The Best Entry-Points into Long Series | SaGa, Trails in the Sky, & More
I feel like most of it sucks like the ds
Joie:a lot of it is is a yeah. Heroes of Mana or Children of Mana that top down action RPG one is butt ass. Oh, bro. I crashed out on that game once. That game in Dawn of Mana because I streamed the whole series.
Joie:I streamed like every version of every game.
Aaron:Oh,
Joie:shit. And and that Dawn of Mana was the most miserable. If you wanna see shot and droid, watch me play Dawn of Mana. I was fucking I was like this the whole fuck. I was so mad, bro.
Aaron:That was stupid.
Joie:It's it fucking sucks, man.
Aaron:That's fucking what I've heard. Hey. You're listening to SuperPod Saga, the podcast that discusses every single video game topic in existence, every single last one. Eventually, sometime we'll get there. I'm your host, Aaron.
Aaron:And today, I'm joined by brand new guest to the show, my fraternal twin over there, Joie. What's up, dude?
Joie:Hey, man. Glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
Aaron:No worries, dude. For the listeners, this is the very last minute episode, but it's gonna be so good. So before we dig in, listeners, go check out superpodsaga.com. That's our website. All the podcatcher links, guest info, socials, including the Patreon or Ko Fi, you know, if you wanna help out the show.
Aaron:It's 2 or $4 a month, early episodes, bonus goodies, all that good stuff. But, you know, enough about me. Joie, go ahead and and introduce yourself to the listeners. Tell them all about yourself and then what you do on the Internet. And then tell us also about your oh, tell us about your favorite game of all time.
Joie:Oh, okay. So this is a bit touchy because, you know, I've just been part of a major cancellation. No. I'm kidding. Hi.
Joie:I'm Joie. I do a I I've I I actually, Aaron, we met from Super RPG Friends, which is a weekly Twitch stream that I do with some buds. And, basically, it's kind of like mystery science theater for classic RPGs and some modern ones too. So one of us plays a video game and we commentate and read dialogue and all that kind of shit. Aaron is one of
Aaron:Yep.
Joie:Oh, yeah. It's it's lewd. It's crude. There's dudes. That's how I met mister Aaron and we had a good time.
Joie:And yeah. I do that. But then I also stream on on my own. I make content under Cerulean Skies. And we you know, we we actually, funny enough before this talking about Chrono Cross.
Joie:That's a bit of a Chrono Cross reference, you know. And so I do that. It's mostly just annoying loud guys streamer shit. I know that's a really good sell. But I I I think my, I guess, claim is like marathon streams.
Joie:I'll do super long streams or beating a a game in one sitting kind of a thing. I do that, and I make some videos. I made some long form videos. I edited some stuff too. I used to do a Mega Man podcast, all that kind of stuff.
Joie:I'm no stranger to content, but it's been a while since in the words of Stained, you know, it's been a while. That's the worst song in existence, by the way. But now it's stuck in your head, so there you go. But, yeah, I I it's been a while since I've been able to be, like, full content guy, but I did do full time streaming for about three months. That was pretty fun.
Joie:So that's all. That's that's my CV, Aaron. Thank you for letting me take this out on on you.
Aaron:Sure welcome, dude. Hey, yep. Make sure you tell us all about what your favorite well, maybe not all about what your favorite game is, but what's your favorite game? And anything else you wanna say about that?
Joie:Yeah. I just you know, I kinda I feel like I betrayed my Midwestern there by being like, oh, yeah. But oh, yeah. Nope.
Aaron:Let me sneak past you and grab Oh, the
Joie:no, dude. I'm a major ranch hater. Oh shit. I'll on on business with how much I hate ranch, for sure. Fuck.
Joie:I I I my entire existence is like trying to be an anti capital g gamer. And I think part of that is hating I mean, I don't.
Aaron:Part of that is hating
Joie:Hating ranch. Yeah. Because it's so implicit and integrated, inculcated in gamer culture, you know, that I that's not why I hate it. I just hate the taste. But I don't try to align my taste to be contrarian.
Joie:I know the glasses and the look might might use it make you think otherwise but but either way my favorite game Starcraft the original Starcraft.
Aaron:Oh shit. I did not see that coming.
Joie:Hell yeah. Yeah. A lot of people don't get like I think it's like I used to be in school as a kid and like I think about playing it and I would shake, you know, I would just like shake with like excitement and I got around the time Starcraft two came out. I started actually learning how to play and before I you know, just played casually the story and messed around with custom maps and all the fun stuff the tower defense and all that. I think that's why I like tower defense is because of Starcraft but so many Summers playing that game and then like as Starcraft two was what was about to come out.
Joie:I went back and I learned it and I got really into it and I was never amazing at brood war but Starcraft to it was Grandmaster in my US region. So I played a buttload of Starcraft two, but I do like one more because it's such okay. I'm not one of those people who tries to look at my favorite things objectively like this game is objectively better than you know, that's bullshit and a fool's errand and I think that that's your favorite games are your favorite games. Yeah. Their historical significance should have almost no bearing on you other than you know, the timing in which you played it or the zeitgeist how that influences you sure that could affect it, but I do think that there is an argument to be made with how huge that games competitive scene was and how transformative it was to throw gaming and in a in Korean culture and even Western culture the views that we had as a result of that.
Joie:I think it is the closest thing I can think of to a what I would consider an all around like perfect game and it's got huge issues too. There's some UX stuff. I haven't actually played Starcraft. What's it called? Reforged or remastered the
Aaron:Reforged sounds right. I think that's
Joie:Or that's Warcraft. That's Warcraft. Maybe. Either way, I haven't played the remaster of it yet. So I don't I don't know.
Joie:It's been a while since I've revisited. But I think the story of that game despite being incredibly emulous of a million different, you know, popular media, It's still really good and the way it's told is really fun and the characters are memorable. It's got pathos and Intrigue and a bunch of mystery and I don't know. Like that game. I just like it a lot man and I could wax poetic about Starcraft until the cows come home.
Joie:So and there is no cow level either in that. Damn it. That's a cheat in it. Look at that.
Aaron:Well, that's cool, man. I yeah. I generally had no idea that you were ever gonna stay Starcraft. I thought it was gonna be like Final Fantasy five or I don't know.
Joie:You're not wrong. I mean, that's close. FF six is up there too, but
Aaron:Oh, yeah.
Joie:Five is my second or third no, third favorite, I think. But what do we hold on. Have you actually answered this question on your podcast before? What your favorite game is?
Aaron:No. But I mean, I feel like I say it every fucking episode. My favorite game of all time, Joey, is Final Fantasy nine.
Joie:Oh, okay. Okay. Alright. Alright. My man.
Joie:Okay. Yeah. This good. This man loves jump rope.
Aaron:Oh, dude. I love jump rope. I love the card game. I love all the hippos, the guy Geisel Pickles. Geisel Pickles.
Aaron:I don't know how the fuck you're supposed to pronounce that word, but Geisel?
Joie:Geisel? Geisel? Is that how they say it in Geisel. Fourteen and sixteen? They they do say it out loud in a couple games.
Aaron:Regardless, I love them pickles.
Joie:Oh, the pickles. Pick them up those picks.
Aaron:Them picks, dude. Today, we're talking about series that's just talk about, like, our entry point into specific series. And then some other series that we're interested in, maybe some blind spots in different series. Just talking about all sorts of cool game series, mostly RPGs. We've got one one not so much RPG in there, but I don't know.
Joie:There's an RPG in that series, actually, funny enough.
Aaron:Oh, yeah. The the the GB. Right? Yeah.
Joie:Yeah. Yeah. You know. You
Aaron:know. Real ones know. Real ones know. Alright. So you know what?
Aaron:Joey, go ahead. You're the guest. You go ahead. You start us off. Pick or unless you want me to go first.
Aaron:Just to get
Joie:the ball. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I could I can I can do it because I kind of forced this on you?
Joie:Just really really quick disclaimer to anybody listening, I guess. Aaron is a very kind soul. I've been incredibly busy with work and life and all that kind of stuff. So we've been trying to figure out a time to do this and it's been hell on earth for me. So I was like, oh, oh, crap.
Joie:You know, I have this free night here if you want to do something. He's like, yeah. Hell yeah, bro. Hell yeah. I'm like, he's like, like I hate this fucking guy, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
Aaron:No. No.
Joie:That's what he said. That's what you said, man.
Aaron:Didn't say goddamn thing like that.
Joie:But but no, no. So I kinda was like, oh, here's an idea. We could talk about it. So it was it's kind of my fault for, you know, being infringing my beliefs on No. On the podcast host.
Aaron:No. We got it. We got it thrown together. It's looking good, man. Tell us about a series and like what Yeah.
Aaron:I guess at one entry you got into that series and yeah, blind spots fucking chill it. I'm doing like a kamehameha to the camera, but yeah.
Joie:Hell yeah. And if you guys aren't actually watching the video portion of this, think you're messing up because it it the similarities between Aaron and I visually might be off putting or really hot. You know who you know, it's like I hope and I was saying this before the pocket before the podcast started, but I was like what if we just have the exact same opinions and it just a reverb chamber echo chamber, you know, But then you said f f nine was your favorite and I was like, okay.
Aaron:Alright.
Joie:Okay. Alright. I got some differences. I I I have some independence of thought, you know, there's there's something here. But oh, yeah, I think my plan here was like trying to find see like how we approach series.
Joie:Right? Like because I think that you know, your podcast from what I've listened to before has been very thorough and you get into really deep detail with stuff and specifics and dynamics and all that kind of stuff. So you definitely come off as the kind of person, I hope to your listeners too, who likes the deep analysis of this kind of thing. And I would imagine, and correct me if I'm wrong, but how do you get into a game series? Like, what is your usual way of approaching it?
Aaron:Oh, dude. I guess it depends on the series. Like, if it's a short one, if it like so I I just played through Soul Blazer not too long ago.
Joie:Yeah. Okay.
Aaron:Hell yeah. Whole series, the quintet shit, it's like, what, three, four games? If it's short like that, I'll start with the first game and play through. But if it's something longer, like, say, like with Dragon Quest, before all of those games got stupidly expensive, I started with pretty much whatever is more accessible. I think I started with, like, the eight remake on three d s.
Joie:Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.
Aaron:Played that at work and I was like, this is fucking awesome. And then I got seven remake on three d s. I was like, this is awesome too. And then I bought all the d s ones played through four five six and then, yeah, accessibility. That's pretty much it.
Joie:Hell yeah. Yeah. I think so, okay. When you play series for the first time, do you aim more for accessibility or do you try to get the original version? Like, if you were to play if you were to get into Dragon Quest now, like, optimally, what would be your optimal choice?
Aaron:I guess, nowadays well, I'm a big well, fuck. I guess that's tough to say because the if I was brand new to Dragon Quest, I think I would probably go for the the HD two d remakes over the NES original just because, I mean, those games can be pretty fucking not like archaic, but they could be kind of janky and kinda hard to play. But, yeah, I'd probably still lean more toward, like, what's because, yes, emulation is always there. That's probably the most accessible way to do it because you don't have to buy a brand new copy. But Yeah.
Aaron:Right. Yeah, at the same time, probably easier to play the HD two d remake.
Joie:Right. Right. And it's like, man, because you you talked about the Soul Blazer games.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Right? And it's like, that's such an easy answer because it's like the only real way there's only three games in that series and they're all on Super Nintendo. Well, actually, There's technically like four Grandstream Saga if you count that.
Aaron:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Joie:But that that one kinda stinks on ice. You know? That one's not great. But Terran Enigma and Illusion of Gaia are amazing. I think Soul Blazer is good too, but it's diet ease.
Joie:Know, that that And the funny part about that is that so Soul Blazer Quintet started as a lot of ex Falcom employees because in the early nineties, Falcom bled out so many of their top talent and a lot of it went to Quintet, you know, like yuzo koshiro and a lot of the developers on it. So Soul Blazer what and this is this was after ease three came out. So that was '89. Think and then it went over to Quintet and I think act razor is '90 or something and then Soul Blazer comes out and it's like remember ease. Remember that?
Joie:And then ease was in this like hilariously like latent period where Falcom wasn't really developing ease games and then it came out with Ys five eventually like three two years after that and that feels like diet Soul Blazer. So it's like Temu becoming aware of itself. Sentient Temu. Well, I think stuff like that is so interesting though. You know, like, especially with JRPG series.
Joie:And I think I'm I'm going at it. It sounds like tangential, but I I bring this up because that relates to why I like to play stuff chronologically. I usually like to do the original version of the first game or something. And then you start getting side quests with it. Like I don't recommend playing Soul Blazer without playing act racer and I don't recommend playing Terranigma without playing Robo Trek because that's kind of there's a lot of similarities there.
Joie:And so it's like, you know, with these like specific I I like to use the term like craft development studios. Studios like Quintet that were very focused like laser focused on a very specific type of experience. Right? And or values that they had as a as developers especially related to RPGs. And so I feel like you get the whole creative process, you know, like when I when I watch Yeah.
Joie:A movie by a director, I try to watch all the director's films in chronological order. It but sometimes, you know, you you watch a movie that you just see in the wild or you catch in the theater and then you go back and you go through. So I think sometimes you can't always do the fucking completionist loser nerd spreadsheet way of doing it where you're like, I'm gonna play the original Famicom version and then did did you gonna play a little bit of the MX extra. As much as I like doing that, I don't have the capacity for that, you know? Not always, but I I try.
Joie:So
Aaron:never thought about it like that. Fuck. That does that does sound a whole heck of a lot better than just jumping in halfway. Because yeah. I mean, if you're this may not be this fucking movie series might not at all be relatable.
Aaron:But, like, if you jumped into like Mission Impossible three instead of starting from the first, it's like, well, where the fuck? Are you just jumping into the middle of an ocean on a raft? I don't know.
Joie:Right. Right. But sometimes that's what you need. You know, you need to get on if man, it this is such a complex topic, think, but because it really depends on the individual sensibilities. It depends on timing.
Joie:It depends on so many things. And I think ideally, anybody would say if I'm gonna try a series, I'm gonna try it from the beginning. But you know, sometimes the first thing isn't that great. But like here's an example. This is a fun.
Joie:This is an incredibly nerdy example, but Star Trek, right? If I tell people to get into Star Trek, you know, obviously some people would start from the original series and try to watch the very first episode, which is complex thing in and of itself. Yeah. Or if they'd like Next Generation, they start with Next Generation and a lot of people like to do the caveat of, well, the first season isn't that good. And then the second season isn't that good and it takes until the third season to get good.
Joie:And there's that kind of pretension that almost like I don't know. It's almost like somebody's trying to curate your experience. And I don't love that because yes, it's true. The first season of the next generation is a little off putting and is not that great and it gets much better later on. But you gotta have the the muck you gotta trudge through the muck to get to the Elysian Fields, you know?
Aaron:Yeah, dude.
Joie:So I think that's part of the process, but I get why not everybody does that, you know, totally so it is what it is. I think a good actually here. This is a good talking point about about a series is is Trails, Right? Because you you were talking about or Kiseki is the series name in Japan. And so you haven't played any of the games in that series.
Joie:Right?
Aaron:No. It's one that I I desperately wanna get into, but I know there's a million bazillion different entries because there's also stuff before or no. Are they all Trails? Wasn't there, like, Legend of the Dragon Slayer or some shit that came
Joie:before that? So it's it's all part of technically, like, the Legend of Heroes.
Aaron:That's what it was. Yeah.
Joie:And that came out that was like a super that was before ease that came out and Dragon Slayer was the third game. Played the wait, is it the Wait. No. Legend of Heroes. No.
Joie:No. That was '89. That was '89. So that was that was the first game. Dragon Slayer was the first one and then there's Dragon Slayer two and blah blah blah.
Joie:But wait now. I'm gaslighting myself. Was it before ease? I think so. Anyway, either way, so it came out as Japanese exclusive PC RPGs boomer as hell, you know, and then there were three games that came out for was it PSP or no.
Aaron:No. Was Trails in the Sky Trails in the Sky second chapter and then something Yeah
Joie:before that though. There was a there was three games called the gag harve Trilogy. Actually, I think that that was technically I think that was originally on the PC ninety eight or eighty eight was ledge the Gag Carve trilogy and then that got remade on PSP. And then that was the first to come into the West. So Oh.
Joie:I'm sorry. I'm getting way too in the weeds about this. But basically, there's there's the modern Trails series, which is part of the Legend of Heroes Big Umbrella series. And there's I think five games in the Legend of Heroes series before Trails, but it's seemingly not related. So that's an example.
Joie:Think of like, well, you don't need to play the fucking PC 88 game. That's, like, hard as hell,
Aaron:you know, to to be able
Joie:to play Trails. It might not even be related. It might be related in, like, you know, one of those, like, retroactive, like, we might as well shoehorn this into the series once we can kind of ways. But then that gets even more convoluted because there's several arcs in the Trails series. Right?
Joie:There's there's, like, in chronological order, and they do happen chronologically, it's the Sky trilogy, the crossbell duology. So two games. So it's like it's so the Sky trilogy is Sky first chapter and then second chapter and Sky the third. And then the second arc is crossbells. So that's Trails From Zero and Trails to Azure.
Joie:And then the third arc is the Cold Steel arc and that's Cold Steel one through four. And then there's a bridge game that's like kind of the Avengers game.
Aaron:Holy
Joie:shit. Trails into Reverie. And then there's another arc the Calvert arc, which is daybreak one and two. And then there's another Avengers game that just came out called Beyond the Horizon. And then there's like a kind of spin off game.
Joie:There's two spin offs. One's called Legend of Nayuta that might actually be loosely connected. It's just and then there's like a fun little fighting game, Ease versus Trails, which is like call it That's cool. Power Stone for the intellectually deficient, but but it rocks. It rocks.
Joie:So yeah, so obviously that's complicated in a big part a big form of contention in people who like Trails is where do you start? Yeah. So, you know, would you start with the very well, it's a little easier now because I just remade the first game the for the very first game in the Trails series Trail Trails in the Sky FC. That was the first that's the first game period in that series. So it seems like a no brainer to get there.
Joie:Also if you're if you like Persona maybe Trails of Cold Steel because Trails of Cold Steel has a similar structure. It has like the calendar structure. So maybe that's where that might get you right, but then you're missing a bunch of story before but it's not.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Amazingly is it it's super important. Yes, but to the Arc itself, you know, so how do you think you would get into that? I think series if you did.
Aaron:I mean, I think since it's all like, they're each each kind of sub series is a different arc in the story. Maybe I I think I might as well start with the first Trails in the Sky FC or whatever. I've had the PSP version on my my little handheld emulator for a long ass time, but I always put that off because there's a million other fucking RPGs that I need to get into, like Wild Arms and stuff. But yeah, I should probably just just take the plunge with this series of the first one and then it's worked my way up gradually.
Joie:Yeah, I think now is a pretty good time. I mean, I think the best time is probably going to be before if they remake the third game in the sky because like they're remaking the second game in the sky trilogy that's supposed to come out. Think either this year or next year and then they're probably going to remake the third one too. So I think the best time to be would to get into it would be right before the third game comes out, you know, because this way you wouldn't have to wait. But also, bro, these are like eighty plus hour RPGs and you're there's like how many three Holy shit.
Joie:Five nine ten twelve thirteen thirteen games not counting the two spin offs and the remake of one. So, you know, that's a huge ask. Oh, goddamn.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:But I mean you don't have to play it all to complete and by the time if you do it piecemeal piecemeal by the time that you're playing them more will have come out etcetera. Right? But
Aaron:That's true.
Joie:So that's a that's a tough thing. Does this how does this make you feel about getting into the series? I'm curious.
Aaron:I mean, I could just go from like like, yeah, you're right. I don't want to don't want to marathon the whole entire goddamn series. Like, I could just go, like, maybe one arc, wait for a little bit, do the next. Or, yeah, just do one game, palette cleanse with something short, like one or two, three short games, whatever, and then go right back into the second one, work my way up. Yeah.
Aaron:I might just go from, like, arc to arc to arc and do shit that way.
Joie:Hell, yeah. Very Noah of you. Arc to arc, baby.
Aaron:Yeah. Dude, speaking of Noah, what was your what was your point of entry into the the Shin Megami Tensei series? We talked a little bit about this before the episode, and I've got I've got some takes, but I wanna I wanna hear from you first.
Joie:Okay. This is such a fucking hipster answer, but I swear it's Hell yeah. The first Megami Tensei game that I played or Mega 10 game that I played was the first one released in The US, which was Jack Bros for the Virtual Boy.
Aaron:Oh, yeah.
Joie:I loved I can't see that. It's in my room, but I I've got I still got my virtual boy. I got the whole NA library for it. And by the way, Jack Bros probably the most expensive game I own, I think. Maybe Earthbound CIB is the most, but Jack Bros right under there.
Aaron:Earthbound CIB. Goddamn.
Joie:Yeah. That's that's a that's a heavy hitter. But yeah, Jack Bros. I didn't know. And then I played person I rented Persona one and that game scared the shit out of me as a kid, because of how racist it was.
Joie:No. It just scared the shit out of me, man. That game like, I was so like, this foreboding that the dungeons were first person, you know, As like a when did that come out? I think I was eight, seven, or eight on on my minted PlayStation one. And I rented, and I was like, oh my god.
Joie:And and then I played Revelations the Demon Slayer, which is a the western localization of Last Bible, which is a Game Boy spin off that tried to capitalize on Pokemon. Well, the release tried to capitalize on Pokemon because it came out, like, '99 or 2000 here, but the game was like four years old at the time. So yeah, I've been playing that series pretty much since it came out here. I didn't realize that that was all connected until like Persona three came or Nocturne came out. So that was when I realized it was all the same series, I guess.
Aaron:That's cool.
Joie:What about you? What was your what's your what's your entry point?
Aaron:Weirdly enough, mine was for. I yeah. The one you said you haven't played yet. Dude, so back when back when my job had me working in the office and before the Switch ever even came out, before it was even, like, a breath in, like, a like, a dying man's last breath. Nintendo Switch.
Aaron:Before all that, I had my three d s and I was looking they were at a retro game store, and I was looking for cool three d s RPGs that I could play at work. And Shin Megami Tensei four popped up, and I was like, oh, hell yeah. Like, this is made by the Persona dudes. Like, this this is gonna be similar. Right?
Aaron:Nope. Turns out it's better to me anyway. I'm not a big persona guy, but Yeah. That was my my jumping in point. And then from there, I was like, this shit rules.
Aaron:I'm gonna go back and play Nocturne. And then I tried to play the the first two games. I played a little like a little tiny bit of if. And then I played, like, fucking so many of the other spin offs on DS and three DS. Like, well, Strange Journey is not a spin off.
Aaron:Technically, Strange Journey was supposed to be four. But.
Joie:Yeah. But kinda Kaneko just tweeted the other day. He's like, this is a spin off because I wrote it. So yeah. No.
Joie:I saw that too and I felt betrayed. So because it like I guess I the way that they consider mainline stuff is so boomer Japanese developer
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Shit, you know, where it's like, we need to cut out all individualism from these projects, all vestiges of altruism from these projects or they're they're not mainline. You know? It's so silly. Abandon the self for the greater good of the company. You can't kinda beat and it's but but yeah, no so and that dude the DS and 3DS were like that was like the golden age.
Joie:Yep of Mega 10 stuff. Would say for sure
Aaron:dude devil survivor one and two those whoop ass. Oh. They they remade Devil Summoner Soul Hackers for the 3DS. That whooped The Strange Journey remake, fucking holy shit. That was really good.
Aaron:Love Strange Journey. Yeah. There's so much shit for that one.
Joie:I haven't played Redux Strange Journey. I only played the original. And I think one of the last things I did on my 3DS was before the store went down. I bought all the DLC for it, which is dumb because I could have just pirated it and hacked my 3DS. But at the time I had money, so whatever, you know, I guess I'll be stupid.
Aaron:Just burn a hole in your pocket?
Joie:Yeah. I want to have the official release and that's kind of funny because I'm like, I'm the most like pro emulate. I think like 80% of what I play is on emulator. But despite that, you know, it god that that period was so good, but I haven't played a lot of those 3DS remakes. I did play the soul hackers remake, and that's one of my favorites.
Aaron:Think It's good as fuck, dude. And the soundtrack is so good. The music is super good. The fucking atmosphere of that, like, cyber city. You know?
Joie:Oh, god. That intro, man. That's like one of the most appealing, engrossing intros to an RPG I think I've ever played is Soul Hackers. Way ahead of the of its time that game, for sure.
Aaron:It's awesome, man. I still haven't beaten Nocturne because I keep, like there's this part I mean, the part I'm about to describe could literally apply to any other part in the game because there are so many parts. You have to go through a maze, and the random encounters just beat you fucking senseless the entire time. And I was just like, I can't I can't fucking do this man. And I turned it off and then went and played something else for a little bit, but I do want to beat that someday.
Joie:Yeah. Nocturne is okay. So I I I've I played it when it came out on PS two and I have it. I okay. I like booted up the remaster and I got like three minutes into the game when you're on the world map with the Tokyo Tokyo music.
Joie:Yeah. And I just I was like, oh, this is fucking hitting and I like pause it and listen to the music for a bit and then I think somebody called me. Yeah. You know, you know. And I pause it for a second because someone called me or whatever and I just have not gone back to it since then.
Joie:So that's on my list of stuff that I need to circle back to the re the remaster of it, but that's like my favorite. I think that's my favorite Mega 10 game is nocturne. Oh, okay. But under the pretense that that was a game that like was a huge Paradigm shift for for me because I was like complete shorts at video games. Yeah.
Joie:I was just very persistent and in any RPG I would sit there and grind like an idiot for so now I'm like opposite of this but I would sit there and grind for hours and in you know with Nocturne. Yeah, you could grind but the game is way more about actual strategy and less like finding something insanely broken that there are broken things in that game. Sure. But you know, not like really messed me up and I struggled really heavily with it when I first played it and I think that then I started to appreciate it more on a second playthrough and I was like, oh, okay. I'm just an idiot and I've been playing this.
Joie:I'm not meeting this game where it wants to meet a meet it. I'm trying I'm trying to play it like babies Final Fantasy four and that you can't do that.
Aaron:You know, you can't really do that.
Joie:So, yeah, I don't know. I I feel like going you were you playing the og? Were you playing the remaster?
Aaron:I I've started here in the so I started the the OG, like, once and then stopped. And then I've started the remaster, and I've gotten, like, fuck, little over halfway through the remaster. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Let's get to the part where fucking one of the cults got fucking annihilated.
Aaron:I forgot which one it was, but yeah.
Joie:Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's been a while since I've played not it's been while. One yeah.
Joie:I stained.
Aaron:They're back. Stained. Back, baby.
Joie:Aaron Lewis, the first name, I don't you know? It's you should secretly be bald, you know? Fuck. Not to dox you, bro. I'm
Aaron:sorry. No. Don't.
Joie:I just doxed Aaron's name. Look at that. That's crazy. But no. Yeah.
Joie:No, I think that like my suggestion to you is to go back and play a really early Mega 10 game. What's the earliest that you play? Is Nocturne the earliest that you've played?
Aaron:No. I've played I've played a little bit of the first, like, first Shin Megami Tensei or Oh.
Joie:Oh, and you said if too. You said you played a little if.
Aaron:Yeah. Little bit if. Yeah.
Joie:I would say, like, maybe see if you could knock out an earlier Megami Tensei and then go back to Nocturne because seeing that progression of how because like this someone's gonna shit on me for this but Nocturne really is the Persona three of SMT, you know, Yeah. Like
Aaron:I'm fucking sure. Yeah.
Joie:Which where it totally changed. Yeah. It like but it's still very core, you know, to what the series sensibilities were. It's just a different approach to it. It's like the Mario 64 ification of that series, you know, so I think that that like if you were having trouble like really connecting with it.
Joie:I think that that definitely would help a lot too and especially going from like the really kind of dusty mechanics of early Omega 10 into Nocturne. This is like when you when you go from SMT four to Nocturne, you're like, oh, bro, this sucks. You know? Like, get it.
Aaron:True. That's a BM.
Joie:And it's the same thing if you go from Nocturne to, you know, SMT one. It's so basic by comparison.
Aaron:Is from what? It's like it's like when you're when you're when your power goes out and you can't do any of the fun things you wanna do, you just like you saw hit a ball with a stick and the power comes back on. It's like, I'll never take you for granted again. I love you so much. It's just like Right.
Joie:And then you do in two seconds.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Right. Right as soon as the quality of life features hit you forgot what it was like to play without them.
Aaron:Yep. Exactly. It
Joie:is it's a matter of adaptation. Think a little bit too like, you know, I talk a big game about playing shit originally, but I don't really play too much on original console even if I'm emulating it. I try not to do like save state abuse or any I don't really make save states unless I'm experimenting with something like oh, I want to know what this thing does or you know, or I'm like I literally have to put the game down and go somewhere else, you know, but so I try to keep the experience like authentic or whatever but without Fast Forward, bro. I'm hosed. I'm cooked.
Joie:I I don't think I'd be able to play as many games as I do without without Fast Forward. So I don't want to take that for granted ever.
Aaron:Right on. I feel
Joie:that and that's let me tie this back in the Trails for just one second because if you play that PSP version of first chapter Sky first chapter, you're gonna want to die because there's no speed up and it's so slow, bro. I bounced off that game in two seconds. I was bouncing off. I bounced off that game faster than than my girlfriend bounces on it. You know what I'm saying?
Joie:Like, that's that's where we were.
Aaron:Faster that I hit the the the ball I hit my stick on or whatever the fuck. Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah, man.
Joie:So that's it that's huge with getting into series. Right? Like Yeah. That there is you we can talk a big game about how, you know, we like to keep things authentic or whatever, but I am a little bit of a slut for accessibility. It just depends on how we wanna use that term.
Joie:You know?
Aaron:True. That's true, man. Like, another good example of that whole thing is I I played to the the Suikoden remaster. Oh.
Joie:Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron:Man, that that had the the the the combat has, a three times fast forward. Because, like, sometimes you're fighting battle after battle after battle after battle after battle, and it'll be like, fucking come on, bro. And, yeah, throw on that three times fast forward and man in a smooth sailing beat that in fucking no time.
Joie:And so like, you know, I feel like the argument that I'm about to make is the same argument that people use for using chat GPT or degenerative AI, which sucks because like my thing is so sweet. Is a perfect example because when I when those remasters got announced, I went back and I replayed one and two. Because we actually played one for we played Tweak It In One and Super RPG Friends. And when I was like as you know, the encounters in that game are baby easy. Yeah.
Joie:You're just spamming fight. So then you start to think, I deserve a little speed up on my emulator. You know? I don't
Aaron:deserves a little speed up.
Joie:Daddy daddy needs it. He can he can have a treat. And you rationalize it to yourself. It's like, yeah, you're not really cheating. You're just making it a little faster because all you're doing is pressing x or whatever.
Joie:And for sure, I think a game like oh, man. Swiggered in one is so bad with that. And it has that level curve thing where, you know, your XP that you gain is relative to your level. So it's made to curb grinding, basically, and make it so you don't really have to grind. And so it feels even more pointless to fight those fights.
Joie:Right?
Aaron:Yeah. So
Joie:yeah. Dan, that would be so nice. And because I haven't played the remasters yet. I need to go I need to hop on.
Aaron:They're pretty good.
Joie:Yeah. They look they look pretty good for like, don't like the smoothening shit that auto Yeah. In Remus.
Aaron:Yeah. That was my big my big thing with it. Like, the character sprites, they're all, like, they're all the same as they were in the PS one. They still look good. They're pixel y, all that shit.
Aaron:But, like, the the smoothed out, like, almost AI looking ass backgrounds and stuff, that kinda threw me off a little bit. But after a while, was just like, this game is pretty good. Still, I haven't played two yet though. I fucking I need keep, oh my God. I've got such a bad habit of saying, okay, I'm gonna play this game now and then I'll go and play something else and then I'll fucking forget about that game and I'll I'll throw it into the fucking Aaron's heap and dump a shit pile in the back and then, oh God.
Joie:I feel that man and you know also I want to thank you for actually pronouncing that like mostly correctly because Frank on SuperPod Saga friends shout out to to my boy Frank, but Mhmm. Holy hell does he have Florida pronunciation? Like kept calling it suey code en.
Aaron:Oh, dude.
Joie:No. Or like it's not like like almost like chop suey. You know? Suicoden. Suicoden.
Joie:I'm like, oh, bro. I like, I'm not even this I I don't know Japanese. I'm not gonna be one of those people who's like a huge stickler for that, but like ballpark it.
Aaron:Pokemon Suicune man fucking put two and two together. Suicune, squeak it in.
Joie:You're out the door. Also, I thought that like when I was a kid and I saw Suicune, I thought it was
Aaron:Suicune?
Joie:Suic I thought it was suicide. Oh, shit. And I was like, damn. And I said I wouldn't make any suicide jokes, but that's not really a suicide joke.
Aaron:No. That's just holy shit. I'm running away from this.
Joie:And I was like, dude, this is edgy. Pokemon's fucked up. I don't know.
Aaron:Holy fuck. It does have its moments though. Fucking Lavender Town, dude.
Joie:Fucking, does the sound of my trauma. Well actually yeah, man. I had such a good question to ask related to oh, yeah, the way that you seem to because I feel like from what I'm getting from what you said so far is that you tend to start stuff and not finish it.
Aaron:Oh, way on big time.
Joie:Like So the
Aaron:a big part of it for me is, like, I'll start a game and it'll be like a honeymoon phase type of thing. I'll be like, hell, yeah. This is cool. I can I can fuck with this? And then, like I don't know.
Aaron:Some games just don't hold it for me. Like, into or past the halfway point, I'll start to get bored, and then I'll start to think, like, dude, why am I even fucking playing this if I'm not having fun? And then I'll just drop it. But I don't know. Maybe I I don't know.
Aaron:Maybe I just need to stick it past that. Like, Chrono Trigger, dude, I'm booking through that. That was great. Soul Blazer booked it through that. That was great.
Aaron:Sweak it in. Fucking yeah. It's just like the the halfway point if it I'm a big, like, complex combat guy too. I love a good complex combat system that does more than just, like, hit x to attack or whatever the fuck. Like, I love fucking Grandia two, favorite battle system of all time.
Joie:Yeah. Hell yeah.
Aaron:Love some tactics. I love thinking like, I I just love using my brain in combat, I guess, is the thing. So a lot of games, like
Joie:like,
Aaron:I really wanna get into Skies of Arcadia, but the combat puts me to fucking It's
Joie:yeah. Yeah. It's very basic. And I think Trails in the Sky one has a bit of that problem too. It starts to open up more as you go on, but I think that first game that's why I bounced off it so so much as I was like, oh, dude.
Joie:This is this is goofy ass. And then it was just but it gets it's better than most combat systems from the time, I would say. It's not grand grandiad level. The grandiad combat is so good. I love it.
Joie:Yep. Yep. But yeah. Oh, boy. I funny enough.
Joie:Alright. I'm gonna make it a recommendation for you if you haven't already played. What about tactics ogre?
Aaron:I've I've I started whatever the fuck the one is on PSP.
Joie:Let us clean together.
Aaron:Yes. Yes. I started that. I I I need to play that too, but that's in the Aaron's heap and pile o games back there.
Joie:Right. If you want a game that really uses your brain, reborn. Tactics Ogre reborn, the remaster that just came out.
Aaron:Oh, okay
Joie:completely transform the game in a lot of ways completely battle system wise. It's a story is the same all that kind of stuff, but you know, it's the same game as it was in Super Famicom basically, but the battle system is like might as well be a different game. And at first, I was really averse to it because I played every dumb version of that game. It's one of my favorite games of all time. But and at first, was really averse to reborn and then I was like, oh wait.
Joie:No, it took like fifty hours, but I got to the I was like, really I really get what they were doing here. I have some issues with it. Like there's this card system that's kind of almost rng esque and there's a couple like weirdly rng elements in it that might be frustrating, but you're talking about a game that you need to use debuffs. You can't out level encounters. You can't out there's a level cap.
Joie:Hell. Yes. You like any fan of like SMT's core sensibilities. I think would really love reborn. Hell.
Joie:Yeah. And I think there's a huge aspect of RNG with SMT as well because how you gonna know that something reflects Hama like on you, you know, like sometimes you don't or like how do you know something isn't just going to open up get a preemptive strike and open up and Oco your team, you know? Yep. So there isn't a lot of element. There's preventative measures you can take sure but but yeah, there is a lot of there's a lot of there's a through line is what I'm trying to say here.
Joie:So oh my only caveat very very long game. You're probably going to put a hundred hours into your first playthrough of that if you'd stick with it. So and that's why I asked about how you bounce off because I'm actually really curious like one of the things I've fascinated with is is how people manage their ADHD or a u d h d, you know, like how you manage to because look, it's funny because video games is this really strange unique medium where it's incredibly a d d but ADHD, but it's also very patient and it's simultaneously incredible like can be high brow and incredibly low brow at the same time, you know, and so yeah, what I think so many people who gravitate toward RPGs. I've noticed this irony where they have trouble sticking with games.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:So what it's paradoxical, you know, where and I don't mean that in a critical way. I I'm because I'm the same way. I'm the same way like I I have to focus Mhmm. On one thing at a time. I I have to have and maybe this isn't this is definitely an autistic trait, but like monotropism only being able to do one thing at a time and like right now I'm playing Trails and Reverie.
Joie:I'm like right at the end. I just have to grind a bunch of stupid shit for trophies and I can't possibly think about playing another game right now, you know, I have to focus on just that or I'll never finish it. But when I was younger, I would do that stuff all the time. I'd start a game and not be able to finish it and all this kind of stuff and it was it was devastating to my ability to finish stuff. I just I really had a So what do you do?
Joie:What do you do? What's your what's your method, man?
Aaron:I guess I pretty much just what's kind of helped me a little bit is like I've got a blog and I'll I'll write about games I've beaten or even, like Mhmm. On backlog, like, I'll just I'll tell myself, okay. I'm gonna beat this game and then I'm gonna write a little bit about it even if I play, like, a little like a little short game, you know. Right.
Joie:Right.
Aaron:Like, I played what? A fucking was that indie game I play? No. I say that like I played only one indie game my entire life.
Joie:Ever. Yeah. Just just just one single Fez and that
Aaron:was I binged, like, fucking six little teeny tiny indie games like Tori three d. That doesn't matter because those are short. With these long games, I basically just tell myself, I'm I need to play this and nothing else. Because like right now, Rhythm Heaven Groove just came out and I really wanna play But Yeah. I need to focus on Chrono Trigger.
Aaron:So I have to like keep reminding myself dude. Alright mainline this game stop doing any anything else and just play this.
Joie:Well, and you know what and that's that works on two levels too because you're you are getting you're almost sort of what's the term almost economizing your time a bit and you're trying to make your time
Aaron:a little more
Joie:productive. Yeah. Because you're you're like, okay. Well if I'm blogging about this game, it's gonna make me wanna finish it. Right?
Joie:That's kind of your is that your impetus? Am I reading that correctly?
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:And then and I don't you know, again, this is not a criticism at all, but like there is an aspect of validation there too because you're doing something public facing. You're writing about it on a blog. You're talking about it on a on a podcast. You know, anyone in this ting of ours, this content
Aaron:ting Disting.
Joie:Is doing it. There's an aspect. You're validation seeking. Why would you ever stream if you're not, you know, or do content if you're not there's something wrong with that. But validation does help a lot and I think that you know, I'm not gassing you up to gas you up, but you have a really good perspective on stuff.
Joie:I like seeing your your tweets about Chrono Trigger and I've been seeing this is I've been kind of following your posts on this a bit on the blue ski and you know, I hope I'm not saying this for this purpose. I'm saying because I mean it but like keep doing that shit, bro. Means like it does people do see it even if they don't interact with it and I hope that that keeps you motivated at least to
Aaron:you
Joie:know, try to finish it more or just get through it more because like perspective is is that like look a million fucking thousand people have played Chrono Trigger, right? Of course, you're probably not going to say anything new about it, but it doesn't matter because like that experiential look into your gameplay. I think that's the biggest thing and it's like I think nowadays that's different than streaming is like streaming has kind of overtaken blogging in a lot of ways because you're essentially blogging when you stream right
Aaron:true. Yeah.
Joie:So it just way more haphazard and like chaotic and whatever but stream of consciousness, but yeah, I don't know. Sorry for going on a diatribe about this. I'm just really interested in how people approach this kind of thing. So
Aaron:No. You're good. I mean, this yeah. This helped a lot. I I look I thought that was great.
Aaron:Don't ever apologize for tangent or or going off topic or anything like that. That's the SuperPod Saga way. That's our not our creed, guess, ethos. That's our ethos.
Joie:Hell yeah. Well, speaking of this is here's my segue. Speaking of Saga, have you played the Saga series?
Aaron:I Frontier one and two. I I've I haven't beaten them, but I've I've again, I've started them, and then I've thought to myself, I need to play other shit right now. I can't do this.
Joie:But
Aaron:they are they are cool as fuck. Like, a friend of the show, Dre from Fine Time.
Joie:Oh, yeah. I know Dre.
Aaron:Yeah. Yeah. He played the the Saga collection. I think it's what it was or
Joie:the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The the the Game Boy collection.
Joie:The three Game Boy games. Yep.
Aaron:Yeah. And he's played a couple of the other Saga games before and he makes them sound fucking cool as hell. But yeah, there's a lot there and I haven't started there yet.
Joie:Yeah. Shout out to Dre. He's been a mutual mind from Twitter. I think he's like one of the first like within the first like 100 people I ever followed
Aaron:on hell.
Joie:Yeah. I don't know how he got pushed to me. But yeah, I so like that's like a I've been seeing his post for years. Yeah, But no. Yeah.
Joie:So Saga so that I think that's like it that's such an interesting topic for me because that those games, as you know, from playing Frontier are they don't give a fuck
Aaron:very, like, counterintuitive to what you think you know about RPGs because, like Right. Most RPGs up until that point, they'll be like, grind for levels, learn new abilities when you level up. Alright. Beat monsters. You got it.
Aaron:But Mhmm. You know, Saga is like it's very anti, I guess, typical RPG.
Joie:Yeah. Horizontal progression rather than vertical progression in that series for sure. But there I mean, there is an aspect that numbers go up, obviously, but it's just in a different form, I think. But I so this is I just bring I bring this up too because the Saga games can be very quick too. Like, a one frontier scenario, like, you just pick blue and frontier and play through it.
Joie:Yes. You can get walled and things could be very difficult, but it's only, you know, you're not looking at a forty hour game. You're looking at like a fifteen hour, maybe max twenty hour first scenario experience and then it's up to you. Are you like, hey, I beat Saga Frontier or are you like, oh, I just beat one scenario of Saga Frontier. So that leads me to two questions I guess.
Joie:It's like, where is your end point for games? Are you a 100 percenter? When you approach a series, are you a 100%? What is where do you fall into? Manage.
Joie:Or is it like, oh, I saw credits. So that means that's it.
Aaron:I guess it depends on the game because ones that I I guess if if a game really, really, really clicks with me, I'll do my goddamnest to get as much as I can in the game, like throwing it back to Soul Blazer again. I I went for a lot of the side content in that because there was a lot of cool shit you can unlock and same with, like, Chrono Trigger. There's all this other side story shit that you can do toward the end of the game and, like, yeah, it's totally optional, but it's cool and I'm gonna do it. But and I got same with Chrono Trigger. I beat that game or not Chrono Trigger.
Aaron:Chrono Cross. I beat that game three times through because I wanted to get every single character and get different endings and shit. So
Joie:Yeah.
Aaron:I guess, yeah, if a game really does click with me, I'll play it over and over and over and try to get as much as I can. Maybe not a 100%, but like try to experience as much as I can in it if I really like it.
Joie:Yeah. I feel that. I think Chrono Trigger is such a good example of that too because of all those endings, you know, and a lot of them are just kind of silly little Easter egg. I would say like 85% of them are silly little Easter eggs, you know, and there's a lot of convoluted stuff you got to do to do it. Well, I think like that if you're ever trying to look at it for efficiency sake the way I like to do it is like two playthroughs, right?
Joie:Like the first playthrough you just play through it normally and then the second playthrough you make saves at all the break points and the endings and then do them as they come along or whatever. Yeah. But yeah, they're not like it's not like really necessary to get those. I think crosses endings are a little bit more elaborate than triggers even and cross as the added component of the 31 incredibly goofy cartoonish characters because to get all of them on one save file is a pain in the ass. Got to do that weird.
Joie:Oh, man. I forgot I did it when I got the platinum and it was like I had a like make a save at a specific point and then like reload. It was so weird to get all the characters on one file, you know. Is that what you did you get the platinum for that or the 100% or whatever?
Aaron:I don't think I ever got the 100% because there was one that's a big huge fucking pain in my ass. I forget who it is. But, yeah, you just have to go through you do one playthrough, load up another one, new game plus, and you go to Opasa Beach or whatever beach it is that has the the first spot and shit. And then you if you have that one item bang bang boom. You can skip right to the end.
Aaron:So you just fucking grab what you yeah. Yeah. There was like one or two characters that were a big pain in the ass that I was like washing my hands of this shit.
Joie:Harl. That's the one that sucks because you only have her for that limited time.
Aaron:I think that was who it was.
Joie:So you have to like end the playthrough when you get her and then it's like really goofy. It's yeah. I think that's what it was. I'm starting to remember. But yeah, there's there's stuff like that.
Joie:They could really glaciate the way that you get through a game like 100% ing stuff and it's like, you know, that's I have an illness man. Have to like 100% something like I can't I can't just beat it, you know, like I have to make it more complicated. I this is somebody's gonna take that out of context, but
Aaron:I have to beat it.
Joie:I have to beat it. You know, I can't just or I can't just beat it. No. I've gotta watch while I'm beating. No.
Joie:No. This is not Trails to Cucking. I swear to God.
Aaron:Oh, man.
Joie:Cucksecki? Is that anything?
Aaron:I don't know.
Joie:Cucksecki? That's gotta be something. And dude, I tried so hard. Like because I was telling you before the podcast, but I went through all the Resident Evil games. Yeah, and I was like, I'm just gonna play through them once on like normal or easy because I suck at survival horror.
Joie:I'm like and then two months later and I have all the platinums for all the rest of the e ones. And I'll like try hard planning my strategies on like how to get through shit like quickly and so I I'm an idiot basically. So has there ever been a series where you're like, I need to absolutely do a 100%.
Aaron:Oh, dude. Yeah. Fucking bravely default was a big one for me.
Joie:Oh, yeah.
Aaron:Okay. Because, like, it kind of bread crumbs you with that shit a little bit because when you get a new job, you'll see all the new abilities you can unlock. Of course, they're, like, question marks at the time, but it's, like, I I gotta know what those are. Kinda like it's kinda like when you're picking up a room and you're like, dude, there's so much fucking shit here. How am I gonna get all this?
Aaron:And then you pick it up little by little and it's like, okay, we're making we're making some progress. Pick up more and more and more and more. It's like, dude, I'm almost done. I could get this shit done no time. And then boom, before you know it, it's done.
Aaron:Let's be with Bravely Default. Like Bravely Default two Mhmm. Trying to max out, like, every job, trying to get like the most cracked fucking loadouts for every character with the wackiest jobs and shit. Yeah.
Joie:Yeah. I get that. I think there's like a I like to call it the the call to grind, you know, because it's there's a game tempting you. It's
Aaron:that's exactly it. Yeah.
Joie:Whispering in your ears like hey, dude, you want to you want to just fucking take twenty minutes just to see what this does. You want to you want to do that for me, you know, then you do because it's sick, you know, you get the new abilities and you're you just love it. I talking about bravely second or bravely default to which I hate that they did that. Okay. Yeah.
Joie:Because I haven't finished second. I didn't I bounced off that one really bad. I don't know why. It was really late in three d s. I think that might be why.
Aaron:That might have been it. It it is actually really good. It's the the first Bravely Default, I think it's, like, toward the end of the middle. It has that part where you have to redo everything.
Joie:Oh, yeah. That's like 20 to 20% mark of the game. Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron:That shit almost put me off, but you know, second does it a lot better than two two fucking whips. That game's real good.
Joie:Yeah. Dude, you're one of the only people I've met that have really said that because like I don't think so two is is like it feels a little bit more clinical a little bit more sterile, but I think the writing is slightly better. It doesn't have the payoff that one does because the the end of one is like, woah.
Aaron:Yep. Yep. One was fucking insane. But yeah. Two, it's it's kinda almost on that level.
Aaron:Like, yeah, the story leading up to it is it's whatever. But toward the end, like, once you start learning shit and the game does, like, the same Easter egg type shit that the first game did, once you start getting to that point, it's like, oh, alright.
Joie:Alright. Yeah.
Aaron:Twenty more hours it is.
Joie:Right. Right. Right. And I I hate to think of things as like a checklist or crossing stuff off. Right?
Joie:I hate to start to be like, I want to finish this so I could move on to something else even if I'm really liking it. But is does you ever struggle with that? Is that ever something that comes up for you when you play stuff?
Aaron:Sometimes. Yeah. Like when I was playing for the million I'm gonna mention Soul Blazer. When I when I when I was playing through Soul Blazer, I was like, alright. Like toward the end, I was like, just want to get this fucker done.
Aaron:I'm so tired. Just want to get it done. And then as soon as I beat it up, had to go back for war like there was way more that I didn't get and I was like, I need to but yeah, sometimes sometimes I do be like that but other times I'll just beat it and then just fucking toss it.
Joie:Man, you got like toxic x syndrome with it. It's like you you break up with it and you're like fuck this. I'm done with you and then you send it at three a. M. Text asking if it's up, you know, like I I've been there before too.
Joie:I've been like, know, funny. I that's what happened to me with Resident Evil is that, you know, I played the first one when it first came out on PlayStation and all that, but I never really was able to like 100% those games, you know, and when I was like, oh, I'm just gonna go through the games. I'm just gonna play through them once maybe if the routes are different enough. I'll play through both routes or whatever and then, you know, I finished one route and then like I went to bed or whatever and I was just I woke up thinking about those those are res, you know, and I and I'm like I just want to go back. Yeah, the are res and like, yeah, I think maybe I'll go back and poop sock the rest of the game.
Joie:I don't know. I know what's wrong. I forgot where I heard that term, but I I heard it recently. I've been trying to integrate it more into my vernacular.
Aaron:Dude, it's good. That threw me off. Fucking speaking of throwing things off and poop socks and shit, we're over the halfway point. Let's break things off for just a second. Take a breather.
Aaron:We're gonna play a little game that I like to call three truths and a lie Digimon edition. For the listeners, we've got Atama Dikachimon, Raptor Sparrowmon, white siegemon, and I have to look up from my mic. There we go. Metal life Kuwagamon. So one of those, I made the fuck up, and three are real.
Joie:Alright. So there's like modifiers to these that's throwing me off. So obviously, when you see this list, think the one without the modifier the Atama dachi man. Atama the Katamu. Yeah.
Joie:And it's like so that one stands out right because it doesn't have like a white or a metal life metal life or whatever and then there's Raptor Sparrow Mon boy. Okay. So I'm gonna say I'm pretty good at standardized tests, right? I'm gonna say that it's not the obvious answer. It's not the first one because that again, that's the one that's the odd man out.
Joie:It's raptor raptor sparrow mon. That sounds right. White siegemon, that's the sus one to me. I'm gonna go with that one. Don't know why.
Aaron:You're right.
Joie:Really?
Aaron:You're right. Yeah. I've
Joie:been on
Aaron:the white Seadramon.
Joie:Hell yeah, bro. Wait. What's did you just make up that whole ass
Aaron:Well, siegemon is a real Digimon. I just I made up the white part. I was put white siegemon because the other ones the other ones you're right. They have those like modifiers and I was like, dude, what he you'll probably just pick the
Joie:yeah. No. I'll tell you what
Aaron:doing or whatever.
Joie:Mhmm. No, bro. I'm like I said, standardized tests and also you it's c. That's what gave it away. It's all anytime someone tries to throw you off with multiple choices, c or the middle choice, if it's like five, is usually the right one because that's what they try to do.
Joie:It's the thought process behind it. So I'm sorry. I metagamed you, but Shit. That's my bad, but I'm actually surprised I got this one.
Aaron:You're gonna have two more times to redeem your well, redeem yourself. Two more times to Oh,
Joie:fuck.
Aaron:You have best two out of three. So here we go. Next round. There are there's three rounds total. So we've got pineapple Dramon, metal Piranimon, Rinkmon, and Snatchmon.
Joie:Okay. Alright. Hold up. Hold up. Alright.
Joie:I see what you're doing with this one. And I know it's not gonna be metal piranha mon because you already did the same. I'm metagaming you again. I'm sorry. That's it rink mon sounds ridiculous, but I don't think that's it.
Joie:Snatch mon, I think you put there as a joke because I think that that's that's a red herring. So this is a pineapple German doesn't fit the naming, that's what I'm going for.
Aaron:Are you sure?
Joie:Yeah. I think so. Yeah. All confidence in nothing.
Aaron:You're right.
Joie:By the way, I just wanna say I know nothing about Digimon.
Aaron:Dude, you're killing it, though.
Joie:Oh, don't okay. Don't gas me up yet because I'm gonna is this one more?
Aaron:One more. This is it for all the marbles.
Joie:Alright.
Aaron:I mean, I guess you already have all the marbles. It's two out of three. Fuck it.
Joie:Who knows? I don't know, man. I work at a nursing home. My marbles have been lost a long time.
Aaron:I hate your marbles back then. We've got Unimon. Unimon. Polar bear mon.
Joie:Okay. So real quick. I know Unimon is one. That I know for a fact. That's like one of the only ones I know.
Joie:Okay. Polar bear mon.
Aaron:Yep. And then Yo Yo Mon and Go Go Gorilla Mon. So again, one is one is one I made up and the other three are real, which I mean, I guess you two are real because you know a Unimon.
Joie:Yeah. Yeah. This is fucking hard. I would especially without knowing Digimon. So Uniman, yeah.
Joie:So it's out of three. Polar bear man, I think that's legit. Yo yo man, again, I think you're doing you might be doing the this is this is actually this is the no. It's Yo yo man. I'm going with that because it's c.
Joie:It's c. Yeah. I'm going to fuck it. Positive. Fuck it.
Aaron:It's go go gorilla man.
Joie:Oh, fuck. No.
Aaron:Your streak comes to
Joie:an end. No. Fuck. I guess c shit. Well, that one's really hard because I guess my thing here was like yo yo man doesn't look right.
Joie:So it can't be that but you've already done that twice. So that was my second. I mean, there's only three but that was my second guess between those two and I just it's alright. Fuck. I may never recover from this.
Aaron:You nailed those fucking first two. First guess. Well, I guess there is only one guess, but yeah. Yeah.
Joie:Hell yeah. If I don't know shit, I tried my best to parse out the process. I don't know.
Aaron:That fucking that makes sense, man. That's that's I mean, that's what I would do if I was on fucking it was Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Couldn't think of the name of the show for a second there. Yeah.
Joie:Yeah. I I think like because I get really bad test anxiety when I take tests for anything and I think like after a while I've never you know, like I dropped out of high school before I learned anything about of my friends took, like, ACT prep tests and all that kind of shit. And I never did that stuff. And so when I took the fuck. What was it called?
Joie:Not the ACT. What's the other one?
Aaron:SATs.
Joie:No. Oh, no. It was the ACT. It was the ACT.
Aaron:Okay.
Joie:And when I took that, did really well because a lot despite having not as much knowledge because I dropped out of high school, I did really well because a lot of it is just kind of understanding the patterns. Yeah. Right? That was fun. This is that's that's good.
Joie:Make your guests feel like shit. I love it. Well, no. No. It unveils the process.
Joie:I like hearing how people think about this shit, but maybe I'm the only one.
Aaron:Oh, man. So I'm gonna oh, shit. It's going right the hell back to Resident Evil. Mhmm. I too started on Resident Evil one.
Aaron:Right. Yeah. You you started on one also. Right?
Joie:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Also, maybe get a PlayStation. Oh.
Joie:I wanted it so bad. Saw it at a friend's house, I was like, I begged my dad for so long to try to get me one, and it was like my birthday and stuff. Traded in something for it. But yeah. Anyway, sorry.
Joie:Go ahead.
Aaron:You're good. Yeah. Fucking the the one scene where you see the zombie for the first time and he like turns his head slowly. Mhmm. I got the camera as a kid.
Aaron:I was like, no. No. And I was like, was like, smashing the fucking power button. I was like, get me out of here.
Joie:Yeah, man. Especially that intro too, you know, it's like, it's a movie. It's like a real movie that you're showing.
Aaron:Barry. Where's Barry?
Joie:Fucking Voice like realize it at the time how silly it was, but like yeah. No, I I've replayed the original ps1 version. I played Jill and Chris's routes on it and I think that like, you know, put like I said, I played every single Resident Evil game and talking about the spin offs and talking about the bullshit. Damn. Holy shit.
Joie:One is one of my favorites. Even the original is on my top. You know? I and I swear it's not just because of nostalgia, but I don't think there's too many cases of a series getting most things right from jump.
Aaron:Mhmm. Yeah. But I agree, man.
Joie:That being said and this I think this is actually kind of relevant to this discussion is that it technically isn't really the first game in the series like because Resident Evil came it was supposed to be like a reboot of a game called Sweet Home.
Aaron:Oh, yeah.
Joie:So a lot of the concepts from Sweet Home were integrated in this new three d kind of style And, you know, the puzzle box aspect of the mansion and all that stuff that was in Sweet Home. So they did get there is a bit of an iteration process that happened with Resident Evil. But even still, it's crazy how good that first entry is, man.
Aaron:Dude. Yeah. And people love to shit on tank controls for being wonky and weird. But like, that was really the only way to work around all those dynamic camera angles that they well, dynamic, but, like, all the different No.
Joie:They're dynamic. Yeah. For sure.
Aaron:It was the only way around that because otherwise, you'd get spun around and everything would be disoriented. But, yeah, the
Joie:tank Yeah. They weren't able to to make like a full three d game at the time.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Yeah. No. I think people I it's definitely adjustment. I think, you know, going back to it. But I you know, having the virtue of having played with the games before was a little easier for me to adjust to.
Joie:But no. I mean, like, I think that that's it it created this interesting I'll the word dynamic again, dynamic with the game. Because it's like it's both cinematic and gameplay oriented. And it's like those limitations beget a kind of approach like an aesthetic approach because it's more than just we're trying to you know, make these camera angles dynamic. It was also kind of like now their perspectives different your gameplay is different and it lends itself to the cinematic process of the game which was like heavily influenced by horror movies and you have that aspect to it.
Joie:Was a way of making games seem more cinematic was the, you know, it's almost like you're just the game is cutting shots, you know, and that a lot of people say, oh, I wish a new Resident Evil would have camera angle or you know, fixed camera angles and stuff and I kind of do man. I kind of do. I would I would I would fuck with that.
Aaron:That would be awesome. I
Joie:would fuck with that pretty heavily. I I know did you play for four remake?
Aaron:I played both versions of it, like, original and the remake. Yeah.
Joie:Okay. Shit. Now now I'm forgetting if it's the original or the remake. I think it's actually the re it might be the original of four, but you know, Sherry's section or not Sherry Ashley section.
Aaron:Yeah. And then a suit of armor and shit.
Joie:Yeah. Yeah. In the I think in the original four that sequence was fixed camera angles in Japanese. So I think like having something like that could be cool because like Requiem almost tried to do that with its level design. There were definitely times where I was like, oh, they're trying to make this like fixed camera.
Joie:Like they were designing the levels in such a way that there's only, like, really one way to look at it, you know? But a game like seven, I feel like that wouldn't have lent lent itself as well. Or eight. Seven and eight, I don't think would have been good with fixed camera angles. So.
Aaron:Yeah. That'd be hard to do with those ones. Fucking I really again, like, was a kid when I played through one. I never did beat that one, but I do wanna play that again. A lot of people a lot of people that I know will say that the remake of one was would be the best way to play it, but I kinda like that PS one jank that it has to it.
Aaron:Same with like with Silent Hill one.
Joie:Oh, yeah. Don't
Aaron:know if I would ever want that game to be remade because like the because the PS one jank, like, fog, the graininess of everything, with the the uncertainty really of, like, you're gonna outlive whatever the fuck comes at you through that fog. Like, that don't think that could be replicated in a modern day remake, you know, four k 120 FPS anti alias scene whatever the fuck. Right.
Joie:And well to kind of had a little of that too. Would I would argue not as much as one. I agree. And yeah, it is funny. I'm of the same belief to where it's like there's something that would be lost by modernizing that experience.
Joie:But I also think that that story presented in a modern way would go really hard and like that's why I don't really get why they did Silent Hill two as the remake because Silent Hill two I think I hate this concept of things being dated, you know, it's like it's the same thing with films like yes watching a silent film watching a film in black and white might require more of an adjustment on your part because you're used to quick shots. You're not used to long shots. You're used to like less expository cinematography all that kind of stuff, but I don't look like I can't you that doesn't mean that like when I watch a Charlie Chaplin film. I'm judging it by today's sensibilities either, You know? I'm not like, well, this doesn't the pacing of this film is not you know, it's not the same thing or the characterizations aren't it's such a different animal now.
Joie:And it's I feel that's true with games. It's like people play like, playing Megami Tensei one, Digital Devil story. Imagine playing that game and getting pissed that it's a first person dungeon crawler or it has random encounters. You know? Yeah.
Joie:Why? That's the game. There's nothing you could fucking do about it, dude. It's game came out and it's a boomer ass video game. It came out in like 1988.
Joie:Like what the what were you expecting? You know? And it's like I I I feel like so many people are able to put themselves in that in that headspace and I don't really blame anybody necessarily for not willing to make that effort because you just want to do something quick and your day is stressful and whatever but that approach is the way that you that approaches your that or that affects your criticism is what I'm trying to say and I think Resident Evil one's a really good example of that because a lot of people are going to be like, oh, it's janky the tank controls suck blah blah blah, but like in the context of the game they work exceptionally well. Yeah, you know, if if you had free roam controls on Resident Evil one and because the remake the port of the remake actually puts in like modern controls kind of but they're still relative to the camera angle that you're facing. So it kind of still feels the same.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Even that like if you it was like if you're if you control Jill like you did in Resident Evil three remake that game would be it wouldn't feel the same. It's it's it's it's like you're trying to retroactively apply something that can never it's anachronistic, you know, it can't exist like that. So fuck anyone who says that shit. Think that's I think it's it's valid to be like, oh, I don't like this. I'm not used to it but call a spade a spade, you know, you just you're not able to to adjust, man.
Joie:And that's fine. That's fine. I don't want to play boomer PC games for that same reason,
Aaron:you know, but I'm not gonna
Joie:fault the game for it. So but no the remake I think is better though. That being said, but it's longer on your first playthrough. The remake is gonna take you way longer than even if you know where to go. Think
Aaron:that's crazy. So it's
Joie:but the the remake is a good really good starting point for if you're like ever trying to go through the series again. Yeah. Resident Evil one is an absolute all timer. I don't know. I I got I'm such a boomer.
Joie:I'm sorry.
Aaron:It's okay, dude. No. It's it's all good, man. If I could with there there's all these rumors of, like, a Final Fantasy nine remake coming out. Yeah.
Aaron:And in my brain, I'm like, the game is fine as it is. Why does it need to be remade? But, I mean, again, there's probably other people who maybe haven't played it or people that have, and they see faults in it, and they're like, okay. Remake it. Fucking quality of life, the piss out of it.
Aaron:That I mean, I mean I I feel it. I feel you man.
Joie:Yeah. No. I nine is a really good talking point for that because my biggest issue with nine is how unbearably slow it is. Like there's no reason why the battle theme should almost loop before you are able to input a command like there ain't no reason for that. But the remaster kind of fixes that a little bit, you know
Aaron:with the battle speed. Yeah.
Joie:Yeah. The only problem is then is that now you have all the shitty visual changes with the remaster that suck, you know, that a lot of people take umbrage with but man. There's a phrase I've been hearing a lot, I've said it myself. How do you feel about this phrase? X game does not deserve a remake.
Aaron:I mean, I don't think it's it's bad to remake a game because, I guess, in my case, like, you have a fault with it. I'm sure other people other people criticize it for something. But, I mean, yeah, other it's probably good for other people, but just it's not for me. But, I guess, that could go for a lot of games. Yeah.
Aaron:Remakes are not bad, but I don't think they're really necessary. Kinda man, I don't know. I'm very fucking torn on it.
Joie:Yeah. And I'll bring this back to a series that is really interesting to talk about with remakes ease. Oh, yeah. That's a series rife with remakes and you've played you said you played Origin, was it?
Aaron:Yeah. Played Origin. I've played one, two, and I think yeah. I've I've played most of them. Just not five.
Aaron:The one that's still Japan only or whatever.
Joie:Yeah. That that's the one I said is like Temu Soul Blazer. Yeah. But it I I I love Ys five, but the gameplay is I don't know about that one. But no, I I think like, you know, is is one was like, I think one of the first games I can think of that got a remake that almost eclipsed the original because in 1990, the game came out in '87.
Joie:Am I wrong on that? I'm pretty sure it's '87.
Aaron:That sounds right.
Joie:I'm pretty sure
Aaron:'87, '88.
Joie:Or '88. Something that. The remake came out three years later, and it's a full remake. Because it came on PC '88, and then it got a remake on the TurboGrafx by another company called AlphaSystem, a developer called AlphaSystem. And a lot of people, if not like 90% of the people who have played the original Ys and that version, say that the TurboGrafx version eclipses the original.
Joie:And then a lot of people who play Chronicles, I'm guessing that's the one you played. Right?
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:The piece one and two. Yep. Think that that eclipses the TurboGrafx version and that didn't come out till like twenty years later. Either way, my point is that like like did it's complicated man because like back then you're looking at a Japanese computer exclusive video game that like how are you gonna really port that the same way you pretty much had to redo it from the ground up because you can't take that code and apply it throw it in an engine and then have it run on another console. So, you know, they wanted to bring ease to the West and they localized it and all that kind of stuff.
Joie:So it's like the only way they could really do that was through a remake and nowadays you don't really have that problem because you can port stuff for the most part fairly easily, right? Like they could have remade Chrono Cross, but they made the remaster instead, you know, and so I man it people say that like the remake thing has been is like a modern thing and it is, but it's also kind of been there since the eighties for a different reason. I don't know. They're different reason.
Aaron:I I feel like the are some that I that I personally feel are better than the original, like, Metroid zero mission, Pokemon Pokemon Leaf, Ring, and Fire Red.
Joie:Way Yeah. Better
Aaron:than fucking Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow. If you ever try to go back and play those, dude, it's glacial.
Joie:I agree.
Aaron:It's glacial, but I mean
Joie:I agree.
Aaron:Yeah. I'm sure there's other people that are gonna be like, what are you talking about? It's totally fucking fine. But, man, you know, it's it's so tough. A lot of people lot of people clamoring for a Chrono Trigger remake, whether it be HD two d or, god forbid, they do, a three d thing with it or something like that.
Aaron:But, man, I don't know. Like, this I started playing the game, I was looking up, like, the the way people prefer to play it because there's the SNES original, the DS version, and the version on Steam. And a lot of people say, fucking a lot of people say, you know, do the DS. It's got the anime cut scenes couple other quality of life improvements, but but with SNES and it's fine. It's great.
Joie:Yeah. I I so I was streaming all the Dragon Quest games like last year no year and a half ago and after I finished Dragon Quest six even though it came out after Chrono Trigger. I was like, I really feel like I should stream Chrono Trigger because it's so like, the progression of Dragon Quest five, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest six is so through line. You can there's so many creative parallels in that game Chrono Trigger and so I was like kind of streaming. I was trying to stream versions of the gate of those games that I had never streamed before like shown off before so I streamed the steam version of Chrono Trigger and I actually think that's the best way to play it.
Aaron:Oh shit. Okay.
Joie:Honestly, it is because it changes it fixes up a lot of stuff. Adds the DS content which is optional technically for the most part. Can't you can skip the cut scenes, but you don't have to do the post game shit, you know, and that's kind of ass anyway. But yeah, I think that's the best way to play it. I don't know.
Joie:Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I don't think there's any wrong playing the Super Nintendo version.
Aaron:But yeah, so I'm kind of a I kind of went the same route with the Dragon Quest, now that you brought that up. Because, like, again, back in the 3DS days, I was like, I just I guess back in those days, I wasn't as in emulation as I am now. Like, I only had my three DS. And, of course, I I bought the DS versions of four, five, and six, and, you know, seven and eight, all that shit. But, yeah, I guess even now, like, even if I could emulate the original Dragon Quest or like the the incredibly broken two, I don't know if I would.
Aaron:I mean, maybe I would go back and play those just to say Yeah.
Joie:Dragon Quest two is dusty. That's oh, man. The Famicom version, I never wanna play that again
Aaron:ever. Even
Joie:the Super Famicom version, the remake of it is
Aaron:Listeners, that was a big stanky thumbs down.
Joie:Mhmm. And again, even that game has its context though, you
Aaron:know. Yeah.
Joie:If you're playing through a series, it's important to sort of like understand a lot of the significance of some of the more marred entries. And Dragon Quest two is extremely rushed because Dragon Quest one popped the fuck off. And so they're like, let's start. We're starting the sequel before before anything else. We gotta get it out.
Joie:And so the whole, like, last 20% of the game is super rough. And and even then, I think the exploration in that game, Oh my god, man. It pisses me right off. But how much of that is like being unwilling to accept the game for the terms of its time, you know? Yeah.
Joie:Final Fantasy two another really good example. I cannot stand the Famicom version of I'm a huge Saga slut. I made videos in the Saga series. I've played every single game every single version. Know, I'm a huge Saga slut and you know, obviously the origin is from Final Fantasy two, but I cannot do the Famicom version because of how slow it is.
Joie:Yeah. And but and there is a lot I think the reception of f f two has changed a little bit. But, you know, back in the early two thousands to mid two thousands, when message board culture to me was at its zenith for that. I don't mean that in a positive way, you know people before YouTube and the parroting of opinions and all that stuff and even then like I think like a vgn and all that kind of stuff was is sort of to blame for some of the parrotting of opinions, but ff2 got shit on heavy. Everyone's like, that's the one that sucks.
Joie:Skip that one. You don't deal with it. A game is objectively bad, which is the worst thing that I anytime anyone says something is objectively bad because they don't like it, immediately disengage from But like, that game sold better than the first in Japan. It was more critically well received, you know, there's a lot of that kind of stuff that I think people gloss over and a lot of that is of the time. Right?
Joie:So I think like when you're going through a series or exploring a series, it is the historical context is super important. Right? Maybe. I don't know. I think there's something to be said for something that stands on its own merits.
Aaron:I think so too.
Joie:You know, like like Mega Man. Did you ever go through all the old Mega Mans? Mega Men?
Aaron:Mega Mans. Yeah. On the the legacy well, I mean, it's not the like I don't have carts of them, I played the collection of the the NES ones. And yeah, I think those are still playable. Totally fine.
Joie:Yeah. I think so too. I think a lot of people would be kind of a bit well, think one is the game that filters people the most somehow because one you the whole game is on ice skates and shit like that, but it's like you got to consider that that was like this incredible synthesis of all the things that platformers were kind of doing back then, you know, like, you know, Mario was really big and then you had like Contra and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, and you know, it took like the almost like nonlinear aspect of Mario because Mario has the warps and shit and it it allowed you to select the robot masters from the get go and all that kind what that was like pretty big at the time, you know, and and so I feel like I don't know. It's like when you're getting into the series like understanding it's very easy to just shit on a game because of how dated it feels or again because you chafe with its whatever.
Joie:But I think mega man wants an all time or two. I'm a fucking boomer. I don't know what else to tell you.
Aaron:Yeah. I agree with that. I guess, yeah, give it a fair chance. Or I guess if if if the, I guess, original version of something isn't accessible to you, there's no shame in going with a remake or remaster or whatever. But if you can emulate, give that shit a shot because yeah.
Aaron:I mean, I can't think of I mean, there are maybe a couple original versions of games that you probably should stay away from, like Dragon Quest two. But I
Joie:I mean,
Aaron:it's it's still worth looking at it on your own, you know, getting your own opinion on it.
Joie:Right. I always say like, you know, is there really so much to be lost for booting up a game for for five ten minutes?
Aaron:True.
Joie:You know? And actually, this is a really good Maybe this is like because this is strange for the point a little bit, but I want to ask it. Maybe it's a good coda. But how do you feel about it? I'll try to you know, to tie this into series.
Joie:How do you feel about like watching something versus playing it? Like, okay, Megami Tensei. Right? If you're looking into a series and you're looking at all the games in it, like Gaitan, Megami Tensei. Are you familiar with that one?
Aaron:I don't think so. No.
Joie:That was like a Japanese computer exclusive Mugami Tensei game. It was like, I think '92. I'd have to look it up. But, God, or maybe it was later than that. I don't know.
Joie:But it's like, Japanese exclusive, obviously. It's really fucking weird. It's like vulgar. They show like actual porn in it, you know. Nice.
Joie:Hell yeah, dog. But like, you know, trying to break the actually, you know what funny enough? There's a there's a translation of this. So my point is moot, but like I get why people would do that like watch a video of that instead of trying to explore it themselves because even setting that up on an emulator is a pain in the ass.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:So do you have any I guess, boundaries with watching something versus playing something in a in the context of a series?
Aaron:Man. Holy shit. That was wild. Man, I I mean, I guess if it's if it's a series that I'm actually interested in, maybe I'll watch, like, a video or two to see the grasp on how, I guess, on how it moves or just to kind of get myself acquainted with it a little bit to see if I actually do wanna watch it, like, what the combat's like, see what the exploration is like or something. Like, I've done that maybe a couple times with with Xeno Saga.
Aaron:But Oh, okay. Yeah. Like, I I won't watch a whole playthrough series and spoil the whole thing for myself, but I'll just watch maybe like a couple minutes and see what it's like and then make a decision for myself say, do I wanna play this? Yes? No?
Aaron:Maybe so.
Joie:Right. Right. Right. That's no. That's that's cool.
Joie:I like I like to hear that. I I'm always interested in how people approach like what about like let's say you're like, oh shit. I'm gonna hop into Trails. How much research would you do before doing that?
Aaron:I mean, if it's one I've had on my radar for a little while, I'm I'm probably just gonna fucking hop into it. But if it's one that's so, like, one that we have jotted down, Atelier or Tellier?
Joie:Atelier. Yeah.
Aaron:Okay. Atelier. One like that, I have no fucking clue where to start because there is there are so many fucking games and they're all different, like, self contained stories and, like, they each one well, each one each I guess, like, individual There's,
Joie:like, chapters. Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron:Yeah. And then there's, like, time limits or time constraints or whatever, like, that shit. I mean, more often than not, I'll just take the plunge. I'll just buy one and just fucking plunge in and play it. And, yeah, more often than not, just do that rather than subjecting myself to hours upon hours upon hours of reading other people's reviews on them.
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Mhmm. Yeah. No. I think that's cool. I I think there's there's that aspect of hands on with it.
Joie:But at the same time, I feel like that also you risk running into the wrong one too. Right? Like what if that's your favorite series, but you started with the a game in the series that you hate, you know, like for the you know, the context of Mana we were talking about Mana. What if you're for like, oh, I'm gonna hop on the Mana series. I found Children of Mana for super cheap or Dawn of Mana.
Joie:I found it for $10 on Amazon. I'm gonna buy and you pop that sucker and you're like, this is the fucking worst Siri people like this, you know?
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:People like the shittiest attempt at Kingdom Hearts combat that anyone's ever seen, you know? I'm so I'm sorry. I'm such a massive hater of the of Dawn of Mana, but
Aaron:Yeah.
Joie:Like, you know, there is that aspect and I think that you know at the end of the day anybody who is into this hobby I think is should be a smart enough consumer to understand the context in nuance of that. Right? Especially nowadays when you have access to all this and information and you can type in you can type in where to start with the saga series and then you'll see a video by me that I made talking about it that I need to remake because it's not accurate anymore, you know, and you could watch that. So it's like, I don't know. Feel like this is the as shitty as this world is as hot as the flames are from its burning before our very eyes, you know, we it's the ease that now is the best time it's ever existed to get into series and video games.
Joie:There's a million things to do it. So I think that's neat.
Aaron:Yeah. Sometimes, you just gotta take the plunge. I mean, yeah. If you do jump in and you get a shitty one, oh, well, move on to another one. You don't need to beat it, but, yeah.
Aaron:Yeah, man. It was awesome having you on. I'll absolutely have you on again sometime whether it's to talk about like we dive into a certain series or on a we'll figure something out on the sidelines. Sure.
Joie:Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, man. I really appreciate you being so flexible to, you know, do all this shit too. That means a lot.
Joie:So I'm sorry that I've been an annoying guest about that. I know
Aaron:you're good, dude. You're good. Well, before we go, I'm gonna give a quick shout out to all the patrons at the support the show Pimp him, Dean Martin, you're gonna eat that crust. Will, Dave c, Quest 64, well known Nintendo 64 game, Stormageddon, Kevin Demo, president lieutenant Jeff Myers of the Admiral's Club, Trey, Jameson, and Jared Schrader, all you guys, thank you so much for supporting the show on Patreon. You rule.
Aaron:And with that, once again, Joey, my fraternal twin, my brother in Christ, see you on another one sometime. But I guess, let's say bye.
Joie:Thanks, man. I this was a lot of fun, and thanks again, and hope that people are willing to jump into eight hundred fifty hours of RPG gameplay. Can't wait for you to start that tonight and finish it by next month. So I'm really proud of you for admitting to do that, dude. That means a lot.
Aaron:I'm gonna get right on it for after this episode. Okay. I'm gonna say a million mountain dews. Bye.
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