Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Hypecast

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Pre-Order Final Fantasy VII Rebirth here! https://bit.ly/FF7R_KindaFunny Tim sits down with Andy and Mike to get hyped for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, reflect on Mike's first experience with Final Fantasy VII Remake, and give their thoughts on watching Advent Children in theaters! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome to a very special episode of a kind of funny hype cast. We partnered with Square Enix for doing a special little something, getting prepared, getting hyped, getting excited for Final Fantasy 7 rebirth coming out on February 29, 2024. I've already reviewed it. You can check that out. Imron and Bless and Roger and Barrett all gave their thoughts of it as well over on the kind of funny games cast. You can check that out. but I haven't talked to these two gentlemen about this. But specifically, Mike hasn't even played rebirth yet at all.

And Andy, you're pretty early on as well. Yeah, I'm about 18 hours in. I don't know how many chapters there are, but I'm getting close to like double-digit chapter numbers. I may or actually already be there, actually. But I'm a decent amount of the way in. I'm having a real good time with it so far. And I can't wait to like finally be able to fully talk about it.

Yeah. I'm worried about spalling stuff from. Mike, but I also feel like it's so hard to spoil this game, you know? Well, let's just start this off. There will be no spoilers here for Final Fantasy 7. Rebirth, you can rest assured. This is looking back at how we got here. This is looking back at the excitement, specifically Final Fantasy 7 remake that Snowbike Mike just

played for the very first time. So let's get this out of the way. Of course, I am Tim Getty's. I'm joined by the nitro rifle, Andy Cortez. Hello, Tim. And the Master of Hype Snowbike, Mike. Hello, Tim. Thanks for having me.

This is exciting. Thank you to everybody for watching. Thank you to Square. Like, I am so excited about this because we just got done for my first time ever playing Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 7 remake. And man, oh, man, was this special time? I can't wait to talk about it. It's been a special experience. And, like, you know, Mike broke my heart a couple times by streaming it without me.

And it's like, and I did feel kind of heartbroken, but I had to watch the recap of the lore videos that Mike was doing with his PowerPoint presentations. And that did catch me up. because again, I played this back in the day, Tim. When we came out, like, I was part of the review crew. I reviewed it. It was one of those, it was one of those, like, I was right up against the deadline, and I, like, I finished it. I was texting Tim, like, how much longer do you think I have?

I was like, oh, man, I think I can actually do this. I was on, like, three hours sleep for that review, I remember. And that was an awesome time because Final Fantasy 7 remake was really the first time I truly vived with the franchise. I loved the combat. The Final Fantasy in general. In general. Like, I played Final Fantasy 10 back.

in the day. Excellent. And my cousin had seven, and I remember seeing about 40 discs, you know, all over the bed. Three. And I was like, this time it's two. But like, no, but that was cool to be. Like, I was like, dude, this is insane. I can't believe this.

But it wasn't really until 10 that I was buying GamePro magazines and Game Informer and like drawing all the characters. And again, like, as somebody who never played seven, I bought Advent children on DVD because I just loved the characters and I loved drawing them and I loved seeing these incredible visuals. So my history goes back with like, I don't know a whole lot about the early days of what the early story was. And that's why remake was like hard to spoil what's going to happen for me because I haven't experienced this story.

But it was still incredibly special. And so remake, yeah, when that came out, that was like, wow. Even looking now during the playthrough. How many times are we looking at, wow. Again, it's the PS5 Uprez version, but the amount of times you're looking at the screen, it's going like, dude, this is an old gen game. And it looks like this. Yeah.

It's incredible. No, it really is incredible. I mean, just thinking, again, about the timeline of this that I just get so excited about it because it felt like it was impossible. The Final Fantasy 7 remake was ever going to actually happen. I've been hearing rumors about this since I was like legitimately 11 years old. Like to the rumors. And, you know, it's because when the PS3 was first announced, like, they showed a tech demo of

the opening of Final Fantasy 7 done in PS3 style. And we're all like, they're doing it. And then like, we're not doing it. We're not doing it. And then years and years and years later at, I want to say it was PSX, they came out.

They're like, hey, we're doing it. We're going back. I was there. And they announced, 2016, they announced Final Fantasy 7 coming to PS4, but it was just the original version. And everyone's like, oh, wow. And then it, like, I think it was less than a year later at E3.

they announced it's actually it's actually happening you were at that e3 i know i was at the psx where they showed like a long sort of like portion of the gameplay that was so that was um the follow-up that was like e3 they announced the remake was actually happening thank you so much bad for bringing it up and i mean i think it goes without saying this was the most exciting e3 trailer moment ever like i i think it's it's it definitely in my opinion is between this and maybe like the twilight princess reveal back of the day because of how exciting that was but this felt unreal. And then for the game to come out a couple years after this

and kind of live up to all those expectations was so, so special. And then now a couple years later, getting the follow up, man. It's, it is a great time, the best time to be a Final Fantasy 7 man. I know we're just getting started. That's concerned. But like, what was it about 7

that, you know, six and five and four didn't necessarily pop off in the same way? Was it the sort of translation to these 3D visuals where you're kind of being able to see these characters more? Is it fans really, really, you know, kind of feeling like they have a relationship with these characters, you know, like, what was it that kind of like made seven the big hitter?

Well, so here's the thing. I would say that, like, it's funny that you say like, oh, four or five and six. I mean, like, those all. No, I'm saying, like, they wouldn't exist if they were. They weren't bad. A big, big deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that when we look back at the legacy and history of Final Fantasy, like, Mike, I don't even know if you, you knew.

this, but like, Final Fantasy, all the Final Fantasys weren't even released in America. At the time Seven came out, there had only been three Final Fantasy. Oh, wow. So it was Final Fantasy One, Two, Three, because what we had as Final Fantasy Three was actually Final Fantasy Six in Japan. And Funfancy Six was a huge, huge deal. Super Nintendo game, like, really pushing the Super Nintendo of like what that means during. A lot of people's favorites entry.

And it's, it is incredible. I hope one day it gets a remake. hopefully in the HD 2D style like Octopat Travel would be but on 5th C7 was so special because it was the first PlayStation title, right? So first 3D Final Fantasy but also

Square has always pushed the limits of tech in their games and we even see it to this day of like how hard do they go with so much of the technical elements of it and even what I was talking about earlier, the tech demo of pushing the PS3. Let's see if we can like create the intro

using this new hardware or whatever and it looked amazing. But Final Fantasy 7 was one of the first examples of, man, I don't even know what you call it now. Full motion video, like, CG cutscenes. Yeah. Like, and actually like being able to see. Cinematics. And that felt like, oh, this, I'm watching a movie. Like, I'm playing the game, but like, it's more than just like reading text. There was a lot of reading text. But like, I didn't think I'd see Cloud look this way in this sort of like, almost Pixar or whatever the hell, you know. I thought about the original having these isometric backgrounds that were like beautifully rendered.

Yeah, pre-rendered. Pre-rendered. Yeah, like all that stuff came together to make it larger than life. And also, what an amazing cast of characters. You know, I feel like all of that just kind of like, like, jelled together at a time that I feel like people were ready for video games to start growing up with them. I think Final Fantasy 7 was a great example of that happening. So then obviously moving on to where we're at now. I mean, Mike, like you mentioned Advent Children earlier, Andy.

Like, did you watch the DVD back then? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's just cool. Okay, so, like, we watched it last night, and I had just this weird, like, nostalgic flashback of my dad just being stoked that I had something cool for him to, like, put loud on the stereo system. And so, like, that was one of those that you pop in.

And my dad just loves visuals. He doesn't care what it is. He's just like, wow, look at the fabric on that guy's collar is insane. and then watching it again yesterday, like having the same thought of like, dude, like, this, this movie looks way better than I thought it would have. Before we were wondering,

like, how is this going to age, right? Way more impressive than I could have imagined because I just assumed, yeah, it's a really old cinematic movie. The real-time stuff

probably looks better than it does back then. It's still really close. Like, I was very, very impressed by the visuals in Advent Children. Yeah, so last night we went to a movie theater and got to watch Advent children.

What a treat. It was a treat. It was awesome, man. I've never seen it in theater, so that was so special. But also, like, everything Andy's saying, like, it's still just as fun as it's always been. One of those I had to buy at Suncoast. Oh, yeah. Because they didn't sell it.

I don't remember seeing it at a Best Buy or Walmart. I had to go to, like, a specialty place where you would get all the anime at. Yeah, I mean, well, that's the thing, too, with talking about Square and pushing the tech forward. I mean, like, looking at their drive to make these type of movies or whatever they were, whether it's movies or games or something in between, like just pushing these stories forward and creatively showing them off. Like Advent Children was them being like, we're going to flex,

we're going to do this. Like that was a time when there weren't CG movies like that coming out. Like it was Pixar stuff and DreamWorks stuff. And that was pretty much it. And they're like, no, we're going to go very hard. And in a lot of ways it kind of defined the look of how we think about Final Fantasy 7 in a more modern way,

especially when you look at things like remake and rebirth. So Mike, I want to get you off the bench here because... There's a lot to talk about. There is. There is. So what is your very brief history with Final Fantasy 7? There's zero history with it, Tim. You know, I think I've heard about it back in the day, but there was zero interest.

There was no jumping in point for me ever. I didn't have any friends that were talking about Final Fantasy back in the day. I didn't have the console to play Final Fantasy at the time. And so for me, it was a foreign idea to play this game. And now to this point of like, I never thought I'd be into Final Fantasy, but I've tried. I tried with 15. I gave it a little test. I tried it with 16. I gave it a little test.

But this was the one where I was like, I'm living in the perfect timeline where I can play Final Fantasy 7 remake and go right into Rebirth, right? And we've lined this up perfectly where we made a lot of great streams out of it. I've gone on an incredible journey with Andy. And now I live in the best timeline because guess what next week, I get to play the next one. And that is like the coolest situation to be in. Getting to see the movie with you guys. I mean, it adds so much to the game,

but also at the same time, like seeing Cloud for the first time on that motorcycle when they introduce him is the coolest thing around. It is honestly the coolest thing. Or when the whole gang shows up and you're like, oh my God, like look at them all on the big screen. Like, how cool is that? And it also left me with some questions.

I love that. I'm like, what the heck is going on here? And that's the best part about all this. You talk about me living my best life and my best timeline. I have so many questions. I have so many thoughts. I now get to be that person like, yo, let's talk about this because I got some ideas of where this could have gone. And you know, that's, again, we were saying there's going to be no rebirth spoilers.

You do not need to worry about that at all. But just to be clear, if it isn't already, we will be going into spoilers for remake specifically and Advent children because we did just watch it. So we want to talk about that as well. I will just make allusions even to the original. The originals, it's kind of own thing. So take that for what it is. but what you're bringing up here, Mike, about the theorizing and the conversations and there's so many questions, what are the answers? I feel like that's core to the identity of Final Fantasy 7.

That always has been dating back to the original. Like I remember my friend selling me before I even played it. They were like, yeah, I don't know what this is or what about that. Did you get this character? And I was like, this is wild that like a game can make you think these things, make you care enough to have questions that weren't just, oh, they didn't have an answer. It's, oh, there's an answer, but they're actually making me think about it. And like, I thought that's always been really cool, but then you add on all the side stories and the Advent children

and even with how remake is and ends and everything. One of my favorite things is the friendships that I've made over the years with some of my best friends, my best friend, current friend, his favorite game of all time, Final Fantasy 7, and he put me onto it and bonding with him over these characters in this world.

Yes. To this day is special to me. And like we talk about that. And now people like Imron, like in my modern adult life, I'm making friends. I mean, obviously you two are great examples as well. Like so much of our friendship is based around our shared interests.

And one of those shared interests is this love of Final Fantasy 7 remake and now rebirth and all of it. So really, really cool stuff. But having the conversation of like, what are you things happening? Did you like this thing? Like what about this? What's going to happen? They're like so much fun. And they really give you a lot to do that with.

Oh, especially early on if you have no idea what's jumping in. You don't know what's happening, right? I'm looking at Andy all the time going, they're freaking out off of the Mako. You know, it's a Mako freak out. It's all a mocko dream. It's all a dream, Andy. You just don't see it yet.

But the cool part, like you said, is all the questions and the iconic characters and the locations and the music put this perfect blend of like every moment that we played, I had a blast. Every time I stopped, all I thought about was what we just played and where we have to go next because it goes on an awesome journey, right?

And getting to vibe with, you know, you meet Jesse and we go on a date with Jesse. And that date goes, wild, right? I mean, we're on motorcycles and we're getting chased. We're taking it to the red line. And I'll never forget that. And that's something special to me when I think of my experience with this is like, there's some moments you I'll never ever forget. So let's let's go to you, Eddie on this. Final Fantasy 7 remake, you played it. You reviewed it with us back in the day, which is funny to even call that back in the day, just being a couple years ago. But what

what are your thoughts a couple years removed watching Mike play sitting with him the entire time remake. Still extremely impressed by production values, by the gameplay, and how much of the core gameplay is still so in service to what's happening on the screen, dealing with all the different material and all the elements and looking for weaknesses and playing that Pokemon game of rock paper scissors, the electricity going after the robots, the fire going after the humans and the beasts or whatever. I think it's just such a well-crafted experience. I am still like after experiencing some of what's happening in rebirth still like extremely oppressive what they were able to pull off in terms of visuals um world design levels characters

dialogue having these back and forth forming bonds making these relationships feel real making these relationships feel like lived in and you have these maybe you went through some maybe you went through some bad stuff with with one character in the past, but now you're making amends and you're kind of seeing the relationship change over time. There's small, just little amazing hints

like this sequence that we're watching here with Ayrith and Cloud. It's such a small little thing, but the high five moment. Where Cloud goes over the high five, and she's like, oh shit, you want a high five? And he's like, never mind. Like seeing that little small growth

from a character who is this brooding character who's dealt with a lot of stuff in his past, and that's what's made him this rugged, jerk, right? Like, he's, he's very closed off. I don't, I never want to like get into my feelings. I am masculine and nobody talked to me, even though I'm like the prettiest boy I've ever seen in my life. But he like, seeing him open up again and be willing to accept people, it's just so like beautifully done. I, after playing it, I was amazed by it when I first played in 2020. This is my first time re-experiencing it because I usually don't replay a lot of games, just the nature of

the industry and us having a lot of things to play. still blown away by it. Like I, I was wondering how is this going to age for me at, you know, four years later after having a lot of kind of banger hits in the past couple years, still being absolutely blown away by the gameplay elements. Oh my. Yeah, active time battle. Yeah. Just all of the, one of the most thrilling things ever was watching Mike fight the goddamn house. I mean, yeah, hellhouse, dude. The hellhouse fight was so incredible. And yeah, Chad is getting added us because maybe we're not fully using all the abilities. And I look at Mike's thing. I'm like, oh, Mac, you haven't leveled up anything. What are we doing? But we fight through it and

we find our way. And I'm still like absolutely blown away by what Skra was able to pull off with this remake. And also I'm just kind of blown away by the reception from the diehards. It's such a hard thing to pull off to make the people that have been there since day one to make them happy. How are you going to satisfy the people that like, is the real core audience that you're going for. And for people like you and for people who have played Final Fantasy 7 back in the day and to be like, wow, this is better than you could have imagined a remake to be.

It's just insanely impressive. It really is. And you were talking about remake specifically, and we played it on on PS4, but then they came out with the PS5 version. Integrate that also included like a DLC, like an expanded story focusing on Ufi. And one cool thing is the Twin Pack is available

at Final Fantasy 7 remake and rebirth. for the same price as just buying the game. So you can get both games on PS5 for the $70, which I think is cool for them to put it out there. Obviously remake leading into rebirth. Like there's a lot of game there, right? So get on if you want to. But Mike, let's talk more about it.

Remake, right? I mean, you want to talk about the carriages? You want to talk about the story? Because Tim, let me tell you what, nothing's cooler than the intro of C and Avalanche, getting to meet Barrett. And then what happens? Cloud with the cooling.

intro and entrance you've ever seen jumping off the train, big buster sword on his back, and we're going to go do some stuff. And I mean, from the Makkah Reactor, blowing up to getting out, going and seeing the top of the plate. I mean, we're talking about midguard, right? And it's like, oh, there's the top side. But then we go down into the slums and venturing through that to seventh. Evan meeting Tifa.

And like, Andy said it so well, right, of like this mercenary, this Merck, who just wants to get paid. but then you see Tifa and it's like, oh, they're childhood friends. And you can see them open up just a little bit, but I'm still here for my money. And like avalanche and bears like, well, you're kind of in, but you're not really in. You're kind of out. And then, you know, we need you. And you're back again. And Jesse needs you.

And you start building these bonds. And I mean, from the moment go, I knew I was going to be on an awesome journey. And I can keep going down on the wall market, right? Seeing that, that was so cool, trying to go save Tifa, what we had to do to get to Tifa and go O. C. Don is like, man, this was cool, right? And then the underground fighting pit like Andy brought up with the hellhouse and like getting a dress that was wild. There's just so doing the bee dance of the city. Oh my gosh. Andy and the bees were so special. Like I fell in love with some bees there. That was crazy, you know? And it all looks so good and it's so magical.

And it's crazy that like when if you asked me before this experience, what is Final Fantasy seven? I would be like, ah, it's probably some fantasy game. Maybe there's some monsters. I don't And then you see that and you're like, wow, look at this world they created, right? I'm fighting mecks, these giant, the air buster fight. Now all of a sudden I'm fighting the house. Now I'm fighting this giant demon dog in the sewers. Like, it is so much fun. And the journey you go on and then meeting different characters that are like, I'm not on your team.

But now I'm on your team because I didn't like that guy. I'm going to help you out. We're going to find a way topside because I know you got to keep going. And then I'm grappling up the top of the wall. And it's this beautiful thing. The plate falls. I could go down the whole list. I can tell you the whole story right now.

It's that good. And I love hearing this from you, Mike. It's so special. Like to know you so well and to know the type of games you like or the things you don't like, but also knowing like the anime you like and the things that really get you going, I knew that there was potential here. I did not expect you were going to be this excited. Like hearing you playing in the lab or in the other, freaking out about everything was like so special.

I was in the restroom and I heard him yell. Like legit. Legit. And I also think it's like such a great topical applicable story to now. Like, and I know that's, it's kind of been a story you could have told for a long time and it'd always be applicable, but it like, it's never felt more like present than here today than this company just sucking all the planet's resources dry for money and for capitalism. And we are avalanchea. we want to stop that. And that moment, like, it was so cool watching Mike react to the moment where,

oh, the bomb didn't go off. Jesse's bomb kind of, like, messed up. And then we see it. We see the heads of Shinra. They're watching the whole time, like, yeah, blow that up. Get the gunners going. And then it's like, oh, shit, they want this to blow up because it's a false flag. They're like, dude, it's like so sick, dude.

It's like such a topical cool. feels like a Mission Impossible type story. Like, it's awesome. The government kind of being against the people is like always a really cool story. And I just appreciate the angles and directions they take with it. It's so cool. We are brought to you by Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a standalone game that welcomes fans and newcomers alike.

You don't need to have played Final Fantasy 7 remake or any other Final Fantasy titles to play and enjoy Final Fantasy 7 rebirth. The combat is not traditional turn base and has more action-focused gameplay, with even deeper improvements since remake, with new synergy attacks and team-based combos. And there are large open sections to explore with Cloud and his comrades venturing across the planet, their fate's unwritten,

making every step in the expansive world outside Midgard fresh and mysterious. And of course, there are dozens of mini-games. There's a story recap video of Fallen Fantasy 7 remake for those interested in learning more about the stories so far, and those looking to experience Final Fantasy 7 remake fully can pre-order the Final Fantasy 7 remake and rebirth twin pack, which includes the game plus the DLC episode intermission at no extra cost.

You can download and play a demo of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth right now on the PlayStation Store, and you can pre-order the game in the link in the description. The wait is almost over. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out February 29th. Get hyped. And it feels like when you first started, it's like, oh, this is the world. There's nothing outside of the plate and underneath the plate. Like you don't know what else is out there.

But there's something out there. They allude to it multiple times. They're like, oh, there's something else out there. there are people out there. And it's like this big mix. Like Andy said, like the pot is boiling. We're adding in ingredients. And eventually it's going to burst.

And sure enough, it did burst, right? And then Shinra put it all on us. And we're fighting for our lives. We're trying to tell the people we did good down there, but they don't believe us. They're not happy that Shinner dropped the plate on the slums. And like, that was our fault, right? Or so they thought. And it was like wild to see that.

And then going to meet Ereth for the first time and meeting the Turks for the first time. The Turks. There are incredible moments in this every single time you play. And I think that's the wild part to me is I could go down the entire story and you could just go, an awesome moment. Great. I mean, entrance, awesome moment. Fighting the scorpion at the first reactor.

Awesome moment. Blowing it up, but then seeing Shinra working in the background. Awesome moment. Going back to the slums, meeting Tifa for the first time, understanding who Cloud is. Incredible moment. Her saying, hey, you could build up your rep here. Like, you could make this a home.

I'm like, I need you around in my life, dude. You don't got to run away. And he's like, I'm kind of an awesome moment, right? To Jesse going, hey, I'm really incredible human being. I'm like, Jesse, I'll give you my entire life, whatever you want. And she's like, let's go on. Mike Feltic. Was that I cloud or was that Mike then?

Me, everything you want. And she's like, I got a plan for us, but let's not tell anybody. And then, of course, the gang has to be involved because we're a gang and we're all friends. And like, now you're going with Wedge and Biggs. We go to Jesse's mom's house. She's making us pizza. We're stealing her dad's car. And it's like, you get this beautiful moment of like,

what is it like for others, right? Like, Jesse lives this interesting life of her parents live top side. Her father works for Shinra. But we also see the negative sides of what happens working around these chemicals and what it could do to a family. And the mom just wants to see Jesse. And Jesse's like, no mom. Like, I got to save the plan.

I got to save us. And she's like, please just work at the local playhouse. I miss you. And she's like, I got to go, mom. and then we get out of a motorcycle and all of a sudden we meet the coolest dude ever and he's fighting us on a motorcycle and I'm like oh my God Roche you're so cool

and he's like we're gonna take it to the red line every time we fight and I was like this is incredible and then we get the shit right we sneak in and of course it's all going to hell because crazy stuff's happening and then we get introduced to more avalanche and it's like oh it turns out that yeah we might be avalanche but like they kicked us out of avalanche because we're too hardcore but they got guns and stuff so like who knows who

and then oh my anytime there was a noise Mike would go. He would never called him Roach. It was always Roady. Anytime there was a sound Oh my God, Rodi.

I was like Mike, he's not coming back for a while. He wanted to test us. Mike wanted Rodi to be the star of the show I needed him to be the star of this show. I love that. So then, of course, we keep going. It's like, hey, oh my God, the whispers too, and then you wake up to the whispers

and like now they're affecting everybody and we, Jesse rolls an ankle and it's like you're back on the squad and it's like, well, you didn't want me on the squad and he's like, you're on the squad. And you're like, okay, I'll go to the squad. The mystery of, oh, we're the only one seeing the whispers. And then you run outside when they're all there in sector seven. And you see Tifa freaking out of here.

You're like, oh, everybody sees the whispers. It's not just us. So what's going on here? To the first time you meet the Turks with Reno and Root and they see the whispers too. And it's like, what is going on with these whispers? Eric's about to fall on the one whisper saves. And you're like, oh, what's that? Are they bad?

Yes. Huh. And it may, like, what the hell's going? Dude, oh, that's such a great little tip off to, like, what is actually happening. And the story just keeps building. I could keep going down, but, like, you know what's complimenting the story so much? The music. And that is what I'm so excited to hear now in number two for rebirth, because getting out of that movie,

I was like, oh, my gosh, they just continue to hit us with incredible music. And that's Sephiroth theme is so good. One-winged angel, man. It's so funny. When Eddie told me that was his name, my jaw dropped. John dropped to the floor I can't believe When that one wing popped

I was like The one wing in angel And he goes No You were so weird So good So like It's so funny

Hearing him Talk about the soundtrack Because me being Halfway through Rebirth I'm like Mike You don't know a damn thing And right now

Barrett and Tim go Andy you don't know A damn thing Because like what I've experienced is so exciting already And then I've told Tim Where I'm at in the game

He's like Oh did the music At this place And at this place Just keeps on escalating. I mean, they said in the state of play, 400 new recorded tracks for Reber. And again, we're talking about the foundation being one of the best game soundtracks of all time. But now they're just like, we got to fill some of the biggest games ever with music.

And they do. There's just so many variations, so many amazing themes. And like, that's the thing, man. Like they, I really think of Final Fantasy 7 in Star Wars as very similar. And for so many of the most amazing reasons of such a great diverse cast of characters that we just want to root for, great villains, great themes music-wise and just like vibe-wise of who they all are and how they connect to each other. Like it is, it's powerful stuff. And, you know, hearing these songs for decades at this point for me, but, you know, just a couple weeks for you and a couple years for you, it's like it's the repetition that really makes you realize how special it all is. so that when eventually you do hear the violin chords,

you're like, oh, that's Sephora. You know what I mean? It's like there's artistry to the music that's not just, oh, this sounds dope. It also sounds dope. But there's a reason for it, you know? It's got to be so much fun in the room when they make all this music.

Like, that's my one dream is like, to be in the room when they like, they all come together and like, here's the vision. And then you just start hearing it being peace together. You're like, oh, I don't believe. At the end of the day, they're probably got, they all got to be high five. in that room. And yeah, like you said, the villains, too, right? You get introduced to the president

of Shinra. I was calling him Big H, but his right-hand lieutenant on the security side and then meeting more, right? Like, there are so many more evil villains that we got to meet, plus the Turks. And then all of a sudden, Shinra's president's son is there. And he is the coolest dude on planet Earth. He's got the coolest counters to every move me and Andy are throwing at him. Carrying everything. And he looks at us and he goes, there's a new era of Shinra here. And you're like, what does that mean? No, but the coolest thing after the boss fight is, Ruf is being, yeah, he drops that line.

There's a new shiner, there's a new era of Shindra coming. As he's holding his hand out, no look grabs the helicopter as it's taking him away. I was like, how do they plan that? How did that motor, that's, oh, I said motorcycle, I mean helicopter. Yeah. The helicopter, you know, dude, just like kind of like pulling him away. Like, dude, that was the coolest exit ever, you know, like, that whole sequence was, incredible. And then we get to the end of it. And we had to people in chat being like, Andy,

who do those three whispers represent? I was like, dang, I don't know. And they're like, well, if you're going to watch Avon children tonight, you're going to, you'll learn. And that was something that was so incredibly exciting to me and Imron last night in the theater. As we're watching this movie, because before the movie, they showed this little like hype clip. for rebirth and they had some of the devs talking about why they're doing this and like, you know, obviously it's marketing, but also like here's how they might

may relate, may not relate, whatever. They specifically confirmed a theory that we've had since the game came out that some of these like fighting whisper bosses represent the three, I guess they are the Advent children. Brothers like the brothers that are like, you know, Sephora whatever. Laws Cadage. Cadage.

And I forgot the other one. And another one. I just wish... I'm not crying. I'm not crying. One thing, I wish two of them had a little bit more different hair.

Two with the straight hair. I wish one of them had a more different cut because that one guy had the silly one. I had that, you know, a little swoop. He had that kind of gin from Tekken look. I wish both of the other ones had like maybe a little something different.

Oh, I love they all had their own unique weapons. So then when they got the materia and they're putting it on your this is so cool. So they each had their own unique weapons that of course we noticed when we were kids watching this movie of like, oh, that's cool, you know? But the bosses have those weapons.

So that's why when we first played remake, we're like, wait a minute, they have those weapons, but it was like, oh, this is just a nice little nod. And it still is just a nice little nod. But it was really cool to have them actually confirm it before watching having children. And it really makes all these Final Fantasy projects

feel more connected. And I think this is something that I keep saying, but I just feel like the more Final Fantasy 7 stuff you consume or reconsume or consume in a recontextualized way, whatever it is, it just enhances it all. Like, I just feel like, like, any questions you have, any theories you have, it just makes it more fun to know more. But like, I really don't feel like you have to play every single thing, like specifically

some of the more obscure titles in the franchise. But the more you play, the more you get out of it. Oh, I loved learning more, like you said, right? We learn more about Ayrth and who Ayrth is and what she has ties to. I think that's the coolest part. you get swept up in all these cool characters that you meet so early on, right? But you don't know, some of them have a big backstory.

Some of them are very important. And the cool part about Ayrth being, you know, of ancient descent. You think she's just a small town girl. She just wants to stay in the sun. She just wants to live in each of life. Keep it easy. But like, she knows that she's tied to something bigger. And you get the tease of there's something out there.

And we're going to go out there. And she is kind of that guiding light of like, now you know, hey, all of this is great. And like, you're seeing it. and we're experiencing this, and we got to handle stuff in Midgar, but, like, there's a moment we're going to have to leave. Yeah.

And, like, she is the one to lead that, and, of course, I got to go save her to. I don't know if there's any cooler moment, like, because there's a lot of moments in the game where the directors and the writers will throw out a little hint to make you kind of go, what does that mean? Anyway, I got to keep on playing the game, right?

And you kind of start wondering to yourself, why are they after Ereth? And then, why are they trying to kidnap Earth? What is it about her? Why don't they just swoop her up? Just swoop her up? Once you kind of get that moment, you're like,

oh, there's something, like, she's got something about her. This isn't like a, this isn't a, you know, she's the president's daughter. She's actually, this is like some real deep stuff. This story goes deeper and deeper than we could ever imagine. And I just like, I love that. She's just this random person with the kindest, sweetest heart, and brings the smile out of cloud

and then you kind of like, oh, you're tipped off like, oh, shoot, there's something else actually happening here. And it's really kind of dark and sinister and weird. And I just, I'm so excited for whatever the hell the rebirth has in store for me. One of my favorite things about remake was seeing these iconic characters come to life

and feel so well realized and either how I thought they were or, somehow giving me like, oh, this is what they, I was wrong. My head was wrong. They should have been this in my head all this time. And I think Eric's a great example of it of I love her character and remake. And there's a moment towards the end where she is like looking up at the sky and it's like raining.

And like she's seeing the sky for the first time. Because she's lived her life in hiding. She's lived her life in these slums. Like all of that. And it's just such a powerful, beautiful moment that like is, is back. up by an amazing performance by Ayrth, but also by Brianna Taylor as Ayrth. But just so, I feel like as somebody that grew up playing these games, watching these movies, all the stuff being like in love with Ayrh, like loving her more than I ever

have. I feel like there's just so much more character to her just because this game allows those, the performances to be there. And it's not just reading text. It's not just using your imagination. Like, it is one of the rare examples where it's like what you're seeing is actually better than your imagination. and I stand by that.

Those performances are all incredible. I mean, I leaned over at Andy after the movie. I was like, I like the new cloud better. And he goes, yeah, Mike, it's been a lot of time. And like, the voice actors are incredible. But like, yeah, it's wild. Each one of those characters, all the voice actors they bring are so good. Each one you latch onto, they steal the show every single time.

And it is absolutely amazing to hear all of it. Barrett gives some speeches where you want to stand up and run through a wall. Because, yeah, we got to save the planet, dude. Ray Lewis before the football. Okay, man. He's getting a team pumped up. And then, you know, having that cool moment of like, oh, that's Spider-Man right there. Johnny, that's your, you're a lowenthal.

Like, I love having those, like, moments of connection with just other voices in gaming. And it's just been a blast hearing mics. Anytime Red 13 is on screen and he looks at me and goes, is that Johnny? Could be Johnny. But Johnny has this cool beard that looks like a tiger's claw and you think, oh, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. He's in and out.

You know what I mean? What I love about that is your theory. Never seen him in the same butt. Red 13 is actually Johnny. Like, I love, I'm not going to confirm or deny for you. But I love that that is in line with the way Final Fantasy 7 makes you think. Like, something that wacky. That's not out of the realm of possibility.

It's possible. Yeah. And it feels right in this thing that you're talking about like, oh man, this story about like the planet's life being sucked out, how important and relevant at all is. And Mike has a theory that this like red talking tiger might be also human. and it's like, yeah, that totally adds up. I'm not questioning.

It's funny. We're laughing because it's whatever. But, I mean, we all saw your reaction to Kate Sith being shown for the first time. You might not even know that's his name, but the little cat guy. I didn't know he had a Scottish accent until last night. You're right on here. That was shocking. What the hell is that?

Again, we didn't hear a voice. No, you don't. Yeah, yeah. We just saw like the getting on the ground and, you know, hitting the dirt or whatever. Yeah, you're talking about. the planet being sucked dry we had a great like a huge laugh because Mike kept going like

what happens when they suck their whole planet dry like does the plate just float off I was like no it's the planet doesn't disappear like it's still all together it's just a dead planet saw it going to become a UFO and just fly off it's like the planet is just gonna crumble

like an apple core but again it sounds silly saying this but like the game gives you enough stuff to think about that you're thinking about these things. You're like, there's enough iconography and like not just places, but like things in the places that you're like, why does that look that way? Oh, you know what I mean? Like, that's pretty cool.

That's the cool part between the movie and the game, too. It's like, we live through the game. But then you see the movie and you're like, oh, yeah, that's exactly what the top side of the plate would look like, right? Like playing it, man, the world they built is so incredible. From the slums to the top, then seeing it in the game or in the movie, you're like, this is wild stuff. I was also really surprised by the keeping true to the characters' visuals and everything.

Like, going back to it, you see Claudia, you're like, oh, damn, he looks identical. This is really, really cool. I wonder how the other character's going to look. I wonder how Rino's going to look. And, like, everything is like almost pretty much pitch perfect. Oh, you're talking with their avid children look? Yeah. Oh, gotcha.

Yeah. Just in terms of like... New costumes. Well, yeah, Barrett had, you know, rocking a new vest and, you know, he's got cornrows. He's got a little fishnet going on. Yeah. That was cool. That was cool.

And I did expect to see more of that in the movie. I expected, like, you know, maybe Rude grew his hair out a little bit. You know, he has, like, the balding head or whatever. Or maybe, like, Cloud would have longer hair or whatever. But I did enjoy that. Seeing the video game's versions of these characters is, like, they stayed true to their vision. They had a vision back with Advent children of how are we going to make these characters look in a semi-life-like visual kind of vibe, right?

You know, we have these characters that have always looked like little toys in some cutscenes. And then when we get to the combat scenarios, they're a bit more proportionate to how they would look in real life. But then you get back and it's just like a little... Cut scene, they look different. Yeah. There's so many different visual identities. In the menu, there's like a 2D painting-looking version of them. Like, there's so all of that stuff.

But yeah, like, dude, I mean, let's, let's, I want to talk about voice actor for one more second. I don't want to talk about the movie because major shout out to John Eric Bentley, who's the voice of Barrett, who just brings it with every single line. Real good. I got to meet him at the preview event. I got to meet the majority of the voice cast. They're all there. I didn't meet them all.

They're so lovely, and they all care so much. Like, I, it's, there are so many actors that I've met that really care about their characters. The cast of Final Fantasy 7 remake, they care about the Final Fantasy 7 characters so much and this world. And seeing John

Eric Mantley, who's newer to the video game world, be so energized. He was walking around. Literally, it felt like Barrett was there. Like, he was walking around as we're all playing like, oh, man, like making jokes about everybody. And it was just such a good vibe. And like, major shot to him because, I mean, he brings it, right? Like, he, it, that elevated performance for a character that has had a lot of valid

criticism over the years for how he was originally portrayed in, in, um, original Final Fantasy 7. And like, I love his portrayal and remake. And I can't wait for y'all to see how he, Marlene there. Mike, when the plate felt, do you think that little girl survived with all the cats that you didn't get all her cats? Oh, yeah, she was looking for a cat.

You didn't rescue her cat. We ran through another area and there was like seven cats. And he was like, well, why can't, can I just bring these cats? Like, no, but like, those aren't her cats. So he's like, yeah, but what's a difference? Just, cat's cat. They're not her. A cat is it a cat?

Oh my God. There's something about this series and franchise and video games as a whole where these voice actors really take to it and love it and bring so much pride to it. But something about Final Fantasy because we got to meet Ben Starr and you can tell he cares, right?

Like that guy, he's like, there's a legacy of this franchise and I'm going to bring it for them every time and it's like you can just feel that. Yeah, the respect, the love. It's like, that's cool. Absolutely. And it was actually Ben that tried to get me in touch

with John Eric Bentley. And he was like, dude, John has the energy. And when I heard him while I was playing behind me, and I was like, Ben was right. This is the guy. So anyway, that was so awesome. One thing I really enjoyed about going back to the movie one more time was,

again, I haven't seen this movie in 15 years, right? Or whatever, like since I was a teenager. And I thought it was so neat. As somebody who is very forgetful, I forget a lot of key plot points and things like that. But for the, be like, oh, you

hit our mother for the Advent chills to be like, you hit our mother in the statue of the meteor because that's how she came down. Yes. Oh, yeah, duh. So smart. Of course. I just like, it's such a, it's such a gimmy of course. Like, I should have known that. I should not be surprised by that, but I still

love that they are going back to the roots of the story. And it almost felt like watching, because of all the fades to black, it felt like I was watching a YouTube kind of cut scene compilation of cut scenes?

Because it was like, here's this scene, Cuts a black, fade to black, here's this scene, fade to black. Like, I just,

I need to explain to you. Like, I know you watched it back then, but like, I watched it with the context of it all. Right. I was like fiending for this thing. I was watching for the visuals,

you know? Of course. And so was I, but I was also watching for the lore and for the music and for the action scenes and the references and the Easter eggs and all of it.

And oh my God, it just delivered. And like, I will say honestly watching it last night for the first time in over a decade. I've seen this movie dozens of times easily. I've specifically seen the action scenes hundreds of times, maybe thousand times when you're talking about the final fight and the Tifa church fight. Oh my God, I love them.

When that motorcycle gets going and he puts the goggles on like, oh, this is sick as hell, right? So cool. And then the side compartments of the motorcycle open up. You see all the swords and the side swerving of the movement. And again, this was 2006, right? Thousand four. Doesn't five. Five.

And when we left the theater, I was like, it's in that moment that you know, they've always had that dog in them. Like, these directors have always had the stuff. Yeah. And, you know, you're amazed by what you're seeing now with remake and all the cool action scenes there. But even dating back then 2005, it's like, oh, this, this was always in their bag. They always knew how to direct action. And it was just so cool to kind of see the inception of it. And you know what? It reminded me a lot of Tim. It reminded me of the work of the late great Montiombe. Dude, I mean, oh, I got chills. You just saying that. But real talk, I was watching

the movie last night. And duh, I already knew this. But seeing the motorcycle chase scene, I'm like, oh, this is literally the spiral fight from Red versus Blue, uh, whatever, second season that Monty Olm directed the action of and like the way that the fights had seen like the dead fantasy series. Yeah. Did. Oh my God. Seeing these characters.

But Advent Trondon was like, hey, this is that with the biggest budget possible for what we're trying to do here. And seeing these characters do their limit breaks. Like the, no character in the movie just does a move. Every move is a reference to something. And oh, it is just so damn cool to see. But Mike, like you watching this, what, like, what was your experience watching the movie? I mean, it was super special.

The music, the animation, the story, right? Because this is after Final Fantasy 7. This is like post, this is what has happened. This is where we are. So it is cool to see all these characters where we kind of stand in like, what's next? What are we doing? Right?

And I loved that. And so, yeah, I had so much fun. And like, yeah, the hunt for mother and what that meant to see characters for me that are still new, but like, oh, wow, they're still around, right? Rude and Reno are there with the president's son. And you're like, what are they doing? oh wow, they're working with Cloud now. Cloud has just become a package delivery guy?

What is he doing? I need a cell phone in this world. I need a cell phone. I think Mike is in such a perfect place for it because, like, I, it's really cool for Mike to see this movie is post Final Fantasy 7, right? And you see where these characters end up, and you see that some of them aren't in the greatest spots. Some characters are dealing with.

certain issues or whatever. And I love that for Mike experiencing the franchise for the first time, much like I am still to a larger degree, to be able to say like, hey, what what you just saw may or may not happen, we don't know. That's like, that's what the remake and the remake is about, right? Like some of these things may change. Some of them may stay the same. We don't know, we don't know exactly.

But like, I told you last night, I think the movie. has a lot of goofy moments, a lot of, like, weird dialogue and spots. And some of that just made me, like, translation issues that didn't correctly go over to the English voice actors. It's goofy in a lot of spots. We had a lot of good laughs. A lot of like, a lot of, a lot of wow moments of just hype and cutscenes. And the amount of times that I said, all I said out loud, this is the sickest shit I've ever seen. Like, and it's usually cloud doing something awesome or whatever. And at the

near the end, near the end of this boss fight, like video game, right? Near the end of this boss fight to see Cloud being tossed up by all of his friends, these people that he's been on such a journey with, and they're helping him, and he's climbing, he's soaring.

And then like, it'll always, I'm getting choked up right now, it'll always get me emotional to have like a friend of a character that is no longer alive to reach out. and have Ayrith be like, Cloud, I got you. You know, whatever she says. I don't even, she couldn't have said anything.

She didn't even have to say anything. I just get like so choked up in all moments like that. And for it to be characters that I care about, God dang, what a freaking cool moment that was. A fight against a dark Bahamette, all right? You're fighting this big old motherfucker and we get the whole team attacks. The whole team is here for this cameo moment. Like, this is fan service at its best.

So cool. They're jumping up. They're doing all. the fights in cloud get him get him get him he jumps through and like he's like he does the charge up as he flies through the giant blast to get to this thing and then when he gets the final erith power up and he runs gets his sword down god holds it all the way up the length of the body of bahamit it is awesome and even and even before that the everybody's moment that everybody's here moment yeah where things aren't looking great for everybody out there right all the all these kids who are

dealing with the, we were calling it the Ligma, but they got the stigma and it's like, this disease is killing them and everybody, all this bad stuff is happening and dark Bahamas going buck wild Mike. And then who's here? Red shows up. Who else? Cool freaking weapon. Youfe's

here. Like, oh my God, dude. That gets me too. I'm such a easy target for those winning moments, you know? But they took them and they earned them. Yeah. And that's the thing is it's like there are very few things like Final Fantasy 7 Advent children for better or worse. But for the better parts of it, man, they committed and it delivered. And since 2005, I've been watching this movie.

And I've been thinking, man, like, I imagine if a game looked like this. Imagine if this was what Final Fantasy was as a game. And we've been getting closer and closer and closer to it over the years. I remember playing Final Fantasy 13. And in a lot of ways, that game is very impressive visually. And I remember being like, oh, man, we're here. And I was like, no, we're not there. Remake.

We are here. Damn, we are here. We're 100% here with that. I mean, the final fight with Sephiroth and Cloud, like when he's poking him all the way through. And then he's got the whole tower collapsing on him, and he puts the sword underneath his feet, and he's standing there, grabs the neck sword and chak.

Tells him to beg. Oh, I mean, like, so cool. Well, leading up before that to have Cadage, I'm going to assume the character's name is. Cadage. Cadage, one of the, you know, the main, kind of like the main brother. having the remnants of

mother in this box and it's leaking out wherever and the last remnants dude is falling down it looks like the fight's over right they're just the whole crew is watching cloud go to town on these people and they're like clouds got this

don't worry about it cadage is falling infuses and I forgot what happened in this moment infuses this the mother into Genova cells into the chest

boom set thro off pops up and all of but he doesn't just pop up up. He goes like this, and his sword stops the cloud from doing the death's right. And then the music starts playing, hello, Cloud. Me, me, me and Barrett next with each other, and Mike had just gone to the rest of him,

but he was watching from the hall. So he was like watching in the aisle, and I hear Roger next week and all of us at the same time, just like, oh shit. It was hype as hell, dude. And to have that awesome, boss by to see, to see Cloud like get work done to him. Uh-huh. And then the flashback. And you have, you have cloud just bloodied up in like kind of a really gruesome way that I wasn't expecting.

Yeah, we haven't even talked about this character. Yeah, that's what I'm excited for. And for Zach to be there. Come on. And be like, you've beaten them before, man. You got this. Embrace your dreams, Mike. You've beaten me before.

We're going to get embraced your dreams tattooed on us. Come on. Right. And he's like, you've been a, you got this. And what did I was, you know, what did I tell you to do? To carry, you know, to continue on your legacy. I forget the exact lines of it. You're my living legacy.

Be my living legacy, dude. I was tearing up in that moment, too, man. Powers the hell up, super saints, Tim. Does all the blue shit. Oh my God. With all the weapons all around. You got, yeah. Come on.

And that final sword just like landed down, dude. And that's the special part about this movie. God, I got good. Because in the game, we're teased of Zach. We don't get to see much of him yet, right? but in the movie, the finale of it all with the sword, the buster sword right there and he goes, is this a grave site?

And he goes, no, it's where legend was born. I mean, yeah, man, yeah, man. Oh, there's a lot of break down there. I'm so excited for you. Talking about Zach, though, for a minute, all right? Zach, for some reason, I've always just loved him. And I honestly, I think a lot of just had to do with the fact that my best friend, Curran,

Fall Fantasy 7 being his favorite game. He was a cloud guy. So that meant I was like, nah, no, no, Zach's better. All right, Zach is my guy. To the point that... You're Leonardo. I'm Don't Tello. That type of thing, you know. And back in the day, Andy, like, way before you officially worked here, you used to do art for

kind of funny. And you were doing... I don't even remember what it was. It must have been, like, the original games cast. Yeah, I think it was animation. Yeah. And we're like, oh, hey, cool. It's make us as, like, different characters.

So I think Greg was Clementine from Walking Dead and Solid Snake. I was Pokemon trainer. And we were supposed to have two. And you're like, who should you be? And I was like, Zach from... Final Fantasy 7, you're like, I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm like, well, it's cloud, but it's great. Hair, essentially.

I was like, I'll just make you as cloud. Yeah, I'm like, so you made me a Zach, though. Like, I am Zach in it, which is awesome. But Zach's always been my guy. And there's a game called Crisis Core, Mike, that was the PSP game that came out after Advent Children. That's a prequel to all the things that so far we've seen. And I fell in love with that game back in the day.

Last year, they put out the remake of it or the remake, remaster, whatever you want to call it. It was called reunion. And it came out. So people could play it if they wanted to. Not required. Might cause more questions than answers. But fun as hell in some ways. Goofy as hell.

I still absolutely love it. But real quick, Barrett, I wanted to bring up something because as I was preparing for this hypecast here, I was like, am I correct in thinking that both Crisis Corps, Reunion or Crisis Core reunion and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth were both officially announced at the same events. Yeah, they were and they were and I was like I wonder I wonder if those dates stuck and they did and I just want to have a little hype on hype moment and watch this real quick if we could if you'd bring up Barrett just the first one here

that is me realizing that the dream is finally happening No No in Advent children It's the sequel There was other versions Not about the prequel show

I'm not about the prequel show You look a little bit like Riku from Kingdom Hearts Just look at me here. Boy, it's crisis core. Yes, it goddamn

is that, let's go. I do remember that guy. What a dope scene in the movie, too. What a cool scene. Bring it out there. All it took was that one shot, and I'm like, oh my God,

they're doing it. And then if you could go to the next time code there, Barrett, where we get the end of that trailer that had the release date for the game. Protect your honor.

Oh, whoa. This winner. Oh, no. Yes! Just keep going. We're eating, everybody. Oh my god, we're about to give a spreevake too. No.

Yo, they are churning these things out. What we've done, that's set in stone. Let's just watch this whole trailer. But the future, even if it has been written, can be changed. So, focus on the future, not the past. God, damn, I got him teary up, man. He wants to finish what he started. He wants to reclaim his birthright.

He really said this winter. With Genova at his side. What is that way? I saw you lying there. I figured it was too late. The stream was dying. What are you implying that I died? that I'm some kind of imposter what's this is awesome it's gonna divide you so much but I love it

where are you what happened to you I'm trying so hard to find you sorry feel like I failed you rebirth that's six fun next one no way you oh oh Available next winter and everybody, we're here, baby. It is that winter. Rebirth is a week away. I can't, not even, not even a week away. Oh my God, Mike, watching that.

Yeah. Where are you at? That's where I'm at. That's where I'm at 12 out of a 10 right now on the hype scale of I want to just close my eyes, wake up. It's Thursday. Me and Andy are on the couch playing this game together because I cannot wait. I have so many questions I need answered.

I want to play as other characters now that I've seen. You can play as other people. That's going to be wild. And seeing the team up moves are going to be cool. The music's going to be great. Where are we going? I mean, we didn't even talk about the finale of it all. Me on a motorcycle on that one, saving the day.

Then we got the end. It's like, we got to go. And it's like, where are we going? I'm afraid to go. But we got to go. When they're looking at the portal where Sephiroth walks out of that portal, and he's like, everything from here on out is like whatever, you know, you know,

spacey shit he says, right? Like everything from around out. He was just cool quote. And we're like, wow, this is like us stepping into the unknown. We're not sure what's going to happen from here, Mike.

And Mike just keeps going like, what's Barrett going to do about Marlene? Yeah, what about Marlene? You're invested, man. I'm invested. Like, Mike, I think Barrett's got it.

I don't think you got to. I'm worried about Marlene. I'm worried about the whole team. I have questions. I got to know who this cat is. And how does this cat play a factor into my life right here? And where do we go?

What answers are going to be, you know, where are we going? And yeah, Mike alluded to it on Thursday, we will be doing a larger stream that we normally do, similar to other, like, marathon streams, but not really a marathon stream, but we want to push it longer, way longer than what a normal stream would be where we're hopping into, we're hopping into rebirth. We want Mike to play the Ufi DLC, because I think he can knock that out on easy difficulty pretty quickly. I think it took me like four hours.

to beat the Ufi DLC, it may take them like maybe three-ish on an easier difficulty. And we want to experience that together again. Like I want to just do as much as we can on that Thursday stream. The day that it releases, we're still kind of figuring out the logistics, but I'm super stoked to like see. We're going to find the source. We're going to find possibly new Midgar. I love this.

Man, it's crazy. What are the crazy characters we're going to meet? I danced for that dress. I earned the love and respect of those people at the wall market. Will I have something crazy happen again over there? Who's the one executive of Shidra that like where they show all the new group and it's like it's the one Ufi villain, the super hot lady. Oh my God. The directors of communication.

She's an absolute ass, right? She's like so rude, but she's an absolute bad. Scarlet. And then we see the other shorter dude kind of like. like stockier frame and Mike goes Don Corleone and it's like that's not Don Corneo that is not

Don Corleo that is not here What kind of new nicknames When we give people? Will we get to learn more about Zach? What's up? I mean right there watching Advent children What's up with there? There's so many questions that I have it I need to answer. Will the director of communication Scarlett still have somebody

Walking around on all fours and she's putting her feet up on him? I don't know what she's going to do. Oh man. Oh man indeed. It is exciting time Thank you all for hanging out. I needed this. I'm in talking about 5'87 a lot recently. Gotta get out.

Mike, honestly, it is. I'm just so excited for you. I'm so happy that this is hitting for you as much as it is. A few short days away from Rebirth, we're starting the journey on Twitch. That's gonna be a blast. Yeah, we are.

But for everybody else, there's a demo out. There's a new demo out now, an expanded one. So you can even play in some of the open world Juneon stuff. So definitely check that out. Remember, the game comes out on February 29th. You can get the twin pack that gets you remake, the PS5 version, which also includes the, the Ufi DLC that we're talking about, and of course, rebirths. So, um, what a dream. Square, uh, sponsoring us to just talk about this awesome stuff.

And I know, I know we're running the podcast. We're already in the gypsych. I'm sorry, Barry, but like last night where they're in the forest scene and Cloud is like, uh, fighting all the Advent children. And then we just see a red cape out of nowhere. Mike goes, he's got a red cape. And I was like, no, that's Vincent Val. who I also don't know anything about but he's always not cool.

What the hell, man? He's got a gun. So sick. Oh my God. Until next time, stay high, everybody.