Split Fiction | Postgame Show

[00:00:00] Hey, it's your boy Dre off the top here. So, usually postgame shows don't worry about spoilers, but here's what we're going to do this time. We will not spoil any story or plot elements, okay? But there will be quite a few scenario spoilers, as in the kinds of things you do in the game, the visuals you might see, up to and including the final level.

[00:00:23] Okay? But we will not give you any context as to why those things are happening, or at least as little context as possible, because obviously it's somewhat unavoidable when talking about a game like this. So, we thought we'd warn you about that up front, but just know that, in our opinion, Split Fiction cannot be ruined by anything we say here today, because nothing can actually take away the thrill of playing this incredible game for yourself. Or at least we think so.

[00:00:52] Anyway, thanks for being here, and we will get started right now.

[00:01:14] Hello, party people. Hello, split people. Hello, fictional people. And real people. It's your boy Dre, and I am here with the one and only Vin. I'd like to announce that I'm splitting from streaming right this second to go work on my Fine Time fanfic. What? What is it called? Uh, it's called, uh, Oops All Triangles.

[00:01:41] I don't think that's a world anyone wants to be in. I mean, maybe I would, but I mean, I think that only appeals to me. I'm sure there's someone in the audience that would love that. Somebody might. All right. So, as we said up top, and as the name of this podcast implies, we are here to talk about Split Fiction, baby. Um, I almost can't believe we're here, because I kind of picked this game up on a whim.

[00:02:08] Because I watched a little bit of the Digital Foundry on it, and it looked cool, right? And it's like, oh, hey, it's only 50 bucks. That's also cool. And then I discovered both players don't actually have to buy the game. Only one person has to buy the game, and then the other person downloads the guest version of the game, and you can invite them from there. Cross-platform, too. I mean, we both played on PS5, but it works that way as well. So I proposed this idea to Vin, and he quickly agreed, and we played the Split Fiction game.

[00:02:38] You still owe me $25. Well, you're not getting that $25. I don't want any fucking money. I don't want any fucking money. The friend pass is such an ingenious idea, but even from the initial reveal during the Game Awards last year, I always thought the idea was immediately satisfying. Juxtaposing sci-fi and fantasy was wild, right? And I always was curious about Hazelight's reputation, given the context of It Takes Two being so widely respected,

[00:03:07] except by you, because I review all the time for your peanut gallery take regarding your Game Awards episode, of which you said It Takes Two was an objectively wrong pick for the 2021 Game of the Year. Okay, okay, okay. First of all, you're not supposed to listen to Fine Time that closely. Secondly, I still stand by that. Thirdly, I don't want the blame put on me solely. Trey was on that episode as well. We both said the same thing.

[00:03:36] Okay, so that's our bad take that we're owning together. If indeed it's a bad take, which it is not. It takes two to have a bad take. That's a, yes, I, that's all, yes, you got me. You absolutely got me. Anyway, in case you don't know what Split Fiction is, it's an action game that is two player only.

[00:04:02] That's why this guest version of the game is needed to play with someone else online. You cannot play this by yourself. You must play it with another person, local or online. And as the name implies, it's played mostly split screen, and it's very, very cooperative. So don't get any funny ideas of you controlling both, you know, two dual senses or something like that. Or keyboard and then one with the controller on your PC. It's just not going to work. Okay? You need two people.

[00:04:32] I think it's physically impossible unless you're Masahiro Sakurai with your two pro controllers or whatever. Dude, he's a nut. He did that shit so effortlessly, too, in those directs. It's like, bro, what is, I know he's so used to it, doing it over the years, shit, one-handed. Oh, I need to move this character a little bit. Like, I get it, but man, what an unintended flex, huh? He's not a mortal man, so don't aspire to be like him. Oh, he is not, he is not a human being.

[00:05:01] He is not a regular human being. Nope. Then, simply put, I know this is going to sound like hyperbole. I know this is going to sound like Prisoner of the Moment. I don't care. I think Split Fiction is one of the best games I have ever played. Ever. Like, this is a top-to-bottom masterclass in execution and ingenuity.

[00:05:28] I, that's truly how I feel about it. I feel the same way, and I was blown away by the sheer amount of creativity. And this game really proves there's just so much potential in video games. Like, there's so much that you can do. And as I always say, you can always tell when someone's having fun making something because that joy is coming through to us. Right? There's an extremely clear vision that they realize.

[00:05:54] And I guess that Joseph Ferris guy isn't all talk after all, huh? I mean, like, I've always liked that when he gets on the Game Awards and says, fuck, fuck you and fuck everybody. Or he drops all the fucks, right? I do like- Fuck the Oscars. Yeah. Oh, by the way, I liked how this last Game Awards, where he gets up there and says, like, fuck you guy, or whatever he said. And then, like, Randy Pitchford gets on there and is afraid to say, fuck? Oh, yeah! Because he said, like, you mother flipping something or else. I'm like, bro, we just- What's wrong with you?

[00:06:24] I promise your mom won't get mad if you say fuck. Like- I'm pretty sure Borderlands says fuck, but maybe that's just me. I mean, whatever, dude. Jesus. Anyway, I want to lay out the premise of split fiction for the people. Because I think in this case, it's actually important. And this isn't usually something I do on post-game shows. But this time, I think you need to know why things are happening so we can talk about the rest of the game. So let's do that right now, shall we?

[00:06:55] So there's a book publishing company called Raider. And six people are going up there to present their book idea to this publisher, Raider. But really, we're just concerned with two of those people, Mio and Zoe. And they take the elevator up this big publishing building. They get to the meeting room. And they soon realize that they're not going to actually tell the publisher their book ideas.

[00:07:18] But they're going to be putting on this cyber suit and getting in this cyber pod that connects to this big machine. And then that extracts the ideas from their head. But yeah, so this is a wholly ridiculous idea, right? Because I don't think anyone did any research into this company beforehand. And you can't have this reaction after you put on the cyber suit. Why would you do that first and then wonder what's happening? It doesn't make any sense.

[00:07:46] Yeah, you can't take off all your clothes and put on the cyber suit and then be like, yo, I don't want to do this. Which is exactly what happened. Because I paused the game before this. I was like, wait a second. Why did she agree to this? In the first place, I would have never gotten this far. Fuck this. I'm out of here. But anyway, that's what happens. The other five people get in the pods, including Zoe. Mio is the last one to get in the pod, except she doesn't. She's trying to back out.

[00:08:16] They're physically forcing her to try to get in her pod and stand in place and get in it. And she's not doing that. Struggle ensues. She falls into Zoe's pod. Two girls, one pod. Oh, baby. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, Shaggy. So of course, this manifests itself by Mio all of a sudden appearing in Zoe's high fantasy world. And she's like, what the fuck are you doing in my story? Rightfully so.

[00:08:43] And Mio explains what happens in the real world and Zoe's like, oh, shit. But Mio is a sci-fi writer. She does these big dystopian worlds that are dark and cybery and violent. And so we find this out very soon because through circumstances that I can't explain because spoilers, they both quickly end up in one of Mio's sci-fi worlds. And that's the game. You travel through and play out the stories of Mio's sci-fi and Zoe's fantasy worlds and hijinks ensue.

[00:09:13] And, of course, since they're very different writers, that means they're also very different people. And they don't like being in each other's stories, which leads to some fun tension and humor and all that stuff. So that's the premise of split fiction. It's a lot of shenanigans for sure. Yeah, and I think that was just important to know going forward just because all the gameplay is defined by that premise. Yep.

[00:09:37] Would you describe split fiction as an arcade-y 3D platformer? Or, like, I guess if you had to describe it as one thing. You know, see, that's the simplest term. But I don't know if that is necessarily fair to the game because to some degree you could also quantify it as a co-op puzzle platformer. But I don't know if that's necessarily accurate either.

[00:10:06] That doesn't really explain it. I wouldn't call it a puzzle platformer. I mean, you do solve quite a few puzzles, but I don't think I would say that. Yeah, see, it's hard, right? Because arcade-y does convey a lot of the movement thereof, but I just think it's more than that. It kind of transcends that, so I don't really know. It really does transcend that because, like, in my opinion, more than being defined by, like, a strict genre,

[00:10:32] split fiction is really defined to me anyway by it being really focused and deliberate move-forward gameplay, I like to say. Move-forward, meaning, like, there's no exploring, there's no secrets, there's no power-ups, no equipment, no skill trees. There's no UI. There's no collectibles or stupid doodads, right? And that's the thing – and the reason why I say that is because when I say 3D platformer, I know a lot of people are going to think, like, Banjo-Kazooie or something.

[00:11:02] I don't want people to think that. This isn't that kind of game. No, it's not. Yeah, but it's so seamless that you don't even think about this stuff as you're playing it. That's the craziest part. I didn't think about the fact that there was no UI until we were almost done. I swear to God. Yeah? Because how do you have a UI in this case? You can't. It's something you can't do with a game like this. So – I need my rotating jigglies or whatever they're called. Jiggly – I think jiggies. Jiggies, jiggies. I think they're called jiggies.

[00:11:32] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now they're called jigglies. Jigglies. I'm going to call them jigglies to piss off people who like that game because they deserve it. You're welcome. So the level of polish in this game is insane. Like, I know sarcastically people are like, whenever a game comes out and it actually works and people are like, wow, my PS5 didn't crash a single time. Which is apparently what passes are polished these days.

[00:11:56] But split fiction is actually on this god tier level of like level design clarity and visual communication, I would say, and play control. Like, some people consider Astro Bot to be Nintendo-like in terms of its polish. Kevin included, like when we talked about that game.

[00:12:20] And while I'll stop short of saying that about Astro Bot, I will say that about split fiction. It actually is that polished and that considered and it has the ingenuity to back it up. And it's so remarkable how it functions so well, right? I never felt like any deaths were the game's fault. We never really hit any game-stopping glitches or bugs that required like restart from a checkpoint.

[00:12:45] Like, maybe once you got stuck on some collision, but it was so specific that like, I don't know if we could really count that. It was super brief too. I had to reload a checkpoint one because remember one time, because I remember I jumped behind a mushroom or something that I wasn't supposed to and I couldn't like, I was like free falling forever. That's like one thing. That was, yeah. And for launch stage, this is remarkably stable. And like, it's, I'm extremely impressed just by the amount of care put into it. Yeah.

[00:13:12] We were amazed at every turn, you know? Yeah. That you have unlimited lives, infinite response and having no real fear of death because there's no punishment for dying is something I usually criticize in video games for reasons that I can't get into.

[00:13:35] Otherwise, this episode will be like two hours, but split fiction makes it work because you have to do things for each other. You want to do well because someone else is relying on you. And if you play sloppy, that can get them killed as well, as well as yourself. So it solves the infinite lives problem we have nowadays in a way that was probably unintentional or maybe it was intentional.

[00:13:59] I don't know, but you know me, this is something I criticize pretty widely and split fiction manages to make it work because of the co-op. I also feel like the respawn points were more than fair. Like I wouldn't say we were ever really annoyed at having to replay anything, but you still have to really be aware of what you're doing in order to make progress. Like the game doesn't play itself. So like you sometimes have to really be just situationally aware, right? That's like the most important part.

[00:14:27] Because again, not just situationally aware of your space, but your co-op person space as well. Your partner space. I don't know why I couldn't think of the word partner. Your co-op person. You are now my co-op person? Yes, you're my co-op person. I'm your benefactor who lets you play a free game.

[00:14:52] So I talk a lot about how shitty AAA games are at what I call button economy because video games are impenetrable to a lot of people nowadays because of how many buttons you need to press sometimes to do really simple shit. But I truly believe that's the case. And look, I get it.

[00:15:13] Games have become more complicated and the controllers need to become more complicated also, which is why I hate when dumbasses are like back in my day, we just had a D pad and two buttons because like, yeah, bro, that's all you needed to control Qbert or whatever. You dumb shit. Anyway, but just because the controller has become more complicated doesn't mean controlling the game needs to be complicated, too.

[00:15:38] That can still be a really simple, really breezy thing if you want it to be. And split fiction proves that. It absolutely does. Every prompt is intuitive and snappy. Every button is tied to a deliberate function, right? But it never overwhelms you with functions. And the big thing is that like each of these worlds has like a really understandable internal logic. So you're not like you're going to get mixed up at any given point, right?

[00:16:05] Or your muscle memory is not going to be thrown off because the world is kind of feed into a very like concrete understanding of what is happening. Well, you were I remember you in particular were really impressed by like just the platforming of it all. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I'm sure there's like there's so many other examples of things just making sense, right? Regarding the platforming, I always think is really cool whenever you're interacting with things that aren't static.

[00:16:30] So as a finicky niche example, my mind always goes to like the legendary Starfee's crazy bubble platforms because that's what people think about 2025. But I guess the most- I didn't even think about that in 2009, let alone 2025. I'll tell you that much. I guess the most contemporary example has to be Mario Wonder, right? But Split Fiction has these in spades throughout the entire playthrough.

[00:16:52] The set pieces lead to things that you can react to on the fly, whether it's like ogres breaking through walls or whether it's like poles being carried around. Like these things are interactable in a really tangible way, but in a really dynamic way, too. So it's really cool. Yeah, it is cool. And they don't make you land on those poles like for this pin perfect accuracy where it's like you got to look at your little circle shadow and land on this thing. You know, like that's annoying. I don't know why I just turned it into Turok or something, but I-

[00:17:22] Yeah, that would be a much rougher game. Sure would be. It just makes the most out of like a limited set of mechanics at any given time. So like your function might like at times like break some obstacles, but it could also just interact with obstacles in other like unforeseen ways, too, that facilitate progress for yourself or for the other players. So it's just so seamless and natural.

[00:17:46] Yeah, it's really I really don't like when people call things streamlined because I usually think that's a bad thing because we're removing things that like, you know, I used to like things being streamlined isn't always good. But in this case, it is, you know, I do like that. We just have the economy of not just buttons, but also, like you said, your mechanics do several things, not just one thing. Fine time.

[00:18:27] Let's get deeper into just co-op in general and the way you cooperate with each other in this game. But I think a little backstory, little, little Dre lore is necessary real quick. Dre lore? Dre lore, because I used to hate playing co-op growing up in the 8 and 16 bit era because I never, I never thought that shit was that fun. There are some games where it works, right? Like balloon fight. Yes. Bubble bobble. Sure.

[00:18:56] Absolutely. Okay. But then like ask yourself, like in your heart of hearts, is double dragon really more fun to player or is it just an activity to do with somebody? Like, like, yeah, you enjoy that person's company and you're experiencing game together. So, okay. Like I get it. But does that make the game better? I would argue that it doesn't. I can have just as much fun by myself personally.

[00:19:24] Like Mario Kart isn't necessarily improved gameplay wise by playing with another person. It's fun, but you don't have to do that. Right? Yeah. And then there are games like Rescue Rangers or just about every 2D platform in existence where my experience is decidedly worse for having played with somebody else. Okay. So, in other words, you can't just add another person on the screen and call it fun.

[00:19:50] You know, my favorite joke is the you often dislike playing shmups in two player just from the sheer visual stimuli. You don't want to see some rando firepower just like interrupting your action or whatever because it's just a lot of like stuff happening. Or just people just moving around the screen and just jamming on the fire button the whole time just being spaz. I can't stand that shit, man. It's like, leave me alone. I want to play by myself.

[00:20:19] I don't want to play with visual access whatsoever, which is part of the charm. And I actually did have the opportunity to play a lot of 8-bit and 16-bit games with my bro growing up. And, you know, honestly, I did enjoy playing some select examples of River City Ransom to a degree, Contra 3, a funny example. I know you love Contra 3. My favorite. My favorite. My favorite. And hysterically, also even Rescue Rangers in co-op.

[00:20:44] But, you know, honestly, a lot of these three examples do support the idea of, well, experiencing a game with somebody, right? And, like, you know, there's some dynamics, but it's not necessarily, like, about, like, that co-op experience. Sometimes it's just, like, traversing things with another person. So I get it. You know, I really do get it. And maybe, like, Contra's more involved because you can each cover sides of the screen, but it might be more haphazard than deliberate. And this game's not haphazard.

[00:21:12] No, there's nothing haphazard about Split Fiction. It just kind of is. It's completely designed that way from the ground up. So it can't be haphazard, right? It's just brilliant in that way. It's really brilliant. Yeah. And it really ensures that both players do the work. Like, you can't just have someone carry the other player, like, the entire time. And it really makes absolute sure that both players understand what to do, even if you don't have access to the same mechanics. Yeah, you both got to work.

[00:21:41] Well, it's like you just said you don't have access to the same mechanics. So, like, if I could do one thing and you can't do it, I have to do that for you. And that's how the game works. Yeah, there's no carrying here at all. No. Also, and this is a personal thing, and you know this about me. The co-op thing is also about, like, relying on someone else versus, like, relying on myself. Because you know how I get sometimes, and I don't mean to be this way. You know me.

[00:22:10] But it's like sometimes, like, if we're trying to get across something and you inadvertently kill me, it's not that I get pissed off at you. It's just like that was so far out of my control. I had no choice but to die that it can't help but be a tad frustrating. Of course. Yeah, I get it. So it's just like – but I know you didn't do that on purpose. But it also just makes me go, can I just – you know what I mean? Like, and I can't – I mean, I would be lying if I said I didn't feel that way sometimes.

[00:22:39] Well, it can't be helped sometimes, yeah. Of course. Of course. But that's also part of my frustration with it. But when you get things right in Split Fiction, it – well, basically what we're saying is it forces proper communication in a lot of these, like, puzzle situations. You know? You can't just say, hey, go left or go right. Like, obviously that doesn't mean anything. Those are bad directions in any video game. But I have to, like – okay, so there's, like, platforms.

[00:23:07] I remember this one time there's platforms I'm hitting down with my sword when we were cyber ninjas. Remember that? I'm hitting the platforms down and you're jumping across them. But I have to, like, jump up and down and say, hey, I'm over here. I can't just say I'm on the left one or I'm on the right one. You have to look on the screen and say, hey, I'm here. I'm giving you a visual indicator. That's how Split Fiction works most of the time, which I think is great.

[00:23:32] You really have to communicate things clearly because left and right just take things for granted. But each player may or may not have a different perspective. So those terms might be completely moot. So therefore, like, you have to describe, like – you don't necessarily be, like, totally granular, right? But you're going to have to actually, like, try. It makes – it encourages, like, that trying, right? For sure. Which is part of the charm. Yeah. Because – well, okay. So here's my favorite example.

[00:24:00] So there's a part where you were a robot with an extendable pole, the robot dick, LOL. And I had to get on the robot dick so you could balance me around the side of this electric wall. Do you remember that? Yeah. But I was the one who had perspective on this wall and you didn't.

[00:24:21] So I had to give you very precise instructions like, okay, extend out at a 45-degree angle, then, like, swing it back straight and then move your robot body directly to the left until I tell you to stop. You know, like, I had to give you very specific instructions like that because otherwise you just bash me against the wall and then I die, right? Because you can't see what's going on. Yes, you could look at my screen and see, but I have the better vantage point since I'm actually on the thing.

[00:24:50] So – and you have to control the robot. So I loved that stuff. That was my favorite stuff in the game where we really had to communicate and say, hey, do it exactly this way. Yeah, because if you don't communicate and do it, like, in specific ways, you're just going to kill your teammate. Yeah. So it would have been, like, my favorite thing in the world, right? Yeah. Haphazard tense from go-off. I really enjoyed the – how could you call it?

[00:25:20] Like, the revive system in general? The revive system makes intuitive sense, right? So if you're just traversing and solving some puzzles, you automatically respawn on the spot. But if you're in more tense encounters, you're forced to mash to respawn as soon as possible because if both players wipe in these given sequences, you're both pushed back, right? But you're incentivized to mash to revive – to get their back ASAP so you don't leave your teammate, like, hanging, right?

[00:25:50] Yeah. Because you also – this is also communication because it's like, if I die, I got to say that to you. Because if you're fighting a boss, I don't want you to do anything risky while I'm dead because if you die too, again, like you said, we'll be set back. So I'll be like, okay, hold on. I'm dead. Stay alive. Don't do anything risky. Yeah. So for a sec while I come back. Yeah. And these are just tactics that we came up with on the fly. They just made total sense to just do that, right? Like, of course we did. So like, rather than just being totally greedy with it.

[00:26:18] Again, this game is so brilliant at every turn. It's just – it's just incredible how they thought of everything. I really like how they managed to make the split screen stuff work perfectly. The wide field of view is something I noticed right away. The FOV is, like, pulled way out. Because if it weren't pulled back, this game would be impossible because you have to see the environment. Yeah. It would be insane. No character collision either.

[00:26:47] I think that's something we noticed right away. We did because we were both climbing poles and we were able to overlap each other for some funky chimeras. Or like I think I was climbing the first ladder and your head was up my ass or something. Dude, this game would be impossible if you had character collision though. God, that would be so – You want to talk about being annoyed? God. Oh my god. Yeah. It would be terrible. We kind of mentioned this already in several spots. But just – We can't mention it enough.

[00:27:17] The fact that each character often gets different powers, which makes for this really involved and intricate puzzle solving together. That's the whole point of this. Together. Because we can't do the same things, we have to do them for each other. Which, again, is the best shit in the game. And my mind always goes to the fantasy worlds because each player has asynchronous powers.

[00:27:43] And there's one case where each player's transformations are completely different. So we had to figure out what each of us could do, right? So like we had to push the limits of our powers and – because they don't even remotely overlap. Like there's like seriously some like land versus sea shenanigans going on. Yeah. So we really had to be aware. Yeah. There was one area where you could do – you could swim and I couldn't. And then I could like – what? I could turn into Groot and like move these like trees or whatever. Yeah. And then like you had to like pass through.

[00:28:13] But then like I could – but then I was also could turn into a fairy. So I could like fly over these gaps where you had to like swim through them or something or make platforms for your lily pads. Remember that shit? Yeah, the lily pads. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was just so, so, so, so much. You also have to solve a fair amount of these puzzles with pace. Like sometimes you do have time to take it slow and figure it out and then other times you don't. You got to keep that shit moving and figure it out.

[00:28:43] Otherwise something chasing you is going to kill you or something is sinking and you got to figure it out real fast. Yeah, there's definitely points in the game where things are certainly timing based. So like you're going to have – again, that feeds back into the whole communication thing. It's like you have to use your power at this designated time or I die, right? So I mean it's not insurmountable. You just got to be careful. Yeah. And also you're not together the whole time. I think that's really key because I think that's like – I don't know.

[00:29:12] Think about like, I don't know, dumb people back in the day. I'm sorry to be this rude about it. But you think like why can't you be Mario and Luigi in Super Mario 64 or something? I'm like, you idiot. Can you imagine how that would play out on those small little – imagine climbing the bomb mountain or whatever and just like with two people. That would be annoying as hell. You would just bump each other off because you know how narrow that is? Yeah. Like come on, man.

[00:29:39] Like so, you know, you're not together the whole time in Split Fiction. Obviously, they solve this problem by not having character collision. But you're also like – you're often exploring different areas of the map and then meeting up at a point because you had to take different paths, which I think is key. It breaks it up. You're not just literally together the whole time. The pacing's there. Yeah, because you're diverging and converging like periodically. And I just love those moments, man. Yeah.

[00:30:06] I want to talk about a couple puzzles – well, not even necessarily puzzles but just sequences too in particular because everyone is used to games where there are two characters. And here's my ancient example. Like A Secret of Evermore or something where you tell the dog to stand on a switch. Oh, my God. That's right. Anyway, your boy character goes through the door or something and then you tell the dog to do that. Like we're all used to shit like that and that's fun, right? Yeah. And you have that in Split Fiction. Hey, stand on that switch and the door will open for me.

[00:30:35] Or hey, let's both shoot this thing at the same time and it'll open or shit like that, right? Yeah. But Split Fiction takes it to such a high degree of execution, literally like the most I've ever seen. Like this is puzzle solving and cooperation on a whole new level. And I mean do you have like a favorite example? I mean you don't have to pick your absolute favorite but do you have like one? That is the ultimate challenge because there's so many, right?

[00:31:02] But I mean there was one particular sequence where I was sniping while you were playing some sort of stealth sequence, right? So I had to like knock things out so that you could progress. But if I weren't careful, then you would get caught, right? So I really, again, like can't be reiterated enough that situational awareness was key. But it also had a bit of timing too. So I mean that stands out in my mind. Right. And I had to tell you because like you have the vantage point of the sniper and I'm down there in the muckety muck.

[00:31:31] So like I got to say, hey, there's a guy in front of me. Look for me. You know, shoot that guy up there. So there's a bit of visual communication. Like most of it you can kind of just follow along and shoot the things as I'm moving. But sometimes you can't. Sometimes I got to tell you. Can you imagine playing this game without voice chat? Oh, my God. You don't have to. You're using two controllers as one person. Okay, Sakurai. I love the part where we're the centipede. You remember that shit? We're two heads. We were like a two.

[00:32:01] We were like cat dog, but a centipede. I love the cat dog example because I'm pretty sure not too many people nowadays would refer to that. Oh, people remember cat dog more than they remember secret of Evermore. I'll tell you that. Sure, sure, sure, sure. But yeah, like so we were a two headed like caterpillar thing and like we both had to like snappy snappy use our mantibles to like grab onto stuff and swing each other around. Okay, you let go. Okay, swing. Let go. You know, shit like that and like swing each other across gaps and like moving platforms.

[00:32:31] It was wild. How many times did we tour? How many times did we cook our centipede on like some flame? We saw some unforeseen obstacles. So we just had to like learn and adapt. It's like, wait, wait, wait. Don't let go. Don't let go. Yeah, it was great. But again, none of it was insurmountable. It all made internal sense. Right. So I mean, like, yeah, it was great. I really got a kick out of the one where like you were driving and I was trying to activate the cell phone. I was trying to like put in the password.

[00:33:01] It was like the whole thing. I had to go through the EULA and the TOS and the whole I had to put in my password and kept auto correcting the password. I was trying to put it in and then do like a capture. Click all the traffic lights. It's just like, holy shit. Are they really making me do this in a video? Yeah, it was really funny. Yeah, it just wouldn't stop because I couldn't really look at your phone walls doing it. So I was like kind of periodically glancing over, but I had to keep my eyes on the road like a good driver. Right.

[00:33:29] So I just like glanced over like, what are you doing, man? I was like, I don't know. They're making me put in. They're making me fucking log in. I can't fucking do this shit. Oh, so funny. It was really funny. Right. That's so good. I think one of the more ultimate cooperation moments where you have to fight this boss, shall we say? I'll leave it vague. And so you're playing hot potato with this bomb. We're on two sides of this thing. You got to throw the bomb back and forth to each other because if you hold on to it too long, it'll explode.

[00:33:59] So we got to really communicate on that one. Okay, I'm throwing it now. We're throwing it across this chasm to each other. It's like, holy fuck. And if you miss it, you got to press R2 to catch it back too. You can't just throw it at the other person. They got to be ready for it. Yeah. So if you're just trying to traverse the obstacle course, as it were, you're not going to be ready to catch stuff. You got to actually swing your camera around a little bit to actually be aware of what's happening. So it's so organic though.

[00:34:28] I really thoroughly enjoyed that part. It was great. Fine time. Fine time. I guess one thing that really impressed me about the game in general was just the sheer like graphical finale and the sheer variety of locales. Because like back in my heyday. Oh, we can do graphics on PlayStation 5 now? Graphics on PlayStation 5 indeed. Yeah.

[00:34:58] Imagine running this on the PS4. Baby. It wouldn't run very well. It wouldn't run at all. You're not going to be able to split no fiction that way. I'll tell you that much. But yeah, in my heyday, I was preparing to be a 3D environment artist for games. So I saw the terms like hard surface portfolio and like organic modeling tossed around all the time. But seeing both natural and sci-fi locales like done with this much like finesse. It was crazy.

[00:35:25] Like there's so much confidence in these environments because they had a solid direction. And you can't half-ass this stuff because buddy, you can tell like right away when someone's just like half-assing it. Oh yeah, especially in a game like this. You know, this would be a good time to mention that the machine, the pod that they're in, isn't just extracting the story that they were going to present to the company. It's extracting every idea they've ever had from their head.

[00:35:50] Such as story ideas they never completed or stuff that they made up when they were kids, which gets really wild. So crazy. Have you ever wanted to like relive your babe fanfic that you made when you were a kid after you saw the movie, movie babe? You know, honestly, I probably would have buried that in my subconscious. But I guess if you have a subconscious like digging machine, I guess it's not really an option. Yeah, that's literally what happens. You do literally visit their subconscious.

[00:36:20] So I mean, hey, what can you say? Right. Right. But yeah, not only do these side stories provide some really nice gameplay variety, it also allows the game to have fun with the visual variety. Like there's that one sketchy world, right? Oh, I love that stuff. Man, that was great. Yeah. Oh my God. That was cool. I think my favorite was the dentist one with the teeth. Oh, it's terrifying. Well, I like this how colorful it was and it gets really off the chain real quick.

[00:36:51] Yeah, it sure does. Um, this game is made in Unreal Engine 5 and it is the most performant game I have ever played so far in this engine. It runs at 60 frames a second. We did not drop it a single frame. Not a single one. The entire time. We played this on PS5 once again and like, man, this shit was so impressive. I guess it's just good to see a game made this way in Unreal Engine 5 that's this performant.

[00:37:20] Almost an ID tech kind of way. You know? That's a good comp. Yeah. Because in this engine where other stuff is coming out that looks, that's going for it all, right? Like Avowed or Silent Hill 2 or even Remnant 2 to a degree, which is also target 60 frames a second. But you know how that game runs. It does dip a bit. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, VRR for the win for me, but like, ooh, maybe that's something you should play with now that you have a VRR monitor. Ooh, okay. Yeah. Maybe Remnant 2 might be good for you. Anyway.

[00:37:50] That's how I noticed the dips, by the way. But yeah, like it's really great to see something clearly made purely for performance like split fiction and also look great. Yeah, and that's the thing. Like, even though like it is built for performance, like you could still tell the benefits of Unreal Engine 5 because of the sheer geometry and the lighting. Like, I wouldn't say necessarily it pushes like that lumen envelope, like envelope? There's definitely lumen, though.

[00:38:20] You do get some nice reflections. There are some impressive reflections, yes. Yeah. But yeah, like again, like there's so much geometry. There's so much quantity. There's a lot of moving objects, right? So in select moments, you'll often see like visual access, a bunch of like creatures will show up on screen and they'll all be moving, which really creates this sort of like captivating sense of stuff happening. And you can't do that on previous machines.

[00:38:49] There's no way that would ever run. And I think one thing that really stands out in my mind is the cyber club. You're like over your platforming over this club full of like people partying down below. So I couldn't believe what I was seeing because like there's just so many people down below and like they didn't have to do this. No, they could have just had it darkened and just had like some sort of cyber laser lights and shit. Oh, God. Remember that one? I just remember that one.

[00:39:17] Remember like you had to do like the you had to do some sort of smoke or like make the lasers appear so we could see where we're going on the platform. Remember that? Otherwise, we get zapped. That was tricky. Yeah, we had to like very carefully see the lasers and which way to progress through this shit. You had to like do some sort of puff. I think so ingenious smoke. Yeah, and I had to go through that shit was crazy. That that was so much fun. Anyway, yeah, even even that wouldn't have been possible in previous gens.

[00:39:46] So like, yeah, just just impressive stuff all around with with Unreal Engine five. It's really good to see a game like this be again this performance. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So if there's anything I've talked about on this show to death, then it's probably how much I love spectacle in video games. I love that shit. Yeah, really? Yeah. Did you ever hear that? Spectacle. Not once.

[00:40:17] Some people might call these set pieces, which I guess also works, but that can also mean something a bit different at times. To me, it can mean big bombastic over the top battles with like crazy cinematic stuff like, you know, boss battles in Final Fantasy 16, for instance. That shit's a fucking trip. But it can also mean very designed, very curated types of action and traversal like Sonic Adventure or Super Mario Galaxy.

[00:40:47] Right? Like that type of shit, too. I think is also spectacle. It can also mean gameplay sequences that feel like diversions where you just sort of play out something really cool, like the space harrier part of Bayonetta. Yeah, that's great. Like that, or any given car chase and shooting sequence in like Uncharted or something. I fucking hate those games, but I have to admit, you know, that that stuff is cool. They do have some stuff going on, yes. Here's the thing about Split Fiction.

[00:41:15] It has every single type of spectacle I just mentioned, plus new ones that it made up itself. And they just keep happening over and over again, constantly, because that's the entire game. Think about it. What if you could just have an entire game made up of the cool boss parts of Final Fantasy 16, or just the fun pizzazz of Sonic Adventure,

[00:41:41] or the wild minigame stuff, like the dragon ride in Bayonetta 3, for instance. That's Split Fiction. That's the entire game. It's made up of those type of moments completely. And that's why, to me, it's like the best game ever. It's so consistent, though. Like the hits don't keep stopped. The hits keep coming, man. They don't stop. That's the craziest part about it. Yeah, you think you're going to get tired of it, right? You think it's like, because this game is like 12 hours or so.

[00:42:10] You think like, okay, they just can't keep doing this. They can't keep getting away with this. But they do. Yeah. But they do. They do. They really do. You want to say some of your favorites? I know you were impressed by quite a few of these. Yeah. Oh, man. You know, one of the side stories has Sand Sharks, which really plays it up to the utmost peak.

[00:42:38] Because I'm like, well, at first they're just like kind of casually brushing it off. It's like, well, sand sharks? Like, sure, whatever. But like, you're actually like doing all sorts of shenanigans, like involving these sharks. Like whether or not you're trying to escape them or whether you're riding them, it really plays up the whole concept. And like, it creates a feeling of danger, like at every turn. And like, I never in a thousand years would have thought about sharks in the sand.

[00:43:05] But like, it was a pretty fascinating idea. They just played it up to like the maximum. Well, I remember as we were going through that level, I'm like, we're going to ride the sand shark. We're riding the sand shark. It's happening. And then sure enough, you do. I think one of my favorite things was like the cyber highway tube where you're jumping across traffic. You're jumping across like Jetson's ass, like flying cars and shit and trucks. Yes.

[00:43:35] And like that, I don't even know what to say. That just so blew my mind. I'm like speechless now just thinking about how fucking cool that was. I was sucked into the lighting because everything like they were so like popularly with like flying vehicles and get everything was like really reflective. Oh, yeah. It was reflective as shit. Yeah. That was great. Remember the pinball table? There was a straight up pinball sequence. They just. Yeah.

[00:44:03] I was also not really expecting that whatsoever. But like it has all of the mechanical details that play well, by the way, like it doesn't play like shit as some digital pins can. No, this felt solid. It looked. It looked the part. It was great. And plungers and flippers and all. Oh, yeah. It was. It was some wild shit. I love the parking attendant boss, like what we call Sepkis Prime, I think. Sepkis Prime. Sepkis Prime. Yeah.

[00:44:31] And then you do this absolutely wild driving and shooting sequence. One person's driving. Other person's shooting, obviously, on this turret on top of this car. But like the person driving is not just like dodging a few cars. You're like jumping between these giant cyber tubes. Cyber tubes. Yes. It's crazy. While you're while the other person on the turret is like shooting, shooting people out. I was on the turret. So I didn't really understand like, you know, we did some replay is like the other characters just to get a taste for it.

[00:45:01] Driving was really crazy. I'm glad I got to experience that doing the turret stuff was fun. But man, it's actually pretty tough because like you have to gauge what's safe and what's not on the fly. And if you don't, you both die. Right. You crash and explode. So the act of jumping is again, like just being aware of what's out there. Like you really kept on the ball. And I love that, man. Like just just jumping and also shooting, too. It was really involved. It was great. It absolutely was just so cool.

[00:45:30] You want to talk about some of the bosses real quick? Any of them? Maybe even just a couple just because like that spectacle, too. Yeah. Because that that shit was crazy. I think my favorite boss personally was the tank. Oh, yeah. The tank. Yeah, I love that part because it really made you pay attention to where you were driving and targeting specific parts of the boss. And like I bumped into so many different things on that tank. I'll tell you what. Oh, it was it was it was tough. Yeah, it was something.

[00:45:59] But yeah, it's really easy to die on that one. But it's cool. I think a favorite of a lot of people and probably you, too, was the was the robo dentist. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh, man. And it's like a stop motion horror film or something, man. Yeah. You know what really got me is that the boss can actually literally pin you down. So at first I wasn't really sure what was happening. But like, I mean, it's a dentist, right? So you can imagine the rest. I'm just like, oh, that image really stuck with me.

[00:46:28] And we had to try to free each other on the fly. I'm just like, oh. Just just crazy. I think another boss that I really enjoy was there's a dragon, which has this really grandiose, like cinematic scale. And it has different mechanics because whether you're flying towards that boss or whether you're mounting them, it makes you do the whole works. And it feels like it's almost like all the different highlights from other genres, but fused together, right?

[00:46:56] In this really seamless, bombastic hole. Oh, my God. I just like I get goosebumps thinking about that. It was just excellent. I can't man. I know I said the tank one is my favorite. I don't know if that's true. I think all of them are just it's so hard to pick. It's impossible. There's so many more bosses, too. That's the thing.

[00:47:18] You know, I made a lot of this stuff fun sometimes, especially in Mio's cyber worlds, if you will, is that sometimes there was some really gratuitous violence. It was excellent. I really loved it. Just punctuated. I remember this part where there were cyber ninjas. She just jumps on this other guy's motorcycle and she just like stabs through the head and then just like flips him off the bike or whatever. I'm like, whoa, I wasn't expecting to see that. Rated T for teen. Yeah. You know, it's wild, even though on a sheer, sheer technicality. Yeah, sure.

[00:47:47] They're probably not real because they're just victims of their imagination. But at the same time, like stabbing a fool and like tossing him out, it's still like a really striking imagery. Right. And like it's not the only times they like stab like people. It's just like ridiculous. And they're I mean, you're you're killed. You killed that guy. Right. I mean, this whether you imagine it or not, you like you kill a fool. Yeah. He did. Oh, I love the the Hydra boss. Oh, God.

[00:48:14] You cut off their heads in a way that is just like, whoa, we're really doing this. OK, I guess we yeah. We remember that it was a cooperative thing. We had to line up on either side of the head. We had to say, hey, go for that one. You know, that head. The way it played out was nothing I ever would have expected in the game. I'll tell you that much. And like, you know, and I guess one of my favorite like poignant moments of like violence was also like the end of the pig sequence. Like I wasn't really expecting the way that went down.

[00:48:44] Yeah. What? You weren't expecting to turn into a hot dog through the grizzliest means possible. I mean, I was not. I was certainly not. We have to talk about the final level a little bit. We don't have to say everything. But as one can imagine, if you're listening to this, the two girls do write different types of stories. As we said, Mew does sci fi. Zoe does fantasy. Yes.

[00:49:12] The final level does indeed play out where one side of the screen is sci fi and the other side of the screen is fantasy. That does happen. It lives up to the name of the game. It does happen. Just like on the front of the box. Okay. And I mean, that's a wide. It does show that on the front of the box. Yes, it's true. It's very accurate. But yeah, so that does happen.

[00:49:37] And when it does happen, it's as incredible as you might think it might be. I don't really know what else I want to say about it because I don't want to spoil too much. But man, I can't quantify it. It's just, again, like it was a nonstop roller coaster of mind blowing moments. I just, there's just so much creativity packed into that last level. It's, it's so much. And we, even if we wanted to, we probably couldn't properly encapsulate the experience of playing it.

[00:50:05] It's just like, it's so like intelligently made. Fine. All these things we've been talking about, all this jumping from moving car to car and all these crazy boss battles and all this bullshit. None of this shit is easy. Okay.

[00:50:34] Like, okay. So for instance, there's a sizable portion of the game where you're these red and blue space Marines and you have red and blue bullets and red and blue grenades to blow stuff up with with your corresponding color. As well as laser fields that have to be crossed as red or blue. If you don't play a lot of video games, I have no idea how you're going to deal with all this shit. I, I feel like this is a game.

[00:51:01] People might want to play with their significant others who don't really play video games. Hey, Hey, you can play this game with me. You know, we can play it together, but that's just not going to work out. If they don't play games, you're not going to get anywhere. You better have some coordination, like hand-eye coordination and coordination with whomever you're playing with. Right. And like, uh, I wouldn't say any of that red blue stuff was particularly problematic, but by no means was any of this like a total pushover.

[00:51:29] Like we had to like understand what we were doing. We had to have the timing. Right. And, uh, we really had to stick things through to like, you know, see, uh, see, uh, see it through. Right. Right. And, uh, you know, the funny part is like, there was a few occasions where I said like, man, this is nitpicky or tough when I like died, but hysterically we all did it on the next shot. So, I mean, we play a lot of games, man. Like we play a lot of games. So we know what if you've never like the pinball sequence I've talked about earlier. What if you've never played pinball before?

[00:52:00] I mean, how the fuck are you like, what are you, what are you going to do? You're just going to die over and over and over again. Well, we've done a lot of pinball. So we didn't think about it. Not to sound totally pretentious. Well, yeah. We see. That's the thing. Like we have, right. So we know how these, those kinds of angles work off a flipper and whatever. We're used to that shit. There's a lot of sequences in this game where we just kind of fucking did it. And it's like video games, baby. Right. Because like we, we know what we're doing and we can, we can, but we can see how other people

[00:52:28] would be like, whoa, this is tough. Yeah. And yeah, to be entirely honest with you, like I was immune to this, like my spatial sense with three platform isn't like tip top necessarily. Like I wiped on three to a few jumps three to four times. I mean, so like, you know, whether I overextended or like just barely missed like, like a jump or like whatever. And, but I'd say it was only a few times. Like I got it. It took a bit sometimes, but if you have never played a three platformer before, for whatever

[00:52:57] reason, you might be in four times. I don't think that's, well, I mean, some people, I don't know. I mean, I guess it's possible, but man. Technically possible. Well, hopefully not. It's like, what have you been doing this whole time? Yeah. But both of us being experienced gamers, shall we say? I hate saying gamers, but I don't know what else to say.

[00:53:21] Both of us being experienced enthusiast game players alleviated a lot of the thing I said before, relying on someone else instead of relying on myself thing, because I know, you know what the fuck you're doing. Yep. You know, and I can rely on you to do that. If I, I think I would be pissed if I was playing this with somebody who doesn't really play video games that much because they, I would, the, the amount of times that I would die due to their hand would just be too much for me. I don't think I'd be able to take it.

[00:53:49] You might be waiting to, you might be waiting for them to traverse some sections for a while to be nice about it. Yeah. Do you have any criticisms of split fiction? I, a game this uniformly excellent is always very, very hard to criticize. Like I, I honestly don't like the worst thing I could maybe say about this game is I guess some of the environmental details are fairly low poly.

[00:54:19] At least they are on PS5. Like the fruit on the trees were really low poly or like there was like some frog statues later on that were like, remember I look as like, Oh shit, look at these or something. But like, if that's the worst thing I can say a few low poly objects, man. And the funny thing is we know why they're low poly. Cause you gotta get that 60 frames, baby. 60 at all costs. But I actually didn't mind because the art direction was so solid though.

[00:54:48] So like, even on that angle, I don't even know if I would really criticize that stuff too much. And I don't have too much to say. Maybe some interactables visibility was like a little tougher than it needed to be. But like, then again, like, I think if you made things too obvious, don't slash, don't slash no yellow paint on nothing. Like that would detract from the puzzle solving. I think if you did that, right. So, I mean, like, I, I think it was so well designed that it was, you know, I, I think

[00:55:14] with, with some observation and some patience and a little bit of coordination, everything was pretty, uh, pretty doable. So like, I just don't really know, like it would just be nitpicking at that point. Yeah. I mean, like speaking of nitpicking, I think the only other thing I could say is maybe there is a couple bad collision detection moments. Like, I remember climbing these ladders one time and like, I died like four or five times

[00:55:41] if you remember, just because I was like, I feel like that didn't hit me, but it did, I guess. Yeah. I, I, I actually understand. I mean, I, I, I get, I don't necessarily think it's like a huge problem, but I mean, the, the way things kind of interact is, is maybe a little more finicky than they should be. But again, like that's just such a nitpicky, like case. It's such, it's such a very, very minor in a game where you can respond infinitely.

[00:56:09] It's such a very, very minor complaint. Like I, and again, it happened so, so sparingly that I was just like, okay, whatever, you know, we just played off of it. Like it didn't matter that much. Yeah. It was fine. It was fine. It's not like any moment like that happened during a boss. And it's like, then we get put back at the beginning of the boss. Cause you both, it's like, wait, how did that hit me? Like that didn't happen. Right. So, and they also made the allowances because they know people are going to screw up. So like they're, they, they understand it's smartly designed. They're not going to screw you for like a single mistake. Exactly.

[00:56:40] Um, shit, then I, I think I'm out of things to say. If you got anything left, I, you know, okay. I got one more thing before we leave. I hope this doesn't come off as like weird or sexist or anything, but like, I don't think split fiction would work if it were two men. You know what I mean? Like there's just something about this game that works because it is two women going through this journey together.

[00:57:07] I wish I could articulate why I feel that way, but do you agree? I just think it works because it's two chicks. Yeah. You know, um, I, I couldn't particularly quantify either. Like I tried to imagine if it's like two flamboyant guys, but I don't think it would hit the same way. I mean, so I, I just don't really know, but there, there's something about like their personalities that just like hit. I think that's like the big part of it or in like the, the way they bicker and, and, and communicate. I just think that kind of, uh, it, it works this way.

[00:57:35] Uh, though, uh, it would be kind of funny to imagine two flamboyant guys, but I don't know what that would work. What would their names be if they were two guys? Oh God. Oh God. I didn't think about this. Uh, uh, uh, Marcelo and, uh, uh, uh, I need a Z. I need a Z. Oh, you're trying to do M and Z names. I thought you were just going to do whatever. Okay. I'm not that, uh, I'm not that quick.

[00:58:03] Uh, thinking Zidane, Zidane, Zidane, Zidane. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Marcelo and Zidane definitely is appealing as Zoe and Mio. You heard it here first. Yeah. Uh, then that's it. I don't have anything else to say about split fiction. This was legit. One of the best games I ever played. Thank you for playing it with me because I'm glad I played it with you and not like, again, someone who's not very good at this kind of. I mean, thanks for asking.

[00:58:30] And, uh, you know, thanks for, uh, not, uh, charging 25 bucks out the gate. I expect that Venmo before I end the show. I'm not turning off these microphones before you Venmo me for my 25 bucks. I'm being held captive. Maybe we'll be held captive until the next Joseph Ferris game or something. Whatever. That's going to be the dude's cooking already. Oh yeah. Yeah. They said he's already cooking up the next one. So that's great. All right. I'll let you go. I don't need 25 bucks. Anyway, that's it. Everyone go play split fiction.

[00:59:00] It's incredible. Uh, we're out of here. Check the description of this podcast to find our links on social media and we'll see you next time. Bye. We'll see you next time. On, on, on, on fine time.