TGI 675 - Game Night Mining Tutorials

Welcome to the Gamers Inn. Come on in, pull the chair next to the It looks like you've had a long journey. I'm your host, Jocelyn, and joining me as always is my co-host Ryan. Hello, Ryan. Hello. Welcome back. We're back. We are back. Did you miss us last week? Well, no, they didn't, because they had my super awesome host special, right? That's true. Yeah.

I do hope you guys enjoyed that. Um, I have very much enjoyed putting them together. The uh script is written for this week, so I've just I've had a bit of I'd get not a cold, I guess, just like a really, really sore throat for for like two weeks. So I don't know what's going on. Might just be super dry weather or something, but um yeah, I haven't really been like

Not able to record because obviously we're recording tonight. So like I haven't lost my voice or anything. But I'm just like when I think about like sitting down and just talking for 40 minutes straight, I'm like That's just not a thing I wanna do. So it is coming. It's written. It's coming. It will be here before the end of the month, I promise. Um, hopefully I'll I'll get it all done this weekend. So yeah, I have been really, really enjoying putting them together. I think this next one

is um kind of a fun and and uplifting and kind of looking at a couple of different companies doing good things. So yeah, we we love a good redemption story. And that's all I'm gonna say. So If you liked last week's show and if you're interested in our patron uh host specials, you can find them over at patreon.com/slash the gamers in.

Um, we do appreciate everyone's support over there. And yeah, we've been trying uh really hard actually to uh to get some more content out there for you patrons, including our Patreon game night. So we do those. n uh every third Friday of the month, which means we just had one and we played Deep Rock Galactic and I am putting the patrons on blast over this one. Because you guys you voted almost unanimously for this game.

And then nobody came to play. Well, n that's not true. Josh came to play and that was super, super fun. And it was great to have a guide because Ryan and I had no idea what we were doing. But like Come on guys, come hang out on game night. It was super, super, super fun. And we did really I think well, I don't necessarily want to speak for Ryan, but I know I knew nothing going in and had a great time.

I played the tanky character, so there were a lot of times where I felt um less useful, I would say. Then the other two, I just kept lighting things on fire and that sometimes meant my teammates and that didn't feel right. I was just gonna say uh you were lighting us on fire too, sometimes. I definitely was. I was trying not to. And then I took the perk that was like When you do light your friends on fire, they take half damage and I was like, Yes, I I sh I should take the

That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. But it was it was it was really, really fun. Um yeah. So again, when we do our game nights, we just hang out in Discord and um I do like a screen share and we just chat and talk and have fun. So if

for some reason the Friday nights aren't working, let us know. Cause this we do this for you guys. So If you have any feedback about game night, any reasons why maybe you're not participating or anything that you would like to see us do, um, hit us up over on Patreon or in Discord and uh and let us know your thoughts because we we want to do it for you.

We want you guys to be um excited about them. And uh if you're if you're voting for things just to hear us talk about them on the show, that's fine too. Just let us know because I wanna make sure that nobody's like missing out on stuff they really want to see. So um yeah, Deep Rock Galactic. Um I had no, no idea what this was at all. To the point that like

When we were getting ready to go on our first mission, um, you have to go up into the drill. I just jumped down the hole because I was like, Well, it says deep, like we're going down, right? So like Josh was like, Okay, let's go and I was like, Okay, and ran off and jumped off the edge. And then it was like, Oh, you mean go in the Rocket looking drill thing. Okay. Uh sor sorry team. Yeah, I'll be be right there.

I knew nothing at all, but it was a blast. I had not uh played before, but it is one that I uh had on my radar for a while. Uh to the point where I had played the uh Vampire Survivors spin-off that was out in early access a few years ago, and I uh because of this game went back to that this week to play it a little bit, which I'll probably talk about on a future episode when I get a little further. But I I had never played it before. I had always wanted to play it.

But yeah, I agree. Having a guide was super helpful. So Josh uh held our hands as we made our way through the game. So much so. I don't think we would have passed a single uh one of those tutorial missions without him. Or I guess they weren't tutorial missions necessarily, but they were definitely um early like first timer missions. Um, but uh yeah, I knew nothing about this game. So in case you guys know nothing about this game.

Uh you basically are little dwarves and you play different roles in your party and you can only have one of each role. And then you go down to a planet and you have a different objective every time, always centering around the idea of mining. So um I'm trying to remember what the first I think the first mission was like mine X number of a certain resource and then the second mission

was oh, the connecting all the pipes to like the oil wells. Building cool roller coasters is what you mean. Yeah. And then the third one I think was just another mining one. It it took a lot longer. Oh no, there was one about alien eggs. We had to get alien eggs, but I think that one was pretty that one was pretty short um in comparison. And I think Josh was saying sometimes the mining ones can be a little bit'cause they're uh randomly generated planets, I believe.

So sometimes when you have to mine X number, like sometimes the like final vein is like way down inside the planet and yeah, it's not necessarily fun getting there just for the sake of then tapping on the wall a few times and then having to do an extraction, which is basically like

You follow your little um helper bot out of the caves and back up to the surface in order to escape the planet, but there's a five minute timer on that. So You have to be back up at basically the starting or well, it's not always the starting point, but you have to kind of be back up to an extraction point in in five minutes. And uh more than once that proved too much for me. But yeah.

you're constantly being, um, I guess, challenged by enemies as well. There's like these bug like creatures that that live down In the subterranean areas of this planet planets plural, I don't actually know. Wasn't paying that close of attention.

Um, but yeah, so you're constantly also like fighting off enemies and things like that. And when you do certain actions, it may cause a swarm to come and then you have to work as a group to try to, you know, drive them off. You can also revive your teammates, which is pretty cool. And you can also just hit X over and over and be like, help me, save me, help me, save me. And then you guys can guess how I know that. Yeah. Well, we tried. We tried our best.

Yeah, I YOLO'd a lot though. I was like, I'm a tanky melee character. And then I was like, wait, where's my friends? Oh no. Well that's it's hard to stick with the group because you're kind of like You're you're you wanna explore'cause you a lot of the objectives are to find like I d I did that our first

mission I kind of went off on my own and I'm like, what's this crystal do? And I started mining it and turns out it was the seasonal event that spawned fight. Yeah. Spawned a boss and I'm like, oh uh I need help. I'm bringing the party to you. Oh my god, where even are you, Ryan? And then Jocelyn goes, I I don't see how this is a party and then and then we watch the Avengers. No, we we actually still kept playing Deep Rock Galactic. It was

It was a lot of fun. Uh uh like I knew it was gonna I knew it was gonna be a hit. I wasn't sure whether it would would land for for you, but but I'm glad it did because honestly, um I feel like a lot of the game night suggestions, because I've done Uh uh I if if folks don't know this, uh in the Discord there is a thread for game night suggestions and I usually revive it every once in a while, like to g and I r reference it every month to kinda like fill the pool with

selections that have been brought forward by the community. And uh this is one that was suggested and I was like, okay, I really want to try this. We'll get this on the poll. And I I I think all the game suggestions that have come up have have d have been either a pleasant surprise to like a new obsession. Like I don't think there's been any like duds where we're like, oh, never gonna play that one again. I I don't even know what kind of multiplayer game we've played.

And not enjoyed al although maybe we've just blocked those memories out. But Well, I mean, like we had uh we had Peak and Repo and now Deep Rock Galactic, uh that Rabbit and Steel game. Like all of them we really enjoyed. And I think um the my biggest problem with Deep Rock Galactic I guess if you play solo, Josh was saying that you get like a little helper bot. Um, but it's it really is made like it's a game made for playing with friends.

And it's just so hard to schedule game time with friends. that I'm like, I feel like I would get a lot of like fun gameplay out of this and I would enjoy this game, but like I don't enjoy scheduling people. So like third Friday of every month is the best I can do. So yeah, that's that's like my only downside. But I mean, like you can't really say that's a downside of a co op game. That's the whole point of a co op game, right? So

Yeah. Well that was the main reason that when we discussed game night and bringing it back is like it would be really nice to sprinkle in some newer multiplayer games, you know, to kind of fill that side of the video game.

you know, genres out there'cause we talk a lot about single player games, we talk a lot about We do, yeah. Yeah. Uh Fortnite mini seasons. But like let's get some let's get some like You know, Peak and Repo were two games that were like of a new genre this year that had sorta got popular and and it was good to play those and and uh they influenced like a lot of our extra life stuff. So it's good to have like a new roster, even though Deep Rock Lactic is is not new. I think it was an early access

leading up to its launch in twenty twenty. So it's been around for a while. It's been around. Yeah. So uh but yeah, it was a lot of fun. Um I I could see it again making a return to game night and and like Justin said at the top of the show, like

If folks have thoughts, we've been doing game night in this new format for about the last six, seven months. So if people have thoughts, definitely share them either in Discord or on Patreon or or whatever. And uh, you know Uh because it's a scheduled one night a month, like I feel like that was something Joss and I discussed was like There's flexibility there because it's once a month. So if we need to do that.

Look, we can't play on a Wednesday afternoon at two PM. That's not gonna happen. You know, we have to be reasonable. But if it has to be like the second Friday instead of the third Friday because like you guys have conflicts or whatever, like be like, hey, I would really like to see you play Deep Rock Galactic, but I can't be there that night.

What about this other Friday? And, you know, like just let us know. Cause again, like we want this to be for you. We would the like we're don't necessarily do this for us. So if you uh Yeah, if you have some feedback or if you uh have some scheduling conflicts but there's something you really want to see us do, like just yeah, hit us up. We are a fun and friendly community here, so don't be shy.

Uh what else have you been playing lately, Ryan? Well, I have completed my eighty hour journey in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. My That's that's a long journey. Yeah. What felt like my part time Uh enjoyable job for the last month and a half. I don't want to make it sound like I hated it. Uh y you know, like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I now that I finished it, I completely understand why I avoided playing it.

uh so long because I think when You you're in that review period and I'm gonna have this similar conversation with a game I'll talk about next week, which is Metroid Prime Four. But when reviews hit for rebirth, it was like, oh man, it's a great follow-up to remake, but it is this large open world experience. With a lot to do. Some of it tied to the main quest, some of it tied to checklists.

And As we've talked about, you know, video games at launch are expensive and I'm like, okay, I don't have I don't have the time to fully sit here and enjoy like a hundred hour RPG with a bunch of open world check boxes. Uh so I'll wait for a sale and and I ended up doing that.

Uh I waited for a sale and now that I now that I picked it up and I'm like, okay, now's the time. I'm I'm gonna have to set a lot of time aside to me. I'm ready. I'm ready. Nothing is gonna interrupt me to the point where I started it in November and thought, okay, maybe I can finish this before Metroid Prime four, which which was everyone. I remember you thinking that and I was like, hmm, okay. Yeah. Mistakes. Uh well not a mistake. Uh again, I'm glad I waited to play

Metro Prime 4 as well, uh, a month after reviews because that one also had like a weird cloud hanging over top of it and and not a not a Final Fantasy VII cloud, like a real cloud. Um like Not one that holds Oh, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Not one with, you know, hair that looks like a chocobo and has a giant sword that I don't know how he's lifting that thing. But carries it everywhere. Also in Final Fantasy Seven Rebirth, they they they do a lot of like

This is gonna this is completely a a tangent, but the thought pops in my head and I have to get it out. There's a lot of instances in rebirth where they like go to inns to rest and like okay, you know, RPGs, you go to the inn to rest. Yeah, obviously. every character just when they rest, they they

Take their weapon off their shoulder, they set it beside the bed, like up against the wall or something, which is fine. No problem there. But then they just like lay in bed. They don't take their shoes off. They've been in you know, in battle all day and they just lay in bed and they fall asleep. And I'm like, that is just so uncomfortable. I is that not uncomfortable? Like, I don't know, but uh Cloud just he uh He he doesn't seem very rested when he wakes up.

'Cause he's still grumpy. I thought that you were gonna tell me that he like he was the only one that didn't take his sword off or something and he like slept on with his It just clips through the bed. I'm like, come on, Square Enix. Now my expectations uh are what was what's their thing? Doesn't meet it didn't meet my expectations. No, he takes the sword. He takes the sword off. He's not a monster. Like he he just sleeps with his boots on. Like you know like

So kind of a monster. Like a little monstrous. I get it. You know, like I think I don't know. Anyways, it just it threw me off. It it's not the worst part of the game, but like it was definitely I can't believe that this is part of your review. It just jumped out at me because there are like multiple instances where he is clearly exhausted and he he falls asleep and he just wakes up and he just doesn't appear to be getting enough rest. I'm worried about him, okay? He's having these weird

Headaches and um he needs to put the boots on and that's just wrong. I know. I mean the the stuff you gotta be steppin' anyways, it's fine. It's an in, he doesn't have to I guess worry about it, but I mean maybe he leaves a good chunk of gill uh at the end of the day and and it's all good.

Uh, anyways, um back to the point. The the so the game has a lot of stuff in it, and we've talked about that multiple times and Eventually I hit a point with rebirth where I was like, okay, I am at the start of the game, I was like, okay, I'm only gonna do the main quest and the side quest. And then I started to find that, oh that sounds like I'm only gonna play the game. Well no, because there's in every region there are like

six different categories of things to do. There are um towers that you can visit. There are uh life springs that you can you can check in at which um gives you details about the war uh the region. There are worlds. Okay, so those aren't those aren't like side that's not what you mean by side quests. Like there's actually flagged main quests and flagged side quests. Okay. Because I was like, Ryan, it sounds like you just said I'm just gonna do all the content.

And I'm like, that's not really a just statement. No. Well, in this case it is. There's a lot of there's there's you know, uh you're finding world s uh uh God summon material, which is like four check-ins. There's like uh combat trials, which is like six check-ins per region. That's all optional and if you want to engage with it, great, but you don't have to. There are a few there's these Proto Relic quests.

that do have story tied to them. So I upgraded those to like, okay, I'll do those. Those ended up leading like I I went through all the trouble of doing the Proto Relic quest. And I was like, okay, some of these are interesting and have some like really cool cutscenes that kind of give us a look at other characters that aren't in the game or or haven't been seen in a while.

But then others are like kinda kinda lame. And then at the end it unlocks this like island that you go visit. I don't understand who the who the boss is there. And then you get there and it's like, okay, I I I don't know what's gonna happen here. Oh, it's a a boss challenge. I've unlocked a boss challenge.

So like now I have to fight two people at the same time that I could barely fight on my own. So I like turned around and and was like, that's that's not happening. I guess I'll YouTube that cutscene and uh So Yeah, this is not a Ryan area. K thanks by exactly. And that's you know, I get it. Like there there's a lot in this game.

And I think I get the sense sometimes, like I I have to understand that like, look, this game, even though I enjoyed it, there are portions of it that are not designed for me. So like specifically There's a lot of skill checks with boss battles that are designed to be like you have to build your characters in a very specific way. to A have fun and B complete the challenge, which is

I'm not interested in that. Uh and and you're unlocking like a a short conversation and and maybe some rewards that I'll never

Because I managed to finish the game without doing it all. Like that's and that's fine. Yeah. I'm glad it's there. I still got eighty hours out of it, so I'm not like feeling like, oh, I didn't get my my value out of the game. Like it it was still a good it was still a a great adventure with with a I wanna say a great story until you get to the end and you're like, okay, I guess I gotta go to YouTube to figure out what the what the heck's going on.

I have not played Final Fantasy VII, the original. So like there is stuff in this game that is like wink, wink, nod nod. Like remember that from the original. Well, this is our take on it. And I know enough about the original, like the the the high level beats, but even then I'm like, uh, I don't think I know enough watching the ending of this game and I'm like, I I don't I get a sense of what's going on and I'm kinda weirded out by what's going on.

But I need to know more, so there's like the like a half hour YouTube video I had to watch after I finished it. That kind of explains and That's hilarious. Goes through the ending. This isn't like the end end, right? Like rebirth is the second of three. Yeah. Right. So they're still leaving a lot.

untold in the story, right?'Cause we're we're in w this is two out of three now. So the third one is still to come. Yeah. And remake so the first one was really a linear experience that played around with this is a R this is a straight up like remake, uh not a uh straight up well, I it's more well it's called remake. It's more of a remake of the original the first opening section. A remake, not a remaster. Like they changed the yeah. And then rebirth Pulling from the end of remake.

At the end of remake it's like, Hey, you know, destiny be damned, fate is no longer here, characters that you thought are dead are appearing at the end of the game. Whatever happens from here on out, like the whole point of the ending of the first one was like, Hey. You know, anything can happen. We're telling a whole new Yeah, it's a whole new thing now. Yeah. And and then you get into rebirth and my understanding is like, well, maybe. That's that's like we're changing some things.

You know, it's an old game guys, so we're gonna we're gonna move some things around, but maybe not all of the things. Yeah. Which is which is a neat idea because again, it like it allows folks like me who haven't played the original to kinda like get in on the conversation because we're everyone's experiencing new things and there's theories fly. I I watched a half hour video

after finishing the game and I enjoyed it. Like I enjoyed that experience of like, what is going on? This person seems has a really solid theory. Let's watch this video. And and it was a it was a good deep dive into like what is going on. I did the same thing with remake as well, but but that one was more from a from a an angle of like, I never played the original. Can someone explain what's going on and why this is different? Rebirth is like, what's going on?

Also what's what's going on? You know? Yeah. And and I really like I really like that some uh Whirlwind was saying this like I guess it's I there's the director behind the seven remakes, uh I guess is Nomura. He's he's known to be uh have like these like really outlandish and confusing and kind of wacky endings that are like mysteries all in on their m uh in of themselves. So

Like at the end of the game, the last two chapters, like when I noped out of that like boss island as like I I had hit a point where it was like I can't engage with more of the extra stuff. I was I was kinda done before that too, and it was kinda like that. I said to myself, like, if I ever feel like I gotta put this thing away, I just need to head to the ending'cause I literally got the point I was like, Hey, if you go north, you're gonna hit the point of no return.

And the game immediately switches into a into a remake style uh for gameplay. There's no more open world, it's just like you're exploring this dungeon, you're watching cutscenes, you're fighting bosses. So like the last two chapters, which were like about a four hour, five hour experience, was like really solid, great ending to the game, lots of great character moments. Wait, there is still four or five hours after the point of no return?

Yeah, it was that's quite a bit. Yeah, like I was really surprised. how much they had saved for the ending. Like the final boss is like an hour. It's like Wow. Yeah, th that game has probably as many endings as Return of the King, using the same style of like fade to white, w what's happening now? Oh, okay, this person. Oh, okay, th this is happening. So but again, like I love a game that th they're doing something really interesting.

with the remake trilogy where they are able to Like I said, like cater to the original fans, bring in new fans that had not played the original, and then everyone can have that conversation at the same time because like I wanna know what happened in the original and that and again talking with uh Crofton's also playing at the same time and he had played the original and I'm like, Okay, was Cloud having a rough go like in the in the original game? Yeah, he sleeps in his boots.

Yes. Well I guess in the original game he has Mako poisoning. It's not because he's sleeping with his boots on, so I don't know. But uh maybe it's a holdover from the original'cause like they wouldn't do like costume changes in in the PlayStation days'cause that's like more stuff to render. I don't know. I'd it's a weird thing to latch on to, but I like there are connections between the two and and and there is the whole theme of like the the the soldier program

having like cellular degeneration which could be impacting, you know, clouds clouds going through some stuff. He's having these like weird flashes and these headaches and he's like kind of fainting and seeing things that other people aren't seeing and that is is a theme that carries throughout the game. And uh i yeah, it'll be really interesting to see where they go next. Uh I I can't say whether I'll Well I'll pick it up day one, but I definitely will play the third part.

I was gonna say you just I guess it depends on what's going on in your life when it launches. Obviously you know these are huge experiences. You need the time and the and the mental space to to play the game if you're not a a huge fan. So, but I just I find it so funny that you're like, I literally ended the game after 80 hours. It was great. I even watched a YouTube video that was half an hour long explaining the ending. The the next one is coming out and you're like

If I pick it up day one, I'm like, are you serious? Like what is your what is your standard for day one pickups? What? Mystroid that you then didn't play for a month? Well, I and that's the thing, is like I'm trying to avoid purchasing games to like put on a list to be remember to play them, you know, when I when I get around to it. So I think when I look at the Part three, which should be called Reunion, but won't be, because I guess there's another title in the seven

verse that is called reunion. Okay. Yeah. So there's literally characters running around in this one saying reunion. It's like, well, you you guys like i they should just call it reunion and hand wave it away. I Uh but I like uh no, y you're not wrong. Like having watched the video about the ending and having experienced the full game and looking solely at the story beats and not the extra

stuff that's in there. I I really am interested to see uh where they take the story and conclude it because like that's my thing is like I feel like if they if they wanted to they could just keep doing these forever. Like Final Fantasy Seven remake part five and just keep going. Like because the story

Seems like th it could come to a conclusion, but also seems like they could find a way to stretch it further if they really wanted to. Which is uh that was gonna be my next question, is are we sure that there's only one more game here? Or do you think that they will just keep rebuilding and reunioning and re That's funny, we did uh we did go through it. How many more words can we think of that start with re Yeah. There was like uh remake, you know, remake, rebirth, reconstruction.

redistribution, uh uh realizing expectations. Uh I don't know. Like we we were joking around in the event ads chat and we had a whole list of R E subtitles that you could pull from. Um you could even do reverse. Uh if Capcom let go of that one, I guess. They they had a multiplayer game called Reverse. I don't know, it's Roman numerals for w so what's IIV? Would that would be well no, that's not a real Roman numeral, but That wouldn't work. Uh

It'd be three, I guess, if if we were being weird. I like I I'm curious to see where the story I'm surprised I wasn't spoiled on Rebirth. So like having played it, I was like, oh Okay. Uh I I feel like the final part I think with Rebirth, like a lot of people focused in on like the first twenty hours in terms of how they were talking about it, they got really caught on like the open world bloat that's in there that really you can ignore.

But like for me and I think for Crofton as well, I was playing at the same time. you you engage with it and you're like, Oh, this is fun. We're getting more combat, more dialogue, more voice acting, more More of everything I'm enjoying, but there's this weird thin line that you cross and then all of a sudden it crosses from this is really fun and I'm doing all the stuff that that is popping up in front of me to oh my god this is too much.

And I really felt that when I was playing it. There was a moment where it's like It was super fun, all the extra stuff you were doing outside of the main quest lines to this is this extra stuff's no longer fun. It feels like homework and chores, right? So you just gotta know when to hop off. And I ha and there's been quotes from Square Enix saying that the third part will be more focused, will be out sooner than the Four to five year wait we had for

For rebirth. I guess it was a five year wait for me'cause I waited an extra year to play it. Uh but I that bodes well for picking it up day one'cause it sounds like there are Look, every corner you turn in rebirth, there's a new mini, uh a whole new mini-game they've crafted. Like they don't reuse them very often. They crafted a whole Mario Kart game inside Rebirth with Chocobos where you're racing. It is insane the amount of extra work. they did in rebirth to design mini games for uh

There's a a a pull up mini game. There's Chocobo Racing. It's crazy all the stuff. To me, that sounds much more like they're trying to fill up their open world with experiences for people and giving them more reasons to come and play. And to find something you really like to do like Gwent, right? In Witcher. Like it it wasn't bloat. It was, you know, something that was coo. And I don't know if any of these mini games are nearly as like

in depth as Gwent was. But the point is, like, they're trying to flesh out the world and give you more reasons to to come back and and play in it, right? And that that sounds a whole lot less to me like bloat than what the reviews might have you think. Yeah. That sounds to me like they put some thought into it and they really, you know, wanted you to

spend another eighty hours just exploring the world and and playing the mini games and Mario Kart Chocobo Racing. Yeah. They well they they definitely, you know, did a lot of work to make sure that every Uh uh every side quest, every little n nook and cranny that you visited had something. And they even had a whole uh subplot for Queensblood, which is their like Gwent style card game in this game.

Uh and And i i it's really well designed and I was actually able to engage with it because They do the thing where like you unlock all the cards as you buy them and complete quests and then you can like tell the game to build the deck for you, which is, you know, my style. And and there's a whole storyline there that you're experiencing throughout the game that you're unlocking

uh quests there. So yeah, you're right. Like they uh definitely give them a nod. Like the all the work that they put into the side quests and the mini games. when when you get the prompt for like, okay, we're gonna go do robo battles now, like it's completely different from everything else that you've experienced in the game. So that 15 minute

sort of experience after going through the side quest is like different from the next quest that you're gonna find. That is completely optional, has nothing to do with the story. And the story is meandering. It's kinda like for the first sixty hours, it's like

We're chasing Sephiroth, we're he's bad, and he's definitely gonna do something that will likely end the world, so we gotta catch up with him. Also the companies that run the world are also bad, so we're dealing with them too. But there's no like ticking clock in the background like Mass Effect three where the world's gonna suddenly And if you spend too much time chocobo racing. So you know.

It's not like shepherds. Like if you're racing a giant ostrich chicken thing around and around and around while there's this guy out here trying to end the world and you're just like Round and around a race course. Like that feels a little silly. Yeah. But it also feels like the way they've set up the story is like your actions are what

like leading the like it's weird because like the bad guy isn't present. You're kind of just on this adventure to find him. And you eventually do get to a point where like

you know, you you you you come to terms with what's happening. You're tr and there are some stakes that are set up near the end of the game where it's like, okay, clearly we know what's happening, but it really does feel like you as the party are what's driving the story to its conclusion, as opposed to a race against the claw.

So like you're try you have the means to get to the thing before the bad guy does, and that's what's causing the story to conclude as opposed to You know, oh I I got I got too busy with these robot battles or getting sucked into like uh Queen's blood and I forgot to save the world. Like the story backs up the fact that you're doing yeah you're you're able to do all these things without feeling guilty.

Um but I get a sense that the third one, because they said it's gonna be more focused, the story will probably require you to be more focused. There'll still be some side quests, you know. bullshit of probably you know, racing chocobos or you know, but all the mini games were fun. Like I d I don't think I hated any of them. There was one part of the game that I did hate though, besides

clo Cloud sleeping with his boots on. Um there's a character that you get in your party which um is terrible to control and for the most part you can kind of ignore that character. Uh but there's a whole chapter where you have to play as him. And uh and you're I think were you I feel like you were talking about that um Oh, it might have been in the Discord or one of our'cause we've been talking about rebirth for a few episodes now.

Yeah. Um, and yeah, I can't remember where exactly I saw you talking about that, but I saw that you were forced into a certain character or role and that you had to complete an entire section of the game that way. And I was like, that sounds awful. Especially if it's not like

chapter one or two, right? Like if you're fully into the game, you know, fifty, sixty, seventy, whatever hours into the game, you've probably got a playstyle. You've probably got like favorite abilities and characters and whatever. And then all of a sudden it's like, Forget everything you've done for all of that time and like tunnel vision on this one thing. And if you don't love this one thing, it's gonna be the most painful time in the game, period. Like that doesn't seem

like great design to me, especially if like you say it was bad. So what do you mean it was hard to control? Was it like hard to cause I I don't know what even the combat system of of Final Fantasy VII is. So like was it the the combat stuff? Was it movement? Like What do you mean it was hard to control? Well i so the k well, I'll just say it's the character you're controlling is Kate Sith, which is this it's a cat robot and he has a robot giant stuffed Moogle, I think it is. Yeah. Well, look.

This is He's nice. That was not what I was expecting. He's the weirdest of them all. And and also keep in mind, like you have this wide cast of characters, including a a dog. uh and this this robot cat. And every time you get on a chocobo, everyone rides their own chocobo. So you can picture Um a robot cat riding an oversized chicken ostrich thing. But the best part is actually maybe I can Oh how do I I could probably do this.

Uh, let's see if I can find it. I can't. But I did find this GIF of of the spin. It's great radio, don't worry, we'll we'll trim all this. But um anyways, it like there the chapter where you're controlling Kate Sith, it's a complete chapter. That could have been removed from the game very easily because it's a side quest. It's him saying, I'm going to go do this thing because only I can do it.

I'll meet up with you later. So like it could have just been him doing it off screen, then he comes back and say, Hey, I did the thing. Or it could have been like an optional thing, like do you want to go off with do I want to do this? Well yeah, like do you wanna go on this quest with this dude or do you wanna stay with the main party and continue playing? Like they could have absolutely made that optional. I didn't realize he was even like

fully removed from the rest of your playable characters. So that makes it an even more bonkers choice to make something like that required gaming. Yeah. Look, the game throughout has you has you going off and playing chapters with you and one other character in which you can swap at any time during combat. And I found throughout the game consistently that whenever it did that, whatever it like changed up my party or limited it to specific characters.

I always had someone I could control and enjoy. Yeah. But then this one chapter was just Kate Sith and it was just it was really bad. He's his controls are wonky and there's one moment where you have to fight

um two of these really strong character enemies at the same time. And the way he works is he has like He has a melee ability, but then if you dodge, he can like shoot musical notes at at the enemies, and then you can also power up by getting on top of the giant stuffed animal thing and then doing moves that way. But because I hadn't been using him, because I didn't enjoy playing as him, yeah, he didn't have any builds.

whatsoever. He had just like the leftovers that the rest of my party wasn't using. Um so yeah, partly my fault. But again, the game kind of up until that point was doing a very good job of like balancing these like required limited party moments and uh It was just it was just bad. And then I think he overstays in the next chapter because he's like

You know, I think you get a prompt like, Look, Kate Sith really wants to do this, so he needs to be in the party and Cloud also needs to be in the party, so choose your third person wisely. It's like it's like okay, like in I don't know. It felt that felt like padding to me. Maybe they did playtesting and then nobody played it to him at all and they were like, We feel really bad for this character and we put so much work in, so we're gonna force you. Look, I

I don't agree, but uh with with that I uh with that thought. I I don't I it was like it wasn't fun and it's right near the end of the game, so though you've got that like sixty hours of momentum and then it just comes to a screeching halt for like three hours. But yeah. That doesn't sound like a great decision. No, but but other than that, it was uh it was a really it was a really fun game and I'm glad I played it. I'm glad I finished it. It took a little longer than I thought it would.

But uh we should be getting a trailer for the next one soon, hopefully. Overall, if do you recommend uh if you haven't played Final Fantasy VII remake, can you jump into rebirth or at this point you're committing to remake rebirth the whole two hundred hours worth? Uh, it's funny, like I would say

If you didn't play remake, rebirth might be confusing, but then again, if you didn't play Final Massy I have to watch a half an hour video, so I feel like Rebirth was confusing full stop. I mean it's just Again, if you haven't played the original and you wanted to go and and you were like, Oh, I really want to play Rebirth, like I I think remake being a straightforward experience with a like a more linear experience.

and having just um just launched on Switch two and is gonna be coming to Xbox at some point soon, it's a good spot to jump in. I I think remake If you're like if you're fans of the characters, even if you hadn't played the original, remake's a great jumping in point because it is a more linear experience.

Yeah. Kind of a good introduction to to what's going on. Yeah, you could skip it if you wanted to, but I really do feel like remake was a very good start to the trilogy. If you were to go right into rebirth, You could probably pick up what's happening, but I don't know. Do you do you feel the difference in like that the you know four four years made in like tech or or you know mechanical decisions or anything like that between remake and rebirth? Like

Or or is it a pretty like solid experience all the way through? I would say it's it's solid all the way through. Like honestly, the combat itself. Is identical. Uh i in my mind. Like having played remake four years ago and then playing Rebirth last month. It feels like the combat is very close. I'm sure there are differences and but like if you played remake and you uh got really good controlling like Cloud and Tifa and Aerith and Barrett.

They control very similar, if not identical, to how they played in remake because this is a direct continuation. They give them more moves and there's new spells and stuff. Like they definitely make changes But the core concept. Yeah. The biggest difference between remake and rebirth in terms of like technical leaps is the is the open world. It's this big

open area uh oh these it's it's not open world but it's like open areas where you have this giant map to explore of this specific region. Right. So that's the biggest difference. Do you think that the next one, whatever they decide to call it, are they going back to the way they did uh remake or do you think they're gonna stick with the open world?'Cause I know like

And we're gonna talk about, I think, Metroid probably next week. But um that was one of the things that, you know, was criticized about Metroid is that that open world choice that they made. felt very, what did they say? Very twenty seventeen or whatever. Like so You know, like I'm wondering if like the since everyone seems to kind of be turning their backs on the idea of open world, which I'm kind of okay with.

I'm curious if you think that they'll go back to the way they did remake as opposed to the way they did rebirth for the third one. Uh judging by their quotes and remarks from the developers talking about the part three I think it's gonna be somewhere in between. Like, I don't think there are gonna be six giant open world regions for you to explore. They might open the game up when it makes sense.

But Rebirth is i is like if you were to compare it to other open world games, it's very close to sort of what we got with uh um so some of the I'm trying to think like it's not like Skyrim, it's not It's not like Forbidden West, like Yeah, Forbidden West is a really good example of like

you're in this big open area. It's big. It's huge. You're gonna like it's huge, yeah. You know, it it's by no means small, but it's not like Red Dead Redemption or The Witcher where it's like this huge open area. And and I think uh myself included, like are starting to look at these games of like, okay, I I for one appreciate like an like an open world, but it doesn't need to be this the vast giant space that is like with sprinkled and stuff. But but Rebirth does a good job.

I like an open world with purpose. I like an open world that feels lived in and has a lot of stuff going on. And if you're not gonna commit to that, then I feel like that's where things start to fall short. Like if you're if you're not trying to think of what it would actually be like to live in and move through the open world, just don't fucking do it, man. Just streamline your approach and tell the story you want to do and don't try to put a whole bunch of like

derivative or repetitive stuff in between the things that you're actually trying to do with your game. So well you would I like I'm good with a hybrid approach, I guess. Yes. Or an open world that's well thought out with purpose like Witcher or Forbidden West. Like I think rebirth

Some of the regions feel good. Other regions are like, you just created this winding path to make it harder for me to get from point A to point B. You You evil people, you like and then, you know, Metroid Prime Four, which we'll talk more in depth next week, uh, that is the the d it is embodies the description of an open world you we both hate, which is like This is a it's not a huge open area, but it's big enough And

Like it's a desert. So it's like it, you know, by definition, it is sparsely sparse and bare. Yeah. Um, and you notice it right away of like, oh, you you made this open area and made a creative decision to not fill it with stuff outside of like You've been traveling for two minutes without seeing anything, throw in some enemies. Yeah. You know. Uh we'll talk about that one next week. But I think Rebirth, um, they went too far.

In in the direction of like trying to have these big open areas and some feel really good and and well populated, others feel like you created a maze Because you thought it would be fun and it wasn't.

long term, like maybe at the start it was interesting, but then like Yeah, okay, which jet stream do I have to hit to glide over there? And which path mushroom do I have to jump off of to get to that area? And I was constantly getting lost and Like It's fun in some areas, fun and not so much fun in others, and I think they're I'm hoping they sort of take a hybrid approach.

It doesn't need to go back to remake where it's a completely linear experience. I really enjoyed the way the Vale Guard was set up, Dragon Age. I really want them to do something like that where it's like, look. Here's some corridor stuff. Here's some open area stuff. Like it's not this giant open world. It's but it but there's there's stuff to explore. Maybe a bit bigger than the Vale Guard, but

It doesn't need to be, you know, huge. No, it doesn't. So uh and also have it come out in the next year. That'd be that'd be smell. Yeah, Ryan doesn't want to have to watch another YouTube video. Look, I'm not opposed to watching YouTube videos.

All right. Well, if you like what we're doing here and you want to support the show, head on over to patreon.com slash the gamers in, like our January patron, Free Rangers. Thank you so much for supporting everything that we do here. Uh we talk about the Discord a lot, but I realize I always put the Discord link at the end of the show and not everybody listens all the way to the end through the outro. So Um, if you do want to join the conversation over on Discord, it's tiny.cc slash TGI Discord.

We do a lot of like polls over there to figure out what we should play, what we should cover. Uh, we do a a lot of like game clubs over there. There's a lot of really good day to day discussion. So again, tiny dot cc slash TGI Discord. If you want to join in the conversation. Uh we do have, as I mentioned off the top of the show, uh my monthly host special is uh coming probably this time next week. Fingers crossed.

And uh the next game night is going to be February twentieth. Again, that is at 8 30 PM Eastern. And uh do let us know in the Discord or in the Patreon your thoughts on game night and what you would like to see. That brings us to the news this week. Um, we have more Ubisoft news. So we previously can't um covered the closure of the Halifax.

studio, but they are now saying that they are going through a major company re s reconstruction or restructuring. Um and they have essentially uh canceled six games completely. delayed seven more and closed two studios. And they're kind of basically like revamping their entire approach to game development. They're calling it a major reset. This news popped up today, having delayed the show

Uh, from our normal recording and I mean, something's been up with Ubisoft for a while. We we've known this for probably the last six months to a year that they've been struggling Uh and they've talked about how they're gonna refocus

sort of their development and they've they've always been a weird studio because they're known for the studio that or studios that would like have like sixteen studios working on a single game. Um And their restructuring is kind of focused around that with these like five creative houses they call them, focused on specific pillars of their IP. So uh Vantage Studios being the f the the top tier one which is like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six. But

Like, I don't I can't make sense of whether that's it it just feels like business talk until like we see like the actual results. But I think the biggest news out of this sort of presentation they did is like first and foremost, you know, Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake was just outright cancelled, even though it was rebooted once And then supposedly done and they were like looking to ship it like this year. Uh and then they've got to do that.

They've canned it for reasons they explain it as like it didn't live up to their new quality standards, which uh I'm I'm not sure what that means. You you made it. So make it better. Like that's such a it's so weird. A lot of this, like you said, a lot of this it sounds like business speak. And yeah, like uh I don't know. They they didn't even bother to name their other creative houses is Vantage Studio and then number two, number three, number four, number five. Like which

Okay. Like go one way or the other. Like, I mean, there because I mean Blizzard, we talk about, you know, team one, team two, team three all the time. Um, and so it's like, It there's nothing wrong with numbering your teams and having them work on specific projects, but it's like You can't even get this shit straight. Like you one is Vantage Studios and then you have two, three, four, five.

So why not just go with one, two, three, four, five or give'em all cool names? It's like they have no direction. They should all have cool names. I agree. Like what do they gotta do to get a cool name around? Exactly. Like you should give everybody a cool name or nobody a cool name. Like it just this is just another thing where it's like you're reorganizing, but you're bad at organizing.

I like it's interesting because they never really explain like how their studio architecture worked before. Maybe they did and we just never talked about it, but they also talk about like having like a creative network Which is like sort of a support layer like QA and like kinda having that shared technology. Oh, then they have core services, which is like technology and business operation and

uh QA and localization. Like there's they've kind of outlined I'm surprised they weren't doing this before. Maybe they were and and then it's the creative houses that are unique. Where instead of having like, okay, Ubisoft Toronto was the Splinter Cell guys and Ubisoft Montreal is the Assassin's Creed foe. Now it's like this group of studio this team works on these IPs and and this house, I guess, works on these IPs. But like the fact that you're starting off this restructure with hey.

And they had enough games in the pipeline to do this, like they've canceled six games, including this remake that was announced. God, I don't know how long ago. Uh, which is a remake of a great game and I was really looking forward to and the fact that it was cancelled is like, oh man, I was I was really h hoping to play that one. Uh, they've delayed seven. So to me, that seems like okay, these are games that were slated for the next two years and they they've decided, hey, we're gonna

They're worth making, but we're not yeah, we're not there yet. Yeah. And then uh two studios closed like like we talked about, the Halifax Studio and then uh Stockholm is the other one they've shut down. I uh I think there was also some talk of some AI stuff outside of what's detailed in in the news story we're looking at, but Every company is saying AI just to you know, kinda like, oh AI just so uh just so our our shareholders are are pay attention.

I was gonna say, yeah, it seems like I just hope that like AI backlash, i if they're using it for, you know, game production and creative assets and you know, taking jobs away from actual artists. But using their work to inform the AI. Like, if I hope that we end up with a gamer backlash similar to NFTs, right? Like when I know that was like

the kiss of death for a lot of companies and games when they started saying, oh, and we're gonna bring in NFTs. And everyone's like, nobody wants NFTs. Nobody wants this. We will not engage with this. We will not buy this. Like, stop. And I I hope that if we're taking AI and using it for creative purposes in gaming, that the reaction is similar from fans and gamers and just like

We will not give you money for this. Like, I don't want AI slot video games. Thank you very much. So yeah, I'm I'm hoping that that's what happens. Um and yeah, like again, if you're using AI. to try to like I'm still don't think you need it and I still think it's horrible for the planet but like if you're using it for like programming admin like that kind of stuff Maybe you want to use an AI tool. I don't work in those areas.

But it's like especially once you start getting getting over onto the art side. I'm just like, no, stop. Why? Like that is the full on human creativity that we need in gaming. Like Do not go there. Do not replace that. So we'll keep an eye on that with Ubisoft. Uh, but yeah. Ugh, man. These news stories tonight. We've also got uh news about well, I mean not really news'cause we covered it when it was actually announced, but now it has actually

happened is that Anthem has been shut down. And we also got an announcement out of Amazon that New World is shutting down uh in twenty twenty seven. So you have about a year left. It's gonna be January thirty-first, twenty twenty seven. The new world is shutting down. Uh, but yeah, even if you own a physical copy of Anthem, you can no longer play even the single player stuff because that was an always online. Live service game. So yeah, we're really starting to see um

What? I'm laughing because look look, uh I I never played New World. I think MMOs I think I played New World for like the first maybe week. And made it to like the first major city. And I was just kind of like, eh, I am I'm not invested in this. This is like it's fine, but it's not enough. Like the the ask of an MMO is that like you Make it your only game in a lot of cases. Yeah. Like there is so much content, there's so much grinding. It's like they want.

because they need the MM parts, like the massively multiplayer parts, you can't have an MM if you don't have players, right? So I mean, they they need you to be in there and they need to give you a lot of stuff to do and to grind and to earn in order to make their world feel lived in and deliver that MMO experience. So Yeah. I uh basically got into it for for a week and it was because it was so tied into because it's Amazon.

So tied into Twitch, so tied into Amazon Prime, like everything was just like, hey, have this these free cosmetics, have this free content, like do this, do this, do this, because they wanted to pull people in. So I did give it a try, but it was just it was nothing special. considering the ask of an of any MMO, like not New World specifically, just any M MMO. If you're not already invested in either like the community, like all your friends are playing.

or the IP or whatever. Like it just for it to be a totally new MMO at the time when it came out, like I'm not surprised that it didn't stick around. Not many do these days. Like There's what warcraft? ESOTOR Who else is MMOing? Is Star Wars still around, maybe? Maybe? I'm not even sure.

It wouldn't surprise me if I found out it was shut down, but it also wouldn't surprise me if it was still running. Apparently, uh Star Wars the Old Republic is still active in twenty twenty five. There is a dedicated player base and ongoing content updates. Who knew? Well

Google AI knew. That's that's who knew. Yeah. Uh maybe. Who knows? We'll never know. Um I mean th both these stories uh make me kind of laugh a little bit because MMOs are the second they launch are on bo borrowed time because as you said, you need mass amount of players to make it a worthwhile to drive the content to

to drive enough money to build the patches that people expect from an always updating game. So as soon as they launch, like there's this clock ticking in the background, because you're not World of Warcraft. There's a reason Blizzard has not made an MMO again because like they did it the first time, they tried to do it again, and and I'm sure Titan would have suffered the same fate because it was not World of Warcraft if if it if they hadn't canceled.

Um, so I'm not surprised that they're shutting it down. I I think all MMOs are on borrowed time. I mean, it it's gonna be Like ESO.

m is uh it likely to stick around for the foreseeable future. It it seems to be doing fine. At least until we get six, and that's probably twenty five years out. So it's got lots of time. Lots of time. But like the anthem thing Was the main reason I'm laughing because I played that game at launch and I got so much shit for playing it at launch because it was such a bad game, and now everyone's like

Everyone's gonna be a little bit more than a little bit waxing nostalgia. Like, oh, it's gone. I can't you know it wasn't actually that bad of like God man, I just lived with it. Oh, it's got some really good mechanics. Have you guys tried these? Cool flying suit things. It's like Iron Man, but like a fantasy world. Like that's just what I said. It like look, it had issues. It would like I I played it. I beat it. It had some co-op stuff. I played a co-op. I enjoyed it.

It was not the Bioware game I was looking for, but there was definitely some pieces there. And I think the truly sad part was when they had a two point oh planned and it got scrapped. And yeah, like now everyone's talking about Oh, it's it's shutting down and no one will ever be able to play it, even if you own a physical copy and I'm like, guys Uh the internet collectively shit on this game since its launch, and now there are like stories out there of like, oh

It's going away one more week. Today's the last day. Oh, it's shut down. And it wasn't even that slow a newsweek in in video games. And I was kind of surprised. I get it. When a when a game launches and ceases to exist for the most part. Like it you can no longer play it officially.

I th yeah, like that is a troubling thing and and both these stories are in the same vein of like My my biggest thing is the is the anthem story really is like you can't even go in and just play by yourself. Like Yeah. That that's the part that pisses me off. Like I wouldn't expect you to be able to necessarily go in and play by yourself in an MMO, although even then, like

Yeah, I mean, I guess obviously that that content would be huge, but still, like I mean, an MMO is a little bit more understandable. You always hope an MMO doesn't fail and take their servers offline, but you know, it's we've seen it happen time and time again. But when you're talking about a game that has like a narrative story and a single player option and you don't even make those available to people with physical copies, like that's my problem.

is like we were talking about this when always online and all of these different like launchers and sign-ins and stuff first started happening. Is like This is really stupid. Like, what happens if the company goes under? Like now I've bought a game that I don't actually own. This is dumb and stupid and I hate it. Like, yeah. So I think it's we're like

really starting to see the fallout from those kind of always online decisions. And this is exactly what we were worried about. And yeah, it's it's really shitty all around. Like if you but if you buy a physical game and there's a single play like it doesn't have to be an always online thing, then you should just

be able to play your freaking game. Like yeah. But oh offline mode. A hundred percent. Yeah. I think you need to the choir. Uh it's I think there are certain genres where an offline mode becomes really tough, like New World. Uh ESO. Yeah, like there are some there are some cases where it's uh not practical and I and I totally understand that. But I think like

There are so many places where it is practical and you should have an offline mode and you shouldn't be tied to them keeping services going or, you know, companies going out of business or whatever. Like you've paid for that game, you've paid for that content. It's really, really, really stupid that you can't just run it locally.

Oh, well I think if Anthem had an offline mode, those those dedicated servers would have been shut down years ago. Like I I think for as a business dish decision, yeah uh video game developers should say, like, okay, like Uh let's have a sunset plan for this. Like if this thing Like, how long are we willing to commit to having this live no matter what? And if that's the case.

Let's make sure there's an offline mode so that people'cause that's the big thing. This is a bioware game and all of a sudden you can't access the lore, the characters, the story. I mean, there's YouTube. I mean, like we said, I'm not opposed to watching

thirty minute lore dumps. But uh I I think that i there is uh something to be said about like okay like developers try to think of an offline plan if you can for if the genre makes sense, like, you know, um and just even something that we really need to, you know, start demanding out of our games is like, hey,

If you're gonna make a game and if it has a single player component, if the point of your game is to go play by yourself, then let me play by myself regardless of if you're still in business or not, right? Like I stop these subscriptions, stop renting everything. Like if I buy it, I own it. Fuck off. So yeah. Anyway, speaking of Bioware, uh Mass Effect 5 is gonna be

A long time off because Bioware is a one project studio. So or at least that's the suggestion. Basically like Vailguard, we just had wait, when did Vailguard come out? Uh twenty Was that last year? Yeah, well no, late twenty twenty four. No, it was late tw right, okay. I was like uh we we didn't talk about it in our game of the year conversation, so I was very confused there for a second, but yeah, it's'cause it would have been in the twenty twenty four conversation.

Um, so yeah, we're we're just over a year out from Veil Guard, but I mean like Mass Effect five. I'm assuming is going to be a huge undertaking because they don't want Andromeda. Like if Andromeda happens again. Bioware is just not gonna be a studio anymore. Oh yeah. This'll be the one that that kills it. Yeah. They're not going to half ass Mass Effect five, which means it's

probably four, five, six, maybe more years out. Like this is gonna be the next Elder Scrolls VI. Uh when was Mass Effect V announced? It was it 2020 Game Awards? Maybe. Uh it was a while ago. Yeah, December twenty twenty. Wow. Well. So yeah, it was announced literally five years ago and we're probably still, I would guess, five years out. Like a twenty thirty title at best. Yeah. Look like um It take your time with it. I'm in no rush to play Mass Effect five. So as long as they're rather a good

a great Mass Effect game than a Mass Effect game in the next two years. Yeah. I I uh I don't think um Look, I I get it. Folks are excited to play a game in in in their favorite franchise and

they might want to play it sooner rather than later, but at the end of the day, like um we haven't seen real gameplay for it. So until we see that, it it is years it is years out, uh, as opposed to any time soon. And I think that previous to Veilguard coming out, but uh the story that that uh this interview with with um

Mike Mike Dara, I guess. Uh, he he's basically saying like, yeah, like if they're a one studio and they've been they constantly shift their resources, like they moved everybody from Dragon Age over to Anthem, then everyone from Anthem They split them in d between Mass Effect and Dragon Age, then everyone from Mass Effect over to Dragon Age, it's like, okay, like let's just do one game, focus on that. Focus. Yeah. And we'll see how it goes. So I I'm fine waiting.

Like twenty thirty feels like a while's away, but we'll have plenty to do between now. Yeah, absolutely. I think if if twenty twenty five was anything to go by, I really feel like the future of our amazing unexpected experiences.

and kind of the sparks of joy in gaming are probably gonna be coming from indie companies, so Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to playing a bunch more indies this year and and playing a bunch of different genres and I can wait for Mass Effect because like I feel like triple A titles have just let us down so much. In the last few years. So yeah, if I if I've got to wait, then that's totally fine. Cause I don't really feel like unless I'm missing something completely.

Other than the Horizon series, obviously. But like I I just feel like I've been so let down by triple A stuff that I'm like, I can wait. Like I I'm You'll be lucky to get my money anyway. So but uh yeah, speaking of getting my money, uh we have some uh Nintendo Lego updates. So we have now seen the Pokemon Lego sets and they are So cute.

But so freaking expensive. I absolutely love this like core three starter Pokemon thing. The but and I was like, oh my God, this looks so cool. I'm totally gonna get it. Six hundred and fifty dollars. American. Cry. It's like uh yeah, you know, I look at it and I'm like that It's like the cost of a really nice dishwasher or like you know like a a it's an appliance. Oh my god, Ryan, you're so old now. I just bought a dishwasher. Like Do you have any idea how much dishwashers cost these days?

A Blastoise, Venusaur, and Charizard Lego set. Thank you very much. That's how much a dishwasher costs these days. If you want stainless steel and a good warranty, I'm just saying. It's nine hundred dollars Canadian. But it would be better if I said it was a mortgage pay. It's like if you're only paying nine hundred dollars for your mortgage, I am so jealous right now. Jesus Christ. Okay. So yeah.

So what you're saying is it's not that bad. I should go get this thing. I should pre order it says coming soon. So it is. Yeah, it's coming the end of February, February twenty seventh. Um it is almost seven thousand pieces. So it's not small. There's there's a lot here. And it looks really cool. It's really well designed. I love the idea of all three of them together, like showcasing the different powers. They come off of the base. So they're like little action figures. Like

This is a good Lego set. I am not saying it's bad. Um Oh my god, it's so much money. It's expensive. I think this one also has the they announced this at CES, like this the new uh Lego Smart Brick. Like I think this one I think I'd heard this one has the smart brick in it, which has like sound effects or something. Ah, okay. I don't know if that exp or maybe that was people saying like that maybe that's why it's so expensive. I really think it's it's so expensive.

because it's licensed and it's huge. The license, yeah, exactly. It is it is very big. It's, you know, like I said, it is almost seven thousand pieces. It's a very good looking set. It's just, I don't know how anyone, anyone justifies$900. Again, Canadian, it's$650 American, but You know, I don't know how you justify that much money on a on a set. I know a lot of people are so excited, and I'm so excited for you if you have.

like console money to drop on a or dishwasher money to drop on a set of Lego. Uh yeah. And there are there are other options. It's not just that starter Pokemon set. There's also a Canto Region badge collection. A mini Pokemon Center, a Pikachu with a Pokeball, and an Eevee. And those are all, I think, a lot more uh reasonable. So um yeah, it's like

I think$200 for the Pikachu because of course it is because it's Pikachu. Uh and then the Eevee's like 60 bucks. So like the Eevee is doable and she's super cute because she's Eevee. So Yeah, the Eevee looks really good. I think the Pikachu set. the way they've like,'cause it's Lego, right? So they they use all the pieces to build this like uh it's not a minifig, but it's like they're trying to represent Pikachu as best they can in a Lego set. And there's just something

The the face there's something about the face. Some of them translate and some of them don't. Yeah, I think I agree. Because the Eevee is basically like stickers on flat bricks for the face. Yes. And then they tried to actually build out the Pikachu and the face looks kind of weird. Where but then when you look at like the Charizard and Blastoise and stuff, it's like. because it they're so big, then you don't run into the Pikachu problem. Pikachu seems to live in that like middle space. So

Yeah, it's definitely my least favorite out of the out of the options. But I mean, other than the the badge collection, I mean, I guess if you're super into Pokemon, like get the badges, but Really? Don't you want the Pokemon? Isn't that the whole point? Collect'em all? So Yeah. Depends uh it depends if you have the I think the badges are like a pre order gift. If you pre order it there Ah okay. I think that was what what was being said. Yeah, free gift with purchase. So if you

Uh, if you buy the giant So if you spend dishwasher money, don't worry. They will give you a square box. I guess so. There you go. Uh oh man. They also announced uh Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, uh, and they're it's the final battle. It looks pretty cool. The the kind of like main build is the actual like Ganon final boss. Um there is also a Ganondorf minifigure who kind of like can uh that it looks like there's some sort of like movable piece of the tower.

I personally wish there was more castle here. Like you do actually have to like build the boss. So that's like m probably kind of looks like more than half of the build is the boss himself. I think it looks kind of like a bit of a bare bones set personally, but also there's a little Navi and I love her, so She looks very sparkly and pretty. Yeah. Although I'm also not paying whatever, like two hundred dollars for Navi.

Yeah. I like this is getting closer to what we what we've been asking for as like more of a traditional set. This is still like a diorama style. experience. I could have done without the giant boss if it would like if they just gave me like another tower of the castle or something and gave me the three like same size minifigs before the giant like transformation, right? Yeah. Yeah, you're putting the wrong emphasis like you're putting the emphasis on

th the thing you think is like look, I get it, like they look at it as like, Well, do we really want to do another castle or do we want to do something unique? And I I definitely think Ganon Is unique and ties in. I have looked at all of the Lego castle offerings and I'm not impressed with any of them. If they gave me Hyrule Castle, I would give them nine hundred dollars. I would give them dishwasher money for for Hyrule Castle. You heard of your first thing.

If if you want dishwasher money, you gotta do Hyrule Castle. Maybe that's just the thing, is that I'm not a big enough Pokemon fan to ever justify that amount of money for that franchise. But just if you just hit the right franchise, cause like I have been on the edge between purchasing and not purchasing that Rivendell set.

Um, which also is up in the in the hundreds and hundreds of dollars range. I think it might be their most expensive set that's still currently available prior to the release of Pokemon, obviously. Um It's definitely up there in in one of their most expensive sets of all time. But uh anyways, yeah, I've been on the fence about purchasing that because I do love just the Lord of the Rings aesthetic. But yeah, the other Lego castle is just not not good enough, man.

Not good enough. I think there's like a Disney one and a like just a medieval castle castle and yeah. I just want more of Hyrule Castle. I think that's what I've decided. Yep. Not just one broken spire you want one whole damn thing. Exactly. Exactly. I would I would pay dishwasher money for that. Ah so

At least it's not a mortgage payment. At least it's not a mortgage. Yeah. Oh God. It will be soon, I'm sure. Yeah. Uh if you wanna continue the conversation, head on over to tiny.cc slash TGI Discord. Or you can visit us on the web at gamersinpodcast.com. You can also follow us over on Blue Sky. You can find me Jocelyn at josplays.com and Ryan is at ryanmurphy.ca. Also be sure to check out our TGI community starter pack at tiny.cc.

Uh thanks for staying at Gamers In and remember tune in next week. Bye everybody. Bye.