Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Split Fiction Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Check out Monster Hunter Now here! https://mhn-web.onelink.me/ZLW3/tswfcfq5 Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Split Fiction Review - Blessing’s Score - Joey’s Score - Greg’s Score - Tim’s Score Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, March 4th, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by the Big Daddy himself, Greg Miller. Hello, Timothy. It is Christmas in March, Joey Noel. I'm not happy with this side of my hair today, but hello. And I said it. No.

I thought it was spin, and I was like, oh, Greg to fix it. And I was like, oh, not the way I want. And the new face of video games blessing at E. E. O. Ye, Jr. Hey, day, Tim. Can we spitting your hair? I mean, go for it. Oh, my God.

What a way to start the day, everybody. Of course, this is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about video games and all the things we love about them, whether that's reviews, previews, predictions, going through lists. We talk about everything you'd want to hear when it comes to video games. Of course, you can get that wherever you are, whether it's podcast services, YouTube, Twitch, we're live, we're VOD, we're podcasts. We are trying to serve you.

And if you like that, you should get the kind of funny membership where you can get the show ad-free. and you get a daily exclusive Greg way. Greg, what's it about today? Grief. I don't like grief. You know what I mean? Yeah. You got to deal with it though.

Day wrote in about it. They're going through it. I'm there to help them. You can help you too if you need to help. When I see you, when you come to the Chicago thing, you want me spit in your hair, you just say it. I'll do it, kids. Please don't ask Greg to spit in your hair.

I think. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to deal with whatever happens from that. I'll do it. Kevin, you want some spit? For Jim. be part of this show, you can submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube superchats.

We are talking about split fiction, the latest from Hayes Light. So if you have any questions about that, please super chat them in and we will get to those. A little housekeeping for you. You already got our reaction to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 plus 4 on Kind of Funny Games Daily. God is real. I guess religion is something

I care about now. And or Satan according to Greg. Just saying? Could go either way. Who knows? The Kind of Funny podcast will be right after this live for everybody with our new where now all of our shows are live. We are a live talk show network. Thank you so much.

We appreciate you hanging out with us each and every day, all day, starting with games daily, going through to games cast, following that up with whatever other show we got. And then in gameplay stream, a whole bunch of cool stuff for you. Speaking to gameplay streams, the stream today, Bless is returning to Dark Souls. Andy's sick, so we'll see. We'll see. Bless might be returning to Dark Souls. He's doing something, though.

It's going to be fun. If you're kind of funny member, you get Greg's, Greg Way about grief. Thank you to our Patreon producers. Delaney, Twiting, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster. You're the best of us. Today we're brought to you by Monster Hunter now, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's get into it, the topic of the show.

Split fiction. Our review, everyone at this table has played it. Multiple other people are kind of funny, have played it. What about it? And that makes sense, because the only way to play this game is with multiple people. That's right. It takes two, Greg.

Yes. Not the name of this game, but it does take two to actually do it. The theme description reads as follows. Embrace mind-blowing moments as you're pulled deep into the many worlds of split fiction, a boundary-pushing co-op adventure. The developer is Hayslight, publisher EA. The release date March 6th for $50, and it comes with Buddy Pass, which allows you to, for free, play with another friend.

So cool. Very, very cool. Metacritic is currently sitting at, as of 10 a.m. today, at a 91. God, damn. It takes two. Their previous game was an 88, also a Game Awards game of the year. winner and No Way Out got a 78. And some exciting news for you.

We did something different for this one that we've never done here. It kind of funny before. Greg and I recorded our entire playthrough of this game that we're going to post on Thursday if you want to watch us play through the entirety of the game for this review. For the purposes of us editorially thinking about this game. So you can kind of get a little bit of insight into how we review the game. And we give our updates kind of as we're playing a different. style of content than we've normally done.

Sure. A little less on the like, let's make a whole bunch of jokes and stream side. We play for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah. Or laugh out loud at this part.

Exactly. Exactly. So a lot there's, you'll be able to actually see that entire thing. But that'll be on Thursday. And right now the plan is that that's taking the place of the stream because it's like a 12 hour, third, 14. It hasn't been assembled.

I forget how long it's going to be. And that'll be a YouTube premiere. Yes. Right. If everything goes correctly. If everything goes correctly. You know, sometimes things don't go right with. YouTube when you put a thing into it. So we'll see what's up.

But we're going to try it. It should be fun. So hang out and check that out later this week. But enough about all that. I want to get into it. Blessing. I want to start with you. What would you give split fiction on the kind of funny scale? Before I say the number, I want to wax poetic for a second. Because I've been looking

forward to this game, as we all have, right? I think Hazelight is one of those developers that you look at and you're like, oh man, there's something special. They're unique. They are small, I guess small on the AAA side. I don't even know how we categorize them anymore. whether they're indie, AAA, obviously they have their games published by EA, and their budgets grow with every single game, right?

And this game, split fiction is their biggest endeavor yet. Jumping into split fiction, my expectations were over the moon as far as what this was going to be. Because I love it it, it takes two, we love it takes to. I even loved a way out, and many of us loved a way out as well, right? By the way, I screwed you over. I wrote no way out, because, of course, that's a WB pay-per-view, so that's always on my... I'm sorry, way out, a way out, away out.

upon playing through split fiction, finishing split fiction, I'm so let down by the story and characters in this game. There are three major characters here, right? We got Zoe, we got Mio, we got Raider. None of them worked on me, right? I didn't believe in the chemistry really between any of these characters. I think thematically there are things with the story where I'm like, oh, man, I see what you're going for,

but I don't know if this is the right format for the kind of story and the kind of themes you want to tackle here. And so much of those things, I think overall let me down, to the point where I look at a game, like it takes too and even a way out and I'm like I might have like the stories in those games better that said on the gameplay side of split fiction hayeslight fucking has it like it is absolutely wild as far as the amount of ideas the amount of mechanics the amount of creativity to where i look at hazelight now in the same regard as i look at a team of sobi or even as a nintendo as far as

their game their gameplay design acumen their chops here i there are moments that i had in this game playing alongside barrett where we're saying we're like play we're saying we're saying we're like wow out loud we're blown away we are you know surprised by things whether it be art direction whether it be the amount of fidelity where at any time of course you're playing split fiction and it's a haze light game so it is split screen and the fact that we're seeing things that are rendered twice on the same screen at the same time we're blown away by what we're looking at um the amount of different ideas here as far as wow you guys like when we visited timosobi me and roger um for astrobot right like they showed us how they come up with ideas. It was like a note card thing or a sticky note thing where people

will come up with ideas on sticky notes and we got to see the wall. It was crazy to see how many different ideas that they had there at Timosobi. I imagine Hayeslight has a very similar system of hey, we come in today. What ideas do we have? Let's fucking try them out. And it is crazy to see moment to moment how things change, moment to moment how like, you know, things work together and they allow you to feed off the other player in very interesting and creative ways. I am blown away. The one last thing I'll say before I pass it on. I want to score though. I want to see how this net's out for you. I'm giving

it a 9 out of 10. Oh, wow. Yeah, this is a 9 out of 10 video game for me. And I think the thing that sealed it in is there is a moment in this game, that's later on in the game that I think will go down as the best video game moment of the year. I think it'll be very tough for any other game to challenge it. And I feel like there's no doubt about what you're

talking about. Yeah, it'll be very obvious. It's like, oh, this is what blesses meaning. Joey. What about you? This is my first Hayeslight game. I haven't played it takes two or Wayo or Brothers. I think I have watched some of you all play in different amalgamations, whether it be like maybe Andy or Mike playing on stream. Anyways, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I just know that it looked cool and it sounded cool and I wanted to play it. So I went in kind of not

really having any expectation because I just didn't know. I had an excellent time. I terrible at Platform. I tried, I pushed really hard through, I didn't even finish AstroBot. Who'd you play with? I played with my friend Maria. It took us like, we pretty much played like all weekend. And that's all we did. And it was an excellent weekend.

So I'm terrible at platformers. This game, I feel like is really accessible in terms of platforming. I didn't think it was like overly hard, which I appreciate it. And I do think that, and I can't really confirm this because I haven't actually talked to any of you about it. I do feel like some of the boss fights if you're struggling with them get easier. Oh, interesting.

But I don't know if that is just me getting better or if it seemed like some of the elements maybe were like dialed back a little bit so it made it easier to progress if they like obviously knew that you were having issues, which as a terrible platformer, I really appreciate. I do think the game does a really good job of because it's co-op,

like giving you opportunities to cheese the system if you need to with the if one of you dies, the other just has to stay alive. Yeah. To come back. And I think that maybe that like inherent. inherently makes it easier because the more you do it, like you kind of get used to that stuff.

Because I don't know that it gets easier like from a gameplay perspective, but I do think there's a lot of systems that allow you to keep moving forward. Not giving myself enough credit. I'm getting better. I agree a lot with blessing. I think the story overall is like very fine. I think that there's part of the story that for me felt a lot stronger than the other one. So I think that's my story issue is just that they feel a little bit unbalanced. the gameplay and what they do and all of this, I think, is incredible.

And it's, there's so many, this is a game that I think the less you know about going into it, the more fun it's going to be. And, like, I kind of, it's going to be a hard game for me to review because I don't really want to talk about a whole lot because I think that there's so many cool things and reveals and stuff like that, that it's going to be really fun. And I would, I don't want to spoil anything for anybody. So I had a great time. I'm so, oh, I'm in 8.5.

Oh, okay. Hell of you. nine from Bless, 8, 5 from Joey, Greg Miller. I don't know what score you're giving this game. I played the entire thing with you. I know,

yeah. Talk to you the whole time through it, but we didn't talk after. We didn't talk at the end. And I feel like purposely doing it, we didn't talk like, what are you scoring? What are you feeling?

Yada, yada. There's so much I want to say about split fiction. And a lot of it echoes what Bless said in the front. I am disappointed in this game. The narrative did not hit for me. in a world where we talk about video game writing being cheesy, being cringed, being all these different things. Like, I think it's especially bad here.

I thought this was very much, you and I say it multiple times, especially as if we're getting going. But like, this is written and performed like a young adult novel, which games should be for all ages. And I love young adult stuff often. So it's not like I'm knocking that. but it is as like I said at the end I think but I was saying talking to people about it like this game is as subtle as a sledgehammer like from the moment you meet the three characters you're like I see where we're going I wonder how this is all going to wrap up and go to the point that for me then when you battle up these hills to get to that payoff it isn't worth the narrative

structure of it like I just I early on and it was like oh like you and me turned to each other throughout this game and let's play you'll see on Thursday and laugh right at the lines the way they're delivered what they're doing. We say it before the character says it because we know, like, what's the most cheesy, predictable thing you'd say here? This is what you would do. And for me, that hampers the entire experience because it takes two getting sucked into this kid's playroom, being the dolls, being the toys, added this whimsical playbox

nature to the game and the narrative where suddenly I thought that made sense of how you're mixed up and what you're doing. And this is so crazy, but we're okay. Cody. You know, like, there was something to it that also skews young adult, I think, right? But worked for what they were doing overall, where this feels like I'm playing a Disney Channel original movie, which again, isn't me throwing shade at that. I'm not the audience for that, though, right, for the most part. So that was a bummer to me because I was never like, when you and I would sit down on the couch, I was never like, I can't wait to see what happens next.

I can't wait to get through this section to see the payoff to this because real quickly, I learned. Oh, like, I know where we're going. I know what this is going to be. This is very by the basics, whatever. What I would say, though, to then bring it back to the positive is that nobody does this better. Co-op gameplay than Hayes Light. You want to talk about an industry littered with the corpses of developers who have, due to, you know, the head of their studio, the head of their publisher, had to go and do something that they

aren't passionate about that they shouldn't go do, a game that is outside of their genre, Hayslite's sitting here and now doing this three times in a row and be like, we are the co-op studio and we're only getting better at it technically. Here's a $50 game that comes with a pass to play with your friend for free. Cross platform exists, yes. You can give the past to somebody cross platform and play with them. You can do all these different things. Do all that and still say the best way to play this is on a couch with somebody. That's how you want to experience this game.

For them to do that, the finale of the let's play is what I, it's all one big video. but our final session is the one I would point to because not only is it the best stuff in the game that it's in arguably I say this should have been in the game the game's great as is don't get me wrong you're saying the same thing this is just so holy fucking shit

when it starts happening right what I would point to is let's peel back the curtain and you don't see us review games often I sit down on the couch and I am upset it has been a long day of content things are not going my way on a few different projects time-wise, we were in a crunch because of this. And so I sit down,

not in a good place. And you will see by the end, me grinning, holy shit, this is great, blah, blah, blah. Like, it did what I always talk about Tales from the Borderlands doing. It's an old Greg story of being, I'm super grumpy. I go through a bunch of games. I don't want to play. I'm not finding what I want to play. I sit down and play

Tales from Borderlands and suddenly I'm laughing and I've forgotten my troubles. It's the same thing here. The gameplay is that good and it takes two. And I want to, I think it's going to be an interesting look in because I think the majority of time and maybe I'm just skewing negative on my own thing. It's a very just us again, we're not hamming it up for the camera. We're playing it and reviewing it and trying to process all the information.

I think so many times in there, it's me mocking the game and the dialogue or it's me saying this side story is what the content should have been. Like I why aren't we doing this? I mean you say that so many times, which I do think says something of like there's so many great ideas there that like go out. It's, I can't take away from the fact that even like, and I think, I say it in the second to last one. We're doing a section. And I'm like, I think I do. Hey, real quick, just to point out, I know I'm saying X, Y, and Z and making fun of this, but like,

this is so good. And we have our own language now of how we're playing this game and what we're doing in this game and it's running flawlessly and doing all this different stuff. Like, the gameplay is so good. I give this an eight out of ten. I think this is a great game. It is not my favorite Hayslight game. I think we can get into it as we get into the weeds here about more of, I think it overstays its welcome again. I think, uh, I think, uh, I'm not, I wasn't into the fantasy setting of Zoe's world versus uh, Mio's world of being this like, like, cyberpunky futry kind of thing, which kind of takes, which then makes half the game be like,

we're doing this. But like, that's a personal thing. I'm not trying to talk about the quality of it. I think the story pulls it down for me, but you, there's still so much amazing gameplay here. Eight out of ten for Greg. Great.

God, it's so fun going last year and here, everyone stops in agreeing with so much of what's being said. I, I want to kind of just jump off of what Greg's saying, but the flip of it. I'm going to start with saying, I'm giving this an 8 out of 10.

It's an 8 out of 10 that I would recommend to anybody, though. I feel like this is a game that literally anybody that's ever held a controller is going to enjoy playing. It might not be their favorite game ever, the best game ever, but there's going to be so many moments in it that are worth playing this game. Hazlite has done such an amazing job of creating gameplay that can own and experiences that can only happen with another person. And I think that that is so commendable and important. And beyond that, come up with so many creative new ways. to play games that I've never seen. Bless bringing up the Astrobots and that Nintendo Magic.

Like there's so much of that here. And like that, I don't say lightly. Like that is a very big deal because I don't think that many developers have the ability to do that, let alone do it over and over and over again for a, what I think our final count was probably close to 14 hours or so. I would think so.

Because we did all of the side stuff as well. Got the trophy, what up? Which I love the side stuff. You too. I have more to go back. I have three that I miss that I need to go back to. I'm very excited. I never popped that trophy and I thought I did all the, all of the side stories.

So now I got to go back to Barry and be like, yo, what the fuck did you miss? And yeah, so from a gameplay perspective, which I do think is the most important thing to talk about here because I think that it is so good. I feel like gameplay wise, though, for as good as it is, I'd give just that a nine out of ten. Like, I don't think it hits that 10 astrobot levels of creativity and this just feels so good. There's a lot of moments that I'm like, this could have felt a little bit better. having said that, I do think it's very forgiving. I think that they designed the game very well to not frustrate you. Like the checkpoint system is very, very good.

And there's a handful of times that it was like, but when it's not, it just stood out because it's so good, the majority of the time that I almost don't even criticize that at all. I don't either. The checkpointing is great. And again, like the amount of things you're doing that are different, but that are immediately understandable.

there was maybe in 14 hours, two moments that were like, what do we do? And that lasted a minute maybe, and then we figured it out. And one of them was yesterday when I was all bent out of shape and I couldn't, I was like hitting R2 when I should have been hitting a L2. Oh, yeah. And it's like, well, hit that. I'm like, oh, hold on, I'm an idiot. Boom, gone.

That thing is like, this game is so brilliantly designed that when you're playing it, no matter what new gimmick, gameplay mechanic puzzle they throw in front of you, you know how to solve it. And you're kind of excited to solve it. So I think like, that to me is like, wow, they really pulled that off. I totally agree about the story stuff. It was a major, major, major, major letdown for me, similar to Bless. I was very excited for this game. I had very, very, very high expectations. And I was hoping that since they were going a different direction with the narrative and clearly

putting more into it, like maybe it's just because they're a bit more humanoid, but it still has the fun gameplay stuff of it takes two. But these are more human stories we're dealing with. I mean, I guess it takes two was as well story-wise. But like in terms of like how they're presenting it. It seemed a little bit more like, hey, we're going to try to tell a story that matters. And like, I was very, very let down by it. I think the game is very funny. I think that there's a lot of

well-written jokes. I laughed a lot. A lot of Easter eggs. And, oh, a lot of homages. I was popping off left and right for things. Like, a lot of great stuff with the writing. I just think that the characters and plot are like bad. I mean, Disney

Channel original movie, I think, is such a good analog. Because as I was playing, I was like, this feels like it went straight to Nickelodeon as far as like what the vibe is of the story and who these characters are where you get like you get later on and they're trying to have emotional moments and I'm like, you're not going to get tears out of me bro. I'm sorry. Like this isn't working on working on me in that way. But I'm yeah, go on. Sorry, I'm with you though. Yeah. I mean, I don't have to say too much more. But yeah, I'm, I'm very much let down by the story and the characters. And I think that that is a bummer because I think that a different tone

in different direction like the talent's there. They have the stuff. I just feel like they went too far in a direction that I don't feel like was in service of what this game is. When you look at the quality of the gameplay and what they ask you to do and the environments you're in which are beautiful and there's so many of them and dozens of times I was like how are there this many assets in this game?

It's so impressive. They're reusing stuff. Yeah, exactly. And similar to what Greg was saying I also preferred the cyberpunkky stuff over the fantasy stuff and that's just the type of person I am. What did you prefer? I mean, I'm more of a sci-fi person than a fantasy person in general but I think

by the end of it, I kind of like both. Okay. I wasn't dreading going into one or the other. Not either. And I don't really like sci-fi that much or fantasy. And I was like, I'm picking the sci-fi side of, or the sci-fi girl. And I ended up liking the fantasy stuff way more. Yeah.

I was ever dreading going into the fantasy stuff, but I always preferred to go into the sci-fi stuff. For me, the dread, which I don't, I would not use as a word, it was more the fact of like, oh, we're going to be here a while. Like, there was, one of, that's exactly how I felt about the sci-fi stuff. One of the days we can. See, this is. one of those module very kind of thing where we came out and it was like these levels are long in

levels i'm using loosely chapter i guess or whatever where he came out and it was like bears like i'm like i'm like we did what we were in there an hour and a half i feel like and we did one maybe an hour 15 or whatever and so it's like this is where it is again for me like i wish it was just quicker i wish it was just faster again like this is such a weird one but with the narrative not being great being good even back to you being saying it's just straight at bad if i was at home and Jen and I were playing this, we would have never rolled credits. We would have enjoyed this for two nights and been like, oh man, the game plays cool, blah, blah. But inevitably it would have been, especially with Jen, who's like got a way higher bar for what she wants to play or do with their time.

She would have wanted to watch something over this. And I feel like that's always my critique of these games, of our, as much as we love supermassive, as much as we love dark pictures and until dawn kind of games, like, I really feel these types of games should be four hours tops. And it should be like, you're doing two movies and being done. that's my personal preference because even for us trying to schedule the time to do the less plays

became so tough because we are so much going on and so many things so it's like getting in there and stuff I would have preferred rather than being these levels for so long get the levels

the same, you know, sci-fi or fantasy but then have it be way quicker as we're switching what we're doing because it is you get in these things and you get all right this is going to be

this chapter's mechanic for what you're going to go through and do and the mechanic's good but when it's not great I was like okay I'm ready to move on to the next thing and get out of here The side stories fix that so much for me.

Yeah. Well, I wanted more side stories. I would love a game that was all that way. Yeah, like for context for people, right? So you have these two characters you're playing as one person is playing as Mio. The other is playing as Zoe. Both of them are, Mio is more of a sci-fi person.

Zoe's more of a fantasy person and like dictated by that that determines the world that you're in. So when you're, you know, more than like Zoe's mindset, you are playing in like these fantasy worlds. But when you're more like on Mio's side of the thing, you're playing way more sci-fi worlds. But you have these side stories that pop up. And when you're in Zoe's sci-fi, when you're in Zoe's fantasy world, Mio's sci-fi worlds might start popping up. And you don't know what kind of sci-fi or what kind of cyro-punk type thing is going to be.

And I absolutely loved like, you know, I'm playing with Barrett. And every time a Mio side story pops up, I'm like, oh, here we fucking go. Here we're going to get that good shit. And it often was like such a breadth of fresh air to go from fantasy to be like, okay, we're doing five to ten minutes of a sci-fi thing real quick before we continue what we're doing. Or vice versa, where we are in the sci-fi world and it is like all right let's see what bullshit Zoe's got for us we hop into it and I'm surprised many times because the stuff they do with Zoe's side stories because they can get so wacky because you know fantasy is open to so many interpretations of it I just love where they go with that stuff I think if you want to go you can go no please please please oh I was going to kind of

veer into like I think one of the things that in regards to what they do with the genre because I think the genre side of the stuff is fun and interesting because they are throwing at you different types of sci-fi and different types of fantasy. The thing that I kept looking at Barrett and saying is that I don't like that this is a story that's about storytelling because Zoe and Mio are writers, right? And so like the idea of these stories is that these are stories that are telling in their books. That didn't work for me because oftentimes I'm like, these aren't stories. These are just gameplay segments.

Like I'm hopping into a side story and it's like, oh, like, you know, fly through the thing and get to the end. And I'm like, man, this would be such a better story if it was about game design. If they're game designers and all these different things we're hopping into were different, like, video game genres, because the game, like, split fiction tackle so many different types of video game, I guess, genres and styles, that that would have made way more sense. And for me, that was the let's be a let's see what story you got for us and being like, oh, this wasn't a story, but this was a cool gameplay segment. Like, why couldn't this game be more about that? So, yeah, the side stories, I truly loved every one of them, well, except for the pig. but like even that it was like the payoff was good to that one right and so it was the idea of

early on I say it at the end I'm like this should have been the game but every size I was like man why isn't this the game and what I mean by that I would like it to be that we were just in and out of stuff faster and faster and I know you're gonna say well that takes more work to do all stuff but yeah that's why I'm saying condense the game give me the side stories to break up the things I'm doing here but even make the main chapter shorter like at this point I'm just Monday morning quarterbacking a game I've never fucking done anything so what do I But it's back to the point of me as a consumer, like, oh, I don't care about these characters. And yes, I'm enjoying playing this.

But I have no desire to see it all the way through just because I want to see the next game play McAnne. I will say I was surprised by how much this game didn't drag for me. Not at all for me either. Yeah, on the side of it takes two. I'm definitely one of the people that thought that game just went on way too long. And by the time me and Barrett finished this game, like, yeah, it could have been, for me, I was like, it could have been maybe two levels shorter.

But even by the time we finished, I was kind of like, man, I could have used more. Like, I kind of, and by the time we get to the last level, it was more like, like, oh, I want more of this. 100%. There's way more to chew on here. A thousand percent of that. But yeah, I was surprised by how much I felt like I wasn't, the pacing felt right for me. There was a clear moment in the game that I feel like, and I, without spoilers here,

like there's two levels towards the end that I think that they could have cut or just changed and moved somewhere else. I actually feel like a criticism I have the game is I don't feel like gameplay-wise it's paced that well throughout it, where I feel like some of the earlier stuff is like harder and more hype and set piece. than some of the later stuff is. Or the balance of whatever those things are. Just I feel feels better in some of the earlier stuff than the later stuff.

And that's not 100% true the entire time. But I just feel like the A to B to C to D was kind of in the wrong order, at least not the order that I would put them in. And I just feel like taking out, there's a clear like story beat that we could have just jumped to the end. I think that that would have been a more satisfying package overall. But there's still a lot of fun to be had in the other stuff. It just kind of felt more like more content. as opposed to like, oh, we're really focusing on just the good stuff here, especially when you see the highs of this game.

And like when the game is at its most creative and most like, wow, like when we out loud or saying wow or holy shit or look at that, like there's so many of those moments that the amount of other moments that I'm just like, oh, it's cool. I feel like we can cut a couple of those. And I think it would have went a longer way. But overall, though, I feel like it doesn't outstay. It's welcome.

I just think that it could have been stronger if it was a little shorter. Interesting. To hear you guys talking about the story and stuff like that because I've never played a haze light game, playing through it, I think I just didn't put that much weight on the story because to me it seemed like, do people play these games for the story? Do they play it for the cool gameplay mechanics? Do you, is story like a driving factor in these games? Honestly, I think that's why I land more to nine than eight because I do, I mean, they are, I think stories are as much of a driving thing. factor in Hayslight games as is presented in split fiction. It just so happens that this story I just don't think is as good as the other

stories where it takes two does have like it takes two is about a divorce and like it is I think that story makes more sense for what you're doing in that game than this game I guess makes sense for what you're doing with this story. I think this story almost feels like they sat in the studio and went, all right, what's a kind of story that we can tell that allows us to do crazier things than we were able to do in like the other games? and this story lots of them to do that because it's all fantasy shit, right? It's all like, it's within the mind.

I don't know. Like, it's in a crazy scenario where they can give you 2D, they can give you 3D, they can give you top down, they can give you all these different, you know, ways of playing. And I think because of that, they kind of had to put more emphasis on making this story feel a bit more, I guess, grounded or, I don't know, like it feels like they weren't able to put as much focus into making the story as good as they could have because it was more focused on the gameplay, which worked for me because I am, I think, this point with Hayeslight, I'm more on the side of, yo, just get rid of story. In fact, in your next

game, don't even have a story. Just have it be levels and just let me play as two, let me and my friend plays two characters and you call it a day because I think the gameplay shines so, so much that it's almost the thing of if these weren't human characters that we're dealing with, if this was a, um, I don't know, like a ratchet or like, maybe a ratchet is a bad example. If this is a 3D platformer with like anthropomorphic animals or some shit and I don't, and we're not worrying about story at all. This is a 10 out of 10 for me. Bless, I'm right there with you. Like I think the 3D mascot platformer, the point is very, very apt because I think that if you gave that level of story to this game, because again, I do think the writing's funny.

And I think that like the tone that it's going for with the jokes and the humor backing up the gameplay, the quips back and forth between the characters. More often than not, I was like, I'm into this stuff. It is just the amount of cutscenes, which there's a lot. They clearly were trying to tell a story. Story was a priority for them in this game, like in development of this game. And I feel like, yeah, with what you're saying, like, take that stuff away and just like how they save the princess type story. Yeah. I mean, really go a long way.

In this one, too, again, just a money moral quarterback this thing. Just take away the antagonist. Like the idea here, right, this is not a spoiler, right? Is that there's this guy who's invented this machine where writers can step into these bubbles and then basically play, because it's blessing saying, it would make more sense for a game design, but play the story out that they have in their head. So they're a character in there and they go and do the thing. And then that would write the story and that would be. the end of it, right?

These two women find themselves in the same bubble, bam, they're split fiction, something's gone wrong. But then they add in this, like, enemy to it, where you could have just been like, oh, shit, we fell in together and now our worlds are merging. And somebody on the outside could have been like, find the glitches and get out. You know what I mean? And then it just is you're playing through and doing the thing. And then if you want to have them try to become friends, enemies, whatever, you want

to tell the story between the two of them, they'd be fine. But clearly they wanted to, like, say something with the way that they presented. And I don't think, and I mean, again, subtle as a sledgehammer. As soon as this starts, you know where we're going on all of this. And it's like, I don't think you nailed that. And so you're quite, you asked him like, you know, are you playing these for the story? Yeah. My thing would be I am playing pretty much every game for a story, right?

That's why I choose this is my entertainment factor. And I think, you know, it would want a monster 100 wilds, right? And even there, I would be like, well, the story there is the monster I'm wearing and the thing I'm going for. He has to find his home. This is my, yeah, we got to get his fucking out. Got to call back on the 12-hour stream. But like, no, it would be the thing of like, my character is the story that I'm going and doing. So like for this to play this way and have this, like, I'm, these are meant to be, the way they've always been talking about is a co-op playable movie you're doing with your friends, right?

That's how it's always played out. And like, that's why Kevin and I have such fun memories of a way out of him coming over and us going through and doing that. You know, I have so much with Jen of playing. It takes two. And I enjoy the experience we had here. But again, if it's just us playing stuff, that could have been a let's play rather than. than a full play and I would have been happy and satiated right um one more thing joy before you do that yes let's take a quick word from our sponsor this episode is brought to you by monster hunter now

whether i'm taking ben to the playground soccer practice or on a hike with jen i'm wandering the outdoors more than ever that's where monster hunter now comes in it's an authentic monster hunter experience on your mobile that lets you find and hunt monsters in the real world using your phone whether you're out on a walk, commuting, or just need a quick hunting break between your console sessions. And right now there's no better time to jump in because Monster Hunter now is running an epic collaboration event with Monster Hunter Wilds packed with surprises that any Monster Hunter fan won't want to miss. Let's talk about the good stuff. For the first time, a monster from Monster Hunter Wilds has made its way into Monster Hunter Now. Players can also experience the thrill of riding a sacred for Monster Hunter Wilds with a new layered equipment and so much more.

This won't be available once the event ends, so don't miss your chance to get it while you can. And don't you worry about me and that's sacred look. I already unlocked it. But that's not all. By completing event quests, you'll unlock a special gift code that can be redeemed in Monster Hunter Wilds. These rewards will give you an early head start, making sure you're geared up and ready to take on the next big adventure. So if you haven't already, now is the perfect time to download Monster Hunter now. It's free to play.

And trust me, once you start hunting monsters in the real world, you'll be hooked. Go to kindof funny.com slash MH now. Jump into the event before it's gone and I'll see you out there. Remember, that's kindof funny.com slash MH now.

Happy hunting. Sorry, Joey. No, you're fine. I was just going to say to your point about you think that it would have worked better if they were like video game developers instead of writers. I think that the gameplay is so clearly

a love letter to different genres and different types of games that making them devs would have really narrowed it. Yeah, it's like for the story that's already pretty on the nose, that would have really made it one know. And I think that they probably thought like, hey, we want to do all these different types of gameplay. What other forms of storytelling do we think that would work well for this? And then decided writing is like the next best option. Speaking of gameplay real quick,

something that I really appreciate about this one in comparison to it takes two is I do think the difficulty was ramped up. I don't think it's like impossibly hard in any way. But I feel like it was the right level of challenge and there was multiple things that felt good when we achieved them right? There's certain boss fights in particular that I think do really, really good jobs of throwing a bunch of things at you.

You're constantly moving with the control. You're shooting this thing, moving this way, jump in a different way. And on top of that, there are very funny jokes happening and the boss is attacking you while talking shit to you, but what they're saying is funny and like there's a lot of like meta jokes

based on just game design or references to things. And like, that's what I think. the game sings the most is when it's actually challenging you and it's not just the hey hold forward and keep jumping which there is a fair amount of in this game but I think that it isn't it's rarely at a point that I'm like okay just keep going keep going because the environments are so varied and there's even if you are I mean I don't want to say that I was going to say there uh there's a lot of moments in this game we're just jumping from like pedestal to pedestal pedestal pedestal pedestal pedestal to pedestal

but because every time you're doing it it looks completely different it feels different. And I think that's very impressive for this game because there's a lot of that. My question about that, I agree with you that this game is harder than it takes to. Harder is another right word. There's a difficulty increase here, right?

And I enjoy that. We play it on a normal difficulty. You can crank it down. There's other stuff there. Do you think playing this, if you were to play with Gia, could she have gotten through this? Not a chance.

Gia could not have got through this game. I was having that thought while me and Bear were playing the fact that about like a year and a half go for Christmas. I went over to my sister's house right in Houston. Like me and my nephews were like booting up their their Xbox and seeing what games you had. And they were like, oh yeah, we've played this game. It takes to a while ago. We got it.

And like, booted up it takes to you. I got him past the part they're stuck at. But like looking at that game, I was surprised about how far they even got. Because one of them was like eight years old. The other is like four years old. And I'm like, oh, man, I know you working with this four year old is going to be a struggle of you trying to get past some of these parts. Playing through split fiction, I was like, oh, they're not. I can pass half this shit.

I don't know how they're going to be doing this. Something that we talked about too was because there's so many homages to different types of gameplay and stuff like that, I think even for me, if I didn't have Maria who has like a wider breadth of game knowledge, I think it would have been hard for me because she inherently was like, oh, I know what they're going for with this, what the inspiration was. This is what we have to do. And so I think not having that kind of historical knowledge of different games and

genres and types and stuff like that is. like a does hold you back a little bit or make it harder. I do wonder if there is something beneath the hood that is back to what you're mentioning earlier of. I really do think it is because like there was one point where I was like, oh, we don't have turrets trying to kill us anymore because they have murdered us multiple times. So I think it's small things like that where it's like, okay, we'll give you some little buffs.

Again, I wasn't able to confirm this, right? But it felt, and I think for a game like this, you have to design it around some kind of rubber banding because you have two people doing a lot of set pieces. A lot of set pieces in this video. Maybe more set pieces than any of your games ever have. It's an entire game of set pieces. Yeah, which is incredible. But the fact that you have so many set pieces and you have people that are playing in tandem,

you have to build in some things to be like, all right, cool. Even if you're falling behind, we're going to find a way to zip you forward, whether it is you falling and then responding up to where your partner is, or whether it's us just finding ways to bring you together. I think you have to do some stuff under the hood. And I wouldn't be surprised, based on the kind of game it is. It is a family game. It is a game that you want to be playing with people.

I saw Patrick Kleppig even tweeting about. playing um hold on because i want this question and i haven't pulled up oh okay yeah uh from i see weiner yeah super johnson says my son is five but good at games can he play this uh if he's good at games i think yes i think it will be a challenge but i think that he will be able to to learn and figure out like how to get better at games and beat this game i do think though that this game and joey actually i think kind of hit hit hit the nail on the head there where because it does reference so many gameplay styles of previous games there is like an inherent um like up for people that have a playing different genres.

I do think this is a great way to kind of learn the genres. And I also think that the game does a very good job of having the exact same control scheme the entire way through. Like you're always your R2 is always your ability. Your L2 is always your like alt-ability or like ability modifier. R1 is always a form of grapple. X is always a jump. And I think that because of that and then squares like a dash, like every single gameplay

style, whether it's 2D, 3D, top down, like whatever. it still controls the same. And I think that that goes a long way in allowing people to, like, kind of push themselves if they're not comfortable. But me and Greg joked multiple times. And we were joking, but we're like, Nick Scarpino couldn't do this. And like, clearly he can. But like, it did have that moment of like, oh, he'd get frustrated with this. And like, he wouldn't want to keep playing.

Friend of the show, Patrick, of course, has a whole bunch of different things going on. One of them is crossplay, which is a newsletter he does about parenting and gaming. Today's is I'm playing split fiction with my kid and it rules. Playing this new co-op game with my 8-year-old has been a special experience. To join it in progress, this. So long as your kid has basic platforming competence and you're okay with hearing a few swears and a little violence along the way, you should have a great time. Parentheses, split fiction got my 4-year-old to accidentally, hilariously say shit.

Both players need to die for progress to stop, and it's only a few moments before the other person hops back in. And what we've played, it's possible to carry the other player to victory. A few times we've swapped controllers so that I could help her navigate those hard parts. It's not been a process without friction and I think it's best to explain what it's been like playing the game, walking through a few clips. And I think that's super vital for Hayes Lake

because when you look at It Takes 2 and the sales of it take 2, it sold 20 million units by October 24, right? And like, that's a large number. That's an astronomical number. And I think a big part of that number is the fact that you're selling to families. You're selling to a wide consumer base. And I don't think, I would hope that

within the studio, there are working meticulously to be like, all right, we got to make sure that kids can play these games, at least with their parents, or at least with each other, right? So, like, I think the simple button presses as far as the only things are really changing are your R2 and L2. And even when they're changing, you're still sticking with the same concept, a same control scheme for a long enough time for it to grow on you for it to like, you know, like sink in before you switch that up. But the game is, the game comes down to like four different buttons. And I think that helps a lot. And yeah, the respawn thing that Patrick was talking about, right?

Like, helps a lot. So I wouldn't be surprised if, even though for us, we're like, oh, this shit is fucking tough. Like, how are our kids going to play this? I'm sure the kids are going to be fine playing this game. Sure. Shout to the kids. It can't see it.

So much better than us. Volk dash your super chats in saying, I can't watch lives. So I'm leaving question to watch later. Who's the better, quote, unquote, character to play as with more crazy gameplay, the sci-fi main, meo, or the fantasy main, Zoe? This is an excellent question. I love that question. Because Greg and I haven't really talked about it.

I clearly, Both of us were fighting over the sci-fi one to start. I mean, we both wanted the sci-bole going in. I ended up winning that. And throughout the game, I had multiple times. We didn't say this. I never said this to you. I really won.

I won out here. I think I had the better gameplay the entire way through. I'm interesting. See, what I think is fascinating about it is this. I didn't connect with the fantasy world and the levels, but I never didn't like being Zoe. I thought I was always doing something as interesting as you. So I was never like, oh man, Mio's got this cool thing.

and I was always like, oh, you're doing that and I'm equally as cool, or it's fine, whatever things going on. I will say there, I don't think the genre of character you choose really determines the kind of gameplay that you have because both characters are usually in the sci-fi thing or both characters are going to be in the fantasy world. Yeah, you just get different abilities.

And I feel like they do a good job of swapping them between worlds. Yes. Where like I'm somebody who, in a game like this, if there's a scenario where somebody's like, I don't know, if somebody's like moving the world, world around or in somebody else is like in the world jumping around. I want to be in the person who's in the world jumping around because I believe in my platforming ability.

And there are times where I'm like, all right, bear it's obviously the dungeon master here, right? Or like the next level, I'm the one that's controlling like, all right, I'm a turret. We're spinning this and doing that. Yeah, exactly. So they switch it up enough to give both people, both experiences. Boomsliding in the chat says, is it worth a replay like it takes to them? The different abilities actually encourage us to go back and play it again recently.

I don't think so. Here's the thing. It's funny because I'm not interested in doing that. I do think that the gameplay styles are varied enough that there's gameplay there. Like if you were like, I'm craving more of this game, there's another game to go back and play. Like the amount of times I look at Greg's Green's green, like, he's doing something completely different than me. Yeah, 100%. I was very impressed by.

And there were a handful of times. I was like, oh, I do wish I was doing that thing right now as opposed to what I was doing. So there's a lot there. And it's incredibly well designed in terms of. of let's have this area and you have this ability, you have this ability, you both need to work together. There was a lot of communication necessary.

Mainly when we were fucking up is when we were talking. Exactly. When we thought we knew what we were doing rushing through, yeah. That's so interesting because I felt like with Maria and I like, Joy went off comes. No, honestly, both of us were so long. And like Marie is one of my best friends.

So like this makes sense to me that like we didn't have to do a lot of talking until we got to things that like broke both of our brains essentially. but it's for us it was very much a we're vibing and like in the flow state kind of a thing for us it was more it was less like talking things through about okay you go up there and oh whatever and it was way more like we're fucking sick ass u.s navy seals you know what I mean like at the end of karate kids and ex karate kids yeah it's never one power fantasy of navy seal all it came down to was just like okay uh uh uh boom uh yeah that yeah that true one two three jump one two three jump and then we were just like got to a point that like we didn't even need to to like talk that through just like we would start making sounds and like we got there and it was like I'm satisfied I also think it's maybe potentially an inherent difference of like not necessarily men and women but just maybe that too yeah that was Navy Seals you know yeah maybe Seals not on

what you say about I'll just say me and Barrett are gamers yeah like we're just lock the fuck in the entire time like anything that was like a time like all right yeah you guys didn't really talk a whole lot yeah no because we I think me and bared are the same kind of person and like we're both we're both good at video games all right let me be real here and so like as we're going anything that was all right we got to fucking race to the finish and it's platforming but we got to stay

together we didn't have to communicate that shit we know that we're just going just jump when you got to jump like we're going to stick together we're good thanks too Joe you're pointing at the chap for sec yeah and I don't remember what the person said so that's all I got anything else we want to talk about with split fiction I'm still so impressed with Hayeslight

you know I think it's always interesting to have these critical reviews. I'm going to give it an eight. Oh, I called it great, right? But it's like that thing of like, I think even, like I saw it go through.

It's like, oh, it sucks. And he's not here. I would like to know if he thinks it's a contender, right? Right now. He hasn't played.

Oh, I know. But he owns the contender a bit. Oh, I don't know this. Oh, don't worry about it. Is it a contender? And you can't be on your top 10 list,

right? Like, for me, this one won't be. I don't, I don't see split fiction being on my top 10 at the end of the year. Not because it's bad.

I think it's great, right? And I think the gameplay is so good. It just didn't give me the experience I think I wanted out of it. And that goes as far as to just like, you're doing so much stuff in here and there's so many assets, but still like how many times I'm like, this outfit looks dumb. You know what and like dumb is shit like that.

Like of just a game as a whole for what I'm talking about and what I want out of this kind of thing. But I don't want like my criticism of it and again, me laughing at the writing nonstop during the less way to get in the way of like, Hazelight is so good at what they do. And what they do is make badass, co-op games for you to play with your friends. This will be a contender

for me, but I feel like, again, the disappointment comes from, I think it's going to be in the back half of my 10 as opposed to, I wish this was in my top five. And this game will not be in my top five at the end of the year. And unless a ton of incredible games come out that push this out, like I think that this will firmly be sitting

in that five to 10 spot somewhere. Yeah, this will likely change by the end of the year, but right now it's my number one. Like, there's not another game I've played this year that would top it. And I think, again, this comes down to, I think, my prioritization for this game of gameplay over story where I was let down by the story, but I also wasn't coming in here for the gameplay.

And the gameplay for me is, like, for me on the level of other things that I would look at as contenders, right? Like, I'm coming out of this on the gameplay side being like, yo, I think the platforming here for me worked as much as an astrobot works for me, right? Like, I think it is on that level as far as what they're doing on the gameplay side. So it's a strong contender for me. Yeah. I mean, I don't usually, I play games that I know I'm going to like pretty much.

Like, I feel like I definitely play way less than a lot of people at this office. I think it'll be on my list. Mostly because, too, like, the thing that I don't know that we've ever talked or that we really touched on is like, I had so much fun with Maria. Like, we laughed like crying, laughing multiple times in this. Mostly when the parts we weren't good at and it's just like, you have to throw it at me. You can just throw it wildly out there. I'm like, fuck that's right.

But we've been playing this for six hours. and I kind of forgot about that part of the game. Like, this will go in my, like, list of, like, favorite gaming experiences. Like, we just had so much fun playing together that I think that that'll, it'll, it'll, being on that list will definitely mean that it makes my top list of the year, even if I don't play a full 10 games. Great stuff. We have a final super chat here from RIVL night.

How's the boss fights? Oh, I love the boss fights. I think they're fucking fantastic. Like, for me, I would put the boss fights next to the, side stories is probably my favorite parts of the game. But I'm curious how you guys feel. I did not love the boss fights. And that definitely could be like a get good kind of a thing of like dying all the time

doesn't make it particularly fun. I do think that a couple of them stand out as being like maybe we could take out one element. Like I don't know if we need this and this and this like because at that point we're just hopping around someone trying to stay alive. So I would say that I kind of played through a lot of this kind of despite the boss fights and that was like the part of me that like we really had to like suffer through to get to the more fun stuff for me. For me, I like how you, what did you like most, right? This would be, the boss fights would be right behind side stories for you.

Side stories, number one for me by a long shot. And then behind it, it would be the not the destination, but the journey, the stuff we did on those moments. So boss fights for me, I didn't hate, but like what I think, what did I think of these boss fights? I think of when I was annoyed by something. Yeah. Like, how fucking this guy was doing this, the shark came by this way and I'm sure going on what I mean? And that's the one we just did last. night so it's a good thing but I'm closer with bless where I put the boss fights right behind the

side stories for me where I really really really loved them I think that my biggest criticism of them is multiple times I wish I had the full screen for them like that was the only time in the game that I was like there's they throw so many particles at you and there's so many moves and so many things and again they they make the game easy enough that like if you die a whole bunch of times you're right back in the action it doesn't really matter but I feel like I would have played a lot better if I had just a little bit more real estate to see what's going on. But I think the boss fights were so creative and to me they just kind

of like were a perfect example like a microcosm of the things I love most about this game of like great gameplay gimmicks being used to their utmost. Great fun music playing, cool set piece moments with the boss and I think that was the funniest dialogue in the game was the boss fights and the

quips that they would have and like that was the one in particular right? Yeah, the one guy. So I really enjoyed that stuff. And that's it everybody split fiction uh joey gave it eight five i gave it eight gray gave it an eight plus gave it a nine and this thursday you can see tim and i play the entire thing after games cast exactly uh let us know in the comments below if you are excited to play split fiction like i was saying i recommend it to everybody i think it's a great time and also at a discounted discount it's not the right word but at a

lower price point for entry plus uh you can play free with somebody like that's awesome stuff so support this type of game. I think it's a really important shout to Hayes Light for continuing to crush stuff. But stay tuned to everybody right after this. You're getting a kind of funny podcast live for everybody on Twitch and YouTube. I'm on that. It's going to be fun. Until next time, love you all. Goodbye.