Get Played - The Legend of Zelda: A Pod to the Cast: Music Theory of Zelda with Zane Carney

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

Heather, Nick and Matt are joined by Zane Carney to discuss the music theory of The Legend of Zelda series. They discuss some of their favorite pieces of music from the franchise, arcade cabinets, what Heather's dog would do, and more! This month's We Play, You Play: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod. Check out our premium series Get Anime'd On patreon.com/getplayed or on Stitcher Premium. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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So, I mean, Heather, you know, this, this is, this has been your whole world. It's my, my world too.

There's a, there's a writer's strike right now. The WGA is on strike. Solidarity, man. Union strong solidarity. The thing is like, we normally open the show with like a tightly scripted intro sketch,

you know, that we write out ahead of time. Oh my God, you're right. We can't, we can't do that. We're not fucking scabs. I'm not a scab.

No, we're not going to scab. We're not going to scab. I'm not going to scab on my own pot. No way. Those flawlessly executed scripts, those, the,

the, the, the hours that we spend writing and rewriting and rewriting until it's word perfect. Every um, uh, and awkward silence. It's word perfect. Every um, uh, and awkward silence. It's all written. And, you know, I have a script from last week's episode, and it's version 11b.

Yeah. Well, because, you know, writing is rewriting. Writing is rewriting, yeah. So, yeah, unfortunately, we just can't do it this week. I think we went to 300 drafts on Crazy Bus. Like, I think that was the 300th draft. I was actually thinking about this recently because I remembered draft one

and just like how different. Yeah. Crazy Bus wasn't even in it. Yeah. It's just something that you think about as, you know, with listeners who are just going to be like, wow, Crazy Bus didn't happen until probably somewhere in like the 250s.

Honestly, we got to crazy, but that's when I remember is 253 when crazy bus. Those two words got put together. And then like the next 40 drafts were like just heavily revising that. And then the draft after that, we went back to number 253 and started again. And then we went back to the first draft and just kind of inserted crazy bus into our original concept so it's an iterative process and you know we're still trying to like you know we and we go back the way you don't know is that like there's a lot of dynamic insertion in um podcasting like we're able to go back right and like we're

revising intros constantly so like if you go back to any of the episodes we've done and you listen to an intro, it might be a little different than the last time you heard it because we're like, just always punching up. Cause as I said, writing is rewriting. Um,

like I, it's like George Lucas with a special editions, like the, every, every Blu-ray release, there's like a new, a little new scene lit. Yeah.

There's like a, an unintelligible musical number added, um, to some of them as well, uh, with no subtitles. Um, and it's, but people like an unintelligible musical number added to some of them as well with no subtitles. And it's but people like it. People, people are really into it, but we can't do that this week. No, the only the only thing we could discuss before this is the concept for the intro, which is the three of us just being full of shit. Mm hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like, that's even getting a little, you know, that's getting pretty close to talking about writing, right? Like, you know, not talking about writing. We're talking about writing right now. But that sounds close to talking about doing the act of writing, right? Yeah.

Because we're talking about the concept. Sure. writing right because we're talking about the concept sure and i you know as somebody who's not in the wga i know that if i scab i'll never get in so if you guys are trying to trap me somehow i can't i will not i can't scab you won't trick me nice try okay well uh heather the honey trap failed forget to report back to union leadership. He's still trying. We didn't get him. We. Da na na.

And da na na na. As we continue a pod to the cast with the music theory of Zelda. This week on Get Played. Thank you. Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Apodaca.

Hey, listen, everyone. Hey, listen. Wow, that's really good. It's good. See, that's the sort of, that's the, that's that fucking, that's that spice we were missing from the recipe, baby. Listen! Hey! Hey, listen!

We had some passable meals. We had some great eps in the last two weeks. Fantastic guests were here. Fantastic guests that gave us their time and had a lot of fun with us. But nothing beats the original recipe, baby. of fun with us but nothing beats the original recipe baby um i will never listen to those episodes because got it i hate that you guys released episodes without me okay feel it breaks it no i'm kidding i i hear that that went really well but i also won't listen to them hey that's you got a lot there's a lot going on you don't got time to yeah, there's a lot going on. You don't got time to be listening to this. Yeah, there's a lot going on in our industry, our personal lives. Exactly.

I'm married. I'm officially married. Congratulations. Let's go. I just got back from Japan. It was great. It's like, you know, you wait your whole life for this, for having a wedding, going on a honeymoon and getting right back behind the desk in your windowless garage. Yeah, that is probably like, I can't wait to get back to doing this.

This is great. I'm really having the time of my life on this honeymoon. I can't wait to get back with my boys. That's right. Well, I did miss my boys. Oh, we missed you too, Heather. We missed you too. And our listeners missed you too,

and everyone's happy that you're back. It is. Maybe they missed you a little too much, I think, but they missed you. Yeah, calm down a little bit. I'm crying. She's not here. I'm crying.

The Legend of Zelda pod to the cast is continuing all month long, and this month's We Play, You Play will be The Legend of Zelda pod to the cast is continuing all month long. And this month's We Play, You Play will be The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, which is coming out next week. And we're going to be talking about it in depth on Monday. Coming out Friday as of this episode's release. Friday of this week. I apologize.

Yes, next week as of this record. And we should mention, we should touch on real quick, Heather, that there is a WGA strike that commenced this week. That is, we don't need to go into the details here, but you can find out more at WGAContract2023.org. Heather and I are both WGA members. We are both walking the picket lines, getting sunburned and dehydrated because the fucking studios won't pay the writers what they deserve. And so, you know, hopefully we appreciate everyone's support and solidarity and solidarity with all the working people out there.

Hell yeah. There was a quote at this big meeting we had about how the goal of the studios was, you know, they foresee a future where it's just going to be a showrunner, a writer and a machine. Yeah. And in my head, I was like, OK, but that you don't have to make it sound awesome and kind of cool. That's kind of the that's kind of the get played host dynamic, I think.

Yeah. But yeah, we're we're on strike uh and uh for those of you who uh play fortnight that means i will be appearing more frequently during the day i was i was thinking about this because last week we joked you won't listen to this heather so you won't know that we said this um that i committed us to having completed tears of of the Kingdom for the We Play, You Play, just as a joke. But now that the strike's happening, it's more possible. It's in play. It could happen. Well, I think, you know, the truth is that we are actively picketing.

Yes, we're still picketing every day, five days a week. I had like positioned this in my head as like, you my head as a time of some real fastidiousness, cut down on expenses, and maybe get a little private writing done, or maybe a little painting or something. I was walking from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep in Japan, and I got exactly the same mileage for the last two days on the picket line. And I was like, well, yeah, that's an 8 to 12 mile walk every day. Yeah, I was talking to, because part of what's great about being the picket line is that so many people come out and support you from other industries

and from elsewhere within the entertainment industry. So, you know know we're having SAG-AFTRA actors are out there in force uh IATSE crew members are out there in force uh you know uh we had a prop master who was out there a lighting tech who was out there uh and then today I was talking with a costumer who was supporting us and was like like man yeah it's crazy like 20,000 steps uh yesterday and was like, man, yeah, it's crazy. Like 20,000 steps yesterday. She was like, yeah, that's like my job. Like I'm just like on my feet all day, like fucking walking around. I was like, oh yeah. I guess our profession is a little bit more sedentary, but it is like, this is, I said we didn't need to get into it. Now I'm rambling about it. So I apologize. WGAContract2023.org, find all the details. I just brought that up to say that this is affecting you know dga has a contract that's up in a matter of days sag after has a contract that's the

actors union that's up at the end of june um i actually renegotiate a contract recently you know the teamsters have their own contract all these different unions that make the uh tv shows and and films that people enjoy and those that people don't enjoy. But sometimes those can still be profitable. They like they are all being squeezed just as fucking tightly as they possibly can. Just being squeezed for each drop of labor and being barely compensated, unfairly compensated for that. So that's why this has all come to a head. And I mean, you said we're not getting into it. You'll you know probably move on after this they're the writers aren't asking

for a lot it's like a it's like what it's like three percent or something it's like not even two percent two percent it's two percent of all of all like which also is funny because like if you if you see a movie your thought isn't i't think, only 2% of this was the story. No. But we're just. That 2% fucking worked for me. But also, without pontificating too psychologically here, I do think it is representative of how writers view themselves, maybe. That it's like, yeah, we demand more.

Two percent. I'm low-fat milk. Hey, I think of the milks, of the regular milks, it's Goated. It's pretty good milk. Regular milks. It's good. Regular milks. Speaking of Goated, one of our favorite guests is returning to the show.

Very, very excited to have him here. A musician, artist, and streamer from Twitch.tv slash Zane Carney. Zane Carney is back. Hi, Zane. Hey, everyone. How you doing? Oh, hell yeah. Am I really a favorite guest?

We love having you on the show. One of the best ones we got, dude. Oh, right. No way that's true. That's awesome. Nice to see you. having you on the show. One of the best ones we got, dude. Oh, right. No way that's true, but that's awesome. Zane, we're going to be talking about Zelda this episode and all month long, and I just wanted to open things

generally, like, are you a Zelda fan? Do you have a history with the franchise? Oh, man, yeah. I was writing this down before the episode. Yeah, this is, like most people, my favorite video game series of all time. Wow. So, yeah, I have 100%ed six or seven of the games. So yeah, Zelda 1, Link to the Past,

Link's Awakening DX. I still have my cartridge. I was playing it in my analog pocket recently. Wow. Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess. And then I'm really close to finishing Breath of the Wild. I'm like five years late, but I'm going to get it done before this Friday.

Hell yes. Do you have a favorite in the series? I do. Yeah, I think it would be Link to the Past. Yeah, I think that, I'm sorry, please go. Go on. Well, no, just because I played that when I was like seven with my brother

and I beat it in the Sportsman's Lodge, which I don't know if that's still a hotel anymore, but I was like staying there as a kid. I'm not going to explain any detail on that. Just- So yeah, you were on a business trip or something? Yeah, I was on a business trip. I wore a really large oversized trench coat,

just like had watches and selling watches. You got on the road. Yeah. But yeah, I beat with my brother and I couldn't believe when the dark world started. It's like, what? Oh my God. It's the coolest.

But Ocarina of Time is, I mean, it's like one A and one B for me. Cause that was just insanely magical when I put in that game. So one of those two. We did our tier list last week. And I like, you know,

for me, it was, if I'm talking about my personal favorite, it probably is linked to the past. It could be Majora's mask. I think it's, it's probably one of those. But I think we kind of our consensus kind of came that i i think breath of the wild has now supplanted them as like the definitive zelda game i mean just i think just maybe that's

just recency bias but that's interesting yeah i mean i i feel like not to be too contrarian but f that no oh shit oh. I'm crazy like that. No, I think for some reason Ocarina of Time feels for me like the main one only because Breath of the Wild introduced that open world

thing that maybe had been brought from GTA and all that but then again Zelda 1 was very open world so I can see why you'd say that. But I don't know

Ocarina of Time I've been waiting my whole childhood for like a mature Link who has like a long sword and is like a real adult and so when Ocarina of Time I've been waiting my whole childhood for like a mature Link who has like a long sword and is like a real adult so when Ocarina of Time came out I was like oh my gosh we finally have 3D graphic proper

Link and I don't know that something about that made it feel definitive I don't know that doesn't make any sense I mean Breath of the Wild truly is going to go down I think in 5 or 10 years is like the main one. I was going to say the Ocarina of Time I have a memory attached to because my friend had pre-ordered it at a GameStop that was or maybe it was an EB Games that was like weirdly far away. I don't know. For some reason, he did it from a different mall. So we like had a two hour bus ride just to like pick up his pre-order and then got it back and we're like holy shit this is transcendent uh but link to the

past i similarly have a measure a memory like strong memories of not playing it at my my house i took my super nintendo with link to the past to my grandma's uh and grandpa's place and a lot of my hours spent with that game were were were there um and yeah that one i just have i have such fondness for uh you know aesthetically including the music heather i you were out the past couple weeks and i want to get your thoughts on the zelda franchise as well like where do you stand and do you have any favorites uh so um i got two favorites uh but it's primarily because of having played them. And those two favorites are Breath of the Wild and Wind Waker. The rest of the Zelda franchise,

I've kind of always been on the outside of. Like, I didn't play Link to the Past when it came out, though I do, I mean, like Past when it came out, though. I do. I mean, like, here, hold on one sec. Heather is standing up. She just got back and she's already gone. I mean, I do have this pristine fucking box copy of A Link to the Past right here in my hands.

So, you know, i have played it since but like did i was i a kid who was playing zelda no i was fucking playing sonic right um so it wasn't until gamecube that i really put time into a zelda game and i was like oh oh this is good and then i I played Twilight Princess for coverage, for video game reviews, and I fucking hated it. Ooh. I was like, ugh, this game, this is not for me. Like, why is it so different from that really, like I was in a Saturday morning adventure cartoon.

Yes. And now I'm like in between batman and uh and like dungeons and dragons like some like threading the needle like tonally in between those two things and it kind of was like yuck uh i also didn't really like the art style in twilight princess I really hated all the fetch quests. Yes. I played Phantom Hourglass and I played Minish Cap. Oh, yeah. So, you know, I dabbled, but the only ones that really sunk their hook into me is Breath of the Wild, which, you know, I fucking completed that game. Yes.

And then Wind Waker, which is just a work of art. It is so gorgeous. It's back on track. It's like, you know, it's got this more realistic is the wrong term to use, but it's this more conventional art style like the other 3D games of the era. But the formula had gotten kind of the Zelda formula gotten kind of tired at by that point. And then also that art style has aged so much worse, you know, because it's just it's it's it's not as it's not as distinct. Yeah. Wind Waker Wind Waker fucking rocks rocks that was one that we ranked really highly uh i i think i believe our engineer alex gonzalez mentioned after we recorded that uh his wife's favorite game is is wind waker she like can't get enough of that yeah i still haven't played that game or beaten it oh man like

one hour of it I need to play that they gotta re-release that on Switch because the Wii it was a fucking Wii U where they did the HD remaster and that was great but I was just like I'm not gonna bring out my Wii U again the thing's never coming out of storage

yeah I have my I have my Wii U hooked up because it you can play Wii games in HDMI. So if I'm going to occupy a retro slot, it counts as two consoles. That's smart. There might also be a jailbreak to play GameCube on it. I know on the Wii you can play GameCube. But yeah, I've been looking into maybe modding that so I can get the whole gamut as well.

It's a rad game. I have to ask you for a Mario Tennis update, Zane. Oh, man. Yeah, I popped it on like a month ago because I'm a glutton for punishment and wanted to hurt my index finger again. Yeah, I don't know.

I haven't been playing it. When you don't play it for a few months, you go back down to D tier. So I think I might've gotten a little drunk and just demolished like 18 people in the world. And I never drink, so I combined some odd things together. And then Raj came in.

Anyone who listens to this podcast who plays Mario Tennis Aces, they know that Raj is like the overpowered number one north american player now since angie's off and uh they uh they're into booping which is this technique where you charge up your slice so much that when you hit it to someone like me who's not as good as you uh it spins me out so much and i'm out of all my charge that you instead of hitting it back to me you just hit me in the head because I can't slow down time enough to get out of the way. Wow. And it used to infuriate me on stream. I would, oh, I had, I come off as calm usually. And I got pretty, pretty feisty when he'd do that. But yeah, I haven't played it much. I've been playing,

playing other stuff recently. Wow. That leads me to my next question, which is, what are you playing? Hey! Ha! Ha! Wow! Wait, is that Link? Ha! Link, it's nice to see you. It seems like you're still non-verbal, famously.

Oh! see it seems like you're you're uh you're still non-verbal famously non-verbal you like under you you get what you get what you understand what we're saying yeah just kind of communicating in a series of um i have noises for lack of a better term yeah mouth sounds or what are you doing are you trying to catch something with a net what are you playing wow I speak Link that's pretty neat

I like that little Link he's really trying I mean like he little Link. Link's good. He was cute. He's really trying. I mean, like he's... And of the people that introduced the segment, economical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He looked kind of stressed out, but you got what he was trying to do.

Yeah, you can't come in and do that job and not be stressed. You know what I mean? Like it's a hard part of the show. It is. It is. So I guess? Like, it's a hard part of the show. It is. It is. So, I guess, Link, is it okay if I toss to Nick? Nick, what are you playing?

Here's the thing. This Rider Strike started, I have not played shit, because I've been out on the picket lines. I've been busier than I expected. I will touch on a couple of things. One is that the Golden Idol DLC release, that's one of my favorite games of last year, the case of the Golden Idol, which is a super duper fun and detecting game. There's some DLC out called the Golden Idol Mysteries, the Spider of Lanka

that I'm very excited to crack into, but I haven't started playing it yet. But yeah, if you did like that game, or if you missed out on its original run, check it out. It is really cool. It is basically like, you know, I think I talked about it at length, but I'll recap. It's just, you're looking at a tableau, a moment

frozen in time, and you are going through and making a bunch of inferences to determine what crime took place, who the culprit was, and to basically fill out a workbook that explains all the information. It ends up being a really awesome trick for narrative storytelling. You're learning so many things in pieces and then it it puts together this uh this larger arc which is super duper satisfying so uh highly recommend it uh if you like that sort of uh uh you know kind of uh leisurely sort of puzzle game the kind of game that heather hates um and uh and it also has a great uh an art style that's like really aggressive like it's it's it's extremely kind of off-putting but i i find it really really engaging the other thing i want

to mention is that and this perhaps ties in with heather's recent experience visiting japan i've been trying to learn a little bit of the japanese language and i learned that there is a kind of a newer philosophy in language acquisition that is called comprehensible input, where basically the idea is you're just listening a lot to language, kind of like just like here, like brain soaking is another term I've heard, which I really like. So like just soaking your brain by listening to stuff that you can understand and you can even partially understand it over time. Your brain will start to is what your brain, which is a pattern recognition machine, will start to piece together more and more of it until eventually your comprehension level improves and your speaking level improves.

So I've been listening to the IGN Japan podcast. This is IGN's podcast in Japanese, IGN Japan podcast. This is IGN's podcast in Japanese, and it is honestly a fascinating listen. I can comprehend about 10% of it, but it does have you know, it will be things like

you know, you know, you're like, Ano Bokuwa, Star Wars Fallen Order, Sukides, you know, like, it'll be like, it'll be something that is like just a Western title that will sneak in there.

And I don't know. I'm just engaged with that process. And so I guess that's what I'm playing. That's what I'm playing in my podcast app. I can't,

my brain is fucking fried. I was fucking in the sun all day it's okay it's okay i'm not making any sense here no you are you said uh um uh the jedi i like it yeah i heard all of it in japanese So you did it. Hey, everyone. You know, you want to eat healthy. You want to eat well. But you don't want it to be a pain to prepare.

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That's drinkag1.com slash getplayed. Check it out. Heather, how about you you what are you playing well i went to japan and i didn't set foot in a single arcade wow wow which um i think it it certainly is not because of being there on a honeymoon it was because of lack of interest. I found myself on this trip really avoiding tourist heavy areas. And my first trip to Japan, you know, 15 years ago, my first stop was Akihabara. And my second stop in Akihabara was an arcade. Like I was like, fuck, I cannot fucking wait. But walking through Akihabara now is just, I might as well not be in Japan almost. Like it's so many tourists. So yeah, I didn't go to an arcade.

I did go to a little store in Kyoto called Edit Mode, which is a video game collaboration space. They have like really cool T-shirts, but unfortunately they're only open like two weeks out of the month. And I was not there during one of those weeks. So I took a photo in front of the store with a thumbs up. And that was as far as I got. But when I arrived home, Star Wars Jedii survivor or whatever the fuck it's called survivor that is the title yeah uh had uh had arrived and so i dropped that into my ps5 and i played the first 30 minutes and i was like yep this is great good job guys you really you fucking made a star

wars game again and it's a lot of fun. And then I dropped back into Fortnite to see what had changed. And Fortnite is also having a Star Wars event here at the beginning of May for, you know, May the 4th be with you. And Anakin, Padme, and the clone troopers, and Darth Maul have all been added to the game. Everyone is here! Everyone's here! And there's new powers. So you can think about,

I know when we talk about Fortnite, we talk about the mashup of IP, but when you think about the mechanics of the mashup, it's kind of fascinating. So I can talk to Darth Maul, learn how to use the force, because now you can force blast people, as well as wielding a lightsaber. And you can also equip And you can also equip ODM gear from Attack on Titan. So you can fly in as LeBron James on ODM gear from Attack on Titan, draw out your lightsaber, force push somebody, and then stab them.

It's what a game. What a lucky thing that it exists. Yeah. Because you would not, I don't think of it if you had set out to create Fortnite as the design document. If you'd been like, what we see is Dragon Ball powers interacting with Star Wars powers that both of those IP companies would have been like, no fucking way. So instead they made a game. And then as IP started to come into that game, they made a game and then as ip started to come into that game it got to merge remix and meld with one another so that's that's i'm playing star wars on star wars game and i'm playing star wars in fortnite it's a it's a big star wars time here in the campbell uh laws household what is the what

is the uh what was that fighting game that's like that freeware fighting game that was just like broke every IP law? Like Mugen? Yeah. And so it would be like, you know, they had no rights to anything and it was just freeware. So it'd be like, you know, Peter Griffin versus Sailor Mars. And it was just like the most crazy incoherent mashups within a fighting game engine. Completely unbalanced. Some of the characters are barely playable, but it's cool to mess around with.

But Fortnite is that, but it's just like they cleared all the legal hurdles. Yep. Yep. I mean, that's it. Although Mugen would also have like... Oh, did you say Mugen? I call it Mugen. I don't know how you say it I've never heard

a person a real human in my life talk about that game no me neither and that's considering that you were just talking about it I'm talking a real human being never heard it but yeah you could be like Frasier versus the front end of an Acura

in Mugen. Niles. That's his finisher. He comes in. Zane, what are you playing? Oh, man. I have some exciting updates. I don't remember if the last record, like last year, if I had my Pac-Man machine yet.

The arcade one-up one behind me. I'm not'm not sure i don't remember i don't remember either so my mom got that for me for my birthday surprise thing and i was like oh my god how did you even think of this is so awesome so i had it in my music studio where i'm recording from here um and then i recently changed pianos to an upright and i thought you know what let me get the arcade out of this music room and just make it purely music. So I put it in my patio and then my actual, like this year birthday came up. Why did I say actual? Like as though I have a fake one in my back. My real one came up. What are you, US president? Zane's birthday observed? Yeah. I'm going to need to see your birth certificate. Yeah. You've been arguing real hard. I've been trying to get December 25th.

I'm getting a lot of pushback. So yeah, April 29th had my birthday and I was like, man, this arcade machine looks great in my patio. Should I get another machine? And so now I have four. Oh my God. So I got Simpsons

and then I modified it to play TMNT, TMNT Turtles in Time. It also comes with like some random beat-em-ups like Vendetta and Metamorphic Force. And then like a really not so good version of NBA Jam called Punk Shot. And then I was like, well, let me just get NBA Jam. So then I found a cabinet that was already pre-built in Pasadena. It's really cheap, brought that over. And then I had my birthday party. It was like an arcade hang.

And then I just recently bought Street Fighter 35th Anniversary, that cabinet. Wow. Wow. So I'm going to have four cabinets playing like, I don't know, each system has two to five games. And then the Capcom one that's coming is 14, including like some vertical and horizontal shooters and three versions of Street Fighter. I'm really excited about it. It's crazy walking into my music studio from my house and being like, oh, I have an arcade.

Oh man, this is awesome. That's been really fun. That's rad. And congrats. I will say I have a friend who was, there was an arc you could kind of follow over a couple of years where he got really into cabinets and we just like filled up his arcade his garage with cabinets

basically had like a functional arcade there and then like a year later started being like uh hey i'm trying to to sell this cabinet if you know anyone who's interested yeah that's already on its way all that youtube serves me is gaming content because it knows what I like. It knows what I'm into. And so, yeah, most of the arcade one-up stuff I'm getting is why I left arcade one-up. Why it's not good. Right.

And I already can see it. I mean, the build quality is a little bit rocky and the feeling of the triggers and the handles, whatever the arcade names are for it. Not to mention the fact that, as you guys may remember remember i'm really into non-emulative retro experiences yes which obviously has a big time is into too so yeah i my analog stuff is all set up i have my gamecube with the dvi output and i have i'm really into non-software emulation i will dabble in hardware emulation like the fpga stuff does but no latency zero lag

controller plugged in no wireless like i'm really into that so to go into an arcade cabinet that's purely software emulation yes there's a bit of me that's like ah 10 milliseconds of latency is gonna be rough on street fighter there's that it is yeah and there's that and then uh and then there are a couple other reasons why it might not work out well for me. But the reason I think I might keep them is because most arcade things I see online when people are hating on them, and totally understandably, they've made like a little basement cave where it's no sunlight to keep the UVB rays away. For me, this is like in my patio. I have no problems with them getting worn out that's kind of musically what i'm into like analog uh broken apart you know mid-range

is missing i like that musically so i wouldn't mind that in the cabinet plus they're so small that it's more of just like a conversation piece thing but yeah i'm gonna get rid of them probably do you have a dream cabinet do you have one you've always had your eye on uh that's a good i mean simpsons kind of was it because that like carolina blue is a is a color for guitar amps it's like a phrase carolina blue and seafoam green and it's very close to carolina blue so yeah like i have a 50s strap that's in that color i'm like i really want that cabinet it's a nice blue. It's really nice. But also the original TMNT,

like there's no reason to get it because Simpsons is a four-player cab. And I think they're going to continue releasing APKs where you can have other four-player games. So I don't really feel the need to have that. But I will say this, like second or third day of getting the Simpsons cabinet, I walked into my studio and I was like,

ah, do I really want that? So I'm already having buyer's remorse, but I don't know. We'll see. You know, I'm a curial. I go back and forth. So we'll see what happens. Wow. It's the fact that it's on the patio too. It's got to be nice to be like, you know what? I can use a little outside time real quick. Also my friend and I have a pool. So my friend was like, dude, this is great. When we step out of the pool, we can just go on the patio and play, play a game real quick and go back in the pool. Like that, that does sound like a nice summer afternoon. I'm into that. Yeah. But you have the blank check house. Like, yeah, I really do. I really do. But that was great. But

there, there was one cabinet that started this and it was, I saw T2 was on sale, and it was like $199. I know, exactly. Like, I didn't want Arnold Schwarzenegger's face just in my house, but I was like, man, but light gun games, that would be fun. House of the Dead and all that.

That'd be fucking sick. Yeah, but they make it really hard to mod them. I mean, I could buy the cabinet with the face and and structure i don't really want and then i could take away the lcd and then like change the send in light guns and they get a raspberry pi and now i'm spending two grand to get like what is happening so yeah i'm holding off until they have a time crisis or house of the dead and then maybe oh man i'll do it time crisis would be so sick with the pedal forget about it just like yeah i love like, yeah. I love Time Crisis. It's such a great experience.

Me too. But there is other stuff I'm playing too. I'm sorry. I wrote a little list down. Oh, please, go for it. Because I'm in gaming mode these days. So I pulled out my 3DS. Yes, I got caught up in the eShop, you know, main. Wow.

So I spent like 200 bucks on games, even though it's apparently easy to play the games elsewise. Elsewise? That's not a word. Anyway. i've been playing mario and luigi dream team because oh yeah yeah so because super mario rpg was my entrance into rpgs and then that turned into pokemon and golden sun the lost age and and all that so um uh yeah i'm playing that and i've actually been playing through the treasure trove like the non-shovel knight games that i never played playing 2d platformers in 3d is oh man that is the way they're supposed to be played in my opinion now uh so i've been doing that and then i've put 38 hours so far into octopath traveler 2 um wow and i only have five characters

yeah i'm like i'm in 100 to 200 hour rpg player because i like every single conversation to make sure i can get that axe before it cost me 55 grand and yeah i'm really detailed i love this that's odd that's amazing that's that's my life right now what's your take did you first off did you play Octopath Traveler 1? Yeah, 120 hours in that, or 130. Wow. Wow. And I've heard this one is like, even if you didn't connect with the first one, part two, they've really figured it out.

Yeah, it's incredible. I don't know, has it been out long enough where I could give a, it's not a story spoiler, but there is a mechanic that I think is awesome that wasn't in number one. I think you're fair to talk about it. Yeah. All right, so here's the end of the game.

So, yeah, so they have the thing where you can have different classes and you can choose, once you unlock the other player's classes, you can say, okay, I'm a scholar, but I'm also now an apothecary or whatever classes you want to combine. And there's this thing called,

oh man, I'm so into gameplay that I don't always read the actual words but is it like latch power or something where you hit X and it's like a new power that's been awesome I really like that mechanic and I also initially was

not that into the fact that I'm like oh it's the same classes I thought they'd give like 8 brand new classes you never heard of but I chose the same class as I chose Noctopath Traveler 1, which was Scholar, because they have magic, very powerful attacks. So I'm like, oh, I'm a Scholar again. Oh, I just picked up a Thief. Oh, okay. That was in number one too. Oh, there aren't any new classes. So there might be one or two. I haven't unlocked all them but uh yeah i was surprised by that um but yeah to me i'm having more fun than i did an octopath traveler one and octopath traveler

one for me is like a top seven or eight game of all time wow yeah for what i'm into wow so and i i will say my friends and family when i try to get them into RPGs, they're so bored by them. But I'm like, yeah, they're awesome. They say, why would you be into this? You're so high energy. Wouldn't you want like a fighting game or a combat game? And I think because I'm so high energy in the rest of life, I really like to have a battle be 20 minutes and really think through the best way to play it. So, yeah, Octopath really is a top seven or eight because of that.

Wow. Wow. I think latent powers is perhaps the mechanic you were talking about. Thank you, thank you. I said latch and that is not right. Latent powers, they're awesome because one of them might be,

all right, my latent power is to focus all of my energy that would have been on eight characters, like a magic attack. It'll just be on one person now. So it's like almost eight times as powerful. Oh, wow. But then you unlock another character. And I was like, oh, I'm ready for this latent power. It's like, no, no, this person's latent power is even if this person you're fighting isn't weak to anything you have, whatever you hit them with right now, it's going to break them down. So you break down their shield points. So like if they're only weak

to axe attacks and all you have is a staff, you put on that latent power and you hit four times with your staff and it actually breaks them down it's like everyone has their own latent power and i love that mechanic i can check this out i'm sure it'd be extremely my shit yeah i love octopath i can't i have the second one i loaded it up on my Switch to be able to play it on the plane on the way to and from Japan. Didn't fucking play a drop of Switch. I fell asleep for like 10 hours.

Wow. I was so tired. Matt, what are you playing? I mean, Heather touched on it a little bit, so I don't have a ton more to say about it, but I am playing Star Wars Jedi Survivor and I love it. I love it so much.

If you remember when I talked about Jedi Fallen Order, my biggest complaint about the game was the map. They fixed the map. They fixed the map. And here's the thing about it

that I really cannot figure out how because the map is somehow also exactly the same. But they fixed the thing. It's like they did something. It's like it's the same type of map, that same type of like Metroid Prime map. Yeah, I was going to say Metroid Prime. That's like 3D that you can sort of look at from

every angle or whatever but i think what they added if i'm not mistaken is there is like a little yellow line that makes more sense that's like oh and there's also markers throughout the map that are like navigation um like markers that are like you should be going this way the main the main event is over here here's a little marker uh you know for you know halfway up basically that's like right showing you where to go so like if you get lost whatever it's like well then here's the hint go this way uh which is i don't know if that's a setting i have turned on that maybe could be turned off um but there's a lot to do also in the game it's not just like um i don't know how much i i'm sure there was like a ton of i missed in fallen order

um but this game feels more full like it has there's just so much going on like i've all i'm only at like the third planet i think or something and uh it feels gigantic there's so much to do you can get mounts now so like there's different things you can do with that there are like rumors that you can follow as like side quests and be like oh like I heard that there was these

prospectors that went missing in this mine why don't you go check that out for me and then you go and yeah you see all these dead prospectors like scattered throughout the the mine and you get to y and it's the fucking rancor and you gotta take down a rancor uh and it it rips it's so fun it's so good um the performances are great and the new thing that I love that they added is there are new lightsaber stances.

So like in the first one, you only had a single blade or the double blade. Those are still there. But now you have like a dual wield stance where you can have one in each hand and that has a different sort of combat energy to it. And then there's the one that i just unlocked right now is the blaster stance where you have one uh lightsaber and a blaster so you can be like one handing people with the with the lightsaber and then from your hip be

like with your blaster and it rules and there's a there's a kylo ren lightsaber stance that you can get that is like a heavy sword so it's like you're you're two-handing this fucker and like really doing some heavy like slashes with it and i can't wait to to get that one that's gonna be so sick um and i know that people say to modify the buttons, um, because your attacks are on the face buttons, right? So you're, um, right. Your force, like heavy attack is triangle and you're, if you're playing on PlayStation like I am and your regular attack is square, but people say to switch to the R1 and R2

buttons. Yeah, right. Cause it's so, yeah. but people say to switch to the r1 and r2 buttons yeah right because you gotta elden ring it yes yeah it's so derived from from the soulsborne games that you should match the controls to it i've heard the same thing i want to do it but i know that there are other things you can do that having i just have to find to maybe search for what the optimal button remap is because there's like force powers that you can do that it would be a pain in the ass to press like square and circle at the same time, for example, right? But I'm sure there's a way.

There's not like a... All games should just have like a like, if you want to do it this way, do it this way. If you want to do it, there's like just built-in configurations that you could pick from. But yeah. Yeah. Go on, I'm sorry. sorry no like that's i mean it's i'm also just in a star wars mood right now too like um i saw return of the jedi on the big screen for the first time like i'd ever seen it in theaters um and it it fucking ruled it was so awesome i i that's good movie

i it's a great movie uh it was so fun to see it on the big screen. They're all so hot. They're all so, so hot. It was so crazy. Like, I know this, but, like, seeing it on the big screen, I was like, Jesus Christ, all three of them are so hot. Unbelievable. And I had recently gone to, I was back at Disneylandneyland at galaxy's edge and i was like i love i love star wars i just fucking love it it's great it's great it's so good and then playing this game

uh i dusted off one of the high the high republic novels that i've been meaning to read and i'm tearing through that i'm in a i'm in a i'm in a bit of a bit of a star wars zone right now so that's that's me i love it yeah we we just like because they had the return of the jedi theatrical release and they also had uh the what what we went and saw which was the the 40th anniversary release of flash dance wow uh which i saw in the theater and just had the we had the time of our fucking lives and uh hasn't aged like, but it's still super fun. But the crowd was all people between 40 and 70 years old. Yeah.

And after it finished, I'm now someone who's like, they don't make them like that anymore. That's great. That's happening to me, too. The other day, I said, wow, they really did a great job repaving the street actually that that kind of pairs well into one thing i forgot to mention that i'm playing i'm really experiencing a gaming renaissance right now i've been doing halo 2 land parties wow you guys are invited but yeah i, I have two Xbox 360s.

So I was doing them that way. But then for my birthday party, this whole like arcade, friends come and play games. I thought, well, screw it. I have an old Xbox One X that I keep in one room and I got the Series X

and just kept the One X. And it turns out you can do on the Master Chief Collection, two player, not four player on each screen, but it's like up res you know 1080p to 4k visual so two players in one room two players in the other so yeah it's they don't make it like they used to like why why can you only do co-op online these days like they gotta bring back two to four player yeah it's so much more fun um and i while i'm on the xbox real

quick there's another game i've been playing which which is It Takes Two with my friend online. Oh, wow. Finally playing that game. That game is, oh, man, it's a tearjerker. It takes you on a little bit of a journey. But sorry, I'm just fitting in everything I've been playing because this is a gaming podcast. You got to talk about it. This is great.

Well, where else can I? I play music and no one really gives a crap. You can't really be on stage between songs being like, it takes two. Well, I will say one of the things, well, I'll get to that later. Yeah, there is a musical connection with one of these pieces we might talk

about later. But yeah, I don't, I mean, I try to, you know, show my family and friends like, yeah, we're watching, you know, My Life in Gaming right now. We're watching Game Sack. I'm watching Console Wars and Metal Jesus Rocks and and spawn wave and just all gaming stuff that i watch online and my family gets bored friends get bored 10 seconds in so anyway it's just nice to kind of be able to be myself am i right hell yeah oh yeah take you also you also make me feel cool because you're like you're cool and you're talking about video games.

I was like, me too. Yeah, hey, we're the same. We're the same kind of guy. We are. No, we are, though. Yeah, my mom put hair gel in my hair when I was five years old. So I was that kid in class with hair gel. That's been cool his whole life.

Yeah, but I wasn't cool. I was just like, but I'm not cool. Once I opened my mouth, no one wanted to talk to me. But initially, yeah, no. Never mind, everybody, his mom put it in. Yeah, it's not cool. Once I opened my mouth, no one wanted to talk to me. But initially, yeah, no. Never mind everybody, his mom put it in. Yeah, God, it's not me. But no, I just, I love gaming. God, it's so, I don't know what it is about it.

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magicspoon.com slash getplayed and use code getplayed to save $5 off. Thank you, Magic Spoon, for sponsoring this episode. That brings us to our topic this week. We're doing another episode of our Music Theory of Gaming format. Zane, which is a thing that you pitched and another thing

that you've streamed about. We're talking about the Zelda franchise, some all-time great soundtracks across these myriad games. And another thing, and I wanted to mention this before we get into our picks,

and Zane, I know you've got a few you want to talk about specifically, but great stingers. Oh, yeah. Like, just like, you know, like the item, but great stingers. Oh, yeah. Like, just like, you know, like the item acquisition

or finding a secret. And those are things that were established in Zelda 1 on NES and have been, you know, endlessly remixed over the course of the series. But they're just these great little, like, you know,

like two second snippets of music that you never get tired of hearing. Yeah. And you're reminding me now i forgot to analyze that i forgot to figure out what that is but it's something weird but yeah there's some there's some great stuff even just the chromatic like i love that that's salt man yeah it's they're incredible i don't i wonder who i'm guessing koji kondo even wrote those stingers not not just the song.

So he just like hit it out of the park with everything. That was always my assumption. Yeah. But I honestly don't know. Yeah. Also, a lot of times, a lot of times, yeah, it would be. I mean, I also, I'm not sure if back in the day, because there was a really a one man band era of development where, you know the someone would program and design and do

the art and do the sound design i you know eventually these roles got more and more specialized as team size grew but i think there probably was an era where the composer was also doing sound design right um so i you know i don't know what what bucket that would fall into a composition or or or sound design but it's possible that whoever it was uh it was done by the same person but i have to think it was koji kondo yeah i think so too uh all right let's uh let's let's get into it same why don't you kick things off what's one of the tracks you want to talk about yeah man we're starting off hot baby so my favorite piece of all time in zelda gaming it's funny because it's not on anyone's list like top 25 of all time in Zelda gaming. It's funny because it's not on anyone's list. Like top 25 of all time, top 50.

I don't know how this isn't in people's list. This is the fairy theme. Wow. I freaking love this so much. Yeah, and there are a lot of elements. Just kind of diving, I guess, into the music theory aspect. So these are actually kind of jazz chords, like the four chord going to a two five flat nine flat five to another two five

so there's a lot of two five chord progressions which you hear like in miles davis music believe or not but having it played on a harp with the arpeggios is beautiful and then having these melody notes that are like not from the key like this, that's not in the key. That note's not in the key either. So it gives this like saccharine. I don't even know what it is like sour, but in a good way feeling. And so,

I don't know. I just love this piece and I've actually performed this live on stage sometimes with friends. It's just such a great piece to me. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of, you know harmonic

extensions also the intro to that uh thing that's like it's like a dominant nine chord that uh keeps inverting so it becomes like a half diminished chord and a minor six chord this thing i just love that i love that entrance because that's a very uh unusual chord that you don't hear in like pretty much any genre of music that's not jazz or like Dvorak, I guess. But so, yeah, so I just feel like it's a really pleasing thing. And yeah, there's also like a through line through all these Zelda songs, which I'll maybe get to later. There's like a specific quote unquote mode that Koji Kondo uses throughout the pieces. But anyway, this is by far my favorite um i was on stage in 2007 or 8 playing these jazz gigs in la i used to do

and a friend of mine who's really into like anime and video games he's a bass player he came up on stage he's like fairy theme it's like what do you how do you know that he's like you know i know that i'm like okay so we did a jazz rendition of fairy theme fuck at like 2 a.m yeah and and we and you can really like i i said i might play guitar on this but you can rip over these changes because they are jazz changes so like if i can give a sort of demonstration like wow you know yeah whatever Wow. You know? Yeah. Whatever. Whatever.

You get the idea. You can really. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could do that. I could do that. No, yeah. Yeah. I always think the fairy theme sounds like if I got a burrito and it was too big for me to eat.

And I walked it over to the trash, the part that I couldn't eat, and was about to throw it away. And then I looked down at my dog. That's the sound of my dog looking up at me. my dog that's the sound of my dog looking up at me it's melancholy longing like hopeful that's mine i love that i know what you mean yeah and i i mean not to get too nerdy but i guess that is the whole point at least in my life just how i live it but yeah that like those chromatic notes that are not in the key it does feel melancholy and sort of sad and then it keeps resolving sort of yeah it is hopefully it's just big-eyed dog ears back please give me a burrito it's amazing i love it so yeah that's my that's my first choice i don't know if you guys wanted

to give any choices now or which order to do this in. I think we just kind of round Robin. And I think that's a great pick and that's a great one to start us off. Also, it's so tranquil and calming. And then in Ocarina of Time, it's paired with the Great Fairy appearing and going, ah, ha, ha.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. There is, I know my rhythm is not not good here to say one more thing after you already made that great point and joke but there also is one chord in this that like it's rare to have that harp intro those half diminished g minor six chords but there's a chord in this song that's a flat nine flat five you will only hear that i promise you like in a advanced avant-garde classical piece or a jazz piece, it sounds like this. That's in the song. It's just like...

Whatever that whole thing is. Wow. So that flat nine, flat five is like, okay, that's in a video game. And I have to think they might have been part of the reason I loved the game as a kid, because it was just so special. Sure. I didn't know I loved jazz yet when I was seven or eight. I just knew that those frequencies meant something to me. And it wasn't until I learned the language. I was like, oh, that's why I loved Mariah Carey's whatever song or, you know, Jordan Knight's Give It To You,

which is literally the chord changes to Autumn Leaves. I was like, oh, I had this jazz thing in my soul that I didn't realize I had. So that flat nine, flat five, watch out for that. That'll get you. All right. I'll get you real good. And then it'll heal you if you have a bottle. All right, Matt, you're sharing sound. Do you have a pick?

Yeah. Let's go. I, this is the, I got to Zelda late in life. My first Zelda was, I guess not late in my life, but late in Zelda.

Late in your life hasn't happened yet I don't know the way things are going it just it feels like it could be any day um that's not true um I feel fine uh my first Zelda was um for the DS the Phantom Hourglass um no wait that's your first one that was my very first one wow and i i loved it i thought it was a great game really fun um but this theme uh sticks out to me as i was going back through like what that game sounded like uh the dark memories theme here we go This is on a DS. Woo! So dissonant. The DS is really good.

So now you're going to notice, now that I'm going after Zane, you're going to just really notice the difference in how we speak about these things. Because one of us speaks with such authority and knowledge about the subject and then the other one is uh zane so i mean i've never heard this but i could i could step in if at any point you want to hear the theory of what's happening it's great tell me yeah tell me what's going on i can also compare it to a moment with my dog. So you go ahead, Zane, and then I'll say what this is with my dog. Basically, I've never heard this, but this melody, what key is it in? Yeah.

Okay, so basically... That was me doing that. I did that. Yeah. He's dancing around. This is insane. There's a lot of distance, but the melody... There's so much happening as I'm talking. There's like trash can symbols. But anyway, the flat five is being hit a lot of distance but the melody there's like so much happening as i'm talking there's like trash can symbols but anyway the flat five is being hit a lot which is a thing that happens

in music to make us feel sort of like devilish i can't i don't know what key we're in but that flat five note and then it goes to the flat six and basically normally when you want to settle on harmony you want to be on the one three or five and this is And this is neither of those. It's like, flat five is that note because we're in this key, whatever. So there's that, there's a flat six, there's a major seventh. So they're dancing around every stable note. That note? Oh, that note too.

That's the half step above where this is the note that you'd want to hit, but they're dancing around the note you want to hit, so it feels very tense because of that. What's the context this is played in this game? I think it's when you're talking to somebody about some dark memories. I see this as I've gone out to dinner and my dog hates it when I go out to dinner.

And so she is eyeing the place on the carpet where she is going to have an accident on purpose. Show them to leave me again. What a great format where I explain the notes and then you explain it as it relates to your dog. It's fantastic. This is great. I'm going to listen back to this episode for fun. So that's my first pick.

Great. Heather, why don't you play one? Great. I didn't bring in my first pick. Great. Heather, why don't you play one? Great. I didn't bring in a ton because I knew that I had the least brains about music in the room

so I only wanted to bring a couple but my first one is from Breath of the Wild and it's basically the overworld theme if there is one in Breath of the Wild. This is...

My dog has had breakfast. And she has found the spot in the house with the sunlight patch. And she slowly lays down in the sunlight. And her eyes close. And she's lays down in the sunlight and her eyes close. And she's really happy. But other than that, I don't know anything about this fucking song. I mean, it's like it's got good piano bits it like it's that stripped out minimal thing that I like about breath of the wild.

Yeah. Uh, yeah, it really, it really lingers in the rests. Like it has periods where it's just like, you know, you're just,

you're just waiting for the next thing to happen, which I guess kind of speaks to the sense of exploration that you have in the game at large. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I hadn't heard that yet. I mean, I guess I heard it when I played the game, but yeah yeah yeah it's i hadn't heard that yet i

guess i heard it when i played the game but yeah that um it's in direct contrast to what matt just played with like being in a minor key and and dancing around all these weird notes this is like it was like this suspended thing whatever it was i don't know what it was and then the major seven which is like totally quote unquote consonant. Like it's part of the key. So every melody note like was meant to work with the suspended guitar, or I'm sorry,

piano things underneath. And it's interesting how harmony can do that. If you add a little bit of dissonance, it feels you know, anticipatory or scary. And if you add it's suddenly pretty just because of the order of the it feels, you know, anticipatory or scary. And if you add... It's suddenly pretty just because of the order of the notes. So I really... That was very arresting for me.

I took a deep breath. That was beautiful. It's incredible. All right, I'm going to take things way back to the NES era. And I have a pick from, look, a game that is perhaps a little of a dark horse entry, a black sheep in the franchise, but it still is a cool game that has its charms, and it added some elements to the Zelda mythos and canon and aesthetic, and one of those things is the dungeon theme

from Zelda II, The Adventure of Link. aesthetic and one of those things is the dungeon theme from zelda 2 the adventure of link this is the thing right now you're like, okay, this is about as good as it's gonna get, but wait. There's a crazy arpeggio coming up. Alright, let's see where this is going. I know all the dungeon theme has to offer by this point. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Yeah, baby.

What the fuck? I thought I knew what was going on. I just cut my own arm off. I'm a fucking idiot. I didn't know anything. I'm so glad you picked this. This is one of the ones I was going to pick. Oh, that's rad. I'm glad.

I want to hear you talk about it, but first, before you do, I want to play a little bit of the Smash Melee remix. Yeah, hell yeah. Which is a little bit more orchestrated. And I think this is probably how most people know this song. Totally. So, Zane, what are your thoughts on this from a music theory standpoint?

Well, first thing is, I've asked people on my stream, I was playing this last night on stream when I was transcribing stuff, and I was like, what movie are you guys thinking of when you hear this? And surprisingly, no one said it, but James Bond. These are the exact chords to James Bond, that chromatic walk up from the 5 to the flat 6 to the natural 6 on a minor chord. So that first thing was like, ooh, this guy probably came right out of GoldenEye to write this piece or whatever James Bond was out then.

But I love that fast arpeggio moment. It's so awesome. And it's this moment. It's coming up in a little bit. But when those arpeggios start where it goes like G minor, F minor, E minor, that's a specific device that film score people use, like Danny Elfman, Howard Shore, others. It's coming up right here.

This. Down. Down a whole step. Parallel. Down a half step. Parallel. Ooh. So that parallel minor triad movement,

it's kind of coming back in popularity now with artists like Thundercat or even Kamasi, where you just take a triad and just move it. Don't care about what key you're in. To me, that creates a real journey moment, what we're hearing right now. But yeah, on the original Zelda 2 Link's Awakening, I played a little bit of that as a kid. I didn't beat it. But when this palace theme, whatever it's called, dungeon theme came up, that hit me hard.

There's a lot of other stuff happening, but mostly this minor triad James Bond-y movement and the arpeggios being parallel in nature, which is unlikely. It's unusual, I should say, in video game music. Can you play just

the NES version for just a moment for a split second so I can tell you what my dog is doing when this is playing. Dog has grabbed my sock. I'm trying to get my sock back because I gotta go to work. And it's running through the house.

And I'm like, no, no, no, come on, come on, come on, come on. And she thinks it's a game. So she hides under the couch and I can't get to her. And then she under the couch. And I can't get to her. And then she hides under the bed. And I can't get to her. And when the arpeggios start playing, that's when she's clocked up speed. And now she's dashing in the house.

That's what's happening. Fantastic. Dude, I want to compose a film one day and have you help me compose it by using these analogies. That's it. You're painting a picture. Also, that arpeggio is really hard to play on the guitar, which I learned last night. It's really hard. It's easier on piano.

Wow. Holy Lord. But one day I'll learn it. I don't have my guitar within reach or I'd show you how easy it is. Yeah. Okay, thanks. Do you ever want a lesson or something? No, but there's also

one thing that's so fun as a guitarist loving these pieces i mean when you guys asked me to do this episode i freaked out like i you know when you tell someone when you get like a really cool job you tell your friends and family you're not gonna believe it this person's hiring me or i'm writing for this thing uh i told my my friends and family i'm like this is very this is like top tier excitement for me it's not gonna going to be career or whatever. You might not get as excited as I am, but I get to talk about the music of basically my favorite video game series of all time. Whose, whose songs I know I could easily have sung 50 of these without having to research online. So it's, it's really cool. Um, but one fun thing about being a guitar player, listening to these

pieces is clearly, I mean, I'm guessing actually, but it seems clear to me Koji writes on the piano because a lot of these voicings are very easy to play on the piano and almost impossible on the guitar. Like that fairy theme that I was talking about is like this weird, that chord's possible, but that's not possible. Like you can't play these voices on guitar so they're really exciting for someone like me because i'm like that's a new sound i i've never played that right yeah uh well uh well hey you're excited to talk about zelda music uh let's keep it going hell yeah what's another pick you got all right lynx awakening baby let's go tell tell heights come on i don't know why i announced it like a DJ.

So it's a modification of the main theme. That's the melody. And then this is not. This is an exposition on it. Bam. There's like this mambo-y salsa moment. There are so many things I love about this. I'm going to list them really quickly.

Slowly enough to make sense of them. Here it changes keys, by the way. And it's a different tonality, like a thicker tonality on the instrument. So, this is sort of like the Dark World from Link to the Past, but sort of reimagined. There's that. Two, there are many advanced cadences in this song. So, like in college, you learn about the Neapolitan to a 5-7, which is coming up right here.

It's coming up in a moment. Here's the Neapolitan. Those two chords back to back, not heard very often outside of classical music. Also, there's like this half diminished chord that walks down. That's like a very Jeff Buckley thing. There's just so much there's so many nutrients in this for me. So I get really excited listening to it.

Um, that top end pitch is kind of ear hurting, but it's fine. Okay. So then, uh, there's this Lydian thing going on. I want to, I want to touch on this. So Lydian happens a lot. That mode happens a lot in the Zelda music. Um, so the lydian moment is coming up in like eight bars um this that sound it's very ethereal very sort of mysterious that happens in almost like half of the zelda songs so i love that that's in here um it feels almost like an overture for a musical it gives me like everything the game's gonna to show me eventually. And then that's pretty much it. I'm going to pause it now. I forgot Matt's not playing it.

So yeah, I mean, also one thing that came to mind is, have you ever heard the RoboCop theme for the Game Boy? I'm sure I have. I should have pulled it up because I didn't, but it's incredible. And part of the reason I think that's so incredible is because of the limitations of the hardware. And so, you know, and the limitation on this is there wasn't much polyphony, like, you know, as much like that.

They had to arpeggiate. Yeah, you can only play so many notes at the same time. The sound chip is only capable of, you know, like two to four different simultaneous sounds. So you can't really play chords. You have to break them up. Exactly. So that arpeggiation, I think, makes this so exciting.

And there's so much momentum to it versus actually having triads playing with the melody. So you can't really play chords. You have to break them up. So that arpeggiation, I think, makes this so exciting. And there's so much momentum to it versus actually having triads playing with the melody. So I love that. But yeah, I just, I think this piece is amazing. I think it happens closer to the end of the game. Maybe it's even the title credits at the end. But I don't know. It just gets me amped. And I love hearing Game Boy music.

So I wanted to share it. I'm pretty sure that song plays when my dog sees a squirrel she's like i got this i know that we're doing um zelda um but i pulled up the um the robocop it's the title theme for the game boy uh oh it's the best song maybe ever on an 8-bit. Okay, here we go. Whatever it is. Oh! The number one comment underneath this on YouTube is, it was, uh, whatever the composer's name was, they're like,, man, you just broke up with your girlfriend. Can you write us a song?

He's like, yeah, I got you. Here's the melody. It's great also because RoboCop, the movie, has such a well-known main theme that they could have just, you know, used as the title theme here, but they're like, I'm going to go to a different direction. Also fun fact, that's right. Eva,

you know, Eva Anderson, her brother dash is one of my best friends. He showed me that he's like, you've got to do music theory of this one day. So I did. Cause it's so good. Yeah.

That rocks. The, so, what you were saying earlier, Zane, about like you kind of like back ending into the, the types of music that you like via hearing it in video games. I'm kind of realizing that that kind of happened to me, too, because a lot of the what you're saying, like these these super fast runs, these arpeggiated, like, you know, like like impossibly fast, like chip tune songs, I think is maybe what led me to like really like speed metal

and then like bebop, like, you know, Charlie Parker, you know? Wait, you're into bebop? Yeah, I really- Oh, hell yeah, man. Oh, awesome. Yeah, at a period where I was really into, I mean, I still listen to it, but like, yeah, like, you know, the Charlie bebop,

like you mentioned, or Charlie bebop, Charlie- That was my nickname when I was little. Charlie Parker. Yeah, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, like you mentioned, or Charlie Bebop, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, like you mentioned, you know, so later than that, like John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, but like, yeah, that's sort of like that core bop era. I was like really into that stuff. I just really love speed, you know? Yeah, man. That's awesome. Yeah, I think you're right. And I wonder if it was that listening to

this music influenced me and that I liked that later in life, or if it was revealing what I would eventually discover. Like, I'm just in this. Yeah. Yeah. Which I gravitated towards. Yeah, you're right. A lot of NES games did have some crazy arpeggios. Like Ninja Gaiden, we've talked about briefly, but that's insane, that whole score.

I love that. It just feels like so many of those songs are just in a rush. They're just in a hurry. Right. All right, so I'm going to go a little out of order here just because you mentioned the Dark World theme and that's one of my picks. So, Matt, let's go ahead and play that.

That's from The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past. And I think this is one of the most well-known Zelda songs, and I feel like it kind of has to be included here. that's so good so good good. Fucking rips. It's also one of those things where you're not hearing this until you're into a good chunk of the game. Like, you've played a meaty chunk before you get into this theme, and so when it hits, it fucking hits. Yeah, it's like 75 or 80% in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I love this piece. There's one chord in this piece that, for me, this is getting very analytical and nerdy, but there's an A-flat major 7 in this song, and to me that is the piece for me. So it's coming up right here. Here's the chord right here. That chord. I love that because it feels like, well you have the key that you're in. You have the C minor triad, but over A flat. And there's like a beautiful tension, that right there. So I love that. When I heard that as a kid, I was like, this is so hip, man.

I don't know. There's a lot of journeying going on here. Here's the chord again. There's A by major seven again. And I love that it was minor, because it's major in the main theme. So I love they did that. Yes, 100%. Yeah. And there's major in the main theme. So I love they did that. Yes, 100%. Yeah.

And there's a bunch of diminished stuff. And there's so much momentum to it. I love that. Yeah. It's not a perfect comparison, but it's kind of like the, you know, Anakin's theme in Star Wars Episode I, the Phantom Menace is like an inversion of, you know anakin's theme and star wars episode one the phantom menace is like an inversion of uh you know the imperial march from the original trilogy and it's the same sort of thing

where it's not like just like here we're just going to take the song and then replay it in a minor key we're going to kind of like just figure out how to invert it fully yeah uh and that's the same sort of thing with the dark world theme and the main theme of Zelda. Totally. Yeah, I love that track. I love that. I can see that happening in a jazz solo, actually, because space, space, and this being space, space, space. It's like I could see if I was in a jazz setting fourth or fifth chorus in being like how can i stretch this melody anymore and i might do exactly this keep the rhythmic cadence but completely

change the melody notes so it's funny because people say the sound it makes them feel like the uh main theme even though it doesn't share really any melody notes and i think it's because of that yeah this is cool this was UPS guy has showed up for a delivery and my dog thinks she's got to protect the house. So she's barking at the door and then she looks really proud and then she barks some more. That's that song. That's what's going on with my dog during that song.

It's fantastic. All right, Matt, let's get another one of your picks. Okay. So this part, I mean, this one, I'm going back to Breath of the Wild because that was probably the next Zelda that I played. I didn't play a lot of Zelda. And this is a song, it's barely a song.

It's more of a sting, kind of. But, you know, it's music. And it's during a part of breath of the wild that would scare me every time it happened because i would it would be just long enough where i'd forget it was part of it and then it would happen uh so this is the omen of the bloody moon and they're all coming back to life and stuff they They're like, oh, you fucked us up earlier. Now I'm ugly and alive again. Fuck you.

And I just think it's good contrast because obviously there's a lot of dark stuff in Zelda games. But I feel like for the most part, a lot of the music is pretty, like pretty happy and pretty, like pretty upbeat. So I think, Blood Moon is fucking terrifying. It's so scary every time it happens. It's scary,

that's scary when it happens. And when you're talking to what you think is a normal NPC and it turns out to be one of those like ninjas, fuck that. Oh yeah, I hate that. That song's the vet for my dog. Yeah, Sushi just ate a nickel on accident. I don't remember at all the music from Metroid Dread,

which I did 100% because I love that game. But whenever those E something or others. Yes. Yeah, that freaked me out, man. So I have to go back to those those that piece and see what it was that scared me about that but this one is literally uh the devil's interval they call it oh really yeah i hadn't heard this piece before but nick probably knows the tritone yes yeah yeah it's like remember that black sabbath song like that interval is a tritone so it was going like this D thing down to a flat. Then it went like B flat to E.

And so that tritone is very unsettling for a plethora of reasons. Most times people, when they hear this, they want it to resolve, you know? Yeah. But it doesn't in this one. So it's like,

it's so unsettling and unresolved. Classic vet situation. Sorry. You're so good though. You're so dead on Heather with these analogies. Seriously. Well, the music's communicating that.

It's because of my dog. I'm not doing anything. It's just because it's true. It's just because that's what happens when any of these things happen with my dog. That's great. The second song I have from the email I sent you, Matt, the second song I have is not actually from a Legend of Zelda game.

It is from my favorite video game-inspired lo-fi musician, A.L.E.X. I've given this performer a shout-out on the show uh with sonic remixes and um this is i think fairy lullaby from a lex which is just a lo-fi remix of a of a zelda song I simply must read the top comment on this YouTube. Okay. Man, this got me thinking about childhood. Man, sometimes I miss being a kid. In a way, it kept me from seeing how unforgiving and how cold the world really was. it kept me from seeing how unforgiving and how cold the world really was

this is my dog looking out the window when it's raining nice this is the ocarina of time like when you start the N64 game it's incredible

this again has that open ethereal thing I don't know if it feels that way to you guys the N64 game, the mix, it's incredible. Yeah, this, again, has that open ethereal thing. I don't know if it feels that way to you guys. Like, anything's possible and who knows what'll happen. And that was something

that I thought was really exciting when I put on this game when I was 11 or 12. Oh, wait, my agent's listening. I was eight. I was not born yet

in the womb. I'm kidding. I don't have an agent. All right. Well, I kind of do do it's a long story so anyway the the

the first game Zelda 1 is very strong it's a major melody and very sort of almost like regal

and this is the opposite it felt like oh wow what's happened to Link like before I had played the game like oh what's about to happen I don't know and that Lydian thing

which shows up in like Song of Healing it shows up in lost woods it shows up in this it showed up in two or three of the songs we've already played um that's really a theme in this game and i i wonder if part of it's to make the player feel like yeah it's you're in charge you're link link doesn't even really have a voice like you're a link anything's possible here sure um because that mode like if you're you know if, like, F, which is this song's in C major, it's like. That feeling is kind of open. That's the Lydian. Versus, if I were to be like.

That sounds minor and very different, very deliberate, whereas the Lydian's a little less deliberate. You know? So anyway, that Lydian thing being throughout all the games, for me it's always felt like... So I think Minna's Lament might be in Lydian, so this is a common thing. But yeah, it's really uncertain.

I love that intro. I sometimes would just sit and let the intro play for two minutes three minutes when i was a kid that was my feeling of how of that game for the first time and i'm older than uh than you are but i like we would like just have that attract mode on just have like that that title screen and have that theme playing it was actually years later when i heard a blood sweat and tears album album that covers the variations on a theme by Eric Satie, which is a song that is very close to, like clearly Koji Kondo had this in his head when he composed this, but it evokes the same sort of mood. What a great reference you just

brought up. I actually did not think about that when I was listening to this, but you're totally right. Yeah, Satie, yeah, it has that to it. There's also like a Debussy, Ravel feeling to a lot of his pieces. This whole, that whole chord, he's really into straight up extensions. And I love that. I don't know. I mean, I feel like as much as I love Mega Man

or Shovel Knight or Ninja Gaiden or Sonic or so many great freaking video game songs out there, I do love extended harmony, I think, because of my jazz background. And so when you have like 13ths and 7ths, which is basically just adding layers to a cake, like, oh, strawberry vanilla, love it. I'm like, well, what if you had chocolate and banana on top? I like that extra variety on top of my quote unquote harmonic cake. Right.

I don't know how I'm saying this with a straight face, because that's a hilarious sentence. My harmonic cake. But yeah, I do love that. And also, I love the chromatuses. I love that. It's so beautiful, man. Yeah, it's one of my favorite ones. You guys have picked a lot that I had to nix.

It's like, oh, I only get three. So thank you for picking some of my favorites. Well, let's make sure you get to at least get to the uh get to your third here because we're we're coming up against the time the clock but uh what's what was your third my third one i think is a bit unusual because there's so many great pieces from ocarina of time and it was between this and the main theme heather that you just chose i love song of storms uh i picked the same one. Yeah? Okay. Yeah. It's that change right there that does it for me. Nice.

Yeah, okay, I get that. That makes sense. Yeah, going back to the actual minor key. I just love this melody. And so I was messing around on stream when I was analyzing this, and I was like, this could straight up be a jazz song. This is all like anyway that movement that you like the b-flat major to the a dominant seven that leads us back to the d minor in a very it's like a not classical I don't know it don't know. It's a slightly uncommon cadence to get us back to one, but you hear it a lot in like soulful rock music like this.

You also hear it sometimes in like French music. But anyway, I love that progression. But my main thing is the melody. And I normally like majestic, lush songs like the Ocarina of Time opening or Fairy Fountain. I love Song of Healing. I love a lot of them, but this one, the melody is just too good. The whole

I mean, it gives me a little bit like Willy Wonka in pure imagination. It has that kind of vibe. There's not much for me to say on this other than I love that melody so much. There is one thing that I was going to do as a joke here, but I guess I'll do it, which is if you're like me and you play sax, you sing, piano, whatever, I would recommend you use two scales if you want to solo over this song.

Because I oftentimes do that. I'll loop a music piece from a video game game and I'll just improvise over it. And what you do is you'd start with Dorian in the beginning. So that's the Dorian mode. And then when it comes to that favorite part of the netcast, you do, you do harmonic minor. So you go between D Dorian, D harmonic minor, go have fun. Kids enjoy improvising over this. Between D, Dorian, D harmonic minor, go have fun, kids. Enjoy improvising over this.

Can we just step back for a second? And I just want to, you know, in case anyone is a little unclear on some of the terms you're using, and maybe we could have done, maybe I should have done this earlier, but when you're talking about different modes, you're basically talking about a sequence of notes, right? And you're playing from within, this is like kind of your pool of notes and you can pick from that. And that's generally like an eight note sequence out of the 12 possible notes. Yeah. You'll do generally seven unique pitches, but the octave makes it eight, you know, the same note up an octave. Exactly. And the analogy I use sometimes for modes is this. So literally it's seven notes played in an order. That would be the Dorian mode. Whereas this, that's the Lydian mode. That's our major scale, our Ionian mode. But

the analogy I like to use is they're all coming from the same set of notes. So like if I'm in C major, I have seven modes available to me because there are seven notes in C major. So I can start on the first note and I'm in C major. But if I start on the second note of C major, now I'm in D Dorian. Same notes, exact same notes, just with a different context. And so anyway, the point here is the analogy I use is it's like saying a line in a scene. You're acting and your line might be, I'm so thirsty. Well, if you say I'm so thirsty and the green screen behind you turns into like dead, you know, like vultures, like eating dead animals and your

parts and your face is red. Well, I'm so thirsty is a very scary thing. You know, that's this scale played over this chord. Sounds kind of like a different feeling. But what if the I'm so thirsty was like, uh, you have jugs of water around you and you're not thirsty and it's some weird joke. That's not a good joke. That's why you guys are funny and I'm not. But, you know, if you go, ba-ba-da-da-da-da-da-da over this,

ba-ba-da-da-da-da-da-da, same notes, they feel so different. So a mode is just like a point of relativity. So same seven notes, but with a different relative place um that's what a mode is and what happens here is they uh they're they're jumping between different modes and it just yeah it's a different it's you know one one more way of putting it sorry if i'm going too far on this but no way you know you can you can say i love you with words or you can say it by giving someone roses these are different modes of communication, different love languages, if you will.

Sure. Same sentiment. So that's what a mode is. You take those seven notes and you give it a different foundation, essentially. One real quick thing on this piece and part of the reason it was on my list is in addition to it being like a great,

like just melody, like you were saying, it's also a good piece of scoring and contextually in the game because you're encountering that uh you know at the windmill yeah and it is it has like a very mechanical repetitive uh perpetual motion sort of feel to it yeah for sure and and so it it it's it's it's really evocative in that moment um heather do you have a a dog take on this piece? Can you play it again just a little bit? Yep.

This is, if you give my dog too many scratches, she'll be on her back and she just does this with her paws. And then she doesn't, she'd make a face where her mouth is open. Like she'll just bat the air with her and she'll go. So that's the, that's the sound that's happening here. That's fantastic. Yep. I love it. She becomes scratch crazy.

Zane, did you have any, did you have maybe a near miss or a last minute cut you wanted to play as well there was it's tricky though because it's kind of long but I thought maybe it would be interesting to talk about the Tears of the Kingdom final trailer because a lot of us who watched that were like oh I'm like so excited about this game now and there are a couple elements in here

so that's the Dorian mode, by the way, but that opening is just sort of open-ended. But long story short, there are a lot of film score tricks in this. Going to the four chord, not the one chord. We're not resolved yet. It's right away your middle story. It's like starting a story halfway through.

And then now it changes keys right when it says Zelda so that's like an exciting way to burst that to make people excited about what they're looking at to do an immediate key change with no warning so that happens I'm going to fast forward a bit because this is a bit of a long piece but this minor

thing that's huge and this melody major 7 which happens in the Orc things in Lord of the Rings. Really dark, tense, because you're playing notes that aren't in the chord you're playing. I love that. And then...

A lot of chromaticism is leading up. That is so freaking sick, dude. That break where there's no reverb and it's... So all this buildup amazing and then it doesn't resolve it goes and you think it's gonna go there but it doesn't it just stops so that's great and then the part that i think this is great building up up. The part everyone talks about, though, is right here. This.

Hey! And the melody's back. That. That happens in so many movies where you go to the secondary dom in like 5 of 5-7, whatever. Yeah. You are our final hope. Ooh, and then, fun Easter egg egg someone in my twitch chat told me

i wasn't listening i wasn't paying attention it ends with zelda's lullaby right here she's oh wow right here this is zelda's lullaby from ocarina wow so it ends with that um But yeah, that, dude, when the freaking... That whole thing is like, that is straight up what Howard Shore would have done or even Hans Zimmer. And that's a common device, I think, when you're rearranging a song.

Thinking of voicings like this, all these like inversions just a slight inversion will make it lift and open up so much so yeah this sounds like a feature film composition to me and there were so many easter eggs referencing the past

games so part of the reason this trailer got me hyped up it was amazing to see the gameplay but it was just music for me for me it was just like and i think that's all those are all those are all great points and and great analysis uh but i like like to me the one thing was just like the wailing sax like just like just like busting out like fucking clarence from the east street band just fucking wailing over this thisphony orchestra. To me

it was just like, let's go. I love that. So yeah, that was my bonus one just because I'm so excited about the game coming out this Friday. Hell yeah. I cannot wait. I haven't watched any of the trailers.

Isn't that a fucking... I can't believe I've pulled that off. Did you do that? That must have been purposeful. You're trying to stay in the dark? I was busy. And also I didn't, whenever I would see one, I'd be like,

I gotta watch this later. And then I wouldn't watch it. So I've managed to make it all the way to the release week without having seen a single fucking trailer for this game wow yeah well we'll all find out what it's all about on this Friday and hey maybe it sucks

that would sure be a surprise if it was bad and we dedicated a whole month to it I'd be so mad be funny though fucking whiffed on yeah this is like a whole month to it, I'd be so mad. Be funny, though. Fucking whiffed on this. This is like Rise of Skywalker.

He talks now? He talks now. Hey, I'm awake. It hurts. My urine meter is full. Find a bathroom. It's like, what? Why did they add this? Hail to the king, baby. Find a bathroom. It's like, what? Why did they add this?

Hail to the king, baby. Oh, no. Oh, God. Duke Nukem? I gotta take a piss. Zane, I appreciate all this so much. Is there any other closing thoughts on the music side of things before we move on to some questions? You know, I think the only thing I could think of is Koji Kondo. It's like incredible to have a string of games that are this iconic musically.

Because, yeah, I mean, he did Zelda 1, Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess. Like, that's crazy. I mean, there are like 10 to 15 incredible pieces on each game in my opinion um so i'm just really in awe of his skills that's that's a true composer right there and it's just beautiful work that yeah that's a great point and also just like the progression of technology that he's worked you know as the medium has evolved right and by the not to take away the other two composers i was researching akito nakatsuka and hajimi wakai i hope i'm pronouncing those right but wakai did breath of the wild which is incredible as well kind of gave me like peter

mcconnell vibes he did psychonauts psychonauts too oh yeah yeah um and then that piece you chose from zelda 2 is a freaking incredible piece but uh yeah it's really wild that nintendo's able to do this i mean between mario and zelda for every game to be this amazing and then the music is also as amazing yeah props to the composers uh since you mentioned the uh peter mcconnell did you play any of a return to monkey island not yet i played day the tentacle the where you can go between in the remaster, between the new visuals and old, but I got to get into Monkey Island. The Return to Monkey Island, it's a new game.

It's kind of wrapping up the series, but it's Peter McConnell came back to do the score along with Michael Landon, Clint Bajakian, so they've all worked on the franchise, and it's some pretty great music. I'll be getting that. All right. Matt, it's time for the question block. All right, this first one is from Sean Taylor from our Discord. Hi, Sean.

What's your favorite gibberish-based language in video games? I really like Banjo-Kazooie. I feel like they did it really well. I feel like they just, you know, and then there's also, there's one character in Banjo-Kazooie who it's fucking gross,

but it kind of works, who talks through gibberish burps. It's just fucking nasty, but I don't know. I think that particular gibberish kind of really appeals to me. You know, also one more, I'll shout out another Nintendo franchise. I think that that particular gibberish kind of really appeals to me. You know, also one more. I'll shout out another Nintendo franchise.

I think the the the punch out character boxes between rounds. That's some pretty good gibberish. I was thinking about this and obviously I love the speech in Animal Crossing. Yeah, that's real good. It's really good. But I recently saw a video of, it came across my TikTok. It was of Katy Perry recording one of her songs in Simlish

for a Sims. Wow. For a Sims game. I'm not sure which one um but i have it here and uh let me play it for you guys because it's it's crazy it's like vin diesel doing i'm groot like he shouldn't have to do it like it's dumb that it's like a famous person but like she came in and did it. But it's a phobia nope. But it's a phobia nope. But it's a phobia nope. But it's a phobia nope.

This is Last Friday Night by Katy Perry. Rimpy Fervor Purbedex. Wara Oofa Moona Rex. Rimpy Fervor Purbedex. Wara Oofa Moona Rex. Rimpy Fervor Purbedex. Wara Oofa Moona Rex. Yarby Denzel Tabledoo.

Keep your eyes on the moon. This is letting her... The money from this is letting her pay her mortgage on the convent she bought. Yeah, that she kicked the nuns out of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And allowing her to support Rick Caruso. Look, just because I think it's cool she did this doesn't mean she doesn't suck.

No, I think that's cool. I think that's cool as hell. It's just like that's fucking bizarre. It's very strange, and my new prank that I want to do is replace someone's real version with that and make them think they're going insane. Heather, favorite gibberish in games?

I mean, Animal Crossing. I don't, like, I can't even think of one that isn't Animal Crossing. Anytime I'm like, maybe, no, I'm just thinking of Animal Crossing. It's got a great, a great sound for a gibberish. When Blathers gets going. Oh, don't get me started. I can't get enough. It's got a great sound for a gibberish. When Blathers gets going. Oh, don't get me started. I can't get enough. It's great work.

Zane, any favorite gibberish from a video game character? The only one I could have thought of was the Simlish, even though I don't like it. I just like, oh yeah, I've heard of that one. But when you said Banjo-Kazooie, I thought, oh man, that would have been my choice. Yeah, because Grendel. Yeah.

Good lord. That's fantastic. I guess there's also the original Star Fox guys oh my god good luck that's such a good one

that was a great choice yeah let's go on to the next question this one's from Comrade Lou. Hey, y'all. Hi, Lou. Every time a game has a character creator,

I always spend a ludicrous amount of time tweaking and adjusting my character until I'm happy, but always blank on what name to give them. What are your go-to naming conventions? Your own name, something funny, or does it depend on the game? Hmm. Good question.

If it's not important to the story, I'll do my own name, right? Like, if it's like, if I'm playing Pokemon or something, that's me all the time, right? I'm in it. I'm doing that. But if it's something like, you know,da or something it's gonna be link like i have to make my save i'm always linked i have to put my save file as link i'm not having interesting i can't do it um or like even in um i think in dragon quest 11 i did put matt because they don't vocalize the name but then he doesn't have a

canonical name anyway i think i think it's just hero um but i wish i would have just kept that because that matt doesn't feel right my name matt is too um modern of a name for that vibe you know what i mean maybe that's why i do do Zane. Because Link's always been Zane. I'm like, it kind of sounds like some weird elvish-eared person. It's not entirely out of place, sure. Right.

Do you go with Zane if you're naming a character in a game? I do, but it's changed as I've gotten older. Because as a kid, it was really fun to put Zane instead of Ness. Like, I'm Zane. I'm in the game. Yeah.

Right. But as I get older, I do like transporting to a different place and so it is fun to see some some weird name but yeah my most recent uh well i guess those were old saves because i'm going through my old old games ocarina of time links to the past and a links awakening dx were all zane yeah i think i mostly put my name in i know i mostly do i mostly do like like try to stick to whatever if there's a default name i don't change it yes um i think i may have talked before

on the podcast like you know because you can you can rename characters in uh some of the final fantasies some of the super nintendo final fantasies and i had a friend at school who like renamed all of his final Fantasy two slash four party members. And so he was just always like, you know, like I'd be asked. I'd be talking about Cecil. He'd be like, oh, you mean Gary? But but I like like I will go if I'm going to use my own name. I'll do like Nick or more commonly Wags because I kind of feel like that's kind of my nickname.

And I feel like that just usually feels a little bit more video gamey. And Persona 5 Royal, like you have to have a first and a last name. And I was like, I'm not going to put Nick Wiger in here. That feels weird. So I was I was Nicola Wags. I modified my first name after Nicola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. But the but yeah, I typically I think Wags is my go-to. Although I'll say, if I'm playing a game

like a Diablo game, I'll just fucking use that name randomizer and commit to something. I do that too. I'll roll that a few times and just have that be my character that I'm going to play for 40 hours. Yeah, roll it until you get one that you're like,

I like that, that sounds good. Yeah, that's pretty good. I'll do the same. What about you heather i like both uh doing the game dependent you know always name link link can't name link anything else um but recently i've gotten in the habit of sort of one of my favorite things about gundam is that the names are not quite names that you recognize, but sound vaguely English. So I like naming like a couple letters off of a name that could be a name. So like, you know, you would name your persona character grants prebs.

And it's like, that almost sounds like a, almost sounds like a name, you know, the RNC chairman, you'd name like you'd name. I don't know. It's hard to improvise these,

but like, uh, shut. Shuz. but like uh shut shuzz do it i'm sorry what well i was wondering if we have anyone that names their pokemon something different matt you don't do that do you i'm not a pokemon renamer no i don't i don't do all this pokemon matt every poke every single one yeah no every single name in the game is Matt, and it becomes very confusing at a certain point. I just wonder who does that,

because the fans of the game want to know that they have a Flareon or a Sylveon, so if you just call it Gary, like you said, that would be funny. Yeah, I don't know. Some people do do it. I'd like to meet them. I mean, the option is there.

They're out there. I'm going to debate them. No, I'm kidding. No, that's great. Yeah, why did you call your jiggly puff fluffy what's the matter with you yeah

Shickle Stregs this next one's from Quinn Quatro hi Quinn what's up Quinn what have y'all been interested

in food wise lately we hear so much about the games TV shows and what have y'all been interested in food wise lately we hear so much about the games tv shows and other content y'all consume but never anything about what you eat I'm so glad to have a place to talk about food on a podcast uh I you know I've gotten really into just like a full breakfast I found that just like I make myself I just I'll I, I'll get up. Usually first thing I will go for a, just a, just a 20 minute walk in the neighborhood with a cup of coffee and,

um, you know, just kind of like get some sunlight. First thing I've read a lot about like the benefits of like, like early exposure to sunlight, just in terms of maintaining your, uh, you know,

your, your sleep cycle. And then after that, I'll like, I'll, I'll, you know, like three scrambled eggs, um, your sleep cycle. And then after that, I'll like, I'll, you know, like three scrambled eggs, some salad greens. Maybe if I've got like, you know, some nice bread, I'll have a piece of

toast. Maybe I'll have a scoop of cottage cheese. Or maybe, you know, if I've got some berries, berries are in season, maybe instead of the salad greens, I'll have some strawberries. But yeah, just like a big full plate of breakfast, just like, like feed myself, feed myself. Like I'm going to go, you know, uh, like, like work a blue collar job for a little bit or something. It's,

it's just, uh, I, I find that so satisfying and it's so like making breakfast to treat and having just like a modicum of effort involved in order to, to, to fuel myself for my day. Like just starts me off on such a great note as opposed to having like,

you know, I'm just kind of like a sad bowl of oatmeal or like some yogurt in a in a cup i guess i'll put a little bit of work into this uh and i'll start my day off with something tasty i'm in a i'm in a um i had birria for the first time a couple months ago i never had it. I didn't grow up eating it. And. Was this a, was this goat or beef? It was goat. And. Hell yeah. I think I texted you this.

I never had, I never had goat before. And everywhere else in the world, it's like the number one meat, right? It's so good. Very good meat. It's great meat. I think it should be number one here too. I think, you know,

we'd ruin it and then there'd be no more, um, based on how we do things here. Um, but it, trying to think of what Jack in the box would do with a goat as a protein. Oh God. Yeah.

A goat Euro or something like, honestly, you know what? Time me up. Uh, uh, but the thing about it is it is never not far from my mind now. I had never had it before.

Now it's like, I think that's one of my favorite foods. It's so good. And now any chance I can get to have it, if like a place has it and I don't order it, I fucked up because it's like, okay, well, like they have it. It's my number one. I got to because it's like, okay, well, like they have it. It's my, it's my number one. I got to get it. There's a beer truck that parks at the end of my block, uh,

where my apartment is like, you know, four days a week. And I just like, I like, I cannot go here. I just have to stay away from this part of town. Yeah.

If you know, it's there, but I like that. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, it's, it's so,

so good. If you, if you get a good execution, yeah. Non-stop Japanese food for the last two weeks. And then I came here and I have not stopped having Japanese food. We've been cooking udon at the house. We've been making ramen from scratch.

We've been eating onigiri non-stop. Japanese food. It's been great. Wow. Can I, can you just say a follow up on that real quick, which is that, and this is a,

this is a Matt you're involved in this when we're recording in studio, which Matt have I been, and I have been doing for the most part, we were not doing that today, but we usually have a pre-show meal where we go to sprouts, the, the nearby grocery store and usually get their prepackaged sushi. And you know what?

For grocery store, sushi could do a lot worse. It's the best of the best, I think, in that field. Yeah. Unimpeachable. It's always great. Do they have, Heather, do they have in like a konbini in Japan, do they have like just prepackaged sushi that you can get? Yeah.

They have prepackaged bento uh and the shit is all like fucking high grade the best wow like mary and i were lamenting how we can't just go to a 7-eleven or a family mart family mart gang rise up uh and get delicious instant delicious food, which I know is like a trope of TikTok. It's like, oh, here's what I ate at 7-Eleven today. But the reason it's a trope is that you can fucking go to a family mart or a 7-Eleven and get one of the best sandwiches of your life right away. You can get a bento box with like a fucking eel and rice and soup. Like, incredible.

Yeah, and those sushi places on the conveyor belt or whatever that's called, that's some of the best sushi I've ever had in my life. Yeah. Yeah, it's incredible. Fuck.

Wow. Fuck! Zane, any food you've been having lately? Yeah, sorry. I was hoping I could avoid it because it's so boring for me right now. I'm doing this dumb, vain, eating healthy crap. I don't know why I'm doing it.

I'm trying to be healthy or something. Maybe because you look like a million bucks. No, no. No, I'm trying. I'm like, man, I had a moment a year ago where I was like, I'm going to get into shape because my whole life I've been on tour and you just sleep in a tour bus for 17 hours or whatever a day. And so I would wear clothing that looked

form-fitting, but I wasn't in shape. My heart was not healthy and I was not lifting weights or any of that stuff. And my doctor had hurt my back. He's like, you really got to move. You got to. So I started really slowly. And then maybe like eight months ago, I was like, oh, I'm gonna start lifting heavy weights. Oh, I'm doing it four to six days a week. Oh God, I'm really tired. I need to eat more protein. So suddenly I'm doing this whole like egg whites in the morning with salmon and avocado and putting some Cholula on it. So it tastes good, but I'm not adding this sort of sodium. Yeah. i'm really into the boring health stuff right now i gotta come back to center although for my birthday my mom did something really cute

because it was the arcade and the halo 2 land party and all that stuff and uh she bought me like or the whole party like sour patch straws and cry baby gum and air ped like sour ropes and so I went ham on that night you got it I'm learning a lot about eating healthier because in my life like when I was on tour I thought oh yeah sandwiches are healthy but it turns out they're sometimes not like I didn't know about vegetables

and all that so trying to learn how to make that delicious here's the thing about vegetables i think the reason so many people dislike them is because i feel like in a lot of at least a lot of american households a lot of white american households they were prepared with like no seasoning and like just like steamed or boiled and it's just like look you take some brussels sprouts you toss them in some olive oil you put some some salt and garlic garlic and pepper on it, and you fucking roast it. Then that'll have some real flavor and some real texture to it.

My mom, even in New York, she's been so supportive. She's so sweet. I was like, yeah, I'm exercising. And she'll say to my friends, like, or her friends, like, look, Zayn has muscles. I'm like, all right, what did I have before? All right, hold on. But she's like, it's weird. It's crazy.

I've never seen one like this. But in New York, she's like, let's throw. It's crazy. I've never seen one like this. But in New York, she's like, let's throw some asparagus in there. And she did what you said, olive oil, a little bit of spices. It's like,

well, I can just do this in eight minutes. What add to my egg whites? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to start doing that. Yeah. Get some baking.

Although I still like watching a Lakers game and playing Octopath Travel and having a beer. I mean, that's a nice. Well, yeah. Video games and beer. I do like, or video games and like something unhealthy pizza or soda.

I still like that. Hell yeah. That's what that's what life is all about. And hey, that's this week's get played links to our social media in the episode description. Our engineering is by Alex Gonzalez, dead air Alex G on Twitter and Instagram. Also, we got our paywalled show get animated where we are wrapping up blue lock. Yeah, it's the final two episodes of blue lock an anime that we have loved heart and soul all the way through it's a

soccer anime that is also a sports anime that's also a fighting anime good times for the great taste of mcdonald's uh that's on Stitcher Premium, or you can get it day and date on release at patreon.com getplayed. Zane Carney, what a delight to have you here. Thank you for giving us so much of your time and lending us your brain and your talents.

Anything you would like to plug at this time? I think this week that the podcast comes out, I think on Wednesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. PST, I'll be doing a music theory of songs we didn't get to. So I thought that would be fun. Oh, that's rad. I have like 10 other songs that I'm nerding out on. So maybe I'll see you guys on twitch.tv slash Zane Carney.

And I'm sure the VOD will stay up. So maybe you'll see it later. But thank you so much for having me. I love doing this. Really appreciate it. We love having you. That was an absolute delight, which makes it so painful to tell you that you got played. Oh, no, Nick.

Wow. Gotti. You can't do that. Wow.