Latest / Boss Rush Podcast - A Podcast about Video Games / Will Third Party Game Key Cards Hurt Nintendo Switch 2 Sales?

Transcript

Will Third Party Game Key Cards Hurt Nintendo Switch 2 Sales? · Boss Rush Podcast - A Podcast about Video Games

0:22
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Boss Source Podcast, a great
0:25
place to play games and be better.
0:26
I'm one of your host, Corey Derrick, and alongside me, as
0:28
always, is the PC muscle race himself, Laurent Dawkins.
0:32
Hey, what's poppin? Hey, Laron.
0:34
Hey. How's it going?
0:36
Yeah, it's going all right, going pretty good.
0:39
Yeah, just just wrapped up that wonderful Patreon show.
0:42
Like that's a good topic. Yeah, I, I have had a lot of
0:48
nostalgia for strategy guides and old magazines and art books
0:54
and, you know, just just feeling it right now.
0:58
So just feeling that, you know, nostalgia as it were.
1:05
Also, that special place that story would mention.
1:12
Everyone has a special place speaking how to transition out
1:18
of that. Also here, mad pharmacist
1:23
herself, Stephanie Klimov. I am present and wearing my
1:29
Kojima Productions tank top that I got today.
1:34
Oh nice. Because I felt like it and it's
1:37
only Kojima Productions merch that I can really afford.
1:41
Midna. That's fair.
1:45
You you didn't buy the life-size replica statue of the the
1:49
astronaut guy Rudens. Yeah, that guy.
1:56
No, no, that was slightly out of my budget, especially if I want
2:00
to get Troy Baker a picture with Troy Baker on Friday.
2:04
So. It's fair.
2:08
It's going to cost some time and money in that line, yes.
2:14
Speaking of cost of money, also here is PK Power Pat Klein.
2:18
That's right, my premium comes at a pretty penny.
2:22
Oh geez, I subscribe for those feet picks.
2:23
Mm, hmm. Mm hmm.
2:30
Mm, hmm. Mm hmm.
2:31
Mm hmm. Well, it's Tuesday, I got what
2:33
Monaco would say. Such lovely feet.
2:37
Yes. Oh men, she ripped a poster of
2:40
mine. Oh, no, men.
2:44
That's all that. Time.
2:48
Time to go to the violin factory.
2:52
Violin factory Cheese it. Was dark.
2:56
Fine, I'll shut up. Oh boy.
3:02
Well, I'll just get the the old. What do you say housekeeping out
3:06
of the way if you want to. If you want to support, this is
3:12
the Boss Rush podcast. You can support us over on
3:14
patreonpatreon.com/boss Rush Network for as little as a
3:18
dollar. You can get access to the
3:21
Patreon pre show. You get early access to other
3:23
content including a book club and expansion pass and all kinds
3:28
of cool things over there. That's patreon.com/boss Rush
3:32
Network, but if you can't support us financially, it's OK.
3:35
You can head over to youtubeyoutube.com/bossrush
3:39
network where you can see our beautiful faces talking about
3:43
video games and things and such, including Expedition 33 spoiler
3:50
cast that Pat and I did. You can listen to this podcast
3:55
on your favorite podcast service of choice.
3:57
He was five star rating and a nice review really helps us out.
4:01
And you can see all of our content, including our daily
4:05
Bosster's banter pieces, our features, listicles, reviews and
4:10
every episode of our podcasts and more on our website at
4:13
bossrush.net. Man, good times, good, good
4:18
times. Congratulations to the writing
4:20
team for having the best month ever on the website.
4:24
Very, very, very good. Everybody deserves air fives
4:30
because, well. Don't forget to air 5 yourself
4:33
because you had that awesome Destiny review that did
4:36
wonderfully. It did OK, but there is a lot of
4:42
other stuff that went up. So not not going to not going to
4:47
take all the credit. Anyways, we're here to talk
4:53
about some some topics and there's some, there's a few
4:57
interesting ones here. A lot of them seem to be re say
5:02
alienating fan bases. Let's see which way do we go
5:07
first? You know what, Stephanie, we're
5:10
going to go your way first because this seems to be the the
5:15
issue of the current moment, not just for Nintendo, but for
5:20
everyone that is making some sort of consumer electronic.
5:25
Oh yeah, sure. And this was the basis of a boss
5:29
rush banter that will be published tomorrow.
5:34
So yes, very timely, let me pull it up here.
5:39
Sorry, my computer doesn't really want to work.
5:42
So my topic is a Nintendo's recent price increase and unless
5:48
you live under a rock, which is totally reasonable 'cause I feel
5:51
like I'm hyper tuned into the news because I write for the
5:54
website. Pricing for the original
5:58
Nintendo switch so not switch to but the original switch that
6:02
came out in 2017. Family of systems and products
6:05
will change in the United States based on market conditions
6:09
effective August 3rd. These include Nintendo Switch
6:13
OLED, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and certain Switch
6:17
accessories. Nintendo also stated that other
6:21
products like Alarmo and some Switch to accessories will see
6:26
price increases. They said the Switch to console
6:30
will not experience a price increase, but it is not
6:32
guaranteed that that won't happen in the future.
6:37
You can check out the Boss Fresh banter when it goes live
6:40
tomorrow or just look it up. But an example of a few price
6:43
increases, I won't list all of them is the Switch Launch
6:46
Edition console will go from 300 U.S. dollar to 340, The Oleds go
6:51
on a 350 to 400, Joy Con 80 to 90, and the Pro controller from
6:56
70 to 80. However, just to note that
7:01
customers in the United States aren't alone.
7:04
Canada is also impacted, just in slightly different ways.
7:07
I believe Canada is experiencing an increase in NSO membership.
7:13
While not a political show, and I never discuss politics, many
7:18
theorize that tariffs are a huge factor, although no causation
7:24
can be drawn, especially with a particular deal struck between
7:28
the United States and Japan. But regardless of the situation,
7:34
Nintendo stated it was only due to market conditions.
7:40
The reason why I kind of bring this up, it is really more my
7:44
focus on the price hike for the original Switch.
7:48
Because generally when a new console generation or the the
7:53
more relevant console is released, the prior console will
7:57
either the price will stay the same or they will eventually
8:01
drop. I think this is the first time
8:03
I've seen a older console quote UN quote generation go up in
8:09
price. My guess is this just shows that
8:13
Nintendo wants to support which for a long time or else they
8:19
might not care as much. And before I open it to, you
8:23
know, further discussion, I do want to kind of recap that
8:27
Nintendo isn't the first to lead the charge.
8:30
Sony raised PlayStation Five prices, but they impacted only
8:35
the UK, Australia and New Zealand they cited, or at least
8:40
an industry analyst stated while tariffs are concerned, they're
8:43
not the sole reason for the changes, citing inflation,
8:47
currency shifts and block broader global financial trends.
8:51
Then May of this year, Microsoft recently raised all of their
8:55
Xbox console prices, example Xbox Series X from 500 to
9:01
$600.00, citing market conditions and rising cost of
9:05
development as their reason for increasing the price.
9:08
Now granted these price increases are to their current
9:12
consoles, PS-5 so to speak, not the Pro and Xbox Series X&S.
9:18
So with all that to be said, you're all welcome to talk about
9:23
whatever part of this and what your thoughts are, but I just
9:26
was particularly interested in the fact that it's the Switch
9:29
one that ended up seeing a price increase.
9:35
My main my main thing on this is this makes no sense, You know,
9:40
like are they too afraid that sales on the switch to were
9:45
going to be impacted? So they so they hit the old, the
9:48
old system like, you know, like I that's.
9:50
My thought is they want to keep the.
9:53
They want to keep the price low on the switch to while lower on
9:56
the switch to As for as long as possible.
9:59
This isn't gonna. I feel like this isn't gonna
10:01
incentivize people to buy Switch twos.
10:04
I think this is gonna. I think this is if you're gonna
10:06
buy a Switch 1, you might as well buy a Switch 2 because of
10:09
the price difference, right? That is, yeah, that would be
10:12
that would be the logic. But I also think, you know,
10:14
like, you know, like people are gonna see this as like it's
10:16
like, wait, they released a new system and then raised the price
10:19
on the old stuff. And I mean, I mean now like the
10:22
joy cons are like the most well I joke that they used to be the
10:25
most expensive controllers on on the scene, but now they are.
10:28
Target, I mean Target even upped the price of Switch to
10:32
accessories. I think the joy cons are $99
10:34
now. Yeah, I, I held off, for
10:38
example, on buying the Switch to Pro Controller because I was
10:41
waiting for like themed controllers, like a Zelda one or
10:44
whatever. So this other price like I'm
10:46
like, all right, I used to hit that while my camera shook that
10:49
Amazon, that Amazon sale and got my Pro controller because I'll
10:54
save that money. Yeah, like I, I, I just, I just
10:58
don't, I just, I don't understand.
11:00
And, and, you know, maybe, you know, I'm, maybe I'm, I'm in a
11:03
different, you know, like area of effect here because like I
11:07
have a Switch and a Switch too, So, you know, like I don't, I
11:10
don't get what this is supposed to do.
11:12
And then, you know, raising the price of NSO and all that stuff.
11:17
I'm going to, Nintendo's been doing wild, wild shit for like
11:20
the last eight years. So like.
11:22
Yeah, I. I shouldn't be, I shouldn't be
11:24
surprised, but I, I am surprised on this one, to be, to be honest
11:28
with you, I'm. Really surprised.
11:31
I mean, to me it's like this. Not that either of them makes
11:35
sense, but this makes more sense to do than Xbox making the
11:38
series S the same price as a PlayStation 4, right?
11:42
I mean, or PlayStation 5, I mean, like it's, it's, it's, I
11:48
think, I mean, I, the switch to is going to go from price after
11:53
the holidays, if not before, But I, I think they're trying to
11:57
hold off until after the holidays so they can try to get
12:00
as many of these things out as possible.
12:04
And I think the way they're trying to keep that down is we
12:08
need to increase the prices of something.
12:11
But we already raised the price. You know, if you're like, you
12:15
know, we think they raised the price on the Switch too because
12:18
of tariffs, right? Like they never confirmed it,
12:21
but you know, they already kind of did that.
12:24
And so they can't just up the price three months after the
12:29
console comes out. So they're here's a.
12:32
Wild idea I guess. Here's a wild idea like sell
12:37
through, sell through the sell through the rest of the
12:39
inventory you have and just stop making the damn thing.
12:42
You know, like the switch is basically the switch is
12:45
basically backwards compatible with the switch, you know, with
12:48
switch software and all that stuff.
12:49
You know, there are there, I think there's a few outliers,
12:51
but you know, like there's always going to be some
12:53
outliers, you know, wherever you know, but I feel like just sell
12:57
through your inventory and just put your main focus on the new
13:00
hardwares. It's, it's also what I said to
13:03
Sony, you know, when they, when they had the PS4 running
13:06
concurrent for the PS with the PS-5 for like damn near 4 years,
13:10
you know, like sell through your inventory and then just make
13:13
your, your, your current flagship.
13:15
Study different issue going on. Well, I know that.
13:19
I, I know that. Well, I know.
13:21
That different I think you're gonna I think you're gonna see
13:23
the PS4, PS Five and PS6 on the market at the same time because
13:29
the baseline I think in terms of like the scalability stuff that
13:33
Microsoft clearly wants to do but has no idea how to message
13:36
it or market it or do it. You know, I think when you look
13:41
at the Playstation's family of consoles, especially if they're
13:44
going to introduce this handheld at some point, like, I mean,
13:47
they introduced that low energy mode, which I don't know if you
13:52
saw the leaked documents of the PlayStation handheld, but I
13:58
don't know that low energy mode on the PS-5.
14:00
It runs the PlayStation at the exact same specs as this
14:05
theoretical handheld. I didn't.
14:08
See anything about that? Yeah, so it's, you know, they
14:12
they basically added a Series S mode to their to their firmware.
14:16
But like play a lot of these indie games don't need more than
14:22
a PlayStation 4 to run. So that's going to be the
14:24
baseline. And I think anything smaller
14:26
than a AAA Sony first party game is going to run on PS4 or PS-5
14:31
when the PlayStation 6 comes out.
14:32
And there's it's just going to be, there's just going to be a
14:36
PlayStation ecosystem, right? And you buy the PlayStation that
14:40
you feel like you need. And I think Playstation's too
14:44
stuck in tradition. So they're going to name it the
14:46
PlayStation 6, right? But I think theoretically it's
14:51
going to be just, you know, the PlayStation is going to be the
14:57
ecosystem and which just depends on what box you play on.
15:00
And, you know, and I think Nintendo is sort of crossing
15:06
into that, especially with like Indies and smaller games, right?
15:09
Like we already see a lot of their first party games,
15:12
Nintendo Switch 2 edition, you know, it's the same as the Xbox
15:17
with smart delivery. So I don't know I.
15:22
Don't know, I think Nintendo is trying to make a switch, no pun
15:27
intended to the switch to I mean just this might go a little bit
15:33
more towards my topic later. But just the fact that like the
15:37
Switch one, there are going to be switch one games that will
15:40
not have an upgrade to the Switch 2.
15:42
Like if you want the Switch 2 version, you have to get the
15:46
Switch 2 version of it. Yeah, like they're, they're,
15:51
they're making those moves. Yeah, yeah.
15:53
So I mean, so far, so far I was, I was kind of OK with a with a
15:58
lot of stuff that was going on. But I feel like this right here
16:01
is like on on Nintendo side is a little is like, is like is like
16:04
way too much, you know? And, and the sad part is like
16:09
the greatest part is like, I have no plans on buying any of
16:11
this stuff. You know what I mean?
16:13
Like, like I, I, I, I have my fill of the, of the switch 1,
16:17
you know, so like, there's no need for me to look to buy, like
16:20
buy another switch. I'm, I'm not getting an OLED.
16:23
If I, if I was gonna get an OLED, I was gonna get the first,
16:26
the, the first couple of months to drop.
16:27
I'm not like, why do I need to switch light, you know, so like,
16:31
you know, like who are they? Who are they gearing this
16:33
towards? You know, you know.
16:35
Like a lot, a lot of these accessories also are compatible
16:38
with the switch too. So that might also encourage the
16:43
price increases if just in case people are like, well, I'm just
16:47
going to go for the lesser option, which is now slightly
16:49
more expensive because it has the same capacity or
16:54
capabilities as the switch to stuff.
16:57
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I get it, but I
17:02
don't, I also don't get the logic, you know, like I I just
17:05
feel like this. I just feel like this is, this
17:06
is another way, you know, like and and you know, like, and this
17:10
is not, this is not the time to be playing, playing games like
17:13
this, you know. I, I do think a lot of it also
17:19
has to do with market conditions because let's face it, the last
17:23
like 5 years prices have like tripled on like everything
17:27
except for console accessories and games and all that.
17:32
And now we're starting to see them play catch up with it, like
17:38
yeah, game. Are we talking about Nintendo
17:43
specifically or just everybody? Because like 'cause like, you
17:45
know, Nintendo included, yeah, 'cause I mean, PlayStation
17:49
controls, PS-5 controls have been expensive in my, in my
17:52
opinion. But you know, like, I guess, I
17:54
guess the, I guess the hubris was, was that, you know, like,
17:56
you know, like they're, they're not, they're not the same.
17:59
You you're getting, you're getting a, you're getting APS 5
18:02
dual sense controller for $10 cheaper than than a joy con.
18:07
Also to be fair though, Joy Con is technically 2 controllers.
18:10
It's 2 controllers. I, I, I know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
18:13
I know. But I know.
18:14
But yeah, like, but yeah, like if you're actually using your,
18:17
if you're actually buying a joy con set to replace like ones
18:20
that are they're messed up. You've technically bought one
18:22
controller when you're playing in handheld mode.
18:25
Yeah, that's, that's the way I've always, that's the way I've
18:27
always looked at it. That's why I was like, man, like
18:29
that's the most expensive. I I didn't hear no there.
18:32
Remember when controllers went up to $40 from $25 from the PS2
18:37
to like the 360 PS Three generation and we thought that
18:39
was expensive. Now I'm like.
18:42
Crime rumble now. Now I'm like the dual.
18:45
The six axis didn't have rumble, that was the problem.
18:50
Ocean. It had gyros.
18:52
Yeah, I I could not wait to play God of War so I could balance
18:56
him on a beam with my controller.
18:59
Just like you can't wait to play with the Joy Con 2 controller
19:02
just to hear it make the Mario sound just from the OR Mario
19:06
coin sound just from the rumble part alone.
19:10
Yeah. Did you check out Oh no, you
19:12
haven't tried the the welcome tour?
19:15
There's they they feature something on the just how
19:19
powerful that rumble is that the rumble sound is actually can
19:24
mimic the coin collecting sound in Mario.
19:29
Just the rumble, not like no speaker the rumble, the
19:34
vibrations make the coin sound. It's like, how the hell does
19:38
that happen? It's magic.
19:41
It's Nintendo magic worth 100 bucks just for that.
19:47
Nothing else can do it. Yeah, it was * Fox that crazy
19:52
talking that made it rumble, right?
19:54
Remember. Bumblebee Tuna.
19:57
Jeez, yeah, I I just feel like. I feel like these company, not
20:06
these company, I feel like Nintendo specifically is trying
20:09
to find a way not to increase the price of the Switch to
20:14
they've already increased the price of their games from 60 to
20:18
70, right? Their upgrade paths range from
20:23
10 to $20 depending on what you get with it, right?
20:29
It's what is this what's happening?
20:34
I hear a creepy horror voice in my.
20:38
Headphones, so that's not just me.
20:39
Yeah, no, I heard it too. That was creepy.
20:44
I don't hear anything. What?
20:47
No. You didn't hear that means we
20:49
were causing it. Oh my gosh, that was scary.
20:52
That was creepy. Anybody else creeped out by
20:55
that? I was very, very.
20:57
What the hell did you guys hear? Like a demonic rumbling.
21:01
Yeah. Well, that's the show tonight.
21:05
We're thank everybody for watching Android.
21:07
Listening, I'm sleeping with the lights on tonight and you know,
21:11
maybe under the bed, who knows oh, you're.
21:16
Going to sleep under the bed with the monster.
21:17
OK, let's see how that works out.
21:20
I. Don't even know where I was
21:21
going. Oh, so, you know, I, I think
21:23
they're trying to do everything they can to not raise the price
21:27
of the console itself because 450 and $500 is already a giant
21:32
pill to swallow, right? And I don't know, I guess if
21:36
you're looking for like a switch light for your kid, you know,
21:39
like $230 is not exactly breaking the bank for some
21:44
people, right? I mean, it's expensive, but
21:47
it's, you know, the cheapest option for video games.
21:52
So like, I don't know, is it worth it?
21:55
I don't know the switch lights. OK.
21:57
But if you're going to, if you want an OLED Switch, you might
22:00
as well just pony up the extra $50 you need to switch to, you
22:03
know, like it's that kind of. But switch to as an OLED.
22:07
So I mean like, are you making a compromise or what?
22:10
Yeah, but I mean, it doesn't to me it it the OLED is really
22:14
nice, but the game's running at 60 frames a second is nicer.
22:24
So yeah, I don't know. I it's just a bad situation all
22:28
around. This looks bad.
22:29
It doesn't matter which way you slice it, right?
22:31
Like it just looks bad. Microsoft raising the price to
22:34
of outer worlds look to $80 looks bad.
22:37
Them reversing the price looks bad.
22:40
You know, like there's all these things that make these companies
22:44
look bad right now. And, and I feel like the only
22:48
company that doesn't look bad is, I feel like the only company
22:51
that doesn't look bad in this situation is PlayStation, to be
22:53
honest with you. They haven't done anything like
22:56
really, I mean, aside from like raising the pricing.
22:59
About it, yeah, there's definitely been talked that
23:03
their systems are the next one to get the hike.
23:07
They they will, I think. I think Nintendo and Sony are
23:12
waiting till after the holidays to raise the price.
23:14
I think they are really trying hard to make it through the
23:16
holiday season without having to do that.
23:19
But I do expect the PlayStation 5 to go up in price sooner than
23:25
later. And what do you think?
23:27
700 bucks for a PlayStation 5 original and like 900 for a pro.
23:32
No I think the pro go up to 750. I think the what do you get the
23:38
current one for the the one with the disk drive 500.
23:42
I bet each SKU will go up 50 bucks.
23:46
I don't know. I think they're going Microsoft
23:48
drought and doing 100. Yeah, well, Microsoft also can't
23:52
sell their consoles anyway, so it's going to be it's going to
24:00
be real weird soon, but I don't know I've man, I can't believe
24:12
that the two terabyte diskless white Xbox Series X costs as
24:17
much as a PlayStation, almost as much as a PlayStation 5 Pro.
24:20
It's. Ridiculous.
24:22
You know what would be a good topic to talk about later?
24:26
What is what are we going to do when the great Nintendo or when
24:30
the great video game crash of our future happens?
24:34
Like what are we going to replace video games with?
24:39
We should. Have to start thinking about
24:40
this soon. I don't.
24:42
Think there's AI mean there's there's.
24:43
Not going to be. There's not going to be a great.
24:45
Crash is coming. Game developments are going to
24:49
take 20 years for the sequel it. Is it is crazy that it is crazy
24:56
that Playstation's quarter for the their when their quarterly
25:02
financials came out, they said 5052% of their revenue came from
25:07
10 games for that quarter and they don't own any of them.
25:13
So it was like Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, Apex Legends,
25:17
Call of Duty, NBA2K, Madden, FIFA.
25:23
I forget what the other ones were, but they were kind of like
25:25
in that vein of like you can buy microtransactions, right?
25:28
So it's it's a weird spot. Games are in a weird spot, But
25:37
you know, I mean when you're when when the most popular game
25:41
on PlayStation Network is how to grow a garden in Roblox, right,
25:46
which is like some garbage. You know, I don't know creation
25:53
21 million concurrence. That game had at one point
25:57
concurrence, not players concurrence, which means they
26:00
had way more so. Real quick shot real quick shot
26:04
to the to the stream chat. Deuce Falco is like no
26:08
expedition 33 show. The games are alive and well.
26:11
I appreciate that. I I agree with that 100%, but
26:16
more companies need to take that approach for that to be a full
26:19
on reality, right? I feel like, I feel like
26:22
Expedition 33 right now is the exception when it needs to be
26:25
the rule, right? And you know, they built
26:30
something, yeah, they built something of that quality and
26:34
that length and that great with 30 something people at the
26:39
studio plus like the their outsourcing of, of things,
26:42
right. But like then you look at
26:45
someone like look at look at Concord from PlayStation, right?
26:48
Like 200 and something people worked on that for 8 and 7-8
26:52
years. They shut the game down after
26:54
two weeks. Like that's that's insane.
26:59
You know, it's in. It's just this industry needs to
27:05
figure it out. And when there's a quote UN
27:07
quote crash, it's not because there's not going to be an
27:09
influx of money coming into to the industry.
27:11
It's going to be because I feel like there are too many
27:15
developers trying to make too many games and they're all
27:17
coming out and there's not enough time or money to play
27:21
them all. And so these studios are going
27:23
to fold. You know, I, and I think that's,
27:26
I think that's part of the industry issue right now with
27:28
all these layoffs is that their games could be good, but it
27:34
doesn't, it doesn't help to be good anymore.
27:37
You have to be great. And even then, you know, you
27:41
have to have a little bit of luck or a platform holder behind
27:44
you to to be successful, you know.
27:47
It's, it's interesting seeing the gaming industry like, you
27:49
know, falling into the same trappings that, you know, like
27:52
Hollywood has been, has been dealing with for like 50 years
27:55
now. Yeah, and you think, Laron, I'm
27:59
sure you remember this, but like when Final Fantasy 2 slash 4
28:03
came out for Super Nintendo, that game was made by like 30,
28:07
like 25 people in nine months. Yeah.
28:11
You know, when was the last video game, like a quality video
28:15
game, you know, made in nine months or like you know what?
28:19
Even the two year cycle of the 360 PS3 era.
28:23
Shit, even indie games, even indie games take longer than
28:25
that in this day and age. There there was a game that just
28:28
come out just recently that is getting good reviews and it only
28:31
took seven months to make. What is it?
28:35
Bed take on the PC by Surgeon Studio I.
28:41
Don't know what that is. I will probably talk about it
28:45
next week because I want to be the first.
28:50
But like, you know, by the time Naughty Dog puts their next like
28:53
full game out between The Last of Us Part 2 and and I guess
28:57
Intergalactic would be the next game, right?
29:00
It'll be longer between games than it took them to make the
29:04
entire Uncharted trilogy, The Last of Us Left Behind, and
29:08
Uncharted 4. Here's a question.
29:13
How big was Naughty Dog? How big How big was?
29:15
How do we know? Like the manpower behind Naughty
29:17
Dog back then. So yes, so Uncharted 1 and 2,
29:21
they had one team, then they split into two teams and one
29:26
team made Uncharted 3 and the other team made The Last of Us.
29:29
And then The Last of Us team did The Last of Us remastered while
29:33
the Uncharted three team started Uncharted 4.
29:37
And then they reverted back to one team because of the
29:43
leadership kind of head butting. And that's why Amy Hennig left,
29:47
who was, you know, the lead writer and producer, not
29:50
producer, creator of Uncharted. That's why she left.
29:55
And Uncharted 4 was essentially rebooted.
30:01
And so they reverted back to one team to get that game out the
30:04
door. And then they went to the last
30:05
was Part 2, so. But but we don't know
30:09
specifically how many bodies were making those games.
30:12
We, we don't. I think you're, I feel.
30:15
Like our team was about 80 to 100 people.
30:19
And any idea where the studio? The studio is still relatively
30:25
small in terms of head count. I'm not 100% sure how many
30:30
people work there. I know Insomniac has more people
30:33
than Naughty Dog working there, but I'm not.
30:35
I don't really. I'll look it up.
30:38
We have these great machines sitting right in front of us to
30:40
look things up, and I wasn't. Even Yeah.
30:44
Naughty Dog employee head count? Whoa, really?
30:55
That doesn't make sense. Naughty Dog, as of July 2025,
31:00
has approximately 1000 employees.
31:02
That makes zero sense. Doing what?
31:06
Making one game apparently. Maybe they should like split
31:11
that 1000 into like 5 different teams and you know, then we can
31:15
get some like Jack and Daxter going again.
31:19
So that what that was the Google Gemini AI telling me that.
31:26
I mean, their Wikipedia page still says 400 plus as of 2023.
31:34
But I doubt plus 1000. You know, there's a possibility
31:37
that, you know, like they're they're, they're also like the
31:40
outsource people and all that stuff, you know, like a.
31:43
Yeah, outsourcing QA plus like this count might still be
31:47
counting The Last of Us, the online game that they cancelled
31:52
might still be counting that team, which was like 120 people.
31:55
Yeah. So still I, I.
31:59
I I, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just curious and I know like,
32:03
and I know like if it is more, if it is more or less like, you
32:06
know, between 4 and 500 people, you know, like, you know, I
32:10
guess it still makes sense why, you know, like it, it's going to
32:12
take 3 or 4 years for the next new game to come out and stuff
32:14
like that, you know? Yeah, I it is, it's interesting
32:18
to think about the fact that, yeah, we were used to getting,
32:20
we're shoot the Mass Effect games are coming out every two
32:23
years. Yeah, what what was, what was
32:28
the game, what was the game series that had like that
32:31
basically had and, and was good quality, not, not Assassin's
32:33
Creed, you know, but but had a sequel damn near a year, maybe
32:38
like a year and some months later, you know, and they did
32:40
three games, you know, and and they, they basically came out
32:43
like year after year, you know, like barely like the like the,
32:46
the calendar barely moved up a tick, you know, in the year
32:49
mark, you know, when these games came out.
32:50
I I can't remember what it is. It was in the PS2 era shoot.
32:57
I mean, even though 360, Dexter, Ratchet and Clink, Ratchet and
33:03
Clink, I feel like there was a new game like every six months
33:05
on the ratchet. Yeah, and those are, and well,
33:06
those are, those are, those are AA games that became AAA games,
33:10
you know, the Ratchet and Clink series, you know?
33:12
Yeah, but I mean, even even when you look at the 360, like we
33:15
got, we got the entire Uncharted trilogy within five years.
33:19
We got, you know, 3 Infamous games if you count, if you count
33:23
that Vampire downloadable one in like, what, four years?
33:27
You know, we got the entire run of Gears games on 360 in five or
33:33
six or six or seven years, right?
33:35
Like there's four of them plus DLC for all these games.
33:40
Most of them. I am curious what is making
33:43
games take a lot longer like they they aren't as you would
33:49
think with technology time should be like.
33:53
I think I think technology, I think technology is the is one
33:57
of the problems. I think it is because, I mean,
33:59
you know, like, you know, like and also and yeah, I think
34:05
technology is the main thing because like, you know, a lot of
34:07
times like, you know, these games are getting, you know,
34:10
like they're making they in house, they'll make changes to
34:14
the engine sometimes. And sometimes like those change
34:17
of the engines have to be, you know, like the games have to
34:19
adapt to the new change in the engine.
34:21
You know, 'cause even if like, for example, like, like I've
34:24
I've seen the difference between Final Fantasy 7 integrate and
34:27
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I've seen the difference in
34:29
those. I was like, yeah, it says we're
34:31
using the same engine, but you can tell there's been some
34:33
tweaking done, you know, so like that.
34:35
So, you know, so yeah, I think. What about?
34:38
Games like the Resident Evil games like we got the remakes
34:42
OF234 all within a space of like 5 years, as well as Resident
34:47
Evil 8 in there too like. Well, I, I know for, I know for
34:50
sure two and three were being developed at the same time
34:53
because like there was like, there's still like a very,
34:55
there's still like a very big rumor that it was supposed to be
34:57
two and three was supposed to be like an anthology that was
34:59
released simultaneously. That also brings in the
35:03
question, why can't these other developers make teams so that
35:07
they can develop games? Again, you know not everyone on
35:12
one game but like multiple teams so that they can do these
35:15
concurrent games. My real answer is, is that the
35:20
is that the main companies themselves want to save money.
35:22
They don't want to, they don't want to pay all these people.
35:24
Well, they don't want to pay all these people to be sitting
35:26
around, you know, and also, and also like they've also got
35:30
people be doing I, I know, I, I, I know, I know, which is why I
35:34
feel like. The teens would make them work
35:36
more. I'm I'm quicker to believe like
35:38
the 400 between 400 and 500 number than I am that 1000
35:41
number that that sounds like that sounds like that, that
35:44
sounds like AI just was like, oh, we're just going to collect
35:46
all the data and say this is the number, you know?
35:48
Yeah, I mean PlayStation by the like the entirety of PlayStation
35:53
employs like less than 9000 people.
35:55
You're telling me like an eighth of those people work at Donny
35:59
Dog? I doubt it.
36:00
Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah 'cause 90 dog
36:02
is not that big of a suit, 'cause I I feel like, I feel
36:05
like not sucker punch. Yeah, well, no, Sucker punch is
36:10
a ghost Sushima. Dang it, the spider man people.
36:17
Who's that? Insomniac.
36:19
Yeah, I feel like Insomniac, you know, doing, doing like 3
36:22
projects at a time, you know, you know, and that one studio,
36:27
you know, like, wow, you know, that that's the other thing
36:29
that's probably taking up a lot of their time.
36:31
Like they're having one studio like concentrate the biggest
36:34
book of their of of their workforce on like on like one
36:37
title, you know, like against against.
36:39
You could easily make a Spider Man, Wolverine and a Ratchet and
36:44
Clank, yeah, and maybe even throw in an infamous no that
36:47
sucker punch. That sucker punch.
36:50
Yeah, what else did in Tom? Nick, do you know what?
36:53
No, that's also Sucker Punch. I have done a resistance fall of
36:59
man that's that's insomniac. You know what?
37:04
And make another Sunset OverDrive just to throw it in
37:07
there. Oh geez.
37:09
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's, there's other, there's other
37:12
stuff at play, but I think I think the main thing is like
37:15
money, like they because like we always hear like we're, we're
37:17
downsizing all this stuff. And I know this topic is running
37:20
super long. We're downsizing, we're
37:22
downsizing all these, all these, all this workforce, all these
37:24
teams and stuff like that, you know, because like we're
37:26
haemorrhaging money and the 1st place, they always want to like,
37:29
say, you know, shore up the hemorrhage is like, you know,
37:31
they cut the payroll, you know, and stuff like that, you know,
37:35
yeah, like, and I guarantee you, like the, the, the guys, the
37:38
people, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, they're, they're
37:43
feeling the burn on all this stuff because like they're
37:45
losing resources, you know, in the process of while they're
37:47
trying to make like these, these bombastic AAA titles, you know,
37:51
for the companies. Yeah.
37:53
Let's see, I. I can't.
37:55
I don't know how any company over like 100 people could be
37:59
like effective with the resources.
38:02
I don't know. I just feel like that's too much
38:04
to manage. But I I haven't been in those
38:07
big companies so. Yeah.
38:10
I think one of my companies ever had is like close to 100 people
38:15
all around. So I thought, I actually thought
38:19
PlayStation was doing it right for a while, right?
38:22
Like Spider Man, they use the same engine and the same kind of
38:26
gameplay and mechanics to make Miles Morales, right?
38:30
They did. They did uncharted 4 and and
38:33
lost legacy was all within the same engine and the same assets
38:36
and the same kind of build. You know, the Last of Us did
38:41
left behind, you know, and I'm sure there's a few other
38:45
examples that I'm missing. But like, I thought that was the
38:48
direction we were going to go in.
38:49
It's like the first game on the on the on the console, right,
38:53
like on the platform would be like we put all of our work into
38:57
this engine in this game and now we're going to build smaller
39:02
experiences off of this one game, right, So we can get more
39:07
games out right at a 40 or $50 price tag.
39:11
And I thought that was awesome. I thought Miles Morales and Las
39:14
legacy were better than the the games they were spun out of
39:20
essentially right. Like I, I think Miles Morales is
39:22
the best of that spider man of all the spider man games, you
39:27
know, and it's not because like it's not because I think Miles
39:31
Morales has some great character better than Peter Parker or
39:33
whatever. It's because it was a nice tight
39:37
7 to 10 hour experience instead of a bloated 25 to 30 hour
39:41
experience, you know, and, and lost legacy was the same way.
39:46
You know, I, I don't know, I really thought that was the way
39:50
we were going. And Microsoft positioned
39:54
themselves to do that too, with, you know, Forza and Halo, but
39:58
they just didn't execute because, well, yeah, yeah.
40:07
Do you see that by the way the the the DLC they were making for
40:11
Halo Infinite that got cancelled?
40:13
No, I didn't. Comic book No.
40:16
Of course. Pulled a Mass Effect on us
40:24
anyways. Well, that topic got real and
40:29
greasy. Yeah.
40:33
Stephanie, you're quiet on this topic.
40:35
You you have any anything to say about the?
40:40
I did think I was, I, I spoke a lot at the very beginning and
40:44
then my goal was to open up and have a free flowing discussion,
40:50
which is what happened. So I, I don't really have
40:53
anything more to add to it than what's what, what I've already
40:58
said. I, I guess my only comment is I
41:05
am not a Nintendo apologist. I am a Nintendo fan.
41:11
One thing I respect Nintendo as a company is they're pretty
41:16
conservative business practices. And I feel that despite what
41:21
anyone a a consumer might think, I believe that this company does
41:29
kind of their head in the right place.
41:30
And I feel like they tend to make Better Business decisions
41:35
more than not good business decisions like we see some other
41:40
struggling companies. So I just found that a bit
41:44
worrisome to me a little bit, just a little bit that Nintendo
41:48
had to do this to a almost 10 year old console.
41:53
You know, again, given how, you know, they have really smart
41:56
business practice, what can I say?
41:57
I mean, when you, when you see all the news with, you know,
42:00
layoffs and, and all these other crap things and other companies
42:05
raising prices on their consoles, I mean, Nintendo's
42:07
kind of one of the last, you know, they do these things as a
42:10
last resort. And say what you will about
42:13
Nintendo loves money. Hey, anyone who's running a
42:16
business loves money. Microsoft.
42:18
Loves money. Tony loves money, you love
42:20
money. I love money.
42:22
I'm sure Pat loves money. We all love money.
42:24
Laron doesn't. So he left.
42:27
He Nope, no, he, no Lauren. Scrooge Mcduckie.
42:30
Yeah, deaf to capitalism. For real.
42:34
Anyway, it's just something that's worth keeping an eye on
42:39
because it's kind of, I don't want to say I'm precedent, but
42:47
just an unusual move in this uncertain time in the industry,
42:53
I mean. It kind of is unprecedented
42:55
though, you know? I mean, usually the prices of
42:58
these things, remember you could buy like a GameCube for $99 at
43:02
Walmart at one point, or like when the PlayStation 3 and the
43:05
Xbox 360 drop to $200. Hey, that's how I got my Wii.
43:09
I waited and waited and I got mine gently used for $99.00 so.
43:16
So. But that's used.
43:20
Never mind. I don't know, it's all the same.
43:21
Next topic. Thank you.
43:24
I mean, we might as well just stay on this, on this, what do
43:30
you call it? In this topic In this topic.
43:34
I mean, our other two topics aren't exactly positive.
43:36
So, Pat, I'm going to, I'm going to lean into your key card
43:40
topic. All right, so Nintendo just
43:44
recently had their partner direct and what should have been
43:48
a celebration of third party games coming to the Nintendo
43:52
Switch and Nintendo counts are Nintendo Switch 2 consoles
43:56
turned out to be a a shitting on the fact that pretty much all
44:01
but like three of those titles are going to be put on game key
44:05
cards, which is the bane of any collectors existence.
44:11
You mentioned game key cards and they will literally burst out
44:14
into hives, so they are a sore subject of many game collectors
44:20
and after the latest partner direct it's a clear indication
44:23
that collectors have had enough. Nintendo needs to offer
44:28
different, cheaper options to put publisher games on game
44:33
cards or risk possibly losing third party support in my
44:37
opinion. Wow, It's the Nintendo Wii.
44:40
It's the Nintendo Wii all over again.
44:44
Yeah, You know, I feel like Nintendo's been like, been
44:49
trying really hard to garner back their third party support,
44:52
especially because there's always been like, they're always
44:56
a step behind in terms of like what third party games are
45:00
capable of. Like they're the last ones,
45:02
always get the games on the system because they have to
45:04
modify it to fit a, you know, a lower definition system.
45:08
Now we finally had to switch to, which is right up there with an
45:11
Xbox Series S and so they could possibly have third party
45:17
release at the same time as the Xbox and PlayStation third
45:21
party. However, no, in my opinion, no
45:25
one is going to want to buy their games on the Switch to if
45:30
they're coming on to key cards because I feel the switch has
45:35
always aimed has always been like the collector's haven.
45:38
Like out of all the systems they're like people have started
45:42
to believe that this don't don't carry the complete game.
45:45
Like if you want to have a complete game experience, you
45:48
have to put the disk in and it has to download a big patch and
45:51
able to get it to be fully functional.
45:54
The idea behind the switch key car cartridge is that the game
45:57
is already playable. All you have to do is insert it.
46:00
No online, you know, check in required.
46:04
Like it gives people that sense of I own this game.
46:11
My my favorite example of the and this is when IA 100% decided
46:18
to go all all digital on on disk space games was the shadow of
46:24
the Tomb Raider gold. Like when it went gold and then
46:30
it got delayed has an entirely different ending on the disc
46:35
than it does when you patch the game.
46:39
You fight a different boss, there's a different ending,
46:42
there's a different outcome. You what?
46:46
Yeah. I've never heard of this.
46:47
Yeah, you should watch. You should watch the YouTube
46:51
comparison videos of the endings of Shadow.
46:53
OK, I will. I will do that before I go to
46:55
bed tonight. It's wild.
47:00
And so I was like, man, like, and you know, this is obviously
47:06
like, game preservation is like a big topic in the industry.
47:09
And it's like, none of this stuff's ever going to be
47:10
preserved ever the correct way ever.
47:13
I mean, Square Enix had to rebuild Final Fantasy Tactics
47:16
for God's sakes, just to put the remaster out and to like remake
47:20
the entire game because they lost the original source code.
47:23
So like, you know, Kingdom Hearts also the original Kingdom
47:28
Hearts source code is gone. They ripped the source code out
47:33
of a retail copy to make the HD collections on PS3.
47:38
And so like, yeah, I, I understand the digital stuff,
47:43
but I also like Pat said, Nintendo, Nintendo's environment
47:49
has always been where the collectors go because of that
47:55
reason of the games being there. And games even.
47:58
Wait, I mean Shovel Knight didn't release their physical
48:01
version until all the DLC was out, you know, so they could put
48:06
it all on the disk or on the cart.
48:10
Yeah, and a a lot of games if they do end up having patches
48:13
eventually, like the newer versions get upgraded onto the
48:18
karts. Yeah, even Mario, even Mario
48:21
Kart 8 Deluxe, like they released a version like an, I
48:24
think it was the international version, has all the DLC on the
48:27
cartridge, all of it, which is amazing.
48:34
Yeah. So it's, I mean, Nintendo
48:38
originally came up with this idea that they only wanted to
48:41
have the 64 gigabyte game cards, which are expensive for
48:48
producers to produce on, especially when the games are
48:51
only like let's say an indie game at 8 gigabytes, you know,
48:57
what's the rest of the 64 card going to have on it?
49:01
It that's why they kind of go this route of the key card.
49:05
But because of this, now it's almost like the very cheap
49:08
alternative that entices third party support to just make their
49:13
games onto these key cards or even just do a code in a box,
49:18
which is like the worst in in any physical collectors, you
49:22
know, opinion second to the game key card.
49:27
I don't know, first to the game, kinky card is second but it's
49:31
still like now. One A1.
49:35
B Yeah, Nintendo now, but just recently came out with a survey,
49:41
a survey that was so popular they had to take it offline.
49:45
With Oh yeah, Krogers, yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:48
I was like oh y'all them did it now.
49:52
Asking what people's opinion are of the of switch or of physical
49:57
games in general. Like it didn't even matter like
50:00
what system Of course they did mention their key cards as well,
50:04
but like I took it and there were options like I would never
50:07
get this. I'm pretty sure a lot of people
50:10
clicked I would like I would rather go digital than you know,
50:15
support a game key card. The the problem though is
50:21
Nintendo Switch 2 is not going to be the first place that
50:24
people will go digital to get a third party game.
50:28
A lot of people are like well I will just go to Steam or even
50:32
better GOG and get the DRM free copies of games.
50:37
That way I still feel like I have the ownership and have a
50:40
better running version than that which might be on the Switch.
50:47
So I I feel like if Nintendo or third party support wants, if
50:51
Nintendo wants to keep the third party support because third
50:54
party is either going to make these cheaper card or these
50:57
cheaper game key cards, or they're just not going to make
51:01
games at all for the Switch too. So they need to find a better
51:05
alternative in my opinion. Yeah, I did.
51:10
I did see earlier today that they're the company that
51:14
actually produces the key the the cartridges, not the key
51:17
cards, but the cartridges. It was implied that they are
51:24
going to start making different sizes because of this situation
51:32
will they will never come to fruition.
51:34
Was this just some kind of weird thing?
51:36
I don't know. I read it on like Eurogamer VGC,
51:40
so like it's to me those are sources.
51:43
I've seen that floating around the Twitterverse to the them
51:49
speculating that there's going to be a change in sizes.
51:52
Yeah, and I, I know Nintendo made these larger carts for 3rd
51:57
party support, right? So third party could use them,
52:00
but like third party's not using them, right?
52:02
It's the it's the indie games and the AA games that want to
52:05
use them the most for collectors.
52:07
So like in my opinion it would be better for them to make the
52:12
smaller cards in the AAA games be the digital games.
52:18
I'm trying to think how big was how big was cyberpunk?
52:23
Like I think cyber like cyberpunk was only like 30 or 40
52:27
gigs if I recall and Borderlands 2 I think is also coming in at
52:32
like 40 and they're still going the key card route or
52:38
Borderlands 4 sorry. Yeah, well let's see.
52:47
It does not say how big Cyberpunk was on this.
52:53
It just says it's fully on the 64 gig cartridge.
52:56
Yeah, I, I, I think like a lot of these games, these bigger
53:01
third party games aren't even having like filling up half the
53:04
cartridge. Yeah, that.
53:07
Haven't been going yet. Cyberpunk is 56.8 gigs OK the
53:12
biggest the biggest game on switch 2 currently is Split
53:16
fiction at 71 gigs it. Hasn't.
53:19
Wasn't that a code in the box? I think that one was the code in
53:23
the box that people were like, you know, screw that.
53:27
Yeah, that's that's, I feel like that game is not Yeah.
53:35
That's a compression issue. Yeah.
53:40
Oh well. Anyways, the Ron thoughts on the
53:45
on key cards on the on, I feel like you've been kind.
53:49
Of yeah, because because I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm primarily a
53:54
digital person. So like, yeah, I mean just just
53:58
for the sake of just for the sake of like what it is like,
54:01
you know, I know like this is going to be like the, this is
54:04
probably like the biggest scandal for the switch to.
54:07
And the switch to is not even like 6 months old, You know,
54:11
it's a it's a shame. And I'm not sure I know part, I
54:15
know part of the whole reason was definitely for them to
54:17
sidestep, you know, like, like piracy, you know, or, or
54:21
illegitimate, like, you know, gaming, you know, but I also,
54:25
but I also feel like, you know, like Nintendo's been doing this
54:29
for a long time. There's a reason why there's a
54:31
reason why Nintendo's Nintendo games do not ever drop in price
54:36
and stuff like that. It's a hot, whether it's first
54:38
party or third party, they're such a hot commodity, you know,
54:41
like, you know, and they know, they know their, their, their
54:45
player base and all this stuff. So it just again, like it's
54:48
another, it's another bonehead decision and a bunch of bonehead
54:51
decisions that Nintendo has been making for for at least 7-8
54:55
years now. You know, yeah, as soon as I
54:59
heard about the game key cards, I was like, I see some pros to
55:03
it, but I see a million cons to it.
55:08
And yeah, we, we hate to see it, you know, you know, me personal,
55:12
like I like, I'm, I'm mainly a digital gamer, like, like shoot,
55:16
like I think the last, I think the last physical game I, well,
55:21
yeah, the last physical game I bought on the switch on the
55:25
switch was was Mario and Luigi Brothership.
55:30
But before that, I think the last physical game I bought on
55:35
the Switch was Luigi's Mansion 3.
55:38
So just think how far between like Brothership and Luigi's
55:41
Mansion three that I bought a physical copy on the on the
55:44
Switch. Everything else I bought was
55:46
digital. Yeah.
55:49
No. For the Switch one I bought a
55:51
lot of like everything I bought like if I could get get a
55:55
physical, I would get a physical version.
55:57
But because of the game key cards switch to I have not
56:02
bought a physical switch to game.
56:04
Even Donkey Kong I didn't buy physical because it's like,
56:07
what's the point if I can't collect these other games, you
56:11
know, with the game on the card, then there's no point for me to
56:15
really collect the ones that are on it because I, I guess at my
56:21
library would just still feel incomplete.
56:24
And then here's the and then here's the other craziness.
56:26
And here's the other crazy thing, right?
56:29
OK, you heard that right. I did.
56:32
OK. Are.
56:33
You guys doing gaming's again? Yes, yeah, they're going.
56:38
Eventually these games, some of these games are going to be
56:40
delisted. Yeah, and I mean, then, then you
56:46
fall into the problem that Ubisoft fell into with what was
56:50
it, the Crew, right? Or like, not only did they
56:53
delist it, but they removed it from people's libraries, you
56:56
know, and then you have that whole problem of like, well,
56:59
what does digital game ownership look like?
57:01
And I think that's why people are are so drawn to the
57:04
physical, you know, not, I mean, of course it's the collection
57:08
aspect, but it's also like, do I at least I know I can like pop
57:14
this game in and play it at some point.
57:17
And you see that, right? There's the real hot topic.
57:19
Yeah. And but like, even even then,
57:22
like, you know, there are games that will be taken offline even
57:27
if you have a physical disk and you can't play them, right.
57:29
Like, I mean, my, my Destiny 2 disk is a coaster, right?
57:35
None of that stuff, none of that stuff works.
57:38
Like you put the disk in and it takes you to this whatever store
57:41
you're on to download the free to play version.
57:43
Like it takes you to the store to download the free to play
57:45
version. Yeah, so I mean, it's it's it's
57:51
it's just, it's just weird. And you know, like, hey, this is
57:54
I guess it's the perfect night for me to be on the on the show
57:57
because like, you know, like I I'm always I'm always here to
57:59
talk to you about Nintendo. But at the same time, at the
58:04
same time, you know, like I don't like to throw this word
58:07
around a lot, but it feels very anti consumer or anti customer,
58:13
you know? The problem isn't just Nintendo
58:16
on this one, Like Xbox and PlayStation, like, have been
58:19
doing it with their discs all the time.
58:21
I think it just hurts more with Nintendo because of the fact
58:24
that we stated earlier it's the collector's environment that
58:28
Nintendo has supported. Yeah.
58:30
And now it's like, well, the last bastion is under siege.
58:34
Mm Hmm. Mm hmm.
58:36
Yep, Yep. Yeah, Yep, real quick shot
58:40
Nicolet Dumatrescu. I appreciate you bro.
58:44
I see you out there in the chat. Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick and
58:49
Brody. WAC and beyond.
58:51
Yep, Yep, you. Need to get.
58:54
You need to get them on at some point.
58:56
Yeah. Like, yeah, ultimately I'm
59:00
gonna, I'm gonna keep the, I'm gonna keep the keep the keep the
59:04
light in the window for like all, all the Nintendo people out
59:07
there. Because like, I mean, like, you
59:08
know, like something's got to give here, you know, and the
59:11
whole, the whole fiasco with the, with the survey going up
59:14
and then being taken down, that lets me know something's
59:16
happening. You know, maybe they could just
59:18
got DDoS or something, you know, like, you know what, it's better
59:20
just take it down. You know, I think they hit the
59:23
Max quota like usually when you have surveys you have like a
59:26
ceiling of how many that you take.
59:28
Otherwise the people who are you doing your survey will charge
59:31
more to get through the data. I think that's what happened.
59:34
They hit their ceilings. It's funny because like I found
59:37
out about this survey by in like a Yeah, Kevin Kenson had a video
59:42
up this morning and, and like I was watching it and by the time
59:47
you got 5 minutes into it, it was like, it was like Kevin from
59:49
the future here. The survey has already been
59:51
taken down. So.
59:53
So in the time that he was putting together his video was
59:56
enough time for the for the server to go up and then come
59:59
down before he could finish cutting and creating the video
1:00:02
and uploading YouTube. Yeah.
1:00:07
I do see the talking point was in there, how to fix the issue.
1:00:11
The, the, the, the one talking point that we had as far as
1:00:14
like, you know, the, the company that makes those, those, those
1:00:17
cartridges, you know, like making different size formats
1:00:19
to, to better fit needs and stuff like that.
1:00:21
That's definitely a good way to go.
1:00:23
But the number one way to go is just remove that.
1:00:25
Remove that whole, that whole that whole protocol.
1:00:29
Whole key card. Yeah, remove the whole key card
1:00:32
protocol like. I mean it's I mean it was, it
1:00:36
was not. Remember we were talking about
1:00:40
that in the in like the in like the, the switch to direct, you
1:00:44
know, like the switch to direct, it happened like like like 9
1:00:47
weeks before the system came out.
1:00:48
We were talking about that. Then I was like, this is not
1:00:51
going to be cool, you know, like, you know, I get what
1:00:54
they're trying to do, but this is not this is not it, you know,
1:00:56
and and you know, like, I don't know, FAFOI guess.
1:01:03
Yeah, I was, I was a little bit worried about this with the
1:01:06
cartridges on Switch 1 when it came out and we were first doing
1:01:14
PAL block, right, was like, oh, no cartridges.
1:01:17
I mean, seems like a bad decision.
1:01:20
We all know what happened with the N64 and the PlayStation.
1:01:22
Like, I mean, obviously that did.
1:01:26
That turned out to not be the case.
1:01:28
Not be the case, but yeah. I mean, you know, like Pat
1:01:31
brought up at the beginning of this conversation, it's that
1:01:36
that evil's rear in its head again.
1:01:38
And you know, I mean, I mean, the only difference is like
1:01:43
digital distribution is a thing this time.
1:01:45
But like it's just discouraging a lot of people from, you know,
1:01:51
doing the thing that they love the most and then, you know,
1:01:53
collecting games and having a cool shelf full of games.
1:01:57
Like, I mean, I think we all think it's cool that see someone
1:02:01
with a collection and like all the, all the bindings of the
1:02:03
cases sticking out and, you know, the, the case art and
1:02:07
everything. Like that's cool.
1:02:09
I I miss that sometimes, you know, but this is all just part
1:02:18
of the digital wave, I guess. And like, you know, and the
1:02:22
other point I wanted to say real quick was like, yeah, Nintendo
1:02:26
is the last bastion, people. We see how many games people buy
1:02:31
for Switch and Switch to, right? Like how many?
1:02:33
I mean, the attach rate was like, what was it like 11 to 1?
1:02:37
I think like 11 games per console or something ridiculous.
1:02:40
Wild, but yeah. And they like they have the
1:02:44
opposite effect that someone like Xbox does, which has
1:02:46
trained their entire fan base not to buy games, to wait till
1:02:49
it comes to game pass or. You.
1:02:52
Know and it's like, I don't know man, it's it's a it's a weird we
1:03:00
live in a weird time. I just want to go to Toys-R-Us
1:03:02
and grab my white slip and go to the creepy guy behind the
1:03:04
counter and he can give me. I don't want to be that guy, but
1:03:07
I but I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like the
1:03:10
Nintendo base kind of empowered this, you know, you know
1:03:15
Nintendo, they they they position themselves to a point
1:03:18
where Nintendo's like, oh, they're going to buy our shit no
1:03:20
matter what. You know what I mean?
1:03:22
Like that eleven O 1 attached right.
1:03:23
Oh my God, like I I'm one of the people.
1:03:27
I'm one of the people when I have to buy, when I have to buy
1:03:29
a new console, like I'd stagger out how I buy stuff, you know,
1:03:33
like, you know, I buy, I buy accessories before the console
1:03:36
releases. I buy games before the console
1:03:38
releases So I'm not getting hit in the head, you know, like
1:03:41
buying a buying a multi $100 system and buying hundreds of
1:03:44
dollars worth of games and accessories sort and stuff like
1:03:46
that. You know, but man, like, you
1:03:48
know, like every new, every new like switch that trots off the
1:03:51
shelves, you know, like, you know, like there's four or five
1:03:54
games and, you know, an extra set of joy cons and probably
1:03:57
even a pro controller and, and the, and the NSO subscription,
1:04:00
you know, like, Oh my God, like. Yeah, I'm I might still have my
1:04:06
camera and an extra charger in the boxes for my Switch too.
1:04:16
Well, hey, but I mean, but you know, in all seriousness, Pat,
1:04:19
like I look at that, I look at what that right there as, you
1:04:22
know, you being proactive to make sure you have this stuff on
1:04:25
because like it's a travel system.
1:04:26
So yeah, having an extra have an extra power back, you know, like
1:04:29
that makes sense, you know it kind.
1:04:32
Of reminds me of when like the when they stop making the Vita.
1:04:36
Yeah, yeah, it reminds me of when PlayStation stopped making
1:04:40
the Vita and everybody started stockpiling Vita consoles.
1:04:43
Yeah, So they would have now. Yeah, So, yeah, strange, strange
1:04:49
times to live in, you know, you know, like I'm, and I can't just
1:04:53
blame, I can't just blame the Nintendo fans for this because
1:04:56
Sony and Xbox fans do do it to an extent also, you know, or, or
1:05:01
let's let's go out, let's step outside the meta for a second.
1:05:04
How many people are buying all these like emulation consoles
1:05:08
and these PC handhelds and stuff like that when they know
1:05:10
one-size-fits-all? It's either a Steam Deck or ROG
1:05:12
Ally or whatnot. But we know what we got the
1:05:14
Ionios, the Ambernicks, all this stuff.
1:05:16
And it's like, Oh my God, like, how much of this stuff do you
1:05:18
need? We're consume, we're we are
1:05:23
consuming ourselves into a straight consumption.
1:05:26
If that makes. Sense I mean it's it's also to
1:05:28
the point where like people for like older games like yeah,
1:05:32
switch Switch has the switch online stuff and the
1:05:35
subscription services on the other consoles have older games.
1:05:38
But like I mean, why do you think the analog pocket and the
1:05:42
the analog 64 HD is popular? You know, people have their
1:05:48
cartridges that they can still play on the machines.
1:05:51
We'll play them, you know, and that's the point.
1:05:55
That's that's the big point. I think of this whole thing is
1:05:58
like people just want to play the games that they own.
1:06:00
They don't want to have to worry about.
1:06:03
And yeah, I understand we're always online all the time, but
1:06:07
sometimes we just want to put the disk in.
1:06:10
What if we're on vacation out, you know, what if you're in a
1:06:13
cabin somewhere disconnected and this is your entertainment for
1:06:16
the week? Like just want to pop the disk
1:06:19
in or the cartridge in and play the game without all this other
1:06:24
BS you know so. Steph, what say you?
1:06:33
I I don't know if I really should say anything at this
1:06:35
point. Or that means that means you got
1:06:38
the hottest take out of all of us.
1:06:40
I don't know. I don't want to sound the violin
1:06:43
factory alarm and go against all the grain, but I.
1:06:48
Do it. I don't know, but let me preface
1:06:52
this by saying, and Pat knows this, so Pat can vouch for me.
1:06:56
I am a physical game collector. I am a physical game collector
1:07:00
to a fault. However, when it comes to
1:07:02
discussions like these, I need to try and maybe it's the
1:07:05
pharmacist and me go for the most objective route possible
1:07:10
and to view things from both sides.
1:07:12
Because I initially had a very visceral reaction to game key
1:07:17
cards. I personally still will always
1:07:21
purchase a truly all game on a physical cartridge over a game
1:07:28
key card if I have the choice. However with that being said
1:07:33
there are many factors to this where I really don't find this
1:07:36
as devastating or horrible as some people paint it out to be.
1:07:41
Is it ideal? No.
1:07:44
The fact that even though I am a physical collector does not deny
1:07:47
the fact that a majority of people who play games now are,
1:07:50
you know, consumed digitally. So this almost is a unique way
1:07:55
to pioneer and straddle both sides.
1:07:58
Whether or not it's going to be a failure, I can't predict or
1:08:01
say, but I can't necessarily fault Nintendo for at least
1:08:05
presenting this option because we only need an Internet
1:08:09
connection the first time you insert that card.
1:08:13
Once you put it in, pop it into your console, and you make the
1:08:16
connection downloaded, you don't need an Internet connection
1:08:19
afterwards. So you can go where there's no
1:08:21
Internet and play it as if it's native.
1:08:24
And then, you know #2 as much as I hate the Internet, clearly
1:08:30
it's kind of here, you know, no matter what.
1:08:32
So in a sense I view game key cards is if that's my only
1:08:38
option, I actually still might get it because I like having my
1:08:41
boxes on a shelf. I still get the box and I still
1:08:45
have a little cartridge and not a piece of paper.
1:08:48
And another thing I tell to rationalize myself.
1:08:52
OK, is it worth having this big hang up over this?
1:08:56
Because in 20-30 years, when I want to revisit these, because I
1:09:00
did preorder, I did order the Analog Pocket, I did preorder
1:09:03
the analog 3D, which is coming at the end of the month because
1:09:06
they keep delaying it. In the end, CDs and cartridges
1:09:10
are gonna degrade over time, more CDs than cartridges.
1:09:14
So there's still that risk of having a physical component
1:09:18
versus a digital. And also, I need to ask myself,
1:09:23
when I'm 60, am I going to really play all of these games
1:09:27
all over again? Ideally, yes.
1:09:29
But am I really? So I say that all to say is I
1:09:34
find it very compelling and interesting that Nintendo's
1:09:37
taking this route. On one hand, it might provide
1:09:40
some financial levity to some. It might be that means of still
1:09:49
showcasing games on a shelf in a physical store for casual gamers
1:09:53
who still only find their games by walking to a store and seeing
1:09:58
it there. So I personally am not a fan.
1:10:03
I personally will always defer to a true physical, but I'm not
1:10:07
going to pick up a pitchfork necessarily.
1:10:12
But I will be monitoring this and seeing how this goes.
1:10:15
I am curious to see as going back to Pat's initial concern is
1:10:20
whether or not we will lose that initial fire third party
1:10:24
support, because that is a true potential point of concern.
1:10:30
And I certainly hope not because I saw the switch to as yes, the
1:10:34
console's powerful enough to support large third party games.
1:10:37
Let's go. But maybe so.
1:10:43
I like your rational thoughts on that stuff.
1:10:46
But. I I know I know a lot of people
1:10:49
have been making a mountain out of an Ant hill like the
1:10:52
possibilities of what if you don't have the Internet anymore?
1:10:56
You know it's true. You only need it to download it
1:10:59
once you know it's are they the complete evil?
1:11:04
No, probably not. But at the same time, like it's
1:11:09
it's people's personal preferences and a lot of people
1:11:12
who believe in physical collecting just will say I need
1:11:17
everything on the cartridge. Yeah, I'm not calling them.
1:11:22
I'm not calling them evil. I'm just calling them crazy.
1:11:26
Also like. I like if I have the option to
1:11:29
pick between a switch one and a Switch 2 physical and the switch
1:11:33
2 is a game key card. Personally I will buy the
1:11:37
switch. Yeah, which kind of makes it now
1:11:41
like feeling a little more evil is when you had Octopath
1:11:45
Traveler 0 get announced and they're like, Oh yeah, the
1:11:49
Switch one game is all on the cartridge Switch to.
1:11:52
It's a game key card. There will be no upgrade path
1:11:55
between the two. If you want the Switch to
1:11:58
version, you will have to buy the Switch to version.
1:12:02
I find that more offensive for sure.
1:12:05
Yeah, that that I find like, OK, not cool.
1:12:10
Yeah, yeah, wow. Look at us.
1:12:19
Look at these topics. Why don't we transition into
1:12:25
what we've been playing and then get on out of here.
1:12:29
I'll save my Xbox rant for next week.
1:12:37
Stephanie, I'm starting with you.
1:12:38
What are you playing? I've not been playing a lot of
1:12:42
games lately because of life concerns, but I did play
1:12:46
something different than last week and the embargoes lifting
1:12:50
tomorrow so I can talk about it. Oh, I can't, because we're live.
1:12:56
We are. We are live.
1:12:59
OK so I can't talk about it but I am playing a game that's on
1:13:01
embargo till tomorrow. The review will go up tomorrow
1:13:05
though so if you're interested it is a wacky in the psychedelic
1:13:09
3D platformer on Steam. Check out bossrush.net at 10 AM
1:13:13
tomorrow, Eastern Standard Time. Be there or be square, as they
1:13:19
say. People don't say that anymore.
1:13:22
I see Leron, you, you play anything fun and interesting
1:13:30
besides life. No, life's been playing me, but
1:13:37
no, I haven't really been playing a lot this this past
1:13:39
week I played, I played some Tekken this past week I played
1:13:42
some ballet Bro. I'm trying to get, I'm trying to
1:13:45
get back in the headspace to like to to like, like get back
1:13:48
in and complete exhibition 33. I've been kind of woefully like,
1:13:53
like like slumped on gaming. Haven't even played Monster
1:13:56
Hunter lately. Like, so yeah, like it's just
1:13:59
been a just been a thing. I feel like you're not the only
1:14:03
one that's not playing Monster Hunter right now though.
1:14:06
Yeah, well, on the PC side and a lot of people aren't playing
1:14:09
monster. That's because like there's
1:14:10
still optimization issues even though, even though since I,
1:14:14
since I, I don't know, like maybe maybe my problems with
1:14:19
Monster Hunter Wilds when it, when it first came out wasn't
1:14:21
necessarily the game itself. Because I recently, I recently
1:14:25
rebuilt my computer, my rebuilt, I mean, like did a clean install
1:14:28
of like windows and all this stuff and you know, like fixed
1:14:31
all my drivers and all this stuff.
1:14:32
And, and so I, I ran the game, you know, like the first day
1:14:36
after doing all this stuff and I was like, oh man, like I'm
1:14:40
running the, I don't, I don't need frames in anymore to like
1:14:42
run the game like nice. Like shit, like maybe I was the
1:14:46
problem, you know, Yeah, but I but that's just my experience.
1:14:53
I can't speak to all the other PC gamers experience because
1:14:55
there are some people who have better, better hardware in their
1:14:57
rigs than I do right now currently, because like, I'm
1:15:00
not, I'm not pressed to buy A50 series graphics card from NVIDIA
1:15:03
right now. So you know.
1:15:05
Why not? No.
1:15:07
Who has the money for that? I mean, I mean, maybe, maybe I
1:15:11
should, maybe I should just say, you know, like, like, like dust
1:15:14
off, dust off the, the, the OF channel, you know, and then and
1:15:17
then I'll have the money to buy A50 series graphics card.
1:15:19
But you know, I'm lazy. I'm lazy.
1:15:25
Like I don't want I, I don't want to give the people what
1:15:27
they want all the time when they want it.
1:15:31
It's just. Feet only come out for.
1:15:34
What would you say back? It is just feet.
1:15:38
Let the people have what they want, Loron.
1:15:41
No, no, no, no. Like, I get it.
1:15:45
I. Show them them lovely digits.
1:15:47
I'd have to, I'd have to get like, I'd have to get like a
1:15:49
super pedicure right now. Like in like my, my feet are all
1:15:53
right, but they're not. They're not.
1:15:55
They're not ready to sell for pictures.
1:15:57
Jeez. No, I, I can say I don't have
1:16:01
bad feet, thank God, but but at the same time, I also do not
1:16:04
have like I do not have like the, the, the, the feet.
1:16:07
They're like, oh man, like we'll send you money like no stop
1:16:13
required. Chose Remember this goes This
1:16:16
goes all the way back to the very first episode of The
1:16:18
Crossroads, Remember? I I yes.
1:16:21
I'm yes. Yep.
1:16:26
That was the nickname for the show for for like a for like a
1:16:29
good like four or five episodes too.
1:16:32
Cross toes. Yeah, so, yeah, so so not a lot
1:16:39
of not a lot of newer special gaming going on like I will.
1:16:43
But by this time next week I will have, you know, like sink
1:16:45
my teeth in the Ninja Gaiden rage bound because like I
1:16:48
definitely was like on the I definitely was on the team.
1:16:52
I'm getting this game and there's another wait, there's
1:16:55
another Ninja game that's like in this.
1:16:57
Shinobi. Thank you.
1:17:00
But that's coming out that that comes out on the same time the
1:17:02
Devil Dragon game comes out there, right?
1:17:03
Wow. They come down the end of.
1:17:05
The year or end of. The month.
1:17:06
OK, Oh, the end of this month. Yes, or beginning of next.
1:17:11
It's it's the crossover between the end of this month, beginning
1:17:14
of next month is when I could come up with a better answer.
1:17:21
OK, all right, it it doesn't matter.
1:17:23
Yeah, but but yeah, the Ninja Gaiden raised bound in shinobi
1:17:26
game Devils are definitely games that are on my radar.
1:17:28
And then and wow, like all these and all these all these martial
1:17:32
arts games, like runs us right in the ghost of Yote.
1:17:34
Ain't that nice? August 29th.
1:17:38
The Shinobi Art of Vengeance. And then there's Metal Gear
1:17:42
Solid Delta. Oh my God, Like, Oh my God, my
1:17:45
bank account's starting, starting to sweat now.
1:17:47
Oh my God, because I actually want to do a review for that.
1:17:54
But then again, if I'm like, I can't even play a Monster
1:17:56
Hunter, how am I going to play a game long enough to do a review
1:17:58
for it? That's.
1:18:02
What happens when you have life? I need, I need a sugar daddy or
1:18:09
Mama. Are you like a doctor?
1:18:11
I feel like daddy's spending more money though.
1:18:15
Isn't your boyfriend a doctor? Yeah.
1:18:17
But he doesn't want to spend money on me like that.
1:18:21
Well, time to dump him. Time to open up the.
1:18:23
Relationship. Time to open up the
1:18:25
relationship, that's what that is.
1:18:31
Well, I haven't really been playing a lot either.
1:18:33
I played some Mario Party with the kids this weekend, and my
1:18:36
son is really into Donkey Kong, so I was kind of playing that a
1:18:40
little bit with him. But I haven't been playing much.
1:18:45
I've just been way too busy. So, Pat, I guess it's your turn,
1:18:54
all right. Well, I have been playing Ninja
1:18:57
Gaiden Rage Bound and you know, it was one of those games I
1:19:01
wasn't going to get. But then I saw all the good
1:19:04
reviews and you know, I was like, oh, I don't know if I
1:19:07
really want a hard game. But everyone's like saying that
1:19:11
the heart is like one of the experiences of this game that,
1:19:15
you know, need to be experienced and it's like, fine, I will go
1:19:19
ahead and get the game. So I did buy it and I am
1:19:23
pleasantly surprised of how fun this game is, despite the fact
1:19:28
that yes, it is hard. The nice thing about the this
1:19:32
game though is that like compared to the old Ninja Gaiden
1:19:36
is that you don't have lives. So you can keep on, you know,
1:19:41
replaying your sections over and over again until you finally get
1:19:45
through it. The the levels have checkpoints,
1:19:48
so you just, you know, try and make yourself get to the next
1:19:52
checkpoint. And also another good thing
1:19:55
about this is it does to have that old fashioned side
1:20:00
scrolling style where the enemy, the enemies are placed in
1:20:06
specific spots. So the more you screw up.
1:20:11
The more you'll learn, you know, where the enemy placements are,
1:20:15
when you need to hit, when you need to jump and you know all
1:20:19
those fun stuff. So that eventually by try 5 and
1:20:24
beyond, you're like, you know, just waltzing right through the
1:20:29
level with like dancers precision or that I guess that's
1:20:34
how to describe it. Yeah, that works.
1:20:37
You're moving around like a ninja with that it.
1:20:42
Yeah. What's up?
1:20:43
As someone who is terrible at video games, do you think I
1:20:47
would be enraged if I play it? Well, there is.
1:20:54
One of the things that this game does have that a lot of
1:20:57
reviewers seem to not mention is that it does have difficulty
1:21:02
options. And these are the difficulty
1:21:04
options are very customizable and scalable, you know, so I
1:21:10
think you can like literally scale the enemy damage down to 0
1:21:13
if you really wanted to. The game gives you a warning
1:21:17
though, that you know, hey, you know, try and play this on the
1:21:20
original difficulty first, you know, because that's how we
1:21:22
intended the game. But there are, there are scales
1:21:28
and you know, you just kind, I don't know how that would work
1:21:32
though with the platforming aspect because there is a lot of
1:21:35
like platforming parts to it. But you have the ability to
1:21:44
adjust it is what I'm saying. So it is accessible to, you
1:21:49
know, anyone really. No, and just for those physical
1:21:54
collector lovers, I did opt into just buying the physical and not
1:21:58
the special edition because I'm addicted to buying special
1:22:01
editions. But if you're a ninja Gaid and
1:22:03
fan and want to consider it, there is a special edition by
1:22:07
Silver Lining and it's only it's like it's not ESRB rated like
1:22:13
it's, it's, I think it's like a European, like it's only in a
1:22:17
European edition. But thankfully it's not like you
1:22:20
can still play it. Yeah.
1:22:22
It contains a cloth map, metal pins, a medallion, a pixel stage
1:22:27
standee, a poster. But what I liked is that it
1:22:30
comes with a booklet like a game guide kind of and a digital
1:22:33
soundtrack. Not a fan of the digital part
1:22:35
though. But just so you know, there is a
1:22:37
special edition out there. Yeah, yeah, it's it overall like
1:22:43
it does. It is a very precise game.
1:22:46
It feels good. The controls are tight, the
1:22:49
movement is tight. Like for a game that if you are,
1:22:54
you know, kind of based or working on your skills, it feels
1:22:58
good. So like your your losses are
1:23:03
more because of something you did versus something, you know,
1:23:07
based on a game control. But it is a lot of fun.
1:23:13
I, I like the concept of it. It's you are a ninja from Ryu's
1:23:18
clan who Ryu's gone to America to see his daddy's final wishes.
1:23:24
And so you're a different ninja that just happens to be around
1:23:27
during a demon invasion and he pairs up with an enemy ninja
1:23:32
who's eventually their souls get intertwined.
1:23:35
And so you kind of have control over both of these characters in
1:23:39
one go. It's very interesting concept,
1:23:44
but it is it does have a good story going on with it.
1:23:47
Like I said, the actions awesome.
1:23:51
If you're a fan of the original Ninja Gaiden, I think this is
1:23:54
definitely right up your alley. If you're new to it, like I
1:23:57
said, it's worth a shot. It's I think 20 bucks on this,
1:24:04
20 or 30 bucks on the store, I can't remember.
1:24:07
But you know, it has those difficulty options.
1:24:11
And for people who want to try Shinobi, there is a demo for
1:24:14
that as well. And I'm happy to say that
1:24:18
Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden both feel very different.
1:24:21
So there's not going to be a fatigue between the two.
1:24:24
Shinobi feels more Metroid vena ish and stringing cabos along
1:24:30
versus Ninja Gaiden is more precision based, you know hit at
1:24:36
these right times and more straightforward approach.
1:24:40
So two different style games going on so.
1:24:44
I have a question about the protagonist.
1:24:48
Is this the same protagonist that's going to be in four I
1:24:52
think? 4 is right you I thought.
1:24:55
Yeah. Is it?
1:24:57
I thought you were playing someone else.
1:25:01
Well, this one doesn't have a this one only has like a face
1:25:05
like scarf mask instead of the whole like you know, get up.
1:25:09
So I think the 4th 1 is Ryu I feel but I don't think that's
1:25:16
one is the same protagonist AS4 if it is someone different.
1:25:22
OK. Yeah, and I know I haven't
1:25:26
really played the original any of the original Ninja Gaidens,
1:25:28
but I hear people really like the throwback throwback that's
1:25:32
in the very first mission. So if you're big on Ninja Gaiden
1:25:36
lore, you might like what it does right away.
1:25:41
Interesting. Yep, I also played The
1:25:46
Adventures of Elliot, the demo version from team.
1:25:52
Why do I keep forgetting the name?
1:25:54
It's not a sobie or God damn it. You're talking about the
1:26:00
Octopath team. Yeah, it's the Octopath team and
1:26:03
the Bravely Default team that I'm looking.
1:26:07
For. I'm hearing about this, Yeah.
1:26:09
This is the team that is, you know, very prominent in the HD
1:26:13
2D, the two DHD video game universe.
1:26:18
And this game, when you play it, it looks like something out of
1:26:24
the new Dragon Quest in terms of its style, but it plays very
1:26:30
much like a Legend of Zelda game and it is a lot of fun with the
1:26:36
gameplay. You play as this guy named Elia,
1:26:39
who is adventurer. Humans are kind of tied into one
1:26:43
like Bash, like 1 remaining bastion.
1:26:46
And the rest of the world is full of beast tribes.
1:26:49
And I guess like adventurers go out into these unknown lands to
1:26:55
find ruins and you know, all sorts of like artifacts and
1:26:59
stuff in the ruins. And so that's what Elliot's
1:27:02
doing. He's been commissioned to go and
1:27:04
explore these newly discovered ruins.
1:27:09
What you get is you get a beautiful like overworld map
1:27:14
very similar to Zelda. You move around you, you know
1:27:16
it's action based combat. You swing a sword, you have the
1:27:19
ability to have an item in the other hand, whether it be bombs
1:27:23
or arrows from the demos perspective.
1:27:27
And then also you have a fairy companion who is freaking
1:27:32
annoying as hell. And you know, I even when I
1:27:36
finished this game, there's a survey that you can take at
1:27:39
squares website that you know, you can give your feedback.
1:27:42
And I told them you need to either have an option, just shut
1:27:46
the ferry up or like completely limit what she says because
1:27:50
there's enough, you know, yeah, 'cause it's like, oh, look over
1:27:54
there, Look up there. What did you find?
1:27:56
Or like, what did that switch do When, you know, you hit a switch
1:27:59
and then a platform like literally 2 feet next to you
1:28:02
rises up and she's like, what did that switch do?
1:28:06
It's like, look over there you dumb.
1:28:11
Don't sit. Don't sit there.
1:28:13
Yeah, you dumb. Little Sprite, use your own eyes
1:28:18
for once. No, she, she's kind of annoying.
1:28:22
So like typical fairy characters, they're kind of
1:28:25
annoying. But besides that, the action is
1:28:29
very smooth. You start with a sword and you
1:28:34
can pick up other equipments along the way.
1:28:36
Eventually I found a like a sickle, like a chainsickle when
1:28:42
that weapon was just so freaking awesome because it allowed you
1:28:46
to like create like a circle, kind of like hitting anyone
1:28:49
that's kind of in your path. But also if you could charge it
1:28:53
up and throw it like for a farther distance and pull the
1:28:57
enemy to you where you can then like go up and just like
1:29:00
pulverize them afterwards. Like it just felt so good and
1:29:05
the game rewards you for exploring.
1:29:08
There are shrines that increase your energy levels.
1:29:11
There are caves that give you magistite which are these gems
1:29:15
that can augment your abilities and weapons in certain waves.
1:29:22
Music was great, graphics beautiful. 2 DHD and you know,
1:29:29
some really fun gameplay. The dungeons felt a little bit
1:29:33
on the easy side, but it was a good mix of puzzles and combat,
1:29:36
you know, just like a typical Zelda dungeon would be.
1:29:39
Bosses were also kind of a little bit easy, but like maybe
1:29:42
they'll just change later on. Like I felt the difficulty was
1:29:47
pretty simple for this game, whether that is just because of
1:29:52
the demo or if that's going to be how easy the game is, but
1:29:57
it's fun. The demo only took me about
1:30:01
people can race through it in about 45 minutes.
1:30:05
I would literally explored all the map that I could and beat it
1:30:09
in about an hour and a half. So nice.
1:30:13
Yeah. Really fun.
1:30:16
Now, this sounds like it's right up my alley and the fact that
1:30:18
there's a survey that they'll take at the end, I do feel like,
1:30:21
or at least I hope they will make those minor tweaks.
1:30:24
It's like with the very, for example, because I'd like once
1:30:27
you get that, I think you're going to hit a really nice sweet
1:30:29
spot with that game. That, that's the beauty of this
1:30:32
team. Like every game that they've
1:30:34
released, they've released a survey.
1:30:36
Like when they released the demo, you go to the website and
1:30:39
you can fill out a survey and they take those, you know,
1:30:43
responses like I think Octopath 2, one of the complaints was
1:30:47
your characters were travelling too slow and so they speed up
1:30:50
the characters. Nice, that's good.
1:30:54
Yeah. Nice.
1:31:00
Yeah, like you said, I remember, I remember the survey when
1:31:02
Octopath Traveller released their demo before that game came
1:31:06
out. Yeah.
1:31:09
So they've been good about that. Is that excited?
1:31:13
To see the full game, Yeah, that's all I have for this week.
1:31:17
OK, yeah, I'm excited to see how that like, I mean, I got real,
1:31:23
you know, honest and well, the Oracle Zelda game vibes out of
1:31:28
that trailer, but if. You miss those 2D Zelda games?
1:31:32
This game will scratch that itch.
1:31:37
Yeah, I will download the demo and check it out.
1:31:44
But on that note, that's going to wrap it up.
1:31:48
Everybody out there, thank you so much for watching and
1:31:51
listening to this episode of the Boss Rush podcast.
1:31:54
You can join us live on Tuesdays on YouTube and Twitch.
1:31:57
You can listen to us on your podcast service of choice.
1:32:01
Watch us on YouTube on demand afterwards, la, Ron, Stephanie,
1:32:08
Pat, thank you for your time tonight.
1:32:10
As always, I love you guys. I appreciate you guys and
1:32:15
everybody out there. You can support us on Patreon,
1:32:18
patreon.com/boss Rush Network. If you want exclusive or early
1:32:21
access to certain goodies, check out Boss rush.net, including
1:32:27
Stephanie's mysterious review coming up soon.
1:32:32
Let's just say her review is too die for over and over.
1:32:37
And over. Times a certain number.
1:32:42
Jeez, you know. That reminds me quick, we should
1:32:45
like Pat, like put our heads together and as a topic in a
1:32:48
future episode is like just come up with our own silly retelling
1:32:53
of what a back of the box summer of a game would be.
1:32:55
And then Corey and Laurent will have to guess what the game is.
1:33:00
You're good at that. Idea.
1:33:02
Let's do it. Yeah, I'm game.
1:33:08
All right, we're going to. We're going to get out of here.
1:33:09
Thank you guys so much for watching and listening.
1:33:11
Until next time, we love you. Goodbye.
1:33:14
Hi along. If you want to see how you can
1:33:18
become a Patreon producer, head on over to patreon.com/boss Rush
1:33:22
Network. The Patreon producers for this
1:33:24
month are Adriel Munger, Austin Campbell, Celeste Roberts, Sana
1:33:31
Diri, Francisco Santilla, Matthew Keel, and Christian S
1:33:38
Thanks for your continued support of the Boss Rush
1:33:40
Network.