Triple Click - We Finish Resident Evil 2 Remake

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Jason, Maddy, and Kirk finish up their playthrough of Resident Evil 2 Remake. They talk about their second run through the game (as Leon this time), that big, beautiful police station, and that truck driver at the end... which, like, what?One More Thing:Kirk: Godzilla Minus OneMaddy: Fields of MistriaJason: Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)LINKS:Preorder Jason’s Book! https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jason-schreier/play-nice/9781538725429/Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinBuy Triple Click Merch: https://maxfunstore.com/search?q=triple+click&options%5Bprefix%5D=lastJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

You know, they call it Resident Evil 2 remake, but they should really call it Resident Evil 2 remake Turbo Plus Supercharged remastered zombie edition. Welcome to Triple Click where we bring the games to you. This week, we're getting back into Resident Evil 2 for the second part of our playthrough. We'll take up the gun as Leon Kennedy and go back through those old sewers to fight zombies. I'm Jason Shrier. I'm Kirk Hamilton. And I'm Maddie Myers. Hello. Hello. Hello, here we are. Welcome back to another episode.

Guys, last week I went to Sesame Place, which is an amusement park based on Sesame Street. I don't know if you guys knew that. Did you meet Grover? Did you get his autograph? We met Elmo and Zoe, and my kids gave high-fives to both of them. I've never actually heard of this. Where is it located? It's near Philadelphia, and it's not a huge amusement park. It's a pretty small, and part of it is a water park. and part of it is rides and it's all kid-friendly and it's cool. But also, fun fact, they have possibly the worst food I've ever tasted in my life. People had warned us like, you should bring your own food and we were like,

whatever, we can get lunch there, it's fine. And I went to this one stand where they sold mac and cheese and it was inedible. I've never had mac and cheese that I couldn't eat, but this I could not eat. That's wild. But other than that, pretty cool part, I will say. Nice. That sounds like fun. Sounds perfect.

So hey, if you out there would like to continue to support my family going to amusement parks, you can become a member of Maximum Fun and make us do this show, make us record this show in a way that is feasible and sustainable. We are, of course, entirely listener supported, and to support us, you can go to Maximumfund.org slash join, become a member, but it's not charity. You also get some stuff out of it. The best capitalist way possible, you get a whole whole. lot of stuff for your money. You get

monthly bonus episodes from us, including when we just recorded on Christopher Nolan and his movies, and when we're about to record later this month, which is a Marvel check-in. We're going to talk about the new Deadpool movie, and we're going to get

in depth on where the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is right now. And then, man, I gotta say, we are planning a huge, cool surprise thing that bonus that I think you'll you'll Max Fund members will get

to hear first at the very least and I can't wait for us to talk more about this so more on that in the future but in the meantime you can go to maximum fund.org slash join a lot of cool stuff coming your way. That's true. Yeah indeed. It's all true. All right Kirk take us away. All right well we

have now finished Resident Evil 2 the 2019 remake the game that we are playing because I won last year's prediction bet. We Talk to the tie breaker for last year. I won last year's prediction bet. I won it thoroughly and with room to spare. There's no asterisk on it.

Don't even try to add one. Keep rose over here. Clean victory. As a result of that, we played through the whole game now, and we talked about it a few weeks ago, but now we're going to talk about it a little bit more because all three of us have finished the second playthrough. As Leon, we've seen a little bit more of the game.

and also replayed it in a sort of remixed fashion and just spent more time with it. And I thought it would be fun to talk about that, but also just talk about this series, what this remake kind of portended about the future of Resident Evil, like what we had to look forward to in the next five years since it came out and what we think may come down the road, but also just, I don't know, how we're feeling about Resident Evil and what it was like to play through this whole game. So let's start with just Leon's second playthrough. I had a pretty good time playing this,

but I really like this game. So I'm curious what the two of you thought. Jason, why don't you go first? Yeah, I was hoping it would be a little more different the second time around. I was a little disappointed by how much of it was just playing the same game again. And the way that

Leon's play-through starts is that you're entering the police station from a different point than Claire was. It feels like it's going to be this whole kind of experiencing the story from a different perspective and going on a totally different route along the same, at the same time as Claire. And maybe you'll, like, learn new revelations about why all the things were happening in Claire. But it wasn't that at all. It was just the same stuff, again, with, like, puzzles that are slightly different, like,

the chess puzzle and the sewers. I would say it was that a little bit, but okay. I would quibble with the at all totality of that. It's kind of weird how they did it. But, Keep going, Jason. Yeah, I found the differences were, like, cursory at best, like, the chess puzzle being a little bit different and the pieces being a different. One of a being a being a little harder because one of a, is like the poster isn't actually what it's supposed to be. Like, that sort of thing. And maybe, I don't know, like, there are more zombies in certain places or like Mr. X comes at you more often. Like, it was just not different enough for me to feel like it was worth my time to play through the entire game a second time.

So eventually I just went and used a walkthrough and just followed the like I was doing paint by numbers where I just followed what the walkthrough was telling me and and just kind of got through it. But overall, I was pretty disappointed that I just had to play through what was essentially the same game a second time to see the true ending. Yeah, I think that yeah, the only thing I was cobbling with was that it doesn't do that at all because I think it does that a little bit. And that little bit is pretty tantalizing. I think it does it more at the beginning when you're in the police station. There's more of a feeling that Claire and Leon's paths are sort of intertwining just a bit because that's actually where they're still crossing paths and seeing one another. And so as a result, you're kind of Leon on the other side of the building.

And you're kind of following her as she first runs into Mr. X and then you run into Mr. X. Like there's this feeling that you are playing alongside her. And then that totally goes away. And I agree that the sewers and the lab, it's just, you basically, just play through it again as Leon and that that part is more disappointing. So I'm almost... It's not just that.

It's also, I think the beginning, that actually being in the case really makes it even worse, so you're doing the same things again, because the illusion of you doing these things in parallel to Claire is completely broken when you wind up doing the same things that you know Claire was doing,

except like, the power parts are back where they were when Claire, like, whoever is... I don't know if Claire is supposed to be first, certainly that's supposed to be first. Yeah, the safer lock, the power parts you needed to get her back where they were originally, all the sewer keys or where they were like, like, it just doesn't make any sense when it holds up to that scrutiny. And the logic of it being like, oh, they are doing this thing in parallel is completely shattered. And just, yeah, it totally, it like, yeah, I did not enjoy that. Yeah, I'm not mad about it, but I agree it would have been cooler the other way. Maddie, anyways, what did you, what did you think? I was more prepared for this because the original game does, this as well and it's very odd. I mean, I thought it was odd at the time and it's still strange. And in some ways, I was surprised that they preserved one of the weirder things about the original game, but there are also so many weird things about Resident Evil and its tone and goofiness that maybe they felt like, oh, we should continue to preserve this sort of concept of Leon not necessarily

being, like filling in the blanks that Claire didn't, but being almost an alternate timeline, where it's like he's discovering things, but also Claire still exists. It's just that then why even have a Claire A, Leon B playthrough that does actually have a different story? Like there's also a version of the game that we didn't play. That's the Leon A, Claire B version of events that I think is also slightly different. But it's just, it's an interesting thing that the 90s game did that I just think that the remake wanted to preserve.

But also, again, this is just my problem because I know too much. It meant that this time around I was also thinking a lot more about the changes. And some of them I really liked. I actually think they write Ada Wong a bit better in the remake. There's a few changes that they made that I didn't think made sense. Like they put her in stiletto heels, which I had thought the original game did that. No, she's wearing flats the whole time. I don't know why they changed that.

It's fine. But nonetheless, I do think they write her to seem a little bit more of like an interesting femme fatale here. whereas in the original, it's so stilted and flat, and that voice acting is so cursory in that, that you're never really, like, caring what her motivations are. At least I wasn't, because it's just everybody seemed so silly in the original version of the game, because they're just such comical archetypes of the idea of a character

that you never really feel that connected to them. But in remaking Resident Evil 2, and having everybody look more photorealistic and have, like, fully realized performances, is you start to really care about the characters, or at least I did. And I probably like the Ada story more because it is the thing that's new in the Leon play through. I didn't love, you know, avoiding Mr. X again.

He's scary. I don't, I don't care for that. I did it. I got through it. But I definitely enjoyed, like, seeing the way that they reimagined Aida Wong's storyline. And I don't know. I dug it. I always, I always like Ada and Leon's goofy, femme.

at all will they won't they relationship and they definitely play into that in the remake even more so than they did in the original game and if you're even a little familiar with Resident Evil 4 I know we talked about it a bit on this show their relationship continues to be that same fraught situation where you never know whose side aid is really on and I think that's fun it tends to turn up wherever he is and there's always a little bit of it threatened to kill him and or bang him you just never know with her and or yeah become covered in sewage and then kiss him. Yeah.

So romantic. Yeah, I like the ATA stuff as well. She's definitely the biggest difference and is an upgrade over Sherry just in terms of gameplay. That's Sherry section, which we didn't really talk about very much in our discussion of the first play through. You know, that's just, it feels very much like just a little change of pace. And it's short, which I appreciate.

It's just a little stealth sequence as a little kid. Yeah. The ATA stuff feels a little more fleshed out. And also just a little more narratively relevant since we do learn a little bit of new stuff about Umbrella. And we, she kind of just gives a glimpse into a broader world where there's this mysterious person who's like, maybe an FBI agent, but maybe some sort of intelligence operative. And, you know, Ada has always been mysterious. I think she, like, remains mysterious. As far as I know, I haven't played every game that she's in.

But I think she remains somewhat of a figure of mystery. No one really knows who she is or who she's working for at any given time. She's kind of a catwoman type. She always kind of ends up being on her own side. I think because much like any catwoman type, including catwoman herself, people end up liking that character so she can never be truly evil. You always kind of need Ada Wong to turn out to be like, all right, I'm not really going to give the virus to Wesker or whoever.

I'm going to betray them too because I'm working for myself. And that's like a fun plot line. I'm a sucker for it. I'll admit it. I like Catwoman, too. I also appreciate that in Leon's playthrough, we also get a scene where a woman takes off her coat so that she can be slightly more scantily clad and uses the coat to, like, keep an injured person safe. Only this time it was Leon, and it was so that Ada could get in her evening wearing his head off into the sewer. Which, why is she always wearing evening wear?

If you're going to go shoot up zombies, you need your finest red dress and stiletto heels. I think, Maddie, the stilettos are for stomping the zombies. Right, of course. Yeah, you got to get them right through the eye, get them in the brain. It's the only way. You know, and I joke about that. I do actually appreciate in both play-thrus. I appreciate the wardrobe changes.

Like, I actually do like how the characters become more grimy, how Leon has this injury, and how Claire is, like, kind of, like, really kind of, you know, down to mud on her skin, and she's, like, fighting in this kind of primal way. I think that the way that the costuming works in these remakes in particular is really cool. And I did not play the game in the original. original costumes, though you can turn those on and they are quite silly looking with the modern character models. So can you guys explain to me what was up with the trucker at the end of this ending?

Like why this, the ending of this, like the true ending, I guess, involves, so it's Leon and Claire and Sherry walking out of Raccoon City. And Sherry is like, can you guys adopt me? And they're like, ha, ha, ha. And then the trucker comes by. And Leon is like, oh, let's get a ride from this trucker. and then the trucker just passes them by and the driver just flips them off.

It makes no sense. I think it's just supposed to be a joke. I thought the guy, I thought it was like someone that Leon had like had a fight with in the police station or something, but then I remember that like it was all zombies in there. Yeah, all of them against us. What was that?

I think it's just a joke where it's like, oh, these characters can't catch a break. Ba-da-ba freeze frame and credits. I don't know. Resident Evil's got a very weird sense of humor. That's my best guess. unless some listener recognizes the truck driver is a deep cut from a Resident Evil comic book or so much. No, I looked into this because you mentioned it, Jason.

I didn't see any mentions of him being some Easter egg. And the game does begin with the truck driver. So there's, you know, there's a nice little bit of symmetry there. Well, I mean, number one rule of good storytelling. I think this is Joseph Campbell. If you begin with a truck driver, you have to end with a truck driver. We all know that. That's the rule.

That's the hero's arc. The hero's journey. I did also like Leon's journey overall. I mean, these are the few things that are different about the game, this play through around, and I really liked them. Just his sort of comically obeying the rules qualities and how you kind of see them break down over time. Like, I was really cursing him,

because this is also like new writing that's not in the original game, when he runs into the character who's in the jail cell. I think his name is Ben. He's like a not a very good reporter type who, What are you talking about? He's about to blow this thing light open. I know. He did an interview where he called his source a bitch.

I didn't respect that about him. And I also thought his line of questioning wasn't very well done. But regardless, he ends up in a jail cell. And when Leon finds him, this Ben guy is one of the few non-zombies that Leon runs into. And Ben is like, oh, let me out. I've got this key card you need. And Leon is like, oh, I better check with the chief. I was like, Leon, what is your problem, man?

Like, why do you need to check with the chief? But I did also enjoy it as a character device to kind of show you like, oh, Leon's so naive. They've even told us like in the story, this is his very first day on the job. He's like the epitome of a rookie cop. And he's just like believes that he's doing the right thing. And so he's like, well, if you're locked up, I guess you're supposed to be locked up. And of course, all of his illusions are going to be shattered. It's simple.

But I mean, it did get me emotionally invested. and frustrated in the right way. Yeah, I guess I should confess that Leon has never been my favorite Resident Evil character or by any stretch. I actually have always found him boring. He has a stupid haircut. I just don't like him. Like I, just from afar, before I even really got into these games, I always just thought

he was pretty, he's pretty milk toast. He doesn't really have a personality. And I think that's actually kind of true here too. Like, you know, you're kind of talking about his character as a boring guy who follows the rules. Like, wow, cool. And then he realizes that maybe that's not what he should do. But yeah, there's not a lot of stuff. Yeah, and he doesn't quite get the just like one scene or two scenes that could help me latch

onto him a little bit more because Claire, I think, is great in this remake. She's like probably my favorite version of any Resident Evil character that I've played as. And it's not her moment to moment because she's usually just kind of this, you know, can-do, helpful gal. But she gets a couple of really great scenes, the scene I should. out it out last time where she kind of arms up to go take on William and like jumps down onto the lift and like gets her grenade launcher. Like that scene alone just makes me really like her the way she kind of becomes a survivor over the course of the story. And with Leon, I actually didn't

really feel the same arc. That said, I've only ever played the second play-through as Leon. So it could well be that he feels a little more fleshed out if you just play through the longer play-through as it. Yeah, maybe. But I do think that a lot of what there is to Leon is just that he's pretty and he's like sort of at the whims of these female characters, which is certainly an archetype that one can enjoy. I mean, he doesn't really need to have a lot going for him because he's kind of a prop. I mean, it is also kind of a product of its time, not just the haircut, although the haircut is also very, the part and everything in his hair is very late 90s, early 2000s. But I also think just that sort of storytelling device, like you, the presumed male

player are just supposed to be Leon. So of course, he doesn't really have a lot going on. And then the female characters have more going on because they're more interesting. And they're sort of like foils for Leon and they get to like introduce plot points. But that's not always true in horror games, because a lot of times you get to play as the female character. So I do feel like I, I ultimately agree with you. Like there is sort of a missed opportunity to flesh Leon out a little more and have him be as much of a character as Claire is. And there definitely was here. Like, I mean, maybe if we all replayed, this game again, which I know Jason would love doing, and we should do.

We should replay Leon A. We do a fourth survivor replay, and then we can add hunk to the mix here. I mean, Maddie, if you win the next predictions, like, you could make your prediction. I would not do this. I'm so tired of Mr. X, y'all. I was so upset. There was so much more of him in this version. A lot more of him.

I think there's a broader, there's a broader truth there about Resident Evil characters in general. The women tend to be more interesting than the men. Now that I'm thinking it through. Like Ada, you know, Claire, Jill Valentine, of course, are all pretty iconic, where I've always found Chris Redfield to be a boring meathead. Leon's a boring pretty boy. What's the guy's name and the first one who betrays everybody?

I forget his name. But anyways. Well, there's Wesker. But you're probably referring to Barry, who's like the other kind of just no-nothing side character who says the Jill sandwich line. Doesn't he like, oh, he says Jill's sandwich. Doesn't he like sell everybody out or something at some point because of his kids or something like that? I don't remember. Anyways, he's not that interesting.

Most of those guys aren't really that interesting. And the women tend to be more interesting. A few things in this second play-through that I wanted to shout out. There are a couple of really great moments and sequences that I had not exactly forgotten about. I sort of with horror remembered them right before they happened. One is actually right after that prison sequence where you're in the jail, I suppose, not a prison, but a jail. And you're initially trying to get this guy out, but then Mr. X just like smashes his head through a wall. in an incredible cutscene.

At the end of that sequence, when Leon finally gets the key card, it's a very Resident Evil moment when you finally get the thing. You pick it up and you're like, okay, so something is going to happen now. Like, I'm going to have to survive some ordeal. And then you come running around the corner, the alarms are going off, all of the cells open and a horde of zombies are in the hallway beautifully lit. It's this incredible looking hallway shot with light behind them. And it's like eight zombies or something.

It's more than you could ever deal with. But to your left, there's like a little hallways. You're like, okay, I'm going to go to the left. Go to the left. Come around the corner and boom, here comes Mr. X, just straight at you. And Leon says something like, come on. I think that is an incredibly designed sequence. It kind of plays off of all the experience you've had up to that point and like really just sets you up for this almost punchline.

I guess that's a pun. But it really sets you up for that. And then you're just like, okay, well, now do I do? And I love that. And then you become a Leon sandwich. You do probably the first time. And then the other thing that I really, I think is just really strong is the Mr. X boss fight at the end of the game. I just think that's an awesome fight.

Like it's hard. I'd say it's probably the hardest fight in the game. But, or at least just to stay alive if you can, because you're in this very contained space and he's just on fire and just coming at you so relentlessly. But then the feeling of satisfaction of just like whittling him down until finally Ada kicks down that rocket launch. and you get to just blow his head off. It's very satisfying after all that time running away from him to finally get some closure. Undercut a little bit by that stupid eye boss at the end. But yes, I agree.

I love just watching an eye blow up and like get stabbed and shot. And so maybe this is just my thing. Yeah, Jason, I thought you liked shooting the eyeballs last time. I feel like I remember you saying that. I do like shooting the eyeballs on like something that is that I have to maneuver around and like do tactics. Okay, okay. I didn't, I thought it was kind of a pacing misstep to be like, here's this awesome Mr. X battle that you just like got this cool like de new ma from and then you have another friggin' boss battle. It doesn't bug me.

It's kind of a bonus. It's pretty easy. Yeah, it was fine. Yeah, it was fine. Whatever. But, yeah, I'm just, I'm just complaining. At least that stuff was new. So I enjoyed, I enjoyed doing something I hadn't done before, I've got to say.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's also just like Resident Evil classic to have a rocket launcher in a cool moment. So I do kind of get what you mean about the I boss feeling like a little anticlimactic because it kind of feels like if somebody's handing you a rocket launcher, it's supposed to be the end of a Resident Evil game. You're firing off a rocket and then you get in the helicopter, you fly away. Or whatever vehicle you get in that you ride away.

Sometimes it's a jet ski. In this game, it's a weird train. That's always how they end, though. You're on a vehicle and then you're safe. Can I just say I think that the police station is by far the strongest part of this game on both play-thrues. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And just like everything about it is so cool the way that it's designed, the way it's, you kind of like gradually uncover its secrets and find all these different shapes for the doors. I wish that the game was kind of like entirely set in a bigger

version of that rather than taking you to a lot of these locations that are like way less interesting and have way less story attached to like environmental story attached to them and way less puzzles and just are way less fun to play around with, especially the sewers, which I think are a real low point. The lab is cool, but even that is kind of like, okay, it's like an underground lab and everybody here is awful, whatever. The police station is just so much fun and also

has that kind of really emotional moments of you having to shoot people and, I mean, in the first play-through, Marvin, you talk to and then eventually have to kill. And in the second play-through, knowing, because you're reading all these notes about police officers and you're like

kind of you're seeing and fighting zombies who, Leon, presumably, either has met or would meet on his first day on the job. And yeah, I really enjoy pretty much everything about the place station. And then, yeah, a little bit downhill from there, I feel like. But I think that Resident Evil games in general are probably at their best when they're in this kind of like self-contained, like intricate interlocking space as opposed to like going off an adventure that's more linear and just sending you off down hallways where maybe you

of like two potential options that you could go down and and that's about it. Because I really like the secret hunting and puzzle solving aspect of it a lot more than the just kind of blasting zombies. And also the other interesting thing about that police station is that mechanic of the boards and I'm going to board up windows and knowing like, okay, do I want to put this in my inventory? Is this going to make things harder for me later? I know I'm going to be coming back here. They're going to be more zombies if I don't boring this up.

And that decision making is really interesting. And there's never anything like that again. It just becomes more of a run and gun kind of linear style shooter. So, yeah, the police station is awesome. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think I said as much on our last episode that I think the true design masterpiece Resident Evil game that doesn't quite exist yet would be the one where you have the experience of going deeper and deeper, but you're always unlocking and coming back.

There are glimpses of this. There's that moment in the sewers when you make it back to the police station. but it doesn't quite tie together in the way that, you know, the first Dark Souls does or something. You can imagine that game where it really feels that way. And then also maybe since we're dreaming, it also does the narrative trick of having Claire and Leon actually play through parallel storylines that you're constantly seeing.

I realize it would be so much harder. But that is so much what I went in hoping for, except luckily I knew it wouldn't happen. Because not only had I played the original, I'd also heard that the Leon storyline would be, contradictory with the Claire one. But even though I knew that, I just kept thinking about how much cooler it would be if instead of just re-exploring parts of the police station that Claire already had, if somehow there was some other wing of the police station, like maybe he's just only

exploring like the whole holding cell area and that's bigger than we thought or something else. And he was discovering other puzzles and other safes. And then he meets up with Claire. It's just such a better idea. And it's so cool to think about that. And I think it would land the the idea of everything interlocking together so much more effectively than instead having all of it be contradictory and have you still meet up with Claire and Cherry at the end, but you're like, well, I don't really know what they were doing because I'm the one who killed Mr. X and they just did some other stuff that I don't even know what it did. Like it just, I don't know.

I realized we're kind of hung up on this, but it, but it is, it is weird. And it does, it did make me wish that I had more puzzles. To move us along and to offer as sort of another perspective on this. What the second play-through is actually offering is a way to replay the game with a slight remix. And that's because this game is very focused on giving players the ability to play it multiple times. There are a bunch of other game modes that we, well, the two of you didn't experiment with that I've played quite a bit that are really cool. There's fourth Survivor, which I've played a lot, that casts you as this guy, Hunk, who's in almost every Resident Evil game. He's like a special operator wearing a gas mask you never see his face.

and he is basically a surviving member of that umbrella spec ops team that went and tried to kill William Birkin. And he starts at the bottom of the sewers. And then you basically have a ton of ammo and healing items. And you just have to fight your way all the way out from the sewers to the front of the police station. And that's really cool. It's a very different way of playing. But it's sort of one way to replay and to use your knowledge of the map. Then there's the ghost survivors mode, which are also cool.

There's three or there's maybe, I think there's a fourth one because I, I saw one on YouTube that I'd never seen before, where you get a play as the guy working at the gas station at the very beginning of the game. And then you have to defend the gas station against, like, waves of zombies. And I think if you want to platinum the game, you have to make it to 10 waves, which is just ludicrously difficult to do.

But I didn't have that one in my menu. I'm not sure why. But the other ones are, like, okay, you know when you go into the sheriff's office, there's a woman, like a dead woman's body on the table. So you can play as her. She's like a runaway or something. And in this, it's like an alternate reality where she kills the chief and escapes and gets his gun. And then you have to like make it out starting from that place in the orphanage.

Like you have to make it out starting there. Or you can play as the guy in Leon's play through who's trying to protect his daughter who's turning into a zombie. You can play as that guy. So you start at his gun store and then you have to fight your way out. And they're all designed around like different kind of almost left for dead mechanics. there are new types of zombies, like regenerating zombies. You kill zombies with backpacks and you pick up more equipment. So it's like really well designed and really different from the base game.

But it also feels kind of like replaying because you're using the same types of weapons and you're moving through the same maps. So in that context, like in the broader context of this actually very generous and interesting and like kind of varied game, the second playthrough is just like another way to remix the game rather than what we're thinking and dreaming of, which is this like design, narrative, you know, interwoven thing. Yeah. So like, okay, so the subsequent Resident Evil games that follow this. So I know there are more remakes. I know that obviously three and four got remakes. We played a bunch of four.

Four is only one I've really played. I played. I played a little bit of seven with you, Kirk, I believe. But that was the one where like you're fighting against that weird family, right? Like in the, you're trying to escape those weirdos. So four I played through back in the day. And I remember that as being like a total linear like action adventure game, nothing like the police station. Are other Resident Evil games, or any of them, do any of them have the kind of like big interlocking mansion or big interlocking design space

the way that Two's police station is? I mean, one. I talked about this a bit when we were talking about it originally. One is that way because it's all in one mansion. But it's smaller. Three is definitely like you're increasing the open world slightly more, but it's still like an old school horror game.

So it's never going to be. like the design of the remake version. But Kirk, maybe it continues in sort of the vein when it's the remake version and has a lot of puzzle solving. Like there's way more puzzle solving in the remake than there ever was in R2, the original. That had like very cursory. Like you find the right key and it unlocks one door.

It's supposed to here where you get a key and it locks a bunch of doors and it's like a whole Dark Souls retrooid kind of a situation where you have to be like, okay, where was the heart door? There's none of that in the original or least not even remote. on the same scale. Yeah, so I've played three, the four remake, five back in the day, and then seven almost all the way through, and then all the way through Village. So I've played a lot of these at this point, or these more recent ones.

Three is much more action-packed. The remake is cool. It looks really great. Jill is reimagined in a really cool way, and she's the protagonist of that game. And also Carlos, is that his name? He's also in that game. He becomes a kind of work. He's like in Revelations, which also, by the way, pretty good game.

I like Revelations. I played that on 3DS when it came out. Yeah, I did too. I haven't played any of those other side games like Code Veronica, which stars Claire. Oh, yeah. Code Veronica's good. Revelations 2 is also Claire. Yeah.

People dream of a Code Veronica remake. I know. It could happen. I guess that, yeah, I think they've said that at some point someone said we're focusing on the main ones and not the spinoffs, but you never know. That would be cool. I'd love to play another game with Claire as that. the lead or really like they could bring her back. I mean for you know I don't know for I guess it's nine now they could she could turn up Chris was in yeah Chris came back.

Anyways so getting back to Jason's question about the sort of design that interlocking design and horror design I'd say three doesn't have a ton of that. I didn't finish it. It wasn't really my jam. I was really excited for it because I loved two remake so much and then it's so much more about the tyrant the tyrant is just another Mr. X and he's like way more aggressive kind of sillier. He's like hamier and. He has like guns and stuff, and he just chases you through the whole game almost, and it's just a much more, I don't know, a much more active game. And there's a little less of that sort of circuitous, you know, circling and unlocking going on. Though there's some of it. It's still a Resident Evil game. I kind of was surprised playing through for a remake, which I'd never really played for. There is some element of, you know, doubling back. Like, you do return to areas where you were before and you're able to unlock doors.

there's some pretty cool open areas like that lake sequence where you're on the boat and you're kind of finding all of these power-ups and kind of going to different dock stations and like going back and forth like there is a little bit of that though you know not quite as much as a two remake so i was i kind of enjoyed what there was there then seven i actually think does a lot of that in the first act and then it does something very similar to two remake where the first parts where you're in that house with the family and like each each area of that house is kind of governed by a different boss, like a different member of the family. So there's like the greenhouse area and that's where like the mom who's like really crazy and is like coming at you through all of the windows and stuff and you have to sneak around as kind of an extended boss fight. Or there's the dad who's in the main house where you start and he's the just like big hulking guy, kind of like a Mr. X who's hunting you. And then there's a there's one part of the house that's like a saw movie kind of where one of the sons is there and he like

puts you through this saw puzzle. So it's a total change of pace where like I think there's no fighting at all. You're just like in this series of like escape rooms where there are deadly traps everywhere and he's kind of taunting you over the PA and you have to get out. So that part of the game is awesome. I really got into that and was like, oh, I love this. I love this kind of gradual unlocking, getting weird keys to open weird doors. And then it kind of changes and you go onto this ship that's like, you know, and you have like suddenly you have a machine gun. You're playing as a different character. It starts to just like feel like a different game. And that's always where it loses me is sort of after the family.

stuff. So it's like they've never quite made one where the whole game is just the like horror kind of exploration unlocking thing. And I would love it if they would. I really would. I think Village had some of that. But again, it was that kind of spoke design where like each area was its own little, you know, level kind of like the castle and the junkyard and whatever. And like some of them like the castle with what's her name? Lady Dimitresque was that Lamy Dimitresk. She was the closest thing to like that castle felt like that same feeling where this is this cool castle with secret passages. Was she also just Mr. X like chasing you around?

Yeah. And she was like a, you know, a big lady, Mr. X that everybody could call mommy and ask to stuff. Yeah, kind of a different vibe. But yeah. Very different vibe. But yeah, she was essentially, she would just kill you if she caught you. So it was starting the same idea. Yeah.

So yeah, that's kind of where they've been. They'd never fully committed to that design approach. And I wish they would. Yeah. I wonder if other people don't like. like it or something. But I do feel like solving puzzles under pressure is one of the more fun parts of the early Resident Evil's. And I can certainly think of other games that have taken inspiration from that. Like I didn't play it, but I know people have described Loreline,

the Laser Eyes, as having kind of that vibe, right? Or it like feels a little spooky, but the whole point of it is actually just that you're solving puzzles in a strange house for a really long time. Yeah, it does. I'd say the thing with that game is that the puzzles are quite a bit more complicated and difficult and involved. And like, something that I actually like about Resident Evil puzzles is that they're pretty easy. Yeah, because

I'm so stressed out by the rest of the game. I actually don't really mind that the puzzles don't take too much. I should say also that actually, I know last time I talked about using that infinite knife and going really slow and kind of mastering the game, I kind of decided a little ways into this Leon

play through that I was going to just kind of not do that and just go for it and like keep moving because another really viable way of playing this game is to just like shoot a zombie long enough to stagger it and then just get past it and keep going and at this point I've played this game a bunch of times like I knew where I was going and what I needed to do so I just wasn't as concerned with like being in one place and like pausing to think and it did it made the game really exciting and really different so I kind of appreciated that you can take such dramatically different approaches to playing the game. Like it felt more run and gun even though it didn't need to because I've played it in that other

way. I think that is the hard way of playing it and sort of the intentional hardcore way of playing it, which I just know from watching people play hardcore versions of Resident Evil games where they, you can only save a certain number of times in the hardcore version. Like you have to collect, this is also like from the originals. You have to like collect the typewriter ink. and put it in, and there's only like a certain number of those around that you can find. So it's all very manual feeling.

And because of that, there's also so much less ammo that you cannot possibly kill every zombie. Again, this is very fun for me to watch and let's play, but not personally to play. But I do have a lot of respect for people who play Resident Evil in this way where they're like, I'm barely saving, I'm barely shooting at any zombies because I don't have any ammo. So I'm just constantly on edge running around and trying to be self-aware of the zombies around me at all times because of that. I mean, it is a different game, but I also think some of our listeners might be like, yeah, that's Resident Evil to me. That's the way you're supposed to play it. And I think it works better as you become more familiar with the game.

It's kind of similar to Hitman, the way that like a Hitman like escalation play through gets more interesting and more difficult as you go because each time you're kind of expected to know what you're. you're doing because you've done it before. And like, yeah, it's that grading system that's in Resident Evil where you get a grade at the end of your playthrough. And if you want to get an S plus, I got a B. I got a B, too. I think I got a C as clear because I just saved so many times. But I saved a lot less this time. I think I got a B. Anyways, I've gotten a B before. Yeah. I'm a B student in Resident Evil. We're all B students here. But I think the way you get an S is by barely saving. I think by not saving. Yeah. And moving really fast. But then again, right, you're kind of maybe working up toward that.

And if you're really into the game, which I do actually find just the shooting and, you know, the stress of it to be fun, I could see getting kind of into doing that the same as I got into a hitman escalation, you know, getting it all the way to the most difficult, you know, just killing a guy by like throwing a screwdriver from halfway across the map and like in the perfect place because I've done it a thousand times. Yeah. So I just read that only your time is a factor for getting an S in Residency Builders. Oh, okay, so you just have to run.

So you have to get through in like under three hours or something like that. Okay. Wow, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Having played it enough times now, I'm nowhere close to that, but I can, it really isn't that long. Like, once you know what to do. You can just run past most of the zombies.

You can just go straight to objectives and plow through it, especially the second playthrough. It just seems very quick. Yeah, if you already know the codes and you just write them down somewhere, you can skip a lot of like the greenhouse area. and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Well, I don't know. Any final thoughts on Resident Evil on this series, on these games before we move on and, you know, look to our predictions for this year to choose another game? Yeah, it was, I'm glad that we played it. It was a fun game to discuss, even if I was a little bummed out on the second play-through, the first playthrough I mostly dug. And this is, it's one of the fun things about our predictions bet is that we all get to kind to flex our muscles and play games that we would not normally play at all. And this is very much

one of those for me. So I'm glad I got the chance to play it. So good job winning the tiebreaker, Kirk. Yeah, I'm really glad that I won completely. I appreciated it too. And I had a healthy respect for Kirk winning fair and square every single time Mr. X was killing me and I didn't manage to get away in time. I was like, wow, it's so great that Kirk won. And I respect that he won. And I love it. But actually, though, I mean, I said this last time. I feel like I was really scared of playing this game. And like it wasn't that bad once I got into it. And I kind of just got my feet under me or at least as Claire.

And just kind of was like, whatever, it's fine. Mr. X isn't even that fast. I got this. And I like found some ways to get through it. And I enjoyed that I learned that about myself. And largely had a pretty good time. And I'm glad that I beat it. I feel very proud of myself.

Nice. Maddie, what's worse? Mr. X or random terms? turn-based encounters. Random turn-based encounters, because they're often part of a game that is like 50 hours for some reason. And this isn't. That's true. This is part of a game that I could apparently beat in three hours if I were really good.

Right, you can run away from this and you can't run away from a random encounter. You actually, I guess you can, but you won't get any X-B. Exactly. You can, but it won't pay off for you. You can't. You can beat it in three hours, but you have to do it all twice. All right. Well, this was a lot of fun.

I'm very glad that we played through this game, and it was nice to have an excuse to revisit it. Let's take a break, and then we will come back for one more thing. My name is Jordan Cruciola, and I love movies. But you know what I might love even more? Talking about movies. And the directors, actors, and writers that join me every week on Feeling Scene, love to talk about movies, too. Like our recent co-host, the writer and director, Justin Simeon. And I love the premise of your show, Feeling Scene.

I think that's kind of always my goal when I'm making something. Nothing touches my heart more than when someone comes out of my movie and says, oh my god, I never thought I would see myself. So hang out with us and geek out about watching movies, making movies, and the ways the movies we love speak to us directly. You might just start asking folks around you, hey, what movie character made you feel seen? We're doing it every week at maximum fun.org.

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Every Monday on maximum fun.org or in your podcast app. All right, and we're back for one more thing. Maddie, why don't you go first? Sure. So I tried to play the least stressful game possible, which is a game called Fields of Mysteria. I really enjoyed playing this. I feel like after the Eldon Ring D.L.C.

And then playing Resident Evil, too, I've just been like, how do I be less stressed the rest of the time that I'm spending with a video game? So Fields of Mistria was described to me by my friends as Stardue Valley meets Sailor Moon, which is like what's better than that. I think that's kind of overstating the case a bit on the Sailor Moon side of it, but it's very similar to Stardue Valley.

I do think the early going is balanced in a way that I personally like a little more, having recently replayed Stardue and kind of remembering how long it takes for you to have enough stamina to like reasonably work on your farm. Fields and Misture really lets you get in the mix pretty early and build a lot of farm stuff pretty quickly and get furniture and a kuchama really quickly. It felt better to me just because it moved faster. But the other thing it has that's kind of Sailor Moon-esque, and it has kind of that 90s anime style visuals, but pixel art,

and then also it has magic in it. So you're in this mysterious town, just like you're becoming a farmer in a strange town and you're from far away, just like in Stardue. But in this town, there are all these weird old dragon statues. that turn out to be enchanted and give you magic spells. And when you go into the mines, also kind of like Stardu and you're fighting off strange beings, you're eventually getting magic to fight them.

So there's a more kind of RPG Zelda-e feeling to being in the mines, and it feels really rewarding and fun. You start the game by having a sword, which is something that Stardu doesn't give you, like it just gives you farm tools to begin with. This game is very much like, no, it's going to feel a little more Zelda-E. you're going to have a sword right off the bat along with your farm tools.

And in that early day, I was like, why do I have a sword? And then, of course, it became clear to me as time went on like, oh, this is kind of going to have some, some Zelda adventure RPG elements. So yeah, I'm just really digging it. I've played it probably for like 20 hours already. It isn't early access, but I don't know. I've been having a great time. I don't know when the game's going to cut me off or eventually I'm going to be like,

well, I feel like I've seen all I need to see. Maybe I'm about to hit that point, like, tomorrow, and I'm recording this one more thing at the perfect moment in my playthrough. But even if it's only 20 hours of great stuff, I still wholeheartedly recommend it if all of this sounds fun to you. It's Fields of Mistria, and that's M-I-S-T-R-I-A. Really, really fun time. Good, good smooth-brain type of a video game. It sounds like a good one to keep an eye out for 1.0 as well. Oh, for sure, yeah.

I'll flesh out a lot of stuff and smooth off some edges. I'll probably balance it even better and then it'll be even more fun. Yeah, I've seen it on Steam. It looks cool. Nice. Okay, I'll go next. I watched a movie that I thought was really awesome that I wanted to recommend called Godzilla Minus One.

Do the two of you know this movie? Have I heard of it? I would like to see it. Tell me more. It's really good. I've watched like all of these Godzilla movies. I watched the Godzilla show about Monarch, the organization that very ineffectually tries to fight these monsters in this kind of

they have a cinematic universe now among you know a Godzilla and King Kong and all of that the GCU Yeah It's called the monster verse It's called the monster verse It does have an actual name yeah Yeah the

The connected universe of it all doesn't do much for me But some of those movies are great I'm actually a defender of Kong Skull Island Which Godzilla minus 1 has maybe a little bit in common with though Godzilla minus 1 is a vastly superior movie. Is Kong Skull Island? Is that the Peter Jackson one? No, that's just King Kong. That's not actually part of the monster verse. That's older. Right. That's a kind of fun movie in some ways. Yeah, this is a dumb movie in a lot of ways, but it's pretty good in other ways. I don't hate it.

A little long. No, Skull Island has Sam Jackson and John Goodman. It's like a kind of post-Vietnam war thing where it's doing a little bit of an apocalypse now, but with a giant ape and a lot of monsters. I just like Skull Island. Anytime these movies, movies go to Skull Island. It's just cool because there's like giant spiders and monsters and King Kong and it's like a cool, you know, forbidden island, whatever. I love it. Godzilla minus one is a much more serious movie than that and a really, really good one. It's made by Toho Studio, entirely Japanese, you know, production. And that is a little bit unusual. There's been one other sort of modern Japanese-produced Godzilla movie called Shin Godzilla that is supposed to be awesome that I haven't seen. So I just, I just, just watch this one. And it's really cool. If anyone does watch it, it's on Netflix now streaming.

It defaults to streaming with the dub. And I at least didn't like the dub. I've heard the dub is pretty good, like, as dubs go. But you can switch the language track in Netflix to Japanese. And I actually found that that was the Dolby Atmos track, because I think that was the one that was mixed for theaters. So it actually had a better sound mix in general. And I think the acting is actually really great. It's very melodramatic, but I really enjoyed all the performances. So I thought it was totally fine with subtitles. It's not a dialogue, heavy film exactly. There's a lot of a monster stomping around.

Anyways, it's really good. It's very scary and intense. It makes Godzilla scary again in a way that he has not been for a long time because in this kind of modern timeline of the monsterverse, Godzilla is, what he even became in the older films where he's kind of the protector of the world. Like, he tends to turn up and fight other monsters. And sometimes when he does that, like a lot of cities, get blown up. Like San Francisco got pretty decimated in the Monsterverse timeline. But it was because he was

collateral damage. Exactly. He was, he was being the world police, he was fighting off a monster insurgency. So, you know, he was, he's always kind of seen as in the end a noble figure because he's become a national symbol and this kind of amazing character even. Like when he fights Mecca Godzilla, it's like the good power of the earth versus like capitalism run amok, right? Like it's, he is a kind of mythic figure. In this movie, he's just a huge lizard that kills people and is a metaphor for nuclear apocalypse. He is just a terrifying weapon of mass destruction. The movie is set right after World War II, which is a very interesting setting for a film in Japan. I've actually not seen a lot of Japanese cinema in general and definitely not seen many movies that are about Japanese soldiers

after the war in this period of like humiliation and defeat when their military had been completely disbanded. Everyone doesn't know what to do. Their economy is just destroyed. Their cities are destroyed. They just had two nuclear bombs dropped on them. And it's just this period of like just horror and sadness, basically. And that

is the kind of backdrop for this movie that then on top of all of that introduces this huge monster that turns up and starts killing people. So the main character is, was, I guess, a kamikaze pilot. So he was part of the like Japanese strategy of

Kamikaze pilots who flew their planes into warships, into allied warships to try to sink them as a kind of, you know, military strategy that was actually like adopted by that military. But he said that his plane malfunctioned. And so he like basically didn't kill himself when he should have. So the, you know, Japan has lost the war and he's kind of, he feels like this hollow ghost of a guy. Like he's like totally emptied out. And everyone he talks to, even civilians, are like, like, like not too happy about him.

They're like, you shouldn't, you shouldn't even be here. Like, you were a coward. Like, so there's this feeling of kind of disgrace among all of the people and especially the protagonist that adds this real weight to the whole thing. And then they just, they have to figure out a way to stop Godzilla from coming to

Tokyo and killing everybody because it's really horrifying. Like, when he turns up, man, he's like crushing stuff and when he fires off his heat ray, like it's like this horrifying nuclear explosion that is clearly like meant to evoke the actual atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan. So it's got this, like, weight to it. It's got this real emotional heft. It's not a subtle movie. Like, it's very,

very melodramatic. I think in a way that's true to the original Godzilla movies. But it's also, like, got lots of great spectacle. There are some incredible action sequences. And I really just, I loved it. I just thought it was an awesome movie. Emily and I watched it together. And the whole time, I was just really surprised by the kind of total balance that it was hitting, the feeling of it. the way that it looked. And the one thing I'll say is, if you are going to watch this on Netflix, consider watching the black and white version that is also still streaming on Netflix, at least the time we're recording this. I kind of wish we'd watched it because you can watch the whole movie in black and white and it looks like an old Godzilla movie, but with modern effects.

And actually, even from a little bit that I watched, the modern effects look fine. Like they look okay. It doesn't look like a super high budget movie, but it looks pretty good. But it kind of looks better in black and white because it looks a little more dated that way and it all sort of holds together a little bit better. I don't know how the whole movie is in black and white, but I could see watching that with the Japanese language track being a really, really cool way to watch this movie even for the first time. So I'm sure a lot of listeners have already seen it. This movie got a lot of buzz. I don't know. I haven't seen it yet. I meant it. It really is cool. I liked it more than pretty much any of those monster-versed movies, even though I really have enjoyed some of those.

And I think there's still like Godzilla versus Kong one that I haven't seen. I don't know. I don't know we'll watch it some Friday night when we're bored anyways that's Godzilla minus one it is a super cool movie all right jason what's your one more thing um my one more thing is also a movie i went to go see Deadpool and wolverine in theaters the newest movie from the Marvel machine so we're going to talk more about this with spoilers in our next bonus episode but i thought i would just kind of do like a spoiler free chat about it for a couple of minutes and also the main thing i've been doing is is playing the new Ace Attorney, the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, on an early code of that, and I can't really talk about that for another couple weeks, so more on that later. So the meantime, I'll talk about Deadpool.

So this movie, a lot has been made about this movie and the way in which it fits into the MCU, because the plot of the movie is essentially Deadpool joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And what that means, and where the MCU is at now. And we'll get more into the specifics of that a little bit later because it's hard to really get into that without spoiling things. Even just talking about like the cameo characters that appear in this movie is a substantial spoiler.

And I still haven't seen it for what it's right. I have, but I agree. It's, yeah, it is hard to talk about. It's a weird movie. I'll veer away from that stuff. And instead I want to talk about one thing that I found kind of most notable about this, which is that it is funny as hell. And I really appreciated that. The jokes are, there are tons of them.

And some of them are kind of that pure aisle, good old Deadpool stuff. Some of them don't, some of them miss the mark a little bit. But like, there's so many good ones, especially ones involving a certain cameo character who I'll talk about in the bonus episode. But the jokes are just really, really good. And I feel like that's something that has maybe been missing in some of the other Marvel movies. that have not quite delivered in the way that people were hoping from the MCU. And so it's a little bit refreshing to see this movie that comes out and just kind of like unabashedly

embraces the humor and is not afraid to just throw joke after joke. And I think that like, I think that recent Marvel movies have kind of moved away from the Marvel-leys, the kind of the Whedon slash dialogue that everyone makes fun of. all the time, oh, they fly now, like that sort of thing. And maybe lost some of the humor along the way. And one of the things I appreciated about, like, the new Ant Man, which is kind of me with some of the humor in it, or like the new Guardians of the Galaxy, just some of the humor in it. And then you're watching the new Thor. And it's just like, oh, man, this is like, there's so much in here that it's just not funny and lighthearted at all. And I think that

these movies are just better when they don't take themselves that seriously. Or when at the very least that emotional kind of heart at the center of it is anchored by humor and is willing to poke fun at itself a little bit. So yeah, I appreciated that and I just thought it was very funny and enjoyable. I really enjoyed the movie in general, so I would definitely recommend going to see it, even if you haven't enjoyed Marvel movies recently. It's just a lot of fun to watch and it's fun to laugh at in the theater with other people. So yeah, really enjoyed the movie. we'll talk about it more on the bonus episode in a couple weeks. Nice. Yeah, that's a good.

We can kind of treat that as a gauntlet you've thrown or something, like a good kind of starting prompts. Yeah. The idea of humor in these movies and how it's changed. Because I haven't seen it, but I'm sure I will have thoughts about it when I have. So, yeah, become a member of Maximumfund. Join, and you can hear us talk about that. Yeah, really, my one more thing was just an advertising for maximum fun membership.

Hey, you got a lot of perks if you join. It's true. Yeah, I'm looking forward to watching it. I do enjoy Deadpool. All right. Well, that is another episode of Triple Click in the bag. Thanks, everybody so much for listening. And, yeah, I'll just, I'll see the two of you next week.

See you next time. Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network,

and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at Maximumfund.org. Find us on Twitter at Triple ClickPod. Send email the triple click at Maximum Fun.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.