Episode 310: "You're Allowed to Have That Opinion, I Suppose"

We talk about candy! And then talk about comic books! And then about TOXIC YURI

Microsoft is selling off four Xbox studios as part of significant gaming cuts

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis is shutting down on October 6

Kingdom Hearts Series Returns to D23 to Celebrate 25th Anniversary

Cliff Bleszinski Blames Personal Ego And Alcohol Issues For Boss Key’s Failure

Baldur's Gate 3, Clair Obscur actor Jennifer English withdraws from Tides of Annihilation to "look after her mental and physical health"

Bethesda confirms Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters, makes Obsidian collaboration official, and says Fallout 5 is in 'pre-production'

Final Fantasy X gets a 25th anniversary trailer ahead of X/X-2 HD Remaster coming to Switch 2 this week

The live action God of War show is recasting Kratos after Ryan Hurst was injured on the set

Canceled Kingdom Hearts game leak sends fans into a frenzy

Transcript

SPEAKER_10 0:20

This is The Gorge, it's a podcast where my friends and I gorge ourselves on what's happening in the world of video games and entertainment.

SPEAKER_05 0:26

It's always depressing. The Gorge is brought to you by Patreon. That's patreon.com slash TheGorge, where for just $3 a month you gain access to all of our bonus content that we have ever done. And we've done a lot. This podcast has been running for 10 years now. So yeah. Patreon.com slash TheGorge. It gets you everything. Huge bad catalog. It also gives you early access to the reboot, our TTRPG series. That is fun and good. Right now we are playing Shinobi Gami as run by Saturn, a game that kicks ass and uh is imminently entertaining.

SPEAKER_10 1:00

It's me!

SPEAKER_05 1:04

Oh no, Eustace Winner! No, Eustace Winner, what are you doing here? Ah, it's such a good gag.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Um I'm playing a tabletop role-playing game called um Shooby Gooby.

SPEAKER_05 1:18

Shooby Gooby. I uh routinely forget that that's a bit that Oates just came up with on the fly. And I just like associate with Winner at this point.

SPEAKER_10 1:30

It's not something that Eustace Winner has ever said in the series.

SPEAKER_05 1:35

It's so good. I feel like we need we need to find the clearest version of her. It's me! Down clip, like sound clip for the soundboard, because it's so good. That's right.

SPEAKER_10 1:47

Um it always feels like this is relevant to what I've been playing, but like it always feels like like a Deltarune bit, whenever like there's like small text in the bottom of the caption, you know?

SPEAKER_05 2:00

Totally. Uh that's exactly what it feels like. Um, that's not Patreon exclusive, that's just what you what you can hear if you go listen to us play uh ace attorney investigations on twitch.tv slash thegorge podcast. Um, but if you if you like us and you want to support us, three bucks gets you all sorts of neat things, including pictures of podcast mascot Peanut the Dog, um, which is very important as far as I'm concerned. That's extremely worth three dollars. So yeah, patreon.com slash the gorge. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_10 2:33

And you you you too with those three dollars can go towards snacks for peanut.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

It's the most noble of gold.

SPEAKER_10 2:40

Sarah McLaughlin leaning down in front of Peanut.

SPEAKER_05 2:45

Don't you want to give this fat pit bull a snack? The answer is yes, of course you want to give my fat pit bull a snack.

SPEAKER_10 2:54

This poor dog has been deprived of popcorn for over a month now. With just three dollars, you can change his life, and then he instantly forgets that you gave him food.

SPEAKER_05 3:09

And will in fact ask you for more. Yeah, that's correct. Um, yeah, patreon.com slash the gorge. It's a roundup. I'm worried about the news, but don't worry. Uh we'll we'll lightning round it if it's too depressing. Yeah. Um instead we'll talk about what we've been doing. I know what I've been doing. Do you does anybody else want to go first, or do we want to get Sarah's list out of the way?

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Uh my week will continue to be short, uh, so you can save me as like the Oreo filling in the middle, which you wish there was more of, but unfortunately uh we bought a packet of those thin the Oreo thins where there's like a molecule of filling.

SPEAKER_07 3:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

For me, I'm just like, if I if I see an Oreo thin, I'm just like, I'll just have one Oreo and and wish the Oreo thins piss me off so bad.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

It's like you know, I kind of I like the cookie part of the Oreo more than I like the filling part of the Oreo.

SPEAKER_10 4:08

So you're allowed to, I suppose.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

I'm allowed to pick the thing.

SPEAKER_10 4:11

So you've got you've got the thins, you've got the classic, you've got double stuff, and then quadruple stuff.

SPEAKER_05 4:17

That's too much. That's true.

SPEAKER_10 4:18

Yeah, quadruple stuff is too much. No, you can't you can't do that.

SPEAKER_05 4:22

I honestly even think double stuff is too much.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Um you're also allowed to think that.

SPEAKER_10 4:28

I think you're wrong, but I'm not gonna arrest you for it.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Now I will say, when I was younger, double stuff was my favorite by a significant margin. I don't know if my reduced sugar tolerance as a 30-year-old would push me towards the dominion of the normal style Oreo or normal style Oreos are are the best ones.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

It's the perfect bound. Oreo is the perfect cookie. Why would you why would you fuck it up by adding additional additional uh cream filling, huh?

SPEAKER_03 4:55

It's one of those things like Reese's cups where it's like you got it right the first time. And I know I know late stage capitalism requires constant pointless innovation, but like why can't you just sell a Reese's cup normal style and accept that that's the best permutation of the Reese's cup?

SPEAKER_05 5:13

You got it in one. Like, congratulations, you figured it out, right? Um, no, I don't mind permutations on Skittles, which is my other favorite candy, uh, because I love them wildberry Skittles. No wild berry is the best, though. Them shit's as good as hell, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Um my my dark secret is I have no opinions on uh permutations of Skittles uh because I don't really like Skittles to begin with.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Well, you're allowed to have that opinion, I suppose. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

I'm glad we already know what the episode title for this week is going to be.

SPEAKER_05 5:45

Uh talking about candy and and cookies, because we're all everybody's 12.

SPEAKER_10 5:49

Well, yeah, well, let's go on to mature topics, Sarah, like Batman.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

Like Batman. Yeah. Um, Batman update, real quick, very small this time. I've been distracted by other things, which we'll talk about. The big thing is I read Batman. I have to scroll. This list, but I can't wait to post this list at the end of the year, by the way. Because I have a I have a running document on my phone. I've talked about it before, of all of the Batman stuff that I've done so far this year. And it's getting long. Like, it's it's not just like what I read, it's also like a very small little review of the thing I read, right? Um, and it's starting to get long. Um so yeah, uh, I read uh Death of the Family. I guess I should say I started reading, rereading, reading the Scott Snyder run of Batman from 2011. Scott Snyder is currently the guy writing absolute Batman. That's why he's kind of like an important figure. Um I wanted to see what it's all about. It starts with Court of Owls, which I have, you know, talked about how much I like before. Court of Owels is good as fuck. Turns out on a reread, it's still good. Shocker. Um that shit's good. It's followed up by uh Death of the Family, which is like a very famous Joker story that I think is fine. I think I need to I need to do it again. I need to read it again to like to like sort out my feelings for it. Because it's got this thing, and I was talking about it in the Western comics chat of the Discord, where in 2026 the Joker being canonically in love with Batman is just the text, right? Like that's just kind of the assumed dynamic is that there's some fucked up toxic Yahweh shit going on, right? Right. Like the Joker is 100% in love with the Batman, and Batman has weird something, right, in return. It's not love, but it's something.

SPEAKER_09 7:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:50

Um and that is kind of just the accepted uh pop culture interpretation of these characters now, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Brief sidebar on that topic. It was very funny at the end of the conclusion of the submissions period for Toxic Yuri VNJ. I'm seeing that one tweet where it's like, yeah, I've been seeing a lot of things that are called Toxic Yuri, where clearly some of the people think that there's like you know, subtle psychological manipulation going on. And then the other half of the people think it's a girl's version of whatever Batman and the Joker are doing.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

Both can be right, I would like to. That's right. I think both are are b totally valid uh interpretations of that theme of Toxic Yuri V and Jam.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

But I that's why that's why I think it's important that we remember that you can have Toxic Yuri, but you can also have girl yaoi.

SPEAKER_05 8:44

You can have girl Yoi, absolutely. Uh and and this is boy Yuri, I guess. I don't know. Um, but you know, it it's kind of the popularized accepted narrative between those two characters at this point, right? Right. Um The Family came out in 2012. It was a very different media landscape back then. And so this very acclaimed Joker story, like it's a Batman and a Joker story, very acclaimed. Um And it is primarily about the fact that the Joker is in love with Batman, to the point that in the trades between the between the actual uh the monthly releases and then the trade paperback, DC made Scott Snyder rewrite a couple panels that were too gay for their taste in 2012, right?

SPEAKER_10 9:30

That heroes don't do that. That sounds like uh like a thing that a tumblerina would make up or like a TikTok would make up about Batman.

SPEAKER_05 9:40

That's a hundred percent true. Uh you can, it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Uh and honestly he can't have a mentally ill boyfriend, he can't eat Selena Kyle's Plus C. What's Batman allowed to do?

SPEAKER_06 9:52

Suffer, that's why. That's why they don't let him do all this shit.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

I see. Batman is Miles O'Brien.

SPEAKER_05 9:57

Yeah, 100%. Um, so that would be a great episode of Star Trek.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Yeah, right. Um, but yeah, like it's so like the big thing is literally just that the Joker is in love with Batman. Right? Like, and it's not subtle. Even I read the uh I read the on uh where I read where I read uh uh Death of the Family. I re I own the physical version, but I read it on my on my fucking tablet anyways, because um it's easier to read in bed that way. Yeah, understandable. So uh, but where I read Death of the Family, it was the trade paperback version. So the version that had all the gay shit, all the gay text boxes that changed. Um and even toned down, it's really not that toned down. Um it's really not that toned down. It's very impressive. And that is in and of itself interesting, right? Because again, it's 2012, this comic comes out, it's it has a very it's very certain about what it's about, right?

SPEAKER_09 11:05

Right.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

Um but that being said, you're reading it in 2026 and you're like, I don't really see what the big hullablue about this story was.

SPEAKER_10 11:15

Yeah, it's it's Seinfeld as unfunny.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 11:19

Like you're you're you're going back and watching the thing that started this idea in main in the mainstream, and it's like, well, yeah, what no big deal.

SPEAKER_05 11:31

Wait, what?

SPEAKER_03 11:32

There's a whole thing, I think they called it the Seinfeld effect, which is the idea of going back to something that's a classic that gets ripped off endlessly, and every unique part of it getting ripped off makes the original seem quaint. Sure. Uh, this is a thing that, in my personal opinion, happens to say Neon Genesis Evangelian, among others. Yeah. Where, like, you know, compared to some stuff coming out in 2026, it's very sedate. But they changed the name of it from that because they didn't, they like didn't want tropes to specifically reference, like oh, that's stupid.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Yeah, it's really dumb. I hate that website. I already hated that website back in 2010. I hate it more in 2026.

SPEAKER_05 12:08

Yeah, that's correct. Um, and and yeah, and I mean, and I don't know how much I mean, I don't want to attribute all, you know, the Jokers in Love with Batman theorizing to Scott Snyder. Oh, yeah, no, no.

SPEAKER_10 12:22

It was it was a thing, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 12:23

But I I just wonder if it became like accepted storytelling in DC comics as a result of Death of the Family.

SPEAKER_09 12:34

That's kind of the I think that's absolutely correct.

SPEAKER_05 12:37

Okay. Because that's kind of my fan, that's kind of like I'm kind of I'm doing fandom archaeology here, right? I'm trying to figure out like, well, where did this this narrative come from and when did it become fine to say it out loud? Because I mean it's been around since, you know, the fucking the beginning, right? Um, like homerotic undertones, undertones of of Batman in general, uh, and whatever the fuck is going on between Batman and the Joker in specific. Um but I'm wondering if if Death of the Family is the turning point where DC themselves are like, fine, you can say the Joker is gay for Batman pop, right? Uh and then they just kind of ran with it for the next 14 years, right? Bizarre that um Death of the Family is 14 years old. Um so I liked it. It was good. I need to give it another reread and maybe uh chew on it a little more because right now I'm like, that's fine, right? I didn't feel like it kind of it did as much to my brain chemistry as some of the other things I've read over the course of this uh uh this deep dive, right? Right. Um so you know, we'll give it a shot. I did pick up, I'm not done with it yet, which is why I haven't officially like I don't want to talk about it too much, but I read the first part of the next little segment of Scott Snyder's run, which is called Zero Year. That's just good as fuck, y'all. Um it it's also like an early Batman story, and it's so it's so good. You can see, I haven't even read I haven't even read absolute Batman, but I see where the bones of Absolute Batman come from. Right. Right? Because this is a young Batman story, and Scott Snyder has a very specific vision for how this shit kid was doing things, and the answer is he's just a complete asshole. Um, and it rocks, it's so good. I I like it a lot. The art is really good because it's Greg Capullo who's been doing the art for you know for chord of owls and um Death of the Family, but I think the colorist is different because the art like the colors are crazy vibrant and super, super like pastel, a lot of pink for a Batman story, which is fun. Um and I like it a lot. I'll come back when I'm done with it more. But uh yeah, no, that's that's that's pretty much all I got in terms of of Batman stuff. It's good. Uh, I'm really enjoying this. I want to do more. I I caved. I saw the trailer for the Nightfall movie, and I was like, that looks fine. And then I had a friend and another server go on like a 20-minute tangent on how good Nightfall the comic is. Nightfall the comic looks like a fucking phone book, and I had to cave and put it on my on my reading list.

SPEAKER_10 15:25

Oh, do it! Like in for a penny and for a pound.

SPEAKER_05 15:29

In for a penny and for a pound. I might as well. Why don't we just do it?

SPEAKER_10 15:32

Maybe as well ride the Batman wave while it's there. Yeah. Look, the Batmobile is long and it's got good mileage. You might as well get in. God, I bet.

SPEAKER_05 15:42

Uh please don't look at my Tumblr like. Um, that being said, what else?

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Salute. Benedict Cumberbatch salute gift.

SPEAKER_05 15:53

Uh, what else have I been up to? Uh a couple things. Uh I watched more X-Files. The other day I wasn't feeling well, so I played Hookie from work and I watched like six X episodes of X-Files in a row. Um The X-Files is so goddamn good. It's crazy. It's so good. That's really all I have to say, but like, fuck, the X-Files is so good. Now that you're done with Star Trek, might I recommend other high-quality 90 sci-fi television show, the X-Files.

SPEAKER_10 16:22

I think I am gonna make that my next like project show. Because I never actually watched X-Files, like ever.

SPEAKER_05 16:28

It's so good. It's a joy. It's so it is at times deeply corny, but also the guy who wrote Breaking Bad worked on it. So how bad could it be? Right? Right.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

I saw I saw a X-Files post to send to you. One second. I forgot to do it until right now.

SPEAKER_05 16:46

Please. Uh that show, that show is great. Fucking Gillian Anderson and I mean I talked about it before. Gillian Anderson, David DeCovney. That's correct. Uh they uh they have the craziest chemistry. It's so good from episode one and into yeah, I'm into season two now. There's a lot of X-files. It it doesn't stay good forever, unfortunately. But right now, it rocks. It's so good. Um, I like it.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

As long as it's good for now, that's all you really need. Because you can eventually the nice part about TV shows are syndicated in that way is you can eventually hit a point where you're like, I'm bored, and then just stop watching and that and then you can be like, I I watched all the good of this show. That's correct. That's what you do with Star Trek. That's how I that's how I did it with both several years ago with both NCIS and Criminal Minds.

SPEAKER_05 17:38

Mm-hmm. That's correct. Absolutely. Criminal Minds is a good show.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Uh until it runs way too long, but you watch it for several seasons, and then you're like, I've watched the good Criminal Minds.

SPEAKER_05 17:49

I'm done, yeah. Um X-Files continues to be awesome, just like really standout episodes, but just like kind of back to back. They have an episode that is an explicit, I don't want to say ripoff of the thing. It is an homage to the thing. Um, but it's doing its own thing as well, and it's really genuinely great. I started it, I didn't like it, and I was because it starts kind of slow, and I'm like, alright. Uh and then I skipped it, and then I noticed it had an 85% on IMDB, which is really high for any given episode of the X-Piles, so I went back to it and I was like, okay, actually, this was good. I'm the idiot. Uh I'm wrong, actually. I have bad opinions sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Um whenever I skip an episode of Deep Space Nine, yeah, somebody tells you to go back.

SPEAKER_07 18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Yeah, I skipped that one where everyone got that got that whatever episode premise is going on remote wanted to fuck each other super bad. And I was like, I dipped because I felt weird about Cisco's son trying to fuck Kira. Um, no, wait, no, that's one of the great that's a really good episode. I'm like, I mean, I don't want to go back, but also apparently I have to.

SPEAKER_05 19:04

It's really good. It's funny. I love it. Um uh but no, there's also an episode, so I didn't remember this, but fucking um Oh my god, the you know the the major in Twin Peaks, what's his face football guy? That's Scully's dad.

SPEAKER_10 19:20

Really?

SPEAKER_05 19:20

Yeah, he plays Scully's dad. He now, granted, Scully's dad dies in season one. Um, but he plays Scully's dad too, and he calls her Starbuck, which is adorable. Um, and uh that episode that is about Scully's dad dying is phenomenal. It's the first time the X-Files has like a g what I would consider like a genuinely great episode and not just like that was pretty good. Um it is fantastic, it's so fucking good. Uh so yeah, because it's about like a guy who claims he can talk to the dead, right? And Scully's dad just died, right? Um so yeah, it's it's awesome. Huge recommend. Absolutely. It's like I want to watch some more 90s stuff after Star Trek. Go watch, go watch Edifiles. Completely different vibes. Uh, and it takes a little while for it to find its footing because they keep thinking that Mulder is the most interesting part of that show. Incorrect. The most interesting part of that show is whatever the fuck is going on between both of them. So early in season two, Mulder and Scully don't get to be together as often because of some plot contrivances at the end of season one, right? And I can only assume it's because Gillian Anderson probably like had to go have a baby or something. Like anytime that happens where like a like a character, like a woman is kind of uh kept off screen for like six to seven episodes is because she had to go have a baby. You know what I mean? That's just how TV is.

SPEAKER_10 20:48

Go back and see how many times she's like behind a desk or like has an object in front of her.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

I seem to recall David DeCovney being like, yeah, I was kind of a pretty earlier seasons of X-File, so maybe, you know.

SPEAKER_05 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

Uh I I understand better now. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:05

I mean, they're yeah, it's crazy to even say that, but I mean, for him to even cop to that, which is very nice of him, um, because again, their chemistry is so good from word one, right? Um, but you know, good good for them. Uh but no, they'll they eventually kind of find their footing, they realize, like, oh, Mulder and Scully should generally be together at all times because that's the heat of this show. Yeah. Um, Skinner gets introduced, and Skinner is my favorite, my other favorite character.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Um It would be like if you had apothecary diaries and you had an entire season where Jin Chi just wasn't in it because you didn't understand that's what people were coming for yet. Right. Because those two interacting.

SPEAKER_05 21:44

Yes, absolutely. Um, and then like Skinner is their boss, and he's like he's kind of a nothing character in the beginning, but then they realize that it's it's good for a show like this to have like a like an authority. Figure who will keep them from having like the government break them up, right? But he also thinks they're kind of just dumbasses, you know? Uh so there's a lot of good kind of stuff going on between all of them. So yeah, X-Files is good. Um I gotta be faster. I'm sorry. It's hard to do that. You're fine.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

You're alright.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

I have so much. Um I finished Fate Strange Fake. That shit's good. Please watch it. That's all I can. You can't talk about Fate Strange Fake. Um It is the definition of incomprehensible, have a nice day. I know apparently, uh, who is it on the server? Idran? Who was like, I watch Fate Strange Fake. I want to get it.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Like this is my first fate thing. It's like, what's your problem?

SPEAKER_01 22:46

That's a crazy place to start. I mean, good for you.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

I never thought, I never thought that I would feel comparatively vindicated for my first fate thing being fate grand order. But as compared to my first fate thing being strange fake.

SPEAKER_07 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Yeah, no, I feel like fate I feel like Grand Order is comparatively normal.

SPEAKER_05 23:07

Yeah, no, Grand Or, because Grand Order is like extremely fate-centric, but also Grand Order exists in its own timeline and has its own rules and is like full of callbacks, but you know, you can't.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

And like positions itself to be like super ordinate in a way where you can then later watch fate things and go, oh, this makes this makes Grand Order make more sense.

SPEAKER_07 23:32

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:32

Because Grand Order is assuming that literally everything fate that has ever happened is canon.

SPEAKER_05 23:37

Yes. But Strange Fake is so much more just like assuming you know the rules, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Like Strange Fake is I read the hadith before I read the Quran. It's like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_05 23:52

Yeah. Like Strange Fake.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

Like, I'm happy for you, but what are you doing?

SPEAKER_05 23:56

What are you doing? I'm glad. Listen, this is not a dig on on uh friend of the Friend of the Show Edron. Yeah, no, good any any place that gets you into fate is good, right? Because fate is good. But that's a crazy place to start. Um because it's so there's so much shit going on. There is a there's a sequence at the end of the show, no spoilers. Um watch any. No, but there is a it it is a direct reference to the uh Banquet of Kings from Fate Zero, right? I see it it actually just shows the Banquet of Kings from Fate Zero at a couple of times. Um and uh it's like, oh, you've never seen Fate Zero. You have zero context for this. Cool. Um crazy, great show, uh tremendous animation. Uh the most, it's the closest you're gonna get to Bakado season two. That's all I can tell you. Oh you gotta go watch it. I know it's the most Ryogo Narita that it's ever been. It's it's got all of his things of like loving the United States and like uh having a shitzillion characters, and those shit zillion characters are all like they they are so like masters of their own destiny, right? In a way that is compelling, that you know, that like Lad Russo and and you know Claire Stanfield and and all of their ilk are like so much of of what makes Bacchano good specifically, not not what you know what Narita does, which is a big ensemble cast, because that's more of your Doraraz, right? Right. So much of what specifically is compelling about Bacano is in Strange Fake, right? Right. Um like American culture through the lens of a Japanese writer, all kinds of interesting things like that. Really, really weird and fucked up characters. Um I it's got it all. I really, really liked it. It's also gorgeous. Strange Fake is just beautiful to look at. Um, it is really immaculately animated, uh, and has a soundtrack by Hiro Yuki Sawano. So it also sounds really good, I know, right? The fucking kill a kill guy, among other things. I mean, Hiroyuki Sawano has done everything, but I know him as the kill a kill guy.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Don't lose your way.

SPEAKER_05 26:32

Don't lose your way. Um Strange Fate, Strange Fate, really good.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

Uh I still didn't watch it, but I'll get there.

SPEAKER_05 26:39

Make time for it. Completely different. Um, I also watched all of season one of My Dress Up Darling, which is great. My Dress Up Darling is just is is in fact just Darling.

SPEAKER_09 26:53

Um as the title would suggest, yes.

SPEAKER_05 26:55

It is uh it is uh it it's not Het Sloth if I like it. Okay, it's a romance comedy anime about like this kind of awkward kid who has uh considered to be uh his grandpa runs a Hina doll shop. Hina dolls are those traditional Japanese dolls that wear kimono and are very beautiful and are like very hand-painted. His grandpa runs a Hina doll shop, so he is considered to have a uh like less masculine sort of taste and interests and stuff like that, and it's always made him feel a little awkward, right? Um but kanji. He's a kanji, yeah. He's a conji, but he's much more subdued. He's a conge.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Yeah, he's not like uh he's not like a delinquent who has that, he's like a normal guy who has that.

SPEAKER_05 27:39

Uh he he's but he's a sweetheart, and he meets a uh a very darling uh Gyaru girl named Marion who wants to do cosplay, but cannot sew to save her life. So, of course, that they uh they pair up to make cosplay together. And it's a romance anime. Marin is the funniest character of all time because she is a super sweet girl. She's I mean, she's she's very Gyaru, blonde, long nails, uh, she wears pink contacts, right? Like the whole deal. Um, she's also a huge pervert. The first the first uh cosplay she asks Gojo to make her is her favorite character from an extremely explicit arrow gay that she likes a lot, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:27

You know, quiet MGS5. And it's like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_05 28:31

Huge, just banger character. Uh it's just cute. It's just cute. I like it. It's very well animated, it's just really adorable. Um I liked it a lot. It's not headslob if I like it.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

I do really want to watch that anime. My my experience with my dress up, darling, is that I have read exactly one chapter, and it wasn't the first chapter, it was the late chapter, and I won't say anything more than that.

SPEAKER_05 28:57

Uh-huh. Uh, it's it's just really funny and cute, and and all of the characters are extremely likable. It's not very contrived, I would say, the way a lot of romance anime can be. Um, you know, that the kids act like, you know, there's 16, 17-year-olds, right, in love. And it's cute. It's also pretty horny, but it's a you know, it's a romance anime. Of course it is. Um, but I love it. I I really, really like it. I can't wait for season three. I gotta finish season two. Um, but I like it a lot. It's super cute. Marion is uh, she's just like me for real. Just this weird little pervert, and I adore her.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

Notepad emoji, writing hand emoji, thinking emoji.

SPEAKER_05 29:48

Yes, yes, yes. Uh, and then also, I didn't watch a lot of anime. Um, I finally started Spy Family.

SPEAKER_08 29:56

Ooh.

SPEAKER_05 29:57

I've watched, we've watched a lot of Spy Family. Oates included. Oates has also been watching Dress Up Darling with me. Um but we have watched a lot of spy family. Uh, spy family is also unsurprisingly cute.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

Uh it's it's not head slop if you like it. Yeah, you're on a you're on a head slop uh bitch. It might be about a man and a woman raising their daughter together, but it's not head slop.

SPEAKER_05 30:22

It's not head slap if you like it. Absolutely not, thank you. Um it I mean, you all know the premise of spy family. It's fucking spy family, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:31

Um it's like the most popular not shonen shonen that has ever existed ever, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

It's and it's good. Shocking no one, local popular anime, spy family, is cute and good, actually. Um it's it's very it's very pretty to look at. They it was very funny because at one point we were watching season two, and I was like, this is fun and cute, but you under you watch it and you realize that the artist and writer of the manga did not realize the banger character he had in your for a while, right? Because like the early spy family is predominantly about Lloyd and Anya, and that's fine. And you just kind of have your as uh like a you know kind of um tutor agonist, I would say, right? Like the two protagonists of the for the first season-ish of Spy Family is Lloyd and Anya. That's it's predominantly about those two, and then I think at some point he realized he had a crazy banger character in um Goofy Airhead Superkiller, right? Like, right, the thing about your is that she's physically unstoppable. Like, she's crazy strong.

SPEAKER_10 31:53

Have you have you gotten to the tennis episode yet?

SPEAKER_05 31:56

Of course I've gotten.

SPEAKER_10 31:57

Okay, I because I I have a hard time remembering where everything is in the timeline.

SPEAKER_05 32:03

Yes, no, the tennis episode rocks, but I didn't realize the tennis episode is predominantly about Lloyd and the girl he works with who has a crush on him, right?

SPEAKER_10 32:14

Well, no, not that episode, the the one where your plays tennis.

SPEAKER_05 32:17

No, I haven't got to that one.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

No, I Ben, I think that's a season two episode. Oh, okay. Alright, yeah. I feel like I remember seeing clips of that relatively recently.

SPEAKER_05 32:24

Yeah, I know there's no- I just saw the bit where where uh like where your demolishes the fucking tennis ball.

SPEAKER_10 32:34

Yeah, that one. That's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_05 32:35

No, that's the those those are the same episode, Ben.

SPEAKER_10 32:37

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so but that's still like that episode is predominantly about Lloyd and um uh Fiona. Yeah, right. And at the end, you get like a little bit with your being best girl, of course. Um and it's like, okay, yeah, you have this banger character. She's like an unstoppable super killer, but she's also kind of an airhead, but also uh she's the strongest woman alive, and she has a heart of gold still somehow. She's a good mom, right? That's a great character. Uh, and he didn't realize it. And I was watching this show, and I'm like, damn, this show could use some more, more, some more your, you know? Like, we really, we really need like a your centric episode or two.

SPEAKER_06 33:21

And then you hit the your centric plot arc that is five episodes of your, and you're like, ah, that's a man who realized the error of his ways, and you immediately course corrected.

SPEAKER_05 33:35

Um, and it's great, shocking, good show, very cute. Um shame that that fourth season seems to be in development, hell. It'll come out someday.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

I mean, there's enough spy X family that it will happen eventually.

SPEAKER_05 33:51

It'll have to happen eventually. That movie is apparently really good, is what I've heard.

SPEAKER_10 33:56

There's yeah, I've heard it I've heard it's good too. I've heard it's also got two dubs, and one of them is bad.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

Why does it have two dubs?

SPEAKER_10 34:03

Because I think uh Double dubs. It was a an American release and a European release.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

I see. Interesting. Okay. Um, but yeah, not.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Which one's good and which one's bad? I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

I want to know. I I mean we've been watching it in Japanese anyways because I like yours Japanese voice a lot. Um generally, just kind of it's more fun that way. You miss out on some of the the jokes if it's in English because they're kind of hard to localize.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

Oh, I I have discovered the truth about about uh Code White, apparently. Is that the movie? Code White? Yes.

SPEAKER_08 34:38

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

Netflix has an English dub that is from a studio in the Philippines.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

The official English dub, however, is the one that is on Crunchyroll. Okay. So if you watched on Crunchyroll, ostensibly you will probably get the good one.

SPEAKER_05 34:56

Okay. Good to know. Um and then Yeah, Spy Family is good. That you know obviously.

SPEAKER_08 35:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 35:06

Uh, and then last but not least, is I play, and this is overlapping with Ben, so it works out marvelously. Uh I played all of Forbidden Solitaire. That game! That game rocks!

SPEAKER_10 35:18

That game fucking rules. That game looks so good!

SPEAKER_04 35:22

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_10 35:23

Look, okay, you know what? Here's the thing is that it is the cheapest, cheapest heat possible to be like, oh, the game's going wacky, but it fucking works on me every time.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

It works. Well, it works because the actual solitaire part of Forbidden Solitaire is crazy addictive.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

Yo my god, it so is. I think uh my I will say my background here is I watched Super Great Friend play it. I did not play it myself. I paid my price already by being really angry every time he would miss something that was super obvious to me and shaking my fist at my screen. Um It kinda seems like what if inscription was actually good?

SPEAKER_10 36:11

Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

I like inscription, but it takes 20 plus hours, and also most of its gameplay does not factor directly into its core narrative, which is broadly the same as the core narrative from Forbidden Solitaire.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

But Forbidden Solitaire is just like what if you had a linear solitaire experience that did this story and it took you like five hours?

SPEAKER_05 36:35

Yeah, it's very brisk, very good. Um the idea of a solitaire-based, turned-based battle system is really inspired. Yeah. It's so it's so good. I actually did go and play more of it on new game plus mode. Like, I didn't do any of the modifiers and stuff. I just I just turned on new game plus mode where everything gets way harder. Um so like enemies do more damage and stuff like that. And it rocks. I I would play, yeah, I know that these are very um very designed solitaire challenges, right? Right. So it's kind of hard to make an endless mode because of the nature of the game. But boy, if you could find a way to make an endless mode of this, I probably would play it. Um it's really good. Uh it's by the guys who did Home Safety Hotline, a game that I love. Please play Home Safety Hotline and please play Forbidden Solitaire. Because Forbidden Solitaire is so it's so much fun. Because like, if it was just like, ooh, it's a cursed video game, that's fine. That's kind of fun. But no, the fun is in all of the fucking FMVs bases. Yes.

SPEAKER_10 38:02

I think the news articles and the the fake uh the uh Jonathan Frank's show.

SPEAKER_05 38:10

Oh god. What is the uh factor fiction? Factor fiction, yes, yeah. The fake factor fiction, um, the news articles, the the fake parent group protests, which means they had like the devs had to get them and all their friends outside with a bunch of dumb fucking signs to like film them like a news spot and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

I I will say I am seeing my favorite detail about this game. So obviously it's developed by Night Signal, who are the home safety hotline guys. Um, but it's co-developed with great alien games. Yes. Who you might guess just sort of make solitary gem matching games.

SPEAKER_04 38:52

Yeah, and that's the whole thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 38:55

A match made in heaven. No, I I do want to point out that like the fake fact or fiction thing cracked me up because he's acting like Jonathan Frankes.

SPEAKER_04 39:04

Yeah, it's awesome. It was so good.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

I just need them to collaborate with the people who did uh fucking space organ uh baby trading simulator.

SPEAKER_05 39:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Or whatever it's called, because I feel like they could make something beautiful together.

SPEAKER_05 39:18

I I'm really glad it seems like Forbidden Solitaire seems to have done well because I need these guys to just keep making video games forever, right? Because they make exactly my kind of my kind of games.

SPEAKER_10 39:35

Um they found their niche and they should stick with it.

SPEAKER_05 39:39

Yeah, and their niche uh rocks. It's it's so much fun. I love the corny uh the live action trailer for the game. Right.

SPEAKER_10 39:49

God it was so good.

SPEAKER_05 39:50

It's so good. There's so much to it.

SPEAKER_10 39:53

I the the thing is you can also picture the magazine ad.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Oh, the magazine ad is immaculate. Well, the one that's actually in the game is perfect.

SPEAKER_09 40:04

It's so good.

SPEAKER_05 40:05

You can just see it in the pages of like a of like a game informer, you know, 35 years ago, right? Yeah. Uh I loved it. I really did. It's it's so much fun. I have I uh Ben by the way, Ben texted me at one point right before he was starting to play it. And he's like, how fucked do you already have 22 hours in this game? And I'd be like, I fell asleep with my computer on as how. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:32

It does not actually take you 22 hours to beat Forbidden Solitaire.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

You gotta watch out, Sarah. That's how you get your eyes stabbed out.

SPEAKER_04 40:39

I know.

SPEAKER_10 40:40

It's how you literally get killed by like I was like, do I need to actually be because the whole game is framed in the idea of like your sister is like messaging you, like, hey, are you playing that game still?

SPEAKER_05 40:51

Yeah, that game that is definitely gonna kill you. Are you are you still playing it? What game that did you just eat something off the ground? You good? I think my idiot dog just ate a piece of paper off the ground and now he's coughing. Um $3, patreon.com slash the gorge. Get pictures of that idiot dog.

SPEAKER_10 41:10

You too can feed this dog snacks and hard paper.

SPEAKER_05 41:14

Paper off the ground. Um no, that game is it's so good. It's 15 bucks on Steam right now. I got it on sale. Um, I think it's it's actually just worth the full um, but it it's awesome. Play it, play home safety hotline, another game by that dev that I really, really like.

SPEAKER_10 41:35

Um yeah, no, I'm I'm a sucker for a fake Windows UI.

SPEAKER_05 41:43

Fake, great fake Windows UI, um, great fake DOS loading screens, um, fantastic, like bad CG cutscenes from a PS1 game, right? Oh, it's so good.

SPEAKER_10 42:01

Also, really captured the uh the uh specific fear of playing a horror game and getting jump scared by your friend messaging you.

unknown 42:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 42:14

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_10 42:15

At like a really inappropriate time.

SPEAKER_07 42:18

Yeah, absolutely. Totally.

SPEAKER_03 42:20

I gotta say, you might be the in that game, you might play like the most rude sibling ever.

SPEAKER_06 42:26

Of all time. Yeah. Text your brother back or text your sister back, you sick.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

Yeah, she's your sister is really concerned about you and also texting you, and you're just too busy playing solitaire to even bother. Now, to even bother to respond to her, which does feel like an authentic sibling relationship in the city.

SPEAKER_06 42:42

Totally correct, yes.

SPEAKER_10 42:44

Like there's definitely the sibling relationship where where your texting history is 99% their messages and 1% your message, and that's just how you communicate.

SPEAKER_05 42:54

Yeah, totally. Um, I I really like it. It's a good game. Uh, it's kind of I don't I mean, because it's very simple, it's solitaire. Yeah. Um, but like the presentation, all the storytelling stuff, just the charm of it all is uh phenomenal.

SPEAKER_10 43:13

Really, really cool upgrade interface too.

SPEAKER_05 43:16

Yes, just awesome, just very designed, very interesting, like great game, you know?

SPEAKER_08 43:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:25

So um please buy it so they'll keep making more of these things. Yes. I want them to keep making games with live action cutscenes forever. Um, because it's a lost art. It's like them and just a handful of other people who get it that make it great, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:44

We have to return to return to FMV.

SPEAKER_05 43:47

We have to go back to Mist.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

I guess that's what Sam Bar I guess that's what Sam Barlow is up to.

SPEAKER_05 43:52

Yeah, but Sam Barlow's games are not that that's not charming. I mean, I like some of those games, but it's not the same.

SPEAKER_10 44:00

You gotta you gotta you you gotta go to Party City. And you gotta buy the wizard costume.

SPEAKER_05 44:05

Gotta get a Party City wig, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 44:07

You gotta go into the closest quote woods near your house.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

Alright. You gotta do the actual missed thing of literally just like, oh, I'm wearing a white tunic, and then the actual footage when you pan down, he's wearing a hard rock casino t-shirt.

SPEAKER_08 44:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 44:26

Uh and film yourself, you know, talking to the player, like the grand wizard, you know, the the the high wizard you are.

SPEAKER_06 44:33

Yeah, not a grand wizard. Not a grand wizard.

SPEAKER_10 44:35

That's a different thing you find in the woods, and if you find that, uh call someone. Not the cops because they're already there. It's someone else.

SPEAKER_06 44:46

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 44:48

I would hate if I show if I stumbled upon a secret clan meeting in the woods and called 911 and heard someone's phone thing. Be like, oh, egg on my face.

SPEAKER_05 45:00

Aw, damn. Oh, man. Yeah, no. Uh, good game.

SPEAKER_10 45:05

Yeah, good game. Uh it might make my top five, honestly. I had a ton of fun playing it.

SPEAKER_05 45:11

I gotta tell you, I had not played.

SPEAKER_06 45:12

I'm looking at my list now on my phone of all the shit I've done this year. I have not played a lot of video games this year, so neither have I.

SPEAKER_10 45:21

The back half of this year is gonna be loaded though, so that's that'll make up the I have, I mean, like, looking at my list, I gotta finish Silent Hill F.

SPEAKER_05 45:29

It's on my list because I intend to finish this year. Um, but like, damn, I have mostly watched things and of course read a lot of comic books.

SPEAKER_09 45:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:37

Um so a weird year, you know? It's a weird year, yeah. You know, catch up year. It's a weird catch-up year. Year to really get into uh Batman, I guess. Yeah, you know. Um but that's it for me. Uh I like I like Forbidden Solitaire a lot. You should buy it. Um yeah, that's all I got. Saturn.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

I guess it's my turn. Um aside from Warframe, which I have been warframing, uh, not much to update there.

SPEAKER_10 46:09

Warframe, more like more frame because you're playing more of it.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

That's right, Jay. Um, I picked up Marathon because uh there was a sale uh better than the Steam sale. I haven't played much of it yet, though, uh, so nothing to report there. Uh they did release a uh experimental PVE like only roguelite mode for like their first their their big major like end game thing, um, which I would like to try. Yeah. Uh ahead of there being a dedicated PvE mode coming out sometime next season, I suppose. Um beside that uh I did uh uh Toxic Eury V N jam, which I mentioned, uh that did end, or the the submission, the submission period to qualify for uh the chance of winning a prize did end. Um so there have been a lot of those, and I've read some of those. I admittedly have not read as many as I would have liked to because I've been kind of busy. But I've read a couple, and I'll go into those. Apologize for my uh uh apologies for my uh kind of slowing speech. I did make a drink before the podcast, which I didn't think was very strong, and also I've eaten a lot today, so I didn't think it would be a problem. It's been kind of a problem, I see.

SPEAKER_05 47:37

Snuck up on you.

SPEAKER_03 47:39

It was significantly stronger than it should have been, considering I made basically the same drink not like a couple of days ago and barely felt it. So I apologize if I'm a little uh meandering.

SPEAKER_06 47:50

That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 47:51

Uh so I read Sick of Fantasy by Mato, who is uh the sort of director of the uh malviolence game that I streamed a couple months ago.

SPEAKER_07 48:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Uh that's great.

SPEAKER_07 48:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:03

Very um uh Motto writes very similarly to the way I write, which I enjoy. Um, but instead of being about the sort of things I usually write about, it's about a sort of a horrible codependent relationship between uh a normal person, let's say. Uh well, normal, like a suicidal, like fucking uh person who makes art, right? Normal. But like, but kind of well adjusted comparatively. Yeah. Uh and then the uh isn't this problematic tumbler fandom parasite who has a uh toxic parasocial relationship with her? And boy howdy does that VN go some uh really gut-turning places. Uh I think I described it as something that sticks to the inside of your mouth when you're done with it. Like it leaves it leaves a film.

SPEAKER_05 48:54

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

Um very good. Uh I read Fairy Chess, uh, which uh full disclosure, uh Alter, who is the sort of uh big boss dog of Epicon, who I contribute to, uh, did the programming for like the programming implementation for that. Um but independent of that, that is a really great JMVN. I was like impressed with the uh ambition of technical presentation and writing on display and art as well for being something made in six weeks. Uh that was really good. I highly recommend that to anyone who's interested in that sort of thing. Uh to explain the premise very broadly. Um it's toxic Yuri between a a mommy who sucks and also something that has a lifespan of approximately six weeks.

SPEAKER_04 49:50

Oh, interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

What if there was toxic Yuri between your mom and like a bug? I see.

SPEAKER_07 49:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

And it's it's extremely lavishly written and does tons of things I just simply didn't know you could do in Renpe, which is exciting to me.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 50:09

Uh also read uh no mirame quando yoro, uh, which is a very uh a kind of straightforward comparatively, but uh very effective and good-looking and well-polished uh Vienn from my personal friend Pupnik and a couple of their uh associates. Uh that is about uh uh a homeless trans girl uh kind being uh what's the word, committed to a psych ward and forming a uh dubious relationship with her primary therapist.

SPEAKER_07 50:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 50:41

Uh that kind of goes basic. I mean, not to like say it like that's a bad thing. It's the VN you expect from the description, but it does so it does so it's very effective in in how it does so. Like it's very well put together and uh it works. I like it quite a lot. And lastly, so far, I'm going to read more, but lastly, I read something called A Lady's Pyre, which is uh what if you drew what if you were like making comics in high school, you know, like someone who's gonna be like a big a big deal comic artist, and you, you know, were having like dubious, I don't know if it's okay to be gay yet, uh uh will they won't they, with a girl in your class. Uh, but also you were brother, your brother is Shinji Monto.

SPEAKER_05 51:31

Oh word, what's up?

SPEAKER_03 51:34

Yeah, uh, I really liked that one. Uh, I got it, it has really banger music and a lot of great uh background work. I did I did see the background work as like uh stuff that was like, you know, it's from a pack or whatever, but it was very well chosen. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_07 51:48

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

Uh also has really great music that was made custom for it. Uh it's just a very s vibey kind of thing. And it also is very I've read a lot of things I would describe as horrible, and I have to be clear, I don't mean that they're bad, I mean that they're galling to read. You mean that you mean the toxicity is that's what you're here for. There the things I have read are they are somewhat about the toxicity of the relationship and the idea that these people are not good for each other, but maybe there's something sexy going on there, and way more toxic in terms of, oh no, no, no, no, oh god, oh no, no, oh jeez, uh teens. That one I want to shout out specifically because I haven't seen it getting a lot of traction, but I really enjoyed that one, and it was uh really uh there was a lot of uh it was presentationally very uh interesting. It kind of reminded me of like mid-aught denpa VNs, you know? Yeah. Where it's like very about your protagonist is very mentally ill and not handling it super well, let's say. Yeah. Uh I I really enjoyed that one though. Those are the four I've read so far. I have a big long laundry list of stuff I want to read beyond that. But I haven't got to it yet. Uh I've been having some nerve pain in my hands the last week that has kind of distracted me from doing the drawing and writing things that I want to be doing, so I haven't really paid a lot of attention to the VNs either. Yeah. But I did read those four things. Those are a lot of fun. Uh if those sound fun to you, uh, I have a reading thread on my blue sky you can find if you just search like T Y V N J in my like the search on my profile, and those will come up. Uh that thread will be getting more updates as I read more of those things in the next week or two. Um that's been me though. That's about it. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 53:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:39

Nice.

SPEAKER_10 53:41

Uh I did a bunch of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 53:44

Alright.

SPEAKER_10 53:45

Um I have not read a whole lot of comics because I have comics that are coming to my house soon, and then I will be able to read more of them.

SPEAKER_07 53:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_10 53:53

I I am filling in the gap of uh Spider Girl, the complete collection. So I have I have one through four, or I have one, two, and four. Three is on the way, and then I have to track down five as well. Um but I also ordered uh volume four of the uh Immortal Hulk Omnibus, and when that arrives, I'm going to go ahead and pick up where I left off with Immortal Hulk.

SPEAKER_08 54:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 54:18

Because I've been in the mood for some social commentary lately. And also a big green man who smashes things.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

The commentary is the big green man, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_10 54:29

Um and then just, you know, I'm just kind of filling in the gaps of some other series like Ryan or Fantastic Four, um, some more of uh Miles Morales Spider-Man. Um But I did read Lore War, which is the finale of IDW's uh Star Trek series.

SPEAKER_00 54:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 54:52

That I mentioned I talked about, uh just you know, uh adjectiveless Star Trek.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 54:57

Um and I could there is also the wharf spin-off that I might be able to pick up, and then again, like I mentioned, the um Sons of Star or Sons of Starfleet comic. But lore war is fun because it is a parallel or uh an alternate universe where lore runs the universe, basically.

SPEAKER_05 55:17

I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering the name.

SPEAKER_10 55:20

Yeah. Um the first thing this comic does to show you that it's a fucked up horrible nightmare timeline is that Wharf is a good follower to the Alexander. Got a lot.

SPEAKER_05 55:34

Could never be canon.

SPEAKER_10 55:36

Like I turned the page and I saw Worf and Alexander having a good relationship and like dropped it like I saw a spider.

SPEAKER_04 55:44

Yeah, for sure. Great.

SPEAKER_10 55:47

Um It's got it's a it's a fantastic story, but I want to point out the highlight, um, which is the because it it's it's a compilation of like it's you know, it's uh it's a very small snake town.

SPEAKER_06 56:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 56:02

Where it's here is the one-shot intro, here is two issues of Star Trek, two issues of uh Star Trek Defiant, um, another one-shot, and then the finale one shot.

SPEAKER_05 56:15

Yeah, very manageable Snake Town. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_10 56:18

But it's it's still a Snaketown, but like one of the one-shots uh is a follow-up to uh a comic called Shax's Best Day Ever. Yeah. And this one is called Shax's worst day ever.

SPEAKER_05 56:30

Oh, I don't know about that. I mean Shax has had some pretty days. I watched Lower Days. Shaxx has had some pretty bad days.

SPEAKER_10 56:36

So the fucked up timeline version of Shax is um that he is working for lore as an uh he's basically in the spot that the that uh uh like he is uh oppressing the Bajorans now.

SPEAKER_05 56:52

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_10 56:53

Like he is he is the uh He's a collaborator. Yeah, he is the the opposing force that is dominating the planets. And what happens is that uh they give Shaq's his memories of the original timeline and how things should be.

SPEAKER_04 57:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 57:11

Which means that he instantly decides that he is going to lead the rebellion against lore single-handedly and take down every single Cardassian in his way.

SPEAKER_07 57:22

Oh, Shaq's the favorite.

SPEAKER_10 57:25

It's the best.

SPEAKER_07 57:26

Never change, Grandpa.

SPEAKER_10 57:28

Oh, I love Shaq so much. He's easily climbing up to like one of my like top ten favorite Star Trek.

SPEAKER_06 57:33

High quality character, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 57:36

Um, it was good. It was it was a good good finale to this this little project. I wish there was, you know, more of it. Sure. Um They I like the whole thing about this about start about the Star Trek comics is that like it's clear they wanted to do a timeline divergence thing from what is canon in this time frame of Stark, you know, with the Karstrike timeline. Yeah. Like they wanted to, and they were really, really leaning on it, but then at the end, Paramount probably told them, hey, no, it's gotta fit into the timeline. So put your toys away when you're done, yeah. Put everything back on the shelf.

SPEAKER_05 58:16

Make sure everything is back to to uh status quo. Yeah, to the default.

SPEAKER_10 58:21

Um so that we can very cleanly pretend the story never actually happened because no one talks about it in Picard.

SPEAKER_07 58:28

Yeah. Um that's a shame.

SPEAKER_10 58:30

Yeah, but still really enjoyable. Like I still really like it a lot. Like if you can ignore that at like that niggling, you know, that that weak little aspect of it, like needling little detail, it's fine. It's good.

SPEAKER_05 58:40

Sure, totally.

SPEAKER_10 58:41

Totally good comic. Um I also started because we had a thing where um over the uh 4th of July weekend, uh our power went out for like two days.

SPEAKER_07 58:55

Yeah, yeah, I remember.

SPEAKER_10 58:56

Um and we when it came back, we didn't have internet for two days as well.

SPEAKER_07 59:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 59:03

So I started reading the Dungeon Crawler Carl books that Melissa got me for my birthday a while ago.

SPEAKER_07 59:09

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_10 59:11

Uh, I am so I've seen two opinions of this book online.

SPEAKER_05 59:16

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 59:17

One is, hey, these books are pretty fun.

SPEAKER_04 59:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 59:21

And the other is, if my book club says the word dungeon, I'm burning their house down.

SPEAKER_05 59:29

Yeah? Where do you fall? Where do you fall in this?

SPEAKER_10 59:34

They're fun. Okay. They're fun books. I like them.

SPEAKER_05 59:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 59:38

They they have that kind of like dark sort of twisted mentality. Because I get- I I they they were on my radar because people were because it was like, hey, if you like uh Jason Pargins books, you might like Dungeon Crawl of Carl.

SPEAKER_04 59:52

Sure. And that makes sense.

SPEAKER_10 59:53

You know, I read the first I because Amazon gives you like the first chapter for free, or like the first couple pages, and I read it. I'm like, yeah, okay, this this tracks, it's not as like viscerally warped as you know, the John Dice at the end books, but it's got some stuff going on.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:08

Yeah, it's got the sauce. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:10

Um, and it's it's fun. Like, I've seen people compare it to something like solo leveling or other like Isekai self-insert trash.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:20

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:21

And it's I was gonna say that the the when I googled it and saw pictures, I'm like, this just seems sort of like solo leveling, but made by a white person.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:29

Yeah, it's like American Isekai.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:31

Yeah, but like, I don't really buy that because the protagonist of the Dungeon Carler Carl Carl the Dungeon Crawler Carl books um is kind of a putz.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:42

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:43

And like, like, intentionally, like he takes orders from a talking cat.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:49

You know, many such cases. And he's come amongst us.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:52

He's not allowed to wear pants or shoes.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:55

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:57

Uh, because the premise of the of the story is that uh 90% of the population is immediately killed because the entire planet is converted into a dungeon. Like a f an RPG dungeon. Okay. Apparently aliens are involved in this somehow. Uh, because Earth is a reality show now. And you get to you get to watch live streams of your favorite dungeon crawler as they try to progress all 16 floors of this dungeon.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:25

Um, and the way this the way the dungeon mechanics work is that like if you get a lot of views, those viewers will send you gifts and yeah, your random loot drops that you get will be customized to like what your fighting style is leaning towards.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:45

So Carl entered the dungeon without wearing pants because he was chasing his cat that he now takes orders from.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:51

Like, chased her out into the snow uh in the middle of the night because she jumped out of the window of his apartment. So he didn't he didn't have pants on, he just put on a jacket and ran out to get the cat and then was gonna come back in, but then the dungeon happened. But people really like that he's not wearing pants, they think it's funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:07

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:08

So Or they think it's funny asterisk. So he has a bunch of buffs attached to like his armor and equipment now that go away if he equips pants.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:19

Okay. I understand.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:20

Um, and also the the the game's AI is is horny for him. Uh specifically his feet.

unknown 1:02:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:28

So he's also not allowed to wear shoes or he loses a bunch of massive buffs.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:32

Sure, sure, why not? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:36

Um that's at uh Black Mage in Clay Obscure, right? Yeah, yeah. Um so it's it's fun. It's you know, they're it's they're just dumb, fun books, and I feel like a lot of people complain about them for being the thing that they are.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:52

Right.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:53

Like, oh, they they dive too much into like the stat building and the leveling up systems, and it's like, well, yeah, you're reading the stat level done the system mechanic book.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:03

Yeah, you're reading the you're reading the isekai book. You're getting isekai shit in it. What do you expect?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:08

Me when me when someone in solo leveling levels up.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:12

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_10 1:03:14

Mm-hmm. But yeah, no, so they're they're fun. I'm only on the second book right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:19

They're just, you know, fun, easy reads.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:22

Yeah. I mean, better to read literally anything.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:25

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:26

Most people don't read. Like.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:29

Yeah, trust me, I'm on Blue Sky. Most people don't read.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:33

Like, better to read literally anything.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:35

It's it's to me, reading is a lot like food.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:39

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:39

Where it's like, who cares about the the quote unquote quality of what your favorite thing is, you know?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:48

Right.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:48

Like, read do the thing that makes you happy.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:52

I think a lot about, because like, you know, um, you know, I I cook at home a lot, right? And a running theme I see with a lot of kind of food influencers that they talk about. Um, because, you know, obviously when people talk about food, there's a lot of unhealthy narratives around food, right?

SPEAKER_09 1:04:08

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:09

And one of the things you see a lot of people saying is like, oh, you should eat more raw vegetables because that's where all the nutrients are. You know, you lose you lose nutrients not that much when you cook your when you cook your veggies. And it's like what you don't understand is that the choice is not between raw vegetables and cooked vegetables. The choice is between cooked vegetables and going to McDonald's.

SPEAKER_10 1:04:33

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:35

It's the same thing with books. Like your choice is not high art or just kind of like this dumb book that you like, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:45

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:46

The choice is reading a book or doom scrolling on Twitter for six hours. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:51

Because there's always the chance that when you're reading some trash, if you are someone who just likes to read trash, that you'll have the moment of going, I'm kinda sick of reading trash, I think I'm ready for some real shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

You will never.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:05

Or conversely, like, well, yeah, my tastes aren't very highfalutin or whatever, but I'm still reading and thus am have like am continuing to hone my literacy, which is better than most people.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:17

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:18

Most people graduate college and go, great, I never have to learn anything ever again.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:23

I never have to read again. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_10 1:05:25

It's it's the orc orc not understand Ulysses meme.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:30

100%.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:31

I actually bought a book that I'm excited to read semi uh soon, uh, because it was uh I needed to get some extra stuff in my Amazon order to get same day shipping, and I saw a book that I had been mean to pick up. Um, and it's uh Mahjong House Rules Across the Asian diaspora, which is about various house rules that Asian people who don't live in Asia have come up with for mahjong. And I want to know about them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:58

It's the most sad. Book I've ever heard in my life.

SPEAKER_10 1:06:02

Like, hey, you know what I'm gonna do after I finish reading all the Dungeon Crawler Carl books? I'm gonna be like, hey, Blue Sky, I like these books. Let's also like these books.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:14

And then I'll read more. And then we'll get the the Gorge episode about Ben finally reading solo leveling. I'm not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:22

No. Let's not take it too far now, Saturn.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:25

I don't know how to tell you this, Ben, but based on the very brief amount of the book I of what I read about that book, solo leveling is only tonally different.

SPEAKER_10 1:06:33

Well the tone the tone actually makes a huge difference. It does. It does. Like I'm reading this as a dark comedy book with a heavy emphasis on the absurdity and the comedy situation. Right. Not about, I want this cool guy to be really cool and strong. I want Carl to fall over on his face and get attacked by monsters.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh different extremely different vibes.

SPEAKER_10 1:07:00

Yeah. Um, what else did I do? I watched with Melissa, we watched Widow's Bay.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:08

Did you watch all of it?

SPEAKER_10 1:07:09

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:11

I stopped, I stopped at the episode, I watched the first two episodes. I stopped at the episode with the with the Lake Witch. With the swimming when you were supposed to do the first swim. Um I stopped there mostly because, and I gotta admit, I really liked what I watched, but I was sold Widow's Bay in a way that it is not. Right. I my friend, I love my friend, but she sold it to me as functionally what if Parks and Rec, but spooky, right?

SPEAKER_10 1:07:40

Yeah, that's not quite accurate.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:42

No, it's not and and I was really on board. I was like, oh, that's because I like I was kind of in the mood for something a little bit more light when I started watching Widows Bay. Um so I was like, oh, that sounds fun, okay. Um and it's it's not what Widow's Widows Bay is funny, like it is a funny show, it has comedy in it, but it is more tonally leaning toward like a dramedy versus full-on comedy.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:08

It's a thriller with comedy sprinkling on it, yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:12

And like it's kind of it's kind of like absurd humor twisted with like creepypasta style horrors and like um what's the word? Uh folk horror shit. Right, right.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:22

I would say watch up to episode four at least.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:28

Because I think episode four is probably one of the best ones of the series.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:32

Okay. I really enjoyed what I watched, it's just not what I was looking for at the time, right? Um, so yeah, I need to get back to it because I did I did like it. I did like Widows Bay a lot. Okay, cool. I didn't know you watched it. Cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:46

We we uh we just kind of got on a kick and started watching all of it. You know why it was easy to binge Widow's Bay? Because the episodes aren't a fucking hour long.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:55

Yeah, they're very short.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:56

Hey, you know, you know what's you know what's nice and easy to digest?

SPEAKER_06 1:08:59

30 minutes of TV.

SPEAKER_10 1:09:00

Yeah, a 40-minute TV show.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's nice. Hollywood.

SPEAKER_10 1:09:05

Remember you used to do that?

SPEAKER_06 1:09:06

Remember that?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:07

Remember those days?

unknown 1:09:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:09:08

When you weren't like, oh, I gotta sit here for an entire fucking hour.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:12

Yeah, no. It's uh it's much better. Well, it was big, I mean it was great. I did like it a lot. Yeah. Um what I did watch of it, it is the the premise Saturn is that it's uh small, I hate to even say it, like a like a far harbor style island town, right? Uh off the coast of Maine, where the deal is that like the town is the town and the and the waters around it are super haunted. There's lots of different folklore and shit like that. And the mayor is kind of just this bubbling asshole who doesn't believe in any of it, right? So there's the uh the kind of push and pull of like this guy who's constantly like, no, this is horse shit, and then all the townies think that he's an asshole. But he's also the only guy who ran for mayor, which is why he got elected, right? Yeah. Even though everybody thinks he's an asshole.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:04

The specific idea is that he's trying to get tourism into the sa into the town to like get some money circulating, and everything, including the town itself, is telling him it's a bad idea.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:15

Yeah, like under no circumstances should you go to Widow's Bay, but uh he's too stubborn and dumb to accept it, and it's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:24

Was episode two the hotel episode?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:26

Episode two is the hotel episode. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:29

Yeah, it's a good microcosm of what the rest of the series will be like.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:32

Yeah, absolutely. I started, like I said, I started episode three, that's the that's the lake episode where like the going for the first swim of the season episode.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:40

And uh I liked it, but it like I said, it wasn't really it was not the show I was expecting. Right. Because I was expecting something a little funnier, but with like horror moments in it. Like to me, that sounds like a really good TV show. Um, and that's not really what what I was getting. Right. But I'm gonna go back to it. I am gonna go back to it.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:00

I would recommend you go back to it.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:01

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:02

Um, besides Forbidden Solitaire, I progressed a bit more in Trails in the Sky.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:08

Hey, what do you think?

SPEAKER_10 1:11:10

It's I got a third party member.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:12

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:13

I'm gonna start raiding games on a new scale.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:18

Which is uh time to third.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:21

Oh, that's so smart.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:22

Yeah, because the third party member is what is when the mechanics really kick into place.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:30

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:31

Right? What's the time to third on trails? Uh the first. It is unfortunately a while. It's about ten hours. Oh, that's a lot more time. Um, but it still plays fine with two, but like when you get that third, it's like the game opens up, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:46

Yeah, totally. Plus then you're getting you're also unlocking more interesting character dynamics by adding a third person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:51

Yep. Um but I mean it's I'm sorry, Sarah. It's a Tails game. It's just a it's just a good Tails game. I'm really sorry.

unknown 1:12:03

Nah.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:04

I'm really sorry. Um so yeah, I am enjoying that. I gotta get back to it, but like the uh some other stuff came up. Uh I finished Replaced.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:14

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:15

I need some of you to play Replaced because we need to do game of the year discussion for him.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:19

I'm waiting for it to go back on Steam sale. I didn't pick it up on this Steam sale because I spent too much money on over the summer on video games. Um so I need to take a break and then wait for the next Steam sale to buy it. So, you know.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:29

It's about as close to a proto-men game as we're ever gonna get.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:33

Cool, okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:34

Like, you my father worked the mind still day. It took his life. You literally meet a character that is just Joe.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:42

That's great.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:42

Like his whole thing is literally uh just fucking uh he's got this burn in his veins like they're filled with nothing but gasoline.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:52

Sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_10 1:12:53

Okay. You meet what you meet is you meet the real protagonist of this 80s cyber noir movie.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:00

And then he fucks off to do hero things while you have to do the video game.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:05

Uh swore bonus grave. Someday uh we'll make things right.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:10

It's it's really fucking good. Um and then I. The big thing that I've been doing is prep preparing for chapter five of Deltarune.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:22

Oh, you haven't read it, you haven't actually uh played it yet?

SPEAKER_10 1:13:25

No. So I re so I replayed one through four to get all the secret stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:32

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:33

Um surprising no one, Deltarune, good fucking video game.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:39

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:40

Despite my best efforts, uh, I would not say I have been spoiled on the events of Deltarune Chapter 5. I really have. But I have been spoiled on the new Pookies from Delta.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:49

Yes, I've seen I've seen who the new the new Blorbo of the year is.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:52

I haven't really seen the new Pookies. I've my my timeline has been quite good, I'll say. I'm very proud of everybody I follow. They've been very polite.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:01

I've seen what I've seen what they look like. I don't know their deal yet, though.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:04

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:05

I see people talking about Girona.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:08

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:09

I don't know what that is or if it means anything at all. But I see lots of some twink and the word gerona. Interesting. And I know it's not his name, and I'm not gonna say what that twink's name is. Right. But that twink be saying Gerona, apparently.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:24

Um, so yeah, I did I did all the I did the four secret bosses, I got the the eggs. Um there's a nice guide on on Steam forms of all places that breaks down where to find like all of the interesting uh things that you might want to pick up.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:45

Um they were both the the secret bosses were both as like hard and also not very hard. Because they're all pattern-based.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:56

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_10 1:14:57

Um I actually had more trouble with like some of the random enemies versus the super bosses.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:02

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:02

Because their attack patterns are more randomized.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:06

Um the hardest one I think was the chapter three boss, the one that I had the most trouble with.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:10

Uh, I actually do not. I have, with this playthrough of like kind of running like background playthrough of Deltarune that we've got going on. Um, I'm actually not concerning myself with any of the uh super bosses and secret shit until the full game is out. But I'm still like doing because like it's just easier that way. Right. Right?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:30

That's kind of where my head's at. Like, I've seen some of them, but I'm just like, I know at some point I'm going to play the game.

unknown 1:15:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:36

And realistically, it's going to be like, I'll do my blind playthrough, and then if I care, I'll go back and do the second playthrough where I find all the secret boss horseshit.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:48

Do like weird route shit and boss shit and all that stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:52

I I do know that like this this is not my 100% playthrough because there is stuff that I have not gotten.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:16:00

Uh, because like I know the the guide I'm following is not definitive. There's actually a lot of like incidental dialogue and stuff and like little side changes that you can make that um I have skipped over. Um but yeah, the bosses I've I've gone through. Uh I've gotten a lot of the more esoteric Easter eggs and stuff. Um and I've started chapter five, but I haven't gotten very far into it yet.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:16:33

Uh, it took me a lot longer than I than I I had it's like five hours to my previous playthrough.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:40

Yeah, no, Deltrone is uh it's a little beefier than you realize once it's all kind of lined up together, right?

SPEAKER_10 1:16:46

Yeah. Like you you can clear chapter one in like an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:50

Yeah, because that was like the the little baby intro to it all.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:54

Yeah. It continues to fuck me up that Toby Fox explicitly make made Undertale so that he could make Deltar. Yeah. And that's not just like cope, that's literally like the thing that he said about it, which is like. I'm afraid.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:12

That game could be anything.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:14

There could be anything in there.

SPEAKER_10 1:17:16

There's there's a great post I saw that really qualifies like Toby Fox's writing style. Which is someone was like, was like, I see a lot of people saying that Toby Fox writes like someone took something from him. And yeah, that makes a lot of sense when you realize that he can't play the piano anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:33

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:34

Well, he can play the piano, but not for very long.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:37

So he has up I've seen that the the updates have been that he can now play it for a certain amount of time. That's good. Like without having to think that but but uh the piano uh fucked his wrists up extremely, it turns out.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:53

Yeah, that's sad.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:54

Yeah. Which also part of why uh that game has a setting that lets you uh skip through dialogue very fast, uh, because he's like, speedrunners play my game, and I don't want them to hammer the dialogue advance button and then destroy their wrists to speedrun my game. Very nice of him to do that. Yeah. It was also very nice of him uh when Tenna, uh TV head guy from chapter three, won the Tumblr Sexy Man 2026 poll him to write an extended fan fiction about the characters from Dungeon Meshi being in chapter three because it came down to being Tenna versus Senshi. You can't stop this dog.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:40

The dog will do whatever he damn well pleases.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:42

I really hope. The thing is, I was gonna say, I really hope someone translated that into Japanese so that Ryoko Kue could read it. And I realize it's distinctly possible that Toby Fox himself could have translated it into Japanese so that Ryoko Kue could read it.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:57

Just to send it to Ryoko Kui, like, I wrote you fanfiction. Please enjoy.

SPEAKER_10 1:19:02

I hope you want Okay, so Tumblr is a social media blog. And every year they vote for the sexiest man alive.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:09

Imagine there was a fandom, like there was a popularity poll, but it wasn't run by your publisher, it was just run by like some guy, and the survey response was literally everybody, and also they were pitting senshi against my TV head guy from chapter three of Delta Ram.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:27

Now, I know none of that makes sense, but that is the context you have, so you can read. I told you all of this, so I can tell you this. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_10 1:19:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_10 1:19:38

Um, Susie continues to be one of my favorite video game characters of all time.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:42

She's the best character of all time. I yeah, no, she's great.

SPEAKER_10 1:19:45

Chapter 4, uh replaying it fucking broke my heart all over again. Sure, absolutely with her. Yeah. Um I don't want to spoil too much for Saturn because I know they're gonna they're gonna play all this, but I do want to just talk about one quick bit because it's not it's not very spoilery. They the fun gang gets a view of the prophecy that predicted they would all become heroes in the first place. And Susie really latches on to one of the passages which refers to her as the girl with hope across her heart.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:20:16

And like playing all these chapters like subsequently, and like getting like a better idea of who Susie is as a person, and realizing that this poor girl who was like threatening to eat Chris's face off in chapter one, yeah, um, is now just like just so quietly overjoyed at being referred to as the girl with hope across her heart.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:20:40

Like she's like, I've never been anyone special before.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:20:45

And I love her. I love Susie so much.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:49

It's uh I mean, listen, Toby Fox does in fact have the sauce, even after all these years.

SPEAKER_10 1:20:55

I'm such I'm obviously I'm a huge sucker for characters who have come up from circumstances and the world maybe has like not been treating them very well.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:09

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:21:10

But they are just full to bursting with love.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:16

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:17

Um shoutouts to that one Tumblr user who coined the beautiful phrase of Toby Fox use foul homestuckian trychnology to make several women I know want to fuck Barney the Dice.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:30

Foul homestuckian trychnology is uh an all-timer phrase.

SPEAKER_10 1:21:36

Is uh the name of my favorite uh Homestuck fan album.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:40

That was actually in the writings of Malcolm X, if you go look for it.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:44

Good to know, good to know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:21:46

Uh that was Toby Fox's third album for the Homestuck series. Yeah, it's the one where John Eggberg gets pregnant. Yeah. No, I I uh I love Deltarune, it's fantastic. Um I'm really excited to play more of Chapter 5.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:04

I'm excited to actually start Chapter 5 at some point. Yeah. It's getting there.

SPEAKER_10 1:22:09

Uh but that's really about it for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:13

Can I get one more thing out of my system? Because I realize it, and I'll be really quick about it. Um I forgot to mention one more Batman thing. Sorry. Yes, um, is that I read Batman the Black Mirror, which is the first thing that Scott Snyder was really allowed to write for Batman at DC. Um it is set kind of at the same time as Batman Incorporated, like kind of in that same window where like Dick Grayson is Batman, right? And uh it's really you understand how he got the the main job. It's actually really funny because I was reading his uh his thoughts about getting the Court of Owls like assignment, essentially, like being told, like, yeah, you get to write for Bruce Wayne. He's like, I don't know about that one, dog. That's my favorite character of all time. That's scary.

SPEAKER_10 1:23:03

Um I don't know. That's scary.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:06

It's much easier to write like the guy who doesn't necessarily want to be Batman. You get a kind of interest, like that you can be a little bit more uh fast and loose with it.

SPEAKER_11 1:23:18

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:18

Right when it's Dick Grayson is Batman, um, because there's so much less like mythology built up around like that permutation of the character. Yeah. Um but Black Mirror is really good. I have the physical version of it, which is why I didn't post about it much on Blue Sky when I was reading through it. Um but it is it's a really good mystery story, just kind of in general. And it also solidifies the fact that nobody should live in Gotham City. Nobody ever should live in Gotham City, and everybody who does live in Gotham City, their lives are hell because the story is functionally um sorry, Jim Grayson, your life is also hell on earth. Yeah. Or Jim Grayson, excuse me. Jim Gordon. Um Jim Gordon has a hard life because, like, man, uh, you know, it's not just Barbara, uh, it's also that his his uh his son is a serial killer. Whoops. Um it's it's really good, has great art. You see why Scott Snyder got the job. I I don't know. It's one of those that you read and you walk away from it, and then a week later you're like, damn, I'm still thinking about Black Mirror. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like when you're reading it in the moment, it just seems kind of like it's just like a fun, interesting, kind of dark because Scott Snyder really enjoys his horror, you can tell. Um it's just kind of like a darker story, like a mystery story, and like, okay, that's cool, and then uh you you're still thinking about it a week later because of just like all the stuff going on in it. Um and it also has the single most horrifying page I've ever seen in any of these comics I've read so far. So I posted it. Oh yeah. Uh I got jump scared by this, and I think I got jumpscared by this page crazy hard when I turned the page to it. Uh, it's that. And I I literally like I almost like chucked the book across the room because like I'm just minding my own business reading Batman comics.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:32

Um yeah. Yeah, that one.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:36

Uh it's everything I've seen from that specific comic makes me go like, no, I no, thank you. I don't want that. No, thank you.

SPEAKER_10 1:25:44

Not like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:45

I don't like that every time I see the Joker, it looks like he's wearing a face on his face. Well, he is.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:51

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:52

Oh, I'm sure he is, and I don't want to know any more about that than I already do. Well, it's his own face.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:57

It's his own, yeah, that's Death of the Family, and he's wearing his own face on his face.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:01

Um, it's a mask of his own face. Yeah, because he's defined in the uh Neil Caesariga song.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:07

Yes. And he also got his face chopped off and he stole it back, and so now he's wearing it, he's doing gay shit. Death of the Family is good, maybe. I don't know. But Black Mirror is definitely good.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:15

I I think maybe based on what I've seen from other from other screenshots, he's chopping off other people's faces.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:22

Yeah. Yeah, don't worry about it. Yeah. Okay, yay! Okay, yay!

SPEAKER_09 1:26:26

You don't have to read it.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:28

Uh you don't gotta read it, but I like it a lot. Uh Black Mirror, though, is genuinely good. I uh I like Jim Gordon's stories. I like how much Jim Gordon also just kind of sucks. Um because you learn. So Batman Year One is about is is like a story that's obviously about Batman's first year. Um but it's also about that Jim Gordon's just also kind of like a he's like a bad husband. He's like a good cop, but a bad husband. Um because he cheats on his wife. Uh and then you learn that eventually him they don't work it out. Him and his wife actually do just split up and he marries the chick that he uh that he cheated on his wife with. Um but I like that stuff. I like characters who suck ass, you know? Yeah, it it's interesting and compelling. I don't know. I like that all of these people are terrible. Death of the Family, speaking of which, is just one of the most like ends in a very like Bruce Wayne, you're a terrible person. Moments, right? Um and uh yeah, no, I I liked it. I like the Black Mirror a lot. I understand why Scott Snyder got the job and now why he is allowed to do absolute Batman because all of this stuff all comes together in absolute Batman, which is just like what if young Batman and also it was kind of a nightmare. What if everything is a fucking nightmare, as far as I can tell. Um I'm I'm gonna read it eventually. Unfortunately, I still have to go through all of like zero year and end game and like clean up the Scott Snyder stuff. I really do want to read Nightfall. But it's so much.

SPEAKER_10 1:28:18

It's there's a lot.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:20

I might I might just do absolute batman and bang it out, because that's only like 20-something issues. You know what I mean? Uh 22 issues right now, I think. Anyways, uh, that's it. Now I'm done. Sorry, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:32

No problem. I do need to mention before we pivot to news that my use of OK has been corrupted somewhat. No! Um because I saw, and this is it's not a bad thing, but I did see uh a Tumblr I follow, uh cryptotheism, made a post that has now corrupted my OKA. Which where where where she goes, imagine a bladeless knife without a handle. Now put the handle back. Now put the blade back. Everything's okay, yay!

SPEAKER_01 1:29:04

Okay, yay.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:08

And now I think of that whenever I say okay. I think about a bladeless knife without a handle.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:15

Echo Ah, Echo Lalia. Perfect. Uh actually, hey, before we hit the news, I have been chugging water this whole time we've been talking. I gotta use the bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:25

Okay. That's a great idea, but I'm going to do the same, but first time actually, I did pull up the post just basically completely on accident, and now I'm going to link it. Go for it.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:33

Hold on, I'll be right back. And enjoy the post.

SPEAKER_10 1:30:03

We wish. I wish someone would give me money to make this podcast. Advertise, if you're listening, I will shill out for anything. You wouldn't be able to stop me from chilling.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:50

Okay, I'm back. Sorry.

SPEAKER_10 1:30:52

Welcome back.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:53

Yeah, it hit me. I was like, oh, we're about to go to the news. I should do this right now.

SPEAKER_10 1:30:58

If we had sponsors, this is where I would put it.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:00

This is where you could put sponsors. I wish we could put sponsors. I'd love to sell it.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:29

We're we're efficient this time. Hello. Hello. Alright.

unknown 1:31:34

Alright.

SPEAKER_10 1:31:34

To the news! Microsoft is selling off four Xbox Studios as part of significant gaming cuts.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:42

You bought all those studios and you didn't fucking do shit with them.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:46

How do you fuck it up this hard?

SPEAKER_10 1:31:49

Uh, so they are losing. Uh fucking.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:56

I know it's the South of Midnight though. They're not getting shut down. They're not getting shut down, they're just basically getting released. Right?

SPEAKER_10 1:32:03

Uh Doublefine and Compulsion are going independent. They are selling Ninja Theory in Undead Labs.

unknown 1:32:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:09

I feel like the likelihood of DoubleFine staying independent for very long is low.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:15

Because famously the entire reason that the Microsoft acquisition happened is that Tim Schaefer can't fucking budget money for shit.

unknown 1:32:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:24

They uh they they have a lot of good ideas. I they did have that little period where they were just making a shit ton of indie games, right? And like good on them, but yeah, no. I feel like they're not gonna stay independent for long. But uh we'll see.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:39

Uh I know I said this before. Absolutely psychopathic that Microsoft showed a bunch of trailers for these games at their E3 show.

unknown 1:32:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:50

When they had already decided internally that they were getting rid of the developer like, not just canceling the game, but getting rid of the people who were making it.

SPEAKER_10 1:32:58

Yeah. Yeah. Like, you like. This cannot be a scheduling thing where we already booked the time, the trailers are up. No, no, this is scheduling.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:13

No, it's literally they already spent the money to make the trailers, and so they're like, well, we spent the money, we may as well show the trailer. Right.

SPEAKER_10 1:33:21

Yeah. Like they're like, nah, eh, fuck it, whatever.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:24

And like, this is specifically with the intent of selling these studios. Like, yeah. These trailers exist as pitches to sell these studios, right? Um, it's it's kind of galling. I remembered why I hate doing the news right now. This may very well just become a what have we done, what have we been up to podcast at some point, but for now.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:47

Statistically speaking, there is one person somewhere who saw that they were making a third Hellblade game and went, now it's time. Now it's finally time for me to buy an Xbox Series X.

SPEAKER_08 1:34:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:01

Because the whole trilogy will be on it. Right. Not knowing. Like, it is it is insane the degree to which Microsoft Xbox, like, I know it's normal for companies to lie, but the the audacity and severity with which they will just lie about literally anything.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:20

Yeah, it's it's really kind of impressive just how willing they are to bullshit. Um, I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:30

They really bring a whole meaning of that game isn't real until it's in my hands because they'll show trailers for things they've already cancelled.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:37

Yeah, those games definitely don't exist.

SPEAKER_10 1:34:40

It's like disgusting. Like, I know the industry is is a fucking corrupt nightmare of uh torture and misery.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:34:49

But like, at the very least, you make a game and it comes out.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:58

No, they can't do that. They spent $80 billion on Activision, so uh they forgot how to actually do that. I think that the the other thing that's also like they're like, okay, well, we show the trailers so we can sell these studios. It's like, but are you also selling the IP?

SPEAKER_05 1:35:14

That's what I want to know. Like, does Right, yeah. Like, do they get to keep their shit? Like, does Ninja Theory get to keep Senua?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:21

Because all the work that Ninja Theory did on Senua doesn't matter if they literally can't use it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:35:29

Saturn, uh, get ready for uh uh Hellblade Raiders.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:36

Our new Well no, it won't even be Hellblade Raiders because they won't have it. It'll be like Hexword Benua's Vacrifice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:35:44

But get ready for our new uh our new uh online multiplayer hero shooter uh set in the dark and twisted world of Hellblade.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:52

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:35:53

Where you will get to pick between one of 12 uh upcoming heroes.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:57

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:59

People I I will say there in the in the death battle between Microsoft and Sony that persists for the remainder of our human lifetime. Um you know, Sony may make a bunch of video games that suck ass that nobody wants, like a fucking Horizon MMO or whatever, instead of making the third Horizon game. But I will say for Sony, at least they're still making games. Yeah, at least at least they're not what you want, but they're still making an argument for their continued existence as a major publisher. Microsoft certainly the fuck is not.

SPEAKER_10 1:36:38

The games might no longer be on physical discs that you can buy in a store, but it'll be a game.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:47

Godf. That's a great segue, Ben. I'm going to do things that get me. I'm going to say, make threats that get me put on watch lists and also get our Twitch stream to monetize.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:58

Don't get the Discord subpoenaed.

SPEAKER_10 1:37:02

We have a uh emoji for it.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:05

Don't get the Discord subpoenaed. It's all I ask.

SPEAKER_10 1:37:10

Uh speaking of of uh not holding on to anything physical and eventually anything digital will corrupt and be taken away from you.

unknown 1:37:18

Oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_10 1:37:19

Final Fantasy VII Evercrisis is shutting down on October 6th.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:24

This is.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:26

Remember when they shoved that crap into the 7 remakes?

SPEAKER_05 1:37:30

Oh my god. That's the thing I cannot stop thinking about. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 1:37:33

So here's the thing. You guys have a chance to make Glenn Cloud's dad and justify his continued existence. But they're not gonna The fact that you're not taking this opportunity means you are fucking morons.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:49

I mean at this point they they kinda they they could, maybe?

SPEAKER_05 1:37:54

They could, but I mean because like, okay, and I don't give a shit about Evercrisis. No, not at all. But this entire awful stupid fucking subplot. The thing is, it has nothing to do with Cloud. Because the whole point is that Rufus domed uh the fucking gotcha game character at some point in the past, but after the gotcha game, by the way, it's a spoiler for the fucking gacha game that it hasn't happened yet. They're so funny, they're so fucking stupid. Um so Rufus domes this guy, right? And but this guy was like a friend of Sephiroth. So the whole reason that Sephiroth is beefing with Rufus in rebirth is because Rufus shot a friend of his, right?

SPEAKER_09 1:38:52

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:53

Which is dumb already for a bunch of different reasons. You got there are so you have got Sephiroth has so many legitimate reasons to hate Rufus Shinra's guts that don't need to involve a gotcha game OC.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:07

Yeah, right. Also, like the like, and this is my personal experience having only done FF7 recently, uh like the idea that Sephiroth is a guy with a functioning enough interiority to be mad at someone for having killed his friend. Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:23

Yeah, that's the other thing, because like the guy, the current Sephiroth that is beefing with Rufus Shinra, is not the same guy. Like physically, yeah, kinda, but he's had his brain so fucking scrambled by Jenova at this point that like the concept that he even remotely gives a shit about the ugly gacha game OC to the point that he would care.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:56

It is got that damn he's got that damn Cthulhu madness. He's got madness enhancement EX, you can't reason with him.

SPEAKER_10 1:40:03

Zephiroth has two obsessions. One is with Cloud.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:08

Correct.

SPEAKER_10 1:40:09

And the other is with Tifa because she keeps interfering with his obsession with Cloud.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:13

Right.

SPEAKER_10 1:40:14

Like, and that's He's much like Eto in this way.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:19

Ah. I mean, yeah, no, Eto Outsky is kind of a uh Sephiroth adjacent character, I would say. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:27

Ato Autsky is obsessed with Sumino Takami because, of course. Yeah, no. And he's obsessed with both Hiroko and uh Oh my god, what's her name? Nozomi, that's right.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:39

Uh because they are ostensibly getting heterosexually getting in the way of his Yowies with the stupid boy who doesn't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:47

Exactly. Like, and that's that's all you need. You don't need any more motivation.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:53

Like, like, the thing is, if you want Sephiroth to just fuck with Rufus Shinra, he can just do that. Like, you don't there doesn't need to be a justification for that because he's like a weird, like Saturn said, Cthulhu monster. You know what I mean? Like, he he kind of just exists to drive everybody crazy at this point. Is it's not just cloud. I mean, he likes doing it the cloud the most because Yowie, but like, he just kind of like enjoys fucking with people at this point because he's not entirely himself anymore. You know? Like, he's also a lot evil space alien woman, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:41:34

Um so And he may or may not actually be there in most scenes that he's in.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:41

Exactly.

SPEAKER_10 1:41:41

The idea that he would need any kind of additional motivation. Yeah, he would need any kind of like like external motivation to harass someone.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:41:53

Because of a because of a past incident is not Sephiroth.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:00

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:01

Imagine if in Twin Peaks Imagine if in Twin Peaks the return they were like, and Bob has beef with this guy from Illinois because he cut him off in traffic once.

unknown 1:42:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:14

It's like, dog, it's Bob. It's not that he does not think about getting cut off in traffic. That's Bob.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:21

There's a superiority there for him. It wouldn't give a shit.

SPEAKER_10 1:42:25

It would okay, so this isn't doesn't work because the Joker might do this, because it would be funny. But it would be like if the Joker, like, went after some random guy in Gotham.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:37

I mean, there's actually an episode of Batman in the animated series that's explicitly about that.

SPEAKER_10 1:42:41

But I understand what you're like, yeah, but like like some but but like not because it was funny, but because like, oh, well you you killed my favorite henchman. So now I'm going to get my revenge on you.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:54

Now that would never happen. You're right.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:56

And that's the thing is, it's out of character for the Joker, but it's in character for the monarch. But also, like, and and importantly, the Joker is not the monarch, and Sephiroth is not the kind of guy who would like have any concept of getting mad that some fuckhead who looks kind of like that one blonde guy with the goatee from Kingdom Hearts killed like one of his boys.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:24

Yeah. Why would he care?

SPEAKER_05 1:43:27

He would like if you wanted to make the argument that like fucking Crisis Core era Sephiroth cared about that kind of thing, sure. Right. Absolutely. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:38

But not like modern day Sephiroth.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:41

No, like like pre-Nibelheim Sephiroth would go cuckoo bananas about that kind of thing. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:48

But like the current one, no.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:52

It's just crazy to me.

SPEAKER_10 1:43:53

Post-Nibelheim Sephiroth has bigger fish to fry.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:58

He's got way bigger problems. In that he doesn't really have any problems because he he he kind of got lobotomized by a space monster. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:07

Um that we all could.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:08

Oh god, I know I wish that were me. Um, but this is all to say that it's just really crazy to me that you you wasted all this time putting your your ugly gotcha game OC in your in your already overbloated Final Fantasy VII remake. Um and now there's literally no way to gain any context about this character. Right. Like, there's no way to even surmise that Sephiroth is beefing with Rufus because he shot his friend. Like, there's you have no means except to go watch it on YouTube. Right? That's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:50

The funniest part of keeping up with the uh now coming out Chip and Ironica Selpie of that game, uh, because they're they're like old head Let's players, so their their MO is like we literally have already recorded all the episodes, and I'm just putting them out as I finish editing them, like on a weekly basis or whatever. So like they've been recorded like like the better part of a year ago or whatever. But every time a new episode comes out and they're talking and like uh because one of the things Chip does, because uh it's in a foreign of LP, is talk very extensively about the differences between remake and and and in this case rebirth, because we're up to rebirth, and the original game. And every time I see one of those, I'm like, well man, I think this new the there's part of this new thing that's kind of cool, but the original game just kind of seems better paced in every way.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:39

Yes, it I'm sorry. We we had a long conversation about this in the Discord. Um the biggest mistake I ever made was replaying the original game after we finished Rebirth.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:52

Because like that game's really good!

SPEAKER_05 1:45:55

That game's really good. It's crazy how hard OG7 mugs like the remake stuff, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:46:02

One of the things he was talking about is how like you go to Mithral Minds, right? And like in FF7, it's like a full and in rebirth, it's a full-ass dungeon. It takes like an hour or two, and you like have all these cutscenes, you have these big boss battles, you have the party split, you have even more boss battles, and he's like, Yeah, in the original game, uh it's one screen, and then you have like a conversation with the Turks, you don't even fight them, and then you're done. Yeah, and I'm like, damn, great! Great, like however, he did also show off the bit where uh when you're fighting them in and uh Elena does her big wind-up move, uh, if you uh position it such that she flings herself off the side of the arena trying to hit you with it, you can watch her fall into the pit off the side of the arena, and it literally takes real time for her to run back up to the arena to join the fight after she gets thrown off. And when she finally gets back into the arena, she has a little bit where she's vulnerable where she has to put her put her hands down on her knees and catch her breath because she sprinted after falling fucking 50 feet into the giant pit.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:09

I think that's the most depressing thing about these remake games is that like there's so much good, like, little character moment things in it that like a version of the Final Fantasy VII remakes that is only twice as big as the OG game, right? Still affords for so much extra stuff without it being the bloated mess that it is now, right? Like, if it's only twice as big, you still get like all of this new character shit and all of this new like exploration shit and all of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:52

But it's like five times as big now.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:54

Yes, and it's way too much, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:47:56

And it's a and it's a shame because the entire time I was watching that, I was like, like, oh man, this is a funny Easter egg, and it's really cute that they went to such effort to like fully realize it. I like the idea that like if you're doing a live combat like action game adaptation of FF7, the thing that you do is put unmarked Tales of Vesperia secret missions in it. That's really fun to me. But then I also had that moment of like this Easter egg cost like a quarter like three-quarters of a million dollars in development time.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:48:29

I'm like, well, these are not worth it. The insane thing is that rebirth costs less than remake.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:36

Because they already had all those assets made, which is very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:38

Yeah, they already had all those characters. I did I did find out at some point from watching that LP, the funny detail about the characters in that game is that uh despite the fact that all their faces are very different, uh, they use the same base model topology. Uh, such like it is the same amount of like actual polygons in the face, and they are arranged in like similar proportions just to like capture a wider variety of faces. But that means that you can just put the textures for Sephiroth's face on Barrett's model, yeah, and it literally works with no edits.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:12

Yeah, absolutely. That is cool. It's a very smart, like this the game, these games are made like, and it's kind of why I'm like, damn, why are these things so fucking bloated? Because they were made so economically. I mean, maybe that's the problem. They're made so economically that they're like, well, yeah, we can just keep adding stuff. Yeah. Like we can just keep putting more stuff in, like, to justify the cost of the, you know, of paying $80 for this game, right? And I'm like, no, you really didn't need to. Like, it's it's such a weird thing. Not to go off on a tangent. We've already been talking for two hours, but it is such a weird thing that like these games do exist, and and and the fact that all three of them came out in less than 10 years, right? That is Hundred percent like an achievement. Like nobody else could do that. Nobody else could pull that off. And I I do think that's really impressive. But I just think in my head, well, damn, you could have just made remake. Because like remake, we've talked before about how remake, OG remake, the first the first game of the trilogy is kind of a proof of concept, right? It's to show like, yeah, we can remake Final Fantasy VII, and if if this game flops, then we're not gonna spend the time and resources to make the whole game, right? And I just I look at that and I see how quickly the the the turnaround time on this game is, and the fact that rebirth underperformed compared to because again it came it didn't come out during COVID, right? And the middle and also the the middle thing in any given trilogy is always the worst performing of the three, right? Um because people know that you just want to wait if if it's a guaranteed trilogy, people tend to just wait until the third one is out and then they play catch-up, because that's what a lot of people are gonna be doing with this one. Um and I just think in my head, like, if you were this economical making this game, why did it couldn't it have just been a two part? Especially because you're really like you know, the argument is well you make it three games, you make it you make three times as much money. But you're really not going to because of the fact that reverse underperformed, right? You're you're not making three times as much money. You're making you know, maybe two times as much. And it's like, well, you could have just done that by putting out remake and then waiting a little longer and then just having the last game, the second game, be the rest of the video game. And it wouldn't have to be so bloated to justify the run the runtime. You wouldn't need all this extraneous horseshit. Mathral Minds, for example, that didn't need to be a 40-minute dungeon. You could have just had this game, and it would have been like a really nice, complete little thing inside my whole project. And it it's very baffling to me. I don't under I guess I'm I'm betraying the fact that I still don't understand executives after 10 years of doing this podcast. Whoops.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:23

My belief is that this is actually part of a long con where they know that it's not going those three games aren't going to sell three times as much. But they're like, Oh, you liked our trilogy, but wouldn't you like it so much more if it was all the same game? And then they're going to sell you a fourth game that's the compilation of all three to be in strictly linear order and like flow together and inhabit and like inherit all of the balance changes and stuff from the last game or whatever, and then sell that to you for an additional $60 so that in releasing four games it will become selling three times.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:05

Anything is fucking possible, man.

SPEAKER_10 1:53:07

Shooting for the stars so you land on the moon.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:09

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:10

Yeah. Uh and if you miss the moon, you just have to wait a while and eventually you'll hit a star.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:17

It's uh, you know. We got off topic. The point is, it's funny that Squareenus keeps shutting down, keeps incorporating these terrible gotcha games into things and then shutting them down.

SPEAKER_10 1:53:29

Yeah. We'll talk about that later.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:32

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_10 1:53:33

Yay! Uh but first, Kingdom Hearts series returns to D23 to celebrate 25th anniversary. Release date? Please release date, please.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:45

Maybe. I I would guess maybe release window.

SPEAKER_10 1:53:48

Like a more window would be nice.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:51

Yeah, then maybe like, you know.

SPEAKER_10 1:53:53

This is clearly where they're gonna like actually talk about KH4.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:59

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 1:53:59

Now, which they've they've done that in the past. Like, they actually like Kingdom Hearts actually gets a pretty big presence at D23 when it has stuff to talk about.

SPEAKER_07 1:54:10

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:11

It is encouraging, at least, that much like FF7, they very clearly have entirely rebooted development at some point.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:19

To make it run on the Switch 2. Yeah, so like a thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:23

That at least means it's more likely to come out uh before 2030. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:29

Um I mean, honestly, because again, we were just we were just saying they put three Final Fantasy VII remake games out in less than 10 years. I it is totally I would not be surprised if Kingdom Hearts 4 is out at the at end of next year, beginning of 2028.

SPEAKER_10 1:54:47

Yeah, I think a 2027 release window is very likely.

SPEAKER_07 1:54:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:54:52

Uh, and this isn't this isn't cope from me. This is me thinking of the trajectory of previous Kingdom Hearts games, uh, and when they would have come out, and knowing that clearly development had restarted it for for this. Uh I think that it a 2027 window is pretty likely.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:12

What I want to know, so you know, famously Bioshock Infinite, right, was a game that kind of refused to come out until finally um Oh god, who uh take two, right, sent a closer to Irrational's office to like make them get something out, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:30

Yeah, was that the Benz or is the Benz a different closer?

SPEAKER_05 1:55:33

Uh I think the Ben I don't think it was the Benz. I think the Benz are Rockstar's closer, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:40

I could have swore they were like hired out to like I I could have swore they were closers on other Microsoft adjacent things as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:47

I'm not sure. I don't I don't want to be too like uh definitive, you know what I mean? Right. But I I you know I just think about like closers in video game projects. I wanna know who the fuck is the closer at Square Enix who just shows up and is like, we are rebooting Kingdom Hearts 4, we are getting these Final Fantasy VII sequels out the fucking door at some point in our human life. I wanna know who that guy is, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:56:14

Oh, Bioshock Infinite's closer was Rod Ferguson.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:17

Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh I I want to know that guy's story. Like the closer at Square Enix who comes in and makes people get video games out at some fucking point.

SPEAKER_10 1:56:30

I'm gonna have to look at the credits of the Kingdom Hearts games.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:56:34

And see who else is there.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:35

Executive producers and whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:38

Yeah. Um The thing is though, it's different for Western developers than it is for Japanese developers. Yeah. Because it's like the thing with with uh Yoshida Song from uh from FF14, where it's like in in Japanese developers, the producer has a role that is a lot closer to being a creative director than in Western developers, where the producer is just someone who tells you, no, the game cut this, the game has to come out. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_10 1:57:04

I wonder, I wonder if it's Nomura himself and he's just like, please let me finish the game.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:11

It would explain a lot about Nomura being the producer would explain a lot about not just Kingdom Hearts 4, but also like the ongoing FF7 remake saga.

SPEAKER_10 1:57:21

Just please, I'm trying my hardest to get a game done. You have me on four projects.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:26

I would like to go on vacation, thank you. Uh yeah, no. I I don't know. I I'm looking forward to Kingdom Hearts 4 actually existing finally. Uh very smart to put that motherfucker on Switch 2. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:41

Very going to make all the difference. Yeah, no. They saw the rebirth sales numbers and then they started the shit themselves.

SPEAKER_04 1:57:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:57:50

Turns out, you know, putting uh games on a console that sells really well and a lot of people have means more people are likely to buy your game.

SPEAKER_04 1:57:59

Yeah, stunning.

SPEAKER_10 1:58:00

Yeah, turns out. Wow. Weird.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:03

Microsoft. We saw that console sales figure someone brought up in the Discord relatively recently, where it's like, yeah, the all skews of the PS5 are still being outsold by the Switch 1.

SPEAKER_07 1:58:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:58:18

I'm I'm still thinking about like constantly about Asha Sharma being like, we want a billion active players on Xbox.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:30

You're drained.

SPEAKER_10 1:58:32

Okay, good luck.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:33

That it's the most incredible encapsulation of being just like completely out of touch, right? Like, I don't even think a billion people like even if you count like PC players, because they do that dumbass, like this is an Xbox.

SPEAKER_09 1:58:50

Like, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:58:52

I don't even think if you did that where you counted PC players, I don't I still don't think you'd hit a billion people.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:58

I feel like optimistically, a billion people use Windows computers every day.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:05

Optimistically.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:07

It's fucking crazy. I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_10 1:59:09

Yeah, it doesn't add up. The numbers literally can't add up no matter how you look at them.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:14

But that's normal for tech executives, uh, where they just sort of say things that make the shareholders happy and then don't actually provide any concrete idea of how it is they're supposed to reach that goal.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:27

So this is funny, Saturn, I'll give you. So apparently Windows 11, as of five months ago, has a billion users, and that's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:36

So, and like people So they're somehow gonna turn every Windows 11 user into an Xbox consumer, also.

SPEAKER_07 1:59:44

Yeah, no, not happening.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:49

And then ultimately, the it like, and not to like harp too long on it, because you know our news segments take too long as it is, ultimately it's the employees at Microsoft who suffer for the fact that Asha Sharma just sort of says things that would be convenient if they were true.

SPEAKER_08 2:00:03

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:04

Yeah, and then when they don't come true, uh 4,000 people get laid off. Right. And sometimes if they do come true, they she still lays off 4,000 people.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:13

Yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:14

There's no longer an industry in the current economic climate where being good at your job and also your company making a profit while you are good at your job is a guarantee that you are actually going to keep your job.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:30

That's correct. This is why I hate doing the news. What else we got?

SPEAKER_10 2:00:35

I know. Uh Cliff Blazinski blames personal ego and alcohol issues for boss keys failure. Well, I'm sure they didn't help.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:47

Yeah, okay. I'm sure that contributed, Cliff, for sure.

SPEAKER_10 2:00:50

I want to be clear about one thing here. I'm not gonna make fun of Cliff of Cliffy B for being an alcoholic, okay? It's a medical condition, he doesn't have any control over it. It is a problem that he has to deal with. It's not fair to make fun of him for it.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 2:01:07

I will say, good news, Cliffy B. Your alcoholism wasn't the reason that your game failed.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:15

Yeah, I was gonna like, I'm gonna be real. Like, like, I'm, you know, people are alcoholics, and you know, I'm hoping that everybody who struggles with substance abuse gets better because, you know, it's not it, it it's a it's a it's a dark illness. It is a disease, yes. Cliffy Blazinski's alcoholism and him blaming that as a contributor to the failure of his game studio is, I think, more of a symptom of Cliff Blazinski's long-term narcissism than the alcoholism.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:45

And I feel like that might itself be more of a contributor to the failure of his studio than his substance abuse.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:01:55

I think your studio failed because you tried to make several Overwatch clones when Overwatch was in the very peak of their popularity.

SPEAKER_07 2:02:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:06

How yeah, how'd that go for the Concorde people? It turns out that when you see a game and you're like, damn, this game's popular, we should try to make it, and it takes you six years to make it. It's very bad.

SPEAKER_10 2:02:22

You are allowed to have at the very most three active hero shooters in rotation. One of them will always be Team Fortress 2.

unknown 2:02:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:34

Also, like, and just to like hammer on the absurdity of this, news article about Cliffy B talking about the failure of Boss Key uh studio that shuttered almost 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_07 2:02:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:51

And to my knowledge, he has not done anything else of note since. He's still just kind of digging up the corpse of his 10-year-old dead studio.

SPEAKER_07 2:03:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:02

It's all bones at this point. Oh yeah, so the last thing that he would have been working on before this was Radical Heights, which was cancelled. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 2:03:11

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:13

And has not had a single credit since Lawbreakers. Just been coasting.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:20

Yeah. Well.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:21

Oh no, excuse me, he wrote a book in 2022 about my my epic adventure making video games.

SPEAKER_06 2:03:28

Oh. Oh.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:30

But he has not actually had a video game credit uh since Lawbreakers in 2017.

SPEAKER_07 2:03:35

Oh wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:37

So before that, he was a co-designer on a single on a single stage of Super Hot in 2016. And before that, his last credit was Gears of War 3 in 2011.

SPEAKER_04 2:03:47

Yeah. Wow. Alright, dude. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:50

Man who has been consigned to the dustbin of video game history. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:53

Pretty much. Just yeah. Desperate, desperate for any kind of relevance. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_10 2:03:58

Yeah. When you're the guy who made Jazz Jackrabbit in Gears of War, and then you get stuck making fucking lawbreakers.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:06

Well, he didn't get stuck making lawbreakers. He made lawbreakers on purpose. That was his company and his CEO. He was the CEO of it. He's the one who decided to make lawbreakers. He stuck himself. It's bad when you are less relevant than the guy who made Days Gone. Because at least Days Gone came out more recently.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:31

Yeah. It's pretty crazy. What else we got?

SPEAKER_10 2:04:36

Uh Baldur's Gate 3, Claire Obscure actor Jennifer English withdraws from Tides of Annihilation to quote look after her mental and physical health.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:44

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:45

I don't even know what the fuck Tides of Annihilation.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:50

Yeah, uh that looks really good. It looks pretty good. It's very like, you know, it's very, it's like a flashy, it's not a Dark Souls. At least I don't think it's a Dark Souls.

SPEAKER_10 2:05:00

It's a DMC more than a Dark Souls.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:01

If it ends up being more of a Dark Souls, I'm gonna actually, actually, actually do it.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:06

I remember the trailer looked very Dark Souls, but also like I don't remember seeing any of what that game actually looks like.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:14

It's I mean it's I it It's UE5 Slop.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:20

Like visually, it just looks kind of pretty. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 2:05:23

Yeah, uh, I I do remember it being one of those mysterious Chinese super games.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:28

Uh so I guess it remains to be seen.

SPEAKER_10 2:05:31

The thing is, the name Tides of Annihilation is fucking terrible.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:35

It's such a nothing title, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:37

I'm also really interested to know what health issues prevented her from joining this because she is currently uh doing the acting for a major character in Soul Frame, and she has not stepped back from that as far as I know. Well, maybe maybe recording for that is done.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:54

Or maybe she was uh like I don't I don't know. I was gonna say maybe she was doing some of the mocap too. Yeah. Um because sometimes they have voice cap that do voice actors like do the mocap for cutscenes as well. So I mean it could be anything.

SPEAKER_10 2:06:09

It it could be that like maybe like she had to pick like she only has the energy for one role right now. Like it's if it's if it's mental health too, maybe she just like she can't focus on doing multiple big roles at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:22

Yeah, I mean she could just be burnt out with the project, and this is just her way of stepping back from it.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:26

I I will say, based on my brief looking this up, it doesn't sound like any of the work on her end has actually started yet. So it might just be a thing where she's like, well, we haven't actually done any of this yet, and I kind of want to step back, so uh bye.

SPEAKER_07 2:06:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:06:41

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:42

Because they apparently have already found a replacement for her, uh, with that, like that she participated in the process of casting her replacement or whatever, is what I'm seeing. Good. But it is still like apparent like everything I'm seeing suggests that they that she did not actually start doing any work on this game, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:07:00

Yeah. God Tides of Annihilation is such a bad name.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:04

Terrible name. Terrible name. A subtitle at best. I really would like that game to be good, and I would like for it to be a Devil May Cry. Like, I am not in love with the way it looks. It looks just kind of whatever. Um but I I still need it to do well because I'm so tired of Souls Lakes. I'm so tired of Souls Lakes. I just need another Devil May Cry game. Okay. Um all action games are Souls games now, and I I'm so tired.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:35

Maybe Itsuno will come crawling back to Capcom when whatever his uh new studio is uh gets all its financial funding shut up. Right.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:42

Yeah. Uh I sure hope so. Go make another Devil May Cry, please. Uh, what else?

SPEAKER_03 2:07:49

Go make dra go make Dragon's Dogma 3, but give it Devil May Cry combat.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:54

That would be fine too! Please.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:56

The Dragon's Dogma fans clearly don't actually like the second one, so like fuck 'em.

SPEAKER_10 2:08:02

What was what was the one they can't like was it Square We What Who was the one they weren't that like they actually they cancelled? Deep Down? Deep Down. Time to bring back Deep Down.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:12

What the fuck is Deep Down?

SPEAKER_03 2:08:14

There was an E3 presser for it, like, literally 12, 13 years ago. And it was like something that was from Capcom and looked kind of like Dragon's Dogma, but it was called Deep Down. Everyone's like, oh, but it's also a DD game that it's you know it's involved in question mark, and then literally nothing came of it after the first trick.

SPEAKER_07 2:08:33

Yeah, I see. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 2:08:35

One of those, one of those, holy shit, this looks amazing. What do you mean it's gone?

SPEAKER_07 2:08:40

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:41

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 2:08:42

Some bona fide vaporware. Like me, when like me with the faith in 45.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_10 2:08:48

It would have been good. It would have been really fucking good.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:51

It might have been good. Sorry, dude.

SPEAKER_10 2:08:55

Uh next. Ha ha ha ha. What? Bethesda confirms Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters. Makes them so. Who's making them? And says Fallout 5 is in pre-production.

SPEAKER_05 2:09:14

This, okay. This confirmed for me, especially with this on top of like the the the Fallout 3, the New Vegas remasters, talking about Fallout 5, the the new game from Obsidian, and the talk about uh Elder Scrolls 6. This made me realize something really important. And it's a thing that I was always kind of like, surely the god not. But now I'm 100% convinced of it. That Elder Scrolls VI trailer only existed to get them bought by Microsoft.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:47

100%.

SPEAKER_05 2:09:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:48

They they threw $50,000 at a trailer st at a trailer house to go just make us a little stinger with a test six like stock logo. Yeah. Just do whatever. And they did it, and that was the best fifty thousand dollars Todd Howard ever spent.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:05

100%, right? Like that was uh that was a that was a Todd Howard and the Xenemax Media like board of directors came together and they're like, we got a way to get us bought by Microsoft super fast, super easy. Uh because like and now they're like, oh, we don't actually have anything.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:26

Um we weren't ever directing that game, we weren't ever actually making that game until after we finished Starfield, and it's like what do you mean? You announced it like, and we're like, yeah, you know, we can we can say anything.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:42

You can announce anything.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:44

Todd Hatter's like, listen, it was at a Microsoft show, of course it was alive. I'm like, well, you got me there, Todd, you tricky bastard. Putting their hands on their hips like, oh you it's crazy how Phil Spencer's tenure as like the head of Xbox is basically characterized by A, by two things. A, an insistence that Game Pass is profitable and good, despite all scientific metrics pointing to it being a complete waste of money that makes their customer base not actually buy games.

SPEAKER_07 2:11:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:17

And B, people tricking Phil Spencer into spending more money than their studios are worth on buying their studios.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:25

Yeah. It just to me, it just seems like Phil Spencer is a guy who gets like who just kind of gets tricked by like by like fairies. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 2:11:38

Yeah, we're getting we're going to get like live leaks footage of him being decapitated in the desert at some point in the next year or two. And we're not gonna know why, but we'll all have our suspicions.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:48

It's it's really crazy to me. I just and listen, I will say, I do support make work. I love make work. I think everybody at Bethesda. Who managed to trick Microsoft into paying them for this many years to essentially do nothing? Right. Because by the time they got bought by Microsoft, Starfield was kind of already done. Right? Like they just needed to do the DLC and a bunch of other stuff. I don't think that game is good. I think Bethesda is kind of washed now. Um that being said, I still respect any time you can invent make work for yourself. It's the dream of all all email employees, right? If you have an email job, the only thing you want in life is to not actually have to work to get paid to do your email job.

SPEAKER_10 2:12:37

It's always it's always that thing I see where it's like in in Japan, like they will uh invent low-level, useless busy work to shame underperforming employees.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:48

Yeah, to like they have the closet where all the underperforming seniors who refuse to retire voluntarily have to be shoved because they have labor laws over there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:12:57

And they're like, oh, it's supposed to be a disgrace. Me and my little America, like, if someone got that job and it's like, it doesn't affect my pay at all? What? Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:03

So you're telling me I sit in a closet and don't talk with anyone and don't do anything and don't really have any career motility, but as long as I continue to work, I'll have this job forever? Six.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:13

I'm not yes. Yeah, no, this is this is the dream of all email job havers, right? Um, so to that in that extent, I I mean, good job, guys. You did it, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:13:26

Like, I'm gonna be real. I don't like my job very much. It's very boring and unfulfilling and kind of pointless. If there is a way I could turn it into doing this forever for 40 hours a week for the rest of my life, I would abandon all other ambitions to do that. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because I love stable income. God, I wish I could be an underperforming Japanese salary man shoved in the closet somewhere. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:48

Like, what he wants, yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:51

That's the American dream, and they got it in other countries that aren't here.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:55

That's so like to that extent, yeah. No, you guys did it. Good job. For for the last, what, six, seven years? It's been a while. You have managed to not do literally any work, except, I assume, maybe a little bit of Elder Scrolls VI concept art, probably.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:15

You have against all odds sustained the illusion of Ushiramia Kinz.

unknown 2:14:21

That's correct.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:22

Todd Howard wears the Ushiramia family crest upon his heart.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:28

Todd Howard is truly uh spiritually an Ushiomiya. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. More than anything, the whole reason they made they made that Elder Scrolls VI trailer is because more than anything else, Todd Howard needed a lot of money.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:46

Now I think that in I think that except in certain extreme cases, the Elder Scrolls VI does not really exist. No, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 2:15:00

No. Without love, it cannot be seen. And what it can't be seen is the Elder Scrolls VI.

SPEAKER_09 2:15:07

May I see it? No. No.

SPEAKER_04 2:15:10

No.

SPEAKER_00 2:15:10

Um so yeah, no.

SPEAKER_10 2:15:13

Ultimately, I think it's funny for Bethesda to suddenly announce all the things fans have asked them for, all like in a row, after Microsoft has just been like, yeah, all those games we announced are fake.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:27

They literally did the thing that people always accuse fucking Blizzard of doing of announcing a character as gay after they have a huge controversy about someone stealing breast milk or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:38

Yeah, it's the same thing. It's literally just like, oh man, everybody's really mad at us. Uh, quick, announce a whole bunch of Fallout games. And it's like, it's the limpest, most pathetic announcement ever. I did not see a single soul, not even like the most like dyed-in-the-wolf sicko, like Fallout sicko's, right? Oh. Being excited. Like us. I didn't see anybody get excited about this. They're all just like this is at gunpoint, huh?

SPEAKER_03 2:16:08

And it's so, it's so nakedly cynical because it's one of those things like if this was two months ago, yeah, we'd be on the podcast fucking hooting and hardering about how excited we were that they were getting obsidian to stop wasting their time on their Space Tunican game and making a video game that people actually want to play.

SPEAKER_08 2:16:26

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:16:26

But because it was so nakedly done after announcing 3,000 plus company-wide layoffs with more to come, that were like, that were do you see this announcement like, but who's making the game though? Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:16:40

Like who's making the game?

SPEAKER_03 2:16:41

We know you got, we know you got that uh Josh Sawyer who came back to but to New Vegas, and like he was very public and vocal that he didn't get brought back to work on New Vegas, but you stopped whatever he was working on to make New Vegas instead. How do you think he feels about all that?

SPEAKER_04 2:16:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:16:57

Like, yeah, like like you just announced that you laid off a quarter of Obsidian's employees.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:03

Yeah, like who is gonna make this game at Obsidian?

SPEAKER_05 2:17:07

Like, I to me, the craziest thing is that like you it's just what Saturn was saying. If you had announced this two months ago, everybody would be over the moon. But at this point, you just realize this is all being announced under dress. Nobody wants a new Fallout spin-off from Obsidian when it's just basically, oh well, people are really mad at us. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, it's not the same. It's it's it's when you ask somebody how you when you ask a friend, like, hey, do you want to do this thing? And they go, no, and you get kind of sad about it, right? Right. And you being sad about it is why they go, fine, we'll do it.

SPEAKER_00 2:17:51

It's the fine, we'll do it part that you don't want. You just want them to do it with you. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 2:17:57

Like that's what's happening here. It's it's none of this is being done willfully or with any kind of like motivation to make something interesting. It's just everybody's really mad at us. Quick, announce some fallout games. They didn't even have the decency to like wait a couple months and announce and like show off, you know, like a T like a Tes Six style sizzle trailer that doesn't mean anything. Like it's a text post on Twitter.

SPEAKER_10 2:18:26

This doesn't even come with a CG of Vault 101's door opening.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:34

Even like a logo mock-up or anything. Yeah, it's just we're making new video games. Please look forward to it. It's like, okay, but these are so transparently smoked that you're not gonna see these for the next six years, right?

SPEAKER_10 2:18:52

Well, we're not gonna- I'm I'm gonna say we're not gonna see them ever. These are fake announcements. They know they're fake announcements.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:58

Yeah, no. That's the thing. It's so it's it's very funny to me. Like, it's how do you fuck up announcing a bunch of fallout stuff this hard?

SPEAKER_10 2:19:07

It's it's Todd going, like, and we're all very excited to get to work, and then it pans over to a bunch of empty cubicles.

SPEAKER_05 2:19:14

Yeah, and he's got a gun to his head, you know?

SPEAKER_10 2:19:18

Uh like there's like I didn't get excited because I didn't I didn't believe you.

SPEAKER_05 2:19:27

No! This stuff isn't real. None of this is real. So cool.

SPEAKER_10 2:19:34

Uh next. FF10 gets a 25th anniversary trailer ahead of XX2 HD remaster coming to Switch 2. May as well re-release it again, why not? Fuck it!

SPEAKER_08 2:19:49

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 2:19:49

What do you mean it's a quarter of a of a century old?

SPEAKER_03 2:19:57

Something, something, the PS3 is older now than the NES was when the PS3 came out. Something, something.

SPEAKER_07 2:20:05

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:20:07

I think people when they when they talk about Final Fantasy 20 years ago and it's FF3 versus what was really 25 years ago and it's fucking 10.

SPEAKER_05 2:20:20

Oh, it's fine. Don't worry about it. It's fine. It's funny. It's fine. It's literally fine. It's literally it's literally fine. I'm just 18,000 years old. I am now older than old guy character Orin from Final Four. Who was 105. Like, he's so old, he's 35.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:40

I like that Orin has his arm the post. It's like Orin has his arm as a sling. This is representative of the fact that he's 35 years old.

SPEAKER_06 2:20:49

He's carrying a giant jug of booze on his hip. This is a reference to the fact that he's 35.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:55

Him and Raven from Vesperia.

SPEAKER_07 2:20:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:58

Whenever I was a teen playing through Vesperia, I'm like, I mean, he's only 35. Isn't that kind of silly that he's so think that he's treating himself like an old man even though he's only 35? And now that I'm 31, I'm like, God, Raven is so relatable.

SPEAKER_05 2:21:12

Realest characters of all time. Like, no, I am that old. Leave me alone. Fuck off.

SPEAKER_10 2:21:21

Uh what else? Uh, two more. The live-action God of War show is recasting Kratos after Ryan Hearst was injured on set. This is why you have stunt doubles.

SPEAKER_05 2:21:34

This is why you have stunt doubles.

SPEAKER_03 2:21:36

Also, this this is uh this came up in the the big in when they talked about this on the big Big Think Dimension, which I tend to agree with, which is like, damn, Netflix had enough money to stop the fucking cowboy bebop for it uh adaptation for a year so the so Spike Spiegel's actor could recover. And meanwhile, you're over here in Amazon, like, ooh, you got you got an injury four episodes in, we're just gonna recast you and move on.

SPEAKER_05 2:22:02

I wonder if it's if it's a uh a matter of severity. Right?

SPEAKER_03 2:22:09

Like maybe. It's just like the actor put on 40 pounds of muscle for that role.

SPEAKER_10 2:22:15

My the thing that I saw that might be reasonable is they're working with a child. And child children tend to do this thing within a year where they drastically change their appearance.

SPEAKER_05 2:22:31

That's actually true. Yeah, and they're just sort of like that actually does make sense to me. And I mean it could be it could be a combination, like you don't want to recast Atreus' actor either, because the kids change a lot over the course of even six months, you know.

SPEAKER_09 2:22:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:22:47

Um they they were able to delay uh Cowboy Bebop because John Cho broke his leg as far as I'm uh as as what I've been like what I've heard. Um and they delayed that show for a decent amount of time to let over a year, yeah. Over a year to let him recover.

SPEAKER_11 2:23:07

They should have delayed it longer. They should have delayed it forever.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:11

They should have just turned, they should have just been like, oh, this is a sign from God. Um but you know, they they still they went on, but yeah, there's no kids involved. But this is, you know, we don't want to also have to recast Atreus' actor after a year. Right. And I mean it could just be a matter of sever severity, you know. They he I don't know how how how much he could be fucked up, but if he fucked up his back really bad because he tore his bicep. Oh god.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:38

That's it. But look well it's like not even that that hurts, but that's not that big of a. Well, here's the thing. Not that's it, but also like he didn't tear a tendon, he tore the muscle.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:52

It's not it you have you it's a lot of work to tear a muscle.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:59

It's three it is per Google. It's three to four months of recovery time. Um, and that's just to kind of be back to normal, not swinging shit around on a TV set.

SPEAKER_11 2:24:12

Right.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:12

Right? So I can understand the recasting. I think that fucking sucks.

SPEAKER_09 2:24:19

Yeah, it really does suck.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:21

Um, and I would love to, I mean, somebody should get in trouble that your your lead actor was able to tear a bicep at all, unless he was insisting on doing all of his own stun stunts.

SPEAKER_03 2:24:32

Right.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:32

I kind of that's what I want to know. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 2:24:34

Because part of what part of what they talked about too is like, no, we can't reuse like any of the footage that we are like, we have to reshoot the entire show.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:44

Yeah, very expensive. Oh well, this is a good excuse to cancel the God of War show, because literally, who the fuck wants a God of War?

SPEAKER_01 2:24:51

Because who cares? Are you kidding?

SPEAKER_05 2:24:55

I guess this is they're they're at least doing the thing where um it will probably the thing that fucking Microsoft couldn't get, which is releasing it semi-concurrently with God of War La Fay. Right? Right. Like, you put your TV show out, your TV show out is ostensibly a hit, uh, and there's a new game to play alongside it. Cool. Wow. Imagine that. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:25:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:18

So I guess maybe that's part of the reason.

SPEAKER_03 2:25:20

Don't worry, since they fired so many people at Bethesda Austin, that's not gonna happen for the third season of the Fallout show either.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:27

The pattern shall hold.

SPEAKER_03 2:25:31

It's going to be crazy, and like, you know, still under BDS boycott, still a horrible situation all around at Microsoft. It's going to be crazy that they're not going to have a new Fallout game to capitalize on the success of their insanely successful TV show. Until that insanely successful TV show is no longer being made in all likelihood.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:53

Yeah. Uh, it's very funny to me that they laid off so many people. I mean, 76 is kind of a dead game now, anyway. Yeah. Those content releases are non-existent.

SPEAKER_03 2:26:01

We're we're kind of back to like the lowest player counts that game has had since before the first season of that show came out.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:09

Yeah. But it's, you know, they squandered a lot of goodwill by putting out like nothing updates, you know?

SPEAKER_09 2:26:15

Right.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:16

Uh, and now, because a ton of people at Bethesda Austin got laid off, they will continue to put out nothing updates forever. They're never gonna put out I I would be shocked if that second, you know, because there is technically a second part of that Burning Springs update, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:26:34

Right. I think they're supposed to be even more than that. I think there was supposed to be probably like a third, and I think like we're at best getting a we're at best getting a very compromised version of that second and no third ever.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:44

I would be that second part ever actually comes out. Because they were talking about like the fact that the second part of Burning Springs was gonna open that map up more, because like right now it has a ton of invisible walls and stuff. Um they were they were saying that it was that it was that way so that new stuff could be put into the periphery of Ohio.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:03

Yeah, but all that money's dried off.

SPEAKER_05 2:27:05

All that money is now gone. Everybody got fucking fired.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:08

Um we still won't have a second raid in that game.

SPEAKER_05 2:27:12

Yeah, it was just crazy because those raids were pretty successful. Uh, you know, whatever. It's fine. That game is that game's dead as fuck. That game's dead as fuck.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:21

It's it's a tragedy.

SPEAKER_05 2:27:22

We had we had fun with it for a while it lasted, but that game's dead as shit now, so.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:27

We'll have to get a You own. Do you own Minecraft on PC?

SPEAKER_05 2:27:32

No. I'm gonna do it. Damn it! I've never played Minecraft a day in my life.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:36

Well, I'm glad I'm glad you do, Ben. I'm sort of like, I was debating the possibility of setting up a private modded server, but because of the ongoing BDS, I still don't want to like be like anyone on the Discord who wants to participate has to go buy Minecraft. That's putting money in Microsoft's pocket.

SPEAKER_07 2:27:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:52

But I'm also like, that's a game where we could just run our own servers and build at our own pace and like have a low-stakes community hangout kind of like thing going on. Which is the main thing I miss about Fallout 76 more than literally else. Yeah, that was I mean, that was the It's a great game to get drunk and just sort of like run around in circles and maybe work on your camp or building.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:16

Build a shack and yap at your friends. Great game for that, I will say. Oh well.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:22

We need to find a replacement for that.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:23

We do. We we we really do. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:26

They don't have any of that in Marathon, otherwise I would have made you like all get marathon while it was on the game.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:31

So Marathon is still it's also a three-person game. It's not, it's not uh it's not goob compatible, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 2:28:37

And I feel like at this point, with the player counts for that game being the way they are, they are they are more likely to focus on getting a version of that that you can play by yourself before they are uh balancing it for uh three pe for four people to play at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:54

Alright. Last one.

SPEAKER_10 2:28:57

One more. Cancelled Kingdom Hearts game leak sends fans into a frenzy.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:03

One more I didn't even watch it. It's fine. I'm sorry, dude. It was a phone game, dude.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:08

I'm not mad.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:09

It was a phone game. Why would you be mad?

SPEAKER_03 2:29:11

Ben it, Ben, it was a square Enix mobile game. Yeah, they did you a favor.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:16

Truly.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:17

Not annoyed.

SPEAKER_05 2:29:18

Not You shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:20

It's fine.

SPEAKER_05 2:29:22

It's fine.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:22

It's fine.

SPEAKER_05 2:29:23

It's literally a fine.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:25

Ben, it's better that it happened this way than the game coming out and being live for four to six months and then getting an end-of-service announcement.

SPEAKER_10 2:29:35

That would have been four to six months in which I would have had continuous Kingdom Hearts material.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:40

That never would have gone anywhere or resolved anything.

SPEAKER_05 2:29:44

And then also, they would have done what they did with the fucking seven remake and stuck a bunch of dumbass Kingdom Hearts phone game horse shit into Kingdom Hearts 4, and then they would end of service at Kingdom Hearts phone game horse shit, and none of that stuff would be important. They've already done that with Kingdom Hearts 4, I know.

SPEAKER_10 2:30:05

They did that, and it's fucked some of the fucking best material Kingdom Hearts has ever had. Yeah. The foretellers rule, everyone loves them.

SPEAKER_01 2:30:13

Except nobody can do anything with them anymore because that game don't exist no more. Flake! It they spared you, dude.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:21

You have been they they they spared you, they spared you cinematic universe swap. You are free.

SPEAKER_05 2:30:27

You you you're doing a whole lot better than Final Fantasy VII remake right now. You know? Like, I know it sucks because it would be nice to get more Kingdom Hearts stuff, but also it was a phone game. They couldn't even they couldn't even think of it this way. They couldn't even dignify you to give you like a proper fucking Switch game spin-off thing, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:30:51

Here's the more damning thing than that, too. We're talking about a Square Enix phone game. They couldn't even dignify you to release the phone game and then cancel it six months later.

SPEAKER_07 2:31:04

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:05

The company whose famously most favorite thing to do in the world is release a gotcha and then cancel it after six months couldn't even be fucked to put the game out.

SPEAKER_05 2:31:16

That's right. It's just disrespect. You don't deserve it, dude. You deserve it better.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:21

They were gonna sell that Ben, they were gonna sell you an empty bag of potato chips.

SPEAKER_10 2:31:26

But this intro was so fucking good though. You don't know.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:30

That intro. And the thing is, Ben, that intro was 100% of the game that got developed, and there was nothing else there. And they were gonna sell you gotcha pulls off of that trailer alone, and then cancel the game in six months.

SPEAKER_10 2:31:44

If this thing had been had aired, like at a show though, uh, because it's four minutes, it's five minutes long, and it takes a minute for any Kingdom Hearts thing to actually appear.

SPEAKER_05 2:31:55

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 2:31:56

People would have lost their fucking minds.

SPEAKER_05 2:32:00

I'm sorry. I understand. I really do.

SPEAKER_03 2:32:04

I I do, but they had to develop their the they had to devote their development resources to making an actual Kingdom Hearts game that anyone would actually like buy and play on purpose.

SPEAKER_10 2:32:16

I do know that like this has happened to Nomura in the past, and at least as far as Kingdom Hearts is concerned, he is very famous for not letting an idea go. So all these concepts will be in.

SPEAKER_05 2:32:29

They're gonna get yeah, they're gonna get shoved into for, like, in the DLC or something. Like, you know, that's not.

SPEAKER_03 2:32:35

Or they're gonna get shoved into FF7 Part 3.

SPEAKER_05 2:32:38

Yeah, they're gonna exist somewhere.

SPEAKER_06 2:32:40

Don't worry.

SPEAKER_10 2:32:41

It's uh But like this the This intro is so cool because I love this new approach that the story of Kingdom Hearts is taking ever since uh the ending of 3 and then um Melody of Emery, uh, where it's like the whole premise of of going to the quote-unquote real world of Quadratum is like this idea of like the magic of Kingdom Hearts is invading the real world.

SPEAKER_07 2:33:15

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 2:33:16

And it's it's a world that is not equipped to handle the magic. Because Kingdom Hearts at its core is a post-apocalypse story. It is it is like an Eldritch uh abomination nightmare world. It's just that most of the civilians are magic andor adventurers.

SPEAKER_08 2:33:38

Sure.

SPEAKER_10 2:33:39

When you're going to Tokyo and a bunch of monsters ma like made manifest of negative emotions that can just like devour you and remove you from existence, and you can't kill them because they just reform is nightmarish.

SPEAKER_03 2:34:01

And I think you I I think you would like the Titan Moon not Titan Moon, the Project Moon games. Of a a Lobotomy Corporation Library of Ruda Limbus company. Well I don't I don't want to support that company, so. That's fair, but I do think you would like those games. You could watch like let's plays of them or whatever, it's fine.

SPEAKER_11 2:34:21

They don't make any money off of that.

SPEAKER_10 2:34:24

Uh but no, this this also came with like a bunch of other stuff um like the that was uncovered. Like uh the version of Dearly Beloved that would have been in this game.

SPEAKER_07 2:34:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:34:35

And it's a really good version of Dearly Beloved. So I'm glad it was recovered.

SPEAKER_05 2:34:40

It's gonna be in Kingdom Hearts 4 somewhere, I believe. I know. I believe. So there's a there's there's a this is every part of that bird, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_10 2:34:49

Yeah, oh yeah, there's a lot of this stuff that is just gonna be like folded into four.

SPEAKER_05 2:34:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:34:54

Um but it's just it's just really cool to see this, like this new like approach to to the fran like the the story.

SPEAKER_04 2:35:03

Sure, definitely.

SPEAKER_10 2:35:04

And like it's it because like if you if you haven't watched it, like the opening segment is four of these people in bare in like astronaut style armor.

unknown 2:35:15

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_10 2:35:16

Fighting a dark side, like it's really fucking cool looking.

SPEAKER_04 2:35:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 2:35:20

Um because like I said, it takes a minute, like a full minute for a Keyblade to show up. It's just these four astronauts landing in like a a darkened abyss type thing that they're trying to investigate, and they get attacked by a single dark side. The the thing that 14-year-old Sora was taking down effortlessly in Kingdom Hearts 1.

SPEAKER_00 2:35:41

Right.

SPEAKER_10 2:35:42

So just this idea of like, oh, you regular humans are not equipped to handle these things. Yeah, so it's like uh I'm very interested in seeing how that how that all plays out. I'm so happy that we actually got a Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer this year.

SPEAKER_05 2:35:58

Yeah, I think the thing is, this the the the real truth is that this uh shouldn't hurt too bad. I know it sucks. I understand, I really do. Uh but it also the blow is softened by the existence of Kingdom Hearts 4.

SPEAKER_10 2:36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:36:13

You know what I mean? Imagine a universe where you didn't get like a Kingdom Hearts 4 like confirmation that it still exists and this leaks, and it's just like, oh well, I'll just do it. I'm just gonna go walk into the ocean now, goodbye, right?

SPEAKER_10 2:36:27

Like in in the timeline where we did not get the the trailer at uh at uh Nintendo Direct, yeah, like this would be me seeing this and knowing that Kingdom Hearts 4 still has fucking nothing going on and be like, alright, to the ocean with me.

SPEAKER_05 2:36:43

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_10 2:36:45

You know what? Lake Superior ain't that far away. I can walk that.

SPEAKER_05 2:36:48

I'll walk it. She never gives up her dead, uh, and I am gonna go be one of them. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_10 2:36:54

Sounds sounds cozy to me.

SPEAKER_05 2:36:59

Like, no, no, it's it's chill. It sucks. But it's chill. So I get it. It's very funny.

SPEAKER_09 2:37:06

Yeah. It was a really fucking cool intro, though. You should go watch it.

SPEAKER_05 2:37:10

I'm sorry. I know.

SPEAKER_10 2:37:11

People were people are like, oh, are they taking the Disney out of Kingdom Hearts? It's like, no, man, none of the the the intros and secret endings have like a lot of Disney stuff in them. It's all the proof of concept, and no more is like, I want to make a cool AMV.

SPEAKER_05 2:37:24

Yeah, that's it. I just want to make a cool edgy AMV. That's like his whole thing. You know? Uh good for him. He's living his dream. God, that's good for me.

SPEAKER_10 2:37:32

It's like, hey, hey, uh, FF7 project is almost in the bag. He can get back to doing Kingdom Hearts. Please let me work on Kingdom Hearts.

SPEAKER_05 2:37:43

Sorry, Oates is home.

SPEAKER_03 2:37:44

Um, so I I don't don't worry, we have heard Peanut me.

SPEAKER_10 2:37:48

Yeah. The Nut. The Nut is also excited about Kingdom Hearts. I'm taking this as support.

SPEAKER_05 2:37:54

No, absolutely. You should totally Peanut's also ecstatic about Kingdom Hearts 4, I promise.

SPEAKER_10 2:38:02

Okay, but that's that's it though. That's all the news we got today.

SPEAKER_05 2:38:05

Sub three hours, baby.

SPEAKER_10 2:38:06

We just uh thank you to Visager for User Background Music. Email us at thegorgepodcast at gmail.com. Follow us on our social media accounts, uh, join our Patreon, patreon.com slash thegorge. Join our Discord uh because hey, Fan Fest is coming up this weekend. We're gonna we're gonna all stay up late.

SPEAKER_03 2:38:29

We're gonna stay up to watch that Berlin, that Berlin Fan Fest live show. And if you're if you're there with us watching it in if you're down there in the fucking pits, strudging through the shit or whatever else, you'll get some kind of a celebratory role for yourself.

SPEAKER_06 2:38:45

We haven't decided what the role is yet. We probably should soon.

SPEAKER_03 2:38:50

But you will get one. Here's I we're we're holding, I think we should hold off on finalizing until we watch Fan Fest in case they announce something that would be good role for us. Yes. Like if they announce that the new class is is called like the Gooner or something.

SPEAKER_05 2:39:08

Yeah, everybody gets called the Gooner, yeah. Uh and if they don't announce anything cool, then that's the role everybody gets. It's just called the Gooner. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 2:39:15

Uh the role is called I stayed up until 4 a.m. to watch Berlin Fanfest, and all I got is this lousy Discord role. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 2:39:24

It'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:39:28

Uh you're gonna get a role called called Majonglure, uh, that where I at you when I want to play Mahjong with people in FF14.

SPEAKER_02 2:39:35

Because I know you're gonna play things.

SPEAKER_03 2:39:37

And you go, wait a minute, why is this my reward for for staying up till 4 a.m.? It's like, I didn't say it was a reward, I just said that if you stayed up until 4 a.m. we'd give you a roll.

SPEAKER_05 2:39:47

That's right. So uh join us at the Discord to uh to watch to watch Berlin Fanfest and to torture ourselves. So it'll it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_10 2:39:58

It'll be great. We're all looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_05 2:40:00

Not until we all are extremely tired at like three o'clock in the morning, just wishing for death, but don't worry about it, okay? It's fine. Uh what else?

SPEAKER_10 2:40:12

That's it. That's it. That's it. Uh what do we got?

SPEAKER_05 2:40:15

Oh my god. Fuck Asha Sharma. I don't think we've got her. I don't know she.

SPEAKER_03 2:40:20

No, we we've gotten her. We she we actually got her basically immediately as soon as she took over.

SPEAKER_05 2:40:26

Did we? Damn. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:40:27

I differ I remember like not that long ago having things like, yeah, fuck Asha Sharma. I realize it's kinda rough that you're getting this so early into your tenure, but also fuck you.

SPEAKER_05 2:40:38

Yeah, well now it's been a couple months and I I feel less guilty about it, so fuck Asha Sharma.

SPEAKER_03 2:40:43

Um I think we might have said fuck Asha Sharma when the layoffs got announced the first time, I think.

SPEAKER_05 2:40:49

Well, uh, who else then? I mean, there's a lot of people. No, it's okay. It should it should still be Asha Sharma to be clear. We should say this is the second time. That's fair. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 2:40:57

Because I was just thinking otherwise, like Joker voice, fuck the Batman raises eyebrows suggestively.

SPEAKER_04 2:41:05

Uh that's the family. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:41:07

Hey.

SPEAKER_04 2:41:08

Uh hey. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_10 2:41:10

All right. Good night, everyone.