The Besties - Revenge of the French RPG!

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

This week, the boys have two new games to share with you. First, Griffin and Plante go deep into the wilderness of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, an exceptional RPG. Then, Hoops and Frush report on their journey in Revenge of the Savage Planet. Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Do you guys think I could start saying Capiche and get away with it? Try it. Let's hear it. Well, you gotta say something. Oh wait, no, I have to say something. No, no, I'll say something and then you just append Capiche at the end. Yeah. Hey, how do you, uh, how do you like your steak? Well, you know, I gotta go medium rare, Capiche.

I don't actually think that that's a good use of Capiche. I don't think you would use Capiche to mean like- I think it needs to be like a- Yeah, you need a second level dialogue, right? It's like, hey, would be a shame if something ever happened to your puppy. I'm gonna go play some tennis. Don't do that voice.

I'm gonna draw a line here. I'm gonna say you can say Capiche if you say it right, but you can't do the voice. The voice is no good, Russ. No? No. Is that not, you can't do like, hey, I'm gonna go get a big ogie like that's not my interesting

Is that not okay anymore? Yeah, okay. Yeah, so get threatened me rest threaten me and go to Capiche on it Griffin you're gonna sweep is you're gonna sweep with the fishes capiche I'm gonna say no Russ you can't do it maybe practice and check in again next year Capiche? I'm gonna say no, Russ, you can't do it. Maybe practice and check in again next year. But what you just said was the least intimidating thing I've ever heard. You said sweep with the fishes.

You said sweep with the fishes, which now it sounds like a baby mobster is threatening me. Oh. Capiche? I just throw it in once per episode. We'll get there. My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best games of the week. Bonjour, this is Griffin McElroy and I know the best games of the week. Merde! Je m'appelle Christophe.

Game video game. Are you even- Are you doing the French- I thought I was the only one doing the French game. No, I- I- I- Oh no, I'm doing some Claire Obscure. I'm doing Claire Obscure. Okay, fantastic. Sorry, sorry, sorry. And I'm doing- Well, we can't talk about it. Russ, what's your- Russ- Yeah. My name is Russ, Russ, and I know the best games of theura. I'm doing Clare Obscura and I'm doing what we can't talk about. Russ, what's your...

My name is Russ, Russ Toginer, the best game of the week. Welcome to the besties when we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. This week we're gonna be talking about Clare Obscura, two games that really challenge one's ability to recall names of games. We're talking about Clare Obscura Expedition 33 and Revenge of the Savage Planet.

That sounds good to me, man. Sounds right. Yeah, dude. Yeah, but before we get into that, Chris Plant, anything in the headlines you want to mention? Yeah. Hey, we got some news that we want to talk about real quick. Real quick.

Polygon got sold and there's a whole bunch of stuff that happened, a number of people lost their jobs. I'm no longer at Polygon and that is okay for me. I'm much worried about everybody else, but there are still people there, it's still alive. Our beloved Russ Froshtick is there. You should still go and visit. It does not need a protest of you not going to polygon.com.

It is a wonderful spot still. There's one thing that I do wanna be like super clear on though, Basties did start at Polygon a long, long time ago. We straight up own this thing. Yeah. We took this thing back. We said, no, no, no, no, that pie is too tasty. The writing was on the wall. Yeah. We took this thing back. We said, no, no, no, no, that pie is too tasty.

The writing was on the wall. Yeah, we knew. Five years ago. And we got it back. So this thing, we- Basically during the Spotify era. A lot of people tried to buy, Lady Spotify tried to lay down quite a few ducats

to buy this show, but we said no more sale No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no more seasons of this show for you And then a year later they said Dodged a bullet on that one. Yeah, then we said we'll buy this show back for you. They said that won't be necessary Have it We've loaded it up for you and strapped it in already. Start driving. Jet clamp it.

You don't need to worry about this thing. This thing, it's all ours. It is. You are stuck with us. Yep. That's right. So let's take a break and then we'll talk about video games. Okay, we're going to be talking about Claire and Mascara.

And I want to make... Before we do, let me just say, when I was trying to, we were talking about games you can't remember the names of, the way I remembered it as I was filling in the rundown was I typed into Google French JRPG. Yeah, that'll do it. I mean, French JRPG is, I mean, you're literally saying

French Japanese role playing game. Yeah, that's right. So you can see how that is confusing. It says, it says, it says, narrow it down. It's a darker French near. It's near game. So you can see how that is a confusing. It says, it's a darker French near. It's near noir. Oh wow, that's pretty good juice. I like you fucking stinker.

You're starring Daniel Radkeith. This one is, it gets the old seal of approval from yours truly. I am very much enjoying Clear Obscure Expedition 33. I'm excited to talk about it. All right, here, let me lay it out for you, everybody. There is this world where when you get to a certain age, it's a number, you die.

Pfft, any number? Any number that, no, it's a number that's on a big rock. Painted there by the painters. Yeah, but like if you were to pick any number, just I'm gonna pull one out from nowhere, 33. Let's say for example 33, and that's as long as- It's so funny that you picked that number because that is the exact number.

And here's the deal, right? This sucks. Everybody hates this. And they hate the lady that does this to them. And they're mad at her. So they send people over to the island where they see the big rock. Every once in a while, they send an expedition over there

to basically ask her to cut it out because we do not like it. Okay, there's not that many people. Some people don't think the expeditions are a good idea anymore because there have not been successful to this point, but everybody agrees, or at least a lot of people think that we should keep trying.

And it's the psychology of this world. And are they like debating her? Or what is the methodology for getting her to cut it out? I mean, no one's really been particularly successful. So there may be debate, there may be- Do they just leave and they're sad? They are killed on the way by the many, many monsters. Got it, got it.

Yes. Yeah, it's a really, it's a heavy setup for a game, I will say. The first hour and a really, it's a heavy setup for a game, I will say. The first, uh, hour and a half, two hours of this thing are a rough ride thematically. I do think, I, I really enjoy- And fun, fun-atically, just from a fun game, like reviewers till interactivity perspective, it's a little bit- It is on the light side, for sure. Uh, I do think that it is a really, really fascinating setup

for a game because it does this cool thing that happens in sort of apocalyptic fiction sometimes where humanity's relationship with death has changed to a degree where sacrifice and duty and purpose become sort of de rigueur. And so you have basically a team of hard asses who have been training their whole life to sacrifice their lives to try and stop this,

you know, unfair thing from happening every year. And it really makes the characters pop, I feel like. And then of course, as soon as the expedition sets off and things go really fucking sideways really fast, then they have to struggle with like, okay, now was that all just kind of a bunch of talk? Or are we actually gonna try and push through this thing? I think the writing and acting and everything have been,

I've played about 15, 20 hours so far, and it has been superb. And would you describe, I mean, JRPG description notwithstanding, like is it the turn-based, like traditional Final Fantasy? It has big Final Fantasy, big Persona vibes, just in terms of like how it controls,

how it feels, how combat flows and exposes. And big Mario RPG vibes. Absolutely, there's a lot, a lot, a lot of emphasis based on timing. You can do the thing where where you come up on an enemy in the overworld and hit it to get a jump start on the battle. And then there's constant opportunities to influence.

Dodge or parry. Dodge or parry or do QTEs with your special attacks to maximize how much damage that they do. So smart ways to make that more dynamic too, the aiming and stuff, things like that, that are a little bit more like fidelity, I think, in the more turn-based structure. Yeah, a complaint I've seen a lot about the game,

it is pretty, there's difficulty settings, but I mean on the standard difficulty, which is what I'm playing on, it is pretty hard. It is not a, if you don't do a good enough job with these like QTE things or the dodging and parrying, like you're gonna have a hard time making progress. In this one? It's funny in 2025, I find that when I like have a wipe in a game like this,

which happened to me pretty early on, there is a little bit of like, oh, this doesn't seem right. Like, I've lost, guys. We're not supposed to let this happen. This should have been focused tested out. I've lost the game. I kinda like it.

Like if you die, it starts you off like five seconds before you got into the fight. So death is not like a super punishing thing. But it does set a sort of stakes where when you are able to parry an enemy's attacks, it feels like Sekiro good. Like it feels, you do a counter attack, you earn this, you earn AP,

which is kind of like the currency you spend to do your special attacks in the game. It's a really important resource and you get more of it by parrying. Dodging is a little bit easier than parrying, but you don't necessarily get that extra resource or do like counter attacks for doing it. So you kind of have options in battle.

And then each character that you play as has their own sort of like mechanic that you are managing to like, you know, maximize their effectiveness in battle. Gustav is the first character you pick, and as he attacks, he builds up this charge that he can release in this one like super attack. And then there's Luna who can cast spells

to earn these elemental like points that she can spend to influence her attacks. Every character has their own thing going. So there's like, combat is fun. And I think for me, in a big RPG like this, if the combat is enjoyable and you want to do it, that is a huge credit to the design of the game and probably means I'm gonna stick with it

a lot longer than I would normally. It keeps layering on on top of that. So not only does each character play quite differently, there is this painting system where you are like actually painting elements onto your enemies and you can spin points both to paint onto them, but then you can consume them with other moves to deal extra damage. So you're basically like, oh, I'm layering on lightning and fire. And then I have a move that I know that is going to really be powerful when it pulls from that.

And also that move is even more powerful if it is like charged up and I can have another character feed into that charge. So I'm basically creating like this massive explosion of damage. It's all about sort of synergizing the character's different abilities to build up to one massive fucking hit. And it feels really, really good every time you do it. I will say for people who hear the Sekiro comparison

and that does not sound ideal, hey, welcome. You're a lot like me. I was really struggling with this game. I got into it. I like completely fell head over heels at the start. The music is incredible. The story is heavy. But as y'all said, the writing and performances are quite beautiful and subtle and delicate

in a way that you don't see very often in any video games, not just this genre. But then to go from that into, I'm going to beat the shit out of you and it's going to be timing based. And it sounds like there might have even been, I don't know if there still are, issues with that timing depending on the frame rate that you were at. I've heard people saying like, make sure that you're locked at 60 because it can be off. I've heard people say like, don't use a Bluetooth controller because it's like. It's like all of that. Yeah. So I've, I finally did, I made a few changes.

I switched to story mode, which is still challenging. Yeah. Right. It's like you, you, you can do that and still have a nice time. You're not like depriving yourself of the game, which is great. The other tips are the dodge that Griffin mentioned is a great way of learning the parry. Right.

So like when you go into a fight and you aren't familiar with an enemy yet, just always start with a dodge to learn how the tempo works and kind of dark souls. Yeah. Pretty forgiving. And then once you've learned that you will just instinctively at least in my case I was like oh damn okay I'm just ready to parry I yeah I'm it also actually sounds like lies of P which is funny because they're both like aesthetically a lot of really good progression hooks to like you find these they're called picked O's and there's just like little modifiers for your character that make it like so if you do a parry you weren earn an additional AP,

and then you kind of master those as you equip them so that you can keep their abilities like equipped even when you don't have that particular thing. You earn attribute points, and there's different weapons you can upgrade, and there's different skills that you can spend points on to learn. Like there's a lot, a lot going on here,

but I mean, it's all works to, it's so cohesive in a way that like, I don't know, man, I am enjoying this much more than the past few Final Fantasies, which I think is a fair comparison given that that is sort of a core, a core inspiration for what they did here. So this all sounds like incredibly my shit, which is rare because I don't generally like turn-based RPGs, but the ones that I do like are the action combat ones, and this certainly checks that box.

The question I have, which is the whole other half of the game is, do you find the writing narrative to be like pulling you along? Can I say say that ties in actually what I was gonna say because I normally I don't like a lot of. I can get bummed out if there's too much talking and not enough right action and even game. And if you want to communicate a story like a movie, then you gotta be at least as good as a bad movie, you know what I mean? Which a lot of games don't reach that standard. Straight to Netflix quality. Yes.

And, and, but this exceeds that for me, I found all the acting, writing, just the world being in the world, like very engrossing and like by the time that you have like are ready for this expedition I Think it absolutely does its job of making you feel like I actually am gonna go put a stop to this Yeah, I think I'm actually gonna go they set it up. They set it up real nice for you the whole thing I also think there's something really unique about a French developer Sandfallfall, first project, apparently like a miraculous sort of like coming together of just kind of random people. The composer they found on SoundCloud, the writer I think like auditioned to do voice

acting for it and then just ended up up being brought on as a writer. It's sort of like this wild story of- He was like, one more thing, I also can write English. And they were like, amazing. You're on. You're hired. But all of them come together to make this game an Unreal Engine 5, and it looks and feels and sounds

fucking fantastic. And I feel like that is not, that is not particularly common. And this whole thing is also, you know, dripping with like French culture and aesthetic, which is not something I'm particularly versed in at all. French folklore too, like things I do not, straight up do not know about, because I have not played a game

sort of inspired by this setting, and that is very, very cool. It's also cool, like it just looks cool, man. Like, and it's. And that is very, very cool. It's also cool. Like it just looks cool, man. Like, and it's like, that's rare because I feel like so many games try to be cool. You know, they're trying to attain that or trying to get you in gross.

It's sort of like you're talking about how the world has been affected by this, like everybody dies at this point. The g'mage. There's g'mage. And you see that the way that they dies at this this The g'mage The g'mage And you see that they're the way that they have like accepted this and it's interesting because I think seeing characters in that in that way and sort of like accepting that fate rather than a lot of like wailing and gnashing of teeth and being told how tragic

this story is and being told how like how terrible this is, by seeing their resignation, I think as a player, it leaves room for you to be like, well, if they're not gonna be angry, I'm gonna be angry about it, this sucks, let's go fix it. And by leaving you room, I think that it leaves you room to get invested rather than telling you why you should be invested. It reminds me a lot of Children of Men and Annihilation.

Annihilation is the thing I kept coming back to. It reminds me a lot of children of men and annihilation. Yeah. Annihilation is the, is the thing I kept coming back to. And what, what both of those do quite well is they put you in media res, which is like you come into it and everybody else is way ahead of you. And exactly like you said, hoops, like you're having to emotionally catch up, which actually pulls you in. You are like leaning into that. Why are they not feeling like I am?

Why, why am I not that you are filling in those emotional blanks? I think the other thing that does well with the movie comparison to hoops is. By being in media rise, you aren't getting the traditional exposition dump that so many video games have. I, again, I'm going to talk about in the, at the end of this is a hundred line, which is awesome. But you don't even get the ability to save the game until two hours in because you have to meet every single character and get the entire premise of the story. Yeah. What's brilliant about this setup is that they live in this last city,

which is basically Paris, that has been destroyed, but the rest of the world is kind of gone as far as they know. And so when these expeditions go out, they do not come back. So as soon as you leave on the expedition, you are, the characters are learning things about the world as you are learning about them. So this feeling of like, this world's so strange, there's so much going on here that I don't understand. As soon as you set off on the expedition, now the characters are feeling that way too, and it really pulls the whole thing together. It is cool though, on that, like, early on,

you go to an area of the world that's just underwater. Yeah, but it's not. But nobody really mentions it, you're just kinda like. There's fish swimming through the air, and no one says shit. You're like kinda like... There's fish swimming through the air and no one says shit. You're like, okay, cool. Yeah. How strange. You have to, it's like, yeah,

you've seen so much crazy shit at this point that it's like, ah, whatever, man. Like, we just need to keep moving. We need to go find our friends. It's also funny. Like, there's a lot of humor in the game that shockingly hits and a lot of it is like pretty absurdist.

You meet this giant character named Esquier, eventually, who is just this giant who wants you to save his, rescue his precious stones from his shithead neighbor. And he has like all of these incredible powers, but he won't use them to help you out because he gets too tired. And that is also happening while you're trying to stop everyone on Earth from dying when they turn 33 years old.

Like, it's really, it's a really great contrast. I'm loving this game, man. I cannot put it down, mostly because mechanically, I think the hooks are just so strong. Let me know when you guys are, I'd like to say something at the end of the conversation. No, I'm done. I'm done.

I wanna hear it. What's up David Cage? It's me, Justin McElroy. Listen man. Listen. The game has changed, brother. The bar's much higher now, David. The bar's much higher now, David.

You can't just release a game. You can't just release a game now, David, because we know some French people know how to talk. You know, I'm saying, brother, you gotta get some localization assistance, buddy. You got to, you got to. It's not a French thing, it's a David Cage thing. It's a David Cage issue.

Game is over. Just sweet as a V. No, that's a muzzy. not David Cage. I keep telling you. Sorry, I got him mixed up. All right, let's take a break. We'll come back. We're gonna head on over to the Savage Planet and let it enact its revenge.

So, Revenge of the Savage Planet is the sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet, which was, I really, I completely forgot existed, and I really enjoyed it. We talked about it on the show. Yeah, it's a fun- It's five years ago. It's like a fun double-A sort of metroidvania, I feel.

I feel like it slots into that. First life crafting, yeah, yeah. Light crafting and a lot of stuff. Yes. Revenge of the Savage Planet is a, I would say probably sillier, lighter, a little bit goofier, but not completely reinvented take on a similar idea where you are blasted off

to a really strange, very physically tactile world, very colorful world. You are supposed to set up a colony there, but you have, you know, classic, you know, none of your tools and none of your equipment made it. And you got to start rebuilding stuff with a 3D printer that you have. It's just sort of like scavenging this planet for resources, but the corporate overlords

that sent you have kind of like abandoned you. So your only assistance is an AI buddy named Echo that you can kind of customize with like the voice or how often they speak, etc. So pretty quickly you're blasted off with like, very little in the way of equipment and then you start getting a scanner and then you start getting the ability to capture animals and send them back to base to study them.

You did skip over the one big, probably the biggest change between this and the first game was that it's a third person. Oh yeah, that's true. I kept looking for a way to fix that, but they meant to do it. It is a third person game. It is a lot more about the, like, I think,

silliness of, like, running around this world. It feels, I thought at least, pretty good to run around. But it is a big playground. Like, and even when you go to the door of your habitat to leave, it says the prompt is go play outside like it's it's they they want this to be a big fun world that the story well and stuff such as it is. Well we can talk about that a little bit later but that's the general pitch rest what did you yeah I think for, it sounds like you did not care for the Switch, the third person, whereas I thought it was actually a big improvement. No, I don't, I don't know.

I just prefer first person, you know? I thought that it was like a, I didn't know if it was an option, I guess, at the beginning. I got used to it. And I think it makes more sense. There's actually a joke at the beginning of the game, I put that in quotes, but where you fall out of your spaceship, whatever it is,

and like you land in, they say a line about like change in perspective, you know, falls like this can result in a change in perspective. And then the camera pulls back. I think that they're really intending that people remember that five year old dusty double. I did. Well, good, Russ, you host a video game podcast. I'm glad you're in. And your retention for video game minutiae is off the charts. That's true. What I would say is I think for me, I found the third person to be better because first, like, does a better job of putting you in the world itself. It would be a lot harder to do a lot of this platforming. And there's also like, they added a bunch of stuff where you can like slide and then do like jumping slides and double jumps and things like that.

And it just makes the whole thing feel closer to what I think they were going for, which is like a Mario 64 kind of vibes of just like fucking around in a 3D environment. Yeah, yeah. I was going to put that that was a huge. But it's actually pretty close. I mean, there's like giant mushrooms you're running or you're getting a good head and steam throwing yourself around like it's. Yeah, the jump feels fucking great. Really? There are aspects of this that I think feel great. There are aspects that I don't think feel great, but just like the mobility stuff,

I think feels really, really. What do you think does not feel great? Gunplay, shooting things. I mean, this gets a little easier as you get more upgrades. It just didn't feel very impactful to me. And also just the like, I mean, I would say my biggest complaint with it is the way it handles gating of like progression is oftentimes like complete this fucking meaningless side quest. Yeah, you're talking about the biggest bummer. I had with this thing Yes, so the the the voice your echo your assistant a lot of the ways in which you like you relate to it is like and I mean by a lot I mean like a

Lot a lot is you go to a quest marker and then it will show you the thing that you cannot interact with and then it'll say, okay Well, you can't do this and here's the next quest that you need to go get the thing that you need to come back here To do this thing and it's like it's and it basically lays it out to you like that I mean, it's like it is aware of The fact that it is giving you a fetch quest to do like it's it's very cognizant of that in a quest that you can't do yes Which is honestly just a positioning issue like if you if you framed it as just like let's go here and get this upgrade I would be fine with it even if it took the same exact amount of time But because they're giving you a nested series of quests to get to the end

It feels like not and it gets it feels like you're checking off a list. And it gets confusing too, because it'll start giving you, your quest indicator will change to, from the thing you're actually trying to do to the nearest teleporter. And it'll just update that. So it's hard to track what you're doing. But just that sense of, it's a real old lady who swallowed

a fly kind of thing, where it's like, well, you need the grapple, but to get the grapple, you got to get the whip. But to get it, get the whip. You got to capture this this creature and to capture this creature. You got to get this other thing from over there. And it's like by the end of it, you're like, I don't even remember what I was doing. Like it's for a game that seems to really want to emphasize

play and exploration and stuff, structurally it feels very guided. It didn't feel like they knew how to fill out the length of the game. Once they like nailed the sandbox of like how it feels to move around the world, they didn't necessarily know like how do we use this in a big way that isn't gonna feel like chores?

And like, it's not even like the main quest, like some of the side quests that you eventually get, which unlock valuable resources, and some of them are even required, are like Electrocute 5 whiz bugs. I don't know where the fuck a whiz bug is. Yeah. And that's just the drag.

So it's this weird dichotomy of like it's really hard to make a third person game feel great to move around in the world. It's really rare to do that. And so that part of it feels great. And then you pair it with, I think, just like they didn't necessarily know how to scale that up. But, Justin,

there's another thing you have not mentioned. Shocking that we've gone this long without you. mentioned. Shocking that we've gone this long without you. Yeah. Shocking that we've gotten this long. Yeah. So, uh, the way that the messages from your like, corporate overlords and former corporate overlords and even like commercials and stuff like that are like communicated to you is, uh, through, uh, FMV sort of cut scenes that are like

highly, highly like, I don't know how to say, kind of filtered to make them look like, it's right on the line between CG. I mean, they're actors. They are actors, it's like- Live actors performing these scenes. No, I'm not making like a distinction.

I'm saying they're trying to blend it into the world. It's not this thing of like, it's not completely an aesthetic shift. They're trying to incorporate it in the world. I mean, I really love FMV and games. I think it always like kind of ropes me in. I have to say that for this, I just feel like all of the stuff that, man, I really don't want to, I don't mean this to sound mean. I think it's going to sound mean, but the stuff that is humor in this game, it just feels very Tim and Eric from like eight or nine years ago, like this, like leaning on

absurdism for like the jokes and like the grotesque rather than it being like actually humorous. There is a, your boss, your former boss's character is like in a fat suit, where the joke is that they eat a lot of food and that's disgusting and bad. And it's like so out of step with, it's not like not PC, it's just not funny, man.

It's like these played old fat shaming, like it's not jokes. It's just like, it really is. When I say Tim and Eric, I don't mean like it's kind of aesthetically inspiring. Like it, it just feels like cast offs from, you know, we have Glurp and it's the food stuff that makes old people go crazy. And then you have old people squishing the Glurp and they're like, yeah, I love glurp too. Um, it feels also like the performers and maybe this is wrong, but are just like the developers in makeup or people, the developers knew they're not like great performers or anything. Um, and I just feel like they really, I don't know, I was just really

unimpressed and the stuff with like, uh, some of the, I don't know, it's just none of it's funny. I don't know. I, I, yeah, it didn't land for me either. I was kind of blown away by like, they clearly spent a lot of production time. Yeah, like they did like set deck and like costumes and which is, yeah, just a lot of commitment. And I guess but but we've talked about this before, like humor is really fucking hard to

do in video games. It really anywhere it's hard. But I agree in this case. The other the other parallel I would make is like kind of early Saints Row like that that kind of like tone early Saints Row and it's also like lifted straight like this is like this sort of like a mocking mega corporations is like I mean obviously fair game fair game. I'm sure absolutely but they're like it's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's like you know so many other properties of like very worn territory. It's very, yeah, it's very worn. And this, it just does not ring as particularly funny just because it's been so, like it's Rick and Morty has done this to death. It's really well covered at this point.

It will actually be interesting because Outer Worlds 2 is coming out later this year. And that also had a similar tone, but not quite as, again, grotesque and goofy as this But it does lean on that like corporations do well that in the first game You know first out our worlds came out I feel like a while ago, and it wasn't quite as sort of played out at that point

But yeah, I'm also a bit nervous about that. I had to run out of a little tummy issue. Maybe I already talked about this. So crazy to secretly do that and then come back afterwards and say like, I snuck out and perfectly pulled out. Did you all say the thing about Google Stadia? No. Oh, so that's the important part here, right? This developer, they made the first game in this series

as part of the Google Stadia deal. They basically got pulled in, Google Stadia gets blown up immediately, and they're ejected out into the universe, and they make this thing. So I think this is a little bit of therapy happening here, of trying to process. Well, the first game had this stuff as well. you know, happening here. Like trying to process this stuff.

It did for sure, but I think this game is like really in it, but I do agree that it is worn. I also think on top of all the fiction that you mentioned, just being on like blue sky for an hour will mean that you see like a lot of these jokes. It's just kind of like, it's a certain type of online humor. It's not bad, it's just, well, I would say, I'm not giving you a judgment here,

I'm saying it's ever present. And to then hop into a video game and get more of it is like, I'm getting this everywhere. I think my operating, and this is not my, maybe my language, not my idea. The humor is the truth delivered in a surprising way. And I just don't feel like any of this is surprising. And maybe there's a truth to it.

Corporations are evil for sure. But like it's not communicated in a surprising way. I think Outer Wilds is smarter about how it delivers. Outer Worlds. I know. Outer Worlds is smarter too. I mean, to be fair, Outer Worlds is smarter, but yes, I'm at Outer Wilds. No corporations Outer Wilds. Yeah. But yeah, I just think it's a little bit more. And again, I don't want to keep harping on it, but Fallout is very much this kind of, you know, it's like, I don't know.

There are aspects of it. It just just it feels like it needed a rethink. I could ignore the narrative stuff if if I thought every aspect of the gameplay was like really hitting on all cylinders. But I do think that like that kind of both aspects needed a bit of a if you're just if you're going to encourage people to get out there and explore and have fun, then you got to make a structure that encourages that. I mean, you can't just say it. You gotta actually invest people in that.

And there's so many guide rails. There's so many handrails in the thing. You don't really get a chance to do it. Elon Musk, do you know why Elon Musk needs a driverless car? Why is that, Chris? Because he doesn't know where he's going. So that's the kind of- that's good shit, man.

That's actually really good shit. That's actually good shit. It's thoughtful and poignant. That's a thinker. That's a thinker. That's surprising. Do we want to do some honorable mentions? Sure.

I say that, I don't really have much to say. Yeah, can I talk about my thing? Yeah, yeah. 100 line, the most shit. Dude, I kinda wanna talk about that in a big way, in a full epi. How about we do, I would be very down to do a full epi. Just so people know what it is so they can get into it.

The people, the two of the creative leads on Danganronpa and Zero Escape got together with a larger team and they made a new video game. It's called The Hundred Line. It is, would you believe it? Students have gotten caught inside of a high school at the end of the world and they need to figure out some mysteries. Also, tactic RPG. Uh, it's sick. One word of warning, which I already said earlier, you do have to like really barrel through the first hour or two. Quite literally, there is not a pause menu. It does autosave, as I found out, thank God, but you need to get through it. Once you do, there's a whole game waiting for you on the other side, but it is a rough stuff.

It is really hard for me having this massive, original RPG that I have been completely consumed by while also over there in the corner of the room is the new game from the Danganronpa and Zero Escape team. Like, hey, we got 100 endings. You wanna get lost in a flowchart, pal? Like, it's tough. It's really tough.

I can't possibly play both of those at the same time, but man almighty, I am really, really excited to play. It's 100 line Last Defense Academy is the first. Yeah, let's try to maybe do it like later in June and then we can really dig through it. Yeah. I do have a request though for game developers that are listening to this. Sure.

Sure. We might have a couple. Maybe have an option to just be like, hey, do you want to gist this? Okay, cool. What's that look like? Do you want to gist the first hour? Just gist it.

If you want to gist it, you could gist it. Just select the gist button and we'll gist it for you. And then we'll get into the fun stuff. Can you just tell me Chris? I'm sure I know just this for me No, I know I feel pretty confident in like I know what the Writing and vibe and all that jazz is going to be like is the tactics side of the game also like in enjoyable enough

It's enjoyable and I give your hand something to do sort of way game also like enjoyable enough. It's enjoyable in a give your hand something to do sort of way. Kind of like I enjoyed the tactics in 13 Sentinels. It's very different. But it's also just very easy. The way that it works is you're on a big grid board. You know what, let's just save this for when we talk about it. Save it, save it.

No, no, no guys, I'm on the edge of my seat. No, no, no, no, don't make me do that. No, no, no, wait, hold on, tell me again, We'll save it save it Hold on tell me again if I get through all two hours of the boring stuff It will let me play the easy tactics game right you promise You promise it'll let me play What if I told you you don't even get to the flowchart until our floor for you? God I love a visual novel flowchart. God, I'm a sicko for that shit. Video games.

I'm still working on optimizing the Retroid Flip 2. It's the most time I think I've spent actually playing one of these retro handhelds that I've set up. I got Persona 4 Golden working on it, which is very exciting, but I've honestly, the thing I have been coming back to is playing like Game Boy Color and NES and SNES games with like the different like CRT like shaders

and filters turned on. I just played through all of Shadowgate classic on the Game Boy Color, just because it looks fucking rad. How do you get that key from that skeleton? He's all the way over in the lake. How do you get the key from the skeleton in the lake? Well, do you have the sphere, you dummy? Oh, gotta get the sphere.

Whoa, that's unnecessary. I mean, it's Shadowgate. I like coming back to Shadowgate because it's like, I feel like I know almost how to do that thing in my sleep. Like I've done it and if you remember the steps, you can just go through it. And I really enjoy the vibe of that game.

Also, now that the hockey season is over for everyone, we've been getting caught up on some of our shows and this season of The Amazing Race has really slapped, it's been a good one. It's been a banner year. Did you see that story about Val Kilmer and Will, who is it, MacGruber? Will Forte.

Will Forte, at one point, we're really into the idea of doing a season of that, and it would have been the best one. It would have been really, very, very good. I'm so disappointed. Yeah, this one's great. The budget, I think has, that show got, that show has always been kind of like a side piece

to Survivor, like we will watch Survivor every time and then like Amazing Race, we'll give it a shot and maybe we'll stick with it and maybe we won't. And that got especially weird during the COVID season because there was a season where like, that after a few legs, Phil got everybody together like, listen everyone, we have to stop for a while. And they stopped for a while and then they had to come back

and start the race back up. And there were like a couple teams who didn't come back and it was really weird. And the budget and like plotting has been kind of strange since then but. Mr. Beast would have just bought a mall and then put them all in the mall and had them race around that.

Yeah, I think that that is a different scale than we're used to watching the show. But really good casting this year and beautiful, beautiful locales. It's just enjoyable, it's a fun watch. I've been watching season two of the rehearsal. Oh yeah. Which is-

I've not watched the most recent episode, but the- Episode three, I think, is the most recent. It might be my favorite episode of the rehearsal I've ever witnessed. I lost my fucking mind watching that episode. I don't even know, I guess if you haven't watched this season, the premise is Nathan Fielder is trying to address serious issues with the airline industry and pilots in particular to minimize the amount of crashes that happen and he thinks the core issue is communication within the

cockpit and everything goes from there, it is... He spends the whole first episode saying, like, can I, a clown man, possibly address this serious issue of how power dynamics between a pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit of a commercial airliner can lead to miscommunication and pilot error and plane crashes. Can I possibly, possibly overcome my like persona

of being a comedian jokester to address this actual real issue with the ambitious conceit of this entire show? While also getting money from HBO because they are expecting a comedy show. A comedy show, right? Like, and the first,? And the first episode starts with about 15 minutes of simulations of actual plane crashes and actors playing out black box recordings

of actual plane crashes. It is a rough fucking ride. I guess trigger warning. Yeah, for sure. You could probably skip the first 15 minutes of that pilot, no pun intended episode of the season. And be a crazy place for a pun, by the way. Don't think you need to clarify.

Yeah. But yeah, man, it is, it just, it's clear because the first season of the rehearsal was also interrupted by COVID. Yeah. And they really had to do like a huge left turn in terms of what they were touching on. And this is like clearly where his ambition was, was something as big as a big, big, big interrupted by COVID. And they really had to do like a huge left turn in terms of what they were touching on. And this is like clearly where his ambition was, was something as pretty bizarre as this.

And again, I thought episode two was very good. Episode three of this season is like really spectacular. I'm very excited. Juice, Jost? Yeah, man. Here's what I would recommend, guys. Here's what I've been spending a lot of my time with this week. If you get on to YouTube, you can watch the Electronics 102 course from Lake Washington Technical College. Fuck yeah, man. a man named Joe Griniuk who the first part is 10 hours long and I'm at about hour four and a half right now and the thing has been gripping and if you want to learn the basics fundamentals of

electronics this course is only 17 hours long and the entirety of it is available to you on YouTube. Just start watching this thing and you're gonna emerge If your brain is wired a certain way I Mean you could just watch the whole thing and learn a lot about electronics and that is my recommendation to use you go watch the video titled basic electronics part one on YouTube I visited Justin's house this past weekend and saw I saw your setup in your office and Your how much does it look like Beakman's world? It's a I don't know if it's at Beakman's world level, but it

There's a lot of tinkerers a lot of tinker toys I expressly forbade you from a lot of clips and lenses I trust that none of them will be out of place when I return I'm adding this to the newsletter. This is nerds lesson Yeah, okay. It's a I mean the video is basic electronics part one the channel is nerds lesson I now listen. I'm only four and a half hours in so it may get boring later I don't know but the only four and a half hours in so it may get boring later I don't know but the first four and a half hours. I'm to resistance right now

Hey, listen, you didn't need to just it is what you're saying. That's no gist ing record. Yeah, do not just that Let's just say this people in my life have been hearing a lot about batteries Have they covered the the water being bad part of it? Sorry what have they covered water being bad? for electronics So interesting water conductor or insulator both Wow makes you think I guess it depends on how much water water your h2o Yeah is an insulator So when they're treating water at a water treatment plant,

they'll actually measure the conductivity of the water to see how much junk is left in it, because pure water, not conductive. So if you, like in theory, if you're in a hot tub and someone chucks an electrical appliance in there. Don't do that. Shouldn't do that. Now you will die, but if there was nothing in the water.

If there was a new hot tub. New hot tub, but also you didn't have oils and everything, because you can throw off the chemistry very easily. But I don't. My skin is great. Yeah. But it's water. I didn't know this. Pure water. It's an insulator. Fascinating. Thanks, Joe. Okay, I think we did it. Thank you to everyone over there at the Patreon and everyone else listening that isn't a Patreon member. Maybe you will become one you could go over to patreon.com slash the besties and join. You could also get a gift for people of a subscription if you want to get a gift for a friend or loved one that loves the besties patreon.com slash the besties

slash gift. Some new members that I want to thank to the Patreon. We have DTX, we have Aaron, we have Ben, and we have Ram. Thank you for being members of the Patreon. We have a new Resties coming to you on Tuesday. We have that Bracket episode which went up a little early. That was a nice, special early gift for y'all. So, lots of good stuff over there on the Patreon. Alright, and next week we are doing doom doom the dark ages the dark ages that doom guy is going back in time going back in time but he's passing the original doom guy to even before the first doom guy think about that wow whoa that's

gonna do it first this week on the besties be sure to join us again next time for the besties, because should the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Ah. Besties!