Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - The BEST MONTH EVER for ARPG Fans! - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

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Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:08 What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, April 18th, 2025. I'm one of your host Greg Miller alongside Kind of Funnies, A-R-P-G expert, and the host of the Diablo podcast, it's Zanth. Well, hello, Greg. How are you doing? I'm good, Zanth. It always does me well to see you broadcasting from this basement. where you're always ready for kidnapping. What are you doing down there? Well, I live in the Midwest. We have a basement dwelling.
Starting point is 00:00:46 And I'm just kind of sitting on the outskirts of my bar in case I need an emergency drink at some point. You say the word, I'll join you. We're in there. It's 11.30 here. Oh, speaking which, you know, you were in my neck of the woods recently. I was. Of course, you say that.
Starting point is 00:01:03 You're being very liberal. You live in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, if I remember correctly. I was in Lyle, Illinois. You and your son came down for one night with Greg Miller. Thank you so much. A phenomenal show. Great to be there. But you were in my neck of the woods.
Starting point is 00:01:19 I did trade you a little bit of beer. You did. Did you try it yet? I did. Oh, my God. Yes, I did. What's the actual name of it? I don't remember off the top of my head.
Starting point is 00:01:29 It's called Acto Cooler. But they spell it funny. Don't they whatever? But it's a beer that tastes exactly like ecto cooler. Exactly like ecto cooler. It was so good. It was delicious. Right.
Starting point is 00:01:41 When I had had it, I was like, Greg is going to love this. I'm glad to hear that. Now, a little bit more housekeeping before we... Wait, but who makes that beer? I forget who makes that beer. That is Eagle Park Brewery in Wisconsin. So if you are in the Midwest and can get your hands on it, I want to be able to get it for you when I was in California,
Starting point is 00:02:00 but the distribution is not that vast. but I believe Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa area, you should be able to get your hands on it. So good. It really is. It's phenomenal. Now, a little more housekeeping, as I was saying before, you brought the briefcase. I see it was specto cooler. I knew they spelled it funny.
Starting point is 00:02:23 Specto cooler. Oh, there it is. I mean, I'm sure there's like some legality that you can't. I'm sure, too. I'm just saying. Obviously, somebody's going to be Googling around for ecto cooler. not going to find it. You look for spectro cooler. You'll get it. Factor cooler. Phenomenal. Fenomomano. Anyways, you had the briefcase. You were offering it up for people to be
Starting point is 00:02:42 able to put in notes to Tim. My son had a note, and we didn't get a chance to drop it on. Boo! I feel like this is probably the best place to do it. I said I would share it. If you don't remember everybody, my name is Greg Miller and I have Stars in the Bank from Kind of Funny Game Showdown. It's our show you'll see right after this. We're doing an episode. This, of course, entitles me to challenge Tim whenever I want to for three of his stars. I brought the briefcase because everybody loves the briefcase to Chicago.
Starting point is 00:03:12 So many people took photos and then just organically people wanted to leave hate mail inside of the briefcase for me to read to Tim, which I have been doing all week. I'm happy you're here, even though Tim is not to read some hate mail. So go for it. I was really hoping Tim would be here. Coward. This is courtesy of my son.
Starting point is 00:03:30 it's real simple oh it just it just says let Tim host that's positive I don't like that's a positive oh oh ah these nuts he got him you suck to him
Starting point is 00:03:43 you suck are there are there three stars there as well there are there are three stars there your son's wise beyond his years how old is he
Starting point is 00:03:52 he's 13 look at that that kid's got a future that kid's got a career I hear he's playing a monster a wilds too he's he's a man of taste
Starting point is 00:04:02 clearly his dad isn't no not at all gave his dad the code but his son's playing it apparently not like there's a million airpg's coming out this month no and that's a man well that is a beautiful transition you know like what am i doing here it's not just to insult tim it's not to well no i mean not to just give you a recommendation we could spend a lot of time doing that um it's it's the greatest month
Starting point is 00:04:28 for ARPGs that I have witnessed in a long time. And so top level before I give the intro to the show, what does that mean? So this is the first time that like three major players in the ARP genre are dropping major releases and updates in the same time span, all in the month of April, starting, you know, at the beginning with Path of Exile, then last epoch, and finally Diablo 4 at the end. every fandom kind of gets its own little celebration, its own little update
Starting point is 00:05:03 to dive back into and it's a busy month for me. I want to hear all about this. I want to talk about ARPG being the April 2025 being the best month ever for ARPG gamers.
Starting point is 00:05:17 But first I remind everybody, this is the kind of funny games cast. Ancient every weekday we talk to you about the biggest topics in gamings, whether they be reviews previews are just things we need to talk about. We do it live on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, Twitch.tv.tv slash kind of funny games, and podcast services around the globe
Starting point is 00:05:35 for your listening and viewer. Pleasure. If you enjoy what we do, of course, pick up the kind of funny membership over on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, patreon.com slash kind of funny. Apple and Spotify, you can pick up the kind of funny membership. You can get all of our shows. That's more than 80 a month, ad free.
Starting point is 00:05:50 And of course, you get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, in a one-man podcast series, usually from my car called Gregway, where I give you 15 to 20 minutes each and every day, adding up to about four hours of exclusive podcasts each and every month. No bucks toss away, no big deal, like, subscribe, share. If you got Amazon Prime, you got Twitch Prime, give us that free sub, and please tell your friends about us, whether it be through the reviews or the ratings. If you are watching live and you aren't an ARPG nerd like us, of course, we have YouTube superchats ready to go.
Starting point is 00:06:20 Go to YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Super chat there to be part of the show with your questions, comments, concerns, recommendations. Guitar Hero Arrow wrote in and said, I got an extra Indiana Jones PS5 pre-order bonus code for any interested KFBFs. Can't wait to finally swing in this weekend. The code is Q-9, 5, Q47RM A38M. Go get that one. And then down here, Omega Buster says, support Tim the people's champion.
Starting point is 00:06:47 Don't let phony, Bologna, Greg Miller, steal the stars. Hashtag Save the Stars. You can't steal what is promised, all right? The real theft on Game Showdown has been blessing given softballs to Tim over and over again. I'm getting quizzed on what the Freedom Wars publisher fighting games are putting out. He's like, what's...
Starting point is 00:07:07 What's Apona's name? You know what I mean? Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. Apona. That's the opponent's name. I know. And it's upsetting.
Starting point is 00:07:15 That's the kind of question Tim gets on the show. You're CEO Jr. There's no wall protecting us. You'd be on my side this time, are you? on my side. I mean, I like... Chad, I'm touching him. I'm touching Barrett. It's weird. But he's not on camera, so it wouldn't hold up in court. Housekeeping for you. We're an 11-person small business all about live talk shows.
Starting point is 00:07:31 You already got Kind of Funny Games Daily today. It was covering Nintendo's commitment to the Switch 2 price and the new U.S. pre-order date of April 24th. That's right, right. I didn't double check it. I shoved it in there April 24th. That's right. After this, you'll be getting an episode of Kind of Funny Game Showdown. We'll see how Blessing tries to screw me out of my birthright this time. And then after that, it's the kind of funny podcast talking about the sexiest song lyrics of all time. That's my topic. I'm bringing that topic. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:07:57 Okay. And then if that wasn't enough, you are also getting a 2XCO stream that rounds out your incredibly packed Friday. That also might be a rematch stream as well. Oh, it might be a rematch, like, open beta this weekend. Oh. So bless is like emotionally being pulled towards two games right now. He'll end up with a rematch. Is that, is rematch coming this year?
Starting point is 00:08:20 Yeah. It's got to release it. Yeah? Because when I, I almost put it in my fantasy team a long time ago, like before this beta, and then I was like, I'm not confident,
Starting point is 00:08:27 and then I was like, I should have. I know it's been picked up now. Yeah, I did. I picked that up. It's going to be great. If you're a kind of funny member, you can get 20 minutes of unfettered access to my mind right now
Starting point is 00:08:37 over on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games and Patreon and Spotify and Apple. And thank you to our Patreon producers. Anatoly asked Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we're brought to you by Imperial Factor and Shady Race. We'll tell you about that later. let's start with what is and forever will be topic of the show.
Starting point is 00:08:54 Tots, dots, dots, dots, dots. I forgot to load into the PNG. It's fine. It's just a day. We're just doing a day in here. It's fine. Zanth, as you said, it's April 2025, and three major ARPGs have three major content updates. What I love about you, Zanth, is you grab the bull by the horns. All right, you came to me and said, hey, we should do a gamescast about this. This is why you call me kind of funny's ARPG expert.
Starting point is 00:09:19 I said, that is right? So you take the reins. Explain to me what's happening, where this is happening, which is the biggest, what's the hottest? Does anyone care about Diablo anymore? I got a million questions, but I want you to have, you're hosting now. Oh, crap, I get to host. Let's aunt host, but not these nuts.
Starting point is 00:09:37 So, in starting for this, oh, am I getting moved over? Wow. Do they see that live yet? Oh, you're doing the thing so. Oh, you put him in the host chair. Barrett's so fun. I love Barrett. That, this is, this is quality.
Starting point is 00:09:53 I, I've been upgraded to, to host. So, ARPG, April, right? It is massive. I'm going to pull up what I wrote here because I did spend a lot of time on this breakdown. April 2025 is the first time that the big three and ARPGs have released major content updates in the same month. There's a lot of cross-pollination, but a lot of loyalty to each respective franchise. No matter where your allegiance is lie, April is a great month for an ARPG. fan.
Starting point is 00:10:24 It's been hard. I think I've been titled this. Like now it's now we're going to do it. It's been hard. Yeah. I titled this how to whole ass three ARPGs, you know, referencing the great Ron Swanson with,
Starting point is 00:10:39 don't, don't half ask something. Whole ass it. It's hard to be possible. It's got to be, I mean, again, this is your preferred genre. You play these games on the treadmill for hours a day every day. You also have a family and you also have a job and you have all the,
Starting point is 00:10:54 but you are whole-assing RPGs all the time, let alone to have three major updates. I'm fascinated to see how you've been juggling it. It got a lot harder last night. I can say that. So let's start at the front end. At the beginning of the month, Path of Exile release, or Path of Exile 2,
Starting point is 00:11:17 rather, released its first major update introducing a new class, new systems, new items, new skills, with Path of Exile 2, Dawn of the Hunts. Barrett, do you want to pull up the little trailer there and I'll just kind of chat for you audio listeners, which is me, and I appreciate you. I am 100% an audio listener. I mean, for the record, so am I.
Starting point is 00:11:40 I listen on Spotify. That's where I'm at. Right. For your audio listeners, we're just going to delve a little bit to what is Path of Exile 2's first trailer for the new release. we're seeing an Amazon, start to scour the forest and follow a wisp.
Starting point is 00:11:56 And this is really the introduction to the new class that was introduced to the base six that we started with. Now moving on into a spear wielding, shield carrying Amazon, or technically huntress, but it's hard enough to not default to just calling it. But she's from the island of Themiscairah. All right, everybody, don't forget. Yeah, you can live out your Wonder Woman fantasies here, Greg. I won't be doing in a model this game. No, you won't.
Starting point is 00:12:27 So you have to get that somewhere else, and maybe Path of Exile will be for you. So this release is April 4th. And GGGG, grinding gear games is a smaller development company out of New Zealand. That's first major release was Path of Exile 1, and then this was the, the major step up in back in December, you know, it finally coming to life and getting a lot of good traction. Turned so many heads, right? It was one that you texted me.
Starting point is 00:13:01 You're like, I know your Diablo burned out, but this is different. You need to play this. And I didn't believe you. And I was like, oh, my God, this is so much different that I'm not having the same issues I was having with Diablo. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:13 What, you know, I think we'll talk about today is that each one of these games kind of offers something a little different. You know, what's comical is as you will see during all the trailers. An isometric ARPG is an isometric ARPG, right? They all have a very similar look. Like you're pushing that character forward with a mouse or a controller. You're casting a spell.
Starting point is 00:13:38 You're swinging a sword. That's always kind of the same. However, each of these games has a very different approach to what happens after that. Path of Exile is what I would consider to be. be like more of the the difficult game right the boss fights can be a little bit more difficult the skill system the the mapping at the end game could be a little bit more difficult and a little bit more challenging but you're rewarded sure that was what drew me in right when you when you called me and for December to play it when I got in there immediately what I kept saying right it was the weight this
Starting point is 00:14:12 felt weightier it felt like okay cool I'm not moving as quickly two enemies are a threat versus you know being surrounded by a mob and Diablo and not carrying them about it. And then, yeah, getting to these battles that I kept describing, for lack of being a smarter man, to the audience as I think it's what Andy and the crew love about Souls likes, whereas I come in and I got to learn this boss's pattern, because if not, I'm going to die. And then I'm going to have to restart and not lose everything, but I would prefer to get in there and actually feel like I'm learning on that one. Yeah, and you're rewarded for that knowledge. Like, you've learned those bosses and then the next time through, which I know you hate.
Starting point is 00:14:46 You're not a big fan of having to replay the campaign. But every time, you come back to it, it's a little bit easier because you know what that boss is going to throw at you. You get a little bit better with those skills. So this releases April 4th. And as you, you know, kind of alluded, I've spent a lot of time there.
Starting point is 00:15:04 Because it was a very, it's been a quality update and I'm not quite done with it yet. The nicety of ARPGs is you have that ability to kind of bounce off them after a couple of weeks. You can feel like you've got everything done. I am
Starting point is 00:15:20 nowhere near that yet with Path of Exile 2. This update definitely has hooked me. Being able to kind of go in and play around with a power fantasy that I've always enjoyed, being able to throw lightning spears around, done. That's all I'm going to do for a very long time. It's not to say there haven't been challenges. Like that's part of this cycle of ARPGs, right? You push out a major update and then you react.
Starting point is 00:15:45 You see the community like, oh, we have to scale back. what's been impressive is the speed at which grinding gear games has reacted to it. When it launched on the first day, everything was significantly more difficult. Monster health and speed was too high. And they were able to kind of gauge those reactions and start patching accordingly. And they're still reacting. This is an early access game, right? Yeah, of course.
Starting point is 00:16:08 It has that weird challenge of like it's in early access, but they also are kind of treating it as if it's a live game where here's a major patch. And we've been holding off on doing quick reactions, whereas I think they're starting to adjust to what early access should be for this game of, okay, we're giving a lot of feedback. Let's start fixing that before we go on like a two or three month hiatus before the next big thing like we would in a traditional ARPG space. So it's starting to shape up.
Starting point is 00:16:38 I want to know what you're getting because in the chat over here, we had two chats come through about Path of Exxon to and this update. Herbie Ergos says the new class is awesome, but the changes to the world in POE2 are god-awful. And then 10 and 54 says, Love to launch, but it seems like Gigi lost the thread on what people want Path of Exile 2 to be.
Starting point is 00:17:00 I think they have like this weird balance to strike. It's much like the jump from Diablo 2 to 3 or from Diablo 1 to Diablo 2, where you have a departure from what the game used to be. You know, it is its own thing. And how do you keep both sets of players happy? You know? Of course.
Starting point is 00:17:26 This has been the big struggle with Diablo 4, right? As a noob and somebody who just wants to never come back and then people like, you want to play it nonstop. Right. There's always going to be the struggle for the people who can play, you know, like as you were saying before, I do play a lot, but I'm not a streamer. I don't play for eight to 10 hours a day.
Starting point is 00:17:48 And how do you balance for that? How do you balance for the people who are going to put in over the course of a week what your traditional player might be able to get through over the course of three months? And that always leads to burnout. I think that's the other part of the ARPG problem is there's a lot of burnout with any game that you play for that amount of time. I'm always kind of relatively balanced with it where I don't feel like I burn out that quickly. but there are times when things just don't hit.
Starting point is 00:18:18 And for a lot of people, this most recent release with Path of Exile 2, it just didn't hit. You know, you probably played a lot in the first launch for early access. Sure. You're coming back and things are still a little bit slower. You've got a new class. You've got new things to play with. But it hasn't changed dramatically that you want to hang out there for too long. The seasonal mechanic is a little lackluster.
Starting point is 00:18:42 It could be faster. It could be more engaging. and then loot could be dialed up just a little bit more as well. But even with all that, I'm still having a shitload of fun. Like, I'm just, like, I've been torn like going back and I was playing last epoch last night. But in the back of my head, I was like, oh, I could be, I could dip back in and play a little bit more. And you, you can't. I get 30 minutes in before I go to bed.
Starting point is 00:19:09 Right. I could, I could balance this. So, yeah, there has been a lot of, uh, that kind of. kind of sentiment within the Path of Exile 2 community of just wanting something a little bit different. And I think it still is early access. They've adapted a lot from what they've been able to see. It'll be curious to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. You know, are they going to keep moving the levers? Are they going to keep balancing it out? Or are they going to kind of, you know, make a few more changes and then start pushing towards what will be the next
Starting point is 00:19:42 major update. There's still, what, five more classes that need to show up a bunch of new ascendancies. There are three full acts that aren't present. So there's a lot of things that are still missing. And I think sometimes it's like, how do we view early access? Do we treat it as the total game and judge it accordingly? Or do we wait until we have all of the evidence before us, before we can come to those conclusions. And I don't know. I don't think there's a right way. I think all feedback is good as long as you can back it up.
Starting point is 00:20:16 The other danger with these games, too, is like a meta. Somebody out there way smarter than me figures out the best way to build a character or the best possible skill. And then everybody kind of plays that. And then what are you missing? You're missing like half of your player base trying and messing up things to give you good feedback. Like, you can give feedback about the most powerful skill. I'm like, oh, that's overtuned. But are you messing with all the other ones that you blew past? You're not. So, like,
Starting point is 00:20:48 that, that also kind of affects that cycle in terms of how the game will then be iterated on. Have they given any roadmap for Path of Exile of where they think they are with eventually getting to a full release or leaving early access? Or are we just going to be in early access for a long, long a long time. As far as I know, I think they're under the impression that they can get it out before. So the goal was a year. It launches in December of 2024, but it's April. That's eight months from now to still introduce three new acts and five new classes.
Starting point is 00:21:27 I don't see it. And honestly, I'd rather let them cook. You know, take a little more time. I'm happy with what I have. I'm going to keep coming back again and again. but I really do not see this launching legitimately in December. Okay, okay. But overall from you, thumbs up on this update.
Starting point is 00:21:46 Oh, 100%. And I would recommend it to everybody to at least get in and play. I mean, one, it's always nice to play with a new class. There's a whole bunch of new support gems. I've found that if you played on day one, the leveling of a character was far more brutal. It was harder. it felt a little bit more of a slog.
Starting point is 00:22:08 The changes that have happened in just like the two weeks time have been significantly better where I play only hardcore, so I do die. And then I have to go back and redo it all over again. So with each character, it's actually gotten easier. It does feel easier. It does feel better.
Starting point is 00:22:26 So I would say it's worth it if you maybe kind of bounced off of it. And then challenge yourself. Maybe we all know Lightning Spear is one of the best skills. Try something different. Try something different. and see how that's playing for you because there are a bunch of other good builds out there.
Starting point is 00:22:42 You just got to stray away from the meta a little. Okay. So they move me on. Get in there, Greg. Toss some spears around. It's awesome. I'm sure it is. It's just the thing that for Path of Exile 2,
Starting point is 00:22:57 which I loved back in December, I enjoyed it. And I'm just not the early access guy. I would rather they'd be like, here it is, boom, the game is complete to what? It's the same thing with Hades too. Loved Hades. You know what I mean? Like I'm ready to play,
Starting point is 00:23:10 but I want it to be final and done and this is their, the final. I know everything will be updated forever and ever and ever. But like here's the vision of what it is and where we want. And all the balances and this is that's the ball. Like I'm not, you know how it's so rare, sadly to some degree,
Starting point is 00:23:25 but so rare that even an ongoing game that's always evolving changing can keep me around for a long time. So rather than come in and have it be, I play 20 hours of Path, I've ex out to early. access launch when X, Y, and Z wasn't working right, but I did it anyway. I don't want that to be the experience, so I'd rather hang on. But this is enticing, but then, of course, I'm hunting. I'm monster hunting out there, all right? Your son's got to get on my friends, my friends list. If you're
Starting point is 00:23:50 not going to play, I'll be over there playing with him, because we got to get out there. We got too many monsters over there thinking that they're the top of the food chain, Barrett, all right? They're just trying to live their life, but not in my world. I'm going to skin him and wear them. That's what I'm doing. Jesus. I mean, I will get there eventually. It's, it's, that's how I feel about Path of Exile.
Starting point is 00:24:08 Right. It's just so hard. I've got, I got so many things going on. I got to level so many characters. There's too many games though, yeah. It's a tough,
Starting point is 00:24:17 like I said, it's a tough month where, you know, here it is, a Path of Exile 2 goes April 4th. It is the 18th. And I am still like deep in on that. And then I got to pause
Starting point is 00:24:29 and jump into last epoch because that is, that is new. That is fresh. That is, And so what I need from you in reality here is a refresher on what Last Epoch is. When Last Epoch originally launched, you weren't part of our community yet, all right? I wasn't.
Starting point is 00:24:49 Diablo podcast, maybe I was listening. Maybe I wasn't. I don't know. But you weren't like on a first name basis texting me what I need to be playing. And so this is one that the chat in the audience had been like, oh, Greg, you'd probably love Last Epoch. You should play Last Epoch? I was like, no, I'm like, well, no chance. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:25:03 Isn't Steam Deck compatible? I don't even know. I can't remember this. It is so long ago. It is. I don't know. I asked for a code yesterday. I got my email about the update.
Starting point is 00:25:11 I asked for a code. Because I know you swear by what it's already done, let alone what this new update is, yet, yeah, yeah. But what is Last Epoch in this pantheon now of Path of Exile 2 being the harder version and slower version of Diablo four, which I know so well, and I feel like so many people know so well. Where does Last Epoch fit in? I think it is the, you know, as we're going through this conversation,
Starting point is 00:25:32 it's the perfect middle ground. It is not as rigorous, perhaps, as Path of Exile. And it's not as streamlined as Diablo 4. It's really right in the middle. And I think, honestly, it's probably the perfect introductory ARPG, where you can then kind of figure out which direction you would want to go in. You know, as we're seeing here, we have the newest trailer for Tumes of the Erased, their next big update, you know, their seasons.
Starting point is 00:26:04 that they have going on. This is the one that just came out. Yep, just launched yesterday. Now, with Last Epoch, it's so much more friendly to the individual player. You have your different classes like in any ARPG,
Starting point is 00:26:22 but you also have what I think is really fundamentally something that's gone missing from the ARPG genre. You have an offline mode. online is built into so many ARPGs. This is one that has offline compatibility. And you were talking about like wanting possibly for Steam Deck.
Starting point is 00:26:46 This to me strikes me as one of those perfect Steam Deck games. I don't have a Steam Deck. But if I did, I'd be playing it like nonstop, especially with that offline functionality. Yeah, that's huge. There's somebody who's on the plane all the time. That's always a bummer for me when I'm super into Diablo or even thinking of Pat the Dug.
Starting point is 00:27:02 I'll even, you know, Monster Hunter, which is a different conversation because it does, but I don't have it on, you know, blah, blah. Right, right. Yeah, it has that, that functionality, which also then makes it just a little bit easier to kind of pick up because you don't have to be online. You don't have to worry about playing with other people. In tandem with that, it does have just a great way to distribute loot. Like you are, you have a lot more in-depth crafting that, you know, if there are things that you want for your character, if you want your character to be stronger, you have a lot more. or control of that. It's less reliant on, you know,
Starting point is 00:27:35 sometimes the hard part of an air-pg is just the randomness of it, right? I'm trying to find this particular item to be stronger. I want a better sword, whatever. And the crafting tools within last epoch make that significantly easier to kind of happen. So a lot of tools for a new player to just go and have fun. The difficulty as well is not, it's not super rigorous. You're not, like the boss fights are not at the level of, Path of Exile, you can kind of jump in and no matter what choice you make along the way,
Starting point is 00:28:10 you're going to be successful. Like, I don't think there's a bad way. Like, I don't think you can choose a skill and items throughout this game that will not get you to the end game of it. It's pretty well built in that regard. And we should point out that, you know, this is 11th hour games. It's an all remote independent studio that is putting this together. So no central hub, you know, just everybody kind of on their own remotely and independently making a great game.
Starting point is 00:28:39 And I think that's also kind of worthy of being celebrated as people are kind of being forced back in. We've seen a lot of studios force their people back in. And to have them all remotely come together and be successful is pretty awesome. So tell me about the update. Well, I'm only just a little bit in, you know. As I said, it's hard to get three air-r-r-gis all in one go. I think I ended last night at, like, level 25, I want to say. But I will point out, I was getting notifications the entire time.
Starting point is 00:29:19 It launched yesterday around, I think, 1 o'clock my time. And by the time I was still, like, closing up playing, people were already at level 90. Got it. So it's not also impossible to get to the very end. Obviously, those are top end players that are pushing unknown strategies to be successful. But for the average person, you can get in there and you could find yourself at the end game relatively quickly. I mean, we're talking like five, ten hours depending on what you happen to be doing and how you're building, what have you.
Starting point is 00:29:56 The combat itself is pretty fluid, as you can kind of see here, we're watching through some of those. It looks awesome. I haven't seen much of it. I know we said at the top as a joke in isometric ARPG looks like an isometric. But like the colors and visuals are using are pretty impressive. Yeah, it's a little, it retains a little bit more of that kind of wowy kind of gothic, you know, where it's not, it's not as dark Gothic as Path of Exile or is what Diablo
Starting point is 00:30:26 4 was aiming for at the start. It's got like a little bit more flash, a little bit more pop, a lot more perfect. right a little bit more green here kind of sets it apart of by comparison to its peers but it it plays really smoothly i was playing a lot on uh controller uh controller controller sport was kind of significantly better than when i had played it initially they just introduced uh wasti as well if you want to go if you're an absolute animal and want to use was to it's just i'm just it's not intuitive for me uh but controller is it for anybody people are trained themselves to say that it is it isn't i just don't know how you could uh but controller
Starting point is 00:31:06 support was really great last night and um i had the i think one of my favorite feelings in any r pg is like you start out with a character and then like you see somebody else in town or whatever you're like oh that looks kind of cool i would like to i want to do that there's a lot of that the capability here in last epoch um barrett do you want to pull up the gil tree asset uh so The Last Epoch has a really cool skill system. Essentially, you can choose any skill that your character would earn. And you get a tree for each skill. So as you're leveling, you're getting points along the way,
Starting point is 00:31:49 and you get to branch it out and affect how the skill actually works. So we see here the little introduction. I cut this video last night on my little Necrimancer that was starting out. So as you level, you're getting access to new skills. And then you can go in and specialize in those. So up at the top there, you see level four, eight, 20, 35 and 50. I can grab one of those skills from there, assign it, and then it starts earning points. It's all really intuitive once you kind of get going. Eventually, I will click on something. Oh, there we go. You're just shopping now. Right. So there is the skill tree. And as you're kind of branching out, each one of those little nodes will change the
Starting point is 00:32:35 skill itself to do something. Now, you're never going to get enough points to do all of them, and some of them will run counter to what you might do on one end. But it's just that little bit of control. It's that little bit of being able to make and shape the character that you actually want. So I could have different types of minions. I could have my rip blood, you know, branch out or heal me or whatever else I might need. But you get a lot of that kind of control and then you can couple it up with, you know, there are different items that will go and change the skills as well.
Starting point is 00:33:07 But it's just, it's a fun skill system where I'm not hunting for an upgrade for the skill. I'm choosing how it's going to work. Gotcha. That's cool. Over here in the chat, you got a 10 and 54, yeah,
Starting point is 00:33:26 I love the skill system. Yeah, this is, I'm wrapping my head around it as I see your B-roll run. It seems way more complicated than what it actually is. Like at the end of the day, it's like, hey, what are these skills that I actually really enjoy? Okay, I'm like, Rip Blood isn't my favorite. So why would I want to specialize in it? Maybe I really want to specialize in minions.
Starting point is 00:33:49 Okay. What can I do with those and how can I make them better? After this, I end up making a Sentinel with, the goal of becoming probably a paladin. And one of his skills was throw hammer, right? You throw a hammer, it returns to you. A classic kind of Diablo paladin. But you spec into one point, and suddenly those hammers now rotate around you.
Starting point is 00:34:16 So instead of a straight line, they're going to rotate and spin around. And then you could change that. Maybe it's multiple hammers. Maybe it does more damage. And just that level of control is just so fun. And then the Sentinel next to me might not care about hammers. They might want to go into a javelin throw. Who couldn't care about a hammer, Zanth?
Starting point is 00:34:37 They got to care about the hammers. You have to. It does have had this really, really cool function to it. I think it's one of the shining stars of this game. It's just like how fun that is. Like, oh, man, that's cool. That's cool. That skill is really cool.
Starting point is 00:34:54 I want to mess around with it. I want to do something different. And there's so many different options to make that happen that none of them really feel bad, but you're also excited to try something new. And like, you know, you kind of can be rewarded for that. And then there's more skills to mess with along the way. It's it's very fun. If you if you're intimidated, I don't think you need to be.
Starting point is 00:35:16 Because like I said, there's no real wrong choice. You can get through all the content making bad decisions and be totally, fine. Nitrogen mustard in the live chat goes, God, I love ARPG so much that I can't wait to get home and play this tonight. Greg, you would love this if it came to console without a doubt. Again, I'm gonna, you know,
Starting point is 00:35:36 we're gonna go to ads here and I'll open up my email and poke the person I asked about the code. Because I'm getting a code for this. I'll put it on the Rog Ally X out there, Barrett. Especially if the controller, you said controller support is better now, right, Zand? Yeah, significantly better. Okay, okay. Let me draft an email here, everyone.
Starting point is 00:35:52 Talk more about ARPG, April. right after we, of course, we remind you that this is the Kind of Funny Gamescast. If you love what we do, please pick up a Kind of Funny membership either on Patreon.com. Slash Kind of Funny. YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Apple or Spotify, $10. It gets you all of our shows. That's more than 80 a month ad-free.
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Starting point is 00:40:09 Allergies, Zanth. I think it's going to win. Eventually. Yeah. You know, it's like, you know, it follows. It'll eventually catch you. It'll eventually catch you. Zanf.
Starting point is 00:40:19 Again, we've been jumping around a bit. And I know it cut you off in the middle of everything going on there. For Last Epoch, I know you just jumped in. But what are, like, the big things they've been promoting with this patch? Like, if people had played it and weren't, you know, ready, didn't know about this or weren't coming back, like, what did they add to this one? Is it just a class? No. So not really a new class.
Starting point is 00:40:42 They kind of reworked the Sentinel class, which is what I was talking about before with coming in and tossing hammers around. really it was more focused on the end game which is you know the it's the crux of every ARPG all of them we'll get them through the story but then how do we keep them to keep playing over and over again so we don't lose them to another ARPG or whatever
Starting point is 00:41:12 it might be or the other myriad of games that are out there so this is more of a rework around that introducing a new faction and really just really what it boils down to is more stuff to do at the end right more stuff to play with and i like i said i got to like level 20 25 last night didn't get a chance to play with all the new fancy stuff but here's to hoping in the days to come that i will be able to pull myself from all the other arpgis and get into it um but overall sentiment seems to be pretty high around how it has been going. So I think that's a big
Starting point is 00:41:52 test for all these updates. Now that you have actual competition with new content, what, like, tonight, when you get the chance, today, when you slip away to your treadmill to play games like a psychopath,
Starting point is 00:42:08 where will you go? Like, what is speaking to you? Like, I have to get back and do X, Y, and Z. Well, unfortunately, because Last Deepak does not have consoles, support. The only way I can run on that treadmill has got to be on console. So I will be at least running playing Path of Exile 2. I think for me that becomes easier because I'm going to, I've got a longer run tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:42:34 I'll be on Path of Exile 2 in the morning, which means... How long does you run tomorrow? 22 miles. You're psycho. He's psycho barrett. It's awesome. Yeah. Crazy behavior.
Starting point is 00:42:47 You know what I mean? I'm aware. It's it's an odd thing. But I do about I'll do about half of that on the treadmill and I'll do the other half outside. And that treadmill half will be Path of Exile too because it's on console. If Last Epoch was on console though, yeah, I would probably want to stay with what is new and current and kind of hang out and make the push with those characters. So the really, the only thing Last Epoch doesn't have going for it right now is that lack of a console support. If I had that, I'd be all over it right now. But it does also mean, since I know I'm going to get some path of exile time in the morning,
Starting point is 00:43:24 I can spend some time in Last Epoch tonight. And like there's that. Got it. Got it. You're going to bounce out. You'll make it up. Right. It'll be totally fine. And I am very much enjoying my time playing Last Epoch right now.
Starting point is 00:43:37 It was a game that, you know, it came out in, what, February of, it's on the sheet. I don't have to pull it up. pull up the date, but it was surely... February 24th, 2024. Right. So lots of things happening at that time, lots of different seasons. It went into early access before.
Starting point is 00:43:58 I remember playing it before Diablo 4 launched when it was in its beta stage. So I just had not kind of gone back to it and so much has changed. The story itself has changed several times over. Those are you guys looking for an interesting ARPG story. It reminds me a lot of Chrono Trigger,
Starting point is 00:44:17 where you are bouncing around from different time periods to, like, try and prevent calamity. Oh, that sounds cool. Right. So, like, you get to choose these different time periods and different things are happening. I don't know for the Trigger's name. I've got enough games to play, I'm. Can we convince you to play an ARPG? Are you against the genre, or is it what doesn't work for you with it?
Starting point is 00:44:39 Time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, uh, it's one of those, like, I know there's like big world and the stories and stuff, but if a game is, you know, where there's a lot of grinding and stuff, I want to feel like I'm building to something that's like going to have like an emotional payoff for me or something like that. And it's usually just like the worlds I'm less into, not so much the game. I'm just not like a high fantasy guy.
Starting point is 00:45:03 So that's sure. And a lot of these like ARPGs are a bit more like fantasy like adjacent. So yeah. Fair enough. Thank you. I'll shut up now. No. No, I think that's a very, very,
Starting point is 00:45:14 I think you bring up like an interesting point of like a contrast between a RPG and an ARPG is where the grinding is located, right? For JRP, you do a lot of your grinding to get to that penultimate or ultimate battle. And then with an ARPG, a lot of the grinding is more at the end. Like you cruise through the story. That's the real game, yeah. Right. And now your grinding is for more gear and different upgrades, not to, not to beat a particular boss for a satisfying conclusion.
Starting point is 00:45:44 And I guess it's just what will drive you. But I would say, like, as a chrono trigger fan, jump into Last Epoch, play a little bit. You might have a good track. Because crap daddy in the chat says, it's cool because you get to explore the same map but like in five different time periods. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:00 That sounds fucking rad. I'm on the page now because now I'm not even going to wait for the code. I'm just going to buy it. Uncover the past, reforge the future. Ascend into one of 15 mastery classes and explore dangerous dungeons. Hunt, epic, loot, craft, legendary weapons and wield the power of over
Starting point is 00:46:16 100 transformative skill trees lest epoch is being developed by a team of passionate action RPG enthusiasts fuck this sounds great right and I mean you know if they don't get you back with a code it is $35
Starting point is 00:46:31 that's not yeah yeah it's not it's not a now that I'm not spending $550 on a Nintendo Switch 2 like I was preparing mentally I'm this is gamer math this is free Yeah, you've actually saved so much money already today.
Starting point is 00:46:51 I know, right? I'd be stupid not to buy it. Right. Definitely would recommend. So $35. And then all these updates from there on out are free, right? This most recent update is free. Last Deepak is kind of following,
Starting point is 00:47:07 much like what Diablo has done, what Path of Exile is done, the paid cosmetics route. You know, there are different. paid cosmetics. They also have skill cosmetics, which are the things that will get me every single time. I care less about the armor that my character wears, but if I can have a fancier fireball, I can have a fancier pets. Yeah, I'm going to buy that.
Starting point is 00:47:30 That's right up my alley. But that's where a lot of their monetization is kind of coming from. So, you know, that initial $35 years ago, you keep getting those updates. but then maybe you get tempted. You get tempted to purchase something. They've earned it at that point, you feel like. I assume there's a rogue class in here for me, yes? Yes, there is.
Starting point is 00:47:51 So if we're looking at the classes and you're trying to figure out like what do you want, you've got a mage, you've got a rogue, a primalist, an acolyte, and a sentinel. The mage will bounce from a mage to sorcerer, spellblade, or run master. Rogue would be blade dancer, Marksman, and Falconer,
Starting point is 00:48:08 which I did play a while ago. All right. That one's actually kind of fun. You get a falcon. It can drop knives on things. It's pretty sweet. Your primalist, Beastmaster, Druid, and Shaman does have a lot of cool druid shapes. You know, your typical bear, but also like a tree form.
Starting point is 00:48:27 Ackleite is a necromancer, lich, and warlock, and then Sentinel, Paladin, Void Knight, and Forge Guard. And this update actually does allow, it used to be locked in. Like, you made that choice. you're like, oh, I'm a rogue, I'm going to become a falconer. And you're like, I thought the falcon would be cooler. Too late. Now I have to make a whole new character. They have added in, you know, kind of that respecting of players' time, right?
Starting point is 00:48:53 You know what? You can change that. If you feel like you do not enjoy that specialization with this new update, you can change it. You can go back. You can become, you know, whatever else was kind of catching your eye. So that's a nice little update for those of us who are more strapped for time. the ARPG space that we're not as punished for making a bad decision along the way. I can't believe I miss this.
Starting point is 00:49:19 It's in their official website, Last Epoch, official game site, time travel, action RPG. Yeah. I love all those words together. You would love it. And I think a lot of people would too. There's getting, there is a lot of traction like on Twitch right now, a lot of, like the air PG space is very cross-pollinated, as I kind of said. at the front where, you know, people bounce a lot.
Starting point is 00:49:44 And this is the time in which last epoch is kind of getting a lot of its flowers. When they had their most recent patch prior to this, there was a lot more other stuff happening. So it didn't really get that attention. Whereas now, like, there's just, there's just hunger. There's hunger in this market to try something new and play with it. And I'm happy to see them finding the level of success that they're having right now. Love it.
Starting point is 00:50:08 So then, that brings us to the final action RPG of April, Diablo's late season. So then there is the Diablo four of it all, right? And you were on the Diablo podcast, not that long ago. We talked a little bit. We talked a little bit about this. But in the most recent weeks or so, we got a full roadmap. We got an idea of what's going to happen with Diablo 4, and we know the most recent season will be happening on April 29th.
Starting point is 00:50:45 So up here is the Diablo 4 roadmap. We kind of have a nice little concept of what's going to come for this game. And we had talked not that long ago about what our predictions were for Diablo 5 and what we thought was happening with Diablo 4. As we look here, there's a little bit of sameness. Right now we're in Belial's return. which will be April 29th, we're getting boss powers. There's an earnable pet.
Starting point is 00:51:12 There's a new IP collab, which I'll talk about just a second, because they just announced that, and it was not what I was expecting. Then we'll go into Sins of the Hraudrum and Infernal Chaos, and all of those are going to kind of repeat the same thing that we've seen for a while, which is you're going to start out the game, you're going to have a different power system that you're unlocking through some way, and that'll make your character more powerful in tandem with the regular character.
Starting point is 00:51:37 or what have you. Did you hear about the new IP collab, though? I have not heard about it, no. So it was just announced today, so it wasn't in assets. This might be more up Barrett's alley, I would assume. Oh, it's SpongeBob. Oh, it's persona or SpongeBob? No, it is Berserk.
Starting point is 00:51:58 Oh. Yeah. Okay. All right, listen, I'm depressed. I'm not that depressed. So, you know, dark fantasy IP combined with another dark fantasy IP makes a lot of sense. The last major IP they collabed with was World Warcraft. There were a bunch of different skins for that.
Starting point is 00:52:21 But this is a little different. A little and oh, look at Barrett. Wow, that was so quick. Johnny on the spot. He's got it. Yeah, I'm impressed with that. So we have like a little for you audio listeners. there's a little berserk style diablo cinematic kind of happening here to announce the partnership.
Starting point is 00:52:40 We have our barbarian dressed like guts from berserk. So it looks pretty cool. What that actually means. I was going to say, okay, we haven't actually seen the outfits or anything. I would hope that it is more than just a paid thing, you know, where it's just this is on the store, dropped $40. But if there was earnable stuff within the game, I think, that would be great for everybody.
Starting point is 00:53:05 Sure. You still have a paid version somewhere, but give everybody a chance to get something along the way to make that collaboration feel like a collaboration and not just a paywall. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I mean, I doubt it, right? Because they've got to pay for the collaboration.
Starting point is 00:53:20 I bet they're going to charge you for it. You're not getting nothing for free out there. That's 100% true. But this is, as we're looking ahead for the end of the month, this has been four months since the last Diablo season. And I think it's been long enough. I kind of burned out on the most recent season that I'm also kind of chomping at the bit to get back in. Okay.
Starting point is 00:53:45 Okay. Talk to me about that. Because now that you've taken your foot off the gas, you feel like you're ready to go back? Yeah. I think you burn out from everything, right? You burn out from playing the same kind of games for too long. and the it's almost like a pallet cleanser in some regards like jumping from path of exile to last epoch and then finally to diablo four they're all so similar and yet so very different um you know out of all of them diablo four is the the fastest haste right it it's kind of nice to just jump in and bow through thousands of demons and uh by having you feel powerful right by having like a a little bit of a slower time
Starting point is 00:54:30 and path of exile and a little bit slower in last epoch. I'm looking forward to kind of cruising through. I'm looking forward to kind of coming back and mowing down the hordes of hell pretty quickly because it is it is very much its own thing and well we can critique
Starting point is 00:54:46 and say like maybe it needs a little bit more of that challenge. It is somewhat refreshing by comparison and like you can kind of appreciate it in that regard. And there's no cost of entry at this point. I've already bought the expansion, you know, the season's
Starting point is 00:55:02 free. It does me no good to sit on the fence. I should hop in and get a taste for it. So we're getting boss powers. Plus you host the Diablo podcast, so it's kind of, yeah. It'd be really hard to talk about something I'm not playing. I just couldn't do it, guys. You didn't
Starting point is 00:55:18 want it. We'll wrap it up. We'll close the show. That's kind of how it works. But I have said for years, like with hosting the Diablo podcast, if it's not fun. I won't do it anymore, but it's always fun. Like, I think keeping a level head about these kind of things and not becoming too obsessive, which I know is weird because I host a podcast. Playing on the treadmill can't stop, but yeah, you're not too obsessive. Not too obsessive. It's still
Starting point is 00:55:47 not my job. I think like that's the biggest thing. It's not my job. Gotcha. It's still your passion. That's awesome. I'm not, I'm not reliant on it. So it is, it's much more fun that way. It's fun when I'm just getting together talking with friends about video games. Like that's that's exciting. But you know, we're getting these boss powers, which all look kind of exciting. I'm intrigued to mess around with it. And really what we have is about the last time we saw everything was about a month ago. They did a PTR.
Starting point is 00:56:19 And a public test realm is always kind of a shit show. It's all the bugs coming to light. You get to see broken stuff. And what we're going to get in about a week is they'll do a campfire chat and they will discuss what this season actually will be. And they'll put it out there. They'll have refined all those broken bugs. There's always going to be something. There's always something that gets broken.
Starting point is 00:56:43 But it'll be a little bit cleaner. And then we'll get to jump in on the 29th. So it's like get all the last epoch in. You can because then on the 29th you need to jump in to Diablo and start cruising there. I'm probably playing around with those new berserk outfits because I'm going to get suckered in. I know it. I know myself. I feel like the one thing we're talking about with all these is that even though it's a jam-packed April, the best month ever for an ARPG fan,
Starting point is 00:57:15 there's still a fair amount of time between each one of these. Where, yeah, like you're saying, like you aren't even by any stretch the imagination, done with the Path of Exile II stuff to really get into Last Deepak. But it is this idea that they're giving you time. to really get in there, taste it and figure out then which one of these, this Neapolitan ice cream you've been given here of ARPGs you want to stick with and go forward with. Yeah, well, actually, sadly, last epoch was going to launch right around when Path of Exile 2 was launching its update and they pushed it by about two weeks just to give that breathing room,
Starting point is 00:57:50 which was probably the best choices. If memory serves, I saw them put a message out about it, right, where they were like, hey, one of our other ARPG friends is putting out an update, so we're going to move. Right, right. Which was a good call on their part. Like, I think that's the challenge for all three of these studios going forward is it's not like they talk. Like, they're not. There's no special discord for all of them to get together.
Starting point is 00:58:13 I'm like, hey, when are you going to release? So they don't step on each other's toes. But I think like a two, three week window is usually the best. That's enough time to get in there. It's enough time to play through a campaign. and get your hooks into whatever the end game happens to be and maybe work out whatever, you know, challenge you had kind of set for yourself and then jump on to the next one and the next one.
Starting point is 00:58:36 And then for those who are like really, really into the genre, like myself, like, I need three months. I need, like, I've got like four. I need to live here. Right. I got like four or five different characters I want to be able to take to different levels of power and challenges I want to set for myself. And that extends it all.
Starting point is 00:58:55 for me. That is where my extension always comes from. But for your average player, a week, two weeks to kind of go in, mess around, that's totally fine. And I think it will serve all these games really well to kind of respect that space. Because you can't do both at the same time. It's impossible. Before we wrap up, get out of here, you've done a great job recapping all this and telling us what's happening. Thank you. Can you give us a kind of funny a really, really on the pulse of Diablo 4. I feel like I was the torchbear.
Starting point is 00:59:30 I've talked about it, but as I've said multiple times in all of our podcast, I just burned myself out platinuming it, doing the expansion story three different times. So I've just stopped talking about it. And I glance at the updates, obviously. I'm still following along, but I'm not talking about it. What is the general community right now? Because it does seem like for me, somebody reading the Rod interviews or seeing these
Starting point is 00:59:51 headlines, that there's been a bit of a, they're trying to course correct, We're talking about this being, oh, it's so easy and you just murder everything and do the thing. And I've seen the comments from them of, well, we want to go back to trying to be a bit harder. Is that accurate? Yeah, I think there is a little bit of that course correction that should be coming in the most recent update on the 29th. I think in some ways it's a conflicted game. It's very reactionary from time to time of like, okay, it's it's blast, blast, blast. And that's like, well, we're going too fast.
Starting point is 01:00:27 Let's crunch those numbers. Let's bring it back to being more difficult. But then somebody else discovers something that's more blast, blast, blast. And it's really kind of tough to balance. In terms of like general sentiment, I think two years in, it's like appreciating Diablo for what it is and maybe tempering expectations about what it will be. like seasons themselves don't seem to be as game changing as what maybe we initially had hoped it would be as we're seeing the recycled power system kind of come back continuously we're not getting as many
Starting point is 01:01:08 guilt changes or paragon board systems or anything like that that's shifting up the way the game's kind of been played and yeah there's a little bit of stagnation that that kind of creeps in when you know it's going to be the same kind of thing, but maybe in a different color paint. And yeah, that can have things kind of die down a little bit in terms of excitement. There still is another expansion that's on the horizon. I mean, I know that's on the roadmap for 2026. But when in 2026?
Starting point is 01:01:43 When does that happen? We know Bliscon is in September of 2026. That feels too late. That feels way too late to be in. announcing an expansion as I think that's where big changes happen, right? An expansion for Diablo is when the big changes happen. It's not like Path of Exile where each season is a big change or even in last epoch where they're doing a little bit more changes on their seasons.
Starting point is 01:02:13 It seems to fall on these expansions and I think people are hungry for that. There was a lot of the story itself. the imbecile of hatred for Diablo was fine, but it left on such a huge cliffhanger. People wanted to fight Mephisto. People, like the real Mephisto, right?
Starting point is 01:02:34 People wanted that. I think the longer it goes where we don't have that, the more that sentiment just kind of builds up. So I'm hoping early 2026 is when we're seeing it because again, going too long feels dangerous.
Starting point is 01:02:50 It feels like, again, Yeah, we want to get in. We want to play a paladin. We want to toss some hammers around. We want all of them. Got to toss the hammers. We love the hammers. And without it, yeah, we're running into dangerous territory, especially as the competition
Starting point is 01:03:07 is amping up. Last EpiPok and Paph Exile aren't going anywhere. And then there's just other games. There are other games that are going to be competing against all of these ARPGs. And if it's not big enough and different enough, then, yeah, you're not going to come back for that next season. A final question for you, I think, the landscape here of ARPGs, right? Obviously, this month is a banger.
Starting point is 01:03:35 That's amazing. Where's your head at? Because one of the comments early on in the show was, man, I used to love ARPGs, but now that everything's moved to being an always online games as a service, it's kind of taking the fun out of it for me. Like as we talk about Diablo right here and the length of time until this next expansion, all these seasons here, which are doing things, but not doing things people that really want
Starting point is 01:03:58 or maybe aren't game changing. Like, do you think that's worked against the genre, the fact that people have really leaned in on? Okay, well, it's always been online. Let's do updates. Let's do this. Let's do that. That's a good question.
Starting point is 01:04:10 I mean, like first we go back and we look at, we look at, are we high-fiving? I was trying to high-five bear, but he was looking at his phone. He didn't hear the question. I was looking at the replies to my blue sky post earlier about needing to fart in an Uber. Missed that one. Missed that one. I did see that one, actually. So coming back to report, I did not fart in that Uber.
Starting point is 01:04:40 I mean, you could. You're paying for the time. Right. I don't think you would have been the first one to fart. in the Uber. I don't think they would have said anything. But I digress. Going back to the always online,
Starting point is 01:05:01 yet your absolute banger of a question. It, like last epoch, you know, kind of come back to it, it has that offline option. I think that is, you know, maybe something to kind of push the genre in a different direction. I think them being a small independent studio helps that. where they can kind of push out and if these things catch fire
Starting point is 01:05:24 and more people are enjoying that then maybe we do see a RPG shift into having that as an option. Diablo 2 had an offline mode and that's considered the basic pinnacle of the genre. The genre, yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:39 That helps it. It helps being able to add in mods and for people to play around with the game. So it could be, be cool to see. I'm I've never had a huge issue with it. I've always been content to be online with it. But having like the nicety of like path of exile, you got the pause feature built in. That is a lifesaver. Love it. Like we're dads. Life happens. We need to pause. Yeah. I can't do that anything else. I can't quick open a town portal all the time. I need to pause. I need to pause right now.
Starting point is 01:06:13 but I would love to see that kind of move forward I think being able to kind of take yourself offline from time to time in an ARPG is phenomenal and the push for continual live service is tougher I get it
Starting point is 01:06:28 I think Path of Exile system as opposed to a battle pass is still to me the easiest one same with the last epoch here are a bunch of skins you're going to look real awesome you don't have to buy them but like this is how we're going to make our money so you could you could purchase a few things um diablo's battle pass i i rarely we were talking about it the other day i rarely use anything
Starting point is 01:06:53 from it i get the battle pass every season but i'm never decked out in it it's always kind of the same thing crazy so uh crazy i love chasing that battle pass in diablo that and i granted like you know right now burned out i'm not doing it but like there was a couple seasons there where i was like oh that's cool and that's cool i like this whole set so i will i'm excited to do this i'd be playing no matter what right i play a druid though so typically the druid the cosmetics don't show up anyway because you're in a bear form or a werewolf form that makes sense that makes it doesn't matter as much but yeah i get some of the appeal but for me it's never been uh it's never been about those uh chasing a skin or anything like that it's it's more chasing whatever arbitrary
Starting point is 01:07:31 challenge i've i've ended up setting for myself and like i said uh you know pad of exile too i'm still chasing that uh last epoch now i've got that chase and then I'll be starting up another one at the end of the month, and I have no idea where I will find success, but I'm having fun doing it. I think everybody else will be too. I'm excited to hear, I would hope they get back to you, Greg,
Starting point is 01:07:54 and shoot you a coach. Oh, they did. I'm good. I got it. Oh, we're done. We download it. We're set to go.
Starting point is 01:08:00 Well, that was quick. Now it's like I got to grind through, I got to burn through the Monster Hunter Wilde's obsession that I have. Just get that satiated enough to be able to play something else. Because here's my life is, I was going to just wilds it up all weekend long, of course, then be ready for a shadow drop of oblivion next week to then move over to that.
Starting point is 01:08:20 Now, if that doesn't happen, big gap there. We get some Epac going in there, but it'll probably just be more wilds. I got more things. But then I'm getting on the plane for packs, and that's when I need the Rog Ally set to go. And I was going to play, I thought there, while I still will. That's when I'll start outer worlds again to get ready for the – we're reviewing that at the end.
Starting point is 01:08:37 But somewhere in there, I will find a place to try Epok. maybe today in no way you're going to put any significant if oblivion is real next week there's no way you're putting any significant time into it oh into oblivion yeah do you think so i think you'll play an hour you'll be like this looks this looks this looks very pretty old game's old though game is old did you play oblivion back of the day no see that's my thing is it's such a it's such a blind spot for me that i don't even know what the old game is old thing that'll turn me off about it what is when did that come out oblivion 2006 i was 11 years old uh i think i was a soft in college at that point.
Starting point is 01:09:14 Oh, no, I, oh, crap. I'm actually way old than that. I had graduated college. God. Yeah, I was working my first job. I was engaged. I was about to go work at IGN. My friends and I were still playing like Tony Hawk
Starting point is 01:09:26 and SpongeBob Square Pants games. Well, nothing's changed. Zanth, I thank you for your time, as always, your ARPG expertise. Before you go, is there anything people need to know about this month of these games that we didn't cover? really just choose one and have fun my biggest recommendation for anybody
Starting point is 01:09:50 who is new to this genre is honestly start with last epoch I feel like it is so approachable and then it allows for a nice branch to one or the other if you find yourself like oh I want to go zoom zoom fast bounce on over to Diablo 4 if you're like oh I want this is fun
Starting point is 01:10:09 but I want just a little bit more of a challenge then jump on into Path of Exile. And honestly, there's no wrong choice. You don't have to play all three. But you might find yourself kind of chasing, chasing the dragon of the ARBG awesomeness that they all offer and getting sucked in. I love it.
Starting point is 01:10:31 Zanth, where can people keep up with you? predominantly just blue sky, H.C. Zanth and the Diablo a podcast on Spotify and Apple. I love it. Thank you for your time. I hope you have a lovely weekend. I hope you have a good time running 22 miles. Yeah, it'll be a great time. It'll be a great time. Good. Everybody else, whether you're watching or listening, I hope you have a lovely weekend as well. Of course, if you're watching live on twitch.tv.tv slash funny games or YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny. Your day is far from over. We go from here to Kind of Funny Game Showdown.
Starting point is 01:11:07 We go from there to the Kind of Funny Podcast. We go from there to a street. of maybe rematch, maybe something else. Bear's just shrugging. Maybe they'll play SpongeBob. Of course, if you're listening or watching later, thank you, like, subscribe, share. Consider picking up the Kind of Funny membership.
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