"Journey To Silius"

  In this episode, we are reflecting on Journey to Silius, which was developed and published by Sunsoft and released in North America in September of 1990.

Our visiting Deacon goes by the name of Tenken.

The miNEStry founders, Archbishop Dracul and Father Avram, seek to inspire their  8-bit parishioners through methodical and ceremonial scrutiny of the library of games on the Nintendo Entertainment System. 

Transcript

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"Speaker Name","Start Time","End Time","Text"
"Speaker 1","00;00;17;20","00;00;32;29","Good evening and welcome to the ministry. I am Archbishop George. Cool. And alongside me is Father Avery. Our creed is to inspire our parishioners with reflections on the Nintendo entertainment system."
"Speaker 1","00;00;32;29","00;00;42;17","Tonight, we are reflecting on Journey to Sylvia's, which was developed and published by Sun Soft, released in North America in September of 1990."
"Speaker 1","00;00;42;17","00;00;48;16","son Soft also published any games like Blaster Master, Batman Investors Quest."
"Speaker 1","00;00;48;26","00;00;52;03","Tonight, our visiting deacon goes by the name of Temkin,"
"Speaker 1","00;00;52;03","00;00;53;26","Welcome."
"Speaker 2","00;00;53;26","00;00;55;09","How's it going?"
"Speaker 1","00;00;55;19","00;00;57;01","welcome."
"Speaker 1","00;01;14;19","00;01;17;11","A testament to the creators."
"Speaker 1","00;01;17;11","00;01;26;15","Masashi Jakarta Graphic design. Other works include super spy hunter for the NSA in 1991."
"Speaker 1","00;01;26;15","00;01;38;22","am very familiar with Spy Hunter, the arcade version and the home port on the end. Yes. Which was very faithful to the arcade, but I never actually played"
"Speaker 1","00;01;38;22","00;01;47;00","super spy Hunter. I've heard mixed reviews about it, but perhaps I should just check out the music."
"Speaker 1","00;01;47;00","00;01;57;01","I have also never played super spy hunter. So I would also be interested in checking it out. Who knows? Maybe it should be a future"
"Speaker 1","00;01;57;01","00;01;58;16","ceremony."
"Speaker 1","00;02;00;26","00;02;05;01","Deacon Tankian, do you have any thoughts on super Spy Hunter?"
"Speaker 2","00;02;05;01","00;02;07;07","never played it before, actually."
"Speaker 2","00;02;07;07","00;02;09;22","I mean, the name sound."
"Speaker 1","00;02;10;14","00;02;12;16","Proceed. Father Abraham."
"Speaker 1","00;02;12;16","00;02;48;19","Naoki Kataoka music staff, one of five composers for Journey to Sylvia's. Naoki also composed for Batman and Blaster Master. I found it very interesting that this soundtrack was actually a music stars and not a single composer like you typically hear from, you know, any games and usually there's one, you know, there may be there may be two or three composers, but they all do like their own pieces."
"Speaker 1","00;02;48;22","00;02;54;13","But this is actually like a music staff, and I think it kind of shows. But more on that later."
"Speaker 1","00;02;54;23","00;03;11;24","Yes, I agree. Batman and Blaster, Master and Journey. The silliest is actually, you know, three of the best soundtracks on the system. My favorite being Batman personally. And Blaster master a close second."
"Speaker 1","00;03;11;24","00;03;13;07","fight to rank them"
"Speaker 1","00;03;13;07","00;03;25;07","And I would rank them the opposite direction. I think I would put Blaster master at the top, but we are aware of this disagreement between us."
"Speaker 1","00;03;25;29","00;03;29;13","Yes. There is no accounting for taste. Father Abraham."
"Speaker 2","00;03;30;01","00;03;38;21","I've never been Batman or Blaster master. I've played them quite a few times, especially as a kid."
"Speaker 1","00;03;38;21","00;03;40;14","So you haven't heard all this,"
"Speaker 1","00;03;40;14","00;03;41;27","soundtracks, then?"
"Speaker 2","00;03;41;27","00;03;43;15","I have not. No,"
"Speaker 2","00;03;44;16","00;03;50;19","They're definitely good games, though. I they were just too difficult for me to be."
"Speaker 1","00;03;50;19","00;03;57;23","that's a very that's a very common common consensus. There."
"Speaker 2","00;03;57;23","00;03;59;17","tried. I mean, joining the Soyuz was"
"Speaker 2","00;03;59;17","00;04;09;01","pretty difficult for me. Like, honestly, she'll get into that more later. But there are some things I was just like, how like, how is this even fair?"
"Speaker 2","00;04;09;01","00;04;32;07","This is preposterous sometimes, but yeah. No, both of those games are pretty difficult, especially as a kid. And playing that on the S was, you know, no way of saving or anything like that. Like, yeah, I probably never got past like the first areas."
"Speaker 1","00;04;32;07","00;04;34;21","Saving is for battery cartridges."
"Speaker 1","00;04;34;21","00;04;35;14","Deacon"
"Speaker 1","00;04;35;14","00;04;36;22","Tankian"
"Speaker 1","00;04;37;20","00;04;42;07","and long laborious passwords,"
"Speaker 2","00;04;44;28","00;04;46;18","Justin Bailey."
"Speaker 1","00;04;46;18","00;05;01;09","one little story about that Nintendo has come out and said that Justin Bailey wasn't anybody of any significance. It just so happened that that name turned all the ones and zeros in the right spot."
"Speaker 2","00;05;01;09","00;05;03;24","That's wild. Sounds like a creepypasta."
"Speaker 1","00;05;03;24","00;05;04;16","Honestly,"
"Speaker 1","00;05;05;05","00;05;07;23","let us move on to the marketing"
"Speaker 1","00;05;07;23","00;05;09;19","of Journey to serious,"
"Speaker 1","00;05;09;19","00;05;21;04","so the game had really low sales in North America, regardless of solid review scores at the time. For instance, Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it 25 out of 40,"
"Speaker 1","00;05;21;11","00;05;29;06","Game Pro gave the same score a little more and a half. Nintendo Power gave it three out of five stars. So you're looking at pretty solid scores"
"Speaker 1","00;05;29;06","00;05;32;25","So it was originally named Rough World in Japan,"
"Speaker 1","00;05;32;25","00;05;33;26","and they changed it to"
"Speaker 1","00;05;33;26","00;05;35;25","Journey to Stillness in North America."
"Speaker 1","00;05;35;25","00;05;36;23","This is my own opinion."
"Speaker 1","00;05;36;23","00;05;37;25","But I feel like"
"Speaker 1","00;05;37;25","00;05;40;29","the franchise would have had much stronger legs"
"Speaker 1","00;05;41;11","00;05;46;10","would have had a much better reception and maybe even a sequel"
"Speaker 1","00;05;46;10","00;05;46;19","if"
"Speaker 1","00;05;46;19","00;05;49;28","they kept the name Gruff World, because that sounds so much more"
"Speaker 1","00;05;49;28","00;05;52;29","cool and interesting and action orientated"
"Speaker 1","00;05;52;29","00;05;55;13","than Journey the serious."
"Speaker 1","00;05;55;13","00;06;00;12","we'll find out in the narrative section what journey a silly issue actually is,"
"Speaker 1","00;06;00;12","00;06;02;10","I don't know why they made that decision."
"Speaker 1","00;06;02;10","00;06;08;09","It it's just it's so absurd. It's such an obscure like made up thing."
"Speaker 1","00;06;08;09","00;06;13;26","we'll we'll get we'll get into that in the narrative section. I'm getting ahead of myself. I apologize."
"Speaker 2","00;06;13;28","00;06;16;28","There's a lot of games that did that,"
"Speaker 2","00;06;16;28","00;06;19;02","you know, during that time frame"
"Speaker 2","00;06;19;02","00;06;29;12","where for whatever reason, whatever the game was called in Japan, when they released it in America or in like the polar regions,"
"Speaker 2","00;06;29;12","00;06;37;12","they would give it a completely different name, like the Resident Evil franchise. It's only called Resident evil here, but everywhere else it's called Biohazard."
"Speaker 2","00;06;37;12","00;06;59;25","Like different things like that, which I always found really interesting, is I'm like, I know they probably did that because they thought, you know, it would sell better, you know, in those areas with different names. But like, I think like that really wasn't ever the case clearly with this game because I think Rough world is a way more intriguing name personally"
"Speaker 2","00;06;59;25","00;07;00;18","journey, too."
"Speaker 2","00;07;00;18","00;07;03;07","So it's kind of just seems very"
"Speaker 2","00;07;03;07","00;07;07;05","I guess, cliche there sci fi genre, but I guess that was kind of the point."
"Speaker 1","00;07;07;05","00;07;13;17","I was about to say that exact thing. I was about to say that rough world"
"Speaker 1","00;07;13;17","00;07;33;15","almost in in the context of 1989 or 1990, I think rough world has a almost kind of you almost expect a more open world out of that name."
"Speaker 1","00;07;33;17","00;08;02;05","Whereas journey to Silliness, you could argue also does because of the word journey. So I don't really think that they although that may have been their intention to avoid that which I don't know I'm I'm, I'm guessing, although that may have been their intention, I don't think that they've replaced it with a name that that really changed that perspective."
"Speaker 1","00;08;02;05","00;08;46;23","well, I, I don't have a problem with the journey part. My problem is with silliness. Nobody knows what silly is even. And I'm jumping ahead, but I'm saying it when you turn on the game, there's no mention of what's silly is is in the in the story montage. You have to like read the manual to actually find out what it is and I I'm just I'm not I'm I've never been a huge fan of like lingo in like sci fi that is only specific to the universe that doesn't like that doesn't feel necessarily relatable at all to the to the viewer that gets completely detached."
"Speaker 1","00;08;46;25","00;08;50;14","I feel this this is the same sort of situation."
"Speaker 1","00;08;50;14","00;09;16;16","have been better if they if they explained what silly silly was in the opening story. But you're you're totally right. You have to read the manual in order to understand that Celsius as a planet where there is a, you know, civilization development actively happening, it's not even finished. It's in progress."
"Speaker 1","00;09;16;16","00;09;26;16","it's even then, it's kind of vague. So like it and there's a lot of things about the narrative that is vague, but we will get to that soon"
"Speaker 1","00;09;26;16","00;09;55;13","originally this was advertised briefly in Nintendo Power, July, August 1989 issue as the Terminator and allegedly Sun Soft acquired the license to develop this as a game for the Terminator franchise in 1988, but didn't actually show the game to the licensor until it was totally finished, which this is, by the way."
"Speaker 1","00;09;55;13","00;10;21;11","This is totally against practices for other games of movie franchises. Usually it's a show as you go type of thing, so that the licensor has some some creative input into whether or not the developer is doing the right thing with the IP. So the license ended up being revoked because the game didn't follow the plot of the movie at all."
"Speaker 1","00;10;21;11","00;10;29;03","And the entire game was reskinned and rebuilt as a platformer and became what we know as journey to serious."
"Speaker 1","00;10;29;03","00;11;14;07","had the license not been revoked or expired, I feel like it would have been one of the most successful movie tie in games on the end. Yes. Son sort of went on to do Gremlins two, which is a fantastic game. Part as hell, but a fantastic game. But that's kind of but but soft does or did rather and it's it's a shame that the licensor was so short sighted because they went right they awarded it to LJ and to do the Terminator license because they wanted a more well-known publisher"
"Speaker 1","00;11;14;07","00;11;22;28","It was a horrible mistake, by the way, because LG and is not known for their well they're they're they're great games."
"Speaker 1","00;11;22;28","00;11;27;22","they're known for their putrid, maggot infested games"
"Speaker 1","00;11;27;22","00;11;35;14","I would rather receive 40 lashes with a knotted rope than play one of legends horrid games."
"Speaker 1","00;11;35;14","00;11;40;05","You know, you're not on the podium right now, Father Avery right."
"Speaker 1","00;11;40;05","00;11;42;19","My apologies, Archbishop."
"Speaker 2","00;11;42;19","00;11;49;16","There may be some listeners who aren't familiar with LJM games off the top of their heads, like me."
"Speaker 2","00;11;49;19","00;11;53;12","So, yeah, please refresh my memory because I want to see if I've played any"
"Speaker 2","00;11;53;27","00;11;57;16","Okay."
"Speaker 1","00;11;57;18","00;12;09;27","I'm sure you have taken tagging. I would say You've played Karate Kid. I would say you might have played Jaws. You might have played."
"Speaker 1","00;12;09;27","00;12;11;15","Back to the future."
"Speaker 1","00;12;11;15","00;12;14;06","Another one that comes to mind is"
"Speaker 1","00;12;14;06","00;12;20;12","TNC Surf Design, which people for some reason have such fond memories of,"
"Speaker 1","00;12;20;12","00;12;25;28","Yeah, there is also Friday the 13th and a nightmare on Elm Street."
"Speaker 1","00;12;25;28","00;12;37;18","But that's what that's what. That's what L.J. and did. That's what they were good at. They were very good at jumping out quick fixes for these licensors."
"Speaker 2","00;12;37;18","00;13;04;07","the only games I played out of the ones that you mentioned, at least that I can recall, is Karate Kid. And Friday the 13th, which Karate Kid was was okay. All right. But Friday the 13th I remember as a kid like because obviously my parents wouldn't let me watch those movies and I don't you know, everybody's parents are different."
"Speaker 2","00;13;04;07","00;13;29;03","But my parents are like, nope, you're not watching that. But I was allowed to play the game. And I remember wanting to like the game, but not wanting to like the game because it looked like Jason was wearing like onesie pajamas. And I just was like, No, this is, this is kinda. Nah, that's just saying it. I don't know."
"Speaker 2","00;13;29;03","00;13;33;18","I didn't understand it either. It was really hard to understand. So yeah."
"Speaker 1","00;13;33;21","00;13;33;28","I don't."
"Speaker 2","00;13;33;28","00;13;34;21","Know."
"Speaker 1","00;13;34;21","00;13;42;12","you'll be happy to know that Father, a firm is currently trying to beat that game."
"Speaker 1","00;13;42;12","00;13;47;15","There is a reason why I stated that I'd rather be lashed with a knotted rope,"
"Speaker 1","00;13;47;15","00;13;53;16","yes it's it's it's a sad affair and."
"Speaker 2","00;13;53;16","00;14;18;14","I tried playing it recently and I still was just like, what am I even doing? Like, I definitely want to beat it just to say that I did, but I don't know if it's necessarily going to be like an enjoyable experience. So I know there have been plenty of games in my lifetime that I've played, that I played through and beat, that I was kind of like, I don't know why I did that, but I mean, I can say that I did it."
"Speaker 2","00;14;18;14","00;14;24;07","I guess. I guess it might be one of those games once I get around to it."
"Speaker 1","00;14;24;07","00;14;28;12","but it is interesting to note to bring this back to Journey to Solace."
"Speaker 1","00;14;28;12","00;14;55;07","It is interesting to note that in regards to the license for the Terminator, every source we found has a different story, slightly different story about this license. Some say that the license has been revoked by the licensor and then others say that the license was expired and they couldn't renew it."
"Speaker 1","00;14;55;21","00;15;07;19","Well I can say that too. Based on history of how corporations are run, we could probably say which one it actually was correct."
"Speaker 1","00;15;07;19","00;15;17;02","I tend to believe the story that I first put forth of the the the game, not meeting the license or expectation."
"Speaker 1","00;15;17;05","00;15;22;21","And so therefore revoking and going with LJM in its stead."
"Speaker 1","00;15;23;24","00;15;47;18","So they did have 1a1 page, a single page advertisement and game Pro magazine issue 17, which I was able to find. And it is a full page advertisement for Journey to Serious, but I couldn't find much else in regards to advertising for Journey to Cialis and probably because they had all of their eggs in one basket."
"Speaker 1","00;15;47;18","00;15;49;05","In regards to Terminator, I would"
"Speaker 1","00;15;49;05","00;16;10;11","And based off the imagery, it has a very Terminator vibe like it's it's basically the it's basically the box sitting in a like post-apocalyptic environment where there's like crumbled concrete and like rebar and wires all over the ground and stuff."
"Speaker 1","00;16;10;11","00;16;21;21","And the sky is a deep blue with black hat. It's very like very terminator."
"Speaker 2","00;16;21;21","00;16;26;00","was there ever a Terminator a game on the end? Yes. Did"
"Speaker 1","00;16;26;00","00;16;55;04","yes, there were two one, I believe I believe the first one was mine scape that made am I correct with that father even. Okay, check into that real quick if you don't mind that I am going to continue and talk about Terminator two that was made by LG in which ironically we failed to mention when we were listing off LJ in games."
"Speaker 1","00;16;55;04","00;17;17;05","don't even bother. Like that game is horrible. Like it. So I love to, I love to think in my mind that like in another dimension somewhere, this game actually got the Terminator license and we got like a decent Terminator game on the end. Yes, because both of them are horrible."
"Speaker 1","00;17;17;05","00;17;26;16","mine. Escape in Bethesda was the original Terminator for the NHS in December of 1992."
"Speaker 1","00;17;27;21","00;17;30;24","You learn something new every day."
"Speaker 1","00;17;45;11","00;17;58;17","let us now discuss the seven categories for which we execute judgment on journey. The silliest category one is the narrative"
"Speaker 1","00;17;58;17","00;18;14;06","The time is the year 0373 In the new space age calendar, the Earth's population is exploding so rapidly that people are seeking exodus to an outer space paradise."
"Speaker 1","00;18;14;08","00;18;52;01","People everywhere are eager to develop space colonies and emigrate to them. Jay McCray is no exception. He is preparing for his journey to the new space colony, Number 4 to 8 in the solar system. He decided to move to the colony because his father, an astute scientist, was instrumental in the space colony development. Jay had always been proud of his father and wanted to be like him even more so now because his father was appointed leader of the SS Colony Development."
"Speaker 1","00;18;52;04","00;19;26;14","Jay's dream is to be on a space colony development team. Unfortunately, his dream will not come true. A devastating explosion wrecked the SS Colony and destroyed everything, including all project data and the research team. Any further development of the colony would be impossible because Jay's father was killed in the explosion. Jay would never know what really happened. He is determined to take over for his father."
"Speaker 1","00;19;26;16","00;19;57;23","But without his father's records, research is at a standstill. All while searching his father's room, Jay finds a floppy disk. When he puts it in the computer, he realizes it contains a complete plan of the SS colony development. The disk also includes a letter from his father, which reads, Terrorists are plotting to destroy the colony development. If anything happens to me, you must complete the project."
"Speaker 1","00;19;57;26","00;20;30;20","Father knew this would happen. Jay said to himself. But now that I have his plans, I can finish his work. As Jay worked on the project, he realized that the terrorists were still out there and even more determined to destroy the SS Colony plan. Jay then vows I have no choice but to fight the terrorists, to defend the colony development and to avenge my father's death."
"Speaker 1","00;20;30;22","00;20;36;04","This is a reading from the manual"
"Speaker 1","00;20;36;04","00;20;54;23","I have nothing really that great to say about the story. I would say that the the only real good thing about it is that it it really sets up a nice story arc for Jane McRae."
"Speaker 1","00;20;54;26","00;20;58;16","A story arc, however, that never"
"Speaker 1","00;20;58;16","00;21;05;11","gets resolved and was never built upon throughout the game."
"Speaker 2","00;21;05;11","00;21;06;06","agree."
"Speaker 1","00;21;06;06","00;21;28;28","And the represents. The representation of the game of the story in the game was like a huge example, like a huge example of what brevity is to the point of it being like broken and confusing compared to the manual. And I was so confused for the longest time until I read the manual."
"Speaker 1","00;21;28;28","00;21;37;23","Like what? What was what? Because I played this as a kid, you know, and I, I, I just don't remember."
"Speaker 1","00;21;37;23","00;21;49;20","I don't, I don't remember the story ever really sticking out to me. And I'm wondering if I actually had ever read the manual. But even after reading the manual, there's so many questions like"
"Speaker 1","00;21;49;20","00;21;52;27","who are the terrorists? What is their motivation?"
"Speaker 1","00;21;52;27","00;21;58;22","Like, There's it doesn't seem to be like any motivation whatsoever. And there's also"
"Speaker 1","00;21;58;22","00;22;08;18","why would he leave it to his son and put his son in danger? It's just so strange to me"
"Speaker 1","00;22;08;18","00;22;13;16","I don't know that that's just me. I feel like this story"
"Speaker 1","00;22;13;16","00;22;29;21","is promising, but the fact that they did absolutely nothing to, like, develop it further as you play, or even at the end of the game where there's just like all you see is this like satellite leaving orbit."
"Speaker 1","00;22;29;23","00;22;48;03","I'm like, okay, I, I recognize that satellite from the disk imagery. In the beginning, but there's no they never say what it is. They never say who the terrorists are, and they never say why his father would put his son in danger."
"Speaker 1","00;22;48;03","00;22;53;11","It's just very, very, very big holes."
"Speaker 2","00;22;53;11","00;23;02;20","my thing with the story. So I thought the story was like straight to the point as to what was going on. But it also seems like really rushed."
"Speaker 2","00;23;02;20","00;23;12;01","you know, I wasn't born during the time when the U.S. was at its prime necessarily, but my brothers were older than me."
"Speaker 2","00;23;12;04","00;23;28;22","And, you know, they introduced me to a lot of the games that I know and love today. I'm a console. So I'm used to games, kind of just being like, hey, here's basically what's going on. And we're not going to really go into why,"
"Speaker 2","00;23;28;29","00;23;31;14","for instance, like bad dudes."
"Speaker 2","00;23;31;14","00;23;41;01","I remember just playing that game for the first time and there's just a guy on the screen basically saying that the president was kidnaped by ninjas and you got to go beat up the ninjas that"
"Speaker 2","00;23;41;01","00;23;43;13","kidnap the president and rescue the president."
"Speaker 2","00;23;43;13","00;23;48;16","And it's just like, okay, I want to know more. They don't. So I guess,"
"Speaker 2","00;23;48;16","00;23;51;10","for some games they elaborated on the"
"Speaker 2","00;23;51;10","00;23;53;02","story more like in the manual."
"Speaker 2","00;23;53;02","00;23;55;21","But for me I didn't have the manuals to a lot of the games that"
"Speaker 2","00;23;55;21","00;23;56;13","I home"
"Speaker 2","00;23;56;13","00;24;07;21","The cut scenes are definitely nice to look at. You know, when you turn on the game, you hit Star and you're just like, Wow, this looks really cool. You know, the graphics are really smooth and"
"Speaker 2","00;24;07;21","00;24;27;07","but the story is just very vague. And the character's name, I mean, you know, no offense anybody with the name Jay, but so our main character in a sci fi film and a title like Journey to Serious, I was expecting the character to have like,"
"Speaker 2","00;24;27;07","00;24;28;25","less common name."
"Speaker 1","00;24;28;25","00;25;03;20","Well, So I'd like to interject here because I think the name is So you have to think with with the light of this game initially being a Terminator game, by the end it means that they mention and the names of the characters honestly are just as generic as the characters and the names of the enemies in the Terminator franchise."
"Speaker 1","00;25;04;16","00;25;27;13","In the Terminator franchise, the main character's name is John Connor, and you know what they pop probably did was, okay, well, how can we keep John Connor without it being John Connor? And they probably just look at Jay McCrea, which honestly, to be to be fair, I think McCrea is is a is a much more obscure name than Connor."
"Speaker 2","00;25;27;13","00;25;30;10","no, I, I agree with that. Yeah, that's true."
"Speaker 1","00;25;30;10","00;25;46;26","but I do have to say I agree with both of you. And in regards to the story, it's vague. It's, it's just no detail and the story is not built upon at all."
"Speaker 1","00;25;46;26","00;25;55;13","However, the game was also originally supposed to be a Terminator game. I keep coming back to this. I can imagine as Son Soft right?"
"Speaker 1","00;25;55;15","00;26;17;28","Like they're trying to now. They've they probably invested a ton of money into making a Terminator game and now they're trying to really cut their losses. Right. They're like okay. How can we how can we recoup here and actually release a game where we can make some some money back from from this? You know, essentially this blunder."
"Speaker 1","00;26;18;00","00;26;35;04","And so they probably did write a quick story that kind of explained what was happening and and probably called it the day. You know, they probably didn't want to sink a whole lot more money into this. If I if I had to guess,"
"Speaker 1","00;26;35;04","00;26;39;03","to give people an idea of the ending"
"Speaker 1","00;26;39;07","00;26;40;09","is so"
"Speaker 1","00;26;40;09","00;26;42;03","nebulous that"
"Speaker 1","00;26;42;03","00;26;44;29","the only thing I could think of when I saw it at the end"
"Speaker 1","00;26;44;29","00;26;46;14","I thought of two things."
"Speaker 1","00;26;46;16","00;26;57;26","I thought that like the game is the game is a hard game. Like, we we haven't gotten to this part yet, but the game is one hard game to play, right? And"
"Speaker 1","00;26;57;26","00;27;07;05","I felt like Ralphie in the Christmas story when he decoded the code from the Little Orphan anything, and he just the son of a"
"Speaker 1","00;27;07;16","00;27;10;26","That's how I felt at the end."
"Speaker 1","00;27;10;28","00;27;19;16","And I equated the ending to the ending of the Black Hole Disney movie. Because if you've ever seen that,"
"Speaker 1","00;27;19;16","00;27;30;07","I don't think they knew what they were doing and they just made something. That's exactly how the ending to this game felt,"
"Speaker 2","00;27;30;07","00;27;51;02","we mentioned it before about the terrorists in the game or the terrorists, I should say, in the game. Like, who are they? Why are they doing what they're doing? Like, there's just nothing. Nothing is talked about as to who the terrorists are and what their motive is at all, which was just very confusing because I'm like, why am I"
"Speaker 1","00;27;51;02","00;28;08;06","You know, not to mention, isn't it like a and I don't want to get flagged or anything, but like, isn't it like a big part of terrorism is like taking credit for something that something horrible that you did to like instill fear among the masses."
"Speaker 1","00;28;08;08","00;28;11;27","Isn't that the whole like, concept of it?"
"Speaker 1","00;28;11;27","00;28;16;27","I mean, I'm not entirely sure, although that sounds plausible."
"Speaker 1","00;28;16;29","00;28;20;25","I'm sure there's a lot of propaganda that goes into"
"Speaker 1","00;28;20;25","00;28;29;05","I'm just insane. I'm just saying that's what it that was kind of like how I felt when I was reading that you're fighting terrorists. I was like, okay, well,"
"Speaker 1","00;28;29;05","00;28;36;03","Why would somebody like commit a terrorist act and not to take credit for it?"
"Speaker 1","00;28;36;03","00;28;55;00","what they know that. Well, that's just it. They don't they don't explain who the terrorists are or what their what their agenda is. And I think in story writing, it's it's just it's convenient. It's convenient to say the enemies are terrorists and leave it at that."
"Speaker 2","00;28;55;00","00;29;13;03","one last thing I would like to mention about the cut scene at the beginning of the game is that they mentioned a floppy disk and it just really threw me off because I didn't understand why there was a floppy disk in the future."
"Speaker 2","00;29;13;03","00;29;35;15","Like, I was like, okay, is this supposed to be like an old floppy disk with some kind of, you know, like records on it or something, or is this like supposed to be some futuristic, souped up floppy disk? Still, why is a floppy disk in the future? It just really threw me off, I guess, playing it now in the year 2023."
"Speaker 2","00;29;35;18","00;29;38;08","So I guess maybe, you know, when the game was made,"
"Speaker 2","00;29;38;08","00;29;52;21","they probably weren't thinking about maybe CDs or something like that. But then again, I'm pretty sure CDs were around and, you know, around the year 1990. So I don't know if that was one thing that just kind of threw me off and made me laugh a little bit."
"Speaker 1","00;30;49;01","00;30;52;00","It's a sloppy floppy."
"Speaker 1","00;30;52;00","00;30;56;26","you could argue that games like Final Fantasy do the same thing"
"Speaker 1","00;30;56;26","00;31;06;00","so much more elegantly, I would say. But same thing."
"Speaker 1","00;31;34;10","00;31;39;12","Let us proceed to category two, which is audio"
"Speaker 1","00;31;39;27","00;31;43;25","while it's not iconic, it is still one of the best soundtracks on the US."
"Speaker 1","00;31;43;25","00;31;59;05","And like again, going back to the hate to ride this horse to death, but going back to the Terminator thing, like in this in the opening story montage heavy Terminator vibes during that music,"
"Speaker 1","00;32;09;27","00;32;34;01","as pretty Terminator, right? There's parts. Colin's my only my only real gripe with the sound effects was that it was they recycled some sound effects from other sun soft games like Blaster Master and Festus Quest. But I really. I really can't hold them accountable for that as like almost every developer did that back then."
"Speaker 1","00;32;34;04","00;32;35;04","So"
"Speaker 1","00;32;35;04","00;32;37;27","that's my piece on the audio."
"Speaker 1","00;32;37;27","00;33;06;01","would I would say that although the sound track I think is is definitely high quality. It is definitely in the shadow of games like Black, like Blaster master and Batman. It's I think that the best track on in the soundtrack I think the best track is the title track"
"Speaker 1","00;33;44;24","00;33;54;08","and maybe that's just because I that's the one I heard most often, but the rest of them really do."
"Speaker 1","00;33;54;09","00;34;24;03","Like if you actually listen to this soundtrack and then listen to Blaster Master the D lines are actually get fuzzy. Like if you did a shuffle of all the songs and Blaster Master and Journey to Soleus and you put somebody in the room who has never played either of those games, they would probably think that the soundtrack came from the same game."
"Speaker 1","00;34;24;06","00;34;37;11","They're they're very similar. They use a lot of the same tones. They are obviously trying to ride on the back of Blaster master here. I feel in this soundtrack."
"Speaker 2","00;34;38;09","00;34;57;11","I thought that the music was cool, but I wouldn't say it was very memorable or iconic. And that might be because I never played the game until I was invited to be here on the Ministry. None of the songs really got stuck in my head like other games do."
"Speaker 2","00;34;57;14","00;35;01;05","But like I said, that maybe because I hadn't played it till recently,"
"Speaker 2","00;35;01;05","00;35;10;27","you know, one of the most memorable theme songs that I can think of On the end. Yes. Besides maybe Mario or Zelda would be contra,"
"Speaker 2","00;35;10;27","00;35;19;23","And I just I didn't get that same feeling. But, you know, maybe, you know, I do plan on playing this game more so, you know, maybe eventually some of those songs will grow on me."
"Speaker 2","00;35;19;26","00;35;48;11","But that was my thoughts. My only thing I can say about the music and the sound effects, you know, they're obviously some sound effects, too, from a lot of games that I've played that really stuck with me over the years. You know, for instance, not in any game of Metal Gear Solid, the original metal Gear solid. When you get seen by the enemy and you hear that like you see the exclamation point appear above their head, nothing really got me like that."
"Speaker 2","00;35;48;15","00;36;05;11","Like But like I said, maybe that'll change. The more I play it. But I wouldn't say it was bad. It wasn't bad. Like it was very well orchestrated. And even the sound effects I thought were very well designed."
"Speaker 1","00;36;05;11","00;36;23;12","The sound effects I would say were fairly generic. They were very arcade ask, as they should have been, as they should have been. I feel like that was the right move to make for the type of game that they made."
"Speaker 1","00;36;23;12","00;36;47;17","May I just interject on that? I will say that, yes, I really don't have a problem with the sound effects. The only one that I really have a problem with is the gun power up and the health power up. I think to it's a very, very specific sound"
"Speaker 1","00;36;49;15","00;37;07;05","Again, I think I think just I really, really, really believed that they just needed to try and gain some money back from their losses on Terminator. All all the signs in this game kind of point to that"
"Speaker 1","00;37;07;28","00;37;12;21","we should probably stop talking about Terminator so friggin much."
"Speaker 1","00;37;12;21","00;37;16;03","Well duly noted Archbishop."
"Speaker 1","00;37;41;24","00;37;47;14","Let us proceed to category three, which is gameplay."
"Speaker 1","00;37;47;14","00;38;21;04","a reading from the manual. The game consists of five stages. The hero Jake, use six different weapons available. They are handgun, shotgun, machine gun, homing missile, laser rifle and grenade launcher. The energy of each weapon except handgun will be lost in proportion to its consumption when energy is lost, no other weapons can be used for their intended purposes."
"Speaker 1","00;38;21;07","00;38;46;04","You can start using the weapon in hand when the energy is refilled. By picking up an energy capsule. Life capsules are available for pickup in all stages by picking up a life capsule, you can regain your life power by increasing an increment of the life power meter. This is a reading from the manual"
"Speaker 1","00;38;46;18","00;39;07;06","whenever you give a critique, it's always important to say something nice first. That way you don't upset the person you're critiquing in this case, we are critiquing a video game, so it doesn't matter. So I'm starting off with the cons first."
"Speaker 1","00;39;07;06","00;39;26;16","I have let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Cons. When it comes to gameplay and you know, feel free to talk about it, if you will, or if you want to wait till the end, that's fine too."
"Speaker 1","00;39;26;19","00;39;55;27","So I'm just going to start from the beginning and go. You sometimes cannot jump during facing transitions or prone transitions. While I don't remember this when I was a kid, I have tried this on multiple ROMs cartridges, systems controllers, and even confirmed it online that it is indeed a problem. The Level three boss, for instance, requires you to jump from a prone position, and it's a crapshoot as to whether or not it's going to work."
"Speaker 1","00;39;55;27","00;40;27;12","the inability to control the player character is most certainly a gameplay issue and it's an unforgivable one. Now, I've been having a conference constantly with Father Abraham about this, and we are at odds over as to whether or not this is a gameplay issue or if this is a technical issue. But I will continue forward because I have found evidence as to why it is a gameplay issue."
"Speaker 1","00;40;27;15","00;40;45;29","Gameplay operation on page 16 In the manual under joystick says press down to let the hero lay down and in parentheses it says No action follows by pressing up. They designed it this way,"
"Speaker 1","00;40;45;29","00;40;47;28","Which means that"
"Speaker 1","00;40;47;28","00;40;57;28","you, you as a player, have to compensate outside of the cultural norms of how a video game is actually in order for it to work 100% of the time."
"Speaker 1","00;40;57;28","00;41;18;28","Father Avram and I sat and actually played this together online, and he showed me you got to hold down when you crouched and you got to keep holding down and jump while. You keep holding down. What the hell game does that like that to me, that is."
"Speaker 1","00;41;18;28","00;41;40;02","That is out of that. That is out of what is expected when you pick up the controller, not to mention you can't. You also can't when you're in a promo position, you also can't turn, which is like one of those things that really screws you over if you don't anticipate getting hit from behind."
"Speaker 1","00;41;40;02","00;41;41;23","Other things."
"Speaker 1","00;41;41;23","00;42;03;06","There are what I like to call leaps of faith in the game, in the levels where you you have the platform down sometimes in order to progress and the level and I call them leaps of faith because there's no platform visible to prepare yourself and project where you're supposed to jump, etc.."
"Speaker 1","00;42;03;20","00;42;12;04","So when you do that and you take this leap of faith, I can honestly tell you nine out of ten times you are going to"
"Speaker 1","00;42;12;04","00;42;15;07","take damage like that."
"Speaker 1","00;42;15;07","00;42;28;29","that's even giving it the benefit of the doubt. That's how often I would get hit every time. Pit boxes on certain enemies are super small, while the detection boxes for you seem tremendous."
"Speaker 1","00;42;28;29","00;42;43;17","I remember fighting the level two boss in the car comes out and it's nowhere near me and I get killed. And also the last thing I have here to say in the con section for"
"Speaker 1","00;42;43;17","00;42;54;18","for gameplay is that the game is very stingy with health power ups. Really stingy. The only time I would see a health power up is like at the beginning of level when I have full health."
"Speaker 1","00;42;54;18","00;42;59;11","Anyway, it's complete horse feces"
"Speaker 1","00;42;59;11","00;43;13;02","the but the pros. However, it's a simple, charming and running gun platform shooter that offers a nice variety of weapons for an enhanced game and scratches the sci fi itch nicely."
"Speaker 2","00;43;13;02","00;43;17;10","I kind of thought that the level designs were pretty plain."
"Speaker 2","00;43;17;10","00;43;32;27","I also thought that some of the enemy placements were outrageous. For instance, I would be like, okay, I have to, you know, descend down into this lower level of this base or whatever I am."
"Speaker 2","00;43;32;27","00;43;42;12","I can't remember the specific levels, but I would have to descend the level and I would just fall just thinking I'm going to fall down onto another"
"Speaker 2","00;43;42;12","00;44;08;02","part of the level and I would just fall right on to some kind of an enemy. So, you know, I would either be falling down a pit and because of course you can't change your direction of motion while you're in the air, you know, I would just fall directly onto, say, a turret that is just like, you know, hiding underneath a floor panel."
"Speaker 2","00;44;08;02","00;44;21;03","And then I'd fall on it and that would hurt me. And then it would come up and then just like, light me up. And I'm just like, why? Like, well, like this was unavoidable. There are times where I literally thought it was unavoidable and I"
"Speaker 2","00;44;21;03","00;44;33;29","probably died like multiple times just doing something that probably could have been avoided had I been able to change my direction of motion when the screen readjusted."
"Speaker 2","00;44;33;29","00;44;36;04","for my prose."
"Speaker 2","00;44;36;04","00;44;39;13","I will say that the gameplay is very smooth."
"Speaker 2","00;44;39;13","00;44;47;09","the physics are fair, even somewhat realistic, I would say, considering you can't change your direction of motion while you're in the air."
"Speaker 2","00;44;48;17","00;45;13;26","But I kind of, I kind of wish that there was less realism. I kind of wish there was less realism with that because being able to change your direction of motion while jumping would have made the game, I think, better. Me, I probably would have died a lot less times than I did. But then again, that would also kind of take away from the difficulty too."
"Speaker 2","00;45;13;26","00;45;14;19","So"
"Speaker 2","00;45;14;19","00;45;18;23","I guess I just got to get good at this game."
"Speaker 1","00;45;18;23","00;45;23;21","And that that's half the battle. I would say"
"Speaker 1","00;45;26;03","00;46;04;07","Yeah, I, I put a ton of hours into grinding on this game and I would like to just interject and say that you can change your motion while you're in the air. It's just very slow. So if you run off. Yeah, if you run off a ledge, good luck trying to change your motion before you land. However, if you jump high in the air, you can adjust at least a little."
"Speaker 1","00;46;04;07","00;46;05;26","that's two things right there."
"Speaker 1","00;46;05;26","00;46;39;09","To me, that's a gameplay issue and a technical issue. Like in my opinion, like yes, it's a technical issue because it's the physics. Like you, you always inherit for the momentum. You're going up to the edge of a cliff and you're to drop yourself just off the edge of the cliff so you don't run into the into the mine below you and trying to get in this space right before it and somehow, regardless of how lightly you press that controller, you pick up this crazy forward momentum and you fall right on the mine."
"Speaker 1","00;46;39;12","00;46;48;00","That's that's two things. That's, that's it's a it's a technical issue that is that causes gameplay"
"Speaker 1","00;46;48;00","00;46;50;00","issues."
"Speaker 1","00;46;50;17","00;46;58;20","Yeah. The only the only way that you can do that is to stop and then jump straight up and change your range of motion"
"Speaker 1","00;46;58;20","00;47;03;12","Yeah. But that stupid"
"Speaker 1","00;47;44;08","00;47;54;20","Yeah it's it's it's learned through death game design through death. And Megaman was very good at that."
"Speaker 1","00;47;54;20","00;48;01;09","with what you said, Archbishop, that the game does not give many life capsules at all."
"Speaker 1","00;48;01;09","00;48;09;21","I think that I've I've my most lucky run that I ever had. I may have may have seen four or five"
"Speaker 1","00;48;09;21","00;48;11;21","throughout the entire game."
"Speaker 2","00;48;11;21","00;48;16;07","Yeah. It was tough for me too. I didn't find many whatsoever."
"Speaker 1","00;48;16;07","00;48;31;22","when I first started playing at this, when I was a kid, I never saw one because I was, I was like, what was I was 12 years old. So like, I, I was a 12 year old kid playing this very difficult game and I never got far enough to actually see a health power up."
"Speaker 1","00;48;31;25","00;48;47;06","So I went back into it, you know, a little while ago, recently, and found that, you know, hey, I was like, what is this, a life, a life capsule? This is amazing."
"Speaker 1","00;48;47;06","00;49;06;28","Yeah. That the game is very unforgiving in most respects. And, and some of the difficulty is simply a cheap shot. Some enemies spawn based on scrolling, which is natural. That's how, you know, video games typically work with this genre."
"Speaker 1","00;49;06;28","00;49;17;20","But then some enemies spawn after a certain amount of time. After reaching a certain position. And this is where you can really get"
"Speaker 1","00;49;20;16","00;49;24;08","I am going to bless you with the barbed wire."
"Speaker 1","00;49;24;08","00;49;32;07","let me finish and you'll see what I mean. You have you approach certain certain obstacles and certain jumps."
"Speaker 1","00;49;32;07","00;49;37;14","I'm thinking of those blades that come down from the ceiling, and I think it's at that level for"
"Speaker 1","00;49;37;14","00;49;41;04","there's one jump in particular. You're trying to jump over the blade."
"Speaker 1","00;49;41;04","00;49;47;15","There's one of those little flying I call them flying fish. They almost look like the the upper half of a jellyfish."
"Speaker 1","00;49;47;15","00;49;48;29","The blue."
"Speaker 1","00;49;48;29","00;49;51;15","Yes."
"Speaker 1","00;49;51;15","00;49;54;10","But they almost they almost look like the upper half of a jellyfish."
"Speaker 1","00;49;54;10","00;50;32;00","And they kind of float at you in this this wavy pattern. Right. So. So they come at you. There's one you approach in the blades, one comes at you, you shoot it, and you think you're good to go and you jump over the blades. And just then another one comes at you and hits you. So I struggled with this for some time until I realized that if I just sat there and waited for a couple of seconds after I destroyed that first one, the next one would come across and it took me time to actually figure that out because it's built to trick you into thinking you can jump over it and you can't."
"Speaker 1","00;50;32;02","00;50;45;13","And every time you try, you're like, they put this enemy in that super bad place so that it makes this jump impossible. Well, that's not true. You just have to be super patient. And and that kind of learning is just"
"Speaker 1","00;50;45;13","00;50;47;03","abhorrent."
"Speaker 2","00;50;47;03","00;50;49;15","I feel that those"
"Speaker 2","00;50;49;15","00;50;57;19","robotic jellyfish things that run at you on the screen were very reminiscent to fighting the Medusa heads and Castlevania"
"Speaker 1","00;50;57;19","00;51;03;11","I could see the parallels, but nowhere near as hard as in the desert."
"Speaker 1","00;51;03;11","00;51;07;20","another example of the of a cheap shot is the level four boss,"
"Speaker 1","00;51;07;20","00;51;12;01","which is the only boss that features a ledge."
"Speaker 1","00;51;12;03","00;51;32;04","All the other bosses have a solid edge across the entire screen. But I know the first time that I, the first time that I ran into this boss, I saw it powering up a very large laser cannon in my face and decided I would run away to the edge of the screen which is to give me enough time to figure out how to dodge it."
"Speaker 1","00;51;32;06","00;51;56;11","As soon as I did that, I fell down the cliff heads and it's totally shocked me. It's totally out of character for every other boss fight in the game. Every other boss fight in the game. Speaking of things being different in the game, Level five is a totally different game than the first four levels"
"Speaker 2","00;51;56;11","00;51;58;10","Yes."
"Speaker 1","00;51;58;10","00;52;05;24","the screen just starts scrolling and you're like, What is this, a boring garbage piece of"
"Speaker 1","00;52;08;15","00;52;10;13","I'm sorry, I'm getting flustered."
"Speaker 2","00;52;10;13","00;52;11;20","I 100% agree"
"Speaker 2","00;52;11;20","00;52;23;14","the the boss fight with the ledge in the boss fight where the screen moves I found were pretty frustrating, but I found that most of the boss fights are pretty easy once you actually get into it."
"Speaker 2","00;52;23;14","00;52;34;19","And some of them were almost boring. Like there's one that kind of reminded me of like the first boss in Contra where you fight like Fortress basically. And it has that one weak spot."
"Speaker 2","00;52;34;19","00;52;39;06","I think we were talking about it earlier where you have to like crouch and jump. I think that's the same boss."
"Speaker 1","00;52;39;06","00;52;41;27","Yep, that's the same one"
"Speaker 2","00;52;41;27","00;52;46;21","And it's like a giant, like computer thing that shoots a laser at you."
"Speaker 1","00;52;46;21","00;52;48;24","it shoots many lasers at you."
"Speaker 2","00;52;48;24","00;52;59;06","Yeah, yeah, but. But once I figured out what to do, I was like, This is boring. Personally. I was like, I'm getting bored fighting this thing. You just do the same thing over and over again."
"Speaker 2","00;52;59;06","00;53;11;29","But what was interesting with this game all around is that I found some of the enemies way more difficult to face than some of the bosses."
"Speaker 2","00;53;12;01","00;53;24;11","For instance, those big like Cannon turrets that shoot the heat seeking missiles at you drove me up a wall. I still can't figure out how to dodge those missiles effectively."
"Speaker 1","00;53;24;11","00;53;44;11","There's one specific trick that works, and for anybody listening, I'll tell you, you have to keep your distance from them. Try to keep them at the very edge of the screen. And what you do is, is you. You wait until they shoot at you. You wait until the bullets almost in the whole time you're shooting, by the way."
"Speaker 1","00;53;44;11","00;54;03;19","The whole time. This whole time that you're doing this, you're shooting. You wait until the bullet almost gets at you. You jump up in the air over it. When you do that, by the time you do that, it'll shoot another one and you have to fall down and lay prone immediately, end it off safely, travel over you, and you've repeat that cycle until it's dead."
"Speaker 1","00;54;03;19","00;54;08;11","Just make sure you keep pressing down while you jump."
"Speaker 1","00;54;08;11","00;54;10;16","you can do it that way. Yeah."
"Speaker 1","00;54;10;27","00;54;13;04","Absolutely horrid."
"Speaker 1","00;54;13;04","00;54;31;07","And I will say I totally agree about the boss fights. The boss fights where once you learned the bosses, they were very easy. What was not easy? I found in most cases were the mini boss fights"
"Speaker 1","00;54;31;07","00;54;34;15","You are definitely going to get hit by the mini boss."
"Speaker 1","00;54;34;15","00;54;47;12","I'm thinking of the walker thing with the dog looking thing in level two. It's not really a dog. It looks like it looks more like it. I don't even know what it looks like. It looks more like a chicken or something. And"
"Speaker 1","00;54;47;12","00;55;09;07","It's it's like. It's like a blue mech, a very, very skinny blue mech. And that thing has the smallest hitbox. Like you have to use the the heat seeking missiles in order for you to defeat it. And you have to use so many of them that you can't use any when you get to the boss."
"Speaker 2","00;55;09;07","00;55;18;00","are you referring to the same mini boss that it's like a like a chicken walking mech that shoots like a flurry of bullets at"
"Speaker 2","00;55;19;04","00;55;20;25","Yes."
"Speaker 1","00;55;22;12","00;55;29;05","So you don't have to use the homing missiles by the way. Yeah, I did beat the entire game using the hand"
"Speaker 1","00;55;30;06","00;55;33;06","Well, excuse me, Father Raven."
"Speaker 1","00;55;52;24","00;56;00;05","other thing, the blue thing with the but there the two stages. Yes,"
"Speaker 1","00;56;19;14","00;56;22;22","I agree."
"Speaker 2","00;57;22;23","00;57;24;29","Yes."
"Speaker 1","00;57;53;01","00;57;59;06","It wasn't technical issues father ever."
"Speaker 1","00;58;12;15","00;58;18;03","Let's proceed to category four graphics."
"Speaker 1","00;58;18;03","00;58;29;17","So for me I would say the graphics are, are quite good, the sprites are well-defined and I very rarely could not recognize what"
"Speaker 1","00;58;29;17","00;58;32;20","I was looking at in terms of design and clarity."
"Speaker 1","00;58;32;20","00;58;52;14","the animation specifically on the player character is very clean and smooth for any game, and the environment is detailed and interesting without being overly simple or too busy to the point of competing with the foreground elements such as the player character, the enemies my cons"
"Speaker 1","00;58;52;14","00;59;01;19","On the other side is that I don't like the localized character design of the player. I prefer the space marine design from Rough World on the Famicom."
"Speaker 1","00;59;01;19","00;59;11;29","So I'm not sure I've actually seen that graphic and and that and that's probably good too, because I'd probably be biased to that as well."
"Speaker 1","00;59;11;29","00;59;14;12","it looks a lot cooler"
"Speaker 1","00;59;14;12","00;59;28;26","you're this guy with this like really like his like wind blown red red hair in in the North American version. Like very it's almost like Howard the duck"
"Speaker 1","00;59;28;26","00;59;34;13","in the in the in the Japanese version you're you're like a space marine."
"Speaker 1","00;59;34;13","00;59;36;08","You have like a helmet and like,"
"Speaker 1","00;59;36;08","00;59;47;07","like and it sort of matches with the armor and everything like that looks, looks very Terminator and I know I shouldn't have brought that up again."
"Speaker 1","00;59;47;07","00;59;58;23","you brought it up, you brought it up and now I can say, well they probably did that then so they could avoid problems with the licensing for Terminator."
"Speaker 1","00;59;59;29","01;00;09;16","you could take your licensing and shove it up your vestibule. Father and"
"Speaker 1","01;00;09;16","01;00;25;00","So I would totally agree. I think the graphics are very clean, very smooth. They like the environment. They actually put in the effort to make the level art different in every level."
"Speaker 1","01;00;25;02","01;00;50;17","It's not like some other games where they just sort of recycle and reuse the art with different palettes. I'm sure they probably did some of that, but they actually put an effort to make it look good and make it look cohesive with the environment that you're in. I really appreciated that because you don't see that everywhere in in, in in Nintendo games."
"Speaker 1","01;00;50;21","01;01;09;11","The other thing that I'd like to say is that I, I appreciate it. This is a very small appreciation by the way but there were some projectiles I'm thinking mainly of the the cannon projectile"
"Speaker 1","01;01;09;11","01;01;17;02","from the cannon though you were talking about earlier, the mini boss cannon that goes up and down and shoots at you with those heat seeking projectiles."
"Speaker 1","01;01;17;05","01;01;26;18","They are totally different from. Every other projectile in the game, it's like a projectile that is specific to that enemy. And that's not something that you see either."
"Speaker 1","01;01;26;18","01;01;29;22","So I thought that was an interesting detail."
"Speaker 1","01;01;29;22","01;01;34;19","the other thing that I'd like to mention is the"
"Speaker 1","01;01;34;19","01;01;36;06","the boss"
"Speaker 1","01;01;36;06","01;01;48;18","graphics. I'm sure they were using the tile trick because the Nintendo just can't render that many sprites on screen and they bite tiles."
"Speaker 1","01;01;48;20","01;02;24;02","I'm sure they were using background tiles and moving the background tiles. That's usually the trick they would use. But they are. They're very good that the the boss designs are very good and they have animated parts, which is always fantastic. The helicopter with the helicopter blades, I thought that was a very cool the fact the the robotic arm of boss to unexpected aggravating but in regards to graphics I thought it was well done."
"Speaker 1","01;02;24;04","01;02;44;18","And I did mention the backgrounds. The backgrounds need to be mentioned. I know I mentioned environment art, but specifically the background is in level one and in level the level five boss. Those two backgrounds really stuck out me"
"Speaker 1","01;02;44;18","01;02;48;22","I think that's everything that I have for graphics."
"Speaker 2","01;02;48;22","01;03;10;08","I thought the graphics were pristine. Like, if somebody came up to me and told me that it was an indie game that was inspired by any games that came out like this year, I would probably believe them because it really looked great."
"Speaker 2","01;03;10;20","01;03;14;15","And the backdrop for Level one I thought was really cool."
"Speaker 2","01;03;14;15","01;03;43;09","What I also appreciated as I have played other games that had a lot of like skipping in the pixels square, like characters and objects that sometimes fade in and out of existence slightly where you were moving across the screen and stuff. And I didn't really see that maybe when you would descend down to lower levels or lower areas of a certain level, I should say,"
"Speaker 2","01;03;43;09","01;03;51;08","but for the most part I felt like everything was really smooth, like there was nothing that I really had any complaints about personally."
"Speaker 2","01;03;51;11","01;03;54;24","As far as the graphics go, I think it's probably some of the best"
"Speaker 2","01;03;54;24","01;03;56;11","graphics that"
"Speaker 2","01;03;56;11","01;03;58;02","the console has"
"Speaker 1","01;03;58;02","01;04;17;18","Yeah, I do want to just add and this is a very bold statement that that, that the environment graphics in this game I enjoyed much more than the environment graphics in Metroid and I love Metroid"
"Speaker 2","01;04;17;18","01;04;25;26","Now I'm just imagining Metroid with these graphics and I'm thinking about that and like that would have been crazy."
"Speaker 1","01;04;42;20","01;04;49;28","Let us proceed to category five box art and presentation"
"Speaker 1","01;04;49;28","01;05;01;17","a reading from the back of the box in the ruins of serious intergalactic terrorists and their deadly arsenal of weapons are waiting for you."
"Speaker 1","01;05;01;20","01;05;40;18","Are you prepared to face an endless onslaught of flying war robots? Humanoid The laser cannons, bone crushing traps and the seemingly invincible master ship still want to make the journey? If you do, it will take all of your skills to reach the final battle with the terrorists. Supreme Leader, the merciless, all powerful skeletal Android journey to soleus its level upon level of gigantic supercharged graphics, thundering sound effects and danger at every turn."
"Speaker 1","01;05;40;21","01;05;49;21","Go ahead, we dare you a reading from the back of the box."
"Speaker 1","01;05;49;21","01;06;25;26","it's storytime with Archbishop Cool. Now, as I said in the previous episode about about any games marketing was it marketing for video games was in its infancy and there wasn't much in the way of knowing about the release of a video game outside of maybe a magazine if it was later in the news run of games or"
"Speaker 1","01;06;25;26","01;06;31;05","you would go to your video rental store."
"Speaker 1","01;06;31;08","01;06;57;16","So how I first came about this game, I was like, I said earlier, about 12 years old, and my neighbor contacted my mother and asked if I would like to rake some leaves to get some money for Christmas. This was around November. And I said, Yeah, let's let's let's do this. I'll go clean up some That sounds great."
"Speaker 1","01;06;57;20","01;07;25;27","I will clean up some leaves and I'll go out shopping with my dad and and get some Christmas gifts. So I went and did the job. And then like on that Sunday, I asked my dad, take me to the store. So we went to the neighboring town and we went to a store that was called Aimes, which was formerly Zaire, I believe It was a big department store."
"Speaker 1","01;07;26;00","01;07;42;12","And I went in with my dad and bought a bunch of things for my family and went to it. Then it was time for me to buy something for my younger brother. And I was like, okay, what am I going to get? Son of a"
"Speaker 1","01;07;42;17","01;07;45;17","And I"
"Speaker 1","01;07;45;17","01;07;49;10","went to the game section. It was the only thing that made sense."
"Speaker 1","01;07;49;17","01;08;16;05","So I went to the game section and of course, like I didn't have that much money, so I, I didn't look behind the counter, but I did look in the bin next to the next to the counter that was there. And they had a huge variety of any games for $10. The first one that caught my eye was Rolling Thunder and I was like, Well, I'm taking this for me."
"Speaker 1","01;08;16;05","01;08;31;16","Thank you very much, because I love that game. The second one I saw, I was like, What's this journey? This silliest. I never heard of this. Like, what the hell is this? And I'm looking at it and I'm like,"
"Speaker 1","01;08;31;17","01;08;47;13","on the front, if you if you look at the front of the box, ah, they actually use like in-game sprites like an in-game screenshot but they actually like melded it with like commercial art to make it feel like it was like in more than just black space."
"Speaker 1","01;08;47;15","01;09;09;27","They actually filled all that in with like, like sort of like mountains and like, like eclipsed blue moon and hazy. You know what I'm like that paired with, like, the graphics that I saw on the back of the box I was. And then it was so soft and I knew. But even back then I knew. So. Okay, Sun soft makes good games."
"Speaker 1","01;09;10;01","01;09;20;15","So I, I bought that game and I brought it home and gave it to my youngest brother or my younger brother for Christmas. And"
"Speaker 1","01;09;20;15","01;09;21;18","he was a little"
"Speaker 1","01;09;21;25","01;09;32;29","He didn't like it. It was it was too difficult. I think he was like six years old at the time, so imagine a six year old trying to play this frickin game."
"Speaker 1","01;09;32;29","01;09;37;25","yeah. How could you expect a six year old to enjoy this game?"
"Speaker 1","01;09;37;25","01;09;41;23","In my defense, I was a 12 year old who had no idea what this game was."
"Speaker 1","01;09;41;23","01;09;47;04","True. Yeah. Well, that was the plight of of. Of buying a game back in the eighties."
"Speaker 2","01;09;47;09","01;09;48;13","Yes."
"Speaker 1","01;09;48;15","01;10;09;25","So and that approach to art work and putting and doing this sort of hybrid screenshot commercial art thing on the cover of a game was like, I don't recall ever seeing that before then. And, and that's what sold me on the game. You know, the"
"Speaker 1","01;10;09;25","01;10;12;12","bad side about it is on the back of the box."
"Speaker 1","01;10;12;14","01;10;27;15","it seemed like they put like every box on the back of the box and they were huge and awesome looking. But that reveal, I feel, should have been left as like a reward for playing through this exceptionally difficult game."
"Speaker 1","01;10;27;15","01;10;30;29","Yeah, I, I feel like"
"Speaker 1","01;10;30;29","01;10;41;26","the front of the boxes because when I first saw the box art, my first impression was look at the graphics."
"Speaker 1","01;10;41;28","01;11;09;29","Obviously they're using, you know, sprites. Although I didn't know at the time to call them that, but obviously they're using sprites and like, so I'm expecting that entire of the box to be literally a screenshot from the game. Well, they didn't use the background that they used in the game, so I felt like that was a little misleading, although it looks it looks cool right at the back of the box."
"Speaker 1","01;11;09;29","01;11;21;21","However, the write up on the back of the box, like I kind of feel like it wasn't written by the creators. I feel like it was written"
"Speaker 1","01;11;21;21","01;11;23;19","by a marketing team,"
"Speaker 1","01;11;23;19","01;11;29;19","yes, by a marketing team that was just given some vague details about the game."
"Speaker 1","01;11;29;19","01;11;54;10","I don't think they mentioned anything in here that that that doesn't exist, but it's still it's still just highly generic and and almost written like a TV commercial more than something on the back of a box. And visually in the back of the box, the text is just"
"Speaker 1","01;11;54;10","01;12;01;06","It's just kind of stuff in between the images of the bosses, which you already mentioned."
"Speaker 2","01;12;01;18","01;12;05;15","While I do think the box art in its own right is intriguing,"
"Speaker 2","01;12;05;15","01;12;12;08","I wouldn't say that for me. Like I've seen this game, like I used to work in a game store"
"Speaker 2","01;12;12;08","01;12;30;01","I swear I've seen this game probably like quite a few times, 100 times I feel like. And just I don't know, I don't feel like the design and the color schemes and fonts really grabbed my attention the way a lot of other games have in the past."
"Speaker 2","01;12;30;04","01;12;36;11","So because sometimes, you know, you will see a cover of a game and be like, Wow, that looks really cool,"
"Speaker 2","01;12;36;11","01;12;42;08","Well, that's happened with other games for me. I just didn't really do that for me with this one."
"Speaker 2","01;12;43;28","01;13;00;23","I would say my my biggest problem though, like, because I don't think that the front of the box art is necessarily like that or anything is that I have quite a few issues with I have quite a few issues with the back of the box. Are"
"Speaker 2","01;13;00;23","01;13;05;21","mainly the names of the enemies I just felt were very cliche,"
"Speaker 2","01;13;05;21","01;13;11;03","almost like they were making fun of the sci fi genre,"
"Speaker 2","01;13;11;03","01;13;13;04","I'm sorry, skeletal android."
"Speaker 2","01;13;13;04","01;13;20;04","That was just kind of like, it sounds like a dollar store knockoff action figure."
"Speaker 2","01;13;20;04","01;13;25;22","I'm sorry. It's just I didn't see the creativity there."
"Speaker 1","01;13;26;15","01;13;35;24","Just go ahead and say it. Father River and Jesus Christ."
"Speaker 2","01;13;35;24","01;13;43;25","I understand that, but like, why couldn't they have given it like a crazy, you know,"
"Speaker 1","01;13;43;25","01;13;49;29","the G x 3500."
"Speaker 2","01;13;49;29","01;14;04;14","that. Exactly. Like instead is just like the skeletal android. Like, it just, I don't know. It didn't do it for me personally. Like, if I read the back of that box, like, if I imagine being a kid in the eighties, read the back of the box or not the eighties, sorry, the nineties."
"Speaker 2","01;14;04;14","01;14;05;11","I don't know."
"Speaker 2","01;14;05;11","01;14;14;06","I would probably see those names and be like, okay, like what is this game? But that also might be intriguing enough for me to buy it"
"Speaker 1","01;14;14;06","01;14;24;24","Well, I, I need to mention this because this is the skeletal android. Do you keep on mentioning it? But the skeletal android, I mean, what was the Terminator robot?"
"Speaker 2","01;14;24;24","01;14;29;03","Well, right. I guess that's why it sounds like a knockoffs dollar store"
"Speaker 1","01;14;29;03","01;14;31;24","Because it actually was."
"Speaker 2","01;14;31;24","01;14;37;16","basically what this game became was a dollar store knockoff Terminator game."
"Speaker 2","01;14;37;16","01;14;40;18","But I'm not saying it's bad"
"Speaker 1","01;14;41;10","01;14;41;28","yes, you are."
"Speaker 1","01;14;41;28","01;14;44;14","It's okay. Just say it."
"Speaker 2","01;14;44;14","01;14;46;20","don't think the game's bad. It's I just"
"Speaker 1","01;14;46;20","01;14;48;20","You are a sadist, Father."
"Speaker 1","01;14;48;20","01;14;49;16","ever."
"Speaker 2","01;14;49;16","01;15;05;27","I wish that they just gave them more unique and interesting names because I think it'd just being a kid in the time if I had seen that game somewhere, I would have been more inclined to buy it. But then again, I also enjoy"
"Speaker 2","01;15;05;27","01;15;12;10","watching bad movies or playing even bad games just to get a kick out of how bad they are."
"Speaker 2","01;15;12;10","01;15;32;21","So I might have been pleasantly surprised at how fun this game was, buying it, thinking it was going to be a hunk of junk and it actually wasn't. So I don't know. But. But needless to say, this game to me is far from bad or a hunk of junk or a dollar store knockoff of anything."
"Speaker 1","01;15;32;21","01;15;37;27","But the but the back of the box does make it seem that way."
"Speaker 2","01;15;38;09","01;15;50;29","Yes. And I would almost say that for me, there's one more gripe, and this has to do with the front of the box art I forgot to mention is it kind of reminded me of a text book."
"Speaker 1","01;15;50;29","01;16;05;20","That's that's an interesting perspective. And I can see what you mean by that. You have the big title. It's kind of off to the side with some sort of, you know, clip out on the side, like they're trying to make it make it appeal to students, kind of"
"Speaker 1","01;16;05;20","01;16;16;05","I would love to find out who what marketing team thought that was a good idea. And send them to hell."
"Speaker 1","01;16;31;00","01;16;37;14","let us move along to our next section. Is the fun factor."
"Speaker 1","01;16;37;14","01;16;53;23","riffing off of the story that I told earlier, I will continue and say that once my brother played it for 5 minutes and decided he wanted nothing to do with it, I was like, Well, I'm I'm going to give it a shot."
"Speaker 1","01;16;53;25","01;17;12;02","And I played it for a while. However, I found that I was never a real, never able, regardless of how much I played, to get much further than, say, level to maybe get to the end of level two, maybe even get to the boss. But I never made it any further than that."
"Speaker 1","01;17;12;02","01;17;24;12","with that in mind, and you know, I was I was 12, so I was young, but that's what that was the target age for these games."
"Speaker 1","01;17;24;15","01;17;48;11","And I was a proficient player when I was a child. I mean, beat Mike Tyson. You can't you can't get much more of a flex than that. So like for me to not be able to really, like, get anywhere, getting traction in this game because it was seemingly different every time wasn't fun for a 12 year old boy."
"Speaker 1","01;17;48;13","01;17;58;11","Now, as an adult, I found myself sort of laughing and smiling a lot while I was playing it."
"Speaker 1","01;17;58;11","01;18;13;20","after I died a lot. And it makes me wonder if it is just nostalgia that I'm smiling at and not actually the game itself."
"Speaker 1","01;18;13;20","01;18;27;00","I think a huge thing that would have that would have made this game a lot more accessible was the three continue limit."
"Speaker 1","01;18;27;06","01;18;45;27","Like, are you serious? Like, did they even test this game? Like, I know, I know since I've made some good games. I mean, like last year. Master me, Batman. They made they made Mr. Gimmick overseas, which was a fantastic game. It was difficult, but it wasn't unfair"
"Speaker 1","01;18;45;27","01;18;46;21","this one."
"Speaker 1","01;18;46;21","01;19;04;08","It felt a lot like Festus Quest, which I actually owned as well. And Festus Quest was an unfair game. So I think a lot of my thoughts on this game are through rose tinted glasses, an unfortunately."
"Speaker 1","01;19;04;08","01;19;10;08","I didn't not have some of the game. I think the game is fun. I think it's definitely worth a play through."
"Speaker 1","01;19;10;10","01;19;12;22","What I love in particular, the"
"Speaker 1","01;19;12;22","01;19;20;02","was just how familiar the game felt like. It kind of almost felt like a megaman and like contra game like combined."
"Speaker 1","01;19;20;02","01;19;30;18","So, you know, if you're looking for a game that is reminiscent of those franchises, like a new game that's like that, I feel like this game is definitely for you. Like it's definitely worth at least giving it a try."
"Speaker 1","01;19;30;18","01;19;33;26","I see what they were trying to do and like what they were trying to go for."
"Speaker 1","01;19;33;26","01;19;38;04","think think it's a solid game for the style of game that it is."
"Speaker 1","01;19;38;04","01;19;51;12","I just wish that maybe they gave you, like, more continues or even infinite continues because like, dying, like even with save states or like an infinite lives cheat code, I'd still die like 32 times."
"Speaker 1","01;19;51;12","01;20;10;06","At some point I'll be like, my God, this is so frustrating. Like so. Because for reference, I played the game like normal and then I played through the game using like Save States and Rewind because I was like, I can't get past the second level. This is crazy. But I wanted to be able to,"
"Speaker 1","01;20;10;06","01;20;13;08","play every level, beat every boss, try every gun."
"Speaker 1","01;20;13;10","01;20;22;24","And that's another thing I wanted to say I left out in earlier segments was that I didn't like that the"
"Speaker 1","01;20;22;24","01;20;43;06","your ammo meter was just for all of your guns. That kind of drove me crazy because I just felt like I couldn't use all the guns. You know, if you think back to games like Gunsmoke, it's like you had ammo for your Magnum and for your shotgun and for your machine gun and like, for this game, they're just like, No, you just have ammo."
"Speaker 1","01;20;43;06","01;20;48;03","And then once you use it, it's gone. You're stuck here. You're stuck with your lemon shooter"
"Speaker 1","01;20;48;03","01;20;55;04","in contra the shotgun or the spread shot or whatever you whatever people call it, you know, people call it different things."
"Speaker 1","01;20;55;06","01;21;01;14","The shotgun in this game kind of is mid it's not it's not really that great"
"Speaker 1","01;21;01;19","01;21;03;27","I don't think I used the shotgun"
"Speaker 1","01;21;03;27","01;21;05;18","No, I haven't either."
"Speaker 1","01;21;05;18","01;21;08;19","it's I tried because I thought shotgun that's sick"
"Speaker 1","01;21;08;19","01;21;17;20","and I tried it and I was like, this literally has like three bullets that go and, you know, three different directions and it's hard to line them up and it moves really slow."
"Speaker 1","01;21;17;22","01;21;18;02","So it's"
"Speaker 1","01;21;18;02","01;21;19;14","Yeah,"
"Speaker 1","01;21;19;14","01;21;23;11","mean, I think that moves slow. It's just hard to line up the shots."
"Speaker 1","01;21;23;25","01;21;28;10","Yeah, I did try it, but I'd never actually used it."
"Speaker 1","01;21;28;10","01;21;29;13","And"
"Speaker 1","01;21;29;13","01;21;33;16","once I tried it, I didn't want it. Yeah, it totally is,"
"Speaker 1","01;21;34;02","01;21;37;03","if I may, I would like to to mention"
"Speaker 1","01;21;37;03","01;21;40;25","a picture is being painted very clearly,"
"Speaker 1","01;21;40;25","01;21;45;00","going back to kind of what Father Raven was saying earlier,"
"Speaker 1","01;21;45;00","01;21;59;11","that once they did lose that license, it's almost as if they just took that finished product that they showed the licensee and just released it because it doesn't feel like it's polished at all."
"Speaker 1","01;21;59;11","01;22;12;28","but. But apparently they didn't do that. Apparently they. The game initially wasn't meant to actually be a platformer, and they changed it to be a platformer after getting the license revoked."
"Speaker 1","01;22;12;28","01;22;25;20","Of course, that's only one account. The story. And as we mentioned, everybody seems to have a slightly different version of the story. So who knows how it actually went down?"
"Speaker 1","01;22;25;20","01;22;28;11","it would be interesting to"
"Speaker 1","01;22;28;11","01;22;37;12","maybe find somebody to talk to about this that actually was there and get like the real story for once"
"Speaker 1","01;22;37;12","01;22;41;10","that this is the sort of thing that happens in retro gaming entirely. It's like"
"Speaker 1","01;22;41;10","01;22;49;02","those older games. A lot of it's like not nothing was really documented, you know, it was just it's the Wild West, you know."
"Speaker 1","01;22;49;05","01;22;53;17","Anyway, Father Abrams, why don't you give your thoughts on fun fact, please?"
"Speaker 1","01;22;53;17","01;23;11;24","as a child, I did not like this game. I remember playing it, and because I owned it, I really wanted to like it. And even years after,"
"Speaker 1","01;23;11;24","01;23;24;07","after getting the game, I tried to go back to it, be like, yes. Journey to serious. Let me try this one more time. And pretty much having the same result."
"Speaker 1","01;23;24;17","01;23;29;20","Now, what's interesting about this is that"
"Speaker 1","01;23;29;20","01;24;07;17","I had loads of fun playing it for this review. I feel like once I actually figured out some of the more crazy mechanics of the game, it really allowed me to feel, at least for the for the first four levels, like I, I knew the game like I had. I felt good about how I was playing it and as I mentioned earlier, until I reached level five and, and then that was a whole different story and a different game."
"Speaker 1","01;24;07;26","01;24;13;20","But I did have fun now playing it, but I did not have fun"
"Speaker 1","01;24;13;20","01;24;54;23","playing it as a child, which honestly, especially back in the eighties and nineties, video games were very, very, very much so pushed to children. They weren't really targeting an adult market at that point. And like video games today, you know, video games today they are pitching to the 20 and 30 somethings or most of the time, but video games back then they were really pitching them to children and the game is not conducive to children"
"Speaker 1","01;24;54;23","01;25;00;15","just because of how difficult and really bland and generic it is."
"Speaker 1","01;25;00;15","01;25;07;14","And we should also we should also say that because we haven't really talked about it."
"Speaker 1","01;25;07;14","01;25;14;02","Well, Father, when Father Abrams says that level five is a different game, it's a different game."
"Speaker 1","01;25;14;02","01;25;16;28","it goes from being almost like a"
"Speaker 1","01;25;16;28","01;25;32;27","like a runner type of game. Yeah. And once you kind of, like, get through the first couple obstacles, I found it to be really easy to get to the ball"
"Speaker 1","01;25;32;27","01;25;35;10","remembered something that happened to me on that level."
"Speaker 1","01;25;35;10","01;25;41;20","It was actually a glitch. And I forgot to mention this earlier. I think I did"
"Speaker 1","01;25;41;20","01;25;42;25","so"
"Speaker 1","01;25;42;25","01;25;51;29","where you're running and you have to jump on those conveyor belts and you know, you're also trying to run from the boss and stuff."
"Speaker 1","01;25;51;29","01;25;56;23","If I remember correctly, what happened to me was"
"Speaker 1","01;25;56;23","01;26;16;15","I got caught between the screen and one of the boxes on the conveyor belts because I didn't make the jump but I was trying to make and it was right before, like I was able to escape the boss, which mind you, was very frustrating to make that jump. I died multiple times,"
"Speaker 1","01;26;16;15","01;26;26;11","but right before you actually had to make that jump, I got stuck between the screen and a box and it was like one of it was actually the last time"
"Speaker 1","01;26;26;11","01;26;28;13","I remember getting stuck."
"Speaker 1","01;26;28;15","01;26;39;27","And then my guy teleported to where I was supposed to jump. He teleported to the other side of the screen, and then when I restarted on my next life,"
"Speaker 1","01;26;39;27","01;26;52;14","I was in the next area like I was on the other side of the level. And I was like, I'm not even going to fight with this because that last part was bogus, so I'm just going to just keep going."
"Speaker 1","01;27;20;03","01;27;23;06","so Deacon King is just"
"Speaker 1","01;27;23;06","01;27;28;07","thrusted us into the next section, which is technical."
"Speaker 1","01;27;29;11","01;27;53;04","my things that I have to say are could be some of them could be considered gameplay as well. But I tried to, I tried to be choosy as to what I would consider to be technical. So the pros that I had for the technical side of things, one is that I never experienced any a slowdown in this game,"
"Speaker 1","01;27;53;04","01;27;55;16","which I found to be"
"Speaker 1","01;27;55;16","01;28;02;23","kind of surprising given the amount of projectiles and everything is on the screen at any given time."
"Speaker 1","01;28;02;26","01;28;30;03","Also, the the other pro is that the bosses are huge. They're like full screen bosses and like and they move around and they have articulation and different parts to them and stuff. It's really quite remarkable. The cons are, like we mentioned earlier, is the falling straight down off a ledge without gaining forward momentum is a is a big one."
"Speaker 1","01;28;30;06","01;29;05;10","The platforming mechanics and the dropping blocks in like level four are wildly inconsistent. You cannot move on elevators and you might think that's like, okay, who cares? Like, why would you want to move on an elevator? Well, I'll tell you, I jumped on an elevator once and level four went up the elevator, only to be met by projectiles from a from a actually, this was a little three projectiles from a from a spider robot on the wall."
"Speaker 1","01;29;05;12","01;29;11;19","And it hit me. And I couldn't do anything about it because you cannot move or do anything or the elevators."
"Speaker 1","01;29;11;19","01;29;29;08","same exact thing happened to me. And what I found was after dying or getting hit so many times and going back to those sections, I found that it literally depended on where you were standing at the time that you jumped and landed on the elevator."
"Speaker 1","01;29;29;10","01;29;43;24","So, you know, if you were on, say, the furthest side of the elevator from where you jumps, you know, closer to the right side of the screen per se, you know, you probably won't get hit. But anywhere else in the elevator, you're going to get hit by something. And"
"Speaker 1","01;29;43;24","01;29;50;17","that's that's like splitting hairs. That's ridiculous."
"Speaker 1","01;29;51;28","01;30;08;18","Fighting a boss. Here's the scenario. You're fighting a boss. You have one hit point left. You kill the boss and you're frozen in place right after it starts exploding. And you are completely helpless as the last projectile the boss just shot before he died strikes and kills me."
"Speaker 1","01;30;08;21","01;30;21;07","And did that register that I killed the boss? Of course not. You have to start some cases. Start over again. Either fighting the boss or go back to the beginning level. Because you use your last continuing"
"Speaker 1","01;30;22;12","01;30;31;00","could be a nice thing. Would have been. It would have been nice to know how many continues I had left a number or something."
"Speaker 1","01;30;31;26","01;30;36;29","And this is an interesting bug that I found that I really was surprised by."
"Speaker 1","01;30;36;29","01;30;51;27","If you die with a weapon selected and you have gunpowder still, you will find that your weapon doesn't reset back to the handgun like you think it would, and you most likely will lose some gunpowder by shooting a few precious rounds by accident. Because of this,"
"Speaker 1","01;30;51;27","01;30;57;00","I was amazed that that was even a thing amazed?"
"Speaker 1","01;30;58;22","01;31;02;29","Yeah, I. I did notice the same"
"Speaker 1","01;31;02;29","01;31;09;29","the same issue. And I thought that was an extremely poor design choice."
"Speaker 1","01;31;10;23","01;31;19;01","Well, find the Raven. Would you consider that technical or gameplay? Because I didn't. I wasn't entirely sure where to put it, but"
"Speaker 1","01;31;19;01","01;31;39;16","I'm not I'm not entirely sure either, because it could be a bug. I don't, unfortunately. Bugs are kind of subjective since we don't really have documentation on what they intended. So it could be a bug, it could be a gameplay design issue."
"Speaker 1","01;31;39;18","01;31;41;29","I don't know why they wouldn't"
"Speaker 1","01;31;41;29","01;32;08;09","default back to the handgun. That really doesn't make any sense to me. So I'm going to say that it's a bug. I think but I would like to say that I did experience a slowdown in this game in a couple of spots. It wasn't horrible. It didn't last long, but it was there."
"Speaker 1","01;32;08;11","01;32;45;28","I mean, specifically in level two, there's one section where you see these enemies and they are the only time you see them in the game. And they they look like stingrays and they fly over you and they shoot they rained down basically a shotgun blast of of projectiles at you. And the best way to get by this section of the game is to just run through it, just just spam the fire button and run and you'll make it and you'll make it unscathed."
"Speaker 1","01;32;46;00","01;32;54;28","But during that section, I did notice some significant slowdown, but it didn't last very long."
"Speaker 1","01;32;54;28","01;33;01;12","Physics wise. I'd have to say the jumping is extremely"
"Speaker 1","01;33;01;12","01;33;21;03","it's just not done well, and as we said, running off a ledge. And just to keep going like that as the content can mentioned, you know, it may have been real and it really is and it may have been done well in that sense."
"Speaker 1","01;33;21;05","01;33;34;00","But for a video game, especially a video game, as a platformer shooter of this nature, it was way to uncontrollable."
"Speaker 1","01;33;34;00","01;33;52;28","So that was performance. The bugs, I would also count the control issues that you ran into. Archbishop, to be in this category as well. I think that the control bugs are I've been able to I was able to reproduce them."
"Speaker 1","01;33;53;00","01;34;17;14","They do have to deal with they have to do with switching your controls or making a a an input or a change of input in the d-pad at specific animation frames. If you do that, if you catch it in transition, then it's like you never made the change in D-Pad input at all. So I would definitely categorize that as a bug."
"Speaker 1","01;34;17;14","01;34;57;06","I know you consider that gameplay and it's kind of one of those gray areas, I think. I think honestly it is both. That's all I had for technical, except I, I would like to say again, physics wise, the jumping is extremely difficult because you basically have to jump, you have a tap jump and a long jump and there's almost no in between like there is, but it's so negligible that it's almost not worth mentioning."
"Speaker 1","01;34;57;08","01;35;06;24","And so I feel like they could have done better with the as other games do with with the jumping"
"Speaker 1","01;35;06;24","01;35;12;23","Let us proclaim the century to go again."
"Speaker 1","01;35;12;23","01;35;43;09","A reading from the manual in stages three and four, you are exposed to a variety of enemy weaponry like laser launchers and cannons. In the background in the fifth stage is so programed to automatically scroll right to left that you are geared to be carried all along the predetermined moving route on the container inside the factory."
"Speaker 1","01;35;43;11","01;35;46;29","A reading from the manual."
"Speaker 1","01;35;46;29","01;35;54;10","Then I just say right off the bat that the grammar in that last paragraph is"
"Speaker 1","01;35;54;10","01;36;15;27","this. You should listen to the Deadly Towers episode where I was reading in the manual about like fighting different, different enemies, and it was like, you will fight rats, snakes, dragons and dragons and snakes and more."
"Speaker 1","01;36;15;27","01;36;20;12","It's like, What awful."
"Speaker 1","01;36;20;12","01;36;38;12","Yes, it I mean, I don't even I've never heard a sentence quite constructed like this in my life. And this is directly from the manual and it's so programed to automatically scroll that you that you are geared to be carried all along the predetermined moving route."
"Speaker 1","01;36;38;14","01;36;40;01","What is that"
"Speaker 1","01;36;40;01","01;36;47;07","Just let it go further over"
"Speaker 1","01;36;47;07","01;36;55;12","So there was a few a few hints and and tips. I believe you discovered one"
"Speaker 1","01;36;55;12","01;37;04;28","Yes. So at the table screen. And I wish I would have known this as a kid. I really do."
"Speaker 1","01;37;04;28","01;37;13;27","at the title screen. Once the gray box appears at the bottom that says Son Soft under the title, if you press B 33 times."
"Speaker 1","01;37;13;27","01;37;39;23","Exactly. And hit start, you will get taken to a sound test screen where you can listen to each soundtrack from each level. And most importantly, you can up here continues to nine from three. This was huge. This was huge. I didn't use it until like I got to the end of level four. I got the boss by myself."
"Speaker 1","01;37;39;26","01;37;52;23","The three continues of level four. I just couldn't consistently get there. So I but I wanted to like I wanted to experience five level five and"
"Speaker 1","01;37;52;23","01;38;06;00","so I, I used this as a way to do that. And I think that would have been a pretty big game changer for me as a kid had I known that that was a thing."
"Speaker 1","01;38;06;00","01;38;19;00","if you need to fall straight down off the edge of a ledge, you need to jump into it. We mentioned earlier, walking off a ledge will propel you in the direction you are facing."
"Speaker 1","01;38;19;03","01;38;49;02","So in these jumps of faith situations, you actually need to or a leap of faith situations. You actually need to kind of jump straight up in the air, like stand at the edge of the ledge, jump straight up in the air and then nudge, nudge yourself over so that you fall straight down. That's that's a very big tip if you want to avoid damage in these leap of faith situations."
"Speaker 1","01;38;49;04","01;39;19;21","Another one is tapping a and I mentioned this a little just a few minutes ago actually tapping a rather than holding it will cause J to do a small jump which is helpful for jumping off ledges to fall straight down is also very handy in stage five when jumping off the conveyor belt into the tunnel. There is one section after you get through the gantlet in the beginning of stage five, you have to jump into the tunnel."
"Speaker 1","01;39;19;23","01;39;30;26","If you tap jump, you will probably make it. If you do a full on long jump, you'll get stuck on the upper wall and just fall straight down and you won't be able to recover."
"Speaker 1","01;39;48;25","01;39;55;26","And now, brethren, let us offer each other the body of Christ"
"Speaker 1","01;39;55;26","01;40;07;22","and and there wasn't much information I couldn't really find any information about what the game went for back in 1989."
"Speaker 1","01;40;07;22","01;40;11;06","I got it for ten bucks."
"Speaker 1","01;40;11;06","01;40;14;15","how did you get it for $10."
"Speaker 1","01;40;14;15","01;40;17;26","It was in the bargain bin."
"Speaker 1","01;40;17;26","01;40;39;04","Okay. So according to I did find a price sheet of some sun soft games like recommended retail value that they would send to retailers saying like, you know, this is how much the game is and we recommend this much. So based on that sheet, this game must have been in proximity of $45."
"Speaker 1","01;40;39;11","01;40;42;23","And it is interesting to note that according to"
"Speaker 1","01;40;42;23","01;41;10;29","the Government's, the US government's CPI inflation calculator, $45 in 1988 is worth $110 in 2023. So that is a significant jump there. I can't imagine going into a store and just with with with, you know, my child and saying, sure, sure, you can get that game for $110. I"
"Speaker 1","01;41;10;29","01;41;31;08","Well, they they actually those games, those editions of games actually do exist these days where, like you, you're paying like super expensive money for extra skins or other monitored and then amenities that, you know, happen in video gaming these days."
"Speaker 1","01;41;31;08","01;42;11;17","the ads, the price has actually gone up significantly since then. A loose copy of this game according to price chart income, the following prices are all from price chart income, Loose copy is $36.17. The box only is $39.49. The manual only is $20.24. Complete in box is $150.50 and brand new sealed in the box is now $559."
"Speaker 1","01;42;11;17","01;42;28;18","So this based off of these prices it's actually cheaper to Frankenstein a complete copy of this than getting one outright. It's so bizarre because that that never happens that way."
"Speaker 1","01;42;48;02","01;42;56;16","let us now execute judgment upon journey of the silliest and decide which of the seven cardinal sins it has committed."
"Speaker 1","01;42;56;16","01;43;03;06","Father Avery, in regards to narrative, what is your final judgment,"
"Speaker 1","01;43;03;06","01;43;11;00","in regards to narrative. Journey to Serious has committed a most heinous cardinal sin."
"Speaker 1","01;43;11;00","01;43;19;07","Deacon? Tension. In regards to narrative, what is your final judgment"
"Speaker 1","01;43;19;07","01;43;26;12","In regards to narrative, journey to Serious has committed the most heinous cardinal sin"
"Speaker 1","01;43;26;12","01;43;30;11","in regards to narrative and in the presence of this assembly"
"Speaker 1","01;43;30;11","01;43;35;24","journey to silly has committed a loathsome cardinal sin deserving of hellfire and damnation."
"Speaker 1","01;43;37;26","01;43;39;13","Father from"
"Speaker 1","01;43;39;13","01;43;42;15","In regards to audio, what is your final judgment?"
"Speaker 1","01;43;42;15","01;43;46;09","in regards to audio journey to Sylvia's has committed no"
"Speaker 1","01;43;46;09","01;43;47;00","fault."
"Speaker 1","01;43;47;27","01;43;53;06","Deacon Tankian In regards to audio, what is your final judgment"
"Speaker 1","01;43;53;06","01;43;58;18","in regards to audio journey to serious has committed no fault."
"Speaker 1","01;43;58;18","01;44;02;05","in regards to audio and in the presence of this assembly"
"Speaker 1","01;44;02;05","01;44;04;27","journey to silliness has been spared"
"Speaker 1","01;44;04;27","01;44;11;00","other over In regards to gameplay, what is your final judgment"
"Speaker 1","01;44;11;00","01;44;18;01","in regards to gameplay journey to Sylvia's has committed a most heinous cardinal sin."
"Speaker 1","01;44;18;01","01;44;22;13","be contention in regards to gameplay?"
"Speaker 1","01;44;22;13","01;44;24;25","What is your final judgment?"
"Speaker 1","01;44;24;25","01;44;29;25","In regards to gameplay, journey to Serious has committed the most heinous cardinal sin"
"Speaker 1","01;44;29;25","01;44;40;26","in regards to gameplay and in the presence of this assembly journey. This silly is has committed a loathsome cardinal sin deserving of hellfire and damnation."
"Speaker 1","01;44;43;29","01;44;46;24","By the way, for me"
"Speaker 1","01;44;46;24","01;44;50;20","in regards to graphics, what is your final judgment,"
"Speaker 1","01;44;50;20","01;44;51;11","in"
"Speaker 1","01;44;51;11","01;44;56;12","regards to graphics journey to Sylvia's has committed no fault"
"Speaker 1","01;44;56;12","01;45;02;10","content and in regards to graphics, what is your final judgment"
"Speaker 1","01;45;02;10","01;45;06;24","in regards to graphics journey to serious has committed no fall."
"Speaker 1","01;45;06;24","01;45;13;01","in regards to graphics and in the presence of this assembly journey to silliest has been spared"
"Speaker 1","01;45;13;18","01;45;16;07","by the RE from"
"Speaker 1","01;45;16;07","01;45;20;23","in regards to Xbox art and presentation, what is your final judgment"
"Speaker 1","01;45;20;23","01;45;29;18","in regards to Buck's art and presentation Journey to Sylvia's has committed a most heinous cardinal sin"
"Speaker 1","01;45;30;08","01;45;37;03","The contention in regards to box are in presentation. What is your final judgment"
"Speaker 1","01;45;37;03","01;45;39;04","in regards to box art"
"Speaker 1","01;45;39;04","01;45;40;13","and presentation"
"Speaker 1","01;45;40;13","01;45;43;28","journey to serious has committed the most heinous cardinal sin"
"Speaker 1","01;45;43;28","01;45;53;16","in regards to box art and presentation and in the presence of this assembly journey to IS has committed a loathsome cardinal sin deserving of hellfire and damnation"
"Speaker 1","01;45;56;14","01;46;02;11","by the Raven. In regards to fun factor, what is your final judgment?"
"Speaker 1","01;46;02;11","01;46;04;03","in regards to fun"
"Speaker 1","01;46;04;03","01;46;09;16","factor journey to Sylvia's has committed no fault"
"Speaker 1","01;46;09;16","01;46;15;06","The content in regards to fun factor?"
"Speaker 1","01;46;15;06","01;46;16;29","What is your final judgment"
"Speaker 1","01;46;16;29","01;46;21;15","in regards to fun factor journey to serious has committed no salt"
"Speaker 1","01;46;21;15","01;46;28;11","in regards to fun factor in in the presence of this assembly journey, this silliness has been spared"
"Speaker 1","01;46;28;11","01;46;33;27","by the Raven. In regards to technical, what is your final judgment?"
"Speaker 1","01;46;33;27","01;46;40;24","in regards to technical journey to Sylvia's, has committed a most heinous cardinal sin."
"Speaker 1","01;46;40;24","01;47;01;29","A contention in regards to technical? What is your final judgment in regards to technical and in the presence of this assembly journey? Vesalius has committed a loathsome cardinal sin deserving of hellfire and damnation."
"Speaker 1","01;47;06;11","01;47;12;14","Journey, the silliest. By the authority and vested in me, I execute judgment upon you"
"Speaker 1","01;47;12;20","01;47;17;13","Having committed four cardinal sins in the categories of narrative gameplay,"
"Speaker 1","01;47;17;13","01;47;28;05","box art and presentation and technical for which there can be no forgiveness, no mercy, no redemption, we exile you to the bowels of hell."
"Speaker 1","01;47;32;05","01;47;54;00","death. father's my avenge to and development colony the defend to terrorists, the fight to but choice no have I vows then Jay plan. Colony SS the destroy to determined more even and there out still were terrorists the that realized he project, the on worked"
"Speaker 1","01;47;59;27","01;48;01;03","This concludes this"
"Speaker 1","01;48;01;03","01;48;26;18","evening's service. Remember, our liturgy does not simply come to an end. Those assembled are sent forth. Bring the fruits of the ministry to the world."