Brain Soda Podcast - Episode 29 - Women Go To Venus To Get More...Final Fantasy

Episode Date: August 19, 2023

One this week's episode we're talking about the critically acclaimed video game series Final Fantasy and our "twin" planet, Venus!

Brainsoda And just remember when I bought them you said, yo, I only custom make your mom upset. It's the Brain Soto podcast. I as always am your host Kyle, joined by my co-host and cohort. Brad, how's it going? Today we're going to be talking about Venus, but first, Brad, it's 1987. Square is a company on the brink. The head of the company decides to take his four game designers. Have them all, draft up a proposal, and the rest of the employees would vote. What would

be the final effort from Square as a company during its financial turmoil? What kind of a genre was the game? It went on to become one of the most important role-playing games of all time. Brad, today we're gonna be talking about final fantasy. Hell yeah, final fantasy, man. That was one of my first RPG games, I would say.

Yeah. Well, I think Final Fantasy VII was probably like, Yeah. Because, man, that's PlayStation 1, correct? Yes. Oh, then it definitely was. Yes. I, I, I, I, I, yes, I'm very influential. I can't wait to talk about this series. It's probably, in my opinion, one of the most important, if not the most beloved video game series of all time. And I wanna make the distinction really quick too that like, not only would this have been your first RPG, it's your first like JRPG,

because this spawned the Japanese role-playing game of like, you have a party of four. You know what I mean? Like you're buffing out stats, they all kinda keep out roles, grinding for them levels, riding around on chocobos and airships, like the level

these games inspire after it is really notable and important as well as like the fan-baser grinders. So they were the first ones to like do this because like now I mean, that has been repeated at an infant number, whatever. Like it's not so much anymore, I would say, but like in that time period, the 90s and 2000s, like there was just so many of those RPG games

where you know, you have your four players, and there's the list, you have your attack, your items, your magic or whatever. And then like you're fighting people back, turn based, right? It would be, I guess, somewhat turn based. Yes, yeah, the turn based role playing game is really, I think one of the main distinction of this.

Okay, so they were the beginning of this then, though. Really? One of the most fundamental pillars of it, for sure, if not the... Gotcha. Yeah, because I mean, Final Fantasy, like you're seeing, you're seeing it in 87, that's pretty early on, right? Yeah, so let's get into it. So, this is, again, another company in that like went from PC development in Japan and

then like the Famicom comes out. What we know is the Nintendo Entertainment System, right? And like it really diverts so much of their efforts, but Final Fantasy ends up being the game that they produce and it is a sword and sorcery role-playing game you have to go through and save the four elemental crystals and things like that like a very baseline game, but it is beloved and super important because most role-playing games if not almost all at that time, were like we discussed before, like a simple silhouette picture, text-based readout to what happens in combat and what not. Instead you have

these four characters lining the side, you know, one to six enemy NPCs on the left hand side of the screen, like the way that they use the field of battle and what limited things they could at that point was really so important. So one of the things that's important about this game as a series though is that most people who played them when they were coming out and for a long time afterwards would think of these games in a non-chronological release order in actual releases. For example, in America, Final Fantasy II and III are both actually 4 and 6 respect. Okay. Because 2 and 3 were Japan only releases that stayed on the Nintendo and by the time they were about to do final fantasy in America again the super Nintendo's coming out

So they're like well just just release that new a super Nintendo game that you put out in Japan and don't compete with our new system, right? Yeah, I guess that makes sense and that'll be a trend throughout Final Fantasy as well. So that's that's jumping to a little bit more. Now, two is an interesting game. It's not very well beloved by fans who have played them after because these games get ported and remade and remastered a lot of different times throughout gaming history now essentially, right? So by the time that people are actually playing too proper, they really kind of come into conflict with the XP system in that,

because it's like Elder Scrolls, like the more you punch is the way you level that skill and things like that. And like people were not the biggest fans of it. Really? Okay, like because I mean, that's kind of just, like that's how I thought, oh, games know vinyl fantasy games words the more that you... Mm-hmm. Or are you talking about a specific move? Yeah. So you're...

Oh okay. An axe stat is boosted not by you gaining levels from beating imponents, it's via use. So after 50 times of using attack with a physical attack you gain up attack points. Yeah. See that's it like yeah, that would be a lot more annoying. Yeah, in Elder Scrolls I think it actually really works well and like apparently with the latest pixel remasters it's the best it's ever been, but still like even too though has its merits because it's a little bit darker, but the game feels more lived in, because by the time you enter an exit dungeon upon completion, there's things that have happened within the world of the game,

corresponding to the time you spent away from it. And in that dungeon, right? Which is pretty cool. That's really cool. Yeah. But three, I think, is the one that's really unfortunate, it didn't come to America till way later, because this is where summons starts

This is where not only summons, but the job system starts so classes were just kind of like oh you want to do dark magic Oh, you want to do healing magic? You want to fight? You know what do you want to do? Yeah, just like the general They were just kind of laid out, pick your class in the beginning. Yeah, war your healers. In three, you develop from what they call an onion kid, just a regular old random scamp, into being like, you can be spec'd out to be a thief. You could be spec'd out to be this, that,

or the other thing, based on what crystals you have and things like that. And like, for three, I think that is one of the things that make it so important. But like we said, those didn't reach America till way later because shortly thereafter, Super Nintendo comes. So now at four, which is for a long time,

canonically two in America, we have like one of the most beloved entries in the Final fantasy series. You know, that one I don't think I saw much of or like, you know, I'm familiar with all the games. That like, I have never played all of them. I've played actually like probably four or five, but that one I have heard a lot about though.

I've seen like a gameplay of it and stuff like that. Yeah, it is one of the most important games I think for that time too, because like, it starts the active time battle system. So like gauging out when you're going to be able to do this turn for this character. Got you. There's a little bar that lives.

It was like the strategy of it becomes more important. It's not just smash A to win. Now moving on, we have another Japan only released with five. And I really wanted to bring up five because, well, I've never seen anything of it either. Like you were mentioning before, the thing that I love about this is it expands the job system even further. And the story in and of itself though has elements of like environmentalism because instead of saving the crystals like you have been throughout these games, they're getting destroyed by being harnessed or maybe misappropriated by society.

Isn't that how almost all the games are? They're kind of like towards like an environmental lean, aren't they? In a sense? I think maybe to a certain extent, I mean, to be honest, most media and games kind of have that theming to them. Or they're like, like a lot of people probably are and like, you're not really supposed to sit there and think out how much your day to day

stuff within gamer life affects the planet, right? Well, even so, I mean, if they're like, I'm gonna destroy the world, well, you know, that's environmental, that's like, that's it. The main villain of the game though, is like a living tree. Oh man.

Yeah, like it is a very like, important environmental message. Wow, yeah. Well, I mean, I remember just like seven, you know. Seven is inherently though, kind of manipulative remember just like seven, you know, seven is inherently though Kind of manipulative to that because materium things like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah But you also use the material to like have your But you do it too, like I mean it's like industrialized like wasteland you live in six is another like Wasteland, who you live in. Six is another B-loved game because again it has its release here on the Super Nintendo is three and one of the things about it I think is the steam punk

kind of element to the game where it's not just, you know what I mean? Like a regular sword and sorcery fantasy game. Like now it's kind of like Abarhan if you know Table top role playing games and Dungeons and Dragons like yeah, it's you know, it's magic But machine and magi tech which again as you were saying like it does stick to that theme of harnessing The elemental crystals the magic of the earth and things like that for whatever effect. But before we go on to the next one, all of these like we are one through six. These are all these little like tiny people, right? Like these squishies. It's all sprites. Yeah. Sprites. That's okay. And like to be fair with six, six I feel like is one of those games where that pixel art style like it's some of the best looking sprite art it can be or that

Yeah type of game on a CRT and things like that and like Six also inspires Octopath Traveler heavily, which is a more recent release But it blends that like the water effects and the fire effects of a 3D game laid into that final fantasy pixel art is, mah chef's kiss baby. They really are there three playability on all these games like I don't think we've mentioned this at all like oh yeah oh grand these games are you know close to 30 years old but they play them you can play them and they're so great. But you can lay 30 hours into all of them. You know.

They are so great. Yeah, I mean, especially if you have an Emily later, you know, like Zika, like fast forward a little bit so like you can go through like the grinding part of it because some of them are kind of grindy. Well, that is one of the things about the Pixel Remasters is you could sit there and bump up with the improvement of life functions

that they put in those games like you can bump up your XP or Your speed or you can take away encounters and then not only are you changing the way the game works because like now You can just be buff AF as soon as you need to and get it out of the way. Yeah, I mean you could do that But you don't need to grind true is my point and the other thing is is there's certain Elements of those games like part of the reason why people frown on two and three as they do at times is because like Though you have the job system in three there's limited capacity that it doesn't work If you don't have certain classes in certain fights, you're not being that game. Yeah, exactly

That's it. You know when I played it simple, the Pixel Remasters, I think, really addressed some of those things with two and three. Okay. So, yes, anyways, so onto, I would say the, right now onto the PS1 era, because that is a very important note. Is that like many other developers and we kind of covered it in 21,

we were talking about Metal Gear Solid, like they couldn't quick cartridges no more. For you to really go out into the frontier that this is as an art form, you had to be making dis-based games. And like Final Fantasy VII is the first entry from this series on that format, not with Nintendo, and it is one of the most beloved video games

of its time of this series, probably of all time. It's spun off just like this series as a whole that game itself has spun off several different spin-offs the advent children animated film you know what I mean like there are so many things with this game it's almost like the GTA 3 of the Final Fantasy series right it's like what changed them from being like, kind of like every other, you know, RPG to being their own thing. Even though I know you said they kind of made RPGs, but like there was so many of them.

I think it's the RPG, yes, and I'll be right back. I think it's the band-aid of a piece of bandage. You know what I mean? Exactly. Yeah. Like Final Fantasy VII is the RPG. Final Fantasy VII. Play that.

Or sorry, Final Fantasy VII. Sorry. Yeah, Final Fantasy itself is the RPG Final Fantasy 7 is the RPG of the RPG Yeah, exactly that is the 7 is the one that people think of the most and now with the remakes that are coming out and they've Expanded the universe even that much more people love that new remake and I can understand why it is pretty cool I've played a good bit not a good bit not even a good bit of it a couple hours of it but like it's it was pretty nice like they really upgraded except played the original earlier we got wait hold on we're not even

gonna talk about seven of all other than that it was like the greatest but I mean I don't know maybe maybe I'm just biased because like because yeah I mean seven I don't know, maybe I'm just biased because yeah. I mean, seven, I feel like is a whole episode in and of itself. No, like seven for me was like a very influential game to me. You know, like that was like, probably, like I said earlier, well, I was like the first RPG that I played in everything. So like, I don't know, just the whole story of it and like the length of it at the time, because you had the four discs, you know, you had to put four different discs into your ears. Is it three or is it four?

I thought it was three. Maybe it's three. No, you're fine. It's fine. It was just insane to like, because I remember at one point, I had a copy that the second disc was scratched. So I could not play it. And like it took me forever.

I think I ended up going to get it cleaned or something You know, and I finally got to beat it, but like yeah, just like I played it on the P.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L.A.L. still like it no it was a thing to me where I sat there to like man I've put some hours into this thing and I can't even leave like this certain area and then it's like Please insert this to him like I bought this from a store How do I do that and then I you know and then I did it and I'm like wow that's that's pretty cool It was crazy. It was yeah, oh and the time, like for me watching a remaster, or playing a remaster of it on a PS3, was probably way different than you playing it at,

you know, adequate time of release. That's what I'm trying to say. Like, man, that was like that game. And like, because the cinematography of it, like the, you know, the, the, the, the cinematic things or whatever, like looking back now, like you're looking at a doll, it's like, man, that's pretty bad. But this has always been a really cinematic series.

Yeah. Exactly. And like, that was just like blew my mind and then like to go on, I guess eight, if you want to talk about it, eight, like revolutionize it even more. Was that out on the head of a? Yeah. Eight is still one. And eight is actually one of those things

where I feel like it's a little bit more cinematic. I feel like it also like, eight is more cinematic, it's better looking. And like even some of the menu layout and design like the simple layout, the user interface of the game is probably better than 7. The thing about it is that people malign 8 a bit I think too because like if they're if they're not dunking on the story they're dunking on drawing the way that magic is handled in this game is not

some people like all that much and also the junction system is things that I saw, like some complaints about, not wholesale, but, yeah, Aiden is one of those games that, like, although I love Final Fantasy, I don't know if I would, like, jump at eight unless I was, like, completionist about it and I had to play it. Yeah, see, like, now that I'm, like, thinking about it, and actually, I went and looked really quick at some of the pictures, like, it, like, took me wrong.

I played the game, I liked it and everything, but it was also probably a game of it's time. Yeah, you're totally, you're like, before I back down, like, yeah, probably not. Like, because, uh, is it nine's the one where it introduces the little, like, mage looking guy, right? Or is that 10? The first blue mage is in five, I think. Oh, but as a character, as a character who looks like that sprite, because that's what it's the blue-mage sprite. Yeah. That comes in nine. Oh, OK.

So that one, I played the crap. Yeah, I played the shit. Now, nine is interesting, because it is another hard landing on the PlayStation 2. So with Nintendo, we saw some of this where like they had to skip whole games It gets a little bit better. I mean, I would argue maybe a little less because like a game like nine that people Beloved when they've played it there's talks about that having a remake and things like that like

Nine is apparently one of the best final fantasy games But like I feel like you don't hear about it like you do eight because eight came in the middle cycle of the PlayStation 1 Yeah, and this thing released like I think literally a handful of weeks before the PlayStation two. So it's a PlayStation one game still. Yeah. Really? Man, because like, I don't know. I'm just I'm like going through the just searching. I'm in like looking at pictures as you're talking and like, man, I'm really impressed with PlayStation's graphics. I did not know there that that good. I thought. Yeah. I was thinking PlayStation was a lot more basic. So, I mean, honestly.

In its very beginning in like 95, 96 or whatever it is, it is. By the time that we're playing at 98 and it's pretty well developed, foreign things like that, I think there's a different vlog in there. But yeah, yeah, so like 10's a big one though, for sure. 10 is one of the biggest ones and I feel like 10 almost like Supplance 7 to a certain extent when you get to a certain generation because they probably saw it or the very least like Those were engines a character models and things like that that highly influenced Kingdom Hearts the kind of Disney

Remixed You know like yeah, look at this. There's no way that's Super duper ps2. Yeah, no and like I remember 10 and like 10 I think it's like kind of where I fell off really I did play it But it was just way too flashy and like too much lights in like I haven't played 10 or I've never played 10 But I thought I remember you playing 10. Yeah, just it was very low. I think I might have seen you play 12 though, because just looking at the grid sphere system that was introduced in this game.

It was the same people, right? X2, because it wasn't 12, those X2, right? X2 is another sequel, one of these. So another spin off that comes from 10. Okay, so maybe that's X2. But this thing introduces what they call the grid sphere system, and it sticks around with these games for a little bit, where instead of you being big on levels,

you're scoring something akin to job points, and then you're going along a mapped out line for this character of possibilities along certain grids. So like if you want to spec them out of certain specific way, there's kind of always the options there for what's possible for them. You know what I mean? And like I feel like that is a big advent from this game.

And for me, I don't have the nostalgia because I probably sat with you while you played 10-2 and was checking out and thought it was really cool. 11 is an MMO and like... One of the first or like it had to have been early one. I think it's one of the first console ones, absolutely. But it did start in 2002. Okay, I remember though, someone playing Final Fantasy XI,

you know him. I remember this guy, the head, so much hooked up. He had like this, you know, he's paying out the up he had like this you know He's paying out the app for this internet, you know, and like it was before DSL right? This is like later T1 liner So the name like lamb line Like I don't even know if I had internet at my house and he was playing this I think I had internet my house

Just for those who may not get the reference, we grew up in the stick. Exactly. Yeah, to have this type of shit. Like, it was not easy having to do something like that. I'm sure. Exactly. The craziest thing that I found out about 11 is that 11

is still playable on PCs apparently, but it went apparently the server shut down for consoles like on 360 and stuff like that until 2016. Wow, that's actually surprising. Yeah, I was amazed. I didn't have time to like fact check it, but like I don't know why Google would lie about that. Like, that's pretty crazy that they would hold support for that for that. But I feel like Final Fantasy so big that like people were sitting there just dumping hundreds of hours and that Never stopped. Yeah, I remember that guy, man That's why I remember it so vividly because that's all he did Right, so now we get to the one I really like from our era the PS2 era, right?

Final Fantasy 12 what would commonly be found today on the PS4 and on the Switch and probably game pass and things like that is the Zodiac Age so it has been remastered and XII is the one that I always really kind of liked maybe for some of its style distinctions and stuff like that but it actually I don't think gets the love that it should again because it was flopped up right besides the PS3's release. Yeah, that's what I noticed that. They actually, because the reason why I noticed that is I usually bought the system, like when the new system came out, I like, I bought a lot of games and release games because it was cheaper at that point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Looking at the pictures again, I can't believe I played a lot of Final Fantasy games now that I'm looking at it.

The up 12, 12, you're right, was one of the best ones. If not, probably, yeah, it's up there. It's up there was seven, I would say, for me at least. I played seven and I enjoyed it as like a call bat. Like I wanted to finally get the hours in on that game and I really enjoyed it. It's a game of its time though, like being more akin to PlayStation 2 era stuff and then jumping back to a PlayStation 1 game for the first time and actually I never had a PlayStation, I had an N64.

So it was kind of like this weird like amalgamation thing for me. 12 is something that sticks in my mind and makes me like, you know, it gives me the nostalgia gooses, to be honest. That's kind of how seven is to me. Like, but yeah, I did get it though when I just looked at these again, I have to look at the pictures. Unless I look at the pictures I'm like, yep, remember that game like crazy. Played lots of hours on that damn thing. It keeps that grid spear kind of leveling system and stuff like that and so did the PS3's release of

13 now I played 13 and I heard criticisms of it at the time and later of like it's a hallway simulator Like it is a very linear easy game. It was in that open world It It really isn't until you get into like the late stages of the game It really isn't until you get into like the late stages of the game So like in the very beginning you're kind of going through these chapters and just you're you're in these areas, but these areas are like very much expanses of like a long linear kind of segment and then you get into the next

They almost like caves I feel but, because they had cool looking stuff, but like the zones that you had to go in through to travel from one point of a map to another were very linear, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. I know what you're saying. Like, yeah, like it's like, it was like a path, you had to follow. It wasn't like, you kind of like just kind of go.

Yeah, exactly, yeah. Pathwalker 2013 or 2009, yeah, you know, that's, that's one that's things about it. 13 was also sequelized. So I've I've never played 13 to and I've never really looked up too much about it but I mean for all its detractors, it does have enough of a support base to have been able to be sequelized, which is cool. That is cool. Yeah. Sorry to go on a tangent. But was there a lot of side missions in the final fantasies? I'm trying to like the early ones.

There wasn't really any at all, I find it remember. Seven, I know there's a bit of side quests. And I think like, I, yeah. Like small ones, so. Yeah, no, definitely. Because the thing is, is that it's just different. There's not side quest markers on a map for you to go to and like, you know, whole segments of a game that are dedicated

to side missions and things like that. Even in the later ones. Well, I'm just saying in general for their UI layout and things like that. Like, it's not marked like that, but you could always find a random dungeon that you hadn't been to as part of the linear story for the main continuity of the game. Very true. And like, oh, I'm going to go in here, fight this boss, get this loot, bounce out, and now I have like end game equipment. Sometimes 10 hours into your playthrough, if you knew what you were doing and things like that. Well, no, you had to do that.

I think in Final Fantasy VII, like there was some stuff like to get the end game equipment, you had to like, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, like big time out of your game. Certain summons and stuff like that for sure too, yeah. I mean, there's always things like that. So I would say two and three definitely had a bit of that going forward. So yeah, I think there's always been some side content stuff. It's just like that side quest like

other scroll side quests, you know, it was a little different, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's not very much like story side quest as much as there is like go grab some extra loot loot go defend this town like the mini game stuff in seven is kind of prevalent and comes to mind yeah like the chocobo eight had a whole card game in it exactly you know there's like mini games and stuff like that but it's a little different but so 14 now and we're getting to the ps4 era I'm pretty

sure this came out for 14 if not, it might have bridge between the two because they actually had to tear it down and rebuild it from the ground up to become 14 or realm reborn. And I mean, I just found that to be notable about it, but it is another MMO from that. 13, I've never even seen it all. I really, oh, yeah, I don't know anything about it. Yeah, looking at it. I didn't know much about it at all. And I think it's because at initial release, it was panned so hard by people, and then they just started from the ground up. I remember hearing about a realm reborn. Yeah, but like, I've never seen gameplay of it

looked up a review or anything like that. Me either, at all. MMOs aren't really my bag baby to quote Austin Powers. I sure, yeah. I mean, I can get into them. They're not bad, but it takes a lot. You have to devote yourself to the MMO versus other names. Like, if I start playing one, I'd probably love it, but that's like, I just started the time for that shit, man. Right. And sometimes I don't always want to play that one game. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It gets tedious and boring after like a month or two.

Yeah. Honestly. Yeah. Right. So here we jump into it Final Fantasy 15. I feel like it has kind of a mixed reaction and It's got some cool frenetic kind of gameplay, but I think you lose some of that role playing elements just having those four Core-Cast-a-characters always there and like there's a cool bonding element to it and stuff like that But a very modern kind of take of a final fantasy game where like you got to drive your car to get over here to this mountain range and fight this creature But I feel like the systems in this game are kind of akin to like the gambit system in the combat that happens in 12 and Like for for the detractors there are very many defenders 415 and it is also like another media kind of empire in and of itself 15 like it's crossed over to

and Ben like ported and remastered and released on so many different things now, so many different like games and things like that. And then you have 16, the latest release for PS5, which we unfortunately don't have an RNA for the play at the moment, but it looks really cool. Well, it just came out, at the time of recording, this came out like a month or so ago, right? Yeah, it's a new game at this point right now,

but like definitely at some point in the future, I would love to check it out. It does look pretty cool. I saw trailers for it. Like I would I would rock it. Yeah. I'll get a PS5 when the PS6 comes out for sure. And it also looks like a really cool return to fantasy. All of these games pre-13 are on the switch. Game pass and things like that you can pretty much play all these games I think. Can you really? I think Game Pass you can probably play 7 through 13. You might not be able to play because I think it was a ps

theory exclusive okay I'll tell you like yeah but that is final fantasy very broad strokes to cover just the core games and there's tons of spin-offs and things like that if if you're interested play some absolutely but yeah man though like I really like the final fantasy games like actually it you took me on a trip down memory lane, because again, like I said, looking back, I didn't know I played that many of them, really. Yeah. Yeah, and like, but one thing I noticed, they're all on Earth though, right?

Like they're always... I think every Final Fantasy game stays in your planetarium. But I guess they never say it's Earth. Yeah, maybe that's what it is, that there's just different names of nations and things like that, but it still seems to be Earth. Yeah.

So it's like a twin Earth, almost like Venus. Oh, you don't say. I do. But. Okay. Venus is, they call it the twin of Earth. I mean, it really kind of is in a sense because of its size and mass and everything, but it's really nothing like earth at all.

That's kind of what I fit. When you were like earth to it, I was like, who the fuck is that? It's got a verse, dude. I didn't know that. Yeah, that's interesting. All right. So being a S. Man, it's the second plan from the sun. I think most people know that, but maybe not.

You know, and I don't want to assume that, you know, that you know, or people listening, or you Kyle, where our planets are aligned. It's actually the closest to us. Like, we bend to Mars, you know, we have rovers and stuff on Mars, but Mars is actually farther away from us than Venus is. I never realized that though. Yeah, yeah, like Venus, we'll get into this later,

but it was actually the first intracurplanatory mission was to Venus. But yeah, so the way that it orbits the sun, like the plane that it's on, and also the speed at which it orbits it, it actually is farther away from us most of the time than like Mercury is. I think Mars is still like more distant from us

just from like how far away it is and like spacing, but yeah, like Mercury is actually closer to us than Venus most of the time, which is kind of weird to think about. Well, I think it is when spacing, but yeah, Mercury's actually closer to us to Venus most of the time, which is kind of weird to think about. Well, I think it is when you think about it in the linear maps that used to get laid out to us in science classes, kids. But if you had one of those cool tables or those cool little rotating, what are those things called?

Astrolabe? Maybe? Astrolabe? I think that makes sense. But yeah, essentially like a globe for the solar system. Essentially. Exactly. If you had one of those just barking around your house or your classroom,

like, yeah, bro, it did probably totally different and you realize it way more often. Yeah. Who's got one of those just laying around too? I don't think many people, a galaxy globe. Why the f**k don't they call it a galaxy globe? It'd be bad. We need to market that. Exactly. That would be a good one. Yes. Well, I mean, even those, man, is like, but I know you're talking about, yeah, yeah, planetarium type seal. But like, if you look at like the distances of like how far we are, man, it's insane. But anyways, so Venus, right?

Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility, right? And her name was Venus. Yeah. Or sorry, the Roman goddess, not God. Venus is the only planet that's named after a female goddess, not a god, you know, like Mercury, you know, Mars, yeah.

Yeah, they're all, yeah. But her Greek counterpart was Aphrodite. And I feel like people know the name Aphrodite more than Venus for whatever reason, or at least I do. Like I associate like, you know, the goddess of love as Aphrodite, not Venus. Yeah, I mean, I feel like the word association

probably goes with it to a certain extent, but Venus, I feel like people know pretty well because it's like, Yeah, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire your desire and all that you know, yeah And there's like the Venus It's not a feminine care product. It's like a nare thing isn't it? Yeah, I mean we have apro D-Djac, that comes from Afro-D80, right? Oh, yeah, that is true too, yeah.

But because of the brightness of Venus, right? And I guess I failed to mention this, but Venus is the brightest thing in the sky next to the sun and the moon. So there's nothing brighter in the sky other than the sun and the moon and Venus. It's the third brightest thing in the sky. I guess it's a better way to say that. But so like if you if you look up at the night sky even I think no matter where you are, I think you can see Venus at any city if I'm not mistaken. But

usually it might be the only star you can see in a city is Venus. That's how bright it is. Like it's insanely bright. When you're looking up in the night sky, especially at dusk, and just look for the first star you can see is probably Venus. Like, more often than not is Venus. But then, but it's not a star. Yes, I know. Right. That's funny though. No, but I know what you mean is that right. It would, it would appear to you as a star,

but it's actually not a star. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, so like, that is cool. Yeah, it is. It's, it's crazy how bright it is, too. Like, comparative star. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, so that is cool. Yeah, it is. It's crazy how bright it is, too. Like, comparative to other stars, man. Especially if you go out into a really dark sky, you can really notice the difference.

Right. And I think it's really bright because it's so close to us. And because the color of it reflects a lot of light. It's like almost like a tan-ish, yellowish, puke, you know, like it's like a, like almost like a tan-ish yellowish puke, you know, color, yeah, yeah, but, but because of that though, because it was so bright and because it's so prominent in our sky and it sticks around and doesn't move that often, you know, it's been like part of like ancient religions and know about like for, for millennia, right? Like the, actually the ancient Babylonians, back in 1600 BCE, where like the first people actually recorded, I guess are earliest evidence of recording that.

I'm sure it's been, you know, tracked and recorded and worshiped and stuff like that for many, many years before that. But. Oh yeah, people walking out of caves to see Venus on the night sky, probably. Exactly. Immediately, he bend the whim to what they believed it wanted. Yes, exactly. Because planets are weird.

We don't see this now because we live our busy modern lives. But if you actually like were to look at the night sky, you would see all of these stars, like actual stars, or I guess whatever galaxies, nebula, whatever, moving across the sky. And if it were to see it would would rise a little bit higher in the sky and then slowly track its way from, you know, kind of like the sun does from east to west, right? That's kind of how the night sky works. Right. But planets on the other hand, they don't

do that because they're orbiting the sun, you know, we're I guess you have to like think of it as like, you know, you're going around. They're shifting on a different plane. Yeah. Exactly. So like they almost make, they usually make like almost a figure eight or like an infinity symbol in this night sky and stuff like that. But they stick around like almost all year long. This is why planets have been like worshiped. Why they're like thought of as gods and stuff like that by the ancients is because like they were different. There were things that stuck around and that did things differently in the night sky Versus all these other stars, you know

That's really the big thing of why planets right? Yeah, and at this point There's not like a Gregorian calendar or anything like that They may have used sundials pretty Prevalently at this time so the night sky is a book in love itself, right? Oh, big time man, like for navigation and everything, like honestly, like they didn't understand astronomy. Venus actually played a role into understanding astronomy later on. I'll talk to you about that in a second.

But to continue on, it's actually, it's 67,686,450 miles, or 108,930,816 kilometers from the Sun I was gonna round it and I'm like, you know what? I can't round things and like I guess I did round a couple things Rounded it. Yeah, like I mean, I'm gonna give you what you know like I'm looking this stuff. I'm gonna write down that Oh number and I'm gonna tell you what it is. Anyways, it's the size of it though The volume is 2.23 times 10 to 11 miles cubed,

or 9.28 times 10 to 11 kilometers cubed in volume, right? So... So, does that mean it's slightly bigger than Earth? It's slightly smaller than the Earth, right? 0.857 Earths, I guess, if you wanted to think of it, it's like, you know, like... Okay. 7-8-7, seven. Hey Larry, can you pass me the seventh eighth earth, please? Exactly. Yeah.

Like, it's very similar because like, you know, all the other planets are even Mars is a lot smaller than Earth, you know, or Mercury is way smaller and then all the other gas giants are way bigger, right? So like, this is very similar in size to Earth and like, they, they think that maybe like billions of years ago or a billion years ago, it might have bend similar to earth, bend like a water world, and stuff like that. But now the atmosphere is crazy.

Just to wrap up, it stats really quick. It's mass is 1.073 times 10 to the 25 pounds or 4.8675 times 10 to the 24 kilograms. And that's about like 0.815 Earths, right? So it's still about, you know, like 7-8s Earths. Like even its mass and its volume are like very similar to Earth and astronomical things, right? Right.

Whatever what makes Venus the most different, I would say, from Earth. You know, it's very similar in size. It's similar in like the Goldilocks zone, right? If like Venus could have been Earth, honestly, it's in the habitable zone. With the sun's orbit, right? So like, like, yeah, exactly. Not too hot, not too cold.

Yeah, the Goldilocks zone. I love that term. I just think it's the perfect, yeah. It really is. I use that all the time. Like, oh, is that the Goldilocks of this to my kids? I don't know, just that. Is that the Goldilocks zone?

I mean, does the Goldilocks zone? Exactly, yeah. I don't know. Is that the Goldilocks of the thing? Does he make the Goldilocks of the thing? Exactly, yeah. I mean, yeah, because I mean, it just works how perfectly man. It's like, not too much of this, not too much of that. It's right, perfect, right? Yeah, but anyways. It's atmosphere is just, it's greenhouse gases run amuck, you know?

And it's not, I'm not saying, I know we said, I think that actually the climate change episode, we said Venus is kind of said I think that actually the climate change episode We said Venus is kind of like Earth run a muck if climate change happened So the atmosphere of Venus it's filled with carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid too, but mostly carbon dioxide right and Because of that it's almost like this like thick blanket of gas around it And it just traps all the sun's energy and just heats up the surface of it and like, you know, in the air, obviously,

up to like 900 degrees Fahrenheit or 475 degrees Celsius. Yes, like this is how it looks like melt lead, right? Yeah. It's insanely hot. Industrial oven heat. Yes, yes. And like, it's killing almost. It's killing almost. Yeah, drill oven heat. Yeah. Yes. And like because of that.

Yeah, it is almost like a kiln, yeah. And like because of the atmosphere, like it's so thick in the pressure, so hot, the pressure is over 90 times that of earths. Like so like it's not just hot. It's extremely high pressurized too. Like so like it's just, it's insane conditions there, you know? Like we would not be able to survive

there at all. Humans would do a diolous instantly. Could even high level survivability bacteria survive on meanness though? I don't think so. Possibly. Really? I will bring something up at the end. Okay, I'll say. Possibly., but possibly. Not on the surface. No, the surface, no. Oh, but burned. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, even extreme of files would be, would just, no, that's too much, right?

Right. But, yes, possibly. Okay. It is geologically active, or at least was recently, right? Because there's mountain ranges, and there's volcanic planes and stuff like that. They can tell that there was volcanism there, which means that there's stuff going on underground right there is an active like core, but not anymore and One thing that's weird about Venus is that it spins backwards and we're gonna reason why but that might be This is the double planet. I'm starting to not believe it. It's so weird, man. Venus is a weird ass planet. It's so weird. It is. Yes. So, but the reason

why we can tell that there's like volcanoes and stuff is because like it's like you can see there's not that many meter impacts, right? If there if there wasn't active, there'd be a bunch of like like the move, for instance, you'd see craters everywhere and all that, but there is there's very little you just like the earth because the earth moves and recycles and all that so that there's no craters to well very little craters to be seen because they get like reformed right? Right. Yeah. So they can tell from that and from other things, right? Then it can be as old as a billion years old, like the surface of it or as young as 150 million years. And like I know 150 million years doesn't seem to be very long time, but that is, but like

galactically speaking, that is like a blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. A new born baby. Yeah, that's a very young, you know, so like to go on to the rotating backwards, right? This is the only planet in the solar system that does this. Uranus does rotate on its side, don't get me wrong, it does rotate, and so that's interesting, but like all planets kind of act like if you think of like almost like a ball rolling around. They all have that like semi-straight. They're orbit. It's like a cylinder, right? A solid cylinder that they roll around, right?

Like think of like a ball rolling around the outside of a cylinder. That's kind of how they how planet spin, right? And it makes sense. Or almost like a spinning top. Like it's just the length of that tip that makes the difference at what surface it's laying on, right? Well, yeah, no, that's, oh, yes. And the axis would be like a top spinning,

like, I guess, parallel to the sun, right? The sun and the top spinning, like, you know, think of like the sides of a top spinning around a cylinder would be, this is getting kind of abstract. Well, with the rotation around the sun, but I'm just saying the axis causes everything to lean not in a straight parallel line or whatever.

Yes, yes. So like, yeah, and like Uranus, like I said, rolls on its side, which is weird. So like that, the axis is tilted 90 degrees, right? So like it's like, as it goes, like it's kind of spinning like a ball on the ground, I guess, versus a top, right? Yeah.

But Venus though, however, does the, like it spins the a top, right? Yeah. But Venus though, however, does the, like it spins the opposite way, right? It's spinning kind of like, I'm just spinning counterclockwise or whatever. It's exactly, yeah. If you're thinking counterclockwise as a normal rotation, it's spinning counterclockwise. And like, how the hell did that happen, right?

That's just the double plan. Exactly. Exactly. Well, oh no. yeah, like they're not really sure obviously we're not sure how that happened, but the most likely thing is that I got hit right by like in the early soil system. What they think because there's no one other thing is Venus has no moons. Venus and Mercury involved though, but Mercury probably does it because it's so close to the Sun, but Venus should have a moon or well, it's likely to have a moon. Most planets have moons.

Mars has moons, every, you know, Jupiter, Saturn, Earth, Neptune, Earth has a moon, right? Right, right. But what scientists theorize or some theorize is that at first it got hit. It got hit by something and it created the moon just like Earth did. Like we talked about. But then another thing. So another impact, right? Exactly, another giant impact. And that is like maybe the rotation got slowed down the first impact and then the second impact was like really what caused it to stop.

You know, or not stop, but actually reverse, you know. And because of that, that gravitational shift in everything caused the moon to, the moon of Venus to fall into Venus, you know, and like actually, you know, combine back with it. Wow, yeah, okay. Yeah, and that makes, you know, to me, that makes a lot of sense, you know.

Well, okay, so could that quasi-explain or lend itself to the heat and pressure that's being involved with Venus from its known time to us. Because obviously we don't know the hundred million years or whatever it is if it's in that younger stage. But if it's reformed with whatever that impact. That's actually a really good point. You're right, you're going like you're thinking in the right track. Thinking like a science man, right? Yeah, like seriously, like it is partially because of its rotation and stuff, why it's so hot.

Maybe the reason why that it doesn't have life anymore or water and all that is because there wasn't a moon. Right. A lot of theories are that the moon kind of protects us from asteroids and things like that, because like it's almost like a shield. So maybe that might be one of the reasons why, maybe you got to hit by a bunch of asteroids.

Well, isn't it, is it pretty typical us having just the one moon? It is actually pretty a typical to have one right honestly, so yeah Right, so I always thought that was a thing too is the fact that we only have one Maybe you guys are so close to the Sun Like maybe I don't know I don't know about astronomy But that kind of makes sense to me like the closer you get to the Sun I see like there's the last moons there is, can't say that because Jupiter has a ton more than like Uranus and Neptune.

Because of this rotation too, like its day is actually longer than its year. So a year on Venus is 225 Earth days. And a day is 243 Earth days. So like, just imagine that, right? Is it like that part of Alaska where like equinox happens and there's like no Yes, yeah, whatever. Okay. That's exactly what it is, but it's for the whole year for a so a year long on one side pretty much and because of that like that creates insane

differences in the right? I'm like that creates insane differences in the app, right? I'm full size of the earth. I just don't like this thing is so suspect. It's a crazy planet. Like it's insane. We're going to eventually do all the planets, but I just wanted to start with Venus.

Like because of that, like that creates super heating in one side of the planet and super cooling on the other side. And that creates, you know, the whole thing about storms is hot and cold, right? Different pressure zones. And that creates, you know, like the draft of it. And I guess because of the thickness of the atmosphere because of the thickness of the gases there,

like it, like it also is like pushing through water in a sense, not exactly, but you know, it's thicker. So like the force of the heat moving is more than it would be on earth. Again, like we've mentioned before, the density of things like that. Yeah, so like it just, that's like all of this like creates just this insane,

well, exactly environment, like it's insane. Like how it is, like on Venus. But believe it or not, like we've actually, well, Russia has actually touched down on the planet. We have it. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. They didn't last very long,

but it was the first interplanetary flight was to Venus and that took place in 1961. And it was the Russians that did it. The Russians actually beat us on like tons of stuff. And like obviously we don't mention that You know the US does it like we like we love to talk about like brag about NASA. We were a first land out of the moon The Russians were the first in space like to put anything in space They're the first to like put like a living thing in space the first person in space the first interplanetary mission

You know like they're first I think that might not be the first to fly by the moon. I don't think, I think the moon was us. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised.

It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised.

It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It was a cold, the arm was raised. It, I mean, not much good came out of the Cold War, but that was one good thing. Absolutely not. Yeah, so I guess the Soviet, it wasn't Russian, it was Soviet at the time. In 1961, Venerable won Fly Pass Venus, I'm May 19, 1961. But it lost radio signals, like no data was transferred, you know, but still, I mean, it still went by, like you could obviously predict that. That's, it went by it. But right.

Yeah. In 1962 though, we set a probe that successfully flew by it and recorded that and all that. The the Mariner 2 flew by in December 14th 1962. Suck it. Exactly. No, but that's over here for the review that had like a cooler thicker upper atmosphere, right? And like that and the extremely hot surface surface so like the upper atmosphere is a little cooler and stuff and it's a little bit different composition and all that but

still but in 1970 the Ventora 7 that was the first spacecraft to land on it and it had some trouble landing like the parachute didn't deploy right and everything and it probably was because of the atmosphere like even if they were to land it right probably won't last a long Yeah, I was like parrots. Well, I mean they still use that they still use parachutes. What's land on Mars? What is that made out of like in the spesto's blanket almost like to land on Venus, right? Well, I mean that's the thing about Venus exactly. I don't know what they used with that but like yeah Exactly, I don't know what they used with that, but like yeah, okay, okay, when we talk about Mars We'll get into what like the Mars rovers and all that but yeah, so they like try to land there and it did land and like transmit data

Like there's pictures of the surface of Venus and please look those up because it's so cool looking I mean, it's just like rocks and like yellow looking, but it's so cool. Just like that's another planet You know that was 1970 as well like not like like, you know, recent like now, yeah, we see stuff from Mars a lot, but like, this is 1970. This is freaking 50 years ago, right? Yeah. And only that's like 29 minutes though, but it's still really cool though. It is crazy to imagine those 29 minutes just as I like. Exactly. I don't think it was life feed, but like, that would be so cool to see. No, I'm saying if you could have seen it in one, you know what I mean? Like just imagining that right now is like...

It really is, like I blows my mind sometimes to think about that. And like the rover images and stuff, like think about how far away that is. It's on a different planet. On a different planet. And we're taking pictures, a video, and there's a drone flying out there. Oh, yes. It's crazy. Yes. Anyways. It almost looks like a sepia, like I hate that it is just that

because it just looks like a sepia tone thing but to know what it is, to know what it is. Yeah, it's the sulfuric acid of the air, if that's causing that. How and the fuck did they get that, you know what I mean? Like, and this is 1970, like, bro, my phone goes on the fritz and I'm like, oh, it's exactly, exactly.

Yeah, it's like, it's like, here's a live pictures from Venus, one of the most destructive atmospheres that we can even fathom in 1970s, yeah. It really is insane. It's like, I mean, yeah. Like, I don't know. We haven't went back though Like because not I think we could do it, you know

Just get like some crazy like crazy alloy. We get down there. We could do it You know, I mentioned in this upper atmosphere right a minute ago 30 miles above the atmosphere the surface temperatures are actually like 8,6 to 156 series right Fahrenheit or 30 to 70 C, right? Which that's... That's still, yeah. I was gonna say that's still kind of in the realm for us, right? Yeah, I mean, extreme a files could handle that.

And like, it's like the atmosphere is really thick, but it's also like, you know, like, things could live in that type of atmosphere. And they've actually seen like these dark streaks appear and persist like through like hurricane winds and stuff like I'm like telescope imagery and stuff like that. Not saying that that's aliens but right. It's kind of weird. It also absorbs UV radiation like you like it's probably just ice crystals, honestly, or like iron chloride molecules, side to theorize, but you know, it could be microbial life,

and like sulfur atoms make a ring, like a ring shaped link around them. And so that means like, you can almost use it as like a shell for like, you know, like microbes, because you use the sulfur atoms themselves to protect themselves from the sulfuric acid. And that also absorbs UV light. Oh my god.

The sulfur rings. So maybe it's just the sulfur rings. But maybe it's the bacteria that's making the sulfur rings that are absorbing the UV light. Maybe. I'm just saying, Just building them around them like a mech. Exactly. It's, I'm just saying it's aliens.

Probably not. But maybe everybody spike your hair up. Exactly. The Russian probes though, they did detect something in the lower atmosphere that was like a one micron in size, which could be like bacteria. Bacteria is like a micron in size, but it also like tons of other stuff.

Right. But it's just one last thing. And you know, I did mention earlier that like I said, it played a big role or a role in the development of our understanding of the solar system and everything, right? Right. So if you look at Venus, right, through a telescope. And I encourage everybody to, you can get the cheapest telescope you can find from freaking dollar general.

I guarantee you, you get a great image of Venus. Right. It would still pan out for you. Yeah, it might be a little blurry. You might have like a light ring around it, but it'll look good. But if you look at it, it has phases, just like the moons, right? It takes 484 days for it to complete a cycle

versus like 30 days for the moon. But it's just phases. And from that, Galileo Galilei, which I really want to talk about him soon, it's going to be in the next few episodes, but you know, we're going to talk about him very soon. Yes, I'm down. He made that observation. And through mathematics and you know, like the physics of what Copernicus determined was a heliocentric view of the solar system.

And by that I mean the suns in the center and all the planets go around it. Right. It used to be thought that the earth was a center, you know? Main character syndrome. Yeah, geocentric view, right? And because of religion, everything was because the church said that's because you know the heavens and everything

were above us. We can't, we can't play to this son. Yes and like you know we'll get into this with when we talk about Galileo but you know he was prosecuted for a lot of the stuff but he was the one that like really like solidified heliocentrism that proved that the planets went around the sun and it's one of the biggest things was because of the phases of Venus and the way He was able to display that like that showed like look this is it going around the sun Like it wouldn't have these phases unless it went around the sun, right? Like if it went around if it around went around the earth and the sun did as well

Then it wouldn't have those phases like yeah, so like that's just moved my mind when I was reading that, like, yeah, really cool. That is cool, yeah. And like you said earlier, it makes sense to see it with the trajectory of like how it moves against the night sky, which moves in a certain pattern because it's our night sky, right? Yeah, we're circling the sun, but so is Venus.

So you gotta like kind of think of like how that would look as that's going on, my bold of us are moving, but we're also like certainly sun, but so is Venus. So you gotta like kind of think of like how that would look as that's going on My bold of us are moving, but we're also like certainly a thing. It's weird, but it ends up being like a Following a card leaving the highway is yeah, yeah, it really is. Yeah, like I said, it ends up being like a figure eight almost Or like a infinity symbol. It's yeah, it's pretty cool. And with that, we would love to thank you for joining us here each and every week on the Brain Soda podcast. You can find us under that handle on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

You can find us on Patreon. And as a patron, you can get early access to these episodes by one week. For Brad, I'm Kyle and we will see you again here soon. I shall see you. Obluminative lamp. BRAIN SOTA