Another Crab's Treasure

[00:00:00] . Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus podcast. I'm one of your hosts Cameron Warren and have joined as always by the pixel professor Jacob Bartholomew Price, Jake it's June 20th 2024 We're back to talk about more video games summer is in full swing

[00:00:31] Jake have you heard of this game called chained together? Chained together. I thought you were about to make a joke and say Elden Ring because the DLC is out tomorrow Chained together. I felt like that might have been too obvious

[00:00:49] We can just let's just rewind for a second the Elden Ring DLC is currently live and available So you should feel lucky that we're even doing this podcast right now Because Jake is literally sweating from anticipation

[00:01:04] Yeah, I am very ready to I've been playing a lot of Elden Ring this last week just kind of Gathering knickknacks and doodads and leveling up a little bit To get ready, but I actually saw something somewhere I was watching a stream of somebody who I really like

[00:01:23] Genome-a-she-know if you know who that is one of the best souls people to watch and I don't know how I should look that and I mean amazing amazing challenge runner in the from soft souls series

[00:01:34] But guy was literally just collecting everything and then somebody was like, oh man but don't you want to save some upgrade mats for the new weapons and stuff that you find and I

[00:01:45] Thought about that and I was like, you know what I kind of do so that's what I've been doing actually is instead of like Leveling up a bunch of weapons and finding a bunch of things in the game Which has been good to get my muscle memory back

[00:01:56] I've mostly and now just hoarding smithing stones for things that look cool to give a try So the one thing that I did get spoiled for me, and this is just this is not even a spoiler It's like a mild like sort of

[00:02:12] Ancillary thing but apparently upgraded mats are plentiful in the DLC. Oh really good. I'm glad yeah Yeah, yeah, so like they because I know in Regular Elden Ring you kind of hoard those and keep them close to your chick cuz you're like, oh crap

[00:02:29] Do I want to use it on this weapon because if you find another weapon then you got to go find like Track down more and then you eventually get the ball bearings and it's kind of

[00:02:38] Not that big of a deal. I think after that but it's yeah anyway Yeah, that was in retrospect one of the very few I think criticisms of Elden Ring is that if you aren't doing

[00:02:49] Like a special weapon and you know like a boss weapon or something that which uses a different upgrade mat Which is super streamlined. It's just like one stone per level if you're doing any old weapon

[00:03:01] It's like you have to do two what two then four then six of One tier of stone and then that'll move up your level three levels And then you have to do like another tier and it's like 12 of those stones

[00:03:15] And it's like insane so to get like one of those weapons till like plus 25. It's like It's a lot way too much. It is what it's something like 20. Yeah, it's it's way too much And so good to hear that stuff will be plentiful

[00:03:30] But yeah, can't wait to dive in but Jake I honestly impressed myself this last week because over the course of basically like a week and a half I successfully leveled up a character Maxed out a weapon and beat Moog all by myself I did it. Nice

[00:03:50] I'm proud. I did it, man I did I legitimately thought like there's no way I'm not even gonna play this DLC for a while like I'm gonna have to grind and Then Jake mentioned you mentioned that that dragon lance

[00:04:04] It's like spear thing find the exact name of the same because folks this I ended up doing a run With this weapon and it's one of my favorite favorite weapons in the whole game the dragon yeah, so

[00:04:18] The dragon Halbert so basically what I did is I was like, okay I want to play a new play style Jake was like this dragon Halbert super fun to play with and I was like, okay That sounds fun Went and found the boss which is the dragon kin

[00:04:33] Lord I want to say yeah, it's fairly accessible early on right just down the sheaf her well It's pretty accessible. You just you basically can rush to it if you go down to What is it called she she for the she for a river

[00:04:50] She for River area and then you kind of go up this this like Fallen pillar and there's a teleporter there you take the teleporter that takes you to that boss So I got that weapon after I'd beaten like a few early game bosses to kind of get

[00:05:04] Up enough where I could actually fight him because he's he's not that easy. He's like a little tad bit difficult But once I got that then that uses somber smithing stones

[00:05:16] So then I just I went on reddit and basically found this kind of mini guide to speed run to mow Oh nice, and I use that and that ended up getting me a full like maxed out dragon Halbert

[00:05:31] They basically takes you through the like volcano manor quest line and And then I beat redawn redawn ended up being like really easy with that weapon maxed out Because you get lightning proc and it just does a crazy amount of damage

[00:05:45] Beat him in like two tries. Thanks, which was the first time I fought him on my first playthrough It was like maddeningly like frustrating Anyway, yeah got to mogue mogue was super tough

[00:05:57] But yeah, dude the lightning I actually one-phased him and that's how I did it. So he'd yeah, so he didn't get to like his crazy Flying, you know just ridiculous where you like yeah He just he didn't get there

[00:06:12] And that's how I was able to beat it because I did enough damage where I just aced him so dude That's amazing. Yeah, whenever I watch the speed runs or challenge runs of mogue

[00:06:21] That's how they solve the mogue problem is they figure out a way to do them in one phase because I had it before in folks Sorry, we're talking a lot about Elden Ring tis this season like every intro to every episode until we do our

[00:06:34] Elden Ring DLC episode will what we're gonna talk about this But yeah, so when I went to play him let's see I had never beat I have a stupid Masochist goal which is to beat all the the main bosses Not mainline bosses, but like great remembrance bosses solo

[00:06:53] So no spirit ashes and no summons and mogue was on my list and so I prepped for this one Dude that mogue phase two is a huge pill dude do that. It sucks It is so freaking tough, but my brag

[00:07:06] I guess at the last two weeks is that I was able to help out something like 17 people beat mogue Before the DLC so feeling proud of myself So I wanted to someone someone to help me because I was like I just want to get this done

[00:07:20] So I'm ready for the DLC could not get the co-op thing to work So I couldn't get like things to to appear and so I was finally like screw it I'm just gonna grind and just see what happens and then I was able to do it, but

[00:07:36] Dude elder is crazy. I actually ended up in this second play through I'm higher level than I finished my first playthrough of the game Really nice, and it was and it took me like less than half the time

[00:07:46] Like I only have 20 hours and I'm like I could go beat the game like with where I'm at And that's just like the craziness of that game. It's kind of once you kind of know a little bit what you're doing

[00:07:57] It goes so much faster. It's wild how much faster? It's like I feel like Elden ring others other from sock games are a lot like the Resident Evil games in that way, right?

[00:08:09] Or like once you know how to play the game your your play time just drops, right? Severely cut so much easier to get through and This wasn't like a complete playthrough or anything either like I skipped stuff and

[00:08:23] You know just kind of went directly where I wanted to go And that's the thing you also learn is that you can skip stuff like you don't have to do everything You can kind of just go where you want to go and yeah, there's more optimal paths, but

[00:08:34] Dude, yeah, I'm excited for the DLC my goal for the DLC is I want to do the new Like melee hand-to-hand build. That's like my goal. That's what I wanted that stuff in the trailers looked super cool. I

[00:08:49] I am so the character that I'm bringing in is it was like pretty much a strength build But now it's strengthen strength and faith But I'm really curious about the the super weird shields that they have in this game. Oh, yeah

[00:09:04] Yeah, like the bladed shields. It's like this makes no sense at all, but It's a fantasy game. Let's give it a try man Dude, there's so many the other one. I see I say I want to do the hand-to-hand build

[00:09:18] But then they also have what are they called the new? The great swords like all the light great swords the light great swords. Yeah, which look frickin dope Yeah, so I'm I'm a little torn. Yeah. Yeah, we'll just kind of see

[00:09:33] Let's see we eventually we got to talk about other things But like I said folks Elden Ring is gonna come up quite a lot Well, let me go back to what I was mentioning because I was trying to start with something chain together

[00:09:44] So I have it with own. I haven't heard of this game. You're familiar with only up. Yes. Oh my gosh Yes, there was like viral on

[00:09:52] And I watched a bunch of streams because it's it's honestly pretty fun to watch like because people because the frustration when you fall is just Creates the most hilarious twitch clips of all time. So there's a new one Called chain together. So basically

[00:10:10] It's only up but it's four player co-op and you're chained together So if you want to ruin friendships, this is the perfect game So if you can imagine only up which is literally just one ginormous jumping puzzle that goes straight up

[00:10:28] If you're not familiar with only up go like YouTube it super quick It is perfect streamer content because it's just a pure How good are you and like tactile you are just like jumping in these super weirdly shaped puzzles that go

[00:10:43] Only up as the game is called. Well, this one takes it to that to the X level By making it four player co-op and then you're literally chain together So if one person messes up you all just fall down and this looks like absolute hell dude

[00:10:58] I am literally I'm watching trailer says do you want to escape the flames of hell? So Yeah, you're literally escaping all so anyway, go check that out. I thought this was hilarious I I love games like this because

[00:11:11] They just go big on streaming and it's so much more fun to watch kind of these many events Like for streamers where they can do something and it just it just creates like fun content

[00:11:21] So I'd I like to flip on twitch every now and again, especially when there's something like this out It's pretty fun. Anyway, yeah chain together Man looks awesome. That's definitely one one thing. I'd have a watch on twitch, too

[00:11:38] We stream chain together Jake and ruin our friendship. I mean, I like you Cameron. So no, but No, I will not that would be That would be harder than Yeah, much. Yeah, I don't know Well, I don't think there's been much news

[00:11:57] So I think we can jump jump right in to talking about our game For this week which maybe is a little bit out of left field But it's it's newer to game pass Jake and I both play this another crabs

[00:12:12] Treasure Jake how are we gonna break this down? We will be talking about another crabs treasure in four categories The first one is narrative. We'll be talking about the story here sort of what happens as you play as krill this little hermit crab

[00:12:27] It is bright and colorful and happy and funny, but we're gonna kind of dig into we're not gonna get into spoilers So don't worry about that This game has a lot more to offer than I think you might initially

[00:12:41] Judge just by looking at like the cover art or something next we'll be talking about mechanics folks It is a souls like and so we'll be talking about souls mechanics and sort of how that stuff the stuff

[00:12:51] Operates within another crabs treasure next. We'll be talking about the gameplay loop. So what brings you back? to this game What essentially is engaging about it But also like what kind of circuits are baked into the game design

[00:13:06] So that you can make progress and move forward in the game and then finally impact on the industry here We'll be talking about okay. What what kind of game is another crabs treasure like for the gaming industry It didn't make a splash will make a splash

[00:13:20] What is it offering to the table of video games in this ever increasingly saturated market? So that is how we'll be talking about another crabs treasure first up is the narrative and Cameron What did you think of the story? so as a great simple premise

[00:13:38] Where you kind of jump in it looks like this cutesy sort of n64 era 3d platformer right like that's how it presents itself You're thinking like banjo-kazooie type situation and then it kind of turns like conquerors bad fur day But maybe not as emrated

[00:13:56] But yeah, basically you get your shell gets taken away by One of those toy shark things that is for some reason sentient and I still haven't figured that one out yet. I It's a spoiler someone explain Is a spoiler? Yes, there's a way to yeah

[00:14:15] To be clear to everybody so I'm I'm like pretty far in this game But not quite to the end but deep enough we decided to go ahead and do it But yeah, no it's um it starts off

[00:14:25] It kind of presents itself as this cutesy game and then as you kind of go through it And it's just kind of a simple start like it's a it's a little shell crab kind of looking

[00:14:33] He needs to get a shell back from this shark toy thing that stole his shell And then as you start to go through it The dialogue kind of shocks you with how Like clever it is. Yeah And you're like wait a minute. This is like

[00:14:52] This is actually really clever and then it starts to get into themes of like environmentalist themes addressing Like pollution because you're walking around the bottom of the ocean floor and there's all this garbage And there's this gunk that like comes out of monsters and stuff

[00:15:07] And I think the thing that was most impressive to me was like how well written it was and how clever the dialogue is and It does it does a little bit of playing with Like for like breaking the fourth wall quite a bit

[00:15:22] In really effective ways like with the dialogue To just kind of be funny, but it totally works and it's like it's like subtle enough But the dialogue is good enough

[00:15:32] That it you know I laughed out loud a couple times like literally just reading dialogue. Yeah, which is really impressive. So yeah, I I was really impressed with How well Done this game is all around

[00:15:48] Not just like on the narrative point and the narrative isn't like this isn't the last of us, right? But it's not I think its goal is to kind of send a message about Pollution in a like very clever and then smart way

[00:16:04] Wrapped up in this souls like crab game, which on paper that just sounds crazy to say Yeah, but it totally works It works super super well like so well that it really actually shocked me. Yeah

[00:16:18] And folks I apologize. There's going to be so many comparisons to other souls likes in this episode But you know from software souls games are so famous for having Like lore rich story light narrative experiences Where there's so much you can read about the world

[00:16:35] But what it is you were actually doing half the time you might even know you might not even understand or you You know, it just feels so secondary to what everything else that's happening And I think another crabs treasure. I agree with you Cameron

[00:16:50] Narratively, I feel like they could have phoned it in they could have phoned it in and been like hey, here's this message Ocean pollution is bad. Let's not put garbage in the water because it's bad for all these animals and let's move on

[00:17:03] And they did not and I I really like the way that you framed it because The game feels super light and bouncy and fuzzy in a way that like krill is like this Adolescent like sort of naive kind of appears to be like a little air-headed, right?

[00:17:21] It's absolutely portrayed as like really naive to the ways of the world because they live in this tide pool where everything's still like pristine and quote unquote normal and then krill gets flung into the deep ocean and sort of seals what

[00:17:33] What the real world is like and what that really means And I just love there's so many themes that this game grapples with and one is just um Being sort of thrust into some area or experience or life

[00:17:49] Without without like any foreknowledge is having to start from scratch and I would say early on in the game so much of what is happening has to do with krill kind of being duped into doing

[00:18:03] Things for other people they see krill as somebody who's capable somebody who is easily guided And deceived and then they take advantage of them But the game goes in some pretty fascinating directions with that theme as far as character development and character growth goes

[00:18:20] Um, I was really shocked with some things that happened about three fourths of the way through the game I was like, oh my gosh We got some pretty serious character development going on here Like and I think because

[00:18:30] The trailers and maybe the expectations of this game was just that it was going to be Super surface level, but it absolutely isn't and huge Hats off to them for that because I feel like lots of souls likes kind of take that approach where it's like

[00:18:48] Let's build a really interesting unique lore In world that the player is in But the story let's just make it dark and brooding and somber and that's enough Because that seems to be what people want to grab from those from software games

[00:19:03] And I just love how another craps treasure is like no We're not going to take that like we're going to touch on some important themes and some disappointing things and some Deep deep things

[00:19:14] But we're also going to do it in a way that there is a really straightforward story to follow a hero to root for villains to um, you know root against and and

[00:19:26] Whole ecosystems, you know pun not intent or pun intended right of of what's happening within this game So really cool and a lot to say about ocean pollution that is Not just surface level Yeah, it does that really great thing that really good Pixar movies do Where

[00:19:47] I'm just because I'm thinking of Pixar movies because I just saw inside out too, which is excellent by the way To know that's a really it's actually really really good. Um literally cried during it and I don't cry at any movie

[00:19:58] Oh boy, I don't know if I want to see it now But like in a good way like it's really it's right, right Um Anyway, I was thinking about it like it does this thing where it

[00:20:08] Like we were just talking about how it kind of wraps it in this cute package Like my kids just like they fell in love with it immediately just because it's like this cute crab, right?

[00:20:17] And they were like, oh, I want to play the crab game and they were like super super into it And we're following kind of the story. Oh, he's trying to get his shell back And this is like cutesy thing

[00:20:26] But then within the dialogue and within like the little interactions and within like the changes to environment the environment as you continue the quests You see kind of the subtleties in it and the cleverness in the dialogue

[00:20:38] And the message being delivered in like a really smart like poignant way And it really does super super well with that like in an impressive way and that's That's something I was thinking about is like man, that is a

[00:20:51] Really skillful thing to be able to wrap something and sort of a cutesy Kid surface level look on the sir, you know on top But then fill it with kind of deep meaningful content inside

[00:21:04] That's really skillful. I was super impressed by that. Yeah, I agree. Um, it leads you Very carefully through something that's cutesy into a lot of interesting areas Other things I want to say about the narrative

[00:21:18] Lots of jokes in this game and I would say the majority of them land which is kind of impressive Yeah, hilarious dude like so yeah

[00:21:26] And not just I was kind of expecting this game to have a bunch of crab related puns or ocean related puns and don't get me wrong Plenty they are plentiful But also just funny moments too Um It's well written like I said

[00:21:40] There are interesting characters that start kind of changing and changing what their opinions are and Your opinions of them also change as you kind of progress through the game Um, so yeah, I think the writing is really solid. Um a lot of Funny jokes in the environment. So

[00:21:56] um like if you read shoot what was it there's some sort of Food package and all the labels are just cleverly Disguised to mean something else mean something in the real world But like if you read like ingredients list on some packages like they throw in jokes there

[00:22:12] Um It's it's wild how much uh attention They gave even to the smallest sort of pockets of environment in this game Absolutely Jake should we go into mechanics? Yeah, let's talk about mechanics. Um I let's see. I gotta say man The shell system is awesome

[00:22:38] That's great. It was it kind of blew me away to be honest It this really cat this really catapulted This game is like probably In my top five, maybe even like top three like souls light Games like not like non from software, right? Yeah Liza p being probably

[00:23:01] Maybe number one. I'm just thinking just off the top of my head, but Dude, this is up there like this is really up there. Like if you like this type of game I feel like people are gonna sleep on this

[00:23:13] So many people are gonna sleep on this and that's so unfortunate because that shell system and just the combat in general It's super super solid Yeah, it it really surprised me. I thought that this was one obviously a super clever way of doing like different armors, right?

[00:23:30] Um, but also a very clever way to simplify like a weapon and armor system in a game while still having More or so the armor than the weapons by having your armor be super meaningful, right? So just having the defense stat and then having

[00:23:48] Different abilities associated with different shells. Uh, one of my go-tos was actually the tin can dude The tin can was one of my favorites Um Use that attack. Yeah, so to break this down. So you basically have um, you have a spork or a fork

[00:24:05] as your weapon and you could do like a Heavy attack and a light attack. So pretty standard. You can do a A dodge so like kind of standard souls light mechanics, right?

[00:24:16] But then what this game throws in there is what we've just been talking about is the shell system So you're missing your shell and so what you do is Out in the world, there'll be various things you can use just such shells like

[00:24:29] Tin cans as Jake just mentioned tea cups soda cans And different things and when you put those on they give you armor And different different shells like out in the world will give you different

[00:24:42] Armor, but then they also give you abilities. And so this also controls not only like your armor But what umami abilities you have access to which is like the magic in the game kind of thing um

[00:24:55] And yeah, this was like a really what I loved about this is it It was this it's a super accessible system To make combat like a lot more interesting and engaging. Yeah well at the uh

[00:25:12] Well at the same time giving enough variety where it felt like I had different options to kind of take on different Situations depending on what I was in and I just love the simplicity of it's like, oh, yeah

[00:25:23] You want to do this like you pick up the shell. Yeah, but it just it didn't bog you down too much You instantly kind of understood What what it was trying to do when you grab those shells? Yeah, really straightforward

[00:25:35] But still felt like you could customize your experience Without having to like chase down armor pieces or like stats necessarily like and like the build Optimization in this game really came down to like hey what shell works best with your play style?

[00:25:51] And what kind of variations of that shell are there in the world? I want to say there's something close to 70 different shells and some are way more common than others and um, I was surprised also that they felt like there was a good variety now

[00:26:05] I found some to be way more useful than others And so um, I would say that some are more viable than others absolutely But that's kind of normal for a game like this

[00:26:15] So yeah, I thought the shell system was super cool. For example, I mentioned the tin can This is one that you actually get quite early on But what you can do is that you could spend essentially your

[00:26:26] I don't know ap points if you will write your special ability points And you could essentially like make your tin can electrified So if you take a hit it will stun an enemy

[00:26:38] And so what I liked about this game too is uh, it played a actually a little bit more like mortal shell Which has like this hardened mechanic where? Sometimes actually your best offense is the right defense and not just dodge rolling But how you use your shell?

[00:26:54] Smartly in different scenarios to like get a stun where you can get extra hidden Where you can get a stagger where you could get bigger damage And so The gameplay the combat really revolved around the shells

[00:27:05] I mean when it came to your weapon you didn't ever change out your weapon You could fortify it with different, you know materials that you found throughout the world But you pretty much just had like this weird

[00:27:16] Two-pronged fork thing and that was it like for the whole for the whole game And there are other ways of doing damage, but I just thought like cool way to like hyper focus on the defensive on the armor

[00:27:29] And make it fun and versatile and that was satisfying enough Yeah, and there's also there's a there's a um There are stats so you can do like stats for health and magic and attack

[00:27:46] Like vitality like pretty standard kind of souls like stuff. And then there's also a skill tree Yeah, um, which unlocks various like actually like super cool skills Like I it's a really small skill tree, which I was which I loved. Yeah

[00:28:00] I was like, oh my gosh. This is the small skill tree. I've ever seen that's amazing Because it's just you know, like some of these games like they just have such massive skill trees, you know, you get

[00:28:12] You just kind of get overburden with oh man. I'm gonna have to like min max this or I'm going to screw up my game Whereas this game doesn't do that. It's just like hey here's Kind of pick a few different things

[00:28:23] The resource points that you use to kind of upgrade your skills are pretty plentiful Um, and there's a parry. Yeah, so you know, you can't really beat a parry You need a good parry is unbeatable, you know, and I gotta say the parry in this game

[00:28:36] I came to love because instead of click the button at the right time It was hold down your defense button which on xbox controller was left button And let go of it at the right time

[00:28:49] And I got a yeah adds a little a little sprinkle. Yeah, like a lot of games don't do they don't do that And I'm gonna be I'm gonna say the pettiest stupidest thing right now about parries, right?

[00:29:00] I don't mind the click system because that's the system that most games use But I felt like it made so much sense for a game that was based on different shells that you had

[00:29:10] To hold down like it was essentially your block button. So you're hiding in whatever the shell is and then all you have to do is release And what this really means is that you are only clicking a button in and then letting go

[00:29:22] You are actually doing less finger movements. I feel like Then on a regular parry where you have to quickly Time click and click out on a button in order to execute a parry within the right window Stupidest smallest detail in the entire world

[00:29:37] But I felt like it actually made a ton of sense considering how the shell system operated and it felt really really really good And so I became a parry master. I think by the end of this game I used parries all the time. It was really satisfying

[00:29:54] Sometimes the timing felt a little wonky compared to the animation So I did feel like there were some moments. I was like, hey that parry window seems wrong. It doesn't seem right But um, but overall I really enjoyed the combat system here

[00:30:08] I think like a lot of souls like schemes the bosses were definitely the highlight Although there were some bosses that I didn't really like And at some point the the main ads felt really repetitive

[00:30:20] And so I ended up kind of blitzing through some of those sections between bosses because like oh Now it's like 17 of those guys instead of three of those guys right here. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna run away I don't want to deal with that

[00:30:35] Yeah, I think that's taken us into the gameplay loop a little bit. So this has a Little little bit different. It's it's um So it's souls light, right? Um, what is that what we call it souls light?

[00:30:51] What's the difference between a souls light and a souls like to me? They're all souls likes I'm this is a side note and we'll probably talk about this when we get to impact on the industry I do feel like the last year or so

[00:31:03] Souls like is diminishing in like linguistic value and that it's being it's being used way too much as a descriptor of games Right So maybe we've reached the moment where souls light becomes a term, but anyway, I'm going on a tangent

[00:31:18] I would still consider another crap treasure of souls like Yeah, so basically what that means essentially is you have Resources that you gather when you die you lose them and you have to go back and get them

[00:31:32] You have various points on the map that you can save quote-unquote bonfires in this game. They're like shells moon shells or whatever And so when you get to that that becomes a save point and then you can teleport back to the old ones that you found

[00:31:44] So it's got like a teleport system there Um, and then it has obviously, you know third person combat a dodge roll a parry And then it's got some bad. I mean, I don't know is that that's like pretty much every souls light like kind of checks

[00:31:59] Yeah, that's it boxes, but I think it really comes down to that that loop of You head out into the world. It's very challenging and dangerous

[00:32:09] And so you gotta gotta be a little bit more careful until you find that next like save point and it's kind of a progress between those That's I don't know. That's kind of what

[00:32:20] And then a dodge roll basically that's like souls light for me. Yeah, I mean I would But that's what this game is you kind of you've got quests

[00:32:29] Either there are some side stuff like little side mini bosses or little kind of areas you can go to to get items or like different shells But overall you kind of have that overarching quest to find your your

[00:32:41] Uh, to find your your lost shell that was taken from you that takes you to different open areas This isn't like a fully open world game, but you have open areas um

[00:32:52] That you kind of move between and then you can teleport back to those like anytime and in the world One thing that I was really impressed with this game is the overworld changes Uh as you as you progress the game which was really fun to see. Yeah

[00:33:05] Think burning of the urd tree going back to elden ring There were some moments where things shifted quite dramatically Another example of where this game did so much more than I just assumed it would um

[00:33:19] Oh just that face value, but yeah, I would say that's the basic gameplay loop Right is you just kind of go from checkpoint to checkpoint you level up along the way you Might detour and find some secret bosses or secret areas and especially cool items um

[00:33:34] Another crabs treasure very very proudly wears its from soft Um Influence on its sleeve There were so many direct references to different things from the souls games and elden tree is Elden elden ring especially So Yeah, it was very loud and proud there, but I do think um

[00:33:56] Things Definitely feel more unique to another crabs treasure because of what it's doing Narratively right, but yeah, that's that's a gameplay loop and most nights when I was playing another crabs treasure

[00:34:08] It was like okay start up at a checkpoint. Let's make progress towards a boss. Let's defeat a boss I think I did like two bosses per game session And you just kind of cruise along through different levels the game is pretty dang linear

[00:34:24] They're like Cameron says there are there are things to do like optional things um Within I don't know. I think it took me 13 hours to beat this game

[00:34:34] Within three hours. I think I was done with the side content and I just really wanted to progress the main line Um with minimal exploring going off the main line path just every now and again

[00:34:45] Um, but I thought that was a really fine way to play. I really enjoyed playing it that way Let's uh, let's move to the impact on the industry um Something I've been thinking about a lot uh

[00:35:03] Jason schreyer he went and saw the new assassin's creed like star wars outlaws And his quote on twitter was That sure is a video game And I think that that was But he also said he's excited for it like he was impressed by what he saw right

[00:35:23] and I think that is Sometimes I think I think where I'm going with this is like Stealing and I'm I'm using stealing as like I'm not as like a negative term here, but like Taking ideas from other games and executing on them really well

[00:35:44] I think is 100 great and valid way to make like a really excellent video game That's right. Yeah And I think that feels maybe I don't know is that controversial like do games need to do new

[00:35:59] Things like every time they come out to like really truly kind of set themselves apart I don't think that they do really In fact, I think maybe the games that we like the most are games that iterate and ideas that already work I think it's like really rare

[00:36:15] That we come across a game that just knocks out of the park some brand new way to Interact with it at a base level and its mechanics and systems If a game can do that that's sort of next level crazy Like how did you pull that off?

[00:36:33] Level of thing, you know, it's usually like an otter or like a genius who's coming up with that But it does, you know And so what I'm when I look at this crab game like this weird crab

[00:36:44] That really takes a lot of ideas and this is the souls. I right it takes that kind of structure that was developed by from soft as like kind of the souls game structure

[00:36:55] And executes it to really great effect within this really strange shell that you would never ever associate with this kind of style of game And then like really pulls it off um

[00:37:08] So I don't know no exactly I'm going with that thought but it was just really interesting to me how like they didn't It definitely feels like they set out to make

[00:37:21] I can't it's hard to tell like did they set out to make like a souls light and they ended up with this like crab shell on the top Or did they set out to make like a crab? 3d platformer game and ended up turning into a souls like

[00:37:35] Anyway, these are like random thoughts all over the place. But I'm just thinking about like You know like you were just mentioning that term has lost a lot of weight Because I think so many games are doing it now because clearly that's a successful

[00:37:47] structure people like that structure at a base level Even when it's not necessarily done by from soft and so why not take that structure and like put it on your game if you can

[00:37:57] Execute it well. Yeah, no, I totally get that and it's kind of funny because if you go back to uh, maybe less so and like demon souls but more so Honestly, not even in dark souls and we did our our official ranking of from software souls games

[00:38:14] A while ago demon souls and dark souls. I feel like in terms of level design are actually Pretty they're they're anomalies in a lot of ways But like if you were to take a game like I don't know dark souls 2 or dark souls 3 dark souls 3

[00:38:28] especially or sekiro those are crazy linear games and How far off are those games and their level design really just from Classic video games, you know where you just do a level you go from checkpoint to checkpoint

[00:38:44] You do the things in between and you continue right? So what makes his souls like genre so special, right? And in my opinion if you if you want sweet sauce in your souls like game if you really want it to feel great

[00:38:56] It's that combat feels really snappy but there is Really the difficulty in a souls game Is attainable and it's immensely satisfying unless I am so done with this game because it took me forever to beat this boss Bosses cannot feel unfair, but they must feel difficult

[00:39:16] But you must feel an overwhelming sense of victory when you defeat a boss and an adrenaline rush to keep going in the game Right that's kind of like the pattern. I feel like in a really successful souls like game as opposed to

[00:39:28] A mission based game with levels, right? Which is what demon souls and what? Dark souls and beyond are kind of iterating off of right so the things that we consider souls like We consider them really big innovations and they are and I think especially in dark souls 1 but

[00:39:46] What I so like iterations right? I feel like is The best most comfortable way to make something feel yours While building upon what came before you and what I just think is wonderful about another crabs treasure is that Those those devs aggro crab the studio

[00:40:06] They saw a hole Believe it or not there exists a hole there can be flaws in souls games and that hole was the story like As much as I love any souls game i'll be honest

[00:40:21] Pretty much every single from soft souls game is talking like its main theme is obsession to the point of corruption Like that is in the way that that theme is told is super cool and nuanced and interesting in all those games

[00:40:36] But as far as stories go that's you could boil down just about every single from soft souls game to that thread Obsession, you know to the point of corruption Whereas I feel like in another crabs treasure. They're like Let's do something different

[00:40:54] They touch on that theme, but they also think okay, but What else can we do with the story? And so they filled in a hole with something that was uniquely theirs

[00:41:05] And I think that's what makes this game so successful and what makes it stand out in this huge sea Of souls like games is like, okay No We found something that we can do uniquely to contribute to this formula that we love and we know that works

[00:41:19] And that's why I feel like another crabs treasure feels like a game that it's uniquely its own despite the fact that is constantly paying You know homage to to from software and so as far as impact on the industry goes is

[00:41:33] If you want a souls like that really feels different What hole are you trying to fill with something that your studio can bring and I think that's where you're going to find The success Yeah, you bring up a good point where like

[00:41:51] Everybody yeah, this game kind of took That souls like structure, but then they brought A much more straightforward Narrative and then also kind of brought humor to it. Yeah Which we talked about which

[00:42:05] Works exceptionally well where like a lot of games they take the souls like structure, but then they also take like the really obscure You know Super hardcore environmental storytelling that really only from soft can like really pull off

[00:42:18] I think lies of pee did like a pretty good job. Yeah Like maybe they got closest, but I mean it's nothing compared to like Elton rinks kind of ridiculous and that regard Like somebody compared Elton rink to the bible when I was like, yeah, it's pretty

[00:42:32] Pretty close. Yeah, pretty spot on ony Uh, but yeah, no I in terms of impact on the industry like I love that this is on game pass The question that always comes to my mind. I hate that this is a question that comes to my mind

[00:42:48] I hate that this is the way that my brain works But I always think like Are enough people gonna play this game Because it doesn't really tell the story of what it is very well, right? There's basically no marketing for this This is obviously like an indie

[00:43:05] An indie title Um, I think there was very very minimal marketing I think this is a game that's like really hard to figure out what it is Unless you hear kind of somebody else talk about it and talk it up

[00:43:19] I don't know. I hope my brain always just goes to like I want to see more stuff like this because it's so well done

[00:43:24] But then at the same time like is it successful enough, right where it can like thrive and I hope people are playing on game pass But is it gonna be the issue of oh parents see like a cutesy crab game or kids see a cutesy crab game

[00:43:37] They open it up they find out that like oh, this is actually like kind of difficult and has like You know, it's it's not m rated or anything

[00:43:46] But it's got sort of like adult themes and it's actually super challenging and kids are not going to get through this It's really tough. It's actually tough. It's like very tough at points So then they get sort of miffed on it

[00:43:57] But then the more hardcore people they never download it because they don't know what it is And so I feel like another crash treasure kind of finds itself in that weird spot which That's why game pass exists, right?

[00:44:09] And I hope that because of that it sort of breaks through But it's it's hard for me to see that that would happen But I mean, I'm glad I got to play it and I'm glad you know, hopefully a lot of other people do

[00:44:20] Yeah, I on it's on its own its own merits. It's a super good game. It's a wonderful souls like and I recommend highly To anybody playing this game whether or not you're familiar with souls likes now And I think it is a wonderful introduction

[00:44:35] To souls likes games and something that we haven't brought up yet But I think we need to talk about in this section more than any other is the accessibility settings, right? So there's a whole lot here you can change you can change

[00:44:48] I'm pretty sure what like peri window to be a little more generous You can change how much damage you do how much damage you take like there's a whole list of settings in there And then famously I almost feel like because they mentioned this in the trailer

[00:45:03] You can just give krill a freaking gun dude. Like did you use this at all? Dude, I didn't even know this this accessibility was in there that changes the game right but again Again, that's something I just call this out like

[00:45:18] I think they got to call that out better because I want to turn that on for my kids like immediately I didn't even know that was in there now that I know that I'm going to go totally like change how they're playing it But that's awesome

[00:45:27] Right, but the the point I want to make with this accessibility is that souls like diehards are notoriously stubborn and very self-righteous About the difficulty in souls like games And so this game was created with accessibility settings with difficulty modifiers

[00:45:50] And so your hard-cold souls like fans the ones who have the giant sticks up their butt and you can tell how I feel about those people, right? They're not going to play this game

[00:46:02] You don't have to touch any of these settings, but they're not going to play it just like on principle, right? and How do you market? This is my question and this is maybe you know, this is rhetorical

[00:46:13] But this is tying into what Cameron's saying about marketing this game. How do you market? The the souls like that anybody can play right and I think that they tried to do this But that demographic I'm like man who who do you convince?

[00:46:29] Who I mean because I feel like these people are out there people like oh I've always wanted to try a souls game, but I've heard they're so hard and so I've never done it, right? Well, this game is for you, right?

[00:46:39] And I would love to know like okay Did those people actually play this game did the people who were like, you know Always swearing off from software games who had returned to dark souls game five times

[00:46:52] Did you pony up? I want to know I want to know if you ponied up and you saw this game and you gave it a try And you decided definitively that the souls likes games are for you or not because I feel like another crab's treasure

[00:47:07] Is that litmus test? It's what you have been waiting for. Did it pan out? I have no idea I think I'm just Sort of obsessed maybe if sess is the wrong word, but I'm just fascinated or like really

[00:47:22] Invested and like how do we get people to how do we? scrape off the youtube tiktok brain rot from the young generation And get them to play a game like this

[00:47:35] How do we convince them to play this and have a good time and like invest time into it because I want games like this to exist And I just fear and we've had a lot of conversations about this over the last like several weeks

[00:47:48] I just fear that we're heading towards a future where there's three mega games and like that's it And like no one else can survive and it's going to become this like It's going to become just this like barren wasteland where you have the massive massive massive

[00:48:04] super life service games That just owned the market and nobody plays anything else because they're too Frankly lazy or addicted to their one game to even try anything else and even trying something else is literally work or feels like

[00:48:20] Painful or there's too much effort behind it to just try like a different experience How do we conquer that right? Like how do you how do we conquer that and fix that?

[00:48:30] And like get people to just get the f off of fortnight for one night and play something else And that's what i'm passionate about as a gamer and like one of the reasons I do this podcast is like

[00:48:42] Get the word out on all this crazy cool stuff and crazy cool experiences that these people are building Like this game that I feel like Just doesn't mark it very well, but absolutely deserves your time 100 percent

[00:48:56] I'm fixated on a word. You said you said scraping and now i'm like, what's the video game industry's putty knife to To really get something off right something that's really stuck. Yeah, I don't know I I think

[00:49:09] I it for a long time right we were hoping that game pass would be this magic tool Right that would be able to say hey take a look at this cool game that came out You'll probably like it give it a try it feels much

[00:49:22] More risk-free to do it in this scenario as somebody who subscribed to game pass Right, but as the gaming industry sort of turmoil and financial Crap is going on We're wondering okay Is that is that actually the model that's gonna work?

[00:49:40] You know, we're worried. We're worried that that doesn't really exist and and we want it to exist because I agree I agree with Cameron right like Um another crabs treasure is a great game when it comes to its game stuff

[00:49:50] But I think narratively it is doing some super remarkable things And it is tackling a huge global issue which is ocean pollution and How how do you get people to like think about that in the settings of a game right?

[00:50:06] There are other games that do it right but this another crab treasure is super unique in how it's approaching that topic And what it has to say on that topic so of course you want more people to to talk about it and play it

[00:50:16] And yeah, I agree with you Cameron. There's there's a lot of concern there um It's fascinating though because I do think that at the end of the day when people are talking about another crabs treasure

[00:50:27] I don't think that this game's actually game will go away actually in in the quote-unquote discourse Because of its incorporation of accessibility settings probably more than anything Which I think is actually kind of a shame and I actually wish that people would stop bringing up souls like games

[00:50:44] to talk about accessibility and in difficulty settings in gaming because Frankly, they don't have any so I I honestly think that like People should be talking about celeste or now another crabs treasure when having that conversation and say hey, let's talk about this

[00:51:00] In practice. How did it work? What can we say about celeste in its difficulty settings and actually um Do some real analysis about okay? What happened with the accessibility settings instead of people just theoretically Pontificating about well, what if a souls game had um difficulty settings?

[00:51:20] Would that be the end of the world? And I'm like no let's just talk about the games that actually do that because there's an act There's a real conversation to have there So I hope that another crabs treasure keeps coming up as an example as that

[00:51:33] Discourse never dies because we like to keep it in sort of the conceptual and not in the practical Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself or I'm just running away with this another crabs treasure

[00:51:44] Yeah, I want this game to have a super interesting legacy in the video game industry But it also came out in 2024 where things really suck And there's also a billion games coming out And it could easily kind of just dissipate. I think in the ocean of video games

[00:52:05] pun intended pun intended This is a great. This is uh probably my favorite indie game of the year so far to be honest Um, yeah, it's up there for sure Uh

[00:52:19] So yeah, go check this out. This is on game pass. This is a great if you even like Souls type of games at all even if you don't like Turn on the accessibility settings This game is funny. It's got great platforming. It's got like cool

[00:52:36] You know like a fun battle system with the shells. There's just great stuff in here like go check this out go play this Fantastic another crabs treasure Uh Yes on game pass also on steam

[00:52:52] Is it on playstation? I don't know. It might be xbox and pc only. I want to say no, it's on all major platforms It's not all okay Well ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode of the period about his podcast talking another crabs treasure

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