The Ringer-Verse - Can Capcom's Incredible Streak Continue? | Button Mash

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Ben Lindbergh, Matt James, and Joshua Rivera join forces to share their spoiler-free reviews of three hot new IPs from international game developers: Capcom's sci-fi thriller 'Pragmata,' and indie debuts 'Mouse: P.I. for Hire' and 'Replaced.' They play "Mash or Pass?" and provide their ratings for each game on the Mash Meter, while marveling at Capcom's comeback, lamenting the decline of single-player first-person shooters, and pondering whether pixel art is a personality. (00:00) Intro (05:07) Pragmata (46:18) Mouse P.I. For Hire (65:56) Replaced Host: Ben Lindbergh Guests: Matt James, Joshua Rivera Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I am the Linger senior editor at The Ringer and Button MASH host. I've got company today. I am joined by a pair of podcast sidekicks. First, Ringer Deputy Art Lead, Pragata, James. Hey, Beth. That one was just right there for me. I didn't even have to reach for that one. I thought you might go for that one.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty obvious. Maybe it was the low-hanging fruit. but sometimes the low-hanging fruit is pretty appetizing. How many hours into Crimson Desert are you now? What's the total count climbed to? Wow, right out the gate.

I think I'm at 165. Oh, okay. But I haven't touched it in five days because of all the other games we've been play. I know. I was expecting 200 for you at this point, so I'm slightly disappointed. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I'll do better.

We've been busy. And so have the developers of Crimson Desert, They're just patching that thing daily, basically. As we forecasted in our previous discussion, they are updating this thing as if it's an MMO. And a lot of the complaints that we touched on last time, now, Steve is producing this pod, but he is unable to weigh in and speak. And so we can just trash him here, and he won't be able to do anything without it. But it turns out the critical response was roughly right in the middle of what we predicted

and what Steve predicted. But I think the popular opinion certainly was closer to our take, and I think is only improving as the game gets better. That's definitely getting better the game, for sure. But I think the things that certain people fundamentally don't like about Crimson Desert are not really going to change. It was never going to be a game for everyone. But for us sickos who just want to drop a billion hours getting completely lost in a game world,

It is indeed getting better every patch. Yeah, it was for us from the beginning. We didn't need no stinking patches. That game was good right from the start. We are also joined by Ringer contributor and freelancer extraordinaire, powering through a sore throat. Hopefully, we will see Joshua Rivera. Welcome back, Joshua.

Hello, I have inputed the sore throat solution hack pattern. I've been solving mazes. to brew tea, and I'm ready to destroy some bots with you, gentlemen, today. Yeah, you can't patch out your hay fever, unfortunately, I guess is the problem. Well, have you dabbled in the desert? Oh, no, it's just one of those things where it's just sort of like, you know, I can't do that, you know? That's okay. It's not really a game you can dabble in.

Yeah, exactly. dive in, whole hog, really. We're getting chats, silent chats from Steve, who is steaming that he cannot weigh in here. How many times have you seen the Super Mario Brothers Galaxy movie in theaters, Joshua? Any? Oh, zero times. Wow, zero times. Zero times, yeah.

It was just like running the same. Are you even participating in gaming culture? Come on. I have been voted off of Gamer Island for the month. And I'm hoping that, like, my. pragmatic opinions get me back in, you know? Good, good. We will get to those shortly. I think the movie is doing okay without you. I don't think Nintendo needs your box office dollars. It's about halfway to the total take of the previous Mario Galaxy movie, or not Galaxy, but Mario Movie. So,

it's doing just fine. And I actually, I introduced my daughter, my four and a half year old daughter, to the first Mario movie this past weekend. Well, not the first one, to be clear, not the 1993 one. I don't think she's old enough for that. I'm not sure any of us are old enough for that. But the 2023 one, and she was a little apprehensive about the Bowser parts, but she stuck with it and she enjoyed it. And now, of course, she wants a Mario-themed birthday party. So you win Nintendo. Doing good work. Doing good work, Ben. Marketing accomplished. Yeah. Did the, uh, did the Peaches song win her over? You know, she wasn't that into the Peaches song, seemingly. Sorry, Jack Black. He didn't even get a musical number in the sequel for whatever reason, even though that was the big breakout movie from the first one.

But she was already kind of inculcated into the cult of Mario, because I've been playing Mario Kart with her and Mario Tennis. And so now we're going to different ways of marketing Mario to her. And they're all working well. So you've captured the next generation. Well, it's been less than two months since the three of us got together on this year's show. It seems like longer ago, because it was prior to Crimson Desert, prior to the next generation, prior to the Mario Galaxy movie.

Can we even remember a time before those blockbusters? But we got together on this year's show to talk about Resident Evil Requiem. And we have reconvened the Capcom crew today because Capcom has yet another new release, Progmata. But that's not all we have in store for you. In addition to discussing the new AAA-ish release from one of the oldest, most storied video game companies, we're going to complete the triple play by talking about two high-profile indie debuts, mouse PI for hire and replaced all international studios from different parts of the world. Little international flavor on ButtMash this week.

And April is suddenly extremely busy and not just because of Crimson Desert and Mario. And we're not even getting to everything. Apologies to people of note the musical RPG and Tamadachi life living the dream, the Nintendo social simulation. We haven't even had time for that. We've had our hands full. So we're going to tell you what we've been playing. and what we have thought. And for today, we'll put aside our cares, not only our real world's

concerns, but our concerns about the blood-borne animated adaptation without FromSoft's involvement, and our concerns about the skyrocketing console prices and ram shortages, let's just talk about some good games, or at least some games that have been widely deemed to be good, though you will have to listen on to find out whether we agree. So we will play Nash or Pass with each of these three and give you our ratings on the mash meter. Let's talk first about Capcom's latest here. So we've all had our minds on the moon, thanks to Artemis II. Congrats to NASA and the astronauts for a successful mission. And you know what? Congrats to Capcom for another successful mission too. Also, we've had our minds not just on the moon, but also on Rogue AI coming for us.

And so this really is the perfect game for spring 2026. Capcom has its finger on the pulse. All these games were released in the last few days. Pragmata developed and published, of course, by Capcom for all current gen platforms. In the game, it's actually pronounced pragmata, like pragmatic, though I have a hard time not pronouncing it like stigmata. Are you pragmata people or pragmata people? I changed the language to Japanese halfway through. So I have completely forgotten how they pronounce it in the game

because, yeah, I just preferred listening to those voices than the English ones. Yes, I think that was probably a smart call. I assumed it was pragmata, but then in the game they very clearly say pragmata. And I assumed that New York, Ben-Fuckin-Berg would default to pragmata. I know, you'd think, right, but with my Mario roots. Mario, Mario. Yeah. Yeah.

And then there's the, oh, yeah, I mean, I didn't even think about progmata. Pragmata. There are multiple A's here that could be pronounced multiple ways. Anyway, you say progmata. I say pragmatto. Let's call the whole pot off. Let's just talk about the game and avoid saying the name of it for a while. So we start on the moon where we have sent an expedition to find out what has gone wrong.

And suddenly everything. goes wrong with the rescue mission to find out what went wrong. So who's going to rescue the rescuers? And we play as Hugh, the somewhat unlikely named Hugh, and we are the sole survivor of this rescue mission. And we quickly meet up with Diana, as she is nicknamed. She is a robot of sorts. She is a highly advanced anthropomorphic robot who looks disturbingly like my aforementioned daughter, which made this whole experience kind of creepy for me. But you team up with Diana, who rides on your back in kind of classic old school platformer style, very, very Donkey Kong Bonanza, you know, just climb on back. I have to get one of those platforms for my daughter, because when she rides

on my my shoulders, it really puts a click in the neck. So I have to get something that she could just stand on the back of my space suit. It seems much more convenient, but bulky. Anyway, this is intense combat, puzzle solving in real time, a little exploration, though it is largely linear. And this is a new IP, unlike the extremely old 30-year-old IP that we were talking about last time with Resident Evil. This is a new venture, sort of a sci-fi thriller. What did you make of it, Matt? I absolutely love this game. I felt like it was tremendously refreshing to have a new IP hit right out of the gate

and it feels inescapably like a Capcom game. It has unlockables, it has save rooms, it has all of the little touches that make it feel like a Capcom game upgrades that you can unlock for your character. annoying little figurines that you have to shoot to collect them. Yeah, it feels like a Capcom game, but the gameplay is so unique. The way that combat works where you are shooting and hacking at the same time, the hacking, if you complete a hack,

will open up the enemies, and then they will be susceptible to way more damage. So this kind of mix of managing all at one time, the shooting, the hacking, and your sort of spatial awareness of enemies, it is a really multitask heavy game. If you're someone good at multitasking, you're going to love this. If you're someone who has a hard time listening to this podcast while doing anything else you might have a hard time with this one,

it's a brain-bending experience and the way that they They add new layers to it throughout. It just keeps it very fresh and satisfying throughout. I thought that this was just a really excellent game with a good story and decent enough characters in a compelling setting. I think most people will, at the very least, enjoy this. Joshua, did you enjoy it? Yeah, I had a great time when I wasn't like listening to it.

you know is that why you switch the language to Japanese so that you just would not understand the dialogue that's part of it I was also tickled that you're playing as a guy named Hugh I almost expected his last name to be man yeah

yeah it's not a Kachiba game although it sort of seems like one sometimes I think I think everything about like the I think the director's like a former like mechanical designer or something like that, or a character designer.

And, like, it's like a game made by a gearhead or a bunch of gearheads. And, like, all that stuff looks cool. I just, I just don't care for the story. But it's also, like, not, like, intrusive. So it doesn't really bother me that much. Yeah. I just, I love the central thing where it's sort of, like, you're doing these hacking puzzles to

in order to have permission to play a shooting game, you know? And I love it a lot. And I kind of, you know how Metal Gear had the VR missions? This game has a version of that, and there's like a part of me

that wish it was just that, you know? Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because on our dispatch pod, last year, I expressed some frustration with just how many hacking mini-games we have now and how every game has a hacking mini-game. And so you might think that I would be fed up with all the hacking that happens here because it's really not optional. I mean, I'm sure that some super talented

speed runner or something will play this game and beat this game without hacking at all. But it would be pretty darn hard because once those shields are up, you know, you're You're really like, you would be chipping away at the health bars here. It would be a big war for attrition. So you really have to do the hacking. It works for me, though, because it's not the sole focus. It's not like the rest of the game stops and then you do your little hacking minigame. Everything is happening at once, as you said, Matt.

And it's so frenetic because you're jumping around and you're trying to avoid attacks. And at the same time, you're hacking and you're also shooting. and it's just, it's so chaotic, but also in a good way. Like you enter a flow state, sort of. And there is, you can get an upgrade that does auto hacking for you. And it's limited, but I still sort of avoided that almost on principle, because it just felt like I should be doing the hacking personally here. It would be kind of fun if there were a co-op mode in this game.

And one person we're hacking and one person were shooting, but it's single player and maybe it's better that way. because that way you do feel almost overloaded, but not quite, like just short of overloaded. So the hacking works for me because it's happening in tandem and in concert with everything else. And it's not like super puzzly. Basically, you're just kind of pressing the face buttons on the controller

to correspond to directions, and you're just trying to go through various squares on this grid to kind of unlock the enemy, open it up, And then there are also ways that you can upgrade this and you can get kind of modifiers and you can get double damage or you can confuse enemies. And so there's a little more complexity to it, which is nice. But because it happens along with all these other things, I think it's kind of like the sum is greater than, you know, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, really. If it were just the shooting or just the hacking, if these were separated, I wouldn't be as into it. but because it's sort of a two-step,

it's just constantly frantic and fun, and it's not the sole focus. So I'm with you. Like, the action here is top tier, and some of the boss fights are just incredible. I love the boss fights in this game. Yeah, they definitely are. And the reason why the hacking system works so well with the shooting

is because they pace out the additions to it perfectly. They give you enough time to digest, okay, at first, here's how the hacking works. And then they introduce a new kind of node to you. Like, okay, if you go through this node,

and then you get to the open section that'll open the guy up, like, this node that you pass through makes it so that the next time you hack this guy, it'll do extra damage. And then a few hours later, you get another new note. And they really give you time

to process everything. And the same goes for the weapons. You will gradually be introduced to new weapons. And the way that a new weapon might interact with a hack that you got a few hours ago sort of brings new life into that. And maybe a new hack will do the same for the weapons. And there's this kind of interplay

between the weapons and the hacking that is really satisfying and allows you to come up with your, own way to tackle different enemies. And some of the enemies are particularly susceptible to certain things. You can hack an enemy. And once you do enough damage to it, all of a sudden it puts up these shields that stop you from hacking it anymore.

And the only way to take these shields down are to physically shoot those shields. And then you can hack again. So it just works so well the way those systems all integrate. Yeah, and there are a lot of systems, and maybe it would be a bit overwhelming for some people. It almost reminded me of Hades II, which I thought worked well. Some people thought there was just a bit too much going on, but I like it because there's always something to upgrade. There's always some way to progress, and there's something to collect. There's sort of this central hub area because you're in this moon base that is mysteriously deserted,

and there's been a moon quake and disaster has befallen everything, there's a rogue AI. And so you can retreat to this central safe hub area. And from there, you can go to the various hotspots as you're trying to contact Earth or escape or rescue some other robot or whatever. And each time you go back to that central hub area, there's always something to do. And each of the levels has sort of sub-levels. So you can kind of save and then go back to that central area. And whatever you've collected, you can upgrade your own abilities. You can upgrade Diana's hacking abilities. You can, you know, equip different things. There are all sorts of mods for all these different systems. And then there's like training simulator

in the central hub area where you can unlock other stuff. So you always feel like you're getting an upgrade. You're always progressing and feeling more and more empowered. And then the game puts up a stiffer challenge. And there's great enemy variety too. There are certain stock enemies that you'll be fighting throughout the game, but it's always throwing new enemies at you. And yeah, it just never gets old, and there's additional complexity added to the combat as you go. Any other thoughts on the combat, specifically, Joshua?

I think that it's like much more expressive than it probably sounds, right? Because part of what you're doing with these notes that Matt was talking about, is that you're sort of influencing what these mazes, do to the robots. So it's kind of like building your own play style in a way that feels like, it just sort of tickles your brain in a really fun way. And I think it's just like, again,

it's hard to talk about it in a way that doesn't sound very dry. But I think they have done something really cool and compelling. And, you know, like, Not too frustrating, right? Like the, they have like on the standard difficulty, right? Like they, I feel like the encounters are just right, right? Or it's just enough to get you like a little tense. And then like when there's a big fight, like you know,

and then you're able, like at least I was able to, you know, like pull it off. By like, not quite the skin of my teeth, but I feel like, you know, like, oh, I really could have, you know, beef that one, you know? Yeah. So I don't know. To me, it felt like very extremely well calibrated. And I'm not like, you know, pro-gamer skills, no scope, 420 guy. But so like I don't think I'm coming at this from like an extremely abnormal place, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. I had that same experience of it being perfectly calibrated, no notable difficulty spikes. And some of the bosses, inevitably, it seemed that I would barely beat them, but before I failed so many times that I got frustrated. And so maybe it would take me a few tries on occasion. But I would always get down to like some sliver of my health bar. And also it's like there were a couple times where it was kind of a, you know, one hit kill scenario, whoever landed the next shot. would win the fight. And so there was a great sense of accomplishment without any accompanying

frustration for me in some of these fights, which is part of what made them so excellent. So yeah, I mean, on all those scores, just perfection or close to perfection. However, I did have some reservations about other aspects of the game, as did you, Joshua. And it's quite linear, which is not necessarily a problem. And in fact, the expiration I thought was sort of satisfying, given the constraints of there are only so many places to go. But somehow they did manage to hide some secrets and collectibles in ways where I felt some sense of accomplishment when I found them. But the structure of the missions was very much toggle five switches to activate this elevator, to get to this other thing, and rinse and repeat, basically almost everywhere you went. It changes

a little bit later in the game, but multiple long levels are very much of that kind, you know, of that format, where it's just like we have to flip this number of switches or decode this number of things in order to open this door and go there. And sometimes the game even acknowledges that, you know, like, because it doesn't make any sense.

Like, why would you have to unlock all of these different things scattered all across the level to get through this locked door? And at one point, Hugh was like, you know, I'd love to talk to the brain that's scattered all these terminals around. And okay, but just acknowledging it doesn't actually change that that is still the structure of the game. So as inventive and creative and perfectly polished as the combat felt, I thought structurally

it really didn't do much for me and it felt just sort of not pushing the envelope in any way. So I would have loved if the combat had been mirrored by the innovation of other aspects of the game. And in terms of like the level design and there's also some monotony, I think, just because you're on this moon base. And they make an attempt to switch things up. And sometimes you're out on the surface and sometimes you're inside. And there's this lunar filament that enables you to basically 3D print anything on the moon.

And so there are some biospheres here where, you know, there's like earth like, there's like a New York level. and there's, you know, plants and trees and stuff, but ultimately it does just sort of feel like a moon base most of the time, and it's kind of visually bland, I guess. So all of that, it felt a little bit to me like, when's the next fight? And maybe because the focus is on the fighting, that was okay, but there was, I think, a disparity in just how engaging

and engrossing those different aspects of the game felt. Did you feel that at all that? Not really. I mean, I think I was just so, like, hit with the Capcomness of this Capcom game. This is a video game-ass video game, right? And I just kind of instantly, especially coming off of Resident Evil Requiem, so recently, I kind of knew that this game would be unapologetically doing video game stuff. So I didn't mind

the doors locked by five things that were spread out If it was all that, then sure, maybe that would get monotonous I didn't think it was too enveloped in that And I also found that the moon base itself I really liked looking at all of it And maybe this is partially because our imaginations were captured by the Artemis journey while we were playing this game

but every bit of being on the moon just felt really awe-inspiring what timing for Capcom to release this game I mean just incredible but those those like biomes that you're talking about that they can generate because

they've used this idea of printing pretty much anything you want based on this moon or that led to some really interesting things like the New York level that you talked about. Yeah, it kind of looked like Times Square, but it looked like kind of a messed up,

like awkward looking Times Square, because as you find out in the lore of the game, they would kind of let, within the game, within the narrative of the game, the people on the moon would use AI to kind of build out these biomes. So there's this really interesting thing of the AI, making New York and it not being human feeling at all, despite having very human elements.

And the extra layer of thinking about Capcom, which is a studio that will not use generative AI for their games, the artists at Capcom making things to look like AI slop without it, actually using AI slop is this really fascinating layer that kind of captivated me whenever I was in a new biome or whatever, I was very much paying attention to like what they've done to to make you feel like an AI has run wild here. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think the story itself, so it reminds me a bit of death stranding. It's not as strange as death stranding, but just in the sort of unlikely dad aspect of it. And the nice thing about it is that there aren't a whole lot of cutscenes. So, as we alluded to earlier, it's not super intrusive, but it does lead to these sort of, you know, Joel and Ellie kind of conversations that happen as you're playing. And they're always sort of awkward and kind of shoehorned it. It's like you'll have this big battle against a bunch of giant robots and you'll blow them all up. And then suddenly Hugh will like pause to reminisce about life on earth or something.

And I like the dynamic with Diana being very curious about earth and human life and everything because she's, she's very capable. It's like a lone wolf and cub sort of thing, except that the cub is quite capable. And Hugh would be screwed, if not for Diana helping him out. But the heartfelt chat moments, because Hugh starts basically like the first cut scene, he's like, oh, I'd hate to have kids or whatever, you know. And then, uh-oh, Hugh suddenly has a surrogate daughter here who is also a robot. And kind of, you know, despite her disturbing resemblance to my daughter, also has like an uncanny valley thing going on, I guess, on purpose, right? But you do find her endearing at a certain point and you can populate that hub area with like a swing set and a campfire and balloons and things for her to play.

with so that she can be like a real human child. But it is a little, you know, just like the heartfelt moments are kind of shoehorned in at awkward times. But the daddy-daughter relationship, I think, was maybe even the stronger aspect of the story, because everything else, where you're trying to piece together what happened on this base and why is it deserted, It's one of the, I think, duller examples of the coming across holopads or holograms and notepad sort of structure of storytelling, which works for me sometimes if the source material and the lore is really compelling, like with Horizon games that grabs me, for instance. But here, pretty much every time you come across a memo or an email or you watch some holographic recorded scene play out, it's just kind of boring, at least in my mind, and not really all that revealing or interesting beyond the basic kind of, you know,

corporations and machines run amok sort of standard story. So that didn't do much for me is what I'm saying. Joshua? Yeah, I think every, just about every plot beat is one you would expect, you know? I don't think there's much going on to surprise. you, which is kind of a a little bit of a bummer because the implications of the

space are wild. I think that they found on the moon basically a magic resin that could 3D print anything. And then something went wrong and this whole colony full of scientists and whatnot died.

And again, the reasons for all that, very predictable and very boring, but like, there's all sorts of like interesting little like asides, like tensions that they're that they're dealing with, right? Like there was one that like lingered in my head where they're talking about like testing this like printing out this whole city section. And they're like, oh, New York. And like no one's, um, uh, Diane is asking. Q, like, oh, have you been there? How do you know it's New York? And he was like, oh, I have no idea, you know, but like movies, you know, it's sort of like everywhere. And then the, the scientists that made it. You find it in like an email exchange, which sort of like, I guess we should use New York as like a proof of concept. But like they're not from New York either, right? Like, they're like,

maybe next time we'll do something, you know, traditional from Japan. And that feels like something about like how these games are made, right? With like Capcom is like a Japanese company and like having to make a game that still feels like the Western, you know, even though it's not. Yeah, that's interesting because it felt like when Capcom went astray a decade ago and we should talk about how it has found its way back to the light. But maybe part of that was sort of westernizing its games and trying to adopt those mechanics instead of doing its own thing and doing its own thing is clearly its strength.

and is paying off for it very well. So, yeah, you don't want sort of a simulacrum of something. You want something that is authentic. And this game mostly does feel like that. But I was mostly playing for the next fight and the next boss battle, more so than for the next lower drop. Sure. But I thought that they put in enough little details to flesh out the story in interesting ways.

Like, you know, you mentioned that at the top, there's a cutscene where he was like, oh, having kids, like, oh, having kids, like, kind of. And then the rest of the game is sort of about his father-daughter-ish relationship with this robot. But, you know, it's a nice little detail that's dropped in pretty early on that, like, it turns out like Hugh was adopted. And he still has views of family that, you know, emanate from him being adopted and him being able to call his mom and dad, mom and dad, despite being adopted.

And that is obviously directly connected to the fact that he encounters this girl and is quick to essentially adopt her. And it's a nice little detail to help explain why that bond might form so quickly within him. I think the character of Hugh could have been a little bit more fleshed out. We do get some tidbits here and there but he kind of remains a bit of a big-hearted simple

throughout most of this. At times it kind of feels like Diana and Hugh have like an of mice and men Lenny George relationship where they trade off who's Lenny and who's George depending on whether it's a sort of human condition or a computer condition that they're mulling over. I really liked them. that dynamic that they had.

And I think most importantly, you know, the way that the corridors that need five keys to unlock didn't upset me in this video game as video game, the story not being like top tier video game story didn't bother me that much because I felt like it

didn't get in the way of the main draw of this game. But I do agree that some those hologram conversations were a bit overlong. Thankfully, the notes that you would find and read were fairly short. I just remember playing Outer Worlds too a few months back and being like, checking like an email that was like five pages long for some random outpost that like I was, yeah,

it's not like that. The rare case where I would say that email could have been a conversation. Yeah, exactly. I could have been there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still reading some of those, I think.

So, yeah, it's almost like the hacking. It's like, yes, I'm sort of sick of hacking mechanics. And yet, because it's not this whole focus and it doesn't slow anything down, it becomes additive. And it's just something that you enjoy along the way. So I think the whole game is just really well put together. And yeah, there are some derivative aspects of the storytelling. And it'll probably remind you of a lot of games, some of which we've mentioned, or maybe a dead space sort of game, you know, games from that era.

but it feels timely and topical thematically, and it's just so perfectly polished in the combat and the gameplay. And this game was in development for six years or so, not that that's abnormal these days for a AAA-ish title. But there was a lot of trial and error, the director said, when it came to figuring out the puzzle hacking and combat and everything. And it paid off.

It just, it worked out. They nailed it. So clearly, this is, not a pass. This is a mash for us, but our respective ratings on the mash meter. I think Matt, you're probably the high man here,

so where are you going to go on the 1 to 10 scale? On the 1 to 10 scale, I think I've got to drop this at a 9. 875 to 9. That's kind of where I'm at with it. Yeah, just a joy. Not, doesn't

overstay its welcome. Sticks the landing and there's also a lot of great stuff to unlock after you finish the story that can keep you going for even longer. Can we talk about that? Without spoilers, I think we can talk about that. No, no, not like in a spoiler sense. I just want to say, yeah, you're right, it's cool. And it's like my favorite thing about the game.

It's a super Capcom-ass thing where like, you're like, okay, what am I going to get? As soon as the credits are over, I'm going to get stuff. I'm going to have like five pop-ups telling me all the cool stuff I just unlocked and that absolutely happens. Yeah. Rocks dude. Like it's the it's like they gave me the version of the game that I wanted. Like it's like you know how you play Super Mario 3D line? You know the 3DS one and like you're going through the thing and then like you know you play through the whole story and then the actual sick-oh shit comes out.

Like that's it's good man. Like, it's worth it just for that, I think. Yeah. What's your score, Joshua? Probably. Just because I have, I dislike the 7 out of 10 meme, so I'm going to give it an 8. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll go right between you guys. I'll go 8.5 and maybe that's fence sitting. That is kind of the consensus. That's where the Metacritic averages. But that is how I feel. It's just that the combat stuff, everything that's good about this game is so good that it more than makes up for any of the drawbacks. But there are some drawbacks in my mind.

But it is really impressive for an original IP. And I guess I hope that this is the start of something. I mean, if this were just a one-off experiment, I'd be perfectly happy with that too. But it seems like there's franchise potential here. When is there not franchise potential with some sort of successful release? So we'll see how successful it is financially. but I got to think that we will see more prognata at some point.

And that would not be a bad thing. Our boy, he's doing great in the combine, you know, putting up good numbers. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, something to beware of because there was so much conversation around this with Crimson Desert and Cliffs' controls and how he felt. And part of that was just button mappings, but also partly just how nimble or not he was. There's a little bit of that bulky lumbering happening here.

but it makes perfect sense because you're encumbered. You're wearing a big suit and you're carrying Diana on your back and you're on the moon and everything. So there is a little bit of lumbering around that you have to get used to. You're not kind of turning on a dime here. But it never felt like it was getting in the way of what I wanted to do because you can also sprint easily. And no, you don't have to press the button repeatedly to sprint as you originally did in Crimson Desert before that was patched. And you know, you can also dash a lot. so you're constantly dashing during fights.

So it didn't feel, you know, you're not the most agile, and you do have, like, jets that can help you do extended jumps, but there's still kind of a limited range to that. So, but it felt perfectly appropriate in how it controlled to me. So not a problem in my mind. I also played on Switch 2. Did you guys run? I played on PS5.

It ran damn well. Nice. And, like, handheld and docked on, in handheld, there's like some stutter. in a few places, but nothing that will ruin the experience for you, I don't think. And it also, I think,

is really suited to the structure of the game where it's just like, it's really generous with checkpoints and giving you spots to pause and save and stuff. So, like, if you are remotely interested, I recommend it on Switch 2. Good to know. It's great to hear. And we do

just have to say a word here about Capcom because Street Fighter 6, incest storyline aside, Capcom is just killing it. And this is not new, but it's, you know, we kind of forecasted that this would be the year of Capcom just because of how many releases there are. And that's not always a good thing.

Sometimes that's a product of development that went on too long, and you don't actually want games to be going head-to-head against each other. And that sort of happened, I guess, with Bethesda last year, a little bit. You mentioned outer worlds and then there was

grounded and there was avowed and that was not the plan to publish all of those games in quick succession. Capcom, though, just has such an assembly line going here and goes right from Resident Evil Requiem to Monster Hunter Stories 3, which was also extremely well

received. And now this game, Pragana, comes out and there's still Onimusha coming later this year. So it's really pretty impressive, Onomisha, way of the sword. So they're doing it all. They're kind of firing on all cylinders. And it's incredible to look back a decade or so to the Crapcom era where everyone was

bemoaning, you know, they were getting away from their successful formula. And a lot of series were in a little lull. And, you know, you had Resident Evil 5 and 6. And this was sort of a low point creatively for the franchise and getting all action gamey. and you had Devil May Cry 4 and DMC Devil May Cry, and it just felt like Capcom had kind of lost its way. And man, has it ever found its way since then?

And it's not just like nonstop flagship game bangers, but it's like a constant stream of remakes and remasters and re-releases, most of which are handled and received pretty well. And then somehow they find time to create Pragmata, and it's the first original IP in something like eight years when it was announced back in 2020 for Capcom. And then also dredging up and revitalizing these long-dormant franchises like Onamusha or like Mega Man next year, right?

I mean, it's just Capcom's putting on a clinic right now. It's great to see. I like living in a world where Capcom and Konami are putting out good games. And I never thought that we would be back to this, but it's great to be here. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if there's like a replicable formula. Like what can other studios learn from this?

I guess part of it is just get good. Yeah, right. You know, and like Dragon's Dogma 2 is a Capcom game. And it's just like so many different genres. And then they have financial hits like Monster Hunter Wilds, even if that didn't have the staying power that people wanted. It's just like, you know, they almost can do no wrong. And then there are some experiments.

There's something like exoprimal, for instance, and not everything hits, but everything feels creative and like they're trying something new. And when they're making new games and old franchises, even those still feel new. I mean, we talked a lot about how Requiem kind of felt like a greatest hits of the franchise and sort of intertwining different strands of the series. And maybe there wasn't anything really brand new to the franchise in that. game, but it just perfected all the different kinds of Resident Evil games. And so that was almost new in a sense. And then to work in something like Pragata, it's just, it's really, really impressive. And obviously, it helps to be able to draw on the back catalog that Capcom has going back decades and just tons of fan loyalty to all these series. So not everyone can follow that formula. I guess that's the,

That's the sticking point. It's like not everyone has the archive that Capcom can draw on. And yet, easier said than done, as Capcom itself showed in the mid-2000s, early 2000s, or, you know, late-2000s early to mid-2010s, that you can easily go wrong and you can kind of forget what people like or you can just double down on things so much that it feels formulaic. And, you know, Street Fighter 5, I guess, fell into that, too, at least on its original release. and then Street Fighter 6 incest aside kind of corrects course. So it's really laudable, I guess. And, you know, game development has gone better in Japan than in the U.S. in terms of like layoffs and everything. But Catcom specifically is just sort of the standard bear for how do you service these existing series that people love

and also find ways to do something new and break the mold a little bit. So keep it up, Capcom. Well done. No, and I think it's cool that, like, you have, I think you also have because these companies are more stable than the ones out here, you know. But like you have, you know, like Marvel comics when like Roy Thomas and Jerry Connolly and all those guys started showing up where like the people who grew up on the older stuff are now, you know, sort of like taking it in their own direction while also like, you know, paying homage to the,

the stuff that they loved. So it's kind of like this new generation talent that is still aware of what the older guys did because the older guys are still around. Yeah. Yeah, it's a real revitalization. And we've talked about that with Nintendo too, where you have this generational model and there's kind of a mentorship and each person comes to each franchise and brings something new to it while the OGs are often still there looking over their shoulders and able to weigh in and assist. Okay, so from Japan, let us move to Poland and to something else that's completely new. And by the way, Pragmata, I would say it's maybe 15-ish hours, 15 to 20, dozen to 20, depending on your play style and how much of a completist you are. And these next two games that we're going to talk about,

also maybe a dozen hours or so. The first one, we won't talk as long about each of these as we did about progmata, but mouse PI for hire, which is developed by Fumi Games, published by Playside Studios for all current gen platforms, much like Pragana, which is also available for all platforms. Pragmata. Pragmata, maybe. And mouse will also be coming to less gen platforms at some point. So this stood out from the vast swath of indie games out there, in part because of its

look and because of its genre. It's a first-person shooter. It's a hard-boiled detective game with black and white rubber hose style art and animation. It's interesting because when I sat down to play this and my wife was watching it, like the touchstone for a lot of people now is not going to be 1920s, 1930s animation, but Cuphead? She was like, oh, is this by the Cuphead people? No.

But it's homage to the same era of animation, which we're, we've seen, I guess, in some other games like Bendy or Epic Mickey or whatever, but it's mostly associated with Cuphead at this point. Although this is even bolder in a sense because it's black and white, just really dedicated to the black and white aesthetic. And I guess partly this came to attention because of that look and synthesis of genres, also partly because Troy Baker is in this game. Troy Baker voices the titular eponymous mouse PI.

And he has a whole lot of lines. So you will be hearing a lot of... This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.

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That sounds delicious. Get savings with yellow sale signs storewide and everyday low prices on 365 brand items. Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. Troy Baker, Joel Miller, Indiana Jones himself, is now playing a mouse. And clearly he felt very strongly about this. The whole cast just kind of wanted to be involved with this game. I doubt it was the same sort of payday that Troy Baker is accustomed to.

But this was sort of a passion project. And what did you guys make of this, Matt? Your take on mouse, P.I. for hire. I think it very much is what it appears to be. Yes. If you are looking at this game and you think you might be into it, you're probably right. And if you're looking at it and you don't know, you should probably stay away. It's a fairly straightforward boomer shooter.

There is like a sort of a hub. area that you return to and an overworld map where you can drive your car to all the different levels. Yeah, much like Prognato. So it's not quite just like a linear like next level, next level, next level, next level. There is a little bit more dynamism to it than that.

But as far as the gameplay goes, it's just a pretty straightforward shooter. The level design is fairly linear. There's a few interlocking sort of short-cutty kind of things. The boss fights tend to be good. There's some that are

okay, some that are a little above average. I think that this is just exactly what it appears to be with some fantastic artwork and voice acting

on top of it. There's a great feel to this world. I think that if they make a sequel of this, there are definitely some more interesting avenues to explore. I think that the mystery, the detective element of this was something I was really looking forward to.

And I think that it's a little bit shallow on the detective elements based on what I was hoping for, but I still appreciate that feel of that noir detective. sort of thrown in there. It's an enjoyable game if it's what you're in the mood to play. That's kind of my take on it. Yeah, it's an interesting matchup.

I just, I like this era and this style, and I like first-person shooters. And so immediately, I was grabbed by the premise. And yeah, it pretty much does what it says on the tin. Joshua, what did you think? Oh, I was not impressed. It did nothing for me. Okay.

And like, I love that, you know, again, I love that. animation style. I love the, uh, the, um, the pastiche that they're, that they're doing. Um, I don't want to, you know, slight the, the, the animation work that goes on there. There's a lot of like character to it, like the way that your melee works, you put up your dukes and, like, you throw these wild paint makers and that's really cool. Yeah. Um, one thing that bother me, the only thing that bother me about the animation is that the environments and the characters and the weapons and everything didn't always seem well integrated to me. It was like, the environments weren't as

cartoony as the animated parts. So, you know, the characters and the enemies and the weapons are kind of bouncing around. And then the environments are just kind of drab, black and white, repetitive sort of. And there was- It drove me bananas. Yeah, there was a disconnect there. Like the world didn't seem like it was working from the same template, I guess. So that bothered me.

I wanted everything to be as cartoony as the moving parts were. Yeah, that would certainly be very impressive if they were able to pull that off. Yeah, tall order, I get, but still, yeah. What were your other knocks on it? I mean, that was basically, you know, like it, where it just sort of like you were saying, I agree with you both. I was hoping for more detective stuff than boomershooter stuff. There's like some fun flourishes.

I only play like an hour or two, so maybe there's more of this. But like I love the little flourishes. Like you break a lock with your tail. and you have to guide your tail through the tumblers and stuff. And I think that's really fun and funny. Yep. But it doesn't seem, it seems more interested in being a shooter, which is like fine, I guess. But it's like, you know, you go through all this work, making this texture.

And it's just sort of like, I kind of want to sink into it a little bit more than that, you know? Yes. Yeah, I had some of the same concerns. And I don't think it changes a whole lot. You know, if you played an hour or two, I think you kind of. kind of get what it is, and there's just much more of it. And, you know, you get more weapons and everything, but the basic structure of it is pretty apparent early on. And I also was disappointed by the detective aspect, which is pretty undercooked. I mean, there's not much actual investigating that

goes on here, not that I'm expecting some sort of like root trees are dead Oprah Din style depth to this, But, you know, there's really not much to it other than you kind of question characters sometimes, but it's just your standard sort of dialogue options. And then you get back to your PI office and there's a board where you can put clues together and everything, almost in like an Allen Wake two way, but you're not actually putting the clues together. You're just pressing a button. And then the mouse puts the clues up on the board and pieces them together. and then you get the next mission, basically.

Yeah, it's just kind of reminding you of the story. You might have missed while you were shooting things. Yeah, there's no actual detecting going on, really, aside from the fact that you can pick up some clues in the missions and you can poke around and find secrets. Although sometimes the text would come up and say, like, secret discovered. And I'd be like, that was a secret. It was like right there.

I didn't do anything. But that other times I wouldn't get credit for a secret. What I did, like, explore some back alley and thought I had found it. secret. Anyway, I do think, like, the shooting is nothing special. You know, it's just sort of a standard Doom-style structure, but, like, not as viscerally satisfying as Doom or many other shooters. It's, there's no real pop to the guns. Like, there's no real feedback to that. I was playing on PS5. There's just no real, like, haptic kick to the guns or anything. Like, there was animation and there were sounds, but, and when you would fire at the enemies, sometimes in

kind of entertaining fashion, it got quite bloody and graphic, and you're just like decapitating these other mice and stuff, but like, I don't know, the weapons just didn't seem to pack the punch that they visually did. So the actual like feel of the shooting, the feel that you get from, you know, a bungee game or something, not that I'm expecting this to be up to bungee shooting standards. But that kind of kinetic aspect to it was largely lacking, I thought. Yeah, I agree with that. I should say, I'm about eight hours in. And I do think that there is a little bit more depth than appears in the first couple hours, because they don't actually let you upgrade your weapons. Yes, you can do that. What I would consider to be a little bit too far into the experience.

So once you can upgrade your weapons, they gain some second. abilities that adds a little bit more depth to it but especially like in a in a period of time where I'm coming off of playing pragmata and and and

just dealing with all of like the different weapons in that game and all the different enemy types and the ways that the different weapons would interact with the different enemy types and how you'd have to strategically you know approach enemies differently

I it was a special highlighted for me in this game that the enemy variety is not that extravagant, I would say. And even when there are different enemies, you know, you kind of just go like, what's my favorite gun right now? And then use that until you have to use your second favorite gun. And as you mentioned, none of them particularly like feel super great. I do like melting mice with the acid gun. Yes, by far, the what is it called, the D. The Dvarnisher, I think.

DeVarnisher, yes, that's the one. That's the elite weapon. That's the BFG of this game as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, definitely a lot of doom parallels, strangely enough. But again, I think like if you're in the mood for that kind of shooter, like, it's a cool take on that. I think it's just, I think most of the criticisms of this game are that it didn't end up being what we wanted it to be.

But what it is is fairly good enough for what it actually is. Yeah, it's repetitive, I think, but it's clearly made with a lot of love. I would say it's also extremely easy on the default difficulty. And even, I usually will play a default just because. Because if I'm playing for the podcast, I kind of want to play it as it was intended to be played by most people. But also because I'm not some super gamer or something, default is usually fine for me. Here I did actually have to bump it up to the higher difficulty level because there was no challenge whatsoever on the default difficulty. It's like there save points every few rooms and there's just copious ammo everywhere.

And if you do get stuck, which you won't very often, but you can press down on the D pad and it'll just have animated footsteps that show you where to go. So there's not much challenge here, even on the harder difficulty. And it's also kind of overwritten in a way. Like, I mean, I get the noir stuff that they're going for, and I'm very much in the market for that. But so many cheese puns, like every single line is a cheese or a mouse pun. And, you know, the charm of that wore off after a while. But then also, it's silly on the surface and it has kind of this throwback almost Sly Cooper-esque vibe to it, which is

a high compliment coming for me, the world's biggest Sly Cooper Finn, RIP Sly come back to us someday, but also it has this sort of serious societal commentary aspect where you have like the mice and the shrews and you have like police brutality

going on kind of and like there's immigration allegory going on here. and everything. And I'm all for games trying to do that, but it felt a little out of place to me, just like kind of discordant in this game with like constant mice and cheese jokes and everything is cartoony. And then there's also this like, no, we're saying something serious aspect to the game. I don't know. Maybe that would work for some people and maybe like getting that in under the guise of, oh, this is just silly and no, actually it has a real message to it. Maybe that would actually

help, but for me, it felt a little like, I don't know, trying to do a bit too much or do categorically diametrically opposed things at the same time. I'm looking forward to see how that plays out. Yeah, you might need to keep playing. I'm going to keep playing now. Yeah. It reminds me a little of grim fandango, at least in, you know, the setting and the the voice acting quality, but I do think that the, you know, the writing is not quite as sharp.

I think the voice acting is taking it to a level that exceeds the writing, so far at least, for me. We'll see. Yeah, yeah. And there is an in-game card game, and you guys know I'm not a big fan of those typically,

but I like this one because it's baseball. I was looking forward to talking to you about this. This is a baseball card game. What does Ben do? There's like a turn-based baseball card game. And because it's a card game, I don't care for it that much, but I do enjoy collecting the cards because the game, it's set in 1934, but there's like a lot of throwback stuff in it even further back. And so there's a lot of old-timey baseball players, like you could tell

that they're kind of modeled on specific players from earlier errors of baseball. So that was really resonating for me. So I liked collecting the comics and the cards, but not so much playing and reading them, I guess, was the issue. But mostly, I think my takeaway from this, which you know, I found it fairly enjoyable, but also felt like, okay, I kind of get it after the first few levels. And I did play on, but I didn't really feel driven to. But I think my main takeaway is that I miss single player first person shooters. You know, like they're a pretty rare breed these days. I mean, they're not extinct.

Obviously, we talked about Doom the Dark Ages just last year and Machine Games is working on Wolfenstein 3. but it's like the first-person shooter that is also a single-player game. It's almost the domain of Indies now. There was a sort of psychedelic, strange indie FPS that came out last year called Tamashika. Just because if you are a bigger studio and publisher and you're making a first-person shooter, then it's going to be live service and it's going to be online and it's going to be an extraction shooter. It's going to be Battle Royale or whatever it is. And very rarely now do we get like a full-fledged single-player campaign, even if it's a battlefield or a call of duty, if you even have a campaign now, it's kind of often an afterthought. And, you know, I used to enjoy playing the single-player campaigns and call-a-duty games. And they were kind of whatever, six hours or something, but it was just nonstop like playing a Hollywood action movie or something. It was kind of fun. Even those single-player campaigns have been.

either done away with or just really haven't had a whole lot of love lavished on them of late. So this made me wish for, and, you know, it reminded me of Sly Cooper, I said, but also like, no one lives forever and its sequel, that kind of, it's a shooter, but also it's sort of silly and a send-up and pastiche. And so I wish that the single-player shooter could make a comeback. And maybe it will. I don't know how many, like, live service games need to bomb in order to bring back the single player first-person shooter and I don't wish them ill, but I do wish that there were room for

more games in this genre. After spending time with marathon, I, you know, which again, I found elements of it that I really loved, but ultimately, it takes a lot for me to get into an online shooter. It's just not my vibe. But the

first thing I did after I kind of finished my marathon experience, for now at least, was I installed Titan Fall 2 because I remembered I have not played through Titanfall too. Like, yeah. Oh man, you're in for a ride, dude. Yeah. Yeah. I am so hungry for campaigns and shooters. That call of duty from a couple

years ago had a really excellent campaign and then the most recent one apparently is just straight trash. I miss it. Bring them back. Me too. Yeah. Maybe that's us being boomers with our love for boomers shooters. I don't know. But yeah, no, this is what we want. I hope that there's still space for that. So it sounds like this is a mash for Matt and maybe a pass for Joshua. And I guess I'm going to go mash, but not as wholeheartedly as I think.

Provisional mash. Yes. So what scores are we going to give this one? Matt, where are you going to go? Well, again, it's not a definitive score because I'm, again, only eight hours into it. I don't like really giving scores before they're done. But if I had to

score it right now, I would probably be like 7.25 I think with like a little note that that could be much higher or much lower. And you kind of already have a sense of

which one of the two mouse. People you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say 7.5. It's just I wanted to like it even than I did. I applaud the effort and the look and also the genre and the synthesis of different styles, but it didn't fully deliver for me. If there is a mouse two, then maybe that will be the game that we wanted and hoped. But it's fun, you know, and I think it's worth checking

out if you like this blend of things. And Joshua, I guess if you want to give a provisional score just based on your hour or two with the game, obviously, it won't be high or we would have played on. Yeah, I'm just going to open my mouth and let the cartoon cats and chickens shriek and all that stuff. Yeah. And let the listener determine what that means. Yeah. In addition to putting up your dukes, I like that you can kick people. That's kind of a fun melee attack. Okay. In our final game to discuss today, this time we were going to a studio that was initially based in Belarus, I believe, though it subsequently moved to Cyprus, due to war, et cetera,

but this is a game called Replaced, developed by Sadcat Studios, published by Coat Sink and Thunderful for Windows and Xbox series. I played it on Xbox. Not to be confused with Rianimal, and indeed that we played in Disgust in February, which has very similar, like, logo and box art,

but this one is called Replaced. And this was in the works for, I think, eight years. And it has been highly, anticipated for some time. Also largely because of its look, because it's got this sort of 2.5D pixel art-ish cyberpunk style. It's a mashup of platformer and kind of brawler, you know, hand-to-hand combat with a little shooting and combat, but also sort of this cinematic storytelling about a post-apocalyptic setting. And there is a wall. that the corporation is keeping everyone else out,

and there are storylines about organ donation, and donation is maybe a generous way to put it, because it's not entirely voluntary, and it wouldn't be 2026 without an AI aspect, too. So you are playing essentially as the corporation supercomputer AI reach that got implanted in a body and is sort of wondering the world now outside of the world, wall where the corporation is headquartered and you're, you know, hobnobbing with all these

rejects and outcasts and trying to scheme your way back into the wall via various platforming and combat and somewhat ponderous storytelling. So, Matt, what did you think of replaced? I am about halfway through replaced, I believe. And I have a lot in the pros column and a good amount in the cons column when thinking about this game. I think that I absolutely love the world that this is in. I love this story of corporate overreach. I love this alternate reality setting. I think that the characters are pretty memorable. The The game looks absolutely incredible. It sounds good.

I have been looking forward to this for a while. I think where it struggles is, especially in the platforming, I think that my biggest criticism of this game is that the platforming sections are fairly frustrating. I think that maybe the art director, one of few two. many arguments about, you know, not being able to, they just don't really telegraph the areas that are where you're supposed to jump or climb onto very easily. It's funny because there is yellow paint. Sometimes.

And yet, even the yellow point paint doesn't really stand out. So it's hard to tell what is background and what is interactive. It really is. And some of that is also because the camera stays fairly zoomed out for most of the time. Yes, yes. So you might think, oh, I can play this on my Steam deck or whatever. You shouldn't. You should play this on as big as screen as you have for that specific reason alone.

And also just the mechanics of the platforming at sometimes are frustrating in the sense that, like, if you're holding onto a wall and you're trying to jump to something, to your right. There is a difference between holding straight up right and jumping and holding sort of a diagonal upright and jumping. There's a difference between those two jumps, but there's no visual difference while you're on the wall of that being conveyed. So you wouldn't know that there's a difference between the diagonal up jump and just the

right jump. The little things like that are kind of frustrating. It's got complex. that I enjoy. I think people are going to, the main criticism I think people are going to have and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think you guys are going to be like, God damn,

this game is fucking slow. Yep. And add a run button. Just let me go 25% faster by holding a red button and I'll feel like liberated. Yeah. So is that how you all feel?

Yep. So I have an affection for games like a flashback I was going to bring that up I immediately got reminded of flashback yeah and the way those games moved like slow but like fluidly so like when I'm reminded of that I feel like fondness for it

or sort of like a game recognized game kind of thing but at the same time I haven't played as much as you so I might get real annoyed by the time I might get halfway through. You might, yeah. That was my issue among my issues with this game. It's just, it sounds so unsophisticated of me, but basically I didn't have fun playing this game.

At some point I do want to have fun. However high-minded and however much I appreciate the themes and the storytelling and all of that, And, you know, it's, I guess, sort of standard cyberpunk stuff, but like more Western or Eastern European than kind of the Asian vibe that maybe you tend to get from Blade Runner or something like that. But, you know, the whole like the corporation is keeping us down, man. And, you know, there's almost like, it's not a fallout-esque setting exactly, but there's kind of a fallout-esque aspect to the, you know, corporations meddling with everything. So, you know, it was sort of like they put all those elements in place and told an original story, but all kind of familiar touchstones. But that's basically it, is that I just felt frustrated more than I was having fun throughout all of this. Like, it's, it's, it's, there aren't, there aren't many cutscenes exactly, but there are moments where you can't skip the text. And it's so slow. It's a little too slow. It's so slow. I'm not trying to brag about how far. faster reader I am here.

But like... No, there is definitely like it feels like you're playing like an old like PlayStation 1 RPG without like just like the pacing of the text that goes by. It's just like 30% too slow

the entire time without being able to advance it. You can skip some text, but some exchanges you can and there are a lot of them. And also a lot of that is front loaded. So the first hour or so of the game, like essentially the intro tutorial, there's just a lot of that that gets bogged down, and they're pacing problems.

So yeah, it's like long, the text is unspooling slowly, and then there are long pauses between each line of text, and I'm just like, come on, please just dispense the next bit of dialogue here. And then, yeah, the running speed is super slow, too. I mean, you're not really running. It's a light jog. Yeah.

And then the platforming doesn't work so much for me, either. So there are, you know, it's like all the influences for this game. I mean, I know that the developer have cited things like inside and like uncharted and Prince of Persia and then, you know, Batman Arkham style combat. And you can kind of see the DNA there, but it does not feel as good as any of those things. It's just, it's very, you know, stilted and you'll just fall over and over in ways that you're not anticipating that don't really feel like this was a skill issue, this was my fault, this was more like,

I don't know where exactly I'm supposed to jump to, or there's almost a lag, like a delay input kind of. Just there are- Jumping over a box while running is like, you have to do it like, again, this is like a 30% thing. You have to do like 30% too early. Otherwise, just stumble over it.

Checking my settings, like is there some kind of input? lag happening here. And then it was particularly annoying in platforming when if there's like, you know, jets of steam or something that come out of a grate. And then you have to like anticipate when that will happen because you have to press the button so far before Warren slash reach actually jumps that it just never feels intuitive. And that that smoke will kind of fade out. Yeah. And it's not always, you know, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, figure like, okay, that's gone now, right? And it's like, now there's a tiny bit left in that

animation cycle for the steam. So you're dead. Yes. Yes. Yeah, that really bugged me. And so, I don't know, it just, it sounds more withering that I would want, but it's like, pixel art isn't a personality or like, you just need a little more. Not that there's no personality. If anything, there's maybe too much personality in this game. I mean, it's, it's distinctive. It's got a distinctive design. And clearly, like, There's a story that they're trying to tell. And there are a lot of notes and text that you're picking up and scrolling through on your little old-fashioned phone thingy. It's not super long.

It's somewhere between outer worlds and pragmata, I guess, in terms of length. But that's how you learn a lot of the lore here. So, yeah, some of the characters are interesting. The world is kind of interesting. But it's really maybe the opposite of Pragata, where it's just like it did not feel good or fun to, or polished to play at all. And I know that there have been issues with stability and bugs, which I wasn't so much encountering on series X,

but I know that on series S, at least when it launched, there were like some game-breaking bugs and missing cutscenes and stuff. And even the PR company that sent us the codes, they were like, don't play it yet, please. Like, just we're coming in hot here, like wait for the patch so that the game will work, basically, which is always a bit disconcerting after eight years of development. and it's two days before the game is coming out. So, yeah, clearly cutting it close here.

But, you know, assuming that stuff is all patched and there have already been patched, patches and improvements, I just don't know that the core gameplay is enough of a draw for me. And it's fairly linear. There's a little bit of exploration, but then the exploration just takes you

to more deliberate, interminable dialogue. And I just, that kind of dissuaded me from wanting to explore. that much. It takes so long to explore is the issue. When you get to that kind of hub city, you're like, you want to go around and go everywhere and see if there's anything, any mission, side missions you can pick up. Because those side missions will unlock some pretty important upgrades for you. But just the thought of like getting from one end of

that hub city to the other is kind of laborious. and I will say we've been very negative on this for the most part so far but I do really love this setting and story and I think in that interminable

dialogue that you mentioned Ben I think that there are a lot of really nice little side stories of characters and experiences within this world to discover

and I think that it's a really interesting kind of idea to have an AI placed in a human's body who is kind of forced to walk through and come to terms with the effects that the world has seen based on the human that the AI now inhabits. That's really fascinating. and, you know, Pragmatta has that kind of interaction between Diana and Hugh. You have that human and AI interaction. And the most interesting thing to me about it, replace, is that you have that human and AI interaction, like, simultaneously in one character.

And there are flashback scenes where you play as Warren, who designed the AI. So, yeah, it's interesting. I'm higher on it than Ben, obviously. I think that if you don't mind the slower-paced game... You're Mr. Sunshine and Rainbows today, Matt. I'm usually... Let's face it. I'm usually higher on everything than most people.

But if you don't mind a slower-paced game and you think you might be into this world, then I think it is really... There's a chance that's excellent for you. Like, Joshua, you brought up flashback. That game, like, changed... That was an important game for me. as a kid when I found

flashback. And there's a lot of that sci-fi feel to it. And there's some like LucasArts adventure game feel to it too. Like the inspirations, like if you were that

kind of person growing up, then I think you're still going to vibe with this heavy despite the flaws of it. What were you going to say, Joshua? Oh, I was just going to say how Pixelo is not a personality might be the meanness thing I've heard Ben. I feel so mean.

That's quite a put-down, but it just... No, no, I kind of, like, I had the exact opposite reaction I did with mouse PI, where I was like, you know, I only played like a couple hours, but I was like, this is working for me, but it might frustrate me, you know, where it was just sort of like you were talking about where, like, they put a lot of care into this art direction. I wonder if I'm reading a script in translation because it's a little unclear to me, but not necessarily not thoughtless, you know? And it's like one of those things where it's just sort of like, I don't know,

I think people, game developers are actually quite good at like creating a cyberpunk setting and making it feel vivid and lived in. And like to the point where you actually really have to commit to the game to learn if they did anything interesting with it. And it's like one of those things where I am supremely on the fence as to whether or not I will like, you know, wrestle with this game to get there and like figure that out for myself. It is, as you all know, an extremely busy year.

this has a high chance of falling by the wayside if I think for most people. But I wonder, you know, as a part of me, I think, maybe that's a mistake. Maybe they're doing something interesting. I almost wish that this did fully lean into that slower aspect of things and just really embraced being a point-and-click style, you know, old-school adventure game as opposed to trying to have it all and tell that kind of story and also have platforming and combat the just never feels fluid for me. The combat's okay. You know, it's, it's kind of, uh, there are visual indicators on the screen when you're supposed to dodge, when you're

supposed to block, and you get a gun that's kind of almost a one hit kill, but you have to power it up. And, and there's additional depth and complexity to it. But it's, it's fairly simple on the surface. It's just kind of, you know, seeing stimuli and reacting to them. I guess that describes most games, but there's, there's not that much complex. X-D to it and as you know kind of something to break up the other sequences it's okay but I

do almost I think I'd probably enjoy watching a playthrough of this sort of sped up more than I enjoyed actually playing it or almost wish it were just a visual novel or something instead of a game because those other more gamey aspects just

weren't working for me unfortunately so Ben did you play the drifter last year No, I did not. The Drifter is kind of what you're describing you want this to be. It is like a throwback adventure game that is slower-paced, and it's like a point-and-click kind of thing that has been adapted really well, actually, for like a controller, and it is sci-fi, and it is pixel art,

and it sounds like what you want this to be, and it's a great story with voice. acting, which I think made a big difference in that game and which I think could have made a big difference in this game. I think, you know, that text being interminable is probably because it's text, right? Yeah. Where was Troy Baker here? Yeah. Yeah, he has plenty of time.

He's not busy with tons of projects. Or, you know, I don't mind a slow game. Yes, there are other voice actors out there. But, yeah, I don't mind slow. It's just when it feels like the slow. is getting in the way of my enjoyment of the more platformy aspects of things, then that's where it doesn't work so much for me. So unfortunately, I must pass on replace. I wish that I could mash, but yeah, no, this is probably more in the 6, 6.5 range for me. And I think a lot of people

will like it a lot. So it might be for you. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the frustrations. And I haven't finished it. I've seen a whole lot of it. I don't know that I will finish it because there's just so much to play. But I'd like to at least consume the rest of the story in some fashion. And maybe that will be enough to keep you going. But yeah, it's a crowded month. It's a crowded landscape.

Just quite didn't quite do it for me. But I want to like it. And I like what they were going for. They just didn't quite get there as far as I'm concerned. And Matt, clearly you're a mash. What are you going to go with? I'm mashing everything. Yeah.

It is. Right now and again, not finished with it. This is a particularly hard one to score before you finish with it because so much of what this is is writing on the story being told, you know. But right now, halfway through it, it's kind of like a 7.5 for me that I'm loving like something in the 8 range. That's kind of where I'm at. How about you, Joshua? provisional mash twist though tend to score basically the same as Ben's like I'm like a I'm like a bullish 6.5 he's a bearish 6.5 yeah yeah glass half full glass half

empty all right well we've done it I've enjoyed this you know we do a lot of episodes where we talk about adaptations or news we do a little bit of everything here at button mash but I kind of enjoy the ones where we just dig into the games themselves. And, you know, they never stop coming, which is good and also bad sometimes. But this really ran the gamut of what video games offer. A lot of different genres, different platforms, different ways to game. So I appreciate having all of these experiences, some of which I enjoyed more than others. But nonetheless, they were all worthwhile in a way, as was talking to you too.

and thanks Matt and thanks Joshua for soldiering through. Of course. Thanks for having me. All right. I sound extra horse there. Yeah. You made until the last line and then you kind of cropped it. Right at the finish line.

Thank you for bearing through that. Yes. And we have much more on tap. We will be back later this month or perhaps the 1st of May with Saros. We have codes for Saros. And so we will dive into that now that. we have gotten this little pile of games behind us. And we'll also be talking, I believe, about invincible verses.

Everyone has been asking for invincible coverage on the Ringiverse. That's what you meant, right? The fighting game? No. We will also have coverage of the show on Ringiverse recommends, followed in short order by coverage of Invincible Verses. And that will be followed by an equally busy May. We have a Mortal Kombat movie to talk about.

We have Forza Horizon 6. We have Lego Batman Legacy. of the dark night. We've got 007 first light. So the games keep coming. The podcast keep coming to. We hope your emails will keep coming to ringerburst gaming at gmail.com. Thank you to Steve Alman for silently

stewing and producing in the background. Steve liked pragmata, by the way. He's not a hater. He really liked pragmata and this was just the one time when he wasn't able to talk because he was introducing multiple podcasts at the same time, but he wanted you all to know. He has no notes on Pragmaton

a big fan. Thank you also to our genuine Rangipal for his senior podcast management. And we will be back to MASH more soon. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy? It's the real California farm families behind it. Real people. Real care. Real intention. Why? Because real matters. So whether you're pouring milk, melting cheese, or just grabbing one more spoonful of yogurt.

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