0:13

Welcome to another episode of acts of

0:16

the blood god and independent RPG podcast.

0:18

I'm your host Kat Bailey. I'm joined

0:20

as always by my lovely co

0:22

host Nadia Oxford. Hello, Kat. Good

0:24

to have us all together again.

0:27

I guess. I

0:29

guess maybe also

0:33

joining us freshly healed from COVID.

0:35

Congratulations. It's Eric Van Allen. You

0:38

know, I took a vacation just

0:40

to get my mind off things just you

0:42

know, have a week away was going to

0:44

come back all refreshed. And

0:46

then I got COVID. So now I'm just really

0:48

like I'm not allowed to rest ever again. No

0:51

rest for me. So here

0:53

I am ready to make the content and

0:55

perish for all y'all in the process. And

0:59

we have a special guest if you could

1:01

quickly introduce yourself. I'm

1:04

James Golisio. I'm freelance writer.

1:07

Eric knows me. We've seen each other at events

1:09

a couple of times. I'm I've

1:12

been with RPG sites since

1:15

2017. And here to

1:17

talk about trails through daybreak. Yes,

1:20

he is. Yep. Due

1:22

to popular demand, we will

1:24

be talking about the legend

1:26

of heroes trails through daybreak,

1:29

which is now available in the

1:32

US RPG site,

1:35

reviewed it, it came out kind

1:37

of early the early part of

1:39

July, when we were either busy

1:41

or recovering from COVID. And

1:44

now we are somewhat well positioned to play

1:46

it. James, you played the Japanese version originally.

1:49

You're that hardcore. Yep.

1:53

I actually have a contact at Falcom

1:55

and I've already requested code for the

1:57

game that's coming out in Japan. in

2:00

like two months, Kainokiseki, because

2:03

yeah, I'm excited for that.

2:07

Awesome. Indeed. We'll be getting

2:09

into it. We'll be talking about whether

2:11

or not it's a good starting point for

2:13

the series, which is something that everybody always

2:15

seems to ask and such

2:18

and such. But before we do that,

2:20

if you enjoy the show, please leave

2:23

us a review on the Podketcher of

2:25

your choice, support us on Patreon, patreon.com/blood.pod.

2:28

Just $1 a month. You can get the show ad free

2:31

and you get access to our Discord. We're

2:33

going to be doing our Acts of the

2:35

Blood God stream on August 17th and 18th.

2:40

We were just talking about blocking

2:42

in the schedule before this podcast.

2:45

We should really do that this week, but

2:47

we're going to do that. It's going to be exciting.

2:50

August 17th and 18th. Mark

2:52

your calendar as we do another

2:54

week and long benefit for Trans

2:56

Lifeline. I'm going to tease something

2:59

else. Moonblaze Wolf is going to

3:01

be doing another speed run. What

3:04

game will Moonblaze Wolf be running? Find

3:08

out. Oh, I was

3:10

I was going to say it. I thought it was

3:12

like a lead in. You were like ramping. No, no,

3:14

no, no. Tell no, it's a secret.

3:16

That would have been pretty funny. No

3:19

one else said during the actual thing. We

3:23

stream every Saturday. These

3:26

days around 930 a.m. Pacific,

3:28

1230 a.m. Eastern.

3:31

We've been starting later and later because

3:33

we've been setting everything up.

3:35

But yeah, so check us

3:38

out. Twitch TV slash blood God

3:40

pod. Subscribe to us on YouTube.

3:43

Hit us up on all the social channels.

3:45

Instagram X slash Twitter,

3:48

et cetera. Go buy some merch from our shore

3:50

at shop dot blood God pod dot

3:52

com. You know the drill. OK,

3:55

the legend of heroes trails

3:58

through daybreak. the

4:00

latest entry in

4:02

the long running Legend of Heroes

4:04

series. It is beginning of

4:07

the second half of

4:10

the series, which seems really daunting because there

4:12

have been like what? A dozen games to

4:14

this point, James? Yes,

4:16

a dozen games have have

4:19

officially released and the 13th game

4:21

is releasing in Japan in September.

4:23

There's also the Legend of Yuta,

4:25

which is a spinoff, which as

4:28

far as anyone can tell is

4:30

completely unrelated. It's just

4:32

they wanted to give an extra

4:34

marketing push for what is essentially

4:37

another one of Falcom series. They just kind

4:39

of like rebranded it to try and get

4:41

better sales for it. Yeah, I

4:44

actually played that one on Switch. It's fun. It's a

4:46

it's an adaptation of a PSP game, isn't it? Yes,

4:49

it's a remaster of a PSP game.

4:51

It's honestly one of my favorite Falcom

4:53

games, and it's easy to recommend because

4:56

you don't have to have any

4:58

knowledge or any interest in the

5:00

actual trail series because it is

5:02

completely separate, completely standalone. Yeah,

5:04

I can give it a recommendation, too. It's a fun

5:07

little action, which is pretty cool mechanics. Trails

5:11

through Daybreak is set in a new

5:13

region, but it should be

5:16

familiar to fans. The series is Kalbhard,

5:18

which is on the eastern side of

5:20

Crossbell, which is perpetually in

5:22

conflict with Erebonia, which I

5:24

believe is the continent that's shown

5:26

in Trails through Cold Steel. The

5:30

Trails series is about as close as we're

5:32

going to get to. What

5:34

would I describe it? An epic

5:36

fantasy series, but in RPG

5:39

form. There are numerous

5:41

games that are relatively standalone, designed

5:43

to be kind of entry points

5:45

to fans who want to try

5:48

this out. There

5:50

are a lot of reasons, I think, to

5:52

pick up the series with Trails through Daybreak.

5:55

Features a brand new engine. It's the

5:57

beginning of a new art. It's

6:00

the start of a significant new area, has

6:03

a new region. Playing

6:06

the other games is really helpful because

6:08

there are cameos and things like that,

6:10

but otherwise you can go in relatively fresh.

6:12

Is that right, James? Yes.

6:16

So, and Toshihiro

6:20

Kondo, the CEO of Falcom, has

6:22

told me on numerous occasions that one

6:25

of the kind of, one

6:29

of the tough points about the series

6:31

is that it's unlike anything else in

6:33

both the industry, but also specifically the

6:35

RPG like space, because the

6:39

series is 12 games long so far. And

6:42

even though there are like different arcs where

6:45

you can jump into them, like at

6:47

any like kind of starting point for an arc, obviously

6:50

this is an RPG series

6:52

unlike anything else where kind of like

6:54

an MMO, it just keeps building on

6:57

the same story. So

6:59

like, I'm pretty sure by the end of

7:01

the game that's coming out this year in

7:03

Japan, the average like series playtime will be

7:05

just shy of like a thousand hours for

7:07

if you're doing like 100% of each game.

7:11

That sounds about right. Yeah.

7:13

So, yeah, Daybreak is the first real

7:15

like entry point in the series since

7:17

Trails of Gold Seal, which I believe

7:20

came out in 2014 in

7:23

Japan for the Vita and PlayStation 3. Obviously

7:26

it's been ported to PlayStation 4 and PC since,

7:28

but yeah, it's been a

7:30

while since there's been a new game

7:33

series that wasn't just like bogged down

7:35

by, oh, you need to have played

7:37

at least like two or three ever

7:40

games to realistically start with this one.

7:43

But yeah. I

7:46

think it's funny that we used to be

7:48

like, wow, Xenoblade, not Xenoblade Chronicles,

7:50

Xeno Saga. What a crazy

7:52

idea for this multi-part series that's supposed

7:54

to be taking part across multiple consoles

7:56

and now we're probably going

7:58

to have a series that goes too. dozen

8:01

entries across a variety of different consoles. And

8:03

they're like, screw it, we don't care.

8:06

You can make it up whatever you want. The

8:09

two dozen that so far. It's

8:12

going to eventually be two dozen, right? No,

8:15

like actually, Kondo

8:17

just did an interview with GameSpot like

8:19

a week or so ago and he

8:21

said, oh, yeah, so this is the

8:23

series 20th anniversary in Japan. There will

8:25

not be a 30th. We are finishing

8:27

up the story before the 30th anniversary.

8:30

Oh, wow. Yeah, he did say we're

8:32

going to get to the end. Yeah.

8:34

Yeah. Arguably, I'd say because the series

8:36

is going to be ending off within the next

8:38

decade, now's probably the best time to get into

8:40

it because it'll take you like less than a

8:42

decade to get through the games, hopefully, and you'll

8:44

be ready to see the end of the story.

8:47

Yeah, theoretically. There are

8:49

just hope I make it another decade, honestly.

8:52

Yeah, like I was I was going to

8:54

point out that like he probably wants to

8:56

avoid a situation like what happened with Shenmue

8:58

because like Shenmue has always been that like

9:01

also going to have so many parts and it's going

9:03

to be told over such a long time. And now

9:05

like Shenmue three kind of

9:07

didn't really do what it needed to do

9:09

to revive that series. And it's yeah, I

9:12

used to hear like, OK, so like what

9:14

happens to the story that was planned for

9:16

Shenmue? You don't want to end up up

9:19

that creek. And so if Trails is going

9:21

to continue momentum and keep going, definitely having

9:23

like an endpoint in mind is not the

9:25

worst idea. But I do find

9:27

what's interesting about Trails outside looking in is that

9:30

I think it's like the closest thing

9:32

we have to single player MMO design and

9:34

that you kind of have this broad overarching

9:36

world where you're doing all these different stories

9:38

and even you're playing different characters, different parties

9:40

and stuff like that. But it is told

9:42

within a shared

9:45

world that is building on

9:47

top of itself, maybe, you know, in some ways

9:49

through cameos, but also just through the way that

9:51

the world changes over how you play it. Does

9:53

that kind of carry through Daybreak? Because Daybreak is

9:56

like a fresh start in a lot of ways,

9:58

right? Yes. So

10:00

one interesting thing about the trail series, which

10:02

is kind of Not

10:04

really spoiler because it's something you can

10:07

see from the outside looking and just

10:09

looking at like the various entry points

10:12

So in universe it's been like six or

10:14

seven years somewhere around there from trails in

10:17

the sky first chapter through

10:19

trails for daybreak and in

10:22

trails in the sky first chapter There's a

10:24

side quest where it's like we have made

10:27

the world's first computer using magical

10:29

like Electricity or mint

10:32

energy that sort of thing. Yeah,

10:34

I'm true through daybreak people just

10:36

have smartphones the internet's real It's

10:39

modern day now Yeah,

10:41

I'm on a time. I started playing they had like

10:43

the big flip phones the yeah, yeah Kind

10:46

of had that design, but yeah Well

10:50

in the RPG site review

10:53

The story is described as picking

10:55

up a year and a half after the events

10:57

of the previous century trails into reverie Trails

11:00

through day to break puts you in

11:02

the shoes of van ark ride a

11:04

Spriggan Mercenary after accepting a

11:06

seemingly innocuous job. It's always an

11:08

innocuous job. It's never innocuous Trying

11:11

to locate a genesis a keepsake of

11:13

heroin Agnes is late great grandfather van

11:15

is thrust into events I will see him

11:18

uncovering the myriad mysterious ala mater this

11:21

organized mafia has been gaining

11:23

a foothold in the in Calvard and Van

11:25

soon finds himself at the center of events

11:28

that will shape the region

11:31

James you play trails for daybreak How

11:34

does its story stack up

11:36

to other entries in the series? It's

11:39

my favorite one. Whoa, that's

11:41

a big words, huh? Yeah,

11:44

and I actually my interview

11:46

of condos going up Later

11:49

next week But

11:51

one of the things that he said is that

11:53

for daybreak because the team has been working on

11:55

the series for so long One

11:57

of the things they focused on with

11:59

Calvert as a whole and what they wanted

12:01

to do with the stories. They actually pulled from like

12:04

reality and real world events to kind of tackle

12:06

some of the themes that they were like tack,

12:08

like working towards with Calvert.

12:11

And I feel like it had a very

12:13

positive impact because you can you can feel

12:15

it, you can feel it. It's very

12:18

much grounded in a way that I

12:20

feel like some of the other games

12:22

weren't not to say that there's

12:24

not fantastical stuff happening. There's always fantastical stuff

12:27

happening. But there is I

12:29

wouldn't say an edge necessarily to

12:31

it, but you can definitely feel

12:33

like, OK, they're making a point

12:36

here and it does resonate

12:38

to a degree. So what's

12:41

the point? Racism

12:43

is very, very bad. Racism

12:45

bad. I've heard that. That's not a bad point

12:47

to me in 2024, right? Yeah.

12:51

Since people have trouble getting the message. Yeah. Just

12:56

a little bit. It

12:58

also introduces a bunch of other

13:00

interesting kind of improvements, including

13:02

a new alignment system based

13:06

on law, chaos and a mix of the two

13:08

reminds me a little bit of shimagami tensei. Is

13:10

that kind of accurate to say, James? Yes,

13:13

the alignment system and daybreak, though, doesn't

13:15

directly impact the core story. It's just

13:17

kind of like a once

13:20

they set dressing because it does kind of inform

13:23

the ideas that they go for and

13:25

they tackle with the side quests. That's

13:28

another thing I'd say is that the side

13:30

quests writing in daybreak is a notable step

13:32

up from previous games. For

13:35

example, like in previous games, you were

13:37

like bracers, which are basically

13:39

mercenaries or basically cops and trails from

13:41

zero and Azure the crossbar. You are

13:43

just cops. And then a lot

13:46

of the types of quests you

13:48

were doing throughout the series prior to this were

13:50

pretty much the same thing. They even made jokes about where

13:53

it's like, yeah, you're a cop, but you're also doing the

13:55

stuff that's for bracers. You're basically bracer cops. And

13:57

in cold steel, you're like a millimeter. Academy

14:00

student, but it's like, hey, we want you

14:02

to be more well rounded. Here's some jobs.

14:04

And by the way, I used to be

14:06

a bracer. So these are basically bracer jobs

14:09

with daybreak. It's different like van,

14:11

like you mentioned, he's a Spriggan.

14:13

And what that means is, is

14:15

that he kind of he

14:17

isn't a bad guy, but he he's a

14:19

bit more morally gray. He'll take

14:22

jobs from people that maybe aren't always on

14:24

the good side of the law. And

14:26

you get and because of that, you get

14:28

to see kind of both sides of the

14:30

Calvert Republic. And you get to see, like,

14:33

for example, there's one

14:35

job you take from someone in Chapter two, this

14:37

is just the miners, the spoilers, where it's like,

14:39

I'm trying to find my long lost sister, I'm

14:41

her brother, and I'm not we were separated at

14:43

birth. And it's like, I'm trying to find her.

14:46

Here's a picture of her now. And

14:48

then you go through it and you find her. And

14:50

she's like, I've been dealing with the stalker lately. And

14:52

I'm, I'm just worried he's going to

14:55

find me again. It's like, oh, shit. And it

14:58

turns out that you figure out it's like one and the

15:00

same. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And

15:03

you didn't really get much of that in previous

15:05

games side quests, because now there's like, again, more

15:07

moral ambiguity to it. So it's like, OK, what

15:09

do you do with him now? Do

15:12

you just like kind

15:14

of blackmail him to be like, hey, we

15:17

know what you are. You you can give

15:20

us your give us the money and we

15:22

won't send you to the cops or do you

15:24

send them to the cops? Because it's like, well,

15:26

there's not enough, like, evidence

15:28

here for the cops to

15:30

do something on its own.

15:33

But you can kind of muscle

15:35

him out of the picture, being like, if I see

15:37

you around her again, it's not going to be pretty.

15:39

That sort of thing. I

15:43

think it's interesting that the RPG site

15:45

you mentioned that it's your favorite

15:48

story, but the RPG site review

15:51

is a little more mixed on it, I

15:53

think. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So

15:55

just a little bit of disagreement going on there.

15:58

Yeah. I feel like indicative. Fight,

16:00

fight, fight, fight. Yeah. I

16:03

have no beef with Scott. I will say

16:05

though, that it's kind of been a running

16:08

theme where like, uh, the RPG site,

16:10

Tetracast crew, we kind of all have a

16:12

similar opinion on the series. Like, uh, I

16:15

know that I was a bit of an outlier with

16:17

my review of, uh, trails and cold seal for the

16:19

funny thing is, is it on the Tetracast? We're pretty

16:21

much all of a green on agreement. It's like, yeah,

16:24

it's, it's, it's all right. But didn't like

16:26

some of the things with the story. Same

16:28

thing with trails for daybreak. Pretty much everyone

16:30

on the podcast that's played it like, uh,

16:32

chow and Josh, uh, we

16:34

love daybreak story, but it

16:37

seems like, uh, Scott was a bit of

16:39

an outlier again, nothing wrong with that. Just,

16:41

uh, it. I

16:44

loved it. And it feels like, uh, I've seen

16:47

a lot of people that have been very happy

16:49

with the way the story is turned out. So,

16:51

I mean, it happens like Katie used to be

16:54

the opposite of whatever we liked or ever hated

16:56

she loved and whatever we loved, she hated the

16:58

best. The rule was if

17:00

Katie liked it and Mike liked it, then it

17:02

was, uh, then probably they

17:04

were right. Yeah. Yeah. If

17:07

Katie liked it and I liked it, then Katie was

17:09

right. Good

17:14

rule. Good, good rule for life. Does Katie

17:16

like it? Probably good. Um,

17:19

villains. Uh, one of the, one

17:21

of the points that Scott called out in his

17:23

review was that. Uh,

17:26

he, he didn't like the villain apparently

17:28

in trails for daybreak.

17:32

Yeah. So I would

17:34

say that daybreak is one of the

17:36

better starting points, but one point of

17:38

contention I will share is that the

17:40

villains, I feel like they're

17:43

good, but a lot of their

17:45

motivation isn't immediately clear unless you've

17:48

played trails into reverie, because there

17:50

is a post game kind

17:52

of prologue set of VNs. For

17:55

like leading into trails through daybreak.

17:57

And one of those very specifically.

17:59

lays out here is the

18:02

main villain's motivation. What

18:05

is he inspired by? And you can still

18:07

get that going through Daybreak, but

18:09

if you've played Reverie, it's more

18:11

immediately obvious what he's going for.

18:14

And I do think that is a

18:16

demerit for Daybreak if it's your first

18:19

one coming in. I

18:22

have a question about Daybreak's combat, if

18:24

I may raise it. It

18:27

has like action RPG stuff in it, doesn't it? Where

18:29

you can like kind of brawl on the field and

18:31

stuff like that, where you can fight and stuff like

18:34

that. How

18:36

does that feel? Because it feels like we're at a

18:38

point where a lot of turn-based RPG developers, like Metaphor

18:40

is a really big example, like Metaphor is doing this,

18:42

where you can kind of fight

18:44

on the overworld and resolve a conflict there

18:47

with sort of action RPG stuff, or you

18:49

can go into a turn-based. And

18:51

I think Daybreak does something somewhat similar,

18:54

like does it work? Does

18:56

it click? Does it all work together

18:58

in unison? Yeah, it's ironic

19:00

how like Daybreak did this in 2021,

19:03

and now we have Metaphor coming out

19:05

that's doing a very similar thing, because

19:07

it's basically the same system. Because

19:09

I played Metaphor at Summer Game Fest, and

19:11

like with that, it's like you bash on

19:14

an enemy in the field until you get

19:16

a stun gauge, then you press a button

19:18

to transition to the turn-based battle system, and

19:20

you get like a buff heading into the

19:22

battle if you've stunned the enemy. The

19:25

only major difference is that with

19:27

Metaphor, there is a transition into

19:30

a bespoke arena for

19:32

those fights, whereas with Daybreak, it's

19:34

completely seamless. It's all on the

19:37

same world map. It just like

19:39

transitions to turn-based battles in

19:42

the middle of wherever you're fighting. Does

19:46

it work well? Do you feel like it's a good

19:48

evolution of that combat system? Yeah,

19:50

so I'd say it's less of an evolution

19:52

of the combat system itself, but it's more

19:55

of like a pace keeper. games

20:00

like the Cold Steel games, you could attack

20:02

an enemy on the field to get an

20:04

advantage into the turn based system. But

20:06

now it's like, OK, if there's these weaker enemies,

20:09

you can just like deal with them on the

20:11

field instead of going into like the turn based

20:13

system at all. And then stronger

20:15

enemies you build up to get an advantage when

20:17

you start the fight. So

20:19

it's less really a separate battle system

20:22

and more a way of streamlining like

20:24

the process of going through the game.

20:27

It feels like we've been verging on this like

20:30

shift in turn based games for some time, because even

20:32

like, you know, not a turn based game, but Tails

20:34

of Symphonia way back when I was playing on the

20:36

GameCube had that thing where you can kind of do

20:39

shoot your little ring, do a little burn. If

20:41

it hit the enemy, you're like, oh, you get to

20:43

start with the thing. And a lot of games have

20:45

done this sort of like swing your sword to get

20:48

in early strike and you'll get an advantage. And now

20:50

they're going like, hey, you can swing your

20:52

sword once. Why don't you do it a couple times? Why don't you

20:54

do a combo? Every Persona

20:56

of them, honestly, going

20:59

back to Persona 3. And

21:02

I don't think Persona 3 was, I

21:05

don't think Persona 3 was the first

21:07

to do this by any stretch of the

21:09

imagination, but it helped popularize it in

21:12

a lot of ways. So I'm

21:14

not surprised to see more and more developers

21:17

going in that particular direction.

21:20

The funny thing is in

21:23

the more PC RPG end of things,

21:26

we just had a game in Baldur's Gate 3

21:28

that was leaned

21:30

so hard into

21:33

turn based combat and

21:35

really gave light to the

21:37

commonly held wisdom that

21:40

turn based combat just does not mainstream

21:43

enough. Turns out

21:46

if you have enough characters who

21:49

you want to kiss one another, you're going

21:52

to be doing okay. Maybe

21:54

that's what Dragon Quest needs. They

21:56

tried with 11 people. You

21:59

all sort of. kiss Sylvando if he wanted to.

22:02

And you know, you want to even before for

22:05

Baldur's Gate, like even like Conchai Starrail

22:07

kind of proved the same point. Like

22:10

it's wild how like for years we've had

22:12

people saying, well, turn based RPGs aren't as

22:14

popular as action RPGs, whereas the

22:17

two most popular RPGs of 2023 return

22:19

based. I

22:24

also look at games like Octopath, which

22:26

like obviously Octopath didn't set the world

22:29

on fire, but it was like a

22:31

pretty notable game for Square Enix

22:33

in that year and definitely one

22:35

that that garnered some acclaim

22:37

from this podcast, among others.

22:39

But like it's it's

22:42

kind of strange to see the the ways in which

22:44

these things kind of branch out and then fold back

22:46

in. And obviously, like Final

22:48

Fantasy 16 was the thing that kind

22:50

of spurred this whole discussion forward, right?

22:53

That like 16 was going all the

22:55

way into action, arguably past action

22:57

RPG and into the world of like Devil

22:59

May Cry and stuff like that. And a

23:02

lot of that was

23:04

centered around the idea that they were trying to get new

23:06

audiences, new like eyes and

23:08

stuff like that. And then Baldur's Gate 3 shows up

23:10

and says, hey, like you can do

23:12

D&D because people know

23:15

about actual plays. They know how D&D

23:17

works. Like it works if you package

23:19

it, right? So I'm curious, like, with

23:22

Daybreak, does it feel like the turn

23:24

based is is still solid,

23:26

is it still where it needs to be

23:28

for that system or like is

23:30

kind of the action stuff on top, just like like

23:32

whipped cream on top of the Sunday or what's

23:35

what sort of the situation is the balance good there?

23:40

Yeah, like I said, it's it feels like the

23:42

action combat is mainly there for pacing. And I'd

23:44

say that the whipped cream analogy is a good

23:46

one. There's

23:49

actually some pretty major changes to

23:51

the turn based battle system itself

23:53

to not really accommodate

23:55

the action RPG system. But

23:58

like trails into reverie. the previous one

24:00

was building off of four games beforehand

24:03

of we're just making the Cold Steel

24:05

Battle system more and more and

24:07

more. So Daybreak does a lot

24:09

of things that are a bit different, like

24:14

the best way of putting it is is

24:16

that there's now like a kind of combo

24:18

system or a combo rate, where it's like

24:20

if you get a number of hits, and

24:23

that doesn't mean actions, but some like attacks

24:25

hit multiple times, the higher the

24:27

combo rate of the hits go up, the

24:29

more damage you're like, the more your damage

24:31

gets boosted. So there's a whole thing where

24:33

it's like, okay, one of your party members,

24:35

her S craft, which is basically your limit

24:38

break, does a bunch of

24:40

hits, especially if you're attacking a group

24:42

of enemies. So maybe you're doing

24:44

a boss fight, there's like one main dude,

24:46

but there's a couple like weaker dudes, you

24:48

start off with an attack from

24:50

her, then you use her S craft, so you

24:52

can break in and like steal a turn. And

24:55

then you get the combo rate up, and then

24:58

you just like whack with like single target, hard

25:00

hitting attacks from the rest of your party, because

25:02

it's like, well, you got the combo rate up.

25:05

So you get your damage boosted. So you want to take advantage

25:07

of that. Does it feel like

25:09

that directs the combat in a way though? Because

25:11

the flip side of that is always like, okay,

25:13

so now we have like an optimal way to

25:15

kind of cash in. Do you still feel like

25:17

there's meaningful reasons to want to not just jack

25:20

the combo rate way up and then cash in? Or

25:22

are there are there times where it feels like the

25:24

balance is still solid? I'd

25:26

say the balance is still solid. Ironically enough,

25:29

I'm not sure if the full review went

25:31

into it. But I know that one of

25:33

Scott's not really complaints, but nitpicks was is

25:35

that he really liked being able to break

25:37

the combat system over his knee in previous

25:40

games and daybreak is you

25:42

can definitely still do it, but it's a

25:44

bit more obtuse on how you do it.

25:46

It's less the actual battle systems itself, but

25:48

more like how you build your character using

25:51

the Orbent system, which is basically material. It

25:53

actually kind of brings back a system sort

25:55

of from the previous games. I

26:00

know that from Trails in the Sky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That

26:03

was a fun way to break your characters. Yeah.

26:05

Yeah. What's

26:07

your favorite Trails game, James? Trails

26:10

of Daybreak. This is the

26:12

one. Yes. My

26:14

runner-up would be either Trails from Zero or Trails

26:16

in the Sky, the third. Kind

26:19

of flip-flops between those two for the runner-up, depending

26:21

on the day. But really,

26:23

those two have a real strong connection

26:25

in the story that it

26:28

makes sense why I would have

26:30

trouble deciding between one or the

26:32

other. But Daybreak, I

26:36

really like how I really like Van as

26:38

a character. And I really like the party

26:40

dynamics. I really like the side quests. Like

26:43

I said, the side quests are the best

26:45

in the series. I've always

26:47

done pretty much all the side quests in the franchise

26:49

in the past. But I feel like Daybreak is the

26:51

first one where I can just say, even

26:54

for people that aren't really into doing side content,

26:56

yeah, you should do all the side quests in

26:58

Daybreak because you really benefit

27:00

from it in terms of how

27:03

much more you get to learn about Calvert

27:05

and just the stories that these side quests

27:07

tell. So

27:10

you like Trails 3, but not Trails

27:12

in the Sky, third, but not Trails SC.

27:17

I do like SC, but my

27:19

Trails in the Sky hot take

27:21

is second chapter is actually my

27:23

least favorite in that trilogy. Whoa.

27:27

That is a hot take. Tell me

27:30

more. I'm interested to hear about this. A

27:33

lot of it has to do with the pacing.

27:35

A lot of people will tell you that Trails

27:37

in the Sky, first chapter's pacing is slow, which

27:39

is true, but it's more consistent. And it's the

27:41

first game in the entire series. It has a

27:43

lot to build up to. And

27:45

I think that the way that first chapter's

27:48

pacing works is very good for the type

27:50

of stories trying to tell. It's like you're

27:52

with Joshua and Estelle. And

27:54

their whole thing is, well, they're just

27:56

so kids are trying to become bracers,

27:58

like full fudge bracers. but it's

28:01

like a road trip. They're going through their entire

28:03

home country of liberal. They're learning more about it.

28:05

And the stakes are super low until the very

28:07

end. And it's a slow

28:09

burn, but it's a very personal tale. It's

28:12

like, yeah, you get additional party

28:14

members as they're going through the game, but

28:16

it's just Estelle and Joshua 90%

28:18

of the time. And

28:21

I think that there's something really neat about

28:23

that. And I feel like second chapter, as

28:26

good as it is, the

28:28

pacing just is all over the place. And

28:31

it feels like a lot of

28:33

retreading first chapter in a lot of ways, whereas

28:35

Trolls in the Sky the Third is

28:38

very much its own thing. It's an entirely

28:40

different protagonist than Kevin Graham. And

28:43

it's just as much an epilogue for the

28:45

Trolls in the Sky arc as

28:48

it is like setting up the rest of the series.

28:51

And it kind of culminates in this story

28:54

moment that I feel like you don't really

28:56

get in a lot of RPGs specifically because

28:58

it's the same cast throughout these three games.

29:00

And I would say anyone that's played Trolls in the

29:02

Sky the Third, no matter how you feel about the

29:04

entire arc, everyone

29:06

I know that's played third and

29:09

has gotten to the ending agrees. It's like, there's

29:11

a lot of levity and there's a lot of

29:14

earned character moments right

29:17

at the end of Trolls in the Sky the Third that

29:19

it's like, okay, we know you've been with these characters for

29:21

something like 150 hours. Of

29:24

course you're gonna be emotional when it's time to say

29:26

goodbye to all of these guys. And you don't know

29:28

when the next time you're gonna see them is. Cause

29:30

when they were writing it, they weren't sure when they

29:32

were gonna show up again. And

29:35

it's just something that's completely unique to

29:37

this series and completely unique to the

29:39

third that the rest of the

29:42

Trolls in the Sky series doesn't have. And yeah.

29:45

Wow. So if you can get

29:47

through Trolls One and Two, you'll get a

29:49

big payoff in Trolls in the Sky the Third.

29:52

Yeah. James,

29:57

as someone who, have you played literally all of

29:59

them? Have you played all of the Trails

30:01

games? Dang, that's an accomplishment. What

30:04

is the state of

30:06

the Trails series, in your opinion, as

30:09

we head into the second half and

30:11

into into Daybreak? That's

30:14

the thing. It's it's been a lot of ups and

30:17

downs. And again, like I said, I I'm the odd

30:19

man out. I did not like Cold Seal for a

30:21

lot of people love Cold Seal for. I

30:24

feel like one of

30:26

the things that the Trail series has always kind

30:29

of had a problem with, and it's kind of

30:31

inherent to how they like how Falcom develops games.

30:33

They always have to have something out every year.

30:36

Like I said, this is the 20th anniversary of

30:38

the Trails series. Kainoke Seki

30:40

is the 13th game. And obviously,

30:42

they've also been putting out East games. They've

30:44

been putting out Tokyo Xanadu. They've been putting

30:46

out other stuff within that 20 year period,

30:48

which means inevitably some Trails

30:50

games have been kind of rushed, like Trolls

30:52

in the Sky first chapter and second chapter

30:55

were originally going to be one

30:57

game. Trails of Cold Steel one and

30:59

two were originally going to be one game. The

31:02

one thing that I can say about Daybreak is

31:04

that for the first time in an arc, well,

31:06

not the first time, because Trails from Zero very,

31:08

very much feels like, OK, this

31:11

was the full plans they had for the

31:13

opening game in an arc. And that's probably

31:15

why the Crossbell Games was only two of

31:17

them, because they were able to get it

31:19

right on the first go and they didn't have to stretch

31:21

things out a bit. Daybreak.

31:25

Is strong in the sense that it's a

31:27

long RPG, but it doesn't feel padded.

31:29

It feels like they had exactly enough time to

31:31

do what they wanted to. And

31:33

while there's definitely some moments where I can be

31:35

like, there's no fishing in this, it's obvious that

31:38

they cut that out because they need to come

31:40

out in time. Yes. But for

31:42

the Trails series, it's kind of remarkable when

31:45

there's an arc, when there's a game, especially

31:47

at the beginning of an arc, where it's

31:49

like, OK, it doesn't feel

31:51

like this is half of what they

31:53

originally planned for this game and for

31:55

this story. So

31:59

I'm very excited. heading into the next

32:01

game coming out in Japan because it's like,

32:03

okay, Daybreak two

32:07

was a filler game. Like Kondo

32:09

even said as much where it's like, we needed an

32:11

extra year for East 10. And from why I've played

32:13

of it, it's it's got a lot of character

32:15

moments, but it doesn't really push the

32:18

plot forward. So it feels like whatever

32:20

that next game in Japan, that's

32:22

what the plan they had for a fall what

32:24

for Daybreak and in a narrative sense. So

32:27

I'm very excited to see where they go from there. Imagine

32:30

playing 60, imagine playing

32:33

60 hours worth of filler. It's

32:36

like watching a filler anime or something.

32:40

Final fantasy 14. It's a

32:42

wonderful video game with so much content

32:44

in it. So much.

32:47

Let me tell you about Dragon Ball Z. Did you grow up

32:49

with Dragon Ball Z or did you not? Oh,

32:52

like original Dragon Ball Z. Yeah. No, cat.

32:55

I've not watched a single episode of Dragon Ball

32:57

Z. So you didn't sit there day after day

32:59

waiting for the super say and transformation

33:02

to go somewhere. When

33:04

are they going to get to the super say

33:06

and transformation? Actual actual filler

33:08

can actually be extremely good because

33:10

like filler in its original men's

33:13

sense is just like original content

33:15

meant to create a gap between

33:18

say like the adaptation, like what

33:20

the anime adaptation in the manga

33:22

it's adapting. Right. And so

33:25

I think because of that in Dragon Ball

33:27

was why we got that episode that Goku

33:29

and Piccolo learn how to drive. And that

33:31

was great. That's great. Burger

33:33

King was giving that out at the time. And

33:35

actually I did like a college humor skit or

33:37

something. No, it was actually really.

33:40

It's great. Also, Piccolo was

33:43

fit in that episode is incredible. It goes

33:45

so hard, but like that's wearing the shirt

33:47

that says post boy, right? Has a loose

33:49

collar on the backwards cap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

33:51

No, he's, he's rocking it. Um,

33:53

like, I do think that

33:56

even when you pad out the runtime of

33:58

something, it's not always the. worst thing to

34:00

do because that's kind of a hot topic

34:02

around some of Dawn trail right now is

34:04

that obviously fall of fancy

34:06

14 is going from one conclusion of

34:08

a giant arc into the

34:10

start of potentially whatever the next thing is,

34:12

whether that's going to be another major

34:15

arc in that sense that goes for like five expansions

34:17

or whether it's going to be smaller or whatever. We

34:19

don't really know yet. We just kind of have some

34:21

teases, but like ultimately I ended

34:24

up liking Dawn trail. It's not my favorite,

34:26

but it's definitely something I enjoyed because I

34:28

was like, Oh, we got to

34:30

just kind of do a story here off to

34:32

the side. And it had some implications near

34:35

the end where it's like, okay, here's some

34:37

like big lore stuff to think about and

34:39

talk about. But there's the narrative device. Yeah.

34:43

I think in

34:45

the world of like the MCU and stuff

34:48

like that, everybody gets so hooked on, but

34:50

what does this mean? Moving forward.

34:52

How does this tie into that? How is

34:54

this a teaser for what could eventually come?

34:56

Let's that we can do like a YouTube

34:59

video about like, this is actually a teasing

35:01

this next big thing. And like, I

35:03

don't know. It's cool to just have stories in

35:05

a world like that's kind of the RPG vibe,

35:07

right? Sometimes you want to live in a world,

35:09

right? Yeah. Yeah.

35:12

We play RPGs because they're adventures and

35:14

adventures aren't all just kind of building

35:16

on each other towards some grand conclusion

35:18

where every thread gets tied in perfectly

35:20

and all that. Like sometimes just an

35:23

adventure happens. Like something I think of

35:25

Avatar Last Airbender when we were watching

35:27

that for the autumn of the

35:29

Avatar. And then we had those episodes where

35:31

it was like, oh, they just kind of

35:33

did something this week and it was really interesting and

35:36

it might come up later. Am I not? But

35:38

like, that's what made that show really compelling. Am I?

35:41

It was a whole fucking play about us moment.

35:46

Criminal Justice says more

35:48

beach episodes. Mm

35:51

hmm. Yeah. And

35:53

the beer is where I say when I say

35:55

that Daybreak 2 is a filler episode or a

35:57

filler game, I'm not saying that to be derogatory.

35:59

There's great stuff in there. It's just like just

36:02

being clear that once

36:05

you beat Daybreak one, you don't have to be in

36:07

a rush to play Daybreak two, even though that is

36:09

coming out pretty quickly in the West.

36:11

Like I think they stated it's like early

36:13

2025, which

36:15

means there's a very good chance that the

36:18

series is fully caught up in English by

36:21

the end of next year if they end

36:23

up doing like crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

36:25

I feel like they're getting faster with that because

36:27

even East End Nordics is feels like it's coming

36:29

out a little bit faster than it used to.

36:32

And like all the stuff is kind of

36:35

slowly picking up the way that like RGG

36:37

is another good comparison of like a studio

36:39

that used to have big gaps between their

36:41

Japanese releases and their their Western or worldwide

36:43

releases. And now like they're concurrent, they're day

36:46

and date. So I feel like more companies

36:48

are kind of seeing that maybe being like

36:51

it's not just worthwhile for us to do that,

36:53

but also distribution methods like Steam make it really

36:55

easy for us to do that. Like

36:58

I guess America themselves are even doing that

37:00

now, like the new Phantom Brave. Not only

37:02

is it coming out day and date in

37:04

English, but the first like playable demo of

37:07

it was at Anime Expo. So

37:09

it's like playable in English even for

37:11

those playable in Japanese. And.

37:15

Well, the Legend of Heroes Trails

37:17

through Daybreak now available on the

37:19

PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo

37:25

Switch. And I think

37:27

it's great on all of them. I

37:29

think you can play all of them on PC if if

37:31

you have a steam deck or something like that. Yeah,

37:34

that's the one thing the series, which

37:36

I hope that those upcoming remakes that

37:38

Falcom's talked about are Trails in the

37:40

Sky, because Trails in the Sky, you

37:43

can play first chapter and second chapter on

37:45

PSP or Vita in English, but you can't

37:48

play the third anywhere but PC. So

37:50

it's like definitely one of those things where

37:53

it's like you can start with Daybreak, but that's the PC is

37:55

a lot. The

37:57

PC is much more accessible than the

37:59

PC. or the Vita at this point.

38:02

So like you might as well play Trails

38:05

in the Sky or Trails in the Sky

38:07

and Trails SC on the PC.

38:10

They'll run on practically anything. They

38:12

work great on Steam Deck. Like there's some

38:15

lingering issues with cut scenes sometimes I think first

38:18

chapter is fine. I think it's second chapter that

38:20

has the issues. And even then you can- There's

38:22

a fix. I think there's a fix

38:24

that you can download. Yeah. Yeah, I

38:26

remember- It says

38:28

that it's not verified, but when

38:31

we did the

38:33

Pantheon episode a little while ago, like it worked

38:35

just fine on my Steam Deck. Yeah.

38:38

Yeah, yeah. And I can tell you right now

38:40

that it's very easy to fix. I remember

38:42

actually when I played

38:45

through Trails in the Sky first chapter and second

38:47

chapter back in the day, I did so when

38:49

I was like daily driving Linux. So I was

38:51

able to get that stuff working back then. And

38:53

it's like a decade later. So it's like, there's

38:55

guides everywhere. It's very easy, very simple. Drew

38:58

says Trails in the Sky was an

39:00

amazing trilogy of Steam Deck games, agreed.

39:02

And oh, and their engine supports ultra

39:04

wide monitors, which is actually

39:06

really dope. So go check

39:09

that out. And if you want more Trails

39:11

coverage here on X of the Bug, go

39:13

check out our primer that we did with

39:15

Cam Hawkins last year in

39:17

which he talked a little bit about where

39:20

to start. His reaction was just play them

39:22

all. And like, okay, do

39:24

you agree with that, James? Just play them all?

39:28

Yes, but also Cam very much Trails

39:30

fan boy. Love him for it. He

39:32

literally got his arms signed by Toshihiro

39:35

Kondo and then immediately got it tattooed.

39:38

Oh my God, he didn't, at least he didn't tear it off. Jesus,

39:40

I thought that's where you're going with that. Hey,

39:42

watch this. What are you gonna do

39:44

with that? No, it's stable to my wall. You

39:46

know what? I respect the energy. That's

39:49

going hard. Yeah, I think I'm

39:51

pretty high. Amazing. So it's like

39:53

letting yourself literally get signed by a creator

39:55

that you really admire. And then cutting

39:57

your arm off. Indeed. All

40:00

right, that's our review for Trails through Daybreak.

40:03

It's time now for a series of

40:06

random encounters. If

40:08

you're an athlete, you know the greatest motivator of

40:10

all is the fear of letting your teammates down.

40:13

After all, a team is only as good as its

40:15

weakest link, so you owe it to

40:17

those wearing the same jersey as you to be your

40:19

best every time you step on the field. That's

40:22

why there's no vape in team. When

40:24

you vape, you can expose your lungs

40:27

to toxic chemicals that can damage your

40:29

lungs. If you're a step

40:31

behind, the team's a step behind. Brought

40:34

to you by The Real Cost and the

40:36

FDA. You

40:39

need mealtime inspiration. It's worth shopping

40:41

Kroger, where you'll find over 30,000

40:43

mouthwatering choices that excite your inner

40:45

foodie. And no matter what tasty

40:47

choice you make, you'll enjoy our

40:49

everyday low prices, plus extra ways to

40:51

save, like digital coupons worth over

40:53

$600 each week. You

40:56

can also save up to $1 off

40:58

per gallon at the pump with fuel

41:00

points. More savings and more inspiring flavors

41:03

make shopping Kroger worth it every time.

41:05

Kroger, fresh for everyone. Fuel restrictions

41:07

apply. 200

41:17

plus workers at Bethesda have

41:19

unionized, making it the first Microsoft

41:21

game studio to fully unionize

41:24

wall to wall. So

41:27

that's developers, artists, programmers,

41:29

et cetera. Pretty

41:32

amazing, and Microsoft has already recognized

41:34

the union, so now they will negotiate

41:37

a contract. The

41:39

Fallout TV adaptation has been nominated for

41:41

16 Emmy Awards, reminding me that I

41:43

need to finish that

41:45

season. I really enjoyed the last episode that

41:48

I watched. It's

41:51

just really violent. It's really, really,

41:53

really violent. Speaking

41:56

of Fallout, the Fallout London mod will apparently

41:58

work with Fallout 4 on good old games

42:01

and Steam, but not Epic Game Store for

42:03

anybody who uses the Epic Game Store. Apparently,

42:06

it will also include the actual voice of

42:08

a former speaker of the house in England,

42:10

John Burcow. And

42:13

finally, apparently Fallout Season 2 is a head of

42:15

schedule, so please look forward to that. That's gonna

42:17

be the one that I believe was set in

42:19

New Vegas. Baldur's

42:22

Gate 3 Patch 7, we got an

42:24

update on that. It will apparently fix

42:26

some of the split screen, it will

42:28

add mod support, and it won't be

42:30

the end, because Larian just doesn't know

42:32

when to quit. They're just gonna keep

42:34

going forever, forever and ever and ever.

42:36

We gotta get photo mode. We

42:39

need photo mode. We do, actually.

42:41

Diablo 4 is getting a new

42:43

class. It was

42:45

revealed this past week. You

42:48

can go check out the hands-on

42:50

preview over on ign.com, the Spirit-born

42:52

class. It's a Guardian summoning class.

42:55

Dungeons of Hinterberg, which is a game

42:57

that I very much want to play.

42:59

It's out on Xbox Game Pass right

43:01

now, also I believe on PC. And

43:05

finally, Evo. Evo's happening. Evo

43:08

Street Fighter 6. Oh,

43:10

wait, I have some for this.

43:12

We can probably... God

43:14

damn it. I keep forgetting we have that. Stop

43:17

it. Because

43:20

every time I say it, Eric

43:22

reminds me we have it. Eric

43:24

playing the little sound horn on

43:27

the sound board, but we

43:29

could be getting some big announcements by

43:31

the end of the weekend. So please

43:33

look forward to that. A new Mega

43:35

Man game? I'd love that. Thank you.

43:37

Wow. They're announcing it at Evo

43:40

for some reason. It's crazy. That makes perfect sense to me. They

43:42

would do that just to screw me up. My

43:44

prediction, this is my big prediction. Are

43:46

you ready? I knew

43:48

Marvel versus game. Oh

43:51

my God. I think Infinite was disgraced. Like, I

43:53

think it was just... Here's why.

43:56

Because they just... They're compiling

43:59

all the Marvel... versus games

44:01

into a new compilation release.

44:05

And not all of them, not all of them, not,

44:07

not, not UNVC three, not, not

44:10

three and not infinite. It's, it's, it's

44:12

just two. The good ones. Whoa,

44:15

whoa, whoa, whoa. I know. Thank

44:18

you, Kat. Three is

44:20

lit. Anyway,

44:24

I think this compilation is a hint that they're

44:26

releasing a new one. That's all I'm

44:28

saying. I would like them to

44:30

just because they screwed up Mega Man X so

44:33

badly. I just wanted to have another chance at

44:35

being a hero in the Marvel versus Capcom universe.

44:38

I, I think they're considering it for

44:40

sure. But number one, it's like a

44:42

very crowded market for Marvel likes right

44:44

now. Cause like Hunter Hunter and then

44:47

impact is basically just a reskinned version

44:49

of Marvel three that aiding is making

44:51

with Hunter Hunter characters, which signed

44:53

me up. That thing looks budget

44:55

and niche and doing Marvel three with Hunter

44:58

Hunter characters. And that's all I've ever wanted.

45:00

So I'm down. But

45:03

there's also like two X K O is not, not

45:06

like Marvel style three on three, but

45:08

more like, um, was it Marvel superheroes

45:10

was two on two, um,

45:12

where you kind of have the tag out tag back stuff.

45:16

Um, I, I think there's

45:18

a lot more tag games out there. And I'm also

45:20

curious about who would end up making it because I

45:22

do think if I may put a prediction in no

45:24

forbidden knowledge, this is just off the cuff. I

45:27

do think arc system works has got to be working

45:29

on something new. Like it's been a while since dragon

45:32

ball fighters, they've had other games coming

45:34

out in the interim, but it feels

45:36

like it's time for them to either

45:38

be looking at some new big anime

45:40

adaptation. I would love to see my

45:42

dream. Fighters gum fighters

45:44

would be cool. But my dream of all

45:46

time, one piece, my

45:48

dream of all time is full metal

45:50

alchemist. Like, oh, that would be sick.

45:53

I'd play that. Holy shit. Disgustingly

45:56

sick. If that ever happens, we've never

45:58

had like a really, really good. full

46:00

metal fighting game and it feels like

46:02

built for that. I was rewatching. So

46:04

cool. Oh my God. Yeah. I

46:07

wonder though, if I wonder the FARC

46:09

system works nowadays is too big to

46:11

just do like an

46:13

anime adaptation for fighting. Are they too big?

46:15

You say that the anime adaptation is the

46:17

like, we have made it big and now

46:19

we get to get the license. It's like

46:21

a pretty big game. Like realistically,

46:24

it would probably be something more like a ball

46:26

by far their biggest thing ever. Yeah.

46:30

I don't know. I just, I wonder if they

46:32

might want to focus on their own IPs, but I'd

46:35

love to see a one piece fighting game by them. I feel like

46:37

that would be awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

46:41

Oh, I was just gonna say like Dragon Ball

46:43

fighters was so like, it wasn't just an incredibly

46:45

good fighting game. Like Arxis has the chops to

46:47

make incredibly good fighting games, but it was also

46:49

like it honored the source

46:51

material in a way that like is

46:54

frankly incredible from the way that different

46:56

moves work. There are all these kinds

46:59

of comparisons of like shots of their

47:01

actual animations in game next to like

47:03

manga panels and anime screens and stuff

47:05

like that of like, they literally were

47:07

using the moves that you saw in

47:09

the source material. And I think that's

47:11

what is super impressive about fighters. In

47:13

the end is that like, they

47:15

know how to not just make a

47:18

good fighting game, but make one that

47:20

feels like you are playing the anime,

47:22

playing the manga and something like One

47:24

Piece or like Naruto. I

47:27

mean, that would be those are the obvious ones, but

47:29

I would kind of hope for something either

47:32

a little bit more left field or

47:34

I don't know, something a little bit

47:36

more interesting. We've had a

47:38

lot of One Piece games. We've had a

47:40

lot of Shonen Jump games. Like we've, there's

47:42

no shortage of Shonen Jump fighters out there,

47:44

even though they're mostly like arena fighters or

47:47

like Jump Ultimate Stars on the DS and

47:49

stuff like that. But like, I would kind

47:51

of like to see something like Full Metal

47:53

or even maybe a newer Shonen Jump title

47:55

or like an updated like Shonen Jump All

47:58

Stars that has some of the newer crop

48:00

of characters. characters from like chainsaw man and

48:02

juju kaizen and stuff like that to join

48:04

in with some of the classics

48:06

like goku and all that. I'm with you. Full

48:08

metal, full metal alchemist brotherhood.

48:10

The fighting game would be lit and I

48:13

would play that all day long. Who's

48:15

your main? All right. Who's your main cat? Who

48:18

would be my main? Um, who

48:20

was the guy with the, uh, the black

48:22

hair who uses fire? Roy

48:24

Mustang. I was going to say you find him

48:27

Mustang even. Yeah. I would

48:29

say Mustang. Um, are there lady

48:31

alchemists in full metal alchemist brotherhood

48:33

or is that all brotherhoods? Are

48:35

they all bros? Wait,

48:37

wait. So alchemists, alchemists,

48:40

you've only got sisterhood. Yeah,

48:43

no alchemists, you only have teacher who's

48:45

like the mentor of an owl, but

48:47

you also have, um, oh

48:49

God, what's her name? The, the general. Um,

48:52

she has like the sword and she leads

48:54

the Briggs. I mean, so she

48:56

like, like there's a, there's a whole scene where

48:58

she like drives a tank and like attacks an

49:00

enemy with a tank and stuff like that. Um,

49:04

probably also like fighting game. Yeah.

49:06

Yeah. Put the tank in. Why not? And

49:08

I'm like, it wouldn't be the first time we

49:10

have a tank as a, as a character in

49:12

a fighting game. Remember, uh, please cross tack battle.

49:15

Yeah. And that was, that was

49:17

a character from a different, like

49:19

more super niche Japanese fighting game.

49:21

But yeah. And then you have

49:23

Hawkeye. If you're playing Mustang, you

49:25

can have Hawkeye. Perfect. Olivia Armstrong,

49:27

Olivia Mira Armstrong, I guess. And

49:29

Olivia Armstrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There

49:31

you go. Heard

49:34

the Wiki. Thank you. Robor Riley.

49:36

Uh, one more, one more side

49:38

note. Ted O'Con is also happening

49:41

this weekend and we don't cover

49:43

warframe much around these parts, but

49:45

soul frame may

49:47

be interesting to RPG fans. That's

49:49

kind of the dark fantasy counterpart

49:51

to warframe and they're

49:54

showing new gameplay this weekend. And

49:56

there should be a new interview. So go check that out.

49:58

Warframe the game. where dudes keep

50:01

stealing military documents to one up

50:03

each other. Or is that another?

50:06

That's worth thunder. No, the

50:08

funniest thing. That's funny, though. Yeah, it's like

50:10

the most dude thing ever. Yeah,

50:12

let me do these classified documents to prove

50:14

you're like dudes arguing in a in a

50:17

forum and then literally posting classified information. The

50:19

one I put in C. This

50:22

is my going to jail. That

50:24

owns so hard. This is a picture. Where

50:27

is the picture? Yeah, based in

50:30

military secrets leaked on the war thunder

50:32

forums. Yeah,

50:34

I see if I can find zero every

50:36

day at zero. OK,

50:39

here it is. It's got

50:41

the I thought the I funny watermark. I'll just copy

50:43

it anyways. Second. Here

50:46

we go. It's really funny. It's

50:51

hilarious. The

50:53

clapping. All

50:55

right, we're rolling into the tavern now

50:57

chilling out. James,

51:00

you're a special guest. You've

51:02

been playing Trails for Daybreak or you've been playing

51:04

any other RPGs or any other games you want

51:06

to talk about recently. Final Fantasy

51:08

14 Dawn Trail. I've just been playing a

51:10

bunch of that because I'm getting ready for

51:13

the raid series when it drops at the

51:15

end of the month. So I bought the

51:17

Savage Raid series. The normal. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

51:21

I'm I'm excited for that. I love raiding. I'm

51:23

also not sure if I'm going to have a

51:25

stack or not. So I might be a party

51:28

finder warrior. And that that's always

51:30

both exciting, but

51:33

also stressful if that happens. Yeah,

51:36

because there's a lot of expectations when you go

51:38

into those like pick up games and they have

51:40

to be like, OK, are we doing

51:43

this blind? Are we like watching a video

51:45

beforehand so we know how it works? Like

51:47

what's the the vibe? And 14 is

51:49

always a pretty good community. But there are like

51:51

some people who get really into the raid side

51:54

of things like that's kind of the maybe

51:56

the most toxicity can accumulate is in

51:59

those areas. and that's always a

52:01

bit nerve-wracking. I've got a static this

52:03

time, so I'm happy. I

52:06

have been sampling a bunch of different games. I got

52:09

a copy of NES World Championships,

52:12

which has been all right. I

52:15

feel like I need to play it using

52:17

the NES controller because

52:20

I'm feeling some

52:22

real input delay and it's

52:24

actually impacting my times. One

52:28

of the expert mode runs in Mario

52:30

2 is driving me a little crazy. I'm

52:32

trying to beat the Gold Cup where

52:35

you have to go through three separate events and

52:38

get to the end and then try to get first in

52:41

the final one. The

52:43

current Gold Cup challenge has this really obnoxious

52:45

Mario 2 challenge where you have to ride

52:47

the magic carpet, get the key, get in

52:49

the locked door, and

52:52

getting onto that magic carpet, I'm not

52:54

really sure how you can do that.

52:58

Luigi is so hard to move.

53:00

It's crazy. Oh,

53:02

that doesn't sound so bad. Oh, Luigi.

53:04

Okay. That's mean. Yeah,

53:06

it is mean. Also, there's a

53:09

Zelda challenge where you have to kill four

53:12

Octoroks as fast as humanly possible. You

53:14

basically have to do them in a specific order.

53:16

I almost managed to

53:18

do it, but my

53:21

opponent did it within 0.1 second faster than me. I

53:26

also have been playing the best RPG

53:28

of 2024, College Football

53:31

25. No. Well,

53:34

yes, all your tweets this week have been College Football

53:36

College. I have no idea what you're talking about. I

53:38

was like, you're speaking another language. I'm

53:40

not even that big of a College Football fan, but

53:42

I was just like, I'm going to kind of get

53:45

into this. And then I tried

53:47

out the Dynasty mode. It's fine. I

53:50

was playing a bunch of different

53:52

schools. It was like Cal and

53:54

NC State in Oregon and Minnesota

53:57

online. I won a bunch of games. Oregon

54:01

is the most fun to play so

54:03

far. Surprise, surprise. The tier one, like

54:05

top 10 school is like one of

54:07

the most fun to actually play it.

54:09

Cause that's where all the effort got

54:11

put into. A lot of

54:13

people playing as Ohio state. My

54:16

thing with Ohio state, I think

54:19

college football is more enjoyable

54:21

than a lot

54:23

of the EA sports games. Certainly more so

54:25

than Madden, I think, but there's this weirdness

54:28

about an EA sports game. I

54:30

likened it to playing, hanging out

54:32

in a hotel conference room recently

54:34

where it's superficially nice, but there's

54:36

something really sterile about it. Yeah.

54:40

And they definitely upped

54:43

the presentation in this one a

54:45

bit more, but there's still that

54:47

hotel conference room vibe to it.

54:50

So that's all right, I

54:52

guess. It's doing really, really well at the

54:54

moment. I find

54:57

a lot of it's pretty good. A lot

54:59

of it's really where it needed to be

55:01

as a foundation for bringing this series back.

55:04

And a lot of good changes, I think,

55:06

from Madden that they get to

55:08

make now that they have a

55:10

clean break from making that

55:12

game to doing something. OK, how do we start

55:14

from the bottom and build up

55:16

on a different kind of football? Because

55:18

fundamentally, it's the same sport, but the

55:22

structure, the presentation, the framing, the format

55:24

is all very different. Those things are

55:26

what appeal to people about college football,

55:28

especially the dynasty mode. Like, that's kind

55:30

of everybody who likes college football went

55:32

straight to dynasty. Like, there was no

55:34

question that that was where they were

55:37

going. It's enjoyable. I think the menus

55:39

are a problem. Like, the

55:41

recruitment board is a bit of a pain to

55:43

navigate. And I think they could have done a

55:45

lot to work on the flow and

55:48

interface and just make that a

55:50

little bit less like maddening to

55:52

spend time on. I wish

55:54

I could do all the recruitment actions on the

55:56

main prospect board. Yes. Right.

55:59

And have it like. easier to just

56:01

be like, okay, I'm looking for this

56:03

thing. I want like three star recruits

56:05

for wide receivers that are all kind

56:07

of local to I'm playing Texas tech,

56:09

all modern rec and tech. And

56:12

so I want everybody local to like West Texas because

56:14

I have so many freaking deal breakers about like, I

56:16

want to be close to home. You're

56:18

going to play football, Johnny. You're going to do it where

56:20

you get to play football. Um,

56:24

playing football in Texas sounds like a

56:26

threat. Honestly, it kind of does. You

56:28

want to play Texas? Do you want

56:31

to play football in Texas? But

56:33

like I do find when it's, it's

56:35

like rolling, especially when you're playing in the game,

56:38

like the actual game itself feels really good to

56:40

play. Like I like it more than Matt. Even

56:42

though it's a little bit scrappier, it's a little

56:44

bit looser. Yeah. Naughty is out. Naughty is this

56:46

is you when we talk about 14. Um,

56:50

look, this is like the only out, this is

56:52

the only forum where I can actually sit and

56:54

talk about college football for like a hot second.

56:56

But well, and the funny thing is like, like

56:58

you got all this and it's kind of working.

57:01

And then they like bolted ultimate team into the

57:03

side. Cause they're like, we're not going to miss

57:05

the shot to see if y'all will pay for

57:07

trading cards or not. I'm

57:09

sure people will play it, but I'm

57:12

out on ultimate team forever. No,

57:14

never again. No part of it. I've

57:17

done the grinding. That's why I'm like

57:19

kind of allergic to playing final fantasy

57:21

14 and anything that's like grind heavy

57:23

is because I think playing

57:25

ultimate team broke me. I just, I

57:27

can't do it anymore. It's over. Okay.

57:29

But those are two fundamentally different things.

57:31

I just want to stress that please,

57:33

please do not compare the, the slot

57:35

machine of ultimate team to final fantasy.

57:37

Okay, fine. It's true. Playing final fantasy

57:39

14 is a little different than cracking

57:42

packs in ultimate team.

57:44

It's just, uh, anything that

57:46

has like repetitive kind

57:48

of repetitive actions is just like, do this

57:50

raid 500 times. No, I don't think so.

57:52

I don't think I will. And

57:55

that's the thing is like, I

57:57

think I'll, I'm having a

57:59

good time. I'm just playing college football very

58:01

casually online. I don't

58:04

think I'm going to do like anything else

58:06

because it's already kind of taking

58:08

up RPG time. And I

58:10

have a couple of other RPGs I need to play,

58:13

which is like final fantasy seven rebirths and which

58:15

I've picked up again. Eric, by the way, I picked

58:17

it up again. Yeah. I'm like

58:19

at the end of chap. I'm in chapter

58:22

10 now, I think. Um, Oh, near the

58:24

end. Well

58:26

near the end. Yeah. Okay.

58:30

And I still a distance though.

58:32

Yeah. And a persona three reload,

58:34

which has been fun so far.

58:37

I did another full moon event recently. It's a,

58:41

and it's starting to open up like the actual

58:43

story and be like, talk about

58:45

the nature of the Tartarus and the

58:48

shadows and everything. Um,

58:50

but I think the

58:53

really narrow scope of

58:56

the actual social links and everything

58:59

is starting to wear on me a

59:01

little bit. Or at the very least,

59:03

I kind of miss the much larger

59:05

scope and ambition of persona five.

59:08

Uh, so initially it was refreshing and

59:11

now it's like, okay, yeah, like I'm

59:13

just going through these really kind of

59:15

simple social links and just waiting

59:17

to get to the next full moon event and

59:19

such. So I'm waiting for, I'm

59:22

waiting for it to pick up a bit. We're in the

59:24

middle of July. I'm staying

59:26

with it. It's exams period

59:28

again. Oh my God. It's

59:30

a lot of sucks. It

59:33

can baby anyway. Thank you.

59:36

Playing a lot of video games at the moment. Uh,

59:39

Nadia, what are you playing? Uh,

59:42

I was also playing FF14, but, uh,

59:44

I also, just to kind of

59:46

get into other media stuff since we kind of talked

59:48

about FF14 here and also you should listen to Charlene

59:50

dropouts. I started watching

59:52

the new Lindsay Ellis video, uh,

59:55

Yoko and the Beatles, I think it's

59:57

called. She's back. She's back, baby. I

1:00:00

was quit. She was

1:00:02

on another platform for a while.

1:00:04

I can't

1:00:07

remember which one but for Nebula, I think but

1:00:09

yeah, now as far as I know, she's back

1:00:11

on YouTube and it's a great video. So I mean,

1:00:13

I like video essays, I actually don't know a whole lot

1:00:15

about the Beatles. My parents, like

1:00:18

they listened to them, but they were much

1:00:20

more into like, Pink

1:00:22

Floyd and Jethro Tull and stuff. So

1:00:26

yeah, it's pretty

1:00:28

awesome so far. Like I said, I'm not a

1:00:30

huge Beatles fan. Have you seen it yet,

1:00:32

Kat or Eric or James?

1:00:35

No, I do. My mom was

1:00:37

a big Beatle maniac though. Oh, is

1:00:39

she? Yeah, so one way or

1:00:41

another, the Beatles, Beatles

1:00:43

lore has seeped into my life. There's

1:00:49

a pretty good

1:00:51

video of John

1:00:54

Lennon rocking with,

1:00:57

okay, God, why can't I remember his name?

1:00:59

Chuck Berry?

1:01:02

Chuck Berry, thank you. John

1:01:05

Lennon rocking with Chuck Berry and

1:01:07

Yoko Ono singing backup vocals. And

1:01:10

she starts to sing. Chuck Berry gets

1:01:12

this look on his face like, what

1:01:14

the? And then the sound engineer cuts

1:01:16

off her mic. And you

1:01:18

can see John Lennon and Chuck Berry's singing

1:01:21

together. And you can see her singing in the

1:01:23

background, but you can't actually hear her. Oh

1:01:26

my goodness. That's a, yeah,

1:01:28

one of the impressions I get from the video was that Lennon

1:01:33

could be kind of a dick. Like he, yeah,

1:01:36

he knew what was going on a lot of time

1:01:38

with Yoko being shunned or just like left completely himself

1:01:40

left her out of like, credits. She's

1:01:43

an interesting character. She seems

1:01:45

neat. She's an artist. I

1:01:49

feel like a lot of the negative reaction

1:01:51

to her was like just sexism. Oh,

1:01:54

like Lindsay Alex goes a little bit of

1:01:56

racism, etc. Yeah, yeah,

1:01:58

yeah, for sure. I definitely

1:02:00

recommend it. I'm about

1:02:02

halfway through, though. So, yeah,

1:02:05

I'll update you, I suppose, on

1:02:07

the Beatles report. And

1:02:10

Eric, what have you been playing? It's

1:02:13

been a weird year for me. I've decided,

1:02:15

you know, every year kind of has a

1:02:17

theme to it. You know, last year it

1:02:19

was the year of of Baldur's Gate 3

1:02:21

and all that and playing the big CRPG.

1:02:23

And this year seems to be the year

1:02:25

of visual novels, as we've got. Can see

1:02:27

Sukeime right there. Yeah,

1:02:29

look, placed just off to

1:02:32

the side. We'll talk

1:02:34

about that in a moment. But like Famicom

1:02:36

Detective got the new game announced. I'm

1:02:38

really excited for that. Obviously,

1:02:41

Ace Attorney Investigations, the Miles Edgeworth

1:02:43

Games, two is finally coming over

1:02:45

to the West officially. So that's really exciting. And

1:02:47

then, yeah, I've been playing Sukeime, which is if

1:02:49

you're not familiar with it, it is the

1:02:52

first, I believe, visual novel from Kinoku

1:02:54

Nasu, who is the writer of Fate,

1:02:56

Stay Night. I'd read Fate, Stay Night

1:02:58

ages ago, a long, long time

1:03:00

ago when I was first getting into visual novels. And

1:03:03

obviously, Fate, Stay Night is the one that kind of spawned a

1:03:07

worldwide phenomena, largely thanks to Fate, Gray and Order,

1:03:09

which is the extremely popular mobile game with a

1:03:11

billion different sabers in it. If you think Dragon

1:03:13

Ball has a lot of go-kus, let me tell

1:03:15

you about how many sabers there are in Fate.

1:03:18

There's so many. But

1:03:21

Sukeime is like set in the same world.

1:03:24

And I wasn't really sure what to know. Like

1:03:26

going into it, I knew that it somewhat involved

1:03:28

vampires in some way and that it was related

1:03:31

to Melty Blood, like all the characters of Sukeime

1:03:33

are the characters of the fighting game Melty Blood.

1:03:35

So it's like, OK, you know, there's going to

1:03:37

be some magic. Probably that's, you know, the world

1:03:39

that Nasu has and the Nasuverse is like, there's

1:03:42

a lot of magic magic circuits, people

1:03:44

who train a lot to be able to do

1:03:46

magic and stuff like that. It's usually a big

1:03:49

crux of his writing. His

1:03:53

writing can also get a little bit like to be frank,

1:03:56

YA would be a nice way of putting it like

1:03:58

like. in all the good

1:04:01

ways and also some of the bad ways.

1:04:04

A Kinaku Nasu story is pretty similar to like

1:04:06

a CW story in that there's a lot of

1:04:08

violence, there's a lot of angst, there's a lot

1:04:10

of like sex, there's a lot of like mature

1:04:13

storytelling happening. But

1:04:16

it also sometimes gets a little

1:04:18

bit juvenile at times. That's

1:04:21

what I was that's what I was looking forward to with

1:04:23

the sukihime remake is like, OK, Kinokunasu is

1:04:25

going back to an old thing. I never

1:04:27

read the original sukihime, but I read original

1:04:29

Fate State Night, which has definitely some questionable

1:04:32

bits of writing in there. And so

1:04:34

with sukihime, I was like, OK, what

1:04:37

does it look like when Nasu both

1:04:39

gets the resources to put more production

1:04:41

into what a typical visual novel looks

1:04:43

like and also gets to

1:04:46

kind of revisit this script? I'm

1:04:49

going to say up front. If you

1:04:51

are interested in this thing, there are

1:04:53

content warnings at the wazu. It is

1:04:55

a horror story like it is. Yeah,

1:04:58

Gore, this era. Carnage some deeply

1:05:00

unsettling scenes in which the main

1:05:02

character is going kind of feral

1:05:04

in a way that is aggressive

1:05:07

and and and like

1:05:10

difficult to read at times. It

1:05:14

is also pretty good. It's I will say

1:05:16

like thinking of the

1:05:18

way that like you take those old kind of early

1:05:20

aughts visual novels, your Fate State Nights, but

1:05:22

even your Steins Gates and stuff like that

1:05:25

and giving them the production value of a

1:05:28

modern like visual novel, the things that we've

1:05:30

kind of learned from Phoenix, right? Don can

1:05:32

Rompa, like all the ones that kind of

1:05:35

got popular and really brought visual novels in

1:05:37

a major way to the West. It

1:05:39

feels like a marriage of the two

1:05:42

in a really interesting way. There's a

1:05:44

lot more interesting like shot

1:05:46

composition and thinking about how you can

1:05:48

use just the way that things appear

1:05:50

on screen to be unsettling, to create

1:05:52

dread, create horror, to use art to

1:05:54

kind of like convey what is happening,

1:05:56

even though it's a lot of still

1:05:58

images and stuff. like that. Really

1:06:01

great use of sound effects of sound design.

1:06:03

A lot of

1:06:05

really smart things that have

1:06:07

been done, even just the way they have the flowchart

1:06:10

now where you can kind of go back and say

1:06:12

like, I want to jump back to a previous choice

1:06:14

to run through this stuff. Or like, there are bad

1:06:16

ends. It's a game that kind of uses your classic

1:06:18

visual novel thing of there are three

1:06:21

really two but like three routes, like

1:06:23

a one route and then a route

1:06:25

with kind of two branching like normal

1:06:27

and true and type thing. But you

1:06:30

have a bunch of bad ends where like, okay,

1:06:32

you chose to do this thing, but it gets you

1:06:34

killed. And then you get this really fun segment. That's

1:06:36

like, to like mascot

1:06:38

characters telling you like, Hey, you

1:06:41

probably shouldn't walk down that dark alley with a giant kick

1:06:43

me sign on your back because that got you kicked and

1:06:45

that killed you. So don't do that. But they do kind

1:06:47

of like a funny skit around it. And it works very,

1:06:50

very well. And I think that's like some

1:06:52

of Nasu secretly best writing is the comedic

1:06:54

side of his writing where he can kind

1:06:56

of play to the audience a little bit

1:06:58

and like, you know, smile at the camera.

1:07:00

He's very good at that sort of stuff.

1:07:03

But the horror writing is really incredible.

1:07:06

Like the the sheer sense of dread

1:07:08

that comes across in just text on

1:07:10

page, text on screen, because I'm playing

1:07:13

on my switch is really, really incredible.

1:07:15

And I've kind of been

1:07:17

wanting that because I think a lot of

1:07:19

modern, you know, what we call visual novels,

1:07:22

adventure games are a lot more

1:07:24

interactive. In some ways, they're a lot more

1:07:26

engaging, you kind of walk around and you do

1:07:29

stuff like Dong and Rama is honestly kind of

1:07:31

blurring the lines between an invention.

1:07:33

No, no worries. Dong and

1:07:35

Rama is kind of blurring the lines between

1:07:37

say, like an adventure game and any like visual

1:07:39

novel, right? And and yes, right, was also

1:07:41

doing the same thing. So I wanted

1:07:44

to see like, what a traditionally

1:07:46

formatted visual novel could look like in modern

1:07:48

day. And this is a really interesting idea

1:07:50

and way of looking at it. And I

1:07:52

think it works. I think it probably works.

1:07:54

As far as like is Sukihime a good

1:07:56

story? Yes. risk.

1:08:00

Um, if you want that sort of thing,

1:08:02

I think if you want like a vampire

1:08:04

horror story that is about like what

1:08:07

death and life means and, and like what

1:08:10

it would be to be immortal and why

1:08:12

people would seek immortality and what scares us

1:08:14

about the end and what is fulfilling about

1:08:17

a life well-lived, then it's a very good

1:08:19

one of those. I think it does those

1:08:21

themes very, very well. But again, it's got

1:08:23

like, it is a

1:08:26

heavy mature story. Yeah. Yeah.

1:08:28

Like I cannot stress this enough. Like there

1:08:30

was one thing that happens very early

1:08:32

on that almost feels like them saying like, Hey,

1:08:35

if you, if you're cool with this, if you're chill with

1:08:37

this, like you're going to be good for the rest of

1:08:39

the story, but we're going to do this scene really quick.

1:08:42

And if that's a note for you,

1:08:45

then just bounce out. Just get out

1:08:47

now. Yeah. I think that was

1:08:49

in the original too. I guess to give context to people,

1:08:51

because I have read the original is

1:08:54

a Suki Hime, like the main

1:08:56

thing with the protagonist, Shinji, is

1:08:58

he has this magical ability called

1:09:01

eyes of death perception, where he

1:09:03

can literally see the lines that

1:09:05

hold together, like not just someone's

1:09:07

life, but their entire being. So

1:09:09

like he literally traced

1:09:11

along those lines and cut something

1:09:13

apart to its very like soul

1:09:15

pretty much. Yeah. So, so there's

1:09:17

a scene early on where he like cut

1:09:19

somebody and literally like cuts them

1:09:21

into pieces and you'd see

1:09:23

it. And like, it is shocking to

1:09:26

say the least. And like, it's

1:09:28

not something that I'm going to say is like deeply

1:09:31

like, I think it works. They eventually like kind

1:09:33

of tie it in a way that's like, I

1:09:35

understand what they were going for here. I'm still

1:09:37

kind of trying to figure out where they're going

1:09:39

with cheeky as a character. I don't

1:09:41

know that I love it, but also like those

1:09:44

protagonists are always very like edgy protagonists

1:09:46

in a way that like doesn't always

1:09:48

ring with me. But

1:09:50

it is very much like they

1:09:53

kind of just throw it at you as like

1:09:55

kind of a shock moment. And it's,

1:09:58

it's something that's definitely like, maybe want

1:10:00

to go in with a heads up.

1:10:02

And that's like another symptom of this was

1:10:04

made in an era where like

1:10:08

visual novels, especially again, fate, stay night,

1:10:11

we're kind of all about these like shocking

1:10:13

moments, right? Like these moments where it feels

1:10:15

kind of like, oh, you know, we're going

1:10:17

along at a pace and all of a

1:10:19

sudden like, boom, something happens. Like muv love

1:10:21

is, is the same way. Yeah. Chaos.

1:10:24

All of the like robotics notes type

1:10:26

stories, all that kind of stuff. Like

1:10:28

have those, even Stein's gate, like

1:10:30

has, yeah, yeah. Robotics notes is in the

1:10:32

chaos headline, right? Like that's kind of the

1:10:34

same. Yeah. Have you read

1:10:36

a chaos show? Cause if I'm only, I'm

1:10:39

only familiar with them by name. I have

1:10:41

not read them yet. The ones I've read

1:10:43

are more like Steins, Gabe, muv love. Yeah.

1:10:45

Yeah. Cause if you're, if you're liking the

1:10:47

kind of like psychological horror aspect, a Suki

1:10:49

Hime, like I've read pretty much all these

1:10:52

science adventure VNs and I'd say that chaos

1:10:54

sound, it's probably my favorite. Uh,

1:10:56

do not read that if you're not okay

1:10:58

with being squeamish. Cause it is

1:11:00

very much like Suki Hime content,

1:11:03

morning content, morning content. Song

1:11:06

of Saya is the same way too. That was like

1:11:08

a really popular one for a long time. That was

1:11:10

about literally like this dude who sees like Gore and

1:11:12

Viscera. Yeah. Yeah. Like he just sees like, like

1:11:17

Cronenberg stuff like everywhere. But then

1:11:19

like this one, this one girl,

1:11:21

he sees her as normal. And

1:11:24

so he's like, Oh, okay. This is like the good

1:11:26

person. And then, and it's, it's kind of a horror

1:11:28

visual novel in that way. And, um,

1:11:31

a lot of stuff of that

1:11:33

era was really kind of like

1:11:35

pushing boundaries, like doing mature storytelling.

1:11:37

Um, and

1:11:39

I think the most interesting thing

1:11:41

for me and Suki Hime is that while they

1:11:44

have used some of the production and stuff that's

1:11:46

like, make those scenes like pop a little bit

1:11:48

more and be a little bit more like bloody

1:11:50

and aggressive. I think the

1:11:53

more interesting use has been like those

1:11:55

moments of dread when like your character's kind

1:11:57

of walking through an empty building.

1:11:59

and the sound design is really communicating

1:12:02

like how like empty it

1:12:04

is. You can hear the footsteps echoing as

1:12:06

your characters walking through. And again, you're just

1:12:08

reading. It's just like extra stuff on top

1:12:10

of like reading lines, but you

1:12:12

start to like they do things with like having character

1:12:14

portraits kind of appear and fade in and out in

1:12:17

the background while you're reading and while text is scrolling

1:12:19

and stuff like that, or or having

1:12:21

like really little like tiny sound hits that kind

1:12:23

of like set your nerves off.

1:12:25

And then beautiful, gorgeous art at like really

1:12:27

big pivotal moments that really like sell both

1:12:30

the horror and the action and like just

1:12:32

these incredible character moments that really do come

1:12:34

across and that Nastu is like known

1:12:36

for. Like he's known for those big cinematic

1:12:39

action moments where like, you know, I

1:12:42

am the bone of my sword and summon unlimited

1:12:44

blade works and all that. Like that's kind of

1:12:46

like the calling card there. And so those do

1:12:48

work. And so I found Sukihime to be very

1:12:50

interesting to read because of that. But this

1:12:53

is all me also saying like, if

1:12:55

you're looking to get individual novels, I would not

1:12:58

recommend Sukihime as a first one. This

1:13:00

is definitely not like my

1:13:02

first one. Please go play Phoenix, right? Please

1:13:04

go play. Don't even don't get around. I

1:13:07

was kind of shaking. Yeah, I would say

1:13:09

the house. How's

1:13:13

how's in Father Morgana gets there a little bit

1:13:16

slower and in a way that I think feels

1:13:18

a little bit more like like there's a

1:13:20

ramp to it and it's not like Sukihime were

1:13:22

like literally like two hours into that

1:13:24

thing all of a sudden it was like, cool, we're going to do

1:13:27

a really best up scene now. I was

1:13:29

like, Oh God, this is totally shifted in a

1:13:31

way. But yeah,

1:13:33

I do find it really interesting to see how like

1:13:35

visual novels have had kind of

1:13:38

a resurgence in the US

1:13:40

in the modern like players

1:13:42

vocabulary, like adventure games and even

1:13:44

stuff like I would say here,

1:13:46

you're gone home to eat a

1:13:49

finches. Yeah, yeah. Games have definitely

1:13:51

like research that because, you

1:13:53

know, they are like not as complex

1:13:56

theoretically to make you can use Trello and

1:13:58

things like they're not Trello. Twine.

1:14:00

Trello is an award that haunts me

1:14:02

in all days. I mean,

1:14:04

look, a Trello adventure game would be kind

1:14:06

of interesting. I'm

1:14:09

pretty sure if you search on itch.io, you

1:14:11

might find one. You have

1:14:13

to. It's got to be there. Yeah.

1:14:15

Yeah. So there's a lot of stuff

1:14:17

that I think like visual novels in

1:14:19

that format of storytelling are coming back

1:14:22

in a way. It was really interesting

1:14:24

seeing Nintendo put its weight behind something

1:14:26

like Famicom Detective Club, because I think

1:14:29

that was very much a case where they had this

1:14:31

one of their producers who's really good, has worked

1:14:34

on so much of their stuff in the past,

1:14:37

came around and said when they were remaking Famicom

1:14:39

Detective Club, those first two games, he was like,

1:14:41

I've got a pitch. Like I think we can

1:14:43

make something work. And I'm really curious to see what

1:14:46

his idea of those games in the

1:14:48

modern age looks like, because like Phoenix

1:14:51

Wright's been doing very well. Like Brady's

1:14:53

attorney was phenomenal. I love that game.

1:14:55

I would even say if you want to

1:14:57

get into visual novels and you want to

1:15:00

play like one VN, great Ace of Train

1:15:02

Chronicles, perfect one to

1:15:05

start with. 100% God, the arc of that game is

1:15:07

incredible. I think like the main complaints about it back

1:15:09

in the day where that it was kind of split

1:15:11

in two and you can tell like where the split

1:15:13

is in the story where they broke it into two

1:15:15

games. And like, yeah, it's a massive

1:15:17

cliffhanger that leaves so many things on

1:15:19

the table, but playing it as

1:15:22

one collection now you're like, Oh, I got to

1:15:24

play the next case. This is so incredible. You

1:15:26

can just jump right into it. It's funny talking

1:15:28

about Nintendo with like Famicom Detective Club, because it's

1:15:30

not even just that. Like they did another code

1:15:33

recollection this year, which was a sensibly

1:15:35

a remake of the two and other code

1:15:37

games. But also it was like the way

1:15:39

they remade the second one was like, okay,

1:15:41

this is more of like its own story

1:15:44

now. They've really heavily retooled the ending and

1:15:46

whatnot. And even Square

1:15:48

Enix is doing stuff like paranormal site, which is

1:15:50

like paranormal site was a banger. Like that was

1:15:52

a really good video game. And then Uchikoshi has

1:15:55

been back at it again with AI the

1:15:57

Somnium files, like the first two were on

1:16:00

a mission. I think two was incredibly good.

1:16:02

One was good, but two was incredibly good.

1:16:04

And now, like, there's been some teasing out

1:16:06

there that there's something new coming from him.

1:16:10

Obviously, the two Kyo folks, which

1:16:12

is Uchikoshi and Kadaka from Danganronpa

1:16:14

that are like now working on

1:16:17

this weird tower defense Danganronpa style

1:16:19

game. It's

1:16:21

just been a really good time for

1:16:23

for visual novels and adventure game making

1:16:25

and stuff. Even stuff like Lorelai and

1:16:27

the Laser Eyes kind of falls within

1:16:29

that realm and is really interesting and

1:16:31

really neat. So it's been it's been

1:16:34

interesting to see this style of

1:16:37

game come back with a vengeance

1:16:40

and see how now how

1:16:42

all these authors like Kinoku Nasu or Uchikoshi

1:16:46

approach making a modern

1:16:48

version of this, making something that

1:16:50

can appeal to the modern revenge,

1:16:53

the revenge. I wonder

1:16:55

when people head back and

1:16:57

give the Utilada Yumono series another shot

1:16:59

because that. Oh,

1:17:02

when they cry. Wait, no, no, no, no, no, different

1:17:04

one. Yeah, no, I was thinking of the right. And

1:17:07

and Umaneko. Yeah. The

1:17:10

Umaneko is one that I really

1:17:12

want available on modern platforms because

1:17:14

that's supposed to be like the

1:17:16

grand opera. Oh, it's all novels.

1:17:18

And it's incredible. Also only available

1:17:20

on PC. Unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah.

1:17:22

But like and that's the other thing is

1:17:24

Steam Deck has made playing so many of

1:17:27

these and distributing so many of these, even

1:17:29

jumping back to like Nihon Falcom and talking

1:17:31

about their games, like the fact that Steam

1:17:33

Deck is surging and PC adoption rate is

1:17:35

so high compared to what it used to

1:17:37

be that like that's got to help folks

1:17:39

that just have been distributing on just PC

1:17:41

for a long time. So all

1:17:43

of this is no there's there's some

1:17:45

issues with Valve and visual novels. I

1:17:48

know in the past, like Muramos, well,

1:17:50

full, full metal demon Muramos

1:17:52

is only available on GOG because like

1:17:54

Valve just didn't allow it on her

1:17:56

storefront. And that's like a major VN

1:17:58

that people like. But that that's. whole

1:18:00

and every discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Earlier

1:18:04

this month, we released a Pantheon of the

1:18:06

Blood God episode about wizardry, which

1:18:09

is a, and I think

1:18:11

that visual novels are like the full

1:18:14

other end of the spectrum. You

1:18:16

have like RPGs and wizardry

1:18:18

is on one end. Then

1:18:20

visual novels are like on the other, like

1:18:23

no, no story whatsoever.

1:18:26

Just dungeon crawling and systems

1:18:29

versus all story and

1:18:31

some choices that

1:18:33

you end up making. And usually some

1:18:36

interesting what's the word gameplay

1:18:38

mechanics and whatnot. I just

1:18:40

find the contrast on one side.

1:18:42

The contrast. We live in a land of

1:18:44

contrast. RPGs

1:18:46

are a land of contrast. It's funny because

1:18:48

there's like the lab room for refrain and

1:18:50

lab room for Golaria games that NIS did

1:18:52

a few years ago. Like those are like

1:18:54

dungeon RPGs that have like VN stories. So

1:18:56

they're like meshing the two

1:18:58

together. The

1:19:00

thing I find interesting about it

1:19:02

is like I was doing some

1:19:05

research after Famicom Detective Club got

1:19:07

announced and some operations had some

1:19:09

stuff about Yoshio Sakamoto, who is

1:19:11

like the main guy behind a

1:19:13

lot of both Famicom Detective Club

1:19:15

and also famously worked on stuff like Metroid.

1:19:18

And he was talking about

1:19:20

how he played Portopia, like the the Enix

1:19:22

game, Portopia, the serial murders case, and that

1:19:24

kind of made him realize that there can

1:19:27

be a different kind of game. There can

1:19:29

be a different way of interacting with the

1:19:31

game that wasn't just action. But

1:19:33

when you think of something like Portopia or Famicom,

1:19:35

you have a command menu. You have an RPG

1:19:38

command menu. It's just your verbs are different. The

1:19:40

way you use them in the world are different.

1:19:42

But like how much difference is

1:19:44

there between hitting the attack button on an

1:19:47

enemy in a random encounter and using the

1:19:49

look button to find the item you need to advance

1:19:52

the story? Like, I think that's an interesting question.

1:19:54

And you also see those things kind of merge

1:19:56

over time and play with each other and play

1:19:58

off those ideas over time. No,

1:24:00

it's 18 in Quebec. But

1:24:04

yeah, I

1:24:06

went out with my friends that year. We went

1:24:08

to a strip club. That

1:24:12

back and male strip clubs were a thing. I don't think

1:24:14

they really... I'm pretty sure... That was a Zanzibar if anyone

1:24:16

knows Toronto. And if you look at the Hulk... They're absolutely

1:24:18

still a thing, Nadia. They still exist. I'm

1:24:21

talking about the Zanzibar itself because I think it probably...

1:24:23

Oh, okay. It probably has a

1:24:25

50,000 health code violations right now. But if you look

1:24:27

at the Hulk, the first Hulk, the movie that came

1:24:29

out in the 2000s, I think it

1:24:31

was. It's up there. No,

1:24:34

it was the second one. Up there, up front. That

1:24:37

was a strip club. Yeah, even that

1:24:39

was very kind of big deal. I

1:24:43

went to a strip club. Woo. But

1:24:47

otherwise, yeah, do you have any like, crunk birthday stories?

1:24:49

I'm just not a party type, I guess. I

1:24:53

mean, there were times where we did some shenanigans, but...

1:24:56

Shenanigans. Stole some things, broke some stuff, just

1:24:59

got up to... Regular

1:25:01

birthday shenanigans. General mischief. But yeah,

1:25:03

I jumped a fence, got in a pool, all that

1:25:05

sort of thing. Classic.

1:25:09

High school story, ass shit, but like,

1:25:11

I don't know, nothing major. I was

1:25:13

never a big birthday party person either.

1:25:16

I would rather just spend time with

1:25:18

my friends hanging out, doing something fun,

1:25:20

and maybe like, pin an event to

1:25:22

it, and then go do that. And

1:25:24

so like, those were always

1:25:27

just, you know, an excuse to go, oh, let's

1:25:29

go bowling or something like that, right? Like, and

1:25:31

then you'd get up to some mischief and shenanigans

1:25:33

and all that. But yeah,

1:25:36

nothing major. I've never been a huge big birthday

1:25:38

party person, blowout and all that kind of stuff.

1:25:42

I turn my birthday into

1:25:44

a week long celebration with

1:25:46

multiple dinners and hangs with

1:25:49

all of my friends. Catfest,

1:25:51

yes. It's all about cat.

1:25:54

And I love it. This past

1:25:56

year we went to like the Alameda

1:25:59

Pimball Museum. For

1:26:02

last year, I shot a musket, which

1:26:05

was like a cool way to ring in the

1:26:07

old 40th birthday. I

1:26:10

tried to do something fun. I don't

1:26:12

know. Whenever I make

1:26:14

it to another birthday, I'm always like,

1:26:16

I made it. I made

1:26:19

it to another year. And it

1:26:21

feels like an accomplishment at

1:26:23

this point. That's nice. That's a good way of

1:26:25

putting it. I don't want to get dark or anything, but there

1:26:28

are people that I graduated with who are now dead.

1:26:32

That's kind of sad. Yeah.

1:26:35

So I think that enjoy

1:26:39

your life and congratulations

1:26:41

on making it through another year, Nadia.

1:26:43

Thank you. And I wish

1:26:46

you a year of health and

1:26:49

happiness and success. Enjoy.

1:26:52

Oh, thank you. If you're listening to this

1:26:54

on Monday, you're obligated to subscribe now. Yes.

1:26:56

Thank you. Also video games. Also

1:26:59

video games. Everybody who's listening

1:27:02

to this should subscribe to the

1:27:04

podcast as a Patreon, as a

1:27:06

gift to Nadia. It's a

1:27:08

great gift. I agree. I

1:27:11

agree. I think it's the best gift you could possibly give yourself.

1:27:14

Yes, money. And

1:27:19

that's it for this week's episode

1:27:21

of Axel Blugga. Thank you so

1:27:23

much for listening. As always, if

1:27:25

you enjoy the show, you can

1:27:27

support us on Patreon at patreon.com/blood

1:27:30

God pod. Your generous donation keeps

1:27:32

this podcast going. We've been going

1:27:34

for about three years now. We've

1:27:36

got bonus content. Our pantheon

1:27:38

of the blood God is in full swing. We're

1:27:40

going to be doing Pokemon and that's going to

1:27:42

be coming up sooner than you think. Getting

1:27:45

of August. Next thing we know, it's going to be time for

1:27:47

another pantheon vote. What's going to be the pantheon vote? I

1:27:50

guess you'll find out. James, where

1:27:52

can we find you? You

1:27:55

can find me at S.

1:27:58

W. W. E. T. Posting.