Loading Memories with Jala-Chan

[00:00:00] Hello, hello. Welcome to a Novel Console, your weekly podcast where we talk about books,

[00:00:26] games, food and stuff that caught our attention during the week. No care then this week.

[00:00:29] Again, because it's loading memories and with me I have one of the coolest persons I've ever met in this

[00:00:38] podcasting circle and one of the person who has one of the most in depth shows that I've seen where

[00:00:46] she does incredible research. She made Metroid Fusion a game that you can technically beat in

[00:00:52] two hours, a three hour episode and it was fantastic. With me is Jala Chan today. Jala,

[00:00:58] how are you doing today? Yay, it was three hours and 20 minutes. Oh, like the transcript went over

[00:01:05] the limit, like the bite limit and I had to cut down and rephrase stuff in the transcript because

[00:01:11] there was too much. So yeah, that is thanks to all of my very enthusiastic guests for that episode

[00:01:18] for sure. I am doing okay, how about you? I'm exhausted but that is the running theme of

[00:01:26] this show. I am very, very tired and that's okay because tomorrow is Friday and I get to work from

[00:01:31] home so that means doing nothing all day. Except recording again probably. Yes and nine with Aaron

[00:01:39] from Superpod. Yeah, but that's what I like about these episodes because I don't have to do any

[00:01:46] research. It's basically just sitting down and talking about games that we grew up with

[00:01:51] and it's super relaxed, no research, no nothing. I know you sent me a bunch of stuff

[00:01:58] and I was like, holy shit, I've seen a bunch of this stuff but a lot of this stuff I haven't

[00:02:02] and I wanted to check it out so bad but I just did not have the time to do it. I didn't expect

[00:02:07] that you would but you know it's there for you if you want to look at it after we talk.

[00:02:12] No, I am going to look at it while you're telling me about it so I can get a good idea

[00:02:16] and maybe kind of describe it if necessary but I have heard of a few. I've heard of

[00:02:25] Kabuki Quantum Fighter which I'm sure is going to get a whole segment. I did see Shakan at some point

[00:02:31] and a bunch of these other fantasy games just look so damn cool. So yeah, before we start,

[00:02:40] I want you to tell me about all your shows because I know you got a couple of shows.

[00:02:44] Just go ahead and plug them because usually people drop out when you do it at the end of the episode

[00:02:48] so Floor is yours. Okay, so I have two primary things that I am on. I am on Jalachan's Place

[00:02:55] which is my self-titled show. I am actually wrapping myself right now with my own little

[00:03:00] shirt but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, so that show is a bi-weekly show where I

[00:03:08] alternate between talking about a piece of media and talking about a real-life topic.

[00:03:13] These are not necessarily related to one another. Sometimes they are but we always look at the media

[00:03:18] kind of through the lens of the backlog of all of the topical episodes that we've covered. So

[00:03:24] like, you know, we've covered toxic masculinity multiple times. We've covered different aspects

[00:03:29] of gender and stuff like that. And so that kind of bleeds into when we're talking about media

[00:03:35] pieces. That's not like the only thing we talk about. Like I had an episode that was on

[00:03:41] basically deprogramming capitalist brain and you know, like the burnout and grind culture type stuff.

[00:03:48] And then right after that I did a- You need to send me that. You need to send me the link

[00:03:51] to that episode because that, that, oh, I would love to hear somebody just tell me how to do

[00:03:57] that. Well there's that and then right after that I had the Portal episode wherein one of my

[00:04:03] guests for that episode was talking about Portal through the lens of corporate culture. And so

[00:04:08] like it kind of bleeds into that and you know, everything kind of lends itself to

[00:04:13] you know, like this, this rolling kind of thesis even though the topics may not necessarily be

[00:04:19] like related in your brain when you think about them offhand. So that's the main show that

[00:04:25] I do. I am also on DuckFeed TV's The Level Podcast which is at thelevelpodcast.com which

[00:04:31] is a weekly video game round table show. We talk about what we've been playing. We have a multiplayer

[00:04:37] question. We talk about news, that kind of thing. I am not on there every week. I kind of show up

[00:04:42] at random. So you can actually go to the level podcast and click on the hosts and find me and

[00:04:48] then you can see all the stuff that I've done for that show but I've been on that show for

[00:04:52] 10 years. So. Oh wow. Yeah. So you are, you are definitely a professional podcaster.

[00:04:59] I've been around for a minute. I don't know if I'm professional but I'm something, I'm old anyway.

[00:05:06] As folks will find out when we're talking about games and I'm going back to like Atari 2600. So.

[00:05:14] I mean that is a pretty old console but I also attribute that, I attribute people having played

[00:05:22] that console not because they were around when it was a thing but because their parents were

[00:05:27] around when it was a thing. Yeah. Because I remember playing Nintendo 64 while growing up

[00:05:32] and my dad used to tell me about the Tron game and I thought it was like a Nintendo 64 game that

[00:05:37] was incredible that he played when he was a kid and then he's like, oh it's for Atari. I'm like

[00:05:42] what the fuck is an Atari? Yeah. Yeah but that's what I'm saying. See like you're talking about,

[00:05:48] oh my dad told me about this thing that he played. Well I was playing the Atari 2600

[00:05:54] with my dad so that's the first game that I can ever think about was an Atari 2600 game that

[00:06:00] I used to co-op with my dad. So it was called Wizards of War, W-O-R and boy it had a lot of

[00:06:08] screen flicker. It was basically like this maze sort of like a Pac-Man situation but you've got

[00:06:14] a little dude whose little outline actually looks like he's holding his schlong and shooting

[00:06:19] with that but theoretically he has a chain gun or something and he's shooting what look to be

[00:06:25] dinosaurs. I mean like they're just very basic low res things right? But as you shoot them they end up

[00:06:35] speeding up and more of them show up and then like the music in the background is like increasing

[00:06:40] in its energy and stuff and that game used to creep me out and I used to get like high anxiety

[00:06:45] and stuff playing that game so maybe that's part of why I didn't play horror for a long time although

[00:06:52] now I am like horror game aficionado but you know. Right? You have like what 600 hours in

[00:06:59] Resident Evil 6 or something like that's what you told me one time. Yeah it's like 260 something

[00:07:07] an hour. I don't know how many people I have run through that game so but to be fair that's

[00:07:12] not really a horror game I would say that's like an action game with some some creepy gooby guys in

[00:07:17] there sometimes. So when you originally sent me the video for a research of war I thought it was

[00:07:31] Pac-Man for the Atari. Yeah it looks like it and I thought oh man they subjected Jala to that

[00:07:39] horrible when Pac-Man moves. Well so like I actually don't have a whole lot of memories about the

[00:07:47] Atari 2600. I played Wizard of War a lot and then I also played like Pitfall I played Pitfall quite

[00:07:54] a bit the damn scorpions and like Cuberts and that's like the main stuff I remember from that

[00:08:04] but then I had an NES and I had that for a long time from there so but that was like the

[00:08:08] only time I ever got my dad to play video games with me ever so. I see I mean I don't remember

[00:08:17] I think I was on a show with somebody no it was with Friday Night Gamecast the one time that I

[00:08:24] was on with my wife I told them the story of me playing pilot wings with my dad and my dad taking

[00:08:30] the controller away and not wanting to give it back and my wife was like you've never told me

[00:08:34] that story I just remember yeah I was I was so mad he wouldn't give it back and like that's the only

[00:08:42] time where he's actually like played a game with me the other time he was just sitting there looking

[00:08:47] at me watching playing games but you know. I remember because I listened to that episode

[00:08:52] so that was such a fun episode I love the guys they're great absolutely so yeah

[00:09:00] so you also sent me Legend of Zelda the original one for the NES.

[00:09:07] Yes it's very funny. Tell me about that. It's funny because number one I never beat that game as a

[00:09:13] child because like how are you going to figure out so some of the things about Legend of Zelda

[00:09:18] the original is like say for example some of the dungeons are so hard to get to and there's no

[00:09:24] hint as to how to get them you know get to them to open them up like there's one dungeon that you

[00:09:30] have to go like north five times into the west seven times some some nonsense like that and then go back

[00:09:36] this way in order to find the dungeon and like unless you have like the Nintendo tricks hotline

[00:09:42] or the little you know cheat codes or something like there's no way you would know how to do

[00:09:47] that so like most of the time I was just wandering around and fighting guys and just looking around

[00:09:51] and maybe I'd go in a dungeon you know that kind of thing I mean I did later retro game it and then

[00:09:56] beat it but like at the time mostly I was just awestruck by like the title screen the music and

[00:10:04] you know the way that when the title screen pulls up it sits for a second and then it'll scroll

[00:10:10] through and it tells you like the story of what's going on and then it shows you all the items

[00:10:15] and stuff that you can get and then you know while listening to that theme I was just like

[00:10:20] overwhelmed with like oh look at all this stuff I can find in this game this looks cool and this is

[00:10:25] the story it has a story neat because you know I mean wizards of war there's nothing you just have

[00:10:30] basically Pac-Man with a man shooting something out of his schlong at dinosaurs okay like you know so

[00:10:38] I was like oh that's really neat and the funny thing is is that even though I really liked

[00:10:42] Legend of Zelda the original and I did play Legend of Zelda 2 even though I did play later

[00:10:47] Zelda games like I kept on every once in a while periodically dipping into the series I never got into

[00:10:52] any other Zelda game like I've never gotten on board with it I played Breath of the Wild I played

[00:10:57] Link to the Past I played like the Oracle of Seasons I think it was on the GBA and you know

[00:11:04] like every once in a while I also went and rented it in 64 at some point because I didn't

[00:11:10] own that console and then played um I think it was just the first one like the Zelda 64

[00:11:15] but yeah Ocarina of Time so um you know like I played a little bit of that but I was I was really

[00:11:21] turned off by like oh he's a little kid you know I don't want to be a little kid that's not cool

[00:11:26] and this is something else that I'll say too I really liked Link back when he had brown hair

[00:11:32] because I have brown hair and every character is like blonde in every fucking video game

[00:11:38] so like I was just like oh it's like oh I can see myself in this game there's a brown haired

[00:11:43] character that is the main character great I love this so you know and then of course I watched

[00:11:48] the cartoon which I'm going to be covering on my show uh sometime this year I'm gonna be

[00:11:53] talking about the Legend of Zelda cartoon that came on the Super Mario Brothers Super show

[00:11:57] and I was a fan of that even though I didn't like how Link was portrayed but because that's not

[00:12:02] the link that was in my head right so I was like none none of whatever this is but I liked

[00:12:09] Ganon a whole lot and Pig Ganon like Warthog looking Ganon that's my Ganon so that yeah none of these

[00:12:18] sexy Muscle Daddy Ganon that we have now yeah yeah my god for sure so so yeah like I played the

[00:12:27] hell out of that game I didn't get anywhere um like for a lot of these games when I had the NES I

[00:12:31] didn't beat a whole lot of them like I played Legacy of the Wizard which is a very cool Dungeon

[00:12:36] Explorer game that has really neat music and in that one it's I think it's part of the Vaxanadu

[00:12:44] series or something like that um I never played anything else in the series I only played the one

[00:12:49] game and you can pick from one of a number of different people in this family like the grandmother

[00:12:55] grandfather I think are just hanging out at the house but then you can play the mom and the

[00:12:59] dad the little boy the little girl and then the pet who is like a little monster critter guy

[00:13:05] looks like a dinosaur a pink dinosaur and you can like each of them has their own strengths

[00:13:11] in different areas of the dungeon that they have to clear in order to like awaken this dragon so you

[00:13:16] can kill it or something but but anyway it's a it's a side scroller okay for some reason I thought

[00:13:25] it was an RPG like a mother or something like that it's a side scroller action platformy

[00:13:32] puzzly kind of dungeon crawlery guy so um that one was one that I liked a whole heck of a lot for

[00:13:40] sure so but yeah like I played a lot of stuff back in NES days like I another one that I sent you

[00:13:47] was called Dragon Spirit which if you if it had dragons or anything that looked fantasy I was

[00:13:52] playing it no matter what so this one is wild though because dragon spirit is actually a schmup

[00:13:58] and I didn't know it was a schmup because like uh it was at the rental place and it has like this

[00:14:04] cover that has okay there's a guy with a sword and there's a dragon on the cover I'm down RPG looks

[00:14:09] like okay great I'm here for it and no you get into it and then like when you're watching the

[00:14:14] opening cutscene homeboy ends up raising his sword into the air and then turns into a dragon and

[00:14:21] then is then fighting the hordes of evil as a dragon which granted is going to be a lot more

[00:14:27] effective than being like homeboy with sword but you know like I did not expect to become a dragon

[00:14:33] and then like as you get power-ups you get extra heads and change colors and have different breath

[00:14:37] weapons it's really kind of cool oh my god this looks it's baller and okay so yeah like

[00:14:45] it looks it looks it looks super impressive this is an NES game yeah holy shit I was not

[00:14:55] expecting to ever see a schmup on on any s that look like oh he has two heads now and he's shooting

[00:15:01] double fireballs he gets three heads at some point and has you know all the he also uh that the main

[00:15:07] main dude who turns into a dragon can also have like phantom miniature dragons and be like you know

[00:15:13] triple shots and stuff like that so that is awesome I'm sending it to my buddy of mine

[00:15:18] that loves schmups and I'm pretty sure he's never heard of it otherwise well I will tell you

[00:15:23] too like it's so bug nuts too because like so like the whole it has this whole story at the

[00:15:28] beginning and then like in between levels it'll have a little bit more story and like it's just

[00:15:33] fun because it's like okay so this guy fought off the ancient evil and then he fell ill after

[00:15:39] his fight and then died but then his twins his twin children you know they had to take up

[00:15:45] the mantle and then the bad guy took one of them and then the other one whose name is lace

[00:15:50] you're a dude named lace with a sword who turns into a dragon like okay why not you know some of

[00:15:56] the stuff I played back then was just real bug nuts so that's cool but then like the first level

[00:16:02] you go to the paleozoic era and then there's like meteors falling and stuff like the meteors

[00:16:08] who killed off the dragons I know I mean the dinosaurs it no it wasn't that it was really

[00:16:13] me I was a dragon and I was killing everything back then I was what caused the mess extinct in

[00:16:18] so why not sure there's another level later that's called well there's another level later

[00:16:24] that's called like graveyard but it's the moon it's the freaking moon and I'm like okay sure why not

[00:16:32] all right it just seems like when when games were ported back then were brought over

[00:16:38] translators were just like I have no idea what the fuck's going on let me just make some

[00:16:41] shit up and just started throwing stuff yeah I mean like it's a zero wing situation there

[00:16:47] I also played zero wing on Genesis so yeah zero wing had some some wild translations that's the

[00:16:53] all-your-base that that came from zero okay okay all right all your base yes okay now I know which one

[00:16:58] that is did you ever I think it was Mega Man X five where I played that one like the guy that

[00:17:06] translated it was a massive fan of guns and roses and like all the robot masters are named

[00:17:13] like after a member of guns and roses because he didn't know what to name them I don't remember if

[00:17:18] it was that one I don't remember which one that was but yeah yeah so for sure but so funny yeah so I mean

[00:17:25] like I played stuff like that and you know like bubble bubble a boy in his blob um I didn't get

[00:17:31] anywhere I just liked the fact that you had jelly beans I was a really big fan of jelly

[00:17:37] and it was cool that they had powers and I didn't do anything in that game I never got

[00:17:41] anywhere but like I had fun playing it anyway and I was like ooh what are the flavors of jelly beans

[00:17:45] are there you know like my even now even now my mouth is watering talking about them thinking about

[00:17:53] these jelly beans on the screen didn't they remake that for like PlayStation 3 and Xbox or

[00:18:01] something like that they remade it at some point yeah and I think I even own it on some console

[00:18:07] something or Steam I don't know I think I have it I just have not gone back to play it because backlog

[00:18:13] so right right yeah I've never played that game but I have seen it and it looks especially that

[00:18:21] original version looks very very interesting that the color palette that they decided to use was

[00:18:27] what's the choice yeah for sure and you know again it's just like when you're a kid it's like

[00:18:34] a lot of what I found when I was thinking about the games for NES that really were important to me

[00:18:39] I'm just like you know I realized that my imagination was an overdrive trying to fill in the blanks

[00:18:45] because there's not a lot of information that you're given you know in these games and so like

[00:18:50] you know as the system grew and changed and people learned how to better utilize it and

[00:18:56] you had stuff like Kobuki Quantum Fighter finger guns that Josh from Still Loading

[00:19:02] and things like that you know like you had some really cool stuff going on you know like some of

[00:19:07] the just the use of the hardware was amazing you know and it looked really freaking good

[00:19:15] but like you know some of those earlier games like they're real they look like Atari games

[00:19:21] you know they just look they look pretty bad but like yeah I played other stuff I played like

[00:19:27] Adam's Family Fester's Quest and all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games especially

[00:19:31] the ones that were co-op I like co-op I have liked it since the dawn of time so oh I played

[00:19:37] from the Mac Venture games I played deja vu a lot because anybody who listens to my show knows

[00:19:42] that I love detective stuff and deja vu is where you play like a detective who has lost his memory

[00:19:49] and you're trying to solve all this different stuff and also figure out who the hell you are

[00:19:52] so it's great so get that it's like a real like detective game like with note pen and paper and

[00:20:00] everything yeah like I also did stuff like I played uninvited which is also in the Mac Venture

[00:20:06] series but um that one was scary and again like I had already discovered I got major anxiety

[00:20:13] just playing like the the nonsense Pac-Man looking wizards of war so like I didn't I didn't need any

[00:20:19] more of that in my life especially with my mom telling me if you play anything scary or watch

[00:20:24] anything scary you're gonna have nightmares and so I would anytime I did because I listened

[00:20:33] so yeah but like um there were also a lot of really good uh license games back then like

[00:20:38] Darkwing duck uh Chippendales rescue rangers and of course DuckTales who can say anything bad about

[00:20:44] the DuckTales game so DuckTales is DuckTales is so good that it it influence Shovel Knight the most

[00:20:53] fun part of Shovel Knight is DuckTales bouncing on there on there just like you do a Scrooge

[00:20:59] McDuck so yeah but stuff like uh Double Dragon oh yeah also Tetris who didn't play Tetris at

[00:21:06] that time you know so but yeah so those are some of my NES titles that I played a lot of

[00:21:16] you know recently I found uh the Batman Returns game on Super Nintendo and it's a very fun beat

[00:21:25] them up and I was playing it right and I was like this looks very familiar I swear I've

[00:21:31] played this before but it wasn't on the Super Nintendo and I was talking to Threk the other day

[00:21:37] and I told him about it and he says oh you mean this one and he said it's me a video of the exact

[00:21:43] game that I was thinking about and it's I don't know if it's like a downgraded port that came out

[00:21:49] when the game released but it I remember that game being a lot of fun and impossible to beat

[00:21:56] but also I was like seven years old so I had no motor skills um that that like brought me back

[00:22:04] real hard to being at my neighbor's house just playing that and Bart and the Alien Vaders or

[00:22:10] whatever that's called and uh Dr. Mario and none of us knowing how to play it and all of us

[00:22:17] being like who loses first basically yeah yeah for sure so that's as far as my my NES uh

[00:22:30] my NES experience goes because I've tried to go back to it and I I just hit a wall immediately

[00:22:35] when starting to play anything I don't know why I tried and I can't.

[00:22:39] Rough NES games are rough man I mean like there are some that were really well done but like by

[00:22:45] and large they're they're not well balanced people are still trying to figure out at that era you know

[00:22:50] how to make a game and how to to make it playable and replayable and and you know make sense and

[00:23:00] and all of that stuff so like you know there's some some good stuff and some stuff that's like

[00:23:04] ooh I want to like this I want to like this wow it's hard to like this it's hard to actually

[00:23:10] play like it might be fun to watch somebody else play it but I don't want to go through all of

[00:23:14] that especially in our our day and age when we've got save states and everything else it's like

[00:23:19] emulating it emulating it is a little bit easier than getting the actual hardware and

[00:23:23] trying to go back to it now yeah so that that's why I love this theme deck so much because I can

[00:23:28] go back to like these old games that I used to play like on the GameCube or 64 or whatever

[00:23:33] and I can beat them without struggling I purposefully downloaded the Smurfs game for the Game Boy

[00:23:40] it's a fun platformer the music is good but it's filled with so much fucking bullshit

[00:23:48] and the only way that I beat it is by safe stating because the the final fight is against Gargamel

[00:23:55] and you have to like have like an acorn drop specifically onto the the balance and then

[00:24:04] you have to jump on the balance on a specific spot and Gargamel needs to walk to a specific spot so

[00:24:10] that the acorn can hit him and you have to do that three times and it even with safe states it was a

[00:24:17] fucking nightmare yeah it's kind of like if you want to if you want a real challenge try to play

[00:24:24] Street Fighter the first Street Fighter that's right that's right I did that

[00:24:30] violent shaking of the head no no no no right right but yeah like so I'm a weird case because I didn't

[00:24:40] end up getting a handheld system until like way later I got a Game Boy Advance but that wasn't

[00:24:44] until I was like at the end of high school or in the beginning of college or something so

[00:24:50] like I did play some Game Boy and Game Boy Advance stuff but like a lot of the Game Boy stuff was

[00:24:55] retro you know retro gaming it so I did play something like Pokemon for example I played

[00:25:00] Pokemon Red and Gold or Yellow but then like because I was retro gaming it I didn't play it

[00:25:07] at the time when it was accident so like I played it but then I didn't play another Pokemon

[00:25:12] game until Sword which I put 160 hours into because I was co-opping a lot of stuff and

[00:25:18] doing like the Dynamax Dungeons and stuff and I put a lot of time into that but like there was this

[00:25:22] massive gap between those two games so but I did play Pokemon spin-offs I played um what was it?

[00:25:30] Pokemon Puzzle League which was on the Game Boy Advance and then I also played Pokemon Stadium

[00:25:34] whenever I would rent in 64 and I would play Pokemon Stadium and I was very good at that game

[00:25:40] but and at Puzzle League because I like puzzle games always have but um you know yeah I was

[00:25:46] playing like weird side stuff and then only played another mainline Pokemon game like

[00:25:52] so long later oh yeah yeah no I get it I did grow up playing Pokemon Blue but I my favorite

[00:26:01] Gen was Gen 2 um and I probably didn't play another Pokemon until Diamond and I kind of

[00:26:11] like hate played it for some reason uh-huh and then after that I played X years down the line

[00:26:18] and I loved X. X was really cool because you had like those uh Pokemon evolutions where you can

[00:26:25] basically turn your Pokemons into Super Saiyans and they would change forms and everything

[00:26:30] and I just thought that was the coolest shit but yeah no Pokemon has been like one of those

[00:26:36] where I took a break too in between well and then two what's funny is I was thinking about it and I'm

[00:26:41] like you know of I um also a weirdo when it comes to Digimon because I played one Digimon game I

[00:26:48] only played one Digimon game and it's the game that nobody knows about Digimon digital card

[00:26:54] battle on the PlayStation 1 I played the crap out of that game I loved that game it took

[00:26:59] me a while to get into a card you know trading card game and deck builder that's not really

[00:27:05] a thing that I play like ever but for some reason I got into that one I really loved it and

[00:27:10] that was the one that I just you know went off on and that was like one of my two favorite

[00:27:17] play them in the middle of the night when I was in college games so like the other one was

[00:27:22] Azure Dreams on PlayStation 1 and uh Azure Dreams. So before we go into Azure Dreams I remember

[00:27:28] when I did the episode with uh Rick Firestone and Aaron about uh Digimon Cyber Story and you

[00:27:36] posted the Digimon card game and I looked at him I'm like holy shit I played this game

[00:27:42] you unlock a memory immediately I rented this for my local gameplay stink and it was going

[00:27:48] to be like another Digimon world game and I was miserable for a full week and trying to

[00:27:54] figure out how to play this game and I couldn't what's hilarious is that I after I played Digimon

[00:27:59] digital card battle then I was like oh let me try Digimon world and I'm like what is this this is

[00:28:04] like having a Tamagotchi I don't want this crap bling literally crap there's crap they poop you

[00:28:09] have to clean it like no I don't know I don't want this what is this you know I play Digimon

[00:28:14] as a show has like some scary horror looking freaky guys and this is not the kind of badass thing

[00:28:23] I was hoping for and like the thing is the four Digimon world games are insanely different

[00:28:29] the first one is a virtual pet the second one is a mystery dungeon type game the third one is straight

[00:28:36] up a Pokemon game and four is Diablo with Digimon they're all insanely different and they're

[00:28:43] all arguably good except maybe the first one that first one is rough well that's why I bounced

[00:28:49] off of Digimon as a series of games so so you can thank Digimon world for that but yeah

[00:28:57] but if you like old RPGs Digimon world 3 is where it's at that one is is very very good

[00:29:05] it's a very good game I'll keep that in mind for some time in the future when the backlog clears

[00:29:11] up a little bit right you know the thing is you know how it goes it's like you've got the

[00:29:14] backlog and you're looking at the backlog the backlog is staring back at you and then

[00:29:19] there's a sale on a game and then you're like I think I'm instead of playing these 700 other

[00:29:24] games I've got I think I want this one over here oh yeah you know like what am I doing this week

[00:29:29] and you put it on the shelf yeah then you put it on the shelf and stare at it until the end of

[00:29:35] time and it's just there and what's it always there for you to consider but you never ever

[00:29:39] open it yeah right right so I have a bunch of those that I I've like I should play this and I'm like

[00:29:47] no I'm just gonna play something else I'll probably play Star Fox for like the 900th time

[00:29:52] yeah well actually it's kind of funny because since I've been doing the level for so long I've

[00:29:57] always been trying to present like new and different games every time I go on that show

[00:30:01] so you know like I'm always trying to play different weird obscure things nobody's heard

[00:30:05] of most of the time I mean more more recently I've been playing bigger titles because I just

[00:30:09] don't have enough time to play all of the different stuff I would before right but as a result that

[00:30:16] meant that I didn't have a whole lot of time to go replay stuff that I played in the past so like

[00:30:20] now that on my show I'm covering some of my favorite video games now it's like well now

[00:30:24] I got to replay these for the first time in 20 years let's see how this is you know so

[00:30:29] yeah I absolutely get it you know it would be amazing if all of us could find like

[00:30:39] benefactors that would just pay for us to just live and play games and that's it

[00:30:44] that way we can play all of the games we want and experience them all over again because I have

[00:30:50] a shit ton of games that I want to replay from when I was a kid and I'm looking at

[00:30:55] asher dreams right now as your dreams is it's it's rough looks good it's it's rough I will tell you

[00:31:03] I bounced the hell off of it like twice when I first started it up because it's a very very early

[00:31:08] ps1 game it is a remake of I think it's a Game Boy Color game originally this I like the

[00:31:15] PlayStation one game better I did play both and the thing about it is that when it starts

[00:31:22] up there's this weird little angel baby thing that comes and talks to you and I was like what is

[00:31:26] this and then there's like the longest tutorial in the universe after that to teach you how to

[00:31:31] play the game it's necessary because otherwise you run into that Digimon digital card battle

[00:31:35] situation where you don't know what the hell you're doing right you need that tutorial but

[00:31:39] little Jala just like big Jala does not like tutorials never like tutorials so was like

[00:31:45] bounced off of it a lot but if you can get past the tutorial the game itself is super super

[00:31:50] fun and I'm absolutely gonna be covering it on my show at some point too so so is it like a

[00:31:58] quote-unquote chess type game because I'm looking at some gameplay right now and the character looked

[00:32:04] like it was on a chessboard fought a couple of enemies and then he just has free roam afterwards

[00:32:10] so here's what happens when you're walking around that it's 2.5 d so it's like you know

[00:32:16] like you have the camera pan all the way around but like your character is always presented at 2.5

[00:32:21] and you're walking around a dungeon and in the dungeon sections you have free reign to go around

[00:32:27] and do whatever you want and time passes you know just as you're sitting there or whatever but

[00:32:32] once there's an enemy around it goes to like a kind of like how you would see in like a

[00:32:37] legend of grim rock or something like that where it's like each person has turns and so if

[00:32:42] you don't move the enemy doesn't move and you're waiting until like you know the next person goes

[00:32:47] or whatever and so that allows you some time to consider your strategy because everything about

[00:32:54] your situation in the tower is like affects how your how your performance is not just your level

[00:33:01] and the level of your familiar but also your height like are you higher or lower than the

[00:33:07] enemy and the element type of your familiar versus the familiar you're fighting you know there's also

[00:33:14] traps everywhere and other stuff like that different items you can use to affect enemies

[00:33:20] and you know buff yourself and magic and stuff like that so there's a whole lot that goes into

[00:33:26] that game so for folks who are listening who have no idea what I'm talking about so Azure Dreams

[00:33:30] is a dungeon crawler it is a uh I think I think it's a rogue like uh the the dungeon

[00:33:36] there's only like certain floors that have a specific you know layout other like the first

[00:33:43] floor and like I think the fourth floor or something in a few other ones have very specific

[00:33:47] layout the rest of it's randomized you can go into the tower with only five items and that

[00:33:53] includes your familiar so usually that would be like a sword a shield your familiar a wind crystal

[00:33:59] or something so you can go back home to the town and then there's like a town building part

[00:34:05] with a romance dating sim part and all this other stuff back home when you're not in the tower

[00:34:11] but in the tower then it's like you have a familiar or two familiars and um you know they fight

[00:34:16] against other stuff so it's sort of like pokemon but then you're also able to attack and you know

[00:34:23] there's like I said there's a lot of other stuff it's like dungeon crawlery it's it's a it's a

[00:34:27] lot of stuff it's very fun very cool uh and yeah there's 40 floors in the tower but it's

[00:34:33] really hard you have to keep on going back to town you lose your level every time you leave

[00:34:38] but your familiars keep their levels and so long as it like your your items keep their levels so if you

[00:34:45] buff your weapons and make them stronger and buff your shield and make that stronger

[00:34:49] then that will be stronger the next time you go in so you need to buff your equipment and up

[00:34:54] your familiars levels and then you know just every time you go in your level one so

[00:35:00] you know you've got your item limit but there's a lot of stuff to the game that makes it really fun

[00:35:05] it looks to me like from what i'm looking at and from what you described it it looks to me

[00:35:11] like a combination of crypt of the necro dancer um final fantasy tactics and pokemon yeah there's

[00:35:22] a lot of stuff going on and it's with a little bit of haydn's thrown in it is really just

[00:35:28] like this evolutionary dead end it was made by konami so i mean like it was a big company behind

[00:35:34] it but like it never went anywhere there was like a spiritual successor that was not nearly as good

[00:35:40] that came out uh i think on i think it was the ds or something i've never played it because i didn't

[00:35:45] want my heart broken um knowing that it's not as good as azure dreams i don't want to you know

[00:35:50] so so i just put it on on on my list i have like a very long list of games of that i've

[00:35:57] been adding to as i've been recording these i just added it because it looks fucking rad it is cool

[00:36:04] it is cool and i i have always been a fan of a dungeon crawler i love dungeon crawlery games so

[00:36:09] so that's one uh that i did that's like dungeon crawler but also it's like pokemon but also it's

[00:36:15] it's so many other things it's a tactical game it's whatever because um my first rpg to talk

[00:36:21] about that because i play a lot of rpgs and always have my first one was shining force on

[00:36:26] the sega genesis because i went from nes to sega genesis and then you know the console wars and stuff

[00:36:33] you had one or the other like i didn't hate nintendo i just didn't have one so like i got the sega

[00:36:38] genesis then i had the sega cd then i had the sega saturn then i had the sega dreamcast you know

[00:36:43] and then i got an nes later or like a super nes rather later after it was no longer

[00:36:49] extant and that's when i played chrono trigger like i didn't play that at the time and even

[00:36:53] though i played final fantasy three or six whichever one you want to call it uh you know

[00:36:58] like i played that game and i played final fantasy five a lot too i played those uh emulated like i was

[00:37:05] retro gaming those two i didn't play those again like when they released so it was real weird and

[00:37:11] even though i'm a j rpg person you know or an rpg person in general um and genesis isn't really

[00:37:18] known to be like the rpg machine i played rpgs on it so shiny force shiny force is a strategy rpg

[00:37:28] yeah i've heard that um i've also i also have like this uh i i'm not wording right now this

[00:37:41] thought or idea or whatever you want to call it that even though the genesis doesn't have a lot

[00:37:47] of rpgs the ones that it has are actually really good yeah yeah so i i've always been interested in

[00:37:54] the shining series i i'm gonna play it one day oh can i make a recommendation when you go to

[00:38:00] shiny force one my recommendation is to play the shiny force a gba remake the shiny force

[00:38:07] resurrection of the dark dragon that version is to me like additive uh a lot of times when you

[00:38:14] have a remake or something that's way after the fact it's actually you know kind of worse in a lot

[00:38:20] of ways um we'll talk more about that when we talk about lunar at some point in the future but um

[00:38:29] but it's on the list yeah i actually think i have it on the steam deck and already installed

[00:38:34] but i'll i'll make sure and get that rolling well the resurrection of the dark dragon has

[00:38:40] a little bit of a better translation of what's going on so uh it's better than the original

[00:38:45] in that way and then there's also some added mechanics and a new character but those mechanics

[00:38:50] in that character i think are again additive to the game rather than subtractive so okay so yeah

[00:38:57] shiny force was like my favorite series for the longest time and so um i'm gonna be talking

[00:39:03] about shining force three which is my favorite of the shining force games um later on this year

[00:39:09] so uh that's on the roster that one was for sega saturn and i played the hell out of that game okay

[00:39:15] yeah yeah you know i i've i always kind of knew that the saturn was a thing growing up

[00:39:22] i've never seen one in person i've never played one well you want to know what i've always been

[00:39:27] interested about it i would have never had a sega saturn except okay here's another story time

[00:39:34] so um one of my favorite games of all time is lunar uh as as you might imagine from me mentioning it

[00:39:41] seven times so far so uh lunar and lunar two lunar two specifically is my favorite one you know like

[00:39:47] the favorite of the two of those and um when i was reading through some materials in interviews

[00:39:52] with victor ireland from working designs he was saying that the remakes were on the sega saturn

[00:40:00] because they were in japan and so i bought a sega saturn or i had a i asked for a sega saturn for

[00:40:06] christmas so that i could play the lunar games when they came out on sega saturn but then they

[00:40:10] didn't in the us they came out on the playstation so uh i was heartbroken i had other games i had

[00:40:17] plenty of other games on the sega saturn that i played but i had bought it expressly for that

[00:40:21] one game and then it ended up coming to a different console and i had a friend who

[00:40:27] was very very loving and kind and she bought me a playstation so that i could go and buy the

[00:40:33] lunar games when they came out on the playstation and that's how i got a playstation what an amazing

[00:40:39] friend right right so i do have a little bit of a story with lunar um i bought lunar silver star

[00:40:48] story complete from a mom and pop retro game store back in portorico and i got it for 20

[00:40:55] dollars and it was the double the double case with the black label the cloth map inside everything

[00:41:03] for 20 dollars and i started playing it and the instruction booklet had like how to do everything

[00:41:11] all the way up until the fight in the boat like at the beginning of the game where uh

[00:41:18] luna i think it's her name she jumps and i played it all the way up until there and that

[00:41:23] when i got to that part i didn't know what to do so i just kind of like tried to brute my brute force

[00:41:30] myself through it but i just couldn't figure it out here's the secret here's the my english wasn't

[00:41:36] so good oh yeah and then rpg so you know so what's the secret well the secret to that in in the

[00:41:44] remake of lunar uh because that whole beginning sequence in a lot of the game itself is drastically

[00:41:52] different in the second cd version but the secret in that particular part is that you have to have

[00:41:56] luna a certain level so she has a certain spell so she can do what she needs to do to help with the

[00:42:02] fight so um okay so and that's that's kind of like the the running thing with the lunar games

[00:42:09] like a lot of times it's like you just have to unlock a skill that you haven't gotten yet and

[00:42:12] if you don't have that skill yet wander around a little bit and then you'll find it and then

[00:42:16] you'll be fine so okay so basically to keep in mind when i play it just grind as much as possible um i

[00:42:23] wouldn't say that it's actually a really grindy game um at least not from from my recollection and

[00:42:30] even in my replay of the sega cd version which i'm doing right now i'm almost at the end of that

[00:42:36] it's just that like you might need to wander around a little bit but it's not like the level

[00:42:40] of a final fantasy or anything like that by any stretch of the imagination the fact that it is not

[00:42:45] grindy is one of the things i love about luna it's not a grindy game so um you know there there are

[00:42:51] places where you would have an opportunity to or if you don't get enough random battles or something

[00:42:55] but it's not like you're going to be grinding for you know oh i got to gain 20 levels or something

[00:43:00] like that it's like a couple levels maybe you know something like that so it's is it like one

[00:43:06] of those rpg's that uh exploits weaknesses or is it uh one that requires you to buff or is it

[00:43:13] just one that you kind of like progress as you're playing and by the time you get somewhere where you

[00:43:18] have to do whatever you should be where you're at if you have done whatever pops in front of you

[00:43:24] until then so so with uh the way that the sega cd versions and the way that the remakes play

[00:43:31] is different so um but the commonality between them is that the placement of your people is

[00:43:37] important because your little guys have to go across the map to go attack and so um like you

[00:43:44] want to place people you know you want to protect your party members in the back you know uh you

[00:43:48] want to have the people who have multiple attacks be up at the front and be able to you know

[00:43:53] choose the targets that will maximize their uh number of hits and things like that um so there

[00:43:59] is some strategy to that and knowing like your turn order and then you know okay based on this

[00:44:04] turn order you know uh who do I need to go do what you know so it's more about like that kind of a

[00:44:11] strategy more than it is um you know anything else like it there there are weaknesses yes there are

[00:44:18] some elemental weaknesses and things like that but it's not really so much at play um status

[00:44:24] effects i i never really use status effects too much uh when your party has a status effect

[00:44:29] spell i will do buffs buffs for sure but like you know uh not not so much like status effect

[00:44:36] things to try to make things go to sleep or whatever poison them right okay you know so all right it

[00:44:42] the whole strategy placing thing kind of sounds to me like what i said trails to asher the only

[00:44:51] trails game that i've played like two hours of because i have most of them but i haven't played

[00:44:57] any of them um it kind of does that thing where as you're fighting your characters move in the field

[00:45:05] and when you attack wherever your character attacks he kind of like stays there he doesn't go back to

[00:45:11] the position where he was before is that lunar does something like that yes absolutely okay all right

[00:45:17] i don't remember any anything yeah from lunar so yeah yeah so that's that's how that goes uh at

[00:45:24] least um so far as my recollection it has been a good long time since i played the remake uh but for

[00:45:33] definitely for the first the sega cd versions and everything which i have memorized like the back

[00:45:38] of my hand yes for sure okay all right it is not a secret it is not a secret that um i am not

[00:45:47] as much a fan of the remake of lunar one i like the remake of lunar two for the most part uh i

[00:45:53] find it to be mostly an improvement but the first one overhauled so much about the original game

[00:46:00] so that that's the remake for the saturn or i said silver star story complete the silver star

[00:46:06] story complete the the remake on saturn was silver star story complete it was just in

[00:46:10] japan they released it on the saturn and then over here they released it on the playstation one

[00:46:16] which ended up being a good thing because on the sega saturn hardware i do have import copies

[00:46:21] the the little screen like the the actual video is like teeny tiny because of the compression and

[00:46:26] stuff on the disc and like the limitations of the hardware so um it is actually a good call

[00:46:32] that they put it on the playstation one okay that's that's very interesting i i am very excited

[00:46:40] to replay them because also back then the first time when i played them i was like 13 or 14

[00:46:47] so i was in that age when boys can only think about murdering humans and rpgs and because there

[00:46:55] weren't any humans i kind of like was not really paying too much attention to it i was like i'll

[00:47:01] just go play final fantasy six that's that has guard dogs and soldiers and stuff that i can kill

[00:47:08] right right because in lunar you're not fighting people you're fighting critters and

[00:47:12] stuff like monsters and critters and things so yeah well and then too both of the lunar games are really

[00:47:18] like massive love stories at their core so like you know for for somebody who's uh not got that

[00:47:26] bent in the first place you know that's that's kind of like eh but for me uh when i was 13 going

[00:47:31] on 14 is when i played lunar 2 and we had just moved from florida over to houston and so i was alone

[00:47:43] and my family was all broken up because uh my sister had moved out and my dad was trying

[00:47:47] to sell the house back in florida so it was me and my mom living with my grandparents and i was

[00:47:52] in a new school and i was like an eighth grade which is a terrible time you know right then

[00:47:58] um so it hit just the right time where you know like i laughed and cried with it and it was just

[00:48:04] exactly what i needed at that moment to you know feel uplifted and you know push on you know like

[00:48:10] the the main theme uh of the game was really put forth in the um advertisements for it which

[00:48:19] i actually still have a copy that i cut out of a magazine of the advertisement for

[00:48:23] lunar 2 which has uh lucia which is one of the main characters on the front and behind her is like

[00:48:30] the world of lunar and the blue star and then just the black void of space and it just says

[00:48:35] in the darkest hour hopes hope springs eternal and i just put that on my wall and i just had that

[00:48:41] and i looked at it all the time so that's so fucking cool so i mean like you know uh i i recognize

[00:48:49] it's not the best rpg in all of time or anything like that but also it was exactly what i needed at

[00:48:54] the time i needed it and i still love it to this day and i get choked up thinking about it talking

[00:48:59] about it and everything because just i love that game so much so right yeah no i i definitely get

[00:49:06] that uh there's there are some games you know that just hit right at the moment you need them

[00:49:14] for me growing up the one that like clicked like that and just made me realize oh shit games are

[00:49:23] fucking awesome was star fuck 64 and i had played a shit ton of games before my first game was

[00:49:30] sonic 2 i played myro 64 super mario world um you know the batman game that i talked about

[00:49:37] earlier all of those and while i had fun none of them were like i want to do this for a very

[00:49:45] long time like i just want to play forever and uh you know there there were like hard times in my

[00:49:53] life where you know a game had just come out and i would play it and it would be exactly what i

[00:49:59] needed i went through a very bad breakup in my early 20s and the game that was there to pick me up

[00:50:07] was watchdogs fucking awful game terrible terrible game and it was the one that kind of helped me

[00:50:15] get through the whole thing and at the end of the game i was like i feel better um i can keep

[00:50:21] going on like that there's been like a bunch of games you know um it was a summer that i just

[00:50:26] spent at my grandma's the entire summer and i would just sit in the afternoons in the balcony

[00:50:32] with my gameboy advance just playing like kingdom hearts and listening to ludicrous or playing

[00:50:37] supersonic war dragon ball see supersonic warriors and listening to don't know my or daddy

[00:50:42] anchor some shit on my on my cd player and you know that that was a great great summer

[00:50:50] and i had was like two or three games just to get through the whole thing um so you know that

[00:50:56] that's something that people who don't play games don't understand why we love them so much and

[00:51:03] why we're like at times feral at least i am well i will tell you something that's really

[00:51:10] interesting in going back to for example uh the first lunar on seca cd because like that game

[00:51:17] blew me away when i first saw it because even though there were like the the turbo graphics and stuff

[00:51:22] they that had better graphics or you know comparable graphics like ease for example some some of the

[00:51:28] ease games had amazing stuff going on but like i didn't have that system so the one that i had

[00:51:34] you know i went from the sega genesis to the sega cd and then when i got the sega cd

[00:51:39] lunar was one of those first games and it has this opening sequence that is

[00:51:45] super embarrassing 80s like at the time when i played it the first time i was embarrassed

[00:51:51] by the song fighting through the darkness that it plays in a little opening animation thing

[00:51:57] which isn't really animation there's like three frames of animation and the rest of it stills

[00:52:01] but i loved it i loved it that there was an opening there was like it was like watching an

[00:52:07] animated thing sort of you know and like it had like a theme song and it had all the stuff and then

[00:52:12] you know like there's voice acting and you know cut scenes and stuff and in a way that i hadn't seen

[00:52:18] before because on genesis you didn't have all of that movement you had still frames and then

[00:52:21] some text underneath you know right and i before i even played the game for the first time i just

[00:52:27] booted it up and just stared at and i just watched the opening just kind of like how i did

[00:52:30] with um legend of zelda the first time i got that game i just sat there and looked at the

[00:52:35] title screen and just let it scroll and listen to the music and just kind of like soaked it in before

[00:52:39] i even did anything and you know um the culture of savoring a game like that isn't a thing that we

[00:52:47] have anymore because everybody has so much in you know we're inundated all the time with media

[00:52:52] there's just access to everything and that's great but that also means 7 000 things in the backlog

[00:52:58] and that you don't spend time with a game like really digging into it and replaying it a

[00:53:03] whole whole lot unless you specifically set out to do that because you're like well

[00:53:08] you know and like you mentioned it you're like oh well i could play this game again for the 7 000

[00:53:12] time you know like you have to make that choice though because you can do that and then you know

[00:53:17] you can play that again but then say for example in my case you know i i'm one of those people who

[00:53:22] i'm on a podcast about video games i have assignment play i've got to play i've got other

[00:53:26] things i have to do so like yes i can either play this thing that i love again which i would

[00:53:31] love to do or i can make content you know right and i i know exactly what you mean because i am on

[00:53:39] that bullshit right now like i i have to play uh star ocean second story are because the patrons

[00:53:47] chose it and i started playing it and i somebody's coming into my room i don't know what the hell's

[00:53:54] going on hold the dog what for oh oh oh my goodness what is the name here's luna luna oh goodness

[00:54:07] and i love the little outfit goodness yeah she's apparently she's cold so they put like her

[00:54:13] jammies and then a dress over the jammies oh my goodness very cute yeah she's just gonna be

[00:54:19] a good dog and sit there um i forgot where i was going before they threw the dog at me you were talking

[00:54:25] about star ocean having to play it right right right so the patrons chose it i started playing it

[00:54:31] i had a little bit of a rough time getting into it but after like the first two hours i got into

[00:54:36] it and it's really really good yeah but yakuza like a dragon infinite wealth came out and

[00:54:42] i don't want to do anything else other than play that game because the the main character is

[00:54:49] amazing ichiban is one of the greatest main characters of all time and then the story what's

[00:54:54] going on in the story just has me hooked i just want to that's all i want to do i don't want to

[00:55:00] do anything else so when i was playing dishonored for my episode which drops as of the time we're

[00:55:07] recording it drops next week but i don't have no idea where it will be in relation to the

[00:55:11] dropping of this episode anyway uh jellichon that place uh so um when we were when i was going

[00:55:18] through and replaying all of that ip for those episodes it was like i was in the middle of

[00:55:23] playing it i was going great guns on dishonored and then a friend of mine who is very sweet

[00:55:28] bought me balder's gate three

[00:55:33] so i mean i had a hard time like i played like 20 hours and then i had to force myself to set

[00:55:38] it down and not look at it and that was so hard to do i love dishonored i love dishonored but also

[00:55:46] big rpg based on dnd oh my god you know and it's balder's gate three i mean come on you know right

[00:55:53] and like balder's gate three has had like this massive hype machine since it came out

[00:55:59] and the game's what like three months old already usually a three months old like a game

[00:56:05] is nobody's talking about it people are still talking about this game like it just came out and

[00:56:09] people are still just as crazy about it and i bought two copies of the game and i haven't started

[00:56:15] either well uh that's better for you right now if you have assignment playing going so um yeah for

[00:56:22] sure but um the funny thing is that i wasn't even gonna buy it i wasn't even gonna buy a copy of it

[00:56:27] like i was like oh yeah that sounds cool but i intentionally wasn't gonna look at it because

[00:56:31] you know i have other stuff going on that's a very big game blah blah blah you know i'm like eh it's

[00:56:36] all right i'll i'll you know i'll probably buy it when it goes on sale two years from now and then

[00:56:41] play it then you know um so that was a surprise and i was very happy to play the game you know like

[00:56:47] super impressed with it when i started it up and started playing it but like

[00:56:52] you know and it's just kind of funny because i wasn't gonna go down that rabbit hole

[00:56:55] and meanwhile i still have octopath traveler two that i had pre-ordered that's sitting there that

[00:57:02] i haven't even booted up because i don't have any time to look at it and there's no way i do now

[00:57:06] that i have balder skate three and i'm like 40 hours in or something you know you know that the

[00:57:12] balder skate three um i bought it because i saw that you were playing it on steam deck i'm like

[00:57:16] holy shit it's on steam deck and then eric guest from the unlockables it's like oh i want

[00:57:22] to play a co-op with somebody i'm like shit jala said it can run on steam deck i can probably get

[00:57:27] it to run on my computer if it does run on steam deck and eric wants to play i'll just buy it and i

[00:57:32] never played it and then it comes out on ps5 and i'm like i would rather play it on ps5 so i bought

[00:57:38] it on ps5 i still haven't played it yeah well and then too i have friends i have friends who

[00:57:45] want to co-op it and i'm like well i don't want to co-op it with you until i've actually

[00:57:48] played the game you know like i want to play the game through and have my own decisions and see

[00:57:52] what my own story comes out to be and then i can play an alternate timeline with you guys

[00:57:57] you know but that hasn't happened either and i don't know when that's gonna happen

[00:58:03] you know i think that that's one of those games that you have to treat like a dnd game

[00:58:07] night because it's just so big and there's so much stuff that can go wrong oh speaking about

[00:58:14] dnd let me tell you about another old game that i played so um yes please i have a story about it too

[00:58:20] so on sega genesis i played dungeons and dragons warriors of the eternal sun now that is like a

[00:58:28] you have like an overworld map you can make your characters and stuff you have an overworld

[00:58:32] map where you're traveling around basically you and your whole town have been warped

[00:58:38] from wherever you were before to like this weird valley and you don't know why and you

[00:58:42] don't know what's going on and you basically are a scouting party for the the village trying to figure

[00:58:47] out what's going on and you know how how how how are you gonna do anything you know and so you go

[00:58:56] around and there's like the overworld map but then you can also go into dungeons where it's

[00:59:00] like a first person dungeon view and then it's like active battles and stuff like that where

[00:59:05] you know there isn't like a turn-based thing but it looks like legend of grim rock in those

[00:59:09] parts so is this a uh a point and click game it is when you're in the battles on the map

[00:59:21] i don't think it is like i think you just run around with the d-pad when you're playing on the

[00:59:25] actual hardware like on the actual thing got it but um make my shirt so here's my story

[00:59:34] i rented this game i was very excited and so i plugged it in i played a whole whole bunch

[00:59:39] i played played played played turned it off then the next day i came back because it was a weekend

[00:59:44] and i came back and i was like okay i'm ready to continue my adventure i'm so excited

[00:59:49] and it was gone the save good data was gone and i had no idea what was going on with that so

[00:59:54] like then i played played played played played and turned it off and then you know like i didn't

[01:00:00] get as far because i was like let me turn this off and see what happened so i turned it off

[01:00:05] turned it back on again and the save data was gone again and i was like crap and then i was gone you

[01:00:11] know that was the end of my rental period for that weekend so the next weekend i rent the same game

[01:00:15] again i'm like okay this time i'm gonna leave my system on because i don't want it to you

[01:00:21] know lose the save data and i'm only renting it anyway it's fine so then i do that but then

[01:00:27] like when i leave the system on and then you know go away and then come back later it overheats

[01:00:32] and instead so basically like inside of the cartridge there's like a little um there's

[01:00:39] like a battery or something that keeps the save data going and like that had died or something

[01:00:44] and so i didn't i never got to get super super far into the game back when i had it on

[01:00:49] the hardware i did end up like emulating it later and playing a large portion of it but i

[01:00:53] still didn't beat it because i got sidetracked because that's what happens these days i got sidetracked

[01:00:59] and i never got back to it but um yeah one day that's usually the issue one day i will go

[01:01:05] back and beat that game because it is a fun dnd game so i uh i played a dnd beat them up with

[01:01:13] throg and and burgers chronicles of mistara there's two of them i think yeah i think tower

[01:01:20] of doom and chronicles of mistara yeah those are good probably we played them on on xbox because

[01:01:26] they were like two bucks for the two of them and the three of us were bored so we just went through

[01:01:31] them and they were a ton of fun oh i have a story about that one too i have a story about that one too

[01:01:36] so i played them in on an arcade cabinet that was at the little gas station down like a block

[01:01:42] from my house uh and so like i went over there with a whole roll of quarters and it was just me

[01:01:47] and i was playing it and i was so excited i got i got so excited because i got to the end of it

[01:01:52] and i only had like one quarter left and then at the very end of the game i think this was the

[01:01:57] towers of doom one or something anyway like you find a big dragon at the end and it's so like

[01:02:01] the last little choice it has is okay you can either go on to fight the dragon or you can go

[01:02:06] back to town and rest up and because i was like low on health and i had like one quarter left

[01:02:10] i was like we're gonna go back to town and rest up but then when i did and then i tried to

[01:02:14] fight the dragon he was like invincible and i died and i had no more quarters and then

[01:02:19] i so like later on i saved up money and i was gonna go back and go play it again and i'm like

[01:02:25] okay this time this time i'm gonna do it for real and it was gone it was no longer there

[01:02:29] it was just gone i did eventually go back to it later co-op and played you know both of

[01:02:37] those games beat both of those games multiple times co-op with people like on you know steam

[01:02:42] but like that was that was my heartbreaking story of of when i played it that's that's awful

[01:02:50] oh that's that's almost like going to the arcade and seeing that time crisis is finally free

[01:03:00] and you have enough money to get through the entire game and then at the end you just cannot

[01:03:03] figure out how to kill the bad guy and you just dying and dying absolutely so video games

[01:03:12] so great so so many great stories i got i've been having such a great time with these episodes

[01:03:18] because people's stories are like there are parallels right so so there's there's parallels that

[01:03:25] you know everybody can kind of relate to you know when a certain console came out or some games

[01:03:29] that you know people played and they kind of felt the same way about them but there's also

[01:03:33] like such diverging like crazy stories like going to the gas station like who has an arcade

[01:03:40] machine at the gas station these people did and then hanging out there all day trying to beat a game

[01:03:47] and then at the end you can't and it's awful well and then i also that's the way that i ended up

[01:03:54] finding like the darksockers games was again a gas station i went to a 7-11 there was there it

[01:03:59] was in the gas station i was like oh what's this game and then i played this game in the gas

[01:04:03] station and then you know like i later on found it you know on console and i was like oh yeah

[01:04:09] and those were totally my jam i loved the darksockers games so much so i played a lot of fighting

[01:04:17] games actually like i started with street fighter 2 the the one the new challengers the one that had

[01:04:21] the cammy in it because cammy is my girl and you know i played the hell out of street fighter

[01:04:27] since forever but then like i was telling you like i played primal rage and eternal champions

[01:04:33] and all these terrible fighting games and stuff i never really got into mortal combat like i

[01:04:38] played it but i wasn't really into it i did do like x-men versus capcom or you know x-men versus

[01:04:44] street fighter is i think what it is yes x-men versus street fighter i forget because i like i

[01:04:49] also played marvel versus capcom my favorite fighting game is actually um capcom versus s and k2

[01:04:55] which is a dreamcast title originally in japan they released it in america insane load times

[01:05:02] uh no it doesn't have insane load times at least not on the dreamcast version that i had

[01:05:06] that was an import but it's a very there was an s and k there was a capcom and s and k game

[01:05:14] capcom and s and k game there we go that had massive load times and i don't remember what

[01:05:20] console it was for was it from the playstation one well here's the thing uh they did drive me

[01:05:27] crazy they did bring capcom versus s and k2 to the playstation one in america but it was

[01:05:33] capcom versus s and k2 e o which is easy operation and they they changed some stuff when they brought

[01:05:39] it to the ps1 and uh from everything i have heard it was not good but the dreamcast one

[01:05:47] thumbs up i played the hell out of the game that game gave me calluses i had players callus

[01:05:52] because of that game so i also did a lot of samurai showdown i played a lot of samurai showdown

[01:05:58] virtual fighter virtual on virtual on i think the one where you it's i think it's sega saturn

[01:06:05] you are playing as big robots uh or power suits or something like that and you're fighting that

[01:06:12] that sounds familiar uh virtual on yes yeah uh virtual on sega am no that's the creator uh

[01:06:22] what the hell i don't think that the sega cd would have been able to run it so it

[01:06:27] must have been saturn okay arcade sega saturn and then windows dreamcast ps2 360 playstation

[01:06:34] network 4 and vita yep yep okay fun game fun game so i have seen gameplay of that one and that one

[01:06:42] looks looks great it's it's kind of like a for lack of a better word a gundam arena fighter yeah

[01:06:51] basically it's basically yeah that looks pretty fun i i should probably get my saturn emulator running

[01:06:59] and and dive into those because i have a buddy that told me about a game called so solar sat

[01:07:06] solar saturn saturn sun uh solar gun it's basically star fox but for the saturn ah okay got

[01:07:17] you uh so eclipse sun i i don't remember the name it looks really fucking cool because it kind of does

[01:07:25] that that uh like the digitized sprites of of like real stuff and the whole world is kind of like

[01:07:34] digitized sprites um and it from the video that i saw gameplay it looks really fun so cool

[01:07:42] i do gotta get the saturn going because i have i have a list yeah i understand that for sure but

[01:07:49] some yeah i also played let me see bloody roar i played i love bloody roe three yes you ever play

[01:07:56] the gamecube one uh no i never had a gamecube like i um a boyfriend i was with at one point

[01:08:04] had a gamecube and then i would sometimes play it but like i didn't get to play that one so okay

[01:08:10] if you can emulate it i would suggest you do because that game is fucking awesome it it is

[01:08:19] gamecube's tech and for lack of a better word it's so much fun it's great oh cool cool yeah yeah

[01:08:29] so like it's it's weird right because like when i'm looking at this whole long list that i made

[01:08:34] trying to brainstorm okay like what were the games that really stood out to me like you

[01:08:38] could say you know i played a lot of mega man i played a lot of sonic i played mario i played all

[01:08:42] the you know traditional stuff that everybody played those action platformery type things but

[01:08:47] then i'm like okay what are the weirdo titles what what weirdo titles did i play and it's like

[01:08:52] the mansion of hidden souls okay that's a weirdo or amber journeys beyond that's like another

[01:08:58] that that's a point and click adventure game and i still play adventure games so i that's still

[01:09:02] in my dna you know puzzle games weird puzzle games are in my dna like all these oddball

[01:09:07] titles that are just kind of experimental like azure dreams i still play weird experimental games

[01:09:12] that's like so my thing you know um but then lots and lots of rpgs and then fighting games

[01:09:19] you know like you one would not really think to correlate those two because like you know one

[01:09:24] of them is twitch based highly highly twitch based and everything and the other one is just

[01:09:28] real chill but um i have my moods i guess i mean you can probably like make up the excuse that

[01:09:35] they're all anime so maybe you just like anime well i was a super otaku for a long time although

[01:09:41] i haven't been watching anime in like a long time because i have no time yeah no i i've read manga

[01:09:48] before bed because that's as close as i'm gonna get to anime because i don't have time for it

[01:09:54] no i just don't have time people are like oh you need to watch this tv series like what time

[01:09:57] do you think i have the only time i ever watch movies is like maybe if i go to a movie theater

[01:10:02] or if i have a watch party scheduled in my discord server that's the only time i watch anything so

[01:10:10] it's like if you send me a youtube video it better be under 10 minutes i'm not gonna watch it if it's

[01:10:15] over 10 minutes i'm just gonna be real you know are you gonna have like community members just

[01:10:21] sending you like tiktoks and like a bunch of them and at the end it's like you just watched

[01:10:26] an entire movie because they sent it to you by like 10 second snips well if they send it in 10

[01:10:31] second snips over like a course of time that would be okay like that's manageable it's just don't

[01:10:37] expect me to sit down and watch it all at one time i just don't have the time so i feel like i

[01:10:42] watched the final season of family matters on tiktok recently because my feet is just like

[01:10:50] snippets of it like i know that eddie went to the police academy and steve and laura got

[01:10:55] together and and steve went into space like i don't remember watching this growing up but now it makes

[01:11:05] that's great like all of my all of my social media feeds are like there's some folks that i follow

[01:11:10] on there there are people i know and then there's just like cute animals everywhere

[01:11:15] and and very funny videos very funny things and cute animals that's like

[01:11:19] you know a lot of people talk about like oh i have to use social media is so terrible for you

[01:11:23] not mine mine is like all in dolphins i love it it's great curated yes it's very curated but yeah so

[01:11:31] yeah um you mentioned it earlier but chalk in the forever man that's such a weird title that you know

[01:11:37] that was on the sega genesis chalk in the forever man oh yes yes yes uh so remember that is that

[01:11:44] one ended up having like a remake on i think the ps2 or something but it looked terrible so i never

[01:11:49] played it uh so there's that but the sega genesis game for that it was based on an indie comic series

[01:11:57] by robert a kraus and like those books are out of print you can't get them um i don't believe you

[01:12:05] can get them digitally any at this point or anything like that but they were all published

[01:12:08] in like 1990 and they're abouts and like the fans of that it's like a super cult following

[01:12:15] and fans of that are just like oh oh is there gonna be a movie is there gonna be a movie let's

[01:12:19] have another remake you know this kind of thing um the story of that game is basically that this guy

[01:12:26] was a swordsman and he was such a good swordsman that he was full hearty enough to challenge death

[01:12:32] and said even death will fall to my swords and so death comes to him and says oh yes well

[01:12:38] then let's have a fight and if you win then you can live forever and if i win then i get your

[01:12:43] soul you know uh and that kind of thing and then chocken wins but the like forever life that he has

[01:12:50] is like oh yeah all of your body is now decayed and looks like a zombie and you cannot die and the

[01:12:56] only time that you can die is if you happen to kill all of the supernatural evil in the world

[01:13:02] so then the game is the quest yeah so it's like kind of a highlander but like

[01:13:09] you look like a zombie pilgrim because of his hat and like he's got two swords and i will say like the

[01:13:15] way the game plays it's hard as hell but like you can point your swords in every direction and

[01:13:20] something that i really appreciate about this game is the fact that like if you hold your sword out

[01:13:25] and an enemy runs into it it's their fault they die it's great i'm like i'm i'm so here for this

[01:13:32] you know and uh it's got some really neat art it does i'm looking at it right now and it looks

[01:13:41] pretty cool um you know it the premise of it even though it's way different kind of reminds me of

[01:13:49] berserk you know this dude that's just out in the world just killing demons and it looks fun

[01:13:57] it definitely looks fun i watched a video on continue they were playing this game

[01:14:03] and oh he has like a hammer and a sickle and stuff yeah you you get those as you go through all the

[01:14:09] different areas fighting against so basically how it how it is is that you have like a hub

[01:14:15] where uh there's like this big chakro wheel thing and you go like you have a bunch of

[01:14:22] different doors that those little spokes of the wheel correlate to and you can go to those

[01:14:27] different doors which lead to different areas with a different boss character at the end of them

[01:14:32] so you go into one of these areas and on the first level of each of these areas you end up

[01:14:37] getting a new weapon so you go through the first level of every one of these and you get all

[01:14:41] these different weapons you can switch between and as you like it once you're done with that

[01:14:47] it like spits you back out to you know the main hub again after you finish each of these levels

[01:14:52] and then like you can go back through the same door to do level two level three or whatever until

[01:14:58] you get to the boss character for that area and like you can check your progress by going back

[01:15:04] to that little chakra wheel because there's like little blips little purple blips that show

[01:15:09] like the fill up as you go until you read you know totally fill that spoke to where you

[01:15:14] can get to that part and find that boss or whatever so so yeah but it's also really kind of neat because

[01:15:22] you start out with like this spin attack too like when you're in the air you can double jump and then

[01:15:26] if you hit the attack button like you end up doing like all your swords come sticking out of your

[01:15:31] little ball self and like you can just murder aid everything it's very cool between that and

[01:15:36] the fact that you can point your blades anywhere and stuff can just run into it like

[01:15:40] that's great that was actually extremely rare at that time you know so it's like a sonics uh

[01:15:49] not the spin dash like this humming attack but yeah yeah sort of it's like a zero spin attack

[01:15:57] yeah yeah it's sort of like a sonic situation so that's pretty cool I added it to the list

[01:16:03] i'm definitely going to get that on the steam deck too yeah well it's a very cool and interesting

[01:16:09] game for sure yeah it does look pretty cool and you know the the first game I ever played with sonic

[01:16:15] 2 and I never had a genesis until now that I got one recently uh-huh and I only have like sonic 2

[01:16:24] sonic spin ball and something else I don't remember what else I have um and I've always

[01:16:31] wanted to get into it I even thought about starting Sega collecting but since I have the

[01:16:35] steam deck I'm just going to start just downloading ROMs and trying them all out because I'm pretty sure

[01:16:40] I'm going to find something really awesome if I keep looking I will tell you play NBA Jam

[01:16:46] I don't even play sports games but I love NBA Jam oh yeah oh yeah yeah I played the the

[01:16:51] super nintendo version and it's a lot of fun yeah yeah absolutely like again like the the fact that

[01:16:59] I mainly play one thing doesn't mean that I definitely don't have the odd balls from different

[01:17:04] genres sticking out in there that I played as well but yeah it's kind of funny because when

[01:17:09] I was making my list I was thinking about I'm like you know what even though I'm a big horror

[01:17:13] horror game person now like I played some Silent Hill back when that game had just for

[01:17:19] you know first come out I never played Resident Evil until four and then I played four and then

[01:17:24] I played all the rest of them going back and then I went forward from there so um you know

[01:17:29] and I went back and I retro-gamed you know other stuff that I was missing but you know I didn't play

[01:17:34] it when it first came out because I wasn't into horror games at that time so I kind of had the

[01:17:39] same the same uh what's uh story with with Resident Evil I had a neighbor that had four he

[01:17:48] came over we played it fell in love with it beat it a bunch of times and then I'm like oh

[01:17:54] all of these other games are on Gamecube let me try them all and played them and I didn't

[01:17:59] beat any of them didn't get too far into any of them well the uh-huh yeah no no no that was it

[01:18:07] the funny thing about how I started playing Resident Evil and I also have a similar story

[01:18:11] about how I started playing Metal Gear games I'll get to that in a second so uh when I first

[01:18:16] was playing Resident Evil 4 it was my boyfriend who was playing it and I was just watching him

[01:18:21] and then when he got up to go to the bathroom or go do something like I went and I took his

[01:18:26] controller when it was at a quiet point and he happened to be next to the water and so I was

[01:18:30] sniping fish and that was my thing and I fill up his entire case with fish you know so he had

[01:18:37] fish you know I thought you were gonna go like I started shooting the water and then the giant

[01:18:43] fish came out and ate me because that's no no no no but uh so so I did that and then also

[01:18:49] like he kept on having trouble with some of the QTEs and so when he was getting super pissed at

[01:18:55] this game but I wanted to see the next part and I was getting mad that he wasn't getting fast I'm

[01:19:00] like give me the controller let me try and so I did and I passed it the first time I played it

[01:19:04] and handed it back to him like okay here now go back to doing the thing you know play for me

[01:19:10] little child anyway so so I watched him play the entire thing before I ever played it and

[01:19:18] you know so I was playing it after having knowledge of the entire game for the first

[01:19:21] time and that's the same thing that happened with Metal Gear 3 so my first introduction to Metal Gear

[01:19:26] Solid games was three and I was watching him play it and when he went away for some reason

[01:19:32] and left the controller I picked it up and I started crawling through the grass and again

[01:19:36] collecting stuff for him to eat and playing with the camo and things like that and having fun

[01:19:42] and then he came back and I was like okay here's the controller back you know but

[01:19:45] I was messing with it when he was away and then eventually after having seen him play

[01:19:49] the whole game then I would pick it up and play the rest of them but then of course from there I was

[01:19:54] because I am the way I am I was like okay let's go back and do all the original games I want to see

[01:19:59] all of them now you know all of the original Resident Evil and let's let's play all of those

[01:20:04] and let's play all the the Metal Gears all the way through and so to this day that is a

[01:20:09] tendency that still exists because here I am playing total IPs for my show like that's just one

[01:20:15] no I got to do the whole IP and I got to look at the tie-in novels and the comics and

[01:20:20] whatever else came out yeah I get that I sometimes I get like that sometimes I'm

[01:20:28] when I played the first Shantae game I had to hold myself back from playing all of them because

[01:20:33] it was like episode three that we did and I was like I don't want to bombard the listeners

[01:20:40] that we don't have with just Shantae so I played like the second one last year after having been

[01:20:46] doing the podcast for like two or three years but it's so interesting that you like play like

[01:20:54] a middle game and then you're like all right let's go explore everything before it yeah and then

[01:20:59] you enjoy everything before it too because I was listening to Dave Jackson's Metal Gear Solid

[01:21:06] two episode that came out this week as of recording me too I was listening to it earlier

[01:21:13] that episode was fantastic it was so good Kate Kate is such an interesting fellow

[01:21:19] but like him saying oh if you I want people to start with one because if you start with this

[01:21:26] this one and you go back to one then you know you're not going to get the same thing

[01:21:30] but I feel like it depends on the person because I think I saw my cousin playing two

[01:21:38] and then another one had one and I played one with him and I still had a great time and

[01:21:44] my favorite Metal Gear is Twin Snakes which is a remake of one even though it still has all

[01:21:50] the shortcomings from the original yeah yeah well and what's funny too is that there are some

[01:21:57] series that I haven't been like oh I gotta play every single thing in the series like I played

[01:22:00] Persona 4 Golden enjoy that game it was kind of like a love hate thing because I had been out

[01:22:06] of playing RPGs like Long J RPG style RPGs for a very long time and so when I hit like 95 hours on

[01:22:13] that game I'm like I was so exhausted but it built up my tolerance for RPGs again and so now

[01:22:19] I'm playing all these really long games again you know um but I liked that game a lot and then

[01:22:27] I did not go back in retro game all of Persona I actually ended up did like doing a weird thing

[01:22:32] and then I got Shin Megami Tensei 4 and played that instead and then played all of that you know

[01:22:38] and um I beat it you have more patience than I do because I got steamrolled by the first

[01:22:46] boss and I was like nope not for me sitting on the shelf somewhere here I haven't played anymore of the

[01:22:52] that well no I say I say I haven't played anymore I did not retro game any of the Shin Megami Tensei

[01:22:57] games either I played like about half of five and then I just got bored and stopped like I don't

[01:23:03] know I just I just got bored in the middle of it and was like it might be just because I um

[01:23:09] I got my fix you know like I got my fix of uh ramping up my demons and doing all this

[01:23:14] other stuff and then I was just like eh I'm okay because like Shin Megami Tensei stories are not as

[01:23:20] gripping to me it's like you know the Persona stories usually and I played Five Royal

[01:23:27] a little bit a little bit I do not like it I do not like it and that makes everybody mad

[01:23:35] but I don't like Persona 5 I'm just like I think it's because like the we're the age I'm at right

[01:23:41] now I'm so sick of high school I'm sick of high school I don't want to play high school anymore I

[01:23:46] I've got through like the whole first dungeon and I'm like I'm and then people are like oh but it gets

[01:23:50] better later it's like I don't want to wait another 20 hours for it to get better and yeah

[01:23:56] that's the thing you have to make a 20 hour commitment for it to get better and if in

[01:24:02] 20 hours you can play a couple of games right not just like beginning of one and with all

[01:24:08] the indies that I play that are like one to three hours I can play so many games right so

[01:24:15] yeah from what I understand from what some of the discord members had over our discord

[01:24:23] the Shin Megami Tensei games are just RPGs they're not no barely any story if any no there's

[01:24:30] not really any story it's just cut your teeth on on RPG gameplay and I bought five when it came

[01:24:39] on I was super excited to play it and when I started hearing that I was like I'm not going to play

[01:24:43] this game so it's on the shelf yeah well again it's like that's why I said I got bored of it

[01:24:49] because like there's not a whole lot of story light you know there's not a whole lot of story

[01:24:53] going on you just have to like the stuff that you're looking at and you like you have

[01:24:57] to like mashing demons together to make other things and if you don't like the mechanical

[01:25:02] part of it and you don't like the repetition of what it's doing or if you've had enough of it

[01:25:07] like I did you know then you're you're kind of done and you're like okay I can I can put it up now

[01:25:12] and you know I'll get back to it sometime right maybe right have you ever played Persona 3

[01:25:20] look no I have not but they're remaking it so maybe there's a chance I'll play the remake

[01:25:25] I came out and oh yeah Persona 3 is my favorite Persona game as many times as I've beaten Persona 5

[01:25:34] which has been twice regular and royal with more than 100 hours on each gameplay a great

[01:25:40] playthrough Persona 3 is still my favorite probably because I'm secretly an edge lord

[01:25:48] to summon your persona you have to blow your brains out

[01:25:50] but I the story is is great the ending is it's it's perfect the ending is it's perfection

[01:26:02] it's a very sad ending it's super super sad it's great and and you know it's a dungeon explorer

[01:26:11] it's it's a you know randomly generated dungeons you explore them fight a monster wait for it's

[01:26:16] super bad to come out during the full moon and just rinse and repeat and the characters are

[01:26:21] entertaining and interesting it it's it has a very adult story when you compare it to five

[01:26:28] and a little bit of four the story is way more adult it's it's darker it deals with a lot of

[01:26:35] stuff that's just heavy I think that because I'm an edge lord I that's why I like it so much

[01:26:43] well I I definitely like a lot of dark media and things that trade in and dark subject matter so

[01:26:49] that might actually be a good pitch for me I was thinking about it and I think the reason why four

[01:26:56] was kind of my jam is because it's kind of like a scooby-doo mystery I mean yes more or less

[01:27:02] what it is I mean there's a lot of other trappings and things to do right but like

[01:27:06] it's at heart just a scooby-doo mystery you know and so that's that's I like my mystery stuff

[01:27:13] and you know so I dug that game and I think that's why yeah you know I think that the only way to

[01:27:21] make it more scooby-doo like is to put ghost in the soundtrack and have it have them play square

[01:27:26] hammer because that's like such a scooby-doo chase type music that that game is great my

[01:27:34] brother-in-law is playing it right now for the first time and every time he does something

[01:27:38] that just blows his mind or something happens in the story he texts me like holy shit this

[01:27:43] happened I'm like yeah it gets better so he's expressing that I'm very happy for him that

[01:27:50] he's getting to play that right now yeah and see like I got the like the persona fighting game and

[01:27:55] I was kind of like the arena arena ultimax or whatever it's called I forget um and like

[01:28:02] I played some of that and I'm like yeah but I liked Persona 4 dancing all night I liked that one that

[01:28:08] was fun but um I thought because I like RPGs and I like fighting games this surely is going to be

[01:28:16] like a straight putt right but I just I bounced off of it I don't know if I just didn't play

[01:28:21] far enough into it but I didn't play the story on that but I did play a lot of the

[01:28:26] multiplayer but the reason that I like that is because it's excuse me arc system works who do

[01:28:33] guilty gear and I guilty gear is great I fucking love guilty gear so much guilty gear is awesome

[01:28:41] and I loved arena I just couldn't find anybody to play with so I was just either stuck playing

[01:28:46] by myself or trying to get online and people were just steamrolling me so right right

[01:28:54] it's making me want to go back to play more Street Fighter 6 it's been a minute like I got that game

[01:28:59] um for my birthday and I need to play it I need to play more of it but like you know it's just

[01:29:05] assignment played everything else and like once you start playing something like that you have to

[01:29:08] sink some time into you know really train up you know this particular game style and whatever

[01:29:16] your chosen character is of course for me that's cammy it's always cammy but um you know

[01:29:21] yeah I have a co-worker that was talking to me about Tekken 8 today and I was like

[01:29:27] fuck I really want to play it now because again I bought it and it's sitting on the shelf

[01:29:32] and he tells me oh it has a story like Mortal Kombat and I'm like why are you telling me this

[01:29:38] dude like this is just making me want to play it more and he starts talking about frames and

[01:29:44] how they changed the fighting system so that now you can punish people whenever they mess up

[01:29:50] and like dude you're gonna you're gonna start something that shouldn't start for a couple

[01:29:56] of more months right right oh I have a another weird or a couple of other weird fighting game

[01:30:03] things to mention so uh sort of fighting game things uh so Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo is

[01:30:08] one of my favorite games on the PlayStation I love that game I've always been interested in

[01:30:15] that game because I am not I'm not good at Street Fighter at all I'm awful as Street Fighter I can't

[01:30:21] figure it out for the life of me but that one seems my speed I've always been interested in it

[01:30:25] it's a puzzle game it's super fun there's like secret characters you can you can unlock and

[01:30:30] play as they're very good it's it's one of my favorite games so yes love it so is it like

[01:30:36] uh Tetris attack but with a health bar um it's basically um you have these gems that you

[01:30:46] have to color coordinate you know all the colors together and like you can build larger and larger

[01:30:52] gems and then you can crash those gems which then punish your opponent with a whole bunch of

[01:30:59] dropped number blocks that take a certain number of additional drops before they will transfer

[01:31:05] into gem colors that you know the other person can use and each character has a different drop

[01:31:11] pattern so depending upon what character you're playing they they drop different types of things

[01:31:16] and um of course the point is to fill up the other person's screen so that way they don't have

[01:31:21] any room left to put any more blocks and then but you can also chain stuff so like if you have

[01:31:27] a lot of blocks on your side if you arrange it just so and build up big enough blocks you

[01:31:32] can do like a combo where one color of gems like red gems crash and then like a thing drops to

[01:31:39] crash all the blue ones next and then if you do like multiple like that you can just totally

[01:31:44] you know tko your your opponent and so like they're stretched into it but it's also kind of randomized

[01:31:50] because you don't know what the drops are going to be or any of that and then again uh the

[01:31:54] different characters have different drop patterns so you have to um either be familiar with what

[01:31:59] those drop patterns are or learn them real quick when you start playing against the computer or

[01:32:03] your opponent. I see what was that one on? That was PlayStation 1. Okay i'm adding that one because

[01:32:14] I forgot that that was a thing and I've always been interested in it. It's super fun. Also

[01:32:20] fighter yeah for sure because that I think that's one of those games that that my wife

[01:32:26] would play because she loves uh puio puio oh yeah and so sometimes we we said and play puio

[01:32:32] puio until she gets a headache and then we stop well there's that and then another one that I played

[01:32:38] on PlayStation 1 was uh air giz and god bless the ring which had like the the you know final fantasy

[01:32:43] characters and all the other characters all fighting together and so you know like I played

[01:32:48] that one and that's I don't think it's very good but it was fun to play the characters so

[01:32:53] right I had a buddy that had it and we only did like sack at not sack why do I go to sack cloud

[01:33:02] versus uh Sephiroth the entire time because it was the only thing that we wanted it for

[01:33:08] uh huh right well you know what's weird about final fantasy seven is so so um my first final

[01:33:13] fantasy was I think final fantasy three slash six and then I played final fantasy five and

[01:33:18] then skip some time until I got final fantasy seven on my PC I didn't even have it on the actual

[01:33:26] console wow and on PC and here's another one of those tragedy stories that I have for you

[01:33:33] so this is back like you know when when you had lots of blue screen of death happen and things

[01:33:38] like that your computer would crash so um the computer had crashed and wiped my save data and I

[01:33:44] was so heartbroken I didn't go back to play it when I had it on PC I had to go back and play it like

[01:33:49] retro game it way later because I couldn't even go back like bring myself to go back to it I was so

[01:33:54] sad oh that hurts that hurts so much yeah yeah so like but I so I was playing like air dice but

[01:34:01] like I was playing it and I was also like sitting here crying little tears of BSOD you know the

[01:34:08] blue screen of death ate my characters I have no idea what happened in that game and I'm never

[01:34:12] going back to it because my computer died you know this whole thing oh it's awful so bad um I don't

[01:34:22] know why it went sack sack is my favorite right he is he's such a good character um I don't know

[01:34:32] where I was going with that but I still have to finish playing crisis core I started it I don't

[01:34:37] know I didn't get it oh I I wish they would have taken themselves more serious with the voice

[01:34:44] recording and the dialogue in crisis core because there are some moments that are heavy and if they

[01:34:53] would have played more seriously into them I feel like that game would have been bigger than it

[01:34:59] way bigger than it is because it has that hokey uh I think it's Nomura kind of

[01:35:06] dial kingdom heartsy dialogue and it just kind of doesn't fit but I replayed that last year and

[01:35:15] it was fantastic I gotta get back to it it's on the list with so many other things

[01:35:23] things I have to get back to that was what I think I pre-ordered too but at least I played

[01:35:27] a little of it before it got shelved you remember what part you left off on no I have no idea I'd

[01:35:34] have to like boot it up and look at it it's it's been several several other games since then

[01:35:40] so I mean it it's a it's a pretty short game I think I kicked it in like four nights like

[01:35:45] giving it like maybe four hours each night so it's super short super doable it's so good

[01:35:51] sack is such a good boy

[01:35:57] at least you're not a cloud fan I'm not really a cloud fan everybody else like seems to love

[01:36:01] cloud and I just I can't I just he's never appealed to me I don't know can't tell you

[01:36:06] I'm glad they're giving him a personality in remake but I don't know how far that's gonna go

[01:36:12] I haven't played it yet because like um it came out on steam only because like I didn't have the

[01:36:17] console and so like it came out on steam but then I didn't have like my computer got borked and so

[01:36:24] like I had to wait until I had a steam deck and then now I have a steam deck and I have bought the

[01:36:28] game guess what's sitting in the backlog final fantasy seven remake yeah because other stuff

[01:36:34] has been you know coming up since so like I'll play it eventually I wasn't a big fan of seven

[01:36:43] growing up I think I've recently become somewhat of a fan of it um and I think what they're doing with

[01:36:51] remake is great it's yeah it's going to be a really really good remake regardless of what the fans of

[01:37:01] the original say because I really like what happened at the end of that game it's and then

[01:37:08] the dlc it's it's eufy the dlc and it's so good it's I feel like the dlc was better than the main

[01:37:14] campaign wow that's pretty cool so like my my final fantasy that I played a whole whole hell of a

[01:37:24] lot of was final fantasy 10 so that's what I played a lot of yeah that's one that I

[01:37:33] I need to re I need to play what a fresh mind because the few times that I've tried to play it

[01:37:42] the first time I hated it I hated the characters hated what was going on in the story and whatever

[01:37:48] and then the second time I started liking it but then I got to the first fight with Seymour

[01:37:53] and I dropped it yes I could not beat him so I want to play it and actually give it a fair shot

[01:38:02] because well I I will say that some yeah I will say that from what I've seen uh and heard the remaster

[01:38:10] of it is like bad in so far as the graphics and stuff go like they do some stuff with the

[01:38:16] graphics that make it look really nasty and yuck like the way that they try to spruce it up

[01:38:21] and so I would say like go look on the internet about that and then make your decision about

[01:38:27] which version to play after you look at that so I know that they released seven my dog just barked

[01:38:35] and I heard her over my headphones she must be mad um I I know that seven eight and nine have

[01:38:43] switch versions with like nine nine nine nine damage and infinite health infinite magic

[01:38:50] sped up battles so if there's a version like that for ten

[01:38:55] that's the version I'm gonna want to play because I at this point I have played with

[01:39:01] the combat system and I like what they did but I don't want to put the time into restarting

[01:39:08] over again I just want to go through the story and see what it's like oh yeah yeah for sure for sure

[01:39:15] yeah I know like that's why I'm like well you know like you know just just look into it and

[01:39:21] and see what what's on offer and and what the comparison looks like and you know if nothing

[01:39:26] else you can always go look at the cut scenes like the original cut scenes on youtube or something

[01:39:31] if it you know is ugly looking right I showed my wife the the laughing scene and and she just had like

[01:39:40] a face of disgust and she's like what the fuck am I looking at like right so I have another weird

[01:39:48] story I have a I have a weird story about Final Fantasy that ties into music stuff so yes go

[01:39:53] which ties into something we talked about earlier so when I was looking at the

[01:40:01] like animation and stuff on youtube about Final Fantasy Durg of Kerberus which is

[01:40:06] but like I was watching the opening and it has like the music and stuff I really liked the theme

[01:40:12] that was playing and I was like oh this is a baller theme who is the singer for this

[01:40:16] and it was gacked and that's how I got into J-rock I found out and then I found out oh well

[01:40:22] this this character in the game is voiced by Gakt and also is the character model comes from him

[01:40:27] but then guess what Squall is also modeled on him and so is Tidus and like oh from different eras of

[01:40:33] his career because the people who made Final Fantasy are big gacked fanboys oh well that's

[01:40:39] interesting so that's how I got into J-rock and I was a major J-rock fan for a long time and I

[01:40:45] even went to Japan to go to J-rock concerts including a gacked concert at some point in my

[01:40:50] life and there's so much more wait a minute it gets better so then like you know how you were

[01:40:55] talking about the game that was there for your for you during a breakup well a gacked album was there

[01:41:00] for me during a breakup and so that came to me via Durg of Kerberus of all things and then

[01:41:05] and then I met my husband Dave because he was going to the gym and he was posting on Twitter

[01:41:11] he and I like followed each other but didn't really talk a whole lot and because we're

[01:41:15] like in podcasting circles and he posted like you know Let Us Lift and then he posted his soundtrack

[01:41:21] for that day at the gym and it happened to be gacked and so I replied to him I think I love you

[01:41:26] and so he just took it and stride and then he was like oh let me show you my like indie chops

[01:41:31] you know like indie chops and how much I know about this by telling you all about oh yeah well

[01:41:36] I liked this album and this is my favorite song and this is from his indie days and I was like

[01:41:41] okay Mr you know then I was like feel like was like you know he doesn't really know me maybe I

[01:41:47] should just like see if I actually like it like you know I just just told every god and everybody

[01:41:53] that I love him maybe I should just talk to him and see how he's like as a person you know

[01:41:58] and then like we never stopped talking to each other and then we eventually got married so

[01:42:02] you know all because of Durg of Kerberus

[01:42:05] he can blame Gack for that one so that you guys walked down the aisle to Gack

[01:42:12] no no we did not actually uh so so uh we didn't have like a big wedding we just got like a

[01:42:17] handful of friends together we even got um Monster Deer monster co-host because Dave

[01:42:22] uh is the the primary host of that show uh his co-host on there friend of ours Leonard

[01:42:27] got him to become ordained so he could become the person to marry us and then um the song that

[01:42:35] we had playing was by Jack Lionheart or Jake Lionheart who is the guy who does the theme for

[01:42:41] my show and the theme for Dave's show who is a very cool nerd rap guy and musician generally so um

[01:42:49] that's that's what we listen to but again all this whole rabbit hole this whole wild rabbit

[01:42:56] hole about Jala's adventures overseas where I almost got stolen by a Gack to look alike at the Gack

[01:43:01] concert that's a fun story uh and then like you know met my eventual spouse it all comes from

[01:43:07] watching the opening to Durg of Kerberus

[01:43:13] at least something good came out of that game right right so oh that's so awesome that's so

[01:43:20] cool I have lots of stories too many stories this has been a long episode for you you were so tired

[01:43:26] right you know I am but I am having an amazing time but why don't we call it here and then I

[01:43:36] I'm gonna have to bring both you and Dave together because I have had a blast and I'm pretty sure

[01:43:43] that you guys are gonna have amazing stories together it's gonna be so much fun it will

[01:43:47] be very good I I already know that for a fact Dave is a very good guy so yeah I I am excited to

[01:43:54] record with him on Sunday I I am like I told you off Mike little bit he told me over Twitter DMs I

[01:44:04] completely mind blown and now I can't wait to see what else he tells me on Sunday so it's gonna

[01:44:09] that's how it was when I first started talking to him because I started talking to him and I'm

[01:44:13] like you know he's chatting with me he's telling me all these different things he's telling me about

[01:44:18] his interests you know and then like when we were trying to co-op a game together to get to know

[01:44:22] each other and we're sitting on the thing and then he's like reading the Japanese I'm like you

[01:44:26] know Japanese too what and then just you know everything is just one thing after another

[01:44:32] and I'm like Dave how are you single justify to me

[01:44:38] so that's awesome yep all right so uh do you want to go ahead and tell everybody where to find you

[01:44:46] again in case somebody didn't catch it quite right the first time oh sure so everywhere on the internet

[01:44:52] that I may be found you may find me at Jollichon and you can find my podcast at Jollichon.place

[01:44:59] and also at thelevelpodcast.com all right so I'm gonna go ahead and post all of that stuff on the

[01:45:06] show notes so all you people have to do is just click it and it'll take you straight there to listen

[01:45:12] to everything from video games to self-help from from Jolli and again please send me that

[01:45:20] get rid of Capitalism episode because I want to oh yes yes we'll do and we haven't

[01:45:25] follow-up episode about burnout coming out sometime this year nice nice I'm definitely

[01:45:31] gonna need that especially this week hopefully I'm as tired as I am this week then no not hopefully

[01:45:40] you know I only say that because job security but oh yeah gotcha

[01:45:46] so all right uh that's it for this week's episode of a novel console uh everybody go listen to

[01:45:52] Jollichon follow her on every platform and do you want to say goodbye to everybody Jolla

[01:45:58] bye

[01:46:22] you