Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Biggest Video Game Disappointments This Generation - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

Halo Infinite, Marvel’s Avengers, the PS5 UI, and more have let Greg, Bless, Andy, and Mike down, so let’s talk about it. Plus, we have a Soul Hackers 2 preview! Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:11:10 - Housekeeping 00:16:38 - Soul Hackers 2 Preview 00:47:01 - Ads 00:48:49 - What game has been the biggest disappointment for you this console generation? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside Forbes 30 under 30, aka the future class of video games, aka the OK Beast Blessing. Adioia, Jr. What's up, Greg? Not much, man. How are you doing? I'm doing good. I check my mail today. What happened? I checked my mail today. Oh, sure. What you go? Is this an improv bid you all planned? What the fuck? That's not how improv works, Andy. I'll check my mail because I ordered an online order for clothes. I was checking an outfit that I really wanted. And as I'll check my mail, I came across the postcard with Taylor Swift on one side. I tore it in half because I wanted to hide my address. Taylor Swift was on one side and on the other side was a note written to me. It says, hey, blessing, that Andy sure is rude to me, eh?

Thanks for sticking up for me. You're a real pal. And pal is written in capital letters with red. And then at the bottom it says, I don't know what it says. I don't know what it says at the bottom, honestly. It says Narme B-Dog, which I don't know what that. Like, does this mean anything to you guys?

Is it backward? Yeah, good by Imran. Backwards. Oh my God. God. It says good I, Imran. No, yeah, no, goodbye, goodbye, Imron.

Yeah, there's a B in there. There's a B. Okay, gotcha. Interesting. That's a B. God. It's a B right there. Yeah.

Huh, that's weird. Who sent that, I wonder. I don't know, I didn't have a return address. Huh? That's a pretty infamous and famous signature there, though, right? I've never seen it before in my life. Andy, have you ever seen that signature, Hispanic, heartthrope, Texas, treat Latino heat, clicking in heads and ripping them to shreds, the glow trotting, headshotting, rootin, tooting, nitro rifle from twitch.

Dot TV, Andy Cortez. I have, I've gotten two packages just like that, bless. I've gotten two postcards in the mail. One of them also said goodbye, Imran. Um, we're going. Does anybody know? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. But then the other one, one of them had the word, uh, backwards. Um, trust. Trust that it's spelled T-shirt. It said, don't. Yeah, it said, uh, don't try. Yeah, trust us backwards. I'm not really sure. I mean, one of these days, this, the people looking up the all the zodiac sort of ciphers are going to figure out what's happening here. Bless. So I guess we'll figure out in like 20 years and we're all dead. I'm surprised I didn't figure out honestly

because this is a very Escape Academy like puzzle right here. It's the exact same puzzle that was on Andy's, you know, that you were on the show. So the way this one works, because you know, the postcards are my favorite gift to myself

is yours definitely took a trip. Because when Andy showed his last postcard, at that time I reached over, took out the postcard, wrote it to you blessing. Then I set it aside for at least four weeks. Then I was like, oh, I got to pay some bills.

I'll be right on time. And so I put the stamps on everything. And then I took it to the car and I said, Jen, we got to mail these today. And then we went downtown for some reason. And then we hit them in the glove box. Forgot for a good two weeks. And then I was like, wait, do we ever mail those bills?

Jen's like, no, they're in the glove box. So I had to run out and mail all that stuff. And there was. I forgot that was even in there. Gift that keeps on giving. You call it a puzzle and it's just you wrote something backwards. Is that a puzzle? You're a big Batman fan.

Do you think the Ridler's first riddle of all time was just like, oh, man, you got to go get this thing and get the sun. to shine. No, he started small. I'm starting small. The Graveller, not known for his riddles, all right. So he's just getting there, teasing something about Imran. It's surprising. None of you have gone to protect this man or told him that. Also, it doesn't kidnap children, but also not about it. Not above it. Oh, look. Oh, look, we have a new mystery unfolding here by the grab by the riddler. No, this is definitely the grabler. It's too easy of a puzzle. Yeah, no, it's a level one. That man just looks. He's like it's trust backwards. It says goodbye,

I got to go. Don't bring this over to me. Master of Hype, Snowbike, Mike, what do you think all these postcards? Oh, man, love being part of the chaos. You know, I think I was here for the last time we did a postcard session. So maybe it's just a reoccurring thing.

You know, Greg, I'm so glad that you, you know, really reach out to these guys on your team and make sure they feel valued and cared for. And like, you know, I hope these two really appreciate the work that you do for them, you know? Man, it'd just be, if Mike didn't live so fucking far away, maybe it'd be easier to mail him things. But here I am.

like Jesus of Nazareth with this cross to bear of a PlayStation 5 fucking console cover that I can't get to this kid forever. The worst about it too is that of course we were only supposed to be working from home for two weeks. But somewhere in the fucking studio buried, wrapped up with all the technology waiting for one of us one day to go in there and work from a studio again is a fucking shopping bag with a frisbee and a coozy for that fucking shark RPG game. Nick is definitely thrown that out by the man eater. No, I think it actually got, I think it actually made it because even when I went in there one time during pandemic, I was like, oh, this is for Mike. I think I put it in my drawers, parrot. Like, it's there. And the alien from Destroy All Humans still at my house for Mike as well.

And that's the thing is, Mike, we had to stop sending you stuff because you got to come get it. All right. It's time for you to come get stuff. All right. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, of course, Tim Getty's not here, bitten both eyes by snakes, but I pulled one of the Lecroys he left at my house. So there you go, everybody. Tim lives on in spirits.

it's innocent berry what is it innocent oh I guess you does say innocent huh there's no way that in the normal raspberry and then at the bottom it says oh it's like the thing zero sweetener zero sodium innocent

equals innocent I've never paid attention to LaCroixen in my life you know I've never described a drink as innocent like I don't like the usage of that word on a can on a of Croix. Mike, here's what I have a question for you. This is jumping off a kind of funny

games daily from earlier in the week. How do you feel that right now, we are having a great intro to this episode, but for a lot of these sick fucking freaks out there, it's ruined, because all the times I paused have been cut out. So all the funny pauses, the pacing I'm here, you know, I'm like, Andy, I don't think of myself too highly, right? But clearly I'm like the Julia Childs, a video game podcast. All right? And I'm out here and I'm going bam and I'm making this delicious meal and I'm pacing it a specific way. And I'm doing that thing like the fancy cocktail bars.

Did Julia Child go bam? I thought that was bam. Emeraldogasi. Yeah, nowadays they're all one. And I'm taking the thing off and the smoke's coming out and people like, oh, the presentation. And then somebody's ruining it, Mike. There is listen to all the words shoved together in like a disgusting trough. I would never listen to a podcast that you created Greg Miller that way.

Awful. Thank you, Michael. Awful. Thank you. I'm kind of sad that they didn't have, I don't think they have that functionality on Spotify, because I try to do it today, because I said I was going to do it on KFGD.

It's what I listened to the, it's actually not the latest episode, but this episode I'm on of the Boy Meets World podcast, Pod Meets World. It's the episode actually where they got Mr. Feeney on for the first time. Okay, so the episode, I thought you were on that part. You were on the Boy Meets World podcast. I was like, what?

No, I, oh my God. Listen, Tepanga, Daniel, I should call you by your actual name. Daniel, if you want to have me on the podcast, I got a lot to say about Boyman's World. It's my favorite. That'd be like use of being on the Scrubs podcast. That was a big moment too.

Yeah. See, that was a big moment, but it was out of the blue. Where it was like that where I didn't feel like there was a buildup to that. He was just on it. There was no narrative, you know? Like, there was a narrative or wasn't a reader male? It was, uh, well, no, they had him, uh, he was on a segment, I believe. And it was kind of built up if you listen to the episodes because they were getting

stuff sent from Ubisoft because they talk about video games on that on that podcast as well and it was when you connect the dots and then when they introduce them they're like hey like he's the guy who's who helped send us and you guys games and stuff so he bought his way on he didn't I don't you're saying I need to buy my way on to Bobby's pod me I mean I maybe as your lawyer I don't know maybe we'd have to have a sidebar on our own to talk about that but you know I'm trying to think of because they don't talk about video games, right? They're like, they're talking about adult shit most of the time. They're actually talking about inside baseball of what it's like to work on a sitcom,

especially as a kid. It's very fascinating stuff. I don't know if there's anything like, actually we've had Wolfredale on the podcast. I guess that's the one connection. Yeah. Greg, is there anything like, is there anything I can pull together to either send to them or something I can say to give me on this podcast? Because I'm not one to beg to be on shows.

I've never been to beg to me on a podcast in my life. I've never heard this man beg for anything in his life. He's never big. But I'll beg to be on Podmese or old. I really want to talk to the three of them. I can't see what we can do. Set up and cut a promo. Okay.

Hold on. Everybody, I know what you're going to say, hey, we'd love to, you know, get to the games. I came for game stuff.

We'll get there in one second. Right now we're going to give blessing the floor. Barrett start a stopwatch. He has up to 60 seconds. If he wants to end early, he can. But this is the pitch that Roger Pocorney will break out, and we will send to,

I'm not good on the spot like this. I feel like we, like we should we know this by now. I don't like 60 seconds. Your 60 seconds are starting now. Listen, Daniel Fisiel, Wolfredel, and Ryder Strong. I'm such a big fan.

I've listened to Boy Means World. I've watched Boy Meets World on my life. I've been listening to PodMeets World and let me tell you, that's a fantastic podcast you got there. And if you want to have a Boy Meets World super fan on your show, look no further than me. I'll come through. I'll hang out. I'll watch an episode. I'll talk to you guys

about that episode and it'll be a great time. Have me on. During that, it sounded like you were about to threat like there was almost like a great podcast be ashamed of something happened to it destroyed that podcast we're about talking to Spotify get it shut down I don't know if it's Spotify podcast I digress anyway I was gonna listen to that podcast with the spaces cut out but Spotify doesn't have that functionality sadly sadly I mean do does nobody respect to the the comedic silence and letting the jokes sit like I don't I what is happening

with this generation you know us as us is As Gen Z years, because I'm a Gen Z just like bless, us as Gen Z years. I'm a millennial, first of all. I'm a millennial just like blessed, but like, you know, leaning towards Gen Z. We need to come together because like what's going on? Come together. I understand listening to podcasts on 1.25 speed. Cutting out the silence, that's a bridge I will not.

That's a bridge too far. All right. Here's what I'll say. Spotify does have up to 3.5 speed, which I didn't know was a thing. That's not great. Why? Sounds outrageous. Yeah.

Why? I was trying to forwarding at that point. Just play a record backwards at that point. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Kind of Funny Games cast each and every week, we come together to talk about all the things we love

and sometimes don't love about video games. If you love that, come be a part of the show on Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Over on Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games, you can write it to be part of the show. You can get the show ad-free. You can get it with the exclusive post show we do. That's the award-winning,

because Mike gave it an award. Award-winning trivia games show. show kind of feudy it was a big breakout for us last week a lot of people tuned out in for the first time thank you for doing that that means a lot to us we had a great time and i'm sure we'll have another great time today when i win as always andy those great numbers on ticot i know if you guys and if the kids like it if the gen z's like it on ticot there you go um on top of that on patreon dot com slash kind of funny games you could usually watch us record the show live right now we can't because of an embargo we apologize for that but that's why we're here with the hot

scoop's snow bike smoke i mean well i don't know i don't know i don't Hold on a second. I don't want trademark infringement. As a Damon Hatfield lawsuit, I'm not about to get involved with, all right? If you have no bucks to toss our way, it's no big deal. There are a number of free ways to support the show. Number one, the most easy when you're buying something on the Epic game store or buying V-Bucks on Fortnite on your platform or choice, or buying Rocket League tires or whatever the hell you're doing in that game. Use the Epic creator code, Kind of Funny, all one word.

It doesn't cost you anything, and it gets us a few bucks from Epic, which is very nice. If you want to go and support this show, of course, you get on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games, roosterteeth.com and podcast services around the glow each and every week. Of course, there's a slew of other content shows on Patreon, including ladies and gentlemen, the brand new weekday show, Xcast. That's right. The kind of funny Xcast has moved, ladies and gentlemen,

from a Saturday published to a Wednesday morning published. Of course, you can get early on Patreon, watch this record live on Tuesday, get it ad-free and everything else Tuesday night. Mike, how are you feeling about being a week show on the weekdays? You know, me and my gaming dads really loved celebrating the end of the week with Xcast and recording that and going off into our Friday evenings. But we'll adjust. We'll figure it out, you know. No, but hold on.

Mike, hold on. That's not at all right, though. I was going to take it away from you. Mike and I always have like a mini meeting after every Xcast, see how we feel, talk about the thumbnail headline, all that stuff. And I want to bring up yesterday after recorded our first Tuesday record Wednesday posting, We talked about, you know what, now that it's not at the end of the week, you know, we're not, we're not getting the dads who are exhausted by the end of the work week. Sure.

They're a little, they're still rejuvenated. There's, it's still the beginning of the week and they still have that energy. So we felt really good about the episode recorded yesterday. Mike, don't come in here being like, oh, yeah, you know, we'll miss. We'll miss it. We have asked it and it was what it was. What are you going to do? It's a great episode.

It's not the position we want to be in, but these are the cards we're dealt. We'll be there next week, y'all. Blessing, you have a question? Yeah, so Mike calls Gary and Paris's two gaming dads. Greg, when are you going to start calling me and Janet your gaming's gaming son and daughter? There's not that big of an age difference, you know what I mean? Because Gary's just turned 50, all right? Yeah.

When there's that big of a gap, there will be, all right? You don't think there's that big of a gap? I can do the massive gap. Mike, how old are you? I'm, because me and Dan are both. 32. 32, which means there's an 18-year difference between. That's a full child.

That's gonna add. And so now how old are you? There he's not 50. Yeah, yes, you just turned 50. Gary is not 50. Gary is 50. Yeah, he is. Are you guys?

Birthday? Because he's gonna be pretty pissed if you miss his birthday. Wait, are you guys joking with me? No. Birthday was literally last week he just turned 50. He did not turn 50. No, he is 44. Blessing that's younger than Nick.

Wait, Nick. Nick, how old is Nick? He's 45? You gotta get blessing in the office, man. Nick is 41. I was gonna say Nick is like 41. He's in his early 40s. There's no way Nick is past the age of 42 at the most.

He's not 41. Like, Gary is 50 years old? Yeah. I thought Nick is like 41 or 42. I mean, Paris is 62, right? He's old as hell. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

Paris is the same age as Nick. Right? Like 42? 40. I don't know how old are you? know how old Greg, you're 39,

right? I'm 39, so yeah. So Nick is 43 then, or 42. So yeah. All right. So blessing,

if you're 21 years old, then your math works out and yeah, you can be a gaming child. Yeah, no, point proven. Thank you.

Thank you. The other points we're going to prove to you, of course, that our Patreon producers are awesome. Thank you, Fargo, Brady, Delaney,

Twining, James Hasting, Casey Andrew, full stop. Not of the show. Keep recording. Ah, damn. It's one of those things

Joey put somewhere in a weird DM. God damn it. Delaney. Twining. That's it, right? We've been saying Delaney's last name wrong. He was nice enough to finally write in on Patreon and let us know. Twining is right. That's right? Twinning. Because it is twinning is what we've been saying, but it's twining.

Correct. Got it. Delaney, twining, we thank you for your support. You, of course, have supported. I'm pretty sure as I look through my notes here for 18 months. So I will now say your name 18 times. Twining, twining, twining. I'm kidding, we won't do. Today we're brought to you by me on music time, but we'll tell you about that later for now. Let's start the show with preview of the show.

Preview, preview, preview, preview, ladies and gentlemen, the reason we're embargoed is that there is a sole hacker's preview list lifting right now. The one and only blessing at E.O.E.J. Jr., and Barrett Courtney have been playing through this. If you don't know, here's the synopsis. Of course, coming August 26th to PC, PlayStation, Xbox. 25 years have passed since the release of Devil Summoner Soul Hackers,

which amassed the cult following by meshing a distinct sci-fi style into the universe of Shimagame Tensei. Inheriting the essence of the Devil Summiner series and Soul Hackers, the title, this one, returns after remaining dormant for a quarter century with an elevated, evolved concept chronicling a new tale of humans and technology. The protagonist, Ringo, an agent of ion, must join forces with Devil Summoners to stop the world's end. You'll be utilizing comps, special gadgets for devil summon demons to summon demons and wipe out enemies.

Blessing and Barrett, we'll start with Bless. How much of this have you played and where are you playing it? I played about six hours. I am playing it on PS5. Barrett, same question for you. I've played two hours on PS5 and two hours on the Steam deck. Oh, okay, damn, that's right. Well, Bless start us off.

How is Soul Hackers? So you remember late last year when Shimagami Tensei 5 was coming. out and we did our preview of that game. And a lot of people got mad at us because we were comparing it a lot to persona. Of course. Strap in. We have not learned a thing because we're going to compare this to persona. There's going to be a lot of that.

Again, there's not saying persona came up with these ideas. We're just talking about it from a persona fan's perspective. Yeah. And I think it is more applicable. Like I kind of, on one hand, I kind of understand where a lot of that came down last time because Shimigama Tensei is established. Shimigami Tensei is its own thing. and Shimagama Tensei has this identity outside of persona,

and I don't think people are coming to that game for the persona-type experience. Soul Hackers has been away for 25 years, and this is Atlas bringing SoulHackers back, which, again, is in that Shimigame-Tensei umbrella of games. Sohackers, too, I would say, is trying to do way more persona-like things than what a Shimigama Tense 5 did.

And to that extent, in a lot of ways, did bring me in. The combat system feels like it's ripped right out of a persona game with some slight tweaks. It does have that type of style and presentation. You press 1, you press X to get into your attack, you press trying, like the, the snappiness of a persona 5 type combat system is there. And it presents that way for a lot of it. It also takes place in a modern day Tokyo.

In fact, it takes place in a near future Tokyo. I want to say it's probably like, what, 2030, like maybe 10 or 20 years past present day. in a in a in a uh a Tokyo that is I was gonna say fill of crime I guess not filled with crime but it's filled with like different factions of like organizations that have devil summoners which are people that can summon demons to then come out

and battle each other I I've been having a decent time with this with this game outside I'm in the okay range not great I think the big thing the big place where this game kind of comes down for me is in budget and presentation it feels budget a lot at a time. Like, it feels like in ways it wants to go and do persona-like things. You know, it has the overall.

You are running around in Tokyo for, to some extent of it, but you are hopping around in menus to kind of get to the different parts. Then also, when you're doing things like going into the gun shop or you're going into the clothes shop to buy upgrades, you're not actually going into the shop or there's not, there's not like a shop space where you're running around. It is all menus. Uh, music is decent at times, good at times, honestly. the composer for this game is Kachee Okabe's team,

who people might know from the Near Games. And if you know me, you know that I fucking, I love and adore Okabe's stuff. I think the Near Games have some of the greatest soundtracks ever made. This feels like the B team or even the C team of Okabe's team of people coming through and doing the soundtrack.

It's funny because when the game first started, when I first booted it up, it has a scene that has music that sounds like it's ripped right out of near. and I got hell hide for it. I was like, oh, shit, let's go. Like, it's going to be that kind of soundtrack. And then you get into it, and it, that immediately goes away.

And immediately falls back to more, I would say generic sounds, stuff that oftentimes sound like it could be placeholder. But then it gets into some places where in the safe house, there's a song that plays that feels very persona five royal in a way that I really like. You know, I think it has some of its highs, but that definitely has some as lows there. the story and the characters also feel a mixture of flat to intriguing at times. You know, I think the overall story setup of you being this character Ringo, who is half of this duo of essentially these like AI life forms that were created by this. Bear I don't know if you got a better read on if it's like God created them or if it was like an AI system.

It's like an overall AI system who developed these like smaller AIs to put. them into human bodies and have personalities to investigate the end. Yeah, well, I'm a big AI and I'm going to make small AI. That's the vibe that I got at least. No, and I think, I honestly, I think that's accurate. At the start, I was like, is this God talking? And then it's seen more, the whole theme of the game is hacking and Soul hacking. And Souls have this inherent connection to the digital in a really interesting way.

But yeah, it is, you were playing as Ringo. She's one half of a duo that is like this created AI to stop the end of the world because the algorithm has determined that the world is about to end. And so you jump into the real world, you're meeting people that seemingly have something to do with the world ending and you're teaming up with them to then investigate more. The game has this like detective style to it that overall intrigues me. So far where the story turns have gone, I've been like, all right, cool, yeah, let's see where this goes. Or, okay, cool, there's this gang. But is it not presented well?

Because that was one of the things at SGF when we saw it and we played it there, it was, you know, obviously a ton of information to be dropped on you. But it was the, I did enjoy the visual style of it. And then I'm talking about, like, I've looked at my nose from SGF where it's, it's a hard-boiled detective magical story. It's more of a detective story. Is it, you're like, oh, it's whatever, but is it like, dope? The character art looks top-notch. The character art is great, honestly.

I think the character art is awesome. I do think the production overall budget holds it back in places where it should pop and it should shine and it should be exciting. A lot of the time, I feel like the presentation falls flat. And that is in voice acting sometimes. That is in how not as pollens. as some other big RPGs, G-R-PGs that you might have seen recently, right? It doesn't have like that AAA level of budget.

Even when you boot up the game, honestly, there's a, there's a splash screen that says made in unity. And I'm like, oh, like, y'all didn't pay the budget to, like, not have the made in unity thing there. And also, you guys aren't working off the internal, like, Atlas engine that you use for persona in the other games. I thought that was very fascinating. But, yeah, like, a lot of it is intriguing.

A lot of it, though, doesn't excite me in, and get me hype. That's kind of where I fall down on a lot of the story stuff. But yeah, the character art looks cool. I think there's a lot of stylistic stuff that does work about it in terms of character, in terms of character specifically. But I'm curious, like, Barrett, you've been playing it. Are you feeling the same things I'm feeling, or do you feel a different way about it? I, the more I sit with it and the more I get to spend time with it, it's been kind of

in small bursts from here and there, the more I have been enjoying it. And I think that is because of the, you know, it does scratch the itch. Like you and I were kind of texting off air about it, just trying to accumulate thoughts. And you were telling me that it was kind of scratching that Atlas, JRP persona type of itch that you've been having recently. And I'm the same way, where it's like when I first booted it up, it is a lot of lore dumping at first.

You know, I was kind of frustrated with the game when I started the preview where, you know, again, not to, you know, be a persona-5 fan, here. But the reason why Persona 5 hooked me in so quickly when I was assigned to it at IGN because it was like, you know, I wasn't hyped for that game or anything. I was actually bummed

that I was assigned it for work, but it immediately grabbed me because the height of presentation, gameplay music is all there in the first 10 minutes of that game because you're, you know, style. All the style, all of that is like kind of thrown into your face

in the first 10 minutes and then you go to the very beginning of the story. It kind of drops you in the middle of the story at the very beginning, and then you go all the way to the beginning of the story to kind of put together the pieces of like how you got there, right? And, you know, you get all of that very quickly, whereas like here in SoulHackers, like a, I think it was 30, 40 minutes into the game

where I finally, like, got to control my character and, like, get into battles and stuff like that. And so at first I was like, man, this is not hitting what I want. wanted to hit and stuff like that, but the more that I've played it, the more I've been into it. And like, the more I get into it, the more I'm convinced of like, if there is ever an Atlas game that one Andy Cortez would ever be into, it would be this. I do really like the, the futuristic anime sci-fi vibes that's really grabbed on to me. I also really like the 2D art style of Bless. Like, you're talking about like, this definitely does feel a little more budgeted than

you know, persona 5. But because of that, I think the workarounds, right, like when you go into this shop here, I don't know why got out of full screen there. I really like the 2D, like, art style and stuff and like... The background here looks no. The background, even when like

just kind of like when text bubbles pop up and like the character will pop up next to them as well, like that art style. It feels very like a kingdom hearts cover almost. And there's something about that like the, a long with the 3D futuristic anime,

uh, art style that they have that like really works for me. Um, like this right here, this guy, like this looks right off the cover of like a Final Fantasy game or something like that. You know what I'm saying?

Um, and yeah, when it comes to gameplay, like once you finally get into it, it definitely scratches that itch and, you know, something that, you know,

bless and I were not as, not thrill, uh, not as into with SMT, right? Is that, uh, SMT 5,

um, did the classic, you're scrolling, through menus in the battle system, the combat system, whereas the reason that Persona 5 really clicked with me in its combat system, even though it is turn-based, it feels more active because things are kind of connected to your face buttons. You're going into square, it's more snappy, it's more quick. Yeah, it's more snappy and stuff like that. And SoulHackers does that here, where, you know, you press square to get into your attacks, you have to, like, scroll for us,

like, just once to get to, like, the specific attack type you want and stuff like that. you there's a level of muscle memory yeah there's it's very similar in that in that framework um and there's like like little tweaks here and there to not make it feel so persona feel so SMT yeah there's like a cool mixture i think the the big change in the combat system for this one uh is instead of the all out attack that you have in a persona where it is you hit the weaknesses of all the enemies and knock them down you then get to basically gang up on them um this time around if you hit a weakness of an enemy that then adds to your stack. And at the end of each turn, based on where the stack is at, that'll then do an all-out attack. That'll basically be determined by the

stack number. So if you hit one weakness during your turn of an enemy, you know, it doesn't like, it doesn't allow you an extra turn or anything like that, right? It'll just do the extra damage and then it'll hit one stack. If your next character then also hits another weakness, that'll do the extra damage, but they don't want to add a two stack. And so by the end of your turn, every single time, the main character Ringo does like a thing and then summons the persona, not the personas, the demons. That's how you're going to get it. That's how you're going to get you. You know they're just persona is the same exact character.

When they were given the demo at SGF and Jack Frost showed up, I'm like, there's my boy. There's my boy. Jack Frost, I was in these games. Funny enough, I was texting Barrett talking about the combat system and I was like, and talking about the game in general. And I was like, dude, I already know, like, it's crazy how the, like, the gameplay loop for these games are so at the core, I think, pretty good in the way that it is, you are, you are. collecting these characters, right? You're collecting these demons. You are fusing them to create powerful demons. You are using these same types of combat systems. The weaknesses and the elements

are all the same and I don't get tired of them. And like, I even text the beard. I was like, dude, at some point, I'm going to collect a Jack Frost or fuse a Jack Frost. And then literally 10 seconds later, I fuse a Jack Frost. And I was like, oh, listen, it's Jack Frost. So, yeah, it very much is that type of game. What I do think, though, that if you are a hardcore Atlas fan, or if you're a hardcore SMT person or persona person, I do think this game is worth checking out at the very least. Oh, 100. I do think it scratches that itch fairly well.

Even though my critiques with it mainly are in its production aren't comparable to the production of the bigger JRPGs, and for me, that kind of takes away from it a bit. I don't want to stop playing it. Like, I'm not having a blast with it, but I keep wanting to go back to it for some reason. I want to get into the combat. I want to see what's next.

One of my critiques with it so far are the dungeons. I'm in my, I've finished the first, I guess like one and a half dungeons, I guess two dungeons. And they're very like uninspired. It is very much like you're walking through corridors and you're unveiling the map. And cool, you get to a boss and then you keep going. There aren't, so far for me, the puzzles haven't been clever. There hasn't been like a standout. This is the theme of this dungeon that's going to interlocked.

So it's kind of more like Persona Forward. and persona three, just to give an equation of, like, those dungeons, like, it's not, like, fully designed and all out with, like, the art style for, like, persona 5, or it's like, you know, Kamashita's castle, you know, uh, uh, kind of Shiro's bank and stuff like that. You can't just glance at it and be like, oh, this is, this is this dungeon. No. And I would even say, like, they're, they're even less inspired than the persona four in persona three stuff.

Like, at least there, chemically, there are certain things. Yeah. Yeah, like, thematically, there's certain things where it's, like, like, oh, I'm in this person's dungeon because it's video game themed or it has some kind of cool thing going on. These actually remind me of, if you played Astral Chain, they have the subspace areas that are just like dark, blocky, all kind of look the same. That's what the dungeons remind me of in this game. Oh, this thing right here that. Oh, this is my little owl friend, but yeah, I was just showing off the background because this is kind of the vibe. I just like got into this

section. This is basically Morgana right here. Bless, you're talking about in Astral Chain, the Astral Plain. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, the Astral Plain. Yeah. The Dungeons in this game gave me that same kind of vibe of like, uh, Southern ride home right home about that said like, it seems like there are,

like based on the location, like the first dungeon was basically a like fucking street alley alleyways that I'm running through. And then the second dungeon, I forget what the second dungeon is. I want to say it was like literally you're in a like a digital space that you're running around in. But it's not like extravagant. It's not, it's not anything that I'm going to remember too hard. Andy Cortez, you had a question? Yeah, Bless mentioning that, you know, he thinks it's like fine and kind of middling,

but he kind of wants to keep playing it. There's part of me that wonders if I'm just, if I'm enjoying games more because there isn't a whole lot to play right now and if I'm like trying to find the joy in them. Sure. But compared to this game and other JRP's, mostly persona, like, how quickly did you feel like you were hooked into those compared to this game where it still feels that you're trying to find the moment that really wows you. For me with this one, I don't even know if I'm ever going to find the moment that really

wows me. I think it is that the scratch, man. Like it is me going into the motions and kind of, it's feeling like home. It's me playing watchdogs Legion. Honestly, it is the fact that I'm getting that that gameplay loop that I like. It is me getting into the combat that I like.

it is did you really play watchdogs legions bro i mean i just i was like you know what i kind of miss playing big open world games like this like this is what i but i'm this old lady and i'm moving around here and now i'm the construction worker like how many hours you put into watchdogs leger uh one and a half and then i never turned one again the to your question though Andy the funny thing about this game for me though is that i also booted up xenoblate chronicles three recently which i know objectively is a great RPG right the reviews for that game are really great and it's coming off of this like you know at this point season franchise of oh if you get zenobley chronicles you know it's going to be good i played

the first hour and a half of zenoblade chronicles three and as i'm playing it i'm like i might well just play soul hackers and that's not to that's not to insult zeno blade chronicles i think that game is probably great but there's a certain gameplay loop that is being like that is that is applying to me that i like out of soul hackers that you know when i play zeno blade is obviously JRP, but it has more of a, almost like an MMO kind of vibe when you get into combat and all this stuff that isn't necessarily appealing to me directly, but I hop into Soul Hacker's. And even though it's not as extravagant or phenomenal of a game as the Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I'm still like, ah, this feels like home. You know, I know this. And it kind of, it comforts me in a weird way. Uh, did you also have the same sort of feeling with Xenobled Chronicles that I had for Tales of a Rise where I try to boot it up and I'm like, This is going to be like hundreds of hours. Oh, and I don't think I'm ready for that right now.

And then I kind of like mentally psyched myself out of that, you know? My persona five problem where I really enjoy persona five. But it's that idea if I look at the clock and I'm like, I only put 20 hours in. Like I was saying, again, Greg, again, what do you say when you see that you only put 20 hours in, but then the rest of that can be, you know, on your steam deck, you know, like. Dude, don't get me started. That's the whole conversation about this. We'll get into it in October when we're closer to it.

but to go back to time spent and all that stuff and thinking about how these games are usually hundreds of hours and stuff like that. And while it did, I feel like really dump a lot in the first half hour of this game in the preview and, you know, taking a little bit, taking a little longer than I wanted to to like get into the action. I do think it dumps a lot at the very beginning to kind of almost a blessing. Correct me if I'm maybe misreading this. but looking just like the how long to beat of the other devil summoners games. Like the first one from 25 years ago was 28 hours. There's a couple of devil summoner games on the PS2 that are both 24 and then 32. I feel like they, in a relative to other JRPs, they set up the overall stakes of the story fairly quickly.

I feel like they establish your party fairly quickly. because I and I and because of that I feel like this is going to be more of a 40 to 50 hour At SGF I asked this question and they said 50 to 60 50 to 60 and that's and that's for me that's great especially with it working on the Steam deck and stuff when I got it there and it booted up pretty well and got to play it on there I was like oh yeah I'm going to play through this entire game again comfort food right like it's there you know what you're going to like I'll put it in like an hour or two hours every night for, you know, maybe it'll take me a couple of months.

Like slowly, but sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if it's not like hooked you, it's not pulling you through. Yeah. And for me, like where I'm at now in the story, like I, yeah, there wasn't that moment where I was like, oh shit, I'm, I'm, this is 100% my game. But when I first played persona five, that was the same for me.

Like, yeah, I was more interested in the first like 10 minutes, but it was until I was 10 hours into persona 5 where I was like, oh, I think I really like this game. And I think I'm slowly getting there with SoulHackers as well. Just like, I really like the stakes and the story set up for the game, right? Like, yeah, you're investigating the end of the world.

You have this rag tag kind of tropey team of anime characters coming together, trying to figure it all out. And I'm honestly personally into it because there's like a scene in the intro where they kind of tease, like, what the villains are like trying to do. And it's like, oh, that looks weird and freaky. And it kind of, like, harkens to, like, more of like, like SMT stuff, but bringing that into like a more sci-fi world. I like that combination.

And just trying to figure it all out and connect the dots, I'm actually, I'm pretty into it. It feels like such a, it feels like a slow burn a little bit. But also, I keep coming back on the word, the story intrigues me. Like I'm, I'm not at that point yet where I'm like, oh, this is great or this is like, I'm hooked. But I am like, I kind of want to see where this goes. The story setup is built around, like, you know, mystery. And I think has it has, even though it's front loaded with a lot of dialogue and a lot of story set up, I do think that the story set up is pretty good.

It is, hey, like, you know, you are Ringo, you're hanging out with FIG, who's basically the other part of your AI duo. That's the other small AI. Yeah. And it is, it is another small, it's the other small, yeah. It's you guys kind of coming into terms of, okay, cool, we're both now humans. Oh, you have a different personality. because the AI, the God AI, thinks that we should have different personalities.

All right, we're humans now. All right, let's go find these other humans and you find them and it's like, all right, we're gonna, oh, this is one of the things we haven't mentioned, right? Like, Ringo has the ability to soul hack, which basically means that she taps into people's souls, right? If somebody's dead-

You left out there. And like, honestly, they don't make, they're not making a big deal about it yet. I get the vibe that it's going to be a big deal at some point. But it is, you know, she is tapping, into the souls of people who might have died, right? In the scenario I'm using, right? This person's dead.

She taps into the soul. Yeah. Kind of gets a vibe of like their latest life events or the big regret or whatever the fuck. But then they can, uh, Ringo brings them back from the dead. And the, that person becomes part of your party. Um, and you get the vibe at like, oh, you shouldn't be doing that. I think is like, I don't know if you should be doing all that. You shouldn't be attacking people.

Yeah. Yeah. And like the, the more that, uh, your character does it. It seems like that is going to be like a kind of cool buildup. So yeah, like I personally want to see like how that pays off of like how her bringing people back from the dead who also seem to be like their deaths seem to be tied into the world ending and like how that's all going to pay off. I think that's like a really cool setup. Yeah. And to jump off that real quick, the this story feels more in a way plot narrative focused than in persona.

Persona feels for me more character focused. And that's why I love persona. Persona is so focused on who each of your party members are as characters, right? And even in Persona 5 Royal, the thing that me and Barrett love most about that game is that they added in these new characters and gave them such good treatment. And, like, you, I think that is the heart of that game. The characters, I don't think are really the heart of SoulHackers. I don't really care about any of these people.

But I am, again, I am intrigued about the plot. I am like, oh, where is this going to go? I actually care about the mystery. And, like, that's not to say I didn't care about the mystery and persona. But I think there is such a, hey, like, cut out all that. is focused on what the A to the B to the C of the narrative is. And for me, I think that's why it's pulling me in. I kind of want to see what's next.

And I think there is enough character stuff there to, like, definitely grab some people. But again, like I was saying earlier, it's kind of tropey, right? Like, one of the guys is, you know, one of his friends from childhood. They've become kind of, like, rivals and enemies a little bit, but maybe they're still best friends. And, like, that's a little complicated thing that you can, like, dive a little bit deeper into. and the one thing I wanted to bring up as well that I thought was interesting

and I forget how it worked in SMT blessed for the little bit that we played of how the party works with like the demons and stuff like that because in persona right the rest of your party has like their dedicated persona where I'm pretty sure here in Soul Hackers

like you just have like a list of demons that you're recruiting throughout the game that you can recruit in different ways I don't think you do it in battles, like in persona. You'd be talking to them, right? Yeah, when you're in the dungeons, you'll come across demons, and it is legitimately a conversation. And you'll ask.

You can give them money. You can give them health, depending on, like, what that specific demon wants. That's how you recruit them. And I'm pretty sure you can go through and each of your party members, you can assign a different demon. 100%. And, like, because it's all connected to their comp, which is their weapon that turns into the demon and stuff like that.

And that was something that I thought was a cool possible in-between, again, of persona and SMT and these ideas. And it's, I think it's, I'm, the more we talk about it, the more I enjoy it, and the more I'm convinced that people who have always enjoyed the idea of persona, enjoyed the idea of SMT, but have felt a little, like, scared off by how deep these games go. I feel like this is going to be a good enough surface level version of both of those games to get more people in. Interesting. Because because of the, you know, it's not nearly as long as any of those games.

I think the plot and stakes are very clear from the get-go, whereas like persona, right? You know, those stories usually, like, you have like your kind of first plot that happens in the first 10 hours, but then you don't connect with the overall story and, like, big thing that's, like, building up to until, like, 60, 70 hours into the game, right? and like kind of similar like SMT is not nearly as like character or even like story base they have like very basic stuff

but that game those games are more hardcore into like the gameplay and how tough that gameplay is and so I think this is going to be something cool for people to try to jump into if they've always been interested in Atlas games but have always been scared off the way I've kind of been rationalizing it in my head

as I've been playing through it and coming into terms with what Soul Hockers 2 is is, you know, it, for me, it's almost what Square Annex, I think, does sometimes when it comes to, well, Square Annex puts out a lot of JRP's. But, like, of course, their big one is Final Fantasy, and they have those stopgap games that get us there, right? It's always the games we kind of make fun of when they show up at Nintendo Director, at a PlayStation State of Play. Valkyrolesium is about to come out on about a month or two, right? And, like, a lot of us are like, what the fuck is Valkyri Elysium? But I'm sure enough people are going to play that and go,

yeah, man, this is going to hold me over until the next Final Fantasy game. Sure, sure. And I think that's kind of what this is for Atlas. I think Atlas probably sees that demand for, hey, Persona 5 is a hit, and there's not that many games that are doing what Persona 5 does. And of course, like, SMT and all that stuff, right? But like, let's make more of these, right? Like, what are the franchises in this umbrella that we haven't touched in a while? Oh, Soul Hacker?

Cool. Let's bring back Soul Hocker. Especially with, like, Persona 6, probably not coming out for another four or five years. For a while. Yeah. Like, I kind of like Atlas being like, cool, let's do our, let's make more of these in the way that Square Index has so many different branches of RPG. that are like that kind of work at soft apps.

Squionix just be making games, right? They just be putting out shit, man. Here's an RPG. You like them here. You go, here you go. Here you go. This sucks because I, when I played a little bit of it at SGF, and I was like, all right, I could see maybe trying.

And at this point, I'm like, no, it's way for persona five on Steam. Yeah. But I want to know from Mike the high powered over here. Mike, I don't know your history with JRP's in general. Has one ever clicked for you? Yeah, it's funny you bring that up, Greg, because I, am the total opposite of these two. I do not like JRPGs at all.

I actually really get turned off to turn-based combat. It's too slow for me. I'm always looking for some activity, but there's been some games actually of recent that I've tried that have kind of got me interested in the genre a little bit more, right? I look at a game like Scarlet Nexus that comes to game pass, right? That has

a little bit more fast and fluid combat. It has that kind of crazy Japanese world where, as somebody on the outside who's looking in, goes, oh, that's kind of interesting. I like this. And I'm having fun with this, right? And then I actually turned to my attention of yakuza like a dragon, right? That is a turn-based game. And what won me over with that game actually was the likable, enjoyable characters and the story that was taking place, right? And so what I was going to ask these guys is,

is there somebody like an Ichabon that I might attach myself to that would help me get me through this experience? Because when I hear all of this, right, I'm about to fall asleep and hit the snooze button because it isn't my kind of gameplay. But yakuza, like a dragon grabbed me. And I usually do not like those kinds. I would say for SoulHackers, no. Persona 5, 100%. Yeah, I agree with that. Soul hackers does not have Nishamon. I don't think there's a star character in this game. But yeah, I would say persona does have those. Again, persona is so character-driven. Honestly, I would say SoulHackers is for the nerds. Like, if you're a fucking J-R-PG nerd and you are like, yeah, let me scratch that persona-B-Sich. The B-Sides. Yeah, like if you're somebody, yeah,

to listen to the, the, um, Atlas B-sides, 100%. Like, check out. Soul Hackers. But it's not it. Mike, I don't know if I would I would not recommend it to you. I'm saying this. We get Mike to play persona five on stream. He'll be done in 2027 by the time we're in the studio, Mike. Woo! I'm just saying I would stream it twice a week for four hours and it took me, let me look at my watch here. It took me five months to play through on stream. So you can do it, Mike. You can do it. I'm just going to stick with Yakuza. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you should stick with us on the games cast. And of course, Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Over on Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games, you can write it to be part of the show,

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Mike, it's time for reader mail. Whew. Try Forces Power rights into patreon.com slash kind of funny games, just like y'all can and says, what game has been the biggest disappointment for you this console generation? Mike Howard, Xbox. Series X slash S PlayStation 5. What's been the,

in Switch, what's been the biggest disappointment for this console generation for you? Dang, I get to kick off this topic. I'm pretty excited, Greg, because when you asked this earlier, thank you to TriForce power out there, I did write down a couple.

And I'm going to focus on my main one, but I will give off two quick ones. And that is put out loss in legends, looking at you. Massive stinker, big disappointment. But for those who know, John Push actually brought a lot of fun to the game.

Biomuton as well. Biomuton had so much energy going into it, that cute, weird beaver thing. I was going to dominate animals with that, and that game absolutely sucked. From the character creator onward, it was just a very big letdown. But I actually want to circle back and focus on the big three.

Of course, if you've listened to the kind of funny X-cast, you know about the big three. And that is Call of Duty Vanguard, Battlefield 2042, and Halo Infinite. All were poised to come out on the same hollow a break and give us the much needed boost to the arm that the first person shooter genre needed. And the big goal was who was going to take the top spot.

And unfortunately, all three of them failed in each and every way and absolutely did not take that top spot. And I think that was a lot of plagued by bugs, repetitiveness of going back to World War II and nobody wanted to be there. Of course, microtransactions, lack of content. And when you looked at the landscape of the first person shooter, two or the three of those games, Battlefield and Halo, needed to take a chance. They needed to step up and bring either something brand new to the gaming genre or they needed to go and make a battle royale, which I know a lot of

people roll their eyes at and don't like me talking about it. But it is the hottest gaming genre right now on the planet that everybody wants when you're talking about the general mass audience. And unfortunately, both Battlefield and Halo did not take that opportunity to seize the moment and didn't bring that, right? And so you got out of battlefield what was hazard. zone or hazard gameplay, which was a mix of escape from Tarkoff and Battle Royale and just did not hit with the masses. And onward to just a lot of bugs and bad gameplay, they called it a walking simulator at one point because it was so big of maps and nothing was happening, even with 164 people

on it, or whatever the crazy number was. And then to Halo to have this big lead up, to have big Joseph Staten back on the team. I'm not going to talk about the campaign because I really like that, but I'll focus on the multiplayer of you have a lineage of so many incredible game modes. They have a lineage of so many incredible maps and to just come out and absolutely drop the bag with the lack of game modes and map with such a big disappointment. And then for them not to take the opportunity to make a killer batter royale, which we all know they could have done if they wanted to risk it for the biscuit and not do that.

And also not have game modes available ready for launch from co-op campaign to forge. It was a big disappointing year for the first person shooter genre where we're still playing the apexes, the Fortnite, the call duty war zones, and we can get on into the valorants and the overwances and all that. But right there, you were looking for a shot in the arm. You were looking for something to bring some energy, whether it be like what Titanfall did back to the first person shooter genre or a new battle royale that was poised to take the top spot. None of those three rose to the occasion. That is my biggest disappointment of the generation thus far. Can you believe, and I never want to, we're talking about disappointment. So we're using these words very specifically, right?

We're not talking about like something like where cyberpunk was a whole different ball of wax. But can you believe Snowbike Mike that Halo Infinite was a disappointment? Like the buildup to that thing, every Xcast where, you know, Paris would talk about it, you'd talk about it. What we'd say on games daily. What we would just say in any pocket. Like this Halo can't miss. This needs to be where the return to form. This needs to prove that Halo is a player, that it needs to be all these.

thing, daddy, yada, yada, and then the delays, the problems, the, you know, the huge, and then to get it here and have it still not have, or not, and I mean, at launch, have it at launch and not have it, forge, and not have it all these things that were there, and then have them take so long. I think it's just, it's crazy to think about. It is crazy to think about, Greg, and it is a massive disappointment. I know everybody here on this panel and probably everyone listening can contest and say, man, Halo Infinite did it on a gameplay level. That was a shot in the arm. That was the rejuvenation that Halo needed in the first person space to bring the fun and interesting gameplay, right? What they did on that multiplayer

and campaign side were incredible. The issue was, is somehow in that studio, nobody raised their hand and said, hey, this doesn't seem right. How can we launch a Halo, a historic franchise all about co-op campaigns and sharing these moments together without this day one? How can we not have Forge. How do we look at each other and go, yeah, five maps is acceptable. You know, what else is acceptable for game modes coming from a game that has been out for 20 years that has had so many game modes from shoddy snipers to team duos to elimination to oddball and all that in between and only come out with four game modes with such a massive letdown. And it is weird, Greg. It's a disappointment. It's heartbreaking because they were poised to take the market share

and get everyone interested, right? Free to play. multiplayer on PC as well as console day one ready to rock and roll cross play cross progression you have story narratives going on in the multiplayer you have an awesome campaign that should have been shared co-op you have all of this building into this great game that was going to be released and then two weeks later we said oh we've already played that or man this battle pass doesn't have enough rewards or i've already filled the battle pass man you're selling me a spartan outfit for twenty dollars it just doesn't match up with what your competition is doing in that micro transaction space.

Yeah, a massive letdown, Greg. Massive left down. Andy, I saw you're hand. Anything? Oh, Andy, what are you going? I wanted to keep touching on HALO a bit because I think if you would have asked me within the first two months,

if it was a disappointment, I would have said absolutely not. But I think at that point, we thought that there would be more of a roadmap, and we thought that there would be more updates and more maps and stuff like that coming. Because, like, first off, I thought it was cool shit

that they released multiplayer a month before the campaign. That was awesome as hell. That was such a cool experience to have them on stage talking about like, hey, we're celebrating Halo and guess what it's available now, which is like what an awesome day that was. And even throughout all the betas and all the test flights and all that stuff, I played the shit out of Halo.

I just thought that there would be more content there. And I think we always, always want to root for and preach having good studio health and not and people not crunching and people not staying working 60 hour weeks and stuff like that. And that's great. But on the flip side of that, we expect to see what the results of that are. And the fact that there's been one update with one big team battle map and one arena map. And the big team battle maps, I still kind of just wave off because I just generally don't care about big team battle. So we've essentially got one map added to the competitive kind of rotation. And it kind of, it felt really

bad to look at their social media accounts and say, like, hey, this event is coming back. It's like, this is the same fucking samurai event that started. two months ago. Like, what are we doing right now at this point? So, like, yeah, I feel like progression was just way too slow. I think having these long battle pass chapters or whatever they were. Yeah, whatever they were calling them was just, it was just a long, it was just a slog to get through. And again, I enjoyed the shit out of it for the first two months.

And then I still played it for about a month extra after that, knowing that it was feeling more and more disappointing. And then I completely fell off. And we talk about the enthusiasm we had, Mike. Like, not only were we super enthusiastic, that first weekend that there was an e-sports halo event, a LAN event, the Twitch numbers were off the fucking charts. Like, I'm talking, like, the same amount that we would see. Like, there was like 80 or 90,000 people watching on Twitch,

which is, like, comparable to what you would sometimes see in a really big Valorant tournament. Definitely not countertry, because that's just astronomical. But I was like, holy shit. Halo is back and the world was celebrating Halo e-sports and it has just fallen off completely. I look at the same, I still get pop-ups on TikTok from Lucid, one of the the the esports players from Team Optic and I see his highlights and I'm like, was this po, did you make this TikTok last night or two months ago? Because it's the same fucking map and it's the same weapons and it's the same modes that we were playing. Like there just hasn't really been a whole lot of

evolution to it. So yeah, pretty disappointing since there hasn't been much movement in the Halo multiplayerverse. What's on your list, Andy? I want to throw Mario Golf Switch on there. Oh, okay. Mario Golf Switch is a massive disappointment.

That's just something that I was looking forward to. I love golf games. I love, I generally really enjoy the Mario Sports games, and I loved Mario Sports Tennis, even though I know not everybody loved that game. I was still a big fan of it.

Go ahead. No, you and I are getting me on the same page. We both love Mario Golf. You are better than me at it. I admit it. You know, you know, that I don't want any of that smoke. I don't want any of that smoke. But what I would actually do is, yeah,

I don't want to toss out here and ask if it's all Mario sports games. 100%. Because I couldn't wait for tennis and then I was disappointed tennis. I couldn't wait for golf. Then I was disappointed in golf. Strikers was never my bag. And then strikers came and everybody seemed disappointed strikers. Yeah.

I mean, I wasn't, I was looking forward to, golf. I'm also just disappointed that Switch Sports didn't get golf at launch and we're getting that in October. But Mario Golf was like when that she got announced, like I popped for it, very, very excited about it, was hoping to get a bit more thought out

of a campaign of a creative player going to all the different courses and talking to all the different characters and working your way up. I just want the same experience that I had on Game Boy Color but in 3D. I don't I'm not asking too much you know and and I just feel like we haven't gotten there the game just looks ugly it doesn't look anywhere as good as some of the more modern or more recent switch games like it just seems like it was made in a different engine by a developer who doesn't really have a whole lot of experience with it and then strikers came out super stoked about that we played those betas I had fun with the beta and then you can't even fucking play 4V4 online like your your hardware is already so lacking the game is already lacking on features

why is it why can't i fucking play 4v4 with i don't get it i don't understand why that is something that's like too far gone like it'd be one thing if you're delivering on all the other aspects of what is expected from a multiplayer game and maybe taken away 4v4 and reserving that for just couch co-e or local co-op, it's just such a disappointment. I don't, like, I, it's, it's such a bummer that this game was about to come out and we were looking so forward to it and we were going to have such a good first stream of it and, uh, just completely disappointed. And we were so deflated because of that.

And like, the interesting thing, too, is like, I, I forget if it, local might, uh, have the capability for four feet four, but at least in an online setting, right, um, the most it could do was 2v2. and I feel like the way the gameplay works and like the you know how you're able to tell who has the ball and who you're taking who your character is that you're in control of and stuff like it almost wasn't designed for 2b2 and that's the other thing it's even more confusing yeah and it's just so it's so weird gameplay itself I thought was was really fun and yeah just the online setting and stuff like that just it did not work which was really disappointing and even just like the the quote unquote campaign which is just like it's literally just like cups almost like in Mario Kart. I did in like A night and then that that was it and I have not returned.

There was such an excitement in the online league that you could kind of similar to having like a kind of funny clan. Yeah. On the division, there was sort of like an online league that you could make where as long as you had the code, you can have a bunch of people join and a bunch of people play for your team at random points. You never have to like coordinate. but like you're all getting points to put together towards your squad. And that was such an awesome concept. But the fact that it was limited to 2V2 was just an incredible bummer.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. Totally. That was a big letdown. And yeah, I think that goes also to Nintendo Online, being a letdown for me, someone who plays a lot of online games.

I am always frustrated and let down by what Nintendo online capabilities can actually handle and provide for me as a game. And I think another one I look at Super Smash Bros. like that's a game that touted eight players on a map having fun and then you can't do that online. Absolutely sucks. And it's just so heartbreaking. They have cool games like this that are touting,

hey, everybody's going to come together. We're all going to play. But if you play online, actually, can't do any of that. And that really, really sucks. And it stings a lot because these are great games where eight players smash when you're all in the same room together is awesome.

Why can't we do that online? Especially in a world that we live in now where we can't all be together all the time. It kind of sucks. So yeah, Nintendo online for me is always a big one. Yeah, for me,

I don't think it's surprised anybody with the one I put on my list was Marvel's Avengers. Obviously, like the, you know, the build up to Avengers, what is this game going to be?

Yada, yada. And I remember when we got it and we all played through the single player and we came back and did the review. And it was like, damn, that was actually way more fun

than we thought it was going to be. That was a lot of really good. Yeah, and then there was a lot of talk of, you know, it's what Mike and Fran always talk about, right? The end game grind and what's it

going to become after that. And it was that idea of like, well, you know, I'm in there and I'm grinding out for better gear and I'm having a great time and I love being Captain America and you guys didn't want to stick it out, but I had a group that was and this is great. And it was always the care at the end of the stick, but it kept moving, right? Where it was like, you know, we're getting Kate Bishop next month. Then the month after that, we're getting Hawkeye, then a Spider-Man early part of the next year. And then all those dates slid so far and there was no content, right? And it just took forever and ever and ever until, you know, a year out, we got the Black Panther expansion but then it was that was great and I'm excited for more in this patrol they're talking

about and this that and the other this if they really if they can capitalize on black panther success if they can do that and what it was after black panther we're going to get you the roadmap before the year ends the year ends we're going to get you the roadmap in the next three months three months said the roadmap does not exist we will talk about stuff when we have stuff to talk about and it's just been like still to this day the fucking crazy cloning lab thing fran accidentally got into like two weeks after launch is not out. The patrol mode that they were talking about being, you know, this free thing to go, the free roam and go do stuff is not out.

And so, you know, it broke my heart that they dropped Jane Foster alongside Thor. And I'm like, well, I'm not a Thor person. Like, I don't really like Thor in the game. So, okay, there's nothing. And like, it didn't get my groups back into it. Even Spider-Man, which came out, you know, during like the first few months of Ben being, like, what, the first month of Ben being alive. Like, I was never going to, you know, be able.

able to go back and raid and do all this different stuff. But it was like my crew, like, you know, Gofar maxed out Spider-Man, but he wasn't like, he kept saying, I don't know why I'm doing this, but I'm doing it. Dude, I'll never forget, like, a year and a half into Avengers existing, just kind of sitting there and going like, oh, fuck, aren't they making Spider-Man? Like, we heard about the Spider-Rad, like, such a long time ago, it feels like, and it almost felt like they were hoping everybody forgot

with how little communication there was. like, well, if they don't mention anything, then just don't talk about, you know. Yeah, that game, I mean, I had a great time with the campaign, and I thought it was like a solid, you know, three and a half out of five, four point two out of five, maybe three point eight out of five. And then you get to the point where it's, all right, grinding the loot. It's like, oh, this is not what I want from this type of game. This is not what I was hoping for.

Jerry, yeah. And again, like, I feel like if they could just drop. content and give you a reason to keep going, but they dropped the raid and that was the last big piece of like content content they did. And it's like, okay. And like, you know, she hulks rumored to be coming obviously. It was all but confirmed many times. And like, they keep hiring people for the game. So like, I still hold out hope that we're going to turn this corner. And not that there'll be content week after week, month after month, but they'll have stuff in there that is like, guys, let's get together. Let's get the band back together for two or

three more big moments, you know, where we play for a few nights, uh, in a given week, just one week, but a few times. And then, you know, it's, it's sunset and goes away or whatever. It's going to end up being, but like, you talk about disappointments. Like, I remember the evil village. Huh. No, I didn't. Well, yeah, it was a disappointment for me, but everybody else, I'm wrong apparently. You know what I mean? But like, you, you talk about like the lead up to that and what a disappointment is. Like, you know, I remember being so stoked at the idea of this live service Marvel superhero game. And that's coming from somebody who loved Marvel Heroes Omega so much, right?

Like, I was ready just to get in there and go and have drops and have things. And like, you know, Marvel Heroes Omega was very much like, man, that was a game that we were like, yeah, it's not great or anything, but it's fun to turn it on and they drop Daredevil, they dropped Blade, they dropped whoever. It's, you weren't going to do it. But then just, it never came together here. It's still breaks my heart because it would be so much fun. But here's hope when they do something.

Blessing. You want to close us out with your biggest gaming disappointment of this generation? Sure. I had like a handful that I wrote down that I think. feel like people already know, because I've talked about these on reviews in various places, right? Like 12 minutes, I've made it well known that I do not like that game. But I, before that game came out, I had such high hopes. And everybody had high hopes, of course. But that was one that I was like, oh, this is about to be my jam. Like, I love puzzle games. Like, I love families. I'm

loops. I love families. I love Lump Lips. I love Will. I love Daisy Ridley. She was in the Star Wars. I especially love when, like, there's not weird incest shit going on in the story. And like, all that stuff disappointed me. All that stuff disappointed me. Spoilers for 12 minutes. But yeah, like, that's one that like, honestly, in terms of games that I played through, like the gap between me really looking forward to it, I'm forward to it, me looking forward to it and me not liking it, that probably had the biggest gap for me where I played and I was like, wow, I legitimately, I rarely dislike a game this much. And so like 12 minutes would

probably be on the top of my list for that. But then there's also No More Heroes 3. as somebody who fucking love No More Heroes 1 and 2. Like, Normal Heroes 3 had me excited, right? Especially it being this, the first one in almost a decade, it being for the Switch, it not having to be beholden to the Wii moat, which I don't know if you guys remembered or if you guys played Nover Heroes, but like playing on the Wii moat was part of the experience

because it was like, oh, it's made as a Wii game, and then you had functionality, like, when you need a recharge your sword, you would like shake it and make a certain hand gesture. that'd be a little bit rude. Right. So like, you crank it out. Yeah, Greg's making it right now. Giff that out.

There it is. It had sort of stuff like that that gave it, gave it charm and made it stand out. And also made no more heroes. But the idea of playing a No More Heroes game on the switch that was cool, I can play this handheld. It's its own thing. Really excited me.

And it just disappointed me in all the ways where I felt like they did not take advantage of that hardware. And also in some ways held back by the hardware, right? Like graphically, I didn't like how it looked. In terms of the open world, It's like why did you add to bring this back in first of all, but then also why is it so repetitive? And like I know the argument is that, oh, it's part of a, it's like a commentary on open world games or on games that have this kind of stuff.

And I'm like, I don't need a commentary that is doing the thing that is commentating about, especially when it's one of the worst implementation of that thing, you know, like that's, that's not the way I want this. But yeah, like, that's one that is funny enough, you know, it doesn't ruin my love for No More Heroes. Even as, even as No More Heroes 3 has been announced. Stop my love for Noverhero. No, they can stop my love for the franchise.

Noberhills 3 is going to come to PS5 and Xbox 1 or Xbox Series X. And I'm going to boot it up at least to see if it looks any better. I'm probably not going to play through the whole thing. But that's how much I fucking love Nover Heroes and want Nover Heroes to be good. It's like they're going to announce Nover Heroes 4. I'm still going to pop for it. Sorry, what's up, Andy? No, I just, after you, I had a couple more to mention.

Sick. Andy's got, Andy's been here. Now he wants to open this generation in here. I got one to also shout out to. GTA Trilogy is another one I'll shout out. Like I needed GTA trilogy to be good and I cannot believe that came out in the state that it did. And I, like, this is similar to No More Heroes for me where I play through almost the entirety of St. And Driz.

I was maybe four or five missions away from finishing the game, but it crashed on me so bad at the tail end of a difficult mission. And I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. And I rage quit. And I really, that late into a game, into a game that like I fucking love, I really rage quit in that way. But yeah, man, it just ran so bad. and the bugs are so disappointing that it broke me. But my big one, my big bullet point for the current gen where we're at with video games is where are all the Western RPGs at?

There is not really any big Western RPGs on current gen. Horizon. Sure. Yeah, but like I'm talking about like, you know what I'm talking about. A pretty big disappointment. We can all agree there. No, that's a five out of five. I'm talking about like, you know, the fallouts, the elder scrolls, the outer,

outer worlds, the like, even like the fucking, I know Witcher has a, has a port, but even like the deus exes of the world, where it is, I'm getting into those dialogue trees, I am getting very intricate about how I'm min-maxing my character, I'm doing all that stuff, right? Like, there are, there are probably small ones that are, I know there are ones that I'm missing out on, but there's not like the big, vast, exciting ones that get me super hype. And I think that in a way flows back to cyberpunk 27 and how that was supposed to, be the kickoff for that, right? Like, that was the game that straddled generations and got delayed for next gen by

full years. And it's now out, and I believe runs better than it did at launch. But even still, like, that it's not the one that capture everybody's hearts. You know, I played through it. And I actually really enjoyed cyrpunk, despite a lot of the issues that it has. But this, it wasn't what it was chocked up to be. And I kind of, I kind of wish that it was because, like, I kind of miss having that that big western RPG that like everybody rallies around it is like all this is the one

so far this generation i feel like it's been more so things like elton ring which i more is more of an action RPG of course just like horizon big disappointment um but then also really really kick the beehive of the comments when i look up uh best jrp or best rpgis on ps five right now you know i saw all the top tens top 15s that i'm seeing are all like jrpgis And then also like a few, a few other, like action RPGs here, there, like the horizons of the world. Like, there's not really any good big Western RPGs right now out on the platform. So that's my other big disappointment. Blessing, what do you think causes that?

Do you think it's just GTA eating everybody's lunch? Because that is my favorite game genre. And I look back on, like, true crime, streets of L.A., right? You think of sleeping dogs. You think of Saints Roe. Mafia, right? And, like, you even think of, I know it was a flop, but Terry Cruz was in it. it was the Xbox one.

Crackdown 3. Bile Muton. Back in the day, a couple, you know, a couple generations ago, those were all the rage. We got every single game was the open world RPG. Do you think it's burnout? Do you think it's just GTA eating everybody's lunch and they need to reassess if they can really do this?

Why don't we get as many as we used to back in the day? I think they're just hard to make. I think that's probably a big part of it. Like you look back at time, right? It takes time. You look back at the biggest Western RPGs that attempted to release in the last generation. And it is,

cyberpunk 2077 didn't live up to what it needed to be. Mass Effect Andromeda didn't live up to what it needed to be. Anthem didn't live up to what it needs to be. Fallout 76 didn't live up to what it needed. Like every single big Western RPG developer has put out something that effectively failed. And I think that speaks to you how difficult it is, how big expectations have gotten.

And then, yeah, like how much time you need to make and put out a good one. of these, like the next one up, right? I'm talking about the big ones, because of course, if we're talking about open world action games, you got Saints Girl on the horizon. We had Horizon that came out earlier in the year. But like, when you're talking about what I'm talking about, which is like the RPG mechanics, mid-max near character, getting into customization, quest lines, quest street, all this stuff, right? The next one on the horizon is Starfield. And, man, I, like, I expected to be good. I needed to be good, but there's no

guarantee anymore. And that's also the thing that frightens me is, like, if Starfield isn't good, then like when's the next one going to be right is it going to be the next cdie project red one is that hit and i know you want to jump in mind's not that long to one of the things i want to put in there it's your thing too is one of my disappointments on this list was assassins creed valhalla which i know some people were like that's not r pg i mean i mean come on the fucking skill that's that's that's an open world RPG people who are you again well i was speaking more for people who i probably haven't gotten into it and it's one of those that like i've played a ton of valhalla and i really enjoy valhalla but it's still a disappointment for me

coming off the back of Odyssey, which I, you know, adored to get here and not be connected to Avor and just feel like the game has too much going on to the point that I am just, I, and I'm the story guy, right? That I'm just completely like, I don't know what the fuck's happening anymore, but I'll put another 50 hours in because it's fun to play and kill things and get the next, you know, adrenaline hit or a serotonin hit of leveling up and becoming deeper into the wolf storyline or a power line or whatever that's going to be. Sorry, Andy, I know you wanted to talk.

No, yeah, I just wanted to kind of follow up on what Blessing was mentioning about Mike's question. I think there's too much to lose and very little the gain. And I think a lot of these studios, Mike, at this point, like we've heard the struggles that studios are having, there's too many expectations and like no studio, no brand new studio nowadays would ever try to make an MMO. because like you look at what current MMOs offer and you have to hit all of these fucking points. You have to have a robust crafting system, a robust dialogue tree with worlds that you can explore and leveling and mounts and party. Like if you are missing any of those things, you're going to be seen as a failure. And a lot of it is like budget.

It's like do we first off, do we even have a budget to try to take on something like this? And if we do, are we willing to take the losses if we're missing out on three of these 12 or 15 big systems that are kind of required of these games nowadays? And yeah, I think like when it comes to the big open world games, I think a lot of these games coming out and being failures are why a lot of these publishers are trying, have shown their fear of making big single player games because they can put out a multiplayer game and EA can put out a Madden with. ultimate team and make a bajillion fucking dollars and FIFA can just like make so much money and that shit is way easier to do um my last disappointment the PS5 UI i fucking hate it i thank you andy it's so PS5 UI is like i think the coolest looking UI and i just love i generally love Sony products and like when you turn on this PS5 it feels like you are driving a fucking Porsche like it's like oh like this is gorgeous and it looks so clean

and I just hate how everything's opposite now. I'm still not used to it, and mostly it's because I play my series X, yeah. But like, when I hit my home button, it still doesn't do what I expected to do. And I'm still having trouble finding the right menus. I hate it. I think it's really, really awful.

At least they still do, like, the one straight line instead of just the jumbled mess of, like, the Xbox home screen, you know? Like, I know it's customizable. Thank you. Finally somebody says it. Yeah, it's just like it's attacking my eyeballs, you know, blessing, where it's like at least the PS5 isn't going to give me folders on my home screen because why, I don't know, but at least it's like just a simple straight line. Because Sony knows that they're making a game machine, a machine that you're buying to play video games.

So they put the games front and center that they know you're going to want to play. When I open on my Xbox, it's like, here's a billion tiles and you want to get to your list of games. Well, good luck. Good luck finding my games with gold. No, I don't. I am so glad that console wars are still so alive between all of us. Just in this show. Because that is one thing.

Like, my favorite is you listen to Xbox players. You listen to PlayStation players. There's a hard divide on the UI. And like, nobody will ever be happier like both of them. And I agree with Danny. I hate the PlayStation 5 UI. I really think they missed the mark there

and could have made something. And then Xbox stayed the same, right? They just carried over the UI that they've been building for a decade now. And there's pros and cons to that as well. But I turn on that PS5. And every time I just kind of shake my head like, oh, this kind of is.

It looks so good to be like so inaccessible and confusing. And I think that's my biggest problem with it. Kind of like Trek to Yomi, another disappointment. Gorgeous. Just wasn't really fun to play. But I mean, when I hear blessed talking shit about the Xbox, I mean, just organized for Christ's sake. I'm going to, I expect to walk into Blessing's kitchen and see the fucking washer and dryer there with a TV in the refrigerator. Like, you just got to figure out how to organize it.

Oh, you think I'm calling. I don't have any of those things. But also, I do like that. I always get a shout out the pin functionality on the Xbox. I do like that you can pin things in your homepage. I think that's really fun. All right, everybody coming together. Coming together.

One more thing on the RPG conversation. Now we're far past it, but I wanted to shout out Obsidian. And like, to 80's point of like how much effort it takes to make one of these compared to the reward that you might get if you don't hit or like if they just don't, you know, make as much money on the back end as like an ongoing game. I think Obsidian, I wish we had more. studios like Obsidian know and make that scope of RPG because out of worlds I forget how long it took but it was like maybe what a 30 hour game maybe less than that it wasn't bad it was a bit yeah like

20 yeah 20 to 30 yeah and I like now was an RPG that gave me that RPG hit that scratch that itch and I I thought that was perfect and I want more of those right disco leasing I know is necessarily a western RPG is more of a CRP but like I that's another one too that I beat in 30 hours and I was like man this is such a great time I got lost in this story and I felt very satisfied with it like I would love to see more people play around with scope in Western RPGs in order to get to actually get them out the door. That's why I miss DASX so much because DASX human revolution and mankind divided were that, right? They're in that outer world's range of scope and they're unique. They're different and they're really cool. I think there's there's something to be messed with there.

There's stuff there that studios could play around with in order to actually get Western RPGs out that I hope to see more in the future. Barrett, can you hit back on the YouTube video? back to the prior screen. Like just like to the prior page rather, not rewind. Remember how I said that looked like like Ninja if he was old at the top? Yeah. It looks like ninja if he was old, right?

Thank you for going back to. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Ben the Kind of Funny Games cast. If you're watching on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games, why don't you tell us in the comments below what your biggest disappointment of this generation was. If you're a podcast, listener, on your window and scream it out the window.

It'll echo back to us like in 101 Dalmatians, which I still think is one of the coolest things those dogs do. Did you know, you remember this? You remember this, Andy? Or the dog, they're like, they're missing or whatever. And one dog barks and the other dog barks. And then they just like, they domino effect this. Like, they have, do you think dogs are barking at night for no reason,

Mike? They're actually sending messages. Yeah. Yeah. Andy, for you to make it so you know, it's like Lord of the Rings when they light the fires. Oh, the fires go down the mountain top. Oh, my God.

That's your brain is paying to you. The beacons are lit. Gongel calls for aid. Oh my God, dude. They didn't have better in 101 elevations, I'll say. Oh, my God. Yeah, 100%. 100%.

But, I mean, I respect Lord of the Rings for copying 1001 Dalmatians. I didn't know they were. I mean, I knew they stole a lot of ideas. You know what I mean? First off, Lord of the Rings pretty much just to rip off a Harry Potter if you think about it. It doesn't matter. We'll save this for another time. We won't.

We won't. We'll be the games cast everybody. If you go to Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games, you can get the show ad for you. You get the post show we're about to do. That's right. Kind of Feudy is back. Can I maintain my. 18 episode win streak when I'm on the when I'm on the

It's not that long. No, it is. I've beat It might be impressive. That's incredible. No, I beat him like two months ago or some shit. He can also run 18 miles an hour, Andy. It's pretty incredible. Oh, no, no was it. I think it was 13 or 12. There was a kid who ran 18. It doesn't matter. Ladies gentlemen, all that stuff. Patreon. If you got no bucks tossed away, no big deal. Of course, you get it on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, roostee.com.

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everybody tells me Rocket League's an easy platinum but I'm I just the hard fucking game I don't know I'm good on rocket yeah you know what I mean it's my first ever platinum wow we got a post show to do we're gonna do kind of Feudy but until next time it's been our pleasure to serve you