Latest / Awoken Game Club Podcast / Denshattack!

Transcript

Denshattack! · Awoken Game Club Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: To the Awoken Game Club.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: Yo, yo, yo.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: What's up, Patrick?
0:04
SPEAKER_01: Hello there.
0:04
SPEAKER_01: Hey, man.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
0:05
SPEAKER_01: Pop quiz.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: What episode of Awoken Game Club is this, or how many have we done?
0:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to guess nine.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: I think I only know this because it's the eighth month, and we started in December.
0:25
SPEAKER_01: I haven't told you about this or pitched this to you.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: So this is completely live.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: So you have to have fake enthusiasm.
0:31
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready?
0:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: I think it'd be cool if we do now that we've made it a substantial portion of
0:40
SPEAKER_01: the year,
0:40
SPEAKER_01: if we do like an end of year Awoken Game Club awards episode,
0:45
SPEAKER_01: like where we just wrap, it's like a separate than the game of the month thing.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: And we kind of give awards of only the games that we played on the show.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Thoughts?
0:59
SPEAKER_00: I like it.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: A part of me, well,
1:01
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:02
SPEAKER_00: I hear this and I'm like, okay,
1:04
SPEAKER_00: are we going back to our old podcast days where we're just like,
1:07
SPEAKER_00: is this the, you know, Jeff Keighley's Game Awards, but just for us?
1:11
SPEAKER_00: But no, review of the 12, 13 games we've played in the past year.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just the 13,
1:16
SPEAKER_01: like pick maybe our like one or two favorites,
1:20
SPEAKER_01: best, biggest surprise, best moment of the, yeah, I thought that would be fun.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm a sucker for nostalgia and looking at things, you know, old things.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'd love to dig into my notes and look back fondly on all of these.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: It is funny the like Spotify raptification of our society
1:41
SPEAKER_01: where now like every single service that you didn't even know was tracking you
1:46
SPEAKER_01: in any way gives you like an annual recap with music and stuff like that.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to remember the one that I got last year that I was like,
1:54
SPEAKER_01: no way this company did a wrapped.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's the obvious ones like Steam and like your podcast app,
2:04
SPEAKER_01: but I swear I got one from like,
2:06
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, my deodorant or something like I can't remember.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: SNL did a bit or a sketch with Uber Eats.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And basically the meme was like, how shitty
2:19
SPEAKER_01: of a person were you?
2:20
SPEAKER_01: That was so good.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: I did see that.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: It's like, yeah, every Thursday night you got a Big Mac.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Jesus.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, if this is your first episode, Awoken Game Club is a monthly vacation.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: Video Game Book Club where we play indie games that strike our fancy and
2:41
SPEAKER_01: then we debrief and celebrate at the end of the month.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: We do host on Substack so be sure to follow us there to see Patrick's art and chat
2:49
SPEAKER_01: with us.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: Our game next month so what is that September 2026 is going to be how many dudes
2:57
SPEAKER_00: question mark?
2:59
SPEAKER_01: And then each of these episodes is going to be packed full of spoilers.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: So treat them like any monthly book club where all the attendees have had their time
3:08
SPEAKER_01: with the book or game.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: The podcast will be evergreen.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Feel free to come back and listen after you've played, in this case, Dench Attack.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: So with that, I believe Dench Attack was one of...
3:23
SPEAKER_01: My suggestions.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: And you picked of the three.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: And I remember when I was like,
3:29
SPEAKER_01: I had this on my wish list and I do enjoy that Steam does this because I was like,
3:33
SPEAKER_01: oh, Patrick has this on his wish list.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Like Patrick is
3:38
SPEAKER_01: aware of this game.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh, if I suggest this, I thought you would have some more relevance to it.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, talk to me about like what you knew about it and why you
3:49
SPEAKER_00: picked it.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a really good question.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't remember when I added it to the wishlist.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this before.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: I think we're big fans of the Discovery queue.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like one of the algorithms I do open myself up to, like...
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Workshopping my tastes.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest, I don't always pick games based on the trailer or even the description.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like the general genre and then the art style.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And this game had some very pretty art style.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I watched like 10 seconds of a trailer.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: And that, in my gut instinct, is why I put it on the wish list.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: I did not know what this game actually entailed, honestly, until I started playing it.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: Same.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: Really.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: It's funny, because I...
4:44
SPEAKER_01: So the I guess the other piece of context about a game,
4:48
SPEAKER_01: in addition to what you described that will catch my interest is Steam reviews,
4:52
SPEAKER_01: right?
4:52
SPEAKER_01: Like, whenever you see that overwhelmingly positive,
4:55
SPEAKER_01: you're like, oh, that's certified by the Steam community.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: And this is not like a gritty, dark souls like so like, okay, this might still.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: Be part of the other part of the Steam Zeitgeist that I share a lot of sensibilities with.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I watched 10 seconds of a trailer.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: I freaking love trains.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was like, I think it's still...
5:23
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was supposed to be more funny that you're playing as a train
5:28
SPEAKER_01: and you're surfing and stuff.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: And I think that is funny.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: It is silly.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: But the game is amazing.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: But it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: In the sense that, one, I didn't know how...
5:46
SPEAKER_01: Like, uh,
5:48
SPEAKER_01: I guess self-serious it might be,
5:50
SPEAKER_01: but also I had no idea that there was any trick component whatsoever.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: So that's actually what I was going to be.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: I was like,
5:57
SPEAKER_00: cause you strike me personally as someone who loved like,
6:01
SPEAKER_00: or loves the Tony Hawk pro skater games,
6:04
SPEAKER_00: which this, I think game picks up a lot of its, uh,
6:08
SPEAKER_01: It's vibe from.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: I love those games.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: I love the SSX Tricky games.
6:13
SPEAKER_01: SSX 3 might be my most played Xbox, whatever generation that was game of all time.
6:21
SPEAKER_01: Genuinely, I played countless SSX 3 hours.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: This game also really reminded me of Sunset Overdrive,
6:29
SPEAKER_01: which was like an Xbox One exclusive that you ride rails and the music is good
6:34
SPEAKER_01: and It's really pop, colorful, high contrast colors.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: So like, yeah, I definitely enjoyed, I've really enjoyed a lot of the games in this space.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I guess that kind of gets us to like, just out of the gate, like, did you enjoy it?
6:53
SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed this game a lot.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: I actually don't think I would Or sorry, let me rephrase.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: This was a slow to love game for me.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: I think early on that first region, I was like, oh no, I'm not going to finish this.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Another neon white.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: Another neon white.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't know.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't feel good.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: But as the mastery kicked in, I was like, oh no, this is ripping and roaring.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm bought in all the way.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm the same.
7:31
SPEAKER_01: Like, I definitely, I really liked it out of the gate.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: And then, like, very quickly, I was like, oh, that's, like, I don't know if this is what I want.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: Like, again, like, another neon white, another kind of, like...
7:48
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk to some of the other mechanics.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I do think this is a S-tier flying or commuting game.
7:57
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I ever...
8:00
SPEAKER_01: I played this game...
8:02
SPEAKER_01: Almost nightly for this this past month,
8:05
SPEAKER_01: but I never really wanted to do more than like two or three tracks.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I,
8:11
SPEAKER_01: I really think this is like a nice like you're in
8:14
SPEAKER_01: the dentist office like waiting kind of a game even though and
8:18
SPEAKER_01: but it did like it did grow on me.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: It is really charming and it doesn't.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: I can totally see that there's a sweaty underbelly to this game,
8:30
SPEAKER_01: but unlike Neon or other games, it does not really force you to engage with that.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: For better or for worse?
8:41
SPEAKER_00: I thought so.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: I think the not forcing to engage really comes from the easy...
8:49
SPEAKER_00: Progression and maybe just like the game is easy and each of
8:52
SPEAKER_00: the levels are quite easy to complete,
8:54
SPEAKER_00: but they would be so difficult to master and get those higher metals.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, neon white, I got gold and everything because you could.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: Here, I would like my right thumbstick and my right thumb would be stressed out.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And then I see my trick score and I'm like, I barely got one star.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what the hell is everyone else doing?
9:17
SPEAKER_01: What the hell?
9:19
SPEAKER_01: This is just like...
9:21
SPEAKER_01: The lucky tower and you and I having no idea how to unlock the metagame.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: I do not understand the trick mastery of this game because one,
9:32
SPEAKER_01: I dislike the tricks, like just period.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: I just think it's a mechanic that I get why it's there and I see the vision,
9:43
SPEAKER_01: but I feel like it's not half-baked,
9:47
SPEAKER_01: but like It comes at the detriment to other parts of the gameplay by kind
9:52
SPEAKER_01: of hamstringing the tricks into it.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: And then doing 100% of that mechanic on one thumbstick.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: And I did read all of the tricks and I saw how you could kind of double back on
10:05
SPEAKER_01: the thumbstick and...
10:07
SPEAKER_01: The manuals and things like that.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: And I was trying very hard to just maximize my tricks and maximize my combos.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: And I never got more than a bronze or one star.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: And I always got gold on the speed one.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: On time.
10:28
SPEAKER_01: And because the progression is very generous and because it feels so good to play,
10:34
SPEAKER_01: you just don't care at the end of the day.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: But like a small part of me cares a little bit.
10:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, why is this trick mechanic here?
10:42
SPEAKER_01: And like, why can't I feel good at it?
10:45
SPEAKER_01: Or like I'm improving or learning something or I don't know.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: I know.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: And I even cheated because I cheated with an asterisk.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: I chose the car and That had the high trick speed.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: So you would like turn fast when you're tricking.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: And I just that's like the first car you unlock.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: And I never switched off it because every time I switched to a different car
11:09
SPEAKER_00: when I wanted to try something out, I was like, I can't I can do one trick.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: Like, how are you doing more than like one?
11:15
SPEAKER_00: That to be fair, I did not really.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: Trick list.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: And basically I was just having an attack with my
11:24
SPEAKER_01: thumb, just throwing it in every direction.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: That's what it feels like, which doesn't feel that good.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it feels good when you're like not caring about the score,
11:35
SPEAKER_01: but then all of a sudden,
11:36
SPEAKER_01: because I was like, wait, how do you get a higher than one star?
11:39
SPEAKER_01: And then it then permeated my runs in a way that I didn't appreciate.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: And like, I tried a lot of trains.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: Like I tried...
11:48
SPEAKER_01: I was trying the ones where there was one train where your combo goes up
11:54
SPEAKER_01: by one every five seconds that you don't crash.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: And I would have a great run with no crashes, Bronze Metal.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm picking these high-risk, high-reward cars.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing 720s and...
12:08
SPEAKER_01: The epic flips and I don't, I don't understand.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm missing something.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: It's gotta be the combo system, right?
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Like the multiplier is probably,
12:17
SPEAKER_00: you just can't mess up,
12:19
SPEAKER_00: which I think you just had to replay the level so much to really know where
12:25
SPEAKER_00: the turns are and all that stuff.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: It's got a secret path too, I think.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you don't want to take a secret path because it,
12:32
SPEAKER_00: it might like be a shortcut,
12:34
SPEAKER_00: like it'll save you on time,
12:35
SPEAKER_00: but maybe you want that extra Like time to do more tricks or do manuals or whatever.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: So definitely like we're definitely leading with,
12:45
SPEAKER_01: in my opinion,
12:46
SPEAKER_01: was like the weakest part of the experience,
12:48
SPEAKER_01: which was the trick system, which I was, we both were completely unexpecting.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: And I think in my early notes,
12:56
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I just want to like, I just want to focus on the racing.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Like, and then I kind of thought it was a racing game Two,
13:08
SPEAKER_01: like a Mario Kart,
13:09
SPEAKER_01: like fighting AI trains or time trialing,
13:15
SPEAKER_01: but it's actually not a racing game either.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: Like that's, it's more laid back than that and it's more silly than that.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: So I was like, oh, okay.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: Like there's all sorts of types of levels and I just kind of want to experience them
13:28
SPEAKER_01: because the volume of art and ideas in this game is enormous,
13:33
SPEAKER_01: which let's, let's get to that.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: How far did you get?
13:55
SPEAKER_00: The PlayStation said 7.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it was between 7 and 10, personally.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I think three nights ago, I was like, all right, I'm four hours in.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably going to beat this game soon.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: We're recording soon.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Let's wrap this up and tie a bow on it.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, oh, in this overworld, you can zoom out.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, what the...
14:24
SPEAKER_01: I know this game's huge.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: I didn't beat it.
14:27
SPEAKER_01: I got I'm in like the middle of chapter six.
14:30
SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: And I have like four and a half hours.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: The I will say because I thought the same thing.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm playing this game every night.
14:37
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm going to beat this game.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm running out of time.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: I ran out of time.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: I also got intimidated by the map size, those last like levels.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: And I, I quote,
14:47
SPEAKER_00: cheated again because I knew I looked at the trophy list as I always do to see if
14:52
SPEAKER_00: a platinum is doable.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And basically I saw there were nine chapters for each region.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: So I was like, okay,
15:00
SPEAKER_00: But I also was on like chapter six and I was like,
15:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm only like halfway through Japan here.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: What is happening?
15:05
SPEAKER_01: All right.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: So I'm actually two thirds of the way through.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe more.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: That last chapter, they basically are just like skipping whole ass like cities.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:16
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't replay.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I replayed a single map.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't either.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: That's also in my notes.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're a little too long to replay.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Unlike Neon White, where it's like, oh, 30 seconds?
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, I'll go for...
15:33
SPEAKER_01: I saw that one thing I could have done.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: I think because Neon White, you could get close enough to a gold medal.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: The fact that I wasn't even close,
15:43
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm not going to touch this for the tempo to pull.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: I recorded how many...
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Like whole ass silver medals, you know, basically having like silver average or higher.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: I only got three out of like the, I guess like 90 levels.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: I think I got maybe one.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Like it might have been zero.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: I didn't really understand how those medals were awarded either.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes I would get a bronze trick,
16:12
SPEAKER_01: a gold time, and then six out of eight dares, and it would be bronze overall.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what?
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Why?
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Explain that to me.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: I did pretty good.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how that system worked either.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: No, it...
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Not great.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even know also like if you were to repeat levels,
16:32
SPEAKER_00: like surely the dares, you didn't have to do all the dares in one level.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Cause I was like,
16:35
SPEAKER_00: it's impossible,
16:36
SPEAKER_00: but like,
16:37
SPEAKER_00: could you like focus only on a trick one and like just maximize the trick
16:41
SPEAKER_00: and not do time?
16:42
SPEAKER_01: I tried that.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: I actually think I, I tried that on one of the ones where it was like, you stopped to end it.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I was on a crazy combo and I was like, Oh, I'm just going to keep going.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: Like until this combo ends.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: And, uh, I don't remember.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: I probably got a bronze.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: I clearly didn't get a gold.
17:01
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't worth it.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about the art and the music.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: It's so fascinating how
17:21
SPEAKER_01: I was looking at this developer's backlog.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: It's like an independent studio in Spain,
17:26
SPEAKER_01: and they've made a handful of very pretty and mildly successful games.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: Nothing as ambitious or pretty or sleek as this, and nothing in this style.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: It's not like Promise Mascot Agency where they...
17:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm like consultant and expert and like kind of the anime aesthetic.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like to succeed on Steam to be an indie developer that this is the caliber
17:52
SPEAKER_01: that you need to build that is so impressive.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: Like I don't know who these people are,
17:57
SPEAKER_01: how they pulled something like this off,
17:58
SPEAKER_01: but like this was a mega polished, like mega beautiful game with like so much.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: I think did each level have its own music?
18:09
SPEAKER_00: It certainly felt that way.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Felt that way.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do think for a game,
18:14
SPEAKER_00: and we talked about this with Neon White,
18:16
SPEAKER_00: like if you are going to try to pull a game like this off,
18:19
SPEAKER_00: the polish has to be there because the game will quickly become frustrating.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: And gosh, there were a few times where there was some, you know, some...
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Physics stuff that I was getting peeved at.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: But it was never anything where I would ever rage quit.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: But man, the music was really good.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: I think the train animations,
18:41
SPEAKER_00: the vibrations, just like the visual effects of when you would start grinding.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: It just was very clean and honestly visibly satisfying.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Which is part of the addictive loop of that game.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I feel like,
19:01
SPEAKER_01: obviously,
19:02
SPEAKER_01: in being a parent of a young kid and a full-time job,
19:07
SPEAKER_01: I certainly would have preferred this to be a three- to four-hour game,
19:10
SPEAKER_01: and the tracks feel a little bit more distinct from each other,
19:16
SPEAKER_01: but now that I know,
19:18
SPEAKER_01: seven hours is super reasonable,
19:21
SPEAKER_01: and a lot of people would like much more content from a game like this,
19:24
SPEAKER_01: so I can't blame them.
19:26
SPEAKER_01: Because I would say in the early...
19:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: As soon as I thought I was getting bored, I would play another track and I would enjoy it.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what happened to me.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, every time.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is a testament.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: It's a really good point because it could have been a three to four hour game
20:03
SPEAKER_00: if they didn't just drop a brand new
20:06
SPEAKER_01: mechanic with every region
20:07
SPEAKER_00: that was applicable
20:09
SPEAKER_00: to... that didn't feel cheap or underbaked.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: The mechanic was obviously level changing and it really did challenge the way you play.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: You think you...
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Just got used to using like the monorail and all of a sudden like,
20:25
SPEAKER_00: all right,
20:26
SPEAKER_00: now you have to like mid air trick to get like a little air boost
20:31
SPEAKER_00: and you're incorporating old skills with the new skills.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: So every like region did feel new, even if some of the tracks started to feel the same.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: And one of my things with the music was Don't get
20:44
SPEAKER_01: me wrong,
20:44
SPEAKER_01: there were
20:45
SPEAKER_00: a lot of great musical tracks.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I could distinguish one from one region or the other,
20:51
SPEAKER_00: but I will say it felt good as you played it when a beat dropped right
20:56
SPEAKER_00: when you're doing something.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Basically,
21:00
SPEAKER_00: I didn't notice any music detracting from the experience,
21:04
SPEAKER_00: which is a testament to the music itself.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: For sure.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: And kind of just calling back to the other games that we've played,
21:10
SPEAKER_01: I would say the new trick or traversal mechanics were very like ball pit-esque
21:16
SPEAKER_01: where like just when you thought I was lost,
21:19
SPEAKER_01: you brought me back in with another crazy ball mechanic.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: Because I think Neon White was more so in the camp of like you kind of used up most
21:27
SPEAKER_01: of your best stuff in the early and then the stuff later was like I don't know.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: Every new mechanic I agree in this game, I was like, oh, I enjoy this.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: Give me more.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: This is fun.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: You didn't really go through a tunnel for the first two or three hours,
21:47
SPEAKER_01: and all of a sudden you're going through tunnels.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: Even just that mental...
21:53
SPEAKER_01: Math of like, okay,
21:54
SPEAKER_01: if I push the stick to the left, am I going to the right because I'm upside down?
21:59
SPEAKER_00: It's like very simple, but like very engaging.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: And like you said, the monorail and the trick in the air and the side trick.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: The wall slides.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the side wall slides and they kind of do build on each other.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: I will say that because the game wants to capture this sense of speed
22:30
SPEAKER_01: and they want you to have a good time the first time you're playing a track,
22:33
SPEAKER_01: sometimes they...
22:36
SPEAKER_01: They have to just blare an arrow in front of you to get you to not die.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: If we didn't give you a giant icon in the middle of your screen and flash it
22:48
SPEAKER_01: about what's about to happen, you're going to crash.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: There's just no shot.
22:52
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like...
22:53
SPEAKER_01: They kind of pulled it off and that I like,
22:55
SPEAKER_01: oh, I did it like and then I the one who dodged that wall.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: But I'm like, actually, like I didn't dodge that wall.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: Like, no, you blasted the ground pound symbol in front of me.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: No, I do think that was like a especially as some of those levels got too visually explosive.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't have that.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: It would be a little bit more of a frustrating experience,
23:18
SPEAKER_00: but I do agree it did also detract a little bit,
23:21
SPEAKER_00: especially when there was like supposed to be some really cool moments.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: But also there are times where I wouldn't know when to blare the horn or I will say
23:33
SPEAKER_00: when I didn't get a symbol and or the time between the symbol and
23:39
SPEAKER_00: the actual hazard was very short.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: I got pissed because I was like, you didn't tell me.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you didn't tell me.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: I definitely wrote down like the sometimes the air controls are amazing
23:52
SPEAKER_01: and sometimes they're like super frustrating because there's a ton
23:55
SPEAKER_01: of like stickiness in this game, like auto stick.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: And again, like other, I can't think of it.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: There's another game we played that kind of had a similar like Jesus take the wheel
24:11
SPEAKER_01: and it just feels good and polished.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: And in this game, again,
24:15
SPEAKER_01: it did serve to just make you feel like a fighter pilot who's on top of your game,
24:20
SPEAKER_01: but actually the game is doing a lot for you.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: But then when you would reach the friction of that system where you're like,
24:25
SPEAKER_01: no, I wanted to do that and you didn't let me do that.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: That was always a little bit frustrating.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know...
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes like when you're doing a trick midair and then you like hit a rail
24:39
SPEAKER_01: or like not like a very obvious jump and landing,
24:43
SPEAKER_01: but you're you're trying to get a trick in during some short jump or pivot and
24:48
SPEAKER_01: then you hit the the rail like mid trick.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: It was very random whether it would punish you for that or not.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: You could flip a coin and they would just give you a smaller trick
25:01
SPEAKER_01: and you'd be like, oh, your combo continued.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: And then you could also flip a coin and it would be like,
25:07
SPEAKER_01: you didn't land the trick, we're killing your combo.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you lost all your points.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't...
25:13
SPEAKER_01: Okay, like, just either always punish me or always, like, reward me.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, so, I mean,
25:19
SPEAKER_01: the game is,
25:20
SPEAKER_01: for the most part, just about, like, having fun and not taking it too seriously.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean...
25:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure some people, the scoreboard chasers are taking it
25:30
SPEAKER_01: seriously, but...
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, I was even going to allude to the story and...
25:36
SPEAKER_00: How unimportant the story was.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: There's a story in this game?
25:42
SPEAKER_00: There's a story in this.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: I promise you there's a story in Promise Mascot Agency and this game and...
25:49
SPEAKER_01: I didn't watch a second of dialogue, not a single second.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to, I feel like Promise, like Promise Mascot Agency, what did I write down?
26:04
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and Neon White,
26:07
SPEAKER_01: honestly, like,
26:08
SPEAKER_01: so Neon White, very similar story delivery of like, Cut chat scenes between levels.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: It's very hard in such a high-paced,
26:20
SPEAKER_01: twitchy, flow state game to just take the player off of that flow every few minutes.
26:31
SPEAKER_01: I was like, this story could be amazing and...
26:35
SPEAKER_01: It's incongruous with the gameplay of the actual game.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm just not going to sit through a visual novel and play a vibey Tony Hawk game in
26:45
SPEAKER_01: the same setting.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: I just can't.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I agree.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm so easily taken with good character design,
26:57
SPEAKER_00: and I did find all of the characters to be fun,
26:59
SPEAKER_00: but Like from like you mentioned earlier,
27:03
SPEAKER_00: this is like a Western studio,
27:04
SPEAKER_00: which I had to double check as I was like,
27:06
SPEAKER_00: OK, we are hitting a lot of anime watchers.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, we're hitting all of the tropes.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: Like there's the I won't say the actual tropes,
27:17
SPEAKER_00: but like we hit all of the common like delinquents and rockabillies,
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Yakuza, et cetera.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: So but there's also like a Western spin on it.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: Which I appreciated.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: And I did a little bit of digging.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: I like read one or two interviews with the developers.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: It is cool to see like they just love kind of maybe like Promise Mascot Agency.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: They just like love Japan.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: This is like their interpretation of their love of Japan.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I mean, I think the art's pretty rock solid.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: I really liked all the characters.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: Did you enjoy the story?
27:53
SPEAKER_01: Or do you just enjoy the attempt?
27:57
SPEAKER_00: I think I enjoyed the attempt at the story.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: I think the protagonist really does give, like,
28:05
SPEAKER_00: battle shonen young protagonist who's just like,
28:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say blind optimism,
28:11
SPEAKER_00: but it's just like,
28:12
SPEAKER_01: blind optimism will save the day.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: But I will say it was nice to gather up all these friends.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: And I did love like that loading screen just got like your car just got fuller
28:26
SPEAKER_00: and fuller with the people because he saw the reloading screen a lot.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: And I really like that.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: I took several pictures to be like not necessarily a wallpaper, but I just like the reference.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: And then I will say it does all culminate at the very end where you basically
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Go to Rainbow Road.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you do.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how this game ends?
28:50
SPEAKER_01: I don't, but you can
28:51
SPEAKER_00: certainly spoil it.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: You go to the moon.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: You go to the moon.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: That's fun.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: That sounds hype.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: Was it a good ending?
29:00
SPEAKER_00: It was.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: That was one of probably the best levels.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: It comes all together.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: All of your people are like all of the bosses that you fight.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: They like come back in a form to like fight.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: And you're literally on a rainbow road to the moon, and you literally blow up the moon.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, cool, this is what the game is.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: The boss fights were good in this game.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: Because compared to Neon White, which they were not.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: We famously hated.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: Terrible.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: Terrible.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: This game, they were the easiest levels of the game, or some of the easiest it felt like.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: And the...
29:42
SPEAKER_01: You were just never quite expecting the level of handcrafted set piece
29:46
SPEAKER_01: that they were going to bring.
29:47
SPEAKER_01: Again, you're in this mindset of this is like a small game.
29:51
SPEAKER_01: And they were just very like, yeah,
29:53
SPEAKER_01: just fun,
29:54
SPEAKER_01: like almost like Super Mario Galaxy kind of like platformy
30:00
SPEAKER_01: or like Horizon Zero Dawn.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: It's like a platform boss fight, which just felt it feels good.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the boss fights were just fun.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to think, just Nintendo-esque, right?
30:19
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're fighting Bowser and you're just kind of charmed by them.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're waiting for a platform condition.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: My favorite boss fight was the Guitar Hero.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you had made it to that point, but that one felt really good.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: That one was like probably the best music one, and it just felt really good.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it's been a long time since I played Guitar Hero.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that was a really good one.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: But overall,
30:49
SPEAKER_00: I think that one in the moon level were some of my favorite,
30:53
SPEAKER_00: both just levels in general, but also boss fights.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: The levels that I liked the least was the five different objectives levels.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: We talked about the game's moving so quickly and you're showing the zone
31:15
SPEAKER_01: when they're flashing an arrow and where to go at you.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: You're just very reactive.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to...
31:23
SPEAKER_01: Was the note that I wrote.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: Basically, navigation was not something that I wanted to do.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I agree.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: There was one level that I made invoked me writing the note
31:37
SPEAKER_01: where you set those five fireworks off in the mountain.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: And it took me...
31:46
SPEAKER_01: Too long.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: I kept missing a turn or something, and I was like, okay, just take me where I want to go.
31:53
SPEAKER_01: I want to focus on my combo, and I want to focus on nailing cool traversal.
32:01
SPEAKER_01: I get that you have these signs everywhere of where to go, and I'm just like, I don't know, man.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: I don't need this as a level.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the game does not thrive when it hits seven minutes or more.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: It becomes a little bit of a drag, and Yeah, I would agree, big time.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the Nara deer level?
32:22
SPEAKER_00: I have that as a note.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: I will say with some of those objective levels,
32:28
SPEAKER_00: some of the best parts were some of the cutscenes and the mid-level camera changes,
32:34
SPEAKER_00: and the Nara Park one was funny.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we have nostalgia.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: We visited Japan together.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: Super nostalgic, yeah.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, I went here with Patrick.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that was good.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, like the writing of a blimp and the Ferris wheel and some of like the weird stuff.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, there's no place for this to happen, but like I'm here for it.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: Let's get ridiculous.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: Is it like a nod to Katamari or something?
32:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: Some of them felt that way for sure.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I mean, I think that pretty much sums up like the, I enjoyed like surfing the waves.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: That was quite early on.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: I did make a note,
33:18
SPEAKER_01: which might be like a longer conversation that I think that I have,
33:22
SPEAKER_01: I can think of very few games that I really enjoyed the story of that were not,
33:30
SPEAKER_01: Story wasn't the first element of the game,
33:34
SPEAKER_01: and then everything else was supporting the story.
33:36
SPEAKER_01: I can't think of... We played Mixtape.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: That's a story game.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: I would say maybe Last of Us might be the game where I...
33:46
SPEAKER_01: Enjoyed the story so, so much.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: And there was quite a lot of gameplay that was not just in service of the story.
33:54
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: Like, what does it take to get you to care about story and games if I can't open up that worm?
34:00
SPEAKER_01: Like, can you think of a non-story game that the story was maybe your favorite part of the game?
34:06
SPEAKER_00: A non-story game.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I might just have to get,
34:10
SPEAKER_00: I have to digest that sentence a little bit,
34:12
SPEAKER_00: and then I might have to get back to you in the next one.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: A non-story game that made me care about the story.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean,
34:20
SPEAKER_01: I think like,
34:23
SPEAKER_01: I guess like,
34:24
SPEAKER_01: I would say maybe most of those blockbuster action-adventure games,
34:28
SPEAKER_01: like the Halos,
34:29
SPEAKER_01: the Horizons,
34:31
SPEAKER_01: the like open world games,
34:34
SPEAKER_01: they do maybe the best job of Weaving a really compelling narrative with just
34:40
SPEAKER_01: a bunch of sandbox fun gameplay and you can care about both.
34:45
SPEAKER_01: Because I think with this game and Promise Mascot and Neon,
34:49
SPEAKER_01: we've been playing these kind of smaller games.
34:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I just can't get into...
34:57
SPEAKER_01: You either got to make me care about this as the main thing I care about or just don't have it.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying don't have it.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: It can be for other people.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: I can skip it.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: But I just can't do both.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: I need you to focus on one thing because I love great narrative indie games,
35:14
SPEAKER_01: but if it's not a narrative game, the narrative might not exist.
35:19
SPEAKER_01: Be something that I can be brought in by.
35:20
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I mean, like a Red Dead Redemption 2, I absolutely adored that story.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: And there's so much more to that game than just the narrative.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: So maybe I am just realizing that there are certain genres that you can have
35:34
SPEAKER_01: a great narrative that I'll get bought into and yet have it take a backseat
35:42
SPEAKER_01: for long periods of time.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: But there's other genres that I have a harder time with.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would hope that if the game,
35:49
SPEAKER_00: a well-designed game, you could probably have your cake and eat it too.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: You can have something that's in service of the people who really like
36:00
SPEAKER_00: to flex their imagination.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I was chewing on how you were defining it.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: You were prompt and it was like,
36:09
SPEAKER_00: honestly,
36:10
SPEAKER_00: weirdly,
36:10
SPEAKER_00: because I've been playing a lot of Splatoon,
36:12
SPEAKER_00: even Splatoon 1 through 3, that game is supposed to be mostly...
36:17
SPEAKER_00: But it does have a story mode that is like weird beyond like the levels in
36:25
SPEAKER_00: the single player mode that does create an enduring story on the back end.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I think just for me, those games with... Is it story or is it world building?
36:34
SPEAKER_01: I've not played those games.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh...
36:38
SPEAKER_00: I would say story.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there is no world.
36:41
SPEAKER_01: The world building is super weird in those games.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: And there's like basically you just like engage with the the lore
36:50
SPEAKER_00: to almost like build your own narrative,
36:53
SPEAKER_00: which is why I kind of brought in the imagination piece to it,
36:57
SPEAKER_00: because I feel like if it's not if the game is not presenting the story
37:00
SPEAKER_00: in its own way, like It's up to the players to fill in the blank.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like reading a comic strip between two panels.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: The imagination is what fills in the blank.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's part of the enjoyment.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: That's maybe my take, but I have not fully baked that one.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'd have to go through my library as well of those games that had great world building.
37:27
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Bloodborne.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: Comes to mind and like you really care about the world,
37:33
SPEAKER_01: but they're not necessarily a narrative.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good example.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: Games like Gone Home that are purely narrative that I extremely enjoyed.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: And like Dredge might be an example.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: That's like a game that we both played.
37:49
SPEAKER_01: There's not really a narrative in that game.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there is a narrative, but it's like very light.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: Now, like imagine that game when you're like,
37:59
SPEAKER_01: You're kind of anxious to go get out fishing,
38:01
SPEAKER_01: but you're going through a promised mascot agency or a...
38:05
SPEAKER_01: I actually did that game.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: That game had very short little narrative or just dialogue pieces,
38:13
SPEAKER_01: but they were always very quippy.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: Dredge or promised mascot agency?
38:17
SPEAKER_01: Dredge.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: I think Dredge had a story.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: You were getting over your...
38:26
SPEAKER_00: Dead wife who was casted out at sea and you like turn to the Eldritch.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
38:32
SPEAKER_01: But like,
38:33
SPEAKER_01: but I feel like that game,
38:34
SPEAKER_01: which is a much longer game than Promise,
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Neon and Dench Attack took way less time to share that story overall.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can see that.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I'm just like, like,
38:53
SPEAKER_01: I'm having a personal reckoning of,
38:55
SPEAKER_01: am I a bad person for just mashing Skip on all these narratives?
39:00
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
39:01
SPEAKER_01: Because I like story.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: And all of those stories are liked by a lot of people.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: So what is it about these games?
39:11
SPEAKER_01: Is it...
39:12
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not just the time I have.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: I really just have no interest.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: And what is unique about the way this is being presented?
39:21
SPEAKER_01: Because it is how it's presented.
39:23
SPEAKER_01: I really didn't even give the story in this game a long enough shot
39:28
SPEAKER_01: to even determine if I liked it or not.
39:30
SPEAKER_01: I really was just like, nope, I don't want this in this game.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I need to be more open-minded.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, we can unpack that.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: That'll be on our psychology podcast, which is coming up next.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, cool, man.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for humoring my
39:54
SPEAKER_01: introspection on
39:56
SPEAKER_00: narrative in games.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, anything else that you wanted
40:01
SPEAKER_01: to add?
40:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: No, maybe just my favorite mechanic was the floating one that we talked about.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: And my least favorite mechanic was the double grind rail that was introduced very late.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: That was the first one I was like, this is not necessary.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: And I don't like this.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
40:25
SPEAKER_01: I didn't like the
40:29
SPEAKER_01: ground pound onto the thing that launches you.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: There were like those yellow flowers that kind of,
40:36
SPEAKER_01: it was kind of like neon too,
40:38
SPEAKER_01: where you would like jump and then ground pound and it would launch you and
40:42
SPEAKER_01: then ground pound.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: I think it just never felt as good as grinding.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's clunky.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I liked a lot of the other ones.
40:53
SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, looking forward to
41:00
SPEAKER_01: How many dudes?
41:01
SPEAKER_01: How many dudes?
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Question mark?
41:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:03
SPEAKER_01: Question mark.
41:04
SPEAKER_01: I have to say the question mark.
41:06
SPEAKER_01: How many dudes?
41:08
SPEAKER_01: How many dudes?
41:09
SPEAKER_00: If I say it like that, I don't think you need the question mark.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm Ron Burgundy.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm Ron Burgundy?
41:15
SPEAKER_01: You're Ron Burgundy?
41:17
SPEAKER_01: All right.
41:18
SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much, Patrick.
41:19
SPEAKER_01: I'll see you next month.
41:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:21
SPEAKER_01: Catch you in the next one.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, man.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.