Absolum

[00:00:09] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome in to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren and I'm joined, as always, by Jacob, the Pixel Professor Price. It's May 7th, 2026. We're back to talk about video games.

[00:00:28] Jake, Microsoft Gaming continues to make incremental news beats. It's very slow news time because the video game headlines are like, who did Microsoft promote this week in the annual promotion cycle?

[00:00:45] Yeah. Yay! Yay! This guy got a promotion. This guy got a meets expectations on his review. That's like the gaming news right now. No, Asha Sharma. Yeah, she like shook up a bunch of Xbox leadership. These are, I think, mostly roles like that we weren't really in the know. I think these are like people who are formerly under Sarah Bond. Obviously, Sarah Bond got pushed to the side.

[00:01:15] All of these people come from the core AI team, which is not to be confused. Core AI team really just means like the central software development team at Microsoft. That's all that means now. They've just like rebranded it because AI, you know?

[00:01:36] Yeah. So, yeah. I mean, Microsoft, you know, still kind of, I don't know, making moves that seem maybe like they're going to be good, but like who knows actually what's going to happen. We're getting a new intro sequence on our Xboxes, so that's something. That's so random to me. It's like, okay. Sure, dude. You know what I mean? It's kind of like one of those things. It's like, yeah, maybe it's nicer.

[00:02:02] It's very random. Maybe it's nicer. Maybe I'm more excited every time my Xbox boots up, but okay. Sure, dude. Why not? I would love, I would absolutely, I'm not going to, so my job is incredibly boring and gives me crushing boredom to the point of anxiety every day. But, um. Nice. Great.

[00:02:24] Moving past that, I would actually, you know, be very fascinating. Actually, like very fascinating to be a fly on the wall in the, like, executive round, like, in the conference room, whatever conference room. It's like, I don't know, was it like Spartan 616 probably is one, and if you probably have, like, Reach is another conference room, and then you probably got, like, uh, like, uh, like, Gears of War themed conference.

[00:02:51] Anyway, they're probably actually just whitewashed office. I mean, Microsoft's not that cool, right? Xbox probably. Anyway, point being, it would be so fascinating to me to fly on the wall in those, like, executive meetings with Asha Sharma. Like, it would be fascinating to hear the conversations that they're having right now. I, it's so strange to me because the past few years of Xbox, um, let's see, Phil Spencer still, I think, maintains some goodwill with the, with Xbox fans.

[00:03:20] And, um, yeah, what gets me those is one article, and I'm so sorry that I don't have a reference for it right now. So you'll just, just, uh, my sources do trust me, I guess, on this. But I had read this thing that back in 2001, 2022, the CFO of Microsoft had told Phil Spencer and folks at Xbox, hey, you need a 30% profit margin. And that's why we saw all the business decisions that we did in the four or five years after that. Right, right, right.

[00:03:50] And the business decisions we're seeing right now don't seem to reflect that at all. And so, uh. Correct. And so this is what I don't know, right? And this is something that we probably will never know, right? Until we can convince somebody to squeal, right? But like, okay, was this a Microsoft pressuring Xbox to do things? Or was this an Xbox trying to do things and kind of reinvent who they are in the console space?

[00:04:20] Because they, and they admitted to losing the console war between the Xbox One and the PS4. That I can tell you what I'm referencing. And I am referencing that business podcast episode when the rumors first went out that Microsoft was going to be releasing first party games on other consoles. Which, honestly, I feel like that was probably one of the most telling insights to the industry that we'll ever get in a public setting.

[00:04:47] But it just seems like that those two stories are kind of at odds with each other. And we'll just kind of never know what really happened. And so that's why, to me, it just seems so odd that, you know, new Xbox head can just come in and be like, you know what? We're cutting the game pass ultimate price down. You know what? We're going to be reducing Copilot as a feature on the Xbox and Xbox app. You know what? We're going to change the boot up logo. And I don't know, man.

[00:05:16] It just, like, I'm not really complaining that these things are happening. But I'm scratching my head. I'm like, why now? Why? Because it seemed like there was such pressure to not do this. Why suddenly are we doing this? Who woke up and told, you know, Satya Nadella? Or Satya Nadella. Sorry, I got the name mixed up. Like, hey, dude, Xbox needs to change course. And they were like, okay. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, you think, because it feels like this is all stuff that, like, Phil would have wanted to do. Yeah.

[00:05:44] And so the feeling was like, oh, he's being pushed to do all this stuff because he's trying to meet the demands of, like, the executive team and Satya. But now Asha Sharma's coming and it seems like they're reverting all these things and making these more sort of customer friendly moves that seemed like things that maybe Phil had wanted to do anyways. Maybe he didn't actually want to do those things and we're all just, like, speculating. Yeah.

[00:06:13] And his strategy actually just sucked. I mean, that's the thing that gets me. Is Phil Spencer right now playing the Diablo 4 expansion that just came out livid that everything he tried to do didn't work? But it suddenly works. Phil Spencer is in a freaking house on Maui right now. Not even thinking about video games. Hey, he is a big Diablo fan. He is actually a gamer.

[00:06:41] Yeah, he's going to stay up to date there. No, he's definitely in a house in Maui right now. But he's definitely playing Diablo while he's not at the beach. The Jason Schreier book on the journey of Microsoft, I cannot wait for that to come out. Oh, please. That's got to be, like, the thing he's writing, right? Like, that just seems like such a slam dunk of a book. The nine-volume multiple tomes of what the heck Xbox has done since 2001.

[00:07:09] You start at when they fumbled the bag with the Xbox One release trying to make it like an all-in-one entertainment system. And you go all the way to the Asha Sharma era, right? Yeah. And then you kind of end on whatever final notes are there. Yeah, it would be just crazy fascinating. Yeah, I don't know, dude. The 30% thing, I don't know if that's still there. It probably is.

[00:07:31] My only guess is maybe that Asha Sharma only agreed to take the role if she had, like, complete carte blanche decision-making for at least the first, I don't know, two, three years or something. Where she could just go in and totally, like, clean house and have, like, a blank check, basically. Yeah. I mean, why would you, right? You wouldn't agree.

[00:07:53] She's, like, this hot shiz young executive, apparently, that, you know, was at Instacart and was, like, a rising star VP in the course AI group. And so, yeah, if you're her, you're, like, you're in the meeting with Satya and you're, like, hey, do you want to – she wouldn't have agreed to take a business unit that was dying and shepherd it into death. Yeah. Her career is on this crazy trajectory.

[00:08:23] She only would agree to do it if she knew that she had the opportunity to make a splash, right? So that she could either be in line to be the next CEO or CFO or COO of Microsoft proper or whatever she's looking for beyond that, right? Yeah. So, anyway, yeah. So, you got to look at the incentives. And for her, the incentives are come into Microsoft, come into Xbox, make a huge slam dunk, make the business go, get huge.

[00:08:53] Yeah. Hopefully, we all benefit from that. That's the end point. Yeah. And honestly, I think the past few years have just not been wins for Xbox, right? And so, I think you're right where – No, overall losses with some bright spots, but overall, yeah. Yeah, which is a shame because it just seems like Xbox is the ultimate coulda, woulda, shoulda case. Yes.

[00:09:19] Like back in 2021, like we had actually this business model that seemed to be really cool, I'll be honest, with like Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo Infinite, and I think they had one other game come out. And since then, they've actually had some really awesome games come out. They kind of hover around that 80 on the Metacritic score. Yeah. No like 90s or must plays, nothing quite there yet.

[00:09:42] But they have this awesome cadence of games that are good, which should be the driver for Game Pass. Yes. Like that plan that was in place six years ago, like during the pandemic, like it has come to fruition now. But the problem is that they've put all these different bottlenecks on top of that plan, hiking up Game Pass Ultimate, kind of making Xbox players question why they should buy an Xbox console if they can get Indiana Jones six months later on PlayStation or whatever it is, right?

[00:10:12] Like it's just gotten so funky. I don't know. Yeah, it's a coulda, woulda, shoulda, man. I think in an alternate universe, you know, the Xbox Series X and Xbox's games are just absolutely crushing it. I think if Asha Sharma's smart and it seems like she is and Phil knew this and everybody in leadership knew this and couldn't figure out how to get it done.

[00:10:36] At the end of the day, the thing that fixes Xbox, that makes the business go boom is incredible games that people cannot not buy. Yep. That's it. Period. That's it. How did Xbox become what it was? Halo. Yeah. Straight up, right? Like Halo, Gears of War, those like marquee franchises. You got to figure out how to do that again. If it's not Halo, it's got to be something else.

[00:11:06] Is it Fable? Is it, you know, Clockwork Revolution? Probably not. Is it, you know, is it Gears of War Ede? Maybe. I mean, that could be huge. Fable could be huge. Like maybe. But that's like the renaissance, right? That has to happen for everything to work. No matter what strategery that she's putting in place or get back to core audience that she's putting in place, none of that functions if there's not an incredible Halo game. Yeah.

[00:11:36] Dude, announce Indiana Jones 2. Dude, I still think that that's probably the best thing that Xbox has put out. Other than my personal favorites, which would be like Pentimate and Grounded. That Indiana Jones game. Indiana Jones is dope. That game is probably my favorite AAA game in a long time. And dude, you tell me this summer at the June Xbox showcase during Summer Games Fest. Give me that teaser. Actually don't because that means it's like seven years out. But like. Oh my gosh. Give me gameplay footage. I dare you right here right now.

[00:12:06] Machine Games, Bethesda and Xbox. Give me gameplay footage of Indiana Jones 2 in one month. Were you to release Clockwork Revolution this year? You can't do it. I bet you you can't do it, Xbox. You can't do it. Xbox, you listening right now? That's two dares coming your way, man. Yeah. You're chicken. You're chicken. No, it'll be fun. I think this will be a good year. I think it'll be a fun year. Looks like the right decisions are being made.

[00:12:36] But time will tell. Yeah. All I really care about is having cool video games to play. Yeah. And yeah, we got Forza in what? Two weeks? Three weeks? You know that game is going to be amazing. Forza Horizon 5 was so good. It was great. Cameron, can I ask you about your thoughts on this Star Fox game? Is that a good noise or a bad noise?

[00:13:05] Anyways. So, it looks like a remake of Star Fox 64. No, it is. Yeah. Which I think it is, right? Yeah. It basically is. It is. But I think Star Fox 64 was also like a remake of the original Star Fox. I learned this today on social media from a lot of angry people. Yes, it is. This is... Yes, I also just learned this today. I had no idea.

[00:13:36] So, we are just making the same game over and over again. I think this is not... Just to be very clear. This is not what the Star Fox fans wanted. And when I turned on the direct and I saw that it was basically just the old game but with upgraded graphics. I was kind of like... Huh. That is certainly a choice. Because what you are thinking in your mind is like... Oh, they are going to do the Breath of the Wild treatment on their franchises. Right?

[00:14:05] They did not do that here. Not even in the slightest. This game makes no sense to me except for cents as in dollars and cents. Because... So, I watch this as I do with all Nintendo Directs. I watch it with my kids which is always a mistake. Because my kids right now are absolutely in love with Star Fox because they just saw Star Fox in the Super Mario Galaxy movie. And guess what?

[00:14:32] They are head over heels for this game because they think it looks dope as heck. And so, I am sitting there on the couch and I am like... Once again, Nintendo has bamboozled me by using my own children against me. So, I don't know. The kids are hyped about it. It is a $50 price tag, man. Which, in this day and age, you see a game for $50. I will always consider it twice. And so, the deal I have going with my kids right now is...

[00:15:00] I think they both have to chip in $20. And then we'll buy it. Star Fox. Gotcha. Yeah. That's $20 each. So, I am mouthing correctly. I mean... I don't know. Like, if it gets good reviews, I'll probably get it. I mean, it has local multiplayer. I don't know. Like, you can do co-op and one person can control the ship and one person controls the gun. So... Yeah. I don't know, dude. Nintendo's weird.

[00:15:31] Nintendo's freaking weird. What I really want from Nintendo right now is the Ocarina of Time remake. It feels like this is real. I think this is real. I'm still reluctant, man. To me, that's still a sacred cow. You still don't believe? No. I don't... I may be a 10% believer that it's coming. I think it's real, dude. I think the rumors are so hard. Like, the rumors are strong, bro. And the Star Fox rumor was correct. It was correct.

[00:16:01] That's true. And so, now I'm like, dude, it's only a matter of time, bro. Do you think that this coincides with the Legend of Zelda movie coming out next year? That's what they did with the Star Fox thing, and it's working. I think it's this year. So they can build hype for the Legend of Zelda movie. If you're listening right now, I just want you to know that I made a face of utter disbelief. Well, that... I only say that because that's the rumor. That's like the big rumor from the guy who leaked the Star Fox thing.

[00:16:30] Dude, this year? That sounds outrageous to me. I don't know. Can you imagine a year we get an Ocarina of Time remake and Grand Theft Auto 6? The world will never be the same. No, well... You know what's kind of crazy is, what year did Ocarina of Time come out? 90... 99? 99? 98. 98, right? So, 98. We get an Ocarina... Let's say we get an Ocarina of Time remake this year.

[00:16:58] We get a Star Fox 64 remake this year. We get a Halo remake this year. What other classic games from the late 90s, early 2000s could they possibly remake at this point? Battle Tanks would be great. I'd love a Battle Tanks remake. There we go, dude. I don't know, man. It just... It seems really... Here's the thing, Jake. Will you be disappointed? Because this is what they're going to do. It's not going to be like a remake remake.

[00:17:27] It's just going to be like a reskin with better graphics, right? Yeah. It's not going to be any different. The mechanics will be all the same. It'll just look nicer, right? No. And, you know, I think what it comes down to me actually is like art style. I kind of hope they don't go towards realism, which is kind of what they've done with Star Fox. Dude, that like 10 second animated clip of Star Fox and his crew in the Super Mario Galaxy movie. I was like, dude, give me a game in that. That looked fantastic. Right.

[00:17:57] Yeah, that looked way better than the weird, too realistic animal looking Star Fox character. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I just kind of think that like Legend of Zelda as a franchise, it's serious, but also it's tongue in cheek and it has a very subtle weird humor to it. Right. I don't know. I don't know.

[00:18:28] I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm being hyper like weird and protective about this. Guys, you know me. This game is going to come out. It's going to look really great and I'm going to buy it. So this is all just me huffing and puffing. I mean, it's all hot. I will be. Yeah. I mean, I will immediately preorder any like Ocarina of Time thing. Like no question. What if it's 90 bucks?

[00:19:02] I might look at it more closely. How about this? What if GTA 6 is, let's say GTA 6 and Ocarina of Time remake are both 80 bucks. Where are you putting your money? Dude, I think we might be the only gaming podcast that may not play GTA 6. I know. It was a dumb question to ask because I knew your answer. I mean, yeah. Here's the thing though.

[00:19:29] If GTA 6 gets like ridiculous reviews, if GTA 6, if the reviews say it's more GTA, but it looks, but it's like the best looking game ever made. I'm not going to play it. If it's, this is the game of the generation, then yeah, I'm going to have to try it for sure. I think I'm with you there. What's the, what's the likelihood? Ocarina of Time was already the game of the generation.

[00:19:56] If they re-release it with a better coat of paint, but the art style is cool. Like, yes, I'll play it for the 15th time for sure. Yeah. What is the likelihood that GTA 6 is some sort of like generational video game akin to like a Red Dead Redemption 2? Oh man. I mean, they've been developing it for like over 10 years. It kind of has to be. Will it like shatter the expectations?

[00:20:25] Will it truly shatter the expectations of all video games, gamers everywhere, thereby ruining what AAA means truly and just destroying it will at once save the gaming industry and also ruin it. I think there's always a chance. That's what happens. I don't know, man.

[00:20:55] I think it's going to be a juggernaut regardless if it's considered like the pinnacle of video game artistry. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's kind of hard for me to think about this without being biased because I'm just, and we've talked about this on the show before, you and I, we haven't been like interested in Grand Theft Auto as a game like since San Andreas or, you know. You're right. Cause it's just the same game just with a different coat of paint. Yeah. So I don't know. I think a lot of people won't care just because it looks really great and it's a good reason to.

[00:21:25] Oh no, this say, I mean the sales will not, this won't impact the sales at all. No, definitely not. I mean anything less than the only thing that I could see potentially impacting the sales would be like if it's a seven out of 10, but like they're not going to let that happen. I don't know. There's a recent interview with Strauss Zelnick where he's like, he literally said the creative teams working on GTA 6 have an unlimited budget.

[00:21:55] Nice. So that tells you what they feel like they have in the bag. Something like to break even, they need to sell 15 million copies and they expect to sell 25 million in the first like month or something. I kind of believe that though. Yeah. I mean, it kind of sounds right. I mean, every, every single person pretty much who owns a game console will own this game. Yeah. Almost. Almost. Yeah.

[00:22:25] So, well, ladies and gentlemen, enough about that. Let's talk about our game of the show today, which is Absalom. Absalom. This is a beat them up roguelike fantasy video game. It's been around for a little while now. It did came out this year, right? This year. Yes. Early this year or late last year. No, October 9th, 2025. There you go. Oh, it was last year. Okay. It was last year. It's been a while. Anyway, I actually bought this when it came out.

[00:22:55] I had a lot of fun with it. Been playing a bunch more. When we were talking about doing the show, it came to Game Pass recently. Jake, how are we going to break this one down? We're going to be talking about Absalom in three main categories. The first one will be the narrative. The next one will be the game design. And then finally, we'll be talking impact on the industry. So that's how we're going to be talking about this in this episode. Let's dig into Absalom.

[00:23:24] Jake, I think Absalom can best be summarized as a surprising video game. Yeah. This is a game that really consistently surprises me with punching above its weight in many, many aspects. Not the least of which of those is narratively, where you expect something narratively from this.

[00:23:54] And what you get is a lot more than that. And as you play and as you play the beginning, you feel like, oh, it's like on rail sort of like fantasy thing. And then stuff starts to happen. And you're like, oh, this is actually kind of interesting. There's some interesting stuff going on. So basically, you got that I'm going to read some of these names because I can never remember. And honestly, like you repeat because of the roguelike nature, like you repeat a lot of things. And then like narrative things happen. You forget them.

[00:24:22] So yeah, this is a game that's set in the world of I'm not going to say this right. Tell them to LOM. Yeah. Land nearly destroyed by magical event known as the Cataclysm. And you are play one of four characters, Galandra, Carl, Brome. And then there's an Brome insider. They're all like in the cover, but you get two of them like later as you play the game.

[00:24:51] And the reason it's a roguelike, it's like built into the narrative. You have one of the last of what are called the Root Sisters who is the mother Ushuaia. Yeah. And she possesses the power of rebirth. Anytime you die, you come back to life and then you do more runs. And so they kind of have like the roguelike thing built into much like Hades. Yeah. Right. Like they did a pretty good job with that, like integrating that like into the narrative.

[00:25:21] Yeah. Continue. No, go ahead. That was all. Oh, I was going to say, I really like this because I think comparisons with Hades, they mostly stop there. Like I think they definitely took a leaf out of Hades book, right? Where it's like, okay, let's explain why this is roguelike, why we keep getting, you know, rebirthed and we keep doing this over and over again. I love that it's much more simple, actually. Hades is not necessarily like a super complex game.

[00:25:49] Hades 2, man, my heart was just not in it when I was playing it. I'll be honest because it was hard for me to kind of buy into how many different NPCs there were. And it was a lot more complex, I think, narratively. I love that Absalom, it's pretty straightforward in terms of, okay, you have been chosen like by this root goddess. You're going to keep going and you're fighting against them forgetting who the evil wizard is. And you're doing your best to get there. Azra, I think. Yes, Azra. You're going there and you're just trying to get to their tower and take them out.

[00:26:18] The Sun King. That's right. Yeah. I think it's a great just premise there. I really like the writing between the characters. So it's this interesting story or like storytelling. It feels almost comic book. And the way that they have like these bubbles and like the font there kind of reminds me a lot of comic books. And it kind of has that art style as well, too. So like after you get through like a round of beating up enemies and you're kind of like breaking barrels,

[00:26:47] looking for different trinkets or food items or whatever it is in the area, you can like engage with like these points of interest. And then it's these short but dense conversations between the different characters, whoever you've selected to play as. And they just they're that's what I like about them. They're short and dense. They're compact with some meaning. And I feel like the characters are written well and they've got things to say about their situation or about whatever the point of interest is. And but it's brief. And then they kind of continue and move along.

[00:27:17] And so I really like that. Like it's just kind of like, you know, I'm coming back to this word dense. But like you just get these small tidbits, but it's something to chew on. You know, it's not just cotton candy the whole way you go through. And I think it makes for just like a really compelling reason to not just like button mash through dialogue. So, yeah, like you said, constantly punching above its weight.

[00:27:42] I think this game very easily could have just totally put narrative in the back burner and not really focus on characters at all. Yet it decided to like, OK, the developers were like, let's make people interested in these characters. We're going to have four pretty distinct personalities. And they're all going to have their backgrounds and the reasons for doing what they're doing and their own thoughts and opinions on things. And you get to know those. And I found it to be really well done. Super well done. Very, very rich, interesting world here.

[00:28:11] Like this is like genuinely like a really cool IP. Yeah, it is. It's super cool. This is like a very dope like fantasy IP with like very interesting stuff going on. Really interesting kind of worlds and areas that you're walking through. There's a whole like early section, slight spoilers if you don't want any spoilers at all. But like you go through sort of this underground like ancient library thingy.

[00:28:38] I'm like failing to describe and you find like the ghost. This is like the ghost of a king who's like in there and it's like a secret behind the wall. Yeah. And then you can read like little things that are in there in this like ancient library. And then that guy ends up like going and becoming part of your main base. This like ghost dude. Anyway, that type of stuff is like super fascinating. Like there's some density to the world and there's like really interesting things going on. And yeah, dude.

[00:29:06] And there's like twists and turns here that we won't spoil. There's some crazy stuff. I think it does take a little while to get there. Yeah. Primarily because this game is effing hard. Yeah. It does take a while. At least I found this game extremely hard. But anyway, we can finish up the narrative for you. Yeah, I would say as far as narrative, there's not much more that I want to say here other than that.

[00:29:35] The further you get in, the more that you are rewarded narratively, which I think is always great. You know, and I think this is maybe the greatest legacy of something like Hades where it's like, okay, let's make narrative super rewarding. The further you get into a roguelike rather than just you amassing a bunch of meta progression currency and and just brute forcing or fighting your way to the finish line. And there's a game that came out last year called Hell Clock that I thought was actually super fascinating.

[00:30:03] It's similar in this regard where, yeah, it's very it's story based. It's loosely based on a real historical event in Brazil. And I just think that's an Absalom. You know, obviously, it's a fantasy world, but it's doing something similar. It's like, let's make this narrative increasingly compelling as you get further and further into the game. Yeah. Which, as I mentioned, is very hard to do. I don't know, Jake, did you find this game like pretty difficult?

[00:30:31] I've actually have only been playing with my son. So we're playing co-op. So there might be a difficulty curve there playing with two people. But do you find this pretty, pretty tough? Because I found it like I'm repeating runs a lot and I'm dying on bosses like quite a bit. But I am also I've actually exclusively also played this with my kids. So I've never played this solo. I feel like getting to the very first boss was like pretty generous.

[00:31:00] And then you feel the difficulty curve typically at the bosses. I don't know if that's been your experience, right? I feel like if I can get past one boss, you kind of go to this hub where you can get some health back and you can buy items that are going to help you. And, of course, there'll be new enemies and they're more difficult. But I feel like your, like, I guess skill curve is still above the base enemy mob difficulty curve.

[00:31:28] And then you hit a boss and you're just like, so, for example, the king under the mountain. Sorry, that's it's not too far into the king under the mountain. But first time I fought that guy, I was like, what just happened, dude? I thought we had a chance. I thought we had a chance. And in this game, you have to be super cognizant of when you're dodging versus when you're jumping. It is it's beat him up, but it's like tactical beat him up.

[00:31:57] Like, like you got to like actually pay attention to what's happening on the screen. I mean, there are. Oh, gosh, what's the word? They they they show you when they're going to swing so that you can time like your dodge, which is also like your block. So it's like combined. Yeah. So they.

[00:32:21] But like, you know, you can mess up the timing or like somebody can be offset with the other person. And then like you're trying to dodge that person. You'll block that person. But then the other person will be like the time will be off of it. So you can just take crazy damage if you're not careful and you can just get chewed up in this game like so fast. Yeah, I think Absalom reaffirms my personal preference for a dedicated parry and a dedicated dodge button. Oh, gosh. Like, yes.

[00:32:48] Keep those blocks separate from your dodges because in this game. So I played mostly as Galandra. I actually really enjoyed just the moveset that Galandra has. Yeah, but you can get this ability where you're supposed to dodge into an attack and time it right in order to like get charges for your attacks or whatever. Right, right, right, right, right. And yeah, you got to really know the exact dash distance of your character if you're doing something like that. And so.

[00:33:18] Correct. I agree with you. Like it gets super tricky if you want to get fancy with the game. If you want to treat this like a regular beat them up where it's just like, you know, dodge, jump, kick, grab somebody and throw them like you can do that. But it'll be like I'm not going to say that like parrying or some of those special things are required. But they sure make things a lot easier, especially if you've got a lot of enemies on screen or if you need to build up a heavy attack where you can like build up the charge for a heavy attack.

[00:33:47] So you can do some crowd control. So, yeah, I would say that you've really got to be paying attention to what's going on. And then this game, like this is common, I think, in a lot of beat them ups. But this game has a lot of flair, which I don't have a problem with where it gets tricky is when that flair starts to impede my ability to read exactly what an enemy is doing. Yes. There's just a lot going on. Yeah. It's a busy screen.

[00:34:13] And I would say that it really toes that line of too much flash on screen. Yeah, it's got it's got gorgeous art direction. Incredible. It's got gorgeous animation. And so you really like seeing all the stuff until it's like all killing you. But it's got like the basic sort of beat them up. Like you have a basic attack that turns into sort of a combo button mash. You have a heavy attack.

[00:34:42] And then you have special attacks that require mana. And those do kind of a lot of damage. You have sort of your basic combo meter like that. The more hits you can get in without taking damage, like the meter goes up and you'll get like, you know, just like a lot of beat them ups. Like you'll flash on the screen like excellent when you get like a lot of hits on a bunch of guys. And then we talked about there's the dodge.

[00:35:07] The dodge, if you time it with when the enemy's hitting you, it's like a parry that like boosts your mana. And it also blocks the attack, I think. But to Jake's point, like it's very hard to time a lot of the time. There's a lot of things going on on screen. I think there's certain enemies that will chew through you and like do a lot of damage if you're not paying attention. You really have to like kind of watch what's happening. So, yeah.

[00:35:34] But I don't necessarily think it's necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, correct. It is. It's like it's just like a sort of elevated beat them up in terms of how they execute the combat, which I actually like because sometimes beat them ups can fall into this trap of. Well, now I'm just button mashing and it's like too easy. Right. And it's not that fun.

[00:35:55] So, you have to have that balance and I think this is right on the edge of I want to throw my controller at the screen and like sort of this well executed like more tactile beat them up combat, which I think is interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I don't think any of these things are bad design decisions. But, yeah, you've just got to be thinking about this a little differently. I feel like if you're super well versed in beat them ups, sure, you're going to have an easier time than I think than most will.

[00:36:24] But, for example, playing this game versus like TMNT Shredder's Revenge or playing Streets of Rage 4 or like Marvel Cosmic Invasion, it feels just a little different in terms of how you're supposed to handle all the enemies on the screen. Right. Right. And I think we've explained that well enough. I guess the only other things I kind of want to mention with like game design and mechanics would be that, I mean, you have like a skill tree.

[00:36:54] It's like this collective because you and I have only played in co-op, right, where you'll get this meta currency and then you can dump it into things that will like increase like your overall health. And that applies to everybody on your team. It just applies to all the characters simultaneously. I think that works. Sometimes I just wanted something like, dude, where's my straightforward just like raw damage gets increased, you know?

[00:37:18] I feel like that skill tree sometimes is a little too specific where it's like, I don't know, a successful block will increase 10% of this. And I'm like, okay, yeah. But I felt like for as much flexibility as the game offers in terms of gameplay, the skill tree was like kind of pushing me to play a specific way.

[00:37:43] Which then again, you know, it's not necessarily bad game design, but I just think that like if you're jumping into this game, there's a little less freedom. You really have to engage with the more difficult and flashy mechanics in the game than some people might want to. Yeah, agreed. Yeah, I mean, in terms of the roguelike elements.

[00:38:12] Yeah, I mean, you regenerate. You already mentioned some of them. Like you come back, you earn certain currencies that you can upgrade and then make your character stronger, which then does make things slightly easier and allows you to kind of get further. So it's kind of got that basic pattern going for it. But I, you know, take it or leave the roguelike elements. I don't know. You know, I'm not, I'm personally just not a fan of roguelikes.

[00:38:38] I'd rather play through sort of an on-rails story and then like get upgrades along the way. But I understand like why they did it this way. And I think it, I think they executed it well enough that I think it does add some depth and some richness to the game in terms of how you approach runs and how you like do certain things. So I'll give it credence in that way. Like it, it was well executed. I just personally just still don't like roguelikes, but that's okay. They did, they did it well.

[00:39:08] I agree. Let's talk about impact on the industry. We, like I said, Jake, this game just like punches above its weight. It's that it, and it combines several different genres and just like, like a really great package. I don't think it, it definitely did not get its flowers. This is not a game that a lot of people talk about. I don't think many people even know about this, which is a shame because I think it's really, really good. Probably one of the best games of last year, to be honest.

[00:39:37] Despite all the incredible games that came out last year, like this is, this is a gem, like for sure. Um, this is one of those that I think more than a lot of the games that we've talked about over the recent period of the podcast that truly is like an under the radar.

[00:39:55] I think of kind of Arco, um, there's even maybe even more so than Arco, just like an incredible, really, really, really good game that like nobody knows about. Like no one has like really even talked about, uh, which is a shame. Yeah, totally. I mean, even Arco got its flowers when the developer of Bellatro was like, no, that's right. My game of the year was Arco, you know?

[00:40:22] And, um, man, if, if every indie game had a champion to go to bat for them like that, you know, that would be incredible. Totally. Um, but yeah, I mean, Absalom, as far as I know, didn't have somebody that was just like, Hey, actually, no, this is game of the year, or this is actually a game that you need to be paying attention to. Uh, somebody who had position and voice to kind of do that.

[00:40:43] Um, yeah, I, I'm super glad that a game like this is able to make some extra money by being on Game Pass because it's, you know, has co-op, um, online and couch co-op. So those games, I think tend to do better and well on Game Pass. Um, I guess what I wanted to say about impact on the industry was, um, just, I have a few, some information pulled up here. So published by Dotemu, who Dotemu knows what they are good at publishing.

[00:41:12] They publish a beat-em-ups, you know, and they do a fantastic job of selecting them and getting those to market. Um, yeah, I also am reading here, right? So this is just what a crazy niche in 2026 to publish beat-em-ups. But they absolutely excel at it, you know, and you're right. It's like, it's a niche, but like, it's also like dang, but they do it, you know, they do it dang well.

[00:41:34] Um, yeah, and, uh, so this, they also published Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, uh, the TMNT game that I mentioned earlier, Shredder's Revenge. Um, and this game was co-developed by the people who made Streets of Rage 4. So, it, knowing that information, I'm just like absolutely unsurprised at the quality of what this game is and what it's able to accomplish.

[00:42:01] You got some people here that know the genre, that have had success in prior titles, and they know exactly what they're doing. Um, and it just kind of brings me back to this point of like, you want successful, high-quality games, you get people who, who have a lot of experience, a lot of talent to know how to make games together. You know, um, you keep that, you retain that talent and you get higher quality products. Absolutely. Um, I think that's, I think that's especially cool.

[00:42:30] Of course, like, like you're saying, like this game, like it suffers the fate of so many great indies. It's a flash in the pan when it releases. And, uh, if it doesn't hit that viral, you know, attention, that level of attention, then you and I, we sit here and we're like, this is a fantastic game. Really hope it did well enough for everybody to continue making more high-quality games. And I think it's, uh, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I would love to know.

[00:42:58] Um, obviously I think this is one of the reasons why I think Game Pass is typically good for developers. And that, like, this game didn't launch on Game Pass as far as I'm aware, but they made a deal. And a few months later, they hopped onto Game Pass. And that's an extra, you know, a few dollars in their wallet, um, by being a part of a subscription service. And that doesn't, that's not exclusive to Game Pass. That could be like PS Plus or whatever. So, um, yeah, another great game.

[00:43:25] Hopefully a lot of people find it and play it and talk it up because games like this need that. Yeah. Try this one out. If you haven't played this one, this one's, like, genuinely great. Even if you're not, like, a beat-em-up fan, I think you'll be surprised at, like, the depth here. Yeah. Um, and, like, the sort of the nuance to the combat. And, like, the really cool story. Um, if you don't throw your controller at the screen like I did. But, and I actually bought this at the time.

[00:43:55] Like, it was not on Xbox when it actually released. So, I actually own this on PlayStation. Oh, nice. So, uh, but yeah. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's been our episode talking about Absalom. This is on Game Pass now. Go check it out if you've got that. Play it co-op with your kids. Play it online. Go check this one out. If you like the show, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. Helps people find the show and helps us to grow.

[00:44:23] So, you can also join us directly, patreon.com slash periodercast. You can sign up for the deluxe edition, which gets you access to extended editions of our regular episodes and special topics episodes. We try and do those at least once a month. Uh, which of this, this episode will actually be, have an extended edition. So, if you want the continuing conversation, go check that out on Patreon. You can join us on our Discord channel. Link to that is in the description.

[00:44:53] And you also check out Jake's stream on Twitch, twitch.tv slash chipdebate team. Thank you so much for listening and have a great night.