Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Game of the Year So Far - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 17

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

Tim, Greg, Blessing, Imran, and Barrett discuss Persona 5 Royal, Doom Eternal, Ori, Resident Evil 3, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Half Life Alyx, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Getty's joined by one of the coolest dudes in video games, Greg Miller. If you ain't squirt and your Gerton. That's what I always say. The former and former Imron Khan. Is Gerton like Gertr? I don't know. It sounds good though. It sounds provocative. I like saying things that I know Amy can make a shirt out of, you know. And of course, the new face of video games blessing at Ayo, Ye, Jr. It's me. Tim, I got to predict. document that I'm in. And so right before we started this podcast, I went to grab some hats because I haven't seen my barber in a minute. And I know I don't look like terrible. You know,

you probably couldn't tell that I haven't been to a barber, you know, because my hair stays on point. But still, I want to cover my hair line because it disturbs me having to see it on the computer. And so I have a bunch of hats. And I want you guys to decide which hat I'm aware. Cool. I like So I got old reliable that I have been wearing, right? It says I'm comfortable. It has like the square in the middle. I have this Seattle Sounders hat because I lived in Seattle for four years. I'm going to white green hat.

I also have a what's good games hat with a pin. We're not going to advertise them. We're not going to advertise them. Does they pay for an ad spot? If not exactly. It's dope. I would like to advertise them because I like them. But it doesn't match the fit.

so I'm going to say no. No, I mean, it's like it's black on black black on black. No, I get it, but like there's, you got the blue,

you got the pink and then the, add in the purple. It's just too many elements. You're right. You're right. And then I got this last hat that says, amen.

I can't remember where I got it from. But I guess it fits within like the theme of my name being blessed. Here's my thing. I'm going to go with this one because you know the shirt doesn't perfectly match. I think it looks good

how you look right now with that mic. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you're right. Is it possible to wear all the hats at once? I mean, I can try. I can try. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the kind of funny games.

Andy, are you there? Andy Cortez? All right, then I'm on Andy's voicemail. Andy, I just said if you're squirted, if you're not squirting, you're girtin, and I need that to be a t-shirt. And you can make it look like however you want to make it look. All right, bye.

Each every week right here on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. We get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. You can get this show ad free. by going to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games, just like our many Patreon producers did. Muhammad Muhammad, Al Tribesman,

James Hastings, Sancho West Gaming, Cody Banks, Trent Barry, Julian the gluten-free gamer, Joseph O. Yousaf, and Scott Radlaw. Thank you all for all the things that you do, including making sure that this show can be seen free for people later on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games or Rastratestrote.com.

If you want to listen to it, guess what? You can search for Kind of Funny Games cast on your favorite podcast service. I looked away for a bit. I looked back and there's blessing the hats. I got to hide it. See how long ago

without somebody acknowledging it. I love it. That was good. That was damn good. Anyways, this is the kind of funny games cast. I'm very excited to talk about the topic today because it is now April 22nd as of recording this.

So many games have happened this year. We've hyped this year up to be one of the, if not the biggest year in video game history. And everything kind of got derailed a little bit, you know? A little bit. But it didn't, that derailment happened late enough that at least we got banger after banger after banger. This is the first traditional games cast we've had in what feels like two months. Because we have some of its dynamite reviews. So we had reviews back to

back. We had spoiler cast back to back. That's the thing we got, we got ory and the will of the wist. We have half-life Alex. We got Resident Evil 3, Final Fantasy 7, Doom, Eternal, Animal crossing. Those are some some banger games, right? Potentially, the final games will have this year. We don't know. We don't know. But I feel like now's a good time to do.

Game of the year so far. Kevin roll the graphic. All right, sound effects. We got sound effects. I'll take them. I'll take them. Now here's my thing. Before we get into it,

because I feel like we're going to discuss all those games. We've had a lot more time to sit with that. We did the review. Some of us have went back and platinum them or replayed them, done a whole bunch of different things. But is there games that I didn't mention that you guys want to talk about before we get into those big guys? There's dreams. Hell, yes. That's why you're listening.

Yeah. I think when we're talking about game of the year, I think dreams, I think dreams is like presence in the game of their conversation is going to depend on how it looks like throughout the year. because we mentioned this on PSW very briefly that we haven't talked to PSWXOXO that posts on Tuesdays on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games and on the podcast feed. Dreams kind of came and went pretty quickly. And I think part of it was that it launched an early access last year and then came out fully in February. And even with that February bump, I think you saw a lot of people peek in, but then immediately go like, okay, yeah, this is cool. and then other big games came out and distracted from it.

But if you look at dreams on like Metacritic, it's, it's gotten like great reviews, like amazing reviews. I think it got like a couple of tens. Yeah. And like overall critically, you know, it did excellent. But it's one of those things where I think in terms of the conversation around it, that conversation is kind of dissipated because it is such an unconventional game. But it is such a powerful tool that I think toward the end.

of the year, it will come down to how is the conversation of dreams gone. And I think that could it could go either way right now, especially with the PS5 coming up. Like I think I think the PS5 will probably mean big things for dreams in terms of how Sony treats it and in terms of how whether or not it re-releases at launch and how that re-release looks like. But I think I think it's definitely going to be, it's definitely a game that is going to come up in those conversations. Do you think it hangs in the conversations? Do you think it actually has a chance? not really like yeah i think what i think what's going to hurt it more than anything is the fact that it and i'm not i don't think it fizzled out i just think it had its moment in the spotlight

but it was in the grand scheme of things a just a couple weeks sirens are in mind i don't know if you hear it was just a couple of weeks in the spotlight before this gauntlet of games began and so as yeah we've talked about on multiple shows including this one like it really comes down to now there is this dreams audience i'm on in dreams dot me right now right right now a little over about two thousand players online which it was we always talk about on PSW when we check in is down from where it normally is granted it's you know middle of a wednesday so on and so forth when you scroll through and you look at the games that are here there are a whole whole bunch of things i haven't seen that i haven't played that look awesome and you see people continuing to iterate

on their work but it had that moment where everyone was online where all that early access content paid off because suddenly people got their hands on the game they wanted to jump in they wanted to see what it was. That's when people were in there reviewing it. And so now, yeah, you get to the point of how do you reinvigorate that audience again after all this? Do you let it go? And then it's a PlayStation Plus game and people get in there. Do you let it go? And at PlayStation 5 launched, you get a sampling of 10 games in the engine or whatever that you can play or, you know, a game a day you can do or a dream a day you can do, there's got to be something you figure that could bring people back once again in the same way the early access did it show them that, hey, holy shit, this game's awesome.

Do you think a rumor PC release would be that revitalization thing? No. I think it would get people talking about it again and it would get people back into it. But I also think that it's got to be something crazy, right? And I think not, and I don't mean in a bad way, but like expanding the pool beyond PlayStation, I think muddies the message more where now you just have, you have people coming back in just, okay, yeah, my review still stands. Dreams is awesome.

It's an excellent set of tools. Here it is on PC, right? to copy the review over. You need to have people excited to go back in there. And I don't, you know, there would be obviously the conversation that may be certain aspects of creation, if not all of it would be easier to do on PC. But I think you need an even bigger influx of players. And I think that some kind of PlayStation Plus, some kind of, what are they calling right now,

bless the COVID game. Stay at home or play at home. Stay at home. Stay at home initiative. Like that could do something to get people in there. But again, you need to space it out from right now where there is no oxygen even for it. Right now the oxygen will be spent the same way we're spending of it. It reviewed really well.

It's awesome from what we played. I want to go back and play more, but I'm still obsessed with Animal Crossing and I check in there every day. I'm getting excited for a predator this week. I want to jump in and see that. Oh, man, borderlands just drop more content. Division just drop more content in their season past. Like there's only so much mindshare to go around right now.

And so dreams, as always with its complicated message, not convoluted, but complicated message of, yeah, there is a game here and there's unlimited. games too but you don't have to create but you should create but here's a long tutorial to get through to figure out how to create like that muddies the water so much that even me somebody who has their idea for their level has the certain uh parts of it built or not level creation has certain parts of it i i you know collaborated with while i was really into dreams but by the time i got the assets i needed from those collaborators i'd moved on to this review gaunt we're talking about

and being on the other side of it now i'm now to the point of like oof yeah i'm exhausted from living in a pandemic and being emotionally strung out all the time, I don't really feel like going in and creating. I feel like being simple and working on the wrestling ring and Animal Crossing, shooting a bunch of things in the division, right? Like, when do I, am I going to feel that creative bandwidth to go back and really deliver on that idea that I had? I mean, those way to get from the outside perspective for me, it's like, if, if now's not a time for dreams to succeed, is it ever possible for it to?

Because I feel like, no matter what, like, there's always going to be those distractions for, for that type of game and I feel like now is probably the time there's the least distractions for it but it's like it still sounds like I mean at least you're one use case but I don't see people all jump it in on this now and I feel like that would be the time in this

what is now about to be a drought of games yeah yeah I think dreams I think Dream strikes me as a game that doesn't necessarily aim to have a giant player base at all times like it is it's a games as a service basically that doesn't have that same like

Overwatch or division hook where they are trying to get people playing and bring bring people back in event after event. Like Dreams very much strikes me as a game that you come to because you want to create something and then you create that thing and you're pretty much like, okay, cool, yeah, I'm done. There's like a core community there that I think sticks with dreams and that I think continues to create things. But I think it's just such an unconventional thing

that I don't know if, I don't know unless like PlayStation does something dramatic with it, or unless like PlayStation does something like, hey, let's just have everybody, uh, who buys the PS5 own playable dreams for free and then maybe they have to pay for the creation option. Unless they do something like that, I don't think dreams will ever have. Like the moment where everybody's playing it at the same time, you know, like I don't think dreams is looking to have that. But I think with where, with where it's at, and what it's doing, I think that steady stream of having a core community that is

dedicated to it and having those pop-up successes come out, like maybe like a couple times a month where we see something. We're like, oh yeah, that was made in dreams. Like last week there was the the, what you'd call it, the actor, I forget his name, like the comedy bit. Somebody like, he threw, through the guy.

It might have been a Pulp Fiction thing. I didn't even see this. I didn't even see anything about this. There was, there was a famous actor who like retweeted a dream. That was like a recreation of a scene from one of his movies. and that made the rounds for a day. But I think we'll see that quite a bit. But I also think the longer that Dreams is out,

the more we'll see bigger and better creations from it. Like, you know, it takes time to develop a game. I think Dreams is no exception to that rule. Like there are full experiences in dreams, but I think a year, two years, three years in, that's when we'll probably see dreams shine more than ever. But back to the game in your conversation. Do you think it'll be able to shine for the mainstream?

Like that's the biggest problem with it, right? It's because I feel like Dreamform is a platform within a platform. And so it's already like, do you care about PlayStation games? And then you'd be talking to that audience. And then to be like, do you care, all right, you care about PlayStation games? Do you care about dreams? And then I'm talking to that audience. Do you care about first person shooters inside of Dreams inside of the PlayStation 4?

Like that's where it gets complicated on how do you break those walls down and do something with it. When Dreams launched in February, right, like it was early enough that, it felt like that was its time where not everyone, but it seemed like a lot of people I followed were playing it and were doing streams similar to like Mario Mondays or whatever, like were they into dreams every morning. I think Klappelk was doing dreams every morning. And it was an idea of like, oh, hey, this is a discovery and this is cool,

and you jump in. And then to jump to where we are now and in the future of, all right, cool, I put all this time in and I've made this amazing game, it's that problem of cool, you can make the dreams community understand that. The people who are on the subredits are on the message boards, but then how do you break that out? And even, you know, an actor, or somebody huge, retweeting something that somebody made.

Yeah, it was Tommy Wassa. It was like an Oh, hi-Mark scene from the room. Oh, that's right. I saw that. That was hilarious. Even getting people to retweet that kind of thing, does that get them then to go play the game or play the level? And I mean, the game within the, play the creation.

Does it get them to turn on their PlayStation 4, turn on download dreams going and do that? That's the big problem. Dreams ideal situation would have been if Microsoft never picked up Minecraft and everyone who played Minecraft was like, I want something more complicated and I want to pay money for it. Then that would have been great for dreams, but because that didn't happen, there was never really a situation where the main people who have that like creative urge and want to spend time learning tools and stuff like that would be honestly like preteens and teenagers.

And they never really moved on from Minecraft to that or if they moved on from Minecraft, it wasn't to another creation game. It was said nothing. Yeah. Maybe like 4. But all this said, there's Rolex too, but that's also free. Yeah. Do you think that this holds it back from being

in the game of the year conversation? I still think people when we get to the end of the year, people are going to talk about like, holy shit, Dreams is an amazing creator. Dreams has all these different things. I love dreams. I'm sure there's people who are still playing.

And I mean, I know there's people who are still playing dreams daily. I think there's still people in the industry who will be voting and doing Game of Year lists and all that jazz that are still playing dreams, not every day probably, but with some regularity keeping, you know, a glance at what's going on.

Do you think it can still win game in the year at places? I think there's a, there's a psychology that would allow for dreams to be that game that we get to the end of the year. It's like, actually this year, this is the most interesting thing. The thing that I think would be hurting it is the fact that that soft launch was last year and a lot of people just kind of got dreams out of their system since then. Right. Yeah.

I think the thing that hurts dreams the most in the game of the year conversation is in the fact that like it's not one of the most impressive games of the year because I think it is one the most impressive games of the year, but game of the year means more than that, right? Like, you know, there's conversation around it. There's, there's how the community reacts to it. There's how it's treated, like,

post-release. Like, there's a lot of stuff that goes into that. And I think Dreams isn't a game. Like, when I think of 2020, we're in 2020, right? That's right. Yeah. Time's a flat circle. When we think 2020, I don't think Dreams is the game that I think people are going to come back to and be like, oh, yeah, this is the game that represents, or

this is the best game of the year. At least right now. Yeah, I can see that. Besides Dreams, any other games that we missed in the big discussion there? I haven't played a ton of it, so I'm not going to argue for it right now, but I will probably, there's a good chance I'll argue for it when we get to the game of the year or next year. But Kentucky Root Zero. Like, apparently, from what little I've played, it is amazing.

The writing is amazing. The story is incredible. For when people have said, people who have finished it have told me, the game is actually just one of the best games they've ever played, period. And I'm very eager to get to that point. It just, like Greg said, there's been a gauntlet in last couple of weeks, so haven't really got a chance. I've had that on my PlayStation as well sitting there. And I'm like, I know everyone talks this game up and how amazing it is. And I know that I need to get into it.

Can you guys give the pitch on what it is? It's so it's kind of like a, I don't want to say a LucasArts style graphic adventure, but it's a kind of a meld between that and the telltale kind of stuff of here's a narrative adventure game that is based on essentially like an Americana, supernatural paranormal X-Files kind of story I guess I'm not far enough into it to really give a good pitch of like where the next couple of chapters are the next episodes go after this

they're all out, it's all done, I just haven't got a chance to do it but from what people say the the writing is from what I've observed very natural and very interesting every character seems to have their own personal voice which is not something you can tell that like do that well unless you're are really paying attention to it.

So I encourage people to give it a try, but I need to spend more time with it myself. Hmm. Bless, have you tried this one at all? I've not, no. Yeah, I'm looking at a trailer now. It looks pretty cool. Yeah, it's one that I think since

in the, uh, it's had a, uh, prolonged release schedule. Like it just ended and it's been going forever because I think it is that IGN, Mitch was talking about this game to me. No shit. I think it's that long. I could totally be talking on my ass and maybe, oh, it's 2013.

Maybe no, there you go. Okay, good. I'm not wrong. And so, like, I've known for a long time. It was for me, it was the kind of great game of narratives and characters and all this stuff. And then, like, yeah, it's, we've been so running gun on everything else we've been needing to do that I've, it's sat there.

And Andy actually started it. I think he might have streamed some of it or just played it at launch. And I remember asking him about it. And he was like, yeah, but it's dense. Like, it's like, he's like, it's something you need to sit and pay attention to. And I've like, cool, I have not had that energy since January. So it's there to go, but I'm just not there yet. Yeah.

Any other games, guys? Yeah, one I would, I'm sorry, well, I'm going to go bless, fuck you. Yeah, you might have another hat one of you. You know what I mean? No, I don't think we're going to. Maybe I'm wrong, though. Thank you. If we were, if the year was ending right now and we were talking about game of the year, right?

I would throw it out there. And this is always the thing of like, why would you nominate it if it wasn't going to win? I don't think it would win, but I think there'd be an interesting case to make. And maybe it's just totally too much Greg on it. But like, I think there'd be a case to be made for blood roots, which, you know, of course, for, is this disclosure. was represented by Papagenda, which is the company my wife co-founded or whatever in terms of helping Indies get their games out to everything else. They've done a whole bunch of games you've never heard me talk about those. So this is not Bayola.

It's the fact that I think Blood Roots is fucking awesome by paper cult games. And when I got it and started it, it was very much, we had done the let's play of it. If you're not familiar, right, it's like what? It's not completely top down, but from a little bit of side view, running through these levels, you're picking up anything's a weapon. and you pick it up, you use it to fight people, you use it to knock them out, you have one hit point. Everybody else has various numbers,

usually one, but there's different things to use the weapons. You combo through, you're trying to get through the highest score, you're trying to just get through these levels. And when we did it for our, let's play back on the game, party mode,

it was fun and it was cool, but even then I was like, I like this gameplay a lot, but I don't know if it would resonate for me throughout an entire game because I'm not a high score chaser. I don't want to get, I play games for, you know,

not being annoyed and not feeling like I'm getting my face rubbed in my mistakes and they can't keep moving. And so to get blood roots and just fucking tear it apart in a weekend, you know what I mean? And sit there and have levels that I did spend 30, 45 minutes on trying to get through, but never feel like I was being screwed over by the game. It was the fact, fuck, I knew it. Like it got to be such a hotline, man, any type of thing of like, I know I'm going to walk through. And I'm going to pick this bucket up.

I'm going to hit that guy. But that's going to came to these two guys. So how am I going to, I got a barrel roll through that and like that part of the gameplay. There's a moment in that game in World 2 or 3 where I remember literally sitting on the couch just going, fuck, this is good. Because it's just like, it's such a beautiful game. It is so much fun to play. It is a, it is the rare game that is a game that stands out to me. You know what I mean?

If that makes sense where it is like, it's not a story thing that I love about it. It's not the characterization or this thing making me want to hug somebody. It's legitimately like, I just love the moment to moment gameplay of this and the strategy of this game that on the surface looks like a. colorful bloody cartoon, but in reality is this thing like, how the fuck are you going to get over there and do that thing? Bless. Bloodridge was the one I was going to also bring up

because I knew Greg loved it. And I also liked it. But also, I do want to also bring up Neo 2, which I know Imron played and really liked when we did the first impression stream. What do you think, Imron? Any chance? I don't think it's going to be game of the year,

but like it is a really good game. It's an improvement on Neo 1 quite a bit. it, where it falters are the same place as Neo1 faltered, and that's kind of a shame because it feels like it, it does make a lot of improvements in a lot of different places. It's just those couple of places where I wish it would just be a little bit better, like level design are not small issues. Those have become larger issues to go through. That said, I haven't beaten the game yet, but I got spoiled on the game, and the final boss is insane in a way that I really appreciate. So I'm, I kind of want to go back to it once, you know, all of the fervor of currently right, right now, will die down.

And presumably I can go back and actually play some games I was playing before. Awesome. So I was trying to coordinate something off screen. I think it's going to work here. Greg, I need you. Can you add Barrett to the DM? Oh, you know I can.

Think, think, think, think, think, think, think. I want to get some thoughts on Persona 5 Royal. Yeah, I was going to mention that, but I was like none of us have played it. It's a real quick. Hold on. I'm going to add him, but I think that also does start a new thing we might all have to accept. So let's see what happens. Hold on to your ass.

everybody. Oh no, he just added perfect. It didn't freak out at all. Now is this real Barrett or evil Barrett? Nobody knows. If he has a mustache, it's evil Barrett.

There he is. It's if I'm wearing the two seconds, boys, two seconds. Oh, whoa. Sad boy, Barrett. God damn it. I love it so much.

Yeah, I appreciate Kevin trying to figure this out on the fly. I was texting and I was like, can we add someone to this? I had his name wrong. I had, I like, organized it in a way that I thought

his name was Barrett on this and I forgot it was sad boy because it's alphabetical. There we go. Look. Gotcha. Gary, you forget my brand. So Barrett, you've been playing a lot of Persona 5 Royal. Yeah, I put 130 hours into it in the span of 30 days,

which I think it might be the fastest I've ever put into like a game in such a short amount of time. That's awesome. So in terms of game of the year conversation, actually before we begin to that, because we haven't talked much about this game. The new content and all that, like, how are you feeling about it? I absolutely adore it.

It was one of those things when, like, I sent in my failed boss baby, Safe Gamer Zone to PSI-WX-OX-O and like a third of that segment got cut off. I said in that segment, like, I was 20 hours in at the time and with like the subtle changes because a lot of the new story content is in like the last third of the game. I was only 20 hours in, hadn't seen a lot of new story. story stuff. They had introduced me to a couple of characters. The changes I hadn't really felt yet. Like there are subtle things in like the battle system and like the social system that I hadn't felt like the full like benefits of until I would say like 30 hours in. And that's where I was

like, oh, I'm leveling up a lot faster. I am ranking out my social stats a lot faster, which helps me rank up confidants stats like way faster and um it was shortly after uh the um embargo for the game that i was like oh i'm definitely did not read this uh royal the right way and because the first 15 20 hours it's like all right yeah this is cool it's persona five again it's uh you know it's just a lot of the same of what i remember it being and then quickly after that it was like oh no here here were all the benefits come in of the things that Royal ads that make it feel like an

entirely new experience. Do you think it has a chance at Game of the Year conversation? I don't, to me, there's no other question for Game of the Year right now. And I know that's a very, I have a very big bias because Persona 5, the base game was my game my favorite game of all time.

Royal has replaced the base game as my favorite game of all time. I think, and like, it's one of those things. things where like I'm playing through I'm like two thirds of the way through Final Fantasy seven remake right now and it's one of those things where I think there are I think there are dips in Royal where you're like all right like this little segment right here I could take it or leave it but those always kind of leave right when you think they're like taking too much time

whereas like what I'm thinking like my experience with seven right now which I'm amazed at how many people are like praising for being the best game of the year without question it's like there's a lot of just like uh like i tweeted out like i compared it to the highs and lows of a roller coaster it's like there's a lot of lows in this game and like a lot of downtime where there's just like a lot of shit that i would just not want to be doing right now um i don't think there's any other question i think the and like finally being able to get to the new story content and experience it because that was the stuff i was more uh that was the stuff i was most worried about because the original Persona 5 game, I thought was such a perfect ending for that story and those characters, like the true ending I'm talking about, of course.

And like the first time I beat it, like I was crying. And like I've only cried at the end of two games since Persona 5 and Undertale. And so like I was worried because of the new story content. Like were they going to be able to stick the landing with what changes they made with Royal? and they somehow improved on one of my favorite video game endings of all time. The new kind of, I'm sorry, I have a lot of thoughts on Perona 5 Royal. And this is such a big game that like every day I wake up and I think about it. And I text our friend Alex O'Neill all the time about it because it's all we want to talk about ever is this fucking game.

But how long would you beat it? I beat it a week and a half ago, I want to say. Are you playing it again? Or you just, no, it's one of those things like, I think it might be, I text,

I text Clements about Pat upon every day, but it's just weird. Like Alex O'Neill is replaying Royal already. Like he started playing like replaying it like right after he beat it. And like I was almost there, but it was like, no, I do want to play Final Fantasy 7 remake and I do want to play different games to stream and stuff like that.

So I imagine I'll go back to it soon. Um, but I just wanted to give like a fair shake to other games and stuff and not put another hundred and 30 hours into the same game. Um, the, this was without spoiling anything, without the, like, all the new major stuff that Royal does. Um, I would say the, the ending of Persona 5, um, the entirety of the game, it's kind of always scaling up and it, it's always getting bigger. And the end of Persona of Five is this big like, save the world grand moment. And it's cool and it's epic.

But what makes Persona 5, uh, special to me is how personal it can get. and what royal does is that you still get that grand epicness of like you still get all of the same dungeons that were in the base game but then for the last dungeon they make it personal again and it like on an on a level that i did not expect the game to go and it was one of those things where the the story that they add for the final palace was so heartbreaking and such like a a great story that like i can't imagine uh persona five without the added stuff that Royal has that I like I said and like when I beat persona five like the base game I cried and like when the last cutscene came up I was like oh my God this is such a beautiful end I cried all the way from the fucking end of the last boss fight of Royal all the way until the last cutscene of the game which is good like hour that's a good hour of time and I'm just frying the entire time and of course it's I know because I know it's wrapping up and I know we're about to take goodbye to these characters,

but with the new context that the characters were given and the story is given, it is such a beautiful story. And I highly recommend it to anybody who's interested in JRP's. I think to me, this is the best modern JRP out there right now. I will say, how long, how long does it is, two barrett's argument is the highest rated game right now of 2020, period. It is at 95 on minute critic. Yeah, it's getting scored better than actual, like, new games.

Like, that is, that blows me away. Because, again, when the review embargo came up, I was a little lower on it. And so I was surprised with like, oh, man, like, a lot of people are liking this, like, even more than actual new games out there. And I thought that was surprising. Sorry, blessing, what were you going to say? I was going to say, how long does it get to the new content that feels meaningful? Because I know, like, I started playing. What does that?

Story-wise or gameplay was? both in a way that doesn't like because okay so here's my thing right i started playing person of five royal i got a couple hours in and there was like a few new cutscenes um within that first couple of hours but the thing that kind of stopped my play through is the fact that from what i understand of it i know like there's a new semester and a lot of that content is there but i know also that there's like stuff sprinkled throughout the whole experience of the game that is new like there's the grappling hook stuff that me and joey talked about on our first impressions Which is such a like, that's not, like, that's, like, it's, it's not substantial.

That's like a weird thing that I don't, it gives opportunities for some new things. That's definitely what it seemed like. The gameplay was something and this was like, I felt like this was on me. Like, I should have gone back to the base persona five game before I checked out Royal because a lot of the major gameplay upgrades I didn't notice until a good amount of time in and like actually talking to Alex O'Neal who is an expert in all things persona. where it was like, oh, like, baton pass isn't tied behind a confidant rank anymore. Like, you'd have to get, like, a certain confidant to, like, level three or four to be able to even baton pass to them. Now, right when they enter your party, baton pass is available. And that helps the flow of, like, it is such a minor change, but it helps the flow of an already great and fluid combat system so much more.

And so like the gameplay effects, I really felt like 20 to 30 hours in. And the story definitely gets a little more sprinkled in after the first palace. Like a lot of the new characters and a lot of the new like ways you have to rank up like a certain confidant is all kind of introduced after Kamashita, which is understandable because that's like you kind of have to have Kamisita be the same to, you know, teach you what the game is. But you start to feel it a lot like new characters get sprinkled in. And it's, um, it's really like the new major stuff, um, that you have to do certain things to unlock, uh, is at the end of December. Um, and there's some, like, there's some major stuff like scenes before that, but like a lot of the, the main new story is, uh, is it. Does it feel like a new experience though, like leading after that? Yeah.

It's like, it's interesting because there's, again without spoiling too much there is a scene I want to say I think it's before Sainijima's palace that was like so major and it feels like a side story almost with like how okay

if I unlock the new semester by doing all the stuff that like the prerequisite stuff that you need to do how are what just happened here how are they going to fit that into the story and that was the cool thing about getting through the last palace which was from the base game was like all right i know i've done everything i've can to unlock the new

semester and like i was scared and excited because i was like oh my god this is new stuff like we're going to experience an entirely new story and it it was and it went in a totally different direction than i thought it was going to and then like because they lay it out and like they reveal what the new stuff is but they don't tell you like why it's like this way and it was like 30 minutes in where I think I figured it out. I was like, no, please don't tell me this was the cause of like what is happening right now. And I was right and I was so upset and it's a very good story. And all I'll say is, and again, without spoils as much as I can, Maruki, who's the hot counselor who's one of the new characters in this game is hands down the best character in Persona 5.

I'm going to replay it then. You've convinced me. So there you go. Also, a catchy who I absolutely, a catchy who I absolutely hated in the base game actually gets a redemption and is Kylo Ren done right in this game. Wow. Wow. Thank you, Barrett. We appreciate you very much. You can get back to whatever the hell it is you do right here.

My name is all day. Bye. Bye. Before we move on to other stuff, let me tell you about our sponsors. This episode of The Kind of Funny podcast is brought to you by Honey. You've heard me talk about Honey before. It is a, free add-on for your browser that saves you money. It is super simple, of course. I use it all the time. I actually just redeemed it for Amazon card, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Basically, what you do is you go and you download Honey. Honey is a free online shopping tool that saves you money online. I already covered that, of course. But what you need to do is go to honey.com slash

kind of. When you go there, you're going to download this widget and three clicks it's installed. And guess what? It's just a little widget I'm putting in my computer. It lives up here on my Google Chrome. And when I go and I check out on all the stores I use online, it'll pop it. and it goes, hey, Honey's checking for coupons. Because what it does is it looks through all the coupon codes that are available on the internet, define you the code for the site you are on so that it can be used there, save you money, save you time. And if you log in with your Gmail or whatever you want to,

there's a bunch of ways to log in. I log up my Gmail. It'll accrue Honey coins there that you can then use to redeem for things like Amazon money, which is what I did, Greg Miller for my Amazon points. Honey has found over 18 million members more than $2 billion. and savings. Did you know that Honey supports over 30,000 stores online and they're adding more every day. Users love Honey. That's why it has more than 100,000 five-star reviews on the Google Chrome store. Like I said, you go there, you check out, little box drops down, you click apply coupons, it searches,

gives you the promo codes the best, and the prices drop. Not using Honey is literally passing up free money. It's free to use and it installs in just two clicks. I said three, I lied, two clicks. Get Honey for free at joinhoney.com slash kinda. That's joinhoney.com slash kinda. My name is Greg Miller. I can't recommend this service enough because I literally didn't me use it all the time. It's right there. Kevin, am I lying?

No, you're telling the truth, Greg. Our other sponsor is ExpressVPN. Okay, so we all know how ExpressVPN protects you and your privacy online, right, and your security, all that jazz. But here's something you might not know. You can also use ExpressVPN to unlock movies and shows that are only available in other countries.

Now that so many of us are stuck at home, it's only a matter of time until you run out of things to binge on Netflix. We have a friend who's been using ExpressVPN instead of being stuck on their Netflix in America to stream Dr. Hu-hoo, not Hugh, Dr. Hugh, Dr. Hu-hoo on UK Netflix. It's so simple to do. You fire up the ExpressVPN app. You change your location to the UK and you refresh Netflix. That's it.

You're in. It's amazing. You see ExpressVPN hides your IP address and lets you control where you want sites to think you're located. You can choose from almost 100 different countries. So just think about all the Netflix libraries you can browse. Of course, we've talked about ExpressVPN before. They've sponsored Kind of Funny before. They are great.

You can use it to, you know, use that hydro IP address, which is great, protect all your accounts, make sure nobody's snooping on you online. But in these times of sheltering in place, they're expressing that you can, of course, use ExpressVPN to get better Netflix libraries, along with Hulu, BBC Eye Player, YouTube, and more. You name it, you can use it. Plus, it's compatible with all your devices, your phones, your media consoles, your smart TVs, and more.

So you can watch what you want on a personal device. or the big screen wherever you are. If you visit my special link right now at ExpressVPN.com slash Kind of Funny, you can get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free. Support the show. Watch what you want and protect yourself with ExpressVPN at ExpressVPN.com slash Kind of Funny. Greg Miller. Hey, buddy.

What's your game of the year so far? I wrote out a list. Let me look at it. I mean, it's funny because I think I argue against it. in the review we did, but I think it's got to be Animal Crossing. Like, I am shocked that day after day, week after week, I find another reason to love Animal Crossing more and be excited to turn it back on. You know what I mean?

I think when we did the review and when we first got it, and even when you maybe see stuff online or people talk about it, I think there are pangs of mobile games in it. You know what I mean? I'm like, oh, well, you turn it on every day at least to go to the Nook terminal and get your bonus nook miles or whatever and that's true but it's not the reason i'm drawn to it i'm still drawn to it for the same reason i was excited to turn on the first time of to see what's different and what's happening on the island uh what is in the shop what is going all of my creation what somebody has sent me like i think there's so much to animal crossing that is so hard to put into

words and you don't know until you're in there playing it and i think the shared euphoria i see every Sunday on Twitter of people picking up turnips and being excited to wake up on Sunday and go after turnips. You know, there's that, not a movement by any stretch of imagination. But you know how people do the thing. It had one of those weird names of when you send a photo of a gift to somebody that you're not going to buy them, but you'd send it to them when you see it at a, you know, some kind of chachkey shop or when you're on a vacation or whatever. Like Animal Crossing is this thing that is legitimately every day I wake up and I have mail from my friends who are playing this game. ran into an item and we're like, oh, Greg just did that wrestling thing. Here's a ring bell for him or whatever.

And granted, so much of this is wrapped up with the fact that you can't go out and see your friends. So this is a way to interact with them and share the world with them and stuff like that. But to have that kind of stuff happening to unlock the, you know, the, oh, you get to terraform your island and put down paths or whatever and me be like, okay, that'll last for a little bit. And then I'll probably stick to it. But no, this past weekend I got, you know, this wild hair to go through and lay down

new paths and terraform this and this section of the island i've never touched before at least i haven't done much with before last night i went in and put in a staircase and then on top of that tomorrow's earth day and they're dropping all these shrubs that i'm excited for and to go get art and expand the museum and to dig up this stuff and it's like even in old animal crossings i felt that eventually getting the fossils or collecting the bugs or filling out the critterpedia like got to be not busy work but repetitive and somehow with everything that's going on in this game, I'm not running into that experience where I'm still turning it on, excited to turn it on. And I'm still putting in, you know, I think last night I must have put in four hours, three

hours or just fucking around in it and building stuff and changing my outfit. And now I've run into this thing of after putting up the video of the wrestling ring I created in the seats and the, you know, the signs and shit. I was like, man, that was fun. And now, like today, I don't know if you saw Tim. I put up one about you, ring a ding ding, ding, Tim or whatever. Like, I'm just setting up things and buying items in the shop of like, what can I do with this cost them. I'll buy it and figure it out. And then going, it's like that game, I've seen the

articles like, you know, our friend Jeff Grubb from Gamesbeat put up one of like, here's the problems with Animal Crossing now, why I'm running into walls with it. And Chrissy Teigen actually quote tweeted and it was like, this is what I'm talking about. Like, I need the game to tell me what to do. Like I don't like that you're just kind of left to your own devices. And having, being left to my own device in this game where legitimately there, you turn it on, there's no objective anymore of like, here's what you're trying to do what you're up to. And I've never been one. for, you know, collect all the bugs. And I didn't even, the egg event, I didn't care about it.

I didn't like any of it. So I wasn't screwing around with Easter stuff. I'm still finding my own reasons to play that game and do things in that game and interact with the characters, both on my island and then around me. And then back to the same thing of, you know, like, I'm on this weird text thread with Goldfarb and other people of like, what are you looking for? So you keep your eye open for this. And Jen's always looking for kitchen items.

And it's just like, it's this weird way of interacting with everybody, you know, out of the Blue, Leah hit us up, or Leah Jackson, formerly of IGEN, hit us up. And out of blue just dropped me these superhero uniforms I've never seen

in the game or whatever, right? And so then I'm talking to her on text, just bullshitting around about other stuff too. It's just like, it's more, I think it's amplified by the time of coronavirus and pandemic and shelter in place, but I don't think that that is giving it

a million extra bonus points. I think the game's incredibly well done. And I'm excited to turn it on every day and play more of it. And these updates are crazy. But that's kind of the craziest thing to me is like, you know, when we talk about game of the year, I feel like it's not just the best game or the most technical game or whatever. And we've had this discussion in a bunch of different

ways. But it also kind of is what is the game that encapsulates the conversation of that year as well. Yeah. And that's why, you know, things like Minecraft will will come up in those conversations in those years or even just more in terms of influence and all that. And I feel like given the situation of everything going on, on top of the fact that, you know, now that we're a quarter into 2020 and we still don't know Nintendo's plans for the rest of the year. It's like so much was riding on Animal Crossing, which feels like a bizarre move. Like everyone knew it was going to be successful.

But I don't think any of us expected it to be successful to the extent that it is. And sure, a lot of that is due to the coronavirus stuff. But like those sales numbers that came out in the last couple days, like I didn't get the chance to talk to you guys on games. about this or anything, but like, that's insane. Yeah, there were numbers today that it like literally broke records for all video games, period, in terms of digital sales. Like, that's, that's, so Imran, like, I was trying to find the actual stats on this to to verify, because it gets confusing when, like, I'm reading things that are talking about

US only versus the world. For what I was reading, this is telling me that, like, this is now the second highest selling switch game, period? I don't think that's true. Yeah. It's a fast, it's the best selling, it's the best debut in America. for a Switch game short of Smash. So Smash Ultimate has a higher debut.

Smash Brawl has a higher debut. Gotcha. So we don't, in terms of raw sales, not yet, but honestly, who knows in the next six months, what's going to happen? Yeah. We'll get actual concrete numbers, I think, in a week or two. Man, that's crazy stuff that, you know,

Animal Crossing was always kind of like a mainstream hit in the sense that it, it hit on that level of everybody with the DS, a portable Nintendo system would be, playing this game, even people that don't traditionally play games. But I feel like this is now that perfect switch entry where it's like it has those people, but it also has the hardcore people. And because of the situation right now, it kind of has everyone. So it's like I can see the game of the year conversation going that way.

And I think, you know, it's been interesting to compare it. We talked about this, I think, on a Games Daily recently, or maybe it was just a conversation with somebody. But compare it to Doom Eternal that came out on the same day. and you know everybody love doom maternal and thinks is one of the best first person shooters right but like who's talking about doom maternal right now you know what i mean like it's not like and that's not a knock against doom maternal it's just it's more of a this game is something special whether you want to sit there and be like it's not even a game what are you doing you're just micromanaging

an island like it's done something incredible here yeah so speaking to do maternal where you guys thinking i think it's definitely in the conversation i don't Like the further I got away from that game, the more I was like, okay, yeah, that campaign was really good. But there's some things I would change about it. And the longer I went back and like poked it a little bit, but I didn't want to replay it ever again. Because it just, it was a difficult game. And the more I thought like, okay, what if I just do it on like harder or a more difficult difficulty, I was just like, no, I don't want to because then that just sounds frustrating to me at that point. How do you feel about it, Bless?

I feel a similar way in terms of the difficulty. Like, I think, thinking back to Doom Eternal, if I had, if, I think there are two things taking away from it in the game of the year conversation. I think one of those things is the fact that, like, I think later in the game, the difficulty balancing, at least on like the normal difficulty, kind of gets off a little bit to where, like, there are certain encounters where it's like, why would you guys do this? Like, why would you, why would you guys have three waves?

And in the middle wave, there's a marauder and a bunch of people, like a, a bunch of like higher level demons around the marauder. Like, why am I, why am I in this encounter? To the point where it gets messy and you feel like you're doing more than the game is actually, like, keeping up with, or at least you're doing more than what your brain can keep up with in the moment to where it feels like you're just being overwhelmed. I feel like they could have, they could have balanced that stuff out a bit more. But, like, overall, that experience, like my experience of Doom Eternal, I think it was still

excellent despite that. But then the second thing that I think is take away from Doom Eternal in the game of the year conversation is the fact that Doom 2016 also exists. And where Doom 2016 came out and immediately became one of my favorite, if not my favorite first person shooter of the generation, Doom Eternal came out. And I'd say it's better than Doom 2016, but doesn't feel as special and as fresh and as new because we've gotten that before. And so it's been, I feel like for us collectively, like as, I guess like a gaming community, I feel like it's been a lot easier for that excitement and that energy coming off of Doom Eternal to dissipate because it doesn't feel as fresh and as new is Doom 2016, despite it being still a very excellent experience.

I've said a lot of people say that like they, that Doom Eternal just doesn't get what was good about 2016. I think that's true. I think it's as good or better a game, but I think if you're a fan of 2016, it does not understand what was great about that game, like in terms of story or mechanics, something like that. It takes a lot of things to 11 that you wouldn't

think were things you would want necessarily to improve about that game. So it's not like, it is not a sequel to June 2016 in a lot of ways. I think some people get really pissed off about that. It definitely feels like they took Doom 2016 and they were like, all right, how do we heighten every single element of

this game. And yeah, to what you're saying, like, maybe that, maybe, maybe they, they didn't need to heighten certain things. Maybe they just needed to, like, focus up certain things. Because the thing that, when I think, when I think of due 2016, I do think of how focused it is and how limited it feels in some spaces, but how great that is, right? Like, Doom Eternal added, added the platforming elements, which to me, like, I look at that and I'm like, yeah, these platforming elements are great. Like, the way that they make the levels feel bigger, you know, is great. The way that you feel like you are, you have something to do in between the fighting that, that allows you to kind of relax despite still being involved in the game, I think is great. But you look at Doom 2016 and you're

like, well, this is like a singular experience that you're having that you're having here. And Doom 2016, I think works supremely well because of that where Doom Eternal is definitely doing a lot. And it's, it's hard, it's almost hard to compare despite them being in the same franchise because in certain ways, it's like, yeah, like they definitely, switched up what the mission statement of doom is going to be with doom eternal but at the same time like I feel in a lot of those ways they succeed in ways that that are better than doom 2016 like it's it's a lot of like pros and cons um to how it kind of nets out yeah like a similar thing for me is resin evil where it's like I I think the difference is most people would say that eternal is better

than 2016 when it comes to doom but like R-E2 is my game of the year last year like there's no chance. RE3 is my game of the year this year. And I don't think that's even just because there's games already that I would consider higher than it. It's just it on its own. I don't think it's Game of the Year caliber in a way that RE2, I think to me, would be in that conversation, even if there was some of the other games out now that I'm enjoying

more. But yeah, it's kind of a bummer to me that R3 and Ori are not in my Game of the Year conversation. I enjoyed ORI a lot. but I don't find myself looking back on that experience is something that I'm like, oh, man, like that was something super special. It was just like, oh, okay, like the game, it was a good game,

but it wasn't like a transformative experience that I kind of want from that type of game to like extend it into the game of your conversation, you know? Yeah, because I went back and I read like OXM, had like a big preview on RA3, like, of that preview event when we went to Capcom for it. And I went back and read it in like, none of that stuff was in the game.

And I was really curious. That was a weird conspiracy thing where, I mean, I don't remember the details. I read this a lot on recent era, but it sounded like a lot of the OXM stuff was not actually based on the remake. It was based on the original game. I guess because it was stuff like you travel around the city using the subway. I'm like, no, that's very much not true. So I'm just curious, like, is there a version of R3 sitting somewhere that is more expensive than what we got? And if so, I really love to see that.

That would be interesting. Greg, the one that I'm interested in you didn't talk about at all is Half Life Alex, which I think is a game definitely out of our typical wheelhouse here, you know, being more a PC-sided thing in addition to that. It's mechanical and all that. Like where does it fall to you as a game of the year and where do you think it's going to fall in the overall game of year conversation? Well, I think it's going to be forgotten a lot of times in the overall game of year conversation. I think the fact that it is VR immediately limits the pool of players for it. And I think that that will work against it. But, I mean, if you go back to the review, Tim that I did here with Danny,

it was a conversation right of like Danny was all about it. And like, I don't be wrong, Half Life Alex is great. And if you love VR games, you should play it. But my thing is I can easily see it. I can easily see it being VR game of the year. But for a game of the year, game of the year, I don't. And it's just the fact that playing it, I remember playing it as I was playing it and enjoying it and having a great time with it, being like, man, this is a really great

VR game. It wasn't the man, this is a really great game. I'm completely lost in the experience. I can't believe it was that. I mean, I talk about looking at my watch and the game, thinking my watch would be there. But I stand by the fact that we're just like, the way enemy AI runs into the room and plants itself,

like, and it like gives you the opportunity to kill it. Like it's like that for me breaks that experience of putting it beyond what VR games. Putting it beyond or breaking out the walls and making me look at it in the same way. I remember one and we were IGN. to go, oh man, this downloadable game's great. You don't even think about it as a downloadable game, right? Like, when that was on the, oh man, this is all.

This could compete almost with real games. Like, this game has enough VR hangups, I feel. And I don't mean hangups in a bad way necessarily, but it has all the calling cards of a VR game. But I think when you play it, you're, oh, paint, aware I'm in a VR game. I'm not lost in the experience thinking like, this is a transformative experience. Again, I go back, you know, like, and this is not spoilers if you haven't watched it. but like the chapter entitled jeff the jeff chapter of half-life Alex is fucking insane and it is so well done and it's i'd love a survival horror game that is just that the ending of half-life Alex is so well done i played it on the index and that game is so beautiful and so fluid in the movements of you know not forgetting that i'm in vr but the way that in the beginning you know reloading chambering one of the rounds throwing stuff using your telekinetic gloves to get stuff and put them in your backpack like by the end of it

it is like so second nature and flawless and easy to do that it was great but i still was very much like this is a great vr game that i think is pushing vr very far but i don't think we there was so much hullabaloo when valve announced that they were doing half-life Alex and then when keely was like i've played it and it's like and even like i think mcalfrey when he was coming back and tweeting about it was very much like we couldn't stop talking about it and it started getting at least in my head and maybe and maybe as somebody who loves VR and, you know, is excited about VR games, I was very much like, holy shit, maybe this is this the one that like really, oh man, it's going to change everything and you play it.

And I don't think it changed everything. I think it's awesome. I think it pushes VR further. And I think it does VR better than probably anybody. But I don't think it goes to a point where I'm like, this is game of a year. Like I just didn't feel that about it. Like I enjoyed the experience, but it's not one that I'm like, you have to run out and play. You have to go do this.

Bless, what is your game of the year so far? Right now it's Final Fantasy 7 remake, like, pretty easily. Like, I guess right behind it probably would have been Doom Eternal. But yeah, now that Final Fantasy 7 remake is out and I've played it and it's excellent. Like, you know, I think Final Fantasy 7 remake is the game this year so far that I've fallen in love with. And I can't really say that for any other game that I've played this year so far. this being my first experience of Final Fantasy 7 as an introduction to those characters

there are so many different characters and so many different moments that I found myself again in love with right like Barrett and from his speech in that first in the beginning elevator all the way carrying all the way through the end right like I fell in love with that character

Tifa Aareth like the way that those characters feel like full characters especially now that I'm playing the original Final Fantasy and I'm 15 hours in, right? Like, the ways in which they've taken characters from the original game and really, like, flesh them out and turn them into characters with motivations and deep backstories that were there before, but seem to be even deeper than they were. You know, all those seem great. But even away from that, right?

Like, the beauty of the game in terms of how it looks, in terms of the soundtrack, in terms of how everything runs. Like, I know there's, like, some roughness in terms of, like, the textures, you get out into like the slums and you like look at a door and the door doesn't look as crisp and maybe it should be where where things matter i think they they nail um not only that the the battle system you know this is super fun um one of my favorite battle systems i've i've played with the last recent years um and yeah like overall like i just i i had a blast throughout my experience with that game there are so many excellent moments that i had with that game so easily by number one right now imron what's your game of the year?

so far. So I'm actually kind of stuck. Like I would think it would be Final Fantasy 7 remake, but since I fat platinum that game and I was done with it, I find myself going back to Animal Crossing a lot more. And I like, I know a lot of people online. Like there was that initial discourse of Animal Crossing is the game we need in quarantine right now. Like this is a happy, nice game that we can all get into. And then a couple of weeks later there was the backlash of Animal Crossing is a dumb baby game that we all hate. And I was, you've seen the articles. Like, I'm not real. There have been, like, things like that.

But I think the break I took to play 507 ended up helping me enjoy Animal Crossing more. Because I keep just, I started that game to do my daily thing. Now that the growth of the game is over, I'm no longer just building out of town, really. The town is built. At this point, I'm just kind of terraforming it at best. But now that that's over, I go into do my daily things with the game. I check in with the Nook Miles, check what the Turnip rises are, all that. And then I still keep.

playing for another hour or two, and I can't really tell why. Because I will get distracted by something. It will be like, oh, well, okay, this river is here. What if I put this river over here? I went up to one of my clips the other day. I just made like a little flower pass surrounded by river the other day. And it just looked nice. It took about like 20, 30 minutes to get it all done perfectly right.

There was no point to it. It didn't have any like end goal reward for me. It just like, okay, this is a cute little thing that I can do. That said, I still really. love FF7 a lot more and I still think FF7 is one of the best games I've played in a long time. A lot of people disagree, but

I was on Twitter last night and I was talking to a friend about the fight with Reno and Rood on top of the plate. And he was saying on a hard note it's really difficult and he's having a tough time and it's like, oh, did you know the strategy where if you just take out Reno first and then switch to Tifa

Rude won't attack her? Or he won't use his full move set because in the original game he admits he has a crush on her way later into the game and that kind of applies to the remake because that was just one detail they picked out of he has a crush on her so he won't attack her as hard

and stuff like that stuff that most they they them developing that game had a love for the original that I also had and being able to be on that wavelength with the people who are making the game makes it a much better game for me so I don't know if I could pick one of those two

right now yeah Well, I have to see, man. I mean, for me, obviously, it's Final Fantasy 7 remake. I think that's, like, so understandable for my love for the original and for how much they just nailed the presentation of this and gameplay of this and all of it. But what you just said about being on the same page with the developers and all that, like, that's so true for me because my best friend Curran's favorite game of all time, Final Fantasy 7. And he replayed it recently, maybe a year ago. And he's outside of video games.

so he doesn't really keep up with it all. And I sent him to the trailer. I'm like, dude, like, they're remaking it. And like, this is how it looks. And he was like, holy crap, that looks amazing. Like, he was stoked about it. He's like, I don't know that I really want to play a remake right now. And I was like, just, just wait.

And then I played through this thing. I got him a code. And he was nonstop texting me for days, like just updates through it all. He was just like, what the fuck? Like, this is so much more than I expected from this. Like, I thought it was going to be one for one. I'm so happy. It's not.

And he was like, this is, it's better in so many ways of building out the characters and the world and understanding this thing that he loves already so much. And like two days ago, he texted me and he was just like, grab a drink, hit up Discord. We need to talk. It was just a screenshot of the credits. And I was like, let's fucking go. And we just had such an amazing conversation. And it's so funny to me that this game is so divisive, especially the ending, so divisive to people. I'm happy as hell.

I'm on the side that loved it. And I'm also happy that it seems like the majority of people I fuck with are on that same wavelength. And having those conversations about a video game is why I play video games. Like it's this is what I love. It's the theorizing and it's the appreciating the little details like the roots crush on Tifa and all that stuff. When you hear that and you're like, fuck that's cool. You know?

And it's those fuck that's cool moments that are just tied up in this thing that they, they just made this with love and it worked somehow it worked so it's going to be hard pressed to see something uh knock this down for me i mean even last year at e3 uh it was my e3 game of the show playing the demo and i was so blown away that the combat was as interesting as it was and i feel like that translated to the final game so much where i did it and i'm like oh my god like they somehow did the entire midgar giving me the same level of satisfaction that I had walking away from the E3 demo being like what the fuck there's something special about this yeah I think when you when you speak to like the the the love the the developers

have for Final Fantasy 7 like even having played remake not having not played the original game I think there is an earnestness in all the characters and in the world and all the moments that they create in that game that I think speaks with like speaks with that love that they have for it right like when you get to like these aren't really spoilers but like when you get like to the the moment where you drop into Aerith's Flower Garden, right? And like the time they spend the way in which they depict

the church and all that stuff, like, the details that they choose to lighten up, right? The way in which the soundtrack flows there, the way in which that next scene happens, like, you could tell that they took that original game and went moment for moment and they went like, hey, how do we make this moment pop?

How do we make this next screen pop? How do we turn these two screens into its own dungeon? And like, the amount of love and care, I think, shines through in a way that I really appreciate. You, like, you look at Barrett's relationship with, is Marlene the name of his daughter? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, his relationship with Marlene and how, like, not even by halfway through the game, you're like, okay, yeah.

Like, I'm, I'm, you've convinced me, like, you know, Barrett really cares about this character and we'll do anything for this character. Like, that's the thing that I love about, like, my favorite JRPGs that I've played, right? That's the same thing I love about Persona 4 is, you know, you look at, um, you look at, um, you look at, um, nonico and her dad's relationship. And you're like, yeah, I feel that. That's awesome, right? And granted, like, in persona four golden, that's a hundred hour long game. And you spend all those hours, you know, getting to know those characters, same in persona five, right? Like, by the time I finish persona five, I was like, man, yeah, these characters mean something to me. Um, because I spent this time with them. I think, I think Final Fantasy 7 remake does a lot of those same things,

gets through a lot of that same feeling of connection with those characters in, in 30 hours, um, in a way that hits home and works and feels as legitimate. as what I feel like I interpret when people talk about playing the original game years ago. Like it seems like I feel a similar way about the characters now, which is, I think, a large feat that they accomplish there. Yeah, something I also love about it is like going back to like the theorizing. I just want more of this game. And it's like it's crazy that I just want more of a thing that I've already loved for decades at this point. And it's like for something that I know so well to now.

kind of be like more open where I'm just like still thinking about this like I just spent an hour and a half a cut like I think yesterday uh watching uh easy allies spoiler cast like I'm not even done with it but it's like I'm just I want to hear more people talk about this game and like give their thoughts on different elements and all of it and something that I think transcends for me is even though I know we're not supposed to other people's opinions affect me in ways that uh you know we all want to be better than but I'm not all oftentimes and when there's things that that I love and I see people talking shit about them, it does bother me and it like it hits me a certain way. But there's something unique about Fompancy 7 remake where I, when I see people have criticism

about it or just, you know, flagrant distaste for it, like it doesn't bother me. It's kind of more like a thing when I'm like, I kind of feel like I get it more where I'm just like, cool, I see where you're coming from. But like there's something so good here. And I feel like that's undeniable that it might not be for everybody. But it really, really, really is for me. and it for a lot of other people as well. And like that,

that to me is what trans signs. For me, it's definitely the runner up in terms of right now my game of the year, Final Fantasy 7 remake, right? Which I think's preposterous to say, because it's close. Like I mean,

like for me, someone who has no affinity for that at all, and the way it hit, the way I connected with, the way those characters were as much fun as that battle system was. Like, that speaks to how special that game is. And I mean,

you know, whereas Animal Crossing is this, you know, it's i'm finding something new to love every time about it and all these different things grant it's a game that goes on and on and never ends that was it can be said for final fantasy where it would be like oh shit it's beautiful oh shit the combat's really cool oh my gosh like they actually have characters going on here you know the bear it stuff like you're talking about uh but then like oh my god the fucking music oh my god the like the twist the turns the additions of stuff in there like you know

chapter four being the fucking the best road rash game we've had in years like what the fuck is going on how How is this game doing all of this and sticking the landing? Yeah. Plus, you're playing Final Fantasy 7 original now. I am. Yeah. How is that affecting your thoughts on remake, if at all?

I mean, it's making me love it more. And like, it's one of those things where by the time I got to where remake kind of cuts off in the original Final Fantasy 7. You know, I did have that moment of like, wow,

they really took that. It made a whole like 40-hour experience. Like, kudos to them. like they figured it out. It's, it's, it's, it's definitely sparked like a,

like a fan in me. Like, I'm definitely at the point where I'm like, I cannot wait to see how they figure the rest of this game out in the remake. Because, like, you know, the fact that,

you know, there's a certain point where Final Fantasy is up in the original game goes, like, bigger, right? And like, you kind of, it's, it becomes more of an explorative thing.

I can't wait to see how they tackle that. I can't wait to see how they tackle certain scenes that are coming up. Like literally right after where, remake ends. I'm curious to see how they tackle the next few hours of it. Yeah, I'm having a blast with it. The more I play the original, the more I

even, in fact, enjoy remake. And so, yeah, it's definitely having one of those things. To what you were saying earlier about how people are having conflicted thoughts on Final Fantasy 7 remake, I think that's also a thing that's making me appreciate the game more, right?

It's the fact that, like, I think for a lot of people coming out of that game and finishing it and putting it down like you think back to it and the idea the fact that you can have a a bad reaction to it i think makes makes it more interesting um because i like that's definitely me right like i i finished final fancies seven remake and those last few chapters after talking to you guys about it i was like man i don't know how i feel about that like somebody who's coming into final fantasy seven new but like the fact that like i'm i'm coming out i'm coming out of it with this with this idea that like i don't know how I feel, that's, like, that's what my favorite feelings I can get from a video game,

right? Like, not, not, not knowing or not being able to come to terms with the thing. So that alone, like the risks that they, that they took with Final Fantasy 7 remake, despite it being a remake, right? Like, you know, those are things that I highly respect about the game that I, and that bring it to another level for me. Before we move on, are there any final calls you guys want to give shoutouts to you for games so far this year? I think we've covered most of the ones I've played this year, honestly. by this point I would have thought I would have played more but so much stuff got delayed and is now indefinite.

So speaking on that then, to close out the show, what do we think coming this year still going to enter this conversation? I mean, we have, I would say the big guns of Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima and Cyra Punk. You know, we know those are all coming. Marvel's Avengers is in that as well. Like, what do we think about those for now? to your previous question about like games that we played this year already,

I also do want to give a shout out to Uniclair, Undernight and Birth, uh, late clear, which if I made a top five right now for the year, I think it would be my top five. I absolutely love that game. If you're unfamiliar with Unicleer,

like any, and if you like fighting games, like 2D fighting games, definitely look it up. I talked about it on PSWXXO, um, like, like seven episodes ago or something.

But yeah, I'm having a blast of it. Yeah. So with the upcoming games, what do we think? I mean, obviously last of us, like, unless they really botch it,

and I don't think Sony would ever, let Nottie Dog botch that game so much that it would not be on the game of the year list. Like, there's a reasonable argument that maybe it won't be as good as Last of Us won,

but I don't think it would, in any scenario ever be bad. I think that's definitely going to be in contention for Game of the Year. cyberpunk has anyone actually gotten hands-on with cyberpunk yet like period anybody not not even just really here yeah yeah i don't i don't think so no so like i'm confident based on the fact that it's from cedar project red and they've made good games before they made which are three which is up there to games a generation i i'm sure it is great but there's always that small chance of like maybe this game isn't as good as they've been portraying it to be sure we'll see i'm that actually literally literally low-key kind of excites me the fact that it's still like cyberpunk still has that era of mystery to it like i know we've we've seen gameplay we've seen trailers we've seen johnny silverhand or whatever his name is and like we know we know what the vibe of cyrampunk is going to be but cyberpunk to me

remains the game that i am most anticipating this year even above last list part two but i think that's partly because like i i know what i'm going to get with last was part two i'm hell excited for it last was one is a masterpiece right like i cyberpunk being somewhat of an unknown factor and it being from City Project Red and it being like this open world huge RPG that is cyberpunk right I think there's so much potential for that to come out

and no pun intended like change the game like there I like I have Breath of the Wild like hopes for cyberpunk at this point like I want that game to come out and really like change the way that I look at video games yeah I hope we don't get to play it I hope there isn't some giant preview that comes out for

I hope they do just ride that of like hey yeah it's us and this is the game and here it comes And it is fucking believe in us. Yeah. Like I, I'm expecting cyberpunk to be, to me,

what Farnancy 7 was to Greg, where it's like, not traditionally my type of thing, but I, it's speaking to me because I, I'd be crazy to deny giving this thing a shot. And everything I've seen from it,

I'm just like, damn, I do not like giant games like that, but I like this. I like this a lot. It looks so, so, so game changing.

Like it looks next, level. It doesn't look like anything we've seen before. Like we can put words to it and talk about it being open world and blah, blah, blah, blah. But like from everything they've talked about and so far, it all just looks 10 out 10 out 10 out 10, 10 out 10. Yeah, that's crazy. And if there's a developer that is going to come out and put out a game

that changes the game, it's going to be CD Project Red right now coming off of Witcher 3, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I still think that, you know, everything we're talking about here and then everything's going on when we get to the end of the year. and this is, you know, obviously these games actually come out and stuff. I still think it'll be last of us. Like, and granted, I'm basing that off that one, what was it, two hour, four hour preview

I did or whatever and where we got the two different vertical slices of it. And so, you know, that could easily fall apart. They could easily not be as much fun as I think it's going to be. It could be a days gone situation where I thought that previewed really well and that I didn't enjoy it review. But it's still the game that I don't find myself sitting around me like, oh, my God. I'm so excited. And then when it gets delayed, I get all upset.

I feel like it's just a known quantity that that game's going to be awesome. And that could work against it, as we've already talked about. I'm like, oh, man, Doom Eternal is objectively a better game than Doom, but it just doesn't have the same punch because of it. But that's, again, you know, selfishly the kind of game I want to play, right? A great story, great visuals, great acting, and see what it's going to be. I think cyberpunk's going to be awesome. I can't wait for that one.

I don't think Avengers or Ghost will be in the conversation. And Avengers, I'm going off of the fact that I think they've just had a clunky reveal of that and what is it and it is kind of destiny, but it isn't, and they're weaving that in with the story. And like, again, especially during this time period, it's, I've had that moment of like, fuck it be cool if we had Avengers right now. Like I'd, I'd fuck some people up as captain.

Oh, yeah, or whatever. Like, it was, especially as me and Bless, keep trying to find a game to play together that we're both really into. Like, if that was the one, yeah, fuck yeah, let's go. But I could easily see it being similar to how Division 2 was from me last year, right? I'm like, my most played game of the year, a game I fucking adore and I'm playing again right now, or playing more of right now.

and you know organizing your raids and doing all the shit and still chasing stuff but not my game of the year right like it's the same thing with borderlands right i fucking love borderlands last year but it wasn't like my game of the year um i think it could be in that camp of it where it's a great it's a it's a fucking time man you're having a great time but i don't think it's going to hit like what i think made spider man a game of the year contender and then for ghost it's the same thing but in a different vein i guess where i love sucker punch obviously infamous you know i think is probably one of, if not my most beloved PlayStation 3 franchises, or PlayStation franchises in general, infamous one and two.

And I know that's sacrilege for Nathan Drake, but it's true. And so Ghost is just in this interesting thing of like, cool, it's this samurai game, again, that we don't know a lot about, and magazines make up previews about it. And that man gets spread around his news, apparently. I don't know. I don't know. It's all crazy or not that all went down.

But that's another one, whereas, like, cyberpunk we don't know a lot about it and that's fucking awesome let's go and ghost I'm like I'd still like to know more I'd still that's when I could go for a preview playthrough of and to get a better read on what that game's actually going to be I'm sure it's going to be great but how great and is it going to be super engaging

and how is it who's the care you know I don't know there's so many questions about that I have that I want to be sold on more well Tim what about you and Halo Infinite because I know that's a man yeah I until you just said that I didn't even remember that's coming this year what a crazy ass year potentially

this all how to Halo Infinite is, you know, it's funny because we're talking about the known quantities of these things. And with Last of Us, it's, you guys have both said this so well, it's like, it's a known quantity. We know that it's going to be good. It's expected to be good. And I think that it coming from the naughty dog it's coming from now, it's going to be spectacular. Like, this is a naughty dog that has learned from so many classic games at this point. And Last of Us, I feel, coming after the Unchard trilogy really was like a,

a tonal shift that we saw kind of reflected in uncharted 4 in the sense of being more grown up trying to not just make it a fun action caper thing it's like no no no there's characters and these characters are supposed to mean something to each other there's repercussions to there's repercussions to all of it it's just like you care about them and their relationships and then last of us two i imagine is going to take that and turn it up to a bazillion you know i i feel like when you compare that to things like cyberpunk where in a lot of ways cyberpunk kind of feels like

their CD projects read chance to do something after the success of Witcher 3 and they're just like all eyes on us and we're going to stick this landing so it's going to we're going to go all out and it's going to be dope Halo Infinite I kind of feel doesn't have

either of those juices going into it it's more like this one better be good yeah they have to prove themselves this time Like, yeah. They can't do another bad Halo game. It's, it's like we, we want something more from this. But like, I feel like they have a lot on their plate because of things like God of war being what they are where here's a beloved franchise that like eventually ran out of

steam. And now we're going to like bring it back and it's going to be this generation defining moment. And I feel like Halo Infinite, if it isn't that, is always. This is make a break for Halo as a franchise. It'll always be big. That is one of the crown jewels of video games, right? But how do you maintain that it will always be a crown jewel and not just, oh, another gears?

Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it's similar to how we talk about 2D Mario almost, where it's like, Tudy Mario used to be like the greatest thing of all time. Now you look at New Super Mario Brothers and you're like, yeah, this is good. Like this is great, but it's not, it's not Mario 3. It's not Mario World. It's not Odyssey, you know? Like people aren't going to talk about it in that type of way.

But yeah, so I feel, I'm feeling good about Infinite. And we haven't seen much of it, but I feel like they know, they fucking know. They need to do this. So I feel like they have the backing of Xbox knowing that they need to do this as well. So I think that that's probably the least likely to be the game of the year. But I'd be fucking stoked if it was. I'd be most excited out of all these of his. I don't know infinite was game of the year.

Can I throw out a game that that, that I, like, it's a game that strikes me as something that could be in the conversation, but by no means, like, I don't think, like, so you guys remember the game 12 minutes from. Oh, yeah. The Xbox conference. That game gives me vibes of, like, if they nail this, this idea and really nail this story and what they're doing here, then I could see that game being in, like, the, if not Game of the Year conversation at the very least, like, maybe like indie game of the year at game

awards. Because that game looked super excellent to me. When we saw the trailer, like it looked really compelling, you know, what they were doing, like the top down for people who might not remember,

right, like the looping timeline. And you're like going through the story over and over again and trying to, I guess, save your family. Watch the lets play at YouTube.com

slash kind of funny games from 2015. 2015. He's local. He came through and showed it at the office after I saw it somewhere. And he sent me a very nice letter after the reveal on the Xbox stage saying, like this would not have happened if it wasn't for kind of fun,

which meant a lot of cool. Yeah, when you said he came by the office. You definitely meant he came by, he came by my house. He came to your house and we did it at the kitchen table. No, we did that one at the couch.

That's a couch one. I also want to give a shout out to fall guys, which probably won't be in the game of your conversation, but I think it ended up in top tens, you know, like the same with sports story. I can see that. Like that's a game that. I'm personally looking forward to and that game can probably end up in my top 10.

And then another one person, another personal one for me is No More Heroes 3. That's the game that I'm very much looking forward to. And like, you know, that's the game that I don't necessarily expect to be like a game awards, you know, one of the five, six nominees. But that's another game that. If we're talking about like our personal top tens, that's the game that I'm looking forward to. Like hopefully reaching that like being in my top 10 games of the year. By that same token, if Spilunky 3, 2 actually manages to come out this year,

that I'm going to be that one weird. guy sitting in the corner like throwing off our entire point system by putting Splunky in the top. If Blonkey 1 is honestly like a perfect video game. It may not be like the best video game ever, but it is a perfect video game. And I think like if Splunky 2 nails it as well as Spunky 1 did, then they're, I mean, put everything else home. Why even bother?

Yeah. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this has been the kind of funny games cast for this week. Thank you very much for joining us. We are about to do the post show. that's exclusive to patreon.com slash kind of funny game supporters. So stay tuned for that. Until next week,

I love you and appreciate it.