Triple Click - What's The Deal With: Metroid?

Episode Date: September 16, 2021

What's the deal with Metroid? To answer that question, we must turn to series expert Maddy Myers, who explains to Kirk and Jason just what a Metroid is and why it matters. What's the lore behind Samus's baby? What's up with those Chozo? And what do we all need to know before heading into this October's much-anticipated new game Metroid Dread?One More Thing: Kirk: The U.S. OpenMaddy: You Should See The Other Guy (podcast)Jason: DeathloopLinks:An explanation of Medvedev’s U.S. Open victory “emote”: https://kotaku.com/us-open-tennis-champion-does-video-game-celebration-aft-1847662401Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinJoin 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

Alone in the dark fields of future Ireland, one bounty hunter sets out to solve an ancient, deadly mystery. Get ready for the adventures of Seamus Aaron. Welcome to Triple Click, where we bring the games to you. This week we're talking about Metroid, a series that's both dense and confusing and super straightforward. There's a new one out in less than a month, and Maddie's got all the lore we need to know. Starting with, What's a Metroid anyway? Let's get to it. I'm Kirk Hamilton. I'm Maddie Myers.

And I'm Jason Shire. Hello. Hi. Hi. So nice to see both of you. Football is back. Fall is in the air. And we are ready to record a podcast. Man, you know, I'm, so I'm recording remotely from Indiana right now. And fall does not feel in the air in Indiana. It is very humid here right now. So football may be in the air, but it is quite humid. Yeah, it's pretty hot here too. Actually, last night, oh man, you guys will appreciate this. After the summer we've had between smoke at your place, Kirk and like my basement flooding and hurricanes and, Maddie, I don't know if you've had any, like, serious. weather problems.

Fingers cross, man. Not kind of one. Last night there was this thunderstorm that just came out of nowhere and it thundered so loud that my house literally shook. I've never experienced that before. It's terrifying.

I was worried my windows were going to blow out. It was terrifying. That's scary. That is a nearby lightning strike. So speaking of lightning, I don't know. Speaking of weather talk, if you want more weather talk, if you want to support weather talk.

There you go. If you want to support us talking about the weather, which is sometimes casual and sometimes terrifying, you can become a maximum fun member. And in doing so, supports us making this show and also supports the wonderful network that we're a part of. We love all of the members that support our show that we really love all of you. If you can't become a member, that's fine too. If you want to become a member and support triple click, go to maximum fun.org slash join. That's your URL. There will be some options there. And at whatever tier you join at, you get access to bonus. episodes of Triple Click and every other Maximum Fun show, but most importantly, triple click. And

we're going to be doing this month, at the end of the month, we're going to be doing a full half-life beans cast where we spill the beans on all of the half-life stuff that's happened, talk about the episodes, talk more about Half-Life 2, talk even some about Half-Life Alex, what the future may hold for that series. So that's very exciting. But you'll also get a bunch more beans casts and other bonus episodes that we've recorded over the months. So again, that is maximum fun.org slash join. And thanks again to all of our numbers. Half-life.

Quite a game. I finished episode two last night. Yeah, I'm still playing it. A lot of head crabs. And you know, when I think head crabs, you know what I think about? What do you think about? I think about the movie Alien from 1979, which is great, great film. And then also just kind of unrelated, like barely tangentially connected to.

alien, I think about Metroid, the video video. Metroid. Metroid. You know, we should do an episode about Metroid. What do you think about that? Maddie, I have a question. I have a question for you, Maddie. What is the deal with Metroid?

Yeah, we should try to answer that. Well, I'll tell you. Oh, yes. Okay. Here we go. Here we go. Cue the bass riff. Metroid.

Okay, so I have created this outline of all the Metroid games in order for the two of you. but I also have an additional secret outline with all of the Metroid games in story order, because it's completely different if you go in order of the story. And I will let you to decide what you want to learn. Do you want to learn the story order of Samus Aaron, Intergalactic Bounty Hunter, Metroid sympathizer, and video game heroine extraordinaire? or do you want to hear about the Metroid games in order of release?

The story from 2D to 3D and back again, Yoshio Sakamoto worked on some of them, but not all, but he's back again for Metroid Dread. They're both interesting stories, honestly. For me, I would want to hear what the story, I want like a story refresher to lead into Metroid Dread, which comes out in a few weeks. Like, I wouldn't know what has happened so far that is setting up the story. that we're about to experience.

I think I'm actually interested in that story as well, though I'm sure we will also talk about the release story of like this series as it's evolved over the years. But I too, as someone who's played some Metroid, but not actually as much Metroid as I maybe should have. And I think that, or at least feel like I should have, and I think that may be the perspective of at least some listeners out there.

So I would also be interested in just knowing what the story is so far and kind of where we're at and where things are at with Samma. So you can just settle in for a little. little bit of story time with Maddie about the life and times of Samus Aaron. I'm so excited about this. Sure. Okay. So there are many Metroid games, but they're mostly 2D exploration games where you run around space in the future as a bounty hunter named Samus. You fight aliens. You collect power-ups. You're wearing- Doesn't hunt a lot of bounties, actually. No, she doesn't. You know, she doesn't. She really just hunts these certain alien bounties, which the Galactic Federation is and is not against the

Metroids, depending on which game we're in. And she is wearing this very special power suit that was designed for her by these alien beings called the Chozo, or at least that's how I pronounce it. There's sort of this issue with all Metroid pronunciations where everyone has their own idea of how each word is pronounced, and there is no agreed upon pronunciation for like planet Zeebs is how I pronounce it but I've heard it Zabis or Zibis and any number of other things. Samus Iran. Samus Aaron is what I say. Et cetera, et cetera. It's so my apologies to the listener who might hear me pronounce some things and think that's not how I pronounce it. Power to you. Iran. I feel like with Japanese I feel like it would be Aran.

Yeah, maybe. I feel like I said that when I was a kid. Now I think I say Samis Aaron because you did or because I've heard you say it, Maddie, and I just trust you as the authority. Is the reason for this that a lot of this stuff has never actually been officially said out loud in a game? That's correct. Yes, that's correct. And there are a few examples of Samus saying some words out loud in Metroid OtherM, but that game is disputed enough that I think people are willing to pretend that that is not canon. Although there is at least one advertisement for OtherM that has Samus' name pronounced Samus Aaron. And I felt vindicated when that happened.

But vindicated by an ad. There are equally vindicating ads for other games that pronounce it in other ways. So it's truly, it's a real Star Wars situation where, like, you know, we really have no idea. And we'll never know because we aren't from Samis's world. And these are just our attempts to understand it. So when you say that it's set in the future, is it really set in the future? Or is this possibly like you mentioned Star Wars just a totally different timeline? It is really set in the future.

Yes. I believe it is set in a future version of our world. Although now that I say that, I'm not sure if that's ever actually been confirmed. But humans have invaded or colonized the rest of the galaxy. Good for us. Humans are so cool. Many, many humans live on different colonies all around the galaxy, the universe, and there are many other aliens around some good, some bad. And honestly, the bad guys are not. humans, they're space pirates, which is just a name for an evil alien race that is pretty intelligent, actually, but is not quite as intelligent as humans, I suppose, and not as the chozo, who are the good bird-shaped aliens who are pals with the humans, at least someone. So is that, is that enough? I guess now we can go back in time and talk about Samus's birthright. Sure, do it. Samus's, well, I'm curious as to whether, so Nintendo's big series, like Mario and Zelda. Usually they have like individual stories, but they don't really care that much about the canon and like making sure lore is maintained from game to game. Like we don't know if Bowser Jr. is his kid in addition to the Cooper kids and who the Cooper kids' parents are. Like there isn't a lot of canon there. Does Metroid have a more consistent canon across all of its games? No, it doesn't, which is part of what's fun about it. So as I said, there are 2D and 3D Metroid games. Many of the 2D games, many of the 2D games,

not all, but most of them have been worked on by this guy Yoshio Sakamoto, who is also working on Metroid Dread. And he has his own sort of through line of all the games he's worked on that if you put just those games together, they tell a pretty consistent story, consistent characterization of Samus as a person. Other M is actually included in that through line because Sakamoto wrote that one as well controversially. and that's a much more emotional, like traumatized version of Samus. But that is the version of Samus that he's been writing. And then separate from that, there are these retro games,

Metroid Prime games, which are three games that are written by different people. These are the only Metroid games that Miyamoto worked on. And they have a different vibe. They, I really like them as well. But I would say there's sort of like prime. fans and then also 2D Metroid fans. And there are, of course, people who are both. And then, you know, completionists who also include the Metroid Prime Pinball, Metroid Prime Hunters,

etc. in their line-up. Prime games notably made in the U.S. unlike most of Nintendo's games. And to be clear, when you say retro, they are a retro game, you mean they are developed by retro studios. They are developed by retro. I suppose also technically retro maybe at this point. But they actually feel the most modern in some ways. So, so, you know, Yeah, just to clarify that. That's depressing. Yes. The first Metroid Prime came out in 2002, so it is now a retro game by Retro Studios. I think that's probably safe to say. Yeah, almost 20 years. So I played Metroid Prime back when I was writing for Kataku. Stephen got me to play it, I think, and he and I talked about it a lot. And it was really cool. But that was the first

time I'd really played Metroid, like a Metroid game as a sort of adult, certainly as a game critic. And that game, I remember there's all this stuff about the Chozo. and Samas and her, like, destiny and how, like, her armor and the way that they trained her and stuff, right? And being like, whoa, like, this is such a involved story. But what you're saying is that is only a prime thing and that's not really quite. No. Okay.

So the prime games do have their own individuated story that is told over the course of them. And they are kind of mystical in a way that some of the other Metroid games are. There's a little bit of magical realism. For example, Mother Brain, the antagonist, she's a brain in a jar. People have probably at least seen a picture of her. She, at least in the manga, and it's implied in some of the games, has psychic powers and, like, part of her abilities as an AI slash actual literal brain. She's both, allegedly, is that she can see Samus everywhere she is in, like, a given level

and, like, see everything that's going on. So she's sort of omniscient in a way that a true AI person. probably wouldn't be. Like, it's a little bit magical. And Metroid Prime, I would say, is significantly more magical. So apparently there was an original release of the game that included some story elements that were taken out in later versions. There's a remake of the Prime trilogy that came out later and took out a little bit of the magical part of it, which is kind of too bad because it's a little bit fun. But I think Metroid struggles between how hard sci-fi it wants to be. So there is this prophecy that the chozo know, and I don't actually know how they find

this out. I guess they just, they know it because they know a prophecy, that this mysterious being is going to infect their planet, poison their planet. And that does happen. The prophecy comes to pass and Samus saves them from this weird, like substance called the phazon, which can create, like a version of other beings that's like significantly more powerful. So there's like a Metroid that is all phazoned up and that's the the Metroid Prime, which I think is the first boss at the end of the first game. And I think the first game teases Dark Sammas and then she shows up for the next two, which is basically like the Metroid Prime looks at Samus and is like, that person looks

really freaking cool. I'm going to copy her powers. I'm going to absorb her power suit and become the coolest possible enemy. me. And that sort of gears up in the next two Metroid Prime games and Samus has to essentially defeat herself. The Faison played a arena of time and they said, hey, we should do that too. Yeah. It's funny. It's such a video game thing because it's partly just how can we reuse these enemy designs that we already have and make them harder or slightly different. And itself, it was inspired by a very similar fight that happens in Metroid Zero Mission, which is itself a remake

of the original Metroid game. In Zero mission, there's a fight. I think it's called the ruins test, where Samus has to, like, fight against some ruins that disguise themselves as a being that's similar to her. So she's basically fighting a mirror image of herself in these, like, Chosa Ruins or whatever. And they repeat that theme many, many, many times. Like, in Metroid Fusion, she fights clones of herself as well. And it just, it's a constant theme that she's fighting herself in these games. So I'm imagining now, and actually kind of am,

currently, a person who like doesn't know that much about Metroid. And I would imagine that I'm already like, holy shit, what have I walked into here? Because it's funny. Well, no, it's actually really interesting, right? Because these games are like, in a way so straightforward when you play them. And they're actually very minimalist in terms of story. They are. That's why it's funny about.

But when you start talking about the story. Right. So how about this? Like, what is a Metroid? Okay, great. Okay. Let's start there. Okay.

So I think we can go back to the original Metroid game to answer this one and just say there were a bunch of Japanese developers who saw Ridley Scott's alien in 1979 and they thought it was freaking awesome because like who didn't? You know what I'm saying? Like who didn't go see alien and just think to themselves, this is the cool shit I've ever seen? And they just wanted to make a really sweet video game about something that felt like alien. And they didn't have this female heroine yet, but they liked the idea of these. aliens. And so the Metroid bears a lot of similarities as an alien being to the terrifying

xenomorph creature in the movie Alien in the sense that it can suck the energy out of you and like take over you and it kind of attaches to you. Right. It grows very quickly and terrifyingly. And in Metroid 2, the Game Boy title that came out

on 1991, you see all these other versions of the Metroid's that are much bigger and like more xenomorph like in size and shape. But when you first see the Metroid, it's like that cute little head crabby guy, kind of like the first time you see the little guy in Alien before you realize how terrifying that little scorpion guy is going to be. They're kind of cute.

They look a little, like a Metroid looks a little like a Pokemon. Yeah. It's adorable. It's a little green thing with a red ran inside it. And Samus even keeps one as a pet. Well, that's right. So what's interesting is that over the course of the Metroid series, the Metroids themselves have become somewhat sympathetic,

characters. And like Samus actually befriends one of them and that Metroid, she meets it as a little tiny baby. And so it imprints on her and sees her as its mom. And then when it gets a little older, it becomes like this attack dog who helps her out in a fight against Ridley. Our mother brain, I think, I don't know. The Metroid is constantly around helping Samus out whenever she needs it, like her little pet dog. And it's great. So, okay, Maddie, I'm, About to play Metroid Dredd. I want to know what the story is. So Metroid Prime is like one branch of the timeline.

Honestly, if you just want to know Metroid Dread stuff, ignore Prime, which is sad because Prime rules. Yeah. Well, so a lot of people, I know a lot of people out of people out there want to know, like, because they're about to check out Metroid Dred on the Switch. Because it's like a Switch game and because the Switch is so mega popular, this feels like it has the potential to be like a breakout success to people who haven't played Metro games before. So as a refresher, what do I need to know?

about Samis' journey so far in the 2D games to set me up for Metroid Dred. Okay. So I would say if you want to play a couple games before you play Metroid Dread, I would recommend Super Metroid if only because it's the greatest game ever, and it influenced every Metroidvania. If you've ever heard that term in your life, it is the greatest game ever. So you could just play that anyway. But if I don't want to play them, I just want the story.

If you don't want that and you just want the story, obviously you can watch some cutscenes on YouTube. But you could also consider a game that isn't actually my favorite, but is the game you would want to play before Metroid Dread, which is called Metroid Fusion. So that was originally a Game Boy Advance game. It's another Yosho Sakamoto game. And it's very story heavy compared to other 2D meteroids. It includes basically all the plot points that you're going to need to know heading into Dread because it is the last chronological story-wise. the last game that happens right before Metroid Dread. And also, it's the game that Sakamoto was intending to create a sequel to at the time. So, like, you two will remember, even in 2005,

there were rumors that Metroid Dread was going to come out and be the sequel to Metroid Fusion and that it was going to be another 2D Metroid, another Yosho Sakamoto story. And then years and years and years went by. And now we know why the delay happened. It was because those stealth mechanics that we saw in those trailers where these creatures are stalking Samus around the like scary robot creatures that she's going to be fighting. That technology wasn't possible to create well enough for Sakamoto's tastes at the time. And he just kept really wanting that to be in the game. So he like crawled into a cryotube and was like, awaken me.

Wake me up for the singularity is this many steps closer. Well, and then alien isolation came out and it was like, oh man. More alien to be inspired from. Very cool. But wait, Maddie, you're giving me homework. I don't want to play a Metroid Fusion. I want to hear the story. I want Maddie Myers to tell me what happens in Metroid Fusion.

And anyone who doesn't want to know that can just skip ahead. Yeah, totally. Okay, so it's going to sound a whole lot like the plot of every other Metroid I just said. Instead of Phazon, the antagonistic force in this is the ex-parasite. And very luckily, this is like one of these really old ancient parasites. and luckily the Metroids are actually the best way to fight against it. And so Samus ends up getting infected by this mysterious substance and doctors give her a Metroid vaccine and her suit.

This is why her suit looks so weird in those trailers is because, well, you know how her suit almost looks like it's part of her body mass? Is this the fusion suit? Yes, this is a fusion suit. It's like a version of her super awesome chozo suit that combined. binds with a Metroid. So it's like Samus herself is part Metroid now. So this is alien resurrection. This is like also happens in the alien series. Yeah. Exactly. Yes. Totally. And you may also remember that Samus is part Chozo as well because she was

infected with Chosot DNA in order for the suit to work. So she's like, just keeps getting infected with stuff. Definitely not human anymore, which is part of what's so badass about her. So anyway, she manages to, you know, survive everything because she's a Metroid, basically now. And when she's wandering around and saving everybody from these ex-parasites, she also ends up fighting against herself again in a very similar way to prime, where she's fighting the SAX, which is like an ex-parasite version of Samus, who's stalking her around Fusion. And this was the thing that at the time, Yosho Sakamoto was like, oh, this is really cool. Like, this clone of Samus is like creepily stalking her. And there's very little of that in the game.

but like when it is there, it's really cool. It's just they couldn't make it that complicated because like the enemy AI isn't that complex at that time because again, it's a Game Boy Advance game. It's 2002. Right, only so much RAM on the game. Yeah, so like you can see the beginnings of what he wanted to do with the game and like you get why, oh, okay, this is going to be another game

where creatures are stalking Samus. But what's interesting, though, is that in this version, these robots are stalking Samus and we don't know why. my pet theory is because she's actually part Metroid at this point. And so I think the robots, which are galactic Federation robots that are designed to kill Metroid. Sorry, you're saying the robots in dread. Yes.

This is your theory about dread. Now I'm sharing story theories about the future. Is that that's why Sammas has to defend herself is because she herself is now an alien life form. So wait a minute. So wasn't there also a storyline? I like the theory. Wasn't there also a storyline?

I played a bunch of these games, but never. really paid attention to the lore or the story and could not get through other M. Valid. But isn't there an ongoing storyline about like Samus taking the baby Metroid with or having to kill it at some point or having to abandon it at some point or something like that? Yeah. I mean, some of that is in other. Is that related to Dred?

Like, do I have to know about that for Dread? No, because the Metroid's already dead by them, sadly. RIP. So irrelevant. You can go back and play some old games if you want to know about the baby Metroid dying. the baby's already dead by the time Mother Ed M happens. Actually, she's just like, she remembers it at the beginning of that game. Yeah, I remember that, yeah.

I'm trying to remember when the baby dies. I think it dies in Super Bowl. So we should take this clip out of context. When does the baby die? Are there like old yellow flashback cutscenes where Samis is like trying to explain to the Metroid and the Metroid is looking at her like it doesn't understand and then she has to shoot it in so much? Yeah, basically.

I mean, to me personally, that stuff is like not terribly interesting. I, like, okay, I'm fine with Samus being a maternal figure and like having this pet Metroid. It's all very cute. But like other M is very fascinated by that idea with Samus, like her trauma and like her connection to this Metroid and how sad she is. And that is just a level of emotional involvement with Samus that I don't really feel like I need. And it feels excessive to me. many people felt that way. It's no longer a controversial opinion to hold. Yeah. Can we talk a little bit about Samus? I'm curious.

So what do you find appealing about Samus as a character? Well, I, the first games that I played were also Metroid Prime, Kirk. So the version of Samus that I was first playing is like voiced by Jennifer Hale, she never talks, just like Gordon Freeman. She's mysterious and cool. She's a tough badass. Everybody else in the those games talks to her and she just doesn't respond. I liked that you could just put yourself into that character's shoes. I enjoyed imagining myself as Sammas. I think part of what I liked about those games is what I also liked about Half-Life too. So recently is just the fact that it's an adventure. There's a bunch of puzzles as well as just shooting stuff. It's not just like a run-and-gun

Halo situation. There's a lot of actual thinking that you have to do. You turn into the ball and you like crawl around in the passageways. You have to really use your brain and then also use your aim. And I like that. I just think that's a fun idea. That plus just Samus being a badass in my own mind and heart were part of what mattered to me. There's something very lizard brain about seeing something and knowing you have to get an

item to come back to it. Yes. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's a pleasing thing about all these games. I feel like it was also just inherently meaningful to me to play a game that I really liked where you just happened to be a female character and not a ton was made of it, in part because it's this futuristic world.

There are no characters who are coming to you and being like, oh, wow, like a woman is here. And that happens a lot in other M. And that's part of why I was like, I don't want to keep being reminded of the fact that it's weird that Samus is a woman and like people are surprised that she's doing this. That's unpleasant for me. That happens in my real life and I don't care for it. I'd rather just have it be accepted that she's an expert and a badass. and she has all these superpowers, basically,

and everybody just thinks it's really cool. And I dig that. There's something I really liked about Prime when I played it, and that was that she is a silent protagonist, but she's like an interesting kind of silent protagonist, because there's a difference between her and Gordon Freeman. She's a little bit more present as a character, just sort of overall in the game.

There are the things like there's, I think I wrote a Kataku post about this. There's a moment in Prime where you're under water and you shoot her cannon to activate a puzzle or something. And when you fire the charged-up cannon, it flashes, and you see her face flash back at you in the visor. And it's a beautiful, just really evocative moment on its own. But also, like, you see her kind of wide eyes,

and you, for the first time, or at least I, for the first time, really felt this character that I was playing as in her presence and kind of as a separate thing from myself. Yeah. And I almost don't get that from Gordon, or a lot of other silent protagonists that Gordon Freeman is, you know. Yeah, master chief, et cetera. Sure, like, well, he talks, but like, but he's still kind of not, he's, he's kind of

aloof in his way. Yeah, you're right. I mean, but Gordon is silent, like, Gordon is essentially a non-character. Like, they talk about him like he's a person, but he never, aside from a couple little animations when he cocks a gun. But he's perfect. But he's the free man. Well, and that's almost a joke, right?

But that's part of what's weird about it, too, is that Gordon is, so good at everything that he doesn't seem human. And you're right, like, because you can't see Gordon's face ever, it does dehumanize him. It distances him from you. And there are also, and in Prime, doesn't she write her own journal entries? I'm just remembering this right now. Fusion might be what you're thinking of. She has some journal entries in there. Because this is, I mean, this is part of what I personally don't like about fusion because it's the beginning of a storyline that would be continued in another M, even though chronologically fusion takes place after Other M.

Interesting. And so in Other M, there's this character, Adam Malkovich, who's Samus' former commanding officer when she's a soldier. Right.

And they have sort of a weird tension. I think it's kind of debatable as to whether it's like a friendship or a romance. Like, it really depends on which writer

is critiquing the game. There isn't like a canonical romance between them, but some people have interpreted it that way. Some people just see him as like a father. figure to her. I don't really

care what he's supposed to be. I don't care for it either way. But he's dead at the end of other M's. Spoilers for Metroid, I guess. But like, he's dead so. And he, this is almost like a halo thing where they have an AI in

Metroid Fusion that is inspired by his personality, which reminds me of how Cortana is like inspired by Master Chief's mom or whatever. Oh, that's right. Oh my God, I forgot that. Why is that a thing? It's such a sci-fi-2000s video game thing where they're like, what if we created an AI that was like based on a character that you met previously?

I don't know. So they do that. And Adam is the AI infusion. And Samus has some diary entries about Adam and her feelings about him dying. But it's super vague and you don't really know what it means at the time. And then other M came out and people were like, this relationship between them is really odd, no matter which way you slice it. And Adam is back again in Metroid Dredden.

People are already like, why is Adam here? And it's because he's the ship's AI. Well, and this makes me realize that I think one of the big appeals of Samus, at least for me, is that Samus is alone. Samus alone. Like, that's who she is really in these games. She is a lone person on an alien world. And that's actually kind of what makes her feel present to me in Prime,

is that there's no one else around to contextualize anything she's really doing. like directly, you know, with dialogue. So it's so about just her and the world. And that kind of makes her feel more real than in like half-life where everyone's talking about what Gordon's doing, especially in Half-Life too. Yeah. And Alex Vance being there changes it so much. Oh, yeah. Exactly. Like, you have a constant companion. Like you have somebody's commenting on everything you're doing and you have like a bestie. And Samus just doesn't have the equivalent of that at all. And it really changes things. That's when and that vibe, like I think about it, a returnal and the way that people would say that return.

was very Metroid-ish, which it did strike me that way. And that was really the thing about that game, more than the mechanics or the whatever. Because when people say, oh, it's like Metroid, they immediately go to the whole, talked about a million times Metroidvania game design style, which, of course, is interesting. But in that game, it's that you're alone,

and you're specifically a woman in a space suit alone on a very weird planet. And she spends all of her time talking to herself, you know, the protagonists of that game, which is also very cool. But there's no one there to talk to her, really, like throughout the game. And it kind of, that is what makes it feel very Metroid-D-Ked.

Yeah, well, they took the slogan, in space, no one can hear you scream. They took it literally and we're like, in space, you don't talk at all. You may as well not scream because no one's going to hear you, man. I do think that's what's always been one of the things that appeals to people about the Metroid series is that sense of quiet and foreboding and horror that only comes with isolation. Yeah, I mean, thinking about Half-Life, it's a useful frame of reference because we all played so recently, but like Alex Vance is with you in both episodes the whole time, whereas if she was with you, like, during Ravenloft and the original game, Ravenholm.

That would not be nearly as terrifying. Like, it's part of the, the horror aspect is that you're by yourself. And I think that's the case for Metroid as well. Even the two D games, the original 2D games, where it's kind of primitive looking, obviously, it still, still has that sense of like, oh man, like you go up to this power, you get a power, from this chozo statue and it could attack you at any time. It's got this real sense of horror that I think just felt revolutionary at the time and still feels pretty, maybe it doesn't feel revolutionary today, but it's still pretty cool. I think it is.

In part because it's been so influential, I feel like the other part of the story aspect that has always been exciting to me is that even though you as a player don't know what's coming, Samus canonically does, because she's been to all these places before when they weren't dilapidated and overtaken by aliens. So in theory, she knows where all the power-ups are. So you finding them makes a certain canonical sense where she's like, oh, I remember they're going to have this in that room or whatever. Yeah.

And I just really like that idea where it's like, oh, yeah, like this was a weird vacation home that we visited when I was a kid. And like, here's all these armor pieces that are compatible with my suit that I'm going to like go around and pick up and like, oh, right. She got flashbacks of her as a kid. Her visiting Zeeves as a kid, like, with her parents' came out. That's her situation. She's visiting, visiting Zeeves with her.

And that kind of contextualizes all of those, like, the house I grew up in flashbacks in Returnal as well. Yes. The game does do that throughout. It does. And also, I mean, Returnal's much more of a horror game. So, like, when she's fighting against herself, proverbially, she's finding corpses of herself everywhere as well.

Right. which is very Metroid, except horrific. Although Samus, whenever she finds a version of herself, it's also horrific. You never want to run into yourself in space. It's always bad. You always got to kill them. It's basically just a bad thing. Something I wanted to talk about with Metroid is that is kind of the meta level of the series as a whole.

Because I think it's really interesting that, like, unlike most big critically acclaimed successful series, Metroid has gone like 10 plus years without any new sequels. And especially the past two decades, Metroid Prime 3 was 2007, and then there was other M, which has kind of looked back on with some disdain these days. In 2010, yeah. A friggin multiplayer game, which was terrible. I played that Federation Force. I remember Stephen Totilla telling me it was good, so I'm going to at least mention that, but I never played it.

And the Samus Returns came out in 2017, and that was good, but that was a remake, so it wasn't even like a new entry in the series. And it was also a secret audition for Mercury's team on the part of Sacramento to see if they would be good enough. to make Metroid dread for him. Yeah, good stuff. But, like, it's interesting. And I feel like this series, I wrote about this a little bit for Bloomberg, has never had a breakout hit

the way that other Nintendo series has and the way that other, like, critically acclaimed series have. No Metro game, as far as I can tell, has really sold more than, like, three and a half million copies or something like that, which is pretty low for Nintendo first-party stuff. And it makes sense when you think about Metro compared to Zelda or Mario, it doesn't have the charisma of those series.

Even the way that like Zelda, like, there's all this stuff where people are like sharing memes and gifts and, you know, Link has all these cute animations he does now in the new games. And of course, Mario and that whole cast, they're all such zany characters. Like, they're just really appealing in that way. And Metroid is chilly and silent. Yeah, it's just an helmet. Samus does not want to get to know you. She's wearing a helmet.

You don't even see your face. Although I do think. that her being in Smash Brothers has helped revitalize the series over the years because that has introduced a lot more people to Samus, who, I mean, a lot more people bought Smash Brothers over the years than bought Metroid games.

And now Ridley's in it too. And I think more people are looking at Ridley and being like, well, who's this dragon guy? What's his deal? And then that makes him curious about Metroid. You know, I wonder if part of the reason that more people might be interested in a Metroid game now than ever happened is because

during the same period, when Metroid itself was pretty quiet, there was this total revolution in games that were inspired by Metroid and that took that design style, and we just had nothing but this run of games that commonly called Metroidvania style of game that just continues to the point where there are,

I'm getting texts from Rust Brustick basically every week being like, hey, there's a new game. It's a golf Metroidvania. I think he was just texting me about. And, you know, there are so many, like just this year. I mean, Hollow Night's Silk Song, one of my most anticipated games ever.

Like, there's just an endless run of games that have made people remember how fun it is or have kept people aware of how fun it is to play games like Super Metroid. And so now, when Nintendo's like, hey, we're the originators here, we're making a new one. People are like, hell yeah, I'm super excited. I love these games.

I play everyone who can. Although it does make you worry. Like, after playing Holo Night, like, can, well, Metro Jed compare it? Like, can it hold up? Does that make you worry? It's going to be great. It's going to be different, but I feel like it's going to probably be pretty good.

Yeah, I hope it's good. I hope it's good. I have faith that Metro Dred is going to be pretty good. But I do think that like the run of great Metroidvania's has kind of made it become such its own thing that like Nintendo really needs to blow people away to retake the Metroidvania crown. I do think it's smart that Dredd has this unique mechanic, like these hunting freaky robots that are chasing you. Yeah, it'll have a very different vibe. That's super different than any of these other games. games that sort of just took the structure.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a horror game. It's going to be more of a horror game than your average, kind of creepy, like, surreal Metroidvania. Yeah, it's just a little sad because technically Metroid Dread is supposed to be the conclusion of the story. Like, that is also what Sakamoto keeps saying is that this is the ending of the story about the Metroids that he had intended to tell.

And so if it is the breakout hit, then I don't really know where the series is. goes after this. Well, we know there's a Metroid Prime four coming. That's true. But I guess you're thinking of the 3D games as a different sort of series. They are and they're written by different people and I still think they're very good. They're very interesting. They kind of have their own storyline.

In terms of Samus's lifetime, the previous Metroid primes have been set after Metroid, the first one and before Metroid 2. So that's like the specific chunk of time in Samus's life. Got it. Primes take place. Snapshot. I don't know whether or not Prime 4 is also supposedly taking place in that time. She destroyed all the phazon as far as we know.

So maybe there's some more that she's going to hunt down really quick and for. Could always be more. There can always be more. There can always be some other similar parasitic organism that either combines with a Metroid or doesn't combine with a Metroid and becomes bad. And she has to fight that. And it's shaped like her, probably. That's always an option.

These options are here. They're available for any Metroid game creator who wants to use them. But yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure where it's going to be set. I feel like Samus' life is quite crowded at this point, and she's fought a lot of the same stuff or extremely similar stuff over and over again. I'm fine with that, but I'm also, like, aware of how samey those plot beats have gotten. And so for a long time, before Prime 4 was announced, I was like, they should reboot Metroid.

They should just do a different take on the story, and like, especially after Other M. is like you should just redo this entirely. Do the God of War 2018. Or the Tomb Raider or whatever you want to do. Like something different. God of War wasn't a reboot. It was a sequel. But anyways.

Yeah, but it was just called God of War. So that counts as a... You know, where does that fall on my reboot remake spectrum? That's an interesting line. It's just a sequel. No, it's just a sequel. Never mind. That's where it falls. It is a sequel. But it's called God of War.

That doesn't matter. No. That doesn't count for anything. It's a sequel. Like characters from the past times turn out. up and the past games all happened and this was a sequel. Anyways, I don't want to destroy. Yeah, and like the Tomb Raider from 2011 is a reboot as opposed to a sequel. Which is more what I'm imagining here where it's like you take this character who everyone's

extremely familiar with and Lara Croft and bring her back, but it's a different version of her and it's a new version and we all just kind of accept that this is a different person who's inspired by the previous one. I was expecting they'd do something like that with Samis. But at this point, I'm like, I guess they're not going to do that. I guess it's just still the same Samus, and we're just going to keep going or not. I don't know. It's a weird spot to be in.

Maybe she'll die at the end of Metro Dredd. She might. She might. I mean, there's also like an interview where Sakamoto said he didn't consider the prime games canon. I think he's like walked that back, but there's like a pretty spicy quote from him where he's like, I don't acknowledge this. Yeah, well, it's worth noting.

I mean, you mentioned Sakamoto a lot, but the prime games were supervised by Tanabe, who's another, who's the other kind of. of like the sibling of the Metroid franchise. Yeah, and I consider them canon. I mean, I'm not in a fight with anyone about who is and isn't a part of Samus's history. I'm also okay with it if some of the canon contradicts itself. Like, that doesn't really bother me with a series. I'm just not a person who cares a lot.

I just kind of am like, they're all different refractions of the same idea. And there's always a way to like go in a new direction. I mean, look at the way that Alien 3 ended, right? I mean, that Dred could absolutely in that way, given that it's so similar. I mean, she's fused with a Metroid and an Alien 3, you know, Ripley was pregnant with a Queen Alien and she could totally die at the end of it. What if they do a pregnancy storyline? Oh, no. Oh, boy.

What's hope that Metroid Dread is not the Alien 3 of the Metroid series. That would be depressing. But it could happen. Before we go, I think it's pretty cool that all three of us are like each have a Nintendo series that we're more. most associated with. Maddie, you love Metroid. I'm a Zelda, Zelda fan over here, and Kirk is obsessed with Nintendo Dogs. I was wondering what you were to say. I was like, this has got to be, he's not like a punchline because he's putting me third, and I don't know what he's going to say, because it's not going to be Mario. And you didn't know that we knew how into Nintendo Dogs you are,

because you've never brought a dog. That's true. You must have seen my playtime. I just think it's really cool. I mean, I see the little pause on your screen right now. Look, they're good Nintendo Dogs, Brandt, all right? What can I say? I've never played those actually. Kirk, you're going to have to do a lore explainer on Nintendo in a future episode. Yes, what's the deal with Nintendo? In all seriousness, I did play the one on, I think, 3DS

because I think I got it for free from Nintendo because I was like reviewing or helping review the 3DS. It's a pretty cute game. You pet the dogs. I mean, you pet the dogs with your stylus. Like, what more can you ask? Interesting. Okay, that does sound pretty good.

Give them toys. It's pretty good. Yeah, I hope I've inspired some listeners to check out some Metroid games. I still recommend Super Metroid Fusion, even though the latter is the story relevant one for people to pick. I feel like

you're fine. I imagine a lot of them are just going to start with Metroid Drive. Like that's what I anticipate I think that's fine too. And then you go and you play Super Metroid. I think that would be cool. But yeah, let's see how optimistic the Metro Dead is going to be pretty good. So here's hoping. I'm excited. I hope so. All right.

Well, if you two don't have any more burning lore questions about Samus Aaron, then I guess we can take break and come back with one more thing. We have wasted this world. Our magic put a storm in the sky that has rendered the surface of our planet uninhabitable. But beneath the surface, well, that's another story entirely. In a city built leagues below the apocalypse, survivors of the storm forged paths through a strange

new world. Some seek salvation for their homeland above. Others seek to chart the vast undersea expanse outside the city's walls. And others still seek what else? Fortune and Glory. Dive into the Ethersea, the latest campaign from the Adventure Zone. Every other Thursday on Maximumfund.org or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hi, I'm Joe Firestone.

I'm Manolo Moreno. And we host After Game Show, a podcast where listeners submit games, and we play them regardless of quality with a does. and listeners from around the world. We've had folks call in from as far as Sweden, South Africa, and the Philippines. Here's an example. A yesterdog

where players must sing a Beatles song but throw in the word dog and dog related terms. Like, do you have an example, Manolo? Yeah. Hey, dog, dog, dog, dog bone. Oh, okay. Dr. Gamshow has new episodes every other Wednesday on Maximum Fun.

Check us out. Check us out. Nice. And we are back for one more thing. I will go first because it'll be quick. So, taking the steering wheel. Mine is a podcast about romantic comedy movies.

And it's called You Should See the Other Guy. And it's hosted by one of my good friends, Samantha Allen and two friends of hers, Jen and Sadie. She's hilarious. And the premise of this podcast, as the title indicates, is, that they will watch a movie about a romantic comedy and they will try to argue in favor of the person who was not chosen. Oh, got it. That's cute.

They'll also find other characters in the movie who they think would be a better match for either the protagonist or one another. It's very cute. But mostly it's just a romantic comedy review podcast. I've listened to all the archives, really, really enjoy the show and also ask them if I could guest on the show

and they let me. So I was recently on an episode if people would like to check it out about the movie, Enchanted, which is a did. Disney movie from the 2000s, and it's very funny. I had not seen it in a long time, but I used to watch it as one of my like depression go-toes because it's so cute and uplifting. So yeah, if people want to hear me talk about rom-coms, you should see the other guy. You can listen to

my episode or you can just listen to other episodes because it's a really fun podcast. That's a great premise. It's making me think of the Baxter. Have you ever seen The Baxter? I only know the Baxter by premise, which is the movie about the Baxter is what they call like the guy. who's just the, like, the boyfriend at the beginning who then gets dumped in favor of the other guy. Yeah, with Michael Showalter. It's a Michael Showalter movie, yeah. Amazing.

I should recommend this to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've done a lot of, like, they just did 13 going on 30 and 27 dresses and, like, they've done like every, they did Groundhog Day. I mean, it's very funny to try to find an other guy at Gonehog Day, by the way. There's like so many other characters in that, but not necessarily.

There's like the cameraman. Chris Elliott, but he doesn't count. They make a strong case for him. Nice. Oh, I'll totally listen to that episode. It's really fun. It's really fun. So, yeah, I recommend it. Kirk, why don't you tell us yours? All right. Well, mine is a sports one more thing, which isn't usual for me. But I spent the weekend watching the U.S. Open.

So I am currently in Indiana. I am visiting with Emily, my fiancé's family, which is jumping that in there. A little time's cute right there. Exciting and also an exciting development in my life. is going to be on Kotaku next week. I'm sure it'll be headline news. Well, it's gaming news. Yeah.

It's what everyone needs to know. This is my, of course, long time partner and now fiancé, Emily. We're visiting my hometown as well in Indiana, where we both grew up, but her family now lives. And her family is really into tennis. She played tennis in high school. Her parents both play tennis. They have friends of the family that we were staying with in Michigan for a while who were really into tennis.

Everyone was super into tennis. I am not into tennis. and I decided, well, I'm going to learn some about tennis, and I'm going to watch the U.S. Open. So while we were watching some of the final matches in the U.S. Open, I had my phone open to, they're actually a surprising amount of websites that just do rules for, like, sports rules, like just sports rules.com, and they just explain the rules. And it's very, very helpful to learn the rules of tennis, specifically the rules of tennis scoring, but also just the rules of the game, with a whole family full of tennis,

playing tennis experts because, you know, they are always just kind of talking in their tennis lingo and then I can ask questions whenever I want to. But I tried not to ask questions. I tried to just soak it up and learn the scoring. This was a great U.S. Open. So did either of you watch the U.S. Open at all? A little bit. Jukovic is ridiculous. Yeah, Jokovic. So I learned that no one in this family really cares for Jokovic and it turns out a lot of people don't. So this is Novak Djokovic who was going for a calendar grand slam in this U.S. Open. And he lost in the final

to Daniel Medvedev. And Medvedev actually did a FIFA celebration move where he like hit the ground to the side and he even said in his victory except in speech like, like, for the real legends out there, that was L2 plus left

or something like that. Like he said the button prompt. There's a post on Kotaku. I'll link it. It's really funny. Wow, what a nerd. And I actually missed that at the time. Yeah, what a nerd. He seems like a really funny guy.

So he beat Djokovic, who is the sort of not loved, but widely respected, extremely great player. I learned that a calendar Grand Slam is when you win, I think it's four major tournaments, but each tournament is referred to as a Grand Slam, which is very confusing. Anyways, that was okay.

That game was actually a disappointment. The semi-final of that Djokovic one was really cool. It went to seven sets. That's right, game set match. It went to seven sets. It was very exhausting and exciting. That was fun. But the really fun thing was the women's U.S. Open.

So the final was two teenagers. It was Lila Fernandez and Emma Radicano from Canada and Britain, respectively. Both, I think now are 19 years old, maybe one of them is 18. But like, so young. I mean, I think about when I was 19, like, what was I doing? I wasn't winning the U.S. Open, winning like $2 million in the U.S. Open. And just watching them play was so cool. And I'm really taken with tennis's scoring the way that it works, where there's all this stuff.

I won't get into the whole thing. But like I said, you kind of, you play. for games and then first to six games wins the set and then you're trying to win three out of five sets but then if you tie then you have to go to seven sets so there's a lot of scoring going on like you're scoring within it's like nestled within itself like you're scoring points in that then win you the game that then gets you games that then win you the set and then that gets you the match and the scoring for each game goes 15 what is it 15 30 40 and then you win the game so it's not even inconsistent. Well, and then if it's 40, 40, it's

deuce, and then you have add in... It's a deuce, right. So it gets confusing, and it sounds confusing when I say it, but once you're watching it and you pick up on it fast, you get it pretty fast, what's cool is, and what I was reflecting on, and then started to think about other sports as well, like football or basketball specifically, is just how designing the scoring system for a game like this is such an important part of the game. Because in tennis, it's totally built around these friction points in the scoring that make the game slow down and force the players into these like mini

competitions. A deuce like Jason mentioned, when you're both at 40 within the game, you have to win the game by two points. So you get, you can like start to pull away, but then the other person can claw you back. And you can just go back and forth on the doze. I think I read, I think I read about a game in the UK that went like 37 resets to the deuce or something where like one game just took like, I don't know how long that would even be. I think they weren't running a clock. like two hours or something. You could just go forever if you keep clawing it back and you can never fully get advantage and get away. And it's just cool to think about designing that kind of thing into a game, which is similar to sort of, you know, field goals or the three-point shot or two-point scoring and

free throws and how delicate the balance in this kind of competitive sport is. So anyways, I just thought it was really cool. I think I'm going to get more into tennis or at least really enjoy watching tennis. It's such a vicious sport. It's so lonesome that coaches can't even talk to the players. And it's just you and this other person. And you just have to like kill, man. You just have to go for it. And it's so manipulative. The way they kind of run one another down.

They said, a thing they say about Djokovic apparently is first he takes your legs and then he takes your soul. So he's like the Baba Yaga. And I just, I thought that that was striking and really true watching it. It's like you kind of run your opponent down. and then like you try to break their will basically. It's really like it's even more intense and vicious than, you know, boxing or fighting in a certain way because it's so psychologically intense. Really hell of a sport.

I think there's something to this tennis thing. You're like maybe more people should watch it. It seems like kind of a big deal. It's going places. So Kirk, not only do you have to win in an individual game, you have to win by two if it's tied. You also, I believe it's if the last set is tied, you have to win that one by two as well. and that has led to some truly epic matches over the years where it's like it can go for hours and hours, literally,

of games and games and games. So there was one infamous iconic match. I think it was Isner Mahout or something like that. And then from that came a genius work of art, which is called Seven Days in Hell, which is this fake documentary with Andy Sandberg in it and Kit Harrington about like this intense fake tennis match. And it is incredibly...

Where they were trapped in that. Yeah, they're going back. I know I've never even heard of that. Oh, totally watch it. It's so funny. It's called Seven Days in Hell. I think it's on Netflix or something, but it's incredible. You have to watch it.

Nice. Now that you know the rules of tennis, you go watch that. Killer. All right, Jason. Bring us home. So I was going to tell a sports story. I was going to talk about football coming back and this crazy ending to Ravens Raiders. But you're not going to, right?

Yeah, you can't. You won't. I was going to say that. I was going to. I was going to say that, Kirk. I was about to say, but I'm not going to because you just talked about sports. saying you guys vetoed my idea to have a weekly NFL service. All right.

All right. All right. Mr. Metagaming. We did. But I do want to hear about what you've chosen instead. So let's talk about some video game, death loop. So instead I'm going to talk about one of the biggest games of the year that I've been playing. We're both excited to play and haven't yet.

Yeah. I spent some time playing this game this morning. I spent a couple hours of it. It's pretty wild, guys. I don't want to cast judgment quite yet. because I'm still, like, getting the hang of its rhythms and how it works exactly. But, like, it's kind of like, it's like a supernatural hitman with, like, the structure of outer wilds. I think that that personally sounds boring and shitty and not like something that I'm so excited to play that I cannot wait to get home.

It's first person, it's like, it feels very dishonored in terms of the gameplay itself because you're going around first person. You're sneaking around. You get some supernatural powers you can get your guns. That's not one of my favorite games, so I don't know. Playing something in first person, not in. There's a lot of verticality. At the very beginning of the game, you get a double jump, and then eventually you can get like a blink ability and like other stuff like that. So there's a lot of double jumping. Blink is so bad. Wow. I saw just feel terrible. Sorry. I'm so excited. I'm just bitter that you're playing it while I'm on vacation. And the way it works is you're stuck in this time loop. So you only have a limited amount of time to do everything, but it's not real time. So basically the game is structure. into like four periods, morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. And each of those periods, you can

spend as much time as you want. So you're not actually on a timer. But when you leave the area that you're currently in, then it goes to the next time period. So it is a time loop, but it's not a timer. It's very smart. The structure is very cool. And your goal is to kill these eight supernatural, well, people with supernatural abilities called visionaries who are kind of the masterminds behind this time loop and have created this area, this world of Black Reef where people are just living like they have no tomorrow because they don't and they know like if they'll die or whatever happens, they'll be reset. This is like if Andy Sandberg were everybody in Palm Springs.

Like if everyone was aware. Yeah. It's like, yeah, it's as if some people created this world of Palm Springs, then yeah, everybody was aware that they're in this time loop. And your job as this guy, Cole, is to go and break the time loop. And to do that, you have to kill all eight visionaries within a single loop. And that's where it gets tough. And the whole game is trying to figure out, trying to learn enough information and master

out enough roots that you can figure out how to do all eight. Like right now, I have no idea how I could possibly do it because like two visionaries, again, I'm pretty early. I'm only a few hours in, but two visionaries both have, both only appear in the morning in different areas. So I'm going to learn enough information about both of them. I'm going to go try to kill both of them on different loops, learn enough information that maybe I'll figure out

that actually one of them appears somewhere else at night, and that's when I can trap them and get someone else at the same time. And so the goal is to plot a path that lets you kill all eight, and then you win the game after that. But along the way, there's all this micro stuff of, like, plotting out different routes through levels and, like, figuring out where dudes are going to be and singing around all these enemies,

because like every single other person in this world is trying to kill you. So you have to get around them. And there's also a little bit of a like dark souls quality to this, right? Because you're being invaded by this lady who's trying to kill you, like controlled by other players. Yeah. So two things that are kind of dark souls. One is that this woman is invading you, this woman named Juliana, she along with you,

the two of you are the only people who remember everything happens in previous loops, right? So the two of you retain your memories from loop two. So she is like, will occasionally invade your world and try to kill you. You can play single player where she's controlled by an AI or you can play online where she's controlled by another player or you can play friends only where she can only be controlled by one of your friends on Steam or PlayStation Network or whatever. But yes, then she'll come in and invade you randomly. The other Dark Souls element of it is on each loop, the game is very forgiving.

And it doesn't feel like a rogue like at all, really, despite the kind of structure of it. But every time you go to a new area and a new time period, you have three tries. You can die twice and reset your, and like you reset a little bit. So it's like you have three lives, essentially. And the way it works is as you go, you're collecting this thing. I forgot the exact name, Residuum or something like that, that is like a really useful resource because you can use it to kind of tag or upgrade a weapon or an ability that lets you retain it from loop to loop. So you lose all your weapons from

every time the loop ends, unless you use this special resource, the special currency, to retain that weapon or ability. So like if I go and I pick up the blank ability, I'm definitely going to retain it. That'll be the first thing I try to retain, et cetera, et cetera. And so what happens is if you die, but you still have lives left, your body will be in the same place you died with all of the residuals, all that currency on it. So you have to

go get it, Dark Soul style. Nice. And so that's another cool twist. Overall, it's really awesome from what I've seen so far. But I'm worried it's going to feel a little repetitive once you have to start really repeating things over and over again, which I haven't gotten to yet. So TBD, whether how much, I think there's enough clever design in here that I think they've found ways to circumvent that and like that you really don't have to just keep killing the same guys

over and over again. But reserving full judgment until I played a bit more and can really jump in. into it. So I'm sure we'll talk about this game more as you guys have a chance to play it. That is a safe bet. There is more to talk about here. But yeah, really into it so far. The aesthetic and the writing and the music, it's all, it's got a lot of good stuff going for it that we can get into another time. Cool. Sounds rad. All right. Well, it's been another episode of Triple Clarebos. And stay tuned for more weather updates next week. Wait to see what our Client throws at us at us.

Hopefully nothing happens to me. That's my wish. I will see you both next week. See you next week. See you next week. 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 slash join. Find us on Twitter at Triple ClickPocpods, send email the triple click at Maximumfund.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximumfun.org. Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Audience, audience supported.