Welcome everyone. The episode one seventy three of The Dance Begins cast Aamy hosts Rob akas in joining me today, my favorite people in the world. Uh, controlling this ship, making sure we don't crash into anything. Ryan, how are you may hit a few bumps and like, you know, things here and there, but we're doing all right, good king turbulence. Yeah, just just yeah, it's a little bit too but now do it, okay. Um. It was literally a sleep catch up to day for me.
Um, but uh, you know we're here, are you getting things ready? Doing uh, you know, just doing things at least trying to love anyway. I love that. Let's let's all try to do things. That is my h That is my goal for the upcoming week. Try to do things. Try to do things. Yeah, because this weekend for me,
I didn't get anything I wanted to do done. It has been like the most least productive, like I want to say, like the passion maybe like two three weeks for me, or I just keep putting everything off and I'm like, God, I just need to stop doing stuff and do things, if that makes sense. If that makes sense. That wonderful voice that you just heard is a Drew Stopher, How are you am? All right? Oh? It's another day in the life of Drew. Yeah, I
don't know. My life's not exactly exciting. I gotta play some video games. That was cool. Oh yeah, I don't know. I feel like I didn't do much this week and then like yesterday, I played a ton of video games and then I just kind of existed in for like today. I don't know, it's weird. Uh. I still need to get that Deep Dive episode out to you guys. Um still working on that. It's been hard to be productive this week. I don't know. It's that time
of the year. I guess. I can't believe it's almost May. Yeah, I mean I want these video game releases to come out, but also like I don't want my life to like fast forward slip away, so an existential crisis. Is there anything big that's in May? I kind of there's like all messed up two years of the Kingdom. Oh okay, okay, that's that's the one. I mean, now that's the big one. I'm personally looking forward to the Hall a Live. I don't showdown Fighting. It's
going to be coming out next isn't next Weekday to date. They did May fifth yep. Oh shit, yep. And they revealed the final character as well, which is uh you Coco Cocoa huh, which was like, oh, okay, I'm cool. I can't believe they did that. There's a lot of lore behind Kidio Coco, yes, and and and you know, I'm a big fan of Caisson and there there is there is a connection there,
there is yep. Um so I uh I saw that and I immediately like sent that to Jose who was a fellow Coco Caisson Appreciate tour and uh yeah, that just kind of like blew my mind. I was like, these fuckers, I can't believe they did that. Yeah, I'm playing Coco and uh in Corona. Remember free free to play this this this this game is free to play, and I'm excited all back that came out. I'm wanna check it out too. Like I think the pixel art's kind of adorable
too, so I definitely want to check it's good. Yeah, there's some there's some jakiness with a few of the characters that I'm like, oh, sure, kind of missing some frames here, but overall, like the overall look in the production around is actually very good for like a little free side project. Yeah, exactly. That's why I'm kind of like, listen,
this is a free thing there. They'll obviously clean it up a little bit later and things like that or so, but I'm definitely gonna be blind and I'm I think my character's own players is gonna be for Boogy and botm Okay, okay, yeah, I think those are the two I'm want to play. I know, I lived through V two ers through like just random clips. I think the one I resonate the most with is Corona because she's just a fucking gremlin. So I'm probably gonna play Corona. I mean, yeah,
she does indeed. But yeah, they announced today being uh May fifth, when that releases. Cool. Um, so those are probably so here here's the full May list checkout case anything speaks out. None of these really speak out me. Besides Zelda, we have Agel Wonders four, Red Fall, Super Dungeon Maker. Want to check out Red Fall. I've been hearing some pretty interesting things about that. Raven Locke Death or Treat Darkness Dungeon two. I guess that's a big yeah. Um, E's nine most from Knox
the PS five versions coming out May ninth. Uh. Lord of the Rings here of Middle Earth? Uh? What's up? Does Jedi following Survivor Last Survivor? Yes, because originally I was supposed to come out well this month or last month, so I got pushed back in a little bit. Okay. Yeah, so that's that's a that's a pretty big release. I still need to play the first one. Great game. Let's see Humanity Firmaments, Lego two K drive, Ink Bound after US Amnesia, the Bunker, Bread
and Fred farming simulator twenty three ye Bro Farmer simulator. Like legit sells millions of fucking copies and it's insane to me. Uh. Lord of the Rings gallam is finally coming out at the end of the May month. Company of a Hero's three and System Shock Oh knock the big one? Is that a remake? Yes? Oh okay. I was like, didn't the game come out like thirty years ago? Yeah? They they end the remake some time ago. Um, it's been in development for like quite a while. Um.
Thinking about it, it's been getting like steady updates. Um, but it just hasn't like officially released. Um. So that's very cool that they're finally like about to drop it. That's that's I think June's gonna be a much bigger month though. Have yeah Street Fight or six, you have Diablo four, your Final Fantasy sixteen, you have Ghost Trick, Phantom, Phantom Detective, Story of Seasons of Wonderful Life. Um, there's just so many
big titles just coming out in June. I mean you probably could have just stopped that Street Fighter six, Diablo four, and Final Fantasy sixteen. That's it. Like that, that's the story. That's really it. That that's the three and everything else, the things that are in their shadows because you don't want them to get missed, very big shadows. Yeah, Like it's true, Like it's great to point out the smaller things. I am right there with you, but like, let's be real. What that month fucking
is probably ninety that is releasing their game in June. I am so fucking sorry. Yeah, I'm so sorry. Oh then ah, but that's cool. We we gotta we have exciting months coming up. That's dope. It still I guess we gotta wait for like I was gonna say, E three, but that's not a thing, definitely not. No. No, we gotta find out what pronom isn't you. Oh, it's true. They're just gonna show up at the convention Center by themselves, just like where nobody go
Ain't nobody's gonna make it here. They're gonna have like six different versions of Silent Hill with them, and they're just like where what do we do? It's gonna be the fresh Prince? Uh fresh Prince? What the video games?
What are games? Are video games? But I guess we wait for for Summer Games Fest and all of the stuff around that before we get a good look at what the what the fall is going to be, because I think that's still kind of a question mark for everybody, um, outside of like Spider Man two for Sony. Right, Yeah, I'm curious what the holiday lineup is going to be considering our year is such an insane uh time. You know, I want to say, didn't they uh when we were
talking about metro Vanians and stuff I got before the show started out? Didn't they just announced a release date for Blasphemous Too? Yes, they showed it. Was there a release state attached to it? I think there was. I think so I thought there was, but I wasn't sure. I think there was. Let's I'm just seeing twenty twenty three, just twenty twenty three, so I'm not sure I win. Oh okay, so yeah twenty three, but they trailer I gotta go back. Oh man, I please.
I get lost in that game and then those games and I don't know where to go, and then I'm just like, I don't I don't like being lost. It's pretty easy to get lost in that one too, and it doesn't do a particularly good job of being like, hey, this is where you left off and this is where you should go. Yeah, you kind of have to wander about till you trigger something. But I've been a buddy.
I really liked the game a lot. It's definitely a favorite. It's one of my favorite games that that came out, whatever year it released. Twenty twenty one, I think that studio was releasing another game that looked pretty cool too, but I can't remember what it was off top of my head. M I hear police, Oh shit, what Drew do? Yeah? No, I live on a main road. So um bear bear? But uh yeah, that was That was pretty good discussion on what's coming up.
But let's talk about that now. Let's talk about what people have been have been doing. Um Brian, Yeah, you've been up to friends. So I've been playing this game called Eternal Return. Oh yeah, I've been back in that game. It's funny, it's kind of bringing that back. Um yeah, you know, I've been wanting to put time into it. Just
man, I've play play that game. Man, listen. Um, I have been finding myself getting back into this game more and more again because like the quality of life changes and everything that it has been in that game has been so good and it's just like you know, all the just neat stuff they've added to it and everything's like that, and I felt like there's like now multiple ways to play, Like you can either try to survive and be the last one or you can just get the fuck out either or I you
know, I don't know because I played by myself and I don't like teams, so um understandable. I'm like, listen, if I fuck up, I have myself to blame. I don't want that aspect with the team. So uh yeah, every time I play Pokemon Unite, That's how I feel.
Yeah, So that was that was the biggest draw for a ton of a time for me, Like initially, right was the fact that like, hey, I don't particularly like hate this genre of game, right, but like the team aspect of like mobis and stuff that are like this like gives me personally like a lot of like team anxiety, and I don't like that. Um. So, like having something like this that I could go in solo and play was like a big draw. Yeah, it still kind of
is, even though I do play duels Withdrew from time to time. It's like I could always just boot it up myself well then just not have to worry about teammates like in my own time, you know. Yeah, although to be honest, like I didn't enjoy the one time when we were playing trios and like I think we were like the last, like one of the last two teams standing, and we just literally spit the entire time just making
a bunch of traps and like, yeah, that was fun. We just had like nine hundred traps set into where like that was the only spot they can go through to be able to get to this area. So they all had to like this arm all the traps everything. We just obliterated them. It was funny. It was funny. Um. But uh yeah, um, I've been playing that game a lot. Um. I recently unlocked Tazia, the glass Shard character. Oh yeah, the glass sword. Um, she's really really cool. I really like her a lot. Um. Yeah.
So, like her gimmick is like her que attack, right, like she shoots uh glass swords everything, and then when they hit something, um, they form like this glass crystal and everything, and you go and you collect the crystals, and once you collect like five crystals, your next qu attack is literally like a MegaMan buster shot. Uh. And like you'll see this giant glass short sword right behind beside you and you watch that thing.
That thing will take off like seventy percent health like d like, like it's literally a MegaMan buster shot. Um. And then she also has um like a little uh like kind of like dash move where like as she's collecting the crystals. In this dash move, she does like a sword swipe and everything
that is like takes like hits anything in a radius. And then she has another one where she puts out like a glass wall that's like a stunt that then will materialize into two crystals and then you collect those in anything and you just basically that's what you do. You just continuously try to charge up your buster shot. Basically by attacking and collecting these crystals and then you just get
one mega shot in that will like obliterate a character's health. Yeah, so like she has a little bit of a degree of difficulty with her yes, um, but like she's been a lot of fun and it's just like it's such a weird, like like kind of like character for me to play and be like, oh, this is actually fun because let's be honest, I like playing Nikki and I like punching things. So you know, there's that um A stell. Another one I like too, the Firefighter girl. I
like her esthetically. I remember trying her a little bit, um it like I did it vibe too much with her at the time, But I do
like her, Like she's a very cool character. Yeah. So, like it's just been a lot of fun to get back into that game and just be playing it and so like everything and it's just like like I feel like like when we were trying to introduce like all the changes and so I got there, it was definitely having that feeling of hey, we're going to throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what works and what doesn't. And now I think considering you know how they've kind of melted everything together and
kind of fine tune things the way you know they did everything. The game is definitely a very enjoyable game to play, Like, I'm definitely having a lot of fun getting back into it and stuff like that. So I've been kind of like this, you know, playing that a lot lately. Now, the cute times I've been getting in the game easily a couple of minutes.
Yeah, So I have been getting in games more frequently. And I know they did some changes as well to where like they made it to where like, hey, if we got fifteen people in this game, we're not gonna wait for three more players, let us go ahead and light stuff. Okay, So they kind of lowered the amount because it used to be like yeah, they're like because originally it was like, Okay, we got to wait for all eighteen players to be in this thing before the game launches.
Not now it's just like, okay, we got fifteen Okay, cool game. Yeah. Yeah. I imagine when you have like a lower account, they probably like speed up the clock or something. I think they used to do that. I think, so I that's one thing I didn't really kind of like push it a little quicker. Yeah that's one thing I didn't really keep track of, but um, but I mean it would it makes sense. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. So I've definitely been enjoying my time
with that game, getting back into it and stuff like that. Um. Another game that I'm messed around with a little bit, uh was God of Rock. Um yeah pick that game up that. I love the concept of the game. I love what they try to do with it, so I cat but there is a lot to pay attention to and there it's and like even going through like the tutorials and stuff, I got everything, there's still like a few things in that game that doesn't necessarily make sense to me.
Um. Like the one character I was trying to play was Rosette. I think her name was the girl that you know has the spray cans. So I got everything, yes, And like sometimes like a game and like she starts off with zero meter and I don't know why that is, um because like and I got Admittedly, I gotta go back in then like try to delve into a little more because I don't remember if they have like character specific tutorials or not. Um in the game. Um. But like in game
when you're doing like an actual match and stuff like that. There's a lot of things you gotta pay attention to. And I think honestly as well, like I don't think that game plays particularly well for game pad. I feel like that's a game you actually have to play arcades to con ummm because like because like some of the input stuff they have is like um like square like square and circle are like a double input and stuff like that, which for
me on a controller that's kind of hard to do. Um you're not using like the directional pad with it, no, because I don't think I don't it's does a directional pad of work? It should? It might be something you have to turn on in the settings it does. Maybe I feel like you would probably tackle it the same way you do with like a Miko game, right where like right, yeah, yeah, which is what I which is what I thought originally, But like I felt like a couple times,
like I felt like that wasn't working for me. But like I said, maybe it's just stuff I gotta turning it is a setting. Uh Okay, Well that AX finds it, um because like I know, like with the like the thumbsticks and so I got that's how you gotta like input your specials and stuff. I got anything right? Um so yeah, um I've seen people playing this on stick too, so maybe that that also would work as
well. You know, you could probably do either or yeah, I gotta find I gotta find out, Like I know, like, uh, I think it was Scrot. I saw that was playing this game on our on arcade stick, which is which was kind of weird for me, you know, and I was like it was because I was like, wait, man, he's a pad player. Why is he playing this on stick? Um so ah, yes, we play fighting games on pad and we played rhythm games on Stay exactly. Um so. But I mean, but I love
the concept of the game. It's like rhythm game fighting game, like mixed the two together, and it's like, I think it's a very unique thing. I just gotta hop I think I just gotta hop back into it more and try to figure out more. But man, there's it is a learning curve. There's a lot to pay attention to the two between like doing the inputs of like the rhythm game aspect and then making sure you know you were spending your meter in spots and stuff, and like it's there's it's a lot.
It's a lot to pay attention to. And they they put in some new characters too as well that weren't wasn't in like the demo and stuff like that. So I think it's like maybe eight or ten characters they have in total um for it. So um, I'm definitely going to try it again. But like I know, like the first time I'm I try to play it stuff like that, and I was just like, whoa, what is
going on? There's like way there's and like I know, I know, like for me personally, like sometimes when I'm trying to pay attention to multiple different things, it gets really really hard for me to kind of enjoy because this is kind of like what's going on? But it feels overwhelming? Yeah, yeah, And it definitely felt that way a little bit for me. That's how the demo was for me. Like I played a couple of games
and I was like, I like, what's here? This is a lot, And like I personally just wanted to wait for the full version because I'm like, I know, I'm gonna have to spend like I don't know, probably weeks just like parsing through what this game is. Right, Yeah, it's gonna take me, like me personally, it's gonna take me a very long time to get used to what this game is asking me to do. Yeah. Yeah, And I feel like that's kind of going to be the same thing for me, like as I try to figure it out more and
stuff like that. So um, but there was also another rhythm game I checked out that was kind of like an indie developed game, and it's a rhythm game that's called Loud. Is what it's Calloud? Yes, so it's an indie developed game. Um, it's the way it's design know is very reminiscent to Persona dancing yep. I was about to say that immediately upon looking
at the Australia yep. So yeah, So like there was two and there is a DLC expansion that's with it, because there's like the one that's called like a Road to Fame, and then there's another one he called that's like
road to My Road to Japan, My Trip to Japan. Yeah, so like it's to the like it's almost I think in a sense, I haven't messed with the Japan one yet because I've been doing the Road to Fame one, which it has like a little story element you know, you do play as a character that's trying to make it into the music world and things like that. You get to change up her look too as you like unlock things
and stuff like that. But um, if you played Persona Dancing, you'll be very familiar with how this game plays because it's that same thing where you have like your six icons and the inputs are coming from the outer part of the screen to where you have to do your inputs and stuff. So and immediately as well playing this, I'm like, I want to play Persona Dancing again. Um yeah, because how's the how's the music in it? I mean it's got some alternative Um so it's like like alternative rock, um,
you know, things like that and everything. And I mean this game was a pretty recent release too. This game released in February this year. Um yeah, so hyper Strange Studios. Yep, it's their first game. Oh no, they've done a couple of different things. Yeah, but like it's it's it's been. Like I said, it's a pretty fun game to kind of go through. Um and like I said, if you played for some Dancing, you know exactly what you're getting into with it. But the music
is it's definitely more alternative rock based things like that. Um, and it's pretty cheap too. I mean I think I got the bundle for like fourteen bucks or something like that, or might be on sale for twelve dollars. Yeah. Yeah, so based game itself is ten bucks. But if you get the bundle, which I recommend as well, just you know, pay the extra three bucks, it's fine. Um but yeah, I definitely uh
and it's now the Trip to Japan one. There's a lot of jay rock uma so and I want to say, like some of the music is from like some actual jay rock groups and stuff too. So oh yeah, okay, I see that here some licensed song performed by a couple of different groups. Yeah. Yeah, so that's cool. Yeah. So I would say, you know, if you like rhythm games and you're familiar with Persona dancing,
definitely give it a try. It's like I said, it's got a it's got a little bit of a story element to it where you go through and uh, you know, see how this character becomes what she becomes and things like that. So and it's got some neat little uh looks to that character and everything. Because like the game, when you're playing it, so like you're playing through the music. So I got your characters kind of like in the middle of the screen and are like strumming their guitar like Alec guitar
and stuff I got and everything. So I thought moments where they were just like struggling on like an air guitar or they had like a broom in their hand, and I was like, Okay, this is pretty pretty wholesome. Yeah yeah, so yeah, so it's got so let's got a little bit
of a story to it and everything. So um. But yeah, those are really the only three games I really been messing with UM lately, so I can't obviously, you know, I'm still kind of in counting down mode for Street Fighter six in June. UM and then now mentioned earlier the whole Life Idol fighting game. Yeah, we'll get into that too. U. So yeah, that's been pretty much it as far as games that I've been playing. So okay, nothing else else sounds that great love that UM juice
for You have been playing some video games here and or there. I have, Uh, well, I guess, uh most of the video game I was playing is I really got to dig deep into Octopath two. Yeah, but I mean I really only scratched through the first layer. Um, I'm about twenty hours in. Um, about twenty hours in, I've acquired all eight of the travelers in the game. Yeah, party, you do get an achievement for that. But you have Oswald the Scholar, you have Casti
the apothecary. You have tenemos or ten memos, it's a really weird name, the cleric. Uh. You have Ochet the hunter. You have it was p oh partiio partisio the merchant. Well, I'm a blank and I had like I rehearsed this in front of a mirror almost, um Frick who is a oh Idea the dancer? UM? Who was the t I didn't
mention? Oh thrown A the thief and Hikari the warrior. UM. So I think the first thing that I really like about these classes is these classes are really juxtapositioned by these character personalities in ways that I wouldn't expect, especially like based on UM Like the first game, for example, let let me
look at the dancer. So you have Primrose as a dancer in the first game, and you have Ignea as a dancer in the second game, where Primrose is like she works in a brothel, she has like a really sad backstory, like pretty much like that's the best story in the original half of that I feel, um and uh, then you have Agnea, who's like the most wholesome character ever and I love her to death and her backstory is
like just really like warm, fuzzy feelings, just like really sweet. Like I'm this character just puts a smile on my face, which is like what she wants to do, and I'm like, all right, I'm here for it. Yeah. And then you have Oswald, who might be my favorite character. Um, like Hikari was my protagonist, but like I went and did Oswald's like chapter one, which was weird because he's actually two chapters.
Like so basically, when you do the chapter one, it dissolves a party and you go through the chapter one where you only control that character in order
to tell the story right as to like why these things happened. For example, like in the first game in Primrose chapter in Prim's chapter one, like her friend dies and she's like I need somebody to help get help, and like, well, if you had party members during that chapter, that wouldn't make any sense, right, Like they dissolve the party and so it's just that traveler. So like with Oswald's chapter, it's like, hey, you won't be able to resume control of your party until the end of his chapter
two, and I was like, whoa. And his story so far has like the most intriguing so far because his is a revenge story. It's very similar to Prim's almost it's definitely a revenge story. But I swear to god, Oswald's just a villain. Like, okay, his backstory, he's not
a villain, like he is the scholar. He like I won't go into too much details, like he is a good man until he is put on trial for a crime he didn't commit, and now like he is seeking revenge to like get the guy that put him in the situation that he's in, and like it's the most intriguing and like Oswald just acts like a villain in
like his quotes, his lines, his actions. They switched around like what each class's path action is almost so what they did is there's a day and night system in after Path two, and each class has it's it has two different path actions. So like in the first game, Scholar had the scrutinized Path action, which was like villainous read. It was like it was like learn about an NPC, but there's a chance you could fail, and like that would ruin your reputation. So like in the day, that's what the
scholar has and that's what Oswald happens. At night, he has a new path action called mug. Oh, we're stealing shit. So so what I really like about Octopath two is like there are certain situations in Octopath one where if you didn't have a certain party member because you needed said path action, even though they were like pseudo tooth path like there are really only four path
actions, but like some characters could do it and some characters couldn't. And then like the Thief pack path action was just tied to the thief, so you had to have theory on a lot of the time. They kind of just did away with that, and like they made so many different ways to do path actions that like you don't feel limited in your party building because you
can still only have four party members at a time. So in terms of like getting items from MPC, you can have the thief thorn steel, you can have the merchant Partio buy, or at night you can have Oswald mug them, which is fantastic, because that's what just makes me realize this dude is just a straight up villain because he's sitting here, he's mugging these these like townsfolk and PCs of the Earthly Belongings, and the dudes quotes when he's
like in battle, because what it does, it's like when you muke somebody, it goes into a lack of battle where you fight the NPC and if you win, you get all their items, and so his quotes are just like very just it's probably the voice actor too, but he just comes off as very villainous. And I'm like, bro, you do not seem like a good It's great, Like I don't trust this guy. He's just he
has like the coolest attack ever. So they gave the Scholar, like I knew it's at called Elemental Burst, and basically what it is is it does three to five attacks, just a random element between fire, ice and lightning,
and the more that you boost, the more attacks it has. So like if you boost once, it goes from three to five to four to six, five to seven, six to eight, seven to nine, and so like when you're doing these NPC battles and like the way it's balanced is it's supposed to hit random enemies, but once there's only one enemy on screen,
it just attacks that one enemy like nine times. And so if they have a lot of elemental weaknesses, like if they have like fire, ice and lightning like as weaknesses, you're just hitting their weak point every time you do one of this. And so dude is just like doing these fucking finger guns, Like he's just doing DVZ blast. It's animated so fucking well, and like it's just it's my favorite attack of the game. It's so cool. And he's just like going, she does like finger guns a couple of
times, and I'm like, bro, you are absolutely a villain. That's great. He sounds amazing. People love him. You will love him. Character. Uh, he is great. Another character that I really like. He was the last traveler I got because I thought I wouldn't like him.
It's a cleric U tenemos and this guy is given some like freaking elector from from Trails vibes like he is a cleric, but like he's very laxadaisical and like, so his whole his whole deal is he's the he's the church's inquisitor, right, and so like, uh, they pair him like in his intro chapter it gets a very like straight man a holy Night, and so you can kind of see the juxtaposition of like, hey, this man is like blind to the faith and like Tenemos, who's like this high ranking official
in the church is like, well, hey, maybe you shouldn't blindly follow the gods like that, and so like, and he has like a very like joking like anner and I don't know, he's just really tight. I was not expecting to like him as much as I did. That's very cool. Like I love it when when as a character like oh, I'm not gonna like this guy and then they just like pleasantly surprised you like that definite,
really fun feeling. And I really appreciate Like the Merchant was another one, Like I didn't think I was gonna like Partitio, especially since like in the English voice acting, they gave him like a really heavy country accent. Yeah, and I was like, oh man, I am not digging, And like after I watched this chapter one, I'm like, all right, I really like this guy. And like that's how I felt for like all
of these travelers, Like I really like all of these guys. I feel like in the first game, there were a couple that, like I didn't really care for, Like I thought there Round was whatever. Um. I thought Alfin was like he like he's a good boy, but he was kind of whatever. But like they they didn't feel that lasting to me. And like all these travelers like really stick out, and I really like their stories
so far. So I'm really I'm really excited to like dig In more, especially since, like because now I'm at the point where, like I start to see more of the upgrades that they did from the first one. I haven't encountered it yet, but like they have new ways of like interacting the eight travelers together. So like the format is still very similar to the first one, where like you go through everybody's chapter one, you go through everybody's
chapter two. What I do like is I've noticed looking at these chapter twos, is they're like branching pass so you don't necessarily necessarily have to do like the same chapter two in a row. I don't think the first game had that one, and if it did, it wasn't a lot of it, Like they just had set chapter two's. Yeah, I'm pretty well, I
was. I was doing some reading because I was curious on like because in the first game, you could easily miss like the interactivity between the parties, so I want to make sure I didn't miss that this time around when I was looking into it. So there are like more like tavern talks and you know, between the party and whatnot. When chapters are like actually happening, you go into the tavern and like the party members will talk about it.
But then I read which is really cool is that there are just separate joint chapters. Someone was telling me about that. I heard that somewhere, Yeah, something that I was very excited abo, right, because that's like the main issue of like Oxopathic one, Right, Yeah, you want character interactions. Yeah, so I haven't unlocked that yet because I hear like, you
really don't start seeing these things until you finished everybody's chapter ones. You start going through the chapter twos, and I'm like, oh, okay, well that makes sense because going through the chapter one it feels very very similar to the first game, almost to the point where you're like, oh no, um, because as much as I love the first game, it definitely has some flaws, one of them being like the eight Travelers feeling like complete strangers
and never really interacting with each other. So I'm really excited to see like how that plans out more. The second thing is you encounter secondary jobs a lot sooner if memory serves, the only secondary jobs that weren't So when I finally got all eight jobs, I was thinking, like, because I think in the original game, the way it works is like you have your main job and you can pick any of the other seven jobs as like a sub job. Right, yes, Okay, so you can't do that at least
right now you can. I think you'll be able to. But in the first game, you didn't get like actual like additional jobs outside of the main eight until like the very end of the game, right right, right, Yeah, So this one, I just happen to find one, just like traveling over the overworld, which I thought was really And it's like the inventor subjob, and it can only be equipped as a subjob. There is one aspect of this you're not gonna like rob because I also don't like it,
but I'll get there and the subjob. Basically, the way this subjob works is like you can equip it, and the way you unlock skills in the normal jobs is you would do battles, you would get JP and then like that would unlock more job skills, right for like your primary job. What they did with this secondary job is it's actually a side quest and you're tied to the guy called Alvin the invention, right, and he gives you the job and like under the pretense of like hey show the world my inventions blah
blah blah blah blah. And the way you unlock job skills is like you bring him materials and he invents new things and then you can use those skills in their job. Yeah, yeah, I don't That's not what I was going to say. You weren't gonna like I actually like that. I think that's cool. Go on personal um. And so, because first off, that class is just broken. So the first the first thing that that class
does, this has this thing called the Changeable Catapult. And what this does is it just lets you do a launching attack of any weapon type at all enemies in a in a battle, and it does like a ship ton of damage for free, mind you yeah yeah, And like the trade off is is after you use it once, you have to spend a turn rebuilding it. Oh, that's whatever, but that's also not what I what you're not gonna like? Okay, um no, the eventure class is really cool,
like as what you're not gonna like. And what I also don't like is that the sub job gives you an outfit and takes precedence over your main job's outfit and you cannot change it. Oh yeah, I don't like that. Well, well, what's the outfit? Looks like a dandy like top hat and all like. I'm sure they're a cool outfit. So that's the first job I got. But like, I think it's still I can't just wear the outfit. I want important question. Uh yes, does everybody have a
different outfit when you do an inventor? I don't know. I'll have to find that out. I think that that that would be the key or whether or not I like it. I mean I could find that out right now one second. Yeah, if everybody has like a unique look and they're all there their own version of the being dandy, I think that's kind of goal. I'm okay with that because I mean I like everybody's default outfits. Personally, I wish like I really like all the character designs and like all these
characters look, and I really like these characters a lot. Actually, all right, so let's see, I currently have equipped on Hikari, so let's put it on. Then it's it's a similar looking outfit. I see. Well, yes, it's virtually the same outfit like for the males and the females. That's a day, all right, all right, I don't, I don't, I don't really care for it. All right. Well, there's your rib seal of disapproval, the rib seal of very rare, very
rare stamp that I put on anything. I mean, it's it's not the first game that doesn't it won't be the last. I wish it. I wish you just had the option to just wear the outfit that you wanted to wear. Um, that's just how I am, I guess, because sometimes class costumes look really dumb. Having having the option is never a bad thing. It's where land right, Like I am always for giving all the options
when it comes to cosmetics. Never never make it a permanent thing. Um, if you have a game that has cosmetics, right, you should always be able to at the very least go back to like the default. Look. Yeah, but I will say, like getting the secondary classes early is
really cool. I really appreciate that because it gives you more time to like experiment and sort of because like reading some of the Inventor skills, I'm like, oh, that's really broken with this insane from your descript Yeah, I think if I had one complaint about Octopa two is so far a feels very easy. I wish they would find a way to increase the difficulty of that game a bit. I don't know how they would do it in a in a fun meaningful way, but I don't know. I want them to.
I think forcing you I think one thing is forcing you to have your protagonist always and then he's always leveling up while you're swapping out other party members, so you just have like this one like really high level unit in your party does factor into that a bit. So I don't know. That's just where I'm at on that, Like I want to see them like find a way
to implement difficulty a bit more. I think that when it comes to turn based RPGs, like I think really where companies need to focus in on in terms of difficulty as to come from like the idea of making like buffing and deep buffing and statis effects mean something, right, I agree, Like I think Atlas basically cracked the code and a lot of that stuff with like the S and T and Persona games, in those lineage of games where it's like,
UM taken advantage of like turn order right at closing a weakness gives me an additional turn, while that also works for the opponent, So that means I have to make sure coverage is tight, right, um. But that's one of a few games where like you have to think about your own weaknesses and the enemy weaknesses and everything, UM, and ye should be able to break me as well. Yeah, absolutely, Like you should also have like a break gauge UM in some other things like that, UM would definitely make
things a bit more challenging. You know, I am with you that I am enjoying my time with the game. Mhmm nah. And that's really all I've been playing, all right, dope. UM. I see Ryan posted up in here this this this announcement from Side Games Grandbed Fantasy Versus is online beta schedule. Seems like they're pushing that back. I was supposed to be AMA, but they're having some issues. Ah, that is unfortunate. But also take all the time they need. Yeah, no, um, what
have I been doing? Uh not like a ton of stuff because I don't know how to manage time. Um. I did start Advanced Towards reboot Camp one plus two. Um, I am only like an hour in on that game. But it's I I really like how that game looks and how it plays it Like it's it's just making me want more tactics games, like I'm in that headspace now. Um in Advanced Wards, it's like a very particular type of puzzle um, sort of puzzle tactics game in a way like it's
not it's not it's it's its own thing. It's not fire, you know what I mean? Um, And I don't know it's hitting at a time that I want something like this. So it's it's something I'm going to continue with. Uh. There's not much more to really say on it right now, but like as far as like the package, the visual upgrades and in all the voiceovers and everything, it looks fantastic. Um, so that that's
going to be something that's in my rotation. Uh. Put a little bit more time with the RISA, not a whole lot, but like I do have some more party members in in my in my group, none of the new characters yet, but I have reunited with I believe, all of the old casts, which is great seeing all of my children again. I think I still have that similar complaints the last time, where like I wish they would went a little further on the redesigns. They kind of look a little
too much like their Rise of Two selves. But the little details that they did change I do appreciate. And you can tell that every character that gets reintroduced has grown up a little bit more, and that's always a cool thing. The story is starting to pick up a little bit. It definitely like gets going, or at least the mystery gets going a lot quicker than the
previous two games. But I feel like at the end of the day, I hope this is I hope I'm wrong, But again, like the first two games, the overall like major story that they want you to care about
is something that I find the least interesting about those games. Um So I hope that the plot here is good, but it's probably whatever, it's going to take a backseat to me, just like following along the individual character stories, which is where I think this this particular series shines um, but well we'll get into that when when I get further into it, right, Like it's I'm still like three ish maybe four ish hours into the game, but still having a good time with it. Um. I have been had a
little bit more time to the Megama Battle Network one. Um also a game that's pretty cool. My only complaint about the first Battle Network game is just like not being like the random account of rate is just like really high, right, um in a lot of like the designs in terms of like the dungeons and stuff that you're kind of running through is not particularly well done. So it's it's really like steps at battles, steps at battle and you can't
run from battles or anything like that. So it feels like it drags a little longer than it should. Right, But the gameplay is still fun, don't get me wrong, But I'm like, dang, this is kind of a slog in some ways, especially consider like modern RPGs and like the the options to like negate battles if you want to in a lot of modern games now and stuff like that, or monsters are on the screen so you can just avoid them, like like the there's just random accounters not being a thing
anymore. This game kind of reminds me why I don't like random encounters to begin with. But still a cool game. Anything else I've been doing, Yeah, I feel like I've just been like bouncing around, like sampling little
things here or there. When I have a little bit of time, like I jump back into Rogue Legacy too for a little while, because it's like, since I don't have these large blocks of time to dedicate to things, I'm like, let me get let me just pick something up that I could just like a quick run of, right in the same ways that like you could play through like a Haydies like do like a quick run, and then
I'm good. Rogue Legacy for anybody that doesn't know, because I don't really talk about it much, but it is a game that I've been playing for the better part of like maybe a year now. I think it came out last year, um, middle of last year. It's basically a a Metroidvania roguelike game, UM where at the beginning of your run, you are given the choice of three different characters um and they could be like widely different character
class. It's like there's a chef class where like your primary weapon is is a frying pan, but it's tight because the frying pan actually reflects projectiles if you time it right. It's really fun. You have like an age that does magic, you have archer, you have a gunner. There's a pirate class that I haven't unlocked yet. There's a bunch of different classes in the game that that just have wildly different abilities in attacks and stuff. UM.
So you pick a character. UM. You start off in like a little hub world where like you can spend your goal that you get in your runs for like more permanent upgrades. UM. You can you can spend them on this giant skill tree to unlock like either the different jobs or health and crease, attack and create stuff like that. UM. You can purchase accessories and
armor and in better weapons things like that. And once you get into the game, UM, you basically have an objective of like I have to find these I think it's five bosses um that are in different parts of the world, and once you kill all five, it opens up this door at the very beginning of the game, and you go in there and I play the
final bosses in there. UM. So it's basically you just like inching your way through this randomly generated dungeon trying to get to each boss, and every boss has like their own area, right, and each area gives you like a new like cool like a permanent tool, so like the one that I just got was like the double jump ability, and then I can use that to progress in like a different area, right. So it does a really good job of kind of like funneling you where you kind of need to go
while still randomly generating itself. Like you can't go to area three until you clear area two because you need the the particular upgrade in that area to progress, right, But the individual rooms within each area are randomly generated, So it's very cool. As you kill enemies and as you like break the pots in different things in the background, you get gold, and then that kind of like cycles back into a new run where it gives you three new characters
and you go through the loop again. It's a fun game. It's a really fun game. Like the control is tight um controls are type in all the different abilities and crazy stuff that they have in there, it's just fun to play around with. They have some abilities that are just nonsense, like you'll you'll roll a character and that you'll have an ability called clown and you're like, well, what does clown do? And then they load your character and it's just you in a clown mask and it's like, well, what
is this for. It's like nothing, like you motherfuckers, Like you guys couldn't give me like gold plus twenty percent or something, and it's like no, this is just cosmetic And I'm like all right, fine, um. Almost sounds like an ability that's in the holocure m. Yeah, a thing where like you collect a rainbow and it's like this does nothing. It just changes tellers and then yeah, and then you try to level it up and it's like, seriously, this thing does nothing. Why are you trying to
level us up? And then and then you max it out and it's just like, Okay, you're ridiculous, nothing's happening. Stop, don't do it. In a second. Yeah, that's basically the humor behind it. Yeah. There's one that I rolled randomly that was just Corosoro mode Corosarvo mode, and it's just like all right, now everything is black and white in that old filmy time and I'm like, well, this this is cool. It does make things a little harder to see, but like all right. I
appreciate goofy stuff like this from time to time. Um, so it's a blast. Um. I'm currently like three bosses down, so I think I've got two more to go. And it is challenging. It's like it's legitimately challenging. There there are some areas that I'm like, damn it, I gotta run through this. I hate the enemies here. Fuck. Um. And you don't really have too many chances to like keel yourself in the runs. Like you can find like health items here or there, but they're pretty
few and far between. Um. And then also scattered about is like these um these rooms where you can pick between like two additional like passives for your character, right um. And whenever you come across like a new passive that you can select, uh, it's all question marks, like it doesn't tell you what. It tells you the name and it's just like do you want to spend the points to get in and see what it does? And I'm like, m I guess I'll pick this one. And then it's like a
diet roll whether or not it's like a good or a bad thing. Um. So that's a cool games. That's really what I've been spending some of my like twenty minutes here, twenty minutes their time. Um. But that's that's really all I've been doing. UM. I feel like I want to play UM. I'm really in the mood to start out Chara Chronicles for like I. Like I said, I'm kind of mentality. So I don't know if I can honor that request through because the feeling is is rising, um
and it's only getting worse the more I play Advanced Wars. UM. So I'll hold out as long as I can, but there's no guarantee that I won't start that game. I'm staring at it right now as well, and as much as I love the original Valkyria Chronicles, I might be right there with you. Yeah. I stare at this game constantly. I reinstall that game like every other week, and I'm like, I'm gonna play a VC four and then I don't, UM, and now it's installed on the Steam
deck and I'm like, hmm, this is a good one. Alicia Makot is still one of the best girls. Absolutely. Yes. So really that that's really been been my week, just kind of scattered about a bunch of different things. Hopefully I'll have some more structure next week, so I can really put a dent into things, because I feel like I'm falling behind a lot of areas. Uh, And I do want to put a couple of games behind me so I can look forward to, you know, the coming
releases. Um. But yeah, that that's really about it. Um, anything we want to hit before we close this out. You know, it was funny we were talking about releases earlier. Um, I totally forgot about um what was it, Star Reel or the new Starfall? Yeah? Star Fall? Yeah, that's coming out this week too. Yep. I'm I'm excited to check that out. Yeah, because it's it's whole versus um version
of like a turn based RPG. Yeah right, Like like it's in the same ban of of a Genchen right, where it's like you're rolling for characters and stuff like that, and and it has that whole old money behind it. Yeah, but instead of being an action games turn base, its turn base. Yeah. I'm like this, Mike grab me a little more than Yeah. I was starting to think the same thing too, because I played I played Han Kai and I liked it. I played Genschin a little bit
as well, and I liked that and everything. But yeah, I'm looking at star Reel. I'm like, huh this For whatever reason, I'm very curious to see how the turn Base aspect works with it. Yeah, everything around that that game, like all of the trailers and stuff, esthetically, like the tone it's going from, Like I vibe with a lot of this. Yeah, Um, so I'm curious. I'm curious. I haven't heard much out of the Clothes beta that they've been doing, so I really don't
reception. It's been kind of hush hush on it, like under like stuff like he like stayed like like you said, just no one really just talked about it. Yeah, Usually like some info slips out there or or there's like hype around it, but it's been pretty low key. Yeah that's twenty six I think, Yeah, twenty six or twenty seventh. Yeah yeah, m all right, well let's get into that. Yeah, I'll be I'll be checking out out for sure for sure. Um anything else, Nope,
I don't have anything already that This meeting is adjourned. That was a podcast. All that was a podcast. You're all free now, Ryan, Rob? Where can people find you? Sign us off? Oh? See Twitter? RCB Underscore draws. It's where I post a lot of my artwork and our things of like, at which I did post a new art piece, a little fan art of okayu um okay, yeah, so put that up there if you guys want to check that out. Um, I'm probably gonna
get Prince made of that as well. Um. Yeah, I'm kind of reformatt in a couple of things with the print stuff and everything, so I'm probably gonna get some of those made, um and then go from mare. I'm also trying to plan a new fan art. I don't know who I'm gonna do yet though, but I've been kind of researching export, like trying to think of who I want to do. Um. But yeah, that's where you can find me there. Um. And I do stream still on
Twitch occasionally, which is OURCB on a Square TV. That's where you can find me there, dope truthtopher. You can find me on Twitter at JSB totally drew tweeting about video games. That's pretty much all I do these days. I am looking to get some more into Strive competitively, so we'll see how that goes. M But that's about it all right, And then you can find me on Twitter at Sky and uk E. Y'all already know the deal, all art work, all that us. Um. You can follow
us on Jack's Savage base for anything that we do. Uh. There's a lot of stuff coming up um over on the JSP anime side of things. In the episode we just recorded today, which we'll go up on Monday, so to be up as you guys hear this, we talked about Your Lie in April, UM, which is a good good show. It's it's an
incredible show, UM. And it's really funny where that discussion goes, UM because it's we talk about Your l in April, but it really we get to like, uh, like the the emotions and like how a lot of those characters relate to us. Like it's less about it being a spoiler cast about Your Lion April, but really like how that show has touched us and
where where it like where our feelings lie and stuff like that. It's a really fast discussion honestly that that's kind of less about the spoiler side of Your Light and April and more of like a thoughtful side and how it relates to us. That show killed me if y I it killed them. We also talked about the first episode of Oceanoka uh in in in in non also killed me. So it's it's a it's a really fun episode, um. Susan Man as well, it's it's it's a packed episode, so definitely go go
check that out, um if you guys are interested in in anime. Um. And and with that, let's uh, let's get out of here. Thank you guys for listening, Thank you guys for being here. Uh it's always a pleasure. And we will talk to you next week. Bye later bye,