Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Best of 2020 - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 55

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

Go to http://freshly.com/kinda to get $40 off your first two orders! In our first Gamescast of 2021 we breakdown some of our favorites from 2020 like Hades, Final Fantasy VII Remake, The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and more! Timecodes: 00:00:00 - Start 00:05:00 - Gaming Highlights Over Break 00:36:27 - Ads 00:37:54 - Best Debut 00:46:48 - Best Story 01:04:07 - Best Style (Music/Art Direction) 01:12:52 - Best Remake/Remaster 01:18:16 - Best Ongoing Game 01:21:03 - Best Game Studio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, guys. Welcome to the first kind of funny games cast of 2021. As always, I'm Tim Geddes, joined by one of the coolest dudes in video games, Greg Miller. It's funny you say one of the coolest dudes, Tim, because I'm a bit chilly today. You know what I mean? It's really cool. It's got to chill. But luckily for me, I'm a pickle influencer. The good people at Claussen's Pickles sent me in this package for the 150 anniversary of Claussen Pickles.

Now, as you know, Closs and Pickles are, legitimately the only dill pickles I eat. I love them. I want to go through a little bit here. Now, see, I got a reusable, Closs and pickle bag here. I'm very excited to try out. It's a tote bag.

It is a tote bag. That's true. There's a coupon. Oh, there it is. I got a coupon, Tim, to get money off of Closs and pickles, which I'm pretty stoked. But then, Tim, I do have a Closs and Pickle sweatsuit that I will put on right now

as you introduce the rest of everybody else. Oh, man, it's interesting because I thought there was no way it was going to be humanly possible for the new face of video games. Blessing at Ae Oe Jr. to be the second best looking person on the stream right now because look at that haircut with that beard. I can't even handle it right now. That is something special. He said. You're doing me.

Taking a run for the money here. I don't know if I appreciate what's going on with Greg Miller right now. He's putting on with a coozy too. Oh, no. I don't even know what it means to be a pickle influencer. I don't want to know. I really don't want to know. The former and former Imran Khan, do you want to know?

I kind of want to know. I've been trying to find an opening to say like Greg's in a pickle, but I've got like nothing. There's like no opening. Now the pickles's in me? Oh, Lord. Oh, no. No, no.

I don't like that. Remember, was it Portillo's that sent you a similar full body suit that like? I bought an all over. print pickle of hot dog jacket from Fortilla. This is what you're thinking of up. Oh, yeah, yeah. Not this day. They're not as good as Claustin's here. You know, Mm-mm, Clossin's pickles.

And you're probably wondering, can that coozy fit around a Mason jarro? It can. I'm pickled crazy today. It didn't even come with any pickles? No, no, no. Well, Clauston's pickles, as you know, need to be refrigerated. So that would have incurred quite an expense, I'm sure, to send me that. Yeah, unlike this.

This is the Kind of Funny Games cast each and every week right here on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. We get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. You can watch the show live as we record it by going to Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Just like our Patreon producers did, James Hastings, Sancho West Gaming, Julian the Gluten Free Gamer. Thank all of you for your support. And thank everyone else that has been supporting Kind of Funny Day. every year, obviously, January, we do our big crowdfunding push. You can support us on patreon.com slash kind of funny, slash kind of funny games,

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We've been doing, we announced a whole new slate of stuff. If you haven't seen that, you can go to YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, watch the announcement video, catch up on everything. But the highlight I want you guys to know about is we have a big emphasis on Twitch, where every day after Games Daily now, we'll be doing at least two-hour gameplay streams. We did our first one today as of recording this, and it was spectacular. So much fun to watch. So definitely join up, watch that if you can.

But enough about all of that. I want to get right into it because this is Gamescast. You can watch it. YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. Listen, podcast services around the globe. Search for Kind of Funny Gamescast. You know it. You love it.

So do I. This week, we are doing the kind of funny best of 2020 when it comes to video games. But I want to get ahead of it and want everyone to know. This is not our game of the year video. We're going to do Game of the Year next week and we're going to choose a definitive kind of funny game of the year. We have a really fun way we're going to do it. I don't want to spoil that until next week.

But you'll see it. I think you guys are going to like next week's episode. a lot. But for this one, Blessing actually came up with a bunch of fun categories we're going to go through, like best debut, best story, best indie game, so on and so on. And we're just going to kind of have a discussion about it all. Just kind of celebrate all of the amazing games that came out in 2020 and the different elements that we liked, not necessarily coming down on any decision. We don't need to necessarily vote or whatever. It is more just kind of for the discussion. And I'm very excited about that. But first, I want to start off with our gaming highlights for the

break that we had. We all had about two weeks off. All of us had a lot of little things to do here and there, but I'm sure that a lot of that was filled with some video game and some high quality video game playing. Blessing, what you've been playing. Been hooked on Bloodborn for the last few weeks. I've been playing it nonstop. I've been talking all about it on Twitter and on PSLO, which you can check out now, where me and Greg. Where can you check it on. Oh, you can check it on on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games around podcast services around the globe. me and Greg had a whole conversation about Bloodborne

and how you can start Bloodbourne because, spoilers, Greg is going to jump into Bloodborn and play this month, which I'm very excited about because I really enjoyed it. It's already started, brother. Oh, man. How's that journey going for you so far? It was good. If I wasn't exhausted last night, I would have played more. We did it on this stream. We did it on the stream. You were there. Imran was there. Tam was there. Mike was there too, but he wasn't doing much.

We were there. We started it up. And yeah, what, I played like an hour and a half, two hours, I think. started off. I'm in there. I got the feel for it. I'm ready. Yeah. And so I don't want to go into it too deep because this is a conversation I think we're going to have throughout the month on PSOLV you as we like do this whole book club thing and have it be

bloodbored month. But it's a fantastic game that I think it's worth anybody trying out. I don't think it's a game for everybody, but it is now that, now that I've completed it and I've had time to kind of sit with it. Oh my one second. I'm sorry. I got to stop.

I was like, no, Jen, I got a sponsor from Claussen's pickles. They sent me a whole bunch of Claussen's pickle stuff because Mm-mm-mm-mm-closs and pickles. They were generally my favorite pickle. Y'all gays, don't worry about it. They went to find. Is this the fact that you interrupt? You interrupted to say,

mm-mm, I love pickles. Like, every time you take it, like, from the jar, it looks like a drinking pickle juice. Like, I can't get it out of my head. Like, I know, I know. I know it's, I know there's water in there, but every time I see it, I'm like, is there pickle juice in there? Like, I can go if you want, if you want to give me a 10

in intermission. I can go dig through my photos and I can find a photo from college of me drinking from cloth and pickles. Like an actual thing of just drinking the pickles juice because I like the rest of you all have favorite pickles or is it just right? That's a very, very solid point, Barrett. God, no, I do not have a favorite. Yes, there's a reason. I'm saving

$3.50 and you idiots are paying full price. Anyway, blessing, you were talking about bloodbord. You're talking about how much you love it. Yeah, I beat it. I'm on the final boss of the DLC. I got all the all the endings in the main game.

Like I've been enjoying it with the help of Imran too, because during the break, I realized that the thing that helped me get through Bloodborn was actually streaming it and playing it alongside people. And so Amron was actually there for most of the time as I was playing through the game. And he was there giving me tidbits about lore and stuff, helping me kind of strategize how I was going to play,

helping me guide me through some of the areas because the game can be very maze-like in some places. And that actually helped me, really enjoy the game because as I was talking on on kids loving I've explained this but like it feels like a good game to play as a communal experience

there's something about the game that I feel like is tailored toward playing with the community and like reading notes from people and reading guides and like not that you have to have to read a guide to play this game but there's something special I think about experiencing this game with other people that I think is really cool and that very much uplifted my experience with it and so

Yeah, playing with you guys yesterday, right? That was the feel of it. Because I've started Blenborn multiple times. Like, just, you know, like, okay, cool, I get it. But I don't play it for long. And I feel like it's not obtuse in a way you wouldn't understand it if you played it without reading anything or doing anything, right? But it's helpful to get those things early on of, I'm collecting the echoes.

Then I die. Then I'd go get them back. Then I would die. And then somebody else killed me and I'd lost them. And it was like, what am I even doing this for, right? But then to go back and have him around to be, all right, now that you've seen that boss, now when you talk to this woman, now you'll be able to do that with the echoes, let alone the fact that you can run back to the lamp post at any time and go exchange

them to level up. I was like, oh, it's like even the two hours we put in yesterday of it, right, I'm excited to start now, even if I just want to go grind and then see what leveling's like, and if that can make the rest of it easier for me or give me bigger dodge windows or whatever. Exactly. And even as you get deeper into the game for me, I knew there were things where even as I started to get a grasp of the world and the mechanics and all this stuff, there are certain things that I just hadn't realized. Like, I think it was Imran or maybe Heel and Chat or both, who were talking about how insight,

which is like a, I guess, collectible in the game, or a thing that you can gain in the game, the more insight you have, the more you start to see things. And like, that wasn't a thing I, like, put together in my own playing of the game. So insight, go for it, Amron. There's like enemies in the game.

So the, the consider of the game is that there's stuff that you just can't perceive, like a Lovecraft-style thing. So there are enemies in the game that with more insight Do weirder stuff to you So they will have more attacks if you have more insight On the other hand like that's generally the best way to play the game Because you are seeing like giant monsters around

That you just wouldn't see if you had lower insight It's a cooler way to like understand more of the story Even though it is like quite a quote more dangerous Yeah and it feeds into like the HP Lovecraft This of it too because like there's the whole idea of In HP Lovecraft of like gaining so much knowledge that it drives you in insane because you've seen something that is so otherworldly or so out of your your uh humanly understanding that it just fuck it fucks you up uh insight i believe is kind of tied into that and the

idea that oh yeah the more and more you start to understand and the or the more and more you start to see the more and more things start to appear i guess and the more and the more that can drive you and saying i don't know like learning that stuff as i've been playing through and kind of getting an understanding of the world of bloodb born and how that kind of ties into hp lovecraft and all this different stuff has been such a cool experience. And yeah, like, it is pretty much uplifted by the fact that I am playing it with other people and having those conversations and then reading, either reading guys or watching YouTube videos and ingesting it that way.

And so it's been a fantastic time playing this game over the break. And I'm going to, I'm, I've actually made the commitment now to start Sekiro. I've said it. I think I said it on stream yesterday. I'm, I think I'm going to start it with Nobike Mike on my Thursday stream. Yeah, and so Sekiro's the next one. I'm very excited to play it.

Wow. I've never seen anyone play Bloodborn like I've seen Blessing play Bloodborn, which is there are people who are like very aggressive and they will take out bosses like it's nothing and they will also just run up to all kinds of enemies and run through stuff. Blessing does like,

he will be incredibly timid against the regular Joe Schmoe enemies, but he will destroy bosses like nothing. Like they're just regular jobbers. And it's like he goes to the hardest boss fights. Fights that took me 12 to 15 tries. Most people, a lot of tries hours of effort. And he'll be like, yeah, I just put him in court and I hit him

a bunch of times. Like, what are you doing? How is that possible? Meanwhile, I saw him fight an enemy that is literally just a bunch of people inside of a box, like 15 to 20 times. It's so confusing, blessing. I don't understand. I've said this before.

I'll say it again. Bloodborn is 1,000% a horror game. I don't know why more people don't talk about it as a horror game, but it is a terrifying game. and there are so many terrifying enemies in Bloodbourne that, like, that get to me and that I have issues with, like, fighting more so than a boss.

And I don't know why. Like, I don't know what it is about, about that scaling. But, uh, yeah, no,

I, the boss in the bloodboard, I just find super fun. And like, that's my favorite part of the game. And I do, like, for most of the bosses in the game,

I beat in relatively, I guess, few tries, uh, with the exception of a few being the, I guess the final boss and then the DLC final boss I've struggled a lot with. but all the other bosses, I was like, oh yeah, this ain't that hard. Regular enemies in that game, though.

Fuck me up. And so, good game. Imran, what about you? All I've been playing this break, as I've been trying to get the game of the year, stuff like done and ready was I put a bunch of more hours of the Yoxa 7, which is like, if I critical path that game, I think it would be quite a bit shorter. But every time I go do something, like 15 more things open up. So I'm like, okay, yeah, I will go do more business stuff.

I will go do more side stories. Oh, wait, there's a, there's a Mario Kart minigame that's now opened up that has its own story to it. I should go finish that up. And oh, well, and then I want me to take a break from that. So I'm going to go do some other things. It's been like that for like, it was like literal days where I would just keep doing stuff like that.

Then Reve is also playing. And so we would like exchange notes at the end of the day. You're like, oh, yeah, this is and this is happening. And then I remember, like, there was a point where, like, this is a thing I had never experienced. because I don't have a partner that usually plays the same games I do. So I had at one point seen Reb start a side quest in that game. I did not internalize, I guess, that I did not start that side quest. So I spent the rest of the game wondering, why is this not side quest not like continuing for me?

Like, why is it not like giving a message that I should go do it? It's because I never actually started it. I saw her start it. And I don't know how long, how many times that's going to keep happening in my life. But that's really confusing. That's so funny. I've also been playing Igis Rim. 13 sedentals, which I don't think it's talked about the game's guest yet.

I saw Greg, you bought it. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you actually started it yet. No, we'll get to what I played over break, and it didn't go the way I wanted it to. So, things got delayed on my starts. How is it? So it's good. It is a really good visual novel.

It is an okay video game. I think I like in this, like I put a game to deal with somewhere, but like it's like going to the movie theater, like the gameplay is the popcorn. It's like, yeah, I'm here. I'll do this. Why not? But it's not like the main reason you're in the theater. The main reason is it's a really interesting time travel story.

There are some aspects of it that I think are a little like, maybe not great. Not in terms of storytelling, but in terms of the fact of vanilla wear makes like teenage girls make it a lot. Yeah, problematic. And stuff like that. And I'm like, you probably could have avoided this. In front of most, like, it's an improvement over the previous games in that respect.

But like, like, the actual story is there are aspects of this game's premise that I think most games would say for like a late game twist, that I think of just super interesting and it's a real shame that a lot of people didn't get a chance to play it but it is like Chris Plant did a really good article on Polygon like hey people should be playing this game like you might not like it

but you would at least experience it and I think that's kind of where I am too of this is a huge surprise because I did not expect this level of interesting story from this studio or like honestly just out of nowhere that nobody's really talking about it how long is it I would say

somewhere in the area of about 20 hours. Maybe a little faster, maybe a little slower depending on how deep you dive into things or like how long some of the battles take you. But honestly, by the end of the game, like, the battles

are, it's like, it's like a mooseau at some point of, I had this one attack and it's going to take out 35 enemies. And like, it's cool to watch that happen. And I honestly think if I was playing it on PS4, the PS4 would choke a little bit. But it is, it's not a super long game. It's, and most

the time you're playing the game, you're like, I just kind of want to go back to the story and say that. Yeah, so what is the gameplay? If you say it's a really well-done visual novel, but then it's kind of a must-o. So it is a tactical RPG battle system. So it is like, kind of like an RTS in that things are always moving, but things pause when you're on a menu. So while I'm actually selecting my weapons and like aiming and all that stuff, everything's

paused. But if I'm like trying to just wait for bars to fill up or try to decide who to go to next, then it'll like enemies will start moving towards a core tower that I'm defending. So I have never run into a situation where I am not way more powerful than the enemies So it's literally just like Okay, I'm gonna see the fastest way

To just take out as many of these things as possible Okay Interesting So does the game Because I've put in a few hours into it And I actually also tried to play it over the winter break And fell off very quickly And just abandoned everything for Bloodborn

Does When I played it The combat seemed very like You know Hey take everybody out it's going to be a breeze. And I just assume that was because I was in the tutorial areas. Does the combat ever feel like it makes you think a lot harder about how you engage with it?

Because that was one of the things that made me go, okay, I don't know if this game is going to be for me or not, because the combat system is this more strategy RTS kind of set up. And that never really appeals to me. But from what I can understand or what I see so far, it seems like that doesn't matter too much because it's pretty much a breeze. there are difficulty settings I kept it on normal but I didn't

the only like hard choices where do I want to kill them fast or does an enemy die fast or do they take a little bit longer to die I've never been in a situation where like oh no I'm about to lose it's been like well that took about five minutes longer than I wanted it to

and that's basically as difficult as it feels to me yeah from what I've played of it like I echo pretty much everything Imron said as far as like the gameplay does seem more like popcorn you know, and it is like kind of a thing that assists the story. And I, like, I also echo the fact that there is so much male gazingness stuff in the game in terms of,

there's one, there's one character who is, I believe, the school nurse, who walks around with the largest breasts I've seen in like, oh, wow, in a video game. Like, so big that she has to hold them up with her arms whenever she walks. Like, it is ridiculous. Like, they are very aware. And she's the only character. Like there's several spy characters in that game. She's the only spy there's in a like skin tight catsuit the entire time.

Yeah. Which is like, Good Lord. Yeah, like that's. This is so unnecessary. Yeah. So it's so unnecessary for a game that seems like it has such a good story and it is distracting. Like in similar style games, right?

Like whether you want to say like anime or manga style games, right? Like Persona 5 for example has a little bit of that stuff when it comes to the male gaze. But never enough that to where I'm like, okay, I can't even, I can't pay attention to the story because they got titties all over the screen. Like, it's never that. Whereas 13 sedinels seems to have quite a bit of that where I'm like, okay, we're going from this cool sci-fi time travel story to then all of a sudden titty's in your face and it's like, whoa.

Like, this is disjointed. This feels weird. No, when you're trying to tell people, you read Playboy for the articles, like, that may be true. Yeah. But like, you're never going to convince anyone of that. Does the game, like, how, like, I'm looking at just like random. clips of it and it looks beautiful. Some of the character motions look a little flash animated,

like in longer stints of actually playing it. Like, what would you say the graphics look like? It looks beautiful. It has that 2D hand-drawn art for pretty much everything. There are some small animations here, there that do look a little stilted. But for the most part, it's like things like a mech will come crashing down on a story sequence.

I'm like, oh, wow, they actually drew that. That looks super nice. But it's never like, it's never graphically interesting beyond that necessarily. It is all nice hand-drawn art. So if that doesn't get you then it probably won't at any point. You've been playing anything else you want to talk about?

No, I think that was mostly it for me, I think. Greg, you want to go? Sure, buddy. I played cyberpunk all break. All break. Did you get that platinum? No, cyberpunk is bugged. I can't platinum it. You got fucked so hard. It's like, I was following just your Twitter threads. All are you talking about it all? Greg, I just, I feel so bad for you because it's just such a shitty thing to happen. I think you're taking it like a champ and you're like, you know, I'm sure you're about to explain all this.

But I definitely just love, love your commitment to it. I love that like, you know what? You got the platinum in my heart, Greg. Thank you. That's what I want to do. Yeah. And I will one day have it. He got fucked once.

He got fucked twice. That's right. That's right. It's kind of like it's in the same way that I have the Star Wars eraser platinum. That's the same way you have the Sarvote platinum. I feel like this might have taken a little more work than the Star Wars racer one. You were stuck on.

You cheated. You used to cheat on Star Wars. That's why you couldn't get it. Yeah, we're all silver though. And so it's all good. Yeah. So hours and hours and hours, you know, after I, so I played Cyberpunk all a break.

The plan was to platinum that, then switch over and finish off my hives and Avengers, platinum that because I got that stupid 50 hive trophy, which just means I need for like a Sunday to sit there and just do hives nonstop over and over and over again. No big deal. But with cyberpunk screwing up twice and then not moving, I just never moved on to anything else. So break, I played cyberpunk the entire time. I had a great time with it.

You know what I mean? Like everything we've said about cyberpunk is 100% true. Everything you've read about cyberpunk or seen about cyberpunk is true, right? Like for me, it's a Bethesda game. It's a fallout. I enjoy those games. I enjoy them for what they are. I'm sorry for the people who were thinking this is going to be, you know, the Witcher again.

this is going to be the second coming. I had hopes it would be something like that. It wasn't. Your ugliest shit in this game the entire time. Like why is every outfit to be so fucking hideous? But eventually, like any other Western RPG, I crossed that threshold where it just didn't matter. Like, I'm still getting better gear, but nobody's damaging me and what I'm in anyway. So what does it matter?

You know what I mean? But for the platinum specifically, right? Yeah, I had, you know, I guess probably in the 10-hour range of the game, run in and done one of the NCPD side things where it's just, you know, the blue icon pops up and it's a mission that's worthless and it's just something to do. I'd run in there and killed everybody.

And I vague, of course, forgot about this, but remember when it bites me in the ass, I killed everybody and the icon hadn't gone away. And I was like, that's strange. And I'm like, I'll get back to it later. And this is so early in the game that I hadn't done enough for these to realize that's a huge red flag.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. So when I guess that was 30 hours into the, or I shouldn't say that. It doesn't matter. 10 hours early it was early in the game went on beat the game you know thought the story was great had gone through the whole thing uh you know romance pan am uh i like the ending i got naturally when i went back for the other trophies and did all the other endings like the one i had um befriended johnny you know what i mean like by the end we are bros i enjoy that relationship as well

yeah uh but then you know finish the story and then did all the other endings and then did all the other stuff for the trophies and then started going district by district clearing on all the missions and all the so it's all the gigs and all the ncPD missions that are tied to the trophy that'll eventually fuck me and had everything done except for santa domingo is not or is it santino dominio i forget which one it is sd we'll call it uh and when i went in there and started doing it i eventually got to that one where from hours and hours and hours and hours and hours before i had killed everybody and not seen him and i walked in there and the icon was there and the bodies were there and I went oh fuck because at this point I've done dozens of these right

like I know what these missions should look like and I've also seen things that bug out and I'm like oh fuck and so it just became all right I pinged over and over again looking for hoping I'd see an enemy in a wall I you know I then walked up to everybody and started shooting the bodies trying to re-kill everybody like the you know the icon for the mission is on a bag and a lot of times the missions are going and kill everybody and collect the evidence. So I was like, is this the glitch? Is it evidence? I couldn't pick it up.

You know, I picked up the bodies and put them in the dumpsters hiding them, hoping that would trigger something. I went around the block and killed everyone on the block. That didn't trigger anything. I went online and looked around for it. I complained at one night of like, all right, like, this is bugged, this is glitched. Like I then went back into my saves and found a save from 30 hours before. That was, I hadn't done the.

yet. Everybody, people totally misconstruited and ran with a false narrative about that. What I was saying is I went back and the most recent save I had that hadn't done the mission was from 30 hours ago, which doesn't matter except for the fact that I had done everything in that area except that mission where I was, right? So going back 30 hours meant I had to do everything in that area again and that mission. And so woke up the next morning ready to do it, check my tweet. Somebody had popped up and been like, if it's this one and that one, this happened to me.

the mission the guy I needed to kill was floating in the air. And so I went back and loaded the save that I thought was bugged. Went in there. I'm pinging. I'm looking at the sea. I'm looking at, I'm looking in the sky for this guy. No sign of them. I was like, that's not it. Somebody else responds. They could be under the ground. So I went back and pinged. I'm looking through the ground for people. No sign of these people. And so what I did when I found the save that had it from 30 hours before, immediately went to that mission, immediately ran in there, killed everybody, had it, you know, clear. And I was like, fuck. I don't even remember there being this many people here when I first killed it. So I think it's just like a wave of people just did not queue.

And I was like, you know what though? And I was like, all right. Like again, I like the loop of cyberpunk and I like it for what it is. So I'll do it all again. And so I started clearing the island again, just, or not the island, the district again. And this time I was way underpowered, which I actually liked because then I was having to think about it before I put on the Twitter, right? Like I ran into like the Terminator before because my armor was great and I had this amazing shotgun. So when I was this hacker for the entirety of the game, the last 10 hours were to be. just kicking indoors running, just shotgunning people and getting the fuck out. Did almost everything.

I got it down to the final seven things on the island. I can't keep on the island, the district. And went to the gig called Breaking News. And I'd done this before. I've done this before on the previous time of doing it here, though. And walked up to the guy, got the mission from the guy, went and climbed into the area I need to clear, dropped in on the car, and got electrified and died immediately. And I'm like, I've done this mission.

That's not how this goes. And reloaded, went and did it, fell down there. Great. Planted the tracker on the car. Came out. And for one second, it said, escape the parking lot. And then it just went away.

And there was no objective now. And so now the mission had no objectives. And I'm like, fuck. So I keep reloading, reloading, reloading. I finally get it. You know, I quit out. I come back in, quit out, come back in. I get it.

And it's like, I did it. Escape the parking lot. Great. Go collect your reward. I walk over to the box to collect my reward where there's the question, the exclamation mark. but it's in the ground. And I hit the box

and there's no reward to collect. And I'm like, I step away. I'm like, that's fucked up. The guy who gave me the gig calls and he's talking about the mission that was the mission I did before this mission.

And I'm like, fuck. And I plug it all into Google and sure is shit. There's a guy who has the exact same problem on the cyberpunk forums that are just like, hey, like this mission chain can't be completed because the guy keeps talking about the missions I did before.

And now this final, or this one ends with. collect the thing, but it's not there, so you just can't do it. And so I started looking through my saves, and it's one of those, how long has that been broken? How long is he been talking about an old mission that I didn't realize or something like that? And also, I wasn't, not that, I mean, I went back 30 hours or whatever. That night I look back and the save I have that doesn't have this done and I'd have to go fuck around with is like an hour and a half back there. And I was just like, so do I want, like, every night I was like, you know, this is going to be the night I platinum it.

And so it was just like, it was the final identification. I'm like, do I really want to wake up again and subject Jen again to watching me fucking shotgun people to death? And it was just that thing of like, no, let's just wait for the fixes. Let's just wait for them to do whatever patch they're going to do. And hopefully I can walk into the first mission where I just have to kill whoever I have to kill. They're there. If not, they just fix this thing, then I have seven missions to do. It's fine.

Like, I'm not, if I really wanted to, I could sit down. I'm such an addict. I could sit down for three. hours and be done because I would just and I would have to just pay attention to like not go to the mission where you save the woman from the psych ward go to this gig first do that does it say the right thing get the like but it would just have to be this like intricate like I'm doing everything and paying attention and saving every time and I'm just like I will move on to other things it's 2021 let's play bloodborne that's a brand new game why not I also don't know that you would actually

get it this time you don't know that something else would break exactly and that's the thing is it's just like at this point it's so rickety and it's down to one trophy and it's a good story for podcast so whatever like so instead you're forcing jenn to watch you go beat up a bunch of robots in a hive again hey you know what i played on the small screen often when i grab when i grind the avengers hive i'll have you know she doesn't have to watch it all that time i love it though oh so that was it because like that took up so much of your time i did the occasional hive here or there but like i didn't really play anything else i want to give a quick shout out to something i've been playing just a little bit marvel versus capcom too i was like i just got the i just got the

I just got the kick in you. I was like, what are you playing that on? You don't want to take you for a ride. You know what? Don't ask questions like that. Because it may or may not be like the most legal of ways. Okay, okay.

I own it. Like there's a way that like we can play together. No, unfortunately there's not that I know of at least. But yeah, I just, I own it on PS2 for everybody worrying. Uh-huh. Had a, oh, I, one of the very few games that I'm like, I will never let go of this.

Actually, I also have the PS2 copying. So I technically I brought it to him if he's lying right now. Yeah, so there we go. But anyways, God, what a freaking game. And I just wanted to the shout out to, you know, we've had a point with the MCU that it's like, it's, I don't even know what the first. Kevin keeps changing my goddamn Google Home thing. So now that was like a New Year's doorbell ding dong. Whatever.

The MCU introduced the mainstream to Guardians of the Galaxy and to, you know, all these like crazy wacky characters. we would have never thought would be mainstream. I mean, before MCU, Ironman to me was just Marvel versus Capcom. You know, it's like War Machine was just Marvel versus Capcom. But to look at the 56 or whatever characters in them, MVC 2, they got some whackadoos in this shit. It's like, they got like Schumegorath. Like they're getting just so ridiculously down into the Marvel world. It's just like, man, it just is so impressive to see.

and on the Capcom side as well. Like there's to this day characters that I'm like, I don't even know exactly what game you're coming from. But like what's Little Red Riding Hood or whatever she is? BB Hoods from drugstockers.

Bebe Hood. Oh, okay, okay. But anyways, just wanted to give a quick shout out to the goats. It's a Marvel baby. But the game that I played for the first time this break is Hades.

Oh. My God. Do I fucking love Hades? I've put so many hours into it. I haven't beat it yet. And I think it's because the loop just got me. And the game doesn't have a platinum. I'm playing it on Switch.

But I'm feeling I'm like, I want to do everything. Like I want 100% this thing. Like every single one that I'm doing, I'm like, all right, I got to get all the purple shit, got to get the keys because I'm trying to unlock all the things. Because I'm like, when I do beat this game, I want to be a badass. I want to be running through just destroying fools. And I'm loving that the more I play, the more I like it. Like yesterday on the stream, I kind of.

hinted that I was going to talk about this on the games cast. And I was saying how I've never really liked rogue likes. Dead Cells was the one that kind of got me in at all. And I played these shit out of it on a flight to Minnesota and the flight back a little bit afterwards. And I was like, I'm never going to beat this game. So I'm just done. But my biggest problem with that game is it just felt like the things you take with you to your next run just weren't enough to make me feel like I'm actually making progress. but it was always fun to play.

Like the different weapons you used were fun, but there was a couple builds that you'd start with that. I'm like, I'm going to restart. I don't even want this. I don't even want to play with this weapon is not worth it to me. Playing through Hades, the first like 10 runs or so,

I was like in my own head, of course, like, this is overhyped. Everybody's fucking talking about this game. Like, it's not that good, you know? And I just kept thinking I was just like,

oh, I just prefer dead cells. Like I prefer 2D platformers. those are my things. So it's like, this is cool, but like, I don't know.

And then I just, I was so wrong. I was proven so damn wrong. Once, because once you start unlock, you know, you start with like the four, I think weapons and then you start unlocking more.

And I, I start realizing, I'm like, I love all of these weapons. I'm having fun with every single build that I'm using. And there's so many different combinations with all the, the God powers and stuff, with the weapons that I'm like,

I'm constantly having fun with this. Like no matter what's going on, I'm never feeling like it's bullshit that I'm losing. When I do lose, I'm always like, all right, cool. I know exactly what I'm doing. And it's fun to feel like every run I have a goal. Every run, I have something that I'm actually trying to accomplish. Like, okay, I need three more keys. I just got to focus on the keys.

I got to make sure I get those keys. And it's like, that's fun. It gives you that one more run, one more run. But it's not just an aimless thing. It's like you're always feeling like you're making some progress. and God, that is such a good feeling on top of great story, great characters, all that stuff.

The one thing that I still don't agree with with everybody is the music, where I'm not as in love with it as everyone else seems to be, specifically the first areas theme. It's a little weird electronic music. I'm just like, I don't know,

like this isn't the vibe that I'm, that I expected based on all of the, based on a look of the game and based on like how everyone's hyped it up. But this is definitely, it's been winning so many game of the years I'm like yeah it deserves a lot I think for me the music is like not as much the actual well I'm in battle kind of thing because like I'm not even paying attention to then like I'm too focused on what I'm doing but like when you've seen the lady when you go to the second area right like you occasionally come across a woman who's singing oh yeah like that moment of like just hearing her sing I'm like this is pleasant like this is really it's zen in a weird way because I'm like relaxing is I occasionally just like I've stood outside the door and listened to her sing. With the vocals. I mean, that's the thing is like that

it does, you're right. Like that is very much a video game moment of like, oh shit, this is different. And Hades delivers those constantly. Like I'm really enjoying all the switchups and like the way that characters kind of change as they're talking to you and like what that changes for you and like your understanding of the whole situation. And it's like it's, it pulls me in so many different ways. It reminds me a lot of Spider-Man where I typically don't really like open world games. but there's something about Spider-Man that I'm like,

I want to get every backpack. I want to do every single thing. I want to do the main story, but like, oh, these things are all pulling me. And with Hades, I'm like,

I want to keep trying to get a little farther than I did the last time, but I'm like, but first, I got to make sure that my room's looking pretty dope, you know, because last time I added something to my room, it gave me some shit that I really needed that I didn't understand what was going to happen.

Like, it's just, it's freaking really, really special. So I'm excited to keep playing that one. Before we talk about our best of 2020, I want to tell you about our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Freshly. Last year was chaotic.

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And for a limited time, get $40 off your first two orders. Go to freshly.com slash kinda. That's F-R-E-S-A. H-L-Y.com slash kind-a. Now, let's do it. Bless, you came up with the list. Let's start from the top. Best debut, first game in a franchise.

You want to kick it off? Yeah. So, like, I, you, like, sent us all the categories. I sent you the categories. And you're just like, oh, yeah, I think about some of the games that you'd want to include in here or talk about. And so, like, for each of these categories, I have, like, a few written down.

And I don't really even have, like, a number, one. But yeah, like the whole idea behind best debut is what is the best first game in a franchise we've gotten this year. Objection. How can we know it's a franchise, Tim, if it's the debut game? Thank you, Imran. I know you're on my side.

Yep. I mean, really? Honestly, I think it's like the potential for a franchise, if anything. Yeah. No, I think it's like a game that is not a franchise, I think works pretty well too. Sure. Yeah. Okay.

Well, the way, the way I kind of judge it for me, because, like there are certain games that come out like um like fall guys is a debut i don't know if i don't know when we'll get fall guys too or if i'm anticipating fall guys too but like gosushima we're gonna get gosushima too and so i kind of lean more towards the ghost of shima like that's how that's how i kind of look at it but i understand like if you look at it otherwise also i think both would count like it just yeah two games that are new ips like whatever yeah anyway my first one is ghost shima i think it is Long story short. Yeah, long story short,

Gost Chima is an excellent, excellent, excellent first game, excellent debut for, I think, all the reasons we've talked about over the year, but namely how soccer punch pivoted from infamous, being like a great franchise,

like a great series of games, but how they pivoted from making something that was this superhero, you're in a playground, you're playing as Cole, or you're playing as, what's his name? Delson Rowe.

Jins Sakai, okay. Jensica. You're playing as Delson Rowe flying through the city, taking out baddies, all that stuff. You're playing in a playground to it being this, oh no, yeah, now you're in the shoes of Jinsakai, and you're not only navigating a world, you are exploring a world, and you're going through this story

that feels way more thoughtful and way more dynamic than, in my opinion, than what was going on in infamous. You know, the world's beautiful, the combat's fun. And it feels like, for me, Ghosts, the birth is something that feels like it's going to continue to be big and meaningful for people. Like I can't wait for Ghost Shima 2.

I can't wait for, like I expect after Ghost Shima 2 they will eventually get a Ghost Shima 3. I can't wait for the future of where this franchise goes. So Gosha's my immediate number one for that. Imran. So I was also probably going to say Goshema. So I'm like looking over the list now like, oh shit,

blessing said that one, which one I take now? I just realized Hades is the logical answer there of like it is not the first it's not the first big super massive game and in a lot of ways takes like cues from every other super massive game before not super massives super giant super giant yeah massive is the until done on yes super giant game but like I wonder if they ever like talk to each other and they're like you motherfucker you took my name yeah one of us has to change yeah one of us got changed but like I think this game like I think bastion's good I think Transistor is good I think

Transistor is good. Aesthetically, those games were amazing. I liked Pire. I didn't play enough. Fittably render a thing, but a lot of people say Pyrr is their best game. But I think, like, Hades is where they nail that feel. The feel of an action game.

Like, Tim, you were talking about, like, there are certain games where you feel like even the minutiaa is fun. Like, that is Hades to me because everything in Hades feels so good to do. Like, every small little step, like every, oh, I'm going to try this weapon now. Oh, this weapon with this thing does this. it all feels good. It doesn't really like,

this is a little disappointing because like it's not quite what I wanted, but holy shit, it still feels amazing. And I think Hades is the panel of an example not of just this year, but of like, in general,

for me in video games, of like how a game feel can kind of just wrap everything else around it. So I think in terms of like, yeah, but here's the thing. Do you think you're going to get, I mean,

we're saying debut. So I'll take it to a question I guess not about that, because it's best debut but we're saying with you either way. Do you think you get a Hades too? That's not super giants the way.

It's not, but I think that they could. I think that Hades is hidden different than the other ones and I think that money and critical reception talks. You know, it's that combination speaks very loudly. Sure. And like they have great critical reception

to the other ones. But like, I don't know, I think this with the game of the year with all that stuff. I mean, I guess they do kind of have the pedigree of just like people respect them

and it doesn't necessarily need to be the specific title. But there's just, I think, feel and I still haven't beat this game, so there's still a lot more for me to experience. But like, I can imagine so much more in this world. Yeah, that was going to be my thing is I don't necessarily know if they would go for Hades to, but I don't think it would be outside the realm of possibility we get a Hades spinoff. That is, whether or not it's a rogue light or a different genre, I wouldn't be surprised

that they recreated what the gameplay looks for the next game. But I could see a Hades colon something else or even just call it something else entirely, but it is within the same world as Hades, which I think is a cool, idea for the exact reasons that Tim stated of critical reception and sales like speak and Hades has both of that. I love Super Giant, half since Bastion reviewed it way back in the day on Xbox for IGN. But I, and I'm not, never say never in video games, but like Greg and the team strike me as they want Super Giant to be a developer that people go, oh, whatever the game is, I'm excited

for. And I feel like they'd be the ones right now of like, we fucking crush it with Hades. What's our next idea? And granted, the next idea could be Hades too. I'm not saying that. But I feel like they're all so creative and want to do so many different things. Or even Bastian was so critically acclaimed. And we all loved so much.

It came to so many different platforms that I was surprised when they didn't do that, right? When it was transistor instead. And then, yeah, we're talking about Pire. We're talking about how they kind of reinvent themselves every time. Of course, they could easily say, well, no, no, we're going to do Hades too. I'm sure I would be thrilled. I'm going to be fastened to see what they do next. Yeah.

If it is a thing of like the game probably is going to get a sequel, then probably the answer changes to Immortals. Because like it's a Ubisoft, of course, it's going to get a sequel. But like in terms of best actual debut of like a game that could be a franchise, maybe a franchise, that's less what I'm focusing on and more than it's just, this game is just amazing. And I think like it's, is a game that's amazing untethered to anything else. It is not amazing.

Like, it's not because, oh, I need to finish the story from five years ago. or I can't wait to see what happens next. This is a thing that on its own is just incredible. Yeah, it's a new idea. Yeah. Greg, what's yours? Again, your question makes no sense. You know what I mean?

You don't know. First game of a franchise, but it's the best debut. You don't know what's coming again. So I'm drawn. First off, I probably would have said ghost as well. But what I'm drawn to do throughout here, and I know I'm going to get help for and I don't care, Spider-Man Miles Morel's.

It's Miles' debut. It's his first time being a playable. character in this. It's him, it's an insomniac establishing that he's going to be a playable character in this universe, that he's going to be cool, he's going to be different than Peter, that you can walk into this and you don't know much about him or who he is in this game and go from there. You're a fuck. You are a fucking fuck, Greg Miller. I want you to know that. Also, if you're going to say, Miles Morell, as you should give blessing time to give some objections. I know, he's always like that game. Where is this coming from? Why are you jumping on to this bit?

Yeah. I love that game. I like it a lot. From what I understand. and Blessing really hates Miles Morales. Yeah. Barry, can you bring up the review crew where he's the only person at IGN who didn't like it? It seems like... If he would directly address in that video as the only person there who hated the game.

If we're going to bring up Starryman Miles Morales, I'm going to bring up Sackboy Big Adventure for Best debut because that is the game that I think could... I think we could get a Sack Boy Big Adventure too. And even like divorced from that idea what this category is, as a quote-unquote new idea for what Sackboy is and what that franchise looks like, I really enjoyed that game.

Like, I think that game is fantastic. And I think for me, this is the most, this is most I've enjoyed, quote unquote, little big planet. And this is what I'd want to see them do going forward in terms of what to do with Sackboy. And so shout out to that also. Do you think, when you're talking about Little Big Planet,

you start talking about Media Molecule, do you think Dreams would fit in this thing as best debut, game in a franchise? Yeah, I forgot about dreams. most people you let the as usually yeah exactly and you let your hate

for miles getting the way how dare you how dare you how dare you let's move on to best story I want to lead this one off with like I think

the easiest answer for me which is last of us too I love the story I love the characters I love it working not necessarily as its own thing because like obviously you need the first game

for it to like really hit but the story that two tells I think is so powerful and adding it to the story of one, I never thought that I'd be able to enjoy a Last of Us 2 as much as I did the first one, specifically from a story perspective,

let alone enjoy it more. So that alone, adding to the performances and all that that go into a story and what makes a narrative matter to people, I think easily is my number one. Yeah, I think that's mine as well in terms of a number one with a bullet. I think that, you know,

it's rare to me. I mean, it's rare, I think, that I finish a game and I want to talk to everyone possible about it and see what they interpreted from it and what they took away from it. And then, you know, I joked around about it when we were doing stuff at the end of the year, but like the way they play with themes and the way they play with message and, you know, to use future days in there and have it be this whole backbone, right, of like, if I were ever, lose you, I'd surely lose myself. And all the different relationships you can put into that lens in this game and see how

it leads those characters to different choices and different outcomes and where it all goes. Like I think of, it's cheating to an extent, of course, because Last of Us, Part 2 is so dependent on Last of Us, Part 1. And granted, they are two halves, as Neil always says of the same story. But like, we came into that thing already knowing so much about those characters and having missed them for so long to get them and then have them go with choices we wouldn't agree with or things we wouldn't do. I thought it was really brilliant. Imrod, where you out with this one's story? I say

I think I just sang the praise of 13th Sentinel so I think that is up there for me I want to also go into yakuza 7 I think yakuza like a dragon is a very fascinating story it kind of goes a little overcomicated at some points with like mafia like where it goes

to the Japanese yakuza stuff but it's called yakuza so of course it does go there occasionally but like it introduces itchibon who is a fantastic protagonist that he he's like kiri was a very rigid character. He has a very unbending sense of moral justice. But Ichabon's thing is he has a sense of moral justice, but he's willing to like sit down and talk about something and go with a new perspective

and understand what makes someone tick. And I, we can talk about a game cast like before the break, but the fact that he has a perspective of, hey, I was homeless once. I was, I lived with, like grew up in a brothel essentially. Like it gives him this idea of there's all these people society throws away that I want to champion and protect. And that's something that like video games just don't tackle. Video games don't talk about that, much less Japanese video games, much less narrative video against general. So I really love that this game is willing to go this like extra mile to talk about here's all these uncomfortable situations, like comfortable people that don't have this big drama going on in their lives. They just live this life of quiet indignity that

society looks down on them for. And you have Itchibon who's there and the story that's there to shine the light on it and actually just champion them for it. And that's something that like we can talk about Lastin' Us 2 and all that of how it's like a human story. But I feel like it's a human story that nobody is ever going to possibly live.

This is like a human story that actually like decently relatable. Yeah, on my list of games here for Best Story, the one I put down was before I forget. If you remember, this is that indie game I talked about a while back on a gamescast. that's about you're a woman with Alzheimer's, right, and trying to piece together what has actually happened in your life

and what actually is going on in your house and who's actually taking care of you. And it keeps slipping, time keeps slipping, and you keep getting snippets and memories and following voices and shadows in rooms that aren't there when you get there. And, you know, it's meant to be the best depiction it can of dementia of Alzheimer's.

And it hit hard for me in terms of, like, I don't think, you know, that's why I'm talking about it in story and not gameplay or visuals or anything like that. It's very indie and rough around the edges, but the ride had me locked in the entire time. Before we move on from Story, I do want to give a shout out to Fall Fantasy 7 remake. That's a story that I've loved almost my entire life. And I think that the remake made some choices that a lot of people might not love.

I loved them. And I think that taking away even the end, the entire kind of the reimagining and the retelling of a story that I know so well in a way that I feel is actually a lot more concise and like enjoyable and understandable even to play through without kind of having to add a lot more imagination into it. I think they did a fantastic job of making these characters so fun, you know, and making me fall in love with Jesse. You know, like I was already in love with Tifa and Eris.

I've said this on the review, but like I never thought that I'd be adding a third to that, you know, but like the fall of NC7 remake did that. and it did that through story. So I just want to do that and shout out. I have three written down. And yeah, Final Fantasy VII remake was definitely one of mine. Just because by the time I finished that story,

it had sat with me and still sits with me. It's a story I'm going to remember in video games going forward. Like this feels like something that is iconic. And that is not even just through the writing alone and through story moments alone, but it is through performance. And it is through like certain shots of like, characters like zoomed into their face and you see the emotion.

Barrett, not our Barrett, but Barrett in the game. Like when he gives it. Our Barrett has no emotion. He's only said. Um, but when Barrett in the game gives a speech, right? And like you really feel what he's talking about. You really feel what he's saying. Like that's the thing that kind of hit home with me that I feel like is rare.

Like it's a rare feeling I had with that game that I, that I, uh, ever have with video games. And so I want to give a shout out to that one for that, uh, for that reason. I also had written down person of five Royal. Um, and I don't want to like get too deep into it because I think, A lot of the same reasons I love Persona 5 Royal Story are similar to why I love Persona 5 story. But with the added stuff, the ending of Persona 5 Royal had my favorite ending of a game this year, period. The way in which I love when stories do weird and interesting things with motive,

like with the bad guy or motive with the good guy and how they play around that stuff. And recently me and Barrett had a conversation. And we're actually comparing, this is a really weird comparison. We're comparing persona 5 to Star Wars and how like Star Wars the Last Jedi treats, and like the whole Star Wars sequel trilogy in general treats Kylo Ren and the other characters and their motives and like what is what is Kyleo Ren fighting for and all this stuff? We had that conversation and then kind of brought in persona 5 into it and talked about how the game treats certain characters like Akechie or the main character or other characters.

with no spoilers and how like you really get a sense with the sacrifices that characters make in that story and you know the things that they give up and fight for you get a sense of who they are and that's a thing that in person of five royal i feel like they doubled down on and did a fantastic job with and made me really toward the end of that game really feel what those characters uh motives were and what they were going through which shout out to that and then my other one which would be my number one uh i agree with you guys last part too um For the reason of like out of all the things that Nottie Dog did with the last of this part too, I think the thing that resonated with me the most and the thing that felt the most not out there, but like the most innovative I'd say in like a Nottie Dog game would be the story. Like this is the the most I feel like they've really thought out and confidently went for a thing. And like, you know, certain people may feel however they feel about it. But like for me, the story hits so well and worked so well with the things that they're establishing. And yeah, like I think it is easily for me, my favorite story this year. Greg brought up the, you know, texting people and wanting to talk about the end of or just lots of us two in general.

I just want to going back to Final Fantasy 7 for a second. Like, I, gamer moments, I will always remember texting him Ron the moment I finished Final Fantasy 7 remake and like having that back and forth discussion where it's like, this is why I play video games. Like I love this discussion right now. So like that's that's great. What a year for games. Yeah. And to really quick piggyback off of Royal. I've said this a lot this last year.

Like a catchy is Kyla Ren done right. And like there's a lot of things that Royal add specifically that like just really flesh out a lot of characters that I like, I didn't even really care for a catchy either way in the first game. And then like the things that they do specifically with the end of. of Royal is just fucking fantastic. And it's kind of similar to what Tim was saying. Like when I finished Royal or when I got to like the third semester of stuff in Royal, I was texting my Alex O'Neill, friend of the show of like, okay, I'm finally here. And like texting him theories of like what's about to happen and like having that reveal.

It's like holy shit. Like this is that that moment to me was like why I played video games. So that's what that's what hit me this year. Do shit. Best indie game. I don't think I have one. this year that I that stands out enough to me. Hades, what are you talking about?

Okay, okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's, I guess that's where like the indie kind of turns into a weird thing where it's like, yeah, they're indie, but like I don't really see them as indie. That's because you're, that's your box of indie. That's what you're putting Indies into. Totally is. But to me, it's the same way that you can put Miles Morales as best debut first game in a franchise. Well, it's just because it makes sense because there wasn't a franchise. So the only thing that would make sense is there's a franchise that he debuts in. I'm actually right. You're actually wrong. Spider-Man franchise.

Yeah, he debuted in it. Best debut game in the franchise. There you go. Okay. But anyways, what do you guys got? I think my answer would be Hades. I'm looking over a list to see if there's like anything I'm just missing. And like there's other stuff I wanted to play like Paradise Killer.

I know Bless really liked, but I just never had a chance to play it. I put Hades at the top of the list. You know, I'm a super giant stand. Haven't for a long time. Obviously, this one's so fantastic. I had played more of it on Epic Game. store then I haven't switched still, which is weird because I played it of night one of Epic Game Store and I played it day one of Switch, but I haven't gone back to actually sit down and

go over and over and over with it. But I can't argue with the quality of it. I then had shoutouts for Bugsnecks, which I had a great time going through and collecting, which was a weird game that wasn't, I mean, it's, you know, it's, it was a weird puzzler, right, of playing through with these cutesy weird bug snacks and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. But as we talked about it when we reviewed it, right, there was something, meditative about it, where it wasn't, I didn't feel like I was ever,

like, oh, fuck, I just wasn't fast enough to do this. Or, oh, God, now I'm gonna go back and redo all this. Like,

there was challenges of sitting there being like, what the fuck? And like, when I was trying to fill out the entire bug snacks index, whatever it's called, I'm sure Jen,

who, of course, is my wife who did a PR first, gonna bust through the wall and yell at me. But like, texting, and be like, I can't figure out how to get the fire cheap hoof.

And then him coming back and be like, okay, here's what you do. Put the trap here, get the bopsicle. I was like, ah, like those eureka moments, right,

were just hard enough. I felt that they didn't get me annoyed at it, but they also weren't so brained that I was able to walk through it. Like there were so many times that I'd play that game and see the, you know, the donut on the wall and be like, I bring it down and go in it. Well,

I can't catch it in this trap. What do I need? It's like, okay, well, I'll get it eventually. And then hours later, get that kind of trap,

come back, get it, and feel that extensive accomplishment. And then the other one I put here was blood roots, which is another actually Apopagenda game, but a game that I had no business thing I thought thinking that I would like you know what I mean like it always seemed like a high score chaser when you'd go to packs and you'd pass the booth and they'd be there uh you know doing all these different times and how fast can you kill all these things like I was like cool I'm sure I'll try it and I spent that was one of those games that ate an entire weekend it's all I did where I just sat there playing through the story going through doing it and having that the thing that caught me about super meat boy that I thought would have been a turn off back in the day but actually turned me on and I'm digging it uh of dying and be like, fuck, and the immediate restart of coming back and doing it again

and clearing the thing that killed you, but something else would kill you, and you come back and you die early on something, a jump you've made a hundred different times, like fuck, and just over and over and over again for this one very specific stage. Like, they did such a good job, I thought of making it challenging,

making it cute with what they were doing, but actually engaging in, you know, a really good game to play. So, like confusing indie games, though. I want to put Ori on this list, but is Ori actually count. No, because it's Microsoft Studios. It's Moon Studios and with Microsoft Studios.

Okay. Right. But yeah, I mean like, or you have, for me, I've thought about this quite a bit in terms of like how we talk about independent games and how like if he the term the term is. And like I personally made the decision to like separate the term indie from independent because like independent like independent like yeah. Like or he's not an independent game because it is Microsoft. Cuphead published by Microsoft all that stuff. Like we we know the weird examples with that. You know, the UB art games or EA

like it takes two and on all those games. But like when I think indie, Indy is like a more of like an undefinable term. I feel like we know it. It's like pornography where like you know it when you see it. It's hard to define it. Like you know it when you see it. I like that a lot.

Yeah. And so like I kind of put Orii in that category. I'll take the thumbs up. Thank you. Spirit Fairer I think would also be up there for me. Like that was speaking like speaking of meditative games, like that was like a really nice

like not at all challenging, but nice little Zen meditation on death basically and like dealing with grief and end of life. And I thought like not a lot of indie games go for it like that game did. So that is, that's a game if people were like, hey, what's a good indicator of 2020? That was what I definitely suggest.

Moving on. Go for it plus. Oh yeah. I got a bunch of shoutouts then I got to pick. So shoutouts out to Ori like you said. shout out to fall guys shout out to oh fuck yeah yeah shout out to the path list

that's all that really dug uh hadies and then manafel garden which is one that I didn't really get talked about as much this year but technically it came out or didn't it wasn't talked about as much in 2020 technically came out for PC in 2019 which is probably why

but it came out on PlayStation 2020 and I played it and I loved it for that but my actual pick is Among Us like Among Us is the game I played possibly the most This year, I put in so many hours to Amongus. I was playing it nightly with friends. And for the year that 2020 was,

Amongus was the game that brought me together with people the most out of any other thing. And really helped me kind of salvage like my social life a bit in 2020 in a way that was just kind of broken. And so like along with that, along with the amount of fun I had and along with the way that Amongus kind of took over culturally, you know, that has to be my number one. Best style, music slash art direction. This is another one that I feel like, like Hades is an easy answer, but I'm going Fall Fantasy 7 remake. I will again, talk about memories I have.

I'll never forget the first time I played it with Bless, but we got to go to a preview event. And then back in the old days, we could go places and shit. Hard to believe that was a year ago. This year. That's insane. But I'll never forget walking to go get some food after that.

And we're just like talking about it all. And like we're talking about the boss battle music that kicks in. And like how incredible this whole experience was that we got to play like four hours of it. Like the whole look and vibe and just they nailed Midgar in a way that like my imagination couldn't even do back in the day. But took all these classic amazing songs that have been classics forever, but somehow made them even better than they've ever been. Like that's the end made them new and added new things on top of that. Like all of that, the style of all of that, the style of all of that. remake, I think, is incredibly special.

When those who fight further kicks in against Airbuster, I'm like, holy shit. You're spending what is one of the best boss themes period on this, like, Malcolm, Spockham Robot. Yeah. It's like, that says so much about your game.

And, like, that's one of those things. Like, F-S7, it doesn't have, you know, style as you typically think of it. Like, it is in many ways of AAA game, but, like, I can imagine the rest of that world in that style. which is not an easy thing necessarily to like get me to imagine. And that just means they nailed that art style and that music and all that so well.

Great. Which category we're on? We are best style music slash art direction. Would you like to use its full title? This is of course the best style music slash art direction as brought to you by Clauss and Pickles. Claus and pickles. They're always chilled.

They're never heated. Excuse me one moment. Nothing gets me through a game. That's better than a good old-fashioned cloths and pick up. Are you needing a pickle with a fork? I am. You're not a real pickle fan. He's a fraud.

It's COVID, Tom. I'm over here touching all this stuff. I don't want to be dunking my hands in my pickles. Right? Now, you know what I mean? Um, God. I think the answer, I would put out is Ghost of Sashima, where I think that music and that art,

art direction especially here is what I think of when I think of ghost, where when we watched that state of play where, you know, they were riding through all the different environments and all the colors were there and was saturated. And then to show the Kurosaki mode, right, which was the black and white and super stormy and all these different things to Kurosawa. Thank you very much. All of that, I remember watching like, that's awesome. I wonder if the full game can do that.

And I thought it did where I was always excited. I remember when I left the first area finally after clearing everything and went into area two. And it was like, oh, there's a different vibe to this. Like this area has its own style. And I remember riding into that tree that's like dead. And there was like, Roning out there ready to fight me. And I was like, holy shit, this game I thought exuded style in that way. And the music's there for it.

But I'm calling specifically out art direction here in terms of what I thought made that game and the way the colors hit. the way the color splash and you know getting gin the all black outfit or the all white outfit dealing with those merchants making a style for him like there was style to ghost i thought and uh with that with your definition of style there ori and the will of the wisp definitely is up there for me of like the combination of music and color and uh especially now like with what everyone was talking about a couple weeks ago with the 120 frames per second like it's just it was fluid Now it's like even more just like smooth, beautiful neon butter. I also in this category, I want to give a shout at to Animal Crossing, which I know is just the style of Animal Crossing.

But again, for a game that I put so many hours into and was such comfort food. And I mean, just the, even when like now, you know, they do the new drops for content or whatever and they show the thing. Watch the video in the morning while I brush my teeth and you get the do do do do do do do it. God, like it immediately takes me back, right? And like turning it on and going to that world and seeing, again, I know it's just Animal Crossing, which makes it sound like, yeah, whatever. But like, it is Animal Crossing in 2020, now 2021, right? It is that feel that I had playing it in college on GameCube with all my roommates.

Like, there is a style and a music to that. Like, I was, I went to Rebstown yesterday and we just sat and watched the Aurora Borealis because it was like inner town. So, like, we just sat there and watched it. And like, it was a nice thing that no other game can do. Bless, best style, music slash art direction. Yeah, I love this category because of how subjective it is. I think this is the most subjective category we have.

And I'm actually in alignment with Greg. Ghost of Shima would be my ultimate answer for the reasons he said, but then also, you know, when we talk about how, I remember that during that last state of play that they had, that was specific for Ghostos Shima, I remember us watching it and being so excited when we saw how the wind blew. and like that was going to be the thing that would lead you to your objective where we saw the bird will fly by and lead you to a thing or the fox. Yeah.

And all that stuff delivered in a way that I thought was really well done and added to this feeling of, oh man, okay, this is an open world, but it's not strictly this, uh, go through your checklist, go to the icon and do the thing and move on to the next. Even though at a certain point for me, in my play through, it kind of ended up being that. But chasing the planet, it definitely became that. But when you're doing the story, you know, everything else didn't feel that way. Yeah, exactly. That's kind of what I did for the most part is, you know, I'm not a platinum chaser. And so when I beat the game, I beat the game. And that meant that, like, my, my, most of my experience was that, like, chasing a fox

and being led to this thing or chasing the wind or following the wind. And that being the thing that would lead me to my, to my objective and not having to worry about a mini map or whatever. And that game was just so beautiful. I used the photo mode in that game more so than any other game. And then when you factor in Ghostos Chima Legends into it, the way in which the art style for that mode is completely different. the art style for the main game and has this mythical, deadly, like, when you get into the raid

blood-drenched style to it at certain points, it is beautiful, amazing, and I'm so, I'm so blown away that they're able to pull it off in that way. But I do have quite a few shout-outs I want to give to this category. I'm not going to be long-winded. Shout, obviously, to Final Fantasy 7 remake. Cyropunk 2077 would probably be my number two pick for this category. I think the style for that game is one of the best things it has going for it when you talk about, uh, uh, set dressing in terms of the world building and how you walk around. You, you, you, when you first walk out into the world, after you get down from the elevator from your apartment, you see, the first thing you see is like, uh, Johnny, or not Johnny, uh, what's name of your homie? The, the dude. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Jackie, Jackie, Jackie. Jackie. You see, you see Jackie and you like hang out at the sushi spot. How easily forgotten. Hey, I don't want to. I don't want to. spoil any of the choices you do in the game or anything. All right. But you see him and like you eat, you eat food with them and you like you go through and you see, you see all these different bits of set dressing and ways to make a feeling of

this world being dense and being this truly different cyropunk world. I think that stuff hit for me really well. Along with the soundtrack, I think is awesome. Also, shout out to 13 Sentinels, Hades, obviously. Astros Playroom, which has such an excellent, excellent, excellent style. That's a extremely good answer. Yeah.

Like that's one that like even even in the way that they use the dual sense contributes to the style in that game where everything feels so like alive and how it looks

and feels in a way that really uplifted the style of that game. And then also shout out to sackboy a big adventure which obviously has a little big play in style

which we're used to and which looks great. But then also a soundtrack that I think most people are going to overlook because the main thing music like I remember playing the first couple levels of Stackboy and being like okay they're going for

they're going for something here like this this has a bounce to it and the further and further I got into the game the more and more I was blown away by the the versatility of the soundtrack and how so many of the songs sound different for what the level is and then there are songs in there that are surprises you know once to get to those certain levels and that stuff for me hits so well I am surprised blessing you did not mention Ghostrunner oh that's a good one it's like it's in my like my second tier probably. If I had multiple tiers, it would be my second of best style. I think I want to also throw out a shout

out for Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity. Because one, that game has a bang and soundtrack. Like, it takes a bunch of good Highroll Warriors or good Breath of Wild music. It makes a butt rock out of it. It's like fantastic. And two, like, its style is Breath of Wild, but guess what? Breath of Wild style is amazing.

So like, there are sections, like, I don't know how far easy have you guys gotten that. But like, there's big battles in the castle towards the end of the game. that just look amazing because like it's raining there's fire everywhere there's like lightning coming in the sky it's like oh this looks like they really went for it it it clearly reflected in the frame rate but they really went i i want to give some love to uh mafia definitive edition where it's like i know like the the art style like the graphic it's the art style isn't interesting but the way that they're able to transport you to that world i think in just the the world that they were able to build in the um Prohibition era, the music, and the acting. Like, that game has, like, a really cool style that I just want to give some love to. Also, obviously, shout out to Persona 5 Royal.

I didn't want to say Proto 5 Royal, just because I thought it was. Yeah, yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. I didn't want to bring out, like, the style because even though I do think it's more of, like, a newer game than just an expansion, like, a lot of people argue to me. Like, it's the same style as, uh, the base game, but just like, 4K now, you know. Although there are some good

hot new tracks in Royal. Yeah, there are. Next up, we got Best Remake slash Remaster, which is another weird one, but like we didn't really get too many remasters this year off the top of my head. But in terms of remakes, I got a whole bunch of

ones I want to talk about, but I have to, I have three that I want to mention right here. And one might surprise you. Ooh. Number one, the answer is Final Fantasy. Are you fucking kidding me? It's incredible. I can't believe it was that ridiculous

of a success. It got me to love it. You know what I mean? The first Final Fantasy I've ever completed. It's nuts, man. Then I got to go and give as much love as possible to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2. They did it.

They nailed it. They've tried it before and failed so bad. And man, I don't think I've ever seen a franchise turn around that much. And it just absolutely nail it. And my favorite thing about it is that the music is so important to the vibe and world and gameplay even of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and having all the songs from one and two in addition to an equal amount of new songs that fit perfectly

with that vibe and it made me feel like I felt when I was a young teen playing these games like I listened to the Tony Knox Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake soundtrack on Spotify almost every day and it's like that is crazy that it's new songs it's not just the old ones that I'm listening to every day. So shout to them for that. Really hope they keep going. But my last one I want to give a shout out to is Resident Evil 3. And now here's the thing. Okay.

I, the game, nowhere near as good as Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 3, way too short, had a lot of problems, some weird choices, blah, blah, blah. I just would love, if we just got that type of game once a year, I'd be so happy. Like, I'm kind of bummed that we don't have, we didn't get a Resident Evil. Actually, God, time is so crazy. We did this year, but we're not getting one next month.

You know, Village is coming out at some point. But just the gameplay of the remade Resident Evil games. I'm super into. And I just kind of love the B movie style, as opposed to a last of a super intense zombie type story. I just love the, A, you're just, you're fucking these zombies up. You know what I mean? Like we're going through the hospital and like all these like locations that we're familiar.

with. But again, Resident Evil 3 was never my favorite Resident Evil. So I think that that means that was never going to be my favorite game of the year. But I do think that the remake was really good. The graphics are so good. The characters and what they did to remake Resident Evil 3 was fantastic. I think like their aspects of the RA3 system, like the R3 remake system, they like better than R82, like the dodging quite a bit.

I bet that carries over into four. But like overall, that game, it cut a few, it's like the game the base game wasn't itself that amazing and they cut a few too many things from that but it was still a very enjoyable remake yeah i understand why they why they don't do this for obvious reasons but like if if r3 came out before r2 i would have appreciated it way more um but like going into r3 with with having played r2 remake it was like okay cool this is more the same which is cool but if we're judging it as a standalone game like i'm not as excited but for what it is removed from context,

I think it's still such a fun package and still a good time and it still looks beautiful and what's his name, not Mr. X or whatever, but like Abomination, is that his name? Abomination. The bad guy? Are you three? Tyrant. No.

Tiret. Mimesis. Yeah, yeah. Abomination of the Marvel. Both of you were like, what? I was fucking liking, man. He was definitely like a cool, cool villain.

Yeah. great. I mean, I put, yeah, it's Final Fantasy 7, I think right off the top, right?

And I think you got to give a shout out even though it's, maybe it will be after a bloodbore my cup of tea, but Demon Souls, right? Like, I think that,

even for the hour I played of that on stream, I was like, this is, I, this is enjoyable and holy shit, does it look great. That's kind of where I was going to. Like,

a H. H.07 remake is it with a bullet. No, no doubt about that. Demon souls is a really good remake. There's like, they took an art style that is incredibly hard to translate.

They made a couple, changes I don't necessarily agree with, but they made one of those things that everyone praises from Software 4, and they made it look good again. And that is not only difficult, is it so much pressure I can't possibly imagine. I want to shout out also,

Persona 5 Royal. I've talked about it to death. I don't have to go off about why it's amazing, I guess, remaster slash remake, quote unquote, but such a good, such a good like, I guess, expansion of that game. Yeah. I want to shout out Mario Sunshot. No, actually not.

Oh, Mario 64. Also, I should shout out because, like, I know they didn't do, they didn't do the things we wanted to, we wanted them to. They didn't make it 1080. They didn't do, they didn't do anything, but they made it portable. And so, did we did. Yeah, we did. We did.

Oh, God, I love that game so much. And then a shout out to 13. No, wait, really? I'm joking. I'm joking. Okay, good. I was like, it was terrible. The one you tried to play on PSI,

love you're like woof god i can't even see that if people were not even loading in uh we have our final two categories here best ongoing game fortnight come the fuck on you kidding me let's go fortnight is up there we all came back to it you know what i mean and when i say we all i mean me barrett and blessing him for this call but you guys aren't anybody were ever into it but we were all back so hard barrett's still addicted to it still trying to get people to drop with them i mean i started playing to be fair i haven't touched in like a week and a half or two weeks Gary Witt is that you? Yeah.

That's a letter, Kenny, reference. But weren't you, aren't you today? Just today on Games Daily trying to get us to drop tonight. Because Kevin is one to play. So, Kevin and I were talking yesterday about playing tonight. So that's why I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I think you're still in, you know?

Should we do some drops tonight? We should. Where are we dropping? I'm not doing. Shout out to Moral Combat 11 Aftermath. I just got to. I love that story. I know we don't think of it as an ongoing game.

That's why it is. Not the quality. The quality's there for sure. Yeah. But, like, it's ongoing. And it's an expansion. And so aftermath I loved and it's a really good continuation of that story. It has me very excited for whatever Moral Combat 12 is.

I'll say, see you of thieves is, like, great. Every time my friends and I get together with that game, we have a new story to tell, even if we only play for like a couple out. Like, a couple of weeks ago, we came onto an island and went, like, we looted that island and, like, got all the trailer chest. We saw one ship that kind of, like, sail by, but we didn't think much of it. On the way back to sell back the stuff, one of my friends goes up to the, like, the crow's nest,

and there's just a guy hiding there on our ship. And he's like, like, he literally types in he-he-he to the text chat and, like, kills us and takes our stuff. That's awesome. That's awesome. Like, you don't get that in most of the games. I'm like, yeah, there's not a lot of, like, structure to see of these. I think that's why it works super well.

I want to give a shot to fall, guys. I was like real into it season one and never really got into season two. Like, I think it played it maybe once or twice. but yesterday playing with the custom server with everyone and with Gary, I was like, this game has changed so much, but the core of what makes it fun is still right there for me that I tonight want to just keep playing more because it was fantastic.

So just a shout out there. I think Smash has been killing it this year. Like, yeah, the characters have been slowed down, but like every character they put in has been killer. That is true. Steve's been great. Min Min is great. Like Sephora just like.

fantastic. I wish I had more people to play that game with, but... Dude, Imron, let's play. Seriously, I keep telling you, we should reach the place of Smash Brothers. And the most important thing that Smash Brothers did this year, Imran, is finally at all of the spirits, even if you missed them. So you can finally catch up and get them all. Do you have them all? I have them all now, do you? Of course, I do.

Okay, good. I'm so proud of you. And then the final category of the week is best. game studio. I think it's super giant. I think it's super giant if you expand it at large, right? I think that Hades is a hell of a game.

I think that you want to talk about the quality of the games they have put out as a company, Bastion, transistor, Pire, now Hades. I think also goes far in the conversations we continue to have on games daily and everywhere else that they made a point to be like, no, no one crunched on Hades. We did not crunch. Not only did they not crunched, remember, too,

they released it in early access. They released a game that so many people think, is game of the year in early access, meaning that people saw the wards, they did their thing, they put their money down if they wanted to, but they did right by their audience in putting down their money on a game and working on a game rather than taking your money and trying to patch it later.

Not that that's a demonization of every other game studio, but for other ones you'd bring into this conversation, I think that's one of them, the crunch stuff for other ones you bring into this conversation, specifically naughty dog, right? Which I think made a masterpiece with Lasto's Part 2, but there were so many reports of crunch in fucking hard-ass work environments and things like that.

I think I'd rather see it happen the way it happened for Super Giant Hades. I'd rather see it come out early and be worked on in front of everybody and nobody has to be destroyed or raked over the goals. Yeah. In a lot of ways, sorry to interrupt, in a lot of ways like Hades feels like the anti-Sympong 277 in a way where, you know, it came out for what Greg said, right, did early access, right, and then came out and people flocked to it

and people ended up loving it. And in a lot of ways, I think Hades is very easily, like, a good standout story of early access done right in a way that I hope other developers look at them and be like, okay, cool, they could do it. We can do it. And we can have a better release this way that is more natural. And to what our conversation was on KFUG today being Tuesday. Yeah, today being Tuesday, the fifth, right? Like, we had a whole conversation about releasing bugs and like what is acceptable and what's not acceptable. and being able to release and have all your words out

and be this thing that's still in progress, evolve into a thing that is game of the year. I think it's super impressive. I'm going to throw at Moon Studio. Because, like, ORI in the Will of the Whiff did not necessarily launch super well. Like, we did their, that was the last review we did in the studio this year.

God. But, like, that game was, you know, it had some problems. And they've been, like, steadily working on it through the year. They put out a Switch version that ran better than the Xbox One version launched. which is, you know, insane for a number of reasons. And like, by this point, you can't play Ori in like 6K or 120 FPS.

And it looks amazing. Like, they have a better product now than it did when it launched because they put the time and work into it. Yeah. I'm going to go with the, it's not a weird one, but part of my reasoning is kind of weird. But I'm going to say insomniac, because going with this, with what Greg's talking about, about thinking about all the crunch and all that stuff, like insomnia have also like, been very public about what they do and like how they handled not making crunch a thing. Sure.

But they are, you know, obviously a much, they're making a much bigger game, a much more AAA game than some of the ones we're talking about here. And the part that's weird is we don't know the quality yet, and it's technically not 2020, but announcing Ratchet and Clank and Spider-Man, Miles Morales the same day. and then Miles and Miles coming out being as good as it is as, you know, like full as it is and as much of a PS5 experience as it is when you play it on a PS5. And knowing that Ratchez and Clank is hopefully coming in the next couple of months and I expect the quality to be there. I'm just super impressed with their workflow with the pipeline that they've created that after kick an ass in 2018 with Spider-Man to then come back and have it just feel like it's this like one-two punch. I feel like last year when we had a similar conversation about all this stuff, Bless was really banging the drum, and as were a lot of people for respawn,

where it's like they're the best games to do. And a reason for that was it wasn't just one game. It was like, look, they had a year of multiple titles that kind of fill, you know, like different holes that people are looking to fill. And I think with insomnia, we're getting something similar. And it's weird because it crosses over years, but fuck it, I'm saying insomnia. No, I think that's a great thing. I think you make a great case for it, too.

I also want to shout out a sucker punch. Like, in terms of Goof-Farmorca and, oh, yeah. Bad studio. Bad studio. That's a good point. That's a very good point. I didn't think about that. Putting out Goshener, right, which I think I made the point before,

that that being a pivot from infamous and being a different type of game for them to make, I think was impressive on its own. But then adding in legends being this alternate mode for free that allowed you to play co-a-up of friends and it being as quality and as awesome as it was. I think also is another thing that should be looked at as like, wow, like that's very impressive. And then alongside like a lot of, for me, apprehension I had going into Ghostoshima. And like I was looking forward to the game. I thought the game was going to be good. But like there are these little points of like, okay, you guys are making a Japanese game or like a game set in Japan as a Western developer and like, are you going

to be able to pull it off? Is it going to feel like it is, you know, taking from this culture and not necessarily doing it justice. And, you know, it seems like they pulled it off. Like, it seems like they, they, they were really able to put out something that felt as authentic as it could be for what it is. And, like, having our interview with them and talking them, and them talking about how, yeah, we went to Japan and we went and we talked to people. And we got consultants and we did all this work to make that work.

I think that looked at and applauded. And so shout out to sucker punch. There you go. Shout out to all of them. Shout out to video games. Shout out to video games. That's cool. I'm so happy.

Shout out to cloths and pickles. Oh, Lord. I'm so glad to be back here with you guys talking about games. We'll be here for you. YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. We are about to do the post show for patreon.com slash kind of funny games supporters at the Silver membership or above. We're doing a very special, Imran or Imright.

I think that's what we call it. It's somewhere around. We can't remember. Yeah, it might be wrong. Whatever. Thank you.