FNGC Reviews: Tales of Kenzera: Zau (ft. CGDannyB)

[00:00:36] What's up everybody and welcome to the Friday Night Gamecast You're joining us for another FNGC review where we take one game and conduct a critical analysis of all its moving parts

[00:00:46] This week, I'm incredibly excited to welcome our new friend and brand-new guest of the show CGDannyB. Danny, welcome How are you? Yo, what's popping guys? How we doing? I'm doing good post 4th of July. We tired out here

[00:01:00] We're ready to talk about it. We're tired. We're tired a little bit of hungover a little tired You know, we've celebrated Independence Day. We're good to go Danny you're a brand-new guest to the show

[00:01:10] I wanted to give you just a quick moment to give our listeners who might not be familiar with your work so far a Rundown of everything you're doing right now and where folks can find you absolutely

[00:01:20] So again, my name is CGDannyB, but most people just call me Danny I do content focused mostly around indie games I think a lot of people like to complain they're like there's nothing to play when they lost their like 27th match of fortnight for the day

[00:01:34] When I'm sitting here with this steam library of so many untouched gems So I think just the opportunity to show people all these awesome dope indie games

[00:01:40] They just don't get the spotlight is kind of like the whole goal my content. I'll typically post on YouTube indie recommendation videos I recently put out one for a bunch of doom clones As well as like indie games releasing in July and then I also host my own

[00:01:52] Poat my own podcast the play log podcast on my buddy Topher where each week we talk about different things indie news We'll do fun little topics like drafts

[00:02:01] Little teaser for upcoming we're doing if indie studios had triple A. I peas and what that fun thing would look like So it's a fun time over on play log. So if you're looking for some indie games, that's the place to go Awesome, that's fantastic

[00:02:13] And I didn't introduce my other panelists yet the one the only King Zodos tie William He's back at it again. I'm always here. I'm always waiting in the shadows In the shadows to come back and give us a excellent coverage of all of the indie games

[00:02:29] And speaking of indie games this week. We are reviewing tales of Kanzara's out Tales of Kanzara's out is a Metroidvania that was released on April 23rd 2024 was developed by the newly minted surgeon studios and published under the EA originals banner head

[00:02:46] This was directed by the acclaimed Abu Bakar Salim is released on essentially every platform you can get your hands on It's both consoles and PC. You know switch as well It's sitting at a mighty 76 for well, I know that it's a mighty 76 on open critic

[00:03:02] But it's just a regular 76 for both consoles and PC It's got a little bit of a lower rating on set for a 71 on the switch This might be some integration issues or just might be some performance factors

[00:03:13] Not really sure and it's looking like it's got 6.6 user reviews like 6.6 percent on the user review scale right now So overall pretty good. I'm excited to get into this game with all with both of you

[00:03:26] Honestly, I it's it's been a while since we've been able to review like an indie game on the show Most of the games that we do are the pretty like kind of what you're saying They're pretty like larger titles like we've just reviewed dragon stock metu

[00:03:40] We're going to review final fantasy 7 rebirths So we're doing a lot of different stuff, but I wanted to ask you Danny Typically, this is a brand new IP brand new title, but going into this game going into the tales of kanzara

[00:03:52] What were your thoughts? What were your feelings? Why did this draw you in the first place? I am a Recently like I fallen in love with Metroidvania to the degree of like

[00:04:03] I remember playing Hollow Knight for the first time and getting lost and not being able to wrap my head around Like why can't I play this game and have fun with it?

[00:04:10] Not say I didn't have fun with Hollow Knight, but I'm like I just can't find the progression there and then seeing at the Game Awards opening night live whichever Jeff Keely event it was where we saw like this

[00:04:22] Black Panther ancestral plane like image come on the big screen like oh wait that looks like that is I'm into that And then we see this trailer We see Abu telling a story about like his father and what like where this narrative came from like okay

[00:04:34] Regardless of the gameplay before even seeing it. I'm in I'm invested like The the story of the people behind it is what has me in and then the games where I'm going to get Super super invested And then seeing the gameplay seeing the different styles of combat

[00:04:47] I was like this looks this looks baller and then seeing that launch on PlayStation plus. That's where I jumped in so Yeah, tails because there was Was a fun just experience for

[00:04:58] I think at a world where we have so many big strong muscular white protagonists in our games Um, and then seeing where I'm like, oh god someone that has this like well definitely more Miller than me I'm half white but like

[00:05:10] Yeah, it's definitely is it is an underrepresented Setting and it's an underrepresented character group especially like throughout video games as a whole So it's definitely nice to get that taste of diversity get that taste of

[00:05:22] Experience that you don't really see in many other places that hasn't really been covered Other than you know your normal filler that you get from the Prinsipersia and those games are they're doing great. They still struggle to put out

[00:05:34] You know the last the lost crown came out this year as well And it's definitely a competitor in this category But I think we can get a little bit later on in the show to kind of do some comparisons Yeah, that helps too

[00:05:45] Well, I'm just saying like when you also are playing this game and you're seeing them self, you know Loving with I will buy car came in and like you said talked about the actual

[00:05:54] Reasons while making the game in some of the background to it because it made it so it's not just hey This isn't you know, yes, it looks kind of like that

[00:06:01] Black Panther style, but it's not a kind of Marvel movie where you maybe sometimes turn your brain off and just kind of enjoy the visuals Which the visuals are very pretty

[00:06:09] But it's very heartfelt and of course not getting into too many spoilers at the top of the actual show itself But it does get really really emotional and very personal as you continue to play through it

[00:06:19] I think that's the one thing is one of those come for the visuals come for the art direction And then stay for the story and that'll get you easily throughout this, you know, roughly 15 hours or so eventually

[00:06:30] Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more those were kind of like what you both kind of relayed there exactly why I jumped in You know seeing him on stage at the game wards and telling this very

[00:06:38] You know touching story about you know losing his father and him working through that grief and saying that he wanted to make a game On top of that That was that was really cool for me

[00:06:47] To get down to the nuts and bolts. We'll go ahead and just jump right in for the listeners here What is tales of kinsara zow? Tales of kinsara is just a 2.5 d action platformer that falls squarely in the metroidvania genre

[00:07:00] It combines crunchy combat with an evocative narrative surrounding the sun Grieving over the loss of his father and through this process he's trying to learn more about himself and He also learns more about this mythological land called kinsara

[00:07:14] You travel throughout this land with the god of death as your companion and you work to free spirits and ultimately Learn a little bit more about life and death

[00:07:22] So that is what tales of kinsara is again like it's got pretty good reviews in terms of like the studio's first debut title It seems to be received very well on a critical level. It seems that people are pretty much enjoying it

[00:07:37] I know that this was one of the games that was a little bit of a backlash It kind of fell into That general like the sweet baby ink discourse of you know, there there's this there's this

[00:07:49] Group of people there's this cadre of incels on twitter right now who think that wokeism is Infiltrating the games industry and it's very silly and this is one of the titles that were touched on it I think that the developer

[00:08:03] The the director up about car came out and he had like honest conversations about What it means to have representation in games and what it means to you know, have diversity in games And why it's important

[00:08:14] For people out there you can find that on twitter very easily if you just look up his uh, his twitter page If you wanted to do that

[00:08:20] But I did want to take a quick second to shout out the development of this game and just highlight the director himself He's actually for folks who haven't heard of him. He is the voice actor for bayek

[00:08:32] In assassin's creed origins and he's been doing voiceover work for a hot minute He's been games like diablo 4 deal field chronicle zeno blade chronicles 3 on top of his acting credentials He was in the ridley scott production

[00:08:44] Raised by wolves, which I think is a I think it might have been an apple tv show that they did There sure was max. It was it max. Okay. I'm pretty sure it's nice to be a max

[00:08:53] We'll watch it a couple episodes. It was solid from what I saw Yeah, I need to go in and I need to check it out a little bit more But that looked pretty weird on par for the ridley scott stuff that he's put out

[00:09:01] But he's also been in stuff like black mirror legend of ox machina and most recently I was really surprised because I was enjoying house of the dragon season 2 and he popped up and then I was like Oh my god, it's the guy. It's our guy. He's following me

[00:09:15] That was really fun, but he's very talented Actor director and I really genuinely would hope to see more from him and the studio as we go forward This game is done and then there were reports on twitter about surgeon studios laying off a lot of their staff

[00:09:31] After the game had launched. Do you think that's indicative of Where that studio is heading or do you think they're gonna get another chance? Oh, I think the whole thing is always tough anytime you see the the cyberpunk just patent that

[00:09:46] Put the image out with the giant paragraph to tell people some bad news And anytime you see that jpeg and you're like, oh Oh, I don't want to know what this news is

[00:09:56] Um seeing that the other day with abu tweeting at well the surgeon studio page tweeting out and then abu did another video I believe um kind of talking about like here's what happened. This is what we wanted for the team

[00:10:07] It sucks to see at the game underperformed enough that it didn't Warrant keeping most of the team on like that. That's the direction that it ended up going That always sucks. I'm sure throughout process like making tales. Gensera proper

[00:10:21] There was always that thought of what's the sequel? What is tales? Gensera here? What is our next step not necessarily in the tales? Gensera franchise But in like a whole new ip or what that's gonna be and then there's that reality that hits her like

[00:10:33] By the way, half you aren't going to be here to work with us on our next project if there is going to be a next project Um, and then you always have that hoping your gut and when you're like, oh, it's an ea original

[00:10:42] They have the backing of ea. They have some kind of like support systems going to keep them going So then see like that didn't end up happening or or again

[00:10:50] We don't have all the details in the background where the where the player is not the the developers, but Yeah, that's always just like a gut wrenching thing to know that someone out there

[00:10:59] Someone in those credits that made the game that I enjoyed so much earlier this year just Doesn't have that job anymore. They're not working for the the same studio

[00:11:06] And i'm not going to get their love and passion into whatever comes next from surgeon. Yeah, so yeah, that just that sucks That's a big thing too. You mentioned the label that this game is effectively under which yeah I mean, I don't know all the specifics

[00:11:19] So I don't want to like, you know, necessarily do too much kind of conjecture there But I feel like just based off ea how we all as people who have been in games probably the last 10 20 years or more

[00:11:31] No, you know ea has a little bit of that double-edged sword You know the original title can give you a lot of backing and definitely get you more focus and attention but there may be some expectations that

[00:11:41] They weren't able to meet by being under that ea original label or this like, you know There's a whole bunch of wood it could have shut us like would that have been better to just do a

[00:11:48] Straight raw indie and then maybe let the word of mouth kind of carry itself And it would have helped you a little bit, you know, what made a difference no matter what like we're not 100% sure But like you mentioned at the top

[00:11:59] It's just sad to see it in this last year You know, we had such great gaming happening in 2023 But we also had so much heartbreak and it's kind of continued into 2024 for the overall industry

[00:12:08] So it's just never great. You know, no matter what side of that fridge you fall on Just you don't want to see people losing their jobs and potentially having More games that you could love them to the future just not come to fruition

[00:12:19] So hoping the best for them wishing they're able to bounce back and you know, maybe Either get some of them Folks back on or at least work with the team that they have to hopefully continue to make some more good games in the future

[00:12:28] Because you know not to bury the lead too much. I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It was blessed Yeah 100 to kind of get into the expectations or just like where our temperature is on this game

[00:12:38] This was a really fun game the fact that all three of us on this panel Platinum bit speaks volumes for Ex-experience as a metro-advania Danny, how many hours did you think you put into it? Oh god, let me think here. Um If I

[00:12:55] Go purely on my skill where I didn't get stuck on certain missions and encounters and it's like Oh, you want to get all the upgrades? You have to make sure you beat these these four tier of encounters or whatever

[00:13:06] Um, I'd probably say it was in the ballpark of yeah, like 13 to 14 ish hours I think I uh Streamed the first part of the game and I think I was the first three hours

[00:13:16] And then I was just like nose to the grindstone some anime was on and then I was constantly pausing to like Go and watch the cutscenes. I'm like, oh, they're talking. Oh man the acting's so much fun

[00:13:25] So I just got like so engrossed in listening to the cutscenes I think one time I I skipped one or turned away and missed it. I'm like, oh, shit I gotta run it back and they just

[00:13:37] Yeah, yeah, I hit right around 18 hours and I think if I'm not mistaken will you said 15 I was 15 when I got it completely done. So like I'm pretty sure I hit the plat I met 15 I just rechecked before this and it said 17

[00:13:49] So I don't know if that was from me watching the like Credits so they're leaving it on or something But yeah, 15 to 17 is roughly where I hit to get that full plat

[00:13:56] Yeah, and it is a pretty focused linear game. But yeah, I really really enjoyed my time with this Um, I think that this is 100% I mean without we'll get into why we recommend it But this is a recommended game for people to jump into this year

[00:14:10] If it's something that really strikes a chord with you You can 100% finish it and beat it at this point or you can just pick it up as you go along later on

[00:14:17] But it's one of those short bite side stories that it's like if you enjoy platforming if you enjoy that metroidvania formula This is going to be a good game for you Let's go ahead and jump into the visuals in the gameplay design of tales of kanzerazow

[00:14:34] This is something that like you said immediately off the bat Danny was 100% an aspect of the game that Surprised me and it it definitely was a big wow factor when I first loaded into the title for an indie game

[00:14:47] For this team's first studio. This is a beautiful beautiful game Like every area of the map had its own distinct visual design and every area also had a theme

[00:14:56] That was kind of at the core concept of that individual area that led back and it kind of fed into what was going on with Zao wherever he was going whether it was

[00:15:06] In ikka karamba where he was like jumping on that are different platforms and you know going up into the air and is more mountainous and scaly versus like some of the other areas where it's like a little bit more of a black town

[00:15:16] Jungle that's being kind of you know sucked into the ground by the evil spirits there. So that was Um, it was really really good. The african influence is obvious You have these brilliantly colored architecture with traditional patterns and designs

[00:15:31] And it also kind of pairs very well with the composition of the score of the game It that blends like synth and edm traditional african music All kind of comes together to really really enhance the overall presentation

[00:15:44] Did either of you like feel strongly about any area versus the other did anything really pop out to you the most? Oh, i'm sitting here trying to think like the the I believe second area that like swamp type one with like the

[00:15:56] Delabida buildings that one. I don't know why it's not gonna have any Connection like oh man, I love this dark destroyed environment that could not possibly be inhabited by a human being But I just that one sticks out to me so much. I remember loving

[00:16:10] Some of the traversal like I remember just like cutting through buildings with delabida walls and having to climb up And go back around and some of the locomotion in there just felt a lot

[00:16:20] I even know like a lot. It just felt memorable. I really enjoyed that section even though I think out of the rip just the vibrancy of that initial like jungle type environment is just So beautiful. There's like that first cut scene

[00:16:32] I forget if it's the title card moment, but it definitely could be one where you like burst through the trees There's that slow mo like lunge into space and you're like, oh, yeah, that's some environments aren't right there

[00:16:43] Like it is stunning and like so the concept of the game is you know to to kind of put it into perspective for the listeners Is that you know the story setup is the fact that zao

[00:16:54] It opens up the game immediately his father has already passed away and he's really distraught like he's clearly upset And he doesn't know what to do

[00:17:01] But he eventually goes to his father's study and he finds a book that he was constantly working on because his father was a writer and the book is the story of zao and essentially he's reading the book and that

[00:17:12] Transports the player into this world of kanzara and you're playing a zao and you jump in there But even the even the home in the cityscape when he's standing on the balcony to his home

[00:17:22] It looks like a wakanda. It looks like a like a black panther style thing But it also has its own unique appearance too. So it's nice

[00:17:30] I I liked kind of the the caricature style of like the it's got a little bit of like a cartoonish like a 3d You know cartoony feel to it, but it definitely is uh, it's impactful And it's it's got a lot of cool textures to it as well

[00:17:44] Well, yeah, it's like you're saying the initial start of the story You know before you get into truly the world of kanzara itself and you're playing with zao You know you have zuberi who is you're kind of starting he's like your book end character

[00:17:55] So that's who you're starting off with no he goes in Your father has just passed speaks to his mama You know they have a conversation and then and that's what he goes into the room to see the actual story of zao

[00:18:05] So he can kind of live through that using that to process his grief So it's really nice and I appreciate too You know later on the game that because the book end character that you do get that full circle moment with zuberi come and kind of

[00:18:17] Back in and then having that conversation Well effectively with his father in his own way. Yeah. Yeah, and it kind of it It definitely lends to the narrative threads that that ties together here

[00:18:28] And speaking of which I will say I said this to you immediately when I first started playing it will But the voice acting stood out to me as like some of the best that I've heard this year

[00:18:36] Like the voice acting even even beyond some of the triple a titles that I've played so far this year like even even like it stands On par with like the uh, you know final fantasy 7 rebirth or you know

[00:18:49] Some of the other bigger games that have come out in 2023 24 like it was very very good and it was nuanced There were a lot of deeply emotive line delivery that that you know all of the actors were conveying as you go through the different sections of the game

[00:19:04] um Like abu bakar's work as zao was great. And then there was the other actor tristan Uh tristan d lala. I think that's how you pronounce his name. Forgive me if i'm wrong Um who played kalunga this actor also voiced adouale in assassin's creed black flag

[00:19:19] So we have two assassins creating, you know graduates that are coming together to do their own game together Which was really cool. That was just like and their relationship obviously As you go throughout the journey something that you realize is that you know you're playing as zao

[00:19:33] The the motivation for zao to go along through the stories the idea is that okay I hate he's a shaman that lives in kenzara and his His motivation is that he wants to bring his dad back to life

[00:19:45] He feels like his dad's spirit was taken too early by the god of death And so he goes to the god of death um called kalunga and tries to make a deal with him He says look you have these problems with these three great spirits

[00:19:58] We need to release these spirits. We need to do our shaman stuff and do what we need to and then you're gonna return my dad's spirit to me

[00:20:04] And then we're gonna be good, right? Right? Okay, and then so we go on and that's where kind of the story starts off And that's where you start exploring the map and everything

[00:20:13] But yeah, like as you're going throughout those stories like it's constantly just a conversation between uh zao and kalunga, which is pretty important I want to take this opportunity to kind of get into

[00:20:25] Just a general core understanding of like the gameplay in the con like the platforming and the combat um So like as you go through it, you know the core combat

[00:20:35] You know like danie said you jump in and you have different skills that are to your disposal when you're playing as zao You can play either He's a shaman and by that he has these ancestral masks that were handed down from his father to him

[00:20:50] And what you can do as the players you can switch between the moon mask and the sun mask And they're blue and orange. They both look really really cool especially when you're switching and and and you use this to kind of

[00:21:02] Effectively traverse through the area as well as fight the the moon mask Kind of gives you the ability to like platform I like the moon mask a lot it gives you to kind of freeze It has a ability to shoot out a spell that freezes water

[00:21:17] And then you can also shoot projectiles at enemies at range You can also use that same spell to freeze enemies as you're going throughout it And then the sun mask it's more up for like up close and personal melee combat

[00:21:30] Um, and you also upgrade it later on to where you can throw a spear That's gonna trigger different switches to allow zao to traverse through the territory um And so you kind of like the core concept of the game is that you're

[00:21:42] Traversing through the different areas and you're switching between the moon and sun mask to access or do whatever you need to do And sometimes you're doing that on the fly Um, too, which I thought was really really cool

[00:21:52] We talked a little bit about the the difficulty, which you know, it's to be fair It's not a whole bunch, which is nice, but I don't know dany. I'm curious especially with the the platforming and the fighting How did you find that good? It's there

[00:22:04] I found the platforming puzzles. There's one or two There were like some glider type puzzles that I remember like I wanted I wanted to curb stomp myself on this desk every now and again. I'm like, I'm going to lose my mind

[00:22:15] What would happen to be a playing flappy bird? Would you is that what you're? That's the one that's the one It was such a like that was in the grind towards the plow them because the section I missed came back to

[00:22:28] I'm like, I'm so close. I just gotta knock out a couple more challenges. I'm like, why is this hit? Why did you guys put this skill gap? Why could you leave me something easy to do at the end?

[00:22:36] Um, as far as combat, I don't recall struggling too too often I think once I got to the final ball, uh, well Third, uh spirit like I got to them like I think I took them out first try

[00:22:48] I think the first and second one I had to do a couple different encounters Like I got to get the reads and everything I think I progressed will be as games go just progressively got better as I went through where I'm like

[00:22:58] I know what to expect and know how to read these bosses that are coming at me Um, so I just knew when to avoid when to switch to certain, you know, when I will use someone on use moon

[00:23:07] Um, I was a huge moon guy because I love the like gears of war Actual load type yes, that was the coolest thing I'm gonna shoot and then when I'm done Bip-bip-bip and then it returned yellow. So you have like that super mega fire

[00:23:20] Like oh, this is it. This is it and the amount of times I would just land that kill Land that kill land that kill another one Yeah, that felt right to me and I'm like, oh, you're too close to me

[00:23:29] Get back like his little right trigger or whatever that move that pushes people back Yeah, yeah, the triangle button. Yeah, yeah, there you go I yeah, I thought the moon stance was honestly vastly superior to the to the sun mask

[00:23:41] Um, I I don't know. Do you disagree? Well, incorrect Incorrect, incorrect. He says I appreciate you two moon bros Yeah, moon bros The moon has its place it has its place but at the end of the day

[00:23:54] The moon is a reflection of the sun's light and that's why the sun was better He's hitting us with the metaphors Look you gotta mad I'm like I come from the land of bayonetta. I come from my devil may cries, right?

[00:24:11] Second I saw the sun mask was doing is like, oh you get up in the face and you hold Your heavy attack to go up in the air to do air combos. I'm like, oh, we're at peak right now I said, let's go You're right

[00:24:29] I did use that a lot but if I could say how many times I'm like spear So good, but I just love the sun stance in the different combos you can do in the air

[00:24:40] And then later when you do do that upgrade path to where you can put the damage over time burn on an enemy So then like I beat someone up to like an inch of their life

[00:24:48] Do the down smash like them on fire and then I just walk away and they're like, wait, where are you? The Kirby down the smash was probably one of my favorite moves Yeah, and yeah, I I really liked switching to the sun stance whenever they would give you

[00:25:05] um as you progress through the game and they they kind of change up the gameplay to kind of give you a Little bit more challenges and they give people either general like universal shields Where any damage reduces a shield or they give them moon versus sun specific shields

[00:25:18] So if someone has like a a red bar on their health, you know You have to switch to sun to deplete that shield and then deplete their health the same thing for moon um And I felt that like the sun spear

[00:25:30] Once you got that upgraded and once you kind of like are moving around with that That was the quickest way to get through the general Once but there were there was some stuff that was a little bit tricky to me

[00:25:39] Um as I was going through it since we're on kind of combat and fighting in using the different systems that we had it there I was really curious about did you guys play with the trinkets at all as you were going throughout the game?

[00:25:50] Did you play with the passives? What did you run with will? So I had on the one that would give you more damage where you're at full health because the game's fairly generous as far as the

[00:26:00] I'm trying to go over the spirit was a call that we not eat or what the spirit was called like the The powers that you could use to either use your supers if you had the two bars or

[00:26:09] Pressing I think was up on the d-pad for the playstation gave you like a bar of health roughly or you know decent So I was I was able to Lice up with the moon power get a pretty decent amount of

[00:26:20] The spirit and then I will upgrade that spirit into my max health so that I have max health So we can keep my damage topped off the whole time. So Once again game is not difficult, but it just made it so that okay one

[00:26:31] I have to kind of balance my damage against my health so it makes me use that more So I'm not just sitting there with full bar throughout the fight, which I sometimes like oh

[00:26:39] I get through a fight like up. I could have used my supers or like I could have done this I could have done that I was like hard Hard fighting for no reason. Yeah, but like that one I like the ones where it was

[00:26:49] Defense against range attacks because that was like the bane Whatever you're sitting there. You're trying to fight somebody up close and one of the The warriors would throw the the arcing attacks at you Yet well, you can parry it back to him. Which is nice

[00:27:03] I like getting that upgrade too or if you had the flying bowl my goodness the flying uh Cobras Where they shot the acid at you and I was like, okay cool. I'll die down the way. That's fine. Oh, it tracks Interesting

[00:27:17] No, no one told me it would follow me around the corner. I'm like, oh great. I'm playing call of duty I'm gonna shot through walls over here So it was nice having that range defense on there too

[00:27:27] But those are the two main ones and then I went through as we know We got the blitz so we got all of the different trinkets

[00:27:32] So I would kind of switch it out here and there but those are like the two mainstays that I would hold on to Gotcha. Did you have any one any different uh passives that you preferred? Danny

[00:27:42] I I was definitely one that wanted to build the healing and then alts like that was my main say I was like I did everything to not get hit when I could

[00:27:51] So I was like if I can keep my health as full as possible and then just blast everything from a distance Like that was just my rinse and repeat the entire game. Yeah. So yeah, that was my go to

[00:28:00] I will say that yeah for for dealing with the flying enemies you have to use the moon stance basically unless it's like It's very rare that they would give you a flying enemy that's in with a sun health like shield bar

[00:28:11] They would occasionally do it and it would be frustrating to have to get through that But you would you just kind of have to figure it out. Um, I would say the spear comes in handy

[00:28:19] My boy you just chuck that spear from across the map. That's true. That's true. Then that's how you do it Yeah, and I found myself later on in the game when they kind of like force that stuff on you

[00:28:28] I found myself doing a lot more switching in between during like the beginning of the game I would like because I felt like the sun stance was a little bit under leveled at the beginning

[00:28:36] And the moon stance was a little bit stronger and you get I got more comfortable with it in the beginning of the game But as you progress through it and as you kind of fully upgrade all of the powers and the skill tree

[00:28:46] I found myself doing a lot more switching back and forth at Random to kind of like utilize I do like boom boom boom boom boom Like when I like shooting the spells at somebody and then I was switched to the sun stance to do like a heavy

[00:28:57] Like melee attack or something like that and then or maybe a shield strike Or rather a spear strike across room and kind of do that and that there is a lot of like

[00:29:07] Optional gameplay and they tell you at the very beginning. Hey, like it's the balance between the sun and the moon That's what the whole game is about. That's what the point of the fighting is and you're like, okay

[00:29:14] Okay, I'm picking up what you're putting down. Look, let's be real. Let's be real. We're all anime nerds in here I know exactly why y'all like the moon stance because you got to do the kamehameha every 13 seconds

[00:29:25] You know, it's now it's funny. I didn't drag a ball like that. I'm a one-piece guy dog. I even in dragon ball But we talk about the super moves for each stance It was very rare that I found myself needing to use it

[00:29:38] Like I couldn't justify the usage of those Super moves a lot of the time and I and unless I got into something that I'm going to get in later here

[00:29:47] Which I really enjoyed the spirit rituals which were like kind of the hard fighting arenas and then at that point I was like, okay. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna pop these off But I found myself like forgetting to use them whenever I'm kind of in the open world

[00:29:58] Then I know that's a that's a me issue. That's me not using my full loadout skill set But more than anything else. I found that the sun uh the sun Mask the torn the fire tornado was a lot more useful to me

[00:30:12] Personally when I was getting ganged up on and in a quick like get out of get out of gl free situation As opposed to the kamehameha because depending on how the enemies are grouped up

[00:30:21] You know, it's just it's really going to depend but I found a lot of times that when you use the the uh The fire volcano enemies would jump into it, which I was Yeah, it would come Okay, yeah, I was

[00:30:36] Definitely going with the moon like I said, I was always trying to dodge and stay away But I can constantly think of the huge bug dudes that would just run across the stage and slam into the wall

[00:30:45] Yeah, constantly. I was like, I'm gonna stand here once you run at me and I jump over I'm standing the opposite side and then just moonbean kamehameha into your back smart However many times I could charge it per match

[00:30:57] But yeah, like I just remember constantly using that. Yeah, the the pillar of fire was really great too. You're right They would just Dumb like we got to get the guy and then all like

[00:31:07] Stop it gets sucked into the fire. I'm cool. You're all dead now. That's fine. Like thanks for the achievement. That's cool. All right Exactly. Yeah, thanks for the cheese though It's exactly what you're saying there with the super moves though, nick

[00:31:18] It's like I really didn't find myself needing to use them too much Luckily you built up so much special that I was like I would look down like oh, yeah I have enough I will just use it because then I'll build it again and it's not bad

[00:31:28] But later on especially that like last third of the game when you're fighting, you know The bug enemies that daddy mentioned and then there's also those enemies out of the second area with the the spears

[00:31:37] Where they're really effective at dodging you and then they'll hit you with like a really long Surprisingly long range spear like I accidentally stepped into a dog trolls game I was like, all right. Uh, if you come near me, I'm gonna turn into a tornado

[00:31:49] Or it's like or if you're across the map and I'm just gonna shoot this b-match I'm not in the water. This is a hollow knight? What is this? If they ever put two of them in the same room, I was like, okay and clicking both the sticks

[00:32:01] Yeah, I'm not used to play here. They also dodged you mentioned a Yes, yeah, they're they're so frustrating but you mentioned them being in the same room There's early on I think it's in the first section is that elevator segment

[00:32:14] And I remember that being the first skill gap and I think our buddy adam gumby over at uh, uh respawning fire He uh, he had mentioned he's like it's funny. I didn't have a problem with that. I'm like really that's crazy

[00:32:27] It's all about like I think the page suited out like the surgeon studio They were just like how you guys doing this weekend. It was like a clip of the elevator. I'm like, I hate you

[00:32:34] I hate you so much. That was the first time like let me pause. I'm gonna turn this off I'm gonna come back in the morning. I'm gonna try again But it was this this cycle of you had the dudes rushing you with swords

[00:32:44] And when you're going to dodge them or parry them you got the dudes with the spears Like let me just hit you in the back. So it was a constant cycle if you weren't in the right spot

[00:32:51] You were constantly taking damage. I'm like, I can't get through this. I I don't know what's wrong. Am I just bad at games now I'm just getting that old. I can't compete. I don't know what's going on

[00:32:59] We're all in our 30s. This is a this is a 30s, uh 30 year old panelist podcast right now So we're all our twitch reactions are down the drain. You know, I'm still 29 Leave me alone Don't age me yet, right? I'm not gonna age you

[00:33:16] You can still stream for now. Yeah, you're you're so All right, you guys heard it 30 years old streams done Oh man, so we're kind of in that section at first something that I wanted to like ask you both about was like

[00:33:32] We talked a little bit about some of the enemies that we did I felt like, you know, I have a note a little bit later down that talks about the the enemy variety kind of being lacking

[00:33:41] Um, you got like your basic enemies and once you've seen I would say that Once you get to the third or fourth area, you've seen almost all of the enemies Um, yeah, there was one that I had a really big struggle with that like

[00:33:53] Pissed me off more than any of them. All of them had their own individually Like nuances that you had to figure out like how to approach them. They were like flying little pterodactyls that would dive

[00:34:02] Bomb you there were the the cobras that the flying cobras that will mention before with the tracking acid And then of course your normal mob enemies then heavy mob enemies

[00:34:10] And there was one specific one that really pissed me off more than anything else and it was the little turret guys They're easy as heck

[00:34:18] They're not hard to kill but they piss me off so badly because every time I would try to like I wouldn't deal with them at Range I would try to get in close and whack them and then they would like

[00:34:28] Stunlock me and then I would be on the ground for like five minutes straight with them like Repeatedly using their one move and I'm like wait is it why are you why is this hard? Why is this a pain in my ass every single fucking time?

[00:34:41] Um that that really bothered me, but obviously did either of you have any issues with other enemies throughout the game Besides the ones we've mentioned Yeah, that's not the ones we mentioned not terribly. I was like the cobras

[00:34:53] I didn't like them as far as the flying enemies. Yeah, the adzei like the bug guys we mentioned before They were more just annoying with the whole health siphon That was what my question was is that so they are sucking health from zao and buffing other enemies

[00:35:07] Exactly. They were doing it. Okay. Yeah, they were passing your health to them So it's one of those things you kind of make a decision Are you going to blitz down the enemies that they're healing or you're gonna attack the adzei directly and let the other

[00:35:17] Enemy attack you in the back because the ads they do fight you but they're rarely like if you get in their face You know, they'll push you but then really the whole thing they're there to do is suck your health out

[00:35:27] Which is the worst when there's two of them I think there's a couple sections where there's like either the the missions we mentioned before like those kind of Fighting trials and then maybe even some normal spots where like you first are introduced to them

[00:35:38] Two will pop up. So then you're having your health siphon from two different enemies Healing two other different enemies and I'm just like, you know what? I'm gonna turn it to a fire tornado I don't care

[00:35:51] Yeah, I would say that like and so on the conversation of enemy variety It's a really for me. It's a tough conversation because I feel like it's such a short game I mean you look at the how long to be it says it's like a 10 hour experience, right?

[00:36:03] It took us a little longer because we got we 100% of it But I would say that for the experience it is One of the critiques of tales of kinsara is the fact that like it wants to be a metroidvania but it also doesn't kind of

[00:36:16] Do some of the core elements of the metroidvania which means that You know, it's kind of forcing the player to explore and it gives a lot of different enemy variety

[00:36:24] These are things that you'll find in the prince of berger the lost crown or even a hollow knight whatever Whatever metroidvania you kind of want to look at or try to address But I think that like It's it's hard for me to say

[00:36:35] Oh, they needed to add 10 more enemies or five more enemies and then the experience would be complete Like it's hard to say that especially with the level of difficulty. I think sergeant studios wanted to convey in zow

[00:36:46] I'm not really sure where where are you guys temperature on on that? I think when it comes to variety, um, I think it is it's insanely noticeable Like you were saying once you get to like that third area you experience most of everything

[00:37:00] Like minus the final boss like you've seen what this game is going to throw at you Now it's just a matter of how many are at one given time or do I have the right kit to to handle

[00:37:09] three four these guys versus two or three of these guys um, I don't necessarily think the lack of variety less than the game for me in any way Um, I definitely think I had those excitement. So like oh new guy to fight like this is really cool

[00:37:22] And maybe I lost that like excitement towards the end where I wasn't getting anything new to expect um But yeah, I think even adding four or five new ones for the final section

[00:37:33] Four or five for final sections a lot two or three for the final section would have been nice It would have been like cool. There's still some variety to expect through the end Um, but yeah, even not having that. I don't think

[00:37:43] Someone going in like if there's not enough enemy variety I don't know It's something I think it's like a casual player It's not something that you really care about especially because if you're trying to get to the end of the game

[00:37:56] Right, it's something that you get on a podcast and you critique the experience But but the thing is is like I think that Um, if the I if they gave the enemies a little bit more of a move set

[00:38:06] I think that part of the experience is that they kind of force the player to understand pacing and rhythm Or they want the player to understand pacing and rhythm And I think that if they tweaked the enemies just a little bit more

[00:38:18] To like really like push the player like have a little bit more harder pursuit Because something that I found that was a little bit of a hack as you get into the later levels specifically those spirit ritual levels

[00:38:28] Um, where they give you an open map and you give a wave after wave after wave of enemies is that if you stay In one vertical one little vertical area and you don't really move horizontally throughout the map

[00:38:40] Enemies won't track you and they won't really press you a kind of you can stay and manage the two or three That are in your area and then once they're taking care of and dealt with you can move on to that other side

[00:38:49] Of the room and then deal with them there I did that out of the review use that strategy as well Or that terribly noticed it. Yeah, okay. I tend to jump around a lot

[00:39:00] I was really like aggressive especially because I was using the the song one most of the time So I kind of had to beat people's faces. Yeah It's good old plaz. He's like, you know what give me god of war. I'm trying to kill

[00:39:11] I gotta get really aggressive with it. Yeah, but I mean like all in all the enemy variety itself You know, they're roughly eight or so kind of main enemies that you fight which For a 15 hour experience is you know fine. There definitely could have been more

[00:39:23] But I'm I do struggle whenever I think about or I'm like, okay. What else would have You know been one fun because you got to remember you can throw in an enemy that does something different Like oh, there's someone who put something at zile's feet

[00:39:35] So he has to constantly be moving but that I'm like, all right, but is that fun? Yeah Is that going to like upgrade the experience in a different way and make it interesting

[00:39:43] Or is it just gonna be another hurdle to get over because at the end of the day playing through this game You know the combat I think is very serviceable, but it's also not the focus

[00:39:53] Like that's not the point you should kind of come into zile expecting the combat to be You know super top-notch and then that's what's going to be the takeaway. You can have fun with it

[00:40:02] But really it's it's the story and then the platforming which I think is very sound and they um if anything I would I do rather not would I do appreciate that they give you a nice kind of string Along of different Movement abilities for you to use

[00:40:17] Versus you know focusing more on enemy, you know I'm sure we're going to talk about the movement abilities and you know not to do spoiling but Nicky already talked about the freezing pebble move that you have the moon stance

[00:40:26] But how cool is it when you're sitting there running around and you see water that you throw out the water That freezes and I'm like, okay now I can wall jump off of this previously moving item

[00:40:36] And then they use that to block off areas that you think oh I dodged through this like I normally do to get past it But wait if I freeze it that I can hop up and there's a secret area

[00:40:45] I appreciate that they have more variety when it comes to the actual platforming in the movement More so than me the enemies of the fighting Yeah, 100% I feel like the traversal

[00:40:57] Was more of like an interesting element to me just kind of figuring out that like live action like mind mapping That you're going through the different levels versus like more of the explorative

[00:41:08] Aspects of the game like I found that like something that we talk about the mapping exploration Is that like one of the obvious flaws that we've already covered is that the map is pretty linear

[00:41:17] As you go throughout the game the map is opening up based on the different story points that you hit So your kalunga tells you to go deal with impundulu

[00:41:24] You're going to deal with impundulu in the uh in like the first area region that you're going to go in Ica caramba, I think is the name of that area and then you're like, you know

[00:41:32] He tells you okay go back and then you have to go all the way back down and you have different fast travel points I think that was one I wanted to like warp. I don't know

[00:41:42] We needed to wait here we go. Here we go. No. We had this conversation the last review The dragon's dog. Yeah, I want to be able to finish travel more. Why don't you just use the movement run around the map?

[00:41:53] They made it so fun to traverse stuff. I mean they made it fun I don't want to get him Danny I don't want to Let me tell you exactly where the item is in grand

[00:42:05] We have full-time jobs. I don't want to fucking run to a fast travel point And then heal or use an ox cart to go to a different town and then have to fucking troll destroy the ox cart halfway there

[00:42:17] And then I have to run during the dark. Anyway, sorry. This is not dragon's dog What's your review? I'm still not dover. Yeah, I know Yeah, no, no, I think more fast travel points in this again

[00:42:29] This was a cleaning up going for the platinum type struggle where I was like cool I need to go get this item on the other side of the map and I'm like, oh cool

[00:42:36] The closest fast travel points like 17 miles from my objective. I still have to go really far to get it Again nitpick wine and cry call me a baby if you want blah blah blah, but I was like, damn

[00:42:47] There was just one close. I'm like, I know I fought a boss in that room You could put one right outside like that could have been right That would have been nice. So give me a side of grace, please I would say give me a bonfire

[00:42:56] They have like they have one fast travel point per area and I think that like upgrading that to like just at least two Especially for the bigger ones because some of them are like super expansive And then you have to kind of like figure out

[00:43:07] Oh have to go back down this area and then take an elevator down to go get that reflection point or whatever they Would that shrink it whatever the the objective may be so there was a little bit of that

[00:43:16] But like it's and it's not really I'm not really focused on like the fast travel as like a main critique That's more of a quality of life comment, but more than anything else

[00:43:25] I think that like as a metroidvania, you know, somebody has has stated before like for the classic ones that we've put in the past

[00:43:31] Whether it is, you know, what going to be a metroid primer or it is going to be some of the other ones like prince of persia The lost crown

[00:43:38] Um exploration kind of is at the core of the element in the lost crown specifically gives you a lot of tools in the map That will allow you to like pinpoint. Okay. Here's the thing that I need to come back to

[00:43:47] Because I don't have this power yet to get to this point or here's where I can go You know to make sure that I can fight this enemy to get this power Whatever the case maybe they did give you a lot of tools to like notate that

[00:43:58] They don't really do that in this game because the narrative is so linear It's so hand-holdy that they kind of just like usher you through and say all right now

[00:44:07] These are the points that you can get to and it was very clear. I appreciated the extent where it was like Oh, that's a wall that I can't get through. I don't have a power

[00:44:15] I'm like shooting my beams at it. I can't get through it. So clearly I got to come back here and so that was That was appreciated by me, but then again, it was like

[00:44:24] It didn't really like force me to like want to explore more than I already was trying to get the objectives for the platinum So that's that's where I sit on that. Yeah, and that could definitely be one of the downsides talking about that too

[00:44:35] You know we've mentioned before yes, it is a metroidvania and it very much is in that camp But it's not really like an aggressive one if that's a proper word to use

[00:44:44] You know I'm sitting here thinking like okay, you have your three main biomes and then you get to your third biome You still unlock at least another two movement abilities

[00:44:51] But to my recollection you really don't need either of them to unlock or find anything and like the first biome for example You can almost go from 100 percent that area 200 percent that area 300 percent that area and be done versus In a more traditional kind of metroidvania game

[00:45:10] You may have to wait until almost the end of the game to where you unlock something to then go back to the very first area To have that ability too, which is one

[00:45:19] Like you said nick it makes it so that you don't necessarily want to or you don't have to explore Which is kind of a downside, you know being in the game and jumping around and having that fun That is something that I would love to have seen them

[00:45:29] Put more emphasis on and have the players need to do more so that would have been cool But going back to what you mentioned there with the fast travel, you know we're Old men we got full-time jobs. We've got lives and things to do

[00:45:40] So it's nice to be able to say okay I can beat this game in 15 hours and then when I get to the final boss the platinum pops I don't have to go clean up if I don't yeah if I haven't done so already

[00:45:50] So it's a little bit of like, you know pulling pulling give when it comes to that Yeah, I think for me it's about secrets It's all about like the secrets and the lore if you're gonna kind of incentivize exploration You know legend of zelda does this

[00:46:05] You know there was another crow not crow country, but there is a There's another crow game. I'm trying to remember death's door where it has this like wide expansive map and like that that is like

[00:46:15] That is like yeah exactly chef's kiss in terms of finding shortcuts and different access routes to like find the secrets And that's just not something that you find here And I think as will have stated previously

[00:46:28] That wasn't I don't think it was the emphasis for the developers this time because the emphasis more so was on the story And that's something that you know, we do the lost crown comparison again

[00:46:37] That's what I've heard a lot from different reviewers is that the and I haven't played lost crown for clarification for our listeners I haven't I haven't beat it yet but uh, but a lot of uh reviewers have said that like

[00:46:47] It was hard to connect with the main character and the different like events that were happening in lost crown because it didn't really have enough of like an emotional storytelling or like a um a layer of uh character work

[00:47:00] That was supporting you to like care about what was happening at any point in the game Whereas with everything that was happening with zao whether it was the parts where he's uh focused on on chasing this little girl and ikka karamba or he's really frustrated with um

[00:47:14] Colunga because he's like not he's he's really bothering him at any given moment Like I felt what zao was feeling as I was playing through the game And I felt like that was so much more of a strength

[00:47:24] And I'm glad that they leaned in that direction versus trying to be a mechanical masterpiece So That's where I sit with that. Um, so we talked a little bit about the enemies when we talk about some of the the different

[00:47:38] Points that were throughout the map like obviously as I mentioned before there's spirit rituals, which is wave-based combat there are Reflection points where you have to do a little bit of traversal to go sit there and you sit on a retreat And you literally just contemplate

[00:47:52] You know what's going on between you and the loss of your dad and kind of the the feeling of Where zao is right now and then there is another one where it's I can't remember

[00:48:01] But it's like it has the assassin's creed up stereo triangle and it's like, okay This is where you need to do some pretty intensive platform Do we have any favorites of those different parts? They don't like the delta symbol. Yeah, I like that

[00:48:13] I like that um those spots the deltas like the words of power. Okay. You go through here and you get Those are some of my favorites also someone was frustrating. That's that flappy bird we were talking about earlier Yeah

[00:48:28] Oh, this is fun the last one putting spikes on like, oh, this is not fun Yeah, the last one flashbacks. I can't remember it was like the mount I can't remember the name of the area But it was where you try you're traversing up this volcano

[00:48:39] And there was one where you have to do a lot of like okay Use the air to lift you up and then go in between the spikes that one pissed me off so bad

[00:48:47] I probably spent like an hour just trying to do that one challenge, but that was a that was definitely a good time Yeah, those are my favorite spots then especially too because you get a pretty decent reward by the time you got to the end of them

[00:48:59] So, uh, you know outside of the flappy birds They were never too too bad But they do exactly what those kinds of areas are supposed to do when it comes to traversal Which is when you get it right when you make that like 100 flawless run

[00:49:12] You feel really cool hopping off the walls You have the walls that may like fall away when you're jumping so that it feels like really cool and oh man If I mess this up

[00:49:20] I'm gonna jump into a spike and have to restart or when you're sliding down the water and then you have to duck under The spikes that pop up that was fun

[00:49:26] And then as you're going towards the water you throw the frozen pebble so you can freeze it and jump off Yeah, it just makes you feel really nice And it's what we talked about you know even all the way up leading to this point too

[00:49:36] I think the focus is on the story and on the platforming and they really nailed both in my opinion pretty flawlessly Almost rinse and repeat the same thing the traversal puzzles were great um, I

[00:49:47] I mentioned earlier like wanting to put my head through the wall doing some of them But they also felt like that escape seems like the wrong word But there was like that additional touch of gameplayer. I'm like, I'm either fighting or I'm platforming

[00:49:58] But this one I'm using the extra tools that they gave me just to get an extra trinket a fun extra I can crease my health bar find another room that I didn't reach before get the reflection pool And even though not not everything was the most like rewarding

[00:50:10] Rewarding reward. I guess Um, it's still like This was a fun sidestep from the typical gameplay Um, the other floppy bird part still I gridding my teeth thinking about how many times I'm like, I just got to get right through this little Nope. Okay. I guess

[00:50:28] My glider hit the spike. I guess that counts. Okay Yeah, okay So that's another question that I wanted. Did you have any issues where you're like, I definitely hit that platform But then it like it spiked me out or the different been a couple spots there Okay, cool

[00:50:43] I'm glad that I wasn't the only one because there were there was like I and I want to say like There was this game was largely polished for the most part especially

[00:50:50] You know when it comes to like a lot of the combat, but there was a little bit of the traversal It was like I landed on that platform

[00:50:55] I definitely get it or it's like zows like rig barely brushed like the outline of a spike and then you're like Well, you know That is a get good moment. That is a get good learn the physics try again

[00:51:08] And I will say that that was that was totally fair. But yeah, when it comes to the all of this, this is a 100% just a beautiful story that I recommend everybody but Before we get into the spoilers Do we have any final thoughts on any of the above?

[00:51:22] Say because I know it's going to be in the spoiler section But just before we get there in case anyone dips out and they don't want to hear spoilers I'd love for people to know

[00:51:29] There are some chase sequences in this game and those are some of the hardest parts for me that were in the game itself I died a lot

[00:51:35] Yeah, the smoke and fog stuff chasing you is one of those where you kind of have to die a couple of times just to get the feel of Where because where are you supposed to go?

[00:51:43] Yeah, because they'll it'll like you're running to the left and then the smoke starts coming from the left and if you're not like Zoned in if you're not locked in then yeah, you get

[00:51:51] Auto killed and you're like, okay, I guess I gotta restart. Yeah, and I think that two real like hard chases They had brutal checkpoints So I was like I thought I was too far and I was like, oh man, this is great

[00:52:01] Like I've been jumping and running for the last like two minutes and then you died I'm like, nope. Oh and back at the start I think Yeah, I found that it was the so for the second boss. Um, let me pull the name here

[00:52:13] It's uh kiki on the boss section is not a boss fight It is a run escape from the smoke fight and that one was pretty long But I almost find the second one that you hit after you fight the third and final great spirit, uh, Gagoreb

[00:52:28] There was one where you have to like escape the volcano And that one I think is what I I agree with you 100 on will where I was like, hey like I I did it maybe 10 to 12 times before I was finally it was like, okay

[00:52:40] I got this and I finally just closed it out and finished it But it was like yeah as 100% you're kind of put under that time pressure. You're crunched people A lot of people don't like chase sequences I know this for a fact

[00:52:50] So that's a lot of people on twitter say the chase sequences are the are the lamest thing that you could put in a video game

[00:52:55] And I'm like, I don't know. I mean like this works for me in the context of this game in the context of the platforming In the setting in this game. This is not the first game to do this

[00:53:05] Nor will it be the last I don't think but uh, yeah, I thought that some of them were okay But some were pretty egregious in terms of the difficulty Yeah, I didn't mind the chase is so much. I um

[00:53:16] I the first one are I guess the second one there with the smoke on the in the second world Um, yeah, if you struggle with that turn around that was my problem

[00:53:23] Turn around and go the other way. That's your issue. Yeah, but um, I struggled a lot with that one Then you mentioned with the third boss. I I remember I think I died once to that one

[00:53:33] But that was the part where my brain was just like you think you can predict what's gonna happen And then you do whether it's maybe you just miss you're like, okay that jumped down here

[00:53:41] But I I saved it because I didn't jump soon enough so I could still you know course correct in the air Um, and nostalgia seems like it should require more time in between But doing those chase puzzles

[00:53:52] Reminded me of like ory both blind forest and will the wisp where they have these chase sequences I think those were a lot harder, but there it is that Rushing through like this beautiful world. That's like wow. I wish I could stop in sightseeing

[00:54:05] But I'm about to die from whatever it is that's behind me right now So I can't really do that But at least I died a couple times so I get to re-see the same thing over and over again

[00:54:14] So I finally get to take a peek at it. Yeah, um, yeah No, I don't know when people complain about the chase sequences like I don't get it I love them that that adrenaline going now if I die like 40 times. I get it

[00:54:23] Yeah, I think like part of it is is that there have been too many horror games that do it too poor effect And like it's a little bit clunky like I know some of the like we recently played a silent hill game that they dropped for free

[00:54:37] Yeah, the messenger. Okay. I had one that was But there were some other ones like What was it the same developer who's working on silent hill too? They did um

[00:54:47] The medium and there is a mean it's like it's where the chase you can says where they change camera direction They have you like running towards the camera. That's always the most egregious where it's like, uh, this is not great

[00:54:58] But unfortunately tails they keep it very consistent whenever you're Running around and it's still that 2d platforming type of experience And it's just like understanding the core mechanics We talk about leveling tree and like going around and getting the different platforming sections

[00:55:12] I will say this before we move on the one thing that I did to do is I I did the same thing will did on acts it has done in previous games where I accidentally like did it on super hard level I made it to like the

[00:55:24] fourth or fifth area Without realizing that she had to upgrade your skill tree So I was like literally playing without like anything upgraded. I was just doing it on like, you know get good mode

[00:55:36] Like, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, exactly 15 of the top right of my screen for yeah I was like, oh, I wonder what that is and then I look at the tree and it's like upgrade all skills And I was like, oh, yeah

[00:55:46] Oh, yeah, that's what you say the money. So yeah, we're playing a video game. We're playing a video game there, Nick Let's let's get it together. I have to use these potions for later

[00:55:55] That's amazing. All right. Now with that, let's go ahead and take a quick music break And then we're going to go into all of the spoiler free story discussion in the themes of this game

[00:56:44] Okay, and welcome back everybody uh for the spoiler free discussion of the narrative surrounding tales of Kinzera Zao Um, I'd like to keep this just an open and casual conversation and just start off the front How long was it before you realized that Kolonga was Zao's dad?

[00:57:02] The end of the game for me Like when you guys felt obvious. Yeah, you didn't think it was obvious I thought at Around the second pot like this can't be my dad. It would just it wouldn't make like it'd be too easy to be like

[00:57:20] Oh, yeah, Kolonga's my dad. Of course I mean, but that's what I said It was basically after I fought in poondaloo and it was the moment where You're traversing the swamp and zao is like, you're not my real dad. Stop talking to me. I'm gonna get through it

[00:57:36] I was like, oh, Kolonga's definitely his dad, right? Yeah, no, I thought that it was it was good He has this whole spider-man 2 superman 2 moment where he doesn't want to be zao anymore And he's like hired of everything and and he I think that

[00:57:50] One of the questions that I came into this game because they made a I mean Abu like made a very big point about saying hey, this is about this is a story about my grief This is a story about my personal experience of my father dying

[00:58:02] I was like, okay, are we gonna be able to accurately handle the themes and like the core central ideas of grief in a way that like is You know Compelling to the player and I think they really did. I really think they did

[00:58:16] And you know, especially like all of the different parts of the game where He's learning more about like the consequences of his actions and everything that happened Like the first section of the game I thought was incredible

[00:58:25] And I was assuming that each of the other parts of the game were going to be as intensive Um, they seem to be short. I don't know if you guys felt like the different areas were as short as or or Significantly shorter than Ika Karamba

[00:58:37] But I really really liked the story Of him chasing the little girl and then finding out that the girl's mother had turned into impu and the lu and she was the great Sky spirit that had refused to acknowledge Kalunga and that that was really cool um

[00:58:53] Yeah, I think that yeah, it's it's hard to It's hard to like grapple with because you have like three main boss fights and obviously as we said before impu

[00:59:01] Nidu is the first one is the sky spirit. That's the first one you fight and you have the second one Which is Kiki on which is like this corruption spirit. It's like the spirit of nature that was corrupted because it refused to like

[00:59:13] Pass on I guess to kalunga. I'm not I'm not 100 sure and then the the spirit of gagorib, which is like this Great big fire gorilla that's inside of the volcano that you fight kind of towards the end and

[00:59:25] Those are the three different ones and I felt like that the the second one was kind of like oh, it was like more of It represented like I said before each area Had a theme that tied back to what was happening with zao where it was like

[00:59:39] The first one was like you're going up into the sky and zao was kind of like really figuring out What this whole journey is going to mean to him Whereas the second area is like about corruption. It's about the corruption of the environment

[00:59:49] That's where he starts to get really angry and really upset with kalunga if i'm not mistaken Yep, that's exactly when you're going through those different levels. You know you have impundulu The mother who was afraid to let go

[01:00:02] So making sure that you were able to provide that piece to her You know finally give peace to accept the death of the self and allow Her daughter to flourish so there that was big and that of course ties into zao What's going on curly with his father

[01:00:14] You can like allow that piece and allowing yourself to kind of flourish in this absence because Zao's father was the shaman If yourself being the shaman now you have those shoes to fail

[01:00:22] You're like am i able to step up to this, you know, is this something that I even want Um, so having that be the first step was an excellent place to kind of start it off on We talked about kiki on

[01:00:33] Having the corruption, you know playing on his fear Of course, you know, you have your fear with I'll say a parent in general But especially for like a son and his father um was bad enough traditionally in this

[01:00:44] Kind of culture as well now you have that fear that's going on the fear of the unknown the fear of change Something that was really easy to prey on in zao's mind. So that's where the agitation come from like you were saying nick

[01:00:55] You know, he's he's dealing with uh, kalunga while also trying to At that time help his friend who had already been kind of corrupted and allowed to be taken over by kiki on so

[01:01:06] beating that getting past that section allowing yourself to kind of let go of that fear and Move on some there's another step towards that grieving process Of course getting down to gagorib You know where it's that straight up father

[01:01:21] Being lost by the sun and seeing what happens to gagorib that kind of monstrous Thing that he turns into after losing his father because he was not able to let go and it's like hey

[01:01:30] This is that dark mirror is out be like this is yeah, you know, you're kind of bizarre version of you You know, you have to let go of your father. You have to find that energy that strength within yourself Otherwise this could be your fate um

[01:01:42] So being able to you know literally fight against that and then accept your father's passing Extinguish the pain and that you know painful fire within that gagorib that big kind of fiery monster creature that he had turned into Yeah, the story itself, you know going through those three

[01:01:57] That's something that's very common You know, you have your characters that need to go through these trials and then the bosses are the trials themselves But because of how personal and how You know very low. It's not low stakes. It's it's weird

[01:02:09] Whatever you think about someone losing a parent thing that is low stakes But you know, there's no traditional mcu blue light in the sky that's threatening the world This is someone who's trying to get his dad's spirit back because he loves him so much

[01:02:21] So yeah having these stakes be lower on the cosmic scale but much more personal on a hey This is my dad scale. Um was something that really struck me. Yeah 100% Yeah, I um, I I seem to find it like

[01:02:37] All of them as I as I was going through it. I found that like zao's personal journey I was never frustrated with where his character was which is something that happens to me a lot when I'm playing games I'm like, why are they writing this character like this?

[01:02:47] I felt like his his journey and like his reactions to everything that was going on was really really cool And really neat. I also like this was something that I was very surprised about it was at the end of

[01:02:59] The the third area and you beat uh gagorib and you go through that traversal section And then it's like he starts off. He meets with kalunga You do what you've done the two other times and you kind of have that

[01:03:10] Debrief session and then it just cuts out. I'm like did my game just glitch like what's happening? I didn't say oh on accident did I and then it's just back in zow and or it's not in zow

[01:03:19] What was the name zubarri? It's it's back with zubarri and he's reading the book And he's like, oh, he didn't finish it and I'm like, oh No, I was like I was like they better not leave this game off of that

[01:03:30] I would have been so mad, but I'm really glad I imagine Oh come back for It's out 2.0 and then you get the end of the story. That's some real like prince of perjury of 2011 reboot shit right there

[01:03:42] If they were to do that, but I was almost prepared for that section, right when it was like, oh the story wasn't finished I thought we were done with like the zow portion of it I thought we were going to stay modern

[01:03:51] Yeah, and kind of see like they were going to have that evolution of the character to figure out like I've lost my baba. I'm going to figure out what to do from here Um and like although I would love to have seen what that interpretation looked like

[01:04:02] I'm glad we didn't get to go back and finish it as zow, but I'm just like, oh what if what if we're like this I am zow the story is written as me. I am this character

[01:04:11] So let me finish my own story. Let me progress and find my own path and continue it that way Which I thought was like A fun direction that it could have been taken Um, but again, it's safe to finish what we started. So yeah 100%

[01:04:25] Yeah, I had a really really good time with that and then of course the very end You kind of come back and then it's like because he jumps out And then the way that zewberry writes the end of the story

[01:04:37] And I guess like this just could have been open to interpretation is that the the character that plays kalunga That you're traveling throughout the world with the entire time who's giving zow advice Kalunga is very much a parental figure

[01:04:48] He's saying hey zow like you can't look at it this way or you have to you have to go over there You have to make sure to do this and zow like at several moments gets frustrated

[01:04:56] He pushes back on him throughout the story and then of course at the end there The character kalunga kind of like embraces out and he's like are you finally ready to move on?

[01:05:06] Are you finally ready to do what you need to do and zow like transcends into the spirit world? And then like you have this massive boss fight And I actually thought this boss fight was really good with the exception of a couple of different pieces

[01:05:17] But like the final boss fight literally just was a compilation of All of the other bosses that you had played before On top of all of the other enemies that you played before and it forces you to use All of your loadouts and your skill sets

[01:05:30] Something that like we didn't necessarily touch on was like within punta lube There is a moment that I didn't necessarily notice with gagorib that it was irrelevant with kikkeon because that was just a That was an escape fight

[01:05:43] But there is a moment where they're charging up a beam attack and you're able to like shoot One of your like heavy projectiles into that thing to stun them. Did you both notice that?

[01:05:52] Did I I'm assuming you both ever really get that? Okay. Yeah after the first couple encounters I was just like how do I stop this? I'm like just shut up, but I thought oh cool. I can stop it Yeah, exactly

[01:06:04] And then that mechanic returns um when you're fighting the uh basically just you're you're fighting um Uh, it's not your what's his name kalunga You're fighting kalunga at the very end and kalunga has kind of become this great spirit

[01:06:18] That is using all of the different moves sets that you have to learn There's like a wave dash That you can do mid air that you kind of have to use to traverse and then you kind of use that also to

[01:06:29] Uh escape through or break through walls and that sort of thing But yeah, it's a very very uh fun fight at the end There's one thing that I thought was a little bit of like a misstep that I thought

[01:06:38] Yeah, this needed a little bit more work, but it was like they're trying to incorporate the Kiki yon like escape scene where he rises up into the air where kalunga rises up into the air and then Create several platforms with like fog coming in around you and like

[01:06:53] I was already dealing with enemies that are on the ground because he also summons enemies during that fight And I was like, okay. Do we want me to kill these enemies or do you want me to jump up on platforms?

[01:07:02] Like which is it gonna be like and and so I found myself often getting like hurt But this fight didn't take me too long to to do Um

[01:07:11] And it was very fulfilling at the end because you had this like really really touching cut scene that was basically just like It was a scene about, you know, you know, kalunga embracing zhao for a final time and then zhao like letting go

[01:07:23] Wish I thought it was pretty beautiful. So yeah And then realistically we've talked about almost all of the aspects of the games Will am I missing anything in terms of like the intensive spoiler moments throughout the experience? That's super intensive

[01:07:36] But just getting into some more of the side characters too because obviously zhao and kalunga the two that you deal with the whole time

[01:07:41] But yeah by him you go to you are dealing with separate side characters who are to some level involved with the great spirits that you're fighting there So you already mentioned lianna and kakuramba. So when you're there, you know, she's kind of chasing

[01:07:54] She's one of the first characters you come across outside of zhao and kalunga And then you know you fall down into the pits when you're chasing her in zhao has like I'm sorry for scaring you

[01:08:05] I'm just trying to get done with this, you know hero's journey in 15 minutes. So I made a mistake Literally fall down into these cavern eyes back up. So it's She's definitely a very fun character very jovial childlike obviously young child

[01:08:20] So she's a great character. I think to start off with And then the second character you come across of super lana Aside, but lana I believe so yes, she was I think she's I recall I know like when they zoom in on

[01:08:32] You didn't kind of talk about this too much, but each of the character Models during the actual cut scenes the conversations, you know, there are the actual in-game models But there's a lot was 2d kind of like a

[01:08:46] Cartoon maybe is the right way but they have like character art Exactly. Yeah, they have their character where it's like they have a single expression while they say something So if it's like a shot line that they deliver, you know, I love the uh shot face Yeah

[01:09:04] So they have those in subalana is when you zoom in on her it looks like she's blind Like she has like kind of white white eyes So she has that and she has a walking stick as well with her. So I guess that kind of

[01:09:15] Solidifies it, but she needs some medicine So that's one of the things that's out has to do is he rugs up and you're looking all over The second area fighting enemies and jumping through and getting grapple hooks and all this cool stuff

[01:09:27] So we can find these different herbs and items to help heal her the whole time. Kalunga, let her there like You as a shaman one of your duties is to also help somebody pass on Yeah, you can't save everyone, you know, I know this is your fray

[01:09:40] But maybe you should actually go back and just help her die peacefully spend time with her Yeah, yeah So I was fighting that completely so that's a part of that fear that comes into the second level

[01:09:50] But I'm sure that's also too leak or where you're saying the kind of tip you off could like Act a very dad like Dad advice on them Like uh, sabalana's character In bad, of course cool the turn happened. I was like, uh-oh

[01:10:10] Like just sitting there. Oh here are all the items that I ran over the last three hours looking for you Here you go. And it's like thank you very much. You foolish boy We made a mistake here. Yeah, your fear is so delicious

[01:10:26] Yeah, and again like that was like I think the second part was that I really felt that emotional connection between The voice actors with zao and then the the shaman that he finds in that second area

[01:10:37] Like I was like this is so this is very very emotionally evocative like I felt Like angry with zao as I was like no, we got a saver We got to go back and we got a saver

[01:10:47] So like the writers in the in the voice actors really do a good job of like couching the player in the position of like Truly playing from the perspective of zao which I thought was like very very much worthwhile

[01:10:58] And I thought even more so for the father and son dynamic at the end like it was it was Very sad because you just imagine that the father was waiting in this abandoned village for years For his son to come back, you know that he just never returned

[01:11:11] But because he was absorbed and that was something that I wasn't necessarily clear on in the story I was like, okay, did the son was he trying to prove something to his dad? Is that what the where the connection was between your like bomanie sun

[01:11:23] Yeah, where he was like he wanted to go because it's like the idea is that the trials It's the trials up by the mountain and you have to pass that to become a true warrior And even though everybody had abandoned that village already because of the environmental conditions

[01:11:36] He said no i'm gonna do this and then so his dad was stuck waiting for him for years on end Yeah, I'm not sure if it's 100 correct But kind of what I picked up is that bomanie

[01:11:46] Died and that's why you know, you have the burial section and with actual neckles that you see him with beforehand so the son buried him and then Could not handle that Lost his father

[01:11:58] He was actually dead the whole time. Yeah. Yeah, so bomanie's character was effectively dead like the whole time there So he had him already buried bomanie was already buried and then the son afterwards was like

[01:12:09] I can't accept my father being dead. I'm gonna go up and do these trials and That's getting up there kind of had him all corrupted and turbaned to google rib as we know him Yeah at this section

[01:12:20] So now with you coming through bomanie's spirit effectively was able to kind of send you on that quest that Hopefully helped save his son You were able to get them back reunited and then that's when they had that face-to-face boman

[01:12:31] It was like hey, then let me go, you know, you're allowed to let me go very similar to what Kalunga was able to do or slasher mode Babo was able to do at the end with zow and then luckily

[01:12:43] Before zow got all corrupted and crazy, right? He was able to let go versus like a gordip who had to do it after he had already been taken All right, let's go ahead

[01:12:57] Yeah, I love the story man. It's like this is so awesome. We didn't even talk about mama. We didn't even talk about Yeah, no And that's one of the sections too is like getting before you know fully wrapping up too

[01:13:08] Is you have that section where it drops out of this out story and you go back to the zubairi story And uh, I don't know how much time y'all spent kind of exploring the house But I went to the bottom thing. I went the whole thing. Yeah

[01:13:18] And through did all the conversations whatever you could interact with something I like Got to hear zubairi talk about that because um, it was pregnant

[01:13:28] It would be a big brother more reason for him to stay strong and be like the the true man of the house at this point Now that his father had passed um able to see his own past in his own life things that his

[01:13:38] Father was able to help him with and then even get some of the the different little facts out of the The the griot lamp that he had next to the mess out there like I tapped through all those bad boys until they started repeating

[01:13:50] Now it's like, all right good I know it was I was like that's the only time when the game truly felt like Indy to me because when zubairi was walking around I was like, oh, this is like a little bit janky

[01:14:01] Obviously they knew you weren't gonna be there forever So it wasn't that huge deal But everything else was so smooth and fluid looking and the gameplay felt so nice. It was funny walking around with zubairi

[01:14:09] And it was just like a run just a little bit. I wanted to go a little faster through that All right red did two in the camps I want to speed through these areas where I have to walk and be

[01:14:20] Be peaceful. I just want us to keep spending bad games and he can't help himself at this point You know what I mean? Danny's like I didn't like red dead two like that

[01:14:34] I sat there. I was like, man, I got to be the only guy in the planet that like is not enjoying this game And then thank god, greg miller was out there. It's just like it's not fun. I'm like, oh my god. Thank you Greg

[01:14:47] Our assassin's creed shill savior. Yeah, we love him. We love the guy But I just love that area though when you got to chance to kind of see

[01:14:55] Zau's nazar zubairi's past and yeah, you know having that kind of come into the future that he's going to create by one ending Zau story on Not even necessarily because it at least in my recollection. He didn't say like, oh, this is something

[01:15:07] That was fair shit or i'm gonna do it like my dad, you know, he was doing it like him he's doing it for him and then Area where you kind of walking around Checking things out. He's like, oh look, this is baba study with

[01:15:20] I go through and read all these books now. So he's like, he's really taking on that mantle Um, really taking over as as man of the house So you're really trying to come into his own at the end of the day, of course coming of age story

[01:15:30] And sometimes that coming of age involves the loss What do they say in the game like the end of one story is the beginning of another So that's exactly what this is this playing into where you know, the loss of his father

[01:15:41] Is zubairi able to now go and sort of start his own journey personal So i don't know. I love that. I think the story is is fantastic

[01:15:50] I agree. I agree. I think that this was a an incredible end to the story and it also like neatly wrapped up everything I mean something that you had mentioned at the top of the show, dany was like, oh like, you know

[01:16:01] The struggles of us seeing like surgeon studio having a little bit of layoffs Like they have tales of kenzara as like, you know, the the jedi fallen order, you know prefix So it's like maybe we'll get another story like maybe

[01:16:13] Um, what's the name of the young girl in the first area? Uh, will you had mentioned her previously but you know, is it the yada? Yeah, yeah, like that's maybe that's a situation where it's like tales gives zero like her name or whoever

[01:16:27] Maybe they expand the lore and we get more like more games that are like polished in this world Like that would be kind of cool That would be really interesting to kind of delve into and explore and you know

[01:16:38] Maybe we see a return of zao or something like that that would be really fascinating I could definitely see the evolution with that title and I compare it to like a life of strange type deal

[01:16:46] Right. We're like we just recently got announced. We are getting our another like max call field game Right, we're going back to that but I can see a tales kinsera 2 being an entirely separate character That takes in the same like same universe or the same book series

[01:16:58] I guess if that's the direction we decided to take with the lore of these games Um, and then a third one to follow that people like I like this character more than I want

[01:17:05] But then we come back for four it is tales kinsera like zao 2 or zao's adventure continues or you know Whatever that narrative beat would be So like yeah, I love seeing that the colon the colon's around like oh that was so open

[01:17:18] And then so what does this mean? Yeah, awesome. Yeah, this game is awesome And we'll just get into the final thoughts right here. I'll go ahead and jump in first Yeah, this is a game for pretty much anybody if it's if you're new to the metroidvania genre

[01:17:31] If you're new to action platformers this game is very forgiving It has some skill checks that it will hit you with throughout the game Like we said, you know the the elevator sequence as well as some of these like chase scenes or

[01:17:44] And the the nice part is is that the core gameplay like if you're not trying to play them in this game It's still a pretty like straightforward easy experience

[01:17:51] Like this is good for pretty much anybody and I think that anyone out there who exactly like danie is saying You just took your 15th l and your fortnight lobby and you think that games are dead

[01:18:01] You know definitely like boot this up, especially if you have playstation plus I would not be surprised to see this title go to game pass at a certain point

[01:18:09] It is EA original so I wouldn't be surprised if they shop it around you could buy it on pretty much any platform You can get your hands on so go ahead and give a try out for tales of kanzara

[01:18:19] Danny, how about yourself? Where what are your final thoughts here? Um, forgive me. There were moments in this podcast where I checked out. This is I was just listening. I'm like, oh shit I'm a guest

[01:18:30] Yeah, but um, no, I think I said this back when me and tofer talked about it a few months ago. I think In a personal reflection way, I'm Audio podcast they can't see but I I'm half black half white But in all circumstances in public situations

[01:18:47] I'm always recognized as black and that's something I've grown to accept it and I love that about myself Um, but then that comes back to representation of games where I am always seeing You know cool white dude with the the sick banter and whatever in their games and

[01:19:01] When I see the twitter arguments that are just like, oh, who cares about representation Just just play the games. Just have fun with it and that is so easy to say as someone who You can't round the corner of a game stop without finding 14 games that represent you

[01:19:14] Right and though this is such a small experience and it's so short and there are complaints critiques nitpicks all those kind of things every game has those there was So much opportunity for someone though. I'm black, but I'm not african

[01:19:28] I don't have all that heritage that connection languages or everything like that But I could see so much of like my heritage my family my My kind in this game that felt so like impactful so like if

[01:19:42] By any means you're just like I really want to see maybe not a say myself But a reflection of myself in a game can Sarah does a great job of telling a very like formulaic story to a degree

[01:19:52] But the performances the set pieces the visuals all of it comes together in this awesome like man I feel really black today and I love it That's awesome. I'm sure nicking really right

[01:20:10] But I definitely feel that exact same way and I'd love to just to kind of piggyback off But you were saying there Danny where it's the big thing too is It's not even just the representation

[01:20:19] But just like the actual in-depth end it's so easy for people to say Hey, we have representation here because you're playing this game where you can play as a black guy

[01:20:27] And we can throw an afro or throw on some dreads or something and look you have a character who is voiced by um, you know No, no no issues with a man, but you know like matt mercer

[01:20:38] But but but but your character can be black because you can your character can be whatever you want to be But no, this is a unapologetically African game You will have to like I did even though the door I have african ruse my family's nigerian

[01:20:51] Uh, I i'm not familiar too much with like the bantu mythology and the swahili language So there are times when I first threw this game up in like 10 minutes saying I'm like pausing and I'm googling Eek, I'm like, okay. I was like, all right

[01:21:06] Kalunga and I was like looking up different things and no There are some words that people are going to misstep when it comes to the pronunciation and unciation everything there But that's perfectly fine. That's all a part of taking part in this

[01:21:18] You know culture and in this game and really getting yourself acclimated So I recommend this game to anybody anybody who Is able to pick up a controller whether you're using your hands your feet or your brain Give this game a shot

[01:21:30] It is not difficult and you could always crank down the difficulty more to it for whatever reason you find it Because the story is worth it I highly recommend this to anybody with daddy issues because you're gonna ball by the end of it

[01:21:41] So please pick it up really do yourself a favor and just give it a shot because I think this is the kind of game too Well one We need to see what people playing it and more people enjoying it so that the powers that be

[01:21:53] See that even if this game doesn't make a quadrillion dollars There are stories that need to be told the stories that people enjoy hearing So that way we get more of these in the future because like you said with that colon

[01:22:04] I'd love to see tales of kenzara, you know infinity pop up in the next couple of years or maybe something similar too So I just want to see more games like this more representation in the space and then more people feeling the Not even just the

[01:22:20] The ability to but like that need in the draw to make stories like this because we need more and more things 100% Couldn't agree more And that is gonna be it for tonight folks

[01:22:31] I want to give a big thank you to all of our listeners who've made it with us this far If you've enjoyed our content and you want to support us further Please feel free to leave us a rating review on your podcast platform of choice

[01:22:41] Whether that's apple podcast spotify or good pods and also feel free to just reach out to us on any podcast Or any social media platform that you have access to we're very Easy to talk to so go ahead and let us know what you thought

[01:22:54] Danny I want to give you another opportunity to plug all of your venues Where can people find you? And and and how can they reach out to you? Of course you guys can find me at cgdanny b on basically everything tiktok youtube

[01:23:09] Twitter twitch and instagram all the fun places if you're looking for some indie coverage and thinking what games are coming out each month You want to hear me and my buddy tofer just talk about what we've been playing as basically every episode

[01:23:20] What's the topic and then it's like an hour of what we've been playing And that's always a fun time to talk with uh with them about what we've been going on So uh, yeah, if you want some of that check us out on playlog podcast

[01:23:30] We're on all the audio services and over on youtube we get that fun video version and uh, this is great Thank you guys for having me on. I know we planned this like four months ago And I know Now they're at the end of the episode

[01:23:42] I could be like I screwed up my calendar and we were recording this on the seventh at 12 And I put we were recording this on the 12th at seven and then I was like

[01:23:51] I'm supposed to do something today, aren't I and then I checked twitter and like I messed up the calendar And that's when I got the like zencastrelink. I'm like bet cool. I remembered that five minutes ago. We're good I am so glad I'm so glad

[01:24:04] That's perfect. That's perfect will if people want to reach out to you To find where they can where they can find their baba working. Where can they find you? That was terrible. I don't know. I don't know we want to read you that one baba

[01:24:19] I'm actually here baba. Congratulations If you would like to find your baba all you have to do is look for me on twitter It is at real king zozo tide r e a l k i n g z o s t a i

[01:24:34] And with that everyone, please keep gaming take it easy and we'll see you next friday night. Who says doodles In the