Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - We Love Bloodstained and Outer Wilds - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 227

Episode Date: July 1, 2019

Hurry to http://upstart.com/kindafunny to find out HOW LOW your Upstart rate is. Go to http://zebit.com/kinda for $2,500 of interest-free credit. Andy, Fran, Andrea, and Greg jump into a bunch of ga...mes they've been playing and are in love with, two Switch titles you're sleeping on, and more! Time Stamps - 00:04:18 - Housekeeping 00:06:58 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night 00:29:54 - Outer Wilds 00:39:15 - Dandy Dungeon 00:48:55 - Moonlighter 00:54:43 - Stadia 01:10:28 - Ads 01:13:20 - Cadence of Hyrule 01:17:40 - “Is there is any chance of Destiny capturing your attention again?” - Legend of Kanto 01:29:06 - “Who would you put on a Video Game Mount Rushmore?” - Jdob84 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:06 What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast episode 227. I'm one of your host, Greg Miller, alongside the Hispanic heartthrop, Andy Cortez. Andy, where can people keep up with you on Twitch? Andy, where can people keep up with you on Twitch? Uh, Twitch, I do with us. Gary Whitton. Next to him, the best hair in the business, Fran Mirabella the third. Where can people keep up with you on Twitch? Same thing. Slash Gary Witta. He's taken over, man. Also. Yeah, well, he's got a T-shirt press at home. That's pretty easy. He totally, I watched that.
Starting point is 00:00:38 He's like showed me up in terms of promotion. So why even bother now? Yeah. That's true. But, uh, no. We'll be working for him soon enough. That's right. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:00:43 I am at FM3 underscore on Twitch if you want to support me. And rounding out the quartet, the busiest lady in the business who's dressed like a banana. Banana. Benadria or Renee. That's right. It's Banandria Renee today, Craig. Andrea, you're of course from what's good games. That's correct.
Starting point is 00:00:59 You can find you across the internet working on that. Yes. But why are you dressed like a banana today? So, um, and I'll, let me stand up so everyone can see the full bananas. Can your character be that you only speak in rhyme? Yeah. She's doing the peanut butter jelly. Very nice.
Starting point is 00:01:14 Peanut butter jelly. Nailed it. Peanut butter jelly. Peanut butter jelly. Peanut butter jelly. Peanut butter jelly in a baseball bat. So the reason I'm dressed as a banana as Benadria Renee today, I also brought my little, my friend Pedro with.
Starting point is 00:01:26 So is because I was streaming recently as part of the Guardian Con, St. Jude's charity, which Fran and the DCP crew also streamed. And one of my incentive bonuses was if somebody donated $1,500, I would dress in full banana and do the entire show for either Games Daily, Games cast, or What's Good Games in the banana suit. So one John Drake donated $1,500 to help the sick kids that St. Jude's Research Hospital benefits. And it was very generous and kind of him to do so. And so he selected the Games cast as the episode that he was. You want me to wear a full banana suit in.
Starting point is 00:02:09 I'm in full banana suit. But Andrea Renee is here. Fantastic. Very, very proud of you. Yeah, exactly. Thanks. It's just all for the kids, you know? That's why you got to watch the show this week.
Starting point is 00:02:17 So if you're just listening, head over. There you go. Now we're a reason to come on over to watch. You know what I mean? That's the thing. This is the time. We know there's more audio listeners. Come on over. Greg.
Starting point is 00:02:25 You ever seen a kid? They're great. Nick Scarfino. Is that a quote from Nick? Beautiful Kids is Kevin. They're great. No, that was Nick as well. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:35 You ever seen a kid as well. people. I like these people. I wish there was a nakedness though. Yeah, it's got to be very uncomfortable. It's got to be hot too. It's hot in this room. Yeah, it's pretty hot.
Starting point is 00:02:43 I'm wearing a dress underneath so lest you think that I'm nude under this. It looks like it just retains heat like crazy. That was a $5,000 donation. It's basically just like a foam shell. Sure. And when you're standing, it doesn't feel bad on your neck. But when you're sitting, it's just like cutties.
Starting point is 00:02:59 You're going to be very uncomfortable. I mean, like the jokes been made, right? Like, you could probably just wear the hat the rest of the show if you want to. I don't know. No, but... What are kids? I think John's going to take his donation back. Yeah, Andrew, why don't you just peel that off?
Starting point is 00:03:12 Oh! Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Kind of Funny Games cast each and every week, four, sometimes three best friends together on this table. Each coming and talk about the video games, they love and appreciate and what's going on and topics of the show and everything you support over at patreon.com
Starting point is 00:03:29 slash kind of funny games, because over there, you can give us topics, you can give us questions, you can be part of the show, You can get the show early like we are streaming it right now live. You can get an ad free on Fridays. You can get it all early, great, perfect on Patreon. But if you have no bucks to toss our way, no big deal.
Starting point is 00:03:48 You can go to YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, roosterteeth.com and podcast services around the globe. Each and every Monday and get the games cast there absolutely free with ads. No pre-your post show like we're doing here. You would have had a whole riveting conversation about egg sandwiches. Yeah. There was other stuff. There was wine during my basketball career. We talked about drinking during shows.
Starting point is 00:04:09 You had a basketball? We talked about the banana song. There's alcohol. The banana phone song. Old Town Road. Lots of stuff happened. Well, let's start this show with housekeeping. Right now there's a brand new party mode up.
Starting point is 00:04:20 It is Apex Legends and I'm pretty sure Andy hates it because everybody plays with sucks. Because I wasn't here. Is that right? You're the. Flapjack wasn't there. Chita Fingers and Milcomi were there. There was a legitimate moment where Kevin's asking me for a lot of things
Starting point is 00:04:36 and he's like, did you ping it? I was like, yeah, I pinged it. I don't see the ping any. And I just went, son of a bitch! And I was like, oh, he was like what? I was like, just look around for Kevin. The other thing I heard is that he took his machine and went, bat, dot, dot, dot, dot, another enemy
Starting point is 00:04:50 and somehow shot all the way around the enemy without ever hitting them. That sounds right. The final match, we got second place. Oh, wow. I had two kills with like 300 damage or something. Nick had like 140 damage, no kills. Kevin, zero kills, zero damage.
Starting point is 00:05:04 Wow. Really impressive. Really impressive. You want to see some e-sports level. Apex Legends, go to YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. Subscribe, pick up party mode there. One second. I forgot that I told a nanobiologist that I would say, look into the camera and say, I'm a banana.
Starting point is 00:05:20 Can we give her? How close is the one on her? It's decent. Okay. There we go. Yeah. This is very vibrant. Shut up.
Starting point is 00:05:27 Yeah. This is very vibrant. I'm a banana. Or maybe another one? I'm a banana. There you go. Is this a reference? No.
Starting point is 00:05:36 He just, he wrote into the, you're wrong, and asked if I would do that and so there you go. Do you have to say anything to anybody? My mom,
Starting point is 00:05:45 what's up? Hold on, do it on the one. See, I'll see you in Texas in a couple weeks. Say, how do you mom?
Starting point is 00:05:51 Say how to start it like fresh, you know. Hey mom. No, don't do it while I'm talking. Hey mom. Miss you so much. Miss you, dad as well.
Starting point is 00:05:58 I see you guys at RTX. Texas forever. Nice. Texas forever. This is what you say to your family. Frandy, do you have any messages on you? That's our sign off.
Starting point is 00:06:07 Good, man. All right, cool. Thank you, our Patreon producers, Daniel Massey and James Hastings. Today, we're rocked to you by Zebbit and Upstart, but we'll tell you about that later. Right now, we're going to start the show with, of course,
Starting point is 00:06:18 what is and forever will be, what you've been playing. By the way, Tim's just out of the, he's got stuff to do, so he's out. He couldn't do it today. He's very sorry. It was the last minute thing. He loves you all very much.
Starting point is 00:06:27 He tells you every show. I think he says it in a creepy way every time. Yeah. Until next time. I love you. It's a weird way to end of video getting a show. I love you. He just let him do his thing. He gets real close to the mic and I love you.
Starting point is 00:06:39 And the funny thing is, is like, he doesn't say he loves you to Gia. He doesn't hug Gia. He doesn't say, I love you on the phone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're big on that, too, that I'll say I love you and you just walk out of the room. Really? Yeah, you hate me. I think about it.
Starting point is 00:06:53 Oh, okay. Andy. Yeah, what's up? Fran. You guys have been playing bloodstained. Ritual of the night. Fran, tell me, what are your thoughts here on this bloodstein? So I've only played for a call it a hot minute.
Starting point is 00:07:06 It's over an hour or something like that. Got all the way through the first big boss, which from what I can tell is just scraping the surface because I have seen a lot of gameplay. My brother plays it. It's just over in the left side of my living room. So I'm seeing like tons of gameplay. But as many of you probably know, it's from Igarashi, right?
Starting point is 00:07:23 Was it a Kickstarter project originally? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it took a while. A long time. Delayed. But man, it's really come through. This was the original creator of like what, Symphony of the Night. Castlevania, Symphony is one of he's super famous for you.
Starting point is 00:07:36 So one of the mainstays of Castlevania. So long story short, that's what you can expect. It's a Metroidvania. It's really cool. It is very classic, though, I'll say. So you definitely got to be looking for Metroidvania, pulling up your map, going to areas that you haven't explored yet. And, you know, from the mechanics side of things,
Starting point is 00:07:55 I guess I didn't know what to expect there. And so, Andy, you know, you can hop in and tell me what's, beyond this, but I hopped in, right, and they just kind of have like your kicking. Sure. And then that's where you start, because very often in Metroidvania-style games, you start with very little. So that made sense, but then you just start opening up a lot of chests, and I noticed you're getting, like, lots of stuff to wear, which increases your defense, and then you're
Starting point is 00:08:15 getting, like, a knife, or you're getting a whip, or you're getting a gun even, and you're getting, like, a lot of weapons. So I don't know how far this goes, but I noticed that was, to me, the biggest surprise of the mechanics. I didn't play, there was an original Bloods team before this, right? Was there one before this? No, before this. What was the thing before this then?
Starting point is 00:08:31 Exactly. Before this, Inti creates put out a 8-bit like, hey, here's this other, you know, that's right, it was 8-bit. Not version of it, but it was in the blessing universe. They're like, we're going to do this in the meantime. Gotcha. So, yeah, anyway, going in, I didn't know what to expect was the point, but it seems like you just pick up a lot of chess, equip a different load out as, you know, your play style.
Starting point is 00:08:51 So I really like it. It's all 2D. The style is super vibrant. Another thing that surprised me. I actually don't love the style. I like the characters and stuff. It's very like anime, but it's also just a very like separated,
Starting point is 00:09:04 super vibrant, Unreal Engine kind of world. So it doesn't look bad or anything. I just thought it was going to be a little more like creepy and more, I don't know, call it stylistic. Andy, you've played a lot more, right? Yeah, I'm a little over 13 hours in. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:09:18 I think the map completion, I'm like at 65% map completion or something like that. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I don't think it's a game without fault. I think that like, a lot of the maneuvering. It relies on a lot of sort of nostalgic game design.
Starting point is 00:09:38 Things that I feel like we've evolved past, but it still sort of harkens back to like I feel like nowadays we should have a forward and a back dash on the same button. It's just directional. But in this case, you have a backstep and then
Starting point is 00:09:53 you have a slide forward. And there are both two separate buttons where you'd rather be like a dodge button you're putting the control on the direction. Yeah, and I'm going that way or whatever. But it's really frustrating to be running towards an enemy, and you might accidentally face the other way, and then you back step towards the enemy instead of, like, away from the attack.
Starting point is 00:10:11 Yeah, even the slide. It's kind of frustrating, yeah. The slide is, like, such an afterthought to me. I don't even, most times I forget I even have the damn slide. And those are, like, some of my main issues with it. Yeah, it's got, like, 90s controls. It is a good way to put it. Is that by design, though, right?
Starting point is 00:10:27 Like, that was Ega's whole thing. when he launched the Kickstarter, was the idea that publishers have told me nobody wants this kind of game anymore and I'm going to prove them different. No, I think that's precisely it. It is for the fans of that Metroidvania. South from the 90s with all of his
Starting point is 00:10:41 touches, you know. Not that you're wrong about it. I saw that you'd be modernized, though, is what I'm saying. Why not have the style of the Metroidvania plus the art style that embodies or is inspired by the original, but with updated control schemes to accommodate for new inputs
Starting point is 00:10:54 that you can get in modern controllers, it just doesn't make sense to me that you would input that just to, like, keep the legacy alive when it very clearly there's been so much more innovation and inputs over the last 10 years. I hear you, but I think there's also the argument to be that I'm Ega, I'm Greg Miller. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, if, I'm Greg and I do a podcast a certain way, right? Now, granted I'm not that guy. But like, I do have, I mean, whatever. I don't know. We, we invented podcasts beyond, right? I just keep ripping it off and doing his different shows, right? You know what you're getting out of a Greg Miller podcast in the same way
Starting point is 00:11:24 you know what you're getting out of an Eag game. Similar how like Mega Man 11, right? No, Inafune, so there's rewindability. Or no, that was the collection, wasn't it? I don't forget that it was 11. But I know where you're going. I know where you're going. I still just disagree. I think you can have the content and the creative embodiment of what it was as a classic retro title
Starting point is 00:11:44 without necessarily needing to say the inputs, the button, the physical buttons you press of the controller are also retro. But it fundamentally changes the gameplay. I actually agree with Greg's sentiment, which is whether, I mean, we would have to ask I like if that was the goal but meaning it is not like high animation fast action tons of you know it's very much it's about it's about as slow as the castlvania game is i don't have a whole lot of experience of the castlevania games but i just like it doesn't it's not the super fast precise platform or anything like that the uh now you can uh remap buttons and things like that which is
Starting point is 00:12:20 kind of neat i put my i believe that back step was originally on l1 on ps4 and i i mapped it to circle just because I feel like more comfortable with that. Anyway, I don't want to focus too much on that. But it sounds like the controls pull you out occasionally. A little bit. Oh, and oh shit. I ran into an area last night where you are underwater. This game has like a hundred
Starting point is 00:12:43 demons, I believe. You said this on kind of funny games daily I was wrongly. I wanted to say it was actually like 160. Okay, there's a fuckload of demons and each one of these demons, if you kill them there are chances that they will drop a shard and the shard like, you know, fucking like, impales in your, like, and you yell or whatever, and, like, you're giving this power now.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Now, whether the, if it's a small enemy, it's usually the power is that you can summon them as a helper that will go, you know, give some damage off or whatever. I got a little... A good dose that floats around. 1207. Okay, so there's a fuckload of demons and holy shit. Which are magical powers.
Starting point is 00:13:22 I swear to Christ, like, some of these demons are just, like nouns and adjectives thrown into a randomizer and they hit randomizer like okay copper toaster guitar woman she's in the game like there's a woman with an electric guitar that just shreds that is awesome and like that creates
Starting point is 00:13:39 there's a fucking puppy's head like a little like kind of labradoodle puppy head that just kind of it's really it's really off putting anyway there's a fuckload of there's a shitload of demons in this game and each one of them gives you an ability and you could sort of
Starting point is 00:13:55 And you can equip, what, a couple at a time? Or it's just... No, you have separate. Yeah, you have separate ability. So one of them is like your R2 can be an attack. I don't really see how they differentiate what can be on your R2 attack
Starting point is 00:14:08 as opposed to what can be on your triangle attack because they are separate, like... It's almost like having your passive is this and your primary is this and maybe your secondary is this. But I think the powers are really cool. They changed a lot of the way you can play the game.
Starting point is 00:14:24 Right now, use this thing called Teps Oseus, and it's just like, if there's a shitload of like small ads in the room or whatever, I hit R2 and an electrical current kind of zaps all them at the same time. Oh, nice. And you can
Starting point is 00:14:39 upgrade those shards as well, and those upgrades come with like, oh, at first the electrical thing only did three a time. Now it could go to four. Now it could go to five enemies or whatever. There's a lot of upgrades. This game's super deep. Gameplay-wise. Yeah, there's a lot of place that all
Starting point is 00:14:54 diversity. It seems. And that's where I didn't get to that. Tons of play-style diversity. I got to a place last night that was very frustrating, though. And hopefully it's one of the only spots that I have to deal with it. But it's underwater. And this whole time I hadn't been able to swim because I hadn't encountered an enemy yet that if you kill it... You learn how to swim.
Starting point is 00:15:11 If you kill it the first time, something may not ever happen. But if you leave, you come back, you kill it again. Nothing ever happens. This is a random chance? It's random chance, yeah. Odds are you get it fairly quickly. But I ended up killing this little squid last night that gave me the ability to
Starting point is 00:15:26 She essentially like aims her arm In the direction that you push water out And then you flow through the The really frustrating thing about this part of the game And holy shit I was not happy with this choice at all Is that Suddenly you are asked to Sort of precisely maneuver underwater
Starting point is 00:15:48 But the controls are inverted So if Why though? I have to aim top left for me to go bottom right. No, I hate that. And I'm like pushing myself around. And it's whatever if I'm just like kind of trying to avoid enemies sometimes. Because then when you stop pointing and you want to attack the enemy, you start floating up.
Starting point is 00:16:09 And that's kind of annoying. But then I got to a part where there are spikes in the water that are like shooting out and attacking me. Yeah to dodge it. And sure, I could be more patient and precise. I was like, this just doesn't feel good. This is a really bad choice. And that's one of that's probably my major drive. I think the game's super fun though.
Starting point is 00:16:28 It is addicting. You get into that thing where now I have a double jump. Let me go back to all those spots. I couldn't double jump. You're classic Metroidvania shit. I have, there's other parts earlier in the game where you unlock, you unlock a power to sort of reflect your,
Starting point is 00:16:44 like you shoot a laser out. Oh, cool. Your R2 is like this directional thing where your arm just moves. You use the R analog stick to actually aim your arm. Like you could, for example, have a firepower. You light a fuse on a cannon with it, or you aim your arm at a door to open it. You shoot like a water power, whatever the fuck.
Starting point is 00:17:01 But one of them is a reflector ray where you, it shows like a guiding laser, and if it hits the ceiling and the ground, there are spaces you couldn't go through before, but now you can do-do-do-do-do-d-d-d-and then reflect into there. I think it's a lot of fun. I do think the game's kind of ugly in a lot of parts. The art style is a little weird, huh?
Starting point is 00:17:24 And it's not a lot of people in my chat were asking me like, do you think it's just the 2.5D? I don't think it's 2.5D. I think it's fine that it's 2.5D. I don't have problems with that style. That was one of the big things about it coming out, right? I'm not coming out. I mean, the announcement that Ego wanted,
Starting point is 00:17:40 if I remember this correctly, to make it look more like Castlevania, obviously, with like the 3D character model, or you know what I mean, the model does, I look there. But he was like, it's just too expensive to do with that. So it's easier to do this and this is how it's going to be. You create a model and you animated from there as opposed to animating frame by frame by frame by frame. It's obviously a lot more efficient.
Starting point is 00:18:01 But I don't have a problem with the fact that it's 2.5D. I just think a lot of the background art, there's some moments where you're walking and there's a castle in the background. Kind of like you're very prototypical. You see the castle with the moon or whatever the fuck. You can go there. But it's like add some depth of feel or something. Like this looks like a really low poly model. the background. There's a lot of
Starting point is 00:18:23 background areas and just environment art in general that don't look good. I think the lighting is really bizarre. Yeah. There's a lot like I think of a game like Hollow Night that has such beautiful sort of mood lighting and some parts are darker and that's fine but I feel like this game felt the need to just
Starting point is 00:18:39 be bright everywhere. Very clean and vibrant all around exactly. It's a little too clean and bright. When I glanced at it it, it reminds me a lot and I started it played for two seconds because I was testing something so I haven't got it and then I was waiting for the switch. version which I installed, but then Switch has got all these problems with loading and whatever.
Starting point is 00:18:55 Yeah, I've got all that. Performance issues. Glancing at it, the art style has always reminded me and stick with me. Way forward, Chante, like, you know, like that animated cartoon thing, right? But in that, it works regardless for either game, but like, Chanty always was like, it's a cartoon, that's how it should look. Like, you know what I mean? Whereas this one, it always has been this juxtaposition of, it's
Starting point is 00:19:14 clearly trying to be a modern Castlevania and have that aesthetic to it, but then it looks more like that. And I was like, that's an interesting mix. Yeah, I mean, honestly, for a game called Bloodstained, and it's not based on anything, is it? No. Yeah, so for something called... BTW, everybody, we heard you last week.
Starting point is 00:19:29 We're aware, Cyberpunk 2077 is based on Cyberpunk. Yes, yeah, that's right. Directions. But meaning for something called Bloodstained, it does not look how you'd think. Yeah, it's very clean, shiny, vibrant, and also on the 2.5D comment, just so people fully understand. The rendering, everything's in 3D, but it's 2D, left to right gameplay style. but just in case they thought it was like Super Mario 3D World
Starting point is 00:19:54 which sometimes people think of as the 2.5 but anyway but I do like it yeah I think the game is really really good though if you're looking for that style of gameplay and especially someone who has a mastery of designing games like that I think that's what it overall delivers on but it
Starting point is 00:20:09 like you said it's not without fault and I've only played for an hour but some things do feel a bit too archaic at times but the amount of playstyle that that did surprise me I was like holy god you know quip at any time, so many different things in the middle of combat too. You're like, you're using a weapon, you're like, I'll stop, I'm going to use this giant
Starting point is 00:20:25 claymore, I'll stop, I'll use this, and also the magic replenishes really fast, I notice. And that, they're encouraging to use your powers a lot, which I actually really liked. I thought it was going to be, that I thought might be moral school where you barely ever get to use it. And it's not that, it's pretty often. Yeah, very forward.
Starting point is 00:20:41 So I think if you're looking for that type of game, I like it, but it's probably in that 7 to 8, 5 range. Like, I don't know without playing it, but you really need to be looking. for that. Here are my two questions. I think one for just Andy and then one for the entire table. Andy for you, why this? Are you surprised?
Starting point is 00:20:57 You like this? You don't have an experience with Castlevania before you were saying? I mean, I just, it was a game that I rented a couple times. It wasn't anything that I ever like sat down and wanted, it wasn't like my Mega Man back in the day, you know? I just, I know that I love Metroidvania's. Okay. And so I was like, sure, I'll
Starting point is 00:21:13 play the... Are you surprised? This one clicked? Yeah. Actually, I am. Yeah. I do think the design is, you know, very smart. I do feel, though, however, like playing Axi and Verge several years ago, where Axi and Verge, I think, I think kind of
Starting point is 00:21:27 was an evolved version of the classic Moritreutovina, where you go back to certain areas and now these enemies can be affected by this other power you have that wasn't available before. I feel like there's not any of that yet. Okay.
Starting point is 00:21:43 Where everything is still, you hit the thing and it dies. But I do remember moments in Axi and Verge being like, holy shit, that's smart. I haven't really had a whole lot of moments like that yet in Bloodstained yet. It's mostly like level accessibility. It's mostly level accessibility.
Starting point is 00:21:56 It's not enemies that you couldn't like. Correct. Yeah. Interesting. And then the question for the table, Andrea Renee, will start with you. Are you surprised this game's good and is being critically well received? No, I'm not. I'm not surprised that it's good and that it's being well received.
Starting point is 00:22:12 I think a game like this is set up for success because video game media loves classic retro-inspired thing. Sure. Especially something as classic as a Castlevania game, right? So I think I'm really excited to hear that it's good because I feel like we've seen some of these Kickstarter
Starting point is 00:22:29 games. Mighty number nine. Right. Mighty number nine is the unfortunate poster child for something that people had a lot of high hopes for for really reinvigorating a classic style from a gigantic creator that just really fell on its face. And thankfully this hasn't. Obviously there, you know, there's
Starting point is 00:22:46 having a couple hiccups that launch like almost every video game does. Sure. And like we were talking about yesterday, the hiccup being Switch, right? Like it's got all these loading problems. Well, and that game breaking bug right when it launched, right? Well, the delay also the input delays also Yeah, the input delay, uh,
Starting point is 00:23:01 Jeff Grubb fucking sucks. Jeff Grub uh, switch? Yeah, Jeff Grub showed that on he, like, they were testing out between PC and Switch that Switch that Switch has three times the input delay where like it shows in slow-mo, the button being pushed and then the PC character
Starting point is 00:23:17 jumps and the switch characters way later. Oh yeah, I saw that video going around too. I mean, that to me is something that's fixable, right? I think what I'm glad to hear is that Bloodston doesn't have like overerking gameplay design flaws
Starting point is 00:23:33 that make the game itself broken that you can't fix it. Like some of the issues that Greg and I had with days gone, for example. Weren't about input controls or leg or a bug. They were about like design choices overall. in the game that we just weren't fans of,
Starting point is 00:23:50 and it sounds like Bloodstain doesn't have that? I think it's really good thing. I think it's really good. I was going to mention something about the game release. I'm thinking. The question stems from, I am surprised that it turned out good. Me too, because of my own.
Starting point is 00:24:05 Yeah, my number nine part of it, but also just the fact that, and this is, again, I'm not, this isn't my kind of game. I like a Metroidvania occasionally, but it's rare. Thank you. Metroid's my favorite franchise. That's why I said that.
Starting point is 00:24:15 I know. And they're just not good, usually. You know what I mean? Yeah, I don't play much like Or Casabana games, really Metridan games. Anyway, it was the idea that yeah, I mean, I remember like it being a huge deal
Starting point is 00:24:26 when Ega came to the original kind of funny spare bedroom, right? In 2015 and like Colin got to talk to him and all this stuff. Very normal. And Aaron from Game Grumps. Huh? Aaron from Game Grumps was there, too.
Starting point is 00:24:36 I remember that video. That's not right. They bring his hat and everything. Oh, oh, here's what I was going to mention. I still wasn't done. Oh, sorry, go. And then it was the fact that it's just been going on so long. And I was confused as well,
Starting point is 00:24:47 when Inti creates put out the 8-bit one. I was like, wait, what's going on? I remember Jared being all excited about it. And then I felt like literally I was having a conversation with somebody, I guess, this just came out this week or last week, this week, right? This week on Switch, last week. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:59 Last week for anything else. And so it was at E3 where I was having a conversation, maybe with Easy Allies, I think. And they mentioned, oh, yeah, but one, it's out. And I was like, it's out. And I didn't even hear anything about this. Like, I thought I was like, that doesn't sound like it's going to actually line up the way of shit.
Starting point is 00:25:11 Yeah, because we're used to when it's like radio silence. Yeah, that it's probably, you know, might be mixed reception or just bad. What did you remember? It does show you though that the like, again, this game can be kind of unoptimized where I'm running on a PS4 Pro and there are still moments every once in a while where I kill an enemy and boom, freeze frame. And then the animation happens.
Starting point is 00:25:33 Like there are like kind of some massive frame drops here and there. Nothing game breaking. But it's, it's surprising to me given the really not super graphical intense style of this game. just goes I think that's just mostly because it's a smaller studio working on an indie game where there's tons of times where we play a very small indie game on party mode it's like this was made in unity or whatever by five people and we're still having frame rate issues not because it's like graphically you know insane or whatever it's just not very optimized yeah worth pointing out in the same vein too you can if you have bloodstained at home and when you start a new game put
Starting point is 00:26:12 Team Fat in all caps, one word, and you'll unlock the kind of funny logo to play as a character's face. Awesome. I, that was what I was testing, and I haven't promoted it because it almost gave me like a seizure. Like, it's like, when you go into cut scenes, it flashes, and Jen was like, what the fuck is going on? I'm like, I don't know. So I wrote an email. I don't know if it's been fixed. You had something else to say that?
Starting point is 00:26:34 I just want to say, yeah, the real crying shame about this is, so this is personal to me, I guess, but I play games. when I'm in a mood. In other words, there's certain games that I really want to play on Switch when I'm on to play. That's just the way that gaming has evolved for me. And unfortunately, spend most of my time in front of my PC streaming or playing games there.
Starting point is 00:26:52 What a nerd. Grinding out games like Destiny, Division II, anything in that world. I also like highly cinematic games like Last of Us, Days Gone, God of War, all that stuff. So anyway, my point is, this game is perfect for Switch. It is like, in my opinion, it is exactly what I want. I'm a huge fan of Super Metroid and Metroid and Castlevania.
Starting point is 00:27:12 Symphony of the Night, all of that. And so I would love to bring this on a plane. So when I heard that it does not perform well, one, that's why I was like, well, I'll just play it on PC because I want the best experience. But if they fixed it up on Switch and you have a Switch, I think it's going to be a top game this year when you really like look.
Starting point is 00:27:29 I mean, Grant, there's a ton of games. I have to think about it. But I feel like it's going to fit into a category of like you should get this on Switch. And it's one of those two. Like I, you know, Gary and I talked about on Games Daily this week. I think it's telling that they want to fix these problems, the fact that they had a statement out the date after the switch was released.
Starting point is 00:27:45 I was just like, hey, we hear you, we see you, we're not going to wait for a giant patch, we're going to do much of little ones, we're working on it. Now, granted, they've been working on the game. Clearly they knew something was wrong, blah, blah, blah. I don't know how much rope you want to give them, but it was at least they're communicating, which so many people are terrible at doing these days. Yeah. But anyway, I don't know if that makes sense, but I feel like on that platform,
Starting point is 00:28:02 it would give me a lot more joy because I'm playing it in like 20-minute stance, 40-minute stance and I'm flying, who knows. And I think it's great for that. But in front of my PC, I'll be honest. I was playing it for a while. And I was like, yeah, I was like, I like, I like, I like, I love this, but it's very archaic. And, again, there's nothing wrong with that. I love those types of games, but I can't play them in my PC.
Starting point is 00:28:19 Or even in my living room, I don't think, like, I'm just rather play. No, auto save. No, no, save. You have to run into the rooms to save the game. Yeah, it's true. No, thanks. You're punished. I'll say one thing I really don't like is that the, and this is clearly just a design choice
Starting point is 00:28:35 where they could have done it a certain way that I would have preferred, where there are save rooms. and there are fast travel rooms. They are not one and the same. And I think that's really dumb. Like the fact that... They have fast travel rooms? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:48 You can find a separate fast travel room. But if I get to a spot and I save it, it's like, fuck, I have to go back up there. Classic games. You wanted it and you got it. Unless there's a fast travel. Maybe there's one in the room kind of near me, but that's the closest one I know of.
Starting point is 00:29:04 I don't want to risk going that way. Let me go all the way back to... If you die, fuck it. You're back to your save room or whatever. but I really think that those should have been one and the same. Just, you know. You should save more forehead. I do.
Starting point is 00:29:16 You got to, it's true that it teaches you really fast. Wait, what did you say? Sorry, it's a Twitch thing. It's a Twitch thing. It's a Twitch thing. It's a thing. It's a good.
Starting point is 00:29:23 I should have done that. Moncas, yeah, exactly. But anyway, it is very hard as you said. These kids, these Gary Woodens running around. Streaming of his storm. No. I didn't watch games daily, but I was watching Gary's stream. And he was like, yeah, Greg Miller got me good when he was like,
Starting point is 00:29:40 So Gary's streaming, and speaking of another senior citizen that's streaming, Bernie Sanders. That's a good one. You got his bitch ass. Andy, not only are you playing this classic, you know, inspired classic game, Bloodstain. You're also playing the brand new Outer Wilds. Yeah, I beat Outer Wilds. Kind of around when we started getting going with E3, so it kind of just got lost in the shuffle, I feel. But yeah, I played and beat Outer Wilds over maybe a week or something like that, a couple hours.
Starting point is 00:30:10 here and there, a couple hours here and there. Do you feel it deserves, it's deserved all the praise it's getting. It is one of, it is, I've been wanting to play this. It's probably my game of the year. Really? Like, at first I kept thinking Apex is my game of the year. Similar to how like when Overwatch was out that year, that was my
Starting point is 00:30:26 game that I just could not put down. And I felt the same way about Apex. But I think Outer Wild is my game of the year right now. It is it is so challenging. It throws away, it is, it does not hold your hand at all. You're going to work for a lot of these puzzles where it's context clues.
Starting point is 00:30:45 There's a moment where there's a moment where you have to, there's sand being pulled from your planet to another planet. And if you get caught in the sand vortex, you shoot up. But you notice on the ground where the sand moves over, there's a guy on the ground. And he hasn't been shot up by the sand. So what's going on here? Oh, he's underneath the bridge. If I sand underneath the bridge, I won't get sucked up.
Starting point is 00:31:08 that means that I can do this. It's like so, it reminds you of when people played the witness and they were all up on that, like it is problem solving, but tied with this fantastic narrative that you can kind of discover as you play. You're not going to play it
Starting point is 00:31:26 kind of in the same order than anybody else would. You are discovering this mystery about the universe and its demise and its past. But I have, the feelings that I had watching Interstellar in a movie theater you're getting with this game
Starting point is 00:31:44 a million times I've had this feeling in this game I was talking I forgot who I was talking to I think it might have been Gary Widow or I was like no it was Daniel O'Dwyer I was like I have felt every emotion playing this game and at times all of them at the same time like I'm scared but I'm excited and I'm
Starting point is 00:32:00 like there's my tears in my eyes like this game's fucking incredible dude so not to interrupt but to maybe give people some context for what the Outer Wilds is for people who are like, I don't know, that's that game that Obsidian's making, right? That's Outer World.
Starting point is 00:32:15 Yeah, so, unfortunately, they're both releasing in the same year. But, so people understand, how would you describe what the game of the Outer Wilds is? The game of Outer Wilds is a, it's on GamePass now, so if you have Game Pass, it's free on Game Pass if you
Starting point is 00:32:30 already are a subscriber or whatever. Outer Wild is very much like a groundhog day game where at a certain time period, you'll start at the beginning, and you have to keep on discovering. It's a space exploration, sort of a sci-fi narrative, but it's not, a lot of people immediately think it's like no man sky,
Starting point is 00:32:54 where it's like millions of planets. It's not procedurally generated. No, no, no. This is a, you're in a contained solar system with, I think, like, eight or nine planets or something like that. And you are this sort of space-faring race of creatures. that are on it, you're not human, you're just kind of on this planet with a bunch of other, like, kind of cartoon-y-looking aliens.
Starting point is 00:33:15 And, uh, you are going to go, uh, explore space. And there are other astronauts just like you who have already gone out. And you have to kind of seek them out, find out what they've figured out, and learn as you go. And it is, uh, again, it is not a game that hand holds. You're not going to get fucking, uh, waypoints telling you where to go. There's no, the clues are all things that you just. read in the world. There's, you're essentially, you're learning about the prior race before you that kind of
Starting point is 00:33:45 laid this foundation. This was like several hundred thousand years ago, I believe, or 50,000 years ago or something. Because like most video games, you start this one. No one's 100% sure what's going on. And you're special, right? I've played through the intro a couple times. And you walk, like, when you leave, you know, you're getting ready to take off. You have to do these little things before you can.
Starting point is 00:34:02 And on your way back to your spaceship, right? There's like a sacred monument that speaks to you. And you turn to the other people. Like, did you see that? Like, no one's ever been spoken too much. Yeah, they're like, what are you talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, as you are sort of discovering how that happened to you and why that happened to you,
Starting point is 00:34:16 you are also learning about your solar system that you live in and the people that were there before you, the explorers that were there before you, their technology, what they're working on, it's so fascinating. I can't recommend this game more. I think it's all first person. It's all first person, yeah. I think a lot of people I've noticed. And you can roast marshmallows.
Starting point is 00:34:37 You can roast marshmallows, yeah. And people have kind of like told me that they were put off by the flight controls. I had problems with the flight controls like fairly just in the beginning. I didn't really continue to have those issues. Sounds like it's complex enough to get a lot. I didn't enjoy the flight controls when I played. But I think that's one thing that you just have to spend time practicing. Yeah, you just get used to it.
Starting point is 00:34:58 Like any new traversal mechanic in a game that's different, you know, you just got to practice. That's been my experience with it is that Judges Week last year we played it. Then there was an, when I went to do Sinar Wild Hearts around GDC time, they had it. And I played it again. And both those times that it was just from the start, like, go ahead and play. And the intro did not click for me. And so when it actually launched, launched, I was like, I got to try this. I have game pass.
Starting point is 00:35:21 Boot it up, turned it on, jumped in and didn't get much further. It was like, all, all, cool. I'm off the planet. I'm going. I've landed on this one planet. It's pretty much all water. I bumped into something. I'm in the water.
Starting point is 00:35:29 I couldn't get out. I was like, all right, this isn't. And like, you're saying, there's no handholding. And like you were saying a second ago about what mood you need to be in frame. Like I was like, I am not in this mood. I am not in the mood to get my teeth kicked in until I figure out how to do this. It's like I hate to put people off in this game, but it's sort of like recommending somebody watch a 12-hour documentary on JFK or something. Yikes.
Starting point is 00:35:52 You're not just going to sit down and experience a super fast episode of the office that's like bang, bang, bang, comedy, comedy. It pulls you in. It's something you have to sit down and experience and learn and immerse yourself. and immerse yourself. It's the type of game that when I beat it I immediately went to the subreddit and just read on everything I could
Starting point is 00:36:10 and I just wanted to learn more and if there's stuff I missed there's a bunch of different endings the... Do you say I should just read the subreddit? Got it. No, no, no. The feelings you get from
Starting point is 00:36:22 not only what's happening in the game but paired with the soundtrack the soundtrack is available on Spotify, it is fucking great. Hans Zimmer to do it? It feels like it because there's a lot of... There's a lot of those moments where you have these sort of powerful things that are happening on the screen.
Starting point is 00:36:40 And the amplifier with the organs. It's beautiful, dude. Sounds like they caught some inspiration then from Interstellar. I got all of those vibes where you're watching Intercellar and everything's super loud and you're scared. Andrew Prawl. Contact, by the way. The original. I tweeted him and I was like, you made one of my favorite soundtracks ever.
Starting point is 00:36:58 Thank you for this. He's like, I love party mode. So at one point, you're in tears and you're. said, they should have sent a poet. It's a contact reference. Oh, contact. Got to watch contact. It's got some really cheesy but awesome moments.
Starting point is 00:37:10 Contact is a great movie. Anyway, Outer Wilde, I cannot recommend it more. Please play it. It started off as a student project in 2013 or something like that. And then it just, you know, enough people liked it to wear, I guess, Microsoft or whoever, you know, published it and built a team around them. Anapurna. Anapurna. There you go, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:29 I think I might be checking this out on Frann Friday. Oh, Fray Friday. I just look for something new to play and like it's been sitting in my epic store. I'll talk about a double promotion. But it's been in the epic store and I've been wanting to play it and I have access to it now. An open world mystery game about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop. Yeah. Yeah, because you have a set amount of time and then you go back to the beginning.
Starting point is 00:37:48 You have to do everything over again. It's very similar to like that. You're, you start hearing the music pop up. Really? And you're like, oh shit. It's almost time. How much time you have? 22 minutes.
Starting point is 00:38:01 It does none of the stuff you do is carries over, right? I gotta check this out. Yeah, yeah, like if well... But you're building things in the world or changing things in the world that are there in an explicit. You are learning. You're learning, you are sort of collecting knowledge. Yeah, your
Starting point is 00:38:17 character remembers. You go back to your ship. It's like happy death day or happy death day to you. Sure. Where you remember everything when you restart the day. You have this sort of clue thing on your ship that looks like, it kind of just looks like, you know, there's information here and it's all tied together and eventually it all starts tying and yeah it's so how many hours
Starting point is 00:38:36 would you estimate it might be um i'd say maybe close to 20 or 15 so it's not like a 60 hour i mean maybe not even that maybe not even that long that's the thing there's so many you can forego a lot of things in this game and maybe fast track it i don't know how long that would take if that's possible but the game is so weird because you're not exploring it the same way you're not learning this knowledge the same way that anybody else is playing it is learning it it's If I go to this planet first, I'm going to learn stuff there that you might not know because you went to that place first and shit like that. And you're kind of piecing this puzzle together. Cool.
Starting point is 00:39:10 It's awesome. It's incredible, dude. Speaking of incredible things, ladies and gentlemen, I had a dream come true where we travel a lot, Fran, as you know. Not you so much anymore. You're part of your PC being a huge door. Sometimes. Me and Andrea travel a lot. You know what I'm talking about?
Starting point is 00:39:25 Yeah, it's true. You're going to Texas. Getting ostracized here. Yeah, you are not. I want to turn around you. But I have a conversation with Tim the other. day on our trip back from E3, you're right?
Starting point is 00:39:35 And I was just like, man, it just sucks right now. And I was holding my switch of like, I have so many games on the switch, but none of them are what I want right now. We're talking about moods, right? Where I kept talking about, I want Ultimate Alliance right now. I just want to run around and smash the hell out of stuff. I don't have Ultimate Alliance.
Starting point is 00:39:51 That's not where the story is going. But I was looking for something to kind of be obsessed with on the switch, right? And it happened, not once, but twice, Andy. Since then, since I guess last games cast really where we got a million press releases as everybody knows one of them that dropped in my inbox the other day was for dandy dungeon have you heard of dandy dungeon uh it was a goofy enough name right where i was like what the hell is dandy dungeon and i scrolled down this is what sold me on
Starting point is 00:40:18 it d dungeon is a story driven romantic comedy rogue light RPG which fuses retrovisuals with modern ideas and features an amazing soundtrack which layers together chip tunes and the humming of the main character himself. Lute procedurally generated dungeons, transform your weapons into legendary blades, collect dandy armor sets and catalog monsters in your quest for love. This is a solid description.
Starting point is 00:40:40 And I was like, immediately, reply, yeah, I'd like a code for this. And I got it, totally expecting. I get codes for a whole bunch of stuff on Switch that I pop in. I play for a while. I'm like, okay, cool. I can talk about a games cast, or this isn't for me, and I move on to the next thing.
Starting point is 00:40:53 Jumped into this one, and it immediately just started checking all the boxes of what I want at this moment, right? Where it is, the idea, here is that you are the full title right i don't have it i pull it over here is it's dandy dungeon legend of brave yamata and the idea is that you are yamata son you are a japanese programmer you are 36 you live alone you live alone yeah right yeah he looks a lot like mario yeah as a character too you live alone and you program at the like basically their nintendo the biggest thing right
Starting point is 00:41:23 and you decide you're he decides he wants to start making his own game right and so he starts just working on it at his computer and then you go in and play test the levels right and you go in and you debug the system and this whole thing starts to evolve of this you know cute girl moves in next door so he's like he falls in love with her he puts her in the game as the princess
Starting point is 00:41:42 now the game changes from just going through the dungeons to getting loose to trying to save the princess right and like then you know his this owl happens very early and it's not a story driven game his the CEO of the publisher comes in is just like you're not coming to work anymore you're fired right so now he's the he's the evil
Starting point is 00:41:58 guy in the game. And your mom's so proud of you that she's sending you new mini levels to play to put into your thing and do this. But what gets crazy about it, right, is that... Her husband comes and kills you. Kills you. No, is that the gameplay isn't turn-based. It isn't an action strategy or anything like that. It's, you go into it. I should point out that this is new to switch as of today, as of the recording. However, it was a mobile game. So it's got that vertical thing, you know, layout. Now they've put a whole bunch of stuff on the sides of of it. But what happens is the gameplay of playing through the dungeons isn't going in and fighting them like with making those choices. It's tracing lines on the map to like it's a tiled square
Starting point is 00:42:38 as I'm sure Andrew is seeing right now. And you trace your path from the start of it. Barrett, if you want to bring it up, a dandy dungeon. You trace your path from the start to the goal. And the idea is that you want to touch every one of the tiles to get a bonus and get more gold to come out of. But you can also skip it, but then you, every, every empty square you leave, open, gives you a hit point, or takes away
Starting point is 00:43:01 hit point, I should say, you get damaged. So as you go through and start doing this, it'll say, if you scroll down, there's a video. There's five,
Starting point is 00:43:07 I had to work on other stuff. There's five stages, five levels to a stage, right? So you have to get clear through them. As your, as a Yamada son, the character is going,
Starting point is 00:43:16 you know, the video game character is going and runs into enemies, he'll start attacking them. You don't choose the attacks. You see it going on there. You'll unlock special abilities. You'll have on a little thing
Starting point is 00:43:25 that you can deploy. You can deploy a heel. You can deploy a, fireball. You can do all these different things. However, it is about like, number one, a maze. There's a timer. There's penalties if you take too long. But then it is monitoring him on his path of, oh, I didn't see this guy and he's shooting me from a few tiles away. I need to wash my health or I need to make a move beforehand. Like, it's way more complex than I think I initially thought it was going to be. And it's what kept me, keeps me coming back to it throughout this Quebec trip of like,
Starting point is 00:43:51 this is so weird. Like, like, they talk about him humming over the chip tunes. Like, when you do it, it's like the Chip Tooney background but it is him going, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da you know what I mean? It's this really interesting bizarre, like absurd game.
Starting point is 00:44:08 Yeah, I was looking at it and it looks like the, so is it always in dungeons? Yeah, so it looks like it's actually so the character and stuff is almost like Mario-esque like you work in Nintendo but you're Mario but the game and the font right is like
Starting point is 00:44:21 Dragon Warrior Dragon Quest stuff. Yeah, Dragon Quest yeah, exactly. Dandy dungeon looks exactly like that. It's got slimes and stuff So it seems like that's the inspiration for the dungeon. And so as you see here, like, this is where the rogue light stuff comes in. As you go through, you start, if you clear the level, you bring your treasure back out. You can go back in and replay for bonuses and stars to get more stuff.
Starting point is 00:44:38 But you bring the gear sets out and then you can level them up with your gold. You can take other stuff and infuse them in to make the thing stronger. The chef outfit comes with a different bonus than say the, I think it's a chauffeur outfit with his little. It's super weird and it looks goofy and it's so much fun. It's just a cool idea. And at first, when I boot it up, it was like, oh, I didn't realize it's a cell phone game. You know what I mean? But in playing it, it's so much deeper than I gave her credit for.
Starting point is 00:45:05 And if Pear Schneider is playing it as well, you know, it's good. I see him on the leaderboards. I see him on the leaderboards. Oh, I saw you tweeted him about this. Yeah, right, yeah, yeah. So yeah, Dandy Dungeon, Legend of Brave Yamada now on Switch. Again, that's already out on phones, I guess. Totally gets a seal of approval.
Starting point is 00:45:21 A lot of fun. I really enjoyed what I'm playing of it. And I was going ham on it. having a great time in Quebec. That was the game I was playing down there, right? Having a good time. Then I went to the kind of funny subreddit, Fran. Oh.
Starting point is 00:45:34 And I said a lot of people... Wait, you're going to say, way to do a new thing? Huh? Yeah. Do you have more questions about that? Oh, please do. Oh, my God, please. It was just a very fast and notable, notable point that we don't really cover mobile.
Starting point is 00:45:46 It's hard to tackle and I'm on a thread with all these ex-Apple guys and, you know, I can't tell you how much. Like, for all we know, the commentary I usually hear, Yeah, that game's two years old. And there's literally 100,000 other games that are better than that, that you should play right now on mobile. So I think, like, it's a good reminder that you're liking this game. Where were we when this came out?
Starting point is 00:46:07 Why didn't we just play it on our phone? Like, it's still this mood and this gap of us that we have the bridge. I know this. And I'm like, I don't have time. I feel like I don't have time for it on my phone. You know what I love this discussion. No, totally. I'm with you that I know there's so many amazing games on mobile devices.
Starting point is 00:46:21 But again, for me, it's the buttons and the tactile nature of a switch of a control. I prefer it too. That I just, and what you're talking about is 100% true of discovery. Like, and don't be wrong, those sites exist. Those resources and podcasts exist. But I have more games than I'll ever play right now. Only worried about three consoles, let alone PC, let alone mobile. VR, I'm not even counting.
Starting point is 00:46:43 I think you nailed it with the we haven't, or no, we've tried. We've obviously played mobile games. Like, we prefer the tactile input of a, see, I use the term like real. And I'm telling you, I'm on the thread with these guys. And they'll be like, oh, yeah, you're, like a baby. This is what everybody's playing now on touch, you know, use your touchscreen. You don't need buttons, but I prefer that style
Starting point is 00:47:02 and it just is, yeah, it's the mood and the feel of it. And that was the thing, like, for the record with Brave Yamada here, D&D Dungeon. I played on the flight and then for a while at Jen's parents and it must have been three hours in.
Starting point is 00:47:18 You played three hours straight at this game? Oh, well, no, I mean, over a couple days. But it must must have been three hours in before I was like, wait. And I started tracing the line on the screen with my finger. And I was like... You realize you could just use your touch screen. This is so...
Starting point is 00:47:31 This is clearly how it was designed. I'm navigating so much faster than moving like the Final Fantasy white gloved hand around and sticking it. And I was like... Kind of, yeah, demonstrates the exact problem. I'll tell you why I also just can't play on mobile and I don't really have a tab with that I use.
Starting point is 00:47:46 There's so much other distraction. Like, I'm getting a text message. Frankly, I'm so trained to like check Twitter every like five minutes. If I'm on my phone, I'm just going to cancel the game for like a minute. minute and I'm like it's a terrible experience. What I, in the same, we just did a PlayStation VR show today.
Starting point is 00:48:01 Remember, patreon.com slash kind of funny games. You can watch Kevin and I record them live before months from now when they're out on YouTube. The thing about I love about VR, I think speaks to playing Switch on a plane. It is the idea that with VR, and I'm in that world. And I can't look at my phone. I can't do this thing. I can't worry about anything else. In the same way, when I'm on a plane right and the switch is on, cool.
Starting point is 00:48:21 I'm not going to have, I don't have that distraction of what's going on my phone. You can't go walk porty. Exactly, right? You get to, I mean, I remember when we, when the switch came out and then Zelda obviously came out. And then what? It was like later that week or a couple, maybe eight, two weeks later, we went to Pax. And it was so it was a cross-country flight. And like that, I'll never forget landing in Boston and being like, that felt like it was an hour.
Starting point is 00:48:45 I played Scott, I played Zelda the entire way, right? I played Breath of the Watt. Yeah, you didn't wear it down. And it was like, exactly. It was like the time just was gone. That's such an awesome experience. Yeah. Similar to the game I want to talk about.
Starting point is 00:48:55 now, which again, I was so happy to have Yamada's story happening. And I was like, good. A Switch game that I'm all invested on, this is cool. But I still find I can put it down every so often, you know what I mean? Mobile games, mobile tendency, maybe. I went to the subreddit while I was in Quebec and found Katie from Greg's comic book club. You all know her well, I'm sure. She had posted over there, Moonlighter.
Starting point is 00:49:15 A Greg Miller Asked Rogue Like on Switch. Can anyone remember if any of the guys tried or talked about a game Moonlighter when it came out a year ago? Just started on Game Pass, but it's also on PlayStation 4 and Switch. I was like, I never heard of this. I read her description.
Starting point is 00:49:30 I went and got it and you want to talk about how much. Yamada, great. This is a game like literally I came in from playing it on the flight home, walked in, put it in the dock, grab a controller, and kept playing it there. Couldn't peel yourself away. Again, Fran Mirabella. Beautiful art style.
Starting point is 00:49:44 I'm pitching it to you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The idea here is that, don't play anything yet, though. Let me explain it. Yeah, yeah. The idea here, right, is that it's another rogue light. It's action RPG. This time you are actually making the decisions, right?
Starting point is 00:49:55 Right, but you go into procedurally generated dungeons at night. You go in there, you fight the, you know, the slimes, the things that are shooting. You'll see the second. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, yeah, like, I really liked Hades as an example. Yeah, it's like that. Yeah, you know it. Top down.
Starting point is 00:50:08 Exactly. So you go in there, you beat these guys up. You fill your inventory with stuff and then you get out. Or, you know, you push further like a Spalunkie or any other dungeon crawler, whatever you want to say. You come back out to the village, right? You go back to your house and then a new day begins. It's daytime.
Starting point is 00:50:23 And then, Fran, you sell the stuff. you earned in the dungeon. Because who you are in this game isn't the adventurer. You are the merchant in town who moonlights as an adventure. Oh, that's cool. And so you come back in here and the dates, like the combat is fun. It's all that different jazz you'd expect from that kind of gameplay. You come back in and then you do a business simulator where you go and you take your items
Starting point is 00:50:47 and like what I'm doing right now is I'm building towards specific gear sets, right? So I've wish list everything I need. You wish list the thing. Then my inventory shows if I actually need it for what I'm working. on. So when I come back out of a dungeon, I have all the stuff that I don't need for the projects I'm working on. And so I know I'm going to sell all of that. I put it on the table. I set the prices. Then I, then people come in. People and down. People come in. They look at it. And it's like a emoticum comes up over their head of like dot, dot, dot. Then it's either a
Starting point is 00:51:12 smiley face, they like, this begrudging smiley face where it's like, just a little too much, but I'll pay for it. A frowny face, they won't pay for it. And then there's one of the other side of the spectrum that's gold for eyes. It's like, this guy's an idiot and he's something away too cheap. And so you start playing this business. now of, man, I didn't know what that was, and I sold it way too cheap.
Starting point is 00:51:30 So if a hundred's too cheap is 500, you know, you start playing with the economy. And then it shows the popularity of the item. You can flood the market with too much of the stuff,
Starting point is 00:51:38 so then your prices go down and they don't care as much. Then you're earning this money that you then take back out. You can upgrade the town, bring in a blacksmith, bring in a guy who, oh, you don't want to find random stuff,
Starting point is 00:51:48 like I'll sell specific stuff. Then it's, you can upgrade your own shop, make your shop bigger, you can sell more, you've sale tables. How much of it is playing in the dungeon and fighting things and how much is selling? I would say the majority is playing and fighting in the dungeon.
Starting point is 00:52:05 It's because what happens is in the beginning when you're like, oh, I don't know, blah, blah, right now I've been running the same dungeon over and over again, so I know what I'm grinding out towards. So when I come back out, I can just, I just, you can, there's all these quick features, like we're talking about modern game stuff where I can hover over and a quick move and it'll move it and put it on the table to sell at the price I had set it at before, whether it was popular or not. So it's kind of like a split of gameplay. Let it play if you want like Battle Chef Brigade where you would do these dungeon runs to get ingredients.
Starting point is 00:52:33 Then you would do this like Iron Chef competition with the ingredients you got in your dungeon run. Right. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. But obviously the art style is very different and like there's no cooking. Oh no. Yeah. No, totally. But you're nailing in terms of it's this like interesting mashup, right? Of dungeon crawler, rogue business simulator doing all those different things. Upgrading your town. That's my favorite type of 2D pixel art too. Yeah. Animation is great. I bought it. I played like maybe an hour of it, but I think it was on a trip.
Starting point is 00:53:00 Yeah. And then I never picked it up again. But yeah, I enjoyed what I played for sure. Yeah, I'm floored. Like, and it's one of those things that a lot of, not even a lot, I guess, actually, because we're always usually ahead of the curve on console games in particular, right? Where it's like, we get to tell people what we think of games before they come out. Like, this, I thank Katie so much in the community for turning this on to me because
Starting point is 00:53:20 it is that thing of like, this is for sure my nonstop switch game. until it's over because I'm just having such a good time with it and it's it doesn't have so many rogue games will put a time thing on you like oh you got to fight this thing in this many days or whatever and like this just isn't that pressure it's like I'm grinding out the same dungeon over and over again and I'm getting to the point where all right cool I need stuff that I know is in the other dungeon but I'd rather upgrade my shot before I leave so I'm just going to keep doing this to earn money I'm going to keep doing this to move on it's cool it's got like almost like a little link to the past kind of vibe it's really the past it's bastion yeah
Starting point is 00:53:55 What was the one? It is very slowly. The other road game that I like where you only fought bosses. You ran around the little bone arrow. Oh, shit. Look at the chat. They'll tell you eventually.
Starting point is 00:54:06 Really cool. Yeah. I'm down for this. Yes, Titan. Ten souls. There you go. There you go. Good one.
Starting point is 00:54:12 Yeah, I'm going to be flying the Guardian console. Totally love it. Yeah, I totally recommend it. Like I said, I'm playing it on Switch. I came home, and I didn't even think about switching over to PS4 for trophies. Because, again, it's going to be something I want to have with me all the different places. But, again, Xbox Game Pass for free right now.
Starting point is 00:54:27 Oh, it's on Xbox Game Pass. It's really neat. Came out in May last year and then came to switch in November of last year. So just totally slip by. There's DLC apparently coming for it. See, it's games like that as we sit here talking about our mood and where we play it. Should we play mobile? That is where I think Stadion XCloud eventually are going to be fitting in.
Starting point is 00:54:42 If this is on Games Pass and it's on XCloud and I can just, if I can somehow still play it on the plane though, that's totally. You won't be able to play it on a plane. Well, we'll have to figure that part out. But if I can, man, it ticks so many boxes that it's on Games Pass, I can just do it. But I'll be getting this for Switch, obviously. You bring up Stating X Cloud. You wanted to talk about this.
Starting point is 00:54:59 You played Stadia, at E3? We didn't have a chance to talk about it. Because Tim runs a weird ship around here. All he wants to do is go, I love you. And walk away. I love you guys. So, wait, yeah, you weren't on the show last week, right? I was.
Starting point is 00:55:14 No, you were. We just didn't get talked about it. So many things that we played. I was. So anyway, the shorter it was, what did you say in your tweets, if you could recap what your experience with? That's all I know.
Starting point is 00:55:25 that you know about stadia. You played it and you like, what was your first reaction? Roughly speaking. Just my reaction? Yeah. I thought it was great. It told me.
Starting point is 00:55:34 For me, I played my, I played Doom Eternal. Again, I played on a, I played off of a Chromebook running an Ethernet line into it, HDM out of the TV. Yes.
Starting point is 00:55:42 Stadia. At the same. Yeah, I'm sure. So say that one more time. You played off of a Chromebook running an Ethernet line. So it was an Ethernet to the Chromebook. So you were hardwired.
Starting point is 00:55:51 Hard wired connection. Yeah, exactly. Hmm, convenient. Well, sure. it's not a full test but whatever 25 megamits per second I was in the same room I believe it was the 1080P
Starting point is 00:56:00 Did you guys do like a speak easy Speed test? No, oh a speed test.net You mean? No, I mean look I'm gonna trust PR when they told me And I actually talked to one of the This is where you're falling is friend You trusted PR to tell you how fast the internet was
Starting point is 00:56:15 We also know the PR got we've known for many years Patrick C-R pull in a fast one on us Patrick's not gonna lie Anyway Yes the setup was exact that Dume E-E-Turnal 1080p it was on a 30 some inch maybe 40 inch television though like 40 yeah so the chromebook was connected to a HTML HDMI cable so that's the thing you were actually playing on a full size TV and then we had um
Starting point is 00:56:38 a stadia controller so you got to play that as well so yeah you walked out and so you were like for me it totally reinforced everything that I want that thing to be and I was like I bought a founder's package after that you know a press conference and I was like I know I'm doing this on blind faith I'm doing on this. I, like, I walked out of that and I was like, I'm in. This just justified that purchase of, I don't, I don't know if it's going to be the end all, be off, it's going to take off, it's going to do it, but I am in for the ride of that. But it works. I'm in for the ride of that. Tell me about the controller.
Starting point is 00:57:04 Yeah, how did you like the controller? Wait, can we come back to the controller? Because I want to stick on the-on-the-in-it. The easy answer is the controller's totally solid. It's based on Xbox, I think, and it feels sort of normal. It's kind of got the PlayStation stick layout, though, right? Well, let's come back to the chart. So I want to ask you, you, you're playing, do it?
Starting point is 00:57:21 maternal on this. That's right. Did you want to play Doom Eternal on this? Was that sort of where you are? You're just like, wait, it works. And so whatever comes this way you're in. You know what I mean? Well, this is how I think we talked about my Doom thing last week, right? Where this is, where are you going to play this? The key to it was that, oh, I see what you're saying. If you have it now and they all come out, let's say at the same time, when you say to me, you're like, I'm totally in. I'm just wondering, what does that mean? Does that mean that you actually own two versions, but you're going to play it on the road sometimes and you assume it as a crossover. Like what is it?
Starting point is 00:57:49 I know that's getting in the weeds. For me, it's totally comes down, that's TBD. I shake the magic gateball and can't tell you because I don't have all the information. I need to see what it runs like on my house Wi-Fi, what it runs like on hotel Wi-Fi and see if it's like... Yeah, you still want to see if Stadia works outside the test environment. Sure. Yeah, exactly. It's interesting that you bring up a single player
Starting point is 00:58:05 experience. I mean, obviously Doom has multiplayer, but they've already said that they don't know what their cross-play situation and cross-save situation's going to be with Stadia when it launches because they don't have those deals worked out with the other platform makers. And so I think it's going to be nice to have an option, especially for people
Starting point is 00:58:21 like you and I friend that play a lot of Destiny that has a cloud saving system so I could play it at home on my PS4 and then if I'm on the road, if I don't have to bring my PS4 and my game screen and all of that, all the cables and everything that go along with that, if I can just bring my iPad and play
Starting point is 00:58:36 Stadia with my dual shock or whatever. Right? That's, no, it does. Doesn't it? That's like the promise of what Stadia can do. However, we don't know if I'm going to have to buy a license for Shadow Keep or whatever the next thing for Destiny is on PlayStation and on Stadia? Yeah, no, you do.
Starting point is 00:58:54 Right? You get it with your founders past so you don't have to worry about it. Sorry, your first month of Pro, Stadia Pro, you get ShadowKeep. So technically you own two versions, but you're set because now you have your main version and that version.
Starting point is 00:59:06 But the point is it to work on that. Other games, and that's where I'm going with this, is what do you want Stadia for? Are you thinking of playing in your living room? Sounds like you're saying, for stars, you just got to see if it works at home. 100%. Let's say, I've talked about this on the gamescast me
Starting point is 00:59:19 and Tim did at E3. where we were drinking beers and hanging out. But if Stadia, and I know this won't happen, so don't bother even throwing hot coals on me, but if Stadia works the way it worked when we used it and on the road works comparable, maybe there's a degrade in visual quality,
Starting point is 00:59:36 but I'm still not feeling latent, you know what I mean? Because Doom felt like Doom. I was very surprised. Doom on Stadia felt like Doom when we played at a judge's week on whatever fancy SPC we were playing with, but with a controller. If that is the same way,
Starting point is 00:59:49 then it will be a, long, hard conversation. It will suddenly become a, am I going to platinum this game? No, then probably go through Stadia. Because you might want to play it on the road. 100%.
Starting point is 00:59:59 I'm on the road so much. I do so many things that, yeah, like it just makes more sense that if I, you know, it was of, you know, I talk about, man, I wish there was something on Switch.
Starting point is 01:00:08 I say that because I'm on the road so much as I have a switch with me and it's easy. When I go, you know, it's easy when we're at Jen's parents' house in the country that, cool, we're going to go downstairs and, you know, for 45 minutes
Starting point is 01:00:18 or whatever, she's playing Star Do and I'm playing. in Yamada right before bed. It's like that's so much easier than cool, we're gonna go downstairs and the first five minutes is me breaking out the PS4 on one and the cable plugging in. What's your Wi-Fi?
Starting point is 01:00:30 You know, like, doing this. Where's the, you know, like. What a hassle. And it's not even that. It's like such a first world problem hassle. Yeah. But it's so much easier. If it was.
Starting point is 01:00:39 There's times I'm just like, I just leave it in the bag. I really don't want to unpack it right now. And that's the thing. To what we're talking about, if it's just turn on the iPad, turn on the controller and I'm playing a game and this is the kind of funny model
Starting point is 01:00:48 when we talk about all this, that's good enough. If it's good enough, then yeah. Like playing Doom Eternal, I was like, good enough. Oh yeah, but I was like,
Starting point is 01:00:55 oh, yeah, I'm not even that guy. You kind of are that guy. I was like, the colors looked a little bit more washed out than I remember that on PC. Certain games are going to always be better on certain platforms,
Starting point is 01:01:04 right? But I don't give a shit. I would have played it there, right? Perfect. Segway. So, so I played it. I also played X-Qod,
Starting point is 01:01:12 by the way. I don't know if you guys had the chance. But I went in with a very critical I, too, because I'm the video guy. and also, like if I take a photo, right, I'm zooming in, it takes me like seven years to release a single photo because I'm like, every, all the detail, right? So to be fair, I'm trying to set myself up. I am a snob when it comes to fidelity of stuff.
Starting point is 01:01:29 But that's one thing that I really enjoy. And that is why I've been very bought in still to the idea that I probably will have, you know, the PS5 and the next Xbox and be really all in on that hooked up to either, you know, my PC screens or my home 4K screen and all about the fidelity because the difference between direct output versus what's going on with stadium. That was the biggest thing I wanted to see. I describe it as you're playing YouTube, right? You're selecting the 1080P or you're selecting 4K.
Starting point is 01:01:57 Like that is the experience you're getting, quote unquote, because it sends this direct signal and it comes back to you after being compressed as a video signal. And it's Google making it. Trust me, it's not that far off of probably what YouTube does for its encoding. Long story short, when you just brought up, you're like, yeah, looked a little more washed out. Man, I saw a lot more than that going on.
Starting point is 01:02:16 I also, to be fair, I went in looking for it. I had just played Dume Eternal on PC at the Bethesda event, you know, the day before. So I had a very good point of reference. Where I'm going with this is, yes, it's good enough. And the input latency, let's just address that, I was surprised. I was surprised as you. I was like, I was like testing. I was like, is this really, is it working right?
Starting point is 01:02:37 I was like, wow, like it's pretty close. You know, like I'd have to get into like a multiplayer match, I think. But I felt like I could aim at the enemies. I didn't feel like, I was really. really searching for the feeling of like bad latency and input. I was surprised, you know, didn't have that. I think we're in a situation now hearing you guys talk about it where if Stadia can beat out Switch, there's really no reason why you would ever want to play a third party game on
Starting point is 01:03:02 Switch over Stadia. Because as of we've seen, I've yet to see a third party AAA release on, hold on Switch that hasn't had some kind of resolution dip, frame rate dips, latency issues. some kind of technical downgrade to play it on Switch. And Switch is, what, double the price of Stadia right now? True, but I was going to say, Andrew, I do this, we always do this. How are you going to play it on the bus, the airplane at the park? What is your playing?
Starting point is 01:03:28 See what I'm saying? Like, if you have an LTE on your phone, that'll work at the park, I guess. Hopefully you get a good, but you need 25 megabits per second for 1080P. No, I'm with you. I was just bringing that up. Totally, no, no, totally. That would be the thing. The Switch is my plane machine, right?
Starting point is 01:03:42 like when I'm not because I can barely do Gmail on playing Wi-Fi let alone the promise of doing Stadia is like not in that happening right? See I'm right there with you in the fact that I think in this that world that it would just be the fact that my consoles are coming with me but it's just
Starting point is 01:04:00 stadia where I think like I still think of the switch would be the indie machine it probably would be where I still play Moonlighter because all right cool I want to be able to just play it anywhere on the bus on the on the on the on the on the muny or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:13 But, like, when I'm thinking of my stadia experiences in a perfect world that I know won't happen, it is that, cool, oh, man, kick up my heels in bed in between a shoot on a set before, you know, oh, it's, you know, hurry up and wait, before we film this thing, I boot up and I go run a couple things in division. Again, dream world's not happening on it. Yep.
Starting point is 01:04:32 So, anyway, yeah, I think that is what's going to get all out of us. It's like, wait, should I get it on Switch because I'm not going to have a connection or maybe I'm going to, I'll just get steady because I think I'm going to have a connection most of that. It's going to be interesting. to go through that, but just to finish where I was going with it is the gameplay was working fine on this 1080P recommended 25 megabits per second. Fidelity-wise, though, it is very much a 1080p video encoded frame, and man, it just hit me in the face like a truck. And for me, I felt like I was
Starting point is 01:04:58 playing an Xbox, you know, 360 game almost. That's an exaggeration. You played the same thing. You didn't feel like that right. No. But I knew something was different. I'm just not that guy, but I knew something was different. It's washier. You're going to get a desaturated look from video compression. going to get some artifacting. The black levels are always like raised up a little bit for whatever reason. It's all over the place. I mean the truth is if if and when I should say we see this side by side I think you will be surprised at how different the fidelity looks and also it brings in a question what is the fidelity I'm even playing it? People in their minds eye and maybe where you're going are still like oh man it's going to be like a 2080 TI highest end graphics card.
Starting point is 01:05:34 Oh no anything that's coming over an internet connection is always going to be less than something that's native on a disk or even that's downloaded as a piece of software on your system, yeah. That's what's being sent back to you. So it's degraded coming back to you. But my point is in the cloud, we don't, I don't know if we got hardware specs yet. No, no, I think in the cloud that, I mean, they kept on sort of, you know, showing off and saying that you are going to be playing these games at the highest settings possible in 4K. Do they say highest settings possible?
Starting point is 01:06:04 I mean, that's all the vibes that I got. Whatever that means. They kept on like, you know. But is it a 980? Is it a 1080? Is it 28? You see what I'm getting at? Like, what's the graphics card quality?
Starting point is 01:06:13 Maybe it's going to be a game that you could play at. I think it's like the equivalent of playing a PC game on high setting. At launch, Google Studio will use a custom 2.5 gigahertz hyper-threaded X-86 CPU with AVX2 SIMD, a custom AMD GPU capable of 10.7 taraflops, 16 gigabytes of RAM with up to 484 gigabytes per second transfer speeds. I'd have to look at that bandwidth and compare it to like the cards out there. That's good that you don't know what a piece is. This really only matters for a small subset of gamers to be frank. You know, the people that are very into their TV settings and...
Starting point is 01:06:47 No, it's way to... I actually am getting... No, it's a huge difference is where I was going with this. Oh, no, that's what I'm saying, though, is that, like, I think, though, that the people who are going to be bought into Stadia at launch are not those people. Those people are going to continue to play on their PC where they have been playing. 100%.
Starting point is 01:07:02 Yeah. Yes. I agree with that. But I just... I'm just... So, two things. One, we need to see 4K. Because if you can do 4K HDR...
Starting point is 01:07:08 or whatever in your home, that was like... That's the founder stuff, right? 35 megabits per second minimum, right? So I'm curious to see how that encoding looks. And maybe if you can even play 1080P in that, but like I said up, I'm the video guy. I'm not being even overly critical. There's a big difference in the...
Starting point is 01:07:25 Oh, I am. I've been the most critical. So, it's okay, Fran. You can join me. But my point is, when I say yes, I nitpick over video fidelity, yes, I do. But it's also a huge difference from just playing, say, your switch at 720p. You get a very different. degraded.
Starting point is 01:07:39 Okay, various, an exaggeration. I've only played one game, but I noticed is the point. That is my biggest concern if you're going into Bi-Stadia. I just want to, I'll put it in two categories. I have buyer be excited and buyer beware. The buyer be excited is what Greg talked about. Like, wow, it works. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 01:07:54 Suddenly, I can probably just play this in like a decent hotel. Like, we'll see where that goes and have the convenience to, like, play wherever you want. And it's stuff like division, you know, to just be able to pop that open without bringing your PS4 with you. I mean, that's amazing. Or for me on the road, I'm super excited. to have a copy of Destiny to Shadowkeep
Starting point is 01:08:11 and be like, I can just log on and play a strike and not, like, I don't have to bring it with, it's amazing. The buyer beware side is, I think you'll be surprised with the fidelity at 1080P currently. We'll see if that improves over time and I want to see where 4K goes.
Starting point is 01:08:22 I think those are the same. I don't think you can, I don't think they're mutually exclusive. I think you're both. I'm both where I'm super excited and as I keep saying here, it's probably not going to be that way. Like I'm aware of what I said.
Starting point is 01:08:33 Exactly. I think they'll get there. Yeah, I hope so, right? You know, but I think like when this thing goes live, it's going to have a ton of problems. Sure. Fray, what did you think of the controller? We're taking the pin out of it. So actually, I was really impressed with the controller.
Starting point is 01:08:46 It felt natural. It didn't, at any point, didn't really stand out to me. It was funny. The Doom controls were kind of like, I had the claw grip a few times, but I'm pretty used to it at this point. The controller felt totally fine to me. It felt inspired by both the Xbox and PlayStation.
Starting point is 01:09:00 What I was surprised about when I played it is, I liked it a lot. I'm a big fan. When I picked it up, it felt super light, almost to six access level. too light. Where I was like, oh, wait a second. And then when I started playing with it and the Rumble,
Starting point is 01:09:12 and I was like, oh, okay, it's fine. Yeah, it's not good. I didn't think about it, right? Yeah, exactly. Can you, though, use your Xbox One or Dual Shock 4 controller now? So why even bother? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. With your founders pack, right?
Starting point is 01:09:24 It comes regardless. I got one coming. Exactly. So, the controller salad. You know, the stadium controller has like those special sort of Google buttons or whatever. Exactly. The Google connected thing. You'll never use that stuff.
Starting point is 01:09:36 But the controller was. it was good. In other words, like, yeah, if you don't have to buy it, I wouldn't. Because if you already have an Xbox, you know, controller or whatever, then you're fine. But if you are getting it, you shouldn't be concerned. You know, and I think that's the good news. But my last thing I was just going to say on it was when I looked at moonlight, again, assuming I could play it wherever I want, that's the type of game that I think you're not going to have to worry about fidelity as much.
Starting point is 01:09:57 Oh, yeah, I know. Stuff with a lower frame, because this was running at 60 frames, and like, that's another thing. Like, I haven't played a game at 30 frames a second on this. And so the encoding is going to be twice as good. and like maybe 30 frame games are a really good sweet spot. And you're like, wow, like it looks pretty much as good as Switch. And we don't know that yet. But that's where I'm excited to see where that stuff goes.
Starting point is 01:10:16 Yeah, I can't wait. It's high potential. Yeah, I want to get my hands on it in the real world. And too, it's all about it. Fran Andrea, I need, of course, your destiny expertise because I have a question from the legend of Canto, along with a couple other ones. But first, let's talk about our sponsor.
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Starting point is 01:13:30 I talked about, a cadence of high roll. Have you guys talked about that yet? Awesome. I think one. Tim Getty was getting ready to get into it. I'm going to play that as well. Yeah, so I just wanted to chat about this quickly before we get into more destiny to talk. I thought people would be interested. Well, it's more of a question. Don't worry.
Starting point is 01:13:41 So the cadence of high roll is a game that's built on Crypt of the Necro dancer with a Legend of Zelda skin on it. So essentially it's the gameplay that you know from Crypt of the Necro dancer if you played it, a rogue-like top-down retro art style game when you move in a grid and you have to move to the beat. And all the enemies are synced to the rhythm of the music and their attacks are all beat-based. So it's a really cool. cool concept and Cadence of Hyrule has you play either as
Starting point is 01:14:07 Cadence, Link, or Zelda. And the idea again is it's top down. So very like classic Zelda like Link to the Past where you have you have bombable walls and secrets to find and a lot of the classic Zelda items that you'll recognize if you're a long time Zelda fan. The music in
Starting point is 01:14:23 this game is absolutely fantastic. It's like a nice electro slash rock mixes of really classic Zelda music. And it's a lot of old sprites and characters that you'll recognize from early in the Legend of Zelda franchise. As somebody who is not
Starting point is 01:14:39 a super fan of old Legend of Zelda and really only got into this franchise with Breath of the Wild, I didn't get my skirt blown up that much by it, but Britney Bronbocker is in love with this game. I thought that I would be more into it because I... I was going to say, what games doesn't Britney
Starting point is 01:14:55 love? Well, there's actually quite a few. She never played Horizon Zero Dawn like a monster. She's an idiot. So I thought because it's a rhythm-based game. I love music and rhythm games. Rhythm genre games are right in my wheelhouse, so I absolutely needed to try this. And the music
Starting point is 01:15:11 is fantastic, but I was just really struggling with getting a rhythm to the beat. Dude, that's why I started Crypt to the Nekrodancer. And I was like, it looked awesome, great. I got in there and I'm like, I'm so rhythmically challenged that I just don't enjoy this. Yeah. And I had to stop. So thankfully, the developers of
Starting point is 01:15:27 this game put in a mode where you can turn off the beat matching for your character movement. But the enemies These attacks are still beat-based, and so you still need to be aware of the music. They have like a little metronome style thing at the bottom of the screen so you can visually see it as well, and you do a calibration before you begin to see where your visual and audio system is set up. I would love to see Kevin try this. He's the most rhythmically challenged human being in the world. This is a game built to destroy him.
Starting point is 01:15:54 Yeah, so essentially, like, you move using the D-PAD. And somebody in the Reddit for this game actually recommended mapping the buttons for movement to the buttons instead of the D-pad. So you're tapping like up, up, left, down, right to the beat. So it's easier because I started off using the sticks because I tried it on my pro controller. And the game was like, hey, we see you're using the left thumbstick. You probably shouldn't do that. You're going to find it really difficult to move.
Starting point is 01:16:21 But the enemies are really unique in the sense that they all are beat base. And so they have certain tells for about when they're going to attack. Like this one enemy will raise its arms before it attacks. one like squins, one does like raises its weapon and you're dodging on beat you're dodging on beat you're attacking on beat everything is beat based and
Starting point is 01:16:41 each different tile that you're in as you you know Legend of Zelda style you're moving through and you see these different tiles on the map open the music will change depending on what enemies are around and if you clear all the enemies from a tile the music slows down you can move around freely but you can also
Starting point is 01:16:58 like I said just turn that movement beat matching off altogether and move freely, but again, the enemies are still going to move. And the enemies only move when you move. And so it really is this choreographed dance of sorts to be able to attack and clear the enemies. They have dungeons in the game, which is kind of neat. They're obviously much smaller than your traditional Zelda dungeons are.
Starting point is 01:17:18 But I wanted to bring it up because I thought it was a really neat style. And more importantly, I think it's a fantastic example of Nintendo working with an independent developer to take one of their most well-known and beloved franchises and really trusting trusting the team to do something really inventive with it. And so if you liked Crypt of the Nekrodancer at all, or if you are interested in like classic Zelda top-down exploration gameplay with this really cool beat mechanic, definitely worth checking out cadence of high roll.
Starting point is 01:17:49 Yeah. That's awesome. Awesome. Good. Good job, Andrew. Yeah. Sorry, I missed it on the notes. That's all right.
Starting point is 01:17:54 So like I said, I got a destiny question for you guys. You guys ready for it? Yes, we're ready. There's other questions too, so don't turn it off if you hate destiny. Legend of Kansas. So writes in to patreon.com slash kind of funny games and says, my question today pertains to Destiny 2. More specifically, it's evolution now that Bungie is independent from Activision. As more hardcore destiny players, Fran and Andrea, where would you like to see the franchise focus?
Starting point is 01:18:18 Would you guys prefer more focus on the story, end game, PVP, customization, etc.? Also, would love to know as more peripheral fans that Andy and Greg are what their viewpoints are on the matter. And if at this point there's anything they could do to get you guys back. in. You guys were talking earlier, right? You're doing something. Us back in? No, me and Amy to get us back in because we haven't played what you guys want going on. But then even right now, you were just talking about something today. Yeah, I was playing the heroic version of Menagerie and the hell's that? Menagerie is there's six person matchmate activity. So it's other than the raid, there's, well, in PVP, there's no six person activities. You can just hop in and shoot stuff and like have a ton of fun. That are PVE based. Yeah, PV. Again, not PVP. It's fucking great. I'm like, I know, it's hard for me to see you. It's hard to take you seriously.
Starting point is 01:19:07 Here's a very serious point. My banana hat is falling off. But yeah, because six-player matchmaking is currently available in the crucible. Exactly. So non-P, it's one of the things. You just go and shoot stuff with a bunch for other people. It's super chaotic. And it's actually a lot of fun.
Starting point is 01:19:20 Plus you can grind out your weapons. But they release a heroic mode of it, which you do have to find people to go in because it's so difficult. They don't want you to be their stuff. Because they're essentially bringing in race. puzzle-like mechanics into the menagerie, but in a much smaller scale, so that you can do it in much shorter time frame because, as Greg knows,
Starting point is 01:19:38 sometimes raids take a very long time. But it's a very short review of Herogue Menagerie. It was definitely difficult, but I was blessed to play with a very good team that I played with the Destiny Community podcast team, and they're really good. So we blew through it the first time. And actually, I felt like 75% of it,
Starting point is 01:19:56 the way that it works, was almost felt similar because we were... But you guys are also all max light level. Power, yeah, it's for reference point, by the way, you are capped at 750 power right now. But as you go towards the end of this mode, it's 770. And that 20 light scale, it hits you like a truck, so you got to be super careful, which is a lot what they do with the raids on day one. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, but the actually last boss, they make it such a bullet sponge. That's how they turned it into the heroic activity.
Starting point is 01:20:23 And frankly, the rewards that you get, you can get like a sword from it. You also get a catalyst out of doing it and something else I'm forgetting. You can, well, you can, it's called masterworking your weapons. You can masterwork your drop that you get once a week. However, it's not curated. I know I'm getting in the weeds guys, but like what you want is an awesome, perfect role, right? But you're not guaranteed that. It's just it might drop as a masterwork, which really you can spend money on anyway.
Starting point is 01:20:47 And it's not a big deal. Sure. Since they change the masterwork system and they, I have yet to have anything drop masterworked already. Yeah. I have not bothered masterworking anything. It's way too expensive. You're constantly getting new geese. The refresh of gear just is constant.
Starting point is 01:21:02 And so like why spend the resources to masterwork an item? And then you have to constantly infuse it and then that cost even more money. It's an economy problem. I have a huge problem with it, which is a different rant. But to answer the question. To answer the question.
Starting point is 01:21:13 I was just going to throw it back to her actually. I think what I personally would love from Destiny is more story-based content. We've got the grinding. We've got the PVE. We've got the PVP. We've got, you know, raids and endgame content. what we still are lacking is really meaningful narrative-based missions that are story-based
Starting point is 01:21:36 that really enhance the world of destiny that are in the game. So I'm not having to chase a piece of lore here, a piece of lore here, a piece of lore here, and then having to piece it together in menus. Sure. It's being played out in cutscenes or with voiceover from these characters that we've come to love over the many years of destiny. I really crave that experience. And that's why I really enjoy doing the heroic story missions every week because it brings me back to something that I think Bungy does really well, which is make these really fantastic story missions that have meaningful bits of lore.
Starting point is 01:22:09 But they just always felt so disjointed and not really connected. Like it's never had like a true campaign, right? Like even in when Forsaken launch and everything was going down with like Kate or whatever, it's just like, it still is like, okay, you got to go here and then back to the tower. And then you got to go here and you got to go talk to this vendor. You know, it doesn't feel like you're setting up and then you can like sit down and play the story for like three or four hours at a time. It's like you're playing it for like 20 minutes at a time instead. I mean, that's what anthem suffered from. I think that's really hard to pull off.
Starting point is 01:22:39 But I know what you mean. Like it would be great to get. I would say they could just. Even it was like a standalone expansion set in the universe of destiny. Like we're going to make we're going to make a first person shooter standalone expansion in the world of destiny. that doesn't have any of this other open world stuff in it, that just is like a short experience, like a lost legacy kind of a thing,
Starting point is 01:23:03 where you don't have to worry about going to the tower and picking up bounties and all the bullshit that we love to do in Destiny, I would think that would be fantastic. That would be really cool. It's a very different topic of, but definitely if you want the story. And to be able to play it co-op, a single player experience that you wanted to,
Starting point is 01:23:19 you could play it with a fire team? And that's the thing for Kansas question, like what would get me back in? I can't speak for Andy, Like when Luke and the team did the stream, right, that was like, hey, here's our coming out party, we're independent, here's where Destiny's going, all this stuff. I was so impressed with them in the way they handled it and what they were talking about and the expansions
Starting point is 01:23:38 and the cross save and all that jazz. And I'm like, I tweet it, right? I'm like, am I about to play Destiny again? Yeah. Like, that sounds like fun. And the way they were talking about the new stuff that you'll be able to jump on and go. That seems like your great time and you guys can play with me and I don't feel like I'm holding you back, but you can bring me forward.
Starting point is 01:23:51 The problem I have with Destiny having, you know, lapse in what? but I platinum it December right after it launched. Yeah, yeah. So, almost two years ago. Like, I just don't even know what the hell's going on. Like, to turn that back,
Starting point is 01:24:03 it's like DC Universe Online when I turn it back on, I'm like, I have no idea what I should be doing. So that... No, go ahead. That's what they're trying to fix with Shadow Keep, like you said.
Starting point is 01:24:09 Yeah. We don't know the exacts, but we know a lot, and it does sound like you can hop in, you can skip a bunch of this story stuff or go back and play it as long as you purchased it.
Starting point is 01:24:18 But that is definitely one of the gaps. Like, if you go in now, it's like, wait, what do I have to play? Okay, I got to go here. What do I have to buy to get this thing? And it takes a lot of research or just asking your friends. And I think if they can effectively remove that, Barry, you might be in, right?
Starting point is 01:24:32 Because ideally what happens is you come back to Destiny, you buy ShadowKeep in addition to the free version. Maybe you didn't play this other stuff and you didn't buy it. Sure. I just got Shadow Keep, fine. So then you're all in on that and you can just start getting into the story and also your light level will be appropriate and they've got a fix for that too. Because they'll auto level you.
Starting point is 01:24:50 Yeah. seemingly, you know, they got these power surge systems as part of the quest where it just bumps you up. But the problem is right now to do those, you actually have to still play the story content from before. Like I just ran into it my third character on my Titan who's not totally leveled. And I went to grab thinking my power surge bounty and I like logged on. And then I was like, wait, where are my drops? Because what happens is you do it on one character and it drops the gear for you? I all characters.
Starting point is 01:25:13 So I was looking at it. I was like, what is going on? And then I was looking at it. I was like, oh, I didn't play Foraken on this character yet. but I literally would have to spend like four to six hours doing that just to play the character in the character So that's the type of stuff that I think if they can fix They're gonna fix it for you guys as you can just hop in Andy what would bring you back anything I mean I plan on coming back for shadow keep only only because whenever there's a
Starting point is 01:25:35 I feel like I always come back to Destiny whenever there's sort of this big refresh Where you know Destiny 1 came out I was all on a Destiny one to play the shit out of it even though it was like really really grindy I don't play I think I play a lot of Destiny like when it comes out and then when Destiny 2 comes out and then when Forsaken comes out. But then then I'm still not able to tell when Destiny is bad or good. You know what I mean? Like I always enjoy it while I'm playing it but then
Starting point is 01:26:04 there's always, I hear from the community that like oh yeah it's fucked up right now. And to me it's just like I'm just playing it I guess. If you're having fun it's never bad Andy. Exactly, exactly. That's my... Yeah so I feel like I come back to Destiny whenever there's a giant sort of refresh. When they are they're kind of saying, all right, guys, you know, you could start here. This is a great time to jump back into Destiny.
Starting point is 01:26:25 Whenever that big refresh happens, that's when I feel like I am a lot more sort of, I don't know, a lot more willing to jump back in. Yeah, and I know we're short on time. So to answer the question, one was, I agree with Andrea, they could do better with the story. Everybody wants that, knows that we want more cinematics, absolutely. But the biggest stuff for me,
Starting point is 01:26:43 they've been doing a little bit of, which is dropping content, like we saw with Forsaken, but they dropped just amazing new strikes and like story-based content worlds to play in basically. Then they had these things called Senate challenges. They were a way to like, it was the black and white world, so to speak, where you hopped in and did these challenges
Starting point is 01:27:02 that weren't just gunning down people. They had puzzle elements to them. So they added that to the game. Like I said, they added the six-person activity. They now have these layers to play with that they're getting pretty good with, I'd say, as well as you want new weapon drops and all this other stuff
Starting point is 01:27:16 and a new story to play. But that's, they just need, to keep on that path and have enough of it. Because when you're a ravenous destiny player, it's never enough. You burn through the first part and then what happens is you sink to the grind. That's Andy where everybody starts complaining about all these little things that bother them.
Starting point is 01:27:31 And some people are like, wait, I just played for 15 hours. It also just seemed like I never played when the off expansions were going on. Like when, you know, I know that... Curse of Osiris was a disaster. A lot of those expansions I wasn't playing at the time. So I never... I feel like I never experienced destiny at its
Starting point is 01:27:48 worse? I don't want to say worse, but like I mean, Christopher Osiris is pretty much Destiny 2 and it's worse. At the time that a lot of the hardcore of the hardcore were like, yeah, this is not very good. I was never in at those moments so I can never really, you know, be a judge of that. Well, if it's any consolation,
Starting point is 01:28:04 it's the best it's been so far right now, and it won best ongoing game at the GCA's, which I was really impressed with. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to Shadow Keep if it has as much content is forsaken, the raid was amazing, forsaken, all the stuff is amazing. So, they just need to take some of these layers they already have. And to finish the point, I was going to say, I would
Starting point is 01:28:21 like to see a little more like a strike every quarter, a new one, and a new PVP map has been a big issue. And then also bring back Trials of Osiris. It's a super highly competitive 3V3 mode while they turned it to 4V4 and it just got all broken. But if they can add all that back in, but give you a little more content quarterly. They're still doing pretty good, but they've had some hit or miss with this last year. But they're on a really good track. I want to retrag my same way. I didn't play a whole lot of Forsaken. I'm just remembering that now. Like I, maybe you play Destiny 2 most I played a bastard
Starting point is 01:28:49 I played enough to play To play Gosh, the Gambit Yeah So was Gambit That was just recently Yeah that was part of the season
Starting point is 01:28:57 Yeah you're thinking about Cambit Prime Fran Oh Oh he's talking about regular Gambit From Forcaken right Yeah Yeah regular old Gambit was So you did play that
Starting point is 01:29:06 Yeah so I played a decent amount of Forsaken But not as much as As much as just straight up two When Destiny 2 came out Or Destiny 1 came out That's why I've sunk in a lot of hours there It has changed so dramatically It is in a really good spot
Starting point is 01:29:17 And I'm excited about Shadowkeep. You're almost there, Andrea. The show's almost over. Her hat keeps falling off. I'm so sweaty underneath this banana suit. The final question is from J. Dobb 84 and requires you all to clear your mind. Everyone will
Starting point is 01:29:31 get one pick. We will start with Andrea and with me and then end this game's cast. J. Dob 84 says video game Mount Rushmore. With a greater emphasis these days on elevating gaming personality such as creators, producers, studio heads, etc. It makes me wonder who you would put
Starting point is 01:29:47 on video game Mount Rushmore. Then he does a whole bunch of things that I'm not going to put in your head. Can we answer this next? Yeah. Oh my God. Clear your head. Clear your head. Andrew, you're the first one.
Starting point is 01:29:58 Slam dunk. Give me a slam a jam. Who would you put on the... Mount Rushmore or video games? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. This is so hard. This is so hard.
Starting point is 01:30:08 It's a clear your mind exercise. Just to shout it out. What are you saying? I mean, there's one like off the same. But you are chiseling faces into a side of the mountain. Oh, sorry. I think, um, Miyamoto's on there for sure.
Starting point is 01:30:20 There you go. He's the first person that can't mind. Oh, we each only big in one? Yeah, yeah. We're just putting a face on the thing. Oh, okay, good. So I got the first. That's what we had to do one.
Starting point is 01:30:30 Each do one. I'm so not ready at all. Miyamoto was the easy one. Sure, you luck out. Fair, fair, fair. I'll go second. Kojima. Okay.
Starting point is 01:30:39 There you go, another easy one. Yeah, yeah. Don't pick another Japanese male for the love of God. I know, right? Give me a second Think of like all these like Super iconic games I know it's a big deal
Starting point is 01:30:55 I mean It is a big year Designed and I know that it's kind of just a joke If you want it at all Jay Dobb he leaned way more He leaned more modern But I don't I don't agree with the modern Because we're not putting
Starting point is 01:31:07 Ken Levine No what You could yeah yeah I know I mean Ken is a genius I don't think he belongs On the Mount Rushmore That's rude to him I can't
Starting point is 01:31:17 I literally can't do Because I would have put me a motor in there. Kojima, I can agree with him. I don't know why I immediately think of just like Koji Kondo just because his music was just such a huge staple. I can't, I literally care. You're just not going to play the game. Here's why.
Starting point is 01:31:32 Here's why. No matter what you say and what we end up with, Greg, we will be judged by these choices. People understand it's a clear your mind activity that we're throwing out. They're clearing the mind. First off that you talked about destiny for 15 minutes. They turned the podcast off. Oh, I didn't say that.
Starting point is 01:31:46 I think Bonnie would be in an amazing. Nobody's watching. There's so many other people. Nobody's watching anymore. You're just going to have to guy. You got a pick, I was going to put, and I can never say it. Alexi, the guy who made Tetris. Alexi, Pajitnav, thank you.
Starting point is 01:32:01 I don't know. That's right. Yeah, I can't pronounce it right. But again, like, that's one game, but it's a pretty awesome game that went out forever and changed the world. He absolutely deserves to be honest. So J. Dobb went on to say, Miyamoto and Kajima both seem like no-brainers, but who else would you put on those?
Starting point is 01:32:14 There are some great personalities, such as Phil Spencer, Corey Barlog, Jade Raymond, etc. But just wondering which five people you would elevate to this fictional monument. I think it goes on well beyond that
Starting point is 01:32:23 right. I was looking at you can make cases for so many people like Nolan Bushnell that's what I was looking back farther like like Bush now
Starting point is 01:32:29 and like all this stuff of past and I was like I mean like the list goes and all that stuff then yeah when do you want to bring in a more modern person like what I'd love to do
Starting point is 01:32:37 yeah you bring up Bonnie right Kiki Wolfgill right but Bonnie's been making games for over 20 years Bonnie's been exactly she was just inducted in
Starting point is 01:32:44 for the Dice Hall of Fame absolutely amazing Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Kind of Funny Games cast number 227, rest in peace, Tim Gettys, wherever they dumped your body. If you like this show, remember patreon.com
Starting point is 01:32:58 slash Kind of Funny Games, you can get it early, ad free, watch us record live, watch us do pre and post shows. We're about to do a post show but we don't forget. Of course, you can check me out on Kind of Funny, Andy out on Gary Whittah, Fran out on FM3 underscore Andreon, what's good games all over, the interwebs.
Starting point is 01:33:14 Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. Peanut Butter, Jet, light.

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