Latest / Rock For Initiative / Pokemon, Fire Emblem and Maple Story with tenmonthsummer

Transcript

Pokemon, Fire Emblem and Maple Story with tenmonthsummer · Rock For Initiative

• 0:07
  What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of
• 0:09
  Rock 4 Initiative. My name is Phil and I am your
• 0:13
  host today. I have a great interview for
• 0:16
  you. I get to talk to Nish from 10
• 0:18
  Months Summer. 10 Months Summer just put out a brand new
• 0:22
  acoustic album called Midwestern Haikus.
• 0:25
  It is phenomenal. It starts with a the title track
• 0:30
  which is like a 2 1/2 minute spoken word track that is so
• 0:36
  good, followed by a an acoustic song called.
• 0:39
  Listening to Kerosene Heights makes me want to be a better
• 0:43
  person. I had to read that because I
• 0:45
  have a little behind the scenes. In fact, for you, I have screwed
• 0:50
  up the title of that 25 times so far.
• 0:53
  And now I'm screwing up this tape by telling you about all
• 0:57
  the other takes that I've had. Anyways, it's a great song.
• 1:02
  Go stream it on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever you stream
• 1:06
  things. Or better yet, go buy it on on
• 1:09
  Dan Camp and support indie DIY artists like 10 Months Summer.
• 1:16
  Nish is a lot of fun. We talk about Pokémon, we talk
• 1:20
  about Fire Emblem, we get into Mablestory.
• 1:24
  We also talk Pow World, which is super neat if you are into
• 1:29
  things that are kind of like Pokémon but not quite Pokémon.
• 1:34
  Yeah. Follow 10 months somewhere on
• 1:36
  Instagram. Follow 10 months somewhere on
• 1:39
  Tiktok. Check out Nish's YouTube
• 1:41
  channel. Nish Fish plays.
• 1:45
  I think, I don't know, I'll, I'll put it in the in the show
• 1:48
  notes or I'll just put it on the screen like right here.
• 1:54
  This is it. That's what you should go follow
• 1:57
  on YouTube, right, Right there. And yeah, Rockford Initiative,
• 2:02
  of course, is part of Never a Phase Network.
• 2:05
  Never a Phase. Network.com is a website where
• 2:07
  you can go to read reviews of new albums like Midwestern
• 2:12
  Haikus. You can check out articles about
• 2:15
  new artists. You can read interviews with
• 2:17
  artists. You can read about things going
• 2:19
  around the scene. You can find new podcasts to
• 2:21
  listen to like The Imperfect Dad's Podcast.
• 2:24
  You can listen to podcasts like Certified Fangirls with Kanan.
• 2:29
  You can listen to podcasts like Check Marks with Ducky and
• 2:32
  Foose. You can listen to Then Never
• 2:35
  Phase podcast with Swimo or wasting time podcast or Ska
• 2:41
  Mailman podcast or Brock for an issue podcast which you might
• 2:46
  have heard of this. This is not going well anyways.
• 2:53
  Also make sure you check out Jamurai Sack.
• 2:56
  It's been a few episodes since I talked about them, but they
• 2:58
  provide the intro music for this episode and I'm phenomenal.
• 3:04
  Band. Worth taking a listen to.
• 3:07
  Also worth supporting on any streaming services or of course
• 3:13
  band camp like I mentioned before.
• 3:15
  Anyways, I'm going to go ahead and just cut out
• 3:31
  Day I am here with Nish from the 10 month summer.
• 3:35
  Nish, how are you doing today? I am so swell, how are you?
• 3:37
  Thanks for having. Me, I'm great.
• 3:39
  I have been in conference calls all day and this is this is the
• 3:45
  one of them that I'm glad is not an e-mail.
• 3:48
  So exactly, yeah, not same. The joys of corporate.
• 3:52
  Yeah, yeah. You know, you got to work that
• 3:57
  job that pays so you can do the job that you love and enjoy.
• 4:01
  Yeah. A. 100%.
• 4:04
  So today we're talking about a lot of really cool nerdy stuff,
• 4:07
  which I'm really excited about. One of those Pokémon which I
• 4:11
  think it's crazy that I've made it as far into interviewing
• 4:15
  bands as I have and no one has really brought Pokémon because I
• 4:18
  know that it is a like very common, you know, fandom
• 4:25
  crossover. I imagine it might be Even so
• 4:28
  common that people just like, well, people know I'm probably
• 4:30
  like Pokémon, so just, you know, other things.
• 4:32
  But unfortunately it is like 85% of my personality so I have
• 4:36
  nothing much more to talk about besides it.
• 4:38
  I love it. I see Gengar on the wall behind
• 4:40
  you. Yes.
• 4:41
  Yeah. I mean, if anyone who's familiar
• 4:44
  with him on Summer is familiar with your cover art, which is
• 4:47
  like a for for a lot of your singles or or album covers are
• 4:52
  like an artistic rendition of evolutions, right?
• 4:57
  Yeah, they're like not exactly evolutions, but they're very
• 5:00
  much based on like we, we've been using Mackenzie for all
• 5:03
  these so far and we, I think we plan to use Mackenzie as well
• 5:07
  for the LP when that comes. But like anything that's in like
• 5:12
  the normal generations of what we're making, if it falls under
• 5:16
  that art style, you can assume that that was like related in
• 5:20
  terms of our growth and our patterns.
• 5:21
  And when we it did the first one, we were like, imagine like
• 5:23
  if EP had an evolution, but it was like a like a box star, like
• 5:26
  a legendary Pokémon. And so that's kind of where
• 5:28
  we've been going with that. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's a
• 5:32
  deep part of a lot of our music Oxford references and hasn't
• 5:34
  formed much of how I see the world in art too.
• 5:37
  And so, yeah. Well, well, what was your entry
• 5:40
  point like? What were you like Game Boy
• 5:42
  like? When did you get?
• 5:44
  Into. Pokémon.
• 5:45
  So I I had the privilege of having it on a Game Boy Color,
• 5:50
  which is kind of nice. I started with the like cyan
• 5:54
  gameboy color and I had Pokémon red.
• 5:56
  So I was, you know, I was forced into the cliche Charizard life.
• 6:01
  But you know, it, it did choose me and I choose it back now
• 6:04
  happily. I know it's overrated to be a
• 6:06
  Charizard. I've got like a like a dark.
• 6:08
  I like this, like really cool. My fiance got this for me.
• 6:12
  He's sick as hell. But yeah, Charizard's sick.
• 6:15
  I've got like a Charmander on my desk.
• 6:16
  I've got a lot of Pokémon on my desk.
• 6:17
  But yeah, I would say like of my, of my, my big three, big
• 6:20
  six, like Charmander and Charizard, That whole line is up
• 6:23
  there. And then Gengar's like a close
• 6:24
  second. I think Gengar might be the
• 6:25
  first now, but back in the day it was Charizard for a long time
• 6:28
  so. Very, I'm very like you and me
• 6:31
  on the on the like Pokémon front.
• 6:33
  I was definitely a Charmander believer.
• 6:37
  I that was my my first pick. I I typically go fire.
• 6:40
  Yeah, same. Same.
• 6:41
  Yes, yeah, same I. Don't know.
• 6:43
  I don't know what that says about my psyche, right?
• 6:46
  That's like, that's like the more interesting Zodiac sign to
• 6:48
  me. It's just like, what type do you
• 6:50
  pick as your starter? That tells me a lot about your
• 6:52
  person. But yeah, I and and and Gengar
• 6:55
  has been a a favorite of mine for a long time as well.
• 6:59
  Yeah, it just that they're cool. I don't I don't know.
• 7:02
  It's a cool dude it. Doesn't go, it's just.
• 7:04
  Round for me, yeah, that's. What it that's what it should
• 7:07
  be. You know, I think like, like
• 7:09
  there's a reason why he's like one of the most famous mascots
• 7:12
  for not being like a starter or like a legendary or something
• 7:14
  like that. You know, like he's just he's
• 7:15
  just a cool dude and he's just here to have some fun.
• 7:17
  It's kind of round. That's kind of what I aspired to
• 7:19
  be, just a cool round guy, so. Yeah, absolutely, I was.
• 7:23
  Hold on one second. I was looking around because I
• 7:29
  have, I have a few like Charizard things.
• 7:31
  I don't know if you can see that really.
• 7:33
  Well, this is. My it's it's like a 3D printed
• 7:36
  mug that is also a like. You can put a A20 sided dye in
• 7:41
  here and and roll it. Wait, that's so cool because
• 7:46
  it's a real. Mug, I wouldn't put liquid in
• 7:48
  there, but you can put a can of soda in there.
• 7:49
  Yeah, in there. And you know, I love that.
• 7:55
  Yeah, I'm, I'm also a big Pokémon fan.
• 8:00
  Also started on Game Boy Color. I think I had blue, if I
• 8:04
  remember correctly. But then I in a long, a long
• 8:10
  time ago in a Galaxy far, far away.
• 8:12
  I went to Australia with marching band in high school and
• 8:17
  while I was there like electronics are we're just I
• 8:21
  don't know if it's still the same but electronics were like
• 8:23
  super cheap compared to the USI think because of proximity to
• 8:27
  Japan I don't know. Well, that can make sense, yeah.
• 8:30
  I don't, I don't know why. Also when I was there I was 14
• 8:35
  and Australian money was just Monopoly money to me.
• 8:38
  So yeah. You're just like, let's dish it
• 8:40
  out here. I was like, yeah, whatever, but
• 8:43
  I bought a Game Boy Color that had Australia on it and it says
• 8:48
  Aussie, Aussie, Aussie and it came with the yellow version.
• 8:54
  So like the the the combination of of red and blue that.
• 8:59
  Yeah, Pikachu. Yes, yeah.
• 9:01
  Oh my gosh, yeah, My neighbor had yellow and that dropped and
• 9:04
  I was so jealous 'cause they're like, I can get all the
• 9:05
  starters. And I was like, Dang, that's
• 9:07
  kind of lit. Yeah, yeah, be jealous.
• 9:12
  So what's your favorite generation?
• 9:14
  That's that's another common, but good question.
• 9:17
  Yeah. So I mean, many of my favorites
• 9:20
  do spawn from general of course, 'cause it's like it's so
• 9:24
  nostalgic. But I think to play I'm like a
• 9:26
  Gen. I'm between like Gen. 3 cause
• 9:31
  like the jump from the GBC to GBA graphics.
• 9:34
  Like I remember like popping in Ruby and just being like, this
• 9:37
  is, this is the most beautiful game ever played in my life.
• 9:39
  Like whenever I play ROM hacks. So I love when they're based on
• 9:41
  the Gen. 3 engine. So I really enjoyed that and and
• 9:45
  like, it was really cool to also get fired and we've grain on the
• 9:47
  Gen. 3 engine. So I'm like, OK, I have my
• 9:48
  general nostalgia on the Gen. 3 engine and being able to run was
• 9:51
  just like sick. But I I really love Gen. 2.
• 9:55
  I think I think Pokémon Crystal is the one that I spent the most
• 9:57
  time with. Like it's the game where I got
• 9:59
  my first level 100 ever and just I just spent a lot, a lot of
• 10:05
  hours in that game. And so, but I love playing on
• 10:09
  the remakes. I think the card gold souls over
• 10:10
  like I I don't know, the fact that you get.
• 10:12
  I know that like the game timeline is really compressed
• 10:16
  and like the level scaling is not so great, but like I'm
• 10:18
  someone who like doesn't care that much about like the
• 10:20
  intricacies of game balance mechanics when it's when it's
• 10:23
  like, I mean, you know, shots fired, it's a fucking kids game.
• 10:26
  So like, you know, it's like when I'm playing Gen. 4 as like,
• 10:30
  you know, the Gen. 4 remake of hard gold souls over and and I'm
• 10:34
  25 like who cares that my type lotion is really over levelled.
• 10:37
  I'm having a a good time, you know, so I don't know, that's
• 10:40
  how I see it. But yeah I think I think like
• 10:42
  Gen. 3 and Gen. 2 but the remake of Gen. 2 is my favorites.
• 10:46
  Yeah, yeah, that's just nerds out there.
• 10:53
  I just want to make sure you you heard that from Nish.
• 10:55
  It's a kids game. Yeah.
• 10:57
  You can have you can have fun guys, you can have fun when we
• 10:59
  play games. I don't know if you know that.
• 11:00
  It's like it's crazy if they're that they're meant for.
• 11:05
  Yeah, what? How do you feel about the newer
• 11:07
  generations? Like the the like sword and
• 11:11
  Shields? Yeah.
• 11:13
  I think like so of the new gens, I will say I'm I'm an archaeus
• 11:19
  or the legends gameplay truther. I think they're really fun.
• 11:22
  I think having real time catch mechanic is is super exciting.
• 11:26
  The real time battling was like kind of hard to get used to with
• 11:29
  ZA, but like I liked it. You know, it like it's it's like
• 11:32
  as someone who watched Pokémon anime and you know, like played
• 11:36
  the games and like read, you know, like the manga and stuff
• 11:39
  like that, like just like being able to have one more experience
• 11:41
  closer to what I imagine. Like as a kid, I thought it was
• 11:44
  pretty cool. And as I also think about this
• 11:46
  all the time from the perspective of like what about
• 11:48
  someone who's coming to the genre for the first time or like
• 11:50
  a kid who's actually been this kind of time.
• 11:51
  That must be awesome. That's like so cool.
• 11:53
  Like, you know, like I mean, I love term based games too, but
• 11:56
  it's and I'll I've also like in the last month just have gone to
• 11:59
  gender mode on power world and so like playing power world and
• 12:02
  being like, Oh, this is what Pokémon could just do.
• 12:04
  And not that we need like guns and stuff in Pokémon, but like
• 12:06
  think the being able to like fight alongside your partner or
• 12:09
  command them to do attacks cats in real time like that, that is
• 12:12
  really satisfying to me. I don't know, I mean, there is
• 12:15
  there is a different kind of gambling, maybe dopamine hit of
• 12:18
  like, you know, holding a hope, hoping that the third shake
• 12:21
  works in the old, old school games.
• 12:22
  But I don't know, I like, I like I like the pressure of like, oh,
• 12:26
  if I don't catch this Pokémon, I might actually just kill me and
• 12:28
  like why about my team or I might lose my I don't know, like
• 12:30
  the stakes are higher. I think that's kind of fine.
• 12:32
  It's a good challenge as an adult, but I think there are
• 12:34
  they have their missteps too. I mean, I think Nintendo has
• 12:38
  fallen into the enforcement trap of Pokémon, the game being now
• 12:43
  just a subset of Pokémon, the franchise money making machine.
• 12:46
  So like the way that they have to push a new game every so
• 12:49
  often so that they can keep printing more cards, keep
• 12:51
  printing more plushies, merchandise, you know, that
• 12:52
  cycle. You know, I wouldn't mind if
• 12:55
  they took a long time to make the next one.
• 12:56
  I've heard that they've they're trying to make some.
• 12:58
  I know I try to avoid a lot of leaks, but you know, Twitter is
• 13:01
  Twitter. And so I've seen that winds and
• 13:03
  waves is trying to expand on what you know, they're trying to
• 13:06
  do. And if they if they make it like
• 13:08
  proceed generated kind of like, what's the other one?
• 13:11
  Those like temp Tam, I think did something like that.
• 13:14
  You know, if if, if they take some more leaps and like I like
• 13:16
  when the Pokémon company tries less to play it safe.
• 13:21
  I like when they take risks. Like I thought when Archaeus
• 13:23
  came out of that was so fun. And I think they expanded on it
• 13:26
  pretty well. ZA I would have loved it to be
• 13:28
  set more S out of just the city, but the wild zones are cool and
• 13:31
  it's cool to just like run around.
• 13:32
  But yeah, I think they're I think they're doing an OK job.
• 13:34
  I mean, they're a corporation so that they'll have my full like
• 13:37
  buy in, but they've provided me a lot of joy in my 3 decades
• 13:41
  here so far. So I mean, I can't, they can't
• 13:43
  be too mad at them I guess. Right.
• 13:45
  I definitely have like a love hate relationship with Nintendo.
• 13:48
  Yeah, in general, exactly like Disney too, right.
• 13:51
  Like there's things, there's a lot of things that I love about
• 13:55
  the content and experiences that they provide, but also I hate
• 14:00
  them and yeah, right. See them burn.
• 14:03
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, put up one more good game
• 14:06
  and then see ya. Bye.
• 14:07
  Yep. Yeah, I've given them many,
• 14:11
  many, many dollars and I'd like some of those back like.
• 14:16
  I do want to refund on Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl That that
• 14:19
  that was a bad remake. What were they thinking?
• 14:21
  I don't know. I don't.
• 14:23
  Yeah, I bought. I bought that again like they
• 14:25
  have my money so they don't care, but I definitely bought
• 14:30
  that and did not get very far into it.
• 14:33
  Yeah, by any means. I think I finished it maybe like
• 14:35
  three years after I bought it finally I was like, I'll go back
• 14:37
  and like end game this. But it was not not pleasant.
• 14:40
  I was just kind of running through it like a chore, not a
• 14:42
  not a joy, which is if you in a game.
• 14:46
  I, I loved ZA, one of my favorite things about ZA and why
• 14:51
  if we ever become Nintendo friends you will see that I've
• 14:54
  put like 500 hours into that. Game.
• 14:56
  Oh amazing. Because I was I would AFK shiny
• 15:00
  farm. Oh, with with controller macros
• 15:03
  how? Yeah, like I just had a blast
• 15:05
  with that. Which is so dumb in my opinion.
• 15:08
  No, I like, I mean. I don't know what it is about
• 15:11
  shiny hunting. That's like so cool.
• 15:15
  Are you a Are you a shiny hunter in in games?
• 15:18
  I like I want to be, but I am someone who like, I think, I
• 15:23
  think that's the other thing too, about the newer games where
• 15:26
  like they're a big grindier, which I don't mind, like my my
• 15:29
  brain doesn't mind that. Like I also grow up playing
• 15:31
  MapleStory. So like I'm used to like games
• 15:33
  that punish you for playing them, which is, you know, a
• 15:35
  fascinating concept. And and so like, I wish I could
• 15:39
  have the patience of shiny hunter.
• 15:40
  I was just I was just like I I saw Christmas sports just
• 15:43
  posted. They got their Torchek finally
• 15:44
  their analog pocket and I was like, Oh my gosh, how long did
• 15:46
  it take me? Like 24 hours.
• 15:48
  Like it's not even that bad, but I don't have the patience to
• 15:50
  reset that long. Both like in my mental capacity,
• 15:53
  but also just like life is busy and I'm like just trying to do a
• 15:56
  lot of other things outside of just the band too.
• 15:58
  Like I, I run like a 200 person flywheel group.
• 16:00
  I, I've started, I have a newsletter I'm writing, I have
• 16:02
  my job, I have my fiance, the cats, my family to like, you
• 16:05
  know, my, my accent family and all that.
• 16:07
  So it's just like, they're just like, I wish I could dedicate
• 16:09
  time to like degen that too, but it's just like, you know, I, I
• 16:12
  have pockets of time. What can do it and and I got
• 16:15
  some travel coming up, so maybe on the plane I'll start up.
• 16:17
  I've I've also heard rumors that they're maybe going to put like
• 16:20
  the the classic games on NSL online.
• 16:23
  So like maybe that's like where I shiny hunt again, I don't
• 16:26
  know. I mean it's shiny hunt Pokémon
• 16:27
  home, which is kind of fucked up.
• 16:28
  So we'll see. Cannot I cannot reset reset
• 16:33
  shiny hunt like I. Just that sounds.
• 16:34
  Like I have that in me. That sounds rough.
• 16:36
  I'm going to say AFK hunting doesn't sound as bad like a
• 16:39
  macro and it's like leaving and running like that's like that's
• 16:41
  like I think more feasible now with my lifestyle, I think.
• 16:45
  Yeah, so I would say Archaeus and ZA were the ones that I
• 16:49
  really got into shiny hunting and it's because it was so much
• 16:53
  easier because the Pokémon are in the overworld, you can see
• 16:57
  when they're shiny. The the like mechanics to to get
• 17:05
  them to spawn were very easy. So for for Archaeus you had they
• 17:12
  would have like that outbreak and then you would just go and
• 17:15
  like respawn it. Yeah, yeah.
• 17:18
  And and sword and shield was pretty easy too.
• 17:20
  You just time skipped on the wells or whatever.
• 17:22
  Yeah, yeah, but yeah, the easiest by far and the one that
• 17:25
  I did the most was Z8. And that was because I could set
• 17:29
  a just a loop on a macro on a controller and come back like 10
• 17:34
  hours later and everything was shiny.
• 17:36
  That's awesome. And like.
• 17:38
  I know that a lot of people like on Reddit and Twitter just like
• 17:42
  this is this is ruined the value of shinies.
• 17:45
  And again I must stress that these are just pixels for kids
• 17:48
  initially for fun. Who cares like the value?
• 17:52
  To me is it looks cool and I got 1 and.
• 17:57
  Like, I don't know, I guess someone who doesn't have time to
• 17:59
  like get shinies and think something cool.
• 18:01
  Like I, I remember like during it's the first like week or two,
• 18:05
  like someone posted like, yeah, I've got like a few I've got
• 18:07
  like they were shiny hunting, I think, like alpha Clefable, but
• 18:10
  they ended up with a ton of shiny alpha gang guards and they
• 18:13
  just gave me one, which is like so nice.
• 18:14
  And I was just like, thank you so much.
• 18:15
  That's my favorite Pokémon. And like I've never had a shiny
• 18:18
  gang guard before. And I do because of you, a kind
• 18:20
  stranger online. And like, I don't know that like
• 18:22
  is to me is like a lot cooler than someone being like, Oh
• 18:24
  yeah, like I have this shiny I don't really like, but like it
• 18:26
  took me longer than to get it. So I'm not going to like hate it
• 18:28
  to you because it's because like the scarcity is so high.
• 18:31
  And so, I don't know, it made my, it made my playthrough more
• 18:33
  enjoyable to. That's how, yeah.
• 18:36
  Yeah. And it was, I think some of the
• 18:38
  most fun I had was I'd be like, hey, so I've got this cool shiny
• 18:43
  hunting setup that I can just run while I'm at work all day.
• 18:45
  Yeah, friend, what? What Pokémon do you want me to
• 18:50
  for you and I'll I'll do it. Yeah, and that's like that's so
• 18:53
  joyful and it's like, I don't know.
• 18:54
  And they and it creates like a connection, you know, like it,
• 18:57
  it brings back the training mechanic, which I think is like,
• 18:59
  I also loved the old link cable days of trading.
• 19:01
  So it's like, even though it's online, sure.
• 19:02
  It's like, oh, like I'm like talking to someone I've made a
• 19:05
  connection with someone like don't really know at all.
• 19:06
  And and maybe it's not like a long term connection, but like
• 19:08
  in that brief moment like, oh, we're like, we're homies on
• 19:10
  this. It's really cool.
• 19:11
  And I think that's like the beauty of online gaming versus
• 19:14
  the toxicity you can sometimes bring too.
• 19:16
  So I think it's, I think it's wonderful.
• 19:18
  Yeah, for me also like it's this is another thing that is just
• 19:23
  really silly 'cause I don't play competitively, I don't really
• 19:25
  even play online. Like I'm I'm not battling other
• 19:28
  trainers really, but I will like go out of my way to find the
• 19:32
  perfect Pokémon in breeding or in whatever, whatever way you
• 19:39
  can do it and then like build out the perfect Pokémon, like
• 19:43
  the meta version of my favorite Pokémon and then do nothing with
• 19:48
  it. But there's like this thing that
• 19:50
  speaks to me about like being able to achieve this, like high,
• 19:56
  like high value. Yeah.
• 19:59
  Air quotes Pokémon. Like the, the Uber version of
• 20:01
  what it could be like yeah, I, I, I think our brains were
• 20:04
  braced similarly. And like I've like tried to like
• 20:06
  avoid that kind of like play style and like, and RPGs of
• 20:10
  like, you know, like me and maxing and like every time I
• 20:13
  like like like I'm sure we'll, I'm sure I'll gamble more later
• 20:18
  in in this Chapel. Like in FE7 I played that game
• 20:20
  like 1516 Times Now and I was like I won't do this animated
• 20:24
  last time and then like 8 chapters and I'm like I've done
• 20:26
  the same thing I did last time. I was like I I am an old dog who
• 20:30
  has not learned a single news track.
• 20:34
  Yeah, people will play however they want to and, and as long as
• 20:38
  you're having fun, like that's great.
• 20:41
  Yeah. I definitely enjoy that that
• 20:44
  part of of the especially the newer games like farming for the
• 20:49
  right type of Pokémon with like the right the right nature.
• 20:55
  And yeah, it's so silly because I, I will never use it, but I
• 21:00
  also have it and I and it's, it's like a, it's, it's like
• 21:05
  very rewarding to me when you finally get what you were
• 21:08
  looking for. It's a goal you set and you
• 21:10
  achieved it. I like that in itself is like,
• 21:12
  you know, like a dopamine hit, which you know, there's, there's
• 21:15
  worse vices to be addicted to versus the climb of a perfect
• 21:18
  Pokémon. It's so funny because I'll play,
• 21:21
  my kids both will play Pokémon and they they're into shiny
• 21:25
  hunting. Like they like this shiny
• 21:26
  hunting because it looks cool. And my kids are a little bit
• 21:29
  older than my daughter who turns 14 this year and my son just
• 21:32
  turned 11. OK, but I'll be like, you want
• 21:38
  this like we'll be playing like Pokémon Go and I'll be like, no,
• 21:42
  you want to save this one, You can get rid of the rest of them
• 21:44
  because this one has like the three stars.
• 21:46
  Yeah, Yeah, I don't really care. I've had this one longer, so I'm
• 21:49
  going to keep the zero star version.
• 21:51
  Yeah, that's fair and probably the right way to do it.
• 21:55
  Yeah. So what?
• 21:59
  What other like non core games of Pokémon do you like?
• 22:05
  Are you a go player? Do you?
• 22:06
  Do you collect cards? How will I consume Pokémon?
• 22:11
  Yeah, I used to be a go player when especially in college, I
• 22:15
  got some head came out for me. So I was like a perfect time.
• 22:18
  So like in undergrad and grad school, you know, just like get
• 22:21
  away from studies for baby. My friends just walk around the
• 22:23
  campus and just catch some ONS, you know, in undergraduate also
• 22:26
  like, hey, let's go to local bar, get a little drunk and then
• 22:29
  like walk around camp. My friend had this, my buddy
• 22:31
  Alex, like he knows I'm scared of ghosts, which is ironic that
• 22:34
  king got my favorite, but he was just he's like like we like
• 22:37
  there's like this huge cemetery by you by I went to Urbana
• 22:40
  Champaign and he was like, let's get like, let's get really drunk
• 22:44
  and then like walk the cemetery. We'll find some galaxies.
• 22:46
  I'm like it. I was like, it's not actually
• 22:47
  location based, Alex. Like they won't spawn ghost
• 22:49
  Pokémon and he's like, no, let's just score the great throne.
• 22:52
  I was like, no, we don't have to go.
• 22:54
  Let's go the dead of night. I was like, no, we don't have to
• 22:56
  do that either. And like, and our football
• 22:59
  stadium had like a like a like a Raider spawn point in it and it
• 23:05
  was a Magmar. And at that time it was only
• 23:07
  like, this was like when it first came out.
• 23:08
  It's like that was like one of the hard ones to get.
• 23:10
  And you couldn't actually reach it from like the outskirts of
• 23:13
  like that football stadium. You couldn't click on it.
• 23:15
  It was too far away. So you like, you'd have to
• 23:16
  either stick it in the stadium and it was not during the
• 23:18
  football season. So like the one games happening.
• 23:20
  So we were like, we would for like weeks we were like, how do
• 23:23
  we get this fucking Magmar? We never got it, but it is a, it
• 23:27
  is a, you know, lucrative now that I mean, you know, there's
• 23:30
  probably so many more mod in the game, but sometimes I'll open it
• 23:33
  here and there if like we're at the beach or something, because
• 23:35
  Chicago's a great spot for Pokémon Go.
• 23:37
  And so like if I'm like, if I'm taking public transit or
• 23:39
  something like that, I'll spin some stops on the train or
• 23:41
  something and you know, get, get some potions into my bag.
• 23:44
  But aside from that, I don't collect cards too much just
• 23:48
  because I again, know my penchant for frivolously
• 23:53
  spending money on things I don't need and I don't I don't have
• 23:58
  the monetary income to support the lifestyle of Pokémon cards I
• 24:02
  would like to attain. If if that makes sense.
• 24:04
  I do have a couple, a couple Gengar, something really
• 24:08
  expensive one I have, I have like the non expensive VMAX
• 24:11
  Gengar and I picked up like a full on Gengar when we opened
• 24:16
  for potion seller for their LPO show a couple weeks ago.
• 24:20
  Or was that a month ago now? It was a while back earlier,
• 24:22
  earlier this summer when we went to Grand Rapids, there was a
• 24:25
  Pokémon or there's a car store nearby.
• 24:26
  And so I walked in and I was like, let me see the game
• 24:28
  guards. And he had like the very
• 24:29
  expensive one. And he was like, I was like, how
• 24:30
  much is that? He was like 1500.
• 24:32
  I was like, what's your next cheapest game guard?
• 24:34
  And he was like 600. And I was like, I was like, what
• 24:36
  is the cheapest game guard? You got like it was like it was
• 24:39
  like 55. And I was like, I can do that.
• 24:41
  Like, and it was it was it was a pretty cool one.
• 24:43
  And then I believe I might have them here.
• 24:48
  Yes, people are so kind to us. So let me see if I can show you
• 24:56
  him my my kitten. Where is he?
• 25:00
  Oops, he's on this. You can kind of see him hiding
• 25:04
  in the chair, but he looks like EV kind of and so we are like
• 25:07
  very we are very much on the EV Lucian train and someone gifted
• 25:11
  us the OG, the Japanese hollow foils of like wow of the trio,
• 25:17
  which is like really sweet. So that was that was very nice.
• 25:20
  But those are like the main cards I got.
• 25:21
  I have a bunch of filler cards, Freak accident records who has
• 25:29
  done our CDs Caitlin who, who runs that her boyfriend works at
• 25:33
  A at a like a card comic store and, and like sent us a bunch of
• 25:37
  filler to also like put in with CD orders.
• 25:39
  And then one of my old Co workers also like cleaned out a
• 25:43
  binder of like just filler cards, like sold like the
• 25:45
  expensive ones and was like, Hey, I have a bunch of filler.
• 25:46
  I'm going to mail them to you to like give away with merch.
• 25:49
  And I was like, yeah, sweet, please send them.
• 25:51
  And some of them are like pretty nice.
• 25:52
  It's a bunch like filler ray clauses, but they're still Ray
• 25:54
  clauses. And some people have some like,
• 25:56
  you know, some Dragons come in with their their stuff.
• 25:58
  So, but yeah, outside of those, I don't do a ton of a ton of
• 26:03
  spin off games anymore. I would, I would love to see
• 26:06
  like Pokémon Conquest come back, like a Fire Emblem, you know,
• 26:10
  like RTS tactic Pokémon game come back.
• 26:12
  That'd be really sick. But so far I just twiddled my
• 26:15
  thumbs for winds and waves and that drops.
• 26:17
  Yeah, yeah. Excited for winds and waves,
• 26:20
  which you have a a starter that you're excited for winds and
• 26:24
  waves. Man, like the fire guy is like
• 26:27
  the fire guy. You know, I'm a I'm a fire guy,
• 26:28
  but like the what's called browlet or the owl.
• 26:33
  He looks awesome. I like I kind of like I kind of
• 26:38
  like him. I'm not, I'm not too, too on the
• 26:41
  Gekkwa, but I I could be swayed. I know I'll probably end up
• 26:45
  getting like, you know, one version for me, one version for
• 26:47
  my fiance and then do some trading shanigans and get
• 26:50
  awfully anyway. But but yeah, I think, I think,
• 26:52
  I think I might break the I'm I'm trying to mature not only,
• 26:56
  you know, succumb to one genre of, of Pokémon.
• 26:59
  So I'm trying to not only be fire always.
• 27:03
  So break the fire mold. Yeah, exactly.
• 27:06
  Yeah. I'm trying to think the last few
• 27:08
  games, like was there one that I went outside of fire?
• 27:11
  I'm pretty sure there's not. I'm pretty sure it's been all
• 27:14
  fire. Definitely score Bunny,
• 27:17
  definitely. Oh my gosh, the the little
• 27:23
  crocodile, The ghost crocodile. What is this?
• 27:24
  Oh, oh, Foy Coco. Yeah, like I will.
• 27:26
  Go and like. Spigatito is so cute and I was
• 27:30
  really close in Scarlet Violet of like picking Spigatito over
• 27:34
  Foy Coco, but I eventually got all three again, 'cause I got I
• 27:37
  got Scarlet. My fiance had Violet but but
• 27:39
  like, but as like the guy that OT is, is me on the Foy Coco and
• 27:43
  everyone else is, you know, traded in.
• 27:44
  But yeah, the he's just his little apple.
• 27:46
  He's so cute and he's really cute in the anime.
• 27:48
  I don't know if you've watched, was it Horizons?
• 27:52
  Is that the new one? It's called.
• 27:53
  I have not watched that one. I know my daughter's watched all
• 27:55
  of it, but I haven't. That's not one that I've delved
• 28:00
  into yet. Yeah, I haven't seen the entire
• 28:02
  thing. It's like I just like the first
• 28:03
  next season. I think, oh, you know what, a
• 28:05
  spin off or like a Pokémon next in the universe that I love is
• 28:07
  Pokémon Concierge. If you haven't seen that, the
• 28:09
  stop motion, it is so cute. Great watch, great watch.
• 28:15
  So I take it you didn't play Pokopia?
• 28:18
  Because that's not one that you mentioned.
• 28:20
  No, my like, again, like I'm coming to the point of where
• 28:24
  like I just have so many things on my plate that like, I just
• 28:27
  know that I wouldn't be able to like enjoy it to its full
• 28:29
  extent. Like when Animal Crossing had
• 28:30
  come out, I had just COVID had just hit and I had just gone
• 28:34
  late on. So I taught I like I, I treated
• 28:36
  that like it was a nine to five and I was like, I was like, Oh,
• 28:39
  I have a problem with these kinds of life and games.
• 28:41
  I get really lost in the sauce. Like my first star to die farm
• 28:45
  took me away from my friends for like months, I think, and I'm
• 28:48
  really scared for when Witchbrook, which is the
• 28:51
  chucklefish like witchy, you know, sorcerer 1 is coming out.
• 28:54
  It's supposed to be who knows, not on the same 2027.
• 28:57
  It's supposed to be out last winter, but when that comes out
• 28:59
  again, I'm gone. I don't know.
• 29:00
  So I'm really I'm really I'm really worried for my social
• 29:02
  life and my production, both creatively and professionally
• 29:06
  when these games drop. So I've I've avoided Pakopi for
• 29:09
  that reason, but but my fancy Mar, she has it and she just she
• 29:12
  plays it like to like go to sleep sometimes and it looks so
• 29:15
  cute and I'm like, Ah, maybe again, got some long fights
• 29:18
  coming up. So maybe that's what I I pop
• 29:19
  into if the remakes don't show up.
• 29:22
  It is. It's a lot of fun.
• 29:24
  I I definitely played a lot of Poco.
• 29:26
  Yeah, that's another game that if you look at my, I think all
• 29:30
  my Switch games are like, if you look at my top play, yeah, it's
• 29:34
  almost always just Pokémon. Beautiful.
• 29:38
  As as it should be. As it should be.
• 29:40
  Yeah, I'll definitely send my friend code after this.
• 29:42
  Yeah, I would love to love that. Yeah.
• 29:44
  For sure I you mentioned pal world, so not Pokémon, but it's
• 29:51
  so good. That's another one I spent a lot
• 29:53
  of hours on. Yeah.
• 29:55
  I don't have I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm probably make it sound like I
• 29:58
  play a lot of video games and I I really, truly don't.
• 30:01
  Same. Yeah, I don't.
• 30:03
  Have I just don't have the time like like you, you know, I've
• 30:06
  got yeah, I got things that I got to do even though I don't
• 30:12
  want to. Exactly.
• 30:13
  Yes, exactly. But I definitely like I have a
• 30:16
  power world server right now with my kids where we've like
• 30:19
  done the world tree together and sick the spent they had.
• 30:25
  They're on year rounds, so they were on break when when one
• 30:29
  point O release and we just no life did for yeah for a couple
• 30:34
  weeks. It's, it's addicting and like,
• 30:37
  so I had initially bought it on launch just, I was just gonna
• 30:41
  like try it and then return it and I had actually left it on
• 30:45
  for too long And so I couldn't, and so I, I didn't touch it.
• 30:47
  So I was like, oh, this is fine. But like it did feel really
• 30:49
  stiff and stale and like, and then I had learned a couple days
• 30:52
  later that like some of the assets were like AI generated
• 30:54
  and I was like, oh, I don't know if I love that.
• 30:56
  But once I once I heard it in one point out that they'd taken
• 30:59
  those out, redesigned stuff, revamped the gameplay and like,
• 31:03
  you know, just really try to like make this like a true, you
• 31:06
  know, their true own game. And like I'm, I'm also going to
• 31:10
  caveat that like you can't make a monster tamer now that that is
• 31:14
  not going to have some overlap in creature design.
• 31:16
  There's only so many ways you can you can't like it's always
• 31:20
  you're just going to have like complete alien kind of creatures
• 31:22
  and you still want some relatability to the human mind.
• 31:24
  So we have to so like there's going to be like, you know, even
• 31:27
  like winds and waves. I'm sure it's going to have some
• 31:29
  like redone designs like, oh, this is just like magnumite, but
• 31:31
  like he's a fire type and looks a little different.
• 31:33
  I don't know, like whatever it is, it's a volcanic rocket,
• 31:36
  which I think is already a ton of Pokémon anyways, But but so
• 31:39
  like once we get past that and realize this is a game you just
• 31:43
  you can have fun in and it and it will scratch the itch of like
• 31:45
  both Pokémon somehow like a shooter and also like a life
• 31:49
  SIM. Like it's it it's quite fun
• 31:52
  because you don't have to do like I'm like I was like level
• 31:56
  75 and realize I have not even done the third tower yet.
• 31:58
  I would just just been doing base stuff the entire time.
• 32:00
  I was like, I'm, I'm like have end game equipment and I, I, I
• 32:04
  should probably do the story and I still haven't done the world
• 32:06
  tree still, but it's just fun. It's just, it's just a good time
• 32:09
  to explore the world and you know, I don't know it like, and
• 32:12
  it's a massive map, which is kind of fun.
• 32:15
  Yeah, we turned up our experience like way up.
• 32:18
  That's how we the World Tree and the and the amount of time that
• 32:20
  we had to play. Oh, I love that though.
• 32:25
  But it's it is, it's a lot of fun.
• 32:27
  I mean, I'm, I have a hard time with games like Minecraft, like
• 32:32
  they're very addictive, but like I it's just that typically not
• 32:36
  my thing. Like I don't need to build a, a
• 32:38
  base. I don't need to mine resources,
• 32:40
  but I I kind of enjoyed it in in power.
• 32:44
  World, I think it like takes off the burden of like you having to
• 32:48
  do it when like you can automate some of those systems or like or
• 32:51
  the feeling of like doing with your pals one like makes you buy
• 32:54
  in more to like the team you have to you know, and like I've
• 32:57
  never like when I used to play Pokémon games.
• 33:00
  I was never a huge team like park a party swapper is just
• 33:03
  like, you know, like I have like certain ones.
• 33:05
  I like, you know, I was like, Oh, my OG piggy from day one.
• 33:07
  You're my you're my piggy in the only four kind of thing.
• 33:10
  And like sometimes it would be some quick changes, but it was a
• 33:12
  pretty like stable team for the most part.
• 33:14
  I've I enjoyed how much power will make makes me want to swap.
• 33:18
  You know, it's like, oh, I'm going on like a supply run.
• 33:21
  I'm trying to get like, you know, materials.
• 33:22
  I'm going to take these spells. Oh, I'm going on a catching run.
• 33:24
  I'm gonna take these spells. I'm going on like a fighting
• 33:26
  run, you know, and like that, like that kind of like prep was
• 33:28
  kind of cool to think about. And I made the return to base
• 33:31
  cycle of the gameplay with like enjoyable and because like also
• 33:35
  there's usually like an upgrade is finished by the time I've
• 33:36
  come back, you know, or something like that, or I have
• 33:38
  enough resources to do XYZ thing.
• 33:40
  And so I, I don't know, I think it was a pretty smart game play
• 33:43
  week, but I'd love to see them expand, you know, and you know,
• 33:47
  create new pals and you know, a 2 point up a day would be sick
• 33:51
  or a parallel too. And and definitely in in the in
• 33:56
  the 1.0 release, I feel like they made a concerted effort to
• 34:00
  change the pals enough that you can really use any of them.
• 34:04
  Like there aren't any that that you can't use or that that
• 34:08
  aren't are off are so far off meta that it's not use not
• 34:13
  useful having them around. Exactly, I saw a dude on Reddit
• 34:17
  do a chickpea only run and he did it and I was like, I was
• 34:21
  like that is awesome because I that's just six or five buff
• 34:25
  chickens out there just doing their thing.
• 34:27
  That is amazing. So let's let's go to let's go to
• 34:32
  Fire Emblem. Yeah, much less familiar with
• 34:35
  Fire Emblem. OK, Yeah, I've played a little
• 34:37
  bit. I, I enjoy the games.
• 34:40
  I enjoy the story for as much of that as I've played.
• 34:44
  But give us a a little intro to to Fire Emblem.
• 34:47
  Yeah, Fire Emblem was introduced in the states on its 7th game
• 34:53
  with and I was confused because the six, six and seven, I, I
• 34:57
  said the the magic number, I said the magic #1 is called
• 35:01
  Blazing Blade and one is called Binding Blade.
• 35:03
  And I've played them both so much I forget which one is
• 35:05
  which. But basically 7 is a prequel to
• 35:07
  the story of 6, but 7 is like it was the first one localized in
• 35:12
  America. 6 features Roy, which many people know for Smash Bros
• 35:17
  and then when people ask who this moth guy is, he is the
• 35:19
  original protagonist in the first rumbling game ever
• 35:22
  released I believe for the famicom in Japan.
• 35:24
  So we just got these like 3 random characters and people
• 35:26
  like oh this guy looks kind of like Roy.
• 35:28
  I think a lot of people picked up Fire Emblem because they
• 35:30
  thought it was Roy. And in fact, I, I, I, from my
• 35:35
  history and knowledge and research, I believe they
• 35:37
  localize #7 because of the popularity of having Roy and
• 35:41
  Mark in Super Smash. They're like, oh, the American
• 35:43
  audience, like these characters a lot.
• 35:45
  Let's bring in FE7. But they did like, they did not
• 35:48
  at all explain to us that like, hey, this is a prequel and
• 35:51
  you're actually playing as the father of Roy in these games.
• 35:55
  But but Fe 7 came with a lot of updates from FE6, which was the
• 35:59
  first GBA, yeah, GBA release. And so it was a much easier game
• 36:04
  compared to Fe 6. But it I think that was better
• 36:07
  to get American islands interested in it.
• 36:09
  I think prior to it, the other things closest to this were like
• 36:12
  maybe like poker tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars,
• 36:17
  but it's a but if it doesn't initiate, it's it's a grid based
• 36:20
  game. You have a party of certain
• 36:22
  characters and classes and you click on them and you move in
• 36:25
  certain squares to take actions against opponents.
• 36:27
  And it's turn based. So you have your turn and then
• 36:29
  there's enemy phase, enemy phase.
• 36:31
  You cannot make moves, enemy moves and attacks.
• 36:32
  And so, and you slowly build and recruit an army of different
• 36:38
  classes and types and the, the, you know, it's your typical, you
• 36:43
  know, there's a great evil and we must stop it and hear these
• 36:46
  faded, faded trios or duos or whomever main characters that
• 36:51
  you control. And eventually, you know, you
• 36:53
  were usually a passive player, but then eventually they started
• 36:56
  adding the avatar character that you get to control and, you
• 36:58
  know, customize your own class like that.
• 37:00
  And now in the latest iterations on the Switch with Engage and
• 37:03
  Three Houses and now Fortunes, we've coming out in probably
• 37:06
  like 2 weeks. You can like customize just
• 37:09
  about anything. Anyone can be any class almost.
• 37:11
  And that's pretty crazy and sick and makes the replayability
• 37:14
  really nice. And those.
• 37:15
  But but yeah, I started with FE7 when it came, my neighbor had it
• 37:18
  and I was like like they only play a chapter which is
• 37:21
  basically just commissioned and I had a fucking glass and I was
• 37:25
  like, Oh my God, this is so cool.
• 37:26
  So then I got it. And then that started my
• 37:29
  descendant to madness into the series.
• 37:30
  That is like, I think like it's like, it's like well known but
• 37:34
  not well known. You know, like, it's like, you
• 37:35
  know, it's like, like if if someone mentions like Ramblin,
• 37:38
  you're like, oh, you know, ball. But like, it's not like every
• 37:41
  person out there who plays video games knows Ramblin.
• 37:43
  I think 3 houses made it a lot more popular.
• 37:45
  It's the game to like it. You know, an awakening was, you
• 37:47
  know, and obviously smash has his characters, but I think like
• 37:50
  the older games, you still have some people who like, you know,
• 37:53
  they might their their first entry might have been like on
• 37:55
  the DS, the 3DS with the awakening, which I think was the
• 37:58
  the best thing we've had so far or maybe 3 houses now on the
• 38:01
  switch. So like people that know like
• 38:03
  FE7FE, not Fe 8 every night and you're like, oh, OK, you're
• 38:05
  you're you know, like go to go to GameCube 1.
• 38:07
  So I was like, you know what you're talking?
• 38:08
  About yeah, I I definitely started with three houses.
• 38:14
  I liked the, I liked the school aspect of it, like the Hogwarts
• 38:19
  style. And then also I was like so
• 38:22
  overwhelmed by like so many things to do that I didn't know
• 38:25
  a lot finishing it. Yeah, no, it's I mean, I don't
• 38:29
  think I've even I've I've finished I got the DLC 2 so that
• 38:32
  it's four houses, you know, and I think I've only finished 2 1/2
• 38:37
  of them. I'm trying to finish at least
• 38:39
  like the main 3rd house playthrough before.
• 38:42
  But again, time is just elusive as always.
• 38:45
  So we'll see if that. Happens.
• 38:47
  Yeah, absolutely. What would you recommend as an
• 38:52
  entry point for someone who wanted to get into to Fire
• 38:55
  Emblem? Yeah, so the good news is, is
• 38:57
  that on Nintendo Switch Online, which again, is somewhat of a
• 39:01
  scam because it's, you know, you're paying for emulation
• 39:03
  basically. But if you are trying, you know,
• 39:05
  if you're not trying to be, you know, a caster in the seven seas
• 39:08
  of pirating, then you can do NSOI.
• 39:11
  Do I do think Fe 7 is still one of the best introduction games.
• 39:14
  I mean there's been like, you know, when they dropped it,
• 39:16
  there was like 15 different, you know, final channel think pieces
• 39:20
  on like why this is the the best way to enter the series.
• 39:23
  And I think it is it it the first 10 chapters are a tutorial
• 39:25
  on how the game will forever kind of function in terms of its
• 39:30
  grid based system and and you know, the turn based stuff, but
• 39:33
  the characters really endearing. It's the cast isn't so wide and
• 39:37
  FE7 that you're overwhelmed. And then from there, like if I
• 39:40
  were to like of the easily accessible ones, you have Fe 7
• 39:44
  and then FE8 with the Sacred stone.
• 39:46
  It's not a sequel, it's just a different game entirely.
• 39:49
  The Path of Radiance, which is also on NSO online, the
• 39:51
  expansion pack, which is also crazy for again for regulation
• 39:54
  only, but that's with Ike who many people know from Super
• 39:57
  Smash Bros. And then you have Three Houses
• 40:00
  and and Engage. I think the order I would
• 40:03
  recommend if you have a switch to do all this would be start
• 40:05
  with FE7. Maybe you have FBA 'cause it
• 40:08
  goes pretty fast and then I would say play path of radiance
• 40:12
  before you hit three houses just because I think it ramps you up
• 40:16
  more into a lot of those like those base mechanics.
• 40:19
  It's not as it's not as in depth as three houses by any means,
• 40:22
  but like it gets you prepped for more than just, you know,
• 40:24
  choosing your army going to battle in the next mission.
• 40:26
  There's a there's some more like you know, between mission stuff
• 40:29
  you can do if if you are someone who you know emulates games and
• 40:35
  can find a good 2DS emulator. I, I do think final awakening
• 40:40
  has earned its right to be like one of the most fun and engaging
• 40:45
  final games out there. It's it's really good.
• 40:48
  And if you're and if you're also if you're into emulation, I
• 40:49
  mean, the world of final ROM hacks is also pretty wide
• 40:53
  considering how small of a base family cities compared to
• 40:57
  Pokémon. You know, there's an there's a
• 40:58
  new Pokémon raw hack every single day, But there's some
• 41:01
  like there's some like a really good final raw hacks and you can
• 41:04
  find FE61 with Roy in English pretty well.
• 41:07
  And that is super challenging. As someone who's played a lot of
• 41:10
  fireball men would like to say that they're pretty good at the
• 41:12
  games. That is a really challenging one
• 41:14
  to even on like a normal playthrough go then do all the
• 41:17
  things that it's really in depth and and really, really well
• 41:20
  built out. But I really enjoy the Series A
• 41:22
  lot lot. And the, the spring animations
• 41:24
  are like, I think I don't know, the 8 bit stylist like, you
• 41:26
  know, I feel like we're, we're from the same cloth of, of
• 41:29
  enjoying those games. And so like the Avis style just
• 41:31
  like touches me really well. I just really, really enjoy it.
• 41:34
  And so that's why I like playing the all the GBA ROM hacks that
• 41:37
  people make of like the FE6FE7 engines.
• 41:39
  I have not gotten into ROM hacks too much but I do I I love
• 41:43
  watching like tik toks or or Instagram videos about like all
• 41:48
  the different Pokémon. Yeah.
• 41:50
  Rolexes are available and. There's so many cool ones.
• 41:53
  Man, if I just had all the time in the world, right?
• 41:56
  You could spend all your time playing Pokémon and yeah and
• 42:01
  just never replay anything. Exactly yeah, I, I, I do have, I
• 42:05
  do have delta on my phone and I was able to figure out how to
• 42:08
  get water blue, which is like, you know, the definitive and
• 42:11
  upgraded graphics version of like fire relief screen.
• 42:14
  And that has been super fun just like play.
• 42:15
  Yeah, it's like, oh, between meetings and like, I mean, I'm
• 42:17
  waiting for the new, waiting for the water to blow out quick
• 42:19
  pasta, just get a couple battles and whatever.
• 42:22
  But but yeah, at least Pokémon you can get on your phone pretty
• 42:25
  easily. But the three DF stuff is a bit
• 42:26
  harder. And so like, I, I wish, I wish
• 42:28
  Awakening was easier to access because I think that's a really
• 42:30
  good final game. And and maybe it will be 1 day.
• 42:34
  Yeah, we'll see one of one of these days.
• 42:37
  I think the Nintendo's been a lot better about re releasing
• 42:40
  games, especially like popular games from older generations.
• 42:47
  Hopefully they don't just take that away.
• 42:48
  I yeah, I also don't love the whole I don't own the game
• 42:53
  concept of gaming. That is definitely like I miss
• 42:57
  physicals. Like I have my I have my SP and
• 42:59
  stuff here too. I just, you know, there's
• 43:01
  something about slacking that cartridge in.
• 43:03
  It just feels like good, right? So MapleStory is another game
• 43:07
  that I have never, I know nothing about.
• 43:10
  I know more about, I know more about Fire Emblem than I do
• 43:13
  MapleStory. But you mentioned it earlier.
• 43:15
  It was on your list of of things when you when you sent in the
• 43:19
  calendar. Yeah, this is like MapleStory.
• 43:22
  This is like like a guilty pleasure game and that like it
• 43:26
  is like, so, so this game came out in 2005 and that like I, I,
• 43:32
  I played it pretty close after launch because my friend was
• 43:34
  like, oh, like we were like being in a Runescape at the
• 43:36
  time. And so they're like, oh, this is
• 43:38
  another MMO and that's oh, cool. And it is completely 2D.
• 43:43
  It is just left and right. I go up, down, but like it is
• 43:46
  2D. It's a 2D side scroller.
• 43:48
  So like if you play Hollow Knight, all people compare like
• 43:50
  say like Hollow Knight is kind of like kind of how MapleStory
• 43:53
  feels, but MapleStory is like obviously on a keyboard, but
• 43:57
  you're just like this like chibi, you know, big headed
• 44:01
  character. It's like very brightly colored.
• 44:02
  It's very silly. It's it's very like, it's not,
• 44:04
  it's not an, it's not an adult game at all by any means.
• 44:07
  You know, it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's just like a
• 44:09
  silly MMO, but it's a it's made by this Korean company
• 44:13
  originally was that and then Nexon.
• 44:16
  And so it's very grindy. It's like one of those like, you
• 44:18
  know, as any MMO kind of can be. And I think I play it a lot.
• 44:22
  I mean, I haven't played a lot right now just because again, it
• 44:25
  takes so much time, but like I have like moments where like a
• 44:27
  new class will come out. So I'll jump back in like 3
• 44:29
  months because my class like a decent level and then I'll just
• 44:31
  hop out again. But I played off a nostalgia.
• 44:33
  It's like one of those games I can just turn my brain off and
• 44:35
  like do something. It'll choose nothing for me.
• 44:37
  Like it teaches me not much at all.
• 44:40
  I guess it's usually perseverance and also like the
• 44:43
  lessons of that you could put a lot of work into something and
• 44:46
  you have absolutely no fruit to bear from it.
• 44:47
  And that that is what this game gives me, I guess.
• 44:50
  But the the, the like, the how they have like Runescape
• 44:54
  classic. The classic version is coming
• 44:56
  out again in October, and so I will be playing that.
• 45:01
  Unfortunately. I have like I have like I have
• 45:04
  like this like in the same van, like an on and off again, like
• 45:06
  gaming YouTube channel by like for myself that like I'll post
• 45:09
  like a video like every three months and disappear again.
• 45:12
  And I'm like, Oh, sorry, channel by and I've that's like 50
• 45:14
  subscribers. It's not a big channel.
• 45:15
  So I'm not like married to by any means, but but it's like,
• 45:18
  you know, I gain a lot when I can, especially in the winter
• 45:21
  because like it's summer, I'm out with the band or where I'm
• 45:24
  playing viable in the winter. I'm not it's not it's harder to
• 45:27
  get space to play in Chicago. It's also snowing.
• 45:29
  So we're not playing on the show.
• 45:30
  We're not touring a lot and top the holidays inside a game of
• 45:32
  time more in the winter. And so that's when the channel
• 45:35
  gets more lively. But yeah, the game is like
• 45:38
  literally just like, like you do not even use a mouse.
• 45:41
  Like you move left, right with the arrow keys and then all of
• 45:43
  your attacks are just on like your your left hand.
• 45:46
  And so it is a very like, it's like, oh, I want to consume a
• 45:49
  YouTube video and we just get some Maple Star and get some Exp
• 45:52
  and, you know, just, I, I say this all slantingly and I'm
• 45:57
  going to play it for hours when it comes out next month.
• 45:59
  So I don't know. But yeah, it's a, it's a cute
• 46:02
  game that I mean, and like, I, what I liked about the old game
• 46:04
  was that like, this is, you know, right when the, the like,
• 46:07
  the, the heyday of like online gaming is happening.
• 46:10
  So it'd be like me and my buddies, you know, like all in
• 46:12
  our, the same neighborhood, but like a couple houses apart,
• 46:14
  parents, like you have to do your homework.
• 46:16
  You can't outside to play today. You know, you have to like be a
• 46:18
  good student. So like, all right, we've
• 46:19
  finished our homework. We can hop on MapleStory and you
• 46:21
  can slowly chat with each other. We can like, do, you know, do
• 46:23
  bosses? Like, you know, it was that
• 46:24
  feeling of of MLM lines or like, you know, Discord gaming now, I
• 46:28
  guess it's much easier, but like, you know, before we had
• 46:30
  the accessibility, this was like how we kind of like just hung
• 46:33
  out. And so, you know, it'd be like
• 46:36
  what song listen to you while you're playing the game, you
• 46:38
  know, like, and we have like playlists, you know, put on all
• 46:40
  that kind of stuff. And so it was like really
• 46:42
  interactive and I think it, it helped me build a foundation.
• 46:44
  I guess you the value in how to sustain online friendships
• 46:48
  because I think that's a big part of life now.
• 46:50
  Like, you know, there's like she quote UN quote loneliness
• 46:53
  epidemic, which I think is like somewhat true, but I think it's
• 46:56
  more of a social loneliness than true loneliness.
• 46:59
  Like we have we have the most access to others that we've ever
• 47:01
  had in our lives. We just don't know how to
• 47:03
  actually hang out with other people and like have quality
• 47:05
  time. And so I think gaming is a good
• 47:08
  way to do that, but sometimes we use incorrectly to where we get
• 47:10
  too caught up in gaming by ourselves.
• 47:12
  And so I like Mabel's story for that.
• 47:14
  So maybe I can take some old friends to jump on and, you
• 47:16
  know, get kill a few slimes of mushrooms and snails and I don't
• 47:20
  know, level up a few times. What's your What's your YouTube
• 47:25
  channel? It's just the Nishfish plays.
• 47:28
  It is the Nishfish. Plays.
• 47:30
  Yeah. All right.
• 47:30
  It was, it was often Fortnite gameplay.
• 47:34
  And you know, I will say in my 20s I was forced to reckon with
• 47:38
  and at the ripe age of 32, I'm still reckonable, but not as
• 47:42
  much of A force. You know, it's like I have my
• 47:44
  moments where I'm like, OK, I still got it.
• 47:46
  But then there's moments from like these 1819 year olds with
• 47:49
  reflexes of caps are just like I was like the angle is insane.
• 47:52
  They're just lighting me up. So not as much Fortnite content
• 47:55
  going up on that Channel anymore.
• 47:56
  I still play it here and there, but but I also just want to
• 47:59
  explore all the games. I've put a lot of hours and time
• 48:01
  into Fortnite too. Yeah, I played Fortnite was like
• 48:07
  my my son really wanted to play Fortnite.
• 48:09
  Yeah, my wife was like, I don't know about that.
• 48:13
  And I was like, let's, let's it's pretty cartoony.
• 48:15
  Like, let's, let's, let's give it a try and I'll play with him.
• 48:18
  Like I'll sacrifice my time to play.
• 48:20
  Yeah, so, so valiant. You're so.
• 48:23
  I'm so noble. I'll do it.
• 48:25
  It was a. Really cool bombing experience.
• 48:26
  Yeah. And it's, it's, we've definitely
• 48:30
  transitioned from which one of us carries the other.
• 48:34
  Yeah, right. It's like Why?
• 48:36
  The course of like 3 years. Like, he's definitely way better
• 48:40
  at Fortnite than I could probably ever be, frankly.
• 48:45
  I mean, you know, I think that like there's I am a firm
• 48:49
  believer that like video games are a subsect of art and not
• 48:54
  that like there's maybe there's not a lot, not a lot of depth to
• 48:57
  Fortnite compared to like, I don't know, like a Gustav Klimt
• 49:00
  piece. But like, I think that there's
• 49:02
  still, there's still lessons you can learn a lot as a kid do
• 49:05
  gaming, you know, and I think that like, I'm excited to game
• 49:09
  with my kid one day, you know, should that happen?
• 49:11
  And like, teach them like lessons to it, you know, like,
• 49:14
  for, I think Forney is a good example of repetition and like
• 49:17
  muscle memory and like the adaptation to adversity of like,
• 49:21
  you know, there's points where you can blame other people, like
• 49:24
  this person's too good. And I, you know, like, that's
• 49:26
  why they're winning the fight and now I'm losing.
• 49:27
  And there's also points where you're like, hell, you know,
• 49:29
  like I'm making the same mistakes again and again.
• 49:31
  And I can choose to keep making those and like end up in 50th
• 49:35
  place, or I can choose to try to outsmart someone and think of
• 49:38
  other ways and like, you know, get that win and then get that,
• 49:40
  you know, that like that dopamine hit, get that, you
• 49:42
  know, that neural pruning and like learning to grow a bit.
• 49:45
  And that's true for like almost any game, right?
• 49:46
  But like Fortnite, any, any game where you're up against other
• 49:48
  real players provide that actually of challenge also
• 49:51
  actually of like, you know, competitiveness, like, you know,
• 49:54
  like you're fighting. I mean, I guess half a lot is
• 49:55
  your bots too nowadays. But in in theory, you're against
• 49:58
  other people and like trying to compete and and, you know,
• 50:01
  achieve something which, you know, that's why E sports exists
• 50:03
  to you. And like, you know, there's been
• 50:04
  studies done about how E sports players also go like under like
• 50:07
  the same levels of like duress and neural calculabilities that
• 50:11
  like athletes do because it is, it is still a, you're still like
• 50:15
  flexing your brain, which is, you know, a very difficult
• 50:18
  muscle to control. And I don't know, there's a lot
• 50:21
  of fascinating things about gaming and like, you know, how
• 50:23
  it prevents dementia and all these things.
• 50:24
  Like I, I think it is double edged sword.
• 50:27
  Every tool is a double edged sword.
• 50:28
  And gaming is just one of those tools.
• 50:29
  And so too much of anything is, is not good.
• 50:32
  But yeah. I totally agree.
• 50:33
  I my I know my son's biggest lesson that he's learned.
• 50:38
  I'm sure playing Fortnite that I've like tried to to push into
• 50:43
  his head all the time is is how to deal with adversity because
• 50:49
  there are times where that game is very frustrating.
• 50:51
  Yes, yeah. You just don't understand what
• 50:55
  happened or it it's not your necessarily your fault, but you
• 50:59
  still have to deal with the fact that you just got owned really
• 51:03
  hard. Yeah, but yeah, totally agree.
• 51:08
  I think, I think those are some really, I think there's just
• 51:10
  some really cool points and also some points that I haven't
• 51:13
  necessarily attributed to or been able to vocalize, I guess.
• 51:18
  Sure. Yeah, yeah.
• 51:19
  I like, I like that philosophy. Naruto, Naruto.
• 51:24
  I always pronounce it in a way. That I'm sure I say Naruto also,
• 51:28
  which I think is incorrect. I, I, I'm not sure.
• 51:30
  I don't know. I blame it on the Chicago accent
• 51:32
  the the long A's and it's Naruto for me so.
• 51:35
  Realized this has been one of the most humbling things about
• 51:42
  doing this podcast is I have to listen to my own voice and how I
• 51:45
  say things for hours and hours and I I talk weird I say things
• 51:50
  weird sometimes and I don't know why it's.
• 51:54
  How it's how it be. But yeah, Naruto, I've so I've
• 52:00
  watched a little bit a while back my friend gave me like
• 52:04
  here's how you skip through and actually.
• 52:06
  If you haven't. If you, if you're starting fresh
• 52:10
  and I watched a lot of the really cool arcs and I, I
• 52:13
  definitely enjoyed it. Are you someone who has been
• 52:17
  watching for a long time? Like where?
• 52:19
  Where'd you get your start? Yeah, I started watching it with
• 52:22
  when like Cartoon Network had Toonami at night on the
• 52:27
  weekends. And so like that's how I got
• 52:29
  into Naruto and Bleach and, you know, of course DBZ and, you
• 52:33
  know, some, you know, Zoids Gundam, like all these like old,
• 52:38
  you know, nineties, 2000s stuff. I mean, I first entered into an
• 52:41
  and it was actually my my step uncle and my step aunts.
• 52:46
  They were like they were from a second marriage and so they're
• 52:49
  not that much older than me, like they're maybe like 10 years
• 52:51
  old to me. And so they were like still like
• 52:53
  they're more so closer to the kids side of the table than like
• 52:55
  the parents side. And you know, when I had to go
• 52:56
  see them and, and Bolish and stuff.
• 52:58
  And so they got us onto Roni Kenshin, which like goaded,
• 53:02
  goaded like not talked about enough at all.
• 53:04
  But like, well, like got like got my addiction into like, you
• 53:07
  know, all things like, you know, samurai, ninja, things like
• 53:10
  that. Like, like, you know, I because
• 53:12
  I think OK, so to to go back to like our what Pokémon you pick.
• 53:17
  I also think like, I think like every gamer or if you like
• 53:20
  fantasy or like RPG player, it goes and it's like, what weapon
• 53:23
  archetype are you A bow, spear, axe, sword, Mace, you know, and
• 53:26
  like I was a sword guy because of Vernie Kenshin through and
• 53:28
  through. I was like, give me Cortana like
• 53:30
  a night in the long term. I want a catana, you know, like,
• 53:32
  like it got me into that. But yeah, I just thought, I
• 53:35
  thought that show was so cool. And so like when Naruto was
• 53:37
  starting to air, I was like, oh, this is like ninja's like, OK,
• 53:39
  cool. It's sickly sick.
• 53:41
  And so I've been watching Naruto for a long, long time.
• 53:43
  I've seen it. I think through probably thrice,
• 53:47
  like through like the OGN ship it in.
• 53:50
  I have attempted to watch episode 2 Boruto.
• 53:53
  It is not the same show that I, you know, once knew and it's you
• 53:57
  know, it's for a different generation and I can accept
• 53:59
  that, but it's I can also accept that it's not for me.
• 54:01
  I once once it all comes out, like when it's done airing,
• 54:05
  maybe I'll like give it a run through like knowing that, like,
• 54:07
  you know, I don't have to wait. Like I did it with like I was
• 54:10
  like super late to the Attack on Titan train.
• 54:12
  And so I got to watch it all basically like I finished it all
• 54:16
  and then there's only like a month to go into the finale.
• 54:18
  So I was like, OK, cool, I don't have to wait four years for
• 54:19
  this. Like my friend who'd been like
• 54:21
  tell me for years to go and he was like, you mother fucker,
• 54:24
  like you got to skip so much agony in English.
• 54:27
  I was like, yeah, that's pretty lit.
• 54:28
  But Myanmar watched that like basically like almost live until
• 54:31
  the finale and it was so fun. But yeah, I I've been watched.
• 54:34
  I've been, I've watched Naruto for a long time.
• 54:37
  I think it was. It's pretty instrumental to and
• 54:39
  like how I saw a lot of the world's you know, I mean, I like
• 54:44
  I think like you can't talk about like 2000s alt rock
• 54:47
  without Naruto. I mean, if you think about any
• 54:50
  Linkin Parker three days Gray Song, there is a Naruto fight
• 54:53
  scene, you know, put to like numb or crawling in my skin or,
• 54:56
  you know, like there's like the famous one of it's like the
• 55:00
  battle of at the valley at the end with the the first time
• 55:02
  Sasuke like transforms with his curse mark and Naruto.
• 55:04
  It's like fighting him to let's son of the tailed beast out.
• 55:06
  And you know, the fighting between the statue of Madara and
• 55:10
  Hashirama had like that. Like I think, I think it's numb.
• 55:13
  I think it's numb is that one. But I mean, that video is like
• 55:16
  iconic that that that she was so cool.
• 55:18
  Like that was like also the advent of YouTube to my brain.
• 55:21
  Like to me like, OK, YouTube is like coming up, we're having AM
• 55:24
  VS happening and Naruto's happening.
• 55:25
  Linkin Park is like doing stuff with Jay-Z.
• 55:27
  What the hell? And then like, you know, Fall
• 55:29
  Boy now is a Jay-Z intro and the two 2007 record.
• 55:31
  You know, like all this like weird cross interpolation of
• 55:34
  like, you know, pop culture, anime culture, gaming culture is
• 55:38
  just happening. You know, this like this
• 55:40
  dilution of all things into one cause the Internet is becoming
• 55:42
  Internet is I think Naruto is a big part of that.
• 55:47
  All I know was, you know, Bleach was a big part of that too.
• 55:49
  I think you have DBZ of course. But yeah, I love Naruto.
• 55:54
  I am a big, big Hitachi fan. Like, many people are just so
• 55:57
  cool, so brooding, so like, such a martyr.
• 56:01
  They do a really good job of like the characters and again,
• 56:06
  like I'm, I'm, I'm not nearly as familiar with Naruto as I as I
• 56:10
  wish that I was and will never be probably judged by nature of
• 56:18
  of how much time I have to to consume different types of
• 56:22
  media. But yeah, like the the
• 56:23
  character, the character arcs and the growth in the characters
• 56:29
  over 1000 episodes or how how country episodes or whatever is
• 56:35
  so good. Like it.
• 56:38
  It's really some great storytelling in my opinion, and
• 56:42
  great character development for sure.
• 56:44
  Yeah, I think it's like, always fascinating to see a show and to
• 56:48
  see a, like, a writer and a creator like Shimoto.
• 56:50
  I mean, like, of course, like, no, no artist is perfect, right?
• 56:53
  There's a lot of missteps here. Like, you know, there's a ton of
• 56:55
  like, fanservice and like, weird misogyny and like, kind of like
• 56:58
  lewd moments in that show too, right?
• 57:00
  Well, like, I think like shows that can look at how hardship
• 57:06
  and grief affect and mold children and then how that, you
• 57:09
  know, then like shows up in their adulthood is hard to do.
• 57:13
  Like, you know, movies have tried it a lot.
• 57:15
  They've tried it. I think Naruto had a lot of
• 57:17
  space and time to do that really well.
• 57:18
  Like and I it's like it's something I wish I could have
• 57:21
  seen with like Avatar the last airbender.
• 57:22
  I, I wish, like, I know we're getting some more like adult ang
• 57:25
  stuff now, but I think that, like, I think that the, the
• 57:29
  motive for those things coming now are so far removed from like
• 57:31
  why the show was made in the 1st place.
• 57:33
  Like, you know, like, like, I think like Naruto and Avatar see
• 57:36
  a lot of parallels and they're like, here are kids in wartime,
• 57:39
  you know, living through like, basically like cataclysms and
• 57:41
  terrorist attacks. And you know, like, I mean,
• 57:43
  there's a great video that talked about how like the tailed
• 57:46
  beasts in Naruto are basically an allegory for like nuclear
• 57:48
  weapons. You know, it's like, you know,
• 57:49
  it's like, if you have one, you have this, your, your nation is
• 57:52
  strong, you have a good army and all that.
• 57:53
  If you don't, you are, you know, the religion in the rain.
• 57:56
  Spoilers for some people, I guess, you know, like, you know,
• 57:59
  you know, for like Nagato and crew, you know, like being these
• 58:03
  people on the fringes of it, you know, like who are just like
• 58:06
  kind of like getting the thought effects of these great wars
• 58:08
  happening rather than as as these countries prosper, they
• 58:10
  still, you know, all up the mud. It is like a perfect example
• 58:13
  that we're seeing even even in our geopolitical world today and
• 58:16
  and we have for millennia across like human history.
• 58:18
  And so an avatar again is, you know, the the ANG saga like
• 58:24
  shows that too. You know, he was like a, a child
• 58:26
  who was like seeing the world change to war and, and like
• 58:29
  Greece and like, you know, genocide erasure.
• 58:31
  Like he's like really heavy topics that are also like, you
• 58:33
  can still laugh because, you know, Saga's burping and being
• 58:36
  stupid too in the next episode. But like there's a levity but
• 58:38
  also seriousness to it all. And I think that like Naruto has
• 58:41
  a lot of that too. And I, I think as a kid growing
• 58:43
  up in a post 911 world too, like in perceiving the difference of
• 58:48
  like perceiving the difference of like a society changing how
• 58:53
  they perceive me to being just a kid to now a threat, which is
• 58:57
  wild, which is wild to me at, you know, 7-8 years old for
• 59:01
  seeing that change in adults and kids.
• 59:03
  I, I felt very akin to understanding, like the
• 59:08
  confusion I think that like ANG feels as an airbender or like to
• 59:12
  have responsibilities. That's fun until like now be a
• 59:14
  model citizen for what he must be done or Naruto thing, an
• 59:18
  outcast for something that he's not really sure of, like or, you
• 59:20
  know, a mark that he got at birth that he had no control
• 59:23
  over. You know, I think there's a lot
• 59:25
  of cool ways to extrapolate that and some lessons we learned
• 59:27
  there too. And I think that's also why,
• 59:30
  like on top of nostalgia, why else enjoy those?
• 59:32
  And often the fight scenes are just cool as fuck.
• 59:34
  They're they're sick. So yeah.
• 59:38
  We're we're getting close on time.
• 59:40
  I this is this is the section of the podcast that I refer to as
• 59:44
  content farming. Let's do it.
• 59:47
  So we're going to go back to Pokémon.
• 59:50
  Yes. I'm going to give you a band
• 59:52
  that is on our fans also like on Spotify for for 10 MO yeah.
• 59:59
  And then I, I, I would love your take on what Pokémon best
• 1:00:02
  represents this band. OK.
• 1:00:05
  And hopefully I'm picking ones that you are at least somewhat
• 1:00:08
  familiar with. Yeah, let's, let's see it.
• 1:00:10
  Let's test my knowledge of the scene.
• 1:00:13
  Let's start with let's start with schemo.
• 1:00:16
  Yes, wonderful, wonderful band. The new record just dropped.
• 1:00:20
  Check it out. It's really good.
• 1:00:21
  So good, maybe I'm biased in thinking this because I'm just,
• 1:00:25
  I'm just doing like visual association because of the dog
• 1:00:27
  on the cover, but I'm thinking like Galerian Zigs again, like
• 1:00:31
  feels right. Like that's like I would name
• 1:00:33
  that Pokémon Ywunkie and then gonna and call it Splinky.
• 1:00:37
  And I feel like that would be a great tag team out there 'cause
• 1:00:39
  I also 'cause I also feel like the evolution to Obstagoon is
• 1:00:42
  kind of like that. Like, you know, like like a
• 1:00:44
  little coin playful, but you also don't wanna fuck with an
• 1:00:46
  Obstagoon, you know, and you don't wanna fuck with Schema
• 1:00:48
  'cause they're fucking awesome. And so I feel like that, that's
• 1:00:51
  what triggers my head for that, yeah.
• 1:00:55
  I think that's a great. I think that's great.
• 1:00:58
  Let's see, Tequila Mockingbird. Man, I mean, I jumped to a bird
• 1:01:04
  Pokémon. Funnily enough, Tequila
• 1:01:05
  Mockingbird makes me think of Fire Emblem.
• 1:01:07
  So if you ever had them on, you should talk about it because
• 1:01:09
  they've got a song called Titania, which is a reference to
• 1:01:11
  a character from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
• 1:01:14
  And she's awesome. And, and also Tequila
• 1:01:17
  Mockingbird is awesome. But but they've got but like,
• 1:01:21
  because of Joe's vocal register, I want, it's not like, not just
• 1:01:25
  like a bird that's like a high pitch.
• 1:01:26
  It's like a deeper bird, like low key.
• 1:01:28
  I want to say, I want to say Zapdos because I, I know they're
• 1:01:33
  like both Joe and Keith are also like rock like this.
• 1:01:36
  Like, you know, these like beautiful, like long hair, but
• 1:01:39
  they're also so like frenetic when they play a lot that is
• 1:01:42
  kind of flapping about and it makes you think of like the
• 1:01:44
  spiky. I think of like electricity,
• 1:01:46
  energy, but also bird. You know, when I when I think of
• 1:01:48
  them and so I'll give them ZAP those on that one.
• 1:01:51
  All right, let's see, how about no problemo?
• 1:01:57
  I mean, they're frogs through and through.
• 1:01:58
  So like we have to like I, I, I jumped to a polytode.
• 1:02:03
  Of course, you know, just some nice frog action, but also belly
• 1:02:08
  bolt would be a good one. I could you know, like because I
• 1:02:10
  just want to give him some hugs. I miss him.
• 1:02:12
  Never way like for watching this.
• 1:02:13
  I love you, I hate you, I love you.
• 1:02:15
  We have a we have fake beef. We have fake beef online but
• 1:02:17
  it's not real. Good.
• 1:02:18
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, we just. We constant farm fake beef
• 1:02:21
  because it works on the algorithm.
• 1:02:23
  Yeah, man, no problemo garbage, yeah.
• 1:02:28
  Stinky band. Stinky band?
• 1:02:29
  No, I'm just kidding. Leaving for Arizona.
• 1:02:33
  You know, you know what, I don't know them and, but I, I they're
• 1:02:38
  almost to check out because my fiance is actually from Arizona
• 1:02:41
  and I was like, oh, what a what an apartment name they're from.
• 1:02:45
  North Carolina, which is, which is why I pulled in, because I'm
• 1:02:47
  also living. In that is amazing shot in North
• 1:02:51
  Carolina. I mean, there must be a good
• 1:02:52
  band then, because I mean, North Carolina just spits out amazing,
• 1:02:54
  you know, amazing bands shot at Kerosene Heights.
• 1:02:57
  In North Carolina is nuts. It's crazy.
• 1:02:59
  Poppin, it really sucks to check them out, so my apologies Lean
• 1:03:03
  fares on it for not being committed with the game, but
• 1:03:05
  yeah. Last key, kids.
• 1:03:08
  Last key kids, oh New Jersey, NJ homies.
• 1:03:11
  I think I like kind of like I kind of want to say Grimer and
• 1:03:19
  hear me out, because I think that people are going to take
• 1:03:21
  that negatively, but I think Grimer is also like of of the
• 1:03:25
  purple Bros from Gen. one that are like often overlooked, You
• 1:03:28
  know, like like because if you get Atkins and coughing for team
• 1:03:31
  rocket, but like Grimer should have also been like a stable
• 1:03:34
  team rocket Pokémon because like Grimer has so many fun things
• 1:03:37
  you can do with it and like latch kids, like give me that.
• 1:03:39
  Like I think like like because New Jersey is so tied to their
• 1:03:43
  name, people will associate them with that, you know, wrongly
• 1:03:47
  with this, you know, Grimer esque, you know, like, you know,
• 1:03:49
  just like just unfortunate bias. But they're awesome and they're
• 1:03:54
  really cool. And I don't know, I think I
• 1:03:55
  think poison types are really fascinating because everyone
• 1:03:58
  wants to teach their we're like medigating here, but everyone
• 1:04:00
  wants to teach the Pokémon toxic.
• 1:04:01
  No one wants to run a Pokémon, a Pokémon on their team.
• 1:04:04
  So I don't know, justice for grammar, justice for poison
• 1:04:07
  types, justice for latte kids in New Jersey.
• 1:04:10
  So tell me about 10 month summer, what do you guys have
• 1:04:13
  going on right now? Yes, we have.
• 1:04:15
  Oh my gosh. So much so.
• 1:04:18
  Though we are a band of the Lakeshore emo variety, you're
• 1:04:20
  doing some loud, heavy, fun stuff.
• 1:04:23
  We have an acoustic EP coming out on 9/11 called Midwestern
• 1:04:27
  Haikus, the first single of which is already out, which is
• 1:04:29
  called Listening to Kerosene Heights Makes You Want to Be a
• 1:04:32
  Better person because that is a true fact and statement.
• 1:04:36
  And they're amazing. And now I.
• 1:04:38
  Have to ask, yes. What Pokémon are you?
• 1:04:40
  Even kerosene heights. Oh my goodness.
• 1:04:42
  Like maybe Jirachi because they make wishes come true, like, or
• 1:04:47
  like perhaps even Shaman, the grassy of Pokémon because I
• 1:04:49
  think like my favorite salmon and the sun setting.
• 1:04:52
  And that song makes me grateful for music, for sunsets and for
• 1:04:56
  my partner. And I don't know, like I it's
• 1:05:00
  just, I'm just grateful and feeling it feels like blooming
• 1:05:02
  and bursting, which is why flowers are so heavily featured
• 1:05:05
  in this EP too. But but yeah, we've got that
• 1:05:07
  acoustic EP coming out. Kizen Heights rocks.
• 1:05:10
  We wrote a song about why they rock like the, the song.
• 1:05:13
  The song is also called that because it borrows A vocal
• 1:05:16
  melody from one of their songs. Perfect timing.
• 1:05:18
  And I, I cleared it with chance before I stole it.
• 1:05:20
  I was like, hey, here's the demo.
• 1:05:22
  I'm using this. You're credited.
• 1:05:23
  Is this OK? It's a thumbs up.
• 1:05:25
  So we're not just doing Kizen heights, you know, you know,
• 1:05:28
  blatantly. I mean, we are doing it, but
• 1:05:30
  what we're doing with permission, permission, yeah.
• 1:05:33
  Yeah. So we have that show.
• 1:05:34
  If you're in the Chicago area, we are playing our biggest show
• 1:05:37
  ever at Lincoln Hall on September 12th, which is like,
• 1:05:40
  I've been in bands and in the scene for like 15 years.
• 1:05:43
  And I never thought any band ever being even play a show of
• 1:05:47
  this caliber. And this, this venue is really
• 1:05:49
  important to us and it's really huge.
• 1:05:50
  And so we'd love to fill it with people we love.
• 1:05:54
  So if you're free in Chicago or if you're not free, you know,
• 1:05:56
  tell your friends about it. Orphan on Chicago flying.
• 1:05:59
  I don't know. It'll be it'll be fun time if
• 1:06:01
  you can afford it, if you know, yeah, get get there if you can.
• 1:06:04
  Obviously the world will on fire.
• 1:06:05
  So if you can't, I I totally get it.
• 1:06:07
  And yeah, that's like that's like kind of what's lined up for
• 1:06:11
  us for now. We've got a couple more shows
• 1:06:13
  like in the fall and then we do the Fae lines anniversary show
• 1:06:15
  every year that's coming on 12/12.
• 1:06:17
  It's not announced yet, but it is coming on 12/12 and we've got
• 1:06:19
  a great local bill for that. So that's one that's fun to
• 1:06:22
  travel for if you want to see Fae lines played in full.
• 1:06:25
  But yeah, that's, that's that's what we got movement.
• 1:06:27
  Obviously our EP2, our full band is has been out with we're
• 1:06:30
  trying records. We still have vinyl for that.
• 1:06:32
  So if you're interested in physicals, please get some wax.
• 1:06:35
  It's it's always fun. Streaming pays us nothing.
• 1:06:37
  Wax is yours forever, you know, isn't it cool to own stuff?
• 1:06:40
  I don't know, sometimes it is. See capitalism.
• 1:06:42
  Super cool. I don't know if you can see my
• 1:06:44
  shelf. I think it I have it.
• 1:06:47
  I I don't even have like a good record player, but I love.
• 1:06:51
  I don't have one at all. I have a ton of a ton of wax,
• 1:06:54
  you know, because why not? I see the Riley record down
• 1:06:56
  there too. All of the almost all of the
• 1:06:59
  records up here are like Midwest emo, like small emo bands, just
• 1:07:03
  the homies, you know, I mean. Your people like you keep us
• 1:07:06
  afloat, which we would really appreciate.
• 1:07:07
  Like every single purchase like actually goes such a long way
• 1:07:09
  for bands of our size and even bigger and smaller.
• 1:07:12
  So thank you and thank you for doing this.
• 1:07:14
  This is also really cool. I'm like really, I think that
• 1:07:17
  like, you know, bands are bands and that's really fun, but this
• 1:07:20
  is a community and this kind of stuff builds that better and you
• 1:07:23
  know, that's how we find each other and find like minded
• 1:07:25
  folks, which is I think really beautiful and and we need more
• 1:07:28
  of that. Yeah, I love it.
• 1:07:30
  I I love the experience of talking to to people who make
• 1:07:33
  music that I love about things that they love and that I really
• 1:07:37
  appreciate you coming home. Of course it was my pleasure.
• 1:07:40
  Thank you. My parents left the country
• 1:07:42
  underwater, in my front yard.