825: REVENGEANCE

Hey, everybody, it's Friday. Gotta get down on Friday. It is. It is a mandate from here at giant bomb dot com. Welcome to the Giant BombCast Revengeance. We have a lovely group of folks today. I couldn't assemble a better group of people to talk about some of the games we will be chatting about today. I'm your host, Jim choa. Giant BombCast Revengeance is brought to you by n c XT. Joining me today, powering up the the vultron that we are today, Turbo Sean McDowell. Yes,

empowering me is the nice Yuruba mate that I'm on now. Thanks for our Argentinian friends. I needed this today. Our own Argentinian adjacent friend, Michael him is here. Shit, I'll take it. Hey, listen, sometimes, you know, growing up, most people thought I was Mexican. So that's you know, we're the Latinos of Asia. So I'll take Argentinian. I'll take Diego there feels, and then the Latino of Asia, of Europe, Mike Manati. Don't give that to him. I think that's right Italian,

that's Italian's absolutely yeah. As the only actual Latino here, I'll give it to him, sure, Mike. I mean our Argentinian friend, Christian, loves some story about like some Italian person about to be executed, like somewhere in like the Congo or something. That the last moment, some guy like comes racing. It's like, wait, don't shoot him, he's not what he's Italian. That reminds me of that of that terrible Dragon Ball super clip when they decided to, hey, let's go make a bad guy,

but let's just call him Goku Black. Yeah. Yeah, we don't need You can find that clip online if you just search some specific keywords. It's things are a little different in Japan. All I'm gonna say is, don't don't look up what's call in Japan. You don't want to know, man, you don't want to know. I actually don't know Pokemon. I'm gonna look at it. No, let's keep it moving. Okay, things are different. It's a different anyways Japan. What jall? Oh, Mike,

I just need to gauge your reaction to figure this out. Yeah. I think it's just like Sparkling. It's just it's not whitey like I thought it might be. To be clear, the power of context, you can kind of discern what's name is Japanese Pokemon company in Japan? Maybe maybe maybe reevaluate something we can rename Pokemon I think right. Uh, gents, we're gonna we're here today to talk about Persona three reload, but before we talk about

that big honkin game, anyone playing anything else? Anyone? How's everyone feeling February? Now? Again, I'm tired, dog. I think I've spent ninety five percent of January assigned to covering a very long RPG. Yeah, and so I've I went from Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth straight into Persona three reload and these are very long games. Sixty hours in Infinite Wealth review on hit video game website GameSpot dot com and another seventy hours on P three reload

on hit video game website i GM dot com. So man, been very impressive. Good thing there's no big j RPGs coming out in February. Oh who's to say? Who's to say? Oh? God? Yeah, I kind of felt that hardcore after when we got P three codes come in, and I was like, where do I start juggling and stop playing like a Dragon where I'm having a lot of fun to actually check out this other game for the podcast on the website. But Mike, before we get to Persona

three, you wanted to talk about Penny's Big Breakaway. Yeah. I actually got sent kind of a preview code for this. So this is the game by the studio that did Sonic Mania, that really really good retro style two D Sonic game. This is not with Sega, has nothing to do with Sonic, but this is a three D platform that they're making now, and it's still very Sonic adjacent in a lot of ways, Like there's a bit

of Sonic Adventure here in terms of how this feels. But I think because it's not necessarily Sonic, they don't have the problem that a lot of the three D Sonic games fall into, where they feel this desperate need to make it all fast, fast, fast, because like you know, Sonic fast, Sonic fast and being really fast and a three D platform is just very difficult to control sometimes, so they have to, you know, they're redesigning how those games work all the time to try to find something that works,

and they get close. I think Frontiers feels pretty good. The Boost games can sometimes feel all right, but here it is it feels much more like a traditional three D platformer, right, especially one of those kind of I don't know if isommetrics away put it, but you know that kind of three D platformer where there's like the pooled back camera something like maybe more like an Ash Show rescue mission or chase cam, like the chase Cam kind of thing,

or even Kirby in the Forgotten Land or sack Boy like one of those. But you do have a pretty fun moveset here. Your whole gimmick is you have this yo yo and you can use it to attack, but you can also use it to kind of do this swing jump wherever you are.

You can grab a ledge with it. You can also spin it up and then roll on it like Sonic spin dash, So you have that whole thing going right, absolutely, But the whole game just also has this really nice kind of why two K aesthetic if you remember, just sort of the way games looked and felt at that time, with the sort of cheery visuals and music. So it's absolutely nailing that. I am very impressed. I think it's super cool to see these smaller teams being able to make really cool three

D platformers. Now. It's kind of like back in the day when we weren't getting two indy two D games, and all of a sudden we had these indies and smaller teams stepping up to bring back those games. I think that's it's happening a little bit already we had stuff I had in time and whatnot. But excuse me, this is really promising. I was very impressed. Mike. I don't know why I feel like you may be the expert in this, but I've always been curious to go back and check out Billy

Hatcher. Oh, I know why you think I'm the expert. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why I feel I think three D platformers have a certain esthetic platform with tubes on it. Team. Oh yeah, just fine, it's fine. Yeah, you go, you go try It's like, you know, it's a little bit of Glover. There's a little gloverness to it. Remember Glover. Oh unfortunately, yeah, wow, thentunate

helper. Yes, exactly. I at least say unfortunately because uh, the only my only exposure to Glover was at a Nintendo sixty four demo stall at my local Toys r US and any and every time I timed out to go to Toys r US. One of the employees was always hogging the machine playing Glover. Well, you gotta love the glove. Jan Jr. Tortoise, that's the best. When Glover was sponsoring Monday Night Raw, so Jr.

Would have to say, God, I love the glove, Yola. There is actually a game that I I did play that is not Infinite Wealth or Persona. I just remember. It is called It's from the same people who made A Space for the Unbound. Oh, it is a It is a short time loop game called Test Test Test. It's free, and it is wild because it's it's kind of like a psychological horror that is a commentary on on like work culture and working in corporate life and how your bosses treat you

in the workplace. So I highly recommend checking that out. It's not the most elegant puzzle style adventure game, but I think once you start to kind of dig it's it's also has arg elements to So I blasted through that in about an hour hour and a half. It's free. I think it's worth it, and I love seeing more creative games come out of Southeast Asia, such as this Man. You know, yeah, y'all gotta check that out.

Doesn't cost anything, So support the hommies, you know, you know, yeah, I like the space for the unvent a lot because of your WRAQ Michael so mat test test tests, Sean, have you been playing anything else that you can talk about or talk about well? Me being me Jay, of course, I've been playing a lot of Tech and seven, you know, yeah, seven, seven, eight. So I got used that it's like when the year flips over. I'm still saying twenty twenty three,

you know it is. But like Sean, I always had an little inkling that you were little. You had a skech of like a hipsternist to you. So I wouldn't put it past you to play Tech and seven when hotness knocked us, ain't in eight, so I kind of you know, I gotta go back every once in a while. But no, Yeah, I've been playing a lot of Tech and A. Been playing with my friends.

Me and Mike go a few rounds or whatever. We're like doing a show together or whatever afterwards, and that game is just a freaking blast man. We played a little bit for upf DR Day and then been talking about here or there. The one thing that I wanted to give more time with was the online before really talking about because everyone knows. But at this point,

the story is incredible. Arcade Quest that's just a fantastic tutorial mode, and you got all these character stories and other little bits of single player content. When it comes to the multiplayer, I really had to put it through itspaces because you know, I that train for tournaments and or anything like that. I got Big One a few months that I need to get ready for, so I need online to be good big Yeah. You gotta get that full,

full fledged experience. And uh, it's better than I was anticipating. Okay, but it ain't perfect. And we live in a world where like three Fighters six is basically perfect online. And so going into tecond eight when you have a really good connection with your opponent and you can see if it's wired or Wi Fi because you know a lot of consoles are probably gonna be

on Wi Fi. Oh I like that. You can see that. You can see that, yeah, because it'll be a Wi Fi indicare if it's Wi Fi or wise, it'll be like the cell phone bars if it's wired. And uh, if you go into Wi Fi match Man, that is a coin flip. You never know, like it could be okay, like maybe a little jittery but fine, or it could just be freezing every couple. I've seen some nasty workout there with the Wi Fi players, you know

what I'm saying. And there's there's that, and then if just someone's connection sort of shift the bed for a little bit. Like I was playing with my buds the other night and the game just frozers and were like, what happened? It's well, wife turned on Netflix upstairs from my buddy and I'm

like, ah, I'll do it to this game because they Yeah. So apparently from what we've been know s us out, it has roll back and not going it to a degree where it's like it's kicking in, but not in the way that we wanted to to cover up those network hiccups that can happen unexpectedly, and that's what you want. People have heard roll back neck with flaying game fans. We just throw it out there all the time. That's why we want because Wentz properly implement it covers up the really bad connections.

So that's like the one blemish on tech and eight. I would say it's also getting into a lobby and playing with friends is still a little funky. I'm willing to overlook that a little bit because you know, it's still launch window. They're figuring some of that stuff out. We'll see what happens. Like the bug that we had there our day jan where you can only spectate one match and then the spectators get that's still there. So yeah,

I was playing with my friends. We had to like all have Discord streams pulled up, and I was kind of annoying. But for the most part, like I think these are things that can be fixed, and the infrastructures there is just a little janky. So I think the online for this game, it could be better, but it's it's the best that a band I Napco fighting game has ever been at the very least, so we're getting somewhere with it. Well, Sean, I actually want to talk to you more

about Tech and eight. What is uh, what is the FGC scene feeling with tech and eight, Because what's the general beat on the street? They dig it, Okay, everyone's happy, very happy, always in the street. That's crazy. Hey, they're they're already street fighting in the streets. Might as well do everything else, Okay, But I remember specifically the the

one EVO that I attended in person. The most hyped I got was watching the Tech and Blocks specifically, so like, I'm especially excited, like Tech and eight has to be at EVO this year, right, oh yeah, yeah, well yeah, I want to go. I've never been to EVO, and like I want to. I can drug you guys. I've said many times on the BombCast. I have had the evil reports over the years. Man, EVO is more fun than any convention in across the industry because

there's so much to do with. There's so much to get excited about. It's true. And Tech and seven like last year was yeah dog, like that game is old and it was still again it was good. It was a little it ended pretty defensive, so we didn't have as many hype moments. But I think back to like Combo Breaker twenty nineteen. I think it was Tech and seven still a little fresh. Things were still a little spicy

back then, and there were moments that like the crowd was chanting. We had like USA versus I think it was Korea a couple of times where you know, you have those rivalries that happened because teaching such a worldwide game. There were moments that I will never forget, like you feel an energy in the room when like you, USA is about to get eliminated. We have one rep left in the bracket, and everyone literally stands up and does the spirit bomb. We all have our arms in the air, where like you

and and holler and and just dude wins, this room pops off. Like ten thousand people jump up and down, screaming on top of their lungs.

It's the coolest fucking thing. Tecan is the most international. I think it's like the most diverse in terms of like countries that are represented in the brackets, because definitely like ar like King of Fighters tends to be pretty diverse too, but arslin Ash is like representing Pakistan and all has like a bunch of homies winning too, and like like we don't really we don't really fuck with Filipino champ, but he was one of the best to do it for a

while and like and like, yeah, a bunch of Kareem players, Japanese players, US of course, it's all across the board. Man Tecan is. Tecan is probably the most exciting fighting game to go to an event for. Yeah, and the thing is like the wild thing, you know, we if you attend attend a convention, whether I don't know if you have the ability to go to an E three in the past or even a packs. There's kind of like a shutdown time, right if you're not interested in

playing like the board games or whatever. But like EVO goes for a long time during the day, and just like even if you're just like watching a game and not even like the big big games, but like you, when I went with Ben Pack, I passed by two hotel rooms even on the way back to my room cash games, going, oh yeah, money matches out the ass, dude, Absolutely, it is insane. No snitch, I'm not. I didn't see it. Come on, yeah, and then the god, I just looked at the dates for EVO twenty twenty four,

and I will be on vacation during that time when Vegas. It's funny because I will have to go to Vegas after Evo's done, like the day after EVO, and it's you're already gonna be there. What are you talking about, Well, I'm going to go to Japan this summer. Oh then coming back to Disney c that's way more important. Yes, yes, uh, Mike, Mike, my as you know, my partner is also a Disney fan. And then she looks at me and be the adult you know that

she's a Disney adult. You now, I've been to the I've bet your I've been to your apartment. I had dinner with y'all. I didn't get the vibe that she was a Disney I've gone if you had known. Yeah, I don't know about this man. Uh. There were at least like three popcorn buckets on our bookshelf. There was any wizard hat there as well. Michael's putting the pieces together. Is that why she warned me about now I can't see it, and I can't I can't see it when it come

over now. But Mike, you'd get a big kick out of this. She looks me in the eyes and goes like, I hope you know, since I'm front of the bill for the tickets until you pay me back. Uh, we're going to Disneyland and Disney see for two days. Absolutely the first time I went to not even Paris, France, but the first chance I got to go to France. I took a train for like four hours to go to Paris to see Paris, but mostly to go to Disneyland. Paris. So I get it in terms like like, what is the size

of Disneyland Paris in comparison to like the USA parks? Yeah, it's it's I mean, it's similar to Disneyland in California that it's two parks. The ones pretty small, though the kind of downtown Disney area is probably at the same size. But then there's like a giant hotel plaza right by that that dwarfs the hotel complex that you would get in Disneyland. So yeah, definitely

compares more to Disneyland than to disney World, which is absolutely huge. Okay, Okay, I'll get everyone little treats and trinkets and figure out how to send send it out. I'll so many pictures, you know what. I'll make like a little little Disney Sea vlog just for you, Mike mine. I would love that, love that more than anything, of course you would. I'm just gonna whisper, like, Mike, look at this. Are they guys like this? I would? I'd be like, you're right,

I do like that. Yeah. I'll leave enough space in the audio track for you to chime in as well. Appreciate that. Yeah, I can't really see your reaction to that Sinbad ride with that song. You're gonna love it. So Sindbad is like not like the comedian Sindbad but no, yeah, like that guy who went on adventures and stuff. Okay, like he's only he's got an equivalent. It's like it's a small world in Disney Ce and it has a very very catchy song. Okay, Okay, I'm hearing

from the chat that it they've gone stricter and vlogging. Don't worry, I'll find a way. I'll always find a way to point a camera or something. Chance. I think it's time to talk about the big game at hand. I'm gonna play the music just because let's go, Baby, Baby Baby,

the one Persona three reload. I'm gonna say this now. I'm gonna say I'm gonna start a conversation about Persona three now, Okay, twenty hours in Wow, I don't like damn it, jan and I want to and I wanted to assemble three of the three big Persona heads, uh, three three dear friends and say that I don't I'm not what's wrong. I don't know if you can call me a dear friend. Oh you didn't even first I find out and the next thing. I know, Jan Ship's on,

Jan You're what isn't my religion? Right here? We don't do this in this house. Come on, man, what's wrong? I guess I guess I'll start it off the front. I think Persona three Reload might be my favorite game of all time. Yeah, okay, so here's the thing. Here's here's what I I. I need someone to talk me off if here, because I'm twenty hours in and I think the game looks absolutely amazing.

It looks it looks gorgeous, and like my only I said this on the BombCast earlier this week, My only introduction to the series originally is just seeing screenshots of a PSP, so I have no frame of reference. The only things I knew about P three was that they use the Revolver the Revokero evokre to some of their persona, and I always thought that was metal as hell. And then I know the baby Baby, Baby Baby song that might was saying earlier, or the remakes Babe Babe Bybee. If you're good, you

get back attacks. Yeah, if you gotta get back shots to get the good song, we'll get the new song. Oh okay, Actually that explains why it's different when I okay, cool, Yeah, a different one. It's like Royal, where you get the new song, if you get if you get backshots normal song. If you get the normal, you don't get an ambush. And I've heard like middle middling things on June Pey of people either really liking him or hating the he's your first friend, come on,

he's nice to you. I'm gonna say this is up front. June pay is the best version of that archetype because he breaks out that archetype. Right, So we got June pey y and we're talking about I love I love Regio. How you played PERSONA four because fucking sucks. The worst pathetic is a pathetic loser. You know percona five guy, he gets kind of mean and stuff. I don't know, I don't like him. Plus also the third time we did that trope at that point it was a little tires dog

rules homophobe. I didn't know. But yes, we're talking about all the fix in the remake. They'll be fine, all right. Well, I mean I have hope because the Brazona team nowadays a lot more open to a lot more open to revisiting a lot of those elements, which and that's something they addressed in this game, right because I remember, okay, because I remember that being a controversy in like a worry when P three R was there was a beach scene that kind of I think it was mostly all which is

very different now. It's yeah, in the in the original one, it was a it was a transphobic dialogue scene with all the guys. They're they're out on the beach trying to holler at girls and ship. And then then they have like this whole thing with a like a trans who's supposed to be

a trans character, say some transphobic ship. They revisited they rewrote that section, but you can tell that they it's like here, let's go to let's put the like original scene, but like it's changed the dialogue so that scene still happens, it just plays out completely differently. So yeah, there are

things like that. And in P three reload, like I did, I almost forgot that in three P three fests and if you play the male route in Portable two that when you max out the social link for any of your classmates, your female classmates, you have to date them, like they become your girlfriend by default by maxing it out and I was like, holy shits, Yeah one of them talks about how she was like cheated on or anything like that, but I yah's to it, but that's not the case,

and reload you can actually be like, hey, we're like really good friends, congrats, max ranked ten social links. So yeah, yeah, it's like a lot. It's like a bare minimum type shit. Yeh fo getting added to it is just very good for it. Yeah, that's that's a big thing here, and it's actually a sticking point for me this game is

it's beautiful. For one, it's a fantastic visual overall. But for the most part, it is pretty one to one the original Vanilla Persona three, just with quality of life and gameplay changes from later games, specifically like the

where Persona is at with five Royal. And I think that does mean that some of the three isms that always bug me are really still bugging me, Like Tartaris is still boring, and I to be honest, if I didn't have the steam deck back there to like grinding those out while watching a Twitch stream or something, I would just be bored out of my mind during that segments, Like yeah, they're faster than ever because of some of the quality

of life updates, but still wandering down hallways, it all look the same for like, you know, twenty fours at time or whatever. So in Persona three, like, the dungeon is a randomly generated thing and the gimmick is every time you go in it gets changed again. Persona fours dungeons work the same. It was really Percent of five was the first one where they made the dungeons kind of hand crafted and bespoke, and they have these set

pieces and they're like five. Yeah, and there's still like an area for randomly generated stuff in person of five, but it's not nearly as important as those main dungeons. I think that will be a sticking point maybe to people coming to this from Percent of five. I'm I don't mind us so much. I'm but I'm somebody who played Persona three million right back when it came

out, so I have some affinity for that original tartar risk. I do think there is something kind of fun about the just like the random maze element of it and the exploration. It's very dungeon crawler like, right, and yeah, it kind of goes back to the s MT roots a bit there. Yeah, yeah, so I think so. My biggest problem so far is that it just feels like I'm following the same routine and I just have the same worries that I always have when I'm playing a Persona game of am

I maximizing my day properly? Am I? Like? Am I going to pause the game to look up the quiz answer of the day? The answer activity? Use the use the network function because like I always turn that off, so maybe I'll turn out, yeah, okay, you get all the answers straight up off that he actually, oh okay, all right, yeah, but there's a bunch of our stuff that helps you with that too, because now not only do you have the mini map, so you can basely

fast travels very easily. I did really enjoy that. It's a great change. It's a game. You have text messages now, that's that's the other big one. Yeah, because that was a big thing, especially in Persona five. You know, obviously I have a smartphone. They pull up and your friends are in like a group chat with you, and they'll like let

you know, hey, I'm available today. And now you got that in three where the character buzsts out their flip phone and they got email, so you know period appropriate and or I think because it does still take place in two thousand and six, but that's a great way to keep track of Okay,

these people are available today. You're even on mailing lists for like the restaurants, which pro tip you go do restaurants both eating and working in the early game because getting two stat points and sometimes getting some cat for working. Yeah, And I think my problem was like halfway through Persona five Royal, I think I stopped just playing the game and I started playing it with like

a guide next to me, just so I maximize everything. That's a huge problem, yeah, because like I just want to make sure like I'm not missing out on anything by like a certain day or what. I get that anxiety. And you know what you want to do is maybe find a happy in between. And that's like to read the basic tips, and the kind of basic tip is in the daytime, do your social links. At nighttime, do your stat boosts, and try to prioritize, prioritize some of those

things that give you better step boots, like go into the arcade. But I mean another part of it is a little point and it's hard to say, hey, just don't be anxious about it, but you kind of have to let it go a little bit and just sort of do your best. And hey, like, no matter what, you're going to beat the game and get the ending, and you're going to max out the social links that

you probably want to. It's not like like in the Persona for Golden Right, if you don't max out the social link with that new character, you're not going to get that whole extra dungeon or something like that. That was fucked up. So that's where a lot of a lot of people in five Royal missed the Last Palace and that whole story arc, which is like twenty hours worth of content and some of the best shit I've ever seen in an

rpges. A lot of people miss that because they didn't do the social link with the counselor in time, and I'm like, that's a goddamn shame. But there's none of that in p three. If this eases you a little bit, have you played Persona three before? Jam? No, No, not at all. Okay, I'll say that I think Persona three has some of the best social links in the entire series, but it also has some

of the worst. Yeah, because for everyone where you have where like I really like that, Hey, hey, this neighborhood kid is dealing with her parents getting a divorce and everything. I really like that one because it's like, oh, that's something I want to have expected. But then you have the dude who's like the king of eating or whatever, and that's all just about it's just about a large kid eating a lot. It's like, oh,

right, that one, So that's Arkhana and this one rules. That's such a good social link, right, Okay, go the guy is dying, that's that's that's a sun Arcana. But like I just assumed it was because his whole thing, his name and the menu is dying young man. Like damn, it's a very touching story, I think. To that to that point is that as Sean Sean and Mike had mentioned, this is this is almost a lot of it is one to one from the original game.

So a lot of those a lot of those things that haven't aged well still come through. And that that's because like, like the franchise has evolved so much, especially in terms of how it incorporates a lot of those social elements into the game. So you're gonna see a lot of like Kenji the your first classmate who wants to chill with you that will fucking sucks, and his social like his ass and then you'll have Yeah. So there's a lot of hits and misses. I think like one of the the rival track team guy

is like one of the best ones too, So it's you. There are some that you can probably pick out and be like, I actually like that full. I don't want to I want to spend time with them, and you don't really need to think about like, oh well, I don't upgrade this Arkana. So when I fuse personas, they're not gonna be as strong. It's like you'll find you'll figure it out. You'll you'll better persona. Yeah, a few social lengths, you are going to get a good enough

persona stayble to beat the game. Yeah, and uh, to preface us a little bit, me and jan are around the same point, like around twenty hours, Like I just got Fuka on my team, so like, you know, that's like a third ish the way through. So uh, Michael, correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't think it changes later. But uh, there are no social length perks correct, like outside of

you know, just the uh you get better fuses. There's nothing like in Person of five you could get like when you rank up the the social lengths. Sometimes they would have stuff that happens. That's that's how you would get like baton pass and things like that. Yea, even beyond that, Yeah, so certain things would change. So the so with the social link system itself, no, but there are so One of the things that I thought was one of the best additions and changes for Reload is that they have separate

social scenes with and social events with these characters. So yeah, so after you get Fuka into your party, that's when they introduce like gardening, watching TV, cooking with them, reading books. So those are ways to upgrade your stat points. And at the same time, the more the more time you spend with the specific character, they get stat boosts and stat perks that

go into battle. And then so with the male party members too, is that there were no male party members social links in three and three fests and a male round portable. But what they did to make up for that was they added separate distinct social events with them in particular, and I think it's really important to check your phone because they'll text you like Akiko will be like, Hey, I'm chilling outside the station. Do you have a minute?

Do you want to kick it? Let's get some food or something. And those aren't just like hey, I'm gonna hang out with him and maybe get a stat boost or get an academic point or whatever. Those actually lead to revelatory moments for those care there. And so those are scenes that are specifically written for reload. And one of the things I mentioned in my review is that those new scenes have like have a have a heightened quality quality because they

were written. And so when you have the contrast for old social links that are pretty much the same as they were in the original game, and then in twenty twenty four you have these kind of thoughtful and touching moments with with your bros, there is there's a noticeable contrast and quality you could tell what was newly written. But those are also the ways in which you get new perks for like their theogy attacks and they got stat boosts and it's it's like

super helpful stuff. So I highly recommend seeking that stuff out. That's a big new thing too, that Theorgy, which I just got a little while ago. Yeah, they have added limit breaks to Persona, which you know, it makes all the sense in the world. Of course, give everyone like a flashy super attack in Persona that just yeah, of course that clicks, and that's that's one of those layers that stuff that I think really starts flashing this out. But I did want to address in the live chat here

there was a little confusion. It looks like people might have known because of how we're talking about this being very faithful to the original. You can control your teammates, to be clear, like faith a person of three portable where that was also implemented. Yeah, any like core gameplay stuff you would expect out of Persona nowadays, is there? So yeah, controlling your teammates, the baton passing which is now called shift and all that stuff in addition to

the new stuff like the RTSY. But I mean go ahead, jam oh no, No, I just didn't know that that was a thing of the original Persona three. That sounds curia, yeah, which I mean why Persona three rules and might always rule? Is the aesthetics, right? I mean, I can't tell you the smile I had on my face when I was

in the school and I was hearing that song for the first time. That's done I was like, oh my gosh, I remember, just like it's not tough than just like a song, especially kind of like a low five song kind of gives me goosebumps. But dude, gosh, this soundtrack is an all time great one. And plus having like that kind of flashyar UI elements, right, Persona five killed it with the UI and UX right,

you have more of that in here too. The game just looks so good with things like battle transitions and some of these UI effects, even just in dialogue right then the menus like that is so much about what makes Persona incredible to me, it's just how incredibly good they are at aesthetics. Yeah, and speaking of like to touch, since you touched on the music, I think that's one of the that is part of the Persona experience, Like the

music is part of that the series storytelling. In a way I've said this before on After Dark this week, is that the singer. Each Persona game

has a specific singer for that soundtrack. It almost feels like that singer is a narrator for this story because when you listen to what these songs are about and what they're saying, they're kind of telling this story of what's happening in that game, and they have a new singer, Osumi Takahashi, who's taking over for Yui Kawa Mura, who has a very distinct voice, and a lot of P three diehards such as myself, were like, ah, I'm

open to the idea of having a new singer for this soundtrack, but after like spending seventy hours of this game, like, oh no, no, she's part of the Persona family now, like for sure, And some some of the re recording of the old songs might be take a little take some getting used to, just because that's how we know Persona three to be. But the brand new tracks they recorded for Reload are some of the some of

the best Persona songs period. The nighttime theme with and lotus juices back, who's the rapper who is on three and Q and Q two, Yeah, he's back too, and that Foel's got some wild bars, that Fee's got some wild bars. But his flow is like so distinct and his voice is so distinct, and he even sings on some of these tracks too. I'm

like, oh shit, he's got pipes. Yeah. So the soundtrack, like the new songs, especially the color of Night, which is the nighttime theme when you're roaming around, is one of the sweetest tracks songs I've ever heard in a Persona game. Like it. I tear up listening to that thing, because when you listen to what that song is about, and you have when you have finished this game, and if you know what happens in the story of this game, and you listen to a lot of these songs,

it gives me chills. Man. And so yeah, when it's like you need someone get your back, and you know I got your back in the cry, imaginic crowd goes yeah, this is It's so sweet. It's very very sweet. Even the so the opening song for the intro movie, like, I cannot watch that ope without breaking down completely. It is the It is the purest representation of Persona three. Like the entire story, the entire history of Persona three is represented in that animation and in that song.

It is. It is the best op I've seen ever in a Persona game. It is one of the best songs ever in the series Dancing though, Three Dancing, you know what I'm saying, Like I maintained Three Dancing is the best soundtrack. So what what do you. What do you guys think about the new voice cast here? I thought it was very good. It's interesting how some a lot of them, like you told me they were new voice actors, like maybe wouldn't even know. Some of them, like Goes,

sounded like different but still really work for me. I think getting a new voice or the chairman is really good because he always sounded weird as helped me in the Yeah, the majority of them are sound a likes, but Akiko is the one that kind of stands out because if you used to that like sort of raspier voice, like this does sound a little bit. It's not like that one guy from the from like the do It Yourself the d I I commercials or something. I think it was Home Deep. It's not

like the Home Deeper commercial guy. To me, I googled it the first time I heard that commercial, like, I think that's Akey from PRISONA. But damn, I actually dedicated a whole paragraph in my review to talk about the voice cast because I think from front to back, the casting, the

recasting for this entire game is damn near perfect. There's a lot of you know, these voices were originally recorded in like two thousand and six when this game first came out, and so a lot has changed, Like a lot of those voice actors are a lot more prominent now, especially like Liam O'Brien who does make a cameo in reload. There's just a lot of those voice actors are in different places now and some of them are just like you would

not want to associate with. I'll say you that much, okay. And so from front back they did a whole recasting, and I think calling them sounded likes is doing a disservice to how they both embody the original vision of that character and then make it their own, And especially once you start to what's the balls gets rolling on the more dramatic story moments in this game.

As you get later and later into it, the more they kind of really step into these roles, especially with someone like Yukari, who has a lot of baggage with her and she expresses that a lot at certain points in the story. Her and Mitsuru have so much drama together and the way they go back and forth is very believable. That's another thing too, is that the

voice cast expresses these characters in very realistic ways. So when Yukari is arguing with someone, it feels like that's coming from the heart, and someone like Junepe who's like a goofy ass dude who says like dumb shit, like you really believe, like, oh, he is a dumb ass, and then when he gets serious, that dude has the biggest heart in the entire crew. And that's across the board like something. I really like Igus's new voice

actor. The one thing I did kind of miss was having the more robotic aspect to her voice, because I guess is the robot, but I think like Don Bennett steps into the role to give it a little bit more emotion, that still feels like I guess as I remember her. So yeah, I think it's I'm super impressed because that was one of the things I was worried about it, like, oh, I'm so attached to who these original

voices were. Let's see how they can do it. I think it's a good idea to recast the entire thing, but let's see how they can hold up. And one killed it, especially Fuka. Fuka is probably the most improved character to me, Like she was cool back back back in the original games, but now it's like I adore Fuka, Like she's one of my favorite characters now because of Susan Young who kind of re just like it's a complete like retake of that character. Uh, and she does an incredible job

of embodying who Fuka is. Yeah, that's awesome to hear. I saw. I'm not that far yet. I got my code later, so I'm, you know, earlier than than even Sean and jan Are haven't gotten Fuki yet. But Fuka was kind of a sticking point B and the original You're like, did they fix Fuka like that? Yeah, something about her, I don't know. She's like a seventy year old woman and yeah, that's

what I said. Yeah, but now she's original Fuka out then she sounds a lot like Haru from a persona five different voice actors, but it's very similar vibe as did have Fuka vibes, not like in a terrible way, but she had some vibes. Yeah, so they sound similar. Yeah there.

I think the voice acting in general, like Michael said, like just things are so different with voice acting now that the quality is going to be higher because direction is better and everything like that, Like the performances are incredible to be clear, sound alike. When I said that, only in terms of like they try to like think, Mike said that if you say it, Mike said, okay, never mind. It was a completely vallid thing

to say. No, definitely, only in the sense that like they want people who like sounded similar to the original voice actor so it won't be super jarring. Again. Akko is like the one where it's like, oh, that's very different. That was the first one. I was like, okay, like if yeah, if going in you told me it was the same

voice act and had been long enough since I played one. Thought a lot of these were the same ones where I was like, oh, they recast some of them, and then yeah, you know, I looked it up afterwards. I'm like, oh, no, no, they they didn't. Yeah, it's entirely recast and they do perform just absolutely in correctly. I mean, it's it's very you can tell. You can start telling when like you get to someone like June Pay where I thought Jumpey Jupey does always sounded

like a tool in the originally does always sounded like the goofy dude. But now, yeah, Jumpey has ranged now and he actually like yeah, and they there are small changes to the story and everything like that, both to accommodate things like the orgy and all those new, smaller new concepts that they did add in, but also did I actually did do some comparisons. That's why I'm a little farther behind. I stopped and did some of this stuff.

Like I looked at scenes from the original compared to reload, and there there's a lot of just like the scene is exactly the same, the script is exactly the same, but these new performances are just so much better that

it just drives some of these moments home so much better. And it sells it because Persona is it's half visual novel, really, and you need if you're gonna have it mostly fully voice acted, which a lot of this is like I think even more so in Persona five Royal maybe, which perhaps because a smaller game that makes sense, but it's just they did such a great job. But I love it. I think the the part that I've gotten hung up about in my my time with the game is, uh, everything

else and in real life is very dour. Uh. And I think where I'm currently at with with the game is I'm just waiting for like the those little moments and those big payoffs. But to hear everyone talking so glowingly about it. I think it's also because it came out probably the worst time after Like a Dragon, because Like a Dragon is such a like a dumb himbo game of like, let's fucking do it, guys, we got it,

I love you, uh. And then like it's you know, the darker This is the darker persona by far, like like, you know, for deal four deals with like a murder mystery, so obviously not the lightest thing in the world, and whimsical though it's it's yeah, it's got whimsy in the day for sure. And then five, you know, five addresses some serious topics, you know, like like abuse from your superiors. It is

all a big theme of five and a lot of that stuff. But three is just I mean, all you need to see is that, you know, the devoker is a device they put to their head that looks like they're shueing themselves dart Yeah like hell, like Dan said, yeah, it goes

places. Yeah, okay, all right. That's that's good to know because every time I pause the game to save and just think about whether or not I want to keep playing I'm staring at that menu and it's like this whole game is dripping in swag, you know, and like, Mike, you nailed it. It does bring me back to like that kind of like Y two k ish two thousand and six era that after like one of my sessions with the game, I wound up going on eBay kind of looking for cool

and P three players I'm never going to use. Yeah yeah, but like it just yeah, okay, all right, like yeah, uh, what if I told you that Persona three has always been my comfort game? Yeah no, no, no, it's I don't think that's odd. Yeah that checks out. Yeah yeah, when you're in the daytime segments like I get that because it's chill, super chill. Yeah. I've replayed. I've replayed fest and Portable a total of four times the lively it was always like my

comfort game to go to. So playing reload though, talking about like the darkness and like how you know you have to I guess you have to be in a certain mood to really accept P three on its own, to it on its term media at it's on its on its terms, because it is it does handle a lot of things that might hit very close to some people, and I think for me, I dedicated a lot of this to my review. It's talking about how playing this because it's almost one to one the

same story, but it is a completely different experience for me. A lot has changed in my life since the last time I played Persona three, so I have a like a fresh perspective on the same exact story, and it hits completely It hit completely different now that we're like, I know what it's like to go through loss, I know what tragedy feels like. I know

how to handle those things. I know how how much it breaks you down because this whole game is there's constantly people dying around you, people losing loved ones, having to grieve, having to move on so fast from the life and P three. Back then, it was like I felt like this intense sadness when when something tragic happens in the story, I'm like, oh man, that's that's so sad. I feel terrible for that character. But now when those things happen and I see that happen in this story, I'm like,

oh no, I get it now. I know that this character who is handling it this specific way, I know exactly how that feels it just so powerful that back in two thousand and six they nailed it with how they told this story and what they did with it, and it kind of in a way, it really puts P four to shame. I hate it, say I got a fucking P four poster in the back here. I love

that game too, But in retrospect, they hit something. They hit a like bigger topics like life, death and how to make the most of the time that you have left. How do you handle your life when you know you're about to die? And I think that like the social link with Aki Nari, who's the guy chilling and who has a terminal illness, Like, holy shit, dude, Like I have a different perspective on that with the health issues that I've gone through, and now I understand what he's thinking.

Back then, I'm like, oh, this is so sad. Now I'm like, oh shit, I can learn something from this guy. And then so as you go through this whole story, it's it's dark, there's a lot of death around it, but I think once it starts to come around, it's about how you make the most of your time and how to appreciate life. I think just Howard who did the review for a game spot.

I read a review and I think she quoted the Iliad and it's one of the most beautiful ways to summarize Persona three is that everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. And I think that's one of the themes about the game, is accepting the inevitability of death. So what are you going to do in the meantime? And that's what these all these characters in their own ways

go through that whole process throughout the game. It is one of the most mature stories, not like oh, violence and darkness, but it has grown up in that way that stands the test of time. I call it timeless and powerful and all these other words in my review, but I really do

feel that that way. And I think the problem is, though, you got to get through the gameplay to see all that stuff, so I tell you, and like all jokes aside, I totally get the reservations that people have from a gameplay perspective, and so yeah, yeah, And for folks confuse this to like my negative feelings on the game, it's purely from a gameplay perspective of just navigating through Tartarus and having that anxiety when it comes to

managing social links, and now hearing from y'all that like, Okay, just go with the ones that I'm vibing with more so than feeling like I have to max out every single person just because I don't want to miss out on fusions and all that jazz. Okay, Like I'll circle back to it, and yeah, I when when I booted up the game and then they have like a line or something about, uh, what you do with your time? I kind of just like, oh man, I gotta go smoke a

cigarette. Smoke. It's just like, okay, all right, it's one of the it's gonna be one of these games to use this game. Huh, you haven't even gotten to like the good ass parts of the story jam Like, okay, it's it's not that far off. I think if I recall correctly, within the next ten hours, you will get to like all of the big plot points that sort of crib the rest of the plot forward. So yeah, we'll like you mean being around the same area we are

at. Like, basically it's silly to say about a persona game, but it's always the case. We've basically gotten through the tutorial here. Yeah, yeah, and like you know, that's that's also like ties back into like a conversation We've had a lot with Backlar about like a Dragon infinite Wealth. You know, you do have to invest a good chunk of time to get through the tutorialization of a game. Uh And unfortunately, fortunately that's the same

case with this. I don't think Persona three would necessarily grab grubs attention as much as I mean, you and Mike would know best, as as much as Infinite Wealth has no no, it's not you know, it doesn't have it doesn't have the death raating to loss so random guitar. So okay. My question for for y'all here, like, is this a good jumping on point for someone that has been PERSONA curious or is this kind of like a

victory lap for P three fans. It's not gonna be quite as maybe flashy in some ways as five is. I think it's a pure PERSONA experience in a lot of ways, also a smaller person experience, which maybe is going to make it more prosperable. I mean, this is definitely what PERSONA is and just you know, and from that sake and from being the newest one

and in a lot of ways. Personly three, you know, Michael's been talking about us, it did do things better than four or five really ever did, even with all the improvements that would come from it in a mechanics kind of way. So yeah, I don't think there's any way you're going to like play this one and not like it, but like, oh, a Persona four five would really win you over. This is Persona in a very here, very sincere form. I disagree a little bit with the sentiment.

I would say that, like if someone if the question is someone like has never played a Persona game and they've been looking into the series, I do think five Royal is still the best, jumping on points, despite the fact that it's such a much longer game, you know, like on average probably like thirty or forty hours long. It's significantly bigger. There's a lot, there's a lot I'm trying to remember, like what what I clocked in

at at the end there, oh jeez. But I think because three is a significantly more linear game, there's less, you know, side content, there's you can even feel a streamlining, and the fact that they didn't change how like the strip mall is laid out. It's still just like a wall of stores and you like walk up to one and go in. It's not like Percona five where you're like wandering around downtown Tokyo and stuff like that. I still think that that five Royal is still the best jumping on point for

the series. But with P three Reload, I mean, you kind of already know if you're gonna play it, because Persona fans, it doesn't matter what we say here, You're gonna play it no matter what. Like game Pass people are probably gonna check it out and download. They're into RPGs right now games, so like you can just go check it out, and I don't know, it's it's a stiffer person I would say, just on the whole because of things like Tartaris. It's interesting to go back to this in

this form. I was I've been hoping for a long long time that we would get a Persona three remake, and like when the four Golden Port and the three Portable Port were announced, I was like, oh, that's not what I want. But we also got the announcement three reload around the same time, or I think it was around the same time, I don't remember. But after yeah, it was something I look forward to. I was hoping though that we talk about different remakes and remasters, reimaginings. In the

case of like seven remake, this is a redo. Basically, this is like I like the team looked at the design docs the original ones, which maybe they even did, but hypothetically it feels like they look at the design docks for the original game and we're told we're making this game in modern day, that we're getting everything we know about making grpgs we're going to put into

this one. But as a result, it really feels like while I was hoping for some the type of upgrade similar to say Residi Evil two to to remake, where it is that reimagining. It is the spirit of the old game, the story of the old game, but the gameplay is significantly changed

to be more modern. This is more like an RI four to four remake, where it's not a radically different game, it is just visuals are way prettier than they've ever been, the gameplay is refined, and there are there is that bous content, but it's like there is that a little bit of This is kind of the game that I had in my head from back in the day. That's because it is so similar to the original while just like

rounding off those rough edges. Yeah, I think I think, I think, yeah, that's pretty much on point, like when trying to encapsulate, like, oh what how much of a remake is this actually and putting you say, look like you said as a redo, but also very much that original design dog exists, but now with the current generation of visuals, like that's a pretty good way to put it. And then so I think it depends on just how much stock someone puts into those kinds of things. And

I do agree that. I think P five Royal is the one I would always recommend as someone's first persona because I think it's best. Yeah, it's front to back, like gameplay wise, the social stuff, the story is trying to tell visually, music, everything like that is a that is as close to that game is just it's a masterpiece for sure. I Vida gave it a ten on game Spot for a goddamn reason, right, Yeah, and it is always the one I'm going to recommend, And it's still like

a very powerful story that comes along with that. But yeah, it's and so like if you have that, if you have room in your heart for a persona P three reload is probably gonna click with you. If this is your first time you have you don't know what to get into. It's probably fifty to fifty shot. But it's also hard to just put myself in other people's shoes because I don't know what their expectations are. Sure, I mean

I would if you're interested. I would one thousand percent say yeah, give it a try if you're interested, especially if if you have game Pass. But I do tell some people that to some degree, like give it a chance, and also understand that there are aspects that are still pretty dated because of how faithful it is to that original design. So okay, some of that stuff does come through and I'm playing, I'm like, oh fuck, like you know this is There are a lot of aspects of this game that

I think make it the kind of remake that I was hoping for. But at the same time, I understand that comes with some coffee oats, Like, yes, in some ways, it still feels like the PS two game. Anythink, as you get later on in the story, when you start to kind of check things off of your list and you're almost like done with

social link routes, you're done upping your stats. The original design starts to starts to see you start to see through the design of the game and like, ah, damn, well, I guess I'm just gonna burn time so I can get to the next story event that does happen. And I think that's just a product of sticking to the original a little too much. But at the same time, like this is yeah, P three is P three is so much more to me than that that in a way I can not

excuse them. It's still part of the critique, but they don't bother me as much as they may have may bother other people going into this. So okay, yeah, it's it's still the best way to play Persona three, even if it is missing the answer from three fats, which hey, that

was bad, so we don't really miss that. But even if it's missing the female protagonist route and everything that came along with then all the new scenes, this is still the way that you would want to hop into this game if you are interested, whether you're a PERSONA fan or you are you know, so are just checking things out. Yeah, and I appreciate the route they took for this remake. There's just something about playing Persona three again and

having it feel like that game. Because Persona three, I remember the excitement just around that releasing, how kind of caught off guard everybody was, right, like the third entry in the series that even a lot of you know, JRPG fans didn't know much about, and all of a sudden it was the kind of the hot topic, this late Yes two game that suddenly had all this sort of style and this different vibe for a JERPG than we were

really used to ever seeing. And it, you know, it took off from there and then slowly grew and to this point now where Persona is an absolute juggernaut in the JRPG space. Just really cool revisiting where that all really started here, you know. Okay, all right, all this all this talk about P three, I'll stick with it, y'all. Start out with a hot take. I got one over I dude, Jane. You know, like I play big comfy chair back there for like the big story stuff

and everything like that. And then when Tartars comes up, Hey, steam deck could before bed just try to way to fantastic game on the steam deck right, like so good. I've been playing on my ally and it's been very nice. It's always a problem, but yes, very well. Listen, this is a very specific thing, but we'll say and I recommend this

for Persona games in general. If you can play this on an OLED screen, goddamn you need to do so, because I got an old TV and an O LED switch and a not O LAD monitor and let me tell you it looks away hors on this. It does on either of those, so if your's really popped. They do a lot of interesting things with like colors and uh that comes through a lot of the personality. So yeah, I would second that as well. We want to answer a few specific questions.

We got the game thing here totally. Yeah, I can throw these out and I bet like more you guys can answer. But Kane hi one was wondering if Michael can answer quick question. Is it as strict as the original Persona three with regards to maxing out all s links or did they loosen it up a bit? I think I can't. I can't scientifically answer this, but it feels like I had a lot easier of a time one ranking up my social stats because they give you so many more options to do it as

well. But also two, I just felt like I've less frequently ran into that instance where you go up to sell when you want to hang out with them, and then it'll say in the textbox like, hey, you're not gonna be able to advance your rank with them, but you could still hang out and eventually you will rank up with them. I feel like I encountered that fewer times, so in a way, like I didn't try to min max this when I when I reviewed the game, I just went with my

heart. I feel like I got more done. That could also be a product of me playing this game four fucking times and just like knowing how to go through it. But it feels like I think I maxed out my social stats way earlier than I ever did in any of the other versions, Like you need to get like max ranked with all three stats to start your social link with Fuka, Yukari and Mitsuru, And I remember playing the older versions and when Mitsuru's social link opens up, I was like, shit, I'm

still at rank five for academics. I need to be a genius to hang out with her. And then I was like rushing to up that so I can start that social link. But I maxed out Academics and like October and her shit doesn't start till the end of November. So I was like, oh, I'm already ready to hang out with Mitsuru. She wasn't ready for me. So oh, how the tables have turned. So I do feel like I think it's easier, but I cannot scientifically say yes, But with

my heart I will say yes. All right? How about our rules? Here wants to know if I'm a gamer on a budget, how viable is it to pick up the original Persona three probably meaning portable here instead, there's no reason to This is the best version. It's on game Pass as the cheapest way of playing peron. I will say, they don't maybe they don't have game Pass. I mean, do you guys think that you wouldn't even

consider telling somebody to just play Persona three portable anymore? It would just be like I would maybe just wait for a sale on this or wait a few years on this one. I don't know why you would go back to portable anymore. I think there's no reason too. The only thing I will say is that you I still think there's a lot of value inportable because of the female route. Because I've said this many times in various capacities, But the

female protagonist for Persona three Portable is probably besides Maya from Persona two. I think she's the best Persona protagonist period because they actually give her a personality, and they rewrite a lot almost all the social links for the female protagonists, so you have very different conversations with the female characters throughout the entire game,

and I think it's a lot more thoughtful in that way too. And also just like the dialogue options you get, and her design is great, and the new music that comes along with the Female Route Importable is all fantastic,

So it's a very different perspective on the same story. But it's hard to recommend still when something like Reload comes out, Like if you play Reload and you're like, holy shit, I love p three with all my heart, I want more of it, but it's done, then I would say, hey, go play the female Route in Portable because there's some new, cool shit that still is some of the best that the series has ever done, and I think it's some of the best writing for a female character in the

Persona series, which has historically not been so great, and they kind of hit a lot of great topics with some like with some sharpness in the female route for Portable, but yeah, that's our That's ot of what's to lament here about Reload is that, hey, it would have been really damn cool if that was in this game and this was just the definitive version that we've

always wanted. But instead, Yeah, going back to that, any of the content that's not in here that's importable, that's almost like supplemental reading at this point, I think where like they're so much Arilos, so much has done quality of life wise, it is just so much better to play than the older versions of whether you're talking about the original, Fez, Portable,

any of them. Like this is the way to go, and it's it's accessible, and you know, I get if you're doing other ways to place or in older games, I get, Okay, yeah that technically is cheaper. But on the whole likes, I'm just saying, Jeff grubs down this podcast, so I got I got the one to bring it up. You know, yeah, game pass fire up some stream and like it's it's pretty

accessible now. Yes, One thing is really is really funny when you mentioned Tartars, like going back to the old Tartars is kind of miserable, like yeah, they're later, Like yeah, they're just like mazes and mazes. Each floor is a fucking maze, And like I noticed and reload, the higher you ascend in Tartaris, the shorter the floors get. It's almost like the game real like it feels like that way. There's a lot of instances where it's like, oh, hey, those are the stairs, it's just

down the hall. Yeah. I did notice that I at least felt like I was progressing through it a little faster because now I'm in what the forties or whatever, I'm like, I'm just starting to Yeah, I'm starting to cruise here. So okay, it feels like it gets a lot short, and I think it really does get a lot shorter, whereas the opposite happens with the old versions, where the higher you send, the more fucking complex

those a mazes get. And I'm just like, I don't know if I could recommend that in good conscious unless you want to play on it easy. But yeah, like we got any more questions. One more here from rad Josh Conney just says, I want to I hear they got rid of the condition slash stamina system. They also remove the free healing at the base of Tartarus. Is it more like coun percent of four handles healing and resource management

in dungeons. We didn't talk about this alliot. Twilight Twilight Fragments, Yeah, that's something that encourages you to actually do a little more exploration, which is I think is kind of cool because in the overworld, you know, there's all there's all these different places to explore, and even if it's a little more shallow than say a percent of five or even a percent of four, the game encourages you to go to all these different places that you might

not go because there's not a social ink or whatever, and to actually walk around at least and check out all the different you know, just walk up to it and you know, you press a yal a little bit flavor text. But now, Twilight Fragments are just these things scatter across the ground all throughout the overworld and when you pick them up or you get them from Elizabeth, because you know, they want to give you some the work with as

you progress with the game. But you pick these things up and they can do things for you when you're in Tartaris, and so One of those things is the aforementioned healing your party. You spend seven Twilight fragments in the main lobby of Tartarists to get that full heel, or you can also else can the chest. There are specific chests all throughout targets that you can only unlock

that you know normal treasure chests just walk out to it. For this, it's like you need x amount Twilight fragments, and then the more fragments you need to open usually the better the item is they get inside. Elizabeth is still the best velvet room attendant right, like easily one thousand percent. Like she is so goofy, she's so funny. Yeah, definitely, uh yeah. So another thing too, though, I would say, is like I

do not recommend using spending twilight fragments on healing. I would suggest like finding more in clever ways to heal your party and restore sp because there will be

times when you run out of Twilight fragments. Seven is a lot. There's a lot, and then the deeper you get into this game, the more of those special chests show up. And there's nothing worse than pulling up to a three star special chest and you have two Twilight fragments and you're like, damn, I know that the best weapon I could possibly get is in that chest. Yeah. Yeah, to go to the pharmacy on Saturday your stock up there, fragments? Yeah, that real quick, because IM wondering this

too. Does Elizabeth still have the social link from fests in this Yeah, well it's not a social link, but you take her out to hang out. Yeah, that's still there. It's it's the same as you remember, and it's still very adorable. Nice, lovely, lovely. Well, speaking about being adorable, is it an adorable group of folks we've assembled here today to talk about an adorable swaggy game? Michael him, would you say it's whimsical? It's probably light on the whimsy. I don't know what to tell

you. Man. It maybe quite as wisical as other RPGs, But uh no, I don't know if I could say that. That's not the word for persona. Don't paint the man into a corner like that. All right, all right, well, okay for PERSONA six, when that eventually comes out, what do you think the whimsy factor is here? It'll be higher than this. Here's my question for for for Michael PERSONA expert, PERSONA three, Blue, Persona four, Yellow, Persona five bread. What is the

key color for PERSONA six? Color right now? Purple? Yeah, colors at some point they can't use green. That's soule hackers, that's ticking. Also, green is kind of like half P three because of the dark hour. True purple would be good. Yeah, might be an orange, pink, hot pink, maybe those Barbie Barbie vibes, right, I don't know, I'll be sick. P three p though, did pink for the pink

for the female route? Bute just took all the colors? Okay. Well, last week when I had the panel describe uh like a dragon infinite wealth with a series of emojis, I'm going to ask you gents to do the same. Oh, the face emoji and then the gun emoji. Ill. Yeah, I'll add a clock. Yeah, oh the midnight our little like U. I animation, by the way, is very good. Yeah, a lot and a scary ghost oh okay, speaker ghost. Is there specifically

a rapier emote or is that too specific? I think they have the cross swords. I think that I need to represent ye. I know the other games have it, and that's just just I know why they do, but still always so funny. See Ukari just in her bright pink like jack it in like the high school while every other person is wearing a uniform. It's like, can you find the make here part of the party when they break the dress code? Yeah? Ye, spot the anime protagonist who has colored

hair? Like who has the blue hair? Yeah? Oh? The funniest is that yu Giah one of the oh my god, yeah in the crowd, like who could it be? Uh? Well, damn, okay, I've been convinced. I've been wooed to stick with PERSONA three, that is until that is, perhaps until you know, we all need to devote some more time to another gigantic rap. Yeah that remade right? Who knows? I don't know. Yeah, my PS five can't take discs, so if this is a multi disc joint, I can't fuck I don't know. Yeah,

uh, Michael him working, Folks. Find you on the internet these days. You can find me and all my bullshit at Michael pw I'm on Twitter and at hi am Michael on Instagram. You can find me writing words and doing things and videos on gamespad dot com and IGN dot com as well. Damn, damn, damn. Okay, Okay, Mikey, I was gonna say apples. I'm not going to say it. Mikey meatballs, Mikey meat monkey meatballs. That seems kind of that seems racially coded like meatballs.

I mean it's true. Hey, I want to really a real quick question before the plugs. Mike, do you put breadcrumbs in a meatball? Or is that yes? No? Okay, okay, yes, so no, it's important for the for the right texture. You want to have some Uh there's a whole video by Adam Orgucia where he did like experiments like ten percent bread comes, twenty percent, fifty percent. He figured out the exact ratio.

I forget what it was, maybe like twenty five percent. You need some bread comes in there to help absorb moisture to get a good texture. Yes, they're important. Okay, Okay, you were I interrupted your thought. You were going to shout something out. Just I want everybody to check out the new Nineties Dizzy the podcast. It is about Castle Illusion. It's about a video game, classic Genesis game, and it's many sequels and spin

offs and successors and things like that. So yeah, check out Nineties Disney please. Un Last, but certainly not least, Turbo Sewan. Where can Fox find you on the internet if you want to be found? That is well, if people want to find me, I would be on Twitter dot com as at Turbo Shawn Underscore and then Turbo Shan, s A Jawn everywhere else, Blue Sky, Twitch, all you know the works, and then professionally, hey you're all Ryan Right's place here a giant bomb editing doing social

media occasionally being on camera. As you can see, it's the best stuff. It's the best stuff. Particularly check out the death stranding TikTok that Shawn made. Oh yeah, that's popping off. I saw it this on when I was like, oh, I feel light. Though, since I am in the presence of Sean, I do want to formally thank you for representing Octopath Traveler two in the Game of the Year. So helpful. I'm so

glad that that was awesome. Thank you for I want to thank you for you know what I might give you ship for being a Disney adult, but you know what you are true. You are true to yourself to the very end, and I admire that and I think everyone can learn something from embracing who they are. That's very true. Yes, Mike is are you good on compliments for today? Are you good for till the weekend? Yeah? I could still use a few more points from Dan the freaking whatever dash.

Let me just remove a point from your score. Go ahead and do it preemptively. Dan's got to maybe jump on a plane this weekend. He has no time to award or remove points. Right, we'll see, we'll see, folks. That does it for this week's edition of bc R. Thank you Sean, thank you Michael, and thank you Mike. Uh. Next week on BCR, who knows what the heck we'll talk about. Maybe we'll

have another hot topic. If you want to suggest the topic, feel free to shoot an email at bombcasta giant bomb dot com, at me on the Twitter machine, or drop a comment. I rarely read the comments for my own mental health, but I'll do it. I'll do it for you. I do it. I'll see it. Thank you, Sean. There's been some nice comments lately. I don't want to people are saying nice things about us, Okay, see that That's what I was doing. Yeah, I

was fishing for them. I was fishing for the nice comments. I was like, oh, well, I don't read. I don't read the threads, I don't read the comments. I do I exhaustedly read. This is why he's the producer. I just need to make sure that like I don't know, like I didn't show my ass one week or so. That's that's super premium that we're rolling out. I don't fucking know. But folks,

we'll see uh on Tuesday for an episode of The Giant BombCast. I believe Greb is going to be back doing gm M. I don't know if on Monday, but we'll see. We'll see if he's uh back from being here and stuff. All right, I've been janned, he's been Sewan, he's been Michael. He he has also been Michael. We'll see you next week. Goodbye,