Video Gamers Podcast - [Hijack a Host] Thick as Thieves - Video Games Podcast

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Video games hosts Paul, Josh and Ryan have once again been hijacked, this time by Legendary supporter AceofShame. A very interesting video game choice with some high stakes is chosen for one of the hosts as this video game is quite beloved by a lot of gamers. Will it land with the host? We reveal the game, the host and what our predictions will be in this awesome gaming episode! Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporters: YayaArizona, Disratory, Cykasniber and Ole Jake Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hello, beautiful gamers! We are the Video Gamers Podcast, hosted by three lifelong gamers, and today we have a hijack a host episode for you all. Crazy, we've had so many of these lately. I am your host, Paul, and joining me, he is our polymath, which apparently is a person of wide-ranging knowledge, because he's the only one that knows what game and what host is going to have to play it. It's Josh. I thought you were insulting me for a second paul because i have you never heard the term polymath in my life dirty polymath i've lived a long life so polymath i feel like that's i googled good at multiple types of math you would think yeah i just googled person who knows a lot, and it said they're called a polymath. No.

Oh, dang it. Nice try. So there you go. That's your vocabulary lesson of the day. Vocabulary lesson. Thank you, Josh. Goodness gracious. And our resident idiot, Ryan. Oh, no.

We know who's not a polymath. Yep. Joining Josh and me, you may as well call both him and me john snow because we both know nothing it's ryan i know nothing i don't think that's a quote from the show but i like it it is now yeah is wait is that not a thing you know nothing john snow well that's what she says i don't remember john ever going i know, but maybe he does. Oh, boy. All right. So for any listeners who may not know, we kind of switched up our format of how we do

deep dives a couple months back. We have what we call force a friend, where basically we just take turns. We pick a game. We pick another host. They have to play it. No ifs, ands, or buts. And it's been a lot of fun, I think, because sometimes it's nice when someone just says, here's what you have to play. And normally I wouldn't play it. And I think we've all kind of discovered hidden gems. Sometimes we get picked for a game that doesn't jive so well, but it's always at least interesting. I think it's created a lot of fun discussions. And today we have a modified version of Force a Friend because we have been hijacked by someone on Patreon.

We owe a huge thank you to Ace of Shame, who has been mentioned a lot on the show. But he signed up for legendary status on Patreon, which is the highest tier of support. It's 100 bucks. There are lower options starting at $5 a month and all supporters get bonus episodes, shout out on the show,

all kinds of perks. And since ACE went legendary, that means that he gets to take over an episode for us. He has picked a game. He has picked a host. We do not know what the game is. We do not know the host, although we know it's not

josh not me because ace gave the information to him that's right it's not me so we are going to find out this information on the show we're gonna put on our bill o'reilly hats we're gonna do it live we'll do it live okay do it live i can i'll write it and we'll do it live josh i'm guessing that you are ecstatic because i feel like you really like being in the know i i it is really fun we've all been there and it is really nice to be the one that has the power that has the knowledge to kind of you know make the other two squirm a little bit you know's like, I know what you're going to have to play. And then when you're one of the hosts that you know you're up to get picked, there is definitely a nervous energy,

but a little bit of weird excitement at the same time. I mean, I think this is why we enjoy this format so much. Otherwise, we would have axed it a long time ago. You know what I mean? It's like, this sucks, guys. Why do we keep doing this? But I mean, I don't know. How do you guys feel when you know that you have the possibility of getting hijacked? It's not me.

I'm sitting easy tonight. Yeah. But what is that feeling? It's definitely, you do get a little antsy because it could be anything and we have no idea it could be a really long game could be a really short game like like spongebob that you got but you can still have a blast with it um i just hope that whatever is picked it is not me so i can continue dispensing liberty across the galaxy forever and ever ryan's been lobbying just for us to be a hell divers 2 podcast and that's all we cover so I can continue dispensing liberty across the galaxy forever and ever.

Ryan's been lobbying just for us to be a Helldivers 2 podcast, and that's all we cover. I think Ryan just wants us to keep yelling, how about a cup of liberty over and over, and he'd be happy. Yeah, I feel like it's win-win. I love it. If someone picks me to play a game, I feel honored. I feel like they want to hear what I have to say about it, so that's fun. And if they pick someone else and if it's a great game, I'm just going to

pick it up and play it with them. So I feel like it's win-win no matter what. And of course, it feels good when people help support the show. By the way, I guess I should have thrown out the URL. If you want to sign up for Patreon, it's MultiplayerSquad.com you you mentioned something paul and this is the funny part is i am i'm i'm chilling tonight i don't have to play this game i don't have to worry if it's me i don't have to worry about okay well for the next two weeks i'm going to be playing something that i don't know but at the same time when you don't get picked, you're kind of like, well, why didn't you pick me? What's wrong with me? Yeah, exactly.

So it's a weird catch-22. It's like you don't necessarily want to get forced into it, but then when somebody doesn't pick you, you're kind of like, well, what the heck, man? And I promise, Paul, one of these days you'll get to do your force of friend. Oh, I've given up on it entirely. It's never going to happen. on it it's never gonna happen yeah it's been so long that i just straight up told ryan the next game i'm gonna pick for him if we ever get back to just you know actually being able to pick each other at that point we have

threatened ryan with uh force of friends for final fantasy 7 rebirth and what was the one you were saying for him elden ring that's right there go. So we were kind of talking about what games we've been forced to play and it's kind of worked out pretty even so far, which is nice. All of us have been forced to do three. We do have another force or another hijack a host that we have not yet recorded that someone's working on so all of us have either three or four and um i had the privilege of playing fortnight as one of my force of friends or hijacks i also had the witness and edge of nowhere josh i believe you had metal gear solid five which was a lot of fun to talk about torchlight 2 and spongebob yep ryan you've had ghostbusters endless dungeon and subnautica yeah do you guys have like a favorite game that you've been forced to play so far i do

mine mine for sure was me and josh with the big old bug mama on endless dungeon that was a fun game man i and that was a lot of that one up on my own and then thankfully ryan was forced to play it and wound up loving it that's the beauty of of this format for me i have to give it to metal gear solid 5 i really had a ton of fun with spongebob um but metal gear solid 5 was just it's one of those iconic games that I just missed somehow. And it was my first introduction kind of back into the metal gear solid series. Um, and,

and that game was great, dude. So I have to give it to that one. Plus it would just seem, I mean, no shade thrown at SpongeBob. If someone's like SpongeBob is a way better game than metal gear, solid five,

I might have to bristle against that a little bit. That just sounds wrong. A little bit. just sounds wrong a little bit yeah i think for mine i would probably say edge of nowhere uh just oh wow busting out the quest 2 and getting to do some vr i think i would probably say that um i really enjoyed the witness as well i liked all my games fortnight was fun you know we all know what fortnight is and just having a chance to jump in and play it by how much i enjoyed fortnight to be honest i'm not saying it's still installed on my computer because it's not but it caught me off guard that was another one that we all jumped into and i found more

enjoyable than i i would have thought it's not installed but josh would reinstall it immediately if we said we were playing yeah i'm not missing out on fun times. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, Josh, since you're the person in the know, you are the show's polymath as we established. Why don't we just toss things your way and what you got for us? I'm still not sure I like that term, man. Okay. So like you touched on this briefly, Paul, but we, you guys do not know which hosts, which of you is getting picked. You have zero clue about the game that is get, that is getting picked for one of you as well. We do all this live. We do not share this information beforehand, which makes it fun

for you guys and makes it fun for the listeners. But in that vein, I'd like to tease things just a little bit too, you know, to kind of build up a little bit of the excitement, a little bit of the hype behind it, you know? So a little teaser. What if I told you that I know for a fact that neither one of you have ever played this game or in fact that you have never played any of the game in the entire series so this game will be

absolutely brand new to the three of us wow i i'm trying to think like what could be a long running series that you know for sure that we've never played all i know is we've played a lot of games we play a lot of games it's not final fantasy yes that does exclude final fantasy to ryan's delight yeah we know it's not going to be elder scrolls it's not gta i'm okay i'm getting kind of curious okay well let's tease it a little bit more then um ryan may not like this part so much but i will say that this game is an rpg which famously paul you and i love rpgs ryan favorite genre yeah i think it's my favorite genre too that that does not mean that all of them land for for me and i know they don't all in for you either paul but ryan you're the one that has kind of gone like oh i don't really like rpgs that much

but then you have skyrim in your like top i think it's at number two of all time for you uh i got it at uh i think it's a little further oh yeah you're all time you're your personal top ten yeah yeah yeah number two so which is an rpg ryan so explain yourself oh right right scott oh hold on hold on ryan's got some rpgs in his top 10 all rpgs are not the same yeah ryan's got diablo 2 he's got the witcher 3 he's got castlevania so you like action rpgs ryan you don't like the more traditional rpgs yeah i'm not a big a big kind of traditional or like turn-based style like rpg type type games or anything like that you know okay so when you hear the fact that that ace picked a game and that it's an rpg does that make you nervous

maybe a little bit because one if i've if i've never played it that's surprising to me any game within the series if there's a lot of releases within it that's surprising and then and then two those typically tend to be longer games so we might be on the hook for a little while on whoever gets forced okay all right but it doesn't like instill like mass fear in you then. No. Because you're open to the idea. Yeah. Yeah.

As long as I just am not forced to play anything like Pacific Drive again, I'm good. Oh, man. I'm so glad we're still fresh off that recording. Yeah. Yeah. Although this one won't be releasing for a little while, but we did just in real life play Pacific Drive. Okay. Yeah. Although this one won't be releasing for a little while, but we did just in real life play Pacific Drive. Okay. So Paul, I mean, I know you love RPGs. What is it about RPGs that does

resonate with you? Oh, I like that question. More than anything, I love storytelling. I mean, you guys know this. I am a huge TV and movie buff. I love video games. To me, there's nothing better than having great storytelling when it's immersive like in video games. I like being able to play as someone, and RPGs in particular, I prefer to play games that are third person when I play as an established character. I want to be Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, or I want to be Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher. I have nothing against playing games where you create your own character and you play. I mean, I love cyberpunk. I love tons of games like that. But for me, RPG storytelling is the peak of gaming. The best RPGs for me beat out the best shooters the best puzzle games even multiplayer like for me nothing can

substitute great storytelling through rpg formats that's nice that's good i not that i'm at risk of being picked here but i for me rpgs i love progression in games i like starting off as this little no-name character that you know is thrown into some yeah like honestly Yeah, like, honestly, like, I'm hitting a rat with a stick, and then by the end of my adventure... Like in real life. I mean, I have a BB gun for that, but... But yeah, then by the end of my adventure, I'm this, you know, godlike character

that is taking on dragons or whatever. I just, I like that progression element to it and feeling like my character is getting stronger but a good story is very important it's funny you touched on the story part paul because the last teaser that i'm gonna throw out there before we actually get to the game reveal and the host reveal um is that ace picked this particular game because of the story involved in this game. Okay. Now, I will say that, you know,

I was chatting with Ace a lot, and he wants to see if the story of a game can make an entire game for somebody. And Ace knows this very well. He knows that story is your favorite thing. And with Ryan, Ryan loves Red Dead Redemption 2 more than I do. And that's partly because of the incredible story.

So in Ryan's case, maybe this isn't a game that he would naturally gravitate to, but if it has an incredible story involved, could that sway Ryan's opinion of an RPG? And in the same vein for you, Paul, what if it's a game where maybe the gameplay won't resonate 100% with you, but the story is so incredible that Ace is kind of going, well, put your money where your mouth's at, Paul. if you're saying story is the the cream of the crop

for you can it carry a game for you that may not be like up your alley oh that's interesting see i would say absolutely story can carry a game i know that like josh you and i have talked about this a little bit not even all that long ago i I said, I am perfectly fine playing a game that has a fantastic story and bad gameplay, or not even necessarily bad. Gameplay I don't enjoy. And I'll give you a perfect example. Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity Original Sin 2, two games that are beloved. They are practically unimpeachable in public opinion. I love the stories and the choices. I do not enjoy the combat of those games. It's inventive.

It's well-made. I get it. DOS 2, I spent way more time in, and I tinkered so much with setting up traps with barrels and all the elemental stuff. So those are games where I feel like that's absolutely the case. And I love interactive games like The Walking Dead, all the telltale stuff I love. So to me, I think if the story is good enough, I can put up with gameplay. I don't enjoy, but of course it's better when they both hit on all cylinders, obviously.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, that's I'm, I'm, I am big. I do like games that have a little more action pace to them, or obviously I'm a huge multiplayer guy. Cause that almost to me is like the story we create with our experiences online, which I love. And I, you know, I'm a people person. So I like to, you know, just hang out with everybody.

And, um, but yeah, story is real big to me. I mean, there's obviously, you know, you mentioned red dead. That's one where they just marry the two brilliantly where the the gameplay is phenomenal and the story you're so drawn into it and you just can't help yourself but just love it and fall in love with the characters and then fall in love with how you move around the world so yeah i'd be interested to see like if if the gameplay is not as good if it's just a killer story, how I would feel about it. Yeah, I'm like you, Ryan. I tend to gravitate more towards gameplay.

It's funny because somebody actually kind of called me out for Red Dead not being in my personal top 10. Betrayal. Betrayal. Betrayal. Betrayal. Betrayal.

And they were like, how could you? This is a betrayal i can't stomach you know and then i told him i mean i was like if you look at my like my top 10 it's much more of like the gameplay elements i i mean obviously there's some very good story-based games there but i i i'm like you and that i tend to want really really good gameplay and story secondary to that um but i i will say that an incredible story will absolutely stick with me for a really long time. And the games that people go, what's one game that

you could, if you could erase from your memory and experience all over again, almost always, it's going to be a game where the story is incredible and it kind of carries you through that gamut of emotions at the same time. So, okay. Well, I mean, I think this is enough beating around the bush on this guy. So that's enough teasing. I know the people are saying, okay, which host is it going to be? Which host is it going to be? Paul, it's going to be you. Ryan has a look of relief on his face. Okay, so Paul, and I touched on this, is that Ace is wanting to put you to the test on this.

And I feel like Ace has been around for a long time. He's a very good friend of ours and the show at this point. Oh, yeah, he knows. Yeah, and I like this because it is going to be the test for you, Paul, to say, is it true that Good Story can carry a game for you or not? Okay, so I had a little bit of a feeling this might be the case because I have been on record as talking about how, especially like turn-based combat, I don't enjoy at all. And we're talking about RPGs. And if we're talking great epic story and maybe gameplay elements that I wouldn't like, as I was hearing all that, I was starting to think, I think I might be the one chosen.

So I'm not completely shocked. Okay. I'm very curious. I will tell you this, not to just keep teasing things, but I told Ace when he told me it was you and he told me the game, I went, oh boy. What does that mean? Well, we're going to find out

because we're going to go to break. And then when we come back, we're going to reveal what the game is that Paul is being forced to play. All right, we're back. Everybody. We've been teasing it.

Now here's something that everybody doesn't know is that I dropped off an envelope to each of you guys earlier today because Ace sent something to go along with this. So what I want you guys earlier today because ace ace sent something to go along with this so what i want you guys to do i know this isn't the best you know audio in the world but go ahead and open your envelopes and then ryan okay you'll read yours first all right hang on to yours but kind of get get it get get familiar with yours paul man Ace has sent us so much stuff over the years. I told Ace, I said, dude, I absolutely love this. I will say that Ace had a local or like an artist commission for this. Ace also supports local artists and small-time artists and stuff like that,

which is really cool. So Ryan. I'm not looking yet. I'll wait until it's my turn. Okay. Ryan's is just, it's my turn. Okay. Ryan's is just, it's not you. I couldn't spoil it.

So I had to drive to Ryan's house to drop off an envelope for Ryan. Cause I was like, if I bring Paul an envelope on the day that we're recording this, he's going to know it's him. So Ryan, you got the dummy envelope. Paul, go ahead and open yours ace had this specially made for you and i was just i was gonna say how funny would it be if i opened mine and it just said just kidding josh you're the one that's that would have been great

okay so paul go ahead and read the back of this this is the game reveal as well so go ahead and read the back of this. This is the game reveal as well. So go ahead and read this. This is so cool. All right. It's really neat. It's got some very well done. Take your heart. Yep. It looks awesome.

And then I will say, Ace, this does look like a ransom note from a serial killer. Exactly what it's intended to look like. That's what it looks like. It looks like we have your son meet us on this corner with five million dollars all right so go ahead and read this for everybody paul all right it says to the one who has shut his heart to the joys of jrpgs the one who claims the story is most important yet shuns great tales such as this that's right paul of the video gamers podcast we the phantom thieves have decided to steal your heart with some assistance of a legendary friend we will save you from your current disposition

by making you play persona 5 royal oh it's time to start the game the phantom thieves of hearts and ace of shame wow how cool is that it's really cool and that card is legit the artwork on that card the way that the wording is written out on that okay so i would be remiss if i did not announce my trolling of you guys to the world sure why not go for it because i was worried that you guys might have been on the trail a little bit because the one the only clue that i gave either of you was that hey this is a big game this is a giant video game and we want to make sure that we have time for you to play it and instantly you two geniuses went to the internet and started looking up what are some

of the longest games out there and instantly paul is running through this list and actually and i was like oh no and then thankfully you carried on so i don't think you had that much of a clue but what I did today is in making the outline I pretended to accidentally leave the title of the game and I put like a dragon infinite wealth in there on purpose and then Paul said

you might want to remove the title and then I went oh no and I pretended like I accidentally left it in there to completely throw you guys off the trail. Well, it worked. It definitely worked. I definitely was not assuming it was Persona, so you didn't have to do anything,

but the added trolling is the icing on the cake. It was very funny because I legitimately was like, I don't know if it's me or Ryan, but like Josh, you need to remove the name of the game because it might be right there i and i saw it right after i was in the middle of a job and you know we'll we'll chat on our discord sometimes and uh and i was looking at it and i saw it immediately too and i was about to type that and then paul typed it and then i immediately went to google and i'm like all right here we go let's look at this started researching it right

away a little misdirection on my part i'm sorry to troll you guys but i had to keep the suspense and the surprise in there for you you do have fun with this i do and i mean i do i play into the fact that you guys think i'm dumb enough to leave the title in the outline by accident too so it was believable i'm not saying that i'm upset by that either so okay, okay. So Paul persona five Royale. Okay. Do you know anything about the persona series whatsoever? I know that they are extraordinarily Japanese.

Yep. That's honestly about it. I have definitely seen a lot of footage. I don't know that I could tell you any specifics like character names or anything like that. I know it's a much beloved series, but yeah, you are right in that I have never played any of the personas. I have not either. And I know Ryan has not. Now I will say that when Ace picked this,

I did ask him for the reason why he picked this just a quick little, sometimes we like to ask the, you know ask our legendary people, hey, why'd you pick the host and why'd you pick this game? So Ace basically said, hey, yo, fellas, I'm sure you're surprised that I didn't pick Ender Lilies,

but as I was listening back to older episodes, something caught my attention multiple times that Paul has always said the story is what matters most to him in games. And though the setting and gameplay of Persona 5 Royale may not be his usual cup of tea, I have a feeling the story will be something he will never forget, and hopefully this will open his horizons to a whole new world of games.

Welcome to the new era of JRPGs, Paul. Ooh, okay. And as I'm Googling this, it's making me more impressed with his letter more and more, because apparently the Phantom Thieves and Stealing Your Heart, this is all stuff from the game that are references that are going right over my head. Yes. But I'm sure people who have played. They will make a lot more sense to you. Yeah. And for people that have played it as well.

Okay. So that is why Ace picked you. We kind of touched on that a little bit already. Um, okay. So I do have another little surprise for you guys. Okay. Paul, what if I told you that when Ace initially told me about this game, that I picked it up and I've been playing it and I'm about 12 hours in to this game already? Uh, are you just joking? I not i'm 100 serious okay that's very funny because it it i checked your steam profile not long ago comparing our achievements in pacific

drive so i i did not see that so i wonder if you picked it up like right after or i don't know if you can hide games i haven't played it in a couple weeks so I knew that hell divers and Pacific Drive would show as the recent games and so I was not worried that you would see that on there. Okay, so you've been dabbling. I'm about 12 hours in Ryan's Ryan's

just flabbergasted right now. He's like I just it all makes sense now while you haven't been diving with me and just left me stranded diving with me. Oh, I've been diving with you. Okay, so I will say this, Paul. How do you feel about anime? Do you watch any anime? Do you like anime?

Because I will say in my playtime with this, and I'm not going to give any other information on this game other than that, I am a fan of anime and as a fan of anime i can definitely see that the anime like i don't want to even want to say influence because it's just straight like anime um in a lot of parts and cut scenes and things like that in this game so i'm curious like what is your do you dabble in anime like how do you feel about that i don't really dabble in it i wouldn't say i you feel about that? I don't really dabble in it. I wouldn't say I particularly like or dislike anime.

It's just never really been in my circles. I never really had friends that loved it and I'd watch it with them or anything like that. Does, does Avatar the Last Airbender count? I feel like that's sort of like anime. Oh, that one's so good. I love Avatar the Last Airbender. I mean, I said i i went through it during the pandemic for the first time and i remember coming on the pod and saying this is in

my top 10 shows of all time like it's that good um so i think i would like it i watched a little bit of edge runners the cyberpunk anime that's great which is crazy because i haven't seen i liked it yeah yeah i watched i watched like four episodes and just kind of fizzled. Um, so I would not say I'm a huge anime guy, but I'm not opposed to the idea. That's good. Cause you're gonna, you're gonna get your, your taste of anime with this game. Um, I won't share any of my thoughts on the game so far, other than that, it is very much, uh, based on anime, uh, again, a lot of the cut scenes and stuff like that. And I didn't know what your take on that was. Okay, so now that we

know the game, we know it's Paul. We've had a couple little surprises. A little bit of trolling by me, which is to be expected at this point. Let me just peak your interest a little bit more, Paul. I know you're a big Metacritic guy. The Metacritic score... I don't think I don't already have it up.

I know you did, but the Metacritic i don't think i don't already have it up oh i i know you did but the metacritic score for this game is a 95 which is metacritic must play astronomically high for a game um the user score is an 8.6 which is a little bit lower i'll be honest i'm not sure why that is because if you go over to steam the user score on steam is a 97 overwhelmingly positive score and that's out of 41 000 reviews so there is something here that really really resonates with people oh no one one of the top i don't know if you pulled any community reviews or not, but one is a guy with 85 hours on record and it says, just finish the tutorial. Yeah. This is notoriously a very big game. Now, I will also say this just for the listeners and

just for Paul's sanity. I did talk to Ace. There is no expectation whatsoever that you actually finish this game,ul this is a hundred hour rpg i mean if you happen to get sucked in nobody's going to complain but just understand that nobody is expecting that you're going to somehow blow through this game in two weeks you know what i mean and come back and be like okay i finished it guys like i think more so ace just wanted to see if the story does resonate with you. And if you do kind of get sucked in and how you feel about things. Poor Ace. Paul's going to break his heart.

You think so? Dude, there's a chance I might love it. I 100% will go into this trying to like it as much as I can. It does note well with those scores. That's impressive. Is this like actually known for having a fantastic story? Okay, so I'll say this.

I didn't want to spoil anything. I am very impressed with the story of this game so far. And I'm 12 hours in, which is touching a 10th of the game so far. Oh, wow. But so far, so good in that case nice hey i just talked about how much i liked edge of nowhere out of all the hijack a host that we've done and that's a game that had pretty mid

gameplay and the story carried it so i i'm all about this 97 97% on Steam. That tells me if I don't like it, I'm in the very small minority. I have a feeling it's probably going to be pretty good. Okay, well, since you're on the topic of story and a little bit more about this game, I found a really good write-up to this. And so the question was, what makes Persona 5 special over the other Persona games,

which we know nothing about, but they kind of touch on some really good stuff that is actually unique to Persona 5 special over the other Persona games, which we know nothing about, but they kind of touch on some really good stuff that is actually unique to Persona 5 that I think might pique your interest a little bit. So I'm just gonna read this. Polish. Now, there's some things that didn't get as polished as it could have,

and there's some flaws, one rather glaring, but on the whole, it's a story that works. The themes in each of the Persona games have always been very strong, particularly the Persona 2 duology and on. Persona 2 was about reputation and how mistakes can haunt you but do not have to define you. Persona 3 was about grief, apathy, and learning to appreciate life and not take any moment for granted.

Persona 4 was about friendship, truth, and how those things can set you free. Persona five is about failure, societal failure, political failure in the form of corruption, and personal failure. Failure through bad luck, justice through legitimate themes in the world. Oh, I'm sorry. Justice through legitimate themes has in this world become a hollow joke. The adults around them have become callous to the injustice and failure and are either unwilling or unable to do much of anything about the unraveling around them. Some even cheer it on thinking it means security for them in the long term because it's safe. Many, not all, but many segments of society have become lazy in their thinking and

willing to accept all of this as their lot in life, so they do not have to think about how they've been robbed or how they could be more than what they are. Due to these failures, each of the thieves and the confidants have lost their places in the world. They are in positions that they cannot escape on their own. I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this. People and systems that failed them, it happens. The world can seem unfeeling or actively cruel to the kind beating down the innocent and taking advantage of the simple. The phantom thieves are the people

who found the strength to say, screw that. This along with the well-executed visual direction, gorgeous menus, and slick acid jazz drenched soundtrack with the astonishingly talented Lynn providing vocals to the standout tunes an incredibly agile scat to songs like tokyo daylight just make the whole package sing okay i can get on board with it almost sounds a little bit like uh robin hood-esque it where it's like the system is is not not doing it for the little man so we're just going to take over. Yeah, stick it to the man.

I'll say this. In my 12 hours of play time, this game dives into some deep and somewhat dark places that exist in life for people, and I'm kind of wondering if that will resonate in the sense that the story is fairly gripping already. Like I hate some of the characters, but it's like intentional. You know what I mean?

Like it's already grabbing me in that regard. So I like that there's like this kind of real world parallel to that. And it's a game that's not afraid to face some difficult topics at the same time, which this game definitely does. I can tell you that right now. You're going to start playing it. You're going to be like, whoa, this game's going somewhere. I didn't think it was going to go. It does get a little dark.

Okay. Can I ask you a quick question? Of course. Did you play any? You said you did not play any Personas either before this? I've never played a single Persona game. And that's fine. We don't need to know character names or long-running stories. No, i think they're all self-contained to be honest um okay like i know

persona 3 reload just came out not long ago and people have really been loving that one it's like a modern remake of persona 3 but from my understanding the persona games are like each standalone they're they're like parallel universes almost okay yeah so Yeah. So there's no, like you don't need to look up prior story or anything like that. So, okay. So Paul, we're nearing the end of this episode. What do you think legitimately your response to this game is going to be?

Do you think you're going to enjoy it? Does it sound like, sorry, ace? This one may not be my cup of tea. What do you think? Okay. So if,

if the story is really gripping but let's say it's slow turn based combat which i don't even know how slow it is in this game i'm sure i saw footage at some point it just kind of went in my brain and then immediately left um i feel like at worst, it's going to be highly memorable. I'm guessing it's going to have some really interesting twists and turns in the story that are really going to drag it higher on my leaderboard. I don't know that I'm necessarily going to love it. I have also often said that when games are very like East Asian, that doesn't always jive with me. Like I did not love the Bayonetta games or the other series that the same guy made. I can't remember the name now, but those games sometimes are hard for me to get into. And so even with action games that are very

Eastern Asian, sometimes I struggle. So that might also get in the way of me liking it here. But I will say if the story is fantastic I have a feeling I'm going to be able to play a long time even if I'm not loving the combat yeah um I did tell ace like I said I went oh and then I said I don't know how this one's gonna go man and he said that's fine you know i mean i he he does not have an expectation and he's even said like paul might hate this or he might love it but i don't you know i i yeah i don't know man by the way it's devil may cry that's the other series that i couldn't get into over the top kind of stylized action type games but i couldn't think of it either so okay where do you where do you think this is gonna land on your leaderboard paul of stylized action type games, but I couldn't think of it either. So, okay.

Where do you think this is going to land on your leaderboard, Paul? Oh, here we go. I feel like in reading between the lines, Josh is warning me, and he's saying, Paul, you're going to hate it. I don't know. That's what I'm hearing.

I'll say this. If you can get into the... I worry a little bit that the stylization is not going to resonate with you. Sure. The anime influence, I'm not sure how you're going to take it. And it is turn-based combat.

I can tell you that right now. Sure. And so there are things that I think might go, ooh, but this was the question at the top of the show. The story to me already is gripping, you know, and I care about these characters. I hate some of the characters like there, but, but the game's just a little weird too, man, like anime is, you know? And so I, I legitimately don't know. I don't, I don't know if you're going to hate it or if you're going to come back and be like,

dude, this was phenomenal. Like, wipe my memory and let me experience it again kind of thing. All 100 plus hours. There is something to be said for a game that just has such a story that you can dive into that you sit down and the next thing you know, three hours have passed by. And you still kind of want to figure out what's going on next.

But it's 1230, you know, in the morning and you got to go to sleep because you got to work the next day. So, yeah, that is good. I wish you the best, Paul. And I'm glad it's not me. Thank you, Ryan. So when I look at my leaderboard, I'm just going to kind of cheat here and just say halfway down the list. That's my guess. Maybe I'll love the story.

Not so much the stylization. So I'm just going to throw out like 51. So like around Raft, Among Us, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Ark. I think it'll probably be somewhere in that range. Okay. In my opinion, if that's the case, that would mean you really like the story, but the gameplay doesn't land for you. And so they kind of sort of cancel each other out.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But that's still a little bit high because these are still games that I really enjoy. I mean, we're also talking, this is in the range of vermin tied to killing floor to shovel night away

out. I love all those games. So, you know, I, I think that's still high expectation. Well, I'm going to continue to play, Paul. I make no promises as to how much more, but we do have a little bit of a or I have a little bit of a gap in my gaming schedule right now. And so I actually do want to jump back into it because I haven't played in a few weeks because I've been spreading democracy and driving through the Pacific Northwest. So I am actually going to dive back in.

I will probably put in another five hours or so and then kind of see where it goes from there. But I'll be able to talk about this with you a little bit when the time comes for us to come back and actually do the deep dive on this one. Next thing you know, he's going to crack out and have it done in a week. I'm going to be like, I beat it, guys.

And they're going to be like, no way. What? The man who beats almost no games I don't think is going to stick with one of the most well-known longest games of all time. All right. Well, that is it for this episode, guys. We're going to come back in two weeks

to do the full deep dive on Persona 5 Royale. We will find out what Paul thinks of this game. We'll find out if it landed for him. We'll find out what didn't land for him, if that's the case as well. But we will come back. We will do a full episode on this. I'm actually really excited.

This game is absolutely beloved by a lot of people. Is it going to land with us? We're going to find out. And we want to say thank you once again to Ace of Shame. I mean, Ace is one of our longest, biggest supporters of the show. He has sent us so much like swag and Christmas gifts and support on Patreon. We really appreciate you, Ace. You're our friend

for life yeah outside of any of this support so you hear that yeah we really appreciate you and having you around you can buy our love yeah i'm just kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding yeah yeah yeah ace is awesome we love having them around all right and then just so our listeners are reminded you know make sure to go check out multiplayer squad.com go look at patreon options especially if you want to hijack an episode like ace did and make sure to rate our show five stars and leave a written review and until next time happy gaming see ya all right see everybody you Thank you.