The Besties - The Besties Game of the Year Is . . .

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

A year’s worth of video game podcasting has brought us to this moment. The Besties use their brains and brackets to select the Besties Besty of 2024. Plus, Frushtick, Hoops, Griffin, and Plante share their personal Top 5s! 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!

Here's what I'm saying. I think for Jeff, Astro Bot is the right pick. Jeff, very safe. You might as well give the award to video games, Jeff. I'm just saying, you're not gonna piss anybody off with Astro Bot, huh, Jeff? Yeah. I mean, this is sort of our last chance to check in

with the VGA prediction episode that Resonites two-handed. This isn't part of the show. This is just four guys. Oh, I. This isn't part of the show, this is just four guys. Oh, I thought this was the intro to the show. I just wanna say Russ and I beefed it about as hard as one could. I mean, in terms of guessing who's gonna win what,

I think we fucking crushed it, actually. Yeah, we did great. In terms of what was going to be announced, Oh yeah, we did bad. What is the opposite? We fluffed it, we did so terrible. We definitely didn't guess Okami. I need to find, Okami? Okami coming back. What We definitely didn't guess Okami. I need to find Okami?

Okami? What are you talking about? Okami got announced. Okami 2 got announced. What? Yeah, I'm sorry I had I watched all the game awards, but I had super bad diarrhea. So I kind of went in and out I didn't see Okami. That's amazing. Jeff cried when he announced it and it was legit I can't keep the big going, because that was actually the greatest moment of my entire life, because I feel like the reason Jeff got emotional when he announced Okami is not just because of the moment,

because I feel like that is the real culmination of the Jeff Keighley story, is this man had 10 years of believing in the dream and he was like I really miss Okami You know what? I'm gonna spend 10 years trying to get them to make a new Okami and this is the this is the Prestige it's all you think he was the what he was the driving force that made that game happen. Yes I think he is funding it I think if you look at the face it is a comedy I think he's doing the mocap on the face.

He's face capping a commie. I don't think there's ever been a bigger oversell than Jeff crying and me thinking, oh fuck, Half-Life 3 is about to drop, and it's a guy playing a drum. Like, I don't think there's ever been a bigger oversell than that. Like, I'm sure he's jazzed about it.

How's it feel out there? It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good, I'm sure he's jazzed about it. Hey Russ, how's it feel out there? It doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel good, I'm telling ya. You wanna come in? You wanna come in? It makes me sad. You forgot your gloves and your scarf. Come on in pal.

Thanks buddy. We're all warming by the light of- We're all warming by the fire of Okami. By the fire of Amaterasu's flaming scarf or whatever. It's been so long since Okami came out. Yeah, give me a, call me when there's a new onimusha uh buddy good news son of a bitch My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the year.

My name is Griffin McElroy and we'll find out best game of the year. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I'm prepared to figure out the best game of the year with you, my best friends. My name is Russ Frusche and I'm the best game of the week. Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a video game club, and just by listening, my friend, you are a member, and today, what we set out to do

with the Besties way back in 2012, well, we're doing it again. This is the real reason we're here, and that is to rank art. We're gonna rank art objectively, ranking art with the best games of the year. Chris Plante, what does that mean? Well, art is an expression of the human soul,

and ranking is to reduce it into just an arbitrary series of numbers that we pretend to be objective when in fact. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like what we're doing isn't important. It is the most important. It's silly at the same time. But the problem is people get so excited for the Game Awards. We even started talking about it at the top of the show.

We are older than the Game Awards. Game Awards is ripping us off. Oh, the baddies. I thought you meant us as people. That also. So if you want to know the origin, the history, the expertise of picking the true best game of the year, this is the show you've come to.

I'm dead serious right now. We're gonna pick one. Let's do it right after this. Okay, so if you remember last week. Oh, guys. Oh, man, you poor guys, man. Wow, guys. I mean, they're all gonna be bad.

These are all gonna be a little rough. They're all bad, they're all bad, huh? Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, this is my throat. I don't know that I did, they're all gonna be bad. These are all gonna be a little rough. They're all bad, they're all bad, huh? Yeah. I don't know that I did a good job on these matchups. No, I think you did a pretty bad job on these matchups. In fact, you know what? I didn't get a hand on the matchups ball.

I've never, I'm gonna bump some things around cause there's some frankly insane- Move stuff around. It should be thematic, but otherwise go wild. Okay. You set up what the top eight are here. Okay, so the top eight as determined last week We have Astrobot. We have animal well, we have UFO 50. We have like a dragon infinite wealth

We have Steamworld Heights to we have crow country, which was a reader pick. Well done We have hell divers to which was also a reader pick and we have Bellatro. Those are our top eight Okay, Griffin you've reworked the matchups. Yes. Uh, okay. Let's, I mean, we don't have to set them all up. Let's get started with this first one, and let's start getting nasty. I hate it. I hate it too. I knew you were not gonna like it, but this one is where the chips landed.

The theme here is games that start with the letter A. Yeah, that's a good one. Astrobot and Animal Well. This also has two cute little guy pies running around bouncing. That's true. So I guess that's a theme. Now this is good.

This is the common man's game of the year and a true thinking man's game of the year for the refined pallet. Jumping, there's jumping in both. These are, you know what? I think the theme of these two games for me, and I think it's something you see actually a lot this year, but there's a real generosity of spirit

in both of these games. It's somebody who was willing to put so much love into a thing and just trust that the person on the other end was going to be like into it. And I think that that's really astounding with both of these. Yeah, it's crazy that you could technically say these are the same genre.

These are loosely the same genre. They are both sort of platformers, sort of a little bit. What's interesting I think is like, if you add on the surface, they're extremely the same genre. Like if you just sort of take Animal Well as like what it's giving you,

it feels very much like Astrobot. And then as you dig and dig and dig, you realize, oh, there's like a fucking Matrix style. It's like the game that they play in the movie Hackers, when you like go in and they're in that like that club scene. Yeah. That's what's laying underneath Animal Well's surface of a cute little insect man.

That's a really good description of Animal Well, is it does, from just an outsider's perspective, does look like a video game they would play on a TV show about video games or a movie where a video game, like in Her, the video game he plays where he kind of walks his hands through this AR temple. This just seems like a, I can't believe this is a video game, but it very much is.

Simple as it looks, it is quite wonderful beneath the surface. These two games do two completely different things, so I don't really know how to pit them against each other. I will say, if we're looking for comparison points, I will say my little thing about Animal Well is, I feel like the thing that held it back for me just a little bit, and this is absolutely its own choice,

and it's true to its own design, but I wish I could experience a bit more of that game in a vacuum than I was able to. Sure. I think that for the way I go at stuff, I think that it really rewards a sort of like communal play. It rewards a sort of like deep, patient play. I think it could do a little bit more just to make it like where you can see a lot. It kind of reminds me of like Outer Wilds in that sense where like what it's doing seems so cool.

I wish it was just a bit more accessible. And that is my only sort of thing that held it back. But like I really enjoyed Animal Well. I played quite a bit of it. Same with Astrobot. It just... I think Animal Well, like the genre of Animal Well for me is like, it is a mystery game.

And it just so happens to have like, you interact with it as a platformer or as a search action game. But like, if that's all that game was, it would be frankly pretty bad. What it is is a mystery game in the vein of a, you know, some of the great mystery games. Like a-

I think for what it's worth, I think it's a really good platforming game, even without the mystery stuff. I think it's a good- I mean, yeah, it is good to move around that world. It looks great, right? But it's like, it is quite simple. It is how it kind of like hides things

within that simplicity, that it makes it truly an unforgettable experience. I say unforgettable, I wish it was forgettable because it suffers the same kind of pitfall as any mystery game, which is like going back and playing it again will not. Similar to Outer Wilds as well, which is like. Exactly, yeah.

Yeah, I wish I could wipe my brain of knowing like, oh, there's that shortcut. That said, like it unfolding and unfurling and revealing itself in the way that it did when I played it, elicited within me a much, much magnitude stronger reaction than playing Astrobot did. Astrobot's a great game and it's very generous. I love that word that you used to describe it last week,

Russ, but for me, I don't know, Animal Well was so thrilling. I could not stop playing that game because at any point I had in my mind four mysteries happening that I was trying to figure out. I think we, yeah. Well, can we talk about Astrobot for a second? Yeah, I would love to figure out. I think we... I think, yeah. Well, can we talk about Astrobot for a second? Yeah, I would love to.

Yeah, please. So I really enjoyed Astrobot when it came out, but I couldn't shake that weird nagging feeling of this is a game that is effectively a giant marketing mechanism. Which I don't feel in my heart to be true, but it kept rattling around my brain.

So I thought about that, especially after it won the game awards of like, what does that mean for me? And where I've come to really appreciate this game is yeah, it's marketing, but also it is either a reminder of like what we've lost with video game consoles or the direction that Sony needs to go if it wants to get through this. And by that, I mean you play Astrobot and you see all of these great franchises, these games, these weird experiments, this idea of like Sony making big games like God of War, making weird things like Vid Ribbon, that there's all this variety, right? And now, you know, you're rebuilding a PlayStation five and you turn on your PlayStation five.

And that is not what I expect at all. When I turn on a video game console, I expect like the same games that I'm going to find everywhere else. Right. I expect Sony to release like one game a year. And I think there's something kind of special about what the game is doing that is, again, quite literally, it feels like almost like an end point of the Sony experiment as a video game. Or again, a like, hey, y'all, this is a reminder to literally you of what made your thing special. And if you want wanna get through this, like this is why Nintendo stays around.

Like you need to get to it. It's not an end point. It's a beginning. It's not a lake, it's an ocean. Because- Not a Sam Lake. What Astrobot does as game of the year, according to the TGA's, is shows the world and shows Sony specifically,

you could spend seven years having the Audi dog spend 300 million dollars, whatever they spent on those games, or you could get a team of 60 people and spend a 10th of that and make also an incredible experience. I'm not saying one is better than the other one, but there is a way forward in a more scalable- Can I get the same people that crank out 10 games?

Sorry? Wait a minute. This is good, Russ. Slow down. Cancel Naughty Dog's new shit. Obviously everyone hates it. Have them make 10 Astrobots instead, easy. Well, here's what I'm gonna say.

Industry fixed. I would be shocked, and I'm gonna call it now, because I called all sorts of Astrobot predictions previously. I'm gonna call it now because I called all sorts of Astrobot predictions previously. I'm gonna call it now. Astrobot 2, launch title, PlayStation 6. Boom. And it will come out before Intergalactic, the heretic. Also very true.

Yeah, Intergalactic is coming out. I just think it's a really heartwarming, plants comparison to Nintendo is great. It's a heartwarming example of another company realizing that we can also capture the magic right Nintendo has been fucking and I think it's incredible It's the game doesn't just have the trappings of like Sony's Nostalgic brand identity the vibe of the game is very much like in that PS one platformer like Spyro crash bandicoot like kind of madcap feel. And I think that that is,

I think that's very, very cool as well. I'm a, I will, I'll say this one little stinker note. I think that Sony intentionally had to let LittleBigPlanet die before this astrobot could become this. And I think that it's kind of crummy that they could have had this with Little Big Planet. They were building a sort of like Sackboy as brand ambassador kind of vibe for a while. And that could have been a brand about like user generation and creativity. And I think that that if they had had the purity of that vision,

it would have served them a lot better when the tech caught up. They needed- In this like Fortnite era. I think it's a little sad. Yeah, they needed those games to be fun. That was really the downside of it. I'm not gonna sit here and listen to this.

No, I'm just saying that I think it's a little, it bums me out a little bit that it's like, we wanna recreate this identity, but it's just sort of like so brand focused. I don't know, it's a little crass. I think it's like the MCU, honestly. That's how I view Astrobot, is it feels like end game to me, where it's-

Patly, patly insane. Where are we at? It feels like end game because it's on a memory card on the ground. Like if Astrobot is marketing, so is end game is what I'm saying. Well, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Round the corner, where are we at? I am pretty firmly Animal Well. Where's everyone else's home? I literally am cool with either of these games moving on. I'm Astrobot. My pick is probably Astrobot. OK, that's funny how that worked. That's funny how that just went down, Russ.

Juwa, I was thinking about my top five and... Yeah, sure. I get it. Animal well for me, thank you. Okay, so we got two animal well, and we have two astrobots, but it sounds like one of the astrobots is kind of leaning either way. I'm extremely pro animal well as well, so I would be totally fine with moving animal well. I'm fine with that.

Okay. Just shove that little dinkus in a well. Say hi to Yodenoid and Spot for me. Okay, so Animal Well moves on. Astrobot gets kicked. All right, next. Okay. Oh, he fell on the Where's the Beef lady.

Hold on, let me scoot over. Next up, we have UFO 50 versus SteamWorld Heist 2. What was the rationale on this matchup, Griff? Well, originally you had UFO 50 going up against like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. So what was the idea behind that matchup? Yeah. These were all arbitrary.

Let's not pretend they weren't. Let's all justify our arbitrary fairings. They both have photos of perverts in them. Both indie games. Okay, these are both indie games. No, we couldn't get the indie game, it came out too late in the year. Okay.

UFO 50. We'll come back to it in 2020. We're gonna make so many Indiana Jones indie game goofs in the episode where we finally cover that game, so save those up, sit on them. You're right, you're right, you're right. We said a lot about Steam World Highs 2. To me, that game fucking rules.

It's like so fucking sharply made and creative. And I worry that it got kind of buried. I didn't feel like there was a huge zeitgeist like uprising around it, but structurally speaking, I think it's also also it's tough for us because honestly, like I my enjoyment of it was kind of like almost in spite of a lot of factors like I didn't play the last one. Yeah, I mean, I think that I think Steamworld suffers a little bit from just being consistently pretty good that I think it can get but like consistent. The consistency is maybe like makes it a little easier to to ignore or lose track good that I think it can get up but like consistent the consistency is maybe like Makes them a little easier to to ignore or lose track of I think yeah, I think this

Elevated the quality level compared to a lot of I don't know if it's the best Oh sure, I always think world dig two is maybe the best but this one is one maybe one of my favorite turn-based strategy games I've ever played for what it's worth. Musically it's great, it looks great. It does, for somebody who doesn't like to think about a lot of tactical stuff, it gets too deep for me to enjoy pretty quickly. This is such a kinetic visual way of doing tactics combat that I really,

I really love that. Yeah, minimal percentages, like chance to hit is like, oh, I can see the laser hits like directing at that guy. Yeah, so much more about physics and angles and that. It's got hats. It does, a lot of different hats in it. So many different hats. UFO 50, I mean, we kind of breezed by also last time

because I forget what it was up against, but I think we all kind of decided pretty easily that UFO 50 was going to move on. So I'm not sure how much I have. I know Griffin's been extremely UFO 50-pilled. I've played a lot of UFO 50 as well. Plant and Juice, where are you guys at in terms of it? Is it still purely like, wow, this is an incredible

accomplishment or have you like truly turned the corner into like, oh, fuck, I love this shit? If I were more, I have spent a lot more time with you of 50. I have, I can't say charried, I won't do it, but I have- Say gotten the charried. I won't do it, but I have gotten achieved, achieved the highest ranked success in several of the games. Uh, now at this point, I think three or four, no, it's three. I know exactly how many it is.

Uh, I don't know if this will make sense to you guys. If I was more of the sort of gamer that I wish I was, I would just be playing UFO 50. I really, really, I, the time that I spend with UFO 50, I always feel like it's very well spent. It feels very, it feels very rewarding. Like it's a good experience. I wish that I was a bit more, I don't know,

a different person, but I like it quite a bit. Did you even watch it? It's like watching Treme. Wait, wait, wait, no, no. Fraschik did this very strange thing where he said, it's like a fine wine, but then he brushed his nose like cocaine? No, no, no. I had my thumb out as well.

I was drinking wine. Okay, I thought you were like, kind of like, it's like a fine wine, if you know what I mean, a little bit of cocaine. Oh, this is our A little bit of cocaine. Salt aged cocaine. Yeah, this one feels like a bit of an easy one. Not that SteamWorld Heist 2 isn't a great and special game on its own, but UFO 50,

it's the sort of game that we really privilege at besties and have historically. It's a game that game that we really privilege at Bessie's and have historically. It's a game that is both good game design, but getting at something bigger. I mean, we talked about Astrobot and kind of what it's saying about what's going on in the industry. And the grand irony of UFO 50 is to play UFO 50 is to experience what it's like to play video games in the year 2024, which is to turn on your system and be absolutely overwhelmed

by a ridiculous amount of choice. The video game. Except in this case, most of them are very, very, very well designed all at once. It's really tough to like, there are so many factors working against SteamWorld in a very crowded year. I am still kind of amazed that I played the entire thing. I did all of it.

And there's like a lot of opportunities for me to like, like we talked about in the episode and it was just this thing of like, I think I'll play a little bit more. And it was not because I was addicted. It was not because it was like some power curve, it's just like so good to play. It's like so- Yeah, it's incredibly capable.

Yes, it's so capable, it's so like rewarding, you know exactly why, it's just like so well honed and well refined. Here's for me, I think the, the narrative of it, there is so much time you spend in, like, character dialogue and the world story dialogue and like, it just doesn't do really enough to keep the story moving. And I think that it actually assumes a little bit too much knowledge of the first one. Yeah, I was definitely skipping through dialogue. I think once you're in missions

or even once you're just like cruising around in the ship, you're constantly being given stuff to do and it really does feel like literally propulsive. But I agree narratively, it didn't speak to me in any way. I also agree that we reward, whether fairly or not, games that are really trying to do something brand spank and new. And it's ironic that UFO 50 is doing that,

given the fact that it's inspired by games that came out 30 years ago. But it unquestionably is. There's no analog for it. UFO 50 then, it sounds like. Yes, I feel really good about that. Okay. Okay, next up we have Crow Country versus Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth.

This is gonna be, this is rough for Crow Country. I love Crow Country. I think everyone should play it who is a fan of the survival horror genre. I think it's a very- I've played it more now. Me too. Oh, did you? Since last week. I'd like to speak for Crow Country.

I love you too. Yes, please. I think the thing that scared me off of it initially is I thought it would be a lot more, I guess, hardcore. It looks like a game that is for hardcore gamers. It looks like a PlayStation 1 horror game, and it looks like it's gonna control really bad. You know what I mean? It does, it does look like that.

It looks like it's gonna feel bad. What really knocked me over actually was, one, if you play with normal controls for sane people, it feels just fine. Great, yeah. It does a really fun thing though with it, like running around is very good, and then when you hold right bumper to start trying to aim,

it starts to feel bad, and that's like good. Like in a way that's very like, it makes aiming at stuff fairly intense and scary. Right, yeah, I think it matches how people might've felt when they were playing the original Resident Evils. But it feels so much better than the original Resident Evil. I mean, it feels better, but the memory of it, right? The memory.

What you like of it. And the puzzles are actually like, much, much better. There are one layer elevated from Resident Evil where it's like, it doesn't just say like, you know, you get the King Key and you put it in the King lock. There's a little bit of lateral thinking, but not too much more than that.

And they have these like employee journals that are like basically laying it out in full, you know, detail exactly what the problems are. And those are all really funny too. It's, it's real. And also I didn't realize, I guess it didn't the problems are. And those are all really funny too. It's, and also I didn't realize, I guess it didn't click with me that it's set in a theme park.

Yeah, awesome setting. And that's kind of rated E for extremely my shit. So I, again, I've spoken so much about infinite wealth and will continue to speak about it, but I did want to say like, this is definitely one, I was squeezing in a few minutes before we uh came on I definitely think that I will um keep up with it uh it's it's uh a lot of fun I haven't quite figured out how like resource balance how how much I need to be sitting on my med kits and ammo and stuff yeah um is there an analog like are there other games that are set entirely in a theme park?

But besides like roller coaster tycoon and obviously like the Disney Yeah, yeah, I don't I guess a pretty big show. I mean like said entirely Because obviously like with Final Fantasy 7 there's like chunks and like there's like a I mean lies a pee Had an extremely right head usually has a level but I actually think there's something really interesting in like- Oh, the theme- Lots of horror games, like other than this too, you know? I guess Five Nights at Freddy's kind of counts. Yeah, Five Nights at Freddy's is in a Billy Bob's Wonderland, but yeah.

Uh, I think that this game, I think the vibe and story and setting of this game is really special. It is like, the monsters are all really fucked up and weird. It's not like zombies. It's much more kind of, you know, low res body horror than that. You don't have to kill them. You don't have to kill them. You can go around them.

That sucks. It's worse. I want them to come after me more. This game is really, really, once you reach the last hour of this game, I genuinely, I stayed up very late finishing this game because I couldn't put it down. Because I think that the storytelling and writing

and everything is great. How long is it? It feels fairly concise. Yeah, I 100% did it. I don't think it took me more than like 12, 13 hours maybe. Yeah, it'd be a bragging thing. It's very, I's very, it's very, I think the amusement park setting is also very special

because there's something very cool about going around an environment that has props designed to jump scare you as a attendee of the park mixed in with stuff that is genuinely trying to hurt you. And it also justifies a lot of the park mixed in with stuff that is genuinely trying to hurt you. I think that's cool. And it also justifies a lot of the puzzle solving because it has like the sleep no more,

or like kind of, you should be solving these puzzles because of course a person that was going through this park was also solving these puzzles. So it makes sense in ways that like a police station having weird fucking keys does not make sense. And if you are the type of person that loves 100%ing like survival horror games, like it has systems in place to help you like achieve that if you want to.

It is actually a much more approachable, I think, survival horror game than it maybe looks at first blush. It's also weirdly sort of like Riley Funny in a way that you don't necessarily expect. There's like one part where you find like an animatronic vampire and he pops up. And then I shot him and his head exploded,

which is hysterical. And then every time I checked the body after that, it said, I killed this vampire in his sleep, the way you're supposed to. It's like very silly stuff like that within the like scarier stuff. It's really good. It's also a great gateway game,

which is what ended up being my favorite thing about it, is I finally went and revisited Parasite Eve. Oh yeah. Like literally the past two weeks because we were talking about this game. And I don't know, sometimes you need to play something modern like this that reminds you it is possible that you're not so intimidated to go back.

And then you go back and you kind of have that language in your head and it works all fine. Also, y'all parasite Eve, I mean, we can't go too far. We can't, what a game. You're gonna go nuts on that shit. What a Christmas game. It's fear factor. I think like a dragon infinite, wealth should move on.

Yes. But I'm really glad you guys played Crow Country. I think it is genuinely a real sleeper in a year full of big games. If it had come out at a different time, I think it would have hit really great. I think it came out fairly early in the year when there was still stuff off and popping, but yeah.

All right, last round of this semi-final, corner finals. The last round is Helldivers 2 versus Bellatro. Talk about two games that came out of absolutely nowhere, right? Yeah. I mean, not on anybody's most anticipated list. I remember seeing the Helldivers 2 trailer last year at the TGA's and being like, oh, that was a funny trailer. But, not. Helldivers 2 breaks my brain because we

talked about this last time Griffin and I really enjoyed Helldivers 1. When I saw that Helldivers 2 gameplay trailer, whenever that was, my reaction was, why did they break a good thing? Yeah. Why are we getting another generic third person shooter when we had this really interesting, cool

thing and cool to be wrong. Very cool. getting another generic third-person shooter when we had this really interesting cool thing. And cool to be wrong, very cool. I also want to mention the fact, since we last recorded, there was a huge update that was announced as part of the TGAs, which added an entire new enemy faction in the Illuminate, which is like the alien Protoss style faction that are now in the game And I booted it back up and played some more and that game is still fucking fun as shit

And easy to get into games and no lag in the community is grand It's not the like Pokemon go insanity that it was towards launch But there is still like a very dedicated community of people that, it's around 200,000 active users at peak that are just kind of cruising along and competing. Probably closer to what they balanced the game for and hoped for. Oh yeah. You know? Yeah. I think as a live service game,

I think it has been pretty impressive with how much stuff they've done. It's exciting because they made so much fucking money. Like it did so well, insanely well, to the point where that studio can be really floated on that success for many years. And I'm excited to see what they do with that. Like how they grow the game in unique ways

will be really exciting. Right now, I think the onboarding experience is great. And the first like Several dozen hours is like super great I think I kind of hit a wall in terms of like fun goodies towards the latter part of it and I think that's a common complaint, but I I'm just mostly I'm just excited because there aren't many of those multiplayer games that you just jump in and have fun immediately With a bunch of friends regardless of how much you've played. It is sort of the nature of, I mean, games with, co-op games with sort of

action-heavy elements and character customization that everything kind of naturally funnels to a point where it's like, you know, my problem with the game, I think when I first kind of stopped playing Helldivers 2 was when the community was very much like, don't come in here unless you even got the drone, if you don't have this one, if you don't have this, what are those things, what are they called?

The laser gun, whatever it was. Yeah, just that whole cat, I can't remember. And that was like frustrating, but it was very much like, okay, if you went online, it was like, how to get better at Helldivers 2, which you kind of have to, to play those higher difficulties. It's like, well, you gotta rock with this weapon. You gotta go with this.

This is by far the best one. And it seems like they have smoothed that out a bit, but it didn't make it- And I also think it does, if you're reasonable about the difficulty levels you also think it does, if you're reasonable about the difficulty levels you're trying to conquer, like you're gonna reach the right audience. So if you're playing like a five or six difficulty

rather than a 10 difficulty, you're gonna play with people that are like not looking to like fucking try hard their way through it. You're gonna play with casual people that have a good, that just wanna have a good time. I guess I was saying more like, as I played it, once I got the stuff that I was kind of grinding up the, you know, battle pass for.

Sure. It's hard for me in a game to not feel like, well, I beat it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is maybe counterintuitive, but. And they have released a lot of War Bonds since then, but you're right. Sure. Like, once you have 50 things,

like, it's hard to motivate to try to use something else. But I think they did an amazing job, that game fucking rules. Bellatro is a, it's a deck building game. It's a poker-based deck building game, where you are basically playing poker, but then you're collecting jokers.

Jokers and pokers, the oldest story, tales of the oldest time. I started playing more on the mobile version, which is truly death. Huge mistake, huge mistake. I made a rule for myself, here's my rule. I can only play the mobile version when I'm on the subway. That's the only time I'm allowed.

If I play it at home, I'm fucked. Like, it's just like, hemorrhoid town. I downloaded it and I started playing it and I was like, oh no. I need to dedicate the next two weeks to just like beating this game to death and finishing all the shit that's in the game so that I can like, get over it. And so that it won't sort of be all encompassing. I used to do that game dev story every few months. Yeah, I see, I've actually been in a place with it now

where it's, I don't have that, it's satisfying to play Bellatro. As I don't have, you know, there was definitely like an addictive impulse at first, and I think that that's part of it. But like it's it's one of those things where after I play around I really feel like, oh, that was fun. I really got a lot out of that. I had a really good time. I'm I've it's a satisfying game experience. It doesn't feel manipulative or anything.

There's like a lot to think about and there's a lot of different components and it makes every playthrough like interesting and really rewarding What's funny is it is a little manipulative in ways that we don't necessarily knock But I think in the way that like the haptics work on mobile and the way that like all the effects work together like It's manipulating you into making that experience even more satisfying. This is not a negative, I'm not knocking it, but- They made the game feel too good? Is that what you're saying?

Well, no, I'm not saying too good, I'm saying it's extremely good. There's a version of Bellatro that has no effects, no haptics, no anything that's really just the rules of the game. It's very pleasant to play for sure. Brain candy, yeah. It's not like a cold experience.

No, the haptics that they have when the game boots up of the shuffling sort of, you know the feeling I'm talking about, like, whoa, it's blockbuster time, fun, all right. So fucking good. It's, I mean, I have a real, talk about a novelty bias combined with also one of the things that I spend the most time on in the past 12 months. It's really hard for anything to keep.

There's a Pavlovian sort of, just hearing you talk about the shuffle haptics, it's like, I wouldn't mind having a little hand. Be a quick right-hander. Little shuffle. While I cast. I'm all one-hander while I cast is continuing. What plan were you at on Bellatro?

I will save it for the top five, because I think I'd rather go to the top five. Interesting. Sounds edgy. And I'd rather talk about it there than dig into my opinions of this game until then. Alright, so it sounds like pushing Bellatro forward then? I do, before, yeah, no, yeah, okay. Yeah, I think we're pushing Bellatro forward. Yeah, I mean, if you wanna make a case for Helldivers 2, I'm for you. No, no, no.

Bellatro of these two is definitely my pick of those. Okay, cool. That brings us to our final four, which is Animal Well, UFO 50, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, and Bellatro. Now the question is, do we, I mean we should, what do we bump up into fifth position? Or not even fifth position,

because there is precedent for this also, it could land anywhere, probably not first, that would be crazy, but what do we bring back up into the finals? Let's, I'll tell you what, let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and watch four best friends battle to the death. And I'm not talking about us, I'm talking about the games.

That's right, these four games all love each other too. That's cool. Stakes couldn't be higher. Okay, we've narrowed it down. We've got four, we've got Animal Well, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, UFO 50 and Bellatro. And we've said that we're gonna bring it forward a fifth from somewhere in the ethos. Ugh, this sucks.

This is gonna suck. Like in Ghostbusters when they go in somewhere to Ghostbusters. This is gonna be the worst part of it. This is gonna be the worst part of it. Oh, by far. Because it seems to me, the two games we've discussed doing this for is Astrobot and Metaphor Riffentazio, two games that the four hosts of this podcast could not be more diametrically opposed regarding.

Is that true? I think so, I don't know. Here's what I'm gonna say about Metaphor Re-Fantazio. I think it's clear that the podcast is split down in twain regarding Metaphor Re-Fantazio. I don't get that sense about Astrobot, but tell me if I'm wrong. Sorry, just to be clear, as much as I love,

this must be what it's like to be a woman, to have three men tell me how I feel about metaphor refontasio. But I will say that I feel exactly the same way about metaphor refontasio as I do about Astro Bot. I think that they're both remarkable. And I see the, like, that the amount of like joy and delight that they have brought to people that have gotten deeply into them seems roughly equal to me. And I appreciate both of, especially like after that episode that we had about metaphor Rufantazio and like looking at some of the other like later game stuff and the feedback from other people, like I definitely see,

I had a real urge to go back and play more, I won't, but I had an urge. I feel about the same way as Astrobot, very cool. But like, 100% you. Can I make my case for metaphor in here really quick? Sure. Okay, this would be my case. Is the top five for us is like our collective top five, right?

And when I look at our top four right now, we have animal well, like a dragon, UFO 50, and velatro. And I think we all love like a bad dragon. I wouldn't be surprised if it maybe gets number one. I don't know. The other three are games that I personally, they're like not my things. I feel like they're like the other things here that like I know why they're here and I know why they resonate with all of you. But there's, I feel like I personally do not have my like, oh, this is the game that means the world to me. I don't have like the Indica or the A Thousand Exorcists or a Metaphor in this case. And of all the games that I think have the best shot

of that, Metaphor is a game like I will be thinking about for the rest of my video game playing life. Can you tie a bow on what, you've written about this at like, that talked about it on this show, but what is it about metaphor that specifically that clicked? And maybe do it in reference to previous Persona? I'm just like, that's where I'm getting hung up

because every time it's been described, it sounds like Persona Plus to me. Yeah, and I don't think that's true at all because I've never finished a Persona game and I finished this. I think the big difference is, as silly as this is to say, this one starts much, much earlier than Persona, and it has a series of hooks and additional gameplay loops

that reveal themselves much deeper than a persona game. So by that, I mean you start the game, you have a little bit of story and it's like, okay, well, and here is how combat works. And it's actually understandable this time versus persona games. Here is how the travel system works. Okay, here's how the day system works in relation to travel and how you actually spend your time. Here are all the activities that you can do with the players.

And because it balances both clarity and density without ever feeling like, oh, this is 30 hours of tutorials to start the game. That's the magic. And that's where I think Persona, a game I really love, a games I really love, can struggle. Because for me, Persona sometimes feels like the first 30 hours are tutorials for all those systems rather than layering on of delicious flavors, which is what I got from this game. I will say that in terms of,

I only pushed through with with Persona because of the extremely good feedback I got and also because it was the only game I brought to the beach that one time. Yeah. This is Metaphor Fantasio is much more a video game that is engaging you mechanically early on, and is not asking you to do a lot of homework before it starts to get interesting.

I think it stands out for me in this year of excellent RPGs of being a game with a really original world, with some really original kind of like ideas behind it. And obviously like fantasy and sci-fi as a genre pretty much exists to hold a mirror up to like real world stuff. And I think that this game at first blush seems like it's gonna do a pretty clumsy job with it. I think it does a pretty extremely good job actually,

holding that mirror up and showing something that is surprising with a surprising amount of nuance and care. I really, really got interested. I never do this, but like, I would read the memos of like, here's what you need, here's what you should know about this tribe and here's the history of this thing. Like I caught myself like voluntarily reading those things

because I found myself like interested enough in the world to do it. And I don't think that really happened with any other game this year. Do you guys sting it at all for how much it is persona like without being like if I've always wondered about, I don't know, it's kind of feeling I have about Destiny where like if you have the opportunity

to do something wholly new and then you just kind of make Halo again a little bit. I don't because it goes in so many different directions. Like it took, it kind of would be like dinging a game for being a first person shooter. Like I think that they created a bit of a genre here. You show up in a room, in a blue, pretty early on, you show up in a blue class changing room

that is exactly the same as the old man who made, no it's persona. That would be like if you're like, and Master Chief, here's your crowbar. Good luck, sir. Sure, I think it's still different enough. The other thing I'd say is the art, the design, the story are all going after different things.

It looks outstanding. I mean, they all do, but it's really cool. And also, it's not pretentious. And I say that in the literal definition of pretension, in that it is inspired by Hieronymus Vosch and Francis Bacon and Dolly, right? But it's not doing that so that everybody who plays it is like, oh, mm, this reminds me of these things

in the museum. It's like, no, we're borrowing from that because that stuff is sick and it makes for good monsters in a fantasy setting. Yeah, and it's untapped. Yeah, man, a great, like, this is like everybody across the spectrum, like please pull influence from places other than video games that you have played, guys.

Yeah, like Marvel movies. Yeah, pull some Marvel movies. I'll be honest, I wouldn't, I won't be upset if Astrobot makes the cut either, and I think we should talk about it too, but I wanted to at least give metaphor, it's like share because I also just think in the year 20 in this year with this election, a game that is asking what function should we actually expect of fiction and also how

useful is democracy. It's just bonkers that this game came out this year. I cannot get over it. I will I will make the case for Astrobot, and it's similar to the case that I made previously, I think last week, which is I still stand by my, this is the best platforming game ever made stance. I think, again, when you look at like all of the elements,

graphics and game feel and level design and art design and music and and everything that Astrobot is doing, it does not let up. It is all fucking aces. And I struggle and this is not a knock against metaphor of Montazio. It's more of my brain thing is I cannot attach to the distance that you feel when you're playing turn-based RPGs, and I felt the same way with Infinite Wealth, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And so it is difficult for me to make that leap in the same way that it's difficult for Plant to make that leap with a game like Animal Well, where he understands why it's very good, but it doesn't personally scratch his brain. So I would, yeah, but it's mostly just the argument that like Astrobot is start to finish,

like so, such a curated and fucking stellar platform experience. And you don't have to play for 85 hours. And you have to play for 30 seconds and it's instantly fun. Like that, I mean, forget 35 hours, like that's, that was the struggle that I had with Metaphor. It was just like, it's a time commitment before it gets good.

And I think you guys were pretty direct about that. That it's a pretty solid. I mean, I pushed back then and I'll push back now. Like I think it's good pretty fucking fast. But obviously I think it hits its stride maybe once some of the like gameplay elements are unveiled. I'll alter it and say, I think it's a time commitment for people that aren't already in love with the genre

to realize why maybe they should be. Genre preference is always the fucking stick in the spokes of this entire process. That's unavoidable. So what are we thinking here? I believe it comes down to me. It kinda seems like it. Here we are again.

Everyone looking to me for guidance. If I had to pick between these two, I would push forward, I'll just tell you. I would push forward metaphor refentously. Wow. Because Astrobot's a commercial. I'm sorry, man. I know it's such a good commercial,

but they charged you for a commercial, brother. I'm so sorry, man. I know it's so good, man. I love the one ad where Jason Alexander is singing about the McDLT, but it's not the Game of the Year, man. This is an incredible turn. What a wonderful journey, Justin, has been on as a person, as a gamer, as a father, as a brother.

I am moved by Chris's argument to have a little bit of Chris Plant represented on this list, and I realize that that serves my personal list as well. It's really not Chris Plant, personally. It is what I want to reward games for doing, and I think that it's like, it's really not Chris Platt, personally. It is what I want to reward games for doing. And I think that it's like, it's really cool what Sony did. It's also like the safest bet you can do

is like a self aggrandizing sort of like, even if it fails, people still got a lot of great brand messages, you know? I, and metaphoric fantasies is not only like spellbound so many people would, would seem to be like, actually has a message and trying to say something other than, man, it used to be really groovy to like PlayStation.

That said, Infinite Wealth is a Chris Plante as Chris Plante game if there ever was one. Yeah, I agree. Hey, listen, Russ. You shouldn't start spinning wildly in defense of Astro Bot and accidentally clip someone you may not want to, because you never know. Your stray's going around right now. Yeah, don't let a stray hit my man, A2 Bot, okay?

I am fine. Just be careful. Thankfully, Jeff and I are on the same page, and that's all that matters. All right, yeah. Oh, whoa, I just got an email from Sony PR. Congratulations, Russ Frushtick, on your promotion to

He did it they they set up direct deposit it's gonna be great. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're gonna narrow We're gonna organize this we have metaphor refund Osio animal Well like a dragon infinite wealth UFO 50 in Bellatrio. That is our final five UFO 50 in Bellatro. That is our final five. Okay. Okay. So I think in the spirit of this, again, being a list of all of us, like a group list, let me go back and reiterate that I think probably

Metaphor Re-Fontazio should be five. I think Animal Well, UFO 50, and Bellatro are dog shit. And I think that they should all be five. And then we should put the other two as one. Okay. In the spirit of Justin Metaphor because you read a Wikipedia entry about how good it was I'm more of a books guy, I'm just over here for this

I just put the in the spirit my ass The spirit of me dictating the list Yeah, yeah, mr. I set the rounds and made sure all the Let me rest fresh and say what we're all thinking. Oh my god. Justin, talk about the YouTube videos you watched to convince you this was a good game. Which one? I fucking love it, man.

Uh, metaphori fantasio is the fit. I mean, it's a pretty hard one. Based on how it got here, I think it's totally fair to talk about it. I mean, it's a pretty hard one. I think based on how it got here, I think it's totally fair to talk about it. I will take it. All right, fine. Okay, let's do it this way then. Number four. I would, at number four,

argue for... Animal Well. Oh. Oh, oh. I think this, I think we're all gonna, no joke guys, I think there's four games left. I think we're all gonna say a different one. That's fine. I think we're all gonna say a different one should be.

We'll say them louder and louder until one of us is right. I guess the question is, are we saying, right now, are we saying our personal number four or are we saying what we think the group's number four should be? We just put a game at number five. I screwed it up to number four and I looked at four games. I was like, which one of you guys wants to go here?

And I know some of them aren't going there. No. I understand, but are we, when you're saying which one's gonna go here, are you saying it like what you think the group's number four should be? I'm just opening the discussion on the number four bullet point. That's all. See what you guys the group's number four should be? I'm just opening the discussion on the number four bullet point.

That's all. See what you guys think about number four. Cause I feel like number four should be a contest between UFO 50 and Animal Well. I think that's right. Okay. I personally would put Bellatro in at number four. Absolutely not.

There's no way on earth. I would have a hard time putting Bellatro at number four. Yeah, it in at number four. Absolutely not. Oh! There's no way on earth. I would have a hard time putting Bellatro at number four. Yeah, it would be number four. Understood. I think Animal Well, what did you say, UFO 50 and Animal Well at four? Yeah. That's where, for me personally, if I was sliding them, that is the discussion that I think would be the most productive.

But I, I, I'm curious what you think will be the most productive. But... I... I... I'm curious what you think on this, Frush. Hmm. Animal Well, this is like, again, these are all excellent games. I know. They love themselves. I feel like UFO 50 will last longer with all of us.

I feel like we will be picking at UFO 50 even more next year. That you'll hear more about us exploring what it has to offer. And if it's a game about secrets, I think... I don't know if I have a say in this constant. I have not even started to peel apart... I have not even started to peel apart that part of UFO 50, the like going to the terminal

and find out the history of the thing. I know that that stuff is there and is very cool and I am excited to one day get to it. It's just so similar. These two games, I really feel the same way about. Like I feel like they both do amazing things that I wish there was just a little bit more guidance to help you get to the things that are so cool about it and the things that are so rewarding about it.

To give you an example, I really wish for me personally that the UFO 50 did not like pop open to 50 games at once. Like when I saw that, I didn't wanna play it. I wanted to turn it off. And that's just how I, I mean, for me, that's just how I approached this stuff, and I found it kinda overwhelming. And I feel similarly about Animal Well,

where there's so many cool things that I wish there was just a little bit more help to get you to them, personally. Can I go hard for UFO 50? Because I feel like we have not really had time to do that. This is the first time that we're trying to really argue for it. Because I think it's my number one,

and I realize it's not going to be that for you guys. But the relationship I have formed with this game is truly unexpected and quite powerful for me. It's kind of the two days with Mori of our generation. is truly unexpected and quite powerful for me. I- It's kind of the two days of Mori of our generation. It is. It is. I think if you went through this list of 50 games,

I think I could pick out maybe 20 so far of the ones I've played that would rank among my favorite gaming experiences of the year. I think that finally beating Par on pin golf was so fucking thrilling and so satisfying to get better at that game. Finally, cherrying Magic Garden on a flight home from Milwaukee, just literally just banging my head

against it until I could figure out how to be good at that game. It was so fucking good. I did that too. That rolled. I did that too. Doing that Party House, Literally just banging my head against it until I could figure out how to be good at that game Doing that party house when I finally got my fifth random Scenario in a row that I won to get the cherry on that game by the fucking skin of my teeth with one night left Was so so so good when I started to put the pieces together of like the finale of night manner That shit was so good I could go literally on and on and on and on and on and on and on.

Because I have had this experience now 34 times, I'm at 34 chairs where I've been like, oh, that's how they want you to do it. That is how it is a, the term in conversation with the developer is so like played, but it's that, it's 50 conversations with 50 games. I think that- Can I just finish?

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Of just realizing like, and I never felt this way about NES games. There's a, despite the fact that like I was born in that era, I don't really have much of a relationship with the NES era because so many of those games have put me off because they are not inviting and welcoming and accessible. I feel like all 50 of those games have put me off because they are not inviting and welcoming and accessible.

I feel like all 50 of these games, you can see the intention behind each and every one of them if you look hard enough, and then once you start acting into that intention, the game, each of the games really, really comes alive. And I think that that is a magic trick. And I think it is a truly, truly incredible how often it hits.

So, Animal Well and UFO 50 are both on my top five list. Currently, my personal top five list, Animal Well is a two and UFO 50 is a three. That kind of convinced me to swap them because I think you're right. I think they're both doing something very similar. The conversation with the developer thing is very clear

in both games. Animal Well is doing that also, right? Yes, they are both doing it. And it's very, very satisfying. And it's incredibly satisfying, but the ambition and the reach of doing it, not only in one game, like, Animal World is doing it very consistently in one game

because there's one developer making the whole thing. This is 50 games, and in each game, you're having a mini experience of that same exact arc. I guess, like, this is where I'm really struggling, though, guys, because it's like, okay, hear me out before you push back against this, because this is not a reflection of my feeling about UFO 50, which I feel like I've been pretty positive about vocally.

I'm having a lot of trouble engaging with UFO 50 as a entity in a game of the year discussion where the game the Griffon is talking about, like there are so many aspects of it I have not even like experience. And there's this part of me. And again, I'm not making a, an actual argument for this, but this is what is subconsciously tricking me up. This game was announced a very long time ago. They worked for a very long time to have a collection of 50, like really brilliant small games. But I'm having trouble thinking of that as one thing that I compare to a singularity of Vision.

Like if they had released this game three years ago and it had 25 games on it. How does it compare? How would we consider Namco's Arcade Classics Volume 3 in a besties goaty list? I fully understand. Do you know what I'm saying? I know that's unfair, but it's a completely unique thing. Absolutely.

And it is, but yeah, that's what I'm struggling with. I agree with all of that. The way that I can rationalize it is it does make so much effort to be a cohesive project. That this isn't a menu of ROMs that you turn on on an emulator and you just have 50 new games to play. It is presented in chronological order of the fake history, that there is all the backstory that can be found about the games, that the games have their own sequels,

that it is perpetually in conversation with itself, makes it feel very holistic to me. In a way that, oops, you mentioned at the beginning where you turn it on and see 50 games, right? It feels at first like the ROM issue, right? It feels like when you turn on a new handheld emulator and you've put some games that you somehow found that are definitely not IP

that are available for sale anywhere, games onto it, and you see a bunch of stuff to play. But there is so much more going on. I think it's also like a game about how people used to make games and how people used to play games. I think that there's a lot happening here. That said, your point of what if they had just released

25 of these, would it have done anything different is true, like I can't really argue with that. It doesn't make any sense. Don't give it any more daylight. It actually doesn't make any sense. No, I mean, I get what you're saying. I think that the- It's hard, I'm saying it's not that it,

it's that it feels kind of apples to oranges. That's, I think that is what I'm- The forever video game problem, right? Yeah, I mean the forever this episode problem. I think it's apples to oranges, but at the same time, I have gotten really into watching people play UFO 50, because it's been kind of cool to see people, I think there is a, I understand your argument, Justin,

about turning on the game and there's 50 games, and that's like too much, that's too overwhelming. The process of going through and picking those games apart and figuring out what you like and what you don't like and then finally unlocking games and saying oh I'll stick with this one until I cherry it like that whole process is a lot of work and I like watching other people Seeing the path they went through it right like oh, what was the get? What was the game that made UFO 50 click for you?

That's a conversation that I want to have with everyone who ever played. And every time I've ever had that conversation with people, it's always a different game. Yeah. And that's fucking crazy. Yeah, I think that is, it could have been UFO 25 maybe, but I feel like the fact that it is so new- No, no, no, they called the shot early. It had to be 50. I would say, then let's put Animal World 4,

UFO 50 at three, and then move on with our lives. I mean, I still think Bellatrix should come in under both of these games, but that is- I think I'm fine with Animal Well at four for what it's worth, and we can move on from there. Well, okay, let's leave Animal Well at four, then we'll talk about three games instead of two games. Yeah, I think that makes it a little easier.

Makes sense. Yes. So, can I have an honest moment with Like a Dragon? Please. Sure, yeah. I am in love with the narrative, in love with the visuals, in love with the world. I love all that stuff. I don't find it super fun to play, which is part of the problem,

part of the reason that I feel the same way about Metaphoria Fantasio. part of the reason that I feel the same way about metaphor Riefontazio. The difference here is that I was immediately engaged with the narrative in this where I wasn't with metaphor Riefontazio, and that was enough to propel me like much further in this game than I was in metaphor. But I still that is still my personal challenge is like the turn-based combat is more fun than most turn-based RPGs for me, but I still was not propelled to continue playing even though I love the narrative stuff.

This will be the interesting thing about how we organize the final three because I feel like all three of these games have at least one person who feels that way about one of these games. And I know that because I feel that way about both Bellatro and UFO 50. I think UFO 50 is a game that I respect a ton intellectually. Bellatro we haven't even talked about. Or at least- I feel like Bellatro is kind of sailing

through here a little bit. I haven't. Bellatro is a game that I admire a lot because I think it's a Chaos Engine. I don't feel it as a game that I thought I was getting better at as I was playing it. I thought the game was revealing more of its mysteries and more of its power and more of its chaos, for lack of a better word. But it was not unlike poker. I don't think that there is a degree of skill that you find in that sort of card game.

That said, I don't think that that is a bad thing per se. It's just not what I'm searching for. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah. I need to clarify. Are you saying that you think poker is more a game of skill than Bellatro is? A thousand percent.

A thousand percent. The skill is not knowing the cards, it's playing other people. That's the skill in poker. Yeah, it's a different thing. The skill, yes. And it is knowing the cards and knowing the numbers. There's actually an ability to know the odds

when you are playing hands and poker. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. We're like, yeah, yes, yes, yes. Blotcher is a game about improvisation and reaction. And sometimes you will get really great cards and you can improvise around them. And sometimes you won't, right? You're going to have rounds that are not as good. Where a round of poker is a round of poker is a round of poker,

especially if you average it out over the course of, you know, 50 or 100 hands. Yeah, there is way more luck tied to Bellatro than there is normal poker. That is- Especially- Yeah, 100%, yes. I would say my main criticism of Bellatro

is that it does not scale with difficulty particularly well or particularly elegantly, rather you like, if you're going for a gold steak. I can't say this, right, because there's like fucking Bellatron psychopaths out there who can win anything that gets thrown at them. Personally speaking, and I've spent dozens,

if not maybe over 100 hours playing Bellatron on three different platforms. There, I will just load it up and I will see what the skips are. And I'll be like, nope, not this, nope, not this, nope, not this. Make it to anti-three with out a great malt generator and it's like, ah, this is net restart, let's try again.

I think playing Bellatro as a whole is very, very, very fun. But I also feel like, I don't know, I kind of stopped playing it this time around on the very last challenge, which is the Jokerless challenge, which is obviously like this problem viewed through a lens of madness of just like, well, it just depends, you gotta get glass cards.

You gotta get this, you have to get this. And I don't know, for me, that puts a bit of a ceiling on Bellatro that I don't feel with other games that I would put in the same category, such as Slay the Spire or Monster Train. I don't know why these are the only analogs in my brain with this, of the infinite replayable deck builder engine.

I think Bellatro kicks ass, and obviously, without argument, has consumed a lot of all of our time, and we've all enjoyed that. But for me, it doesn't have that kind of special something that I feel like- Everything you're saying makes perfect sense. I need you to go back and just find something

other than Monster Train though, because God love you, man. It's an eight out of 10 at best. There is no comparison. I guess, okay, just Slay the Spider, right? And in terms of the scalability and the variability and engaging runs, Griff, help me to understand how the fact that after a hundred hours,

you were bored of playing Bellatrio is a bad thing, legitimately. No, it's- To me, the fact that it's like, you want to keep playing this, you played it twice as much as you could, none of that is a negative, man. Like it's not, this is not, it did exactly, the fact that you are not endlessly, hopelessly

addicted to Blatro and unable to move on to other things, I feel like the fact that you can finish it and then you did that once and Griffin, you were so down on that. You fucking went and did it exactly again on your phone. Like it's not, you can't, there's no comparison. Please understand, these five games that we've come down to here are my top five.

These were my top five games, right? I spent this much time also with Like a Dragon and by this point I've played a lot more UFO 50 than Bellatro. I'm not saying, I'm picking at little, little tiny things here, right? I'm just saying that maybe it sounds like a little bit closer to equal for you. To, I guess the point I am trying to make is that element.

Let's say if one person liked one of these a lot more, and one of them a lot less, and if one person liked one of these a lot more and one of them a lot less, and then one person liked both of them equal, they would probably settle on, well, the one we all really like should be higher than the one that we, some of us like, some of us don't. Much like metaphor refrontazio,

the importance of democracy, I think, are the key here. I think that's what I learned from the recap videos. I am, I am writing like that one. So then it sounds like UFO 50's really powerful stuff. I am writing videos. So then it sounds like UFO 50 is going in three. Right? Like I don't know unless... I think it sounds like that. Of the remaining three, Bellatra is your least favorite plant is that fair to say? Bellatro is my least favorite of the remaining three.

Samesies. I mean. Are you trying to like math this out? I don't think there's a way to like necessarily math it out. I think that's the problem. You know what might actually help here is Can I ask this? One second is Bellatro anyone's favorite game of the year? Is Bellatro anyone's number one?

No, no The other two could be by number that is why I'm making the argument that I am making is because I feel like the things The other two games do here are so much more landmark than Bellatro, a game I adore, it's just not my favorite game of the year. I think that's a great point. I also think we should maybe try to just come up with the top three and that will help us if we kind of poke a crack.

I think that if I were to say, that will help us, if we kind of poke our back. I think that if I were to say, like a dragon infinite wealth, UFO 50, Bellatro, Animal Well, Metaphorifantazio, in that order. We're starting at number one. What do you think about that? Sounds good to me.

Like a dragon infinite wealth, UFO 50, Bellatro, Animal Well, Metaphorifantazio. Print it. Print it. Print it. Put it on a shirt. I would swap one and two around at will, however we wanna do it, Russ, if you're more comfortable with that.

Contrasting idea to that, leave them exactly where the fuck they are. I would put what you have in that scenario. Can I say something that is very challenging Russ? I'm gonna say something to you. Okay. And then I think that it's pretty much so right that it'll be hard for you to argue back.

So brace your ass man. You're about to get your world fucking rocked. Because I'm gonna say something and the other two are going to agree. If you had continued to play the video game like a dragon infinite wealth until you had completed to play the video game, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, until you had completed it, you would be agreeing with us right now.

Oh, interesting. Chris Plant disagrees. No, I don't. If I asked him this question. Don't you think that when I got to the second half of the game. If you finished the game, you would be agreeing with us 100%, and I don't mean that in a shitty gatekeep-y way.

What I'm saying is there's many games that I haven't enjoyed, but I hung in there and eventually clicked and I finished it. If you had continued on, I will say also mechanically, it does get more dense and sort of layered and it becomes more about a meta thing, but like- Let me tackle that argument. Yeah. Okay.

There is no greater crime to me in art than wasting my time. I'm not saying that Infinite Wealth wastes my time, but I'm saying in the time that I gave it, which was like close to 20 hours, it was not time that I necessarily was super in, like constantly engaged with the work. So I agree with you that like, it probably would have clicked in a Stockholm syndrome, this became great kind of way. I think that it would not have done,

I think you would have enjoyed it on its own merits had you gotten to the full ass animal crossing game that is built into, I think the reason I struggle with that is obviously everybody has their own likes and dislikes when it comes to genre. I think that this game, maybe more than any other RPG I've ever played, doesn't do that. I think every few minutes it throws some shit at you

that is absolutely bonkers. Yeah, man, it's so hard. I'm trying to get there with you and be respectful of your opinion, but this is one where it's really tough. There's so many different games in it, man. I played a lot of the mini games, and I thought the mini games were cute and funny.

And I like taking photos of perverts. What did you think of the mini games and I thought the mini games were cute and funny and like I like taking photos of perverts. And I like- What did you think of the talking scenes? Like where people were interacting together. Like narrative scenes? Yeah. Yeah, that's a good word. Yeah, I thought they were very good. Excellent. So you like all the games.

I thought it was very well written. And you thought the mini games were good. I thought they were fine. I thought they were- Did you get to Dondoko Island? A few seconds ago said, but go on, go off. I did not get to Dondoko Island? I'm not going to rest a few seconds to get said, but go on. Go off. I did not get to Dondoko Island. So, look, realistically, but I'm just telling you, from my, like,

I just, it's a lot of time to spend with a game that isn't necessarily, like, I'm not saying you should have. I spent two seasons of television with this game. How many seasons of television should I spend? Not a house, not a house season, not a lost season. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Maybe a Yellowstone.

Yeah. I, whatever, I think, look, it does, How would you, how would you rank these? Can I, can I say, hold on, can we hear before we get into the, we have not let Russ sort of give his argument. How would I rank these three? Or the five, really, I'm curious.

I mean, the five is a totally different story. The five is probably, the five is probably UFO 50 Animal Well Block Trial. The crepit workings of Russ's brain are out of interest to me. I mean, it's just difficult. Here's Russ, if I could say, I don't necessarily feel about my list,

like that is not my top five. It is, but when I am looking and I've, I completely, I have very, very, very frequently been in your exact position. So I'm 100% understanding where you're coming from. I think what is hard is if I, as I tried to entertain what you're saying, obviously, I don't share it, but as I try to entertain it and I try to think of like, what is a top what is a a top one that we a game of the year

that we could all agree on as much. It's probably the closest universally agreed upon, because you're right. I didn't hate, by any means that I hate Infinite Wealth. So it's a very, very good game. It would probably be on my top five, if we had to put it in the top five, five. For us again.

It is, I will say this, it is a game that I, here, talk about your time being wasted, okay? This is a game that I have not ever finished a Yakuza game because I felt exactly what you're saying. And it's like, ugh, okay, I get it. You want to run around and do all this garbage. And I didn't, for what it's worth, I didn't feel like my time was wasted.

It's just a difference between being wasted and just not clicking with me. Well, and then also, I would make an argument that in a real sense, it would have been a waste of your time to play a video game that you weren't enjoying. That's kind of my thesis statement for- Yeah, I think that's fair to say. For me, this was the rare example

where I wanted to spend so much time on it and I kept spending so much time on it. I was compelled to spend so much time on it. And then the ending of the game was so incredibly emotionally resonant and cathartic. And in a way that like was rewarding the time that I spent in it.

It was like respectful of the time that I spent. It was happy to have had me there, right? It's a crescendo of an orchestra. I got what they were building. Like I could kind of envision the like gathering of all your friends and everyone kind of cheering, whatever, I don't know what happens. But like I could envision the scenario.

Maybe they give him a big medallion. Chris Plants game. You know, you get it. Video games. Chris Plants favorite game ever is, what's the one with Ness? Earthbound. Earthbound.

Like, and everyone cheers you on and you believe in love again. I get it. I'm just saying like those, the 20 hours that I did spend, just didn't get me there. I think that, I think Like a Dragon deserves it if only for the fact that it feels like to me, from my perspective, this feels like a game

that in past years, only I would have been championing and trying so hard to get in the top five at all for three other people who don't really care about the genre. The fact that it kind of swept like wildfire through most of this podcast, I think kind of is a really amazing thing. And sort of, I mean it sounds like Chris, it kind of like activated you to this whole new, you know,

sub-genre of video games that had not really interested you. I'm nerdy now. Yeah. You used to be so cool. You used to be so cool. Wow, that sounded like you weren't being honest. That said, Russ, if you you wanna make a really hard push for UFO 50 at number one, I would-

I don't think I can from the group perspective is the problem. And that's not a problem, I just think the math of it does not make sense because realistically, no. I can hear it out. I don't have a great- It seems like two of us love UFO 50

and three of us love like a dragon infinite wealth. Yeah. How about, here's what I, the only thing that I will say is, if you all could get it together to love UFO 50 enough, there are, the only, there are large parts of infinite wealth that I basically did not engage with because I did not have the historical...

The whole Kiryu kind of like... I don't like Kiryu as a character and I played a lot of these games. This is the blasphemy. That's the one that always breaks me. He's just like a sad emo guy. Well, regardless, I don't care. There's a lot of that game that I did not care about

very much because it was about Kiryu. So if you guys... Isn't that like half the game the game Justin. Sorry isn't that like half the game not the way I played it Yeah, that's true. Well. I was in Hawaii. It was fucking party time. Yeah, I was back in Japan It was it was just fucking let's go. I was a seller. I was a seller man. I want to look at this man I was just I wanna look at these memories. It's a bad, I was just doing my job. Right, I wanna look at these memories one last time. I don't think so, I don't think we're gonna look

at those memories, Kiryu. We got fucking boss fights to do, dude. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Any, oh, we got bandages, nice. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. I do think it won me over by the end of it, but I think once you kind of realized the split nature of the narrative,

there was a moment of coping that I had to kind of go through. Okay, I just feel like the Kiryu segments fall into all of the like Yakuza traps of like there's a bunch of like clan drama that I don't care about and I'm not gonna learn about. And by the time I realized that that's what they're doing, they've already said so many names.

And I'm- That's what scared me. Plant scared me off because he was like, oh, a Kiryu is gonna be a big focus of this. Well, yeah, because you just don't like him even as a person. That's what scared me. Plant scared me off because he was like, oh, a curio is going to be a big focus of this. Well, yeah, because you just don't like him even as a person. You said you like him. He's just boring. I just don't like him.

I was like, whoa. He's the most boring character. So what are we doing? Whatever. I... No, I think mathematically, it should be like a dragon at one, UFO 50 at two, and Bellagio at three. This isn't math, this is our hearts. On my own personal list, UFO 50 is number one,

and Like a Dragon is two. So like, I'm obviously fine with Like a Dragon taking number one, but I do, I mean, I think UFO 50 is the best. It's really down to plant and hoops and how they feel about UFO 50. I just personally feel like it's, I wish about UFO 50. I just personally feel like it's, I wish that UFO 50 was more of a video game

and less of a- Museum piece? A museum piece, a creation. For me, it is really hard to say that the game of the year is like 50 different incredible like thoughts about video games. Like it's amazing. It's a huge accomplishment. It's really hard for me to say like, I want the game of the year to be a game that I don't know. I know that's amorphous, but it's tough. I do think there's a comparison to make here between UFO 50, which is a fictional biography

of a game developer from the 80s and their complete body of work comprising 50 games of, I would say varying levels of quality, but on the whole pretty brilliant, clever stuff. And Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, which is also kind of a bundle of video games, if you think about it. There's one main one where you go around

and you beat the shit out of people with bicycles, and like that game kicks ass. Plant, where were you? Well, that makes it so easy for me, because then it's like a dragon with a bullet. Because if we're talking about which of those games has better games inside of it, UFO 50 intellectually wonderful.

I am, come on, I'm gonna play Dondoko Island way more than I wanna play- Well, that's not fair. You can't just pick the one best one. Finally, Chris Plant is saying the quiet part out loud and that a lot of the games in UFO 50 are bad and boring Okay, and they look bad because they look like old games and they're really hard and you die all the time and they're not fun So you go try to find a different one and there's a lot. There's too many games that aren't fun. Hey

I'm gonna make a choice for you You can play this game where you're like, I don't know like a dot bouncing around or you can play a game where you go Take pictures of perverts from your trolley. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I said I could see you have a 50 at the top fuck no way Okay, I have a I have a compromise here. We go you ready. Yeah, I've got it This is this is the best solve that I can come up with I'm gonna give you the order you ready Yeah, number one like a dragon number two you have a 50 number three Bellotra number four animal well number five astrobot No, I knew you were gonna do this in this fucking way, dude. Oh, no, Russ.

Hey, you know, I think as we know, we all agree. How many games I didn't like should be on this list? I like the idea. I don't mind. Russ is such a, Russ is basically the mascot. What if we did a top six this year?

Listen, I'm just saying stuff that makes sense. Russ is basically the mascot of the besties, right? So once I think that it would be nice of us since he doesn't like our favorite game, that we give him a little pinch on the tuchus and put Astro Bo back in there. And just to make it more representative of all of our collective tastes,

we get a little bit more Rus in the five slot. And because he's not getting much English on the one spot. He's getting two, three, and four. Three of these games are incredibly Rus-fresh to games. So I will be fair and say that. Yeah, I will, as an act of kindness, I will let you choose UFO 50 Bellatria Animal Well, which one do you want to kill in exchange for getting astrobot on this list?

What a brutal? Fuck I Hate that. Yeah, it won't happen. It it would happen. It shouldn't happen. Probably out. It's probably Yeah, it shouldn't happen though. Probably Animal well, oh wow doesn't feel good. This is gross. Probably Animal Well. Oh, wow. Doesn't feel good, does it? No, I hate it.

Welcome to my house. Are we locking, are we locking? Yeah, you can lock it, it's fine. We'll do, like a dragon, UFO 50, Belacho. I think the vibes would be better if we took out metaphor refintazio and put astrobot there, I'm serious. Justin.

It doesn't make me feel great that Russ doesn't love our first game. I think if we get a little bit more Russ. It's happened before for what it's worth. What? Historically, it has happened. Last year I was the Grump because Tears of the Kingdom got beat by Baldur's Gate 3,

which I did not think should win it. We have this every year. There's always at least one person who's like Grump. I kind of feel like the older brother to Russ. It's very sweet, Justin. I appreciate it. Oh! All right, well, okay, I'll say it out loud then.

Here we go. Is there a version of Like a Dragon that just cuts Kiyo out? Like we could just like completely re-fantasy? Yeah, it's called Yakuza Like a Dragon, the first game in the RPG space. I'll play that. And number five, metaphor refantasio.

Number four, Animal Well. Number three, Bellatro. Number two, UFO 50. Number one, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth. Is... Congratulations, everybody. Is Project Sentry a Like a Dragon game? Unknown. Yeah.

But probably. But probably, okay, great. Hey, very quickly, would y'all like to share your personal top fives for the listeners? I mean, I already did mine. Mine, one to five is UFO 50, Like a Dragon, Metaphor, Animal Well, Bellatra. So these five games in all different order.

Fresh, how about you? Mine was Astrobot, UFO 50, Animal Well, Tactical Breach Wizards, and Bellatro. In that order? Yes. Cool. Mine is Like a Dragon, Metaphor, Refantasio, 1000 Hex Resist, Dragon's Dogma 2, Tactical Breach Wizards.

Juice? I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know. I think you submitted a numbered list. I didn't submit anything. What was your number one, Juice? What? What was your number one?

Bellatro, I think, with Infinite Wealth at two because I skipped so much of it. I probably put Steam World in there. Yeah, you know, something like that. I don't know. I love it. I love it. We did it another year of the show.

It survives. Weird list. Weird fucking list, I think. Weird year. If you had, I think. Weird year. If you had told us at January 1st, 2024, this was gonna be our go-to list, I don't think any of us would have believed you. I think we've done it.

Thank you to everyone. Thank you especially to the folks over at the Patreon, which continue to support our lovely work. We really appreciate it. We have some new members I want to shout out. We have Landon, we have Blight White, we have Bathroom Snack, and we have some new members. I want to shout out. We have Landon We have blight white we have bathroom snack and we have fiction bug Thank you for being supporters of the patreon. Thank you to everyone else

exciting news coming next week of the members of the patreon have been benefactors to everyone else in so far as They're letting us put one of the bonus episodes up on the main feed For everyone to enjoy that will be coming next Friday You'll get one of our currently. I think we have ten published one of our ten bonus bracket episodes In addition to a whole bunch of rest these episodes that are behind the patreon paywall But this will give you a taste of what you've been missing if you haven't subscribed yet. It is the episode that is dedicated to the best console ever, not including the games.

So good. It's a really good game. So thank you to all the Patreon members for making it all happen this year. We really appreciate you. So that's gonna do it for us. Be sure to join us again next time on The Besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends be the world's best games? Besties!