Tetracast 437: The Weeping Squid

Uh we have a few things to talk about this week. Um we had uh a couple of smaller little streaming events. We had the level five Vision twenty twenty six, the quote unquote craftsmanship stream.

We have uh the triple I stream put on by publisher Evil Empire. We've talked about them before. They're the they're behind the new um rogue Prince of Persia. Uh they've done that some of the Dead Cells DLC. They had they had a streaming event for independent, you know, developers to share off some progress of games and development. And then we also have some some features that went up, uh, not last weekend, but from two weekends ago. PAX East was held. So we got some

Some features up on the site from from that event from some contributors. So we're going to kind of touch on all of those areas. We also do have. a Starfield update to talk about, which I have a few thoughts on. Uh not a lot, but just a few. Uh and so yeah, it's gonna be a little bit of a hodgepodge. We're gonna touch back on Crimson Desert. But to start out, we're not gonna do any of those.

We're gonna start out with a game that uh Chow listed that he stated he had been playing.

that Josh was very interested in hearing Sar's thoughts on. It's a game I don't know much about, so you'll have to tee me up. It is The Weeping Swan. All I know is that this is like a like a remake or a think I know, a remake or reimagining of of an existing game or Something like that, but please correct me where I'm wrong and kind of T S up what is the Weeping Swan and uh like w is it what is it like where does it stand in terms of its release on Steam and what are your thoughts on it?

visual novel slash adventure um genre. So that like the this was one of those like breakout hits that people in the West didn't really um know about as much, I'd say.

But the sequel is not really you know, it's about the same type of things. It's about a complete different thing. So you're basic playing this character named uh Fang Fang Shio. He's like the game kind of starts with him having, you know, like amnesia and some kind of disease he called the the beast affliction, which causes him to hallucinate and stuff.

And sometimes you start to think this hallucination's creating this fantasy for him as well. So he can't determine if it's reality or, you know, it's fantasy. So there's lots of things that this disease it it feels more like a convenient plot device more than anything. Um but the beginning kinda kinda shows that, you know, he starts seeing like people as animals. Or maybe you would call them as demons like these. Like soldiers are like appeared to like demons to him, right?

Um I believe they're called the Tartar. I don't know that's the exact pronunciation for it, but you know he and then and then the thing is that one of the things that triggers his memory is that He opens this jar, trying to find a hiding spot, and he finds this girl that looks like the love of his life.

to reasons that you pro could not have possibly predicted, but then you just reload right away and then you kind of make the other choice. Does this game allow for that sort of thing? Like you see a bad end and then you kind of step back and then go back on the right path.

redo that choice. And this is also in the Hungry Lamb as well, where there were a choices in there that led to a bad end. Um but I think W I I think one of the things that I I haven't, you know, finished uh the the first game yet, uh and I uh I've been kinda uh reading like the impressions of this one from uh people and it seems like the I I don't know what it is in this game, but there seems to be some sort of like disconnect between like how this game conveys

Stuff that happens at its bad ends and its overall theming that people are really not jiving with compared to the developer's previous game, which was, you know, well pr pretty praised.

You know, it's just yeah, it's more, but not better, you know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. Cause this game is twice as long as the first game, right? It's like you there's like nineteen chapters and you know, it's very lengthy, right? Much more lengthier. So but the thing is that what makes people dislike this game is that there's two heroines in this game. Uh the first one is the one that he said that it was love is life.

And the other one is this girl is another Corussen that he met in his younger years. And the other girl is just being completely mistreated in this game, and I think this is what's driving a lot of negative reviews. because he would never give her any time of the day, no matter what event it is. And this is what kinda causes all those negative reviews. It's like this character is just constantly being mistreated.

in in every way possible and she basically has the love of gold like the heart of gold. It's just that she's a sub Coruscant, you know. Um Let's say okay, maybe a different comparison. Have you watched the Apicara Diaries?

And so she's crying. So the main catch is like it's like, damn, that sucks. Well, um, here, have some money. And he basically gave out a shit ton of money, right?

She was supposed to be a cocubine, but she was only like eleven years old. So she basically is the main character's stepmom pretty soon, right? Okay. So that's a very messed up relationship. Next thing you know, it's like um the reason why the uncle needs it, because he doesn't have a male hair and

And he he just can't seem to get his thing up. And they they believe that she has the right capable zodiac sign and because he's so superstitious, that's why they took this girl in and they were just waiting for her come of age and then, you know, hoping to make a baby and then he He becomes the male hero or something like that. That's kinda like what they were going for. The good news is...

kick the bucket before shit like this happened. The bad news, the aunt completely hates her guts. So as soon as you know he's dead, she basically was sent as a curson or something. And now the m then she's completely gone out of the main character's life. And now the main character's like, hmm, where is she? That's kinda like how the story goes.

I don't know. Well not not misguided. Misguided is not the word, but it feels very uh like what What it's presenting to people initially and what it serves up as like the follow up from its initial serving feels like a a a weird swerve to like what people might have you know It it led people on thinking it was gonna be one thing and it totally meant to like a like a sharp right turn into another thing. That's what it sounds like.

And the other girl is this prostitute I mean not prost well, I guess it's a different term for for her. But it's like the main character just won't give her the time of the day, no matter what it is. And but she is in love with the main character because the one act of kindness

that really helped her because she said that, you know, she was so bad at the first day of her job It's like some random guy just kidnapped her, locked her in, took all her money, so she made nothing and then probably raped her and and then the main cap is like Okay. It's like how did you get away then? It's like I waited for that guy to to fall asleep and just ran away. And but the main character didn't do any of that. It's like he just gave her this money out of

Um, where you're you're just kinda left hanging because it there's a certain loom of like it feels almost incomplete in a sense emotionally. But um it it it's kind of like it's also weird because this like this is this game it follows the events of the Hungry Lamb. And obviously there's the it's a different cast of characters.

But you know, but characters from that previous game that people like do show up in this. Like they are even like the steam description, like you see some familiar returning character.

And but the thing is there's like no sense of danger once he meets like the main character from the original because the main character of the original can fight and then now he's not in any danger of escaping anymore. That's how I I see it. It's like I feel the present storyline is not really like I really don't care about the present. It's just him constantly being chased by like

you know, soldiers and he's seeing like corpses everywhere. It's like storyline is just not all that interesting in my opinion.

like the headline were like first week message of gratitude and apology. So they did say like, you know, the they did reach like, you know, almost a hundred thousand copies sold, which is, you know, congratulations on the on that, but Um, you know, many, many people have uh voiced their discontent um with how this you know how how this game has been like kinda received uh by the public and y y like all across the board like this seems to have like

the reception to it seems to be universally down compared to the first game. And uh you know, uh there there's also some like other technical issues like there's I've heard like that there are like some key scenes where like are the are still like missing translations in some languages.

Um there's still there's still a lot of like stuff that's like yeah, like it feels like even like the say the English translation isn't as up to par as the first game and I I I remember the first game had to like, you know, re uh like uh had to have some like editing passes then a after it came out to have a stronger script. But it seems like this game has to undergo that similar process, which, you know, i i it kinda sucks because like you

People bought that previous game on the assumption that, like, hey, they'll release the sequel in a better state, surely. It seems like it's releasing either um on par or maybe even worse than the launch version of their previous game in that regard. But unter uh also in terms of like all this like the pe uh people's issues with story, now it almost feels like they're sorta um Capitulating in a sense to that feedback of that l of that low reception of like

Oh, you didn't like how, you know, our uh like, you know, the story that we're presenting. So now they're it feels like they're backtracking within this apology as well, saying like, Oh, within the first month after launch we'll introduce a short biographical style if route and they'll provide updates on its development progress. But you know, this if route is

supposedly gonna give, you know, um a more positive, you know, outcome to people's issues with the game. So it feels like they are already They they it feels like they have they don't have confidence in the story that they already like wrote and completed and integrated to the game, they're like, oh, oh man, we need to like m make something up to like make people feel better about this as well, which is also sort of double edged. Yeah.

I'm not saying it's not allowed, it's just like I don't know if I've seen a precedent for this. The one that comes to mind is Mass Effect Three ending. Oh, nope, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. No, that actually is a decent um you know, obviously not apples to apples, but it is a a narrative related thing where they did come out and I think

But yeah, introducing a new like what if storyline is almost like weirdly like officially sanctioned fanfiction. Like, oh, you didn't like how well you didn't like the story we wrote and rather than just taking the criticism as is, we're gonna just rewrite it. you know, to f at your whim.

Which I don't blame them in in terms of like their feedback on that. It's like people wish it could have been better, but I don't think that should be any grounds to be like just totally folded within not even two weeks of your launch, you know? So it's kind of a weird one where I kinda I I I obviously I had higher hopes for this sequel because the Hungry Lamb, from what I read so far, was very enjoyable but I they're gonna seem seems like they're gonna have to do a lot of work with this sequel.

get it up to stuff like technically and even like localization wise. But also I don't know where they go from here because it seems like just from the get-go people are already pretty down on how it's ended up.

much more better written sequel. It's like Squid Games. You know how the first Squid Game took that three to ten years to come up with the idea. And the second one it

releasing a follow up to that sort of like what comes next. If sh if like maybe you written it so you know, y you thought it was a pretty conclusive story, but then, you know, whether it's your publishers or whatever the market demands, like you feel pressured to be like, okay

Well, I guess I have to, you know, make another one'cause this is what the people want and that you like you said, you don't have much time to you know, thick it through compared to that initial concept because that was brewing in your head for a long time. Something you're able to flesh out uh throughout the years.

So I jumped into a Discord chat with with Adam yesterday. Um and I was like, All right, I'm ready to do, you know, the play the Starfield DLC and it's not gonna be a major topic, but this way I can speak to it on the podcast tomorrow. And I was telling him, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna

Do my best, take some notes so that I can come onto the podcast and talk about Starfield and try to avoid saying like any sort of platitude that someone could guess without ever playing it. Like I didn't want to come on the podcast and say like

It's more of the same or if you like Starfield, you'll like the DLC. You know, things like that that you could just guess. Like you don't need me to probably tell you that. I wanna I wanted to come up with something like poignant, something or something like meaningful.

But instead, what I got was I was playing the game, uh, the DLC, and then after a while, I'm like, wait, I'm stuck. Where am I supposed to go? And then I like I Googled a playthrough'cause of course, you know, within an hour of launch, people have like their four K sixty, four hour no commentary playthroughs on YouTube. And for whatever reason

One of the main story quests of the DLC just never triggered for me. So like it just I don't have the objective. I can't I can't proceed. I'm basically softblocked. And I'm like, well, that's it's a Bethesda game. So that means I can just console command like force force it, you know, even if it like disables achievements or whatever. Like I can just force it on a PC. But people don't know like the quest IDs yet. Like it hasn't been completely sussed out.

And I'm sure it will be quickly, but as of last night, I could not find a path through. I even replayed like a section, about an hour section, to see if I could like avoid whatever was causing the softlock. But I couldn't. So basically I I I was planning to play the Starfield D L C and uh give some impressions, but um

Like I I can give some minor uh impressions. I know Mikhail's also been playing it with like the free update as uh as well with some of the stuff they just added to the main game or tweaked on the main game. But uh Yeah, it's it's it's got a mixed reception right now, like on Steam and I'm sure everywhere. Uh primarily because as soon as I realized that I had this problem.

I found like, oh yeah. I just started like spamming links at Adam. Like, oh look, here's two people on Reddit and three people on Steam and one person on Facebook that uh All can't progress at this point because of something. Like it wasn't caught in playtesting or or whatever. So I basically had to put Starfield down. Uh And instead I decided to finish Metroid Dread and play Metroid Prime Four. Like I don't have anything really to say on those, but like I guess I'll play these games, uh

uh instead. So yeah, Mikhail, how how's your time with Starfield been in the last uh week or two?

It got bugged. I had like I had a bounty thing bugged in the first one hour. Never could fix that, so I dropped it. Uh when I tried it on PS4, something similar happened a few hours later, dropped it. Uh it did not run well on the laptop I had at that time, so I just never played the Steam copy I had. The Switch version which I played was actually the least buggy of all Skyrim versions which I played. Uh vi with Fallout 4.

I first tried it on Xbox One complete shit show. Like it ran like shit, it looked like PUBG and I it bugged out as well. So when I played Scarfield it was surprisingly polished and stuff, but like back then I kind of got annoyed with the loading screens throughout

It felt like I was playing a game running off a fifty, four hundred RPM hard drive, not an SSD. And this is something which I realized like soon after it was like an engine issue because that's just how their like the creation engine is and

At this point I was like, I don't know if it's something they can eventually fix or not, but I just decided I'll I'll give it a few months before returning to it. So I essentially like didn't touch Uh and when I was like I got the itch to like replay it or whatever late last year and then with Microsoft doing all this porting stuff to PlayStation, I thought, you know May as well wait for this because then I can like put in time for it for work. So I did that and

Like I I completely missed out all the vehicles. Like they added vehicles to the game. Like they added one for free and there's a second one now with the new update as like a free creation. I missed out on the creations because like when I played it pre-release there were no mods. So that was also new for me.

So they added a second vehicle with that. So i completely missed vehicles because i remember when i was playing staffy like you know the one of the early quests you have to like go outside uh akila city uh to this one of the outposts and you have to like walk quite a bit

And I remember getting really bored by that, but like now you can just drive there and it's like you get there in like seconds. So that addressed like one of my biggest issues with the game. Uh I'm curious what you like before I get to that actually. So I've always liked Starfield because I love space games. But I I was hoping like in an ideal world I I it would have like the no man's sky landing and taking off on planets because I don't want to go through these canned cutscenes and like

Even in New Atlantis, like it's it's so weird. Like you you can enter a store which has an open door and it'll be like a pretty big room, but then to the left of it there'll be this tiny like toilet sized room but it has a loading screen before you get there. That's something which has not been fixed yet, unfortunately. Like I just think that that cannot be fixed based on the engine.

They did address the like some of the space travel stuff. Like the free lanes thing. I thought it would just be lip service, but I'm pretty happy with how they handle that. Like it makes you actually involved in while exploring. What do you think of that aspect?

And you're in the planet's orbit, you're in a loading screen. And then when you land on the planet, there's a loading screen. And this was a strong criticism of uh I almost said Skyrim, of Starfield since it launched.

And then when you're on the way, you'll get these little notifications of There's a an anomaly here over here on the left. There's a ship over here on the right. Do you want to see those? They're little points of interest. And some of them are like, if you're familiar with anything Plathes has done in the last 10 or 15 years, they're very radiant in terms of like They're almost like mad libs often. It's like, here is a derelict freighter full of space pirate.

where you can find a weapon, like sort of thing, where it's all just kind of procedurally generated with a few bespoke ones thrown in. Like there's there's a cheeky one where you find like an old lady on a ship by herself and she offers you like a dubious dinner with her and you can turn it down. Or there's one where

Um there's like a a pirate holding a crew hostage and he's does like the joker sort of thing where he's like, you know, you gotta you gotta do this little trial of mine, otherwise I'm gonna take the the I'm gonna kill the hostages. For me to kind of get to the crux of my thesis here is one way that Starfield is designed that I don't gel with is like if I play a Fallout game or a Elder Scrolls game and I see an icon on the map.

I personally, this is just personal preference, I'm encouraged to go there, to visit, to see what it is, whether it's a cave or a fortress or a dungeon or a city, because I know that someone built it. Like something's there. It might have quests, it might have gear, it might have enemies. Um, but when you see a point of interest in Starfield, some of them are bespoke, but many of them are kind of like this procedurally

semi-generated. And what I mean by that is like they have like certain like flavors that they can be. Now the update did change how those are like doled out like on the back end, but the the the crux of it hasn't changed. So for me when I'm playing a game like Starfield and I see like a point of interest pop up on a surface of a map or if I'm cruising in a ship.

Like, I might be interested in seeing it, but I'm just like, oh, it's just gonna be another derelic freighter, or it's just gonna be another abandoned mining base that I could enter if I want. And some of them do have interesting stories, but I just don't think the randomness of it really gels to me.

But I also am kind of glad in like a more high level sense that Starfield did try something different. Like I'm not saying I liked the way Skyrim did it better, therefore Starfield should have been like Skyrim. Like, no, I'm I'm glad it that it that it tried something different. with how it handles its points of interest, but it's I like it less. That's kind of where I end up on there. Like you tried something different, but I I don't prefer it. Uh go ahead, Mikael.

This was so cool because once you get that ship and like you just start exploring, you like when people scan you and stuff, they're like, Oh, it's the mantis, like sorry, you can go or do you need me to give you my clothes or something? Like all I think Stafield would have like been a lot better if they had more of these types of things.

I did appreciate having them and that's exactly why I ended up like with my headline for the article, which I just said Starfield is the best it's ever been, but it's still Starfield. Like that wasn't like clickbaiting or anything. Like whatever they did, it's still Starfield. They didn't change it, like Uh I feel like there's this misconception that when people look at

Stuff like Cyberpunk and like they're like, Oh, you know, like we need a Cyberpunk two point oh thing. Like Cyberpunk when it launched and Cyberpunk now, they fixed a lot of the bugs, but it's still the same game. They didn't like Dramatically change the game, except for like skills and stuff. I'd say it's still the same thing. So you can't really do anything with what Starfield is right now. That's why like

I think that's why they try to set expectations by saying don't call it two point oh because they're not like changing the how the game works or anything. They're just like improving and like trying to add to make it a better experience for people who already liked it. But I will say that uh like I this was like it's funny the how this worked out. This was like the first big game I played on the PS5 Pro like for work.

And uh it is like a massive upgrade over the like the Xbox version I played last year and the base PS five version. Like you even when you play in the performance mode it looks better than the quality mode on the base console. So like I was Uh enjoying that.

More than anything, like the controller support is like the best thing ever because the other criticism I had of Starfield besides the loading screens were like you had to like go in and out and waste so much time like backing in and out of menus. Now they're just

swiping up opens something, swiping left opens something directly. So you don't have to like go into the menu, press something else. It saves you like three, four clicks every single time. and they also did some other cool stuff with like besides doing haptics and adaptive triggers for like you know mining and shooting they even made it so that the light bar

Is representative like it represents your health. So it changes color based on your health and all radio comms and everything happens to the controller speakers. You can disable that, but it's a bit surprising that they went all in on this and like I was enjoying that and When I played a few hours of it on On the PS five version and I I re downloaded on Xbox to compare.

And I started playing, I was like, wait, I like I immediately missed the controller, like being able to swipe up because suddenly when I wanted to go into like inventory or go here, I had to like press this, move the D pad down and go here. So that was like probably the biggest upgrade. Besides just like the visuals being better and stuff. So yeah, like that I don't know how it is with keyboard and mouse, but I very much appreciate the controller stuff they did.

Like I already talked about how the fact that I literally couldn't play the DLC because I'm soft locked. Like that's that should be a huge mark against it. And not only that, but I didn't even bring up like Adam was watching me play.

For whatever reason, there was one airlock that whenever I opened it, my game would crash. And whenever I have like PC issues like that, I'm like, oh no, did I like configure something or my is my motherboard not set up right? Is it my fault? But it was like consistently whenever that airlock opened, I would crash. So I had to like

put it I made it like a low resolution, put it in a small window and then like opened the airlock and held my breath and then it got through. I'm like, all right, this is a very silly way to have to play a game to, you know, wrestle it to be on my terms. So

Is it still Starfield? I guess the answer on my end is also yes. Uh some of the things that I just very quickly that I do think are like like just little clever things that these games do that I still enjoy when I do see them in in Bethesda games is Like I'm playing on a character that has done like most of all the all the other side quests, all the other factions.

And when I go to respond when I go to respond to the initial like distress call, I say like, I'm with the UC Vanguard, don't worry, because I've like finished that quest and I'm a captain, like, oh finally, someone's here to help to save us. And then later in the quest I had the option to say like us Freestar Rangers have to stick together. And then the person was like, Both the Vanguard and the Freestar Rangers, you sure get around. Like the fact that they just like have uh like just

dialogue factored in based on uh other things that you've done, which sounds like a pretty low bar to hit, but they do it pretty frequently in these games. So I do appreciate whenever I see that. Um also there was a new quest that they added. I think it's part of the free lanes update and not f for the DLC specifically, but it's related to um the new outpost that you can go to, the anchor point. Where basically you end up having to um

You you learn about uh a star system that had like an outpost on it that one person murdered all the rest at the outpost and then he fled and you had to like track him down. And then when you track him down, you find that he is like quote unquote a changed man. He's like

uh he's like a father figure to many people. He's he's like kind of brought a civilization back from the brink and he's like done a lot of good. And there's some interesting questions there. It's not the most profound thing in the world, but it's a little bit of wrestling like, okay.

What sort of come up and does this person deserve? Uh or, you know, has he exonerated himself? And you can ask him, like, are you a changed person? And he's like, I don't know. Like, what do you mean by that? I I was a murderer then and I'm a murderer now. That's never gonna change. um sort of thing. So there are nuggets of good, interesting, and I think, you know, worth discussing points in Starfield. Uh but underneath everything else. That holds it back and that hasn't changed, unfortunately.

Some sliders related to the Terran Armada because they can like attack you or attack stuff, right? That's the whole like one of the mechanics they added. So they added a toggle for how often that can happen, which is interesting. And they also added uh some legendary

like l the legendary rarity related appearance rates, which you can also toggle now and all of this affects your experience. So you can essentially tweak how how much or how little experience you get in Starfield as well based on your difficulty, which is Something I like seeing. Like they didn't do what uh Remedy does in their games because when I was like replaying Alan Wake two last week

Uh they just added like God mode like as options like infinite ammo, infinite health and stuff like that. But over here you get to like you have granular control over that. So that was nice. And uh the creations like it wasn't live when I was playing it on PS5, except for like a few went live before Embargo. But since launch day, uh I can confirm that the creations are the same on PS five and Xbox. So there's no like restriction based on what I could tell. Like even the uh there's like

The unofficial l bug fix mod and stuff like that. There's like this team which has been working on those for like every Bethesda game since like Oblivion and they did one for Starfield also. That's also available. Then there's like mods for like infinite resources, infinite Like weight limits and Bethesda has their own mods like for like Doom Slayer stuff, and also I as far as I could tell, all the mods which I had installed on Xbox when I was testing were also there on PS5. The only thing is uh

Some mods are paid, obviously. And uh the Tracker's Alliance bounty series, which they made a big deal about, uh pretty interesting. Uh That that costs seven hundred creation points or whatever they call it. And if you have the premium edition you get one thousand premium points or creation points for free with that. So uh

You can start this questline for free without buying it, but uh you have to like pay 700 for the rest. So I recommend like doing the opening because you get like easy money from this bounty series. You can access it as soon as you get to Aquila City. And then you can like take a call whether you want the rest. But I think like uh I'm not deleting the game. I'm gonna like just get into it and relax because I'm still enjoying it despite the loading screen.

Uh I'll probably like hopefully in a month or two I'll have like finished Shattered Space at least because I know that people don't really care much for that, but I wanna play that before I do Terra Normada. So we'll see how that goes.

How do I say this? So there was a there was a Crimson Desert Dev update where they talked about, you know, their plans for the games. And they've been updating this game f frequently as an understatement ever since it's launched. We've already kind of had that as a talking point on other episodes of the podcast. Um And the the they're talked about how they're, you know, talking about new content, difficulty options, you know, a boss rush mode potentially or th or things like that.

Uh not boss rush, but boss rematches. Um they've already changed how so many things uh work in that game. So did you have a specific topic on that that you wanted to touch on, Miguel?

It started getting to a point where like it was just expected from me that oh they're gonna announce one million more sales and they're gonna announce some big changes. But what they've announced in the last two, three days and what they've patched out already, like I just felt like this is something which

I talked to Josh about like just randomly that, you know, it doesn't make sense playing triple A games day one. Like you always get a better experience when you wait. But in this case, like I just wanted to just discuss that it's I has any game changed this month? so soon after launch in recent memory. That was basically the crux of the thing.

Um before it released. And then, you know, as time went on, even like the launch version of the game, they added a lot more fast travelling points even to like some key spots. Um and, you know, the like it's been well documented. Um when this game came out. So this game has just been being transformed. Um You know,

A game of this scope and size and getting out these updates as frequently as it does kinda makes you think like, Hey, they're probably not quality checking all of this at the speed that they're doing this and it makes you Uh think about like, hey, are these developers like are they seeing their family still with just the amount of like work that they're putting in?

to get these updates out so fast it's just like hey man, what what's going on? So like it They released a dev update letter on April 9th. For example, that like like you know, we're already detailing hey and then in in the future we're gonna add like, you know, boss rematches, reblockading, difficulty settings, new skills for you know the other playable characters.

hiding back weapons and stuff like it's like okay like that like it makes you think like hey they're gonna this is stuff that they that they're just stating right now for future updates and you think like okay maybe their next update like is within like

you know, pro probably Sunis is like in a week. Maybe maybe they're gonna space these out more because these are features that are like are cool to have but like maybe not essential. And then Two days after that dev update came out on April eleventh, the it's like, hey, patch notes new version, here's all the stuff that they they put out in that they all a lot of the stuff that they detailed in that dev letter.

came out, you know, two days after. It's like, okay, why did he even have a dev update letter for this when you're just gonna release this patch like two days after? Like what are like this is like obviously A lot of it is like welcome for people who are playing this game o of course for Like adding new features, fixes, stuff like that, like um a lot of requested features like hiding the back weapons.

And then uh being ab uh being able to like fast travel even while you're mounted or falling or something like even when you're stuck in an animation already or like in a certain state, like you can just fast travel right away, you don't have to worry about it.

But then like and then also stuff like adding a new ability focused aerial role, which is basically Officializing what was in uh previously a glitch, basically when you There was an ability people found in the game beforehand where they could glide for a long long amount of time if they're if they uh went into the focus state while gliding. Like the the stamina r uh consumption on gliding was severely reduced so they could glide for extended amounts of time. They added this

uh technique which was like not intentional. First they patched it out or nerfed it. Then they actually added it like as its own skill now. Um, you know, you do you do have some prerequisites, but hey, as long as you can have this like the spirit uh uh gauge and consumption for it, you could actually like

fast and how much that they're doing. And also one of the the big things that they added with this also is they finally added official support for Intel art GPUs with this patch update too and then they uh mentioned that you know they're gonna add uh support for more Intel GPUs over time as they improve it little by little. They added, you know, uh X ESS uh support uh with this update as well w for those Intel GPUs. Well, if you remember on Launch Day but they had an FAQ.

Um, you know, for people who were trying to run this game at launch day, like, hey, I can't get this thing to run on my Intel GPU. Um, you know, what d do you have any um What's your answer to that? And they said, Oh, just refund the game. You know, we don't support it right now. You know, it's like, okay, that's weird that you only decided to uh convey this this to us on launch day and not beforehand.

Um and there's a whole debacle of like even Intel saying, Hey, we we reached out to them throughout, you know, the years of this game in development of like

uh uh to support our GPUs and even like, you know, uh ship them our products to, you know, help and uh ask them, you know, if you need help. Um we're here for stuff to support uh And It wasn't until just less than you know, for then three weeks after its release finally it's like, Okay since it's uh it feels like it's like it's almost It's like a reactionary

updates in sense of in terms of like they're they're seeing feedback from a lot of their player base, from Digital Foundry, from many other p sources, and it just feels like they're They're now getting up to speed of like the things that people wanted pre-release are now being rapidly added post-launch. And I just feel like it's

Once again, it's much appreciated in terms of like, hey, if you're playing this, it continues to get better. But at the same time I think about like is this sustainable for the people that are like working on it? Um hopefully they're doing okay. You know, I'm I am I am pro you know better labor conditions even if that means that

people might have to live uh wait a little longer. But like, you know, like I said, I don't work for them. I don't know what conditions that like, you know, the developers are under. Hopefully they're doing all right.'Cause we also heard, you know, that a lot of the development team has moved on to work on their next project, Donkey V. And hopefully whatever crew that they have still working on this game are, you know, doing well. You know, it's just like it's it's kinda

Reacting to feedback is important, but there's also like what was your vision for the game in the first place? Like it's it's not a crowdsource. Like we're just gonna do the thing that most pe that the most people want and have them have have the Steam forums or Reddit or whatever make our decisions for us.

What was your vision for the game? Like how did you want this mechanic to work? Not to not just oh all the critics said this was bad, so we changed it. Of course, on a case by case basis, certain things can be good decisions to change or tweak, but I feel like there's like scales to this or levels to this where eventually they're just gonna be like we're gonna try to please as many people as possible by doing

most things that people critique about until people s no longer critique it and then the game will be done. Just like I don't know if that's like you said, sustainable. Um or if the game that results from that will ultimately be interesting or as

and so forth. And like you got you basically, you know, for better or for worse, this was like a a a game you explored that was largely grounded. And through, you know Many many updates, you know, at at this point in time. Like it just feels like hey, just go spec into these things and you can basically infinitely air dash across the world now. And they're just like, what are what are we doing?

You know? Um it it's a very interesting like case study of like K. This is a developer that like has gone on on the opposite side of the spectrum of like There's like the spectrum of like developers listening to feedback, and like there's definitely some case like you know a lot of cases of like of what end of that spectrum or like

The developer has like kinda shut shut up feedback, like public feedback. It's like kinda doing their own thing. But then it feels like that uh this is the other side of the spectrum where the developers have like totally capitulated to like public demands and feedback and like just Giving everything people want, maybe for better or for worse.

has put up a few features and then of uh Jess Reyes, who has been on this podcast in the past and has contributed to the site, also did a feature from uh a PAX East um opportunity. So Adam, I know that

You didn't write these but you edited these, so I'm not sure if you had like a an order or like you you knew one of these was, you know, something that you really should be touched on first or just what your impression was getting these getting these articles up on the site for Kennedy and for Jeff. Yeah, so we don't have one of our one of our regular contributors to RPG site or this podcast. Um we don't really have someone that regularly makes it out to Pax C.

you know, year after year. So we actually have a freelancer who lives like local to the area who's basically like, Hey, you know, I'm here anyway, so I'm gonna check out what's here and if you guys wanna want me to cover anything, uh, I can do that. And that's Kennedy. And um they've written, yeah, various previews for us in the past. And so there are four previews from PAX on the site, uh, three from Kennedy and one from Jess. Jess is a former uh writer for us. Um

So the three previews I guess I'll start with the two two of the previews that Kennedy did were from NIS America. So NIS America was at PAXESES. They had a handful of games there, like for example they had a Tronge Overlord, which is already out, but you know, might as well demo it. uh still. Um but didn't write a preview for that one since we already have a review. Um but two of the upcoming NIS games that were available to play at Paxis for attendees, one of them was uh Brigadine Abyss.

Which is a m tactical RPG from or tactical strategy game from Happy Net and Ad Globe, uh published by NIS America. And then the other game was Disgaya Mayhem, which is an actual like Neepanichi software game, which in Japan, we've talked about this before before, is not I think we talked about this. Um it's actually given a different title. It's not

technically a diskaya game, but it's got like Discaya crossover content. Um, but it's got like the same art style and whatnot and printies and you know, so when for the localization they're just calling it a Diskaya game, even though it is anything but um in terms of its style.

So basically the gist of these two previews, I'll be brief. Um Diskaya Mayhem, uh Kennedy has some familiarity to the series. He's just like, All right, Diskaya is a tactical game or a tactical series, strategy RPG, grids, big numbers, things like that. Uh this game is not. That this game is more like a Muzo Warriors type game. Big numbers are still there, but uh you know, you're just mowing down hordes and hordes of enemies in like a Dskaya coat of paint.

And his preview basically it doesn't go much more in depth than that. It's just like that's what it is on the tin. It's a Muza Warriors type game in a disguise code. Which he said, like it's hard to make sense of this, but th maybe that's why it's kind of interesting. It's just kind of its own weird little goofy thing. It's that. I'm not sure there's a whole lot more to say about it

a series, like this is really the third game in the series. They thought it was just like a brand new IP until they started like looking it up to like write about it. And like, wait a minute, what is Brigadine the Legend of Vernerzia? What is Brigadine the Legend of Forsena?

which are basically the first two games in the series. So this is the third one. Uh to be clear, the first game in the series had a couple of different versions, some have slightly different titles, but um Uh he basically or Kennedy basically said, like this game got the best of me, uh kick my butt, but it actually makes me more interested to play it'cause, you know, almost for revenge or whatever to get back at it, but it was challenging, it was tough. And like the demo

But it's basically gonna be uh simultaneous across them. Let me look it up here real quick. Uh PC, PS5, Xbox, and Switch. 招牙

Those are pretty big issues. I don't know exactly what PC environments hopefully niche PC environments those those are under because beforehand, before that news post, like the last one was like back in twenty twenty two and it's just like Vote for us during the Steam Awards and trading cards are available now.

This game kinda has a good art style, has a good color palette, it has an interesting mechanic where you like fuse with your monster, which I know it's not the first monster catcher to let you do that. Um And he was he he w the demo or the preview is basically saying, Yeah, it was a promising demo, but also this game is free to play and I have no idea what that monetization is gonna look like, which is kinda like a big, you know

Consideration like how how is this gonna look when you're actually like playing it and trying you know, how does the money work? We don't know. Yeah. So'cause it's a free to play game. So that's kinda that one. Um, you know, kinda like the demo was good but heart too a lot of uncertainties on the um on the what the full release will look like. So that's anemo.

That's A N I I M O Preview that we have from PAX East, which is from Jess Reyes, is for grave seasons, which I've actually seen uh quite a bit of excitement for. So it's a farming like, you know, game, w farming RPD, farming simulation game, which have again of course been of course very popular. This one's kind of gimmick and what makes it unique and stand out and why people are excited for it is that it's a mix between a farming sim and a murder mystery.

So it's got all the things that you'd want from a farming sim, like farming and bachelors and bachelorettes and dating. And it's got, you know, things you like from a murder mystery game in terms of like mystique and interest and

Who done it? I for some reason I thought you were gonna say like it's got tough murder mystery games, such as murder or something like that. Well I was gonna uh the joke I was gonna make was you could even date the murderer if you want. Uh Which people are excited about.

I I guess one of the points of contention with this game that people are wondering is like the amount of male characters. So how many male characters will this game have like moving forward? And the the way that the this person summarized it is Uh four out of the nineteen characters are gonna be male. It's like okay, and then and then in the future, like new male characters are only gonna be added if they're strictly necessary for the narrative.

And I fucking lost it. Like I laughed so hard uh d during that like like that that specific point of like the developers drove home the fact that like there won't be any male characters gonna be at unless Unless the narrative calls for it, but that's it. Don't worry. It's like what are we doing here?

Characters that we find appealing and like appeal to us and we find attractive, obviously. But there's a certain point where whether it's like Brown Dust 2, um Snowbreak

Which is, you know, Snowbreak has his own kind of worms that I won't get into. But um And even like z like stuff like Zedma's Zone Zero to some extent, like eventually as these games move on, they kinda capitulate like hey, we're gonna add less and less males like, you know, over time and just like In Brown Dust II's case, like they just kinda at first, like, when they first launched

Like they at least had like a male like, you know, participating in the main story and like was like on the cover of that game. And at some point in development they're just like, Fuck this, we're only gonna add, you know, females moving forward and even Zenla Zone Zero over time it feels like it's skewed.

largely to like adding more females over time. It's kinda you know, it c it it feels like though you've pulled the rug uh out from under like your initial audience of like, hey, there are definitely as Adam said, you know, there are definitely some um a female audience that do like the the style of this game and like the like the like the male characters that were there at launch and then like over time the you know they kinda just capitulated.

like, hey, you know, we're not making enough money by, you know, adding these care uh these male characters, so we're just gonna shift our pipeline to only females. You know, it's kind of

I'm I feel like if it's that's the original plan beforehand, like you know, Star Saviour's like It's it's all i they were very clear beforehand that like it's gonna be an all female cast besides your main character. It's like, okay, sure. Like that's your vision for the game. That's fine because that's that's kinda like your original plan. But when it become but it becomes like something that like like round us too where it's like like if you just given up, like, okay, this is you know. Sure.

So uh level five vision, you know, as of the last couple of years has just become a regular a fairly regular event and level five uh you know rem remember like two years ago or hearing anything from level five was you know We we'd hear about games like Decca Police or uh Fantasy Life and we'd be like, you know, when when are we gonna see these? And then all of a sudden last year was kinda like a return to form for them and it seems like they're keeping that momentum.

uh going into this year with uh I don't know, it's fe it feels like level five is back, I guess is what I'm beating around the bush and saying. Uh so we had a level five vision twenty twenty six stream. Uh the first thing that I have listed here is the announcement of a new title. This is Snack World Reloaded. It is a follow up to twenty twenty's Snap World The Dungeon Crawl.

Uh my first initial impression of this when I was watching these trailers to speak to another is that it feels like a very like kind of generic trailer, but it has like a like a licensed anime style like backing vocal theme uh throughout the whole trailer. uh as part of the announcement that elevates it a little bit. So it's like uh hell yeah. So snack world is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and PC um at some

Nintendo used to handle a lot of their publishing and distribution. So like even that Lady Leighton Catrial and whatever the hell the name was, I forgot the name. That was also uh handled by Nintendo. So

Snack World was this very uh weird thing because I remember uh I was like whatever have said this like tons of times. I was obsessed with fantasy life on three DS. So when there's like a new level five game after a game I really liked, I was excited to play it but This was during that transition period where

There was like always uncertainty on whether something level five did was gonna release in English and then w when it releases, was it gonna release in North America? Because the three DS was region locked, right? You had like Phoenix Right versus Leighton, which was like released later in North America compared to Europe. So stuff like this just never made it over. And when i came to switch finally i bought it and uh it was pretty generic and whatever like

It didn't feel like it was doing much for me. It felt like I was playing a a B team version of Fantasy Life, just the quest without the story stuff or whatever, and I dropped it in a few hours. But uh

I'm up for this like after two level five games that I really enjoyed and one which I'm like nearly done with like the final update stuff which they've been doing with Inazuma which we'll get to in a bit. But yeah like I'm a bit concerned about the snack world reloaded thing because like I might be assuming too much, but based on the trailer, it looks like they're doing it in Unreal Engine five, just based on the effect.

And uh I believe like I'll have to reinstall the game to check, but I believe Snackwall, the Dungeon Crawl Gold, was a Unity game. So I don't know if they're like actually rebuilding the whole thing in Unreal Five because I believe Fantasy Life I is Unreal Five, so maybe that's their new tech which they're using but

I'm a bit concerned about that, but yeah, it is coming on like current platforms only. Uh the one omission which uh I've seen like some people joke about and all is that none of the new announcements were for Xbox. So like I guess after Fantasy Life I and Inazuma Eleven which were like the Xbox account has been posting about it like under the ID at Xbox banner which I find quite funny because I guess level five is independent but like ID at Xbox is supposed to be for like small indie games, so

That I always laugh when I see those trailers get uploaded there. But yeah, none of the announcements which we're gonna talk about were for Xbox. It was only for like PlayStation, PC and Switch. So yeah, that's essentially Snack World the Dungeon Crawler and Josh you wanted to say something.

It feels like it's using a lot of like fantasy life eye assets, which is I I'm always like, hey, you know, if you've made assets and you can you can um use it for other games in your pipeline, like definitely do so. development easier on its developers and more efficient in that regard. Um, because like there's definitely some aspects of that trade. It's like, man, this looks kinda like a lot like Fantasy Life I but more combat focused. Like I don't know much about Snack World in that regard.

Um but people say it's like a it's like almost a Diablo esque action RPG and uh for a for better or for worse, people are like kinda divided on whether it's good or not. But it seems Um a little bit.

criticizing it too much, but it's definitely one of the handheld RPGs, brackets, derogatory, not complimentary type games, if that makes sense. So they really have like an uphill battle to like uh make it worth buying and playing, but

I have a feeling like you said, right, the Diablo thing, it definitely has that. And if they if they add like some sort of I don't know, like they could do a lot, they could add like some roguelike mode or something and they could they can do like online cross play, cross save like they've been doing with everything. So

There's a lot of potential for them to like elevate it but If it's just the same thing remade in Unreal Engine Five or just remade, it it's not something which I'm gonna be like too excited about.

along with the news story viewpoint. I don't know if that will help to the package and I they haven't gone into like the whatever refinements they're gonna add to it. So like it's one of those things like hey they announced it, they've sho they g kinda gave it a brief description on what their Planning for it but they haven't gotten to the specifics. So like I'm just like one of those people that's like

You know, I'll I'll maybe pick it up when it comes out. Uh like hey, I did that for Fantasy Life and I did not regret that purchase. It was just like one of those things that's like, Hey, it caught my interest. I'll definitely take the leap of faith and I was rewarded for that. But I I s but in terms of like This presentation is weird because

Kino, the CEO, has been very vocal about his um support for generative AI. And like even h him acting as the host for this presentation, like he's already like in an environment that's definitely using generative AI assets. Um, in terms of like, hey, like you have Kim presenting this in like surrounded by an environment that's definitely

You know, it it it's definitely indicative like, hey, this is definitely a generative AI environment that he's in when presenting this presentation. And there are definitely some trailers in this game, like the um we won't really get into it because it's not really in our purview.

But I believe there's like a Yokai Watch um mobile uh new mobile thing that they uh announced and they said like hey it's gonna be complimentary to the existing Yokai watch mobile game that they that's still running in Japan, but like when they um uh showed off a trailer for it there's definitely a lot of telltale signs in that trailer that it was like all

entirely generated uh through generative AI. And it's like Because like a lot of things look off and it th a lot of things in the trailer like are definitely um telltale science of generative AI being utilized and it's like, man, this fucking s fucking sucks, man. This does not look

Great. Like and and on top of that, like they're a like the level five's April Fools was a generative AI trailer of like this hypothetical level five amusement park, you know? And it's like They I I feel bad for the creatives on these projects that are like handmade projects like Snack World Reloaded, you know, uh Verges like you have a lot of like very talented people that are certainly involved in this project, but you know, its management and its head CEO is very much

all in and very um pro generative AI and Even like posts on social media, like lengthy social posts of like saying, Hey man, you know, I don't understand why people are so uh against generative AI. It's so The the potential it brings for us is like it's like people need to be more open about it.

What are we doing man? What are we fucking doing? But I just like it. That's why I'm very I'm very 50-50 on like K on level five. Like I like that like a lot of their upcoming handmade like products in console games and I do like that they use They have features that are like universal towards a cross save and crossplay in that regard, but it's so mired because it's in like this.

Here's our prototyping. We th we threw Bambi in as our stand on as our placeholder image so that it could never be confused as a final texture or or whatever. That's how you that's how we did things before AI, you know, placeholders existed. Um, so completely on, you know, not on the wagon at all. So yeah, no, thanks for the reminder. Uh for the I forgot that their CEO had taken that stance uh so explicitly.

What is it called? The Basarios something, the D L C the major update which they did in during the holiday season. They still call that DLC one everywhere. So I assume they are gonna do like another major update because they've been like hinting at it here and there and I don't think they would have called it D L C one, like numbered one specifically if that was the only expansion they were doing. So

We might see more of that this year as well. Maybe to coincide with the mobile release. But yeah, that is a paid game. It's not a free to play thing. It's the full game with touch controls or like proper controller support. So I'm definitely gonna like Add that to my coffee table collection for fantasy life I to put it bluntly.

Uh sorry, like level five refers to major updates as D L C so it essentially has like the newest DLC included the newest update included on its releasing in June as a switch two physical, not a game key card. So

I assume uh doing it this way just lets them do one physical because now anyone can buy that and they can play that on their switch one or switch two. It's the cross gen thing. So dropping Uh like adding a Switch 2 version is good for longevity and also because like a lot of these games kind of run like shit on Switch 1 like Fantasy Life I is like acceptable best case.

So like having and it's really good on Switch too. So I'm just happy they're doing that. And uh but Decca Police is like one of the games that Josh was referring to as Dev Hell, right? Like we have we don't even have a year for that.

So Megaton Misashi to some extent used to be in the spot of like it was they were all in dev hell. And now there's just new titles in development that have replaced that th those titles to be in Dev Hell. You know? Um they also have showed off like first gameplay footage uh of this um Yokai Watch spiritual follow up holy horror mansion. Um but they did like we f saw first gameplay footage of that, but I don't think that also has a release date or year as well, uh, in that regard. You know, and

is the most interesting out of these remaining five. Like the cause uh on this podcast we really can't go too deep into any individual trailer here. Uh I guess probably Neverway is the one that I've seen the most uh like on social media about. It seems like the most interesting reveal at this triple I initiative is one that doesn't really fit our coverage scope. It's from Sunset Visitor, the developers of Thousand Times Resist.

So that's um Prove You're Human, which if you're listening to this podcast you've probably have seen this. Um it's kind of like a a team up between uh Sunset Visitor, which was the developer of Thousand times resist and Black Tabby Games, which was the developer of Slay the Princess. They're so Black Tabby is publishing now. So they're kind of like this team up between these two kind of

beloved indie, you know, houses for this new title, Prove You're Human. Um, we haven't covered it'cause it's more of a like an adventure narrative game, horror game even, but not really an RPG, so doesn't fit our scope. But that's

I know a lot of people are really, really excited for Alabastadon. And I guess this is one of those things they've already been really open about. So this is the the developer behind Crosscode. Um Alabastadon is heading into early access on May seventh.

However, they've been very open in saying it's gonna be in early access for a while, at least two years. Um, maybe longer. Oh wow. So you know, it's one of those things where if you're the type of person who Don't really mess with early access and you just wait for full releases and just you know put this on a on the on the back burner for now uh for quite a while or maybe just take it off the burner entirely. Wait worth. Come back to it later.

Um, but I know a lot of people are really excited for that. Yeah, Neverway is the kind of a horror pixel art RPG from the artist of Celeste, and that's coming out in October, so I've seen some uh excitement for that. And then there's also I actually saw some kind of

pairing, even though I'll I know uh Queen's Domain, I actually met with some of the developers making that at GDC. I didn't realize it's basically only like a two person dev team on that one. Very, very small. Yeah. Um this one I'm not sure for Valor Mortis, but um Yeah. Kingsfield bike coming out later this year. Alcahest is another one that was shown off. That's another first person, you know.

uh fantasy game. So yeah, just to be just to kinda run it down again, ca I know I kinda hopped from topic to topic there. The RPGs that we covered from this stream event, Castlevania, Alcahest, Alabastadon, Neverway, Valor Mortis. And the one I actually haven't mentioned yet, which I've seen some excitement for, is a co-op pirate survival adventure game called Windrose, which actually launches next week in early access.

Um so pirate game. I guess this was originally like going to be like an MMO, like massive online game, but they've kind of switched tact and decided to go with uh more like online co op RPG survival thing. Uh I've seen some excitement for it, but uh that again another early access release this week. Trailer's a little bit of whiplash for that one'cause the first half is like

action-based combat with like swashbuckling and you know muskets. Uh and then uh in the back half there's like the like the building crafting survival mechanics where someone's like build a wall, build a flag, do-da-do, do-da-do, like all the colored like Take and placement sort of mechanics, like, oh, okay. Which I think is a still a fun combo. Yeah, it definitely has like the settlement building type component to it. Yep. No, thank you uh for assisting with that uh with the rundown there.

And those those two big uh the level five streaming event and the triple I streaming event were the two uh the two big things uh from this week. Uh a few other just uh updates and dates before we uh sign off.

Um Pillars of Eternity now has a form uh a formal turn based mode available on Steam Gog and Xbox on PC. So Pillars of Eternity when it first launched was real time with pause. Um Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire. If I remember right, it was real time with pause and had kind of like a beta turn base, like it got added in later after the fact. Um and then Turnbase kind of got more popularized when Larian took off a little bit more with the Divinity series and of course Baldur's Gate 3.

went from the conventional real time with pause of that series to turn-based. And then so turn-based kind of got back ported into some of the older uh games from different developers and Pillars of Eternity now also can be played fully turn-based. Hopefully I got that sequence of events, right? Uh as for some other dates, um Astrophel, this is definitely like one of those games that says inspired by RPGs of the early 2000s. So, like, God.

uh is gonna be releasing on an open playtest. I s so not really releasing, just it will have an open playtest um on April 17th, I guess as part of Steam's upcoming medieval fest. So basically like an open beta of sorts for Astrophel. And then Fuga, Melodies of Steel, we'll also get a mobile version releasing at some point this.

Um a little bit of like Paper Mario, you know, action combat uh you know, button press combat in the turn based system. Uh you play as like two women who are like making dosas. You have like a weird like mech that you drive. It's kind of an interesting combination of things, but That's coming out next week. A Hades two is releasing on PS five and Xbox next week. I forgot that it was only on Switch and PC. Until that point. So cool.

Well, whatever you listen to this podcast on, whatever uh podcast service, leave us a like, leave us a rating. We'd like to see those. Uh bookmark our website, rpdsite.net. Uh join our Discord, discord.gg slash RPG site. Uh you should be able to find RPG site on social media. Just search for RPG space site, S-IT, and you uh should see us there. Until you hear from us next time, stay safe, take care. And we'll talk to y'all later.