come to life in my hand. And I really
feel like this is such a big improvement over the
Combiner Wars version. While not being as big, I believe
it's just it's a fantastic figure. And if you can
get your hands on a Transformers Studio Series eighty six

(23:22):
Constructor cons I really recommend it. They're, like I said,
incredibly posable. They all come with weapons. The transformation into
devastators pretty straightforward. You might have to watch a video
on it once, but the individual bots are really easy
to transform. There's nothing too weird about them, and like

(23:43):
I said, it's like having something come to life from
the show in your hand. It is utterly outstanding in
so many ways. So yeah, if you can get your
hands on this, I think Hasbro said they're not going
to be doing a re release in a box set,
so unlike the Menosaur gift set that came out, I think,

(24:05):
like last year or the year before last, get your
hands on this now if you really want to have
this in your collection. I really want to see what
else they can do from the eighty six line. As
of this recording, I think there's more coming, maybe like
a sun Streaker, maybe a Prowl. I think sound Waves
on the Horizon will probably get more stuff coming down
the line, like the Seekers. I know Starscream and win

(24:28):
Charger are coming, so that'll be really cool. I'm looking
forward to seeing more from this line. So yeah, Ultimately,
I think the Transformer Studio Series eighty six Constructor cons
They're totally badass. Like I said, these will be a
show piece in your collection. And when Devastator merges for

(24:48):
the kill, as Megatron once commanded, it's going to be
amazing and you cannot go wrong with the lime green
destruction that is the Constructor cons.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
As Menachn has, how shall we say get parted?

Speaker 4 (25:06):
I nominate myself.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
As the new leader Great the Constructor cons Form, Devastrator,
the most powerful Robot shoe Berrier, Constructor Gods Infairior.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Who are you calling failure?

Speaker 4 (25:24):
Nobody would follow an un charismatic poor like you, Alex
a producer. Here was just a quickie review for a
Switch title called wander Stars. I was sent a review
copy of this game just a little while ago and
I've had a chance to check it out. It's more
of a first impressions as we're sort of crying a
lot of things together. But I'm liking what I see

(25:45):
so far. Uh, this is like playing through your favorite anime,
like shown in the style uh, you know, fighting style
TV anime. But the difference is it's a term based ARPG.
It's just got a very cartoony look. I like the
art style for it. It's actually you know it looks

(26:07):
it looks higher budget than it is, if that makes
any sense. You play a girl named Ringo and you
go to try to find your brother, and you use
martial arts moves to beat up people. And how the
battle system works, I'll say this first. Visually, it looks great,
sounds pretty good. Where it's most interesting is with the combat.
So you get slots to fill in with things like punch,

(26:31):
kick items, fire, super extra special sort of stuff that
make the moves more powerful, that sort of stuff. And
how it works is you fill the slots and depending
on your level of progression and how powerful the moves are,
you'll have more or less words to fill within those slots,
and then you execute the combination. The closest thing I

(26:53):
can think of. I don't know how many of you
listening are big like old school ARPG fans from the well,
I guess old school is the nineties. Now, if you
were a fan of Leagaya or especially Lea Gaya too,
was it like Guya to Dual Something or Dark Something
that was a PS two game? In that one, it

(27:14):
was like you input fighting commands like up, down, left, right, aba,
that sort of stuff, and that was how you did
your battle system. That's how you selected your moves before
you attacked. There's a little bit of that also in
Zeno Gears back in the day, and that is sort
of what this is. Only its individual words that you're
putting in, which is pretty neat. I would say some

(27:36):
of the dialogue can be a little slow, it's luggish.
Some of the animations could have used a little more
frames of animation to be a little blush smooth. But again,
Indie title perfectly fine performs quite well when it comes
to working on the switch, so you know, obviously I'm
playing it on the switch too, but it's not like
enhanced for it, it's just it works pretty well. The

(27:57):
progression is, i would say, is very well thought through.
The combat system is the most interesting aspect here. So
if you're a fan of unique turn based mechanics that
put a bit of a twist on things, then I
think you'll probably get a really good kick out of this.
So Wonder Stars is one to keep an eye on,
especially if you find it on sale.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Your father, abandon not your way with children of Ivlis,
deliver us from our sins, that we might know salvation.
If you feel wrong to blame yourself or the father.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Why do you fight?

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Why walk this path of subterfusion conflict? The powerful must
rule the weak. It is our duty.

Speaker 6 (28:42):
Heavens fall upon your crown.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
This vile schamat has gone on long enough.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
It ends.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Now.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
Do you remember when your father showed us how to
make a whistle of a ballade of grass?

Speaker 4 (29:01):
Okay? Now, this review has been what twenty some odd
years in the making, at least on my end, and
that is Final Fantasy Tactics The Italys Chronicles. Now. Our
friends over at Square Inex sent a review copy for
us to check out here. I ended up playing this

(29:22):
game on Switch to It's basically available on every platform
that's a current platform available, and in that sense it's
great because this is a title that it's a remake
of the original PlayStation one Final Fantasy Tactics, not based
on like the PSP or any of the subsequent versions,
so you're getting the core game of the original. It's

(29:44):
actually presented here as an original option. You can just
play as is sort of you know, in its original format,
or there is the Ivilyis Chronicles like remastered edition, which
allows you to play it in widescreen with features like
fast forward, as well as being able to reset your
move if you not not reset your intact but reset
your move if you've placed yourself in the wrong spot

(30:05):
you're like, oh crap, that wasn't available in the original,
as well as other you know, visual you know, increases
quality of life stuff. Difficulty settings can be set. It's
still hard, so if you find yourself having difficulties, set
it down to the easiest and you'll still have a challenge,
especially near the end of the game, and things like
cut scenes are included. They've added updates to the systems

(30:29):
of the background to look at all the collectibles that
you've got, as well as just bug fixes here and there.
And the big thing here other than the text improvements
and maybe a more faithful translation or localization, is everything
is fully voice acted. And it's a game that has
like a ye old English sort of style to it,

(30:49):
and it was a hard read. Like the first game
came out when I was like ten or eleven years old,
and I remember my friend's older brother who was five
years older than us, had purchased it right after Final
Fantasy seven because we watched him play Final Fantasy seven.
Because we weren't allowed touch his PlayStation while he's playing.
We watched him play a lot of that, and then
we watched him play Tactics, and Tactics was a significantly

(31:12):
harder and at the time when it came out in
the West here as far as tactical games, that was
the one that really introduced a lot of people into
the genre. Even like pretty hardcore GRAPG fans had never
really played it if you especially on a Nintendo like
and PlayStation era type stuff, like if you looked like

(31:34):
Nintendo didn't really have anything here because Firearmilem never really
came out here until like early two thousands, and we
never got like the Wars games like game Boy Wars
or Famicom Wars and anything. And on PlayStation there had
been a few maybe at that point that had released here,
like but they were sort of maybe feud PI maybe

(31:55):
one had released. I think this is the one that
sort of ushered in a lot of the port to
come over. You had to be a Sega fan basically
to have had any experience with tactical games, because Warsong,
which was I guess that was the retitled version of
Langresser was on the original Genesis, but again, very few
people would have had that. In the West. The closest

(32:17):
we had was the Shining Force series, was fairly popular
amongst Sega fans, specifically Saga ARPG fens, but also game
gear fans and that, but that was such a smaller
piece of the puzzle or part of the pie story
that not very many people had been exposed. It was
basically at that point Shining Force, and then Final Fantasy
Tactics came, and I guess there had been on Superintendo

(32:40):
Ogre Battle, but again, was it like less than fifty
thousand copies were sold or something on the Superintendo and
I think Ogre Battle sixty four wasn't out yet maybe,
so there wasn't a whole lot. This was sort of
like this was hanging on from the Final Fantasy seven
coattails and me like, look it, we can do. And
it brought the job system similar to what you had

(33:02):
in Final Fantasy Vive, so different jobs and leveling them
up a few of them at a time will then
usher the ability to get other jobs and so forth.
There was the ability to get cloud in the game
in the original version, which was happened later on in
the game, and you had to do stuff to get
his sword, and it was a pain in the butt. Well,

(33:23):
they made it now that when you get him in
this game, if you do the side quest to do it,
he gets his sort automatically and it gives you a
little more time to level him up. I kept him
in my party immediately after receiving till the end of
the game. They give you the ability in this to
skip random battles, where in the previous one, if you
landed on a random metal you had to perform in it,
and that was a pain in the butt. A lot

(33:44):
of Quality of Life's updates here it just feels overall better,
and the voice acting is top notch. Makes all the
difference because there was a lot of text reading in
the original, and it was in like a ye old
font and a ye old language, and it was just
really rough, very similar to how Dragon Warrior was in
that yield English, but it was limited by the Nintendo

(34:04):
back in the day of having you know, so many
lines of texts that could put on screen at a time.
Here on PlayStation, initially they weren't limited like that, and
it was a bit of a slog to go through.
Now you want to listen to all the dialogue the
voice acting for each character is pretty much spot on
for the personalities. And then when you in battle, if

(34:26):
you want to just fastward, you can hold my case,
you can hold the R one button and fast forward
the moves until he gets to your turn. You can
pick what you want to do. A lot of quality
of life updates. I'm really happy with it. I did
a complete playthrough. I think I'm missing a couple of items,
and there's a couple like mini gaming type things you
can do from some of the things you can find

(34:48):
when you go on expeditions that I haven't gone through
that I might end up going through, but if not,
I'm pretty satisfied with my playthrough. And you know, when
you're done essentially playing it, it will let you make
a complete save you don't have like a new game plus,
but it will spit you out to you make a
save filet It spit you out to the main menu

(35:09):
to before the end of the game, so you can
go and collect and do more things. And there's something
that I received, you know, in doing the final game,
I didn't realize there's an ability I should have equipped
that would have let me do something cool. And I'll
just say that and it's pretty neat that way. There's
Chocobo seglect Boco from Final Fantasy five makes an appearance.

(35:31):
For anybody who was in the West at the time
when Final Fantasy Tactics came out, they would have had
no idea what Boco was, because Final Fantasy five had
not come out in the West until a couple of
years later when they did the PS one you know
collection was an anthology that it came with. I think,
so there's cool. There's that. There's a couple of references

(35:54):
to a few other games in there as well, but
it's a solid release and the ability to have the
original version and that version in there. You can't swap between.
Once you've started a version, the save is not compatible
with either or so there is repliability. It's recommended that
you play the new version first, and I really highly
recommend that, and then if you're interested and you want

(36:16):
to go back and see what it was like, you
can play the original version on like another playthrough. I
think you'll have a good time with it. It works well
on pretty much, I think any platform it's on. One note,
I can't really review how the switch to version specifically
performs because a weird quirk of how Nintendo has set

(36:39):
up their back end. When you get a review code
or a view copy and you want to play the game,
if there is a bespoke switch to version, a specific
switch to skew, it's by itself alone and that's what
you activate. It'll work. If it's a Switch one game
or dual entitlement where you get a Switch one game

(37:01):
and a Switch two version and there's again separate binaries,
it'll work. This is a case where it didn't work.
It actually pops up and says you can only play
the Switch one version until the game is officially released.
That is something that is an issue that is known
and the Nintendo just hasn't fixed it because the switch
to version, when you get it digitally, it purchases the

(37:21):
Switch one version and then gets you an update file
that's several gigs. It's like six or seven gigs that
then patches it and plays it and when you go
to launch, it's one launcher for both versions technically on
the switch too. When you go to launch it it
says you can only play this in Switch one version
until the release date. And because I've had it for
review before the release date, I'm not able to actually

(37:43):
discuss the upgrades. I'll say this, from what I can tell,
the Switch to version will have a higher resolution than
what I played to at, which means that the dialogue
and text will be a little crispring. Clear, I'm not
experiencing any slowdown in the game or anything. I don't
believe that there's going to be any difference in the
performance between the Switch one and Switch to, especially if

(38:03):
you're playing the Switch one version on the Switch To,
but there will likely be a difference in some of
the how crisp and anti alias and it is, and
especially in like the easer interface when it comes to
the text size and everything being a little less blurry
when you play it. If there is a dramatic difference,
I will come on the show next week once it's
already been out and I can discuss it and mention it.

(38:25):
But as it stands, that's something that it's a weird
thing I encountered that I'm like, well, how am I
supposed to review the Switch too version? That's the code
I received when the Switch too version will not unlock
until the day the game comes out, but I can
play the Switch one version. Weird side story. Sorry, just
wanted to mention that that even though that's the case,

(38:46):
it's still performed you know, very well, and I can
see this not really having an issue on Switch one
hardware if you're playing the Switch one version, So that
out of the way, I can say I can fully
recommend it. I think a lot of people this will
be a good introduction to the tech genre. There are
games that have done it better since I'll be completely honest,

(39:06):
but this is like the granddaddy that really got the
ball rolling with tactical larpage's, especially in the West. So
it's really nice to see that it's available playable on
every platform that's current, as well as PC and everything
so on. So you're not going to have any issues
playing it anymore. It's no longer relegated to oh my god,
having to emulate a copy or find your old hardware

(39:29):
or anything. No, you can get a good working copy
with fantastic voice acting and really sit down and enjoy it.
You can play it for an hour at a time,
you can marathon it, you can do whatever you feel.
You can save at any moment, and you know you
don't have to worry about long play sessions that get
deleted or faulty old hardware or anything. It just works

(39:50):
and I think you'll really like it.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Those magnificent color me kooky.

Speaker 6 (39:55):
But something very odd is going on around here.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
You're not allowed to talk.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
Anymore, and that's going to to do it for the
show this week. What do we have coming up? As
I mentioned at the beginning here, we've got a bunch
of spooky season, halloweeny type stuff coming out. We've got
a few things in the bag already, and you'll be
hearing this pretty much unless something major changes, you'll be

(40:19):
hearing this every Sunday in the week of October. Coming up, first,
we have something we recorded earlier during our break that
we knew we were going to put out during the
spooky season, and that is a loose cannon on the
Night of the Living Dead movies from nineteen sixty eight
and nineteen ninety where we discussed what we liked about

(40:40):
the original and the remake. So that is something that
I know we've wanted to talk about for a while
and it is a good discussion that we had, So
that's coming up. We've also got the following week we'll
be having content on Future Imperfect and that is spooky
season for future imperfect on the Blob, but not necessarily

(41:03):
the Blob movies that you were thinking of, so that'll
be an interesting thing. We've got a few more things
in the bag ready to go, but we'll get to
that obviously as we go. A little farther down the line.
We have the regular show on every Monday. We've got
a few things planned with Birdman and a bunch of
different crew members for different spooky things. But going back

(41:27):
to Earth Versus Soup. This coming week we have you
should have just listened to. If you haven't, made sure
you come and check it out. We have the Hunchback
of the Morgue, but this coming week we have Flight
to Mars from nineteen fifty one, that is Earth Versus
Soup episode two seventy seven, and then the following week

(41:48):
we will have episode two seventy eight, the Devils Possessed
from nineteen seventy four, and then we get into things
like Frankenstein and in Visible Man and a bunch of
other cool stuff for the the rest of the month
of October and into early November. So that's it. I'm
going to sign out because we've still got plenty of
stuff to record and do. It's going to be a

(42:10):
very busy season as we get into our holiday coverage,
and I know that we're sort of angling to get
back into doing more prototype stuff. We've got a couple
ideas for shows planned for that. It'll probably only be
a couple of episodes before the end of the year
for that. Earth Versus Soups obviously every single Thursday, as

(42:31):
well as Future Imperfect and Loose Cannon has a bunch
of content with a bunch of different hosts sort of
mismatching throughout. I know that Berdman wants to get more
Sunday funnies going. We'll see how that ends up working
timeline wise, and there might be a few interviews and
a few interesting specials throughout the rest of the fall
season as well. But we're back and running, and I

(42:52):
think this is basically the first full week that we've
had into regular production, and it's nice to get back
on the saddle, and we'll be back very soon within
the next couple of days. Right here at this weekend
geek dot Net, at.

Speaker 5 (43:05):
No point in your rambling incoherent response were you even
close to anything that could be considered a rational thought.

Speaker 6 (43:15):
Thanks for listening to this episode of This Week in Geek.
Hungry for more, check out our website at this weekn
geek dot net. You can subscribe to the podcast, browse
our Twitter and Instagram, and leave your thoughts on today's topics.
If you'd like to give us some feedback, send us
an email at Feedback at this weekend geek dot net.
Tune in next time, and remember, lower your shields and

(43:35):
surrender your listenership.

Speaker 4 (43:37):
We would be on a if you would join us.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Speaker 5 (43:42):
Good night,

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