Commander Cookout Podcast, Ep 491 - A WEIRD Final Fantasy First Look

Hey, listen, Dear Podcast, Episode four ninety one. I'm Brandam, Here's Ryan and today we're gonna jump on board the hip train. Now are about for sure?

I thought it was kind of funny because you started doing this.

I started letting the air out too soon. There are no words attached to it, you see. Hey, it's a system. It's a system that I have going on. Anyone else is a system. Hey, Ryan, We're back for yet another whirlwind adventure. How you doing good?

What is going down?

The whole bunch is going down. We jumped over our pre show. We got big life updates to give, We've got stories to tell people to thank. We have a bunch of hype stuff we're gonna go over to get everybody excited for the next couple of months of Magic and CCO. Before we get to any of that stuff, we have to thank our official business, Daddy's Fusion Gaming

Yeah, CEO Nation Holiday to save five percent gonna be a big deal. I don't think it's a secret. At this point in the show, we're gonna be talking a little bit about Final Fantasy hype Train and comparing it to other universes beyond products that your good friend Ryan really liked and very much hope that this will follow suit.

It's gonna and we're gonna talk about why that kind of makes me a little sad.

Oh okay, well in the later on, let's not get to the sad yet. We gotta think producer Gary.

You think producer Gary and damn Network Network Studio Automation. Yes, yeah, that's Pile of Bones Brewing Co. The second coolest thing to Comauto Regina, as well as being the official beer sponsor for c CEO Side What Slam Season three episode applications available everywhere and you can watch the episodes here on YouTube.

I think how it's scheduled, there would have been a sidewalk Slam out already like the newest one, or it's coming out shortly.

It should be out by the time you're listening to this season, or episode two should be out if you want to be on one, get at me Ceco Branda on Twitter or Commander Cookout at gmail dot com, or if you're in the discord, get at me. If you're gonna be in town, get at me. We're not gonna be recording one and may do to some life stuff. I don't know if Rian wants to talk about the show, but there's some life stuff happening where we're changing our

Lots of mileage left to go. That sounds dirty. We got a lot of pipe to lay, Yeah, there's one.

Yeah, I like that.

Of ditches to trench, Yeah, lots of air conditioning holes to punch in the wall.

Yeah, that one doesn't sound as sexual, although it might be the dirtiest one that we said.

Oh yeah, you ever drilled through a wall full of wet insulation?

I gave her the old wet insulation drill.

Yeah, you ever have a hose break inside your dry wall? I don't want that act.

Don't google that one.

No, that sounds like you're gonna have kids.

Although if that's your thing, I mean no. Yeah, in the nation you mentioned the discord.

Big thanks to the Patreon supporters Over at patreon dot com slash CEEO Podcast. That's where we find our our sidewalk slam applicants. That's where we converse and plan and share updates about the CEO experience. Slamplican slamplicants. Yes, yes, that is what they're called.

Yes, you could become a slampion if you start off as a slamplicate.

Yes, if you slamply. Yes, that works.

That does work. Tracks. That's that's logically consistent, is what that is?

Yes, yep, And okay, so here's the thing. I'm all booked up for. No, I got to book my flight. Oh did you book your flight for that?

I sure did, on points on points. I didn't pay any dollars. It's very exciting. Yeah, it was really cool to get something that costs money and not have to give anybody my money.

Yeah.

And I got to bring a carry on bag because apparently they charge you for that.

Oh yeah, everything, it's a racket. Welcome to flying in Canada.

Terrific.

You you earned points through shopping at Fusion Gaming Online dot Com. Oh, yeah, I did, and you earned less points by saving more money with CCO.

That's right, I did, Yes, I did.

Yeah, We've got it on lockdown everybody, and today we are we're talking Final Fantasy.

We are. Wait one more thing before that. Yeah, Vegas, Brando flies in. Might not be at the same time as Ryan. I've never done that before. So if you're gonna be in Vegas when I get there, I need somebody to make sure that I'm not at the airport when Ryan gets there, because I want to be not there. I want to be at the house or on the strip or somewhere else. I don't know how to do that.

That's not why you want. That's not why you want. Yeah, I said the right thing.

Why I don't want to be stuck at the airport.

No, you want to get to the event center first, so you can look for dark misprinted Griffin Canyon.

I'm gonna do that anyway. You always stop and mingle and then I go and flee.

Oh there's no mingling at the airport unless it's with eighteen dollars beers.

Will we get there on Thursday? Not even open on Thursday?

Oh so what you're saying is eighteen dollars beers.

Yes, okay, yes, us dollars. That's like sixty seven dollars, can.

They Yeah, certainly it is.

Final Fantasy.

Yeah, I lost my train of thought. I was gonna say. You said we're gonna jump the pre show, but you and Gary might do a pre show.

Hey, yeah, well we're just jumping it this week, but we might do Yeah.

Yeah, I'll leave it up to you. Uncle Brando's managing that right now, because I'm I'm actually changing jobs.

Yeah. That sucks, guy, No, it sucks.

No, it's the worst. I walked into the damn studio, I said, I hate everything.

Yeah, that's exactly what he said.

Yeah, and then I looked in the fridge and there was no frickin beer. Oh yeah, only from bad to worse.

Only the beer that we're going to be drinking. On the stream that we're gonna do in about an hour from now real time. You can watch on the Duffer and av Media Twitch stream. You can watch it in the delay. In celebration of the Final Fantasy Magic the Gathering set coming out, me and Gary are gonna play Final Fantasy six on the Supernintendo Gary's first time playing it.

What a what a nerd?

Very cool. It's one of the best games of all time. So if you're interested in that at all, come by and check that out.

Baby, I got this. Who doesn't play Final Fantasy? You or who play his Final Fantasy? And Gary? He doesn't? He does both and neither. It's a weird spot. Now I'm in a weird spot with Final Fantasy. Here's the thing. Okay, to me, it kind of feels like Doctor Who in that kind of looks like and I'm gonna hear it. Oh my god, I'm gonna hear it. For me, I'm gonna hear it, well for somebody. I think it looks the same. My eyeballs, my caveman brain is like, I

Well, look how much money it costs, Ryan. Oh, it must be especially special for that kind of dollars, right, I had to just I had to just dig that.

Oh yeah, and man, start at the bottom of the hill.

I am dig.

I am so happy that Lord of the Rings came out when it did, because can you imagine what the Lord of the Rings set would have cost for your good friend Ryan.

Oh my god, if it.

Was swapped like like spit swapped with Frick and Final Fantasy, Oh my god.

I don't even want to think of that. No, because I mean, as of this recording, there isn't like a one of one millions of dollars card that you could.

Open in Final Fantas.

And there might be I could see there being one, I really could.

Of course, there is one.

The perfect one, of course, would be the the Crystals as a in universe version of Jeweled Lotus. But we all know that that's not gonna go.

Oh that would be so awesome. I thought you were going to say something about a butt plug. Well, I mean I will take crystals though and still put them.

In butts, yes, but we don't know if that's a thing yet. But I mean I don't even think you can. No. I mean, the the one of one card like the Chase stuff hasn't really been put out there yet as of this recording. We're just talking about kind of the hype surrounding it, cause it's like the second time we've done a Universe is Beyond like giant set.

Complete set. So tell us about that. Oh you could put magic cards up your butt too. I'm just I'm just gonna throw that out there. Yeah, yeah, no King shame in the Nation. Okay, So this is full set, full blown set. We've got full set to two hundred and some cards correct, three through whatever, plus alternate printings, plus alternate foil versions, plus showcase plus special editions, plus thing. So there's gonna be eight hundred cards in the set.

Correct.

There's gonna be a fleet of pre cons yeah, four of them, four of them. Okay, we're gonna have boosties, like we're gonna have whatever the what's the boosters called now, playbooter, They're called play boosters.

I think they're just boosters. At this point. There's only one we're gonna have.

They're gonna be boosters, there's gonna be collectis. There's gonna be collect these. Do we know if there's gonna be anything else there. There's gonna be secret layers.

Yes, there's gonna be secret layers that surround it. There's a starter deck like to.

Con the forties or the sixty card ones, and those are gonna have probably like Lord of the Rings did, unique legendary creatures specific to those sets in regular frame, not extended.

Art, regular frame foil. I believe there's a cloud and a Cepharroth. They've been spoiled already.

I totally know what that's.

So if those, if those interest you, that's where you're gonna find a couple of those guys. I'm sure that it's gonna sell very well, just based on the characters. There's also another set another uh, Like there's like ff are like the regular set and FFC with the Command Matter, but there's another one, Final Fantasy Beyond Time, And the only place I've seen it is in the upcoming spoilers thing. I read a couple of places like here's the spoilers and like, here's this other set name that's coming.

I have no idea what that is oh yplog boosters aftermath? Oh?

I like that.

You know what it might be like? It might be like the Lord of the Rings holiday edition that only came in Collector Boosties and had the poster arts in it, the serialized poster arts in it, And man, that's what I'd be getting my hands on and leaving sealed because you know how much those booster backs are worth lots many excitement.

Do you think that this one's gonna have the same kind of value out of it based on it being probably less game changing to use it well now a new term. Yeah, and also because it's standard legal because they have to print cards in it for standard Like do you think we're gonna see like the huge reprint? Do you think we're gonna see the Orchish Bow Masters of the World? You know what I mean?

Like, are we gonna see the one ring ooh, the sour on the Dark Lord? Those three cards would have ruined standard?

Yeah, are we gonna see that in Final Fantasy? Do you think so far? I don't think we have the Commander cards. I think, overall, by and large are very commandery. I have to stretch really hard to see the flavor of them. Like I had to contort myself in all kinds of weird shit. I like stre which you could see if you're watching on YouTube, which you should be to like get the themes. But I mean maybe they'll they'll be better as I get to see you.

No, you know what, maybe you just don't know anything about Final Fantasy.

That's hypothetically possible. I've never played fourteen.

Oh maybe this is maybe the Watzia designers only played fourteen, and they're making it up. And they're making it up for one through thirteen, including ten to one, ten, two, ten, three, and then fifteen through twenty six.

Thirteen, one, two and three.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

All the expansions for eleven.

What was the other online one?

Noah, fourteen fifteen is the one in the car.

He wasn't even he wasn't even born.

He wasn't eve born in those those games.

He wasn't even born until freaking twenty twenty one.

We've already seen like uncommons that people want banned because they're too good. Gave me a break, right, And we've already seen I don't know, we've seen one good reprint come out of it. I think so far it was spoiled. Just recently, we're gonna see Dark Confident come back into Standard.

Never heard of her.

That's pretty cool.

Dark Confident in Standard to be cool. I personally really like Dark Confident in Commander. I think that you can build around it if you care about your life total going down.

Sure.

I like decks that just don't give a shit. I hate life card only card, No life only card.

Remember that time we were playing over at Big Ben's place, playing rev and I had a Confidant and then the flying Dark Confident on and then the little offspring of the Dark Confidence. Yes, and I flipped cards that were like six, five, seven, and I was like fifteen life because of myself.

You did manage to survive a turn at two? Yes, that was pretty cool.

It was pretty good.

That's pretty good. And how many cards you draw that turn four?

Yeah?

Pretty good.

I didn't win that game, no, I know. I drew four out of my own deck and then one deck out of each of my opponents. One still didn't save me.

One deck out of each of your opponents, yeah, on deck through the whole deck. So okay, it's gonna be like Lord of the Rings. It's gonna have a whole bunch of border treatments. Is it gonna be like, Okay, here's an example. Okay, is it gonna be more like Lord of the Rings and have cards like ORCS bowl Masters and Murky b Mirkwood Bats that was gonna recommander yep, and the one ring which is pretty it permutated or no, it permeated like BA basically every eternal format ever.

It's in every format unless it's a band. Right.

Ah, we're gonna say that and pretend we're right around the internet.

Yeah, somebody can say it We're wrong in the comments.

Or is Final Fantasy going to be more like Magic Foundations because that's corset designed specifically for standard and a great kind of ground level fucking foundation for the standard format. Because they're like, this is going to stay around for like three years or five years, whatever it is, let's design our sets around it. Me thinks closer to foundation, But then methinks, how are they going to sell.

Eighty five dollars booster packs with.

Eighty five dollars cards that command an eighty five dollars in booster pack price tag?

Yeah?

And now are are cards in Lord of the ringsworth eighty five dollars that aren't silver showcase foils okay, silver screen foils, whatever they're called, like this, the Hildebrant ones that aren't one ring and Orchestrawl Masters. Because there's eight hundred other cards in the set, it's just those two that command like the really really big price tag. The showcase scroll foils from the holiday packs. Those ones command quite a price tag because those packs are so rare

It's gonna be more Lord of the Rings.

Sealed until it's not anymore because it's a standard set, and then it's going to be just like, oh, these are some of the best cards in standard maybe instead of like oh my god, Orchestra bow Masters in one Ring needs to be banned. I don't think we're going to see that.

I don't either, and I'm glad for that. I kind of wish that there would be cards like that in the set, because this is the one that I want, and I want to have really powerful, just screwball stuff that blows up the whole magic, the gathering ecosystem come out of my set. Yes, like you got it. I want to know what that feels like, full jerk off. Yeah, man, I feel like I probably won't.

No, I didn't, but but I could you could have.

I mean, if you were the type of person that would feel.

Under stick about my butt, rub my wing were two one rings real fast like this make a fire?

Yeah, yeah, yes.

I could do that.

You could do that.

I have at least two one rings, which is kind of an oxymoron that you could punch a hole in one with a drill bit and wear it like a apron Ah what, I don't know.

He's been at work all day. Ladies and gentlemen, they only have one one ring like Garfield and Tended.

I have nine one rings like Saluron.

Fucking isn't that the that's the humans though, it's the humans.

Yeah, I'm a human.

You don't have a human ring, or you go'da be a Nazgul and then you'd be worth like twenty five dollars.

No showcase scroll ones like sixty now, oh yeah.

The regular ones or like twenty five? Are they do not? Yeah?

Oh yeah, nasgools are expensive. Are we getting cards like Nasgul? Is there something like that that exists? Because they have any number of cards in deck? Cards are always a few bucks, right, yeah, even the common ones like Dragon's approaches like a dollar or two, and the uncommon ones are three or four in some cases. And Nasguls just freaking skyrocket pounded the chart to dust. Yeah, they're so expensive.

They sure are, like oh my good lord.

Yeah, I have I think I have exactly nine of those because they're in my collection. I don't I don't know. I can play Nascuul man, I need nine of them, and I have nine of them a collection. I made myself a rule that they're not coming out.

Oh wow, Yeah, and I have nine of them and they're in my talks real deck.

That's good place.

Yeah.

Is there anything like that in Final Fantasy that you expect to see or you think that we ought to see.

Not that I can think of. I can't think of an enemy that like replicates itself that way. There's gonna be an enemy or there's some characters that do that for sure. Oh right, So I don't think so, I really don't think there is unless something post thirteen made it happen where they came up with an enemy that'll keep like Flans will split and make themselves. But that

I'm gonna pretend like I know what that means. Yeah, that's idiots. Yeah they suck.

They're so stupid. So here's the thing that I the reason why I wanted to talk to you.

Okay, hit me up, because you you came up with some simple question topic such Now.

We can't say with a straight face or any legitimacy, I would say that the Final Fantasy property is at the same level of Lord of the Rings is in terms of public consciousness. No, maybe in like the magic the gathering kind of community ecosystem. Yes, maybe they're close. In real life they are not.

Yeah, and you know what, you're probably right, like, man, I don't know, Okay, in real life they're not.

No, Ya.

Final Fantasy is on a different is. It kind of took itself on its own trajectory and they're not the same, even though, like Lord of the Rings in Tolkien, is is fantasy. It is the fantasy modern fantasy progenitor, and it is the non magic people play it.

It is what it is.

It is. Yeah, what it is is its own thing, and it's getting its own theme park.

It's so big, like it's the biggest. But in terms of our little ecosystem community, do you think that Final Fantasy is going to drum up the support and bring in the outside people willing to come in in the way that Lord of the Rings did.

Hmmm?

Because I would say that people who are fans of Final Fantasy are going to be more apt to want to play a game like this than your average Lord of the Rings fan who might just like the fantasy and the high elfness of the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, it might not be prone to games.

I think this is the first thing. I think. Okay, our ticker has the wrong promo code on it. I changed it, but it didn't save frick.

Turn it off? Ah off, there we go.

There we go. Second thing, CEO Holiday, CCO Holiday. Use it get a freaking discount because everything's expensive and life sucks?

Sure is it? Sure? Does?

Hmm? I think that? Come on, we had to dead that.

This is a blue ar cover. This is happy fun time, CCO, baby, continue.

This is happy fun time. CCO, you bitch. I think that if you said to some nerd who plays Final Fantasy, sure and hear me out on this. Okay, Hey, you like turn based RPG with like anime characters showing boobs? Yeah, come play Magic the Gathering. They have a Final Fantasy expansion.

Do we take turns? Are there girls with boobs?

I'man yes. And it's the same people who already know Final Fantasy. It's not like, go play sports card game. It's not like I'm a gamer. I'm gonna play Madden and NHL two K twenty four, right, Like the people who play Madden and NFL games and NHL games not the same kind of gamer as people who play Final Fantasy. In most cases, I'm generalizing, it's the Internet. Give me a break.

I agree with you. Yep.

Also, there's no such card game like that that is of like worth its salt. Yes, So people who who play Final Fantasy that want a card game that's turn based and fantasy based like Magic is it and final based and final bahow.

I don't know what that means.

Yes, lose the game, lose your.

Life, I mean lose your play the game, lose your life savings. I'm gonna that because yes, because I did for another little update, I did source my box. So if you are going to be in the house in Vegas, we will be opening Final Fantasy collector boosters.

Did you win the lottery?

No, I just won't be getting tattooed again for a long time.

Because because you had to sell some of your skin.

Yeah, I had to which part it's hidden. I had some despaired worry about it.

I'm not worried. That isn't the word, but disturbed curious.

Ah there, I feel like RoboCop, but robo you know that's that. Yeah, I was gonna say cock, thank you, Gary.

Okay, I think it's gonna be closer to foundation. This is a weird episode. It's very good, freaking weird episode. Closer to Foundations than Lord of the Rings though it will be like Lord of the.

Rings in what do you think that? Are? We gonna go to Vegas? And I realized that the release isn't the same like when we went to Edmonton. It was like release week or whatever for Lord of the Rings, whereas it's gonna have been out for a couple of weeks and we get to Vegas.

Do we have do you do you have the launch date for Final Fantasy.

June seven or thirteen or something.

Okay, look that up, but yeah, it's the weekend prior to going because the convention starts on like the twentieth or whatever. Yeah, so it must be the thirteenth.

Maybe it's a week or two before we Yeah, are we gonna roll in there and it's gonna sell out every vendor.

And what was it seven minutes?

Seven or eight minutes or something, because it's would be wild. He's just gonna be gone, and then the guys are gonna be like showing us out of their trench coat like guys at the house. Yeah I got one.

Yeah, they're gonna roll up their their freaking sleeve and they're gonna have Final Fantasy packs taped to their wrist right in cartoons?

Is that what it's gonna be? Like somebody's gonna come in pull like a condom of Collector Boosters out of the back of the toilet. Yeah, you know what I mean, like.

Some guy flipping a coin with a toothpick. I got your final fantasy?

Yeah, Like, is that what it's gonna be?

Well, to be fair, some some showgirls on Las Vegas Boulevard do say that I've got your final fantasy. Very specifically, they say that, I wonder if they're gonna have booster packs instead of pasties.

I mean, you know which one would they make more money having?

While they would make more money not having the Final Fantasy Boosters as pasties because they could sell them.

Well, then you sell them then, like you buy the booster pack and they take the pasty off and you see their boom and then they put a new one on. I suppose Jesus, why am I the marketing genius in that? I don't know.

This is a weird episode. I'm gonna I'm gonna keep going.

To that it's for the people, it's for the niche. Yes, that's right.

I don't think it's gonna be sold out, I.

Big prediction is it is it is? Again? Is this because way over inflated cost or is it because you don't think it's actually gonna be as desired? No, I just thought of this just now. In the holiday version Lord of the Rings, you have the poster cards that are with lots.

Of money, Yes, the serialized.

Ones in Final Fantasy. I'll bet you we're going to have the same structure of card, but with uh the a Mano Yoshataka artwork on it.

The very is that the guy that did Liliana.

That's the three thousand dollars Louiana. Yes, he did all the character arts. This is like he is Final Fantasy artwork. With Lord of the Rings, you had like that list of guys, right, Yeah, the Hilda Brandt brothers are the people that they got to do magic cards.

No, sorry it wasn't. They didn't get them to do magic cards, I know that. But they used art that was previously Lord of the Rings art.

And this guy he is Final Fantasy. He is the art from the front because he is a very unique style and I could see those being pretty chase and like, yes, something that would be very very collected.

I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if this and and maybe people who know a little bit more about print runs and distribution could let us know in the comments this this maybe the original print run of Collector Boosters. By the end of the weekend in Vegas sells out, and I think it would work something like this. Okay, get you get to the convention. Everybody's buying it like crazy because it's new, because their local game store is already sold out and out of stock on all the

And now that might come down or go good, But.

Price gouge at eight is my example. You walk into Magic Con Las Vegas and you pay eight twenty five. Sure, sure, and they're selling at eight twenty five because there's serialized and collectors and jerk off cards and all the stuff. Okay by the end of the day Friday eight fifty, Okay, by midday Saturday nine Well, maybe, yeah, maybe I'm not.

Day, by the way it was found on the first day.

Yeah, the guy just didn't know what to do, poor guy.

Two million was two million US, it was two million US Canadian it was a million whatever it was. He paid it because the guy who opened it was Canadian from Toronto, bought it from from face to face. Yeah, and post Malone gave him a us D amount equivalent to two million Canadian dollars.

Oh, man, I would have taken two million us D.

That's what I would have did too. And post Malon would show uped my house the big check.

Or a dump truck of money.

Did I have to like scoop it up? My neighbors did see, and then I'll be asking me for stuff and I want that.

I let us know in the comments, what would you rather have a discrete? Like, oh, oh, a concrete truck. You know how they have the shoot that the concrete comes out of. Yeah, but money dollar dollar bills you into your front door, into your front door, so your neighbors just think like you're getting your basement poored.

It's a cement mixer, but money's being yes into your house.

Or do you want a big novelty check?

Both are good.

Yeah, that's what I'm asking.

Remember how much fun we had with Amy's Big Novelty check.

Verrely, it was the most fun.

It was a big novelty check. It was also a real check.

Okay, we'll see the price trend on the collector boosters go up until they're maybe sold out or at a price where vendors are happy to have them not move, which seems like a weird thing to say, but the sealed price of a box can help inform what like singles are worth right and vice versa. Like it goes both ways, and it's I don't think that we'll see play boosters sell out. I don't think.

I don't think we will either. I bet you collector boosters are going to be nigh impossible to find, and especially until they send out like they have a second wave of product, if you're gonna want to get those, I really do think of that.

Yeah, And well, because it's a standard set too, right, I don't think I'm not gonna call it, Oh it's print on demand, like I know, because I'm an idiot and don't know. But it's a standard set, so I don't know they're not gonna sell out.

Do you think it's gonna be like Lord of the Rings had, like the thing where like you can only print like this image x times because otherwise you have to give us more excitements.

Oh yeah, there were so many things I learned from vendors and from like retailers, online retailers at various shows, and from various employees at certain companies just because we talk to people that there was a lot of rules, like only digital art instead of like painting on canvas style art and being sold on the secondary market like magic artists do. Yeah, only so many printings of yes, big card or big big X big card or very strict print runs on this that or the other thing.

Do you think we'll see that here? Do you think we're gonna run into like we're gonna find out that Square Square Innings had all these rules.

Or square anus. Yeah, yeah, okay, maybe you.

Think we're gonna bump into a bunch of that stuff where it's like, yeah, sorry, guys, you better have your teeth is because we're not allowed to print her anymore. Skirts too short? Oh that's all right there. Oh that's why I said that. It's on the screen in front of us.

Yeah. I don't know, I think, and I'll do it.

Okay.

A couple of weeks ago, you had a conspiracy theory, sure did. Now I have one, and I just made it up. I just made it. I think the ultra limited print run, no physical art, only digital, and things like limiting the number of big cards that vendors and tournament organizers can print. That kind of stuff is a

That's a good point. Yeah, it's a very good point.

Yeah, that's some fricking tinfoil hat stuff.

Yeah, it looks like a nipple on the top of.

Yeah, that's my favorite kind of tinfoil hat that like nipples.

I don't know, And there's there's a zero percent chance that I think that Square would care about that.

Square is the maker of.

Yes, they're the company that owns the Final Fantasy license, and I.

Can see them just I'm gonna pretend I knew that.

They just hold their hand out like this and as long as you're putting money in it, they'll just have their hand out there. That's what that's like.

Yeah, that's okay, that's what businesses do.

Yeah, And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying that that would be I don't think that they care about the prestige. They just want you to give them fucking money.

Yeah. And here's the thing about the Tolkien estate is people are going to do that, Yeah, they and they care about it. Yeah, And maybe that makes them snobs.

I think that there's I don't know them, I never met them, I don't know who they are, and quite frankly, I don't care who they are. But the fact is I could see like a Tolkien descended being, oh, yes, this great great grandfather's work is with so many dollars to these nerds, and then they cap.

Well some of their juice, even if it ain't it's some executive who they employ to do that.

And then he's slow. He's swirling the wine for the great great grandchild, and he goes, oh, great grandfather of Tolkien, this set that the nerds like is worth so many dollars, and that makes the guy happy, Whereas the guy at squaresoft is like some nameless AI thing like executive AI that they've to and it's just a it's just a robot handling asking for money, yes, because that's what they care about.

Yes.

And that's not me saying that they're shitty or that this set's gonna suck because of it. I'm just saying it.

Like, listen to us being all negative about stuff. I'm actually, I'm actually the I'm excited and happy that Lord of the Rings happened, and I'm excited and happy that that people also get Final Fantasy because I know how big of a of a thing that it is.

It's a huge franchise. It changed like pop culture in a lot of ways. It has lots of like the stories and the characters and lots of the stuff are a little bit more mainstream than I think people even believe. Well, yeah, I think so.

Is that one of the things you want to talk about. I believe?

So, I mean you don't. It's hard because you have no frame of reference for them. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. So it's tricky frick because like, you don't know why Final Fantasy seven had two theatrical releases, a mobile game, five spin offs, and in a three part remake. You don't know why that is. Quite frankly, I don't know why that is, but well I do

Oh shots fired. Let us know in the comments.

How many years ago is that? Nineteen ninety seven, that's almost thirty years ago.

Yeah, I'm gonna pretend I knew that.

And that's the reason. It's a big reason why was on the strength of this one game coming out, people have touted Final Fantasy six again. Then we're gonna play on a Twitch stream with Gary as one of the not just like a great work of fiction, not just a video game. And it's been how hyped as one of the top ten SNS games of all time and one of the top ten best video games of all

Two things. If you love it so much, want.

You to marry it, I should and they'd be marry and rich.

Yeah, you'd be.

Trade that.

I've never reread Lord of the Rings really, Nope, olive lying, I'm rereading it right, now, Yeah, I know. I read it four times last year.

Yeah, nerd, I remember watching one of the DVD extras. What was it the guy that played Sorrowman or whatever says, Yeah, I reread it every year around Christmas.

Yeah. Lord of the Rings is a Christmas story.

I'm like, fuck, you're such a nerd. Yeah, oh my god? Yeah.

How often? How often do you play Final Fantasy like any of them?

Yes, I'm mid play through a five right now. I was playing it this morning.

Eh and and do you okay, I'm gonna pretend I know this, so I'm just gonna get that out.

Of the way, Okay.

Do you play them like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen fourteen?

Oh no?

Or do you just play them and they're a self contained thing?

Each one is its own little self contained world unless it's this, like, unless they're like ten to two, well thirteen two or whatever, okay, and those ones are typically crap.

Is it okay? Is it? Is it a self contained world though? Or is it like Doctor Who? Or is it one world and there's a bunch of shit going on like Warhammer forty k Nope?

Self contained world? Each one They are in no way connected except.

For like Tifa and Cloud don't know each.

Other, they do because they're they're from the same game. Goddamn, they know each other because they're from the same game.

I totally knew that.

On the screen, we have Tifa and Celeste. They don't know each other.

H yeah, they probably wouldn't like each other.

The similarities between games are the little littlemoughles. It's like one of them little mascot characters. Okay, a couple of recurring enemies, ton berries behemoths.

Have have we seen any of those recurring enemies yet?

Cactar Cactar is returning is a recurring enemy, okay, Umber Jumbo Kactar. Yeah, that's that's one of them. But they're all their own thing. The Choco bowl, which will eventually show up the chocobo, is actually the commander set.

Symbol, the chocabo. It's that dirty. I want to chokeabo. I'm gonna give myself a chokeable. I'm going to reach around and give myself a chokeable, and my wife's gonna.

Be yeah, yeah, chocobos.

I want to rusty chocabo. I want to give myself the chocobo.

Diani everybody's getting Final Fantasy themed CEO nicknames in the house. I just decided I want to Rusty Trump Choca Bones.

Yes, we've done it.

We've done it. So like the worlds are very loosely connected only through a couple of characters, and I think they just do that for like consistencies steak sake. Yeah, but like the level of technology in the world, how the magic in the world works, where the monsters come from, everything else is just its own.

How do they interpret that or transpose that onto magic without making all of these let's call them diverse worlds not feel like the same game, Like, how do I take Final Fantasy five and Final Fantasy eight, let's say, okay, and not just make them the same thing. Is that going to be a criticism that we see.

I think it is they.

Use the same artists for this character and this character, and this one's from five and this one's from eight. Yeah, is that gonna be a thing.

We are going to see that? Because ah, the only thing that one of the things about Final Fantasy that I think is free to admit, and everybody who plays it will know this. The iconic vista, the iconic places and all of that stuff, because it's fifteen disparate worlds. Where do you really pull the lands from? You know what I mean? So like the settings are going to be.

Like the Magic the Gathering Land card.

Yeah, like there is no Eisngard forest, There is no I can't even think of a Mordor.

Yeah.

Right, there's some cities. But like somebody who hasn't played six, they're gonna open vector and be like, what the hell is vector?

And it's gonna be a city of brass reeskin and it's like, oh, yeah, I can Yeah, they did it. There's gonna be there's gonna be one command tower, and it's like, oh, yeah, they did it.

There's gonna be four command towers I had.

Oh and they freaking didn't give us fourg Lord of the Rings, Hey, most expensive universe beyond of all time? What kind of cut rate production is that?

I know? Right, Tolkien States should get on them.

One hundred dollars one rings. Freaking basics that look like maps that don't even join.

Don't even go together. What a bunch of crap that is? That was the biggest miss of all time. Yeah, I think that that is gonna be like a big thing in Final Fantasy, though, and the characters in a lot of cases are so like refined and defined. I think you're gonna see a lot of criticism coming out about them because all that's not what that character. Oh man, we're gonna We're not gonna have that conversation because I'm

We're not gonna be those guys, because even though I totally knew everything about all the characters that were totally coming out, I'm choosing to not be that guy, just like Brando see perfect.

See we got ourselves a good system going on here. Also, I was right, rememberhen I told you there was gonna be a trained Suplex card. There is a card called Suplex and it is Saban from six preparing to supplex a train. And I knew it was gonna happen. I saw it. I saw it on one of those shall we not talk about them sites where people leak them. I wasn't looking at Final Fantasy.

Oh yeah, don't talk about that. You're gonna ruin somebody's day. But that is the thing going to make it so we don't get preview cards anymore.

Oh no, I probably would have given U some shitty.

No, we never gotten shitty cards. This is a weird episode, but.

The point we were talking lots of nonsense and talking lots of shit. But I think that the set's gonna be really, really cool and I'm really looking forward to it the one Again. The only criticism that I have and concern that I have for the Magic ecosystem is this set so far, as of right now today is so goddamned expensive and just like you said, it's going to sell out almost.

Everywhere, at least at some capacity. This is gonna happen to a non zero number of times.

You're gonna walk into a store and I have this, No, it's all sold out.

Yeah, and could we get more? Maybe could you go to a different vendor at Magic on Las Vegas and maybe probably pay more.

To get it? Sure, but what that sets is a bar people are willing to pay this many dollars for Magic. And I'm gonna say specifically, Universe is beyond Magic where the next Like I don't know what the next big set that's coming up with Marvel. Marvel's the next one. You think Final Fantasy's lots of money, you went until fucking Marvel starts printing.

Ship That's why every second sets a final Fantasy set, or I mean a universe beyond set.

Yeah, and I think that this is just really ratcheting it up. I know that global political climate does impact the cost of this one, yeah, especially for us quite a bit. But man like, this is a lot, and it does set a very i'm gonna say it, I'll say, I'll say it, dangerous precedent for all you Marvel fans out there that are looking forward to getting your Spider Man and your X Men and your what's another Marvel spider Man's Hulk, Iron Iron Man's Avengers. There we go, Yes, Thunderbolts,

Oh yeah, it's like the It's like the Minutemen and the Watchman. It's like they fricking ripped off Alan Moore or whatever his name is. It's just me, just me, just me, the only one.

That thought of that. Yes, although I do love the Watchman, that should be No, that couldn't be a secret war hey, oh yeah, could what would Rorshak do, tap, throw pot, grease in your opponent's face, you win the game?

Yeah? What would what would doctor Manhattan do? Snap his fingers show you a Wiener would just get exploded? Yeah, you.

Flop Wiener on table, create life on Mars. That would be the craziest set.

Hey, oh my god, yeah there is.

Yeah. See Gary's got the lingo down. He's perfect. It's been a weird episode.

It's a weird episode.

The point is, I am exceptionally excited to not just get these cards and for everybody else to get them, to play with them. But I'm looking forward to going on the journey with Gary, who's interested in magic and Final Fantasy, to see how he reacts to.

A magic curious? Yes, is he blue Wiener? Curious?

Yeah? Who wouldn't be my did glued on the dark? I'd show to everybody. Yeah, couldn't keep it in my pants. So now you know that my I don't have a PHOSPHORX and penis. And I'm excited to explain all this stuff to you because it's very rare that something in magic comes along where I know so much more about it than Ryan. It makes him look like a goon and he's gonna go, Man, I'm so clueless and all this stuff, and I'm justna be sitting here.

Like, yeah, flexing what knowledge.

I'm such a nerd.

I do like to goon.

See I'm gonna throw that off there on the Internet.

But I'm excited if I had, if I had a criticism.

Okay, here's the thing.

Hey, I don't know about what all these characters do, despite you know, you thinking that I do because I told you that, I.

Right, because you told me, and I have no reason not.

To believe exactly. That's the Internet. I don't know what they do, and it's hard in magic. It's both hard and easy in magic to demonstrate, for example, what a color does red, haste, passion, fast, what the yeah? Green, big dumb, stompy trample step on you win, black, death, white soldier, Blue, smarter than you Yeah, yeah, especially blue.

When you cast an instant resource.

Yeah, and or at some point it's like this blue red flying Haste isn't a two to two for two, it's a three to two for two, or a four to four for three, or a five to five for four. It's like, oh, it's just power creeping. Like the raw stats.

You just they just take creatures that are already there, it's popular, and just make them better and flap slap with the final fantasy skin on it. Flap a skin on it.

Oh yeah, do not google that, do not fapyr phosphorescent blueskin.

It's a weird episode.

There's only so many times you can do that before magic becomes like the same kind of thing, but with power creep over and over again. See you gil Now when you take a character and it's like, oh, blue and red and it's got flying in haste, because of course does in this example, let's put one hundred lines of text on it to exactly recreate fiddling with dice and choosing and flipping coins and giving each other rusty trom Joneses and all of these things, because that's the

It's gonna get to the point where people are gonna start reading their cards and after you sat there, I'm just gonna stop you. I'm just gonna terminate that thing, so you'd have to stop reading it. I just want to hear your voice anymore. I'm gonna kill that.

And you know what it's It's an observation, that's what it is. It's not a criticism. It's like saying people are busier than they used to be.

That's true.

People are just busier because we have a capacity for more information at a higher rate. We have cell phones now that are calculators in our pocket. We don't need to use an abacus or count on our fingers and toes I still do. Yeah, while you were born before the avocust was invented.

I helped. I helped. That was a good day. That was a good day.

We have the capacity to be busier and magic is the same thing. We have the capacity to look up card rulings. We have the capacity to look at dh rec. We have content, we have scryfall that just tells us the ruling. We have companion app and judge help stuff right on our phone so we can manage all of these. We've got pre cons that come out of the box and fucking rip.

Yeah right, these ones will do that.

We've got Oh yeah, they will. We'll talk about that on the pre con review. Oh yeah. We have the capacity for these to be hyper complex and give us kind of the depth and the complexity that Final Fantasy is known for.

Yeah.

And it's like they just lean into it. And I'm just observing that, and I hope that it's not like like rad Counters from Fuck and rad Counters Powerful. Yeah, and they mill you and they do damage or something.

I don't know what they do.

I have no idea what they do, but I know that I like it, and I know that it's good. But I don't know what it is, so I'm just observing that.

I think this is gonna be a good one, and I think it's gonna lean more towards the complexity side than actually encompassing the minutia, which I know what complexity and minushul usually go together. But I feel like we're just gonna get a bunch of complex game pieces that maybe don't necessarily represent the characters in the game to the level that people are gonna want, but they're still gonna be cool.

Yeah, And I mean that's the balancing act. If you're a designer or like a game player, like you want complexity. You don't want just a bunch of one ones attacking each other for one and blocking, and whoever draws the most number of not land cards is the winner.

Whoever draws the first two to two is the winner.

Yeah, you don't want that. Then it's just literally war with like bicycle deck cards like spades and clubs and diamonds. It's like playing dominoes. As long as you can do math, you can maybe win if you draw a bunch of good stuff. Right. I want it to be complex, Yes, I just don' want to be a dissertation.

Oh I agree with that. Oh man, I actually went through. Here's how big a nerd I am. Because I like six so much. I went through in my brain and I made a card for each one of the main characters in my head. Yeah, all fourteen of them, and the two that have come out nowhere close to what I would I would have done.

But you can't remember somebody's name you met yesterday.

I haven't had the amount of experience with somebody that I met yesterday as I have with the characters in Final Fantasy six.

I can't argue with that.

Which is a great deal.

That is that is something a nerd would say.

I've been playing Final Fantasy six longer than our studio guest Noah has been alive.

Wow, why a lot. He's like he's born two years ago.

Oh six, oh six oh six.

Your birthday starts with a two.

This is a fucking weird this is a weird episode. You know what else? We gotta get go. We've got some places to do, some people to some people to see, some people to thank. They are Fusion Gaming online dot com. You can use special promo code see ceo nation to save yourself five percent of all your final fantasy needs, maybe some play mats, maybe some swag to make your stuff look all cooling out to Rejin of the second coolest thing out of there. They are the official refreshment

You got to say thank you to the patrons that we're going to see in Vegas.

Then we're gonna start yelling thank you to the patrons we're going to see in Vegas. The house is booked, My flights are there. Ryan will get one as well. We're really looking forward to that. I want to be in that Vegas sun so bad, making my feelings hurt.

I told you the house has a RC race car track.

Sure did.

No cars though we can. We can cross that go through.

That tunnel when we get there. Bring our Sea cards if your local, we'll drive them around in the backyard. It'll be sick, and we'll talk more about that final fantasy magic in general, and all sorts of super fun lifestuff on the next exciting episode of Commander Cook Cout podcast in our same