Episode 304: "The Scream I Scrumpt"

This week, HOO BOY, WE TALK ABOUT A LOT OF FINAL FANTASY XIV!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

This is the Gorge. It's a podcast where my friends and I gorge ourselves in what's happening in the world of video games and entertainment.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

You would press record while I'm in the middle of a yawn. The Gorge is brought to you by Patreon. That's patreon.com/slash the Gorge, where for just three dollars a month, you gain access to all of our bonus content. Anything we've ever done in the past and everything we will do in the future. Um three bucks, that's it. Uh that's a ton of stuff considering this podcast's been running for a hot minute. Uh, it also gets you early access to our TTRPG game, The Reboot, a Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG, uh, that we like a lot and is always good. Um, yeah, there's so much. Please go to patreon.com. It also gets you pictures of my dog, Peanut the Dog, who is the podcast mascot. Um yeah, patreon.com slash the gorge. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

So uh it's just a regular roundup. How do we want to handle the big thing?

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Do you want to do it first? Or do we want to do it first?

SPEAKER_02 1:27

We can do a part of the roundup. I feel like doing it as part of the roundup makes more sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

Do we want to do it first? We want to talk about that, and then talk about all the other stuff we've been up to, or do we want to put it off until we talk about all the others? Like we talk about the other normal stuff first. We'll put it off until the end. Ben, we'll do that mostly because um I know what I've been up to and it's just been more comic books and parts of the book. Yeah! Uh I haven't done as much since the last time we spoke, but I got there. I have done two big ones, two like big ones in different ways. Um I read Batman Year One, that's good. Uh Frank Miller is a crazy person. Shocking no one. It's a again, it's a shocking. If you haven't ever read it, I know everybody's read The Dark Knight Returns. I mean, everybody who cares about comics is read it. Um and it's good, but like it I love its old art style, but it is it is an art style from the 80s affectionate site uh in a good way. Um but year one, it's to me the craziest thing about year one is that it came out in 1986, and the art is so it feels so modern. It still feels like a book that could have come out this week, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

It's it's very clean inking and very like rich colors. Um, I know that these colors are new for the trade paperbacks, if I'm remembering correctly. Um, they recolored the whole thing for the trade paperbacks to be a bit a bit richer. Right. Um, but it's still like the inkwork is is very, very modern and very, very beautiful. I've just been flipping through it. I just really like the style of it all. Um it it doesn't feel like something that came out before the long Halloween, which is also so this is I'm holding the book in my hands because it's one of the handful of books that I purchased over the weekend on Saturday. Um this is kind of a setup for the long Halloween, like all the stuff going on between like with specifically how the long Halloween is about Batman Gordon and Harvey Dent. Like that all gets set up in year one and I assume the subsequent uh year two and three, um, and how they kind of become like a little trio until things go horribly wrong in the Long Halloween, right? Um it sets up Selena, it sets up Falcone and all of the different like crime families in Gotham. Um I didn't realize that. That was really cool. Um yeah, no, I liked it a lot. It's a lot shorter than I thought. I was actually kind of surprised by how short year one is. It's very brisk.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

It's very funny, like how a lot of these like most iconic things in comic book history, like the things that you that everyone pulls from, right? Like if you're adapting a comic book story, like you're gonna pull from Batman Year One, you're gonna pull from the Long Halloween, that kind of thing. There are like four or five issues.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Now the Long Halloween is actually quite long, I will say.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Um the long Halloween. Well, I should hope so. It's the Long Halloween.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

I know, right? It is actually quite substantial. And by substantial, I mean it's um it's like four trade paperbacks.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

So like it's actually pretty long.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Yeah, it's the one.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

I mean, in terms in terms of all the other stuff that I've that I've been reading, because I've been reading a lot of like shorter things for for digestibility. I have much longer stuff on my list, but um, it's it's getting kind of kicked. I'm kicking that can down the road until I read some more of the foundational shit. Um but yeah, no, year one is a brisk read. I had that done in no time. It's really good. I like it. I like it a lot. Um but I also read Court of Owls, which has permanently rewritten my brain chemistry. Um it's so fucking good, like, because it specifically scratches like my kind of love of I don't know, fictional city esoterica. Shrugging motions. Um, I don't know. There's something, there's there's a lot of like thought being put into the history of Gotham. It introduces a very funny character trait that I discovered I now share with Batman himself, which is um being a trivia nerd about the town you live in. As Ben can attest to every time he's ever visited, I'm like, oh, that building was built in such and such, and it was this and that and this. And then you know, you you go to you come visit me and I give you like a tour while we're just driving around town, right? Um Saturn's also been a little on the receiving end of it.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

That's right. Uh that's like a recurring thing in the Court of Owls. So there you go. Um, where it's just like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Look, it's it's good for Batman to have Gap Moe.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

It's true, absolutely. The most gap character of all time.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

You're telling me the rich man who lives in a cave, which is just full of trinkets, is like really weirdly specifically knowledgeable about shit.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Yeah, there's owns.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

There's a really great comic uh uh page I've seen. I I need to find I don't know the context of it, but it's it's uh Batman and Green Lantern, they're in like they're they're in some kind of like uh ancient jungle thing where dinosaurs are walking around. Of course, and uh Batman is identifying all the different dinosaurs in the area, and Green Lantern, Green Lantern is like, man, you sure know a lot about this. And Batman's like, yeah, I love dinosaurs. And Green Lantern is like, wow, Batman likes dinosaurs. And Batman goes, I have a giant T-Rex in the Batcave. And Batman's like, oh right.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Yeah. Obviously.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

I realize I was saying this in the Discord earlier to like lovingly disparage everybody's favorite Deep Space Nine fascist Odo. But I do think they should canonize Batman being like weirdly knowledgeable about trains and varieties of trains.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

I would be surprised.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

That guy should like like you should have like a solid city block size of the Batcave as just the model trains room.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Like yeah. Batman, one of Batman, I've I've actually found the panel, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Just wondering, so I was like, so is this part of your like, you know, like crime fighting operations? But he's like, no, I just don't have anywhere else to put these.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Batman, like, part of Batman's like overall like uh desire for for vengeance and bringing Gotham uh back into the light is uh his desire to fix the uh inner city train system.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Yeah, the the the true fantasy of Gotham is not uh that that there is one good cop and uh that vigilanteism solves any problems. It's that it has a functioning public transit system, unlike any average American city, right? Um yeah, no. Uh oh, the fun fact, speaking of cord vowels and speaking of the the the dinosaur in the Batcave, that is actually that comes up. Um he uses that to stomp on somebody at one point at rules.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

It's really good. I just really, I really liked it. Um I really like that art. I really just kind of like the way it's all pacing. Again, you know, people are right, the second half of that story is a little weaker because like the labyrinth part. I bought the physical version of it because I wanted to do the thing where you turn the book around while you read it. It's really cool. Um the labyrinth part of Chord of Owls is so solid and so horrifying that it's kind of hard to, you know, follow that up with anything. Yeah. Um the second half is still good, it's still cool, but that one that one glorious chunk right there in the middle um justifies the whole book. I I mean, genuinely, I think you should read the whole thing just for that alone.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I'm I'm going to the thing is, uh I think I said this last time, but like everyone making suggestions to you for comics to read, Sarah, I'm also scribbling down.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

You're writing them down, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Like when I get paid next, I'm gonna start buying more comics.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Buy these. Um, I learned at the comic book store that DC is really smart. They're basically ripping off manga in their own way. Um thank god. Which is that they are taking their most popular old stories, they are printing them on cheaper paper in smaller sizes and selling them for 10 bucks a pop.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Oh my god. Marvel used to do that back in the early 2000s, because I remember getting you could get manga-sized versions of the runaways.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Also, just straight up, like, and I know I've said this before, and it's maybe the most obvious thing in the world. I do really need whichever of the two biggest comics publisher is the first to go, we've made DC jump, or we've made Marvel jump. Here's our weekly publication with non-color print on cheap paper or whatever of just like stuff that's ongoing.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

They honestly okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

They'll reclaim the industry.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

They honestly, the the cheap print that these that because I bought, what did I buy? I bought All-Star all- Excuse me. All-star Superman, which I haven't read yet, but I'm going to. Um, and I bought the Court of Owl stuff, both in that format of like the cheap, like the cheaper printed version, because um I bought like a handful of books, and those were way cheaper than the like big glossy. Like the big glossy trade paperbacks are nice. Like they're good for collectors items. Um but those were cheaper and much more manageable. And honestly, you could you could just print, you could do like a DC jump or a Marvel jump in color with like the cheapness of that print, honestly. Um, because it's very, I mean, like that paper, it's it's newsprint paper. It's actually, I mean, it's smart. Yeah, it's really, really smart.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Um, you can print that in color. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

It is funny though, because the um the like glossier like TPB paper that that usually gets used is better for printing solid black than newsprint. Um and the Court of Owl is a very dark comic book, literally, like it's a lot of black. Um, so I had to like read that comic in the brightest possible light so I could kind of distinguish details and stuff. Um, it was a comic made to be read at a larger format with richer colors, but it's okay. I still think it's worth it. I still think it's a good way to sell comic books to people. Um, and you can just get like, you know, you get all of it just in one nice little book. It's like I said, it's really smart.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Um so yeah, uh, that one's really good. I like it a lot. It has an interesting plot twist at the end of it. That I don't think I don't, I mean, I obviously I don't know enough about comic books to know how other people feel about it, but the way it's handled and written is like, okay, I think that's interesting. So that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

I'll let you know when I read it.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

That's really good. Um and uh I think that's it though. Unfortunately, I haven't I bought what all did I buy? I bought Court of Owls, I bought All-Star Superman, uh well Oates bought All-Star Superman. Um, I bought Year One, Court of Owls, uh Death Death of the Family, which is a Joker book that Oates read before me because I was I was busy reading other things. And she said it's fine, but it has a really good ending, so that kind of justifies it. I'm like, okay, cool, I'll uh I'll go read that. Um I bought a collection of stuff by Darwin Cook that has ego in it. Because I like Darwin Cook. Um I feel like I bought one other thing. Where's that picture right now? That might be it. It was like five things. Uh yeah, that was it. Okay. It was good. I would like to buy more. Um, I was devastated to learn that my childhood comic book store had to move after 30 years. Um I literally drove because it's I mean it's been there, it's been there since 1992, right? Um, and I drove there without even checking on Google that it was there and open because it's of course it is.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Right, it's so ubiquitous.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Like, it's such a like given in my life that that comic book store will be there, right? Uh and I got there and it was not there. Uh it was horrifying to get to this little shopping center and see that that my like my local comic book store that I have both been going to since I was like 12 years old. So more than 20 years, um was no longer there, and I like frantically Google it. They moved 35 minutes out of town. So, well, 25 minutes. So now it's like a 30 35 minute drive from my apartment to where they are now, instead of the brisk, easy little 10 to 15 minute drive that it used to be, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah, um brutal. It's it's it's a cosmic law. Yeah, the good comic book store has to be at least 25 minutes away.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

It's true, and like there is another comic book store like really close to my apartment, but they're so bougie. It's a it's a comic book store slash tattoo parlor, and very obviously the tattoo parlor is the bigger part of their business, right? Because like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

And that's brutal because tattoo parlors are not a are not a high margin business to begin with. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

No, I mean like, and it's quaint to be like, oh yeah, it's a comic book store and a uh and a tattoo parlor. It's like, okay, that's cute, but like and they have a they like they have weeklies for sale. You can you can have a pull list, they'll they'll do all of it, right? But the in terms of their collection of like trade paperbacks, like the big thick ones, it's not large. It's very like it's okay. So I before we went to the bougie one, uh, we made the long drive to the store, um, you know, 35 minutes away now, right? That store, he has had the same inventory since 1992 as well. Um, because when we were digging through those books, we pulled out things that were clearly 30 years old just by like the texture of the paper and the wearing on the cover, like stuff that's just never sold. Right. Um and I mean he has Paul has everything. Paul has fucking everything. And if he doesn't have everything, then he's got volume two of everything, but not volume one, goddamn.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Um, that's that's gonna be a problem going forward.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Yes!

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Trust me.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

So much of that.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Do you know how much how long I've been looking for volume two of Renew Your Vows?

SPEAKER_03 17:11

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It's it was a mess. Um, but I love the mess. It is it is massive. It is like the store, their new store is is also big, and it's also extremely cluttered, only slightly more navigable than the old store, which I have posted pictures before of what the old store looked like. Um, it was a hazard. The old store, Saturn, I don't know if you've ever seen these pictures. I hope I saved it.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

I don't I don't think you've sent me those.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

How does it compare to the bookstore we went to?

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Uh similar, but more dangerous. Yes. Um do I do I have it? Ah, yeah, I do. Hold on. I'm going to post this in uh chat real fast. It is here. It's an old shitty photo because I had to pull it off Google, but so that's what it used to look like in there.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Uh-huh. Perfect.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

And like the most narrow little halls, like the most narrow little aisles, and those those white boxes full of back issues, uh, fucking everywhere. And it felt like if you sneezed in there, something was gonna fall over on you. Right?

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Because it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Yeah, because it was. The news store looks like this, so you get an idea that it's like, oh, it's a little bit more organized, but also not really.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Yeah, I'm still a little afraid of it.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Yeah, it's always it smells musty in there and it has no AC, it just has those ceiling fans. Um, it's the best. It's just, it's just the best.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

It's a good feeling.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

I you you realize okay. One more one more thing about the Concord Sword, and then I'll I'll move on. I'm sorry, but I love this place. Even though they've moved, it still has its spirit, right? So, All-Star Superman, right? I've never read it, but it's one of Grant Morrison's most famous runs. Everybody, as far as I'm aware, loves All-Star Superman.

SPEAKER_04 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Because it's good, right? We walk up to the counter with our with our arm full of books, and we're holding our All-Star Superman, and we hand it to Paul, and he looks at it and he goes, I thought it was okay. He thought it's fine. What because and it made me realize that like old school ass comic book Grognard, like fucking comic book guy from The Simpsons, those guys are like when the last of them die, that's it.

unknown 20:03

Right?

SPEAKER_03 20:04

That's not an exact one. The genre of guy does is not gonna exist. When when all of the guys like Paul are gone, that type of dude will no longer exist. Right. Um I can't even explain it other than the fact that like you have to be a stone cold hater, but like in a very specific way. You're not getting into fights with people on Twitter about it. You're getting into fights with people in the comic book store about it.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

Right?

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Well, well, Sarah, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. It's time to become more grognar than ever before.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

The time you got it, boss. Remember, remember, I remember the old story, like you've heard of uh the Eltingville Book Club, right? Yeah, yeah, like how he had to stop making that comic because he discovered that the the things he was parodying were not parodies, and real people were in fact worse than the characters he had created.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

That sounds about right.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Yeah, that sounds about right. Uh yeah, no, but it uh it rules, it's the best place. I was very happy, and as much as I love the other like the other comic book store, I respect it, but like their their collection is so small in comparison to this.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Right?

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Um, Pina, what did you just get into? Nothing. I think you just jumped on the couch, it's okay. I didn't do nothing. I didn't do nothing, mom. Um, but yeah, no, I have I I continue to have a good time reading comic books. It makes me happy. They're really fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

I'm so glad.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Ben's so fucking vindicated after like the years and years of knowing each other. After like this is like a victory lap for Ben.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

After almost 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

I finally have someone else I can talk to about comic books.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

And it's me!

SPEAKER_00 22:01

And I like and I I really I do really, really like that I'm a Marvel guy and you're a DC girly.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Of course! How else could it have gone? Right? 20 years of waiting for me to get into comic books and I picked the wrong one.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

No, you but like but like thematically you picked the right one.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Like now and now it it fee it feels more correct this way.

SPEAKER_03 22:29

The permutation is complete, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

Um uh speaking of which we also finished Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. We how we did all of Justice League Unlimited season two in a day because it's that good. Um it's 13 episodes and 22 minutes a pop, so it's very brisk. Um but Justice League Unlimited or Justice League season one is really bad.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

There's Sarah, are you there? Oh, we just lost her, yep. Oh, her computer tried to update.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

Well then, uh since Sarah's not here, I'll talk some about DC Comics. Uh go for it. There's a guy in it named the Batman.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

And he's enemies with the jokester. The Jo the Jongler? Yeah, the Jongler, who is uh who uh cameos in uh Dunskafe in FF14. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Uh and also uh the Grinch is there, I think. Yeah, no, that feels I think Batman has fought the Grinch at the Grink at some point. Um fuck, this is hard. How does she do it? His greatest foe is a man named the Condiment King. Yeah. That one's not a joke. There is actually a villain named the Condiment King.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

I I'll pretend to be shocked. Um, you know, like uh you know. I think she's coming back.

unknown 24:35

Hi.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

There you are.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Oh, thank god she's back. I was trying to do my best to continue the the thread of DC comics with my limited line.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

Sorry, did you lose all my shit? Is it still recording? What happened?

SPEAKER_00 24:45

It's still recording, yeah. You're still good.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Because it only shows me with like 12 seconds of audio, but as long as you're good, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah, no, you're here. We can well let me let me just hit stop and we'll we'll create a new session anyway.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

I want to make sure.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Okay, anyway, you were talking about uh Justice League.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

And how the first season is bad.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

The first season is probably the most mid thing in the DCAU by a mile. It's just it's just not good. It there's really no episode that stands out as like good other than maybe the Christmas episode.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Um I love the Christmas episode. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Wait, the Christmas episode might be in season two. No, that's in season two. It's in season two. I'm a fool. So yeah, there's no good episode in the first season of Justice Lake. Um, it's all bad. Uh and then season two is so good it's it's kind of crazy. Um and then season one of JLU is like, fine, it's fine, it's good, but like, you know, it's just kind of fine. Right? Like, it's enjoyable, it has its good moments, it has a lot of like neat bits. Um, unfortunately, it is overshadowed by its big dick brother, aka Justice League season, Justice League Unlimited season two. Holy shit. Um that show starts. Well, there's there's an episode, and then that season starts with back-to-back bangers of For the Man Who Has Everything, kid stuff, and um this little piggy, just back-to-back to back, right?

SPEAKER_04 26:24

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Which is fucking crazy. Oh, Saturn, for the record, for the man who has everything is the only adaptation of an Alan Moore story, um, like DC story that he likes. Actually, I think it's the only adaptation of any Alan Moore story that he likes.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Yeah, the only thing. I see.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

Yes. Um, and it's uh it's really good, even I mean, unsurprisingly, because um even Alan Moore likes it.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

To the point, by the way, it's the only thing outside of the movies From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to have his name in the credits.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

Yes, everything else, he's like, no, I don't want my name on the credits. I don't want to be associated with this. Um, but for the man who is everything, he not only likes it, he wants his name on it as like the guy who, you know, that the screenplay is adapting. Um it's it is great. And George Newburn, it's the only episode of anything in the DCAU that even got me to tear up like at all. No, wait, there's probably one other, I think, in in Batman, but that's to be expected. Um but like I George Newbern is so good in all of it, but especially in that episode, because it's it's a bit where he has to tell his fake son. I can't even talk about it. He has to tell his fake son that like he knows this is all a dream and he's so sorry and I'll never forget him. And it's so good. Oh my god. It rules. It is such a good episode of like just like comic book storytelling. It's it's awesome. Um, highly and then like kid stuff is good because it's the one where they obviously all get turned into kids. Um, and it's hilarious, and it's just so charming. Um, and then this little piggy is the one where Wonder Woman gets turned into a pig and Batman has to sing, and Kevin Conroy has the voice of a fucking angel.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Um I'm I'm so mad because uh there is a bit uh that because of the Bat Embargo did not get to go into this into that episode. Which is a cameo of the Joker, Harley, and his crew uh plotting a scheme, and then Batman walks past them in the alley holding the Wonder Pig and talking to it. And the Joker just throws his plan away and walks off.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

So good.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

We were fucking robbed.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

We were so robbed. Yeah, because there is no Joker in that in that season, like at all. Basically, after because like season two, he's in and he's in like a two-parter, but that's it.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Yeah, no, they they could not use any Batman characters for uh crazy like licensing reasons.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Horseshit reasons, yeah, absolutely. Um but yeah, no, uh a crazy banger series of episodes, and then um finishing it all up with just like I mean every episode in season two is really good. And it's interesting because it's it is very interesting because one of the things about Justice League seasons one and two is that they're all two-party, right? And part of what makes the first season of Justice League kind of bad is because this is a writing staff that clearly learned how to write an extremely brisk 22 minutes of TV. Right. Right? And now suddenly they're being given all of this extra these extra pages in a script. And like there are so many episodes of that first season where if it had been one episode, it probably would have been good, but it's so boring, right? Because they're just they're like, oh my god, how do we fill all this time? And then season two, they are given a proper, you know, like they're given another 26 episodes and they all have to be two parters, but they clearly listened to like all the feedback and like backlash because everybody jobs so hard in season one, literally, except for Batman, because he's he's Bruce Jim's favorite Pokey um mode. Um but by season two, they're like, oh shit, we probably shouldn't have everybody job constantly, and also we should probably pace things these things better. And then they did, and season two is a fucking banger. And then you go back, interestingly, to Justice League Unlimited season one, where it's all except for the finales, it's all single episodes, and it again feels like they kind of stumble because they got used to having so much time, and now they don't have that time anymore. And then they finally find remember what they're doing in season two, and it's like the it's one of the best seasons of anything in that whole series of TV shows. Yeah. Um it's just interesting. I don't know. I to be a fly on the wall in those writers' rooms, um, god what I wouldn't give, right? Just to kind of hear what like the thought process of everything was. Um but yeah, JLU is really good. Season three is fine. It's fine. It's kind of hard to follow up the incredible highs of season two. Um they have the finale though, so it's good. I don't know. The show is carried super that third season is carried super hard by its final episode.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

I like that season two is this very like uh politically guided storyline of conspiracy, intrigue, manipulation, and all that.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

Sure. It's all very who gets to hold the reins of power in a world where like there are literal gods, right? And you just kind of have to make peace with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

And then I really like season three for having Lex Luthor form a band of supervillains that lives in the swamp in a big Darth Vader hat.

SPEAKER_03 32:49

Yeah, they literally live in the fucking Legion of Doom building from super friends.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yeah, it's you you get both in this show, and you you're and I'm happy with both.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Yeah, uh season three is fun. Like it's a lot of, you know, seven, like seven out of ten, eight out of ten episodes.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

Season three it's it's a victory lap.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

It's a victory lap.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

If you don't if you don't think of it as like a continuation of Justice League, if you think of it as, well, we got extra time, now we can do fun ones.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

We can do goofier ones, we can do more fun ones. Yeah, it's fine. Um and it ends on an insanely high banger note of uh World of Cardboard and Lex Luthor defeats Darkseid. Which kicks ass. I had to put on my power suit and he put on a fucking like business suit, right? Right. Great moment. Great, great bit of of cartoon writing. Um, and then it's over. Now it's all over. Now I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

There's you you technically have Static Shock in the Zeta Project, but I have heard Static Shock is really good, so I've got back to it.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

Uh Zeta Project probably will never watch.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Yeah. Static Shock is the one of these that I would always, when I was a youth, make time to go. Oh fuck, static shock is on. Well, I didn't say that because I was like a child. I was like, oh, oh dang, static shock is on.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Static shock, yeah, it is it is very good. Um and and like a lot of you know Bruce Tim's amazing work, uh, he does they they do a lot of getting into topics that you would not expect a children's show to get into.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

And having and having like a um like a really nuanced take on social or political incidents that might be happening to, say, a black kid growing up in an inner city uh environment.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

Yeah, I love that shit. It's the only reason we skipped it is truly because it starts out really disconnected from the rest of the DCAU and then gets folded in. It technically was not supposed to be part of it, apparently.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Season one uh has characters talking about DC heroes as if they're comic book characters.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

Yeah, so and then season two. Yeah, and then season two is like, actually, no, it's part of the DCO.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Yeah. We want we want to put Batman in the show.

SPEAKER_03 35:15

So we're we won't put Batman in the show because we gotta put Batman in in the fucking the Batman cartoon series. Um yeah, so uh we will we will go back to it at some point. I would like to have time for it, but uh that's why we skipped it. It's just because it starts out really disconnected and the actual you know continuity of the the DCAU kind of works like that. Honestly, Johnnyx has been talking about over on Big Gay Nerd stuff about saving Batman Beyond for last, and frankly, no, that's the wrong idea. I I understand they're doing it because of like nostalgia reasons because Batman Beyond is their favorite. I get that. Um the problem is that Batman Beyond's last episode is just like nothing, it's just like an it just ends. The show just kind of ends because they expected to get more and then didn't. Um, so I guess you could watch Batman Beyond. You watch all of Justice League, right? And all of Justice League Unlimited, and then you stop before Epilogue, and you watch all of Batman Beyond, and then you watch Epilogue, and then Batman Beyond gets a proper finale episode set inexplicably 15 years after the last episode of Batman Beyond. Yeah. Um yeah, I don't want to talk about it forever, but I could. I really could. Um, maybe someday we'll just start talking about comic books more often.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. Don't worry, don't worry about it. That that day is coming.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Once you're gonna do it. Look forward to the new Patreon show after we all get tired of uh running TTRPGs. Yeah, yeah. For sure.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

Have to do something to talk about fucking DCAU some more. Because it's really it's really tough.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

No, the thing is, the thing is, I I like I I talked about it a while ago where like I I might start Samurai Jack after I finish uh Lower Decks.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

But now I'm like, what if I did what if I did Justice League and Batman Beyond? At least Justice League and Batman Beyond.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

You should do all of it so I can have somebody I have an excuse to do all of it again, too. I mean now that I'm done with it all, I want to do what you do with Star Trek and just put all of it on in the background at work. Uh just pick a random episode and go.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

Um, because like why not?

SPEAKER_00 37:37

So, yeah, it's uh Well, I will I will say with the pace that I'm going, the next Voyager book report will be the last book report.

SPEAKER_03 37:48

No!

SPEAKER_00 37:49

I'm like halfway through season seven. It's over. But the crime. But the lower decks.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

I still have that to go through.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Sure, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

You're uh based on Sarah's experience, you are going to find that that passes uh very, very, very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

And then there's no time. Like, honestly, yeah, I do want to do I would do want to do DCAU stuff.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Um, but honestly, I might throw on the Orville.

SPEAKER_03 38:19

The Orville looks good.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

I could get fed Orville clips in my YouTube shorts.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

I saw that one cigarettes one. I'm like, man, I don't know. I know, I know it's like Seth McFarlane or whatever, but maybe he just has his fingers on the pulse of what Star Trek sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Here's the thing is that the Orville is Seth Mc So Seth McFarlane is a huge fan of Star Trek. Yeah. Like he fucking loves Star Trek. He wanted to do a Star Trek show. Like he was like, hey, can I produce and direct a Star Trek show? Like he went to Paramount and said, hey, can I do a Star Trek show? And they said no. And he said, alright. And then he changed all the names in his script.

unknown 38:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

And he created the Orville. And the Orville is apparently from what I've read, is a trick where the first season is haha, funny Star Trek joke episodes. And then season two and three are no, we're just Star Trek. It's just 90 Star Trek. Yeah, I mean Like it's the same tone.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

I genuinely am consider I really might just sit down and watch all of it because it's a good way to get my itch, right? Um, the only thing that's weird is that it's Seth McFarland, so it's just fucking Brian from Family Guy as the captain of his fucking starship, and I'm like, he really, he really only has the one voice. He only has the one voice. Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

It's it's funny because I'm like, I keep also I keep seeing clips of Star Trek and Ted, and I'm like, Ted's funny?

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Ted Ted seems funny. I probably won't watch it because it doesn't seem like my thing, but it seems funny. Yeah. Um, so I'm like, okay, sure.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

You can have this one. Actually, a good director?

SPEAKER_03 40:03

And he's just, you know, it's just that Family Guy pays his bills. Maybe. Fuck, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

I mean, I'm willing to believe that, honestly, because every time I see something from Seth McFarlane that isn't Family Guy, I go, damn, from being from the Family Guy guy, this is actually kind of funnier than I was expecting it to be.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Like, American Dad is funny, and also the best Johnny Bravo episodes were written by Seth McFarlane.

SPEAKER_03 40:28

Wait, were they really?

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Butch it the the the Johnny Bravo thing was like where Butch Hartman and Seth McFarlane got their starts.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Wow. Wow, two uh fucking two roads. Dichotomy, I know. Yeah, two-roads diverge type shit. Yeah, geez.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

But like, yeah, you you you you look at all the like like all the best old school, like the ones were obviously were the one he meets Adam West. That was a good that was a Seth McFarlane episode.

SPEAKER_03 40:55

Yeah. Again, I mean, weird weird aligning of the stars with uh Batman the Animated series there as well.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Because there's that episode where Adam West plays a character.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

Plays the Great Ghost, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

Yeah, plays the Great Ghost. And that shit rocks, by the way. That's a good episode.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Fucking owns.

SPEAKER_03 41:13

That shit's it's a really good episode.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

I think uh I think they had Adam West play Thomas Wayne in Brave and the Bold.

SPEAKER_03 41:23

That's so I saw on Twitter the other day that somebody had that at some point at like a convention or something, somebody got Adam West to read some of the lines from The Dark Knight Returns. Yeah, I saw that! It clicked with me so hard that specifically every other Batman comic I've read, of course, I default to Kevin Conroy because of the world.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Of course, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:53

But I wasn't doing that for the Dark Knight Returns because it's so different, right? And I realized what I was doing was Adam West in my head, and it's because like that was the intent. That was Frank Miller's intent, was Adam West. And it's like, oh shit, that makes so much sense. Um and he does the line read for the you know, every punk has a mother is the line.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

And I you hear it and you're like, oh my god, oh my god, it all makes sense now. Um it rules, it's really good.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

There's there's that old like like dichotomy, like that old like saying about Batman, like discussing like different interpretations of him where it's like, if your Batman would not comfort a crying child, that's not the Batman, that's the punisher in a funny hat.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

Right, that's correct.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

The other one that I that I think is also appropriate is uh if your bat if your Batman would not respect Adam West Batman, then you're not writing Batman.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

You're not writing it right. No, absolutely not. Um yeah, it was uh fuck. I want to rewatch Batman the animated series again already.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

Why why not? Yeah, what's stopping you? You you now you now have the ability to just to just second screen Batman.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

You can just second you can second screen the entire DCAU now.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

I don't think I could second screen it. I feel like I would get even less work done than I already do. And be sitting here all day and it's like da-da. Um no, but uh what were we talking about other than getting distracted by talking about comic books some more, like always?

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Um well I can I can go into my stuff then. Yeah, do it. Because I was talking about I was gonna talk about Voyager.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Halfway through season seven of Voyager. Um there's a couple really good episodes in this one uh that I've seen so far. Um I like the Interplanetary Race episode.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Ooh, yeah, I like that one.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

That one was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

That one's fun.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

Where Tom and Balana finally get married.

SPEAKER_03 43:56

Yeah, that one's cute. I like that one a lot. Um

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Where they were like, where everyone had to be like, Balana, if you're not having fun doing all of Tom's dumb shit, you need to tell him that.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Yeah. Don't just stew at it. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Like, this is kind of on you for actively encouraging him to do all this dumb shit. Like, if you're not enjoying it, you can tell him.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

We'll quit.

SPEAKER_00 44:22

Tom's a nice guy, he will stop making you do it.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

The uh the thing about the miracle that Voyager uh performs is that most of its its uh heterosexual relationships are interminable. Right? Um the ones they decide to go with are uh almost exclusively bad. And the ones that they choose to not go with uh make my blood boil. Um because uh Seven and the Doctor is a cute one. Yeah. If you were going to if you're going to make poor Seven of Nine uh participate in um in Comphead, then might I suggest Robert Ricardo as like the most odd couple pairing of all time. I think it would be nice and cute. They have a lot in common, as it turns out. Um but no, we can't have that. But the miracle! It's like, it's like you know how I was saying on Blue Sky the other day, not to bring this back to DCA, but I promise, I promise I'm done after this. I swear to God. You know how I was saying on Blue Sky the other day about how it's like Bruce and Barbara is the cine eater for all the bad heterosexuality in the DCAU, and otherwise it's like fucking banger after banger. Yeah. It's like the opposite in Voyager. There's one really good one, and there's like the linchpin of heaven. Excuse me. Hey, can you stop trying to eat the dog? Thank you. The cat likes to lick the dog when he wants food. Um so I assume he's trying to eat a peanut.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

So I mean that's what you do with peanuts.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

Yeah, exactly. Um but yeah, no, Tom and Balana, perfectly fine. Actually, quite good. Um they it which is weird because when they first introduced it, I thought surely the god not. Um, there's no way that you're insane. But they saw you on it by the end of it. You're like, oh, okay, fine.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

They do have such the aura of man, child, and sensible wife, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

But then it turns out that no, Tom actually is a pretty mature guy, and he's just doing this stuff to goof off. And like, if Belana actually communicates with him, yeah, he's willing to listen. It's just that she hates doing that.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Um I I know people who communicate and they're all cowards.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

It is not the Klingon way to communicate, okay?

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Um speaking of, I had the episode where they're like, uh, Balana's pregnant, yay! And she's gonna have a Klingon baby, and she's like, I need to perform genetic like illegal genetic surgery to get rid of her Klingon traits, and Tom's like, that's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

You're not doing that. No, we're not doing designer baby eugenics shit to our baby. Have you lost your mind?

SPEAKER_00 47:22

But what if but what if you leave me like my dad did and Tom's like, I'm not gonna do that?

SPEAKER_03 47:28

Yeah, it's really good. It's actually surprisingly good. Um, yeah, I like it. I like that, I actually like that pairing a lot. It's shockingly. Um I mean, I still think it should have been Tom and Harry, but you know, you know, if you're gonna make me endure a heterosexual relationship, at least you did it good instead of bad.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

Speaking of of the Doctor and Seven, there was the one where the doctor had to hide inside Seven's implants. Yeah. And we got to see Jerry Ryan act like Robert Picardo.

SPEAKER_04 47:56

Yeah, that's really funny.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Which is another you know, speaking of gags that I really love, like uh, you know, the heroes running into their own impostors, I love you. This actor has to act like this other actor.

SPEAKER_03 48:12

Yes. It's really funny. And she does a great job. She does a great job. Honestly, she actually actually like kind of nails it.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

Um there's a there's a really great one of those in uh AI the Somnium Files. It's like my big takeaway from like that, because not to get too into it, but that's a a game whose story requires some of the voice actors to voice as though they are trying to be a different person than they are. And the uh voice actor for the uh I would say most Sereacter member of the cast has to do impressions of like four other characters, and they're also spot on, it's uncanny.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

It's it this it is like an extrapolation of one of my other favorite like acting gimmicks, which is not just you know having to act like another actor plays, you know, their character, but also when it comes to voice acting, where it's like you have to do your character's voice doing an impression of another character.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

There was actually uh not to continue bringing up other video games, there was an instance of that in Destiny 2, which is my favorite, where uh they have the ghost who's voiced by Nolan North, uh, do an impression of the drifter who's voiced by Todd Habricorn, right? And when they talked about that scene later, they're like, we had to get Nolan North to redo the lines because his impression of Todd Habercorn was too good. We were worried that players would not realize it was him doing an impression and that it was actually like Todd Habercorn's character like phoning in or something.

SPEAKER_03 49:49

That's awesome. That rules okay, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 49:54

My my favorite example of that uh in anything is in Dragon Ball Z Abridged, actually. Where um there's a scene where uh after during the Android saga where Yajirobe crash uh gets his car blown up. Yeah, and he starts imitating Korin, like suggesting that they go help out the gang.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

Like, hey, go hey Yajirobe, why don't you go help out the gang? Oh sure, Korin, I'd love to. The thing is, both Yajirobe and Korin are played by Kaiser Neko. So Kaiser Neko had to do a voice which is Yajirobe doing an impression of Korin.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

That's that whips. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 50:37

That is making me though think a lot how the English voice of Kurobara in in Yu Yu Hokka Show is Christopher Sabat. And it really Kubara really just sounds like Christopher Sabat is doing an impression of Yajirobe.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Let's see, what other good episodes were in this one, in this bit? Uh I I got to see some I finally got a little bit of Ferengi nonsense. Just a little. Just a little. I missed these stupid goblin bastards so much.

SPEAKER_03 51:15

There's two episodes of Ferengi nonsense in Voyager.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

Um they're both really good episodes.

SPEAKER_03 51:21

Both really good episodes, yeah. This one is really good. I'm like, I like the stuff. I think season seven of Voyager is pretty strong. Right. Um I think season six of Voyager is probably. I have to look at like an episode list to like tell you definitively. But I think season six of Voyager is probably my favorite, but seven is still quite strong. They're they still manage to like keep the momentum going. Um and I like the thing in season seven where we're constantly going back to Earth as they kind of set up the like getting home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

Now that they're now that they're they're they're getting this close, we can have like more regular contact with the Federation and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

Yeah, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

I um I know that the like the episode that that I'm going to next involves them burn running into Klingons, so I'm excited to see that. Um but I I like I I got the two-parter with the uh the rogue holograms of the Herogene, uh, which is really good. Uh hologram rights and all that.

SPEAKER_03 52:28

Mm-hmm. Good one.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

Um I liked Shattered a lot, which is the one where different parts of Voyager are in different time periods.

SPEAKER_03 52:38

Yeah, I like that one a lot. That's my kind of like bullshit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

Surprisingly good Chicote episode.

SPEAKER_03 52:47

One of like two.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Yeah. It only took them all seven seasons. Um we got to see Dr. Chaotica again in that episode.

SPEAKER_03 52:58

Yeah, it's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 52:59

It was it was really fun to have it be season seven Chicote and season one Janeway.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

Yeah, that's it's a that's a fun kind of hook. I like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:08

Um and I really, really liked the uh the flash forward to uh um future Naomi.

SPEAKER_03 53:19

Yeah, uh was really fun.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Yeah, future each up, yeah, that was a really fun moment. Um yeah, that was a really good one. And then what else was really good in this one?

SPEAKER_03 53:30

You're right, that actually is the one like rare good Chicote episode.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

Yeah, I had I had no problems with Chicote in that episode because he was like taking charge and doing things and wasn't just going, Captain, I have some concerns, and no, you don't! You're right, I don't.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

Yeah, that's right. That's Chakote's whole character. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

Um not that I want him to take charge from from Janeway, but it was good to actually like, you know, have him be a commander and command things.

SPEAKER_03 54:00

Yeah, and like actually know what's going on at any given time. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

Um yeah, that was it was that was good, so I'm excited to see what comes next. The last one I watched watched was Repentance with the uh Death Row Prisoners.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

That were uh that were on there. That was a really fun. That was a really not fun, but like really intrat intriguing episode.

SPEAKER_03 54:20

Yeah, that's good. That one's good.

SPEAKER_00 54:22

Yeah. What happens when a man finally gets a conscience, and then like the idea the idea of like, because like a lot of 90s Trek at least is like, we found this culture where things are weird. This one where it's like, oh yeah, the family uh or like you know, the survivors or or the family of of your I don't know murderer's victim gets to determine what a justifiable punishment is for you.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

You're like, that's kind of fucked up, but I can understand how a society might develop that way.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

Yeah, it it's like a it's like a thing you could see happening, right? There's like a it doesn't seem like a a culture that just kind of s that sprung up in a writer's room, right? Basically, you know, for the sake of the plot. Uh that one actually seems like a thing you might actually encounter out in space. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:15

Uh so yeah, so I'm excited to see what comes next. I only have 12 episodes of Voyager left. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 55:23

And then we're out of the Voyager book report, and then it's uh lower decks, which is good, but it will be over very, very quickly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:29

Yeah, and then uh then it's on to onto whatever other 90s project I decide to uh strike my fancy with.

SPEAKER_03 55:36

Yeah, I have no idea. I kind of want to do X-Files. I think I talked about that. Ooh. I'm really tempted to do X-Files next because it's a bit lighter fair. Lighter, I say, when it's got some like of the most horrific fucking TV shows, like episodes of the TV that I've ever heard on primetime. You know what I'm saying? There's not as much like lore attached. There's not there's not nearly as much other shit attached to the X-Files. Just a bunch of bad movies, and uh and then the show gets really bad in season like six.

SPEAKER_00 56:11

The one that I I I've been kind of kicking around that I might do at some point is I kind of want to re-watch the early 2000s Doctor Who.

SPEAKER_03 56:20

Oh, that's too painful. I couldn't do it. I because because it is good, and then it would get bad, and it's still going, right? Like, it's not like it's it's not like oh, there was one glorious time in the 90s where all there was all of this like good ass Star Trek and now it's over. It's like, no, it's this thing I like that was good and then got bad really fast, um, and and is never going back to being good, right? Yeah, that would depress me too much. I mean, I guess if you stopped basically after David Tennant's seasons, if you just nine and ten.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

All I was gonna do was was was Eckleson and Tennant.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

Would have been my plan. Like I wouldn't really I wouldn't really lean into eleven at all.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

No. Like that first 11 season is fine. It's it hasn't been.

SPEAKER_00 57:13

And I might I like I might skip to 12 because I've heard 12 is really good.

SPEAKER_03 57:19

That's uh that's uh what's his face? The old guy, right? Yeah, the older one. Okay. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where I'm like, eh, do I want to get to the hell?

SPEAKER_03 57:28

Do I really want to get hurt again? Do I really want to get hurt by Doctor Who again?

SPEAKER_00 57:32

But I miss Donna.

SPEAKER_03 57:34

God, I miss Donna. I do miss Donna Noble.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

I want to watch those the the the the newer specials that that Tenant and Donna did.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

Oh yeah, I heard those are good. Yeah. But I mean it's just because fucking Tenant and um what is her actress's name?

SPEAKER_00 57:52

Oh my god, I forgot what her actress's name is.

SPEAKER_03 57:55

I'm so sorry. I just know her as Donna Noble. Right. But the Ten and Donna, they just have such good chemistry and not like romantic chemistry, just like weird best friend energy. Um, and it's so good, and it would just depress me to enjoy it and then have it go back to being bad. I don't know, maybe it's not a bad idea. I don't know, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 58:20

But that's that's a ways off, so I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Um, what else did I do? I'm trying to get go through this a little bit quicker because we gotta well talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 58:28

Oh shit, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

Um, I played Pragmata. I started Pragmata, at least I haven't finished it. Thank you. But um it's good.

unknown 58:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

It's very interesting.

unknown 58:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

Because you think you, you know, because I just came off of Requiem, right? So I'm like, okay, I know how this works. It's gonna be an over-the-shoulder, third-person shooter, you know. I kind of know how this character's gonna move, what they're gonna do. And then I was given a jump button.

SPEAKER_04 58:55

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

And like, you move very quickly, and you have dashes. And I'm like, okay. And then I met Diana.

SPEAKER_03 59:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:06

And the way combat works is that a robot will show up, and it'll start marching towards you. And you will you will aim your cursor, you know, aim your your cursor, whatever, you'll point the point the gun at, and Diana's on your shoulder, and she'll you'll have like a a a little like uh 4x4 grid appear in the upper right corner. And you have to use the uh the face buttons, the X uh X square uh circle and triangle to guide Diana's cursor along a path, and when you get to the end of that path, that's when the the robot's armor bursts open, and you can actually do damage to it.

SPEAKER_03 59:54

Okay, interesting. Okay, so it's like a weird hacking game.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:00

Yeah, so like all of your enemies like move very slowly to accommodate for the fact that and you're not fighting like more than like four, like I had in like an arena that was like four enemies.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

Because like you can only hack one at a time, and like you're you're focusing on that one, so they all move very slowly, they have very obvious tells when they're like about to shoot something or lunge at you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:19

But like so you're having to avoid them in real time while also doing hacking?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:25

Interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

Yeah, and it's it's really, really int like it's really like a unique battle system that I haven't seen before. And like you do have to do the hacking, like it's not like oh you get like a you get like a 1.5 damage increase. Like, no, you just don't deal damage unless you do the hacking minigame.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:45

Huh. Oh. I might give that a shot. I was thinking the other day about how like Pragmata is a game that like somebody called it a Capcom 5 ass game, and I knew exactly what they meant instantly. And they're right, right? Right. Like, that is a Capcom 5 ass video game, you know?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:07

Um so yeah, no, I it sold well. Because it's 60, it's a$60 video game instead of a$70 video game. Imagine that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

Yeah, who know who would have thought? Um uh Hugh and Diana are adorable together.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:22

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

Um, this is continuing what Bonanza started in the Glad Dad genre.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:28

No, I've seen it. Uh the more and the smarter description I've seen of that game is that that's an uncle game.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:34

You know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

You're playing somebody's uncle.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:39

Uh they're they're very cute, like right out the gate.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:41

Like, sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

Um and it's just it's fun. Like, there's a lot of of fun little back and forth between them. They do a lot of really uh cool things. There was this great moment that I that I had, like, there's a mechanic in there where um if you get hit with like a heavy attack from like a from like a more powerful enemy, what happens is Hugh gets knocked over and Diana falls off of like he's got like a little he's got like a little harness on his back that she she hangs off of. She fell, she tumbled off of that. While she was rolling, she did like a desperation hack to stun the big enemy.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:21

And so like it's it's like your like get out of jail card.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:25

That's cute.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:26

So it happened automatically. It's like it's really dynamically like this like dramatically framed shot of her like falling off, doing this dramatic hack so that Hugh has enough time to pick her back up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

That's fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:36

And you can resume fighting. It's like, holy shit, that looked amazing!

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

Okay, dang. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:42

Well, yeah, no, it's yeah, it's delightful.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:45

Um that game is sold well too, which is nice. It's nice to see like a new thing actually do numbers for once.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:52

Yeah. Um, I'm still playing more Pocopia. I played a little bit of New Vegas.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:00

And I hit a problem.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:02

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:04

Where uh I have a bunch of quests that I that I can technically work on.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:09

Uh are you getting choice paralysis?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

Well, I'm I'm I'm not choice paralysis, I'm uh skill locked.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:17

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:18

Where I'm like, oh yeah, I just need like five more points in speech and I can make this check.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:24

Oh no, you're gonna have to you're just gonna have to raw dog it, dude. You're gonna have to take it as it comes. That's where you're gonna have to go find some fucking magazines, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:32

Yeah, and then I'm like, okay, but if I go and do this quest and I'll might be gonna get enough experience to, oh, I need 10 more points in hacking to actually pass this check.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:41

No, you're gonna have to just raw dog it and just take it as it comes and accept the fact that sometimes it's more fun to fail. It's uh it's it's gonna be more fun to skill jack.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

But I'm like, but it's only five points, and if I just give one more level, I can do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:57

This actually is a very interesting thing that uh that Josh Sawyer has talked about in the past since New Vegas has come out, which is this idea that they didn't make failing fun enough. Like they understood that they kind of messed that up. They didn't make like like they made succeeding a speech check just let you skip something, essentially. Right. Right? Um and they realized that they should they, you know, of course, you know, hindsight is 2020, and you make a thing and then you look at it later and you're like, ah, I could have fixed this in you know any number of ways. Um and that's the thing they realize is that they should have made failing more interesting, but you're gonna have to, you're just gonna have to raw dog those, those, those checks, dude. Oh, but it's sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

I just need a little I just need one more bit of experience, bro. I'm good for it, I swear. I swear, no, just one more brain while fixed traffic, I swear.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:50

You're trying, you're trying to uh what's the word? You're trying to generalize when you need to specialize, right? You gotta pick up a couple skills that you're really good at.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:00

I I am specializing. Like I'm specializing Alice in in uh the three S's sneak, science, and s uh speech.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:08

But I'm just I'm just I'm just low enough. I'm not high enough to pass some of the important checks.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:14

You should have taken you gotta always take that magazine bit bonus, dude. Oh, that one perk that doubles the effectiveness of magazines and gives you an extra because like there's also skill books that give you permanent boosts.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:27

Those those boost like normally they boost you by three, but with that perk, they boost you by four. Um that's such a banger uh perk to take in the early game because it just gives you plus 20 to everything, right? So, yeah. No, after a while I was just like a fucking bookstore walking around with all the magazines in my backpack in that game. Just as like my way to get past things. It's either that's either what you gotta do or you gotta raw dog those checks, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:54

I know, I know what I need to do, but I'm just like, but if I just do a little, if I dick around.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

A little bit, it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:02

Well, it is a, you know, it's still a di it's still a fucking open world, you know, Bethesda Engine game. It is still technically a dickin' around game. You just might get eaten by a death claw in the process of dicking around, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:14

Um but then the only other thing I did that's worth noting is uh like you, I've started to read more comic books. Yeah. And I'm getting back into the IDW TMNT comics.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:24

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:26

Because I I bought the I bought the third omnibus, and then I was like, wait a minute. I have forgotten what was happening in these comics.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

You gotta restart.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:36

Uh classic mistake.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:38

I do like the IDW uh omnibuses because they give you the proper reading order for everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:46

Yes. Like so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:48

So like all of the like all of the one-shots, all of the like annual yearly annuals and stuff that are still canon and in the timeline, they put them in the right order where you should be able to read them.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:59

That's really nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:00

Yeah. Um I don't like it as much as Rise, which I'm not gonna like any TMAT thing more than Rise.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:09

But it's still really good, and it's really interesting to like be reading about a character and then like have it click in my brain and go, this was a one-off character from the 86 cartoon.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:21

Yeah. That they've decided to flesh out to give us a big give them a bigger cast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:25

Yeah, like they have decided to turn into like a real thing with like depth and growth in it. Um yeah, very good. Uh it's fun because uh Kevin Eastman is was like a really active role in writing and shaping the comic. Like, I'm currently reading uh the uh one of the annuals that was just entirely drawn and written by him.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:49

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:50

Yeah. Uh so very cool to see like original creators like still actively participating in in this whole thing. Um that's about it, besides the big thing we'll talk about in a bit. Saturn!

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

Uh Saturn's real uh one thing to bring up as uh I haven't touched it in a couple of days, but uh I have been playing titanium court. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:14

I missed that stream and I haven't had a chance to watch the VOD. What is that thing?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:19

Titanium Court. Um, it's a match three strategy RPG narrative roguelite. It's the only way I can think to describe it. I'll show you some screenshots real quick. Hold on. Uh let me see if I can find some of the actual game.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:38

It's very difficult to describe the what the core gameplay is because there's a lot of nuances in it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

It's like so like you have match three things, and you can limit a match, like you match three to gain resources, right? Uh, and then when you're out of time to match three, it pivots to a strategy thing where the enemies that are on field will deploy at certain times, and you can decide to spend resources to deploy troops and or make spells happen, but you don't actually control the troops, they just sort of go follow their behaviors. So you kind of do a bunch of match three to hope that you can make get enough resources to defend yourself, and then hope.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:22

During the stream, we had a lot of situations where we were like, okay, we'll make a bunch of soldiers, and then they'll go and attack this base before like their the enemy troops are deployed. And then we get into the combat phase, and our troops go in the opposite direction. Uh-huh.

unknown 1:09:44

I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:45

So I'll show you a screenshot of what the actual like normal game board looks like real quick. Um, this is a funny one because it has a sort of a situation happening here. Uh, so this is like your trial your tile grid, right? And so for the pre-phase, you are match threeing these, and when you match three, you gain a resource based on what you match, and then they disappear and more slide in from the top, like normal style.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:11

When you run out of time, it locks together like this, and this is what your map is for the combat. Okay. Uh, you'll notice this bar. Uh, that's the uh shows when troops deploy, and then also like how much time is on the thing. Basically, like once the timer on that runs out, then you'll have endured the wave, uh, whether you are alive at the end or not. Okay. Uh, this particular screenshot, I have used the charm spell on a wormhole, which I have uh which is basically an enemy castle that no matter when you match it, it will just absorb all the troops that were in the castles and not clear the board. Uh so I try I managed to get about 20 plus soldiers in this wormhole and then charmed it, and now all those soldiers are my soldiers.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:54

I see, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:56

Uh so that's a particular weird thing. And then between that, there's like a uh visual novel component, and it's also very uh Huh. Uh here's a here's a screenshot of uh I I have at this point in this map encountered a mysterious sign, and my fairy courtiers are not sure what it is, so I'm attempting to explain it to them.

unknown 1:11:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:22

Um there's all sorts of weird things going on this game, and I think I've gotten to like what the thrust of the actual story is about. And it's very interesting in a way that I don't want to spoil but not because it's like a very complicated like lore plot or whatever, but because I think discovering what the story is about is part of the interest of it. Okay. And I just like I'm at a point where I find myself being very mentally engaged with how I am consuming the story.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:59

And thus it's making me want to slow my role a little bit. I totally understand.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:04

Like not try and consume it all in a single night type shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:10

Um, here, I'm just gonna go through and show some of the other things. Some of these are from like immediately after the stream ends, uh, but they're just screenshots I think were funny out of context.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:22

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Business Leland should be our uh our title card.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:28

I agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:28

That's pretty good, actually.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:30

That's a pretty good one, yeah, actually.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:32

Yeah, business Leland has evolved into Business Leland, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:36

But I would recommend checking out that stream. Uh I uh A, it went pretty well, but B also uh I did go to the hassle of recoloring my entire stream setup to match the aesthetic of the video.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:52

Well then yeah, I will have to watch that stream.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:54

I haven't had a chance to yet, but I'll show I'll show you the screenshot I posted on Blue Sky, but uh Oh, that's cute!

SPEAKER_03 1:13:01

You guys look adorable.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:03

Because I realized really easily, like, this is a full this is basically if you leave out the green, which doesn't show up in like except for the strategy part, it's basically a four-color game, and I'm like, wait a minute, my OBS filters have a Game Boy camera filter that is four colors, and I can just set dithering to zero so it makes everything be solid blocks of color, and it kind of just looks like I did it.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:26

I love it, it looks awesome. Yeah, I have to have to I'm gonna have to watch this uh the stream and see if it's uh if it's anything for me. It sounds fun, it just sounds kind of different.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:36

Yeah, uh I will say like from what I've played of it, this is a very early contender for like I understand why this won two different IGF awards. This is a really strong contender for like my 2026 Gotie short list, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:53

Really? Okay, hmm, hmm, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:59

And it's sadly people seem to be sleeping on it a little bit. It only has like 300 some odd uh Steam reviews, and it came out about a week ago. Like, I guess not terribly slept on, but it's not like blowing up crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:09

You would hope you would hope it would have a little bit more than that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:12

Yeah. Um, this is also, I think I mentioned a stream, but this is uh from uh principally developed by AP Thompson, who uh notably was a co-developer on last year's uh Consume Me and did playtesting on a bunch of other stuff that came out last year, but it's very funny that uh I think this and Consume Me were both at the IGF on the same year.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:38

Uh so uh has one or been nominated for multiple IGF awards in the same year for different games.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:49

That's funny. Good for God, good for the goddamn. If only with that with that we could all.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:57

With that we could all.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:00

Uh anything else?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:01

Oh, but yeah, that's that's that's been me. I don't know. I haven't really done anything else interesting. FF14 patch came out, which uh is a great segue, I think. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:07

Okay, yeah. We are now going to talk about patch 7.5.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:12

And also maybe uh the live letter. I don't remember if we talked about that live. That live letter is gonna be in the news, so don't worry about it. Yeah, that's what I figure it's a good uh that'll be a good segue.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:21

So marking the marking the time now, we are now going to talk about 7.5.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:27

If you don't want to hear about Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.5, please skip to the timestamp in the description. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:39

I can't believe your show is a robot.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:44

Anyways, they're bringing Xenos back. Please look forward to it. It's gonna be it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:48

That was mean.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:53

Scream I scrumped.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:07

You what a what a dick move from her.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:11

The noise I made can only be described as like a sort of like See, I I I saw someone post like a screenshot of of his scythe like in in the you know on the moon's uh surface, and I was like Yeah, people are being animals about and like I can't blame them.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:29

People are being animals about spoilers about in this patch, but I think it's just because it's so like shocking. It's just so shocking that nobody knows how to contain it.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:39

But like, but I thought like, oh, we're gonna, you know, go stumble upon like you know a place where Xenos is like we we we encountered Xenos on the moon. It's not unlikely his scythe would be here. No, it's just targeted harassment. Yeah, no, just Homer would be like, you don't want to be like your friend in space, do you?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:59

And I'm like, Homer, I'm gonna put you in the biggest locker. Homer, like, like I've been watching you and I see the way that you keep looking up at the moon in a way that is dramatically similar to the way that he did in past expansions. And I'm just saying, I'm unlike that reaction image of that dog. I know what you are.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:19

I know what you are, I know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:22

Um and Yoshi P wore a shirt on stage with Ridditan on it, admittedly, but it says, guess who's back, and then also he very explicitly said, Stop asking me about Xenos.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:36

Yeah. He's tired of talking about Xenos. So I don't know. Plus, this is like there there are no less than uh no, we're not Rachel. It's already nine o'clock. Uh sorry, hold on. Uh no, I don't think so. Uh anyways, um this has been a weirdly Shinryu slash Xenos focused um uh uh patch cycle too because there's Shinryu is the unreal, and there's a Shinryu in the FF11 raids. And uh and then they do the thing with the fucking scythe and what have you.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:22

They and then Yoshi P specifically talked about long hair and butt sliders.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:27

Yeah, it's really funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:28

In his stance of don't talk, ask me about Xenos anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:31

Yeah, because everybody wants butt sliders and everybody wants much longer hair in character creation. Uh and he's like, I guess I'll see what I can do. Um but yeah, there uh there's other stuff in this patch, I guess. Question mark?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:45

Garlandol themed dungeon?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:47

Uh yeah, Garlamol themed dungeon was good. The actually, you know what? No. Um it was fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:54

I was like, the fights are the fights are a little lower octane than I was expecting.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:59

Look, I gotta I we gotta give a shout out to our boy Chort.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:02

Love Short. Do love Short.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:04

They they imported the the generic fat guy enemy who is in literally every seventh gen video game. I made a whole boss out of him.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:12

Listen, the thing is, the thing is about Short is that I I love Chort. He's he's he's a big boy, I love him, he's great. We did not, when he's done it doing his rolling attacks, we did not have to kite him into smashing into an incis into a conspicuous pillar where he gets stunned and we can do heavy damage to him.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:31

And he doesn't laugh and slap his belly.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:33

Yeah, so they missed a little bit, but like if they were to patch those in, chort would be you know 10 out of 10. Best best sub boss.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:42

I did finally figure out what's up with that one move that the final boss does that we can't figure out the thing with. Oh yeah? Uh you have to run away from him specifically.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:50

Oh, from him!

SPEAKER_02 1:19:51

Yeah, it's you run away from him and you don't get uh tethered if you run away from him. Oh interesting. Okay. Because I watched and I saw people run directly away from him and then get the check mark and not get get looped. So they just want you to make distance.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:06

I do have another contender for for potential title card, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:12

I'm waiting. It's pretty good. It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:19

He just looks so much like Balos, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:21

He's just so round. I don't I don't know, man. Um, no, I guess I just, you know, it's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:27

It was a good dungeon. It's funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:30

It's not the the problem is that it was preceded by two of my favorite dungeons in the entire Dawn Trail cycle. Um I really like Mesoterminal, and I really like Mistwake. Both of those are fun and high octane, and um Meso Terminal in specific has that second boss fight, which is one of my favorite things they've ever done, which everybody gets their own boss to fight. I don't know. I just really fun thing. And they need to bring that back in the future because it's just fun. It's cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:59

That feels like the kind of thing they're testing the waters for can we do this on our current move set with the understanding that it will be possible to do this more frequently with the evolved stuff in the future.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:14

Yeah, absolutely. I I really hope they bring it back because it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:18

It was, yeah, this was definitely not my favorite dungeon in you know, in Dawn Trail or in the patches at all. But it was it was really cool. I I wanted a dungeon that's set in the ruins of Garlimald.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:29

Yeah, in the actual city ruins, you can explore those a little bit more. Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:32

I guess I think I I come away from it a little more positively than I do some of the other uh too easy uh Endwalker and Dawn Trail uh patch boss cycle things. Not because it's particularly stylish or anything else, but uh just because at least if it they they had they realized like, well, this one's gonna be boring, so it's also not gonna be very long.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:53

No, it is I did notice all of these bosses uh seem to not have very much HP.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:58

Um that is a brisk dungeon. It feels like dungeon, yeah. Yeah, it feels like they wanted to get it out of the way, and you know what? That's a point in its favor. Because like if if our boy Short took a while to defeat, I would not be fond of him.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:13

No, short, short is a very brisk fight. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:17

He's only got like three attacks.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:19

Yeah, he's only got the three. It's very like it's it's all very kind of concise. I like it. Um I thought the trial was again fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:30

Um straightforward, pretty, pretty, it's pretty simple, but um, enjoyable.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:35

It was fine. It honestly feels a little too easy to read, is my only complaint about it after like Hell Unrails is so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:44

Hell Unrails is so good.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:45

Hell Unrails kicks ass because it's so ridiculous and so like high energy, and you're jumping up and down. They're doing a lot with like interchanging levels in boss fights now, because they also do that in uh the FF11 raids. And um I don't know, it's just fun. They're they're clearly like trying to experiment with more interesting um and uh yeah, no, they they're I mean like it was fun. I mean I just think that like that last uh you know the the trial is fine, it's kind of uh meh because it's the last trial of the whole patch cycle.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:23

And it's just kind of unless we get one with Hildebrand.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:27

Unless we get one with Hildebrand, we might get one with unheard of.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:31

Yeah. Um also you get great looking gear in the dungeon.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:36

Dungeon the dungeon gear is very cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:38

I need I need that tank armor real bad.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:39

I need a tank armor. I need all of that armor because I've seen all the other stuff too. It's all really pretty and fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:44

Um the trial is okay. I'm just kinda like if we're at the point of of Enuho, like it could have been not. It could have been like, here's our we designed a new guy for you to the beat the ass of instead of Enuho.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:01

Yeah. You know, it's kind of a pull.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:04

It's just it's certainly a pull. I wouldn't say it's uh it's a deep one, but I would not say the ju I would not say that what you have squeezed out is juice. I think it might just be dirt water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:16

I think you kinda you kind of maybe uh did not uh reach your full potential with this character.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:26

It's it feels very kind of like it's just fine. That's just kind of what it keeps boiling down. It's like it's fine. Uh it just feels way too, at least for my sicko brain, it feels way too easy to read. Um like all of the like every single tell is so like the only one that was even kind of weird is the spiral attack, but you know, whatever. Um so but other than that, uh uh 7.5 I assume has plot. Uh I forgot most of it after the whole thing with the scythe on the moon.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:56

Um It's de- I I definitely see why they could not talk about anything with Evercold until like the patch actually came out.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:07

I do think it's funny how the the trailer for the patch has like, you know, it has Halmer its monologue, but they perfectly excise all the little bits that actually tell you what she wants, and so she's just saying ominous shit.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:22

I I I do like how like her uh her and Calix's role will be like, hey, so you kind of fucked everything up.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:33

So bad news, Bestie. Um you interrupted the natural order.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:39

So there's this load-bearing ancient you shouldn't have killed.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:46

It's the uh it's the it's the meme of like, I get to tell a client that he'd knocked down a load-bearing wall. Right?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:54

Uh-huh. I get to tell the warrior of light that she killed a load-bearing god.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:00

Like, oops.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:02

So we're gonna try to do more ASEAN things if you wanna like stop us.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:08

I do think it's very funny that it's like, well, so the thing is, uh, rejoining was obviously always the correct answer. You know, the thing that you seem to hate so much. So we're gonna keep doing that.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:19

We're actually just gonna keep doing it. Um, and the thing is, uh, it was the right choice. Um, sucks to suck, idiot.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:29

Uh in fact, if you don't do a rejoining, everybody dies. Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:34

If if you don't let us do our rejoining in the controlled way, God will do the rejoining instead, and he doesn't give a fuck about you.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:42

So good luck! We'll see you later.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:47

Also, I like I know it's like normal Ash Shonen shit, but I do love that Kalix shows up at the end, and he's like, yeah, and like, by the way, to be clear, I still hate you for ruining my life's work. But also, like, the only person I hate more than you is literally everyone I work with. I think they're all animals. Anyway, it's not like you have some means of traversing the void, so none of this really matters, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:11

Yeah, it's not like you can stop us or anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:14

It's quite- I really am looking forward to an 8.0 just showing up and calculus going, well, fuck.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:19

So what I'm doing here. What I want, I what I want more than anything, is I want it to be a solo duty where we confront Calix and we are given a limited hotbar. And that hot bar is one command, which is punt. All you do is you just wind up and you just kick that motherfucker into a field goal.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:42

Yeah. I think we are one maybe two years out from Calix becoming the new Gordania Halloween NPC.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:55

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:57

I love that he shows up and he's like. Yeah, I didn't want to be a teddy bear either, but you know, fucking here I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:04

Well, I don't have any other I don't have many other choices, so uh unfortunately a beautiful woman said I should be this, and so I guess here I am now.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:12

I don't have a choice. Great.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:14

You see, I am still modeled off of an impressionable teenage boy. So when a beautiful woman says I'm going to turn you into a teddy bear, well, I I don't know what you expect from me, Warrior of Light. And Warrior Light's like, no, yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:27

No, for sure. I also would let Helm root turn me into a teddy bear. Yeah. Uh turns out you the a beautiful woman with red hair and green dragon scales has a lot of pull. Who knew?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:40

Who knows? Crazy. She has big sad eyes.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:44

And big sad eyes and round glasses. Ah, that's a it's an incredible character design. They really knocked it out of the park on that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:52

Um I feel like it's great that they're like, here's the new antagonist of the next arc of of Final Fantasy XIV, uh dragon girl version of like every girl dude or agonist from every Final Fantasy game.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:06

Hey, here's here's our here's our new villain, evil Futaba.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:13

Here's our here's our here's our new here's our new villain. What if Futaba was a like a depressed Catholic?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:19

Yeah, it's great. Uh I just, I don't know, I really like her character design. I really like her voice actress, the actor.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:26

She's yeah, really good, really talented, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:28

She's got is very like so faint. I think it's supposed to be Scottish or Irish or Welsh. Welsh, maybe?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:37

I don't know, because I think uh Ishtola and all of them are supposed to be Welsh. Yeah, but Ishola's like refined, and Helmrut is clearly not.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:45

Yeah, Helmroot has something else like going on with her accent that's very like clipped in an interesting way. I'd like to know where her voice actress is from.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:52

I don't I don't know a lot about like you know, study of accents and whatnot, but it's it's notable and and different, so I like it.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:01

Yeah, she's uh I just like I like Helmroot uh a lot. Um I like the little baby crush that Eulis has, even though like it's doomed. It's never gonna go anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:13

It's very cute that he's like, hey, can you give Zero these dumplings?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:19

It's like I you know it's understandable, Eulis. Many men fall in love with an like a uh an unattainable lesbian.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:27

And Zero is like, oh, that's really cute.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:31

Yeah, it is cute. Yeah, but um, no, I'm sorry. It's not, it's not meant to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:37

Her actor's name is Nina Indus. I'm not sure where she's from exactly. She's she's um I think she might be Swedish, maybe? Swedish or Polish? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:51

Okay. Oh, Pol maybe Polish. Okay, that would make sense. Um I really I I like the thought that people are having that, or the theory that people are suggesting, that Hori Boulder will be the representative of the new tank class.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:08

God, I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:09

Because it was kind of weird that he shows up at the end.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:13

They love no, they love bringing that motherfucker in. They love hor they love Hori Boulder.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:17

I I think maybe they're just like, maybe Hori Boulder's just gonna be a focal character in 8.0. What if Hori Boulder is the Erenville of 8.0? Because the thing is, like, I don't think the I like I don't think the job quests are traditionally very richly voice acted.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:34

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:35

No, I don't I don't mean like I don't mean like he's like like like like how Tataru uh or uh yeah how uh Kryle became a Pictomancer.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:45

Yes, but like she's also not like the Pictomancer touchstone. Right. And so like the only reason you'd really care to bring him back to be fully voice acted while everyone else is quiet is because like Kryle, you're planning on him being like important in the story. Yeah, that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:00

Like he's an ascended NPC, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:03

Yeah, like if he if he like becomes like a focal point character of the story and represents the new tank class, then like I think that'd be kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:11

Either it's either that or he's not important at all, but his voice actor is going to be playing important characters in 8.0, and like since they have him on contract retainer anyway, they're like come back and do a little bit of Hori Boulder. Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:28

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:29

I don't know. I would I would like it if Hori Boulder was like, this is great. I never get to hang out with you guys.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:35

I think it'd be great. I think we should bring Hori Boulder along.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:38

And my br and my brother and the girl who's trying to fuck both of us at the same time are just over here, not voice acting.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:45

I am also here, not being edited in later.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:48

Yeah. Uh yeah, no. 7.5 was good. I liked it a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:54

Uh I'm looking I'm looking forward to the next couple months of uh post-patch stuff vis-a-vis, uh us getting the other half of Occult Crescent and uh the the finale for the uh current expansions Hildebrand stuff, etc.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:11

For more hard-boiled.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:12

Also, uh I think the last part of the uh new crafter gatherer planetary planetary exploration stuff is later as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:22

I've barely done any of that, so I need to actually uh I only ever did the first zone. I never touched any of any of the newer stuff. No, never never did anything else, so uh I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:35

I want to level only other crafters Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:41

Um what else? I really liked I liked Malphus being defeated in the in the dungeon. And then and then they're like they're like, hey man, do you want it like we're gonna send you we're gonna trap you here? And he's like, Oh, I don't want that at all. Can I go home?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:59

Can I go home?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:01

They're like, yeah, okay, that's that's fine. And then he just shows up later. He's like, hey, can I can I join your little commune here? The funny- Oh hey, it's you, the guy who beat my ass earlier.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:13

Do you want to look at my feet? No, put those things away.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:17

Put them grippers away, Malfus. Zero.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:21

Zero's like, I'm I'm grateful for your help, but I am going to need you to put these on.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:25

Oh no, shoes are against my religion. Listen, Zero's like, listen, I know a lot of you don't have feet, but the ones that do have to wear shoes.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:34

You gotta wear shoes. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:36

Zero, like, okay, well, at least if you're going to have them out, could you at least put some moisturizer on them or something? They look like they're tomb cheese.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:45

Yeah. Um, oh, we were talking about how it's uh how the the end of Final Fantasy XI raids is like FGO levels of of like instead of plea pull please pull for me in the gotcha, it's please come play Final Fantasy XI.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:02

Don't you don't you wanna don't you wanna see where the story continues, and I'm like not enough.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:12

I can't play as my character in your game, so I'm that really does hurt my interest in playing your game.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:20

Yeah, I would like, I don't know, like there's like a part of me that kind of wants to, just like some sicko part of my brain wants to see what it's like, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:30

Mm-hmm. Also, I'm gonna be real. Like, it's a 20 plus year old RPG. A subscription for FF11 is still 12 bucks a month.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:44

They're crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:45

A month?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:46

Nah, probably not. They're insane.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:48

No, nope, nope, sorry, not happening.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:50

And I don't think there's like, I don't think that there's a I don't know if there's a discount for like having an active 14 account or anything. Which you should do if you're going to be like, by the way, here's our other old shit if you want to play that. I'm not gonna lay out 12 bucks a month to play FF11.

unknown 1:36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:10

Yeah, no, that's you should be able to be like, hey, here's my FF14 login. Okay, you get half off.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:15

Yeah, I would do that. I think if it was half off, if you could, like, for both of them, like you had your FF like 14 subscription, that gets you half off to FF11. I I would do that. I would I would be more willing to give it a like I still want to kind of give it a shot, but the fact that that would like jump my subscription costs up so much is kind of absurd for like a genuinely ancient PS2 era ORPG, a game I played in fucking high school and my friends like uh uh PS2 in her basement. Like, no, come on guys. Uh I don't expect it to be free to play because it obviously still has the player base that that doesn't isn't not required. But uh that is way too expensive for a sub to FF11 in the year of our lord 2026.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:07

Um And like like we're talking about a game where still like yeah, it's 12 bucks a month, and if you look at the website for FF11, like the last like update I'm seeing with a date on it is from like I mean like there's normal service updates, but the last like actual new thing I saw with uh Oh no, never mind, okay. I saw a thing on it that's like, yeah, this is from 2023, and I'm like, I'm not, but they are there are actually things coming.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:33

But still. But still, come on. Still.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:35

It's tw the the game is uh the game is two decades old.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:38

More than god, it's gotta be more than that.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:41

No even Eve is free to play now. Yeah, well yeah, if it's a PS2 game, then yeah, it would be definitely way older than two decades.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:49

No, no, no, because I played it it's like 22 years old. When did MF11 come out? Hang on, please hold.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:59

Uh launched uh 2002. Yeah, so 24 years old.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:06

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:08

It is going to turn 24 in about two weeks in change. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:14

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:15

And they have the audacity to charge you 12 bucks a month to play it. It's so funny that they're like, yeah, well, we're gonna put it in our pitch, our sales pitch for FF11. Is that attached to any kind of like, you know, uh marketing promo to like offer like reduced costs? No.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:38

No. And I know that you've got the structure for half-off, like for having a sub and then having half off another sub, because you're doing that with the switch version of uh Final Fantasy XIV.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:51

You know? Because of like Nintendo Horseshit, you have to charge a second sub for if you have the Switch version of FF14. Um, but you are still doing half off of that additional sub. Like, come on, guys, you've got the framework for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:08

Buying the FF11 Ultimate Collection on Steam is still fucking$30. That's insane. No way.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:16

They're crazy. Well, maybe someday, but not today.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:22

Anyway, do we want to talk about the future of uh online at Final Fantasy instead of the past?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:26

Yes, we should get to the news. We've been mapping for way too long.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:29

Okay, let me mark this out. We are done talking about patch 7.5.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:34

That's right. So instead we're gonna talk about the news and the future of FF14, because I assume it'll be the first thing on the list.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:41

Well, I was gonna ask, do you want to do the fan fest last or first?

unknown 1:39:45

First.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:46

I mean, first seems like the the reasonable uh uh segue. Yeah, let's do first.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:51

Fanfest, there was a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:55

Holy shit, that was a long I I mean like I watched the you know, the the preview teaser of the trailer, because it's not the full trailer, obviously. Um I watched the kind of the first bit and then like they started talking. I like I walked away from work for a minute to watch it, you know what I mean? And then I realized that it was gonna take a while. I was like, I had it up on the TV so I could you know enjoy it. And then I realized it was gonna take a hot minute, and I was like, shit, I gotta move this to my work computer. Um because they have a lot to go over. Um uh the 8.0, ever cold, we're going to the fourth. Uh it's Sky Island shit. Yeah, we're going, we're doing uh we're doing uh the fucking Sky Island shit, which sounds fun and interesting. Um it's like Viking looking.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:40

Yeah, very Celtic Viking, Nordic, a lot of that kind of aesthetic going.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:45

Interestingly, someone uh in an interview with the OGP later in FanFest mentioned the Nordic thing. The OCP's like, we kind of tried to hide that, so good on you for noticing so immediately.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:55

Do a good job.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:56

No, I I I was literally thinking when he said that, it's like, guys, you put like fucking knot imagery all over the place. Like, what do you want?

SPEAKER_03 1:41:04

Your old man Aura has one eye. Like, obviously, he's Odin.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:08

Yeah, and also, and also it's like a winter apocalypse.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:12

Like, like, guys, like there's a world tree, guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:16

You're not that feel the world tree.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:20

Yeah, you put a world tree in your Final Fantasy game. Like, what else are we gonna think?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:25

Just because it would this pass for for slick to like a Japanese audience who maybe just don't get as much Nordic shit over there, but like even then that feels like a stretch. No, it's not like it's not like Japanese nerds don't know about Norse mythology either, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:41:42

Yeah, like they love using Norse myth like Norse mythology references in their shit. Like the like it's all over, right? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:51

I think God of War sold pretty well in Japan, so like, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:54

Yeah, everybody like people in Japan like Skyrim too, you know? Like, everybody's gonna know. They're all gonna know.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:02

I do have a a very uh uh very handy article that kind of breaks on everything, so we at least this'll have some structure to it at least.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:09

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:11

Uh they're overhauling the adventurer UI. I don't know what it means.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:16

Uh that's part of the thing they mentioned with like going through and reworking the tomestones thing to be a weekly pursuit instead of the other thing, which makes me I get the the feeling that it's like it's whatever it is they mean by that, it's just part of their like hey, you can just engage with the game on a weekly basis at your own pace and expect to make progress on your power level. Right. Instead of having to like micromanage your daily uh activities and like how you spend your your tokens and whatever.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:52

They are, if I'm understanding this correctly, they are rearranging eye levels so that you can just use the eye level of your highest character of highest class in each like category.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:04

So like if you have a level 100 Reaper, you can just put level 100 gear on your level 50 monk.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:15

Well, it seems more like it's and I feel like because the thing is they were very clear it's for eye level specifically, yeah. Which makes me think that it's like, well, if your monk is level 50, you can't bring your monk into level 100 contact. Right. But if you have like a, let's say, 8.5 leveled reaper and like all your other stuff is behind, you can still take your like 8.1 dark knight into something, and they'll just use the reaper's eye levels.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:44

Yeah, you're not doing the thing that we we got hit with last night, where it's like, well, we're all level 100, but we had to like Ben had to like find some gear to get into a duty because you know he didn't he didn't hit the eye level requirement, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:00

Or the thing I had where it's like I wanted to do the new alliance raid as a as a Viper, but my Viper is was only in like the high 740s, even though like my my my samurai is nearly 770.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:12

Right. And that's just going to be now it's like, well, you have that 770 samurai, uh, if your character level is like the appropriate level, you can just treat their item level as 770.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:22

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:23

That hmm.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:26

Yeah, it's really nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:28

Which it seems like the ultimate thing is to just go, you only have to do the gear grind once. Right? Yeah. Like you don't have to do the thing that I I keep running into that breaks me out of F14, which is like I have to do at least three different gear grinds for at least three different classes, so I can bring anything into anything, and it's just like I you just burn out super hard.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:50

Yeah, because nobody like I like I only really have two classes that have a high eye level. Because like even I, a sicko who plays too much Final Fantasy XIV, uh burned out kind of with this patch cycle because I was like, I don't actually want to do this ear grind for everything I play. Um it's just not fun to have to do a fucking ear grind, right? Like it's you want to play with the classes like that you think are fun, and you should be able to swap between that shit a bit more freely. So uh they're like, okay, we're gonna normalize, we're gonna like you know, scale eye levels and shit, right? Yeah, cool, I'll take it.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:31

So yeah, I think this will be this will make things a lot easier. What I'm worried about though is that well, I guess it wouldn't really matter because like if you were able to bring in the high your highest level eye level, that'll still give you the stat bonuses of that year.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:46

Yeah, they they they they said specifically, and this is remains to be seen what they mean by this, but like materia will still exist and matter on a class by class basis in a way that is independent of this. Yeah. So you still probably have to be mindful of like what your actual stat spread is, yeah, right? But as far as just being allowed to do content, they don't want you to have to because that's also the thing where it's like it basically uses negative force to encourage you to only really play one type of class. Right, yeah, and they don't want that. It seems like the future of FF14 they want is for you to actually, you know, have a class in every role that you like playing.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:26

Right, yeah. Like, unlike World of Warcraft or other MMOs, like you can do every class on one character, and they want you to be able to do that and have fun with it. Um they also announced seasons and then had to quickly clarify that these are not season passes, it's just the new way they're categorizing their patch cycles.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:48

It it's already kind of how they do it, right? Yeah. Because they're they're they're a lot of their Pv stuff, PvP stuff goes on alternating patches and they're whatever, and they're just like they're they're they're like, hey guys, we're updating the way we we we categorize our patches, so it's a little more obvious. It's like, well, alright.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:03

That's fine. They're just trying to normalize things between like because they call PvP, it's like you said, they call PvP stuff seasons, but like patches is different, and they're just like, we're we're just gonna the the theme is kind of just trying to unify a lot of the systems in FF14 that have kind of accumulated over the years, um to be a more like unified system, which I think is fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:28

Yeah, I think that's great. Because then also that lets you go like, hey, we mentioned like their PvP systems already use the seasons, but now you just say, yeah, we're in season this, and this is so the PvP rewards are for this because that is now part of this overall system. It's like oh that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:42

That's fine. And I mean, like, I like that it seems like they're doing because like PV, you know, current PvP seasons do the thing where you hit a rank, you get a reward. Yeah, you hit a certain rank, you get a reward, right? Um from the like the demo screens they showed us, it looks like that is getting moved to the whole to the whole economy of FF14 because I think they realized they looked at their numbers and realized that not a lot of players are getting the rewards from the PvP seasons, like the fucking uh framers kits and mounts and outfits and minions and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:17

Yeah, that's a ton of that's a ton of dev effort to put in the stuff that nobody really likes to grind for.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:24

I will say I I was not expecting to. I did see someone with that level 25 set in the wild today.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:30

Damn, good for them.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:31

That's crazy. And I was just immediately like, I don't know who you are, but I know that I don't want to know you because to grind out 25 levels of PvP in the span of like literally two, three days, I think you might be sick in the head. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:47

Yeah, no, that's a that's an unwell individual for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:50

However, that top is cute, so I am actually going to put the effort into this thing. I wasn't sure, but seeing it in in person. But not in two days.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:59

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:59

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:00

No, like a normal amount of time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:02

Yeah, no. I'm going to do I'm going to do what I've done before, which is just do my frontline dailies uh for the foreseeable future, for as long as I remember to do them. Uh because, you know, doing your front lines daily, uh like it's not particularly fast or exciting, but it will get you there in like two months.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:19

You'll get there, don't worry about it. Uh what else? Uh they have announced action skins, uh, once again legalizing marijuana. Uh and uh putting Papa Chin on a notice.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:34

Yeah. Uh tragic.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:36

I'm gonna be real. The the creation of Evolved uh is going to uh I think do a significant amount on its own to just uh gut that part of the mod scene. I'm like, I would love to continue using the near stuff, but I also know like there's no way that that uh fucking Ammon is going to actually update 20. Plus classes of near particle effects to match their evolved versions in a reasonable time frame. Not a chance.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:07

Yeah, and I, you know. Hopefully, I'm hoping these like action skins are uh thick because that's like uh a thing they're going for is a lot more character customization, which it comes up with the whole uh I know this is probably next on the docket. But they're also updating uh character creation options. Yes. They're finally going from set swatches to a color picker, thank god.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:32

Um I I did post a screenshot of what uh the chest piece looks like with the dies on it. So I dyed it and see how it looks. God I need it so I need it. That black bit does not die at all, but that's fine if it's black. That's fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:44

Uh so cute.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:46

Uh but I am actually interested in the thing you mentioned about the the animation skins, because someone did ask at the QA if there was a possibility of them doing like race-specific uh uh combat stances and things of that nature. And he's like, although that's not something that we are currently working on, that is something that our sis that our reworked animations to allow for animation skins would allow us to do. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:12

Because like, you know, it's it's always been one of my like one of my like little pet peeves, especially when doing like uh like job quests and stuff, is just seeing yourself and like your mentor and your your ass your sidekick for that quest in the exact same pose.

SPEAKER_04 1:51:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:33

And it's like I mean, I I understand why it is this way because obviously designing a whole bunch of unique bespoke animations is a pain in the ass, and I would not expect them to do it because it's it's a nightmare to think about. I'm very glad they have decided to just do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:49

Yeah, it's a little bit easier this way.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:53

My my suspicion, and this is just me like ballparking a thing that they might do feasibly if there's like demand for it, is instead of doing the race-specific ones like that person asked about, is if they copy the warframe thing, which is like Warframe has two animation sets for every for every Warframe, and they are noble and agile. And the noble ones are them looking kind of cool in their thing, and the agile ones are them looking like like they're ready to pounce or whatever. And I could imagine them doing like, well, here's our like here's okay, here's your Dark Knight movesets. One of these is very obviously guts, one of these is very obviously uh Artoria, right? Right? Like two different flavors of the same basic premise. Because also then also that would help them alleviate the things of people being mad that like the the like that's your very quick way to the animation sets are no longer gender-locked, they're just your uh Dark Knight A, Dark Knight B. And you can toggle whatever you want on. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:50

Right would be very cool, yeah. Um they've also announced not only with customer character customization, like the the uh uh pickers for hair and eyes, uh and skin. And skin. Thank you, thank you to the Arcadian quests for uh introducing us to that concept.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:06

Uh please, uh Yoshi P, I know you're listening and you're your listener, extend that to R Raw scale colors, please!

SPEAKER_03 1:53:13

Yeah, please so nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:15

Yeah. They've also announced uh certain individual gear pieces will have new toggles. Uh turning off accessories like backpacks, scarves, uh like sleeves for like goofy sleeves on dresses. Um again, again, this is legalizing marijuana, uh eliminating the need for a whole swath of certain mods.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:40

Yeah, it seems to me that um they kind of saw the popularity of the mod scene and were like, we can take some of these ideas, we can make some of these for ourselves. Uh because they don't like modding. Like they've been pretty like they're they're they're chill about it, like they don't do anything about it. But they they're not fans of modding because it can um, you know, it can it can depending on how you have things installed. One, it can cause performance problems, two, it means you can force an appearance on another player that they don't want, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:16

And also they don't want people like, you know, starting fandom drama about the sites they use or monetizing shit illegally, which is a huge problem in the FF14 mod scene.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:27

Yeah, this this definitely does not feel I mean Yoshi P himself has been very, very clear of we've talked about this a lot of him desperately trying to be cool about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:39

He's like play they don't want to install, they don't want any kind of de nuovo type shit, right? And the funny thing is, um, they learned the lesson that old street like you remember when streaming first came out and people stopped pirating because streaming was convenient instead of bad and lame the way it is now. Yeah. They learned that lesson. It's that uh is that accessibility is actually the thing that kills piracy, or in this case, kills modding.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:07

Um it has to be easier than free.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:10

It has to be easier than free, and in this case it has to be easier than installing Dalamode, right? So it has to be uh just a thing that's already in the game. So um I was thinking about it too. It's very interesting because they have now a ton of projects like finger quotes, this idea of like because they're slowly adding back in dual die channels to a bunch of stuff. They're slowly adding in, like they're backporting in more details to old gear. They're adding like they're doing all of these little like projecty things, they're gender unlocky things, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:55:44

One of the undercommented things in the 7.5 patch that I actually really appreciated is that a bunch of like, especially the quote unquote Eastern sets from the Mog Station, they went through and like redid the materials on those.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:56

Yes, they make it much nicer now, yes, because they're trying to go back through. They want the whole game because I mean, you know, you're in this game now that like looks really good. They the graphics update came through and it looks great. Um, and you wear new gear and it fits in perfectly. God help you if you have a coat from a realm reborn that you like a lot, yeah, and you want to wear it into like Dawn Trail cutscenes, and you're just like, oh god, look at all of those crunchy textures.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:21

It's it's very uh comparing an early Xenobus Xenoverse 2 character to uh the Dima Super Saiyan 4 Goku character they got announced.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:32

Someday they'll make the Coliseum sets actually look good.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:37

Please, please. There's there's so many old like a realm reborn shirts and stuff that are cute, but like look really bad in comparison to everything else. Yeah. That I would love to get an update someday. Um so uh yeah, no, I there's like they're just they have a lot of projects, and that's okay, but it's like it's stuff that they do in batches with every uh with every update, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:57:00

So uh they are introducing a new tier for raids, which is not going to be harder, it's going to be in between normal and savage.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:11

That's fine by me.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:12

Which is in trial, which I like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:14

Which is it's basically raids extreme. Because that's what that's what extreme trials are. Right. Right? Extreme trials are functionally like the middle point between normal trials and like like I think it kind of I don't know like the exact like their exact mindset, but I think their exact their mindset is that trial, they go like in terms of difficulty, it goes trials, raids, ex trials, savage raids, and then ultimates, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:57:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:49

I think that's and again, I don't know like how they like internally.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:52

Like in general, like that's the the pattern. It seems to me that ultimates are like are the thing that is only for the freaks and is their spectacle or whatever. Right, right. And then but then like savage raids are the one below that, but they mentioned in the thing, it's like savage rates that like savages on general have a clear rate of something like 20% at highest, and that is just simply way lower than they want for that engagement. And because they put so much effort into that stuff and that gear and the the refined boss mechanics that it's like not they want people they want more of the player base to either A engage with that work or at the very least have a better onboard for becoming people who can engage with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:37

And so they want to make a middle tier of raid content, which is cool because like I like the like I am I do want my FF14 content a bit harder, but I don't really have the time for savage raiding. That is a that is a time commitment that I can't make, right? I'm a grown-up with a job.

SPEAKER_04 1:58:54

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:55

Um I can't I can't really make that that time commitment. But learning EX trials is a thing I have sat down and done before, right? Like not often, but it's a thing you can do in a night.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:06

Yeah, you can you can figure that out and you can you know crack that out.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:10

It doesn't take weeks to clear a new EEX trial. It might take you a couple days, yeah. Right. Instead of and like all normal trial or nor all normal raids uh can be done in a single night, right? So they're kind of they're trying to find like a balance for something that doesn't take several weeks but isn't done in a single night. Something that maybe takes a day or two to kind of get through everything, and then you can start like you know, repeating it, you know, which I think is cool. That's fine by me. That's like a thing I would probably actually engage with. So that's nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:41

I need the hardest eight-man rage you have. No, that's too hard.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:51

Yeah, exactly. Um so uh yeah, no, I think that's a perfectly acceptable change.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:59

Yeah, gold, it's a it's a Goldilocks tier.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:02

I want a little bit of challenge, but I don't have two or three days to learn this.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:07

Do we have I gotta ask a question? And I know I asked this out of love. Do we have a lot of news after we talk about 8.0?

SPEAKER_00 2:00:14

We've got like a couple mini articles. So nothing, nothing major besides fanfest.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:20

Okay, cool. I was just looking at the yapping. It's that's fine. I just I saw how long we've been yapping, but I just wanted to make sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:28

I think worst case scenario, this can just be the we talk about Final Fantasy episode. Yeah, no, there's we can just retroactively decide it wasn't a Roundup at all, and it was in fact the Final Fantasy 7.5 to 8.0 episode.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:39

There are there are like there is like six other articles, and three of them I really want to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:45

So if we need to cut a few, that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:48

Alright then. Uh more 8.0 talk then.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:50

Yeah. Evercode we are getting two new jobs, a tank and a physical ranged. We're pretty sure the tank is shield related. It might not be.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:59

It might not be.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:01

So I'll go over the the tin foil hat and the thing that I think I'm coming around on. The evidence for this is, of course, that whenever the uh Yoshi P was teasing the upcoming samurai, his shirt was for Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. Yes. Right? Not a thing that not the contents of the shirt is not actually an invocation of the class uh button thing. Anyway, so at FanFest he wears a shirt with Riddotin saw Sarvina on it. And it says, guess who's back? And he's got these, and you know, it's Riddotin, so he's got those two big ass like artillery gun shields, and people were like, oh, well, it's a tank, so you know, like maybe a gun shield tank. That's kind of bizarre, but they did say it's FF14 original. However, tinfoil hat, it says, Guess who's back, as in Slim Shady, guess who's back, back again, Slim Shady MM real name Marshall Mathers. So it's the And so it might be the Marshall, and if it's the Marshall, which implies like, you know, a class that is uh, you know, a high-ranking army participant, uh, it would it could you could possibly argue that this is them, that their tank for their counterbase tank, in my opinion, might be something that is more directly emulating the combat styles of, say, Gaius, for example. And it's the Garlian boss fight class.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:22

Yeah, not a not a traditional gunbreaker like the ones that we play as, but like if one who has more a more refined and more like robust.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:30

Someone who does like the Corvosi sword magic shit. Right. That that like that that Gaius and Xenos do.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:36

Which would be Xenos, who has also been very who has come up a lot recently.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:40

Strange. Weird. Don't worry about it. Uh it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:44

Um as far as the range, physical range, I I'm very upset that they're like, it's not gonna be a a traditional Final Fantasy class, which means it won't be a blitzballer.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:53

It won't be a blitzballer, no.

SPEAKER_00 2:02:55

The blitzballer isn't really a class, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 2:02:57

Uh no, I mean, kinda, that's what Waka is.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:00

Yeah, Waka was a blitzballer.

unknown 2:03:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:02

Like Waka, like Waka was not like a traditional class, he was like straight up like a blitzballer.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:07

Yeah, like his whole thing is he fought with a blitzball. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:10

Any uh any outside theories as to what it could be?

SPEAKER_03 2:03:13

Literally. Any guesses? Literally none. It has to be an FF14 original, but I mean that could be fucking anything, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:03:20

Um It's time for mahjongler.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:25

Yeah, isn't that a gambler?

SPEAKER_02 2:03:27

No, it can't be a gambler, that's too close, sorry. Well, it's just not a gambler.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:31

It's not a it's simply not a gambler. Here's the thing, Ben.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:34

Taps finger. A gambler would have to be RNG, and as we all know, Mahjong is the dominion of godhood and blessing.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:44

Of course, obviously. I truly have no idea what it could be.

SPEAKER_00 2:03:49

Because I'm like, it's it's not anything that's been in a previous Final Fantasy. So it can't be like a gambler, it can't be uh a sniper. Um you know, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of like ranged classes in. Like uh I ironically, like Blitz, like Waka's whole thing was being able to attack from the back line.

SPEAKER_04 2:04:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:09

Like that made him incredibly useful. So like like legitimately, Blitzballer could have been the class.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:14

Yeah, I I will say I do remember, and I would have to go back and check, but of the people hollering at Fan Fest about, like when he asked about what weapons are, he did say that he did hear the correct someone say the correct answer.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:27

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:29

Funnily, someone, and I'm not saying this is this, but funnily someone asked about whips, right? As like a as like a weapon that might come up. And his response to that was the oddly specific, very hard to animate.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:41

Very that is oddly specific. I do wonder, I wonder if that comment comes from the fact that they wanted Beastmaster to use a whip.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:48

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:49

And then they tried to implement it, and they're like, no, Doc, this sucks. This is actually way too hard.

SPEAKER_00 2:04:53

Yeah. They're like, wait a minute, people will misuse this. We can't put this in.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:04:58

So I like generally, genuinely. I see, I think I would think the reason they didn't do it is because like the the actual imagery of using a whip as a beastmaster is like something they want to avoid because it's you know tied up in some uh it's kind of it's kind of implicitly animal abuse, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:05:15

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:16

And so maybe they were doing that and they're like, fuck no. But then that just means that they can't reuse it for their physical ranged melee class.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:24

Um, maybe. Because like I'm like, I'm like, Okay. Can't be anything that's throwing because that's ninja.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:31

And dancer.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:32

I have I have an idea. Here's my here's my babe roof shock. Sure. So the way we've done this before a lot of the times is that you'll have one who's kind of like immediately relevant to the content of the DLC, and then one that's sort of like, eh, it doesn't need to be immediately relevant, and it's just, you know, we came up with an excuse for it to be here. Right. Obviously, Marshall andor gun shield or whatever is going to be the one that's not immediately relevant, and so maybe the the the physical range will be something that's a little bit more relevant to like the the culture or setting of the of the X Pack.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:10

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:11

And I'm like, well, physical ranged. Oh what if it's like, you know, we got an Odin there. Yeah. Uh what if my weapon is birds?

SPEAKER_00 2:06:23

That's a different direction. I thought you were I was going to go in.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:25

What if my what if my weapon is that I have a bird and I make my bird attack you?

SPEAKER_03 2:06:29

That would be funny.

SPEAKER_00 2:06:30

See, I was thinking I was thinking, Saturn. Uh there is a very popular figure in Norse mythology who has a weapon that he can throw and then it comes back to him.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:45

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:49

Is that actually part? Is that actually part of Norse mythology though, or is that like the comic version of that?

SPEAKER_00 2:06:55

I mean it's you know what? I don't actually know for sure, but like I'm going to look it up. The thing is that like I'm pretty sure, like, no, no, no. You know what? That is a that is a totally a Norse mythology thing. It's it's that the hammer comes back, like the hammer is like controls him. Or he controls the hammer, uh the hammer controls him.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:13

The hammer is the real hero, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:16

Because like there's a lot of stuff that predates Marvel Comics popularity that has that iconography of like wielding a hammer that you can throw and it comes back to you.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:27

Is there that I mean it's not a terrible idea though. I mean, even if they are just lifting kind of like the cultural, like you know, the cultural markers of like modern Thor. It's not the worst idea. Um it's kind of interesting. But that also still kind of is just what Dancer does.

SPEAKER_00 2:07:49

Yeah, but it'd be a dance. But it would be a d a completely different moveset and style if you were playing like a Viking.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:58

Yeah, but I feel like a Viking is such like a that would be a tank class. I kind of like this. You know, like if you're gonna have uh that's kind of what Vik that's what Warrior slash barbarian, you know, their starter class already is. So I don't know. I truly, I mean, like, I literally cannot think of what it could be. Um it could be a different style of gun class, is all I can think, but I mean we have so many other gun users.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:25

Yeah, the thing is machinist machinist is already like loaded, it's machinist is not like rifleman. Machinist has a bunch of guns.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:34

Yeah, it has all the guns.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:35

Yeah, like the gun category is covered under machinist.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:39

I really don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:40

And it's not yeah, it wouldn't be like, you know, like a like like a throwing spear thing because that's it could be gooey.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:46

I mean, instead of a whip, because maybe they don't want that imagery, you could go with something like a meteor hammer.

SPEAKER_00 2:08:54

Yeah, a meteor hammer like a flail.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:56

Like a flail or a meteor hammer, like some kind of thing on a chain seems to me. Especially now that like weapons can have physics and stuff. So you can have like a chained weapon like bouncing at your side while you're running around, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:09:10

Yeah, maybe. Like that's good. Because I don't think there's any other I can't think of anything that's not that's in Final Fantasy that's like that.

SPEAKER_02 2:09:17

The thing is, like, I I worry with like my wonder about like the chain and meteor hammer stuff is that kind of seems like it gets back into the territory of whip adjacent, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:09:25

It is kind of, but that's the thing, is that it's it would not animate the same way.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:29

Yeah, you wouldn't you wouldn't have to animate the whip crack, it would just be animating the flail moving, which seems a little easier to do.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:36

That's a bit, yeah, that's a bit more contained. You're still just kind of because again, it is still kind of dancer adjacent with this idea of like because like dancers move set kind of evokes the idea that the chakras they're not, but it kind of evokes the idea that the chakras are on um like on ropes and stuff, right? Like the way they swing around you and stuff, but you kind of it it kind of gives that illusion. You can do something similar with a flail or a meteor hammer type thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:10:04

You know what? Oh! What about sling?

SPEAKER_03 2:10:09

Sling's a cool idea. It seems a bit simple in terms of weapon design, is my only problem.

SPEAKER_00 2:10:15

True, maybe um I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:19

I'm gonna put my money on some type of flail because it seems fitting for the setting, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:10:26

Yeah, that's something that's not in and hasn't been in Final Fantasy. Right uh would fit the aesthetic. Because I'm I'm trying to think more of like, because like a lot of the ranged classes have a performer aesthetic, you know, bar, dancer, even machinist is kind of very flashy, right? But like you think Norse aesthetic, you think Vikings, you think hunters.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:54

Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:10:55

So like we already got bow users.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:56

We've already got bow users. The other thing I'm I'm thinking of, if it's not well, no, I guess it would they wouldn't have heard the weapon if it was gonna be that's because I was saying the other thing I can think of for like a physical range is if you had the Mr. Terrific thing where you have your orbitals that just go and punch people.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:12

That's fun. It's also kind of sage.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:14

Yeah. Yeah, but but sage has lasers. These would not be lasers. He would just go conk you in the head.

SPEAKER_00 2:11:20

You know what that could be that could be like a well no, that would be more close to magic, but like, yeah, but like you but like I don't know how deep they want to go into Norse mythology, but like I know Norse mythology, like magic has that kind of pro it wouldn't be out of place for that kind of property to exist. Like finding an object that you just like manipulate and control and you swing around like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:45

Yeah, I tr I mean I truly have no idea. We're just gonna have to wait.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:49

We're gonna have to wait for them to show up in Belgium and give us a teaser there, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:55

We'll see. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 2:11:58

They're also, we talked about it. Very obviously, but they're introducing evolved mode, which is reducing every action to 16 buttons only.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:05

They're making every class play kind of like it's a PvP version of the class almost, because the the guy who made all the evolved versions also made all the current PvP versions. So similar approach. Yep. Thank God, I think.

SPEAKER_00 2:12:21

The two new Evercold classes will only have Evolved mode. All of the original classes will still have their reborn mode to keep them intact.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:29

For now. And unless it turns out that people love Evolved Mode, they will absolutely phase that shit out.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:35

I I don't think they'll ever remove it, but I can see them at a certain point going, we're only balancing new content for uh for evolved, and so uh reborn is going to be treated like a limited class now.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:47

Right. Yeah. That's fair.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:48

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:48

Yeah, I uh what I saw of Paladin and Dragoon and Bard looked really cool. Yeah. What I saw of White Mage made me a little nervous. That class is already brainless. You can't make it more brainless, guys.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:06

I was I was very nervous when they first announced this, and then I saw it in action and went, oh, that actually makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:13

It has a lot of really cool ideas. They're getting rid of the two-minute burst window because they hate it and we hate it. Um, nobody likes a two-minute burst window.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:21

This is the only time in his life that Patrick Beauvan has ever been vindicated for holding any kind of opinion.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:27

He's and he's so fucking vindicated. He hates the two-minute burst window. Nobody likes the bigger. And he's right too.

SPEAKER_02 2:13:32

I also hate the two-minute burst window. It's basically the reason I have never tried to actually learn to play Final Fantasy XIV any better than I currently. Correct.

SPEAKER_03 2:13:41

Um now it's it's being based more off of like permutations and reactivity. They want each class to be simpler because they want they want more decision making in the actual when you do your button pressing type stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:13:56

That's the thing that really excites me is that they showcase like how what these buttons are, you know, and everything like that. But like they're like, no, we're trying to make it so that you can make decisions on the fly.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:14:08

And decide what the best course of what but what the correct button to press in this moment is, not just learning a pattern and doing that pattern over and over again.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:17

And what I also saw, and this is like something Pat brought up from having like scanned people's like Reddit theorizations and like grognard ass like decont like analyzing frame data or whatever, is it like it does seem like the classes as they're presented there will like, if you're just trying to maximize up top like your performing all these moves as as much as they're available with all the resources you get, it seems like they still have rotations, but they are A, not they are like A, their own rotations, and B also not the same length of time.

unknown 2:14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:14:52

So like one of the class's rotations maths out to like 40 seconds, one of them maths out to like 60, one of them maths out to like 80. Right. And because there's no team buffs, you're only worried about performing to your like obviously you have to do what you do as a part of your team, but you only have to worry if you are performing to your satisfaction. Right. You aren't going to fuck up your entire party but with like a three-second drift because you missed uh the proper timing for an action one. Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:18

Um which is good. I like that a lot. The interesting thing people have been talking about is that they gave Dragoon its PvP jump, and right now it has a nine when you're in the air, you have a 90% damage reduction.

SPEAKER_00 2:15:34

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:36

That's that rules. It rules. But I again I was watching people talk about it on uh Blue Sky and Twitter. Um Dragoon in its current form, and again, this is all very, very nebulous. This can change. Dragoon in its current form gets its jump every 40 seconds. So every 40 seconds, Dragoon is impervious to 90% of all damage, which means people can and will start doing wacky shit with Dragoon. Right?

SPEAKER_00 2:16:05

Um, but you know what? That's that's great because that's what historically Dragoon has been for. It's hey, big attack is coming, I'm gonna jump.

SPEAKER_03 2:16:14

Right. It's very interesting. I I'm looking forward, I have a feeling in my bones they are going to reduce that 90%.

SPEAKER_00 2:16:23

That's probably gonna get patched at some point, but enjoy so enjoy while you can't.

SPEAKER_03 2:16:27

Uh they oh, it probably won't even make it to the finished game. Um, it will not even make it to finish Ever Cold. They will probably drop that down to about I mean, even if they drop down to 75%, that's still good.

unknown 2:16:38

Huge.

SPEAKER_03 2:16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:16:39

See, I here's the thing. I see them weaving it in because, like, in the way that maiming has historically been the tankiest of the DPSs, I think it's really funny to have jump there as your way of going, I'm not confident I know the mechanics of this boss. Luckily, I have a damage move that lets me really offset a specific move that I know I'm going to be out of position for.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:03

Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:04

And then and that being like part of the draw is that it is is how that that class like is able to be endure in content, even if, like, say you're a DPS, like, there's like, I don't know, it's encounter that. Well, oh, I'm out of position. Let me fly, let me press jump and not immediately die. Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:18

Yeah. I think it's interesting. I hope they keep it because I think that will enable shenanigans. Um, I feel like they might still walk it back, but again, even if they drop it down 75%, that's still a huge damage mitigation.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:30

Or, like, God forbid, this you know what this opens up? Situations where you have one tank and you're like, fuck, I can't take this tank buster. I'm shirking to the dragoon. The dragoon is going to jump and be able to survive. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:44

I think that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:45

That would be hilarious, yeah. And that to me is a is a much more interesting version of Final Fantasy XIV where that kind of horseshit is possible.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:54

Absolutely. I love that chaos much more. So I hope they keep it. I really hope they keep it. Um, Bard, we didn't see a lot of, but I like that again, they're taking away buffs. The buffs are now like regen and move speed. I like that they added move speed to so many things because they realize people really people just really like the scholar move expedience, right? Because it's just fun. It's a thing that like gives you a damage mitigation and also makes everybody move faster in combat. Um, everybody likes that shit. It's just great to get hit with expedience and know you're gonna survive a mechanic. Um and I see they're like putting that on more things. So uh yeah, I I am okay with the changes to Bard as well.

SPEAKER_02 2:18:36

I did also notice with Bard, and this was really interesting to me. I didn't check the other move lists too closely to see if it's true for the other classes. Bard only has an AoE move during one of its songs. None of its basic moves are AoE at all. And part of me wonders if like the rebounds for evolved things and them doing more damage or whatever, is them just going like I mean AoE doesn't need to be part of the standard combo since it doesn't matter for bosses, and like dealing with the ad poles is going to be more about actually bursting down them in in like orders that make sense to you, right? And instead of like just doing AoE damage generally.

SPEAKER_03 2:19:16

Yeah. I wonder if they're also gonna do a thing of um like doing more moves that do like X amount of damage to the first target and then fall off damage to everything around it, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:19:30

Yeah, because that also seems like it's that that seems uh like a good compromise as well. Because also, like, it does kind of seem like if you're like, how do we cut down these button amounts to less than half of what they are currently in some scenarios? A really easy way is to go like, well, what if we designed their moveset so that they didn't need two different versions of the same basic attack structure?

SPEAKER_03 2:19:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:19:50

That's like what if they just had a single target that might have splash damage?

SPEAKER_03 2:19:55

That honestly is the is the best way to do that, yeah. Probably, yeah. Um, and you know, I think that'd be great if we just totally got rid of AoE combos and everything just becomes one combo that does both types of damage.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:09

Yeah, your single target has splash damage.

SPEAKER_03 2:20:11

That can be a little scary for certain things that you don't want to hit with AoE damage, um, like when we do treasure dungeons and stuff. Yes. Um but that's what blue mage is for. But um, I would still like to see what like I think that can still be um accounted for, right? So you know, that's okay. Um I the only thing is the white mage changes. I don't know, ma'am. I hope I mean obviously they're not done. Yeah. They're not done, it's still nine months away. You don't need to dumb down white mage anymore. It's already the dumbest healing class of all of them.

SPEAKER_02 2:20:55

So we'll my thinking for for white mage, and this is all obviously not someone who plays a lot of white mage, but like as they discussed like their priorities for reworking healers generally. Already my experience of Sage is mostly a class that I press one a lot during, and very rarely actually press any kind of healing buttons if things are going well. Uh anything that is a rebalance towards okay, no, like you press your healing buttons more because it makes your damage button more effective, so there's no real such thing as overhealing, also means that as a healer, I get to press more of my buttons.

SPEAKER_03 2:21:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:21:35

Yeah. So like maybe it's okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:21:38

Maybe it's okay. I mean, it's still nine months away. Yeah, they didn't have to do it. This was still super, super rough. They didn't even have their job gauges done at the demonstration, right? Um so you know, I just like you know, we notice there's no flattis misery, you know, um, like little things like that. A flattus misery was your incentive for doing little little heals constantly, is because every time you get three of those, you get a really potent damage. A flattus does a shit ton of damage, by the way. Um so you know, I'm hoping they don't revise that out too much because I like that shit. Um we'll see. We'll see. I am I am I am what's the word?

SPEAKER_02 2:22:26

Tentatively optimistic.

SPEAKER_03 2:22:27

Tentatively optimistic, thank you. Um so you know, it's okay. We'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_00 2:22:33

Yeah, we'll see. When you get your hands on it, you might have a different opinion.

SPEAKER_02 2:22:37

I'm a lot more excited for 8.0 than I was knowing that this is in the pipeline just because like I am much more interested in playing the version of this game where it is reasonable for me with my slow ass reflexes to actually go like maybe I play on a controller.

SPEAKER_03 2:22:57

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um they've got it and they they basically now have it set up to oh uh Oates just got home, so if you hear squeaking, it's because Keynot has his ball and it's happy. Um uh they have it set up now that you don't actually need the W crossbar if you don't want to use the W crossbar. I like my W crossbar, so um, you know, it's fine. I will continue to use it. Um, but yeah, no. Hi. Yes, I know. Um I hope it's good. I I need to see what they do to Samurai before I get angry.

unknown 2:23:33

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:33

Well, it's okay, because worst case scenario, um, reborn samurai is still there.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:39

That's right, so it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 2:23:40

Yeah, it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:42

They have a butt- they said they're gonna have a button for toggling it on and off. If they're gonna do that, I would like for it to be on an individual basis, right? Not just- I think it will be.

SPEAKER_00 2:23:52

I think you'll be able to toggle it for each class.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:54

I sure hope so, because that is what I want. I would like for like, if I don't like a certain change, I would like to just be able to be like, well, White Mage, I play Reborn, and Samurai, I play Evolved, you know? We'll see. Um what else, Ben?

SPEAKER_00 2:24:11

Uh is that the big one? The alliance raids are gonna be Evangelion.

SPEAKER_03 2:24:16

Oh, right, that's the big one!

SPEAKER_02 2:24:18

What? Uh, I I like this because as was pointed out, uh, also because I was again watching the Super Beast cast uh post Hawk, and I this is my opinion as well, and why I'm like that was a surprise in the moment, but not too surprising in retrospect. Studio Cara loves money. They'll give anyone the Evangelion IP to do whatever with.

SPEAKER_03 2:24:38

And Yoshi P very famously loves Evangelian. Like a lot. So I'm sure uh he was very happy to be able to get this set up.

SPEAKER_02 2:24:51

Um I'm sure we'll get plug suits. Plug suits, I'm sure I'm sure we'll get Gendo Akari cosplay.

SPEAKER_03 2:25:00

Oh god. That's probably what the costumes will, what some of the outfits will be is just cosplay, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:25:05

Yeah, well, because like you need gendo Akari, you need um fucking uh Misato. I almost called her- is her last name Katsaragi?

SPEAKER_03 2:25:13

Oh god, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 2:25:14

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:15

But I almost called her Katsuki.

SPEAKER_00 2:25:17

Yeah, you'll get you'll get the school uniforms, you'll get the plug suits, you'll probably get Gendo, Misato. It is Katsaragi. And then I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:28

I don't know what uh the uh oh, you know what they should do? Haircuts. Definitely get some haircuts, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:25:35

Yes, get us the Asuka haircut, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:25:37

Get give us those 90, those 90s ass like big split bags.

SPEAKER_00 2:25:42

Yes. You know what? So here's the scary thing that I'm most worried about.

SPEAKER_04 2:25:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 2:25:49

I don't want to see Midlander Hure Shinji. I don't Tough shit.

SPEAKER_03 2:25:58

Good point. One, tough shit. Two. I don't know if that's what it's gonna be. I feel like it's gonna be weirder than that, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:26:07

Like, um is this like are we like where the I the way I would want you to do it is you don't actually see any humans at all and you just fight angels, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:26:16

No, so here's the thing, Ben. We're going to see Shinji. He's not going to be midlander here, Shinji. He's going to be mid-Hitlander here, parentheses, child height 255.

SPEAKER_00 2:26:28

They're just they're just going to reuse uh Alphanose model. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:32

Yeah, they're going they're they're going to put human ears on alpha nose. And then like our really ugly haircut.

SPEAKER_03 2:26:38

Exactly. It'll be perfect. Um, God.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:41

Uh the the Cosmosatos there will get a drink beer emoji.

SPEAKER_03 2:26:45

Oh, good, because we have our we have our our a our cheer with beer emoji, but I would love when you know how we have the one where you just sit there and you like drink tea? I need that replaced where you're just drinking beer all the time.

SPEAKER_02 2:26:57

Like a like a just slamming cans of beer, but obviously they can't like put like a real beer, like asahi or whatever. And so you look at the label and it's obviously like garly and beer.

SPEAKER_00 2:27:06

It'll say asahi beer and it'll have Asahi's uh face on it.

unknown 2:27:10

Yeah!

SPEAKER_00 2:27:11

Got it. Uh we're gonna get a penguin a penguin minion.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:27:17

It would be insane if we didn't.

SPEAKER_00 2:27:18

Um And then yeah, we're gonna we're we're so we're we're fighting angels, right? Like that's gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 2:27:25

There's going to be one of those things from Shadowbringers where everybody has to mash to get through like one of the action time sequences. It's going to be for getting crushed in the EVA unit's hand.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:35

Oh yeah, 100%. To not get crushed by the by the EVA unit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:27:38

Yeah, the first mean I mean the first joke I saw of this of once this was announced, like like 10 seconds after this was announced was uh action time button with uh Shinji over the hospital bed.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:52

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 2:27:55

Photoshopping Shinji into the scene uh where where your show comes back out of the live stream. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:28:03

Pilot the Ava, Alpha No, or else Alice will have to do it.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:06

We're uh we're fighting angels. We're gonna fight an Ava.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:10

Right?

SPEAKER_02 2:28:11

Mm-hmm. I hope. There's going to be an ad phase that's the well, actually no. Wait, hold on. Did you both see End of Evangelion? No.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:19

No.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:20

Wow, I almost just spoiled something from End of Evangelion. I'm gonna shut my fucking mouth. I forgot. Hey, by the way, if you're listening to this episode and you've just l uh this is also you remembering that Ben and Sarah have not watched End of Evangelion. We are going to be doing Evangelion after Hunter Hunter, I've decided.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:39

Yes, as a buildup to 8.0. Please look forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 2:28:42

Yeah, so we're going to go through the entire series and then also end of Eva and then also the rebuilds. Uh that's going to be uh probably starting in September or October or some somewhere around that.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:50

Please look forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 2:28:51

Um But that's that's it for the big things.

SPEAKER_03 2:28:57

Ava Alliance Raid is so fucked. So fucked. I love it. That rules. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 2:29:02

These are gonna be the most hideous interpretations of these characters you have ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:08

I don't bel I'm sure there is more hideous in like I they put they put Evangelion in like in like fucking PUBG mobile.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:16

Yeah, no. There's gonna be so many worse versions of these characters.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:20

You Ava is dude. They might even be like those cheater models that are like humans with bunny faces.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:27

Yeah, there's so many options available to them. So like and it might not even be the cat. I mean, they could do some weird shit, right? Um there's the fact that Yoko Taro is currently working on an Ava anime, it literally could be tied more to that than like actual OG Evangelic. That's true, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:47

Like I I I also have a suggestion. Uh, we don't get Shinji. Uh instead, we put Kalix in Shinji's plug suit.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:56

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:29:57

I don't understand why you want me to put Kalix. No, I I I would simply not get in the robot.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:03

But what we do is you put uh you put stuffy body calix in the in the plug suit instead. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, totally. Uh okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:30:12

Alright. Regular news.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:30:15

Hey, speaking of uh online games that will consume our our lives, body, and soul. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 announced your PC and console. Oh fuck, I forgot.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:28

We're so fucked. We're so dead.

SPEAKER_00 2:30:30

We're so fucked.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:31

We're so fucked.

SPEAKER_02 2:30:32

For those of us who were hoping that we would uh adhere more to the ongoing boycotts, I don't think it's likely that any of us will have any time in our lives for Fallout 76.

SPEAKER_00 2:30:41

No, I'm canceling my Fallout verse because I'm not going back to that game for long.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:46

Not when Xenoverse 3 comes out.

SPEAKER_00 2:30:48

No, no. Um very interesting that we did not see any Time Patrol stuff in this.

SPEAKER_03 2:30:56

Yeah, that's like the whole setting of those games is like time patrol shit.

SPEAKER_02 2:31:01

Um, so I also know that it's like because it's so endemic, maybe we're just like, well, it's Xenoverse, obviously. We don't need to show any of the time patrol stuff. That's true. Maybe no time patrol is there.

SPEAKER_00 2:31:13

It's possible, but like I do like that we've seen uh we saw Piccolo and we saw Gamma 1 are still kicking. Obviously, they're still kicking. Uh I don't think this is Bulma.

SPEAKER_03 2:31:29

Oh, you think it's like somebody else who just kind of who just looks and is voiced by Bulma?

SPEAKER_00 2:31:34

Like, well, so so at the at uh the end of GT, like the final episode of GT is a flash forward to Pan's grandson who looks like Goku. And he fights uh Bulma's great-grandson who looks like Vegeta. And there's a there's a uh a girl that looks like Bulma who is named Bulma Lei. And that's her her descendant. So I think that's what this is. I think this is just a descendant of Bulma. I've seen someone say that it's been confirmed that this is in fact the Bulma we are familiar with. Then she's either time traveling or she used the dragon to wish for immortality for herself and not her husband and children.

SPEAKER_03 2:32:17

That's correct. Yeah. Go off, Queen. That's right. Those those ungrateful brats got their time with you. Now you go get to be like young and hot and single forever. I get it.

SPEAKER_00 2:32:27

I mean, she did she did crash into uh John Dragonball in some kind of space pod, so it could be her new time machine.

SPEAKER_03 2:32:34

It could be time machine, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 2:32:36

Yeah. Uh I like that everyone is is just agreed that the new playable character is named John Dragonball and the female version is Jane Dragonball.

SPEAKER_03 2:32:44

That's correct.

SPEAKER_00 2:32:45

Uh your partner appears to be Yamcha's descendant.

unknown 2:32:49

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:32:50

Or at least the Yamcha-like character.

SPEAKER_03 2:32:52

Man who exists to get owned. Yeah, we know.

SPEAKER_00 2:32:55

Um And you're you're posing as the great Seiuman, which is really cool. I like I like the uh aesthetic for that. Um the I feel like I feel like, you know, this it says like presented by Akira Toriyama and whatnot. I feel like we're just going to keep getting Akira Toriyama designs for the next like 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 2:33:17

You know how like after Prince died, they were like, yeah, we can keep putting out Prince singles for like ever because he had so much like unrecorded music and shit. Or he had like recorded music that he had never released, and it's all just kind of in a vault somewhere, and they they drip feed things out for 20 years until they finally run out. I feel that's what's going on with Akira Toriyama.

SPEAKER_00 2:33:38

Yeah. Right? He's he just there there's just like binders of character doodles that he's made.

SPEAKER_03 2:33:44

Absolutely. That somebody has now like been like, okay, we'll take this, we'll clean it up, and we'll slap some colors on it. And bam, designed by Akira Toriyama.

SPEAKER_00 2:33:52

Right. We can we can technically keep saying that.

SPEAKER_03 2:33:54

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 2:33:55

So um, I mean Garth Merengi's Xenoverse 3.

SPEAKER_03 2:33:59

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:34:00

I mean the thing is I I fucking love Xenoverse 2. And I'm it's been long overdue that we need a third game. It looks great. It looks so much better than Xenoverse 2. That game was fucking ugly.

SPEAKER_03 2:34:15

That game was fucking hideous.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:18

That game's still uh they still have DLC coming out for Xenoverse 2, and I think the last part of the quote unquote future saga is supposed to be coming out in a couple months. Yeah, maybe that it that is supposed to explain how we get from Xenoverse 2 to Xenoverse 3 slash if Bulma is 200 and some change years old.

SPEAKER_03 2:34:39

Uh I love it. They're like, no, we've got one last DLC for the road. The most possibly the most supported video game of all time. They're like, still got more for you, baby.

SPEAKER_00 2:34:50

Like to get the full version of this game with all the DLC is still like$300, and it's not like crazy discounts.

SPEAKER_04 2:34:57

So funny.

SPEAKER_02 2:34:58

Sadly, it has gone off sale now, but it was on pretty deep discount for uh the for when that announcement. Uh I would imagine that it will go on deep discount for summer again as they try to get people uh excited about the future of Xenoverse and playing Xenoverse 3. I'm when is when is part four of this out? It says uh j sometime between July and September 2026. So funny.

SPEAKER_03 2:35:25

I and the thing is I really don't care about Dragon Ball, but even my ass will be playing Xenoverse 3.

SPEAKER_00 2:35:33

It's just fun. It's just a function.

SPEAKER_03 2:35:35

It is a good fucking around with your friends game, is the thing. Xenoverse 2 was a high quality fuck around with your friends game. Um 3 will be more of that.

SPEAKER_00 2:35:44

Yeah, and and like everyone, I don't care how much you you you like Dragon Ball or not, everyone is like, well, I want to design my own Dragon Ball Z character. That's cool. Um turns out a curatory good character designer, and you want to get in on that.

SPEAKER_03 2:36:01

I'm looking forward to yet another live service game. Um, but but one that is Dragon Ball themed, so it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 2:36:09

I also I really like the um in this trailer the uh the demon realm idol in the hologram screens doing the uh you must be lonely bit.

SPEAKER_03 2:36:19

Yeah, it's cute.

SPEAKER_00 2:36:20

Yeah. Uh Dyma did great things for the lore of Dragon Ball, so I'm excited to see something that can that can adapt that. They're gonna let you play as one of those freaks.

SPEAKER_03 2:36:31

They better play as a demon, it's gonna be so sick.

SPEAKER_02 2:36:34

We better get some fucking new races in this. I hope so too, because I mostly just picked Boo in the last one because you know it's Boo. Yeah. But like I would love some more options.

SPEAKER_03 2:36:45

I I want to play as an android, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:36:47

I want I want the ones that I want. Uh yeah, Android would be good, you know, demon would be good. I want a generic alien race. Oh, that would be funny. Where like you get to play as like, like, use like the Frieza soldiers as like an aesthetic.

SPEAKER_03 2:37:02

Yeah, like que and all of them. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:37:04

Like you pick a pick a weird head shape and add some antennas or like those those weird like ridges that certain aliens have. I think that would be fun. Um next, this one is very important. Uh we got the official trailer for Coyote vs. Acme. You need to go see this in theaters. It's you are required by law to support this movie.

SPEAKER_04 2:37:32

Eh.

SPEAKER_02 2:37:34

Uh I I'm I'm Ben. I understand, Ben. If I was the kind of person who went to go see movies in theaters, I would, but I'm not, so I'm not likely to.

SPEAKER_03 2:37:43

Yeah. Uh sorry. That's I mean, I get it. I would like for that movie to do well, but uh my personal me personally, I don't have any attachment to like Looney Tunes or any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:37:56

I was mostly speaking to the audience, the listeners of this.

SPEAKER_03 2:37:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:37:59

Listeners, if you're the type of people to go see movies in movie theaters, then by all means.

SPEAKER_03 2:38:03

Good, go hog wild. If it's a if it's a thing that sounds appealing to you, um, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:38:09

I'm so excited. This looks great.

SPEAKER_03 2:38:10

It looks good. It looks pretty. Yeah, it looks good.

SPEAKER_00 2:38:15

Uh speaking of of movies, uh, everything we know about Alex Garden Garland's Elden Ring movie. Uh funny. We got to see uh the perverse poo-poo eater. Oh, we did? I didn't actually see that.

SPEAKER_03 2:38:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:38:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:38:32

It's like a prequel type thing is what it sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 2:38:35

Yeah, we we saw we saw um uh like uh behind the scenes footage of of the uh of the the shit uh snarfer.

SPEAKER_02 2:38:46

That's a pretty good costume. I I I will say it is funny to find out that apparently the reason why this is happening, uh because you know no one on earth wants it, is that apparently the reason it's happening is because Alex Garland wants it, because he really likes Elden Ring and literally flew out to Japan to beg Miyazaki on his hands and knees for the rights to make an Elden Ring movie.

SPEAKER_03 2:39:08

It's so funny to me to do that. Um I mean, good for him. I guess I like Annihilation. I mean, like, I don't know, I like some of that shit. Um he wrote 28 Days Later. Yeah, Sunshine. I like that. I really like Ex Machina, I really like Annihilation. Um He he did that movie Men that's like horrifying and really good. Um so, but he also did that dog shit Civil War movie with like AI with like AI trash.

SPEAKER_02 2:39:45

Yeah, he's also like an AI trash guy. I'm like, I don't I'm not gonna go. I mean, okay, realistically, I'm not gonna go watch an Elden Ring movie anyway. Right. Um, but I'm definitely not gonna go watch an Elden Ring movie that's caked to the gills with AI trash.

SPEAKER_03 2:39:58

Yeah, I hope not. I mean, he it wasn't the movie, like this the Civil War movie, it was just like a couple of posters for the movie. It's not like the movie itself had any. Um, so I don't know if Garland was responsible, if it was a movie studio decision. I have no idea. But that movie wasn't very good at all. Um, which is weird. It's weird because I like Annihilation a lot. That movie's really it's that Natalie Portman movie that's very like weird and dreamy about them going into like a fucked up swamp in Florida, um, and like having an existential crisis and like all that shit. It's a great movie, kind of hard to explain, but if you ever if you ever want to have like a night to watch a weird movie, uh can't go wrong with Annihilation. Yeah. Um so it's kind of strange, you know? I don't know. But I also really like sunshine. He wrote that, like it could be good. It could also be really bad. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:40:56

I guess a prequel is the way you would have to go for this kind of thing, but also like literally.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:01

You certainly can't do an adaptation of the events of the game Elden Ring. That dog just don't hunt. It's not possible. They've they've they've done it, uh the only thing I've seen attempt that has uh done so with any amount of a plum whatsoever is the bizarre gag manga that is official. Um and appropriately to a gag manga, it's basically a stem doing the version of the events of the game, but funny, and so it doesn't actually have to make sense of the story. Yeah. Uh so yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I th I still think it's really funny that Nick Offerman is in this.

SPEAKER_00 2:41:39

That's the one that keeps surprising me, because like this is does not seem like his wheelhouse.

SPEAKER_03 2:41:44

Well, I also just can't really imagine. Yeah, but I mean like I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:41:51

I like it he doesn't seem like the kind of actor who would do like a high concept fantasy like this.

SPEAKER_02 2:41:58

I can see it. I just have no idea what character he'd be fucking playing. Right. There's not a lot of act like there's a lot of characters in the Elden Ring Lore. I would not say literally any of them jump out at me as being especially ready to be brought to life by Nick Offer.

SPEAKER_03 2:42:15

Yeah, it's very odd. Um oh, is ya is the Resident Evil movie trailer in your fucking notes?

SPEAKER_00 2:42:23

No, but we can talk about that real quick.

SPEAKER_03 2:42:24

Uh that movie looks good as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:42:25

That trailer looks fucking sick as shit. That's exactly what I would want a Resident Evil movie to be. It's a completely separate side story during the events of Raccoon City.

SPEAKER_03 2:42:33

That's it. Uh, it's by the guy who did Weapons. Weapons is uh one of my favorite movies I saw last year. That movie kicks ass to an insane degree. Um, the ending of weapons is like one of the like it's so it sold me on the idea of him doing a Resident Evil movie because it is I don't I don't wanna I'm not gonna spoil it for I mean because like I know that Ben will never watch it and Saturn will never watch it. So like I would spoil it for you guys. I don't want to spoil it for anybody listening. Um I guess okay, here's the thing. If you don't want to be spoiled for the end of weapons, please skip like five minutes ahead. I don't know the exact timestamp, but I'm gonna tell I'm gonna tell you two the end of weapons.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:43:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:43:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 2:43:21

So the story of weapons is the story of how a whole classroom full of children goes like goes missing, right? It turns out they were all kidnapped by a witch. It's a weird, it's it's a strange premise. It's kind of high concept, but it's it's really good. Um at the end of the movie, the witch's magic is turned on herself and like these children that she's kidnapped um snap. And what proceeds is a five-minute chase sequence where these children, they're like first graders, pursue this witch through this suburban Atlanta neighborhood, like without relent, like crashing through like glass doors and running through people's homes all while screaming like demons. Um it is shot like a comedy beat, right? Like wide-angle shots of the witch running across people's yards with like an army of screaming children at her ankles, right? And ends in them um dragging her to the ground and tearing her to pieces in somebody's front yard.

SPEAKER_02 2:44:32

So this is why I keep hearing when people talk about our current president of the United States people doing the end of weapons to him.

SPEAKER_03 2:44:41

Um The End of Weapons is one of my favorite things I've ever seen in a movie because it's that movie is really tense, and honestly, like even telling you the end of weapons, I still think you should watch weapons, right? Um that movie is crazy tense and like has these moments of insane tension where you're just like clutching at your chair, just thinking your heart's about to explode, and the end beat of weapons is so funny and so horrific at the same time that it's like this like you get the craziest dopamine rush from it, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:45:17

And people think he can't do a Resident Evil movie.

SPEAKER_03 2:45:20

That's the thing. Resident Evil is also a thing that is terrifying and also kind of funny. Yeah, and also can't be. And also like can't be. I think Zach Krager is the only guy who could make a Resident Evil movie.

SPEAKER_02 2:45:32

Um, based on what you told me about that movie, if you told me that his onus for making the movie weapons was being presented with the thought experiment of like, could you beat 10 toddlers in a fight? And him going, I don't know, man, ten toddlers are kind of scary.

SPEAKER_00 2:45:47

There's like 10 of them. A lot of kids, man. To me, it's it's not so much the fact that he's like, it's not just the fact that he's like, okay, well, it's gonna be a side story set during Raccoon City. It's the fact that he's like, no, why the fuck would Nemesis be here? He's busy chasing Jill.

SPEAKER_03 2:46:02

Yeah, the thing is, like, Zach Krager also is the only man who under like one of the things people asked is why don't you just why aren't you adapting like like the actual Raccoon City story? He's like, because those games tell that plot perfectly. Yeah. Like Zack Krager, shockingly, uh, respects the medium of video games. He doesn't think it needs to be like directly translated into a movie because the video game is the move is the medium that tells that story the best. It wouldn't work as a movie, it's not nearly as interesting as a movie.

SPEAKER_04 2:46:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:46:32

So he's doing his own thing and he's telling a side story during Raccoon City, right? Um I think it's great. Also, the movie looks gorgeous. Those I loved every single shot I saw in that trailer. Um I'm really, really excited for Resident Evil. I think it looks really good. I'm going to go see it. I'm really excited for that Backrooms movie too. I don't know. Um it's a good year for weird adaptations of horror franchises. Yeah, I guess I'm not. Um yeah, no, I had to get that out of my system real fast. Resident Evil looks fucking great.

SPEAKER_00 2:47:09

Um, I'm just gonna skip this one. This was not that interesting, actually. Okay. We're running out of time anyway.

SPEAKER_03 2:47:18

We're running out of time.

SPEAKER_00 2:47:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:47:20

Including with the front half of this episode, we this is going to almost be a three-hour episode.

SPEAKER_00 2:47:24

Yeah, this is the last one, so it's just uh Street Fighter 6's next DLC character, Ingrid, finally has a gameplay trailer and release date. So I I put this here to talk about the leaks? Uh, yes. For that and for other reason.

SPEAKER_03 2:47:38

What are the leaks? Because people seem to be able to get the case.

SPEAKER_02 2:47:41

So based on so okay, so I'll tell you the big one.

SPEAKER_03 2:47:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:47:44

Based on Ingrid being confirmed and part for the other leaks, and also that those leaks being from the person who leaked, I think, the season two cast as well, which also proved accurate. Uh, we might be getting Tifa in Street Fighter 6.

SPEAKER_03 2:48:00

Wait, but that sounds kind of sick though.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:02

Well, no, that's the thing. People are mad because the people who are mad are Tekken players. Yeah.

unknown 2:48:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:48:10

That's fair.

SPEAKER_00 2:48:11

I've seen I've seen a lot of bad takes about this idea of Tifa potentially being in Street Fighter VI. The one that I saw was that, like, with people being like, well, why would it be Tifa? Wouldn't Aerith be more interesting?

SPEAKER_03 2:48:25

No. No!

SPEAKER_00 2:48:27

No! You want the martial artist in your martial arts game.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:32

You know who's going to go to the video game Street Fighter? Tifa.

SPEAKER_03 2:48:37

Literal fucking Street Fighter character? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:40

Yeah, the one who can punch.

SPEAKER_03 2:48:42

It's ridiculous. It's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 2:48:46

That is a great episode title, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 2:48:49

I think that's gonna be the episode. That's gotta be the episode title.

SPEAKER_00 2:48:51

It's gotta be that and then uh Evolved Leland, uh, Business Leland as the title card. Totally it. Um, but I I I posted this, yeah, because the leaks were like, uh, it was like Gokin. Uh who else was on that?

SPEAKER_02 2:49:07

It was some it was some people nobody gives a fuck about, and then also Tifa. Which is very cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:49:12

So everybody's mad because it's it's really just it was uh Vega, Vega, Hagar, Gokin, and Tifa. Which Hagar would be cool. Hagar has not been in a Street Fighter yet.

SPEAKER_03 2:49:25

I mean Vega is a is a perfectly reasonable legacy Street Fighter character to get in. Is Vega not already in six?

SPEAKER_00 2:49:33

Vega's not on the on the base roster of six, no. He was in five. But he's not been in six yet.

SPEAKER_02 2:49:41

Crazy. I mean, but yeah, like it's a bunch of like here's a bunch of very expected, like, broader Street Fighter cast picks, and then also, by the way, Tifa.

SPEAKER_00 2:49:51

It would be very funny if Tifa got to be in Street Fighter before she got to be in Tekken.

SPEAKER_02 2:49:56

Uh, she's never going to be in Tekken at this rate, and I'll tell you for free. As much, as much as I am not that much of a fighting game player, and I have not kept up with Street Fighter VI's like various expansion sales and whatever. Uh, I'm going to get that character pass and all that bonus content day one.

SPEAKER_00 2:50:14

This this means if this is true, we're going to get to see Tifa in Street Fighter VI's art style.

SPEAKER_03 2:50:22

Yeah, I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_00 2:50:24

That's gonna be so fucking cool.

SPEAKER_03 2:50:26

Yeah, I'm fine with that.

SPEAKER_00 2:50:28

We're gonna get to see John Street Fighter and Cloud Cosplay.

SPEAKER_04 2:50:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:50:33

I mean, realistically they will, because when they roll out the new characters, like they have their battle pass or whatever. And their battle pass is almost always includes shit that lets you cause lets you create a character cosplay that character.

SPEAKER_00 2:50:47

Or something from that character, like, I also put this on here because like I watched the Ingrid trailer and I was like, wow, this is such an interesting take for this character, because she's like this got this like cosmic magical girl thing going.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:00

I like her weird little hat.

SPEAKER_00 2:51:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:02

Sarah, have you seen SF6 Ingrid? I have not. Hold on, let me get a let me get a picture while Ben continues.

SPEAKER_00 2:51:08

And then I realized, like, days later, I was like, oh, this is a different character than the one I was thinking of. I would thought this was Karin from Street Fighter 6.

SPEAKER_04 2:51:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:51:22

The the the uh Ojosama girl.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:25

So, um, normal normal Ingrid looks kind of like this, right? Which is like, you know, that's a very normal sort of magic-y, kind of magical girl sort of like look for a character. Um, here is the official artwork for Street Fighter VI Ingrid. If this actually, there it goes.

SPEAKER_03 2:51:45

Oh, I kind of love it. Yeah, no, it's really cute.

SPEAKER_02 2:51:47

I love her weird, I love her weird little hair hat. It's really, it's really charming.

SPEAKER_00 2:51:51

Because Ingrid is not really a Street Fighter character.

SPEAKER_03 2:51:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:51:57

She is uh I think she was originally created for uh Capcom Fighting All-Stars.

SPEAKER_04 2:52:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:52:08

Which is a 3D fighter. Uh a Capcom Fighting Evolution. Yeah. Um and it was a 3D fighter that I think. Like she's she was more in um Oh, she was made for fighting all-stars. Yeah, she was made for fighting all-stars and then got backported into Alpha 3.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:32

So her first actual game was Capcom Fighting Evolution, and then her Street Fighter debut was Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max. Yeah. And Street Fighter 6 is her mainline debut.

SPEAKER_00 2:52:43

And I think I think she's more more well known for being in Oh yeah, she was in Cross Tekken, that's right. Oh, she's- I thought she was in SNK, but she's in Cross Tekken.

SPEAKER_02 2:52:52

So, uh Alpha Alpha 3 Max, or Alpha 3 at least. 1998. So between her first Street Fighter appearance, now almost 30 years old. Oh, she finally gets to be in a real Street Fighter character.

SPEAKER_00 2:53:12

Um, so yeah, so very that's that's it's very cool. But I was like, I was like, wow, I can't believe, I can't believe the the rich Ojo Sama girl is taking such a dramatic character shift to this like cosmic magical girl, and then oh, these are different people.

SPEAKER_03 2:53:26

You're thinking of a different person. That's very funny.

SPEAKER_02 2:53:29

And her in her in-game looks like this, which is also like adorable.

SPEAKER_03 2:53:33

I like that look. Yeah, I just love the the concept art style for Street Fighter Sims a lot. It's very pretty.

SPEAKER_02 2:53:38

I just keep looking at the Juno, it's like this is like uh her is like this is like white girl Juno. It's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_03 2:53:42

It's very Juno core, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:53:44

Um and her trailer, her trailer is very funny because she's like she's also got like a uh influencer gimmick to her.

SPEAKER_03 2:53:52

That's cute.

SPEAKER_00 2:53:53

Where she like is like live streaming her fights.

SPEAKER_03 2:53:56

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 2:53:58

Um which I always think is like a fun gimmick for like fighting game characters to have. Uh but yeah, no, that's that's about it. Like Ingrid is out, and then also the rumors of these of of potentially Tifa being in Street Fighter. If if Tifa is is in Street Fighter 6, just the cultural victory of Capcom.

SPEAKER_02 2:54:17

Yeah, it's Italian, yeah, Capcom. They're going to get so many sales from the Italian setup.

SPEAKER_03 2:54:23

Yeah. They're gonna get sales from me to play as Tifa. Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 2:54:29

But that's it.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:30

Oh my god, this has been so fucking long.

SPEAKER_03 2:54:32

Oh my god, we talked way too long. I guess Final Fantasy XIV is still good.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:36

It was it was comic books and Final Fantasy. This is bound to happen.

SPEAKER_03 2:54:40

This is uh my weakness, as it turns out, I will never escape Final Fantasy XIV's dark hole. Um Bruce Wayne and Xenos. Fucking hell, kill me now. Get us out of here.

SPEAKER_00 2:54:55

Alright, that'll do it for us. Uh, thank you to Broke Free Fears of Rightground Music. Email us at thegorgepodcast at gmail.com, follow us on our social medias, join our Patreon and Discord, Patreon.com slash the gorge, listen to the reboot, our TTRPG. Uh, and um fucking join the Discord because we're watching Hunter Hunter, and then we're gonna watch Dorothetero, and then we're gonna watch more Hunter Hunter, and then we're gonna watch Evangelion.

SPEAKER_03 2:55:20

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 2:55:21

Uh by the time you hear this, uh, because it will definitely be May 1st at that point, it will be my birthday. Yeah, what are we doing tomorrow? Uh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 2:55:30

We'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 2:55:31

Uh I will say though, if you're hearing this and you're like, damn, it's Saturn's birthday, but I didn't get them anything. Did you know you can play my visual novel? And that is basically like getting me a birthday present. It's true. It's true. Mm-hmm. That's all I really had to say about it. Okay. Play my visual novel or die.

SPEAKER_00 2:55:50

Yeah, we'll be streaming something maybe tomorrow and we'll see what else happens.

SPEAKER_03 2:55:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:55:56

All right. Good night, everyone. Of the funniest thing.

SPEAKER_03 2:56:00

Of cat of uh fanfest was when uh Yoshi P said, Fuck you, grovel before my fans to the CEO of Square Enix. Fuck you. He made that motherfucker get up in front of 20,000 people in Anaheim, California, and be like, Yes, we will give more money to Creative Business Unit 3.

SPEAKER_02 2:56:18

We'll stop spending all of Yoshi P son's money on failed mobile games. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 2:56:24

Please don't do the end of weapons to me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:56:29

Fuck the CEO of Square Enix. He deserved that shit.

SPEAKER_03 2:56:32

That's right. Good night, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 2:56:34

Good night, everyone.