Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Thanks For The Support! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Review - SuperChats - Ads - Pine: A Story of Loss - Games That Made Us Cry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody, and welcome to another kind of funny games cast for Tuesday, October 8th, 2004. I'm one of your show host, Snowbike Mike. Greg Miller, as I sit next to you, I still struggle to find the intro. Is it a big what's up? Is it a welcome? Is it a good morning? Is it a good afternoon? Is it a what-up dough?

I don't know yet. I'm going to find it. You hosted so many X-casts. You did so well. You're the master of hype. Just host intro however you want. It's new. It's fresh. It's games cast in 2024 and beyond. And I'm going to find something.

The thing about you is that you just, you overthink it. You just do it feels natural because you love it. Sometimes you're subdued. Sometimes you do the NPR voice thing. Sometimes you're big. Sometimes you're wilding. I'm going to give you something fresh every single day. But of course, welcome in Greg Miller.

It's great to have you on the panel today. Of course, going down the list. We have a very special guest today. We have our up and comer for 2024. Madeline Stanley joining us today. For her first games cast of the week. A big deal here. Madeline, the games cast is fun because, of course, we drop the news.

And we just get a little weird, a little wacky. We talk video games here and we have some fun. So please join in the conversation with us all day long. Having fun already, Mike. I like that. And, of course, my favorite person here at the desk. My main man, Andy Cortez, left before a weekend, but now he's back. Man, it's just the first thing he does is go,

Where were you? Why didn't you stream last night? And I started answering it. Why didn't you? I started answering and Roger goes, Andy, you don't need to answer him. It's such a good point. I'm there double-checking. You know what I mean? Thinking about you. Found a new basketball court, Andy.

Want to show it to you. Found a new hoop. New court. And I'm thinking you and I, I think you might like this one. Okay. I know you like the court that we got right now? Good rims. No nets, though.

There's no net. It's mainly just a parking for me. I mean, it's like easy to park there. That's the only thing I really. That's a big deal. Yeah, yeah. I've got you a new one. But, of course, my main man,

Blessing out of Yo-Yea Jr. is rounding out the desk. And today, this game's cast is starting off all about you, Bless. How are you? Wow. Finally. I'm doing good.

How's it going? Let's bring out Addison. What? I was the craziest twist of all the time. I don't know. I've spoken to you in 10 years. I didn't know. Addison was a place in Illinois.

Yeah, that's it. How did you find this out? Um, I, I think I, you know what it was. I was looking up how to get Mountain Dew Code Red Zero. Smart. And one of the locations said like something about Addison and I was like, oh, I bet you

that's why Blessings friend got named after me. I don't think he was named after the suburb of Chicago. My mom worked it briefly. Because I've never heard the name, Madison aside from that. What about Addison's in Columbia, Missouri? Dynumat restaurant. I've heard Madison. Sure.

You know? Wisconsin. Oh, sure. Got it. Madison, the game. Mike's on it. Yeah. Madison, the woman in the She-Hulk thing, right?

What other Madison's do we got? Ashley Madison. Ashley Madison. Great website for great people. Blessing, of course, today we kick off today's games cast all about you because you have brought the energy, you have brought the fun, and you brought the excitement for dragging ball, sparking zero. And you've gotten a lot of the office to jump in and play.

So I'm very excited to hear your thoughts and review of that game, because, of course, this is the kind of funny games cast, each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in the video game world, live on YouTube and on Twitch and podcast services around the globe. Don't forget, if you love what we do,

please support us with that kind of funny membership available on Patreon and on YouTube for just $10. You can get the very best of Kind of Funny and help support us keeping the lights and mics on because you get to watch our shows live as you record them. You get them ad-free and you get your daily

dose of Greg Miller with your exclusive content each and every weekday. For a chance to be part of the show, please submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go if you're watching live. Because, of course, we're talking Dragon Ball. And I want to know your favorite Dragon Ball moments, characters. Do you like that purple cat? I want to know about it because I'm going to talk Dragon Ball as well today because I've been playing it.

Some housekeeping for you. Of course, you've already gotten Blessing and Andy kicking off the day with Kind of Funny Games Daily discussing. until dawn's rough launch. Then, of course, today's games cast is the Dragon Ball Sparking Zero review. After that, we will stream Diablo Vessel of H-3. Yes, yes, we're so back for Diablo for Greg and Joey and Zanth from the Diablo podcast. Well, no, I'm talking about, have already given you the review and talked about it.

He finally got the first half last. Yeah, you did. I knew where I was going, but of course, they will be. play or we will be playing they talked about it before so you can listen to them if you're a kind of funny member don't forget today's greggway is now live and the question is how do you listen to us how do you consume kind of funny content that's right that's right i like that i like that okay audio listeners i see you we got you so with you oh yeah we see you and we're here we're here and we're here for you yeah and you can get the shining in review this afternoon and tomorrow on

YouTube and YouTube and podcast services. We want to thank the people who support us over on Patreon. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs and Delaney Twining. But today we're brought to you by New World Eternum, but we'll tell you all about that later. Let's kick off the show with what is and forever will be topic of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, we got a good one. I'm going to take you to an anime universe that you might not know about or maybe you love because Blessing Adioia Jr. is going to give us the Dragon Ball.

Sparking Zero review that just released for early access drops on October 11th. Of course, it's a $70 title. Current Metacritic is sitting at 83 for the big dogs, you know, variance scores, but 83 up on the tippity top. Blessing, I'm going to let you take us away and then I'll jump in. I'm sure everybody else will have some fun. What are your thoughts on Dragon Ball Sparking Zero? Yeah, I've been having such a blast with it. You know, this is one that I've had a lot of anticipation for, mainly because of you.

because the Dragon Ball games growing up were a big franchise for me. You know, I hopped in at Budakai 1, played Budakai 2, played Budakai 3, played Tengaiichi 1, 2, and 3. Right. And like, you know, I think Dragon Ball culturally has also just been a big one for me and the people I grew up with. And for like, I think much of the world, you know, like Mike, right there you mentioned is the anime universe that, you know, you might not know of or you might know a lot about. I would venture to assume that at the very least everybody knows of Dragon Ball Z.

even if you don't know all the details, right? It's one of, if not the most prolific anime properties when you talk about popularity, when you talk about visibility. When you see Goku, you know that's Goku, right? You know that's Dragon Ball. You know that's anime. I think for a lot of people, Dragon Ball is the premier anime they think about

when they even think about just the genre, when they think about just, you know, the medium. And so with that, growing up, and I know I'm sure the same goals for you, Andy, same goals for many people watching and listening, is like you grow up with people who you go to school with and they come back to class and they're talking about like oh do you see the episode last night where Goku went super stand against Friza like that's the craziest thing ever like there's such a pop culture relevance and impact to Dragon Ball Z and you know I think that puts it in a special place for me because I was I think a bit too young for Dragon Ball Z but I did watch Dragon Ball as a kid and what Dragon Ball is is like a pre it it not predates. Pre-dates, thank you. It predated Dragon Ball Z. It was

Goku as a kid. The characters are more young, and it was a bit more light-hearted. And I loved Dragon Ball as a kid. How were you exposed to Dragon Ball? It was on Tudami. They had it on Cartoon Network at times. Okay, got you. Yeah. And so that would be on and I'd get into that. But then Dragon Ball Z as a kid, I'd see, and I'd like, oh, this looks serious. This is an adult show. This is an adult show. Like, they're turning

Super-Sayan, like, you know, this Friza guy who wants to destroy the whole planet. It was a whole thing for me. But as I got older, what got me into the story of Dragon Ball was actually the video games. And so when I first got Budakai 1, I played through it, Mike, you know the characters now, right? And so like, I do, I do. I fought Raddits. I fought Napa and Vegeta. I fought Friza.

And then that game ended with the cell fight, which was a big thing for me because, you know, that's what I learned about Gohan and how Gohan turned super sane and like took out Cell and all these things, right? Like, for me, that was such a pivotal way to experience a story that people had experienced to anime, and as the years go on, right, I replay that story, I get new tidbits, I'll learn about boo, I learn a little bit more, I learn about the GT characters. The reason why I mention all of that is because playing through Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, I am having such a back-to-the-past experience where I feel like I'm going through that stuff again in a new and revived way that is doing so much justice and restoring so much hype for me in the franchise. And so the latest Dragon Ball

series that's come out is called Dragon Ball Super. And it's come out years after Z has ended. There was like a whole thing. It was Dragon Ball GT. They were at Condit. They were like actually another same canon. They brought back Super to kind of like continue on the series. And I never watched Super.

I've only seen like a first arc, right? A few episodes in. And picking up Dragon Ball sparking Zero and playing through the super story has been so cool because it feels like almost like I'm just playing the sequel to the games that I grew up with. And I'm getting the rest of the story in a way that is like fucking awesome. I got to arcs that I've only heard about or I've only been hinted about

like playing Dragon Ball fighters learning about Goku Black, learning about Jirin, learning about the tournament of power, getting exposed to these characters has been such a cool experience through the story. And I love that I am getting to experience this hype in this way

while also at the same time getting the what if scenarios where you can make choices in the story you can beat a character you weren't supposed to beat necessarily and that'll lead you down a new path that will get you like a super cool cut scene at the end. That stuff has been super

cool. But ultimately, I think the thing that I not leave with, because I'm playing this game still, I'm going to continue playing this game, but the thing that I'm left with right now currently is just being so happy and so satisfied with how well they've captured just, you know, the presentation, the hype, the power levels,

the having 20 different forms of Goku that I can choose from at any moment, right? Playing this game. It has been such a special experience for me, and if I'm going to give it a score out of 10 for the kind of funny review scale, I'm giving it a 9 out of 10. It is such a fucking awesome game. I have my complaints. There's like bugs and stuff that I'll talk about in a second, but it has been such a good experience with video game in the last week. Here's a question I want to jump in with is that obviously I've seen you spread this around the office like COVID, where you're playing it and then somebody else would see it and they'd start playing and then they, it's just spread person to person, everybody asking me for getting more codes. The one thing I can't visualize and I would imagine audio listeners who are here just to hang out with us or doing the same is the moment to moment. Because it's, it's, you know, They call it a fighting game, but then you're making story choices, but you're doing, how does this work?

Is it like Mortal Kombat where you're going back to a screen and then picking the fight? And then if you win or lose, it does it? Or is it more like open world and this is happening? No, it's more menu-based. And so the, you know, moment to moment in the fights themselves, right? It is, it's a fighting game, but it's also, it's like a different kind of fighting game. It's an arena fighter. So it's behind the back.

It is you're in an open field. You're flying around and fighting another character, right? But it's always, you're always fighting somebody. It's not like you're exploring anything like that. The way the story mode functions is they have different arcs for different characters that you can jump into. And so, Goku being the main character is probably the one that you'll want to start with. And so you'll choose Goku and you're only doing the fights in the story that Goku is participating in. And so like you'll start off, you're fighting against Raddits, right?

And then after that, you'll jump forward in the story. Like you'll get like a cool little synopsis of what happened until the next fight. But then it is, all right, next Goku. Goku fight is against, you know, uh, Vigita. And so, here's what's happening here. All right,

do the fight, right? Um, but that's Goku's arc. You can also choose other arcs in the game and it will be, all right, you're picking Piccolo. First fight for Piccolo was also against Radditz with Goku, but now you're going to jump forward to Namik and fight against these characters, right?

And when the fights concluded, it sort of zooms out to an overworld map and you're, you're, you're kind of going through almost like a visual timeline. Okay. All right. Let's, let's push on to,

um, this next. of the game where if you know Dragon Ball Z, there's obviously been a lot of years that have passed, but now we're sort of in this next major fight, this next major saga, leaving the Freeza

saga now into the Cell saga, things like that. Exactly. And so the way that the choice stuff works, like the what-if stuff works, is there will be times where you will have a cutscene and you will have to choose between multiple different things. And so one of the early ones is there's this guy named Raddits

who is, and it's funny, I can compare there's so many aspects of this like Superman and how the story functions where. Well, this has always been the big thing, right? From coming from the Superman side of the coin, everyone's always like, oh, Goku for Superman who would win or Goku would kill Superman. I'm like, I don't even know who what Goku does. Like I've reviewed one game back in the day, it was garbage at IGN. Yeah.

That's my dragon ball knowledge. And people always, I think people compare them a lot because there are story similarities. Very similar. Of Goku's this alien dude who laying on Earth, he was supposed to conquer Earth, but I think he lost his memory. And so he didn't, he ended up just growing up, right? And then one day when he's an adult, another saying, which is like he's from the planet Vigita

that has like a bunch of sayan people, right? In the way that, well, what was Superman's, like, alien race called? Crypton. Creighton. Oh, he's from Kryptonians. Yeah, he's from Kryptonians. Yeah. I mean, I know this is going to offend a lot of people, but it also sounds a lot like

invincible. I'm not saying it. Obviously, Invincible, it came way later. I'm not aware. No, you're 1,000 right. So, like, um, Raditz, who's another saying shows up and is like, oh, you're supposed to conquer this planet. Like, I'm going to kidnap your son.

And you have this amount of time. time to conquer the planet, right? But instead of being this sort of extremely pure of heart, just positive like, Goku's like a hymbo. He's just like, he's a ditch. He's just like, oh, I didn't know I was supposed to do this, shit, you know, like, he's just a silly guy.

And so the first choice... But a great father. Like, man, that's good. So in the original story, him and Piccolo go and fight Raddits and like, Piccolo ends up using his like special beam cannon move to like kill Radits, but also Goku dies because Goku's holding Raddids into play

so he can get hit by the move. move. In the game, you're met with a choice of do you want to go face Rattits on your own, or do you want to go with Piccolo to go fight Rattids? And it was so fun during the preview event, experiencing this because I was talking to Mitchell Saltman, who was there, and we were comparing notes. And, like, we had very different outcomes. And some of the outcomes will, like, end up being, like, a cool, you had this thing happen instead, but we're going to, like, loop you back into the main timeline type thing, right? Where it doesn't really matter that much. And then there have been some outcomes where it is, I'll be in the South Saga playing as Vigida.

and because I chose a very specific thing, the final fight of that arc ends up being different. It's not Gohan fighting cell. Now it's a different type of matchup happening. And you'll get like a really cool, really detailed cutscene of the final moments of that arc. And it has been very satisfying finding those and like experiencing the hype of these like band moments of,

oh man, now it's the father's son, Kamiamiha, but it's not Gohan and Goku. It's like these two. And I'm like, oh, that's fucking cool. And I'm like, you know, I've had moments where both, both I have gotten hyped and excited. I'm like yelling at my TV out of hypeness. And then I've also had like emotional moments playing this game where there's a moment

where they're talking about Goku and one of the Dragon Ball Super arcs, right? And like I'm fighting and I'm hearing the dialogue and they're talking about how like Goku's not just fighting for himself. He's fighting for his community behind every one of his punches is like, you know, care for the people that like grew up with him and all this stuff. And for me being somebody who came up with Dragon Ball Z culturally, I'm like, man, I'm getting into a meta place where I'm like, oh, those punches aren't just,

it's not just Piccolo, it's not just Vigita, it's us, the viewer. It's us the fan. You know, and I'm like thinking about, it's for you, Toriyama. It's for you, Toriyama. And I'm like getting fucking hype watching this stuff or I'm like playing through it.

And so, yeah, the story remote has done such a wonderful job, I think, um, recapping and depicting the story and giving those, you those scenarios. But Mike, I want to throw to you because you've also been playing and experiencing Dragon Ball for the first time through this game.

I have. I was going to comment on the flow and the progression of the game. I really, really enjoy that. I think they're small bite-sized fights, which I'm excited to talk about, like, actual gameplay with blessing. But, like, the story itself is really sped up and fun. I know I live streamed in a lot of people like, well, this skipped like 40 plus episodes. But it is a good flow of like, hey, introduction to the character, here's the setup, you jump into this arena, fight, let's go on to the next one. And I really enjoy that as someone who loves one piece with over a thousand episodes. I like how it's like, okay, how do we find the flow to the major plot point moments and get you there?

But the main one for me is the fights themselves, right? In this 3D arena, destructible environments, what can happen? How good am I? And I've found times where I'm really bad. And then I find moments where I have the scream at the TV. I figured it out. And I'm having a blast. And so when you say you figured it out, and again, I apologize for what I'm sure are rudimentary

questions about this game. I'm picturing it like you're saying behind the back, arena fighter, yada, yada, yada. Is it almost like a boss fight where you need to figure out the pattern and when to attack? That's where I was going to kick it to bless because like, yeah, now you go to, well, is there a bunch of combos, Mike? Is it a fighting game like that?

No, it's not. It's a little more different than that where it feels like I get you in my combo of pressing X as a basic attack and then I'm building up my saying power to then hit an L2 X combo and L2Y combo. Maybe I'll throw a spirit bomb at you. when I've hit you with the six-piece combo. That's how I flow right now. Because again, as an outsider, looking at this footage,

you're fighting giant Alf. This looks fucking sick. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? This looks awesome. This looks like, again, shocking no one based on the comparisons, a Superman game that I would want to play.

Yeah, and I think it comes down to the level you're playing this game at. You know, when I first boot up the game, they hit me with, do you want to play with the new modern controls, or do you want to play with, like, the classic controls? And the classic controls were from the game that I obsessively played in 2007, right?

Dragon Ball, Tank, IG3, which is a sequel to you. And so I'm like, oh yeah, give me the class controls. And then where I played the game, I picked up so quickly because it is, so many of the combos are stuff that's ripped from the previous title. And so I'm like, oh, dude, I can get in, I can, at the level that I'm playing,

I am comboing things, right? And I am doing like, you know, square, square triangle. That'll, like, knock them a bit forward. I dash into them. I, like, I'm, you know, launching somebody across the screen, pressing triangle, a teleport, hitting them again across the screen, teleport back to them.

And I do, there's a level of control that I am having in these fights. I think at the more like jumping in level, right? Like when you're what it is, I've not played this for 50 hours or whatever, right? Like I think it becomes a bit more button mashy in a way that I think is good. Yeah, that's where I'm at, right? It feels like you're a kid with two action figures banging them together. That's how it feels. As a beginner, that's what it very much feels like is you just smash X a bunch to get the combo going.

Oh, wow, cool. I have my buildup, let me hit one of my special moves. Like, that's how this goes as a beginner. And then, yeah, you'll get into Blessers World where hopefully I'll build into something more where I'm teleporting to get out of the way. I'm dashing this way. I'm blocking and it feels really difficult, too. The thing is like the way that I play the game, I don't even think is the right way to

play the game per se. You know, like I'm playing it. Last night I played it for three hours on ranked match. And finally got, you know, the game is out in early access for those who I think got the either ultimate. Ultimate Edition or pre-ordered, I forget which, but it's out for a small group of people. Advanced Access is on sale now. Thank you.

And that meant that I finally got to play ranked online. I didn't get around to doing it during the review period because there were only a few days and I couldn't find people to play with. So playing last night ranked, it was the fun thing of me being like, oh, now I can finally use like the amount of time I put into this and like learning the combos and learning how to play. I can actually use these skills where the way that I'll describe it, Greg, would be to compare to WWE games where it's a lot.

like half fighting game and then half role playing. And so I'm doing these fights and I am, I'm like tapping square to like get the combo off. But really like the thing that I'm excited to do is to turn Super Sai and midmatch. That's all I want to do. It's like, you know, when you're playing is Ray Mysterio and you're like, I want to call in Eddie Guerrero halfway through the match. It's like, from heaven. From heaven. But you're like, I want to call in my tag team partner to like you got out the Ouija board he starts summoning. But you know, it's like me turning Superstay and midmatch is like, is it strategic? Not really, but it's more so about fulfilling the fantasy. And so much of this game is fulfilling the fantasy. Barrett, I put in like a TikTok of me playing

last night and picking the Giniu Force, which is like a random group of dudes that are like, you know, like, you know the Gini Force. Yes, I've been introduced. Don't forget about the Gingu Force. You can't forget about them. And they're just like a goofy troop of fighters from like the Friza arc of Dragon Ball Z. And I was like, I want to do. wonder if I pick all of them together if I'm going to get some kind of like thing. I wonder if I can like take them online and like fight people as the Gini Force. And I picked all of them and I got like a little like unique voice line as I pick my characters. Usually they don't give like these voice lines rather you pick your characters.

But I got like a Giniu Force all together sort of thing. Bared if you can bring it up. So this is me during the stream trying to figure out like, okay, can I pick all of them on race? Oh wait. I don't think I'll be able to do the full thing. Oh, I can't. I wonder if they did that on purpose. they knew.

They must have done that on purpose. Figuring out. Because it fits perfectly. Look at that. So they announced themselves as the Guinea force and I'm like, let's fucking go. That's fucking awesome. And like that's what I'm talking about. That's so fucking good.

That's what I'm talking about when I talk about like the fantasy fulfillment, right? Such a love letter. Yeah. It's like what are the things that people know and love about Dragon Ball? And how can we make sure that we're making these references giving people the power to like be able to play as ultra-insting Goku or be able to transform into Super Sin or like be able to play. is like, you know, whatever matchup they want to, that's going to give them the, you know, action figures fighting each other feeling.

And this game does that so well. Pretty big package as well. I was really impressed, Greg, of I've just been doing the episode battles, which is your little mini-story mode of all the characters. But if you go through the package, there's a lot going on. You have custom battles where you can actually set up the criteria for the match. So you can set up who's playing, how you have to win, what has to take place. Because when you're playing in the story modes, you'll be introduced of like,

I beat one of the characters. and they're like, oh, that's great, you got this ending, but that's actually not how you have to do. You have to just survive the match. And I was like, well, what does that mean? And so there's a time limit. So you can set that all up and actually upload it to the game cloud and other people can download your creations and play as that.

So that's really cool. There's an online mode, like Blessing said. There's a tournament online mode. It's offline as well if you want to play against NPCs. There's this one where if you want to just see all the characters, they have a really great database where you click on a character, and then they have Girl Talk, where they bring in these three girls from the show

and they just talk about the characters as if you're getting the item description of any thing and it's really, really fun. It's actually cute and well done where it's like, oh, I want to listen to all of these now. There's even more of that, bless. Like, there's one, there's three sections where it's like get the seven dragon balls

to, you know, summon the dragon or I called it Sharon, but it's definitely not sharing. I would call it Chevron, you know what I would call it Chevron. Yeah, exactly. But like, there's a lot going on in that blessing. I don't know the full pack. but I know there's a lot. Well, that's the thing is, even as I'm playing still,

like, I feel like I'm still unraveling things. You're right, it's a huge package. There's like 183 characters, I want to say. Correct me, Chad, if I'm, if I'm, like, missing anything. But, like, yeah. 80% of them, goos. Exactly. Yeah, there's a lot of goos.

A lot of different goos. A lot of goos in this game. But all those characters have their own unique abilities, right? Like, you have usually two super moves and then an ultimate move. And all of these 183 characters have, like, their own cutscenes for this move. or their own, like, you know, abilities that are all unique. And that is fucking impressive.

Like, it is actually crazy how, um, how much they jam pack in there. And then also how good this game looks in the moment to moment. Uh, that is the thing that I think has, like, allowed this game to spread like, COVID around the office is that people just go to my desk. They look at it and they're like, this game looks really good. And I'm like, yeah, dude. It looks, it looks awesome. They've really done justice to, you know, I think really highlighting the hype in like how good

the I think visual language of Dragon Ball is they've done such a good job translating that to this game and you know it really I think is good harkening back to the Tenkaichi games from PS2 because those games also looked great on PS2. They're a cell shaded, they looked unique, they had a unique art style,

they're a striking. This game in the PS5 era you look at it, it is one of the most striking games I've played just visually. It's a visual delight. Particle effects are freaking fantastic. When you're powering up, it reminds me of almost kind of the way that Riot does their visual effects whenever there's like fire on screen like their version of how fire looks. It's such a great like 2D to 3D translation seeing

these like beams of power when you are trying to go super sane or whatever. I'm freaking in love with how damn good this game looks. Yeah, it looks great. It's a ton of fun. It's been playing very well for me as well. And yeah, another couple of impressive stuff that I really, really enjoy is I'm just loving being able to jump in, see the world as someone who's never played it before. It's like, this might get me to watch the show, Greg. And I think that's a big compliment. I want to put a pin in that.

Ask Madeline, because she's been dead quiet on this. They've got me with the look of it, the Superman fight of it, and the WWE of it. That's enough for me to try that. Does this do anything for you at all? Not really, but I do have a question. Because I'm not a big fighting game person. However, I am curious.

obviously this resonates with Dragon Ball fans already. Like you all like Dragon Ball, this is really resonating with you. If someone has very little familiarity like me or Greg or just someone out there, like do you feel like this is a good introduction into the stories, into the characters?

Like, do you feel like they give you enough context for the story-wise? Or is it kind of just like, you guys know who Goku is, like go-fight sort of vibe? Yeah, for me I would say yes. I think a true Dragon Ball purification, would probably say no, just with how fast it's coming at you.

But like, for me, as someone who has truly never seen any Dragon Ball, I am getting it at a rapid, fast pace where I can keep up with it, right? Like, Goku's introduced. You understand who Goku is. You understand he's trying to be the most powerful person around. He's chasing these seven dragon balls. We go off on that story. Characters are introduced quickly at you.

You follow it. I don't think it's a bad way to learn at all. Yeah. For me, it's the thing of playing through the, like, Z, part of the story, right, which is like the part of the story that I already know. I think I was where what Mike mentioned as far as like the purest or whatever, right? Like I was like, oh man, I don't know if I could recommend this as your first time. Then getting into the super part of it, which is the part of it that I don't know,

and experience the story that way, I was like, oh, snap, I'm following along. Like, this shit is fucking awesome. I like how they are condensing the story here. Obviously, like, the best way to experience the story is to go read the manga or watch the anime, right? And like, experiencing it, experiencing it in full. That said, not everybody has that time. There's a lot of episodes of this thing.

They put out Dragon Ball Kai, which is like the redone, the abridged version of Dragon Ball Z. And even I look at that and I'm like, that's still a lot of content if I'm going to watch this and watch Super and like try to get this full story. When I was streaming last night, I was talking to chat because, you know, I've started Super. I'm like halfway through like the fight between Goku and Golden Freeza, which means something to people out there. And as I'm streaming, I'm asking people, I'm like, can I just skip to the tournament of power? Because the tournament in power, I'm like 80 episodes away from this thing. But experiencing it through the game, I'm like, yo, this shit, this shit seems fucking awesome. This shit seems hype.

And people in chat were like, you probably can. Like, you don't necessarily need to experience every single thing because, like, there's a lot of filler in Dragon Ball. Like, you know, there's a lot of times where they're just going to be hanging out, making jokes, right? And I think there is something nice about experiencing a version of the story that's just like, here's the, Here are the main beats. Here are the main fights. Here are the main rivals. And then if that gets you in, then you watch the anime and experiencing it that way.

I think it may have been easy for you, Blest, to kind of go into the super parts of this video game. Because maybe there's sort of that inherent knowledge and the language of what Dragon Ball Z is. I don't, I'll disagree with Mike. I don't think this is a great way to, because you're kind of just, you hop into the story mode. the story mode starts and it's here's a villain. You're the good guy. And that works for the people who know exactly what's happening

to see like, oh, how are they gonna, how's it gonna translate to video game form? But I think you do end up missing a lot of context and a lot of stakes which is like what kind of makes these fights all worth it because the non-Kai version of Dragon Ball Z where it's like

the non-a-bridge version that was like the first real anime that I feel like I probably ever watched and it would take I don't know 30 episodes for a fight to happen like there's so much filler there's so much flashbacks and stuff to kind of just pat out time but you do you know so the the Kai version shortens a lot of that up but you I feel like you do miss a lot of context for exactly what the bad guys are doing and what their like motivations are but also like the rewatching Kai right now there's such a

a great sense of humor to this show that I don't really think I appreciated back in the day. I rewatching it now with a different lens, it's like, man, there's like some great comedic writing. I really enjoy this shit. I'm like, this shit is like looney-tootent sometimes. Like, there really is fucking goofy.

And if you just experience if you experienced the game or the Dragon Ball universe the way that I have a lot, right, which is through video games and through more, the most condensed versions, I would think that like, 80% of the show is fucking serious and powering up. and like all this. But so far

and Superer, everything is so fucking goofy. Bears falls asleep and that's how it all ends in the first arc. And I'm like, oh, okay. I guess we're doing this. They have a great sense of humor. I would just recommend just watching this show anyway. It's one that I've just been throwing on my phone on Hulu and just kind of like as I'm getting

ready for sleep, I'll just kind of have it playing in the background. It's a great time. Yeah, that's an interesting one. Because yeah, I think the fun part is I am blessing 10 or 20 years ago, right? Bless it like I'm playing it for the first time. Now I'm going, oh, I'm excited about this. I like the art style. I like these characters. Now I'm going to watch it. So I think that's the way to get in.

If I had friends or family who's like, I've never done this before, Mike, but I love gaming. I'd be like, well, try this game, see if you like it. And then all of a sudden you might want to jump in. Like, I would love to recommend you one piece that has 1,200 episodes and a grand adventure about life and friendship. But it's like, am I going to get you for that? What if I got you a dope game that you're like, I'm a gamer, I would like that. And then all of a sudden you meet Crocodile and you're like, you know, what's up with the guy with the hook for his hand and he's doing sand powers and it's like, what if I take it alabaster?

We just watched a 30 episode series. So like, now I'm like, oh, sell, what's up with this frog man? And blessings like, yo, let me tell you about sell. And then I'm like, what's up with this half cat man, but not a cat man alien? Friza and Andy's like, freeze it's wild. You need to watch this one. And I'm like, yeah, like now I'm in. So I think that's what this game has done for me is now I run down this timeline.

And I'm like, I want to see Vegeta turn into a giant ape. What's the story with that? Oh, they chopped off his tail? That's crazy. Let's watch the episode. So, yeah. For me, I'm very excited about what I'm seeing. Some complaints that I have, I wish the tutorialization was better.

The game is pretty complicated when you first jump in, especially if you've not played this kind of game before, which most people haven't played this kind of game before, right? So it can be very chaotic and very fast at times. And so I wish they did a better job. There are tutorials in the game, but I don't think they're the best. think they really break down, like, for the most casual players, like, how exactly you want to be playing this game.

I don't remember what the difficulty options were. Were there a lot of different... I think they're all right, because I've seen people tweet about, like, when you crank up the difficulty of the highest, it's like the most impossible thing. Yeah, it's interesting because when you start off, there is no difficulty options. But what I appreciated was, is I was getting my butt-whooped. And every time you finish the fight and you lose, it's like, do you want to reduce the difficulty? And I've done that a lot to now where I'm whooping ass and I'm wondering, well, where am I

now on that scale. Because it doesn't clear as they say, hey, when you start this game, normal, hard, easy, you just kind of jump in

and go from there. I think on the story mode, it's like, I think it's normal and easy. Because it is, you press L2 and it's like, difficulty has been lowered or whatever.

And then you press it again. It's like difficulties back to normal. And so I don't do a good, a good job of making that as clear. And my other thing is playing online last night. It's pretty buggy. There were like a good amount of matches

where my control scheme was not what I wanted it. be like just to use my special moves. I'll press L2 to bring up the like button prompts and the button prompts would all just say triangle and I'm like that's not right. And I couldn't control what moves I wanted to do. It was like maybe one out of four matches

that would happen to me. I'm sure that's one of those things that's gonna get fixed and so I don't hold like that at like a very heavy weight in the review because they have to fix that. But yeah like there are those parts of the game where it can feel awkward to play in parts of it where it is oh this is for sure like a PS2 game right in some instances.

especially when it is, you know, you do a move where you chase after somebody, you miss them, and now there's just the awkward, you're just flying, and you have to readjust? Did you see the video of the guy, like, killing Vegeta? He was playing as Gohan, who was Goku's son, Greg. Yes. A little child. I know, it looks exactly like him. Cute as a buddy.

He looks like mini. He looks like mini-go-old. Yeah. Well, he did a move on Vegeta and he gets like blasted back and he flies towards him and Vegeta's like dead body is just sliding down. But he's not dead. It's just like the game bugged out. So his body's just like sliding down a little mountain.

He's like, oh my God, I killed Vegeta. And again, like awkwardness or, yeah, I guess I would just say awkwardness in terms of like camera. And this is a game where you're playing as basically a bunch of Superman and you're flying around the screen and trying to hit each other. And so because of that, it is, oh man. trying to punch this guy, but he's like right below me. So there's shit like that. You're like doing like the 360 spins.

Yeah, you're like, let me lower it a little bit down. But there's stuff like that that I think takes some getting used to. But even with that stuff there, it's hard to imagine this game without those things because that's just the kind of game this is, right? I don't think you can make a game like this without having those issues. I will say there was kind of to. That looks fucking awesome. Kind of to go back to what Madeline was asking earlier, like about fighting games.

Like I know this is a fighting game, but I don't look at it as that traditional fighting game. Like Blessing goes mentioning, it's a sort of brawler type, behind the back sort of view. It's different. It does kind of satisfy that the immersion you're looking for, because when I, I know everybody loves the Mortal Kombat story modes and stuff, but I can't wrap my head around like awesome-ass cutscene. Let's continue the story. And I'm back to a one-v-one side scroller normal. the shin. Best of three rounds.

And you're like, all right, what's going on? It kind of throws me off, you know, like just, and I know how great they are, but that part of it is.

Sounds like you're talking a lot of shit, Mortal Kombat fans. It separates the story from the gameplay for me a little too much where this doesn't feel like that. This feels like you, when you are fighting these NPCs,

yes, you have the health bars. Like, it looks like a fighting game on the top right and the top left, but it still feels similar to what an action adventure type video game would feel like. In terms of feel,

yeah, compare it more to an action game than just a fighting game. It does look a lot more like immersive. I think behind the shoulder to me kind of feels like you get to feel a bit more like the character rather than the 2V2. I mean, that was...

And you could fly down up underneath them, do all sorts of shit. That was the magic for me as a kid where like these games became special to me because it felt like I was playing the anime. I could fly around. I can like bust out a Kamiamihani ha, whatever I want to, right?

Like I can, you know, punch, punch, punch, teleport, punch, teleport. Like, I'm doing all this shit. And it feels like I really am embodying who these characters are. And so, yeah, I think the perspective and it feeling like more of an action game lends way more to that than what I would, yeah, how I would describe Mortal Kombat,

which I agree with Andy, right? Like it is, there is a disconnect between cut scene. All right, now I mean there's 2D playing fighting Scorpion against, you know, sub-zero, and it can feel awkward because I don't know how this character works. All these characters feel the same. Or at least there's a level of how the character abilities and, like, movesets translate to each other, which means you don't have to like relearn how to play a character, which is nice.

Let's keep the fun going. Let's jump into the super chats coming from our live audience watching on YouTube and on Twitch. Benny Be Good writes in and says, Can't wait for Greg to not care. And then writes in right after with another super chat and says, I retract my earlier remark. Greg seemed to care.

Made it be good. Nice. We're growing. That's it. Also, after about five to six hours of playing, it overheated my PS5 and shut down, Blaz. Don't, don't, no. Don't bring in this.

This is what Lander. The PS5 went super saying. You see Virginia in the power level. Cozy Bear writes it and says, for Greg, what is Giant Alves' backstory?

Oh, well, of course, as you and I saw somebody in there, like, that was mad that you all know, no sold that joke. Thank you very much. You know, of course, Alph is from Melmac. So this isn't the Alf we know. This is a separate Alf from Melmac. Rather than being sent to Earth,

Alf to eat cats. This alf was sent to whatever this planet is. Earth. In the game? Yeah. Earth. I mean Earth. Unless you're talking about like Planet Vegeta. Oh yeah. Whatever planet there of the show. So it's happening on Earth? Yeah, on Earth, yeah. So is it like a far-flung future or a different past? Modern Earth. I guess not. They don't dress like they're on modern Earth. None of these people are walking into Target dress like this. It is modern. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I guess all because you have like, you think about the cell saga where all the civilians were. Because remember Greg, my aunt, she banned the show

from my cousins because it was like a scene where a lot of like civilians were murdered she was like no we can't be having that Columbine just happened are you kidding me it was like a very very tenuous part of America you should have been like well and how young were you I was like probably 11

or 12 well and I may only be 11 but you should change the laws in this country rather than hide oh true that's a great people from being killed on TV like you need a quit voting for a people that are do something aunt don't they have flying cars in Dragon Ball though I feel like whatever it's a size to

parallel universe, we'll say. In this parallel universe, I guess then it is our Alf. Alf went through a radiation field and landed, and he got really, really big. I guess I just think about the way the buildings looked. Yeah, that's fair. They were like normal cities. Jamel T. Davis writes in and says, The pacing of the game is very good, and the boss fights are pretty damn hard, really enjoying it so far.

Bless, if you run into any roadblocks, a lot of people on social media right now are actually talking about giant Alf, aka Vegeta as the Great Ape. Are you running into roadblocks right now? No, not really. Yeah, no, I'm kind of cruising through it. It's a gamer, you know? Yeah, I mean, but that's also me bringing in prior knowledge of, like, how to play.

So, like, if you're jumping into this as a new thing, I can imagine that Great Eighth, Vegeta could be frustrating because you can't hit him. Like, there's a certain kind of move where you, like, dash at your opponent and then it gets to a cutscene. You can't do that move, with that move on, like, bigger enemies.

And so it can eliminate, like, big parts of your movest Sonny Knowles writes in and says, I've never played, I've never played the 10 Chi, 10 Kaiichi series. I stopped at Budukai 3. This seems small, but I love that they have in-game transformations and the alternate story stuff is awesome. I'm loving my time with it. Love an in-game transformation. Like you can't make a, we got to stop making jogging ball games where I can't turn Super sane midway through the match.

That's the whole point of it. Exactly. That's when I go, so you charge up. Yeah. You say I'm charging up, right? Remember when Tim charged up at his wedding? That was awesome. You fill up the bar, but then you go past it, right?

Because you never just fill up at 100%. You go past it. So then I fill it up super and I'm on fire. Is that going super sane? No, that's sparking mode. Sparking mode. Yeah. Super Saion is, it's funny because I'm using the classic controls.

It's like you're going through puberty. It's like when Goku turns yellow, Mike. You know, when he went blonde. Yeah, when you went blonde. A lot of hair style. changes just so you know. I love that. You can do that in the middle of that. We'll say this, Madeline, like a, there was a cut scene

immediately right after that where Mike goes, his hair is black? I thought it was blonde. And so that's what I mean we're like, maybe, you know, it won't work for everybody who hasn't watched the show. It's coming out you real fast. It's going to be real fast. Yeah, bless, it's interesting. So you charge up, right, and you hold that L2 button right there.

And it gives you four options. Two of them, technically sometimes five, but I'm not going to count the spirit bomb right now. Two of them are actual moves, right? You have X and Y. And then there's a D-Pad inputs. The D-Pad inputs are clearly like passive abilities. So like I'm turning, I hit left on the D-Pad and it gets, I don't know, focus mode we'll call it.

What is putting, what is it putting on? So they do different things. There's like a bunch of them, right? And their character is specific based on like who the character is. And so some of them, I think what like Goku will turn Kokin, which is like another form because Goku has a billion forms. and it'll increase your attack and defense. And when you look under your health bar, it'll have the little icons.

That's like... Kayoken is when you got the pink sort of. Yeah. Yeah. Kayoken is like when you have like the red hue and shit. That stuff is like I think when you're really in your Duffy and like you're really playing the game and paying attention to the details.

I think that's when you're playing online. Yeah. I think that's more what like abilities like that are for. But there are other ones that are like there's like an after image thing where if you click it the next time your opponent does a big move, you're just automatically teleport out the way. It's stuff like that, right? And like, they don't, they do a terrible job.

Terrible job. I have no idea with those. I don't even know if there's a pause menu to like go in and explain those things. There's like many icons that pop up on your screen. I'm like, I have no idea what those are. No. I'm just assuming that I've gained these abilities. Well, we don't read.

We don't read. But you know what? I don't need that. I have the spirit bomb. Yeah. Spirit bomb also doesn't go through water. Pretty messed up. Just so you know, if I kick you into water and I throw a spirit bomb at you, it doesn't, it doesn't affect them.

So that's got a messed up, to be honest with you. Those abilities are definitely holdovers from like the previous game. Good ideas. They just got to explain that shit. Especially because like I'm fighting Friza, right? And you got to defeat Friza with the spirit bomb. He can't, he won't go down any other way. Can't do it?

Well, when I kick him in the water and I try to drop a spirit bomb on him, it doesn't happen. And I'm like, all right, well, I got to fight them over in the sand lot right now. Great, because here's the thing. Around the world, imagine just like, you know, I know you love Star Wars. Middy Chlorians all over the place, right? Oh, my God. Are they out or they inside of people? Everywhere.

Okay. They're inside. they're outside, all that stuff. Penetrating you, whatever you want. It's all around us, right? Spirit bomb is everybody lending their power. And everybody's life force, it's like, we need to help Goku with this spirit bomb move.

So everybody, like, everybody raises up your hands and everybody raises up their hands. A long time ago, Mega 64 had me do this in my front yard. Yeah, that's it. That's it. I was like, I don't know, I don't know. Like, imagine Superman's fighting. Who's a Superman villain? Who's a big Superman villain?

Dune's Day. Superman's fighting, fighting, Dune's Day. I can't talk anymore. Superman's fighting self he's finding Doomsday Doomsday Whoop in Superman's ass And Superman's like I need

Literally everybody on earth Send me your energy It's like the socialism of power It really is Sure Yeah Yeah We've got a couple more super chats

To get through Before we keep it moving on today's show Of course we have AK dot 98 that says Greg the one that looks like Goku was actually Go 10 His second son

Gohan is his first son And has slightly different hair From Goku A lot going on here Wait, what? His first son or his second son? Yeah. Professor Funkenstein says, so how does the game feel blowing up buildings? My favorite part of D.BZBT series was throwing my punk-ass cousin through the buildings. Feels great. Nice. There I am. There it is. And this is he is they saw. They couldn't even fucking put me in the video. I have no idea. They never made a good excuse for Wyatt, why I wasn't in the goddamn video. You didn't do it good enough.

What do I mean I didn't do a good enough? I did exactly what they said. I went in my fucking front yard like a moron and stood with my hands up. Oh, Kajima's in it. Yeah, shocking he got in it. You know what I mean? It's video format works, you know? What do you mean the video?

How did they get it? It doesn't make sense. I mean, he's the, well, here's an outtake where Greg didn't get it, but we could put it in this video, but not the real video. Scott the Waz knows how to do this, you know. Scott the Waz knows. You know, they probably weren't filming on like old iOS that, like,

filmed an M4A or whatever fucking bullshit. No, you have the Macawrieuart. You know, you have the Macquarie brothers doing it right. Yeah, yours was way off. Come to think of it. Let's finish our- You can say the performance is bad. I'll give you that.

And I would say, Good Day, Rocco. Okay, I was wrong. When it's just like the format, then what the fucking talking about, Mega-64? That's some stars in that video. Yeah.

Not me. Let's finish off our super chat segment with kebabs, who writes in and says, my favorite moment is from the original Dragon Ball, the blue wanderer sequence with Goku and Upa. Probably mispronounce upa or Opa. I don't know.

I just made that up. scares. Here's the deal, bless. A lot of content, a lot of storylines, a lot of moments

in the series. Will this game cover it all? Does it cover all the good ones that you wanted? Is it missing any of those big

arcs and moments? I mean, I still, so there's still like story content that I've not gotten to. I've like, I've completed Goku's arc

and I've completed multiple different arcs. What's that? How many hours do you play with this game? Did we already cover that? 20 hours so far. I was actually kind of,

I was surprised by how much story content there is because it just keeps going. So I've not gotten far enough to know if, like, are we covering movies? There's movie characters. They have characters from the movies in the game, but I don't know if they're covering that in the story mode. And honestly, like, for what they're doing with it, I think it's adequate. You know, like, we could complain that there's no original Dragon Ball, but it's like, do y'all want that?

Like, maybe that's a DLC thing, who knows? But I think for what's there, I think they've done a good job of trying to cover everything they can. Thank you to a couple of best friends who became kind of funny members as well. Along with your super chats, if you become a member, You can also leave a quick message. So Alex writes in with his two-year kind of funny membership on YouTube. Thank you for your support. Just wanted to shout out the English voice acting cast of Goku, Vigita,

and all the others for being and sounding awesome in the game. Some great voice acting over there. They're fantastic. Voices I recognize some other animas as well, My Hero. Of course, Luffy in there from One Piece. Pretty cool. I like that world. I like being able to pick up on some of them.

Blessing we're going to end the Dragon Ball Sparking Zero review slash conversation with two final topics. Okay? One, I'm going to give you a top three so far of Snowbike Mike's hardest opponents slash jabronies out there. And then two, do you recommend the game? So get ready for that in just a second. Greg Miller, let me take it to the Dragon Ball.

You better say yes. I like to stay away. When he said nine and men, no. I want to take you out to. the gibronies I had fought in so far, Greg. Okay, let me take you to the Dragon Ball Arena. So far, I've seen three big gibronies in my way.

Okay? We got Vegeta, we got Cell. We, of course, have Freeza. Okay? And on the list of the baddest of them all, we're going to start from the bottom. Number three, Cell. He looks like a frog man. Okay? He's sucked up robot and droids to become even more powerful. He wants to stop the world and create a tournament to see if

anybody can stop him because he's just so powerful. Then he also has little baby frogs Because he wants the little baby of Goku to fight Sell Juniors And they're blue, they're not green, okay? And so he's sucked up so many Androids that he's become the perfect form But when I get him to spit out the androids

He's not perfect form anymore And becomes a fat frog, okay? So I'm beating that guy up. Unfortunately for you, Sell, you aren't the most powerful being in the universe Just so you know, you're number three, okay? Because at number two... Are you done with the Solzaga?

Yeah, I'm going on to Mashi booed. Oh, okay, gotcha. Okay, then you know that, like, sounds like I think the one that took out Goku. I'm just letting you know, bless, that he's a punk and I beat him very quickly. Maybe because the difficulty scale is very low. Just letting you want to. Probably what is happening, okay? Number two, Vegeta as the Great Ape.

Now, I don't know if you know, but a lot of these characters, they have tails, okay? Technically, if you cut off their tail, they don't go into Great Ape form anymore. So I don't have a tail, aka Goku, doesn't have a tail. So he can't do that. But then we chopped it off, right? And then he went back to normal Vigena mode. I hit him with a spirit bomb as I was dying, but I couldn't get it off.

But then Gohan and freaking Krillen, they saved the day, right? And he had to get off on his spaceship. Pretty tough boss, to be honest. We got to talk about Dragon Ball later, maybe off content. Because, like, Dragon Ball covers a lot of the tail stuff with Goku. Yeah. That shit was a problem. Okay.

You know, I mean, every, it was a kid just turning to Great Apes. Yeah, a little baby Goku. So, number two, Vegeta as the Great Ape. Very tough. Fun fight. Number one, the Strong. strongest boss so far that I've encountered in the Goku series. Friza.

He's not the purple cat man than I wanted him to be, but he kind of looks like a cat, more like an alien. He wants to be a cat, but he's not a cat, but he's not a cat, but he's not a cat, but he's not a cat. They're different people. Very different. Yeah, I get that. No, you don't. That's Gibran.

No, that's the cat man, okay? We're not, show the other guy. You're saying cat man. Well, look at this catman. You said purple. Look at this catman. Look at the other guy. Show me the other guy.

The other guy's not a cat man. What's the name? I'm not Friza. S-R-I-E-Z-A. If I never heard or seen Dragon Ball before in my life, and I was expecting Bearest and I see Friza, I can kind of get boom, this guy could be the catman. Friza looks like he is

the catman we just saw mid-transition to become M-2. That's what we got going on right here. And you know what? Cell was transforming, so is Friza, okay? Friza, very difficult fight. This guy kicked my ass for two full days, finally beat him. Look at how girthy that Taylor is. Man, I feel good to beat that guy. Freeze is the best.

He's so mean Freeza's number one, okay? He wanted to take over the universe number one. Then Regina, then sell. Okay, that's the Snowmike Mike official list ranking right there. We'll be back with more Dragon Ball because I like this game a lot

and I would recommend it. I had a conversation the other day when I realized. Do you recommend it, bless? I do recommend it. The reason Freezes calling the monkeys is because they turn into apes. So like Virginia, like,

like sayings, they turn into ace because they have the tails. Not because the other reason I thought. I was like, oh, he's just a bad guy. Oh, okay. I was like, that's fucked up. Blessing, thank you for bringing me along on this journey and so many of us in the office on putting us on to Dragon Ball Sparking Zero.

Anytime. Thank you for the great review. Of course, nine out of ten on the kind of funny scale. Blessing recommends it. Go check it out on October 10th, I believe, is when it drops. October 11th. October 11th. And it's out now if you want to get the early access copies for it.

So jump in, have some fun. Maybe we'll see you online in some of the tournaments. You never know. Hell yeah. But bless, we have so much more show. to go. We're going to get Madeline involved, along with Greg Miller, who's got a preview slash game that he wants to tell you all about right after a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to by New World Eternum. New World Eternum is a thrilling action-rpg

experience for console and PC players with a vibrant world, vast and beautiful setting, dynamic real-time action combat, and the freedom for players to choose how to forge their destiny. Combat is skill-based and dynamic, incorporating swords, guns, and sorcery so that you can build one character to rule them all as you explore Eternum and unravel the mysteries of the supernatural island that you can't leave. You love playing RPGs alone? You can in New World Eternum or play cooperatively with your friends as you complete quests, get better gear, and level up.

Greg played this at Summer Game Fest on PlayStation 5 and was caught off guard by how much he enjoyed it and how many hours he said he could see himself sinking into the final product. There's boss fights, cool enemies, crossplay, resource gathering, and crafting. So yeah, this sounds like a Greg game. Pre-order New World Eternal Now on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X-R-S to get the Azoth stalker Wolfmount and prepare for launch on October 15. Welcome back, everyone.

And Greg, this second half of the episode is about you too. It's about you to start. And then we're going to open it up to Madeline and the whole crew. Sure. Because I have a fun question for everybody. But it starts off with you, Greg. Of course, in the office, you are known for many of things. Being a great leader.

Always having a good time. smile on your face, compassionate, smart, sometimes gets a little weird. A little crazy. Sometimes he loves in and out. He likes donuts. But you're also known for certain video games. We call them Greg Ask Greg video games. Games that make you feel, games that make you move a certain way, whether that be emotional.

Games that literally yesterday had Nick Scarpino walk up to my desk and start laughing go, what the hell are you doing? Yeah. Games that sometimes we wonder, are you gaming? You know what I mean? But you know what? They're video games, and they are pretty awesome. And so, Greg, you have a preview of a video game that I would like to talk about with you. Maybe you can put me in the audience on to. And then we'll have some fun conversations afterward.

Let's talk about Pine, a story of loss. There's a trailer out there in Assets Barrett. Many people will probably remember this being shown in me immediately going, yes, a thousand percent. I'm going to be in on this. Your official description reads like this. Alone in the Forest Glade, he shared with his wife, a woodworker, a woodworker, wrangles his grief as he tries to accept her passing.

In Pine, a story of lost, players will help him hold on to cherished memories of their life together as he struggles to care for himself and is now empty home. Created by a professional illustrator from DreamWorks and Nickelodeon and Children's Book author Tom Booth. So you're seeing it here and of course that's what immediately struck us, I think, when we saw this in, I forget what showcase. And he's been in a couple of them, but how striking the art style is. And then yes, when you are going to talk about a dead wife, when you're going to talk about grief, you know I'm going to eat that shit up and be like, yeah, give me a bunch of hours of that blessing.

Make me fucking feel. My life's too perfect. Does she have to be dead? You know what? I was hoping for a twist at some point. Maybe she just left. You know what I mean? She was like, you know what? Living in the woods like an idiot, not what I want. But no, she's fucking dead as a doornail. I had been looking for this They hit me up and were like, hey, do you want a preview code for Pine A Story of Loss? And I said, you bet your bottom dollar I do. Pine A Story of Loss is of course developed by made-up games published by fellow traveler. It is coming out sometime in Q4, 2024.

And so we aren't there yet. We don't know what that date is. I am sad report. I did not enjoy Pine A Story of Loss. I feel like, you know, again, this is such a great game. This is right up my alley. Let's go for the feels. Let's go for the emotions.

And while it is gorgeous, I think if you look at that trailer right there, the art style is amazing. It is well done by Tom Booth there. I think it lacks in gameplay. And I know that's goofy, because again, we're talking about walking simulator.

You're talking about whatever. Story, yeah. But what I would jump into is like, I feel like this game is very much trying to be Florence and hit on that level and have that kind of emotional resonance, but it doesn't have the gameplay that Florence did.

I don't think back to Florence to be like, oh man what a great game place experience but i remember the little puzzles of organization and then taking things apart and yet yeah like i got what they were going they were quick they were fast i was enjoying it what pine does i think the cardinal sin of pine is that in its desire to show you how mundane and empty this man's life is without his wife it makes it feel it is a mundane video game from what i've played in this preview uh you know you are doing the same things over and over again. You saw like, you know, you're going out there, you're chopping wood, you're gardening, you're pumping water, you're fixing your roof. But the problem is like, it's literally you do that

every day after day, every day for a while and come back and it's like, I get it. I understand what you're trying to have me do here in terms of like, oh, yes, he's just, he's living, or he's surviving, but he's not living. Yeah, of course. You know what I mean? And they, it's very much, they make you do it too much where I was like, I don't even want to continue doing this. I was playing on Steam Deck but with a controller I was putting it out of the TV So I'm hoping that on iOS

The controls might be Make it a bit more enjoyable But right there as you see You know The idea is that you go out You do these mundane tasks And then something triggers in his everyday existence That reminds him of his wife

You play a mini game That can be a whole bunch of different things I don't want to spoil too many of them But like there's a rhythm game With sticks at one point There's music scales with a wood chime There's these little things that are custom for the memory you're having

and then you go in and you carve out the little statue you're going to make to honor your wife there as you saw many times and you see him putting up one there. This carving tactic is the exact same thing of just being too mundane. It's just too much over over again. I'm going through it.

It should be like three or four cuts I feel and then it does it on its own of what it's going to be instead of me constantly rotating like, all right, where is the spot they want me to still chop off of this thing? I think on iOS it might feel better. I am holding out hope for that in a final version. Again, this is a preview.

So even the texture, not textures, the, uh, the, uh, UI for doing a bunch of this stuff. I'm hoping gets tightened up a bit. I didn't find it impressive. Uh, but yeah, I didn't enjoy the woodworking because again, you go at it with the thing for far too long. And then eventually you do get to a point where it's like, okay, you've taken away enough of the excess that then it does snap into what you wanted it to be. So it's like, why not do that minutes earlier to have me do this? I feel like the pacing is just all wrong.

Do you feel like it'd be served better as just an animated short? I do. I do. Yeah, there's nothing in here that makes me go, man, playing this is really making me and feel like I'm this guy or really get in there. At the end, of course, like, you know what I mean? When we get to the kicker of what the finale of the game is, I feel like it does tug at your heartstrings.

But at that point, I was so, I was so bored. And so, like, I want to stop playing this and play other things. I want to go spend my time somewhere else that it didn't resonate at all for me. Yeah, that's how I was going to ask. similar to Andy's like, would this be better as like a 30 minute, hour long experience? You do those tasks once, maybe twice, and then you're out of it. I don't understand how they didn't like stick to the rule of threes. Okay.

Where it's like you go, and then there's this weird thing where some days you do go out there and it's just a scene of him doing the thing you already did, but then you do it again next. It's like, I don't understand what was going on there. I felt that was a jumble. How's the music? Because I feel like a lot of times with these types of games, like you need a really good emotional kind of soundtrack to kind of pull you into it? It's good.

No, it's good. Again, in a game like this, it all hinges on your emotions and your enjoyment of it. And so the music I thought is, I would say haunting. You know what I mean? It's in the background. It's very soft. It's doing its thing. But it's hitting on the notes it should.

But again, I was like, all right, I get it. I know what we're doing. Why am I making this many? Why? No, I just didn't. So you talk about the gameplay, not hitting. How about the story, right? We talk about this music and the story.

story. The art style clearly jumps right off the screen at me. One thing I do want to pop in though, sorry, before we get it, because I don't want to forget it. And this is something for Andy, I think, that would really annoy the fuck out of you. The art style is great in this game, right? But there are things where the characters are talking or moving or whatever, and it's like their neck isn't connected to their shirt, and you can see in the background, the background. So it's like a cell, you know what I mean? It's like small, but I'm on a monitor. I can see it all or whatever. Whereas I don't think it's a style choice. I feel like it was like, oh, that's not there. And again, this is preview.

maybe this all gets fixed by, you know, review code. Yeah, that's interesting because I mean, I've very familiar with Tom Booth's work. I've seen this image of the man carving his wife into this like log or whatever. I've seen that piece of art on Instagram a whole bunch of times. And I've seen the other pieces of art that he's done. They're always fantastic. But I mean, maybe that's like an oversight or something. I was initially going to ask, is it a stylistic choice?

But it sounds like it doesn't feel like it is. That was the thing where it was just like, it's just like, It seemed like it is a problem. I'm trying to get, I know exactly when you're, I was just here. Yeah, I like zoom in on one of them and it's like, got that. Let's see what you're talking about. Yeah, he has a whole bunch of stuff on his Instagram. Instagram's incredible.

Oh, yeah. Beautiful artwork, Andy. Wow, I've never seen this before. Yeah, he's very good. Very talented. Uh, oh, here we go. I think that's probably. Is that the one you want, Andy?

Yeah, that's the one. It's coming to asses right. You know, yeah, there it is. Uh, yeah, and I think that's the thing where it's just, I think the game is all style, no substance. and that's a heartbreaker because I wanted so much more from it. And so anyways, to the story, again, for a game like this where you have to be all in on it, I think the story is so, I would say so one note.

Like I gave you the pitch at the top, right? And there's no twist there. When you tell somebody, hey, go play Florence, it's really emotional, whatever. And you see this photo of a, or not a photo, a drawing of a girl with an umbrella. You don't know what you're getting into. Gone home, a game I go back to all the time. jump into gone home, you don't know where that story's going to go. I was hoping there would be

a left turn, a kicker, something I wasn't expecting in this, and there wasn't. Like, it's what it is. It's that, the whole way through. I think it would serve better as an animated short than this video game. Is it an alien the whole time? Turns out we were inside a forest preserve. Well, I thought it'd be fun to

pair up the preview with a fun little topic of discussion for the whole panel, because Madeline's here and we got Andy and Bless who are both emotional guys. They're very in touch with their emotions. A deep well of emotions. I thought we'd build off of that and talk about games that have moved you or made you cry, made you feel something in the past. And I know Greg, this is right in your wheelhouse. You know I love crying.

We'll probably save you for a minute. But you know what? I'm going to start with Madeline, our guest. Madeline, tell me about a game that moved you or made you cry recently. This is hard because I have a really long list. Wow. Okay. Good.

That means it's good. I love a good cry. And I do play a lot of Greg-ass grade games. High five, Madeline. That's what I'm talking about out here. I think, like, bringing it a little bit back to Pine, which is, like, there are some games where the gameplay actually shows you a different piece of a story that you wouldn't experience if you were watching it as a movie or a show or something like that. And I think that one of the ones that stuck out to me the most, like there are several, but life is strange too, specifically. Wow, too.

We don't hear a lot about here with the brothers. I want to talk about it because I feel like it's overlooked constantly. And I don't know if that's why that is. I think part of it might have to do with the episodic release schedule. I think a lot of people didn't stick with it. But that game had me crying for like weeks. I would think about it and I would just be so upset. Because I feel like it helped you experience the story of two brothers of maybe people

who you have an experience or like experiencing hardships, experiencing police brutality, racism. And their story is really powerful, the love of a sibling for another, protecting, kind of like a father and a brother. And I think it was also such an interesting concept that was really poignant having you protect the person that had the powers,

like doing everything that you could to keep your brother safe, this very special person to you. And then, like, to go and, to, I guess, spoilers. I don't know if I should are not. I think people like to. I actually do want to get back to love to.

I was thinking about it recently. I will say this then. Even the quote unquote, like, good ending is like very nobly tragic in a way that you're like, I feel like the game is kind of saying like the position that you've put that these boys have been put into by their life circumstances, like they will never see a happy ending. being choked up talking about it, but I just think it's really powerful. 100%. Yeah, 100%.

Give me another one off your list. Because I like how you started that. You brought a lot of energy. Give us another one. Another one. I feel like this is a classic, so it's an easy one. But obviously telltales the Walking Dead. Oh, man.

Like, that's a classic. You want to talk about a fucking game franchise that just did more and more disservice to itself by going on. And I enjoyed them. Don't get me wrong. But it's like, if you could have just ended and we never, ever came back to Lee and Clem's story, I think we would hold that in such higher regard rather than it be, and then you're playing his Clem. And then you're not playing his Clem, but she pops up.

And then you're going to play his Clem one more time. But then there's going to be a graphic novel about Clem. And then it's okay. Hard to recapture that magic. Yeah. Try to cut you off. No, no. That one, I think like, that one took me by such surprise because I think that was around that time. I had not been gaming for a while. And that was one of the first things when I was like starting to get back into gaming. And I was like, oh, I'll give this a situation. chance I like The Walking Dead show. And what a gut punch to get to the end of that and be like, whoa, I was not expecting a game that looked like that to, I don't know, it just, it seemed like the Walking Dead

didn't hit me in that same way as the game did. Like I really connected with those two characters being, being Clem's dad and being there. Can we spoil Walking Dead season? Bless, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm in episode four, Lee just got bit. But, like, giving her all of the advice as you're passing away and, like, what an emotional moment. Yeah. And you getting to choose that and really being like, what do I want to pass on?

It's, like, such an interesting thing to be dying and, like, what information do you want to pass on to your children beneath you to keep them safe? like what an experience you don't really want to have, but you get to have in this moment. Yeah, I think it's so cool that they loop back around to getting to that emotional place, because I remember playing that and being on, what, like, episode two, and they introduced cannibals. And I was like, all right, I know what this is. Like, this is going to be more of a fucked up. Like, you know, there are preconceived notions that you have about that world in those characters based off of the comic, based off of the show, and based off of, like, where they start that

story often that I was not expecting to get to episode four and five and be like, oh, man, I really they care about Lee and Clementine. Yeah. Those are some good ones. I like that. Thank you. Let's keep the fun going. Andy,

tell me the last time you cried in a video game. It's so hard to talk about this without spoilers. Okay. But I'll just say the one of the more recent ones I can remember

was the end of tears of the kingdom. Oh, yeah. Just like, good. It's just emotions from all sorts of angles. Beautiful shit. That's good. Yeah. Music, sound.

try all that stuff just swelling when the claps come in and holy fuck man that's cool one of them moments yeah i really appreciate as the you know first time we're jumping into the zelda series on that one in particular having the tears whenever you'd find the little story beats and them actually giving me like more story i could really digest i really appreciated that because i was buying in more and more i didn't feel that the first game around where i didn't get those moments like i needed yeah first game i felt really nothing story wise tears was yeah uh it brought the tears and then i'll go with uh the first time that I ever cry with a video game. I'll say Mass Effect 3, but I don't

want it. It's a character who has a tragic ending. I think that's on my list as well. Oh, really? Yes. Let me see. Yeah. God damn, man. That's the first time I've ever cried in a video game. I've got to make better choices. No God, nobody died. No God, nobody died for me. No, you're thinking Mass Effect 2.

Oh, fuck, okay. Yeah, Mass Effect 3. God damn. Oof, that's another very, very powerful moment that I think was just so expertly done when it comes to what was happening thematically, music-wise, dialogue-wise, all that stuff was just so pitch-perfect. And I always think about, like, in all the other multiverses where one or two or three things may have not been great about that scene, our multiverse had it, or our universe got the perfect version. of that ending.

Blessing. Yeah, I started writing a bunch down that just like the came to mind before your eyes. It was definitely one, right? Like, that's a powerful story, especially experiencing it in a way that like is so unique.

That was the VR one that you guys spoke about. That was the VR one that you play by, or you like, four certain sections by blinking. Blinking is like the main mechanic of it. Important to point out it is a VR one, but you could play it on Netflix. That's where, you know,

before it was VR. It's a Steam game. It's a Netflix game. highly, highly, highly recommended. Yeah. Still good on Netflix as opposed to the VR and having a different kind of vibe and I never finished it on Netflix, but I mean, if you remember when it did drop so many people had on Game with the Year List and everything else, I loved it, you know, Janet swore by

it. So I have to imagine. Cool. It still rocks. Chickory is another one. You know, that's a story that gets into, like, imposter syndrome and like, like, self-confidence, how you feel about your own self-worth and your own abilities to perform in all these things in ways that, like, definitely got me.

And yeah, like I love the vibe of that one. There's like, I think video games have such a cool ability to combine, like, having a really unique art style with like, you know, characters that you don't necessarily expect to vibe with in that way. Like, Chickory is a game that is a coloring book, essentially, where you're, where you're playing as like, I think like a dog. Yep, yeah, a little dog creature. So I'm not expecting to get emotional playing this fucking video game.

By the time you get toward the end and you get further into that story, it's like, oh, no, this is really special. Persona 5 Royal, Royal specifically. Barrett knows that when they add in the character Maruki, there's a storyline there that I think is super powerful and super good. One of the greatest fictional characters of all time. Yeah. Undertale is another one.

Again, for reasons that people know, right, of like just an emotional story that is super unique, that is combining, like having good music, good arcs, characters that are that care and that are peer and all these things, also characters are evil. But like, you know, Undertale being another one. near automata is on that list for a lot of the themes tackled and where that story goes and when you get to later endings and final fantasy seven rebirth is one that I added here where there are character moments in that game that I think are just super powerful and I'd remake to that list also as well add 16 man oh my gosh oh yeah holy cow near the end of 16 the recent final fantasies have been in their bag as far as being able to hit you with those with those emotional moments and remake the one I always go back to specifically is like when the it's boulders for

remake, which is really spoiled for original Found of Faces 7, in the first like seven hours of Final Faces 7, when the play's falling. And like, you know, there are scenes with the character Barrett where he is like looking for his daughter and there's emotion that he's conveying that I'm like, man, I can't believe video games have gotten to this point where like I'm looking at this character's face and I can feel the emotion that is being portrayed here so strongly. You bringing up a chickery thing also kind of reminds me of Celeste. Oh, yeah, Celeste.

that such a simple art style. And by the end of it, you're just like, I'm crying at this little character who's made up of eight blocks of pixels. This is absolutely nuts. The amount of storytelling that they do in that game. Those are really good, Blas. I like those.

How about you? You know, for me, Greg Miller, when I get a tear to my eye. The Chainsaw Massacre. Chained together when we fell from the top. I think about clutching up just hot, sweaty moments, and Call-Duty Warzone.

It's me. It's Andy. it's Chris Zankah. It's Nick Scarpino usually dead asking for a revive and it's like those moments of buildup of tension. Where's the squad gonna go?

Am I throwing a smoke grenade to give away our position but also cover us to move? They have the high ground, right? Like there's this vibe of like the buildup and then the payoff of winning. You're making me tear up, bro. And like that is beautiful thing.

That hits. You know what I mean? That hits me deep down my heart. Jump in hospital and Bernansk like bring the tear to my eye every day. And the circle comes your way You're like, is the circle going to favor it? We're being blessed. The circle favors you when you have the high god or the circle doesn't.

You have to make a move out of that and you're running up the hills. And people are shooting that. And you're like, oh, my God, we're not going to make it. But then we win and we all attach ourselves onto the helicopter in the worst cutscene ever. And then it's like, that's the best, man. I love that game so much. Another one I think about is when the pizza game, she's lit. That one rocked me like, oh.

I think about Master's. Chief giving the covenant back their bomb in Halo 2. That's one of those moments where Cortana, you know, the keys are talking to him and it's like, oh, shit, he's flying through space right now with a bomb, and the man is just holding on. It's like

some of the most beautiful moments of my life and on the real one. So McTavish? Frank Woods. Man, I love those guys. Captain Price. Those are some of my favorite moments there. Greg, give me a couple ones that made you cry. feel like this is stemmed so much from me talking on podcast for years. I'm a waste of space on it,

right? Of course, gone home. Of course. Before your eyes where I took the thing off and Nick's like, are you okay? I just been bawling in a VR headset, right? Ragnarok, both in terms of the, you know, the moments of in the very beginning, uh, the moment in the very beginning that would make you cry, especially would make Greg Miller cry. And then at the end, you know, Kratos and Atreus just talking in the tent. You know what I mean? Leave it at that kind of stuff. Like, you know, it's the stuff you'd expect. I'm very vocal about crying all the time in video. games. I love Florence. Yeah, I think I cried on a plane playing that one. I'm surprised no one said any Last of Us one or two. Those are emotional. I cried during both. Yeah. I mean, I can't remember. I

don't remember crying, but I remember how much the opening hurt. You know what I mean? I think when I played Last of Us One, how old was I? That was 2013, right? I think that was 19. 19. How the fuck did you the last? I know I was 18 and you're a year older. Oh, sorry. I think it just A lot of those sad moments

just kind of hit me more with like shock. You know, where you just kind of sit there where the, you know, I can think of a couple of moments. I definitely teared up in The Last of Us. But it's more of like

the holy, like I'm sad, but I'm also just like kind of shell shocked by what I just experienced. I think the reason I asked how old I was because I think I was, when I was younger, I don't think I was as open to the idea of emotion. At 19, I'm playing a video game. I'm like, I'm playing last was as a, I know it's not a zombie,

but it's a zombie video game, right? And so I'm like, cool, I'm just fucking lock in. And they're getting to these like story stuff where I'm like, oh, that's pretty powerful. And I just move on to the next thing. We're now, I think I'm way more likely to cry. I think replaying last of us and like, I think being more open to like, you know, where it's taking its themes and stuff.

Like, I think there's a, as an adult, I'm way more likely to cry at a video. than when I was younger. I like that. Well, let's end this episode on a positive note. Of course, let me know when the last time you cried and what video game was. And on top of that, give me some fun Dragon Ball arcs

that I should go off and watch because Dragon Ball Sparking Zero is now out and we're having fun with it. So hopefully you are too. This has been the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We run you through the fun video game news topics, topics of discussion, reviews, previews,

and all that live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with that kind of funny membership available on Patreon and on YouTube to get all of our shows ad-free. Watch us record them live and get your daily exclusive show, Gregway. Of course, if you enjoyed the show, don't forget that the live talk show network

that is kind of funny games is not done. We continue with a fun stream to celebrate. Let's go to the hot, too. Let's go get this vessel of fucking hatred. Vessel of hatred, which, I spit all over you. Just so you know, Andy, it's going to have one of the best cut scenes and videos of all time.

Oh, where are you saw it? No, I haven't watched yet, but I know that the Blizzard team, they're cooking, and I know they're going to make something dope that we're going to go enjoy right now. If Mike doesn't skip all the story stuff, you'll have some good cutsings. I will not skip the story stuff. We're shooters. Are we just smashing buttons?

You remember that? Yeah. I love y'all. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you live on the live stream, Twitch and YouTube, and then, of course, in review, later the same. afternoon if you are a Patreon member. Thank you for your love and support. Goodbye.