Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Astro Bot Spoilercast - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Astro Bot Spoilercast - VIP Bots - Favorite Levels & Abilities - Favorite Bots - Ads - Blessing and Roger’s Trip to Team Asobi - Team Asobi Interview - Is there Astro Bot Without PlayStation? - SuperChats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is up, everybody, and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Gamescast for September 12th, 2024. I'm your host for today, Roger Percornian. Woo! Woo! It's me, Roger Pocorne. I'm joined today by Blessing Eddie O'Yea Jr. Good afternoon, Raj. How you feeling?

I'm feeling good. How are you feeling? Good. It's just you're just doing me now. We're just going to have a podcast. I'm down. Let's talk. That's what I'm saying, dude.

I've been telling Roger for years. I've got to break off. We just got to break off. What of that? You and I just had an entire podcast. We just kind of waited for them to kind of jump in. Do we try to do that and they'd cancel it? Call him the Next Gen podcast.

Don't forget me. Like, I was there too. Oh, he's there too. I was there too. I was there. I was kidding. Bear wears hats. Bear wears hats. I'm also joined by the big daddy himself, Greg Miller.

Hello, Roger. How you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. Tim Kettys as well as here. Could not be more excited to be here. Finally being unleashed.

Able to talk about Astrobot. I have a lot of thoughts of the spoiler variety. We're going to talk about them today. Are you going to recant and say he's a cute design? I'm not. I am going to once again. repeat that the Mona Lisa doesn't need to be hot for it to be beautiful

and for it to be art. It's disgusting. It's just an interesting way to put it. Astro doesn't need to be fuckable, Barrett. Hey, speak for yourself. What are you saying about Mona Lisa then? You wouldn't... Ah, there my. I'll remember. You know what I mean?

Remember, this is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. If you lovely do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad-free.

Watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be a part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go and please do, because of course it's the Astro Bot Spoiler cast. So if you have any of your favorite bots and your favorite moments, favorite abilities, let us know and we can talk about it. It's a little housekeeping for you. On Friday, September 13th, Organization 13 takes over the kind of funny spare breadwe. room and only one man and his friends

have the keys and friendships to take it back. Mike Ricky, Kyrie, and Sora return for Mike's epic journey into Kingdom Hearts with the start of Kingdom Hearts too. Tune in to the marathon stream starting after Gamescast on Friday exclusively

on Twitch YouTube upload after. Help make Andy share the papau fruit with Mike to steal their friendship, seal their friendship forever. Will Andy even show up to the stream at least for five seconds. I don't believe so. I don't think you'll even put his head and I don't think he wants any part. One of my favorite things that kind of funny,

especially this week, is watching us all stumble over this mic written promo of like just nonsense. Like, what are you trying to say? The worst thing is it's nonsense of nonsense. Like it's Kingdom Hearts through the mind and eyes and words of Snowbike Mike. Okay, let's have the real conversation. Chat GPT. Like, is that what happened? Write me a housekeeping document for for my Snowbike Mike plan. Playing a Kingdom Port Stephen. Right, write this for me. Hey, chat, you can be, do it for me real quick.

Next, you already got Mike and Greg talking about Xbox layoffs on KHD. And right after this, you're gonna get the season two finale of Game Showdown. I can't wait. Are you scared? Are you scared, Tim? No fear at all. What? The only thing I'm scared of is Mario Party shenanigans.

Only one fear. Which I know the two of you have in your pockets. Ah, we don't have anything. Yeah. We don't have anything. I'm not a party guy. I don't have anything wrong. I play pomo party.

and the stream is after this is going to be Mike watching some some Kingdom Hearts one lore I wrote K-H-Lore and I forgot what K-H was happens

happens to everybody No one doesn't Okay If you're a kind of funny member You can get today's Gregway Which is Greg tasting Oreo-flavored Coke For the first time

What type of Coke? To find out What type of Coke? You have to find out Oreo-flavored Coke I was making a drug reference Let's make it a drug Oh

Cut it with some crushed up cookies and cream? You don't know what's what? You're like, is this cream or is this Coke? Think about this right now. Think about if your nostrils were like your asshole and they had the taste buds

kind of thing going on. You know what I mean? Do you remember that they had the taste butts? I don't think your asshole has taste fun. If you taste every time you shit? Like, what's the fun?

Like, when you're trying to get the whole thing that it ingest faster in your butt? Are you kind of like a G-Syspillar? spotting your nose? No, no, no, no, no, no. What happened there is that I just threw myself off, remember? Because what is it? It's when you eat hot foods and your shit.

Are you talking about your balls? Because have you seen the thing where the balls have taste buds? Or like there was a rumor or there was like a, oh, there's a room. So that people were dipping their balls in soy sauce. I did my balls. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. They were dipping their balls in soy sauce because they thought that it would give them like the omami flavor, but it didn't do that. It was just people.

They didn't do that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, like, they would taste umami or like giving somebody else? Yeah, they thought if they thought if they would put their balls into soy sauce they would taste the you mommy I feel like you miss I'm not what was going on this is what that was happening

I think someone was just trying to fuck with you I didn't do this I didn't do this I would never dip my balls into into soy sauce I think this is a sex thing and you thought it was like a scientific thing listen I don't know I'm just I'm just with the kids on TikTok you know what I mean I see the trends I see what's happening I tell Mike that he would do it

right now dim his balls and soy sauce he would do it for the stream you do it for the stream of our company. Thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs, Delaney Twining, and today we're brought to you by Shady Rays and Hymns.

We'll tell you about that later. But it's time with the tots. Tots. Tops to the show. Tots, Tots, Tats, Tats. St. Arashor Bot, spoiler cast, mix in with Blessing and Eyes, Team Asobee visit in Japan. We're going to talk about that in the second half of the show.

And we'll have an interview with Team Asobee head Nicholas Doucet, uh, head of team Asobi, uh, later on in the show as well. Uh, but first, let's start with the Astro Bot Spoiler cast. Everyone here, you've beaten it, of course.

Correct. You've all planted a bit? I have not, no. I have not platinum it. Yeah, yeah. I'm still, same place I was yesterday at the review. Gotcha. I'm at the final level. I can beat it, but last night I switched over to play a review copy of something else. Gotcha. Okay. So we're pretty similar. I finished the game. I did not

platinum it. Um, I have almost all the bots. Uh, do you have, You don't have all the bots. No. I have all the bots. Oh, wow. Okay. I don't have any,

all the bots. You have all the... Yes, yes. There's going to be the one at the end of the level. Do you have all the puzzle pieces? Yeah. Okay, cool.

I don't have that either. Fuck. I'm behind. Wait, so what do you have left to platinum it then? Just the final level. Just the final level. The final level?

Let's a spoiler cast. Yeah. We were full of all in the game. The final level. I am at the final level. I am at the final level. I have made the gold statue. I have gone to the top of the gold.

I've climbed all the way up, and then I talked with this yesterday on the show. I spent like, 30 minutes or whatever being exhausted, just trying to beat it. And I was like, I'm going to put this down and come back to it. Did you get the bots in the safari?

Because there's some bots in the safari. If they're on the count, yes. That's the thing is I don't think they are. Okay. Yeah. Interesting stuff. Let's talk about it. Let's start with,

I think, the biggest spoiler, because when we went to the team of Sobi, they kind of spoiled the game for us. They spoiled a large portion of some of the fun things. I want to talk about exactly how they did this. Yeah. We'll talk about that first really quickly.

We get there, right? And it is, they'll do a presentation for us. And then like we'll, you know, get a little tour of the Timosobi studio. We ask some questions. And then we do like one-on-one interviews with the devs of Astrobot. And at the very beginning of the presentation, you know, Nick, the head of Timosobi, he's like, all right, I'm going to share with you, you know, some things from the development of Astrobot.

I don't want to share with you. You know, the pitch that I gave to PlayStation for the game. All this really cool stuff. And he's like, hey, there's going to be some spoilers here. You know, I'm not going to spoil everything for you, but there are going to be some spoilers here. All right. So here's the end of the game.

And, like, shows the same picture of, like, the ship, like, and all, like, the PlayStation accessories as ships, right? Like, moving toward, like, the final level. And I'm like, oh, that's the biggest spoiler that you can get me right here. And then he goes on, Greg's doing a thing. He then goes on to then show us all of the VIP bots of like the stages that you play at the end of each of the world. Yeah, well, not only that. He was like, okay, well, you know, surprise, like you play as some of the special VIP box.

I was like, okay, cool. And they show us Kratos. I'm like, okay, could have expected that one, right? We've seen, you know, Kratos and it makes sense. And then he's like, okay, loco roco. You know what I mean? He like goes through all of them. I was like, yeah, he's like, here's Kratos.

Here's Horizon. Here's local. And he was like, these are the five. And I was like, oh, all right, so no more surprises for me then. I'm not going to get surprised by any of this. I will say, like, going into it, like, I was, I was, not down, but I was like, oh, man, like, what is there to surprise me? What is there to wow me? There's so much to wow me.

You know what I mean? There was so many things. Yeah, if somebody who obviously wasn't on the trip and didn't get spoiled on these things, did it hamper your enjoyment, bless? I mean, of going through and doing this, because, like, my thing playing it was never, I can't wait to see what the next bot's going to be. I mean, when I got, like, when I got, like, the first Metal Gear bot and I was like, oh, cool, who else is going to be at it, but it wasn't, it hinged on that, I guess. Nor, nor if you were told it. me ahead of time, you're going to do a local, rocca level, would I have been like, I mean, like, I thought it was cool, obviously,

but what I popped for, I feel like in the game wasn't so much the level or the challenge as much as the gameplay. The gameplay always is what got me. For me, it was the VIP bot level at the end of each world. I think I wish I had the experience of discovering the ape escape one that you get first, finishing that and going, oh, that's like the last level? I wonder if it's like that, and then get into the next world and get to that one. And like anticipating, oh, what's the next level going to be that I get to play?

the one thing and even still, right, like, the levels are still fucking cool, like the loco-roco level, getting there and actually playing it, because it's funny, when you get the graphic that it, that they showed us, that was, Credos, uncharted, horizon, loco-roco, I looked at loco-roco and I was like, why the fuck are we wasting a space here?

I popped, I popped in that, and I was definitely like, oh, really? Like, we're doing this, and then I played the level, and I was like, oh, this is the best one of these, actually. Like, they actually knocked this out of the part. But I also, I love, this is like my quick kind of note for the spoiler cast. I love that they picked,

um, what was the first one? Uh, Apiscape and Loco Roco because those were both, um, Japan studio and like a lot of those, uh, or a good amount of those people went over to Timosobi when,

uh, they shut down a Japan studio. So it felt like a, a mix of celebrating PlayStation at large, but then also celebrating this team that has a deep history with PlayStation. Oh yeah. But even with the Loco Roco thing and like having that click in my head, I was like,

fuck yes this is awesome my one thing with it is even within japan studio there's so many cool games and ipes and so i think for me when i saw that i was like i you could have done shadow the colossus because like you know that's japan studio or whatever but i think the i you could very much tell that somebody within timosobi had the idea and they were like yo we can do some cool shit with loco roco and they figured it out and did it and so it ended up being the completely right choice but in the moment of seeing the slide i was like oh that's an interesting one right there I had the experience of that you were talking about wishing having blessed. Once I realized Ape Escape was the end, I'm like, okay, every one of these galaxies, we're going to face a boss, and then we're going to get one of the VIP bots.

Let's fucking go. I knew there was only five worlds. I'm like, unless there's some extra added stuff. And who knows what these type of platformers, maybe there was. So I started like breaking it down. I'm like, okay, we're definitely going to get a horizon. We're definitely going to get a god of war one. And I was like, but after that, like, I'm not so sure.

And I was like, I imagine uncharted. I'm like, but what's that last spot? And when local roco popped up, I was like, I would have never seen this. My first gut reaction was like, oh, fuck, they wasted a spot. Yeah. But then you start the level, I'm like, no, not at all. Like, Astrobot is about fun, creative gameplay mechanics and gimmicks. And that's Locke roco, right?

That's Ape Escape. I feel like so much a lineage of Ape Escape using the dual, not dual sense, the dual shock analog sticks as their main, the main way to play that game. Like, that is the earliest form of what would eventually turn into the entire point of the Astrobot games. So I loved it. This is definitely one of my favorite levels. And I'd go as far as saying that I think the VIP levels are all great

and are all probably like my top five favorite levels. And that's coming from the perspective of somebody that thinks that Astrobot would have been a 10 out of 10 without any of the PlayStation stuff. Sure. I think these are so good that I think this is Astrobots' future. As I think the next game is still a platform, Astrobody, whatever, but I still think the cover is going to be Astrobot dead center

and then the 5, 6, 7, whatever number of Astrobots as the PlayStation mascots that then the game is centered on. You are doing a Last of Us world. You are doing uncharted, whatever. You know, all these PlayStation, iconic PlayStation worlds, you're going in and playing that

because I think that's just so good, let alone the marketing material, let alone the fact that you can do that, we're going to do a shadow of the cross this world. We're going to do this thing. We're going to do a medieval, whatever. We're going to do the games that couldn't be games that stand on their own anymore.

Maybe it isn't the right time, but we'll give you a Jack and Daxter thing here. We'll give you something like Crash Bandicoot here. Patapon. Yeah, why? Patapon. You can get your two

Patapon HDs right now. Go get them. What are you doing? I didn't get an animated show one day. I tend to agree with that too. Like as far as what

Astrobots feature is, you know, I think we're going to have a fun conversation. I think, and I know we're trying to save it before the end of the episode. I do think that like, without the PlayStation stuff,

Astrobat, of course, is still going to be a wonderful game. But I do think the PlayStation connection and the lineage that they're celebrating here is what pushes it to being a, oh, this is something special. This is something that's,

you know, memorable. everybody as opposed to like, you know, the people that would have been there to play an Astrobot, to play a dope-ass platformer. But I think when you talk about what do you do with Astrobot 2, I think this is what is going to give it to the longevity is what Greg's talking about. And I think

I even if you wanted to keep this exact same format, I think there's still plenty of third-party characters and references and stuff that you can make that are on the table, that you can recreate this exact same kind of experience, polish things up, do the my big request would be like do the smash thing of

giving people the historical tidbits of like, oh, this is who this character is and this is when they were introduced. This is what year it was. This is like the platform and all this shit. I want those breakdowns. I want that fan service. There should be a PSP that you go to that has all the characters in it that you can cycle through. 1,000%. And I think that I agree that that is the future of Astrobat. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. And we'll talk about the future of Astrobat a lot more later on in the podcast. But let's go through the VIP bots really quick. Ape Escape, God of War, Uncharted, Locco Roco, and Horizon. Which, out of all those five, which is your favorite is the loco-roco one?

That's what's rough. It's like I legitimately love them all so much because I feel like there was so much care put into making sure they showed the franchise so much love and respect, like top to bottom. Of course the music. I think all the remixes are- The uncharted music was so great, man. And especially like God of War when you first start hearing what they're doing. Admittedly, I'm not familiar with the Ape Escape theme.

So it wasn't like that one hit me. I didn't realize it until the God of War that it was like, oh, they're remixing the themes for this stuff. And I was like, this is incredible. And the beat drop when Grados goes, boy. Like they just, they're so good with the, the instrumentation and just the fun that they have with the music. But even just like the level layout and how each one of the VIP bot sections had some gameplay mechanic or something like the original games do for the secret trophies that you're trying to get, like the uncharted one having to do an uncharted style puzzle and find those things. And get the eggs.

All that stuff is just so so rewarding. And like just like you guys were talking about like what the future is, um, franchise to be like I I hope we can get so much more of this but I just love that they it felt like they didn't leave anything on the table like this is the ultimate god of war ragner rock like love letter and that was the ultimate uncharted love letter for a level um so yeah I I feel like like loco roco is probably my favorite just because it was the biggest surprise and I think it was the most fun to play through um but I feel like in terms of just overall quality um I all of them I think are top tier for me for me it's got a war I think having the ravens there

having, you know, the shrine, having just feel like you were playing such an homage to God of War and Astrobat, this is the one that I was like, damn, this is fucking really good. It feels like the lineage of that game being here, the little things like this. Uncharted, I pop for immediately and I love the music, but it just boiled down to shooting. You know what I mean? Yeah, I was like, okay, this doesn't feel as, I mean, I know what it is and I get it, blah, blah, blah, but like this one felt like, oh, this is Astrobot God of War. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, Locoroko is my favorite one, but I think if I'm talking about one that that will come in second place for me. It is between God of War and Uncharted. And I think the thing that the thing that is special about the God of War level, aside from, you know, having just all the references and like the music and all that stuff is how good throwing the Leviathan axe feels. It feels just as good as it does in 2018, which is crazy because like when we got that mechanic in God of War, we're like, yo, this feels perfect. And you do that mechanic in Astrobot, and it feels perfect. And they absolutely nail, like having the same exact kind of puzzles where

you'll hit a thing to lift the platforms and then throw the Leviathanax to seal it in and freeze it in. and then hop up the platforms, being able to look at the same exact puzzle and design structure of God of War and go, how do we do this beat for beat so that the people who have played this before know exactly what to do and understand that they captured that so well.

On the other hand, I think the thing that brings uncharted probably a little bit above the God of War level for me, shooting that gun is so fun. Yeah. Like, just shooting all the enemies with that gun never. And the fact that it's the uncharted, is the uncharted for like in the attic gun.

That's so cool. It's so cool. And even just like the layout as you go through the level, there's the shipwreck and you see the maps and like just the storytelling of it all. It's just so rad. And also getting with the boss fight. Sir Drake, like the skeleton of him like as the bot.

Like that's such a fun. But I did really appreciate at the end of Horizon having Elizabeth Sochek's body on the couch just like in the game. I was like, that's really fun. That's cool. Yeah. My favorite actually was, I think it's just for the what it means to the Japanese side of a, PlayStation is

Ape Escape, right? Like Apescape was really an exciting one and I was, when they told me that I immediately was, oh, that makes sense. But playing it was like, oh, I didn't expect them to have the little radar where you're finding the bots. And also it just, it works so well for Astrobot in general for the gameplay of

what you're normally playing, right? You are picking up these bots. So it makes sense that you're catching these monkeys. I think my only critique of this level is the, I know they're going above and beyond in general, but the, the whole thing of ape escape is that all of these apes are different, right?

Like, it's the guitar monkey. It's the one that, you know, has the sunglasses. Like, they're just the generic, you know, monkeys. But I would have liked a little bit of something there, but I know that's, they're already going above and beyond in a place. So there's not really much I can, I can say there. But I just, it brought a huge smile to my face the entire time. One thing that brought a major smile on my face was in the uncharted one.

There's a section of it with, like, turtles, like, walking by. And, like, there's, like, a little, like, wood section at some point. and it's like completely just a mimic of a Crash Banticoot level layout with the turtles walking back and forth. I'm like just the naughty dog lineage. Like there's just so much care put into that stuff.

It's really, really, really special and cool. Yeah. And moving away from the VIP bot, just talking just levels in general and also we can bring in some of our favorite abilities. What are some of your favorite levels and abilities in this game?

I can start really quick. I think the shrinking level was fucking blew my mind when you turned into a little mouse. Like that was something when I pressed that trigger. That was not something that showed us during the event at all. It was just a full surprise and I, I gasped. I couldn't believe what they were doing. I was like, okay, this is

going to be a cute little thing though. Fine, it was a cute little moment. And then I started, I started playing. It was like, oh, this feels so good. Like, you are able to become mini, turn big and then mid-air turn mini and then jump onto a platform. It is, that could have been an entire video game and I would have been so happy about it. That completely blew my mind. Yeah, the abilities are so impressive with what they done here and the fact that I think so many of them could be, you could have just done three of these, made the mechanics throughout the game and been happy with it, right, rather than do so many of them that get used to some degree to, you know, not as much as you think they should be or whatever.

My favorite ability was Iron Suit, which is going to do a cannibal form, right, do the Metroid Prime business. Like, I just like that because I felt, you know, playing through it, you know, when you would screw something up or I'd be off on my depth perception and I would get hit and I would die. I was like, God, you know what I mean, or get shot, we get spit on by somebody or whatever. Being able to suck down into the ball right and use that ability against them of them trying to hit me and then bouncing off platforms, roll over spikes, roll through

shots like that, get inside of a, I remember, I think it might have been this one, one of those where I was like, damn, what the fuck do they want me to do? I was like, oh, like that moment of like, aha, oh, right, I can go to the ball and stay there and use it in my, I think I was getting smushed. I was like, oh, that's so brilliant, right, in terms

of just turning out of set. So I liked that, and I liked how much it came back. I liked how you used it for traversal getting shot by volcanoes. That feels so good when you're on the metal. Exactly, yeah. And of course, this brings in, you know, obviously all the dual sense stuff of feeling those haptics and feeling that bounced around and like hearing it rattle in your hand. Like, I really enjoyed this one. Yeah.

Yeah, when the vacuum sucks, like, tries to suck you up and then expose it's so cool. You do for the first time, yeah. Blessing, how about you? I'll say the time slowing down is my favorite ability, right? Like, I think the amount of creative stuff you can do with that to create challenges is really fun. and then also it just looks really cool. Like my favorite was encountering like the card guys in the casino that'll throw the cards at you, like slow them and then yeah jump through them as platforms.

Like again, opens up the door for really cool design. And then also, you know, I think there's a speed run level that has the time slowing too. And like, you know, having it or whatever, is that the one? We're throwing it. Yeah. So they're doing it in a different way. But like, you know, having it so that all the shit is moving super fast and you throw it and then you know you have five seconds or whatever to jump through the platforms.

I think they're able to bring all this together really well to where it looks cool, feels cool, and then serves really good purpose as far as, like, creating interesting challenge. Yeah. And even when they brought it back in the spooky level, I thought that was brilliant with, like, the knives and how fast they're moving, because those knives legitimately like, oh, shit, like, that's scary.

Like, I don't know how I'm going to go past this. And then you pause and, like, oh, I'm going on top of it. Like, yeah, they did a great job bringing that back. There are those mechanics where you could tell that either they were like, ooh, okay, we got this for one level or, oh, we can get mileage out of this. The shrinking thing was so cool. So after that, I was wondering, I was like, are we going to see this again? And we didn't see it again.

And, like, fairly so, because I'm sure that level probably took them probably the most amount of time out of time. But you get to the time slowing and you're like, oh, we got to, we got to like make use of this. Yeah, we got to get the juice out of this because there's a lot you can do. Yeah, I was really impressed with that because I remember seeing it in the trailer. I was like, I wonder if this is going to feel as good as the Psychonauts to, like, time slowing. And it felt even better, which I was really impressed by. And it just, like, brought me back to, again, so many different other 3D platform. games that get creative and weird and they just perfected it.

Tim, how about you? I bring up Mario Galaxy a lot when I'm talking about Astrobot because it's one of my favorite 3D platformers and now so is this. This very much feels like Mario Galaxy 3 and I feel like most of the levels in this that I like the most of the ones that remind me of the feeling of playing Mario Galaxy for the first time. So the slow-mo casino thing, like we've seen casino themed levels of platformers forever. Oh yeah.

But to get a fresh take where it felt fun hearing the music, having the slow down, like the first moment you slow down and the cars like stop, it's very technically impressive. And then when you get into the casino, I just feel like that level plays out in such a brilliantly paced way where so much of the fun so far in the game of Astrobot had

led to that moment of going from like room to room and kind of like dealing with the puzzles. But with the Mario Galaxy stuff, the level Greg was talking about with the little Metro Prime ball in the volcano or like the fire level. Like that reminded me so much

of getting shot out of the like volcano stuff in Mario Galaxy and when he's first flying around that was the most epic a video game was ever in my hands in 2007 or whatever the hell that was and I remember at that point thinking I'll never have this feeling in a video game again

and I did in 2024 with Astrobot like that level was thrilling was so much fun and I feel like using the ability in so many creative ways throughout the level and ending with that big boss fight was just pretty much any of the levels that end in a boss fight I feel like are my favorite ones in this game because like they just it builds to it so well like from a story perspective like

the um the fighting the genie one where it's like you start off and it's like the hour glass of sand and you get into it and it's like god there's so many layers to the storytelling of just what in another game would have just been like background dressing of like level stuff but like and even just the little details right you bring up the genie which is one of my favorite fights but like when you unleash him in the very beginning you run up to the lamp and you've done the thing where you walk and touch the wall so many times to find it yeah and I went by nothing and went by nothing and then you by accident I did like a quick one and it did like I'll rub the lamp it's smart it's it's very very very smart and then I feel like when it comes

to favorite levels like I was saying like the VIP levels for sure the slow-mo level but the final mission I mean I feel like that to me is the final story mission or the I mean that's the problem it's like pretty much all of it it's like I loved the the final challenge level but um just the actual final mission like I don't think it was like the best implemented thing I feel like the motion controls of flying the ship. Not necessarily the most thrilling gameplay. But this is, if you don't mind me jumping on it, it could be with you. This is the one I put down as well. And I felt like it was such a, yeah, nothing in

here is challenging, right? But it was such a, oh man, what a breath of fresh air and what a victory lap. Like, I'm, I can rest kind of thing as I go through and do this and then get this PlayStation lineage thrown in my face that I think so fun. So many moments of this, I fucking loved from a gameplay perspective of when it shifts and you're actually then jumping on to the ships and fighting characters and stuff. Like all that stuff was great, but just simply flying around. Like this was so close to just a Tim Getty's dream of, oh my God, it's Star Fox, but better than ever.

And it wasn't quite that. You know, I feel like if I had a little bit more actual control of flying the ship and there was a bit more challenge, I would have went a long way for me. Things like this absolutely loved. But this level for me, obviously we, I'm sure going to talk more about the details of it. But like it, the portals moment of them hitting the thing, the PlayStation 1 boot up sound and all the ships coming out. Obviously, I'm a sucker for that stuff,

and I'm going to, like, always love that. That's such an easy win for me. But then when they start going, and we got fucking Thunder Force 5 soundtracks hidden up, I could not believe what they're doing. And to this moment, I don't understand how this happened. Like, a Sega game. They're just like, fucking, we know how dope.

This song is, like, one of those legendary, like, video game music meme songs. It's like, it's up there with Dr. Wiley from Mega Man 2 and the moon theme from Dube. knuckles where it's just like a lot of people haven't even played the games but they know the fucking songs because they're so damn good this is a game that it has no tie to playstation like sure thundherst five was on playstation but like the saturn version was the one that everyone like likes so when this shit hit in i was like somebody on this team was like i have an idea and we're

sticking with it i'm like i slacked you guys uh when i was playing this and i was like i'm literally playing the last level through tears it's because the fucking thunder force five song started playing it i'm just like they just care too much, man. This is a thing of beauty. Yeah, no, I didn't recognize the music in the first place, but it was banging, it was banging, you know what I mean? Like, even though we saw, like, the image,

what they showed us was the ship, right? They showed us, like, all of the, you know, the controllers and all the different consoles as ships and you're going towards the black hole or whatever. But still, like, when it all happened, oh, you know what I mean? Like, it all clicked into place. And it wasn't, of course, the wow moment that I would have hoped for

if I, you know, if I didn't get it spoiled, but it was still, like, you know, a wow moment. It was, it's still hit for me. How about you? I mean, the Thunder Force

five choice was definitely, like, I didn't get it in the way that, you know, Tim got it. And so I was like, man, I appreciate how in their bag

they are, right? Of, like, throughout this game, I'm unlocking of characters that I know, but there's also a large handful of characters where I'm like, all right,

who are you? Like, I kind of recognize you, but I don't think I recognize you, and then, you know, like, I'll look online. I'm like, I guess who that's who that's who that is. The Thunder Force Five choice,

I was like, man, they're just in their bag. I'm gonna let them, I'm gonna let them be in their bag, right? I liked the final mission. I thought the final mission was fun. I felt like it was a bit brief, but also like I'm not mad at how brief it was, right? Like I think for as inactive as it was, I thought it was like the right amount of time. Yeah, exactly. And I think, you know, it's a game that is overall, I think brief, but in a well-paced way, right? It's like eight hours if you're gonna like try and, um, mainline it or like play it naturally and not collect every single thing. And so to have a finale that's like, you know,

not taking a fucking hour long or two hours long. I think I've been so conditioned by PlayStation games to expect an ending that's going to be half the game. And so to get there and be like, all right, cool, boom, did that, did that fun boss fight? All right, it's over. Like, I liked it a lot for that. Yeah. I feel like it did just keep going and going in ways that I loved because it ended. And then it's just like, oh, wait, there's a playable credit sequence and like, oh, wait, like, he's dead.

Oh, no, he's back now. And now there's going to be all these, like, challenge levels. I'm like, oh, my God. It was like the most rewarding. Hey, you beat the game. There's more game, motherfucker. Keep having your fun. Astrobot dying was hilarious to me.

That was awesome. I was like, first of all, I was like, you know what? I never looked at my astrobot as being like a unique astrobot, right? Like, I'm like, he just, like, he's a fucking astronaut. When this is happening, I was like, I'm like, oh, so he's astrobot. Yeah. Finally. I'm like, they got to give him like, I don't know.

I mean, like, hair or something. He's got the cape and he's got the blue. He's got the cape, but I'm also like, I just look at him as every other. When he sacrifices himself or like, there was a real part of me, like when he goes into that thing. I'm like, oh, they actually might end it here and there's a post-credit scene of him in this other universe and that's the next game. That's how we get away from PlayStation.

That's what I thought was going to happen. A little let down by him coming back the way he did in all this because I feel like there was a room for some like cool shit that they would do. And another disappointment from my own brain that I put on myself here, but they let me so much hype that I believed in it. When the Thunder Force 5 thing hit, I'm like, oh my God, they were literally doing the perfect song for this type of mission. And like, if they're doing this and they had the little title card come up,

like it's saying Sega like in the bottom left where it's like they want us to know this I was like oh they're setting us up for something bigger after this I thought I really fucking thought by the time we got to the final boss it wasn't gonna be the freaking green alien that no one cares about yeah it's gonna be one of the characters that's been missing this entire freaking game where the fuck are the final fantasy characters oh I thought one wing and angel was gonna play and we're gonna face off against some type of dude I thought you were saying that you were saying that you were saying that you were saying that you were gonna get sucked into Sega World. And the next game he's gonna be on Saturns and Dreamcast and stuff. That'd be pretty sick actually. That'd be fucking awesome. But no, I really thought we were gonna get at the very least one-wing

and angel playing during a boss fight, but... Yeah, what's up with that? What's up with us not getting any final fantasy characters in this game? Yeah, so let's talk about our favorite bots really quick and then we could talk about what we're missing, right? My favorite, of course, is Kiyu. Like, it was awesome to see him and made me excited as hell when he popped up there, but then also the fact that he has a trophy, That's associated in.

You punch him and it's all things from the games. Like, I felt like such a child, like showing to clean. And I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. That's the plates. Those are the plates. Like, every single thing was awesome. So that made my day. I do wish we had a modium in one, but I'll wait for the sequel.

I do appreciate the trophy list giving you reasons to check out that stuff because I would never I would never have like found that out. You said that in the review, right? Of like, you were wondering if platinuming it and working on all the trophies, doing end game stuff would move me from that 9-5 to a solidify a 10. And it did solidify a 10. Because, yeah, again, giving you reasons to do any of this stuff, interact, you know, play with stuff you haven't done before. Just great stuff all around.

Yeah. I was so happy to what you guys are saying about, like, the trophies making you go to this thing. Because I'm not a photo mode guy. I am definitely not a like, let's go look at these fucking little guys type of dude, like, at all. Let's go look at these little guys. And I'm so happy they made me because like that stuff was so, there's so much even more love and care put into every little, you hit the bot and they do something. And I want, I walked around to every single one just to see what they would end up doing. and my God, I was so impressed.

And when you move the camera and it like gets close and there's like this crazy depth effect that they add, I'm like this entire hub world just hanging out with the little dudes is like way more fun than I expect. Oh yeah. Like they really did something awesome. At first I was definitely like kind of on the fence, not on the fence because I like the hub world, but it's not like I was in love with the hub world, right? It was one of those things where all right, I'm back here so I can unlock the new galaxy. All right, cool.

It's a means to an end, right? I'm here to do this thing to get the next thing. And then, yeah, once I finish. everything and I was just going for the trophies and I was interacting with everything and I was like learning, you know, how all the different characters have their own animations. And if you punch everybody, like, they're going to do something unique and I punched the dog from humanity and it followed me everywhere. I was like, this is fucking great. Like I can't believe how much like effort and TLC they put into actually making this hub world feel worthwhile to explore and be in. If I'm talking about my favorite bots, like Teddy, uh, from Persona 4 for sure. Like, I popped. That was when I saw that, it was at the beginning of a challenge level. And I was like, oh, shit. You know, I really got to get this guy. Yeah. Yeah. I was very excited. about that one. The way I think I found I guess first and I was and then it was Teddy and then it was Joker. I was like, holy shit. I love

that because I assumed that they would have only done one and seeing all three of their animations when they're hit is so fun. Teddy falling into the TV. So cool. I guess getting into her like overpowered mode and then she gets like burnt out and shit. Very cute. And then I'm a huge team eco fan right. Like

Eco, Shadow Colossus and Las Guardian are all games that I hold near and dear and finding all those bots. So cool. And having like the costumes available to be able to dress up as the main characters from either eco or shadow colossus was super dope and then also shout out to one i didn't recognize until i looked at the igon uh page that lists all the bots and where they're from so bad guy from guilty gear yeah dude which is like yeah such a oh you guys are in your bag here like i would not expect this character to have made it as a bot in this game and he looks fucking cool as an astrobot i wish i could

play as him honestly i'm like man i want to play as this guy yeah how about you guys uh for me i put Psychomantis. Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm just such a Metal Gear Gear Solid won so much. It wasn't like surprise. I guess maybe it was surprising to a degree, right?

Like you, I know we're getting only a limited number of everybody. Who are you going to get? The pop Psycho Mantis is just going to be so goddamn cute. And then have him be above the TV and the little PlayStation. Kajima, you know, put it out. I put a link in the DACA or whatever of the photo

Kajima put out of him yesterday. It's like such a great celebration of Metal Gear Solid, let alone that character, let alone this moment, right? Just how good it is. I was like, you know, this is such a definitive memory for me and obviously so many Metal Gear fans

like I love to see him and then for Metal Gear they're missing like pause with like a bomb oh of course Checo with the thing drilled into his chest one uh you know how about you Tim? Oh man I put so many down so many down I was like I can't just choose I can't choose one yeah I got him here

because I want to give him a shout to Raziel who I the Soul Reaver all right cool um I have not played these games one day maybe Tam's dream will come true and he'll be back but what I do know is Mega Man Zero or Zero from Mega Man X and this guy right here

When I was in sixth grade You couldn't stop me from drawing these things In social studies class every goddamn day No one's ever looked cooler than this guy Yes So seeing him all's like Whoa, that is awesome Little Devil

One I did not expect And I feel like this was one of my favorite gameplay Bought moments in the game Little Devils from a game called Devil Dice On PlayStation 1 A puzzle game that Kevin's cousin was obsessed with And because of that, we became obsessed with it. And when you get him in the casino level,

this is a recreation of devil dice. So finding him there, I was like, that is so freaking sick. Of course, I got to give a shout to my boy, Crash, doing the whole the crash dance, him being with Aku Aoku in the mask, and then also Jack and Daxter next to each other in the hub of my, I love you guys.

This just feels great. Riu and Ken, not shocking they're here, because Capcom really likes to play nice, but it was fun to see. both of them. I love their animations together. And when you punch them, they do the fist bump and then the

like the Nuggy thing that is their like custom animation when you're playing Street Fighter. I'm just like, God. The love and care put into this is so cool. Then you see the whole little fight scene, which is great. The one I pop the most for the pro skater. Are you kidding? That's fun.

Of course it's not Tony Hawk, but they knew what they were doing there. So that was really, really cool to see. Do you think they had to like get any rights for this? It's just a pro skater. There's been so many skateboarding games. What do you mean? But what's fun is like, then they had the snowboarder.

There was from cool borders. Like they really like tried to drive home like what they're trying to try to do. A couple more I want to shout out is RICO from a Ridge Racer. She's always, she's kind of like the mascot. She's one that's always on the covers of the games. And I was a big fan of Ridge Racer on PSP specifically. So seeing this got the big pop for me. And then getting just fucking real.

with these next two. My boys, Saminosuke and Dante. Dante, a little bit more like, okay, he's popular. Yeah,

you know, he's featured in some video games here and there. But his animation's so good where he's like actually juggling the little harlequin or whatever the fuck those things are called.

What are they called? Jester? The mannequin, it's like a jester mannequin. I don't fucking know. Harlequin, I think makes him. Okay, cool.

Well, he's shooting them just like he does in the game and I love that. But Saminoske from Animusha, the off-forgotten OG. And I couldn't find a video of his little animation, but it is so good. It's him using his little like wrist thing to suck in the souls of everybody. And they're all coming in. I'm like, goddamn, Anemusha lives somehow. And then the final two, I want to give a shout out.

The Pomeranian from Tokyo Jungle. You all see this little fucker? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess I just didn't associate that with Tokyo. It's with Tokyo Jungle, baby. I love that Tokyo Jungle has such lineage with PlayStation. too. They care so much about this. This little like angry Pomeranian. I've been the final one, flower. I've always been a sucker for flour. Wait, really? Oh yeah.

I didn't know you're a big flower fan. Big flower guy. It was the first one I thought of when I got the flower here. I would never expect that. That's hilarious. I don't know you care about the environment like that. Oh, dude. That game is special, man.

And then then leading into a journey, like makes a lot of sense. But flower is my game. So seeing this, I was like, this is great. One of the ones I like to are the Dark Soul character. I didn't know if it was Dark Soul or Demon Souls. Demon Souls, thank you. Because when you, I forget if you have to punch them to do this or if they just do this

naturally, but like you can get them to roll around. And it's like a heavy roll and I'm like, oh, this is cool. And also, of course, the Blubber Hunter as well is really cool. Bandura S.N says Kana was probably my favorite. I was going to shout out of that. That's awesome. One really quick that I want to give a last shout out to is the Sony Ibo, which is the little robot dogs that they have in the Hubworld,

which Lanzas is obsessed with. Like she looks at me every month She's like $2,000 but like it's cheaper than having a dog Like you know what I mean like we should get one of these things And then when it popped up both of them like the original version and the newer version in the hub world That was a huge huge moment in the in the pecorny household But we're going to be talking a lot more about AstroBot We're going to be talking about our events going to Timosobi

And answering your super chats in the future of Astrobot But before that we're going to tell you a little bit about our sponsors This episode is brought to you by Shady Rays. Get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends over at Shady Rays have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank. Shady Rays is an independent sunglasses company that offers an unrivaled product that's just as good as any expensive fare that we've worn. Durable frames and world-class optics for all outdoor adventures. With an extensive array of styles and colors, you're bound to find the perfect pair of Shady Ray sunglasses.

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Restrictions, details, and important safety information. Subscription required. Price varies based on product and subscription plan. And we are back. Blessing and I went to Japan and we went to Team of Sobi, everybody. We didn't just go. There we go. We didn't just go for Kojima.

We want to go with the Team of Sov. Primarily to PlayStation. Yeah, primarily to PlayStation to. see a little bit about the behind the scenes of Astrobat, how they made it. And it was a really interesting event. Blessing, you want to talk a little bit about it? Yeah, it was really cool. So like I mentioned earlier, right? We went, you know, the Timosobi is located within, like, the Sony, like, headquarters in Tokyo. And so we got there, went to, like, a meeting room where, like, they gave us the presentation, where they talked

about the pitch that they gave PlayStation to, like, for the game, for Astrobot, which is really and then they talked a bit about like all their core pillars of what makes Astrobot Astrobot, the four pillars being, crafted gameplay, techno magic, PlayStation Fiesta, and overflowing charm. And then they went deep into like these things. I'm not going to break down the entire PowerPoint because of the time. But it was really cool though to show like they stress this like, hey, this is pretty much the exact presentation that we showed to PlayStation that got this game approved. We did, they said of course, they removed some of the budgets and everything like that. But this is pretty much it.

So they gave us the walk through. I thought that was an interesting and kind of in really impressive presentation just because they had the release date at the ending and the release date was September 2024. And this was three and a half years ago. This game only had a three and a half year development. 65 people working at that studio.

And it's, I think it was a breadth of fresh air kind of hearing about their studio structure and how they work because it sounded so creative, sounded very much like a, oh, you are what we need right now as far as like a studio, especially a studio about PlayStation that I think stands in a unique space compared to what we look at as like the big PlayStation Studios. Sure. Because when we talk about PlayStation Studios, we're talking about naughty dog. We're talking about sucker punch. We're talking about, and sucker punch, you know, not as big of studios than naughty dog, right? Or like a Sony Santa Monica.

But we associate a lot of these studios with huge budget, long development time, big old games that, you know, are going to be about the narrative and action or whatever. And we love these games. But it was really cool to hear them. set us down and walk us through hey we want to make stuff that's family friendly we want to make stuff that like works for us as a 65 person development studio not to spoil the interview we did with Nicholas Doucette but like one of the things he mentioned was that

I think Roger might have asked about like expanding studio size like do you guys play and like where do you guys see yourself as far as bringing on new people expanding your size to something bigger whatever and one of the answers I thought was very interesting was Nicholas saying that if we were to let's say double our studio size

we would be making more games. We don't want to expand the size of our games. We want to keep the size of our games. But yeah, like make that a thing, right? We wouldn't do that consistently. And so I thought that was really cool to hear them talk about. But yeah, like, you know, Astrobot, I think,

lives up to a lot of what they talk about, right? Like, again, going through those four bullet points, the one that, like, stood out to me and the one that I'm so fascinated when we get to the conversation about the feature is the PlayStation Fiesta bullet point. Because, you know, they timed it for September.

2024 because it lines up with the 30th anniversary of PlayStation and so that gave them a good opportunity to go, hey, let's look at the heritage, let's look at the legacy of PlayStation and highlight all these franchises in the way that we did in Astros Playroom, but do it in a full-fledged game that has a full, that you know, is

eight to, I forget, I don't think they said eight hours, and I'll say eight hours. No, they said 12 to 15. 12 to 15. It's the normal development thing. Yeah, if you're taking your time. I mean, it took these 16 hours to platinum, so we'll give We'll give them that. But yeah, like in a full game.

And, you know, they did that along with, you know, highlighting, again, the techno magic, which is essentially the idea of taking the PlayStation hardware and making it feel like something cool and worthwhile, right, doing really cool things with the dual sense, which is how you get things like all the haptic feedback and a lot of the details within that. You know, it's how you get, you know, what they're doing with, like, the fidelity of the game, but then also like highlighting PlayStation hardware within the game. Like they talk a lot about that. Right now if you're watching the video version,

Bear has pulled up like some of the slides they're showing us that were like showing off like the, again, original pitch, which had like a lot of the art already done and laid out, which is really cool. And you can see the characters. You can see like, you know, somewhere they're talking about as far as highlighting those PlayStation characters. Yeah, no, absolutely.

It was also interesting because after this, they sat us down for more focused PowerPoints, talking about the way that they do haptics and just walking us through how they build a boss and how they build levels and how fast they're able to do it. The interesting thing about the way that they've built the studio is that everyone contributes to ideas. They made sure to say that. They made sure to express that. They had a massive wall full of post-it notes with all of their little scribbles and potential ideas for abilities. But yeah, everybody from QA testers to all the way up to the head of the studio pitches ideas, you know, once every two weeks. They sat down together and they came up

with these big ideas. Oh, and you got the sticky notes too in the video. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, which is cool. Like, walking by this and seeing all the ideas just on the wall. You say the big ideas, but these are ideas big and small. These are like enemies. These are mechanics.

These are levels. Everything. The pink looked like it was the topic. So there was like levels, abilities, whatever. Yeah, they didn't want us to go too close into it. So I tried to stay away. But yeah, no, we saw a bunch of different things going on there. They walked us, one of the ones they walked us through where, like, the monkey

hands, like the monkey that gets strapped to your back that like, you know, has the big hands that you can take things and throw them with. And that, you know, start off as a post-it-note, like, all their ideas, right? And, like, somebody writes it down. They, you know, sit down as a group, talk it through, walk it through, like, you know, make a prototype within the game. And they showed us, like, the very basic version of it, which I forget if it was even a monkey at first or if they just had, like, a little robot guy.

Yeah, so they went through multiple versions of that one specifically. They said they did the great thing where they walked through all the different versions and what the problems that they were trying to solve avoiding a monkey. They're like, oh, it's boring. Let's try some this, let's try this. And they're just like, it's a monkey. Yeah, that's the easiest way to think. Yeah, they're like, ah, monkey on the back is too, it's too literal.

Like, it's too, like, that's the easy thing. What else can we do with this? And then it just came back to, hey, sometimes, you know, straightforward is the right answer. And so we ended up back on the monkey as the thing. And it always struck me of how scrappy this team is, right? Like, and how small it is. The wild thing, when they were, when they were showing the animations and just talking about how, you know, this is a big, a big Mario-like video game, right?

You have to, everything you touch and interact with has to move, has to have some type of animation. And I raise my hand, I'm like, how many animators do you have on this team? They said eight. Eight people, eight animators doing everything. That's including all of those bots, doing all their specific animations. That's eight people. It's really impressive how fast they're able to work, and it's seemingly, they're able to be creative, and they're also able to release a game within three and a half years, which is magical in the AAA space.

We can call them that shot, too, September 20, 24, no, and then hitting it, and then it being this good. Like, hell, yeah. So damn impressive. No, it's absolutely incredible. Do you have anything else you want to say about the event before we go into the interview? No, I think it's just that it was like, again, once again, very refreshing being there and like hearing how they talk about the way that they've crafted the studio culture. And like, you know, they have a very diverse team as well. Like, that was one of the things that you notice when you go to the studio that's located in Tokyo and you walk in and there's people from all sorts of different backgrounds.

And that's something that Nicholas talked about as well, like, you know, wanting to, like, you know, have a, we're a studio that is worldwide. And so we're wanting to, like, be able to appeal to that and have people that represent the world. and so I thought that was really cool as well but yeah like I look at this studio and it is like a this is the most Nintendo studio you have at PlayStation just based on all the conversations based on how they talked about the games

and I was like dude I'm they've shot up at two being one of like my favorite studios maybe not just at PlayStation X tier period yeah like they've hit that as far as oh you guys have something here like you found a like not just a niche but you

you found something special within like the organization of PlayStation that you're bringing to the table and yeah like people you're seeing how people are reacting to astromat. A weird little thing jumping off of that that I think is so important is that it's, I say easy, it's very difficult, but it's easy to just have references and have cameos and like, oh, there's Mario Galaxy type influences and it reminds us of the platforming or the gimmicks and the changes and abilities and all this stuff feels good. But it's the little things about platformers that for me really like to,

this over the top where every level ending with the opportunity for like a bonus when you do like the launch where you can like hit the thing. That little bit of extra fun that you get. That reminds me so much of the old school 2D days of platform games and having

the hub world be fun and have its own secrets and its own bots to get and own challenges and the interactive credits. Even having a thank you for playing screen. I just feel like there's so many little things that like the people that made this game love video games. That's so clear.

Starting, I mean, starting each level with like the flight onto the, onto the thing. And sometimes it can get a collectible. Sometimes you can get like, sometimes you crash land. Sometimes you don't. Yeah, exactly. Levels having secret exits. I mean, that comes back to the bullet point of crafted gameplay. And under that, right, like they talk about wanting to have simple rich controls.

That's why there's only like three buttons in this game. It is jump. It is punch. And then there's like whatever special ability you can get. They talk about having memorable level design, right? Like the desert level was the example they gave of this is being structured like an hourglass. here, right? They wanted each level to be an adventure.

And so under that, they talk about having every level having a unique theme, a unique gameplay, a big wow moment, crafted tempo, meaning they want people moment to moment, like have something exciting that they're doing, lots of secrets, and then every level is structured to be around 10 minutes of game, of play time, right, with the exception of the challenge

levels, of course. But like, that is their, that was their rubric, that was kind of their Bible going into it. And like, it worked. It worked. Right. There's something that, there's something about that formula that absolutely knocks it out of the part. Yeah, and I was really impressed when they showed off the, we sat down with a gameplay, someone on the gameplay team who was showing how they actually build the levels in real time.

So they're able to move around things and play those levels immediately. So they're moving fast. They created a new engine or I don't know if it was unfolding new engine or if it was like an off branch of what they've created, but they basically said that going from Playroom to Astrobot, they redid the engine. Like it's different. It is leaner, it's meaner. It is from the ground up different.

So they were able to make those. iterations really fast. And even when they were doing the boss fights, right? The way that they would do it is they would have a programmer and an animator and they would just kind of go off and just like two to three people just make an entire prototype. And those prototypes look very, very similar to what we have at the ending of the game, which is, which is incredible. I am blown away by the boss fights in the game. Every single one is just so inventive and fun and the every phase being so unique and different. And I've said this a lot about Astrobot in terms of just the normal levels, but the boss things I think are, it's even, it's, even extra true. You always know exactly what the game's asking you to do, even if it's asking you to do it for the very first time. You always know exactly where the target is. Visual language is great. Yes. And sometimes it is just a big flashing red thing.

But the big flashing red thing might be hit by an ability in a way that you've never done yet. But it's very clear what you're doing. The music is thrilling and it gets your blood pumping. The octopus fight. That level, the entire level, where it starts off, you have the frog punching,

hands, which that is probably an example of they had a different animal. And they're like, I guess we'll be going to frog eventually. But when you start that off and it's Spider-Man-esque, where you're like swinging from the little sticky like rollers, like the cranes or whatever the hell, it's like, man, this is so sick. And ending with that boss fight that is so much fun, this was what I actually played at Summer Game Fest. And so for anybody that was like, wow, Tim was so high on Astro after Summer Game Fest.

Why? It's because I played that level. Like the way that that boss fight just continues to get more and more interesting. And then when the C splits and you're kind of in like a platform thing with the giant wave coming at you, I'm like, holy crap, this is the second boss in this game. Like what do we have? There's a lot that they had left. But that to me is one of my favorite moments in video games of the year. Well, we'll talk a lot more about Astro and answer your super chat in a little bit.

But right now we're going to head over and do a little interview with Nico that Bless and I filmed. See you guys in a bit. Yeah, what's up? Well, we're here in Tokyo. It is me. It is Roger Bricorny. And we're here with the head of Team of Sobi, Nico, aka Nicholas Doucette. How's it going, Nico? Very well. Thank you. Thank you for coming all the way. Yeah. To beautiful Japan. Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. And also thank you so much for showing us so much of the game. We're looking forward to Astrobot. As in the time, people are watching and listening to this. Astrobot should be here. And we have a lot of questions about it. Starting off with what's it been like seeing the ascent for Astrobot over the years? It's been really exciting.

We've always been very hopeful that Astro would kind of pick up some popularity. But of course, with every game, we also want to be very innovative and fresh. So there's always a bit of a reboot for us also to kind of think new ideas. But it seems like people are expecting it. And it makes us both very excited and nervous too. you know, in a good way? What did you feel, how did you feel when the initial announcement for the game happened, right?

Like, the internet was ablaze. Everyone was hoping that this would happen after they played a playroom, and then it finally happened. Was it heartwarming? Was it expected? What did you feel? So we, you know, we had, you know,

we thought, you know, the trailer would kind of make people happy, but not to that degree. We didn't expect it was going to be like so crazy. It was at the end of the, you know, set of fly, I remember. And especially, I think he also, you know, showed that actually, you know, like people craved for colorful games, you know, and, you know,

it's been 30 years, you know, of PlayStation history, and maybe there is like a beautiful, so a generation, you know, like where people that used to play these kind of colorful games when they were teenagers playing at PS1. Now, maybe parents and, you know, kind of also still appreciate that, those games, but also enjoy them with their kids. So, you know, there's, there might be a good connection there. Yeah. I think, you know, pointing out that a lot of people play these games when their teenagers, maybe during the PS1 era, I think is a very interesting thing because I think you know, Astrobot, I see it and it is a colorful, family-friendly 3D platformer. And these are games that I feel like as we go have gone, become a bit more few and far between. Obviously,

we see Nintendo still is still putting out a lot of Mario. You know, Ratchet and Clank is still out there and is very active. But I feel like we get a lot less of these games nowadays. As you've been making Astrobot, is that a thing that comes to mind? And also, why do you think that? is. So yes, I agree with you. It's also a genre that I think we thought is, you know, has opportunities. As we made it, yes, we thought about it because we tend to try and with Tim Asobi, we want to make games where we feel like, you know, there is a gap or a space, you know, we're not really the kind of team who are going to go into a very crowded space, you know, with the confidence that we can, you know, you know, instead we're going to be thinking, okay, how can we be different, you know,

how can we bring something that maybe hasn't been done before or can be different? And that really felt like in 2024 to really say, you know, full-on 3D platformer for PlayStation felt like a new thing. And that's good, right? And then the rest of your question was, the second question was? Oh, essentially, you know, I guess how is making Astrobot as a 3D platformer? Like, I guess in this environment, how does that inform Astrobot? Are you thinking about the fact that there's not as many 3D platformers out there?

Or are you just focused on making Astrobat the game that it is? No, we're just focused, you know, we're usually in online. We're just thinking about, you know, what's the best way? What are the things that are important, regardless of, you know, all the games or other comparisons? What's unique about PlayStation 2? Because PlayStation 2. Because, you know, like, of course, it's a, you know, high-spec machine. And so when you make this kind of games, what does it mean?

So for example, for us, it means like playing with physics a lot. You know, we can throw a lot of physics and physics are kind of fun toys. So of course he means up in the graphics and stuff, but also the dual sense. And of course, the history of, you know, the 30 years, you know, history of characters. So it's like, you know, we really have to tailor this game to today, you know, for PlayStation 5, you know. So it's not, of course, you know, a rehash, I think, of what would have been done on PS1 or PS2. Things have changed, codes have changed. And then play habits, you know, have.

changed to. So for us it's really about kind of reconstructing this, the vibe of these games, but, you know, with two days kind of standards. One thing I want to ask during your awesome presentation with you and the team, you mentioned very briefly, and then you kind of corrected, you said, mascot, and he said, no, it's not really a mascot. What do you see Astroaz? Because I think a lot of the media and a lot of people that play it see it as a mascot of PlayStation. Do you see it that way? Was it created that way? So yeah, so the reason I corrected myself is because actually it's not something that we should decide, I think, I feel. It's something that I think over time should grow organically and, you know, it's like when people feel connected to that character, at that point, he becomes a mascot.

I don't think you can design and plan something that would become a mascot. I think, of course, we have hopes that he becomes at least first a famous, well-regarded PlayStation characters, you know, next to some of the amazing other series that, you know, that PlayStation is famous for. That would be already an amazing achievement. If on top of that, you know, the association with the hardware and the fact it's also all ages can give it like a broader appeal, of course we'd be super happy. But we have to sort of be humbled about it, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And you said that when you were doing the presentation, we're talking about 30 years of PlayStation, and that's kind of the connection here with all these amazing PlayStation properties within Astrobot and some third parties as well.

Does Astrobot live separately from PlayStation? Like, is there a future where it's just Astrobot and there is no PlayStation characters, or is that intrinsically connected to Astrobot in his future? Okay, that's a really interesting question. So actually, we asked ourselves the same question making the game, and we had the debate internally. We were thinking, okay, we can't be relying on this. We have to, you know, spread our own wings.

And the reason we added this layer, it was because he felt like, okay, but if we don't do it, actually, we have the chance to do it even in a different way, you know, celebrate the history in a different way, and to make people happy, so we should grasp that chance. Having said that, to answer your question, should we play that card every time? I don't think so. I think it should be if it makes sense

and there is something new to say and it's really worthwhile, then yes, but if it feels like it becomes a security, a safety net, then at that point, I think, you know, it's not good. So I think, you know, and to be honest, the game, the core of the game, was made without a PlayStation layer on top. You know, the power-ups, the levels, the bosses,

the collection mechanics, all of that can work by itself. So I think it's okay to imagine either. But no matter what we do, we have to be innovative and we have to be fresh. So that will kind of decide where we take it next. But I can totally imagine a world where Astero really is all about Astro. In the same topic, what has it been like working with other PlayStation Studios? You're going in, you're borrowing their IP,

you're applying the Astrobot touch to it. And I'm fascinated by the response from other studios during your presentation. You mentioned that Sony Santa Monica was very into it, and they were very passionate about it, and the things you're able to do with that, right? I almost envision it like going into a friend's toy box and playing with their toys a little bit.

Has it been different working with different PlayStation studios? How has that experience gone? I think, you know, across, Across the board, I think it's been actually similar to the Santa Monica studio experience, whereby people were really, really supportive. Of course, different teams or publishers have different points that they care about, but it's never been a case of being overly sensitive about using their characters. It's been more a case of, oh, yeah, sure.

And if you use this character, then actually one important point is this attachment or this detail you know that you know should be portrayed properly or respected but there's been no kind of there's no shortage of just like support and enjoy and I think it's I think it's it really speaks about this company and I'm not being you know by saying that I don't mean to be like it's really genuinely like people I look at for each other and have a positive kind of similar mind moving forward and it's like and I think but you know the same thing now should be said the other way around. If such, you know, other teams approach us to use Astral, we would show the same support and allow them to do that because it's only natural, right? No, that's interesting

because my first, my brain goes to like the producer mind where it's like, oh, you're introducing so many cooks in the kitchen, right? Like, does that become messy? But it doesn't seem like that was the issue. No, because there was trust. Yeah. Right. But the moment, you know, if there were several cooks in the kitchen, then it would become complicated. But because there was that trust that we will respect it and do it properly from the get-go, then it was much easier to deal with. But it's also on us to make sure that we capture that very early. So whenever we show a concept, you know, the first thing that we show has to be feeling, you know, the IP owners with trust.

So with the PlayStation Studios, it's easier because we're all colleagues. But when we go outside to, you know, third-party publishers, we have a long relationship, but still, you know, there are some things that we have to be really cautious and, to get right, right? So which is why as players, we have to know those IPs really well. We have to know the history. We have to know what their fans liked about their IPs. So we had to do some research and to really kind of get under the skin of these games.

And then more often than no, I mean, almost all the time when we presented concept, especially the gags, because that's where you get tricky, right? You have like some dramatic IPs and we're like, well, we're going to make fun of it. You know, they were very open to it and he worked out. What's it been like as a PlayStation studio based in Japan where I feel a lot of of PlayStation's game development has centered down on the West when we think of like the big ones especially like Nottie Dog or Sony Santa Monica, right? A lot of that is either California or based in either America or Europe.

For Tima Sobi being based in Japan, does that affect your development culture or does that separate you out from any other PlayStation studios? Like what are your thoughts on that? You know, especially I think in NaviSati, respect, you know, the COVID and fact that actually everybody adopted a remote way of working made it easier for a studio based on an island, effectively, to connect. In fact, I've been talking to the other studios more in the recent years than before. And I think it tells the story before you expected to be physically meeting, right?

Even though we had the means to, you know, call each other, you know, you'd have to meet physically to really exchange. Today, you can do that, you know, more easily. I think, so, you know, the distance doesn't really feel like, you know, a problem, you know, anymore anyway. Yeah, I want to ask about talking about development of your game. I was so impressed with how fast you were able to build Playroom and then now go into Astrobot three half and a half years or about so. Like, how do you build such a creative vibe with your team but then also create the infrastructure to actually produce a project? and you showed the last slide, which I was blown away by.

It was September 2024, and you actually were able to make that happen. Knock on wood, of course, but that's really exciting. So how were you able to build that and build that infrastructure? You're a producer? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can tell. Okay, so I think the first year is really, really important because that's the one where you want to put all your difficult problems behind you, right?

So the prototyping is really, really key. By the time we go to these pitches, you know, we have enough of the prototype. so that the confidence that the hard stuff is worked out is okay. Because the production issues, they've existed for ever since we made video games, right? But the creative ones, these ones can be new, right? Really brand new. So these are the ones we go to crack early, or for example, like building the team,

or building an engine, these kind of things can really like slow you down later on. So these have to be tackled with very early. I think the first year where we really get a creativity out, you know, in a fast fashion, you know using this kind of rapid prototyping was really really important and then after that you know it's just keeping keeping that pace and to your point about holding dates it's also like you know when we polish games it's never enough time right you know I mean honestly like you know you could continue over and over and over again I think so I think having a polish time that is like really

long to the point that even feels like it's too long it's probably right because by the time you need that time you get there you will use up all that time anyway right so I think it's project management you know so like but one one thing that's also important to mention is because the game is modular we've been able to just like cut or cloth to really be just right so there were some levels that felt like they they didn't really add anything more they were like a repeat of something else in terms of the experience they felt like well you know if we have this level and that level the user experience doesn't really get better so you can drop that and that time you get back is really useful because you can inject it

into whatever else you want. So that's one advantage of working on a very kind of gameplay-centric game where everything is modular. When you have a story and everything is recorded and you have a lot of dependency with actors and things like that, you don't have the same flexibility. So that's one of the lucky parts about the kind of games we make, I think.

One of the things that really impressed me was when you mentioned that Team Sobe is made up of about 65 people working here. And coming off with Roger You guys are putting out games at a pretty decent pace and going from Astros Playroom in 2020 and now this game coming out September 2024. How are you able to maintain that? And also, how do you see the future of Team of Sobi going? Do you guys expect to grow by a lot?

Do you guys also expect to stick with Astrobot as the main franchise? I don't know there's only so much you can say, but, you know, what are your thoughts on that? Sticking with the only doesn't have to. That we continue and Astro has a future. and it's a franchise, yes. But I think they should be, you know, given the chance we should also be doing other things on the side because it's healthy.

In terms of, would it be, if we were to grow, I think the game size would not get bigger. And if we were, for example, like very, very, you know, simply, let's say if you were to double the team today, then we'd be making two games or maybe two and a half in parallel. That would seem to me like a better use rather than doubling up the size of one game.

You know, really 12 to 15 hours, enough. Right? Right? How many games do we have that we can't finish? I mean, I've got a pile of it. So I think we're going to get to that point where we're feeling that actually we're going to get a confidence that, yeah, 12 to 50 hours is okay and it's actually, if it's really, really

high quality and dense and it's like, you know, really like juicy, then it's fine, right? I love that, Nick. I love that. Nico, thank you so much for this interview. You appreciate it. Yep, congratulations on the launch of Astroba. We're looking forward to it. Back to you.

Awesome. And we are back. Great interview, guys. Thank you. Thank you. That was a lot of fun. I like you answer the question. I like that he called you.

You were producer, aren't you? Yeah. I'm happy. I mean, happy. I know that was a great time and it was great sitting down with Nico. And really quick, just I know we talked about it a little bit, but just watch about the future of Astrobot, right?

Like, what is the future of Astrobot? Of course, he alludes to the potentiality of maybe they don't focus on PlayStation as much if it feels like a crutch in the future. After finishing this game, after playing this game, I'm like, no. The Astrobot is firmly in the PlayStation. house and family and is going to at least reference PlayStation a little

bit in every single one of their games. But what do you see the future of Astro in the future? Do you think that is there a world where Astro will not be connected to PlayStation one day or is this just always going to be the same thing? We're going to say Astro, we're going to say PlayStation in the same sentence. I think he's connected the entire time, right? Even if you were to, I mean, I think

you could stand on his own as a platformer for sure. And again, if you continue to give him love and make great games, that's going to happen. But even still, you'd have the are always going to have the PlayStation sacred symbols on him, right? Like, I connect that enough to be in PlayStation. I think the ship is, or whatever he's doing, is always going to be a console or something. That's always going to be there.

It doesn't have to be the overt. You're saving the bots dressed as in the Bloodborn character. You know what I mean? You don't need that necessarily, but I still think that DNA is there. You do. I think it's PlayStation forever, and I think that that's the right move. Like, I'm not even joking. It's like the PlayStation stuff stands out.

The rest of the designs do not. So they know that. They're going to continue it. I feel like people love the PlayStation stuff for good reason. I love how well this represents PlayStation. Where's PlayStation's weird. Its history is very weird. There's a lot of games that don't make sense and licensing gets in the way and all that stuff.

And you could tell they're trying their best to represent as much as they can. I think they're going to continue to do that. What excites me about the future of Astroba is I feel like we're already in it. Like I don't think that we need to wait for a sequel. Like this game is going to get DLC. We already know that. What does that look like? That excites me.

The things that weren't in this game. We didn't get Ghost of Sushma. We didn't get. Final Fantasy. We didn't get a lot of different things. We didn't get Last of Us. We didn't get Spider-Man. All those things, different challenges, different obstacles for them to figure out whether

it's licensing or gameplay or otherwise. Put those guys on the cover of the next Astrobat. But that's it, right? It's like I feel like that that is very, very exciting. But to me, I hope that we get DLC, obviously we're getting the speed runs and all that stuff. I hope we get another world. Like I hope we get another VIP bot.

Like that's dreaming, but I think that they could pull it off. But what the dream. the dream for me would be for Astrobot 2, whatever they end up calling it, to have a Smash Brothers-like rollout plan where the announcements are over a year announcing different VIP bots and getting us excited and having it be like a Sakurai type deep dive into the history of that franchise or something in a YouTube video ending in announcing who the next one is and like building that hype like PlayStation has an opportunity to have a marketing hype cycle that every state of play is announcing a new

VIP bot for the next game. That could be so damn cool. Lots of people are telling you that gin was in the game. I miss the ghost of the VIP. I was hung up on Spider-Man. I know, I know. I just want to make sure we can clarify.

I'm in a VIP level, like actually playing through with all the... Again, like, same thing with like, I was talking about like a last of us, right? I'm like giving you that thing to go. Totally. I think 1,000% of the feature of Astrobot is doing this, what they're doing, right?

The PlayStation crosovers and stuff. And honestly, I can't wait for it, right? Like, Tim mentioned, there's stuff still left on the table. that I think you can do really cool things with. I would love a Shadow Colossus level. I would love a Ghost of Sushima level. I would love a Final Fantasy level.

I would love all that stuff. And I think, you know, I would love to see it again in three years, right? Like, I think if we're, if the DLC we get is limited to like a few more challenge levels and a few more rescueable bots, I'm actually very okay with it because that might mean, cool, by 2027 we're playing Astrobot too

and that might line up with a PS6, right? Like, I think there's, for what we talked with Nico about, there's such a good thing they have going here. And I think part of that is locking in and going, all right, what is right for the IP that we have? And I think Astrobot, this goes back to the conversation we had during the review. Astrobot as a character, I kind of agree with Tim as far as Astrobot not necessarily having like the it factor of Mario or Sonic or even like a ratchet, right? Like there's a Astrobot is more of an avatar style thing. And I think what's strong about that is that you can imprint different IP to it.

You can put a- He's a conduit to IP. Yeah, he's a conduit, right? I was like, how was he blue? No, not blue people at a bar. Yeah, no, he is a, he's a tortilla chip. He's just putting in different dips. Yeah, I love that. No, I love that. That's great.

And, like, I love tortilla chips. And tortillas are popular and great because, yeah, like, you can get all these different dips in there and fucking do so many things with it. And that's Astrobat. Sometimes you're just, it's all you have in the house. You know, you eat it by yourself. Listen, if you want to eat plain potato chips or tortilla chips, you got Asteroot Rescue Mission. But, yeah, no, I think that's the future of Astrobot.

That said, I don't think that's the future. I don't think that's the sole future of Team of Sobe. I think they're going to grow. I think they're going to be making multiple games at the same time. I think they're going to have a good cadence of, all right, Astrobat one year, the next year we're going to have a spinoff thing, right?

Or like an Astro cart, or that's the other thing, is there so many things you can do with Astrolet. Yeah, I also could see them expanding in the next one. Of course, focusing on PlayStation, expanding maybe Astrobat where he has, I don't know, a cousin, like, whatever it is. Like, he has something.

He has, cousin bot. He has a girlfriend or whatever it is. He has... Diego bot. We create another formation of bots that are different faction or whatever, and then that gets a spinoff. I think there's ways around this

where the core Astrobot can be all about PlayStation, but then you can have a smaller title if they really wanted to, if they wanted to spread their wings and try new creative character designs and say, hey, we actually could do this. We can make this happen.

I think they could do this in a spinoff, but I don't think the main Astrobot is ever going to be outside of PlayStation. Moving on, ending the show. We're going to do a little bit of some superstack. Matt Sanders writes Asherbot is amazing

My favorite level was the one with the mouse ears Allowing you to shrink I was smiling the whole time I'm unsure if they'll do that gimmick again But I hope so I'm in the fourth galaxy right now Hell yeah I hope they bring that back for a full year I think in Astrobot 2 we go big

Oh I think it'll be like Ant Man and Civil War Oh shit real large I love it become the sponge guy Yeah oh yeah oh also that's another one of my favorite levels I forgot to mention that It felt good at the console Bander SN right

elephant in the room, W-2TF Square, why is there no Freybot from unspoken, for-spoken? We're all in agreement that they were getting a Square E-Nex D-L-C pack, right? 2B, Clive, Sora, and Frey, and a full FF-7 level. Maybe in the D-LC.

I mean, honestly, that is the I think ultimate hope. I think that it is realistic to think that that is a possibility. I don't think it is a guarantee by a long shot. But that, yeah, it kind of adds up and makes sense. Like, that is the big missing thing, and especially when you look at

what PlayStation is currently and what their exclusive lineup looks like, yeah, it's the Final Fantasy games, and the characters were in Playroom. So it's not like they don't want to be part of this. Yeah. Yeah. Even great fencer Musashi.

Funk Machine says, a thought I've recently had regarding Mario slash Astro comparisons. Mario makes you want to play more Mario. Astro makes you want to play more PlayStation. I think that changes when you get more Astro. You know what I mean? You get more and more Astro.

games, I think you're going to want to go back. But of course, yeah, but I do identify with that. That's a smart. As I was playing through, I was like, man, I got to, I got to get more PS1 games to my Steam deck allegedly. I was like, yeah, I, what I was is I could go for another uncharted, but it didn't make me want to go boot up old uncharted. It was nice to have that dopamine hit of like, oh, I remember this. Ooh, I like that, but I still want to go and be Astro and do this thing. Yeah. I think Astrood is the closest we've gotten to like, I think really doing justice to PS1 nostalgia. You know, like, I think there's a, when we think of Nintendo, we think of the SNES,

I think there's like a certain energy that is captured so well that Nintendo was maintained throughout the years. But PS1 obviously has that too, but I feel like we've not done a good job of maintaining it. Because I do get, there are feels I get when I think of those like fucking like the polygons that have like the jaggies on them that are like more squared than the roundness of the Nintendo thing. Right?

Like there's an energy there that I think Astrobot like knocks on the door of. And I would love to see that explored more because I think there's a lot of juice in like the PS1 nostalgia that we've not un- See, that'd be a fun way to do it the next one, right? We're talking about going to other games, right? But instead going to the consoles.

I was thinking that to. You get, you know, we have a real villain show up, turn the consoles inside the ship against you, right? And Astrobock gets knocked into the PS-1. And so he's in the PS-1. That'd be so good. And then you get out and you have to go PS2, three, four, everything.

I think the- Okay, so we get to the PS3 and then there's a song, The, the, the, sell, process. Why do this? Compact Flash memory slot. Joseph Golden writes, I survived the Astrobot Great Master Challenge.

The game is amazing. That God of War level freaking slaps. Hell, yeah, Joseph. And I'm going to do one more from Jay Aber Art. How do you all feel about some saying that Astrobot

is less a PlayStation celebration and more of a graveyard of dead series? Did this game feel like a graveyard? I say those people are. bitches. That's what I say. You weird ass. Motherbuckers. Find some joy in life. And so what we're talking about yesterday and what we're talking about now is sequels, right?

Where I just feel a lot of these games don't need a new, we don't need a new insert blank. Watch your mouth. I know. That's what I'm saying. We don't need a new ape escape. I'll fucking say it. We don't. We got I don't want another medieval, right? Well, yeah. Absolutely. And that's what I'm saying

where it's like, and as a pat upon fan, we don't need another new pat upon. Like, instead let those franchises live on in these games as levels as whatever. Or in this thing, a reminder, look at our great lineage, and then theoretically, our great future, but PlayStation won't fucking say what's coming other than goddamn fair

games. Make a new Dark Cloud. Yeah, we needed a new A-Bascape too. I don't know what the fuck Tim's talking about. Oh, then we got Dark Cloud 2 guy in this, but we didn't get Dark Cloud 1 guy. Which is weird, right? I was like, where's this Dark Cloud 1? Yeah, I do think, I was thinking about this, I think it was around launch, right? Of, like, I think Timossoby does such a good job of celebrating, right? And I don't feel

that way about the graveyard thing about the game, because it all feels so celebratory and so you know, it's an exciting gink to play to see all these things that you love. That said, I do, there are many points where I thought about what PlayStation, like people at the top, people who control AIP, think about it. Because I'm like, man, this PlayStation really want to remind

people of all this shit so that people can go online and be like, you know, where's the new XYZ, XYZ game? But I mean, I think where's the new legend of dragoon? Shut the fuck up. I think it does bring attention to these franchises, right? It brings maybe new merch for these franchises. And I don't know gonna be new merch.

I mean, I don't know. You never know, right? I'm just saying, like, any type of attention to these older franchises, getting younger people involved in the history of PlayStation is good for PlayStation in general

and also good for these smaller franchises. You know what was crazy to me? Like, obviously, a couple of things missing from this game. Like, the Final Fantasy stuff definitely jumps to mind, right?

Whisted Metal. Yeah. Oh. Isn't that weird that Sweet Tooth wasn't a bot in this game? I didn't realize that. How? Too scary.

That's a bot too. Why? He was in playroom. I'm pretty sure. We gotta look into this. I mean, on the merch note, though, I think it would be insane to not treat Astrobat like

Funko pops or like Amibo, right? Yeah. Like, make them collectible. You need, all the Astrobots are in this game. You've got to find a way to put them on store shelves and make it a thing. 100%.

Back to him being an avatar for all these things, right? Yeah. I hope this game is big enough to warrant that. I'm excited to see the sales numbers on this. But thank you all for rocking with us and doing a little Astrobot. spoiler cast and interview. This has been

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