Castle Super Beast - CSB378: CASTLE SUPER BEAST IS A BLACK-OWNED BUSINESS

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

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Yo, yo, how are we doing? I'm all right. How are you doing, man? Doing good. Cool shirt. Oh, thank you. Dropped up. You know what the best part about this shirt is? Mm-hmm. I can hug and kiss on this dog all day,

and it doesn't make me look like a disgusting hobo person. No, it's got the hippie colors, so it all blends in. His dog hair doesn't show up on it. It all blends in. There you go. Yeah, I wore this shirt on the last day of the stage. jam slam to give me luck. There you go. It did not work.

Yeah. I feel like I had my lucky like tournament clothes from back in the day that I used to rock for a while. But I've rotated it out since. I don't get lucky tournament clothes only work

if you like win in them. Like win? Yes. Yeah. And then you're like, well, got to wear that same one. It doesn't work. if you're like, hopefully I'll do good this time. I got top 16 in this Crypt of the Neckrodancer's shirt.

Clearly, I can wear it again and hope for the better. Yeah, no. So, no, this was a pretty eventful week. Lot went down and with what was it being Evo weekend and all. So there's going to be a bunch of that to get into. But I figured I would put that into the end, the first fighting game. game snooze. There it is.

There it is. Which is actually a topic this week. It is quite, it is quite in fact. It is a topic. It is quite in fact a topic because it is a weekend of the big one. So that's going to come up. We're going to talk about that. But before getting into that, since there's a whole bunch of it, I figured might as well get the non-Evo stuff out of the way.

And that for me means, I. have since I last talked about it, went back and spent a good amount of time with Mina the hollower. Oh yeah. And I have to say I'm I'm way in and I really, really like it. And I'm super on board and appreciate what it's got what it's got going on. And I'm yeah, I think like just with time and and with, you know, kind of pushing through some of those early issues, it really like, smooths out the ride once you start getting those trinkets and kind of, you know, learning the ropes and stuff. I think I overall still do not really enjoy top view platforming.

I realize that about myself in general. It's just, it's not something, it's not my preferred method of classic, you know, gaming. But with the amazing design of this game and everything it's got going on mechanically, it really does carry it in. Just tell me you found that fucking ladder. Oh, I got the ladder. Yeah. So, like, I, there, I, you were, you were talking last week, or two weeks ago?

More than that, probably, but yeah. And, uh, in the back of my mind, I'm like, this is that pre-ladder discussion. This is that, that pre-ladder. I'm sitting there and I was streaming the ladder process and I'm like, surely I have gotten all the value I can get out of this ladder and look over. and sure enough, no, no, there's more. There's more ladder for you. Wait, hold on a minute. Also, these headphones just broke. Oh, no.

Are they working at all? Can you hear me? I can only hear myself in the left ear. Oh, it was the cable. The cable came out. Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. It was my butt. My butt pulled it out. You got to give yourself some extra slack on that. It keeps happening. It keeps happening. I warned you about the cable, bro. I warned you. I warned you, dog. Um, okay.

No. I just blame my wife when this happens. Um, maybe, maybe I'm missing something, but like I, with the ladder, I stole the ladder and I reached the treasure. And, a couple other things that I, maybe I missed out. You can bring that ladder all the way to the coast. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Yes.

I was like, I stole the ladder. I got the treasure that's just outside the area. That's right there. And then I brought, oh, cool. That was a fun puzzle. And then I brought the ladder down to the boat and then used it down.

And then to me that was the end of the ladder. That is the end of the ladder. Okay. Okay. Mm-hmm. I did not even think to do, bring it down to the coast until someone said, hey, there's more. I'm like, well, they can't be more.

That's crazy. So, kind of like Hollow Night, the trinkets and their synergies is proving to be the funnest part of this game and the real like build farming hours of like, okay, do you want to get a build that has a lot of plasma and a really... Heels instantly. And, you know, and yeah, and okay, cool. Now, do you have the slots for it?

No, go get more slots. because you can get many slots for many trinkets that work well with each other. And I came across, so there's a couple of, you know, and you find one where you're like, oh, this is just permanently on me forever, right? Like you find Protospark,

and Proto Spark is you die and you res once. Never put it on. Oh, yeah? Interesting. Okay, I put it on. To me, I'm like, nope, rocking that one, right? So my brain goes, instead of putting that on, I could put on, one that helps me not die. Not die. Sure. Sure. I get that. I get that.

I found myself in a lot of situations where I got bosses within like a couple swings of death range on the first try. So I went, no, no, no, no, no. I'm getting really close on my first shot. I just need a little bit of boost, a little juice. So that's where Protostopark comes in handy for me. That stayed on.

then you find like the plasma jug, which is it lets you build up plasma past the limit. Way past. Into a reserve. So I'm like, okay, that's nice because plasma's how you heal. That's a really good mechanic.

And then you start being able to combine that with like the countervial, which you buy, and it's like the countervial is if you start drinking to heal, within the opening frames of your drink, it becomes a deflect and counterattack. And I'm like, oh, you gave me a parry button on my heel button.

And you can combine that with the fast drink. Or, yeah, you can combine it with the fast drink. Or you can combine it with the medallion, which is move while you drink. And also drinking, getting hit while you drink, doesn't drain any plasma. Yeah. And now you got these three where you're like,

I'm instant healing. no matter what's going on, I got more plasma than I need and you're defensively drinking at the same time. Then there's like traversal stuff, which I started seeing. Yeah, the traversal stuff is what I ended up having

on my character most of the time because the traversal stuff allows you to traverse so much harder. I can't. There's the one that lets you float for one extra square on a jump. The ferry. The ferry is crazy.

Like one extra square of float is amazing. And then you get the spider, which is one extra tile off of a pit. It lets you stand on an empty tile. Didn't get that one. It combined with the fairy and you're making insane jumps, right? You know what one I got that I didn't get with the spider? I got bottomless pits and water bounce you off. Yes, yeah, yeah, that's great for the water.

And I got stay underground when you burrow for twice as long. Iron Lung Iron Lung's really good And that one is fucking bananas So I kept Iron Lung on For a really long time Until I got the end

To me at least so far The end all Be all so far of digging Related trinkets It's the tunneling codex The book So there's a challenge you got to do There's a couple of mini games

Where you got to go do You know There's one that's like a street fighter reference go beat up the car, you know. And there's one where you have to like hop into the rings really, really aggressively. And if you can do so and get like a really high score,

you get the tunneling codex, which lets you, when you hop out of the ground at the end of borrowing, you can hold jump to borrow back in immediately. So you treat, imagine like a dolphin jumping through the water,

that's you. You borrow, pop out, and you don't have to land and re-jump back in. You just, you go, you hop out and hop right back into the earth and navigate the whole game that way. So you can spend most of your traversal underground if you hold jump. And if you go to the, and if you go to the water. Okay.

Where the water keeps you alive, as long as you can borrow, you no longer have to platform the water because it's, you just swim. I think it's absolutely nuts that, it's one of the things that I had to figure out and it was tough to figure out which is rats can't swim, we know this. Mice can't swim either. And so you fall in little water and you take damage

and you reappear at wherever you're having to be. You can dig water. Yeah. You can burrow in water. That's different. That's a fundamentally different process. It's diving then. Whatever you want to call it. But it is really fucking incredible.

melts the water level challenge entirely, right? But it's funny because to make up for that almost, you have a, so I have one tower left is where I'm at. And it's like, it's kind of like the final tower that you're... So you are way ahead of me, man. Okay. I actually restarted on the switch. Okay.

So, in what I'm describing, it's something that will like nullify the challenge of certain water areas. you then get met with areas where borrowing is not possible. Oh. So it makes... That's brutal. Time to play Zelda. Time to just play Link to the Past. Hope you got good with your regular traversal.

And the other thing, Mina the Hollower, again, to repeat, is now I've leveled up like almost all the weapons to maximum and, you know, I got the money to do so. And like, okay, the maxed-out versions of these things, you're playing a different fucking game. I got the first one that I got maxed out was the daggers. And I was like, oh, man, this thing is fucking crazy good. Like, just toss and stinger.

Yeah. So I'm, after, so I, the only thing I did max out was the guns. But I did the rest. I was rocking the shield for a while. and like maxed out shield is really fun because it's just like perfect parry and then shield she'll toss right uh but i found i came back around to the hammer after maxing that out and i'm like yeah this damage after learning how to use it the damage is is really really fucking high it is it is the melt the boss i don't want to fight you damage it's the it's the great sword it's the

like it's the old-fashioned great sword that's it's i'm going to learn your movement and i'll take my time and when I have an opening, I'm going to do 25 to 40% of your life in a swing and then spend the rest of the time playing on defense until I get that opening again. And if you get the follow-up going, even better, right? So there's a lot of, there's an area, there's a couple areas where, like, not the, not the dungeon itself, but the area leading up to the dungeon where it's, like, hostile, you start fighting a bunch of like Matt bosses I'll call them right because they're regular enemies but they're big

they have many moves and they're you know not as complex in pattern as a boss but they'll fuck you up if you get caught sleeping and for things like that fully charged hammer sneak up on them and like drop and full follow up and like they have like two swings left maybe one yeah no it's crazy

so that shit is is really good um and yeah i just got to you know beyond that like against excellent level design with like just the feeling of um how everything is placed and how things work with each other there's two dungeons in particular that are like multi-layered on the x axis i guess i'll i'll say that has a lot going on with them and um when you do beat the dungeons and the bosses which are the right level of challenge like they're they're hard you can put on stuff to come

and to bring it in and like the trinkets especially if you're making good use of your trinkets you will find that like you can nullify an aspect of the boss's challenge with a good trinket right one trinket in particular

that I have is an air dash jump and go straight up and it's a It consumes trinket material, but if you want to replace your secondary attack with that mobility, that's fantastic for something that's going to AOE the whole zone, you know? And in addition to that, you can eventually start upgrading your layer. And when you start... Yes, I did upgrade my layer, a significant amount. Okay.

So you put some of the X. stram like structures down and stuff that lets you like hold on to a trinket that you want for example is crucial because a lot of the a lot of the sub weapons

are like just movement they're just like the bike and the shield like those things are just like I would like to move in platform more easily thank you yeah and then a bunch of them are just weapons too you know

you get good ass strong Castlevania weapons. No, so yeah, that's all like just, it really does work well together. And I, yeah, I'm fucking, I'm loving it at this point. So I'm probably going to, you know, wrap that up, I think, fairly quickly, unless there's some wild shit expecting,

expected at the 11th hour. But a nice little touch that I think it just continues to be great about it is the way that after you beat a dungeon, you do a little bonus crawling up the tower. And it's a fun, it's a fun little extra game, you know, almost like the bonus missions in Sonic 2 or so, or Sonic and Knuckles.

And you get little moments of just like, ah, she's tired. Here she's going to read a letter or get a letter or just look at the sunset and then take a nap, you know? And then you had a big day. Mina had a big day. Take a nap. It's a lot.

It was a big one. You deserve it, Mina. So that's really nice. And it's also interesting, too, to be playing a game where, like, the characters already respect you. And you're like, oh, no, you're super smart and super sick. And, like, you did a bunch of amazing stuff here. And, like, we just need you to stick around to keep being awesome and help us fix this problem. But you're not, like, trying to prove yourself type of thing.

Like, there's a level of, like, no, you're one of the whole. You guys are badasses. Do your thing. Anyway, so, yeah, I will say that the game design ultimately overpowers the problems I was having with that in the end. And highly recommend. Meena, the Hollowers, super cool. I'll let you know once I'm done with it. Have you heard about the new game plus modifiers? No. So they really went like bananas on like giving this game replay value? So you notice that when you started the game,

there was like a million different things you could change about the way the game functions. Yeah, difficulty. Difficulty can be modified aggressively, but those all turn your chivo's off or whatever, right? So, um, for, so new game is called zero,

like new game plus zero. Uh, new game plus is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,

and eight. All have different. changes to them that modify it. So is the game harder? Yes. Maybe no. Is the game flipped on the Y axis?

Yes, maybe no. Are there fewer underlabs or almost no underlabs? And on top of that, are enemy stats inflated? Are your stats inflated? Or does it shuffle

all the items and inventory around as well. Interesting. Okay, difficulty that changes the design. Yeah, there's one new game plus modifier that when you start it, it goes, you will lose everything on your next new game plus round. Like the next new game plus round you start, you will be clean. You have no weapons, you have no upgrades, you have nothing.

Okay. Interesting. They really, so by going through each route, there's a massive remix change or something. Yeah, and so some of them are like, huh. Built in. You lose your items and the world is flipped and there's less underlabs, but the enemy stats aren't increased. But your level cap has increased.

So it's harder and you have to do it over and it's mirrored, but you can get stronger. Like they're not all just raw difficulty increases. Like they'll give you a good one to go along with some of the bad ones. So I feel like for me, well, okay, I'm not. someone that does a new game plus is really that much but like I feel like a lot of the time if I want to go back and just sort of play my character and feel things out or so the idea of losing it all again is like that's a really bad one because you're like yeah there's a bunch of arguments in every game that ever comes out that has new game plus about this is a good new game plus this is a bad

new game plus and it's always based around well what did you manage to keep with your character yeah losing power you losing power sucks I hate that and I hate every time you know a new devil I save needs to fucking buy, you know, air hike again. You know what I mean? Like, I hate that shit. So, um, that's interesting. But if it's, if it, if it makes up for it with other elements, too, that that could be really cool. Yeah. I mean, clearly they fucking, they know what they're doing and they're putting a lot of thought into it. Like, this is, again, on the heels of all the things they did with shovel night, you know, so. Um, and I'm also, I know there's probably crazy deep secrets that I haven't found yet or some secret bosses or, you know what I mean?

Like there's got to be something. There's a secret sixth weapon. Oh. Hmm. Um, and I know that there are like ending slides and ending conditions that are super hidden. I can guess at at least two. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Okay.

Well, you know, no, there's some stuff. I only know of it tangentially, because I haven't seen it myself. But I did see the sixth weapon. And it is a massive fucking pain in the ass to acquire. Hmm. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Uh, there, well, they're, the traversal stuff, like I said, once you start getting some of these trinkets and you apply the right ones, you turn some puzzles into like jokes.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's a, like there's a, there is a puzzle that is based on like essentially, um, almost like, uh, you're grabbing onto, you're grabbing on to, to, to, to holds that you get, you get, like, one second before they, they break, right? So, break, groundbreaking, you know, type of, type of puzzle where you just have to quickly, you know, platform from one area to the other, and like, falling resets your progress drastically, right? And once you get the float and or the spider and or the air dash and you're just like, nah, I want to fly right now, actually. And I really don't want to do this. Yeah, I'll choose when I feel

like grabbing that handheld, you know, and the game clearly designs a whole lot for you to like, if you walk in this and you have to bounce in a certain way and float in a certain way and you know and then you're just like I'm coming into this with a jetpack I can't be bothered you know very early I got the ferry as like my third trinket

oh wow you went early okay yeah I because it was it's hidden in that little tiny hole in one of the starting areas and it's I was just like I could tell that like I was just like bypassing a lot of bullshit that the game was like, how are you going to get around?

I'm going to jump it. That's how I'm going to get around. I'm just going to jump over it because I can because I can go a full extra fucking square. No, I got one trinket in particular that like I just saw what it did and I haven't even explored it to the fullest but just the possibility of what it can do

it makes me think this destroys the game. It must. It must. I don't even want to fully see it. Maybe. I'm going to type it out. All right, let's see it. Ooh, it's that, it's like that. You get... Oh, yeah, I heard about that.

Yeah, no, that's, that's ruin us. That's crazy. That's absolutely fucking bananas. You're just like, well, what is... I don't know how you design a game around that. What is the challenge now? Yeah, so anyway, very, very cool. So that's Mina the Hollower.

Beyond that, we are finally out of the Big Top and fully into Farewell Big turnabout the last trial of Phoenix Wright 2. And yeah, great start so far. And then the drama picks up and everything is rolling. And not much to say yet because we're not done, but like it's just, it's a great case. I really enjoy what's happening. And I really enjoy that in particular, like the final case and what appears to be the final boss of Phoenix Wright 2 after the most.

Animaniacs ass clown shoes literal bullshit Is okay Phoenix Your greatest trawl yet A normal human being A real person A non-cartoon person Sitting on the stand

What do What are your shenanigans Gonna be this time? I don't know how to deal with this It's I quite like that And it gets So remind me exactly where you're at So right now

Because it's been like Like 15 years since I did this case. So I guess some mild, you know, spoilers for Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney 2, Justice for All. The final case is one where you are dueling with the nickel samurai. Nickel samurai, right. It's not the steel samurai. No, it's the second, right?

After Ichigo, you know, here comes the second writer. And the rival. show and the murdered actor. And so now you have, you know, this returning cast of characters and then some new characters, including the actors and their agent and one Adrian Andrews, who is the manager. And she's just a person. And she's just a person you've got to talk to.

And you've got to figure out what's what she knows and what she did and what she didn't do and what's going on on the stand. in the meanwhile dealing with the stakes of Maya being missing. It's a good agent. Yeah. And I just kind of find it like, it is, it is refreshing to just be like,

yeah, here you go. There's no fucking like wacky doodle sound effects coming off of the stand. It's not a parrot. You know what I mean? It's not someone whose hair is doing Yu-Gi-Oh shit with lightning bolts dropping in. There's no one dragon installing on the stand. It's just a person sitting there kind of nervous and you've got to see through what they've got

going on and it's the hardest task phoenix has ever had to tackle um it actually makes me wonder about like what would it be like if there was an actual game that was not like um taking place within the the the warner movie lot where you had to be a lawyer like would it just be so difficult that it wouldn't be fun uh i think there's a There's a game called Tyrion Cuthbert, which is, it's exactly Phoenix right, but it's angels and demons and shit like that instead of clowns. Okay. Because you've also got, you've also got Dangan Rampa, which is further towards clowns. And then I would say every character in Dangan Rompah is a clown.

Every single one. And then if that's not enough for you, you've also. got a Harvey Birdman attorney at law in which you are putting literal cartoon characters on the stand. So I like it's all like Phoenix Wright or even more goofy. But all that all that being said. Yeah. That boy Edgeworth though. He's a he's a pretty good rival. He's a pretty good. He's a pretty good rival. You get you start to get little bits and pieces of like, yeah, this guy could carry his.

zone a couple of games. And I'm, and I'm also, and I'm also like, I'm raising my eyebrows real, real sharp at Francisco Von Kama, who from the outset, I was like, I've known about the whip lady that comes in to replace Edgeworth, and I've, and I've known that there's, you know, this other prosecutor. But there's just something about, I guess, like, and, you know, I'm going to, I don't know if the future has people change and they come back. And I could see something where perhaps they learn or you know whatever if she's a particular character design that's you know strong enough to bring back i can see that happening but right now as of as of the present moment she's making some morally not dubious but like completely unethical insane evil things

well it's all about winning man yeah yeah and and like you give like edgeworth plays that at first in the in the first game and then you kind of get the full story out of things and ultimately you're you're looking at it going oh you're a good person but you fucking stretch it so like i always had the interest i always had the feeling in my in my chest that edgeworth like legitimately believed that everybody who ended up in front of him was guilty and that he was doing a good job by putting them, you know, in jail, victory at any cost. I didn't get that from the carmas at all. I got the fact that the reality of the world was inconsequential to that win record.

And furthermore, like, if you are, if you defeat me in court, then it means that your client was not guilty then. There was a, yeah, a level of like, then prove it. Prove it with the law. Prove it with the evidence. Prove it with the court. You know, but that I'm going to just cheat And like forge evidence and shit

But like still But all and the thing is is that like this is also a thing where it's like No, your mentality is fine But the problem here is that the system is clearly corrupt And the whole game is designed to remind you in every single case How fucked and shitty the system is With a judge that's inept With a constantly

You know updated bullshit that's out to get you Hostile I think I think like so Police talked about it before but like Ace Attorney is maybe one of the greatest political games of all time once you realize that the Japanese judiciary system is actually super crazy. Yeah.

And you move on to that. And once you mentally absorb that, there's always the part at the very beginning of every case that really just slams it home as hard as it possible. Hey, can I talk to my client? No. and hey, can I see the evidence? Piss off. Go fuck yourself.

Yeah. We're going to jump scare you in court and you're going to have to react to that shit. Like, oh, fuck. That's, ooh, this is going to be hard. Even weirder when your client is like not being helpful, you know, in many ways or whatever. But one of the things that's really clear about it is like when someone like old bag shows up and that, that I can feel the shootakumi moment of, yeah, people, there are people in society like this that just actively show up. They're haters by nature, haters for life, stink meaners, the hateocracy.

They're old fuckers that just, they're here to shit on everything. And they can probably get you killed. And then they go back to living their normal lives and there's no consequences for it. And you have to find justice in the midst of that somehow. Overcome this bullshit. Overcome the gossipy old fucking hag. There's nothing you can do about it. Like, did you see a gun, Wendy?

did you I saw what I wanted to see and also I'm all about the now how dare you hold me to account for the things that I previously said who keeps bringing up the past what an asshole

Wendy Oldbag might be like the most like the single most recurring character in like the whole series God like I forget which one it was but she showed up at one point like many like a couple games from now and I was like God damn it

I'm like screaming on when she's on the stand. I'm actively, I'm screaming at it's the most infuriating thing ever. And yes, of course, the judge that is literally inept, that cannot do a thing, cannot do a thing and also is against you, is actively out to get you. Well, you know what you're doing, Woolley slash Nick? You're making this case take a really long time. And that's annoying. We could have just bang this shit out in a day And we'd all have a little break

But no We gotta go all three days We talked about it last the game But just the fact that The hungry judge effect is a thing And they actively bribe him with sushi At one point And he's like, oh, you got fatty rolls

Ooh And Anyway Yeah Solid so far Very very good I'm shocked There's never like a crash

out from like Nick or Apollo or Athena that it's like this guy again are you fuck can we get a different judge for fuck sake well that's kind of why I'm really curious about the great ace attorney because I'm curious to yeah it's totally separate from from everything I'm curious to see how much the formula is different you know but also it's not different at all or whatever like interpretations you know you know turn into. But there's things where it's like what I, like in this case, someone actually says, I'm pleading the fifth.

And I don't know what the Japanese equivalent of that is, but that's clearly a reference to America. And when you go back to great ace attorney times, what the fuck does that even turn into? You know, is, are we not in an era where everything is the equivalent of a military tribunal? You know? Anyways. Let's see. Article 13.

of the Constitution of Japan, no person is forced to testify against themselves. Okay. So Article 38 of the Japanese new Constitution post-war is patterned after the Fifth Amendment. So that was an easy translation. Doesn't quite have the same ring as F-I-F-F-F. Yeah, but I bet it hits better in Japanese. Eh, I'm going... Because in Japanese, they're not going F-I-F-T-H.

I'm going with the... the Chappelle. One, two, three, four, Fiff! I plead the fifth! Anyways. What character was that? Was that? That's when he's not not, not, he's not being R. Kelly, but he's being, like, a rapper that, like, is guilty on the stand. That wasn't part of the ditty skits? I don't think he was ditty in that. I think it was just being a rapper.

Should have been. Should have been part of the ditty. But there was the other skit where he puts his hands up and squirts pee out and goes, and that's from the heart, you know? So, like, There's quite a few of them. But anyway, plead the fifth. Yeah. And then beyond that, hey, I mean, FF14 is going. Nice to do a dungeon and see what that's like.

I said it maybe five times. I had completely just memory hold it that those three dungeons are just like single sitting like right next to each other. Like they're really like they give you that circuit of like, no, no, no, here you're going to do some dungeons. You're going to actually play the game for a little bit. I will say that the glance at the newer bosses that were inserted into the old dungeons that you were seeing for the first time. It's so weird, because that's the first time I'd seen them as well. It's so weird that they're so much more mechanically complex than the bosses that surround them. Yeah.

And that started to be interesting. that started to be like, oh, okay, you're moving around and doing stuff and you're actively, like, doing what I'm hearing the rest of the game looks like, you know? It's basically a, it's basically a straight line up the whole way around. Like I did a couple of, like, modern current dungeons last night and with the new context of having just done the older stuff with you a few days ago. And I'm like, yeah, no, it's just, it goes from. from make a decision every five to ten seconds to do your shit while making decisions constantly. Does every... Is you grumbling?

I was going to say DLC, but whatever, expansion version introduce a new, like, boss icon, do this new thing for the room? Oh, so this is actually... So yes. Like, on a really basic level, like, yes. And so what they end up doing is that you'll have like a Rome Reborn and then you'll have the raids which is called in Rome Reborn. It's called coil, right? And so coil will have a bunch of mechanics that are bespoke to coil.

And then you start Heaven's Word and those coil mechanics start to insert themselves into the normal experience for everybody else. And then the Heaven's Word raid, which is Alexander, has its own unique mechanics, which then start to infiltrate into the normal stuff in Stormblood. And so by the time you get to like Dawn Trail, like, if you're like a guy like me or like my friend Vell, you'll do a new dungeon and you'll be like, oh, it's dynamos with earth shakers, for example.

But if you haven't done every single fucking thing in the game, you're like, what the fuck icon is that? What is that? I don't know what that icon is. Right. That's where I was going. It's just, I'm sure, I'm thinking about this, like a rhythm game, right? Where you get to the, I'm sure, the most recent versions.

And it's like, okay, turn the, don't look at it. But also, the tank has to go stand here. But also, healers have to be here and don't be in this circle. And here's another color. Yeah. And they're just like throwing all in the match. So you get to this point where, like, there's like a logic to it, which is everything or nearly everything is always named after its first iteration.

Like, no matter what it's actually. actually called in this encounter, people will say, oh, it's a dynamo. It doesn't have to actually be named Dynamo, but you know what a dynamote is or an Earthshaker is, or a pizza party, or an Ackmorn or something like that. A dragon punch will always be a dragon punch.

Yeah, no matter what game you're fucking playing. I don't care. I don't care what fucking S&K or Earth SystemWorks calls it. Dotless in Rising Thunder punches the ground twice and does not. And it's a dragon punch. Yep. So, yeah. Sure.

You know, it's weird how applicable fighting game terminology, logic, and culture is to this shit. Oh, my God. It's actually like bizarre. Yeah. And here comes the first FF14 snooze. Oh, no, no.

There you go. Oh, no. Well, someone's awake. Somebody in there. Yeah, me. Yeah. I asked. Anyway, that's cool.

We'll see what's going on tomorrow. More of that. And I got to, it's funny, because a couple of my friends who were chilling did then submit some UI setup customization tips as well for some stuff. I'll go take a look and see. There's a lot.

There is a lot. There is a lot. There's like, you can, like, it makes sense to me now because you're describing targeting things. And I'm like, I don't what the fuck you're talking about. Like, that's not how it works. And like, it turns out I had changed settings five to ten years ago. I don't remember.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And a lot of this, too, is like the controller experience, which is different from just pointing and clicking. I'm sure, you know. Now, if you were a healer player, there is an argument to be made that for healers very specifically, the mouse and keyboard. Get a fucking mouse. Yeah, I can see that. It's just so you can take the mouse and click on somebody on the field and hit your button.

Yeah, yeah. No, that's the fastest. I'm sure. I'm sure. But for your melee DPS, oh, no, controller's great. Controller's super good. Like if I never have to do anything with my party and I just have to focus on the thing I'm killing or the ad. They even removed the ability to do things with your party because they're like, melee DPS don't know how to do that.

We can't make them use a brain cell. Never. Dragoon used to have a tether And dragoons were like I don't want to use the tether I have to pick somebody out of the party And that So they were like

Okay Dragoon you can just hit You just hit the button And you'll be good Don't worry Draggoon Sometimes Pat People don't want to change Off of the class That they're used to playing

Even if there's hundreds of thousands of dollars On the line That is The most people People like lock in and become obsessed. They get tattoos, right? They just like,

I gotta, I gotta go for it, no matter what. All I know is another day, another Marvel rivals drama, apparently another event happened where somebody got into a fight

with someone else because they refused to switch off of the character that they were losing as, and there was $300,000 on the line. well hey listen you if you feel comfortable and you want to play the character that you want to play

play the character that you want to play however that's your prerogative your team's prerogative is to fucking win and if you through your decisions or play cause them to lose it's their prerogative to kick your ass

later like that's just the way it is I have to say because this is particularly like I know this is something that must happen in every team-based game where you must play a role with no copies, right? You must play a single-use character. Oh, I think it's broader than that. I think it's any team-based game has the guy who you tell,

hey, can you stop doing that? You're not good at that. No, no, I can do it. I can totally do it. I can get past Jordan. I can do it. So, well, here's the thing, right? I don't know how much it applies to other games because,

and here's where my ignorance will just fully show. Deadlock, what little I know of Deadlock and from playing it a little bit, I'm not sure how much the character you play is going to affect your team. And when you're all playing in kind of separate ways sometimes, sometimes you're with each other, sometimes you're not, you're doing your laning and stuff. And I feel like there's moments in Deadlock where I don't know if it's going to be as aggressive about, hey, get the fuck off of this character, switch to that or so compared to, you know, games. like Overwatch where you're all on the same point together in these moments, right? Okay, I got you. I got you. Okay,

so it's the same, but with a couple key differences. Deadlock lives in the mobile universe, and the reason by that is you pick your character and you're locked. That's it. That's the character you're playing for the whole match, right? Yeah. League, Dota, or Heroes of the New Earth, whatever the fuck,

same thing with Deadlock, right? So the main difference here is that it just front loads the argument. Okay. So everyone's picking their characters. Yeah. On a timer. And everyone's banning a character or two characters on a timer, right?

So it takes the entire fight and relegates it to that like two minute period right at the beginning where you're like, I'm going to play Darius. Dude, Darius doesn't work good with our comp. You need to fucking pick Ilawi or fucking Timo or whatever. I'm out of date on the game. But you don't know how the person's going to play. And you're like, but I'm going to play Darius. And this means that the argument is going to happen in the team comp decision. Then the argument will be over because you'll all lock in.

Right. And this leads to only one remaining outcome, which is blame. Yes, sure, sure. And that blame stays constant can start before the match has actually started.

Yeah. Because the moments I'm familiar with are certainly the Overwatch and rival style. Get the fuck off of Moon Night. I can play a better Moon Night. You're not doing it.

Get like you're just you're just throwing, right? And A, hey, not uncommon scenario in any one of these is for you to pick the character you think is cool and then go, okay, I'm going to go get the enemy and walk down a lane. And unknown to you, you've picked the wrong character and you've walked down the wrong lane. Now, is this because you don't know any better?

No, it's because you're a piece of shit who wants to ruin everybody's day. that's why you motherfucking bitch so like when I say that mobas feel like they were cooked up in a lab to make people go crazy this is the shit that I'm talking about like the lock in on character for like a

40 minute game makes people go crazy yeah and look I have I've had moments where I have expressed to the team that I'm like look I'm not a great healer but if no one else is going to do it and you all are just stuck here, then I'll take Jeff

and I'll do my best, but you're not going to get great heels from me, because I'm not a great healer. I'll do it if no one else is fucking doing it, though. Mediocre heels is probably significantly better than nothing. That's what I'm saying. I'll take the hit, but don't expect much, you know? Um, so all

this to say, when I see a story like this where it like, it gets toxic in a influencer tournament and um, you know, some people won't switch off and whatever and there's of course, there's different levels of influencers fame on the teams

because they're all mixed and matched. So for some people, the prize matters way more than others, right? For some people, it's just like, oh, who cares, whatever, it's just another paycheck. And for some, it's like this is a humongous opportunity. Please, please, please, please let me help here.

And please let's win. So what I kind of wonder about with these types of things is, is there a way or should there be a way for the game to have a essentially, because this is a bad look on the main stage from Marvel Rivals for this to constantly be happening, is there a way to have a like coin flip in the middle

of the match level? Like, I want to switch to this character. You won't switch off or whatever. Is there something we can do to go like, okay, we'll both just flip a coin to see who gets it and then one person takes over if you don't want to... Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

There's no way. So it just has to be first come, first serve, and if I sit on it too bad, that's the only way to do it. Well, let me, let me like, okay, listen, we're two quarters in. Coach, make him stop hogging the ball. Make him stop hogging the ball. Make him pass the ball. No, I don't want to. I want to make all the points.

It's good for my averages. Make him stop. The only thing the only thing the coach can actually do to make somebody stop hogging the puck, hog the ball is bench him. But we're talking about a game where you have a team of people that can vote. Yeah. So a majority of the team can agree to something and force it to happen. Or at the very least put the opportunity up. So here's the problem.

You can't fucking make someone do what they don't want to do. No, no, you cannot. You cannot make any. You can't act, right? Yes. And so that's where... And it's distracting as fuck to have to deal with a vote

inside the system while you're playing the game trying to win the point, right? That's the least of your worries when you, you know, but I'm kind of just wondering like in a situation like this where this sucks

that it keeps happening with Marvel rivals and again, it looks terrible. And people get properly chewed out after the fact, but I kind of wonder if the game implemented a system where the team, could go, yeah, you know what?

Actually, I vote that we should see, like, switch off healer or whatever the case is. And then it's the dispute is handled and some, the blame will continue, right? But like, the game will be the coin flip that decides how that works out. Are you talking about games in which, are you talking online games or in-person games? I'm talking about like playing a specific, look, let's talk about Marvel Arrivals in this context. in a tournament on a team of six. Okay. So,

you know, or five or whatever. Anyway. So the biggest problem, right, is you can't make anybody do what they want to do. And if you tell somebody to,

no, you must play blank or your other character or whatever. There's a very not insignificant proportion of people that will go, you can't make me do shit and just not. I'm quitting. Yeah. That's certainly possible, too.

Which means that the actual solution is, you need to then build teams to have alternates. Right. So then what you would have to do is you'd have to have a tournament mode where the rules of the tournament say that for this to not, okay, what you're describing being toxic amongst the regular people outside of a high profile fucking event is one thing.

For a high profile event, I could see a rule where they go, we have a conflict and we have a conflict resolution system specifically for this type of thing. because it keeps happening and there's got to be a way to solve it. So traditionally the conflict resolution

for this is that the people on your team are professionals. We're talking about Marvel rivals, so that's not a factor here. Following up on that, a coach usually would have the ability to bench a problem player that's

not going along with team strategy, but most e-sports teams if they're playing in a group of five, it's the group of five. If they're playing in a group of six, it's the group of six. They don't really, there isn't like a whole benching,

alternate, like, culture. And if you're doing that, and if you're an organized esports team, then you've certainly worked all this out. But I guess these high, the high profile things where you're looking at a, a gathering of, again, people that are put together based on,

you know, they're, like, as an influencer tournament goes, they're not necessarily going to have, have gelled synergy, you know, but you're going to have these moments of like, I only learned the one thing and I'm just going to stick to that. And if I can't play that, that I'm not entering this or whatever. You know, the whole deal, right? And, and I mean, to some degree, like the slam could have, could face that problem and has versions of that where you're like, oh, well, I play

allowee and you play a lawee and, uh, okay, which one of us is going to do worse not playing as that character, you know? Yeah. So like when I did the first slam, me and Shumimi both played Timo and Blitz Like she was I would see Two and she would seed four And we were matched up on a bunch of matches

And the answer was okay How much better am I with Timo versus how much better am I with Blitz And the answer was I was much significantly better with Timo than I was with Blitz And she was about the same with both characters Therefore it made sense

For me to play Timo with her matches And she would play Timo with like clouds matches and stuff like that. I am a liability to the team if I'm forced to play the worst character. I think you're running into a systemic problem

that you want to solve structurally, but you can't because it's actually a cultural issue. Well, there's a high level actual feature that could be implemented into the game that would solve this. It's called don't be a piss me.

A gun? Don't be a piss. Yeah. Put your, put your, put your diapers on like a big boy. Yeah. And don't piss everywhere and leave the mess for everyone to clean up, right? That is actually the highest level solution to this.

However, failing that system, perhaps something in second place. I have seen. Because Piss Baby with a gun appears to be an unfortunate bug occurring at every high-profile tournament. I would say Piss Baby with a gun is a bug appearing at. all levels of society. As designed. It's not a bug though. It is a feature. That being said,

so I have seen a microcosm of this scenario happen in league matches personally to which I believe that it's like no matter how you would like to structurally solve this, you actually have to culturally or behaviorally solve it because

people will always find way to dig their heels in the ground. Yeah. So in league, when you queue up, you choose preferences for your role. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't lock in on your role. You choose a preference. And so I would choose top and a jungler, right?

Those are the two roles that I'm going to try and learn, and those are the ones that I feel more comfortable playing. And then it would matchmake you, and then it would toss you into a fucking room to be like, congrats, Pat, you have been, you have been assigned support. You are bottom. And I'm like, I, you are power bottom. Right. And I'm like, okay, I'll grab a thrash or whoever, right?

And I'll do my best, right? But I would load in to matches in which I'm like, I'm going to play top and I got top. And then as soon as you load in, a guy starts crashing out and says give top. And I'm like, no. First of all, no. No, sir. Sir. We're just, sir.

We're just shortening the, all right. There's no time. There's no time. Can't get no prepositions going. Can't get it. No. Okay. Yep.

All right. Give top. Give top. Give top. Give top. Give it. Now. And I'm like, I don't want to. And the solution to that is, is that I pick,

Derrius, sir. whoever, right? And then they also pick a character that's top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you have the stare down. And then they go into the top lane with me and say, get the fuck out of my lane as the whole room just starts to

scream at them. And then they just either stop moving or just intentionally feed. Like, you can't make people if they're going to, and so like the actual solution to this is a management solution.

which is don't include people on your team who are negative team players, regardless of their skill, because their poor team synergy will harm everyone else. Like, this is a workplace thing, too. Like, if you have the top performer at your office who is such an asshole that all the new hires quit, yeah. It's a net loss. You're losing. Exactly.

You're losing at the end. I think that you're looking at something to where there's, moments where you can have rules that are not in the system or in the game, but do apply to a professional's context. So this is something that can also be a discussion with everyone going into the event going, hey, if you have a conflict over which character to play, don't be a fucking asshole about it while you're playing on the team, which is, I mean, tall order for some people, unfortunately. Maybe this situation should have been discussed and solved before the critical moment. But there's rules where you'll have things like, okay, if you want to change stages or seats or

sides at an Evo, for example, and you can't agree both players on what's what, then the judge comes in and they make the call on that. Or there's a pre, you know, and they kind of worked through, these are all the types of conflicts we've had between players before outside of the match itself playing out. And this is where a ref will come in and do the thing or whatever. So, coming into the rules of a public. a high profile tournament like this, there should be stuff to make this shit not happen because it just is crazy every time it does. That being said, I've also been in games

in which like someone makes a bad play and a team member just goes, you did that on fucking purpose, you piece of shit. And then also sabotages it. Like, you cannot you, like everything about

Moba and Mova adjacent are like perfectly designed by some kind of evil robot to like activate the most petty toxic elements of certain people's brains you lock in you're stuck here everybody else has to play perfectly there's a snowballing factor right like if you snowball in in like a moba with statistical increases yeah it can be bad but even in rivals i've played games of rivals we're like there's no way we could ever crawl this back. We're like, we're being pushed all the way back to the fucking spawn. How am I supposed to make a play when I can only exit out of these two doors?

So I know we said we talk about it later, but this lines up too perfectly. Speaking of influencers, toxic gaming culture and taking the game seriously, how about that Tyler 1 versus Ludwig match? Did you hear about it? What a great, what a great. It lines up too perfect match. So I don't care about the match Yeah I don't care about the match itself

That's not what matters at all Immaterial Would not have talked about it At all Yeah However The way that it played out The story line outside

Of the event itself Infinitely fascinating Anytime there's a first to ten Of some kind Or whatever it is With a There's arcs to this So the big overall thing

I talked to it. about the Daigo versus Mena Kimono Michi Beasts Path the other day. This is the furthest possible thing from that where they had a show match at Evo between Tyler 1 and Ludwig. And

this was like every... If you're not familiar for some many, by any case, these are big boys. Yes. These are big streamers, big known YouTube streaming, everything people, big following, etc. Not particularly

fighting game forward but they've been invited to do a show match first to ten between in Street Fighter Six. And the way this has been like going up to this

there's definitely a feeling of like okay this is a big thing on stage that they're doing it's it feels like you're grabbing people just based on their follow count more than on how much they give a fuck about the game and that's not a good feeling,

so why would we give a shit about this, right? Very, very reasonable, understandable, you know, a thing going into that. And it ended up being something where up until the last moment, what was happening with it was, so Tyler, one, was playing, grinding it out on stream, a lot, playing a ton of ranked matches, playing Gile, jumping on,

and just playing, you know, hours and hours until he eventually got to high master, which is above the first level of getting to master rank in Street Fighter 6th. So usually that's like, oh, you know what you're doing. That's a pretty respectable position to land in, right? And people saw that and were kind of like, holy shit, from the other day just watching play the first time to like getting to that point, that's nuts, huh? Congratulations. And in the meantime, there was like people who were like supposed to be coaching or giving Ludwig like advice or tips or whatever. We're like, please boot the game up, please for the love of God. Like, and it seems like he's just not been, he has not been paying attention

and ignoring it or whatever. And you're like, okay, yeah, this is what you get when you just, you know, you pick people that don't really care about the thing going into it. Um, it's a bit of how, admittedly, when we're talking about like the genius of like how the slam is this is set up where you have multiple days to like have a, you have a first day to fuck up and realize, oh, wait, I give a shit and then come back in and like fix those. mistakes, right? But with the master rank,

with the high master rank stuff with Tyler, it turns out that that was achieved by one and dunning everyone who beat him and blocking aggressively them or characters he did not want to fight against,

thus creating a really skewed, ranked path of people who I can beat or who who I'm getting points off of, not the actual general population playing the game, right? And people were bringing up modern as a part of that. Modern isn't relevant because there are Japanese players

that take modern up to legend. Sure. That doesn't matter. But the idea of, but like there was the part about like, okay, he's playing it one straight way and didn't want to learn, you know,

many combos besides like the auto combos and stuff. But ultimately, by blocking everybody and like leaving all the matches, where challenge was presented, you have this thing where like you get a number out of this that tells you, hey, you're this level, this is what this means, that's your validation. But what does it actually mean when it comes to your understanding of facing opponents and what the game is and what challenge looks like. This is great heel shit. I really have to say it's like it's excellent A plus heel behavior.

Like for dramatic purposes and emotional through line like oh wow, that's actually super great. And so I think prior to that there was one like leaked stream where like it was like, oh, it was revealed that Ludwig would be playing JP. So then Tyler went and grinded against fight him in that matchup or so. And then long story short, he showed up on the day and said, no, I'm not playing that, nor am I playing Honda, a previous character I was seen playing as. He switched to a random character that you never would have expected Marissa that he, that you just, that you were secretly grinding. for the last couple months. And this is why it's really important to play against unpopular characters.

To play against the whole roster, to play against everybody. And he switched to a character who has a really specific way that you fight against her that can be surmounted clearly, but not if you don't expose yourself to it. And he has armor,

and she gets in your face and does simple combos for big damage. And if you don't know what the deal is with them, because you tend to, because you avoid those matches or so, then this is a moment where, yeah, exposure happens. And, like, he gets 10-3ed in a really convincing sweep

where he basically goes in and Tyler, not Tyler, Ludwig, like, there's a moment where the fight starts and everyone's like, all right, here we go. And then he perfect parries to Sonic Booms. And then he does a basic combo, gets a corner carry, and then does a safe jump setup, which then leads to a wake-up situation that Tyler doesn't know what to do because he's like, I don't know how to deal with it.

And then he does, and then Ludwig does cross-ups on him that work every time. And he just does some very simple but well-structured game plan implementation with this character that Tyler would otherwise not face it. And that's the difference between your numerical ranking that you've made on. Artificially. And the, the, and just actually just practicing. That's it. You know? and you're kind of like looking as well at the difference between like this was a

Gile is a really annoying character to fight. He's very strong. He's very good defensively. And you can opt for them because everyone has to play around him setting the pace by shooting Sonic Booms and flash kicking you. You can autopilot your way through a whole lot of that game all the way up to the point we saw. But if someone approaches that has like a. couple answers to that when the autopilot breaks if you don't have a second layer underneath it.

You just panic. That's it. And I saw people kind of going like, hold on a minute. What the fuck? Is Marissa like a really strong matchup against Gile? Like can she stop it? No, Marissa's a really strong matchup against Tyler who doesn't know what the fuck is going on. Marissa is not a good matchup against Gile, but it is against a one dimensional Gile than it is. Because if I walk up to you and do an armored move while you Sonic Boom me and then you don't do anything about it and I put you. You just die. You'll just continue to die. Yeah, you have to change to plan B, you know? So it was quite, it was quite just an interesting like, huh, look at this clash of philosophies that played out over this otherwise, the show match that was going to be ignored. And here's the result of it, you know? Yeah, you should probably, I'm not going to tell, look, I don't pay your sub. So you don't, you fucking, you want a one and done and do whatever?

Okay, sure. That is versatile, isn't it? It sure is. It sure is. But if you're blocking people that you don't want to play just simply on the premise of like, I don't... Well, you know what, though? You're not necessarily going to be going to a stage match at Evo

or whatever the case is. So if you're going to sit at home, do whatever you want, I guess, at the end of the day. But it is something where... As long as you're not rage quitting. Yeah. Yeah. If you do care about the results or whatever, then so be it.

You know? I got a really good question from someone yesterday, too, at the end of the stream who was asking like, hey, as somebody who like finds no value and needs no number to tell me how to enjoy my fighting game, I don't care about ranked, how do I find the motivation

or what motivation can I find to even go into that or like to start doing that mode, you know? The answer is you don't have to. No, you definitely don't have to. And like, again, playing with your friends and playing, you know, locally or playing with just private matches or whatever is absolutely a super fun way to go.

and there's people that UCR beasts with no rank. But if you do want to use it, because the question is sounds like you did want to get into it, I was basically saying, yeah, use it to ignore the number, ignore the results, use it to go, today I want to practice my ability to tech throws. Let's see if I can tech most of the throws players are throwing at me today. Regardless of whether I win or lose,

that's what I'm going to be doing is a little bit of homework, you know? Or today I want to fight against Menon and see how I do against this particular type of situation or get good at avoiding geef, you know? whatever the situation. Put a little side quest on your day and then go into ranked with that side quest instead. You know?

Anyway, so yeah, that happened at Evo. That's a fucking, amongst many other things that we'll get into in the news. But what about what about what about what came out of their mouth? Ah, well, afterwards on the microphone. Because like, yeah, no, guy who, guy who paper tigers his way to the finals only to get blown up because they don't know what they're doing is a very classic story.

Which I kind of love to see again. And then. But that's not new. What is new? And then when Ludwig, it's actually not new. It's as old as time, really. It's every single discussion we've ever had about this genre on this podcast. That's right.

when asked, when Ludwig was asked about, like, you know, um, practicing and training and I forgot the exact context of the, the exact question that Rob TV asked, but, um, he basically went like, like, why weren't you,

like, you, why weren't you streaming practicing and playing the game? And like, why you'll do all this labbing in secret or so? And like, besides keeping the knowledge from Tyler, for the matchup surprise.

Which is useful. Which is very useful. He said, um, yeah, didn't stream fighting games because I like viewers. And it's like that on the main stage at Evo.

So, so, that is like, that statement. That isn't that statement. Okay, it's like, okay, true. On the stage at Evo. Yeah. So, okay. I'm actually right there with you. Is this an objectively true statement?

absolutely. I can go into like my metrics analysis and look at like what my channel, like me and you do fighting games. Like we have been known to love fighting games, talking about fighting games on this show and on our shows all the time. And I can go into my channel, for example, and like look at how this, this, this, that does to random bullshit. And like, yeah, fighting games are niche. They're very intensely beloved by those who love them, but it is niche. But in front of everybody at the show? And the very, the very reasonable thing that people were mad about was the idea that, like, you were paid to be here at this event. That's crazy. Right.

That's, that's insanely disrespectful. And it's like, true though it may be. Oh, very true. Fuck, man. Like, objectively accurate. Fuck, you know. And then I saw some people coming back. back and going, yeah, but the fact that it was so, like, they talked shit and talked, like,

at one point, he's, like, talking about how, um, other genres have you fighting against people called Adolf Schittler and like, but here in, in, in the FGC. That's true. And here in the FGC, you get to meet them live in person. And you'd be like, oh, you're actually a pretty all right person. Good, good games. Or whatever the fuck versus versus other genres, you know? But, um, the, the, the, the, the, the people were saying the fact that it was like not so buttoned

up and that the event had them talking shit in this raw way and they're being real about it is what made it more entertaining than if it were this hyper, um, you know, clean and whatever event. Uh, there, I get, I get that to. It's just that, that statement. Yes, it's true. But holy shit. Like, so I have, I, I, I will, I will take. I will say one thing about the appropriateness. So first of all, is it rude? Of course it's rude. It's like, that's very, oh, man, my feelings. But at the same time, you said, bro, you're being paid to be here.

Right? He's being paid to be here because he's a gigantic super streamer. Yes. And he's a gigantic super streamer. Because of his attitude. Because he's not a fighting game streamer. Right, right, right. Like, it's self-evidence.

It's, it honestly, what it amounts to, what it amounts to is similar, not identical, because the pay is like, unconditional of the result, I believe, at the very least for the, if I understand correctly. But it's kind of like when fighting game player wins the tournament and goes, yeah, this game is ass. I don't even play this shit. That's fucking hilarious. Well, I can't believe I won. Wow, what a fucking shitty game. You'll fix the game. Didn't Sonic Fox also

One year was like I'm not even good? I don't even play This has happened multiple times I can't even remember the specific Of

which to reference But this has absolutely happened multiple times With For Honor it's happened It's happened You know Yes Over the

There's been a winner That walks up and goes Yeah this game fucking sucks Thanks for the donation My opinion Is that The winner

should be given a microphone and no one can stop them for multiple minutes, right? Like, day one, they're the best. People were going, is Mena gonna even get a chance to talk after that, or are the fucking are the CapCops gonna

just tackle anyone who gets on the bike after Ludwig? You know? Yeah, you get your chance to say whatever. So if it's punk, if it's Sonic Fox, if it's, uh, uh, Ferran or whatever. Yeah, you could say whatever. Right? And ultimately, this is kind of what that reminds me of.

It's just, you can say it. You can, you know, you can, you can, uh, drop a truth nuke. You know, they hated him because he was right. And, and all, all those other things. And it's like, yeah, if you want to go full heel, you can do a full heel move, you know. It, it's a bummer. But no one can stop you from saying that and doing that. And you get the right to do whatever the fuck you want or say that shit. People get a right to feel the way they feel about it. You know, so not everyone is going to be the champion that takes it in grace and says, like, let's big up the community and, and so on. You know, some people are going to be like...

So unfortunately, for me, the way that I want it to work is that I want the winner and the second place, I want one of them to be a classy, kind individual. And I want the other one to be a complete monstrous piece of shit. That's not even what I want. What I want is I want first place to be a classy individual who fucking hates the shit out of second place. Okay, all right. I want first place to be classy all around, but he wants second place dead. That's what I need. I want that specific level of toxicity.

So you want Viscant versus low tier? I want you saying that the next time you forget the taste of my ball. The next time you need to be reminded, you can fucking come up to me and we'll see it, we'll do it again. You would, a million percent. It needs to be Viscat versus LTG. The Viscamp? I was, that's exactly where I was going. Like, interview is, it's aging better every year.

And, like, he's, like, he's, like, he's a, he's scrawny. He's, like, he's not physically intimidating anyway. And he's just yelling at him that he has no class and that he came here from, like, volunteering. at the old folks home to like help people with disabilities. Oh, I didn't realize. So that video took on a second life outside of the FGC, just in the internet at large, with like a subtitle like, like scrawny white nerd

destroys thug at street fighter or whatever. You know what I mean? And it's this thing of like, yeah, look, there's a, look at the David and Goliath moment, right? It was this insane, like, thing that had the context completely stripped out of it because just look at look at the moment that happens afterwards and then he goes on to talk about all the things he does in life as a good person you know yeah this is this is it this is it you need that laser focused like no no no this is a class act of a person but when it

comes to you you piece of shit your your righteous hatred gains a new dimension when you spend your time being an objectively good person it's it's like a nice seasoning on top of it You know there's reasons for it. You know there's reasons for it. Yeah, yeah. And I've encountered that a couple of times, you know? And it's, there's, there's a little, there's a little history, you know, that makes, yeah, it's, it makes that little spice, that little kick to the win, you know?

Anyway, the, oh, well, I mean, we just kind of jumped all over the place there, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got to jump back now. That's pretty much the, I'll just, I'll end. my week there and say that I'm going to be picking up more Final Fantasy 14 tomorrow. That's tomorrow. On Thursday, going to be trying out something new. Oh, what's that? We'll see.

We'll see. Oh, come on. Tell me, though. Tell me. Come on. So I'm going to try something. I'm going to try something a little left field and experimental. And if it doesn't work, then I'm going to fall back on another something tried and true.

Okay. So, Wully has a really good idea for Thursday that he's been planning for a really long time. I think you're all going to like it. But if you don't, just kidding, I was just goofing around. I just wanted to see what would happen. J.K. Lulls. But I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be good. Yeah.

And, um... Come on. Type it in the call. I want to know. You're killing me here. You're not, you're not even going to know what the fuck or why, though. I don't care. I don't care if I don't. I can look it up. Oh, wow. You're right. I don't know what that is. Exactly. Right?

Okay. And if that doesn't work, then we're going to do something. We're doing something. We're doing something tried and true. All right? All right. Perfect. Yeah.

And if it doesn't work, I'll try to make it work and bring it back around another time. So we'll see. Anyways, that is all going to be coming up as well as getting to finding games on Saturday. Yeah, so that's Woolly versus on Twitch and on YouTube. Also, we got the slop stream and stuff and clips going back up over on Woolley versus the algorithm as well. So if you're not over there, go do so. It's also where some of the recent trailers for fighting game stuff and everything has been going up to. So check it out.

What's on your side? Oh, what's on my side? That's a great question. So I guess I'll try and go into like a sequential order. which I have to look at my own thing. I've been playing Pragata. Hey, Parma is excellent. I find Pragata a strange game to talk about

because it's really normal. It's so normal. It's just because it's... Okay, I was talking about this on stream. It's a very basic premise with very basic events occurring, but it's polished to the fucking nines. Yeah, it is, it is an excellent third person shooter

with fantastic controls and fascinating environments and a really charming story made out of what appears to be two bullet points. The game is 70% polish. Yeah. It's just super slick, super solid. it feels really good. I was talking, I was doing the training missions.

And a bunch of people, in particular one, were like the icon for you mastering a training mission in that game with the three diamonds and the crown on top

is like one of the best icons for like a gold star I've ever seen. The cabin missions. And the noise of like the glass shattering, like locking into place noise with the crown is just like

perfect. It's nice. It makes me wonder how many attempts they made on that design. For the record, you don't have to do all three of those challenges in the same run. Yes, you do. Wully, you do. I mean, you should. You do, if you don't, you don't get the crown. And if you don't get the crown, then you're a crownless bitch.

You're not a crownless king. But yeah, you like, you can do them separately, but like if you you ought to do it. I love that they give you the ability to get all the rewards even if you do them like if you don't get all three at once. If you want a cabin coin,

you can go get your cabin coin. And the crown means nothing other than the fact that you're like a little bitch baby. But there it. But there it is though. But there it is. You know? I think there are a bunch of players out there.

that just, you know, maybe they're not super great. And then they plunked away at those missions. And then they, you know, they got all of the rewards. And then they didn't get any of them all three at once. And then they got to like mission 17 or 18 out of 30. And then they nailed it. And the crown came up. And they were like, God damn it.

Oh, no. The moment you realize it exists and you go, oh, no, I care. right? You can choose not to care. There's no, it costs you nothing to give no shits. But what if you give a shit, though? So, yeah, Pragata is, Pragmata is one of the best games I feel like I have nothing to say about. I mean, yeah, I, right? Like, it's just, we've talked about it. And for me, it was just like, oh, new weapon, new build, what's possible? Oh, cool. Yeah, it's just excellent. Um, something that's not one of the best games ever that I definitely have many things to say about is that I did a 24-hour stream for Pride on Friday and I played through the entirety of all five episodes of Life is Strange.

Yeah. I, I, I, what an interesting game. So I was getting your text updates there and, um, I have, it's been way too long. since I've played it. But there are a couple of standout points, and one of the ones you addressed is the strongest, I think, takeaway most people had.

This game is 10 years old now. I'm well aware that the remaster just came out, and I don't know that, because I picked it up on Steam for like 10 bucks. I'm going to talk in some various detail about large-scale events in The Life is Strange, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Life of Strange 1, because I have to. There's no way around it.

Number one, Chloe, Chloe Price. Yes. First of all, before I get into this any further, the best thing about Chloe Price is a fantastic performance by Ashley Birch. I think Ash does a great job voicing the character. as written of Chloe Price. Chloe is like the worst, most awful character I have ever. So first of all, Chloe's well realized.

I've met Chloe. I am, my brother reminds me of Chloe. Like anybody goes, you know, here's the stories I tell about my brother and like, hey, go play fucking life is strange and make him make him a girl. and dye his hair blue. Jimmy before Jimmy. Jimmy before Jimmy. Jimmy before Jimmy.

She is the worst. She is the worst. You have to care about her. The game, I, you can't run away from her. So I had like a breakdown at one point where I was like, okay, stop. I have played many. I would say nearly all of the large-scale narrative, choose-your-own-adventure games, right?

The Walking Dead's, the Tail-Tale likes, the Quantic Dreams, etc. And I keep running into a highly specific problem, which is I hate this character more than I ever think I could hate a fictional character, but the story and the camera are just like, no. You love them. Yep, you got it.

You got that's the, yeah, it's just, you got a struggle through. I remember going through Beyond Two Souls. Hey, hey, you can fix them. I remember going through Beyond Two Souls with you guys and just like that that fuck-ass CIA guy that the game wants you to end up with and just like every button

just couldn't get away from him fast enough, right? I went way out of my way to stop Chloe Price in every scenario. Like every... So... I've never more disagreed with a character in my life. Every time I could fight them and sabotage them. I did. So this is...

I have, again, so much of the game has lost it in my brain at this point, but I remember maybe like 10 bullet points. strongly of feelings I have, right? And one of them with, because I'm curious to know if there was a specific moment, because there is a moment. There was, there was a vitally specific moment. There's the moment where it's like, because, and remember, too, this is, this is also me looking at a character. I'm like, the aesthetics are all like, I love a character that looks like that.

Got the cool too. She looks cool. Rocker girl, fun, you know, like, yeah, you know, foul mouth, all that shit. It's fun, give fun, whatever. And then putting up with the shit she does, what was the moment? I'm curious if it's the same one. So I'll preface it a little bit because it's not too far in. But so Chloe is like an abrasive bitch.

And I can gel with that. As we all know. I still went Vizzi. Remember. I still went busy. Yeah. Yeah. Right?

And so one of the things that can happen here is that my turning point might not have even occurred for you. Right? Okay. Because events can play out differently. Sure. Sure. So we go to her house after she rescues me from a beatdown on the parking lot from some shithead. And hey, darling, I love you.

I love wife forever. Um, I Wully, I love my first wife page. I just remember so much. That's powerful. That's, that's strong. That's a new one. That's, okay.

All right. Oh, it's good tech. Stealing that. It is. It is. Oh, I'm getting flushed. Oh, I can feel, I can feel it from over there. Writing that one down.

That's good tech. Um, anyway, so, we're at her place. And what's she doing? she's listening to music and she's smoking the reefer and being a bad girl, right? And her and Max

are catching up and whatnot. And Chloe's narc-ass stepfather comes home. And he's the shit, he's the piece of shit security card at your school. And she's like, oh, I'm a fucking

step-dush dad is is, oh, I'm getting discord. Oh, no, no, you can still bake the tarts, darling. Don't worry. Don't know. No, no. Uh-oh. I'm in trouble.

Oh, no. Has diplomacy failed? Yeah, diplomacy has failed. I love you, sweetheart. She'll get me in a different way. She'll get me. This is the equilibrium. She'll get me.

So we're chilling in a room and she's like, oh, my shit-ass stepdad's home. And it's like hide from the stepdad. Right? and I failed to hide from the stepdad. I panicked and I didn't get into the closet. So he walks into the room and Chloe and Max are standing there. And there's a fucking joint just sitting on the table, right? And he starts yelling at her that his gun is missing.

And she's like, well, whatever. Fuck you, bitch. And then he points out the joint on the fucking table. And he goes, yeah, and you're fucking smoking weed now. and Chloe instantly goes, it's Max's weed. And I'm like, I'm like in disbelief

that your first response was to immediately throw me under the fucking bus. Immediately. Like, you didn't even think about it. You didn't consider it, right? And then

he asks you, is this your weed? I went, no, it's not. Because fuck you, Chloe. Right, right, right, right. And then she gets right up into his face and he backhands her. Right. Like he fully, he cold cocks like what is technically an adult,

but she's still a young woman like, and he's an adult man. Like, come on. Yeah. This is outrageous, right? This is way out of control. Abusive shitty, shitty situation. And like the situation blows up and she's like, I can't believe he did that. And then she gets mad at you for not taking the, for not taking her out.

And I'm like, wait a second. You knew this guy could be. on me and you still threw me under the like, no, that didn't help. I'm actually more mad at you. Right. And so, you go down and you do some back and forth

and whatnot. And you take a look at his gun cabinet. And his gun cabinet is in fact missing a gun, but it's not broken into. It's just a gun is missing. And then you go to the junkyard and she's complaining about

how he hit her. And she's Like, yeah, so I did take his gun. You want to shoot some stuff? God, he was right to hit you. Oh, my God. That's it. That's it. You're insane.

And if I'm not mistaken. I should kick your ass right now. Like, there is a level with Chloe, for what I remember, there's a level of like, okay, kids are stupid. Troubled kids are really fucking, like, they go through awful. shit and then they don't know anything else and they're just insufferable at times and you are not at all um this is this represents somebody that absolutely is turning into a piece of shit because she's coming from being surrounded by pieces of shit right like this is so over the line of troubled kid behavior and then you get to the gun and if i'm not mistaken because what

i remember is i remember holy shit gun into train tracks combo So what happens is, is she's like, let's shoot some stuff and try out your time powers. And one of the things she can do is kill herself by accident. Of course. By ricocheting a bullet in her own face. Yes, yes. And now it becomes the escort mission of, of, Dio's day out. And then after that, her drug dealer rolls up on us, asking for,

for his money. And I was like, I'm just going to not, I'm not going to shoot this guy. I'm going to give him the gun. And so I gave him the gun. And now she's yelling at me for not like murdering her drug dealer who she owes money to with the gun she stole from her stepfather. You can fix her. No, you could fix her though, Pat.

Instead of, instead of Max being like, I can't get away from this bitch fast enough, let's go have a romantic. you know thing on the train tracks and um and so like I was so it's the thumbnail of my fucking video is them holding hands on the train tracks because I picked a random screenshot

before um before loading it up and what I was not prepared for was that it is like a remarkably unsafe section of track at a glance it curves around to a blind spot but have good visibility.

And Chloe, with her loose clothes, decides, let's just lie down on the tracks until we have to get up. Yeah. And, um, self-destruction. Let's go. I'll tell you what. I took my time. I took my time saving her from that train. Um, but it's like,

like, Chloe, you've escalated from like petty criminal to like, yeah. person who will are willing to commit like capital crimes over like nothing over like nothing and this began the process of

I need to get guns away from Chloe. Every decision I made for the rest of the game was not even based around finishing the fucking story. It was based around I need to get a gun away from

Chloe. It is the it is the the meme of the tiny book and the giant book and it's like Sonic the Hedgehog if you gave Tails a gun and the little book is Tails kills Eggman and then the gigantic book with a thousand pages is getting the gun away from tails

this was my journey and every time I like anything happened somehow a gun would end up up in Chloe's hands. Like,

like, there's, I don't know if you remember, there's an argument you have with their drug dealer at his RV near the end of the game that Chloe just talks shit

or pulls a gun or just screenings. You didn't know about? I don't, I don't remember. I don't remember the other guns. I had to do the section like 10 times

because she just kept escalating it and escalating it until a gun fight broke out. Chloe is whole, force just pulling it out of thin air. And so, and so, like,

my only solution to that thing was like, I was like, Chloe, you can't have the gun on you. So she throws the gun into the bushes. And I go, okay, I'm going to handle this,

be quiet. And I pick all the perfect prompts. And I finally achieve an end result that doesn't result in a fatality. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And the end result that doesn't result in a fatality has the guy go, you know what? might need this and hand his gun to Chloe.

And I'm like, I can't, like, like, like I was unable to escape the future of Chloe with the gun. And worse than that, the gun she threw into the bushes at the beach, she doesn't retrieve it.

So now there's just a fucking gun. Yep. Just sitting in a child's beach, fully loaded. The problem child needs to end up with the gun, Pat. She needs it. The game, the game needs it. I feel like

what I'm remembering just emotionally is that like you have that, yeah, there's a ramp up of like this is your troubled friend, right? And your troubled friend again, from a shitty situation where you feel sorry for the shit she's going through and you're like. You kind of ditched her.

You know, you didn't write. You didn't keep in touch. And she's like she's basically just like struggling through life, you know? And of course she's acting out because this is, this is, you know, it's textbook,

right? And yeah, you hit these bullet points really quick and the level of toxic you're describing you hit with Chloe is one where it's like, everything that your friendship has been or whatever the game has been up to this point, doesn't matter because you are now in a situation

where continuing to be friends with this person is hastening your death. Yeah, no. Simply. Hanging out with Chloe is an active risk to my life just walking down the street. That's it, right? Time powers or not, this is somebody who being around them, as you continue to choose to be around them, is a risk to your life. You know?

Never mind the background plot going on with the shit you have to solve and the people you have to save, you know? And the whole thing of just like pushing through the friendship, despite the fact that this is somebody that, I'm like, how did you, I don't know what the stats ended up being at the end of like those chapters for people going pro or anti-Cloy, but like, oh my God, I get the thought of just like, no, she's messed up but I know some fucked up people and you got to just, you got to support them, you got to work through it and that idea. I knew some fucked up people and I fixed that by changing that no into new past tense. like the Jimmy attitude on on an on a teenage girl

that's like an alt chick with cool hair and an attitude you know and it's like uh oh are you still going to feel the same way about Yimbi you know so you know I'm going through it

and um it's maybe the only one of these games that I can really feel that they were like responding to criticism because the character start to like change. Like when I sit down and play all five of them back to back to back, like touching in some cases, I can see like characters like changed off camera when I wasn't looking at them. Like Warren goes from a guy.

Goes from a guy that if I was having this drink and and I would leave the room like this hand on my drink. Don't leave your drink open around Warren. Oh, did you appreciate Reddit showing up in the game? right? And I'm like and like you go Hey girl free hugs

and I'm like I have to say I have to say as somebody who people have watched me I play insanely defensive whenever I'm playing as a girl in any game ILP or whatever Yeah absolutely right

And we've and yeah Because you're smart We've done that with AABRA We've done that all over the place Left and right I tend to do the same thing It's very interesting Yeah as a reflection of our personality

Well but it's also because It's like, you gotta be worthy. You gotta be worthy. You know? And you gotta wait for it. And like, if you are worthy, then yeah, all right. You know. Um, but if you're fucking, carth or a variant thereof, get the fuck out of here.

You know? Um, and so, um, yeah, Reddit, walks into the game and is like, the best buddy is like the boy, the best buddy, he's cool, you know? And that energy becoming, that little like, it's, it is, if you, if you, don't know about right oh if you don't detect it right away it gives you chances to catch him through the window to catch him lingering around the remastered version made the bush outside the window larger so it's harder to see him oh interesting okay so they tried i think they realized like man that one's a little much that but that aspect that's something i'm like that's pretty good with

this game where like you either like you're some i don't you like not everyone playing this game um might have the, um, the, the, the fucking, the radar going off, but I know, personal experience. I know woman playing this game that are like, immediately clocking that, that dude, get the fuck away from me. Don't trust that vibe. Never trust that vibe. Come on.

Let's go to the drive in again. It's only an hour there and an hour back. Come on. And it's a nice, and it's a nice test to see if you, if a dude, like, did you, did you feel it? Did, did any censors go off? You're like, what? He's just a nerdy kid. He's fine.

You know? Yeah. So like... Fucking read it, man. I got to the end of the third chapter where Max's... Um... Max's

abuse of the narrative's time travel mechanic results in an extraordinarily dramatic set of changes. Um, I'm gonna call them uh, wheels.

Um... Uh, are you? you talking about the um the the the the the talk the negotiation no fuck i'm just gonna say it you put chloe in a fucking wheelchair oh okay yeah fuck that you put her in a fucking wheelchair fully paralyzed um and then you have like a you have a like last of us episode three level completely disconnected, way better written than the whole rest of the game, like side story? You can still get a gun with a wheelchair pat.

And what? Well, listen, even though she can't move, she still found a way to kill someone. Okay. And wow, like really well written. And coming back from that, I don't remember the specifics. I don't remember. Coming back, she has you hook up her morphine and blast it. Right, right, right, right, right, right, okay, okay.

And coming back from that, right away, I'm like, wow, Chloe is in episode four is being written less crazy. like she is less nuts in every single fucking dialogue prompt because I guess they they stand and Warren too is like less weird and less pushy and less cringe. They tone them down. They're they're toning down these elements because they're going to make us make big decisions about these characters in episodes four and five. And they pro they overshot it. Um, they overshot the mark. Was Kate episode one?

Two. Two, okay, okay. Batched it. Did my best. Got there? Yeah, I got there. I have some issues with the way the game's internal time logic worked. The number one issue was like the only time in the entire game that you used your power so much.

that they don't work anymore is the only conversation in the game that you actually need to use it? The most. Like, like that's, come on. There are, yeah, random, random contrived moments where you suddenly can't do it. Oh, you used it too much today. I don't know, man. I used it like 10 times in this other part. Yeah, like, the actual powers themselves were so like, who the fuck cares? They're busted. They're the most busted power anyone's ever had in the history of anything. But the way they treat it is like, yeah, who cares? It's about the, it's about the drama and the people and the struggles and the kidnappings and so on, the mystery. Never mind

the actual powers, right? I do like that, like, because the powers so, uh, uh, uh, Max's powers are time stop, time reversal for multiple minutes, teleported to flashpoints in time and change things. And

in one instance, stop time and move around for like 15 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Like, Jonah and Dio wish. Or jump into hypothetical timelines or whatever, right? Yeah, like crazy. But because you're a child,

no, they're not a master of their stand. So, you know, they're not super great at it. But then you face this thing with it where it's like, okay, well, you're playing a character, anytime you're playing a character in a game that does this. In a video game setting, like, you fucking up and the player rewinding or reloading your save is still the character going through their timeline.

But when the character themselves is manipulating time and people and seeing what they say and do to get the, to game the exact answer out of them, how sincere can they really be? Not really. Like I remember Persona did that with Persona 3. All the S-links and persona 3 that get you the most points are not what you actually think.

They're what you think the person you're talking to, wants to hear. And then that portrays the main character in a certain way. So when it comes down to it, one of the bullet points I do remember is that final one. That final

choice? Choice? Decision, yes. Yeah, so that's what I was about to talk about next. Tough choice, man. Super hard decision. Very, very interesting that the first two episodes are pretty weak and the third and

fourth episodes are extremely strong and the fifth episode's good. Like super uneven. Like really, really uneven like quality across the board. But then you get to Bay versus Bay. And this is the only thing I could remember

from you talking about Life is Strange was that you fucking got bamboozled or fucked with or hated Bay versus Bay in the portrayal of the ending. That's all I can remember, and that it was save the town or save the girl. Yes, that was it. That was your choice. So I'm going to talk about the ending. The ending is

flatly, you can either save Arcadia Bay or you can save Chloe Price. So this is already a complicated decision for me. And the reason why it's a complicated decision for me is because the portrayal in the game is actually really unclear. Step one is I hate Chloe Price and actually have taken steps to kill her in every possible permutation that I have. Max disagrees. Max wants to save her, but I need her to go.

However, on the flip side, Chloe is telling me not to save her. Right, right, right. She's saying let me go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay. So now, now I'm, now I'm, now I'm, now I'm, now I'm trapped. Oh, no.

A devil's bargain. Yeah, do I want to save everyone? or do I want to spite this bitch? Make her real mad by saving her. Like, do I want to kill her parents? Right? Like, and on top of that, there's a tertiary aspect, which is the game is like the reason for the big environmental disturbances and disaster

is because of your abuse of time travel. Your abuse of time shenanigans has unsettled the natural order. which is actually super clear and makes perfect sense. You're ripping holes and shit. Yeah. Here's where it actually fell apart for me. I was under the impression that because the game wanted me to love Chloe and be ride or die with her no matter what, because it forced me to be, no matter what, that my refusal to manipulate time once again would cause the time disturbance. to stop. It did not make sense to me that when you're saying you've messed around with time

too much, it's caused a disaster, that the solution was, but mess around with time again. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. So I chose the Save Chloe Price ending under the assumption that that would also dissipate the time problems in my refusal to change. things. Like you don't have to agree with the logic, but just to see where I'm coming for it. I see that, but I know that the game is not working that way because the game doesn't actually give a shit about her powers or the consequences they're up. Yeah, so that that's my bad. So what did I get? I got an ending where the tornado hit the town and Chloe and Max drove away and it's like 40 seconds long and I'm like, wow, that's a terrible ending.

That's really bad. So then I loaded up on YouTube and I'm like, all right, let's see the other ending, which is like multiple minutes long with bespoke music and it's about how sad it is that Chloe had to sacrifice herself. And I'm like, oh, I have a very strong gut feeling that this game had one ending. You're supposed to care. Because this ending is also deeply unsatisfying because it's all built around how sad I am that Chloe's dead when I'm like, fucking thank God. At least I won't get shot now. Or anyone else in the town for that. Or anyone else? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember what I said about it? Because I'm like, I don't. I don't. I remember you, you arguing with the choice. Okay. And that I believe, I don't know, I can't remember

this specifics. Yeah. You having like a big problem with it. I just, because I'm just like, I can I can definitely say, you know, like this is, Jimmy really encapsulates this in such a really good way, but Chloe is in a place where like they still want you to give Jimmy an out, you know? And like, it is, now that we have the language of mouthwashing to basically be like,

no, and fuck you and you made everything worse, and eat shit and go die, go fuck yourself, hold in my ear up to hear you like depart from this mortal coil and like the genre of life is strange is like a rejection of that because it's one that

wants the sentiment to overpower the reason of the moment so I may be wrong because I know I just checked Matt and Liam played that on the channel and they chose the save the girl ending okay no so some of their

they might have I might be misremembering what they said, but I can't quite remember. I don't, yeah, they played it on the channel. I'm pretty sure I played it off like on my own time and I must have talked about it, but like, I just yeah, anyway, but either way, like, this is a crazy

insanely toxic, dangerous person that you have to fucking coddle you must love. The whole way through and like... You are mandated to love this person. And here's the thing, like, I'm super down for a Veronica

Marr's style investigation story. I love Veronica Mars. I remember really digging that show, and I love that type of, like, yeah, the high school Nancy Drew Detective kind of little hijinks and stuff like that. I find that really fun. Putting it in Portlandia, sure, why not? And then all the little bits and pieces about, like, you know, getting to the bottom of fucking creep-ass teacher and shitty, like, here's Reddit and here comes fucking 4chan,

and here comes all the other assholes, right? And there's rage faces painted on the sides of the fucking buildings. It's like years and years and years after they were appropriate. And if I'm not mistaken too, like, there's the sequel stuff where it's like, no, both endings somehow happened or whatever, right? Oh, some people gave me like a breakdown of how much of a mess the series gets, including games in which all the writers get fired because it was so bad. I don't know about the, yeah, all I know is they found a way to just make it like both or neither or whatever. but um that's kind of the thing is like it's Chloe is such a fucking piece of shit that it distracts from this otherwise you know it's again a you're otherwise you're Veronica Mars adventure

yeah so that's my other big problem with the game and this you've done this in the past so you know my pain and you're playing through Phoenix right right now so you definitely know my pain which is at one point I think in episode one I said am I really going to be chasing this mystery for five more episodes when I am 100% certain I know who it is within 10 minutes of starting the game oh yeah am I like and chat was like yeah you are like you absolutely are and I'm like wow that's going to get really frustrating and sure enough it was really, really frustrating. That's a fast catch. Second one of meeting the problem, I was like, it's them.

Okay. Okay. Good shit. And that obviously changes the way you're going to interact with your teenage Scooby-Doo murder mystery, where I'm like, well, all of you were asking, the wrong questions we're investigating the wrong places you know

like and I guess I'm just around along for the ride um that's but like because because and it is a thing where it's like that is background to relationship repair is the actual foreground

gameplay you know like that's what you're meant to be uh um um um hemming and hawing over as the teen as the hell of teenager that you are. The only other game that I can think of that happened with is persona four

where I grabbed culprit on again second one. But persona four, and I talked about this during my life of strange dream, persona four has the common courtesy that if you did figure out culprit immediately, they're going to throw in a couple of strong

ass red herrings in there. some and including a couple of anti-twists okay to to make you doubt your rock solidness it feels weird with a persona comparison though because I feel like the protagonists are protagonists who we are trying to put a personality on based on those third answers we see but for the most part you are silent cool guy walking through the city

making friends whereas max is a person that has thoughts and feelings that are separate from you the player, an agency that is separate from you the player as well. So you have to confront and deal with Max as a person, love or hate, versus a protagonist who you don't really have much to say about because you can pour in whatever you want.

Yeah, so Life of Strange was a fun adventure, but boy, very uneven, like crazy uneven. I will give it a big shout out, though. There's a specific moment where Warren snaps and just beats the piss out of someone, just beats the ever-loving shit out of some asshole. And I think it's the only game

I have ever seen. So like, you know when, you know when Lune and Gustav are arguing in the beginning of Expedition 33 and they talk over each other and their lines don't interrupt? They literally talk over each other. Fantastic. And you're like, this is like the only time I've ever seen this in game. That's

really cool, right? Similarly, the only time I've ever seen a beat down of like a young person or a young adult end with that part of the fight where they're on the ground and they're just going like you know just the like trying to breathe

and just grabbing their head and making that awful noise and you're like oh wow fucking got them yeah yeah like somebody who worked on that game got into some teenage scraps because that is exactly what that looks like

yeah you want those moments like Saraman explaining no no no this is not how it sounds when someone is stabbed to death yes that's right right you need you need that I'm waiting for the game or movie where somebody gets knocked out and instead of just going to sleep you hear that

that really horrible like oh that's like yeah yeah no people getting knocked unconscious is not a quiet easy, clean thing. It's fucking weird and horrifying and it sounds awful. I would like a game that, and I can't think of any that I've ever done it because games do cuts very badly.

I would like to do the game in which I see somebody in a scuffle or some kind of conflict with their fists and they got piped by a pipe or a bat or something and it just cuts to them

getting off the ground in a new location. Like it doesn't fade out They don't hit the ground It's just an instantaneous teleport Because that's what that feels When you fall fucking unconscious You just pop into your new place That's good

Yeah Weird game Expected it to be gayer I told you I told you about the gay bro I warned you dog I warned you about the gay or lack of Not everything could be signalis

I said it could be gayer. It could be much gayer. There are way gayer games out there. You understand that they are, in fact, gay in the future. Maybe, I don't know. Like, on the game, if they're alive. Like, on the good for them meter, like, this is super low. Signalis is way up there.

And, and thousand times resist is cranked. Yeah. This shit is extremely, like, it could be much better for them. I have to take a quick bathroom break and I think so does caboose. On the plus side, I did play a other game that was much

gayer for pride and that was Delta Rune Chapter 5. Oh, really? Okay. Yes. So I'll take a quick break if you'll excuse me. And I will be back. Yes, sir. Good to be back.

We didn't do this for two hours. Should we do our sponsors? Sure. We get to news? Yeah, yeah, yeah. let's do that. Because I have plenty to talk about still. Yeah, you were going to hit the Delta Goon.

I was going to hit Delta Goon. That's terrible. Man, I don't know what's, obviously, what's going on by this point, but like, whatever it is, there's a lot of energy around revelaetons.

I can feel, I can feel that. I can feel that big, things are happening in this one. The others kind of came in. I would say that is both extremely accurate and extremely inaccurate and I can't go much in the detail. I can dance in a little bit. That's fine. Do you want to get into

Delta Run right now? Let's take a quick word from our sponsors. Let's do it. All right. This week, the podcast is in fact sponsored by HeroForge. Oh, good old Hero Forge. Yeah. Shoutouts to Prawn Zone who

helped model some of these cool designs. But Hero Forge is just, it's a perfect fit for this show, because it's, if you've got a tabletop game that you're getting going, if you're running your pen and paper, whatever games,

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you can then, yeah, have them done in many different materials printed in color plastic, acrylic, standees, or bronze, if you'd like. If you just want to print them out in 3D as well. You can have the downloadable model file so that you can print it yourself at home if you've got access to a 3D printer.

So they've got a huge catalog of many different customization options as well. And they add more to them every week. So yeah, they have the ability to go in and print your custom D20s. You can get like a model inside as well. And I have shown off some of the cool shit.

that people have been able to customize. But here you go. Let me grab the... the Willie and Reggie one over here. This is one of the deluxe printed ones that I got going, and Prawn Zone was the person who modeled it. Super cool. And you can even get details printed on the bottom, too,

so you can have wording or whatever specific things you want to do. HeroForge also has a pro-subscription where you can go in, and add tons of add-ons to each of your designs too. So if you want to kit bash with up to 20 different accessory points or so, you can get really elaborate with your designs and make some really big, cool things for your tabletop gaming. It's awesome. It's a really cool service.

So check them out. You can, yeah, use the code Castle to get 5% off on all orders of physical miniatures, not combinable with other sales or promotions. You want to visit HeroForge.com. Start designing your custom miniature and dice today. Check back often. New content is added every week. And again, at heroforge.com, if you use the code castle,

you'll get 5% off on all orders of physical miniatures, not combinable with other sales or promotions. Thank you, HeroForge. Thanks, HeroForge. And this week, the podcast is sponsored by Shopify. That is your perfect solution for getting your ideas off the ground and online. If you are starting up a business, If you've established a business and you're growing or you're trying to figure out how to take it to the next level, Shopify is the perfect way to grow with you from your first to your millionth sale, whatever it might be.

They're the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, and you can get them set up and started with your shop real easily. If you've ever jumped on a website and seen that shop pay button down there at the checkout, then that is Shopify, and it usually goes to their shop app, which is pretty convenient. It's a thing I use regularly to track my orders coming through. And yeah, if you want to build your shop, you've got the design studio with hundreds of ready-to-use templates to let you customize what you need. If you're getting into international shipping, if you're getting into returns, and if you're getting into tracking where and how to,

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Go to Shopify.com slash superbeast. S-H-O-P-I-F-Y dot com slash superbeast. Thanks, Shopify. Thanks, Shopify. All right. Who's Delta? Who's gooning? What's happening?

I don't know why you keep mentioning gooning. I don't be quite honest. I have no idea. Someone said it and I thought it sounded. Oh. So Delta Run chapter 5 came out and emote mode is correct to put on Solidus. Thank you. It is a Toby Fox banger. Shocker. Music, gameplay. I was going to say, how's that new music?

It's fucking awesome. Hell yeah. Music, gameplay. medium presentation. Interesting. Yeah, I can't go into more detail than that, but it has some good pops. Some very interesting gameplay switchups

that belie that Toby Fox is a man with a Super Nintendo inside his body. You know, like Delta Rune is like overwhelmingly not just, hey, do you guys like EarthBass? It's overwhelmingly, God damn, I love the Super Nintendo so much I could kiss it. I mean, Undertail was, hey, you guys like Earthbound? Yeah.

And also Homestock. This has definitely expanded out to, like, the entire Super Nintendo catalog. Good. Stole a character from, I think, Illusion of Gaia? Oh, yeah. Okay. I think that's, I think that's the character. Yeah, just straight up stole an illusion of Gaia character, didn't even change the name.

I mean, might as well be a sprite recreation. I've pointed out that like adult Link is just walking around in Mina the Hollower. Like he's just, he's just hanging out. Yeah, it's really funny. Really, really fascinating. Super Boss. So I'm not going to talk about any particular specifics. because this is a very people people with elder tail and delteroon tend to have incredibly unkind and mentally ill spoiler etiquette in that they don't have any

etiquette or class at all so i don't want to add to that problem all i will say is woolly have you you've played up to chapter two up to chapter two have you heard about snow grave in chapter two it's been too long So Snowgrave starts in chapter two and is the start of what the game itself terms the weird route. Okay. Okay. This is the lead in to the unkind version of your trip through Delta Room. We're not using words like genocide run, I guess.

We're not using words genocide. We're using the term weird. Okay. and each particular chapter has some weird or less weird or less kind or less kind. And chapter five in your normal route is very, Toby described it as a last hurrah before the plot really kicks off. It's very, give me another one of those levels. like very little forward momentum at all.

Okay. In fact, shockingly little forward momentum. It's from a like narrative progression standpoint, it could be called filler. Like characters, emotional journeys and personal storylines move forward, but the A plot does not.

So that can be a little disappointing. On the weird, root side of things Toby's cooking with gas and doing all sorts of weird shit all sorts of interesting narrative bullshit so is the weird route an alternate game that's happening

with each chapter? It's a little more complex than that. Some chapters have more weird root stuff than others. Chapter 2 is fairly significantly different if you go down the weird route. Chapter 3 is not different at all. Chapter 4 is there's a couple of scenes that are different and they're kind of a big deal, but most of the chapter is the same. Starting with Chapter 5, however, it is extremely obvious that the game is now going to

fully just split off into its own beast entirely. Ew. Okay. There is basically no overlap at all. between normal and weird roots in chapter 5. Okay, so you are missing content. It is now, it has moved from being parallel lines to actually being a tree that splits once you get about halfway through.

And now we return to the discourse about like, you know, does the player need to see all possible variations to enjoy themselves? Or can they simply? I think that discourse is going to be alive and well, and may in fact be a core question in the game's logic internally. Can you simply be happy and live in a world

where you don't see every possibility? The answer is, of course, no, I can't. Also, Toby Fox, I don't know anything about Toby Fox or their personal lifestyle or situation. other than the fact

that if you can take somebody's writing at face value, Toby says that straight relationships are doomed and the gays will inherit the earth because it is absolutely

crazy how all the heartfelt and sincere and wonderful relationships are exclusively homosexual and all the sad, divorced losers are all straight. It's crazy. It's 100%. I mean, the most divorced dad of all time in Undertale and returns to be a starring member of Delta Rune. And the strongest gayest relationship ever,

also in Undertale. Well, I think we've got a real runner up, or actually, I think we've got a new winner for the new strongest gayest relationship. Okay. Okay. Um, But yeah, no, it's actually really funny. But, like, I ask once again, where's Togor? I don't know where Togor is, Wully. So if you're unfamiliar, Toby really likes a lot of fan stuff. And he really likes to, like, not play into, but, like, retweet or, you know, support a lot of fan stuff, fan creation, stuff like that. Except for Togor.

I think Toby might actually hate Togor. So, you know how Asriel is. Asgore and Toriel? Mm-hmm. Well, what about Toriel and Asgore's child? Togor. I see. I see. The other.

Yeah, okay. Right, right, right, right. And there's something about how the word Togor just feels like shit to hear in your ears. I'm imagining just a weird, sharper angled sprite. Yeah. That makes strange noises in this horror. That being said, nobody does it like Toby and now Toby's team, including Temi and many others. Everything's polished to an insane mirror shine.

I saw somebody talking about a comment of like, see, games don't need good graphics. You look at Undertale and Delta Rune. It's like, yeah, all you need to do is have some of the best art design and character design and pixel art and writing ever. That's all you need. The the devastation that Pixel, the creator of Cave Story, wrecked on indie game developers' psyches. Very cruel that they did that. It's still being felt to this day. The other thing is that, like, you can just feel like a certain personality emanate through this game.

You can really feel the Toby in this, like you can feel the Kojima in a Kojima game. And I have been brain-pointed. by a Chris Wolfheart tweet describing Toby Fox as the gas pump shut up and jam guiding. And I'm like, oh my God, that is absolutely what's going on because this is a guy who is writing

as the person who played a bunch of untranslated Super Nintendo games for their entire childhood. Okay. What is the gas pump? Oh, you never played? Shut up in Jam, Guyton. In Shut up and Jam Guidon, the save point is a gas pump

that every time you talk to it starts yelling about how shit Madden and Call of Duty are and how ethically and morally superior the Japanese RPGs are. Okay, okay, okay, got it. And every single time you have to say, you have to sit through like this this labyrinthin like old style neo-gaff posts from the world's

most intolerable weeb uh but yeah yeah nobody nobody does like toby and the gang uh very excited for chapter five very excited for chapter six a little bit annoyed that i'm gonna have to go blue and replay multiple chapters to get the eggs and um a little annoyed that i'm gonna have to go replay multiple chapters to lock on to a separate save for the weird route, but I was going to say it, it sounds like if you're describing this branch that you've got two setups going

that are loading in two separate saves. At this point, it's become like, oh no, this is definitely like a mandatory part of the experience. It's just too interesting. Oh, okay, you haven't set up a save for both right now. You're not... Paige and I have not touched the weird route. We just kind of

heard about it and some people talk about it. And now it's like, no, we need to fucking check, put our fucking feet into this. This is weird stuff. Does the games allow you to create an old safe? Yeah, you have three save five slots. Okay, you can just set it up and do it. Okay. All right.

That's it for the Delta Rune. Yeah, hey, it's really great. It's really fucking good. As for the rest of it, I was on the grinding Gear podcast yesterday

with one Garrett and Kyle with a focus on Final Fantasy 14 but other things that they mess around with and before we sat down they sent me a message in Discord. They're like okay so here's how we usually, you know,

here's what we're usually talk about. And they're like, I don't know if you have any experience with classic Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid. because we just played through FF6 and Metal Gear Solid 2 and I was like a little

That's a smidge Right That's a smidge Yeah Um So hopped on there Ran that way over time So that that's

That name is a reference to grinding out the gear You're going to equip That's correct Had they explained to me That they had never heard of Path of Exile When they chose the name which caused a a

a bumble of confusion because the company that makes Path of Exiles grinding gear games Oh E Yeah, okay

Yeah, but grinding gear So first of all, always a good sign when you go guest on a podcast and go way over time they were like, hey, so we usually have about a two-hour show. Was that okay with you? And I'm like, yes.

you've been training with the weights on. That is just fine. Those guys have great vibes. Garrett and Kyle are super nice. They're sweet boys. Like, I hopped in and was my usual self and was like very clearly like, oh, they don't, they don't,

they don't swear at their chat and call them fuckheads and tell them their chat to shut the fuck up. They, um, they barely. swear at all, actually. I see. A couple of sweet boys. They're very positive and kind. So that, I, I, I kind of, kind of threw, that kind of threw me a little bit, a little bit.

So I had to tone down the insanity, just a smidge, just a tiny bit. Chit-chatted about 14 and what we're expecting, what we've been enjoying, what our history, what the game is. Was it live? Yes, it was live. Okay. So you always, because there's always, then if you have people that are there mixed in with the regulars, you have shit lords that are proper establishing the tone alongside you and your shit. Yeah, so there's a moment where I was talking about how the current way that Hunts work in 14 is shit. And we should go back to how it worked back in 2015.

And I saw somebody go like, man, I like Pat, but this is a massive L take, rare L from him. And I just like, hey, you, you shut the fuck up. Don't you talk to me, you fucking idiot. And I could see like Garrett's hair like blow back. Like just like oh, okay, whoa, okay. I see. I see. Look, Ben, you got to know what you're getting into.

They're to some degree because not only is their ample like research time in advance to learn the batch up with Pat. But you walk in and you also tend to give as many disclaimers as are needed in advance. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. All right. But yeah, had a great time. We agree on all the parts that matter about 14. Had a great discussion about Metal Gear.

Had a great discussion about Pokemon. Just a generally fantastic time. Please go down to the Grinding Gear podcast and check that out. It is a full Vod up now, including the 40 minutes of after podcast. that I trapped them in. Because they'll, they do, they like do it live and then they're like, okay, and the podcast is over now. And then they continue their stream. Like, just chat chatting for a little bit.

I see, I see. But I trapped them by being crazy and telling them about like fists of the dog medicine and shit like that. Because, you know, you're going to have fist of the dog medicine. Did they know about, did they know about the doctorate in Kogemology? they let me let me send something to you let me let me send something to you in the conversation I had with Garrett and Kyle just a few days ago

prior to the podcast um oh no it's too long of a conversation I can't fair cut it but basically I said hey really glad that I'm coming on after you guys did Metal Gear Sala 2 because I really don't mean to toot my own horn but me and my co-host Wully over at CSB

I would consider us like co-jumbo whisperers at this point. Psycho freak. To which Kyle responded with what the fuck is a co-jumbo? Oh, it's too deep. It's too far in.

There's no coming out. And I was like, right, right. I'm not talking to Wully. I'm not like, I'm not Q the fucking X. Q the XKCD comic. Yeah, right, right. Why would, why would they know about the genius co-jumbo at the Skull Girls 2 Deadly Air? Like, why would I just assume they know about that?

Of course. I know you do, right? But of course you know everything about Metal Gear. So yeah, great time. I got an invite back after the Berlin Fan Fest, which is fantastic. and it's very interesting to see the audience like transparently lock on to like wow Pat's really trying to get in on that media tour huh

and it's like every can you all shut the fuck up you all just shut your fucking mouth okay I'm a popular content creator and I just happen to cover Final Fantasy 14 on a regular and consistent basis okay shut your mouth I mean, if you

I was going to say that if it's a game you've made tutorial content for your life that elevates your tag to more than variety streamer you are an FF14 content creator. Here's the thing. I took a look at it, Wully, and you can look at hey, what's your most popular?

Sorry, what's the, no, what's the most what's the game you have the most hours on stream on your channel? And for me, it actually is 14. I did not think it was. It's 14 by like a huge margin. Like it's the most popular by an order of magnitude of like one. Like it's twice as much as the number two.

And the number two, I think is Eldon Ring. Which, yeah, no shit. Yeah. I think number three is Mass Effect legendary. Because that thing is just long as fuck, dude. But yeah, no, those guys are great. I had a fantastic time talking with them. I'm eager to hang out with them again.

in the future. And in particular, it really goes, when you branch, when you do these collabs with other people, you talk to other, and you realize just what a freak on the bleeding edge of whatever the thing you're into is. So like, well, like, you and I kind of have a bubble going in here, if we're going to talk about fighting games, Kojima, or Devil May Cry.

Mm-hmm. So like, Devil May Cry came up. And Kyle was like, oh yeah, I beat Devil May Cry. I'm like, oh, cool. What was your like, you know, it's like, what, do you do it all on DMD with all the characters? And he's like, no, I beat it. I hit the credits. I'm like, right, right.

Yes, you played the video game and you completed it. And then they were like, oh, did you do that? I'm like, oh, yeah, and I wrote a blue orb guide during the review period. Because there was no blue orb guide. You know, you're the only person that's ever seen that blue orb guide? Because I deleted it after we did the LP. Oh, yeah. Because there are other people's blue orb guides out.

At that point. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Well, there you go. So I'm, so, uh, Garrett's thinking about maybe hopping in a DMC5 and I'm like, if you're doing DMC5, put me on that call. I'll, I'll run fucking coaching drills on how to do a fucking air combo.

Yeah. Do an X-Sead. I get. It's like, it's like, walking into the. room, just go, hi, here's a list of my hyper fixations. If these things come up, it might get a little weird. All right, thank you. Just, it is what it is.

You know. Had a really, really like shot for the moon and fell into a black hole on one of those where I'm like, man, I love fucking devil may cry, like fucking blorbs, gorbs, who's getting the best head, and their eyes just kind of

right? And I had to, like, put on like the handbrake and be like, no, no, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a meme. It's an internet meme. I'm not just talking about getting your dick sucked. That is not a non sequitur. It's actually sequitur, believe it or not. It is actually technically appropriate.

Yep, yep. Okay. Okay. So I'll be hanging out with them at some point in the future, likely at the end of July after the Berlin fan fest. And like, I saw a really interesting Reddit thread right afterwards, which was like, they were like very happy for me because I have very recently made a bunch of acquaintances slash friends that I could just gab about 14 to for hours and hours and hours on end

which up until this point I was like kind of stuck with like polite but clueless or like the open air with chat which is just it's just it's not the same right It's just not the same. Now, there have been downsides to this. So one particular downside. And I will shame my new friend Hina Bobina. Great Twitch streamer, clown v-tuber. Very cool.

However, she infected my household with bullshit. So I love a Diet Coke. And I was having a Diet Coke during one of our streams. by the way, I'm doing one later tonight at 7 p.m. Pacific with Hina and Ecto. A Diet Coke later tonight? No, no. I'm having an F-14 stream with Hina and Minton. Don't actually ask and answer the question.

Go on. No, no. So, I wish I was having a Diet Coke tonight. I drank all of them in the house. But I mentioned, oh, I love a Diet Coke. And she said, oh, like a fridge cigarette? And.

and like it just like snapped off in my chest and I'm like oh my God that's exactly what that is it is exactly a cigarette that I got out of the fucking fridge yep people have written 12 packs of Coke zeros daily shit dude if I if I didn't like really focus up and there was like a bunch of coax in the fridge I could just fucking go all day

so we start to say fridge cigarette in the house which leads to a disaster which is I want a cigarette from my two year old you should have seen that coming

that's on you that was on us that was to which we then explain that cigarette is a bad word. It's a naughty word. Similar to the other naughty words that you're not supposed to say. And this has resulted in a confluence of events.

So, unfortunately, sometimes the stream is on the family television, which means on occasion mommy and daddy say bad words. Now, these are work words. These are naughty words that you're only allowed to say at work. And since you're you don't have a job, you can't say those naughty words, right? So my darling child

is playing with bubbles with his mom and goes, Mommy, can I have some bubbles? And she goes, here you go. And he's, yeah, with the bubbles. Thank you, mommy. I really appreciate the bubbles. It's incredible, you know, it's wonderful. You know, the most politest, wonderful child.

And then he falls flat on his face and goes, fuck! So the kid has internalized how swearing works. has internalized what's appropriate figured out what is the right and wrong places to swear. However, this then escalates into repeating after page going what the fuck. And she goes, no, no, no, no, no, you don't say that.

That's not appropriate. That's not appropriate to say. It's a bad word. It's a naughty word. You don't say it. So then he says, what? What the? and we'll like maug us

like lean in right and we're like hey hey and so now it has rotated all the way around to those are naughty words but he'll go what

and you go no and he'll just start looking in the eye and go cigarettes cigarettes cigarettes cigarettes because cigarettes is a naughty word but we don't get as mad

about that one versus the other ones. So he has figured out that cigarettes is a medium word. We are pushing limits and we are testing. Okay, yeah, it's the soft touch. Yeah, right. And this has metastasized into something that happened today. We were in the parking lot

walking through town and a while ago I was like, hey buddy, you got to hold my hand. We're in a parking lot. There's cars. You don't want to get hit by a car. And he says, getting hit by a car is a compliment. And of course, people are in the nearest area, like, kind of giggle. And he realized that people thought that was funny.

So now when I walk through a parking lot with my man, he will yell at me that getting hit by a car is a compliment. And I told him, hey, buddy, don't say that. That's not true. And he says, but it's not a naughty word. And also, it got a big laugh last time. Yeah. So we're running the bit.

Stop fucking with the bit. Don't you get stand up? It's like, those are not naughty words. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, man, just running circles around us. You can see the gears. You can see them turning.

Yep. Like, and like every, and like, we're having to like use our big. Big brains fast. Like, as soon as we lock something down, like, that's a naughty word. You can only say that at work. He'll start to use words that are like similar, or he'll just look at you and go, I want to say a naughty word. Well, because it's like you're, okay, you're, you now understand the concept of context

and you understand. He picked it up fast, too. Like. But there are still aspects of context that you are missing now, you know? You're missing layer two. What you'll find out, I suppose, is what really happens when he, you know, he falls down at school. You know?

Then you'll find out real quick where it's at. Well, I don't know about you, but when I was five or six years old and I fell down and hurt myself in school, I fucking swore. Nah, man. Unless a teacher was there. And then I went, oh, fooie. You can't, you can't, you can't say bad things in front of Jesus. You can, oh, that? Because Jesus is always there.

Always watch. That's a good one. Come on. I don't know if I'll, I don't know if I'll, uh, use that one. Probably, it's pretty powerful. Yeah,

I don't know if it's my style. It works really well. That buff works really well slash debuff and it takes about 20 years to wear off. So, yeah, no, that's what's up with that. My kid is

smarter than the other children and they're using that intelligence in one direction only. And that's to battle mom and dad's rules. Staring at the reaction is pretty strong. He's so, here's the worst part.

You know what the worst part is when your kid does something like naughty, air quotes, right? It's not actually bad, but it's like, no, no, that's inappropriate. The problem is that it's funny as shit. That's the real. And so like, it's like I'm playing, you laugh, you lose, like all day. All day. So like all wet, you know what? I woke up this morning.

and one of the first things that child said to me was dad how about you put a shirt on having a shirt on would be very good like oh man oh oh fuck yeah

just like god damn dude there's the darndest things and then there's just getting your ass roasted roasted

there's highly roasted just a full cook medium well that I have her permission to tell you Paige is trying on a new swimsuit and my

she describes it as you know what your son said my son said to his mother mommy you should wear that inside the house I don't think you should wear that outside.

What the fuck? What is happening? What is happening? Well, guess what? You got a girl, right? Girls mature faster? You got a, you get under a year

before this starts to happen to you. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, the, the, we are, we are, no, no, no, no. There is, I mean, look, there's, like, I, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, going to be rolling with the punch is make no mistake, but like there is probably, uh, there is a couple of like mental fortresses that are going in place. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, It doesn't matter, but you delay it.

He never, ever talks about our bodies. It's just the outfit. He just tells us what we should be doing. What you ought to be doing. Okay. He never says, wow, dad, you're fat. He goes, Daddy, it would be really good to have a shirt on. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it's like, though I will say, I will say, person who I know is watching the show one day he came up to me and said daddy I cannot have too many desserts because if I have too many desserts then I will become very round

like daddy and I went hey hey wait hey that's fully formed okay okay okay that came from somewhere So no, if we, okay, if you're getting to the quiet war age, where like the message can be passed back and forth, you know, like, yeah. So here's the thing. That was not a message.

That was a one-to-one statement that then got inadvertently transferred one one step further. Okay, okay. because I've seen I've seen my fair share of that in my family with you know go tell your father and go tell your mom and

and the battlefield that takes place off of the battlefield I need to be very clear like me and Paige are like very explicitly like body positive in this house absolutely

that's why he doesn't talk about our bodies at all. Right. Just the clothing. Which is, again, you didn't say anything, but that's inferred and that's crazy. That's really funny. And so on top of that, you know what? You know what the cherry is on top? He'll be like, Dad, please wear a shirt. You should,

you should put your boobies away. It's what he actually says. And then I put the shirt on and then he goes, wow, Dadda, that's a really good shirt. That shirt looks really nice. I go, well, thank you. That's, that's, that's, Like, that's what you're supposed to do. That is what you're supposed to do.

That is the correct way. Like that, oh, that's very kind. Yes. That is the correct way to decide the situation. So it's like, stick, then carrot. Right? Damn. Damn.

They roast so fast. It's really fast. I, it literally was yesterday, go, goo, goo, gaga. right like you're in you're in you're like in the early words right now right I'm in I'm in

bye bye yeah the start of words you have a little girl you are one year away from this and you think you think it won't happen to you

but you talk all the time so that kid's going to sass you and it's going to be awesome I mean, we'll see what sticks and what lands, you know? Like there's, again, the beginnings of some of the first things are, so there's Dada, there's bye-bye, we got, okay, okay, okay, you know, and... What was it yesterday?

And we got, we got, we got, so like a little bit of okay and a little bit of good job. So we'll see. yesterday I was like hey buddy we got to go left after the crosswalk and he's like no dad da we have to go right and then we went left because that was where we had to go and he was like dadda we had to go right you don't know where and it's like holy shit oh I better lock the fuck in on this immediate reality correction.

Like, what the fuck is wrong with you, man? I told you. Oh, man. Yeah, okay. All right. I love that kid so much. He's the best.

Oh, fuck. So that's been what's up with me. Okay. Send him, send him your way. What? Plug your shit so that we move into the news. Oh. Sorry.

Go down to twitch. shot TV slash pat stares at and youtube.com slash pat stares at. I'm going to be doing a stream with Hina and the gals tonight. I'm going to be doing 14 with one woolly versus tomorrow. Weird name. I know. I'm going to be finishing up

Pragata on Thursday and I'm going to be going back to beat the backlog on Saturday. Okay. So yeah, this week we had a couple of Evo announcements. We talked about some of the events that unfolded.

But they took the opportunity to show off some fighting game stuff. One, I'm sure you must have checked out the Bakunawa killer in Virtual Fighter Crossroads. So first of all,

let's get it right out of the way. Philippines is eaten real good lately in the fighting game Dominion. Not only is Yasmin coming down the pipe for a street fighter, not only is Philippines the obvious

like fake Asian location that virtual fighter is going to take place in but also Bakunawa is apparently like a Filipino demon. Oh I didn't know that. So like yeah no there that that was like the final

nail in the coffin of like no this game takes place in the Philippines. At the end of the trailer was that not Chinese though? It was Chinese. Yeah so there's clearly something there plus obviously the reference to Lao. So they would call

if you lived in the, you know, fictionalized Philippines, the locals would call this guy by a Filipino demon name. Right. Even if it happens to be a Chinese guy. So they show off the Bakunawa killer

and very cool character, cool mask, cool gimmick. Really interesting premise to make a fighter in your fighting game an explicit mystery? Like, who the fuck is that?

That is a function. That is... That is the most function-ass function. So, Lao Chan was dying of lung cancer back in 93. He is the most not going to be in this game ever character, except for Shundi, who's like 110 years old. He is dead. He is absolutely dead. But when Pi kicks the mask off, she's like,

who did it? It's you. Yeah. Which then immediately brings to mind, well, wait, who the fuck could it possibly be a clone of Lao Chan? No. Yeah. No, we're not cloning people. Yes, Virtual Fighter does clone people.

But we're not cloning Lao. Forgot, long lost, forgotten brother. No, it's lay fe. Because we discussed last week, and I believe you talked, it like all the virtual fighter lore can go in the garbage. Yeah. Or something along those like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

There is little tiny pieces that do exist, such as Lao Chan was a guy who made Cohen Ken Kung Fu. And he's like, I want to teach someone this goddamn fighting style because it's the best. And his daughter was like, fuck you, dad. You're an asshole. I'm not going to learn it. So he, Lao's story is that he wants to find a worthy successor to Cohen. Motherf- Right? Yeah. Yeah, no, go ahead, go ahead.

And then he meets Le Fay, the monk, the Shaolin monk, who has the ten styles or whatever. But here's the problem. Le Fay is evil and only wants to learn the style and then kill Lao so that he's the only person who knows it, at which point Lao refuses to Teach him the style. Okay.

Okay. I saw the trailer and I saw the moves and I saw the like Shaolin like triple kicks and stuff. And I was like, oh, that's Le Fay. And then my first thought was that. And then some of the moves were more Lao specific, the grab and so on. And it was like, oh, no wait. and then she reacts to Pi, and then Pi reacts to it, so then it was like, oh, I guess it's more of a Lao-related thing.

But my first instinct, when seeing the triple kick, and he goes into one of the Shaolin stances with the, the one-inch punch, I thought of Le Fay, yes. Okay, so that's likely what happened there. And, you know, it's a really good idea, because Lefei was a guy, so you can tell that Lefei had black hair because he didn't shave his eyebrows. And also it makes sense. He's a Chinese man.

Like, he probably has black hair, right? But Lefei was a bold guy who wore exclusively long flowing orange, right? So you can really obfuscate him up real easy by just having him grow his fucking hair out and put a mask on. Put some time. And let's put some time between them. Right. Yeah.

So this is what Virtual Fighter is doing. They are taking the crumbs. That's sick. Like crumbs. That's sick. And me, like, what's the most dramatic possible thing we can do with this tiny crumb? And it's like, oh, Lefei killed Pye's dad and stole his style and is now a wandering style stealing murderer. That's awesome.

Because, yeah, like, Vanessa aside, Lefei was the other character I liked the most and was playing a bunch of back in the day. Like, I really like his fucking, but the question is, is, like, what happens to Lefei moves, you know? It's, they fuck off. Shut up. Is it just, is it the full, yeah, the full replace?

Okay, you want to talk or is it, or is it statured. Here's virtual fighter. 50% or more of all players play Akira, Jackie, uh,

Lao or what's the, I think it's not Wolf. Sarah, I think, I think that's the top four, like, of super popularity. So like,

hey, what happens to lay phase move shit, who gives a shit? Lowe's move set is in there. They could definitely, as a stance character, they could definitely do a like press a couple of buttons and get a couple of stances going. But, yeah, no, it's like, yeah, no,

this is how you're going to do. There are going to be successors to characters. And Lowe is the more legacy character between the two. Lowe's the oldest and deadest. He'd be the most ridiculous to keep alive. Interesting. I really, because, yeah, I'm like, okay, my first instinct on that was correct then.

specifically the yeah he does a couple Shaolin moves and then you know that yeah it it did it was reminiscent we've already established in earlier games that lay fe is evil so good choice for the villain now I think it's actually pretty clear

that the Bacchanawa killer is going to be the villain of Ciello's storyline because all four characters have completely different stories Walking in different directions, yeah. And they're probably all going to have a mentor character from the old cast, and those characters are going to be Wolf, Pie, Akira, and Jackie, because they're in the mural.

Right. Right. So who is the villain of Akira's story going to be? Probably go. Or goes to cycle. Or the second, yeah, or the successor. Right. Like, who could the villain of, of, of,

Jeff you know of Wolfsby maybe L. Blaze who could who knows but yeah no very cool trailer painting a new character

in a game that has no story and no flash as like an overt like mystery who could it be is like really smart I'm just I'm glad it's the character I like

because I'm like I never really cared much about Lao but I fucking love Lefei man also has like really cool style and really cool look yeah just just a winner of an announcement, like super

excited. And he's a stance character, too, or like holding each one of those different Shaolin stances, like, and like, as you beat the rounder or whatever and just holding that pose is fucking aura. It's great. Now, I assume what you're going to get, by the way, is a

integrated move set, or it's 90% Lao Chan with some of his classic slash best moves from Wade Faye. I want the lunge punch. I want the one, two, three. and I want the turnaround backstance

you know a couple of those would be good and maybe even the double kick hoi hoi cool all right so that's what's up with virtual fighter virtual fighter remains peak

the best ever but there were some other fighting games too it's it's looking pretty sick I gotta say shoutouts to Tocon for the fucking mic mic drop trailer of the event the

samurai Outriders trailer was... Fucking Midnight's... That was so funny. The Midnightsly sick. The Midnighter Samurai Outriders. They, I don't know why. I don't know how, but for some reason,

Blade escaped my theory crafting on the roster. You know, I really feel really happy for Blade. He's a, he got a big event in Marvel rivals. he's showing up in tokon. Good things coming for Blade. Good things coming down the pipe for Blade. I'm really glad for him. Stonks and Blade are high!

Well, here's what I will say. So you got to see the final team after they showed off everybody and the last reveal of the Knights of Doom, which are just fucking chilling in the alley, skulking about with the... It's like... Anyway, that lineup is really...

That lineup is ridiculous. The idea that, like, it's like Doom is sick, and then you throw Green Goblin Magneto and fucking Carnage on top. Like, that's a great villain team. That is a winning roster of villains. Also, love the fact that, in addition to, you know,

getting Green Goblin for the first time, and Carnage, who never gets play because Venom always takes a spotlight there, Magneto is not doing Marvel versus Capcom Magneto stuff. He's got a different thing going where he lands magnetic. He hits you. with like a magnetized debris and then it stays in the air

and then he uses it to power up follow up moves. It's really sick. And then you're back. And then who's gonna be following up with Robbie Rays? You know, so after Ghost Rider, you get Blade who is now holding the Muramasa and has decided to go full Nago Ryuki.

It's really funny how he is just Nago Ryuki. He's gone full Nago Ryuki. He's gone full Naga. Like, it's really funny. The blade turns red and he's learned all the wee-a-boo styles and he's killing vampires with the sickest slashes you've ever seen. And I'm like, yep, they're on the team.

That's a main. Day one, it's happening. Yeah, I'm watching Rufelmonger's footage of Magneto and he's like describing him as Broly Tager. And I'm like, man, that's awesome. Whoa. Magnetizing you. Yeah.

I mean, attraction and repulsion were like added at the end kind of thing, but that you could definitely build around that as a kit. Yeah, Blade is just Nagor Ryukiing it up all over the place, which is awesome. I feel like Blade and Magic are a lock for me. And then immediately Loki, which I, that's a great pick. I want to see more trickstery moves. So we saw like one or two little teleports and then a lot of elemental stuff. And some duplicates.

But I hope there's more. I hope there's a lot more trickstery stuff. I was saying I want there to be a way for Loki to be, you call an assist and Loki comes in as one of the opponent's assists and confuses the opponent because wait. They tease that with him faking being. Captain America, yeah. So I'm like, I want him to jump on screen and you're like, wait a minute.

I didn't call Storm. Oh, no. not my storm, you know. I think a fun move for Loki to have would be to call an assist, but the assist isn't real. That's great. That is

equally powerful too. A nothing assist, yeah. Like, hit forward assist and a back assist, and they're exactly the same, except one isn't real, and you can just do the... Ignore it. Oh, my God. That'd be fucking phenomenal. And, yeah, and, of course, just, you know, looking solid with the design there, Asgard as well.

And here comes Deadpool, and holy shit. And you guys like fighting games. I mean, look, Deadpool showing up in Marvel was a great, like, pull. And have gun, we'll shoot. Oh, real good. All that stuff is fantastic. This 10 seconds we got, 8 seconds maybe. A, Nola North, so perfect.

Good. Locked it in. That's the voice. And then in Japan, it's Takahito Koyasu. So even better. Great. Dio. And you get him doing

every single moment he was on screen was him referencing another fighting game. Because apparently in lore, he found an FGC strategy guide beyond the fourth wall. and is now maximizing his appeal in this fighting game by making reference to everything. Totsugeki, Naruto Run,

Captain Ginu Poe, Jack O, Yoshimitsu, Johnny Cage, Scorpions Toasty. Random bullshit go. Jams, Rujin kick, foot dive, Roman cancel, Condor Spire,

and then... I think the foot dive is like the funniest because there's like fire shooting out of his beach. back. Yeah. From what? Deadpool? Yeah.

And Doom is right there not doing a foot dive, mind you. He's specifically doing other things, you know? I think it's really, I think it'll be really interesting if we see him do a Shoryukin, but not use the word. Because in the comics, he does do a legitimate Shor Yucan. He says the word Shor Yucan. Yeah. He would have to say like D.P. Or like, you know, 2H.

You know what? I think that's. probably where the Mortal Kombat Upercut came from because in the comic it looks like just a fat uppercut. Mm-hmm. The one in Marvel

versus Capcom, he does bent his leg to properly be more of a sure you can. But yeah, he could definitely land it and just say like, crouching fierce. So yeah, that's a great roster. Solid. That, now that you can look at the whole gang, the whole gang of 20,

that is a great roster. And it is a good pick of, they're all strong pulls, a good mix of like obscure, reinvented characters and solid faves that have never been seen in a fighting game before. 20 is a good number as well, so that's five teams. My biggest curiosity is there's never been a... I know exactly what you're going to say here. There's never been a 4V4 fighter.

How is the feeling of use going to go for exposure? like you're seeing these characters more often than any other game does it wear characters on the fucking screen it's crazy it's gonna be crazy you know how will that feel because yeah it's true in a game like skull girls where you can pick three at a time but the roster only had like 10 or 11 to begin with um you felt that roster you got used to them very quickly and you started feeling the same matches over and over again and that is something that is inevitable but you want to lay that feeling in a fighting game for as long as possible, you know?

So I have a different question. This game will receive downloadable content. That is for sure. There will be more fighters. Yep. How are they going to roll those fighters out? Is season one of DLC going to be a new team? Has to be.

Or is it going to be one more character for the existing teams? It's got to be four at a time. It's got to be a team at a time. So you think they'd actually release four characters at once? No, I think they're going to create a new team and then slowly roll them out, but all the members will be on a team. And I think that because the team designation doesn't really matter that much, it's just an aesthetic thing. You know, you can pick anyone and assemble anybody in any way. Yeah, I think you're going to get a season will be a reveal of a team.

I would like to say that I don't want the Fantastic Four to be a full season of DLC. I got bad news for you. That would be a massive bummer. I got bad news for you. No, no, I don't, I think that like it is a huge commitment and they probably wouldn't do that. I could see them grabbing like Mr. Fantastic and or the thing or, you know what I mean? Like I can see them grabbing one or two. but deciding to keep more variety.

I thought that the Avengers logo on that Caps team looked kind of like the Fantastic Four logo too. The circle and the four are right there. It was a, you know, it's just an aesthetic choice, but it just happens to look really similar. I got one. I got a team of four of all different characters. read

Strange Black Bolt and Xavier as the Illuminati Hulk goes fucking crazy That'd be great That would be awesome That would be awesome Yeah That'd be pretty good

Hulk is like Fuck this team entirely And then you could have the spirit of vengeance And Robbie Just be like Nah nah you deserve your revenge Hulk It's cool we got no beef.

Go get them. That would be really sick. Yeah, absolutely. But I think we're gonna, I think DLC will just be like, yeah, full team of four. But you can't have it just be like, again, like the expected team of four. Because each of these has been a fairly unique roster. Yeah, these have been like, you know, hey, there's a villain team. All right.

So they're what, people that Doom likes? No, actually Doom hates these fucking people. Like, Doom would shoot carnage in the drop of a hat. And furthermore, I would say that, like, you know, these teams are emblematic of, like, the heroes that are a part of them. So, like, Team Spider-Man, Team X-Men, Team Avengers stand-ins, right? So, like, I don't know that you're going to be like, here come the inhumans and their representation. But, yeah, I think who... Oh, man, cool.

I don't, you know, you don't think that designation is winning many people over, especially as DLC. but Illuminati with Blackbolt that happens to be standing there? Sure. Sure. That's a good one. So yeah, Marvel Tocon, and also they feel confident enough

to have an open beta in a couple of weeks. Yep, July 24th. We'll see how that goes. It sounds like they have addressed many of the gameplay concerns that we've been having and from following the updates like, the first touch was not a particular,

particularly flattering one. It did not feel great, but they've done a lot since then, and they've managed to get the excitement going. I'm really excited to see what the new version of the game feels like. So listen, I'm a 2XCO player now. I play 2XCO player, and I can play a tag game now.

There you go. I am really intimidated by Tokon's 4V4. Yeah, yep. It's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot. You're going to have to stare at a lot, no matter what. They do have the ultimate design here being that you do not

need to tag and that clearly is something they want to be the case. They want people who are like, I'm intimidated by all these characters. I'm just going to stick to my mind for the whole life bar. You can do that. But some of the changes do include things like if you tag to other characters during your combo, you get better damage out of it. Right? Like they do... I think this might actually be a better way to do the juggernaut slash double assist synergy of like, you're always going to have the availability of having a four-man team. You could run at one character with three assists. You can get more out of

tag a four-man team, but like, you know? Well, and here's the thing. If you're willing to learn a combo with the character... I am willing to learn one combo. Then you can confirm the hit with your point character. Do the tag the others in to finish it and then go back to your point. That's a possibility, too.

you know, the life bar is one big life bar. Ideally, I only have to learn one combo per character. That would be my, that would be the fantasy. Yeah. And the other thing I want to know about how they're going to handle is like when it comes to these stages, they have designed a lot of wall transitions. And this is something Max was talking about too. Like they have designed a lot of wall transitions in the same way that Guilty Gear Strive

has all these different dust areas you can switch to. And the White House is this insane. stage with like all these different areas and it actually lags unfortunately because of how much there is to it. When you have Asgard coming in and you have like five different areas to it and people are like we actually don't like the stage transitions that much. We want less of them. The favorite was the X-Men, the Xavier Mansion because it was just a flat wall without transitions. Are they going to allow for that to be the case? Will there be a mode where you can just enjoy fractions of these stages visually without having to

actually do all the transitions. Maybe. Because they did say they were going to make less of them, and they did design, they changed things around so that there are less transitions overall. But yeah, I clearly they don't want to get rid of them completely. It would be nice if they, I think people would be fine with like one area and then one connected area, you know, that's, that's okay. But like, and overall, I feel like the feedback preference was people like the wall.

They don't like to have to slow the game down. drastically to like try to move over to the next area every time even though it looks cool spectacle-wise to go from one zone to the next

injustice didn't win any favors with it you know um then uh can give me one second just one second all right BRB

even though I made fun of wife earlier wife made me butter tart because wife is best wife but best implies that there are others to be measured up just shut the fuck up

Just shut that, shut your fucking mouth. Everyone was looking forward to it. Everyone saw it coming. Everyone knew that Blaze Blue was going to get updated again, and they were going to add one more character. How old was Central Fiction? It's old, right? Oh, yeah.

Uh, 2015 was, was, is that right? 2015. That's crazy. Well, they got all six of the legendary heroes now. They fulfilled the promise. Yes. One more matchup for everyone to learn. Everyone is excited for Trinity Glasfi.

And, you know, technically all six heroes were in the game prior. However, no one was happy about it. Yeah, I guess you could go play as Trinity, you know, with platinum if you want. but um yeah no no hey hey i have good news for you you're not alone you're not alone um there you go your lore is now complete all six heroes look at that that's a crazy update to pull after all this time and it in like and if it is a character that was missing from the lore then like that is like okay cool but you have to then get people going Okay, so this means something, right?

So yeah, no, it means Blaze Blue is dragging itself out of a grave and says, hey, guess what? Team Blue. Our System Works fucking loves me too, Guilty Gear. Team Blue is back on the table. Not to mention Ragnah showing up in Damon and Baby. I tell you what, you run another run at Blaze Blue,

whatever the fuck it's called. put Tager back in there I'll go to fucking go I like Tager a lot I like Tager a lot I just wish Tager didn't have to live in a fucking game with new that's my only problem with Iron Tager is that he lives in a world

that has New 13 and Ericuna and shit my I think a Blazbleu game with updated models and designs and characters that look way more detailed and cool than the current ones do would address most of what I felt about it beforehand, which is just I wish the designs in some cases were stronger, you know?

I could see a new update to that looking fucking dope as hell. That'd be very cool. I think a new Blaze Blue in the modern world in our current day with the, you know, strive of vacation, like visually is definitely good enough for me and you to do like a, like a hey let's play blaze blue episode you know co-stream collab in which we play that rogue like or something else

do the other play the other game yeah yeah just swerve over to the fucking the platformer run it back run it back one more time um that being said like I just remember

being in the crowd when they announced Jubei and the Blaze Blue players we were sitting with were like God fucking damn it Not another matchup I hate this shit It's huge right It's insane

It's like it's like almost smash brothers level Yeah And just The absolute exhaustion Not even hype It was they announced Jubei And they announced BB Tagg

And it was like Okay here's a new game sure And fuck you What do you mean I have to go learn another matchup I hate this shit It was crazy Okay, hold on. Ragnah, Jen, Noel, Aliccar,

Rachel, Tom Kakka. Oh, I'm just going to count them. Oh, Reiner, we're doing this now? Yeah, no, like, here, like... It's 36. 37 now. That's not that bad. Approaching 40 is high for a fighting game.

Yeah, well, Street Fighter 6 says they got a fucking 10-year plan, which brings that roster up to like 68. It takes, that's a long, that's a big, that's a big life. That's a big life. Um, anyway, so, uh, that is. I hope to live in a world in a, in which there are so many matchups that knowing them all is actually impossible. I mean, Smash Brothers players are kind of in that space. Um, isn't, aren't Mova's already kind of there?

Obas are absolutely there. Well, there you go. Like, there are way, way too many interactions to possibly know. And look, if Arxas knows what they're doing, then you can look forward to actually the same number of matchups because Platinum the Trinity will be deleted from the game. And Trinity Glass V will be in her slot. because the shape of the character select screen is currently balanced.

That's true. So you can't have it be lopsided, right? You got to make space. You got to make space. And the way you make space is by just dropping it over. All right. Then we got to... Man, video games might be good, actually.

Yeah? I was looking at all these characters and I was like, yeah, I can't have fun with this stuff. You sure about that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know what? Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you what.

Fighting games have some fun things coming on. Bob's coming down. He's fat. Bob is fat and the best fucking line ever. Holy shit. It's really good. You know why I love eating Onigiri? Because it also means kill demons.

I can't believe it. And then he fucking rocks Kasia. And it's like, yo. Anyone who hates Amishima is my fucking homie. I love you. I fuck with you if you hate Oh my God, it's the best And then he's like

You'll have to atone for your sins As he eats his big fucking muckbang The best All you have to make any returning Tekken characters show up And have them cursing the fuck out of the Mishimas And they win That's all you need to do

My favorite of all the fat guys for sure Oh yeah, he's the best Also like doubling down On the Samo Hung with the full-on cop suit with the fucking SPL outfit like I mean

bro they know exactly what they're going for with that moving like moving like a fucking ninja it's insane awesome and then the little bit

at the end with Roger and uh sugar no the actual kangaroo fight good meme they did the bit um hey everybody, if you want to defeat the current

the current swimsuit magnet that is Ari and all of her costumes, how about we drop Lux in the game for you? One of the most popular ever. I think she is the most popular. With her rich white girl sweep, here to take all the costume attention away. She was an absolute lock.

I think she was one of the characters I described that, like, on the list of, like, I don't like Lux. I actually dislike her. I don't like to play as her. I don't like her aesthetic. I don't like anything about her. Absolute lock. Shocked. She wasn't in the base roster.

That means she is this game's Akuma. That, like, put her as the DLC, because people are going to buy Lux. More like the dizzy, almost. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the names that I heard before I knew any of the other League of Legends characters

So that doesn't surprise me at all Also appears to be a Shoto But yeah man you drop a mercy-like character like that And you just be like, this is how we make our money This is how we do it They throw that in there And then for the real ones Here comes your Samira

Who I also recognized Because people were describing The eventual devil may cry character to me beforehand and they're like, yep, you got a Dante. Her name is Samira. She's got a sword and two guns and she literally has a style meter. Yeah, it's like, you know, you'll say like, oh, that's a blank. That's a so-and-so. This character is literally legally distinct girl Dante. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then there was a tweet online. I saw that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Marlon Pie! Tell me that you're deciding Samira and my life is yours! that's like sure enough Marlon Pie is just like little little happy face

yet we are going to get another character that just has everything in the world and too much attention and too much love a character built for Marlon Pie to play and he'll also let you play them when the character comes out. Sorry folks

you will not be able to keep up with the executional requirements for Samira You will get to play her up to B style at best. But S rank is for the fucking gods. Style beasts only. I mean, at the end of the day, I have to imagine that, like,

okay, well, hold on a minute. She's a Devil May Cry style character with a style meter, but she doesn't have more moves than other, like, champs do, right? I'll have to look this. That's my question, because Dante, with her, with Dante with, the bold cancels and stuff, they gave all the moves they could to make him more representative of a DMC character than a Marvel versus Capcom one.

So in league, everybody has, you know, QWE R and then trait, right? It's called Inferno Trigger. Get the fuck out of here. Oh, yeah. That's really funny. That's really funny. So, okay, wow. So she has the style meter called Daredevil Impulse, and it's in the Devil May Cry font. She has Flair, which is some basic attacks.

She has blade whirl, which is a spin. She has Wild Rush, which is Stinger. And then she has Inferno Trigger, which is a shooting spin with the guns. So the same amount of moves as the rest of the cast. Yeah. I mean, everyone in league has the same amount of moves. Now, there could be style variation where your moves can change properties according to what style you're in. But that gets even crazier.

Her gimmick is assuming auto attacks as well. If you, every attack that is unique as different from the last attack, increases your style meter. So in 2XCO, if they kept that and she actually had a bigger move set, it would be too easy to get her style meter up. Basically, she functions as a combo adjudicator. Yeah, okay.

You have a huge list of moves, then... You go through it a lot simpler. But with, well, actually, with fewer moves, the rotation becomes tighter. Yeah. So, okay. they've and the thing is too like I mean they've clearly shown a willingness to do things like have sena B have two modes entirely right so like she has double the kit there's ways to expand it for sure but overall like if we see a stylish action character and if those guns are primarily used to do shit in your face like Noel mission accomplished because there's a lot of gun girls and they play very differently from each other but Um, for someone like this, it should be about, again, the, the, the guns are a, a style enhancer, not actually for zoning, you know?

Um, it's Marlon Piedante. That's all we really need to know. That's it. That's it. Yep. Uh, that is, that is a, that is a fan favorite and, and, uh, and a, and a hardcore fan favorite. So smart picks there. Um, people staring at that stage going like, another double drop with the statue guy. No, no, no, no, actually. It's going to be a while, because they say Lux is next and her trailer's coming in fall. What I will say is, good job keeping up the excitement here. Reminder that Thresh and Sena dropped

barely two weeks ago. Also, like, the momentum, you gotta, like, they're doing it. They're fixing the problem with the cast being too small, but Thresh and Sena just dropped the week after Evo happened.

and now they're showing you the next two. They're going to need a sec. We can confirm the two XCO devs know what's up because people said we want more characters and they say, you know what people like? Girls and skeletons. Yeah. Thresh and the Goils.

Five girls! Thresh and the girls! Thresh and the Goals, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think... Crazy. I think. after this season,

we can give the Fem Fetalza rest and do some cool, and make some cool freak picks. I assume there will be two guys. Give me a hot boy. Two freaks and a girl next season. That's about right. Yeah. Give me some hot boys.

Give me some freaks. And then something else, you know? I would see the only girl next season to be Riven. Hmm. What about that, um, Oh, well, they did say was a Catarina, the Redhead? Yeah, she was the first 2XCOA character.

And she's the sample character, so she might take a wild... They went too crazy. They made a character that couldn't be defeated. They made a... Like the mad scientist's prototype that can do all things. No, it sounds like Riven is somebody that people are, like, been waiting on, and they're like, you know, damn, no Riven still, even with these announcements.

There's a current movement forming from one person for Poppy to show up. That's not one person. Well, it started as one person and it has become a movement. And the memes are getting... The memes are getting edited and popping up more and more. And... I gotta be blunt, guys. I don't think there's ever going to be another yordle on that roster.

Oh, yeah. Timos the man. No end game Himerdinger No I think I think you'll see Set

Marker calendars on this I think you'll see set I think you'll see Riven I think you'll see Fiddlesticks Before you see Any other

Yornels One thing is clear though Is that Telling people pretty much ahead of time as soon as, not as soon as, but like getting word out about what's coming down the pipe early is a good thing, you know? There has been an enormous resurgence in FF14 players based on promises for next year. Yeah, right, right.

Like, not even anything that's in the game right now, just like, it's going to be really good. And beyond with the full like Ava suite. Like, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, knowing is exciting. And then, like, people who are like, oh, I'm a Lux Main or whatever the hell are, like, oh, you know, coming in and taking a peek. And then anyone who's like, I don't know this character, but I'm waiting for gameplay, it's like, yeah, that's still exciting to reveal it too, you know. But yeah, the double drop and then the back-to-back, like, this has been, like, within, it's been about a month in which all that was dropped out and then other stuff. So they're clearly like working to, like I said, reverse the, the, the unhype.

And yeah, shit's moving. People's adoration for 2XCO is scaling linearly with its roster. And like, that's it. And it's just because it's an adaptation that's got hundreds. And everybody's looking for the character that they know about. or really like. Characters are not just functions, combo fiend.

That's why you put Warwick in the game. At this point, I think he knows. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I know, I know. He knew what I was talking to him back in Seattle. I was like, yeah, functions. Anyway, ah. No, not an answer. Just a sound effect.

Yeah. I mean, the word functions is part of the lexicon forever now and serves its purpose. like it did in that virtual fighter conversation. So with Samira, that brings the roster to 17. Yeah. So yeah, they're getting there. Okay, besides that, Robokai, we got to see a bit more of.

And again, something else about this too, and, you know, to quote Max on this one, but it's like, Robokai seemed like such a wacky, goofy character and always has been the hijinks of Guilty Gear. And then one Deadpool trailer later, you're like, I guess he's kind of silly. Yeah. Like, he's actually quite tame, you know, when you look at it. And I will say watching the breakdown, like, he looks stylish as hell, first of all. I fucking love the suit and the outfit and the double kittanas. It's a really classy suit.

It's a dapper-ass. It's a great look. It looks awesome, right? Then when it comes to the moves and, like, the way he actually plays and stuff, you know, the strivification of his kit is, like, to be expected. So they've simplified a lot of complex things about him. And he still, he has a battery system with his energy that is still there. But he used to have to manage overheating. And you have the carpet to charge your battery up and stuff.

Still has that now, but you don't have to manage the overheating. It's instead, it's one of his supers where he'll get to do a bunch of his strongest moves. And then he'll automatically detonate at the end of it. Some really fun references in there with like the beetle that's powering him up from like way back in the day. That was one of the things when he gets shocked and x-ray showed you like his little beetle sprite inside. And yeah, overall, like, like aesthetically and everything that's dope as hell, when it comes to his moves and everything they showed off in the kick in the breakdown, I was, it was just kind of really tame. And I guess I'm just like going, I know that

Strive has been pulling it back because this recent update made everything like depowered. Everything is like, whoa. No, anyone that has. has a secondary meter or mode has a way harder time managing it. They want the game to be way, way, way more, like, chilled out and not as insane, holy fuck explosive. And this is a character being designed with that philosophy in mind. And so now as a result, like, he does, like, a little, kind of goofy little fly that he that he does.

He has a, this radio, like, beam that boosts you up that it looks like it should just be a crouching heavy button, like a crouching heavy slash, but it's a special move, you know, or like a thing where he lunges at you and does a sword slash. And it's kind of like, these are, these are okay, but they're not that like stylish and bombastic as far as like guilty gear moves go, you know? Like he does the, the, the, the, the, the deo reference stuff to what the muta-muda punches that he used to do and everything. But I guess I'm kind of just like, yeah, like, I wish that his moves were a little bit more stylishly designed and a little more over the top with their animations, you know?

well we the full move set breakdown is out not just the trailer yeah I don't know not the trailer the move set breakdown here's how he works

video is out it's it's very very oh the in this behemoth typhoon exactly yeah and it's it's pretty tame you know um overall like even sin

is doing these bigger crazier car crash neutral ass moves where he's flying at you with the with the drivers and stuff. And overall Robo Kai is just kind of he slides at you a little bit, does a little

thing, does a rocket punch that's pretty good, does a little bounce you up with the radio, puts the carpet down, that's about it, you know, and a little fly here and there. It's very, very tame as a moves on. Well, he does look really slick in that suit. It looks, the design is incredible. Yeah. Anyway, he's wearing like similar clothes to Kai, but his are just better. He's wearing a better, more stylish suit.

Swagged out. Yeah, I just feel that You know Compare like the way he swings His swords around and moves Compared to like Saul who gets to be Fucking protagonist with his Fafnirs And everything

You know And I'd also say it's also the slow The smallest range For a character with two katanas I'd expect like big old persona For Ultimax shit going But anyway All right we gotta get a move on

Um Have it work at Microsoft Start looking for work Well I was just going to say Avatar Legends You got the The DLC confirmed on those So

They're doing a vote for that shit Yeah So confirmed characters are going to be Uncle Iro Tai Li Lin, Lin And Bo Lin are the first characters Of the same

Yeah fucking Bo Lin really Man So more Cora representation Seems to be the thing They want to do here Which is to be fair it's like, yeah, there's only only Cora is like, that's not balanced, right? So getting more Cora in as a focus is like a, makes sense so that it's more Avatar in general.

And the other thing, too, is you want to pick characters who are not like the others that have something unique to bring to the table. And I would say that metal and lava bending specialties definitely do that, right? I guess. So, yeah, Lynn will do that and Bolin will do that. Thai Lee with the acrobatics and the non-style bending, but the actual ceiling and stuff could be cool. And then, you know, fucking Iro, the number one. Like, you got to get them in there. Then for the fifth character, you're going to have a vote, and the crowd made it very clear.

The choices were Tenzen. Kuvira. Ammon. It's going to be Amon. Boomy! Ah! Really? Yeah.

Asami! Yay! It is not clearly Amon because the Boomy stands are loud and out there. It is a... Interesting. It is going to go to the wire on Amon or Bumi. And quite frankly...

I've got a barking dog. I got to get out of here. He's got to pee. I'll be right back. B.R.B? He never barks to go out. So I was going to say, Bumi is fucking great and, like,

would be a really fun pick and is nuts and fucking awesome and all that. Amman is better for the roster. Oh, absolutely. A villain that is different with different energy representing the other side of it with bloodbending is just something the game does not have.

at all and it would be way better. I agree. I really hope they go that way. I think you are right. But the crowd pops kind of tell you it's going to come down to those two. Which is like, thank fucking God because like, Assami's fine. You know?

Anyway. Yeah. Side note, I want to just give a, a little golf clap to the response I've seen from most of the FGC to the FGC locals thing where the Evo locals was announced as a like, hey, guys, this will be a place to, you know,

they have money to give to locals and, you know, we always talk about supporting your locals and talk about like a place where you can go and list your events and stuff. And everybody raised their fucking eyebrows and went, ah, okay, so it's not enough to take over Evo too, huh? you want to get Saudi money in on the ground level on the grassroots too cool cool and I was like yes thank you thank you for fucking seeing through it I really appreciate that

gotta just do it all get it all under there so we can just leave in a couple of years and just leave it burning I'm just glad I'm just glad the response was immediately people going oh no I don't know about that I'd like it if you you put you do your thing over there and you let's let's stay in control of our shito thank you very much, you know. Anyways, okay, so moving on real quick, because yeah, it is getting late. We did start late. Uh, Microsoft is fucking, fucking, all of it. Everyone's getting fired. It's all coming down. The only person who's for sure is he's safe is, uh, Kojima's OD. But I am seeing multiple articles about selling off, um, selling off, um, closing down or cutting ties.

with machine games turn 10, Xenamax, I-O-I, compulsion, uh, ninja theory, rare, double fine on dead labs, and arcane.

Arcane, that sucks because I mean, you've, I haven't played their, like, you know, dishonored and that's, and any of those games,

but like, um, you've talked about how fucking solid they are. And, um, the idea of blade getting finally something, you know,

it was pretty, sick because it's like hey rivals he's in there now tokon he's in there. He's got a spot and fucking token is what he's got. Yep and the Marasha Ali Pro project has been stunted forever so this was something else that was coming but I did not know that

Blade was in such shit-ass fucking like production hell that they ended up selling all the costumes to the Sinners production. So Sinners was originally a it's supposed to be a Blade movie that then

got, like, things got adapted and changed and turned around or whatever, but there was a whole bunch there that was supposed to be, yeah, not an original thing. It's crazy. No, being a Blade fan is hell. It's suffering. And the fact that he showed up at all in rivals is like, oh, my God, it actually is out and happened. Okay, wow.

There was a, there's a whole, there's a whole thing about the production line for, like, sinners, like, it is an original Ryan Coogler, but like, there was stuff. about the project or there was a blade project that was supposed to be done and there's a relationship between the two and I don't have the full history accurate but I know there's a connection there. The important thing is that there's a connection between Microsoft and you no longer working on Microsoft anymore. Indeed. So all these layoffs are supposedly going to be starting July 6th and I saw folks describing that it is going to be the largest, off in games history. By the numbers? By the numbers.

Okay. I think, yeah, so what we need to see at the end, because a lot of this rumoring has been, like, you know, pretty much confirmed at this point, not everything is going to get canceled. Some things are trying to see if they can, again, spin off, merge, resell, or survive in other ways by clawing their way out of there. Let's see who can survive the culling. but anyone that can't is obviously just fucking done. I've also been just hearing about how like the,

this getting hired in the industry at this point is like becoming, it was already pretty bad. It's been that way for the last couple of years. And now it's becoming like, it's not just impossible, but like you're not seeing people that are not like 20 year veterans on teams anymore because only the most senior people are the ones left in a,

lot of, in a lot of situations and a lot of studios cases. Um, so, cool. It's, it's so Activision, I don't know if you remember, but people joked about how Activision Blizzard was bought by Microsoft and that it was going to parasitize Microsoft, and absorb Microsoft into itself, sorry, Xbox and become Activision Blizzard Xbox. Mm-hmm. that's actually happening and all the debt

and all the and all your losses yeah sure get caught it's it's crazy get fucking get bobbyed so Microsoft's stocks are 20% down right this second because the news has gotten out

that they're going to fire everybody um yeah I I even in a context of like we got to make it this quarter, I can't even imagine what the plan is to like gut half of their output. And also continue to make a console.

Right? Like, because they keep saying that there's a console in production that's going to happen, right? It's just like industry that has fired every, somehow finds even more people to fire. I kind of am amazed that OD is escaping unscathed here. I think it is purely based on Kojima's name. I think, I think it is purely due to the,

we don't want the Microsoft cancels another Hideo Kojima game. It's a, it's a, it's auteur profile, so that's the, that's the, Like, I don't know the specific stats, but I am under no illusions that Death Stranding did super well for Sony. Right? That was a, a fuck yeah, let's go get them. Project. But the PR nightmare of canceling a Kojima game is not something they want to stomach. I mean, shit.

In the meantime, prepare for canceling a Star Wars. game because it looks like Eclipse is fucking not going to make it, which... I'm just going to hold up my hand for a second before we move on. When I watched that Microsoft thing and I was really negative because I was like how many of these are going to get canceled and people are like, wow, this is such a downer. Why is he being so negative?

I've never been more right about how many of these they're going to cancel. There is no objective reason to ever watch a Microsoft presentation ever again. there's no faith that anything you see will ever exist I mean I think you can just look at how of all the between the different game console makers the one that comes out that you're watching as they swerve their whole company desperately towards the AI bubble is the first one that's going to eat shit yeah that's not a surprise

wow I can't believe it I can't believe it anyway But yeah, eclipse is in a dire fucking place. Which, hey, guess what? Obviously, that's been called out since its announcement four years ago. Yeah. But now what's happening over at Quantic Dream is because the fucking Mage game got canceled. Spellcaster Chronicles. Wow.

One of one of the three. Yeah, it's bad. One of the three. So with that. that shut down and then everyone's getting fired from that. So the team over at Quantic Dream are basically going on strike because they are under the eclipse team are saying we're understaffed. You can't cut 115 people off this project.

We are desperately in need of people to come help us. And if you fire 115 people that were working on the last game, it's just not going to come out. that could help us with this game, then it's over. And this is a weird thing of like people are striking to save the project they're on. So I'm going to have time travel you for a second. Yeah. When Star Wars Eclipse got announced, the plan at Quantic Dream,

and this came up in like their legal filings and like some of their things, the plan was the announcement of working on a big Star Wars game was going to be the push of a staffing up period. to rearrange staff internally and hire people for Star Wars Eclipse. But right when that happened is when that massive, it sucks to work here, everyone's a bunch of pieces of shit assholes. News articles came out in the French press, which led to the lawsuit, which led to more press, etc.

So they failed to staff up for Star Wars Eclipse. Now we're five years in. And Spellcasters Chronicle was supposed to be the successful, consistent game that kept the lights on while they staffed up for Star Wars Eclipse, which they still haven't done. And now they're talking about firing 115 people. So the people working on it are like, there's no way we can make it. And the Eclipse team assumed that the people on the other team, you know, team after that did shut down would naturally be the place that they got their staff from.

They went, yeah, you already work here. You're already employees on the other game. That just shut down. Awesome. We have a project desperately in need of more people. And it turns out, no, that's not what's happening. They're letting them all go. So now you have this situation where the staff is like, they care about the survival of the project more than the people in charge apparently do. And they're striking. People in charge are just do more with less. Yeah. You know.

And so you have this, was specifically timed on a day when Lucasfilm was visiting and they were hoping to get the attention to basically go, yeah, this shit needs fucking solving. Well, I bet they got their attention. So, yeah. You have to imagine that. you know, if that played out the way it did and everything else we're seeing is underway, then it's like... Do you remember when we had a whole conversation in 2021 about how Star Wars Eclipse was never going to come out? Yes, the thing is, is just like... The thing is ultimately, though, is just like, so now with these employees saying this stuff,

the only question is, how much exists, right? If they're saying we... If they're saying we've been understaffed the... entire time and we've been struggling the entire time and it's been four years. There is nothing concrete. It is pre-production and gray box. Man, it's fucking just, it's so dumb and sad and shitty. But like, yeah, you have a bunch of people that are currently employed that would like

to continue to be employed doing whatever they can to get the attention towards the project they're on not getting fucking shuttered. anyway so that that's all good stuff we'll have more information for you next week shortly

the Microsoft layoffs most certainly and then I guess just in terms of some some quick other shit shows uh fictional or otherwise they announced a persona

live action Netflix TV show and Wow, that's going to be dog shit. There's no, I can't, I can't even give it the one piece benefit of the doubt on this. There's no version of this. There's no version of this show that is an absolute trash. I have, I have a version of the show. It can't not suck.

I have a version of the show that kicks ass, though. That you film it like it's the 90s and you have all the actors that are in high school be like 35 years old. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, the super age. up weird American TV show style thing where everyone's way too old and it's really uncomfortable and why you dress that way fellow kids Mm-hmm yeah

No um I just like you even if you're you What are you gonna do you gonna do? Yeah CW kind of like relationship drop It's it's it's persona live action it's it's done There's nothing you can do to make it I can't wait for a bunch of Americans to depict stand battles in live action Can't wait for You know like look I know this is not the world where you would get a feature length, creepy, animated SMT film?

I know this is not that world, right? That would be too cool. You got to do shit like this instead. But when looking at the names... That's the noise. Yeah, there it is. That exhale, that's the one. So I'm like, okay, what are the names? What are the names? Who's doing this? What's happening? the current slate of the people working on it includes they're working on the live action Tomb Raider series and they're also working on the live action Life is Strange series so good stuff coming for you um and yeah it just there Netflix has nothing to comment on like those are the only current things that we're talking about like they're working that they're

also working on is a live action Tomb Raider and a live action life is straight there's no way this isn't the dumbest piece of shit you've ever seen. I can't believe they greenlit this shit. Anyway, whatever. Get that anti-bag, Sega. Do what you got to do. Let's do it. That new

trailer for cyberpunk edge rudders too. Awesome. It's a tone trailer. It tells you nothing about what's going on and that's great because all you need to know is that character is going to get fucked up. That character is actively fucked up as we're watching, and that character is not going to make it.

That's it. It's a really interesting. It's a really interesting idea, like the very first trailer is like, that motherfucker's going to die. Like, oh, oh, oh, you're, oh, oh, you see that one right there? That one? Wipeouts. Big wipeouts.

Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Film it. Film it. Get that camera going. Get that camera going. And then what happens when the camera drops and it turns the other way around? you're fucking cooked bro

Saske haircut hair cut nah man and then the other one is like in the process starts the trailer going cyber psycho like yeah it's I love I love

that we don't know what the fuck's happening we're just looking at more characters eating shit in Night City and this has all anthology vibes going for it new setting new or rather the same setting, new characters, new story. You know, awesome.

Love it. Brilliant. Perfect. And then, yeah, there was just a little fun one about Baldersgate. Two co-lead designer was asked to make Baldur's Gate 4 after Lowry and declined. Having to compete against Balders Gate 3 would be insanity. I, I'm going to bring this up every single time. I don't think you can actually.

remake Baldersgate 2 in any modern context. It's too big. It defies your understanding of how large an RPG is in scope. That's incredible because you're not even coming at this from the point of view of... Holdersgate 3 is out of the conversation.

Yeah, like which is the obvious to me like what you really want to fucking go after that, really? No, the actual answer is like if you go into Baldersgate 2 and like do a lot of most or all the content involved with Dr. Skate 2. You're like, oh my God, they could never remake this. I remember a while ago,

I think it was Sawyer was talking about like Pillars of Attorney 1 and they're like, is it going to be as big as Pillars of Attorney 1 as big as BG2? And he's like, no. If we did Baldersgate 2's amount of screens with like

in 4K resolution, we'd have to pack it on like two Blu-rays. of JPEGs. Like it's, it's... We're in FF7R territory then, is what you're saying. Yeah, no. It's too big. Okay. It's too big.

And it's funny because, like, in some ways, the thought of, like, not having to challenge the content part of it simplifies the matter because you just have to update what you got, you know? But, um, yeah, no, they just went Lamau, LOL, no. Get the fuck out of here.

Nah, bitch. Wizards of the Coast going, we're going to do Baldersgate 4. We promise. And then like completely failing to follow up with a single detail other than here's the people we asked about it. And they said, Lamow, no. Yeah. Is the biggest ball drop possible?

And then they also mentioned especially with Exodus being focused on, you know, so. Yep. Okay. Well, I guess Baldersgate three really was a fucking. It's a mic drop. That's a mic. That's a one and done. That's it.

That's the only time. All right, let's take some letters. If you want to send in a letter, send it to Castle Super Beastmail at Gmail.com. That's Castle Superbeastmail at Gmail.com. By the way, if you mentioned that you listen to this podcast and your date left because they don't listen to old white guy podcasts

and that's a red flag, you saved yourself from some trouble, my friend. You're welcome. Wait, what? There's a gentleman on the subreddit who said he was at a date and when it came up that he listened to a podcast she was like

oh you don't listen to those podcasts with middle age white guys in them do you? He was like well I listen to Castle Superbeast but and then before he could even finish the sentence the vibe changed and she said that was a major red flag bitch Castle Super Beast is a podcast of color how dare you it's even got a black guy on it

that probably didn't help that probably didn't help no you know what probably didn't help she was like whatever and then she went home and typed in Castle Superbeast and looked with her eyes oh oh dear

well did she look at with her eyes at the title first do you think and I would have eyes you have to get past the words to see me I'm here but I'm behind the words. You're behind the words. And the words are... The words are no good.

No, Bueno on the word. You wouldn't have thought a black guy wrote some of those words, but sure enough. I wrote over. I wrote over. He said a couple of them, too. Oh, no. You have to click on the words to find me. I'm here.

Darn. Look. Look, I got this dog. He's disabled. This is a podcast of color. And, you know, come on. Come on. This podcast always features

a black guy, a white guy, and a Chinese guy. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, hey, yeah, you dodged a bullet there, buddy. Yeah, no. Caboos is secret Chinese? No, he's just regular Chinese.

He's a fucking pug. Oh. Okay. Some Portland. Um, okay. Unless you're telling me that Portland is secretly Chinese, but that's a whole different conversation. Well, no.

When a dog is Chinese, I assume it's because the dog was, you know, from China. Oh, he's ethnically Chinese. He's nationally American. Yeah, okay. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, if you're talking about, yeah, right. Origin versus the actual nationality.

Yeah. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. All right. Let's take one over here from... Joker BP Yeah, we got time for one So let's just do this one Um

The Squeenix fake out Dear Woolenix and Final Pat Tensee Uh I recently remembered One of the most out-of-pocket misdirections I've ever seen from Square Spoilers for Chaos Rings Although I believe it's already been taken

Out of the mobile store Is that the fucking Skittles one? No, I'm thinking of the different game. Um Yeah, I saw Chaos Rings Yeah, I saw chaos rings. So I'll try to keep the story simple since it can get convoluted. The premise of the game is this.

Four strong couples are abducted onto a spaceship. Inside the ship, all couples are forced to fight environments with monsters and then eventually each other in a death match tournament. The couple that remains alive will be given immortality. Okay. The catch is, once you win and are given immortality, instead of being sent back to where you were taken from, you're sent back to the past to become. the planet's new Adam and Eve to generate the next batch of tournament participants,

where Adam and Eve, quote unquote, and three more couples will fight again. Rinse and repeat the cycle for selective human breeding. I'll leave out the reasons as to why. Now I want to focus on one couple in the first Chaos Rings. The Adam and Eve of the game are named Olgar and Vati. This makes sense in that, so it makes sense in the prequel game, that when you would play Chaos Rings Omega, you would play Adidas, you would play Adiomack, as Olga and Vati, except the couple you're playing as are Vleg and Vati,

and one of the other three couples are Olga and Rachel, the parents of Vati. Immediately red flags appear as there's already so much implied imbreeding with the hold Adam and Eve situation that the implication that something could happen to Vleg and Rachel forcing Olgar to repopulate the world with his daughter Vati seems more than plausible. Turns out that Vleg defeated Olga and he bestowed upon him his name making him the new leader of the unit, forming the old Garvati couple that we know from the first game. Oh, all right.

Okay, all right, all right. Jesus Christ. All right. Okay. What are some of your favorite attempts at misdirection you've seen in a game? Fuck. Had us in the first half and the second half, and at the last second, you pulled us. Not going to lie.

The first 90%. my favorite attempt of misdirection as of right this second is the Bakunawa killer people thinking it's a clone of Lao that's ridiculous though there is something I do want to say about the Bakunawa killer as he is a fighting game character

no one's going to say Bakanoa killer they might say B killer but they're going to say BK and then they're going to call him the Burger King and then they're going to call him Wopper Oh you're jumping the meme to level four yes You're speed running the meme.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. And then people will be doing combos with this guy and talking about how you should have it your way with BK. Yeah. So the problem is, is I've lived through moments like that where it just never caught on. Like, I want to say for about one week of Marvel versus Capcom 3 original, people were calling X Factor Cancels KFC and trying to get that going as like a Kentucky for a chicken. Well, that really never caught on at all.

It never caught on. It never, nope, it never went anywhere. So sometimes... What was the logic? It was just XFC. Looks kind of like KFC.

Wow, that's weak. Yeah. Yep. That's it. And you're just like, nope, no power to that one. And it goes into the, it goes forgotten.

May history never remember its name. I have, I think, what is my favorite misdirection in any game, and it's a big one, but it, the thing you

never could have seen coming the whole time. Hey, guess what? Spoilers for Eldon Ring. Marica's Radagon is the sickest fucking reveal of all. That's a good one. You would never, no one would ever in their theory crafting, piece that to be what the actual

solution to what it was. I fucking love that one. I think it's my favorite. The whole universe of that game lies to you. But it puts you on track to think in the wrong way. And you have to think in a godlike

deific non-binary way to get a solution here. Like it's really like, oh, you're just not even approaching this. You're approaching this as a human being as opposed to thinking about it as a god. You know? I love that. I love that twist.

All right. I got to eat some food and get the fuck out of here. I got to stream it in 40 minutes. And start editing immediately. So fun times for everybody. Take care. Have a good week, everybody. And there you go. We brought you a four hour one. Stop fucking complaining, yeah.

They're going to complain next week. They're going to complain for the five. I know they're going to do it. Yeah, I know they will.