Geek Addicts - Episode 14: Talking About Our Favorite RPGs!

[00:00:00] The following is a G&C podcast production. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's, it's been a week for sure. Yeah, it's been a long way. It was my first full week after the vacation. So it's just been, that's my slog. Yeah, this week was really weird. It was like at points, it felt like super like quick, but then other

[00:01:42] points, it was just so slow. Like today, I was though, I've been just, I've been doing so many podcasts lately. Like I swear I haven't had time to do anything else. I know, man. You've been on, you've been on fire lately. I've done, I've recorded about. Six podcasts in the last like seven days.

[00:03:01] Jesus.

[00:03:06] Yeah, it's just like, because you got your three, your three podcasts that you're doing weekly, but then you also, I That was the other big thing. Yeah, but I mean, nobody at that place gave us shit about masks. Until they did. Until they did slightly. And then it got weird. Yeah, for sure. Yes, but enough on that nonsense.

[00:04:22] RPGs. Yeah, well, I mean, I also depends on what kind of RPG you want to mess with because I mean, some of my favorites are action RPG's. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Like some of them, you got to be a bit more attentive to. I personally prefer like a turn based RPG over an action RPG, but both are both have their strengths. I go through faces between the two.

[00:06:45] golden again right now and the three remake just came out and I'm like I want to play that now too. Oh I went to my mom's house today and I picked up my PSP. I

[00:06:51] plugged it in works perfectly like nothing ever happened. Okay in fact I

[00:06:57] think I might have still had a full charge from the last time I played it

[00:07:00] which if it wasn't a decade ago it was damn close since the last time I played

[00:07:05] it which is wild. Yeah it's not compatible with any Wi-Fi that's currently used. So yeah, it's an old one, but it still works great. I have this bulky plastic case are like miles better on the Vita than they are in the PSP. I can imagine. There's a few like the the the E series that it's spelled like YS.

[00:09:43] Those games are really fun.

[00:09:44] They're kind of expensive now though, which kind of sucks.

[00:09:47] Yeah. There's Wild Arms, XF, Star Ocean, Head 2, Games on PSP. There was a really awesome Castlevania, Valkyrie profile, a whole bunch of really sweet games. I'll have to look through. I was like kind of just skimming through like the list of PSP games earlier, just kind of getting an idea of what there was.

[00:11:04] Yeah, PSP is a funny is those style of games can be RPGs because they are they do have ones like that that do have RPG L. It's really the RPG elements that like kind of make it an RPG. Mm hmm. Because that's like the big reason why Zell does not consider an RPG. It's an RPG in a sense when you really think about it. Hmm. That's wild. Yeah. One of those fun little like head scratchers that makes you think a little bit. So, um, so you've, you've talked about, uh, persona four and final fantasy.

[00:13:42] To, to no end.

[00:13:43] What, what are some other RPGs that like?

[00:14:43] It sounds kind of similar to like, um, like, uh, crisis core.

[00:14:48] A kind of only instead of like exploration.

[00:14:52] So the difference in the tail series is like when you go into battle, it actually has the battle transition into like a different screen, kind of like a regular

[00:14:56] RPG, but then like you're in this like weird arena where you're, uh, you're

[00:15:00] controlling the characters action wise and the cool gimmick of the tail series is

[00:15:04] you can play the multiplayer.

[00:15:07] Okay.

[00:16:03] I recommend the HD remaster because it's not the best port. OK.

[00:16:05] I'm a huge supporter of Tales of the Abyss, obviously,

[00:16:07] but that one's a bit harder to find just because it's only

[00:16:14] been released on PS2 and 3DS.

[00:16:18] OK.

[00:16:20] Yeah, was there a physical version for a 3DS?

[00:16:24] It was only released physically.

[00:16:26] OK, good. Okay. I mean, that was most people's first RPG back in the day. I got Pokemon Yellow was actually my first video game. Oh, really? As a whole. Yeah. It was a guy from my fifth birthday with my Game Boy Color, which was also yellow. So I worked out. So you had the yellow and I had that weird turquoise blue green one.

[00:17:40] I feel like, oh, the greenish one, I was thinking of the probably the hell out of that game, right? Oh, yeah, so many times Yellow is an interesting one because that even back in the day like It must have been really cool to play it and like have it like basically follow the anime in a sense mm-hmm I think was the only game with Jesse and James ended up until like what?

[00:20:03] that there was something with his kid already. No, I don't think that's been confirmed.

[00:20:05] I think it's because like the girl in the anime,

[00:20:08] the new one has like that little green thing

[00:20:11] that looks like his hat logo.

[00:20:13] Yeah, well, that could easily just be them being like,

[00:20:16] oh, we just give him something that kind of reminds you of Ash

[00:20:19] to have that transition work a little bit better.

[00:20:23] It's totally going to be like straight up just like

[00:20:26] not Ash's kid at all. another I have a copy of right now I remember getting a copy of Blue when I was a kid for like my birthday at Christmas or something I have no idea what happened to that though. And then later on I got a copy of Chris well I got gold first and then I got crystal later. And then I just kept working up I think Gen 4 was where I fell off I think

[00:21:41] HeartGold was the last one I played for like a while until I picked Pokemon back up as an adult.

[00:22:44] was my personal favorite. So when I saw the, um, the Gen 3 remakes years later, like I lost my shit because it was like greatest thing ever.

[00:22:48] I was, I was like, I was excited about that too. Cause I love Grodon. Grodon.

[00:22:51] So do my favorite legendaries. Yeah. And Gen 3 too, I think was arguably the

[00:22:57] most, it got too much hate back in the day. I think it's some,

[00:23:00] it has some of the more interesting world, world building in it. Oh, yeah.

[00:23:04] Well, that was the first one that had like, I mean, they all had stories,

[00:24:02] of the Ruby Sapphire Emerald stories were just way more engaging and intense.

[00:24:06] Like the world was ready to fucking end in those games.

[00:24:09] Like, yeah.

[00:24:10] I mean, I still to this day say that

[00:24:14] Black and White has the best story in the series,

[00:24:17] but you still have to be able to have them played.

[00:24:20] Yeah.

[00:24:21] You're missing out, man.

[00:24:22] And the Black and White is, it's different.

[00:24:26] That's all I said.

[00:24:27] I'm gonna get to it.

[00:24:27] It's on that little, you know, which I still need to get into that. I have it on my Vita. I haven't started playing it yet way down the line Because you each chapter you go through a different party member like you go through a Got the names of the night guy the Yeah, it's like the two They weren't gypsy girls were they oh something like that

[00:27:02] Mina and

[00:27:03] Yeah, sisters Milla. I think their one a lot. Especially like the twist at the end. Like I was not expecting that at all and I loved it. I think 3, 4, and 5 are considered like the best of the classic ones. I definitely see that. 2, not so much. Yeah, the first two are a bit iffy. 3 onward though, it's when the series really found itself.

[00:29:25] Final Fantasy has had an identity crisis for years at this point. Yeah, no kidding

[00:29:29] Even if it was a limited amount of games I played I could tell that

[00:29:32] Yeah, cuz you you've been playing them

[00:29:36] You started playing them in order right recently

[00:29:42] Kind of so well I I started with seven and then I jumped straight into eight which was really

[00:29:47] like we were saying off the air earlier like it was definitely a It was an interesting idea. I get why it's polar. It's funny how like the most polarizing final fantasy is they're always the ones that mess with the combat system. I mean, even three is pretty bizarre because three was the first one that introduced like the job class system, which was further refined in five.

[00:31:00] Okay.

[00:31:02] Cause four takes kind of a step back

[00:31:05] for a more traditional storyline. But so I'm looking forward to getting to those ones too. So you've played seven now. You're going to notice a lot of similarities when you play six because seven borrowed a lot from six, even though it doesn't. Six doesn't get the credit that it's a lot of the time. Yeah, because that was one. That one's one of your favorites, right? Yeah, I'd say it's in my top three.

[00:32:23] Like my my top final fantasies are a little skewed because eight is my favorite, system. Everything after that though it's kind of all over the place. Does the battle system change that much between the two? So 10 to uses a heavily enhanced like version of the active time system which is really awesome. Okay. And the original 10 uses though. I mean, I don't necessarily have to skip the final fantasy ones because I think those, at least I know for a fact 14 is still active. 14 is still, I mean, 11 is kind of still active, but like you have to pay for it to play it.

[00:35:00] And I'm like, yeah, if I was able to do that, I would kind of grown accustomed now though towards like the more modern style RPGs. I think playing a lot of persona has done that to me. Understandable. One of my favorite RPGs that doesn't get enough love at all that's kind of forgotten is Lunar 2. I haven't played that one. Lunar 2 was a very obscure RPG.

[00:36:22] It originally came out on the Sega CD of the ones like the one that like really ignited me wanting to play these big open world games is Skyrim.

[00:37:43] Okay. those games a lot of the time. Yeah. I do own so I own Morrowind oblivion and Skyrim like on various systems out. One of these days I'm going to sit down and play them. The only one I've actually played is Skyrim but when I think is a far more interesting and like

[00:39:03] immersive experience is with the Witcher 3. I've heard nothing but good things about the Witcher. I think the thing with me is it's like, with a lot of Western style RPGs, I see the size of them and I'm always like, I just don't have the time. Yeah. Well, I mean, you also played Persona 4 once a year.

[00:40:23] See, the difference is though, Persona 4 like is very like

[00:40:26] straightforward, like when you once you get into it.

[00:41:22] but there's five different spells essentially, but there are different tiers to each spell

[00:41:24] and different variations of each spell.

[00:41:27] So each of those five spells is really like 20 spells

[00:41:30] wrapped in one, just depending on what you have equipped.

[00:41:35] Ah, I get you.

[00:41:37] Speaking of Western style RPGs,

[00:41:40] one of the ones that I think I've,

[00:41:43] so I've always been more of a Japanese RPG guy,

[00:41:45] but Western ones, there's a few here and there

[00:41:47] that I've gotten into. That's a good question. I can let's consult eBay at this point because that's There's a lot of exploration on planets, especially in the first game. And a lot

[00:44:21] of it is like just kind of exploring around the game's world, like talking

[00:44:24] to different characters and like there's a lot of like dialogue text trees and effect like it was like a somewhat sci-fi, acting RPG kind of game. What made it really cool though was like your choices literally affected everything in the game. Like you could kill some random NPC early in the game and that could that'll like completely change the entire scope of the story

[00:45:40] because it like changes like if that if that character is significant in any plot lines

[00:46:45] But until she's satisfied, but that, um, that's probably gonna stay where it is. But yeah, it was, it was such a fun game.

[00:46:49] Well, you're basically just playing an episode of South Park.

[00:46:52] For real. Like it's, and it's wild the way that it's set up too, because it looks just like this show.

[00:47:00] Oh, yeah.

[00:47:01] Like the way, like, kind of in the minority. I prefer fractured but whole over Stikitruth. I think it's because I prefer the superhero aesthetic over the fantasy one, like the LARPing setting. Then I like the tactical style of the combat compared

[00:48:23] to the turn base was really good for in Stikit play the shit mini. It's like the dumbest thing ever.

[00:49:40] It's ridiculous.

[00:49:41] Yeah, it's so many reference.

[00:49:43] They reference so many episodes of the show too.

[00:49:45] And like the writing is top notch. that I just don't know what it is yet. I guess I've seen enough. Oh, I'll have topic to just see this by family trailer. Oh for code for code white. Yeah. Yeah. I watched that last night. I'm super super hyped for it. That the spy on your games coming out. Yeah. Which I enjoyed because I just like building shit but... Well, maybe it sounds a little hypocritical to say but I do want to try Dragon Quest Builders

[00:52:20] at some point.

[00:52:21] Well, that's just Minecraft with an actual it. And I think you get five characters that level up and grow as you go along for each side. And like you'll get like other units or whatever. There'll be some generic people that you can control and there's also some named people from the movies.

[00:53:41] But they don't like level up or anything. Um, and then of course like attack of the Saiyans later on which is still I Really wish they made more of those now it's a hidden gem Because even in yasha at those random like RPGs as well Like there's the one on PlayStation that never came out over here the one on ps2. That's like

[00:55:01] Not amazing, but not bad either and then there's the god awful DS game. That's like

[00:55:06] over $100 now for some reason self-humping and going in Pokemon. But I mean the whole concept of like if they encounters only happen in tall grass, like because there's always ways like you can't necessarily always go around but there's also there's always a shorter path like you know the least amount of grass spaces to walk through as opposed

[00:56:21] to going another route. So like there's hard to make a decision there. I think for me, I prefer on-screen encounters for the most part, but I don't really hate random

[00:57:40] as long as they're well-designed.

[00:57:43] I guess it depends on how much you

[00:57:46] need to grind in the game. newer Pokemon games, which I mean I haven't really played much of those but Yeah, they're hit or miss in a lot of ways. That's that's what I hear. I haven't played anything since I mean technically Shining Pearl was the last like oh the other remake

[00:59:01] Which I mean that one is still right you get into this series, you want to play the roots, it's not like it's unplayable. And there's a lot of things about the first hand that I like a lot. But I mean, essentially, the main idea of the story is you have this kid in this like, you know, backwater village.

[01:00:23] And your village gets raided by bandits. They kill your dad as far as you know, In the second game, it definitely started leaning a little bit more steam monkey. The third game especially, because second and third games, it definitely feels more industrial era than the first game. I kind of like that vibe. Like I like the steam punk industrial mix. Like it still feels fantasy-ish, but it has kind of the modern sensibilities as

[01:01:43] well.

[01:01:44] Yeah, because it's still one of the games. Yeah, yeah, there's a fart command in all the games. And that's just like, you know, random shit that you can do and like you can interact with people and stuff. But like the main story into teams, which is funny to me. I mean, if it works, it works. And I like what they're doing with it too, where they're going back to like the OG, like fantasy roots, but it's taking place in the future. Yeah, that's interesting. Which when you play fable to the way that that happens will make a lot more sense.

[01:05:24] then we ended up starting to play it on PS4 and then the PS4 broke so we had to stop playing it on that. But now we have the PS5 again and I still had the PS4

[01:05:30] disc so we started it up again. Yeah. Now the the the the elbow series is fun

[01:05:35] just because it's like a hack and slash RPG which is I enjoy because it's it's

[01:05:40] like action but it's not like super deep kidding. I definitely want to try some other ones like obviously Persona 4 is definitely gonna happen at some point it's just whenever I decide I'm ready for the commitment of it. Yeah and then I definitely want to try at least one Tails game because it's one that I always hear about. Mass Effect is another one.

[01:07:04] Fire Emblem that's another big. Yeah my buddy's kind of like my priority at the moment, because I kind of have to just stick with the one. Cause then I'm also, I mean, I'm also playing like a Seacoatoo for like my kind of like chill, hang it back game.

[01:08:20] Um, We should have them back in the days again. That's sweet spot. You'll lead teens early 20s That's the ideal time for RPGs No responsibilities all the time in the world. Yeah God. How many hours he pumped into most hunters My oh, that's that's an RPG right there. Yeah Yeah, that's like the never ending RPG

[01:09:42] Yeah, there's a like legitimately

[01:10:43] that actually had a magic mechanic, which is cool. Yeah, I have a couple of those in my PS4 collection.

[01:10:47] I've been meaning to get around to just having a time.

[01:10:49] Lost Song is the only one I've played

[01:10:51] that I really feel like it's worth putting time into.

[01:10:56] And I hate saying that, because I put a shit ton of time

[01:10:59] into the first one, Hollow Fragment,

[01:11:02] which I believe was originally a PSP game.

[01:11:06] But I mean, I enjoyed it just, I don't know, it's really fun. I actually, I loaded up, before we did our Dragon Ball games episode, I loaded up Kakarot on my Switch and I had totally forgotten where I was in that game. Like my guys are like almost maxed out. Yeah, I didn't realize I'm on like level 200 something.

[01:12:23] Like, holy shit, I didn't know that I got that far.

[01:12:26] That game is just such like a love letter I Should have enough time next we can actually read it because we're going into a long weekend pretty soon Yeah, and you only have to like what two more volumes up Yeah, I I was a making decent progress to be honest the shock Be not so much shock. Yeah, I will admit this the transfer changing from

[01:13:42] artists like mid like

[01:13:46] Go from like chapter the second volume into the third volume