SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Blurred Spectrum podcast, ladies and gentlemen. We are here this week taking a break, a little intermission from your only hands fighting scene tournament. This week we decided because there are so many new games. Well, actually, there's not a lot of new games, but there's a good amount of new, not even a good amount. There's actually a minute amount of good games or games coming out this year. A lot of new releases that we didn't see coming, some things that we thought were going to come about a couple years ago. But all in all, all of our panelists have uh played, you know, have gotten into and have, you know, reviewed certain games that have come out within the last couple of uh months. You know, the pandemic has uh ravaged us all. So we had a lot of extra time on our hands sitting at home. And because of that, there were games that we got the opportunity to purchase and play. And uh we have a couple that we want to give you our review, our feedback, our thought processes uh about. So uh first, well, before I do that, uh this is the Blurred Q game review new games 2020-2021. So let me introduce the panelists for this episode today, starting with myself, self, Suchino Shogun. Uh, also, I have The Doctor.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

What's good?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I have the Black McGoy, and I have Kaze Shinryu. Yo, yo. So I'm gonna give our panelists the opportunity, of course, just to talk about a couple of the games, bring them up, and give us their feedback, their reviews, what they thought about uh how the game transpired, what was you know new and brilliant, what is something that they could even recommend to our listeners? And we're going to start with the medical professional, the medical stylist of the doctor.

SPEAKER_05 1:46

All right, awesome, awesome. So uh from my game review, it's definitely been a lot of really good ones of 2020 and 2021 so far. I'm gonna go very recent and talk about Near Replicant, which is something that just came out only a few days ago. Um, so for those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a remake of the original Near, which is the prequel to Near Automata. Um, also a fantastic game I would highly recommend. Um, I'd be conscious about recommending something that's so recent, and admitly, I've I'm about maybe 15 hours into the game, so I have not finished it. But I'm noticing that a lot of my thoughts on it have looked at other reviews as well, are consistent with what other people are saying too so far, and people who have completed the game, so I feel a little more confident in this review. Um, overall, I'm really, really enjoying it a lot. Um, it's without giving too much without giving away too much as far as spoilers, um, it starts with you going on this quest to save your sister from this essentially plague that exists in the world. And all the quests kind of stem from there. But it's got fantastic environments, you know, beautiful music. Um, the moderns are really good at conveying the story as well. You know, I think that it's really good, um, it's just that overall atmosphere is really well done. Um, I'm loving the characters so far, you know, my favorite being one of the starting ones. Um, it's kind of like your, I guess, guide slash assistant, uh, lights uh Grimoire who follows you around. Um, but um, yeah, really good environments and whatnot. And also, you know, looking at this as a remake, since I did play the original Mir, which I would say came out a decade ago, probably around that. Um, but what I've thought of remakes. Remakes, evaluating remakes is kind of unique in that it allows you to evaluate games that might be really, really nostalgic, but through a current lens. So, like if you have like game like super nostalgic game like a Mario 64, Time, um, some other Sonic games, it's oftentimes it's hard to evaluate them through current standards because we love them so much for you know the nostalgia. And back then we played them, you know, they had different design standards and whatnot. Remakes allow you to look at that design difference and design standards and kind of see how that design holds up today. And I think in many ways, um this particular remake you know shows how some of the design of the original you know fell flat in some areas, and some of that they improved on, some of that they didn't. So I think the one thing that's still really a pretty significant issue when it comes to even the remake is the backtracking. Um I love compared to death, I love your replica to death, um, but definitely there's a lot of backtracking involved in the quests. Uh it can take, and especially for a game where I believe it takes a little over 20 hours to complete just doing the straight through, you know, um main quest. Um, it can be that's a lot of hours added on, and you know, it takes a long time to unlock fast travel. That's the other thing. So, you know, I think it takes you have to get about halfway through the game, you know, to unlock fast travel, and for a game that's that long, that's that's a lot. Like it's so I think that's kind of an issue, and it does make some parts of the game feel pretty repetitive. Um, now having said that, I think they improved on what I consider the single, I won't say biggest flaw, but just the most improvable thing from the original, and that is how smooth the combat is now. The difference in in combat field between the original and replicant is huge. I mean, it is such a dramatic improvement. It's smooth, it's fluid, it doesn't feel choppy, you know. Um the hitboxes are better too, which is really nice. And I think it really has that feel, a feel that it's nice and similar to a near automata. You know, and I think that that one improvement alone just makes this remake so much more effective and enjoyable. And I really love that. Um also, even though you know some of the quests get repetitive at times, I think that the quest structure is pretty clean for the most part. And I like that because it gives you a good sense of direction on where you're supposed to go. I never really felt lost in the game or whatnot, but I also did feel a sense of freedom in terms of what to do. Um so I think you know the trick has really done well with that. And overall, like this was just a very good gaming experience. Um, I would highly recommend it. Um, unless it suddenly disappoints me in like these last maybe 10 hours of gameplay, um, I would probably give this a solid nine out of 10 right now. Um thing you know I'm definitely enjoying a lot. And I would strongly recommend. Um it's something I also consider just a straight-up improvement over the original uh Nier. But you can't say that for every remake. But um, yeah, this is one that is just a full and complete improvement to me. So okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

And then uh Kazi Shinriu, I know you have experience with uh at least some of the games from the Nier uh franchise, um, and based off of what the doctor has said. What uh have you played the most recent one that just came out?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Uh I did not. I didn't uh I didn't finish Automata, I did not, and I haven't I've been listening to things about Replicant. Um and uh and I I even I remember I was working at GameStop when the original Nier came out and and that got whole hundred reviews. But uh but but no, I've definitely been paying uh I've I definitely been keeping keeping a tight eye on the series. Uh I was really excited when uh when I found out that time and I had uh platinum games uh doing the doing the action portion of the uh of the system because uh because Yoko Taro is super super big on his uh his thematics and his story and his narrative and then gameplay connection. Uh Drake he made the Draken Guard series too, which is attached to near and and that and that's famously just boo boo to play. Um so so I'm glad that they've uh given the the uh action portions to other studios. Like I I just looked it up, I saw near replicant was uh made by Tokyo Logic. Um I wasn't sure if Platinum was gonna help out again, but it looks like they uh took the lessons they needed to learn from from Near Automata and uh and applied it to Replicant as as it needed to. Um also also in Replicant, do you play the young guy or the old man? Oh, and that's good too, because uh I think because I think they uh the American version of the game, uh Nier, they gave us the old man, and in Japan the young guy because they was trying to uh you know they they they they won they they wanted the Westerners, the Westerners to have the grizzled old old guy, and then the Japanese that had so so uh so even if you played the original Nier, uh you get that you know you get that little bit of difference, even though I heard that the stories were still like 80% the same. I think it was like daughter and you know, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:08

They definitely switched out just uh daughter for daughter for sister, and that was the main change.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

But uh, but no, yeah, I'm glad I'm glad the doctor uh brought brought that one up. I'm super uh I'm super looking forward to picking it up.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Awesome. Okay, so the doctor's given uh near uh don't let me get it wrong, I don't be wrong, near replicant, uh a nine out of ten. So a great recommendation uh from the doctors. So those who are listening, if you are interested or have uh are uh uh followers of the franchise, feel free to go out and pick it up. And then if you have any feedback, of course, feel free to you know DM us or uh post something in our mailbox. So now we're gonna swing over to Kazay. Uh I know you have a couple of games that you have started playing within the last couple of months. I know you also have uh a couple of games that you continuously play. Uh so which ones did you select specifically for this episode?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Uh for today. Uh uh I'll do uh Bravely Default 2 and Monster Hunter Rise. Um start with uh Brave of the Default. Uh it's a uh you know series that started off on the uh I believe the 3DS. Um maybe it was regularly DS, I don't remember. But uh it's uh it's uh it's based on a uh spin-off of the Final Fantasy series uh you know Warrior Light game. And uh and it's it's you know, for all intents and purposes, uh it it doesn't have like the super the super common Final Fantasy tropes like Jacobo's and the and the regular summons and the Cid and uh and stuff like that. But you know, as far as like the crystals and like a lot of storyline structure and a lot of charm it has, it's more or less like a Final Fantasy game. Um but uh yeah, Brave the Default was uh followed by a uh sequel that was also in the 3DS. And this is the first uh console uh Bravely uh that we've gotten. So I was I was definitely looking forward to how they was gonna you know update the update the graphics and uh you know seeing if it was gonna uh be any big gameplay changes. Uh and you know from what I can say though, uh I love I love how the game looks, it's super charming. Uh the um the uh the design on all of the job classes are super uh super fun. I I kind of wish there was a bit more variation between each person, like each person more or less like each each each guy looks the same. I wish it was a you know, just only four playable characters. So if they did an actual variation on each person for each class, I think that would have been uh really interesting. But uh, you know, really, really fun and uh uh dynamic and strategic uh uh gameplay. The uh the uh story uh compared to the first Bradley default, I didn't play Bradley second. Uh the story compared to the first one is uh is uh a bit more basic. The uh the kind of first the first Bradley kind of uh you know, Lord Lord UN being very, very normal, very fine, fancy-esque, and then it uh kind of goes off the wall and does some some other stuff, which which uh you know, some people love, some people hate it, but it was definitely different. Uh and they kinda don't don't really produce anything like that this time. They're they they do do something somewhat interesting as far as uh you achieving a different ending. But uh, you know, the story uh you know the story's kind of basic. The characters are uh mostly well uh well voiced, especially some of the villains that some of them are like genuinely uh uh creepy, it's a lot of uh, you know, like chill-inducing scenes. It's uh and it's and it's actually uh kind of goes against their design. Like it'll they'll be like, you know, like very, very kiddie, like, you know, like real like caricatures, and then and then they'll like, you know, just you know, laugh maniacally talking about this horrible, horrible thing they just did. I'm like, oh okay. Um but no, the uh yeah, they've they they've definitely made some uh interesting uh you know changes to the battle system and the uh even the difficulty, the difficulty feels a bit more uh uneven to me. Uh I think the game uh kind of wants you to uh kind of take advantage and make your team unfair because the because the because the bosses are going to be unfair. Or you know, or you can just go in and lose a bunch of times and figure out what you need to do and make your changes as you need to go. Um but uh but all in all it was uh it's it's it was a really fun experience. It was really fun. Uh getting access to all the classes and then the post-game content was was uh really interesting and having even more even more classes and even more additions to each class. Uh I g I guess it does have that uh in g in game in games like this where they're uh where they where you're getting stuff like jobs, I wish they uh shifted the j the job acquisition you know earlier into the story. So you had more content to play with all the classes because it cause the way cause uh because of w with them evenly spaced out as they are, like the last three jobs you get, you don't you hardly get to play with uh before the game ends. And you know, and you know, and even if it's like you specifically have to stop playing the game and go do stuff and grind and I mean you're probably gonna have to do that anyway. But but it definitely uh takes away from like kind of a natural flow, that's what you're into if you wanted to uh max everything out. But no, really, uh really fun uh RPG, especially if you like job systems, if you like turn based. Um, you know, if you need if you need like a little nostalgia kick, uh Bravely Default. Uh it was definitely a fun ride.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah. And uh yeah, I was um when it was first announced, I believe it was last year, the year before last, I was very excited for the game myself. I believe we both were. Um, we really wanted to, you know, jump into this game. Um, I think especially after Octopath came out. Um, I thought I saw in the trailer a lot of uh very close similarities between the two games. So I was excited, you know, with the you know, the beauty of of the world building in um Octopath. And then now with these, you know, I never played the any of the previous Brave release, um, but now with the you know the characters looking the way they do, which is different from Octopath, I was really excited. I was like, oh, this is about to be dope. And then I played the demo, and the demo got me so hype. I was like, oh my gosh, this is about to be dope. I'm gonna like set this whole system up. And then I found out that the demo was nothing but a lie. Well, not a lie. They completely changed, well, not completely. Um, there were things that took place in the demo that did not take place in the game, or rather, there were creatures that took place that were present in the demo that were drastically uh overemphasized in the demo that were complete not nothingness in the game. Um, not to spoil anything, but there was one particular tree monster that was like one of the toughest creatures inside of the demo. I was like, oh, I figured out how to beat it. I was ready to go, played the real game, killed him in one hit. I was like, oh, I'm I'm that good. And then came across an uh evolved blue tree version of this creature who like one shot is not even the word. Um I felt like it buffed itself and killed my team is kind of how it felt like. Um, because it was in the starting part of the game. So anyway, um, yeah, so for me, the game, um, I do agree. Um I haven't completely finished it yet because a lot of games came out at the same time. But uh for as far as I've gotten, the I do agree that the the jobs, the job system as a person who likes to, you know, I'm not necessarily a completionist, but the person who likes to complete things, um, I tend to want to complete full-on classes, give each of my characters the ability to try each thing out so I can play the game that way. And if I got access to more of the jobs sooner, like going back to Octopath, Octopath kind of gave you the ability to try out every other job. And if you chose to go to certain parts of the map or certain parts of the world, you can find the special tier jobs and then also apply those to your characters and max those out too before you finish the game. Um, but with Braverly, um, they kind of not saying you couldn't, but there were certain times where it wouldn't let me go into certain areas unless the what certain part of the story was finished. So it didn't enable me to go and find certain things. So uh I felt uh kind of held back and I wasn't able kind of what Kaze said to able to finish certain things. Did you have something to say, the doctor?

SPEAKER_05 18:12

Oh, yeah. So I just want to second, you know, uh talk about the job system. So I'm someone who I really enjoy job systems and RPGs, and I think as a series, Bravely Default has done them really well in an interesting way. I don't agree that I wish we could access some of the later jobs earlier so you can actually develop them and see how they do in all these different kind of mid-game or even early game situations. But um, one of the things I really enjoy about how Bravely Befault Tube does jobs is many of the jobs themselves are pretty granular in that you can do a lot of different things with just one job. And when you tack on a subjob with that, like you can create this really comprehensive character. However, even things that feel like they would be or are super specialized, um, but often have like one or two abilities that use something unconventional for them. So, like um, let's suppose that the white mage has a move that where you would see drain health based off your physical attack. Um, and the black mage has one that drains the met or drains the MP off of your physical attack. So those would probably be just complete trash stats in most cases for mages, like um that you know, attack actually has some purpose. So I love little things like that, you know, and I think it makes class combinations a lot more interesting if, oh, you know, if you want to give make this a subclass on something that has you know a lot of physical attack, let's say it can create this really unique interaction. So yeah, I think um you know JavaScript is super interesting. It's something I really enjoy about it.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Okay, and Kase, did you have a uh score to give the game after finishing it and completing it and getting to uh the post credits, kind of like an all-around, overall rather, uh score for the game?

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah, I'll go ahead and uh I'll go ahead and give it a flop. I've heard them floating between uh eight and eight point five. Um I th I think I remember really enjoying the music too. So I'll go ahead and give it an 8.5.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah, there were times I believe I I uh uh was watching you play and the the sounds of the sitar in some of the areas was oh that that that's a thing. Yeah. Oh, the thing. Just you can literally just play it in the background and just walk around. You're perfectly fine. Um before we go into your second title, I want to go ahead and switch over to the Black McCoy. Um, I know uh you said you had a title that you wanted to um review. What would be yours?

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Um the title that I wanted to talk about was just one I started playing recently, and that's Outriders. Um I'm not usually a fan of games that require guns because I have terrible aim. Um I've always had really terrible aim. But um it's one that I downloaded the demo for it. I played through it and I didn't I didn't hate it. Like the mechanics were really cool. And you know, the demo was glitchy, but of course it was a demo. So I mean it wasn't meant to be more, it's just kind of a taste of what you know like you're going for. But they do kind of incentivize the gameplay of the demo because the the the um progress that you make in the demo, you um you basically pick up where you left off like after you download the game. So I thought that was pretty cool. Um and um yeah, as far as just the the world goes that they built with this game, like it's it's it's really vast and it's very interesting because it's it's a post apocalyptic fantasy world, but it's a post apocalyptic like fantasy sci fi world that's built on like the post apocalypticness of the of Earth that you're trying to escape in the first place. And it's it's always it's it the the kind of beginnings of the story were interesting for me because. Because it's like the human beings, you know, left the problems of Earth only to take those problems elsewhere. And, you know, they kind of registered to me as like, you know, Earth was never the problem. It was human beings that were the problems. And so human beings just took themselves somewhere else and created more of their own problems. And it just kind of spawned into this, you know, very vast um, well, uh, yeah, very vast uh world that you know get the get a chance to play in. Like you get to create your own character. Uh I made my character like Kazi saw my character, like he was like, Oh, you made your character black, black. I'm like, yes, uh, my character is black, black, black, black, black. Um, like full lips, everything. Um, the only thing they don't have is black hairstyles, but you know, we we kind of picked, you know, I did what I did the best I could, you know. I made sure that you know she had at least something which she likes, she styled it herself, you know, because she had to. Um but as far as the the gameplay goes, I think it's it's very it's very standard as far as like a loot and shoot third person game. I'm not a huge fan of first-person shooter games, again, because my aim is terrible, and it just puts me in a position to see how much more terrible my aim is because I can't see things that are around me. But third-person shooter games, um, your third-person RPGs in general give me a sense of comfort because I have a sense of everything, the majority of what's happening around me. Um, the the way in which you build your character is really interesting because they have four different classes and they're all just kind of like uh a spectrum of different ways to play. You have uh you have like the character who's the who's basically the like the tank berserker all the way to the the the ranged kind of shooter. Um and there are like two other classes in between. I forgot the name of like the initial class, but I play the trickster class, uh yeah, trickster class, which is right after like the the tank berserker class, because it's uh it is a close range fighting class, but also has a lot of different skills that don't depend on it being close range, but they're the majority of the benefits of the character come with being close range. Um, because you know, I mean I've I've had to wear glasses since I was three years old. So if that's an any indicator as why I pick close range characters, then that's it. Um I'm also near sided. Um and then after that, there's um I think the the pyromancer, and then there's like the technomancer class, which is like the more distance class where you use um well a lot of your uh character perks will come from the this the status and range of the abilities that are required. So like the thing that I like the most about each class is that each of them have has a way of like regenerating their own health. And I think that's a pretty cool mechanic just to have because a lot of I've I've played games that will depend on you, like finding like health packs or you know, finding like a station in which you find or like finding potions or something like that. It's like no, this game dedicates you to continuing to play and not having to uh kind of uh depend on things being around for you to survive through playing, like you survive through the game, like you have to survive through the game by playing the game by taking on enemies. Um and the enemies themselves are they're most of them, most of the human enemies are pretty standard, but the uh the more like mutant or creature-like enemies get very creative. Um, and I that's one of my favorite parts, I can say, because you know, you you can you can fight as many human beings, you can gun down as many human beings as you want, but the more interesting um strategies that you'll have strategizing that you'll have to do will come down to you know the different monsters that you have to put up with. And I mean you have to strategize through all of your enemies and you know all the layouts and all of the maps, um, largely because the one of the things I can like really fully appreciate, um, and the part this is likely because I don't play a lot of like games that require shooting in the first place, is that the AI is almost too intuitive for someone like myself who isn't adept at shooting things all of the time. Um, because it it like they they will run, they will like they will escape, they won't stay in the same place, like they'll duck, they'll go across the screen. Like it it it really immerses you into this kind of battlefield with some authenticity to it, which I can really appreciate. Frustrating as fuck sometimes, but I can really appreciate. Um, I also think that one of the things that makes it stand out for me is the creativity of developing your character. So, regardless of which class you pick, there are going to be, I think maybe I want to say seven or eight different abilities that you can unlock. Um and you can only carry three of them at a time. And so it's like you you have to stack the strategy of your character. You have to stack the abilities you choose to use, you have to stack the armor itself, which has its own set of strategies that come along with it, because each are each piece of armor from like your glove, from your like literally from your shoes all the way to your gun. Um, Rook has has different um stats, different um abilities that you can customize, modify, um, just to continue to beef up the strategy that you're building of how you want to play your character. And then that's completely, you know, that's completely non-contingent to the skill tree that you have as well, which has different options of directions you can go. And you can go like partial, of course, you can go partially in one direction and kind of skew your character in the different ways so you can build based on how you play generally or how you play specifically. And I say that because there's the potential for you to just kind of play, be like, okay, well, I want to go up this you know, particular path. I want to go up, you know, halfway up this one and fully throughout the other one, right? So there's there's uh there's the opportunity to really be kind of straight-laced or be a bit more um dynamic and creative with your individuality of how you like to navigate these different battles and things like that. Um, so when you stack all of those things on top of each other, you get the chance to create a really, a really like a really unique character. And even with the multiplayer aspect, you still have the opportunity to kind of maintain that integrity of that character. Um and even switch it up if you need to. Um, not specifically with the skill tree. Well, if you can't, I haven't figured out how to do it yet. But um when you start, uh like, say, for example, like you might go into one area and you're taking out these droves of enemies, um, and you have to finally get to the boss, it's like, well, it the droves were already difficult, but then you get to the boss is even more difficult, and and you keep dying, and you have the opportunity to like go back, re like modify the the skills on your armor, the skills on your weapons, um, and even the abilities that you have um equipped yourself with and go back and try all over again. So you it's like being able to modif it's like the game doesn't try to tie you down to your abilities as much as some other games might in this kind of like playstyle, especially when you have like a multi, a multiplayer aspect because you can very easily modify your character to play by yourself or you can modify it to play with you know other team members so you can have more cohesiveness. Um and I think that that's a lot of the reasons why I love it. Uh, I think my my largest critique, and that was interesting because I was talking to Kazi about this yesterday, was that the there's a dodge roll mechanic that isn't very efficient, that you can move out of the way, but you can't move past things that you're trying to dodge. So one of the things that this game does a lot, like as you can as you go up the world tiers, um, you know, enemies get more difficult. And you can alter your world tier. Like, I think there are like seven or eight different world ones, and the enemies just drop this of that. That the there's a there's a habit to be swarmed by a lot of enemies, especially when you're dealing with like the non-human um the human enemies just have a lot of snipers, but the non-human enemies have a tendency to like swarm you and like come at you all at one time. And you typically in any other game, you dodge dodge roll to get out of that situation. If you're surrounded, if there's something, if there's something, anything behind you. It doesn't matter if it's an enemy, it doesn't matter if it's a blade of grass, it doesn't matter if it's a wall, you won't be able to move. And I think that kind of defeats the purpose of having a dodge roll mechanic, specifically if it doesn't prevent you from taking on damage or you know, being able to avoid something in some way, shape, or form. Um I don't uh as far as story, the plot is not as it's it. I think the the game fights to make the plot somewhat relevant as you're going through the game, but you don't really have to pay attention to it in order to enjoy the game. There's like a plethora of side missions of like different hunts and bounties and stuff you can do. That's really, really fun. Um, all the creatures are super creative, they're they're very brilliantly designed. Um, and the the colors are really vibrant, even for like this kind of desolate world that you're playing through. Um I I recommend it for someone who is for for as someone who doesn't typically like shooter style games, I definitely recommend this game as something to probably like start out with, or at least to test out to see if you, you know, see if you can try. I mean, I think the other thing that I would, it's not a heavy critique and it's only a partial critique because maybe there's a way to do it, and I just haven't figured it out yet, is to like, you know, change up the the aesthetics of some of your armor pieces. Because you know, as you play through most games, when you play through any game, as you get new armor pieces, you kind of swap them out because they you know offer different benefits versus um no, just offer different benefits, but then you know they look ugly when you put them together. And I mean, it's no there's no point in murdering so many people if you can't look cute in the process.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Well, um uh can't deny that. Uh I believe there is a function for it, but I think you have to unlock it. Uh as a Kaz, I think you said you finished the game. Uh, is there a function later on?

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Uh actually, no, no, I actually uh stopped playing right around the uh section that uh the Black McCoy just got to.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Okay, yeah. So um I know I I've I've also played uh Outriders, and I know that uh the most you can do is if you have a type of um armor or equipment that you want to stay in its particular color scheme, like you can't change it, but if you have a particular one, you can alter the skills to fit that particular outfit. Um, but from what I've seen, you can't change the color. At least I didn't see it. I know you can change the color of everything else, your truck, your actually you can change the color of the guns.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

Fuck that truck. That truck ain't done shift for me yet. Except be there. Oh boy. I even had to escort that damn truck, and I didn't care that I had to look at it in the process because it didn't do anything, it didn't roll over enemies, it didn't shoot any guns. There's like if it got attacked, no shit was gonna happen to it. It was fine. I fucked that truck.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Well, my truck looks like a server is so I enjoy the and my flag. My flag looks awesome.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

Um I said fuck that flag too. I was like, what this is I I appreciated the the opportunity to be able to customize the truck and the flag, but at the end of the day, it didn't do anything for me because it didn't contribute to my play. It didn't contribute to my enjoyment of playing. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Um, yeah, but for for my experience of the game uh for Outriders, I um I thoroughly enjoyed it as a person who uh I'm not a consistent um first person or third person shooter, I mean, other than you know, say um Overwatch, um uh I when a game piques my interest, I do jump into it. Outriders uh from its initial uh trailer release last year. Uh I don't know if that was the initial one, but from my exposure to the to a trailer release last year, I was very excited for the game to come out. And it wasn't because of it being another shooter, because in its um initial uh um aesthetic, it looked just like destiny. Um so I was like, oh, okay, well, it was another destiny. Um, and then I found out it was made by um a company that uh made something uh extremely similar not too long ago that kind of let me down a little bit. Um so I wasn't too sure what to feel when the game was about to come out. Um but when I saw the effort that they were putting into the abilities, um, the amount of explanation in the customization, I think when they gave that trailer, they did the right thing by first talking, showing us the worlds, showing us the landscape, then they went into the three-man cell, playing co-op with your friends, then they went into the four different classes and having abilities in these classes, and then they took it a step further by showing us the fact that there's going to be a skill tree. And I think by doing that, it's heightened the intrigue of a many different types of game player. Um, I believe Kaze was not necessarily sold until uh he saw the uh skill tree. Once he saw the skill tree, he's like, hmm, okay, all right, this is a potential. Um, I believe when we were talking to the Black McCoy about potentially playing the game, it was um seeing the fact that there was a there was Trickster who uh had the ability to teleport, which is something that the Black McCoy is highly interested in. Uh so you know, each person uh had their own peak uh interest peaked based off of the game. Uh my core character is the uh technomancer, uh, one, because the ability to control turrets, uh decay, um the buffs and the um uh uh stat uh increases he gets, uh the character gets from uh being a sniper, uh, is you know, I enjoy being a sniper in most games. So uh that's what intrigues me. Uh so for me, I I thoroughly, uh so far, I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. I love every second of it. There are certain portions that are very annoying. And I think the main annoying thing is the fact that if you have to play by yourself and your world tier is significantly high, um, if you're a person who likes to sit back and shoot, uh, as uh Kaze kind of mentioned, the different type of characters, um actually the Black McCoy mentioned, sorry, uh the different type of humanoid characters who adapt to how you're playing. Um, I felt like after they noticed I was sitting back and shooting, they sent more um hatchet-wielding humans towards me and they sent more uh creatures and monsters and mutants to surround me to the point where I couldn't just pick off each one. I could because I did have you know certain uh abilities that slowed them down. But after a period of time, you you know, you just have to switch to a close range, mid-range type of attack and you know, clear, clear, clear the barriers. Uh but no, other than that, I I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish I could play with people more often. Um, well, you know, with people I know more often. Uh, but um, no, amazing game. Uh uh, Kaze, did you have anything to add?

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Uh yeah, a few things. Uh it was it was it was it was funny to uh mention the uh the bugs in the demo because I uh I had few to zero bugs in the demo. I was uh I was super surprised. And and and and then when I I played the regular game and and I was uh I I think I think I was in three different situations where I had to Google what the hell was going on because my uh my quest, my quest progression was actually I I couldn't the game wouldn't move on because uh because the it was just bugging like there was uh there was like barriers. Actually, as soon as I uh as soon as I started the game, uh there was a uh because uh the game continued from your demo progress, and there was a uh there was a person in a room at your home basis you had to go talk to. And and the uh and the option to go into the room wasn't wasn't there. So I couldn't talk to said person. And and I had to go, I had to I had to move my progress back in the story and replay through it and go and get back up to that point twice. Just just so that just so I can get through that door, and I had to do a similar thing uh during a mission. So uh so yeah, the game's been surprisingly buggy and not like cute buggy, like guns flying in the air or people standing on walls, stuff, you know, you fall through a stage and you come back back, you know, it's whatever. Like I was actually hampered and it was like you know, it was it was pretty annoying. Um excuse me. Uh no, no, I've I'm I but I've mostly been uh uh pretty pretty high on the game. I'm also an another person who uh isn't uh isn't huge uh I I don't like first person shooters, uh but I love uh but I love uh loot-based games. So so I always have to come in begrudgingly and and try these looter shooters. Um and you know, usually the mixed results, I generally love Borderlands. I thought that seems okay. Um yeah, and I'm pretty, you know, and I'm pretty high on uh outriders. Uh I did I did I did think that there was gonna be more uh uh I thought I thought uh I've I've only played the Power Master so far, but I thought my I thought the moves that I was gonna earn after my initial ones were gonna be, I guess, a bit more dynamic and I, you know, and I still there's still some some mods for, you know, just dust mods I haven't seen, especially the higher tier ones. So I haven't, you know, gotten, I haven't done all the things, unlocked all the things. Uh but uh but but just just in general, I thought uh you know, after playing some hours, my my character started to feel a little a bit more samey than I and I didn't think I was gonna have that uh uh have that experience uh going in. Uh yeah, defin definitely uh echoing that uh aspect of of uh g getting uh getting swarmed, especially uh especially especially by the non the non-human opponents. Like it's I I know this is actually locked to uh uh as you go through different uh HP thresholds on the boss, they will really they'll just keep releasing more waves. So it's not like you can just handle all the ads. Like they'll there's like three different waves of randoms, and they you know, and it's not like they and they don't always come from the same place, they'll actually still spawn behind you sometimes. They'll uh you know they they cut they come from different places and it's really uh you know, it that it keeps the fight really hectic, but uh but the um yeah the your abilities and and systems don't aren't always uh give you the best options to handle them. Uh yeah, especially if you don't know where they're coming from or even I mean after the second time happens, you should just assume that yeah, that people are just gonna pop up even even the human, even uh some of the human bosses they'll uh they'll spawn ads and they'll come out uh doors. More more like the mid bosses, but you know, people people will pop up doors and do stuff. But uh but no no, it's pretty, it's pretty fun. It hasn't it hasn't uh kept my attention as much as uh some of these other games. Um I'm hoping I need I'm hoping uh I can get to a world tier where legendary items start to drop because uh because I think those uh weapon mods and dynamics are a bit more uh interesting and that's usually uh uh where I aim to be. Uh I do uh I guess one note about the skill tree is uh I was hoping that there would be more uh all the all the all the changes on your skill tree. Uh I guess well 90% of your changes on the uh on your skill tree are very uh small and gradual. And uh and uh you know, and I you and I usually find it more interesting where you uh you have a number of small and gradual, but then you hit like one notable thing and it kind of dynamically changes your gameplay. There's there hasn't been as many of those as well as as far as uh not not you know not that I've along the path I've gone, I'm sure I haven't gone a super gone gone down a super uh you know, I haven't looked anything up. I don't, you know, I could I could just be playing really badly and made bad you know bad decisions as far as the skill tree is concerned. But just but just my uh my experience so far as and uh my character still feels like more or less the same character I started the game with. I was I was hoping uh you know, as I you know, customization is my jam. So uh uh not you know not not not feeling like this really dynamic and interesting amount of growth as I'm going through it. Uh not as much as I would generally would like in a game like this. Uh you know, I thought that was like this point, but no, definitely, definitely, uh, definitely a cool game.

unknown 43:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Uh the Doctor, I don't, I don't think you're playing Outriders, but uh from what you've seen or what you heard, what do you think about the game just from what you've seen?

SPEAKER_05 43:37

Yeah, so it definitely looks really interesting. And it is admittedly something I really haven't played much. Um my partner played a little bit of it, you know. So, you know, his he has liked it a lot. Um, you know, he's enjoying it so far. But um definitely I think it looks interesting. Uh, I do like customization a lot as well. So um it's been unfortunate to hear that. It's you don't have that same level of like character growth where characters feel different at the end. Because you know, knowing that like there's that skill tree mechanic and whatnot made me think, oh, well, it's gonna be super interesting and you know whatnot. But um, yeah, it's definitely something I'd probably like to learn more about.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Okay. And then uh the Black McCoy, do you have a a score uh rating that you would give out of 10 for outriders currently based off of where you are?

SPEAKER_03 44:30

Based off of where I am, I give it a solid maybe like a week seven. I give it a week seven.

SPEAKER_00 44:37

Week seven, seven days a week. Gotcha. Okay, okay. So um, I guess I'll go and then we'll circle back to um Kaze. So I played quite a few games, um, as I said, between 2020 and 2021. Actually, all of the games, other than uh uh near replicant, because you know, like I said, that ate my time, not damn. But I played a lot of games over the last year. Um, and I had two specifically that I wanted to mention, but one specifically I wanted to review. Uh, the two games that I played were It Takes Two by Electronic Arts, uh, that you'll find on every console other than the Switch. And then uh Hyrule Warriors. Um, I'm gonna mess it up again. Crap. Age of Extinction. Ah, I got it. Is that it? Please tell me that's it.

SPEAKER_05 45:30

Age of Calamity.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Started, I did it again. Do it, don't do it. Age of Calamity. Oh man, I should have written it down. Um, yes, Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity on the Nintendo Switch by Nintendo. Uh, real quick on It Takes Two. I played that with the Black Oi. Um, I actually mentioned it in the gaming um uh the game preview uh that we did uh last earlier this year or last year. Uh we were talking about games that we were anticipating in 2021, and I was really looking forward to it, and I have to say it did not disappoint. It was extremely entertaining. Um, the missions really forced you, which it was supposed to do, forced you to work together as a cohesive unit. Um, could one character run all over the screen and do everything on certain parts? Yes, but at the end of the day, no. There are certain things that require you to um, you know, play with someone else. Uh, but they still, of course, gave you the ability to play by yourself if that's what you still feel like you need to do. Um, if you've ever played like any of the um Disney uh Mickey video games, the power of two, those types of games, um, where you're playing with Mickey, and I can't remember Eustace or Horace or can't remember his name, but the bunny, the black and white bunny. Uh, you you know about those kind of co-op. You press this button, I can walk to this door, you do this, and I can do this, so on and so forth. And it takes two. Um, they give you, you know, each stage has its own issues, or it each stage has its own obstacles, uh, without spoiling anything. Um, it is about a divorcing couple that's supposed to figure out how to come back together. Uh, it's uh, and I I said before when we were doing the preview, it is truly, truly, truly a kind of date-night type of game. It's for couples or for people in relationships who, you know, want to, or really close friends, if you want to go there too, uh, who really want to, you know, work together in a cohesive game. Um, I think it was, you know, the colors are amazing, the textures are awesome, uh, the interactables all over the stage. Some were completely pointless. Um, but then some were, if you did it later on, had some type of secondary meaning. Um, there was a stage, I don't want to give anything away, but there was a stage uh where they had like random lights and lava lamps and different things that you could touch, and it like just impacted the world, the colors. Like uh, you know, uh one of our panelists, uh Sayone uh Cosplay, she you know, always talks about the colors and the hues and you know, uh the vibrancy of a screen. And in it takes two, you can modify it one by traveling to the traversing different areas, but also by touching different lights and different textures. It really uh uh ergonomically changes the way that the the the world and the screen looks. But that wasn't even where I wanted to go. The game I really wanted to do was Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity. Hey, I got it this time. Um so with Age of Calamity, it is a uh it is a game that um, in my opinion, and I was even talking about this during the preview as well, um, and during you know our uh Legend of Zelda Day episode, but it is a game that, in my opinion, is that bridge of a gap between uh Breath of the Wild 1 and the soon coming, forthcoming Breath of the Wild 2. Uh, it's supposed to be a prologue slash sequel slash, it's almost like Lion King one and a half. It's that game in between these two games that's supposed to give you some backstory. It's supposed to explain to you, you know, certain things, why things actually happen the way that they did, and how did we end up where we're supposed to go? Um, if you've never played a Dynasty Warriors game before, um then, you know, maybe jump in it, see if you like it. If you play Dynasty Wars and you like it, this is the game for you. If you like Zelda as well, if you don't like Dynasty Warriors, but you like Legend of Zelda, I say try it out because the amount of storytelling that they do and the amount of character building that they give to the four champions and the um and Princess Zelda Link and the different characters within the game, I think is worth it to you know take that you know step into there because they explain so many things that were questions to a lot of people as it pertains to Breath of the Wild. Um, I mean, and you know, the lore that was in Breath of the Wild, some of those questions are even answered in Age of Extinction, Age of Calamity, damn it! Age of Calamity as well. And um in my opinion, this is like oh, such an amazing segue into Breath of the Wild 2. I feel like so many things that they're talking about now fused with what we did, what you did in Breath of the Wild 1, is going to, you know, bear fruits to what's gonna happen in uh Breath of the Wild 2. And I know somebody who definitely wants some input on this topic, this game is the Doctor. Uh, give me your feedback because I know you played it as well. You actually want, I mean, I saw the game coming, and I think we were both excited at the same time. I think we both were watching the Nintendo Direct, and um uh we were just like, oh my gosh, this is this is about to be the shit. Um, so tell me your uh feedback, your your impression of it from the trailer, your feedback from playing the game, uh, and what you think it's it all means moving into Breath of the Wild 2.

SPEAKER_05 51:09

Yeah, definitely. So, of course, looking at the trailer, I was super hyped. Um, you know, what I love Dr. Words games in general, and definitely going off in Breath of the Wild, which you know might is definitely one of my top three favorite games. Um, I was super hype about it. Um I love it with all these playable characters and whatnot. Um, you know, and definitely uh especially excited uh actually like seeing, you know, actively for a while, and to play as the champions themselves. So that's really exciting me on. Now funny enough, like I think opposa was the character I thought I would like the most, really. And I do like her. She ended up feeling, I think, kind of slow to me in some ways. Uh like um, I look like Mufa more, which I did not expect to be. So Mufa ended up being the one I really enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 52:10

I thought I knew that like I was just gonna say I could not get the hang of the uh what's it, the fountain, uh um, what's the thing it's called? The um shoot, the whirlpool, the whirlpool teleport cloud mode, I couldn't get the hang of it. Or both it was felt also more natural to me.

SPEAKER_05 52:31

It's wild because I think thematically opposes the champion I like the most. Um gameplay like, oh, you know, I felt like oh, there's a lot you can exploit with MIFO. I really didn't know even though she, you know, to be honest, was probably the least thematically interesting one to me of the four. Um of course, like between um what you call it, self and info, like I think those were my main two go-to's.

SPEAKER_00 52:58

Um I think everybody, even when you played the trailer, uh not trailer, sorry, the demo for that game, everybody was just talking about how Impa was the GOAT. Like between the combos, the transformations, the alt, Impa was just it.

SPEAKER_05 53:14

Oh yeah, no, definitely. Like I love her death. I think Imper was what I used when I needed to do something really quickly, but requestly.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

Yep, recklessly.

SPEAKER_05 53:27

But like that was what I used if I just wanted to not take any damage at all.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

I didn't think of that. That's true.

SPEAKER_05 53:33

Yeah, because that's a lot if it's pretty um, yeah, it's kind of weight and um, but um, you know, I thought I just super enjoyed um age of calamity and last words and get um, oh, this is 90% action 10% story and whatnot. I thought it's a lot of actual story. It's not like a high words where it's kind of this and whatnot, and just a lot of characters were um kind of the classic excuse plot where oh, we're putting in all these characters from different dimensions and stuff using this contrived rates and all that stuff. Like there's there's a lot of canonical um or clock elements that really relate to the canon breath of the wild. Like it's so super would definitely recommend it. Um yeah, it's a bit I thoroughly enjoyed. Um I don't know if I actually rate it. Um I don't know if it's a nine out of ten for me. I know I think an eight out of ten is too low. Oh, really? Yeah. Um 8.5 out of 10.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

8.5.

SPEAKER_05 54:48

I'd have to think about that more. Um, because I do think the one thing that um where it kind of felt a little bit flat, and I think that's true for almost every dive towards a game I play, is that the combat feels repetitive after a while.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:04

So that you eventually get down like, oh, this is the combo that works for big enemies or big groups of enemies. This is the boss combo that works instead of just kind of playing for the rest of the game, essentially.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

Um I I have to agree, like after, I mean, there are certain challenges that you have to do that, you know, kind of take you away from the normal, you know, use this combo, fight this enemy, fight this group, so on and so forth. Um, I like the fact that the ad, I forgot their name, uh, the lion cent lion centaur, what Lennon, the Lennon? Lionels, there it is. Yeah, uh, the Lionels. I like the fact that they added them to there because it it kind of takes you away, even for a moment or for one fight, it takes you away from the normal dynasty warrior style fighting and puts you into a Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild fight. And it's like you have to like, it's almost like if you could play co-op in um Breath of the Wild, this is what it would be, where you have to fight with these different champions, uh, or not just champions, but these different heroes to defeat the Lino. Um, and I will say, like, although Urbosa was my, it was like I kind of I didn't force myself, but it was kind of easy for me to play with Urbosa. Uh Vervalli, I when I first got him, even now, like I think he was just, it was so intricate how to fight with him in the air combos, the arrows, the bombs, the uh just amazing, at least for me while fighting with him. And my score uh for that game particularly will probably be an 8.2, no, 9.2, sorry, out of 10. Um, and the reason for that is, like you said, kind of the repetitive nature of some of the fights. Um, some of the challenges for some of the characters seemed impossible. And they they kind of forced you to rely on certain combos, which kind of get stuck in your hands and in your head. And they gave you kind of the ability to expand how many combos they had so it made the game dynamic. But then when they kind of forced you to use the ones that do the most damage and uh do the most collateral damage at least and get you the most points to win certain challenges, it kind of got repetitive, in my in my opinion. So uh, I I definitely loved it.

SPEAKER_05 57:17

Oh, and one thing uh you made me think of this. Um one thing that I did thought was a really good idea. I would love to see them implement this in Breath of the Wild 2, is how you could fuse weapons together. Yeah, other weapons. I enjoyed that mechanic quite a bit, you know. I think that'd be a really interesting addition.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

I think that'd be a fun like it's I mean, not I agree. Having the ability to fuse them, especially when the weapons are gonna break anyway, and kind of use them as parts to you know create stronger weapons, weapons with special abilities, so on and so forth. I think, and that's kind of what I was saying initially, having a combination of Breath of the Wild uh one and age uh I'm not gonna say it wrong, Age of Calamity mixed together into one game. I think what I hope that is what the direction that they're going in for Breath of the Wild 2, using you know, the the the the uh the functions and the different um uh systems that they had in both games combined. Because I mean it's not like they it they showed us they can do it. Um, you know, we just have to hope Nintendo does it, and that's you know, pretty much it. Because I think the biggest thing people had, not the biggest thing, but one thing that a lot of people talked about was the fact that I didn't anticipate weapons breaking, at least the first shock to their system when it was so they keep the fact that stuff can break, but then mix in the fact that they and it doesn't have to be the same way they did it in uh Age of Calamity, it could be like you have to go to a melder or go to a blacksmith, and then he can combine the two so that there isn't just uh on the go and your weapons never break. It's something that you can still, you know, eventually uh get yourself into, you know, have some type of system. But yeah, I I definitely agree. Um, did you have another point, Doctor? Okay. Uh Kaze, uh, for I mean, I know you didn't play Age of Calamity, but did you have um from what you saw? Uh I know you probably uh played Breath of the Wild, and I know you saw the trailer for Age of Calamity. Did you have any input or anything that you were you know excited to see and interest in potentially playing it?

SPEAKER_01 59:27

Um yeah, I had a uh I had a mild uh interest in playing uh age. Um it looked pretty uh interesting. I have I have a very uh uh hot and cold uh uh relationship with the uh Muso games. That's just that's just uh Dice Warrior style game. Um so you know, I was definitely kind of put off by uh the uh Hyrule Warriors that didn't like that at all. Uh but uh I was definitely um slightly annoyed and slightly excited to hear that there's like meaningful story elements in this game. So cause now, you know, because now it's like okay, that you know, that that that makes the you know that enriches the game experience. But also I'm less comfortable not playing it now, because now it's stuff I don't know. Uh and that irks me. But no, definitely something I'll uh I'll I'll I'll try, I'll pick up someday. Uh if too bad Nintendo's uh allergic to sales, because I'm already you know, I probably I probably could have picked it up already, but uh they greedy. But uh no, definitely uh definitely a title I'll uh look into at some point.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

Awesome, awesome, awesome. All right, so um I know uh we had one more game from Kaze. Uh so you want to swing back around and I believe it was Monster Hunter Rise.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:53

Um yeah, I I I wasn't uh I wasn't exactly super uh looking forward to Rise. Uh if there was there was anything super exciting coming around. Excuse me, coming out at the same time as Rise. I definitely I probably would have uh uh leaned more towards that, but I'm uh I'm a huge Monster Hunter uh head. I've been playing since uh Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP. Um I um I uh I almost started on the first Monster Hunter game on PlayStation 2, but my uh the copy I borrowed from work didn't work and I was just like, okay, God, I want me to play this game, but that's cool. Um but no no, I'm a uh super huge fan. I was uh really um you know impressed uh with world despite uh uh some of their more you know uh frustrating and time time wasting mechanics as far as the end game was concerned. But uh I was uh yeah super impressed with World. I'm and um and I'm also uh somebody who uh as far as uh you know not only gameplay but like graphical fidelity, I don't necessarily want to go backwards unless I have a very uh per you know specific perspective. Like uh like you know, I'll go back and play uh Final Fantasy VI because that's a game of this time and I know what to expect and I can kind of get in the right mind frame. But as far as but generally uh if if if I'm playing like two recent games, I don't I generally don't want to go back. So it's kind of weird going from a PlayStation 4 game to a Switch game, but honestly, this is uh this is definitely like one of the better looking Switch games. They they have massive, uh well-made uh and intricate environments. The uh the uh the monsters are uh well, you know, definitely uh very well animated as far as what the Switch can achieve. Uh like yeah, really uh really impressive. They uh the they've gone back to the I guess the design aspect as far as some of the previous games, the previous Monster Hunter games before uh World were really stylistic. And uh like, you know, you could you could you could definitely like trace like certain like you know, like one monster's design would be like based on would be based on like uh Aztec stuff and then one of you know what you know what you know one one might you know make you look like a hunter, another one might make you look like a dark knight or something. But and they definitely doubt that backing world, which I hate, I hate, I hate the I hate I hate the idea that because uh because uh uh your your graphical fidelity and resolution got better, that you you feel the need that you need to look more realistic, like you know, we're playing games to to not deal with reality, you don't real you know, and there's a lot of interesting things and colorful things in real life too. Realistic doesn't necessarily mean boring. So uh so I was definitely excited that uh they went they went back to the you know super interesting and unique like weapons and you know, weapons and armor, uh especially especially someone like me to where I want to look good, but also I want you know, I want my all my you know, I want to play efficiently, I want all my skill points in check, I want all these things. But like in in world the you know, I it was it would my character was gonna look some level of you know, slightly boring compared to the past titles anyway. So I was like that much less uh you know worried about what I put on. Like I was like I just looked like a homeless person. I was put with this with this with this until until they came out until until they came out with the uh the uh the overlays and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

Oh I was about to say because your uh your female hunter was uh stepping out looking like she was going to Coachella. Don't be lying on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:46

We're talking about overall experience. But yeah, that was a bad bitch. Especially when she was crawling through a hoe. But anyway, oh my god. But no, Rise is uh um, yeah, definitely definitely find the new uh uh rampage. I was gonna say the rampage became uh hit kind of hit or miss. Uh I I I love actual like tower defense games, so the fact that they kind of attempted attempted something along those lines were uh super interested. Uh I think the um I guess the is very frenetic and chaotic, and I kind of I think that kind of takes away from uh some of the strategy that would usually go into a tower defense game. So I think uh um you know, I I think it's something it's it's it's it's it's it's cool that it's different. You know, if you're tired of just doing your regular hunting thing, you can go do do some rampages. Uh I'm glad they haven't uh require like if if if they made if they if if they made the best stuff in the game come from rampages, the game I would hate it. But since it's something not something you necessarily have to do, um it's just It's nifty. I like that it's there, but ultimately it's it's not great tower defense and it's worse than the act the core Monster Hunter experience. Um yeah, I'm glad you brought up the wire bugs. I obviously should have brought that up like much earlier because that's that's the that's the biggest uh thing change with the gameplay of the game and yeah, the ability to uh move around. Uh even even the implementation implementation of the wire bugs is just uh the the way that they it allowed them to make the maps how they are, like it's the the verticality uh in the game, like the the way they the way that you interact with the topography, the different uh even even the even the even the different places that they put these new like animals and bugs that you can, you know, and they and they and they do so many different more different things now. Like they can like uh shock the monster and put different uh blights and stuff on them. You know, you can set them down as traps, you can uh use them as dung bombs and make the monster fly away. Um uh yeah, just the different the extra speed on your hunter and the different traversal and the uh and the different way you uh interact with the monster is super interesting. Uh especially the uh the new the new switch skills and the uh and uh you know and the new wire bucks uh skills that each uh weapon have. They're like really interesting. Uh some are definitely better than others. But uh but yeah, Monster Hunter's base gameplay was already like like amazing. Like you can take any one weapon out of Monster Hunter and make a whole regular game out of it. Like it's like yeah, Monster, yeah, the the weapons of Monster Hunter are like massively designed and uh and giving you any amount of customers customized customizable customization, yes. I was trying to use a smush a different word on the end. I'm like, that's not a word. But uh yeah, the adding any amount of customization on top of that already like really in-depth system is just like Chef's case. Um and and I also like how uh they didn't uh because a lot of times when you uh add uh customization options, if if one option just kind of ends up being obviously better than the others, then you're not you don't, you know, if if if someone wants to play you know well and efficiently, then you don't really have customization, you're just gonna play the best thing. So I'm glad that there's like some relative level of balance around the type of game. And and and the weapons and the weapons and the gameplay around them was already dynamic enough that they they were mindful of the of the gameplay types already there and they expanded upon it. Uh I I guess the I guess the one thing I slightly uh don't like is the uh adding adding a different uh almost it's not a different dimension, but this adds like vertical verticality and aerial combat to every weapon in the game. And and that and and usually that requires you to uh program your monsters to uh act act a different different way. And and I don't and I don't feel like they necessarily did that. I feel like they just added arbitrarily large and high hitboxes on the stuff the monsters already did. Uh, you know, and I find that like real, you know, relatively kind of uh lazy like uh in in previous titles, uh when uh when they uh added uh like when they added the uh Insect Glaive initially in Montana 4 and uh and they let you like like climb up like giant hills, like the monsters would like run up the hills and do stuff like that too. So I was hoping like the since you since you're gonna everyone gonna be able to like fly through the air and be able to jump, I was hoping the monster might be able to, you know, you know, look up and uh interact and you know react with you uh well. But yeah, they really just the monster just does what he's already gonna do and it's and it just hits really high now. Um so you know that that was all at this point, but it's not that bad. Uh except Rothellos. Rothellos will hit you everywhere off a hair needle. Uh his fight's kind of kind of ridiculous. And also, and that's and that's one of the situations where the the the graphical fidelity kind of uh kind of bites me because I'm like really uh like like I I pay attention to things like like, oh, this monster like lifted his right shoulder at this angle, he's about to do this. And and Roth's used to look at you before, and you like you know kind of rear his head back for a fraction of a second before he shot you a fireball. He don't do that no more. He'll shoot a f he'll shoot a fireball out the side of his mouth arbitrarily as he's flying. And you just have to be, you just have to know exactly where he is and where and when he might shoot. And it's it's it's really it's really hard to react to. But uh, but no, but over overall, um also also the uh aim there's not uh there's little to no end game to be sighted. I ran uh I finished the story way too fast. Uh so this is the fastest I've stopped playing a Monster Hunter. Uh and I haven't stopped playing uh but but I dropped but I did I did put it down for like a few weeks because I because I uh and held it like I do most of the games I love. And then no one, no one, no one was around the same place. So I didn't have anyone uh to play with unless someone needed help. But uh so um I know they're coming over updates, so I hope they come uh I hope I hope they uh drop the monsters and the content at a decent amount with enough pace to where they finally come out with the G rank or the master rank or whatever they want to call it. Uh you know, I it it uh I mean it's fine if I have to put the game down and wait, that's fine. Uh but hopefully they uh you know keep you uh keep you interested because generally Monster Hunter is a game that I just drop hundreds and hundreds of hours in and it's not really a thing. But uh no, definitely uh definitely surprised with how uh how much I'm uh loving Rise. I was I was uh I knew I wasn't gonna skip it because it's Monster Hunter, but I told myself that I might be okay with skipping it, and you know it was it was a nice casual lie. Uh but uh but but I'm glad to find out that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:09

Yeah, I I have to also agree. I'm also playing Monster Hunter Rise and uh the Palmoots, my my dog, my dog. So uh Kaze talked about uh the transportation. Um, like not too happy is not transportation. That is my dog. He does with me, he fights with me. Um, a couple of um YouTubers uh who play Monster Hunter. Uh I it's funny. I knew you could have two palamuts at the same time, but the way they're doing it, I feel like it's almost like watching an anime where they have the character and they're dressed like they're palamoots and they're like almost what's his name from um uh from um Jujutsu Kaisen with the uh shadow dogs. That's he literally one of the YouTubers had a white dog and a black dog and was like doing hand signals and the dog started attacking. It was just so phenomenal. Anyway, I'm sorry, I'm going off topic. No, but um yes, no, the the polamoots are amazing. The fact that they can, you know, fight like the policos. Actually, Kase was talking about it a couple of weeks or days ago, about how the policos are kind of broken in terms of the uh the the amount of skills that they have to you know uh use to fight, not like in the previous game where you, you know, sometimes you relied on them for buffs if they had the hunting horn or rather the polico horn or if they use, you know, the meow canoe or you know the um the the um the healing bug. Uh so you kind of relied on them um in Monster Hunter World to do certain things for you uh in certain matches, or you know, the plunder blade when they had to like steal you know special parts off of the monster. Now you really just have to, I mean, they steal stuff just to steal stuff, uh at least as far as I've gotten in there. I don't think they're I don't I don't I haven't seen anything or any specific type of palico or palamut that steals the skill gathering uh palico uh is the one that steals the other ones that won't uh won't won't steal.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:59

Okay, see there it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:00

Um, so you know, you just have to make sure. And and I I say for for me, that system of having to make sure you adopt the right or adopt specific ones. Um, like I saw that there was a there was a achievement for adopting 15 you know palamutes or palicos, and why do I need that many? And then you know, as I started playing, I was like, oh, each one has a different skill set, has a different strength or weakness, its stats allow it after you know, level 20 allow it to have additional health or additional attack or additional status effects of buffs, things of that nature. So for me, the um it it it it the the gameplay of adding the palicos and the palamutes was absolutely phenomenal. Uh it helped me understand certain things. Um for um I don't know about, I mean, as a person who doesn't like I I know for the for the most part, I've seen Kaze play um Gunlance and Long Sword and a couple of other weapons. Um, but as a gunner, because I primarily play heavy bow gun, light bow gun, and then switch axe. So as a gunner, I'm for the most part kind of standing at a certain mid to long range distance from the monster. Every monster I fought against jumped in the air and came down. So, like whether I was watching a uh insect glaive user get knocked out of the sky, whether I thought I was far enough and they leaped at me. I don't think, or there's like uh our Arcanos, the the the bear, or I can't remember the name of the bunny at the moment, who can like slide or run at you. Um for the most part, the most part, I feel like there are certain monsters that didn't like get into the air, but other ones did have jumping attacks that enable them to kind of um uh I understand the thing about climbing up the hills and you know, you know, moving based off of the skill set. But I think there was enough aerial attacks um or at least jumping attacks that you know prevented them, prevent allowed them to attack, you know, um, the hunters. Um uh the customized, uh okay, so the biggest gripe, and I'm just gonna put it out there, the biggest gripe I have with Monster Hunter Rise is the fact that I'm broke all the time. Um, there is no, in my opinion, at least at the stage that I am in, there is no sufficient way to collect money. Now, it took me a while to figure it out in Monster Hunter World uh that there was a system that enabled you to get certain parts that you can uh sell or make certain money from certain missions so you can collect, you know, you know, stack your stack your bread, stack your zenny, so you can, you know, buy the things you want to buy. But in Monster Hunter Rise, I feel like I fight 10 missions, think I got some money, upgrade one weapon, and I'm broke again. So my thing is um either they only want you to buy, well, granted, I guess I play differently than everybody else, because everybody else seems to be having a wonderful time playing the game. But um I feel like they either want you to play the game endlessly to make a certain amount of money, or they want you to sell all the monster parts that you collect, uh, which that's the downside to me playing the game. I don't sell anything unless its only purpose is to be sold. But again, that's that's my own you know gameplay style and all that jazz. Um no, but I thoroughly love uh Monster Hunter Rise. I think it's uh I think it's great to have it on a mobile console. Um uh because you know I can play it at home or I can play it. You didn't hear this from me. I can play it anywhere. Uh so I have the ability to you know play it at a restaurant or play it at a friend's house um and you know continue with my progress without slowing down. Um granted, you can take a larger console, but it's not the same. You don't have to you know plug it into a television. Uh so you know, I I enjoy the um the expansive list of monsters that they've added, the worlds, as Kaze was saying, um talking about the verticality, uh, because you're able to access certain locations with the uh silk wire bugs, um the uh just the fight concepts, the the story. I like the storyline. The rampages I'm not too upset about. I agree with the kind of tower defense concept. Um I I do understand what Kaze Shiny was talking about as it pertains to the rampages kind of not being as efficient as they want it to be, because it's kind of like you expect it to be hey, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna stop this, I'm gonna stop that, but they kind of break through all the walls, and you just have to expect to fight them in the end. I wasn't expecting that, but everybody else around me uh in one of the rampages I was doing was like, yep, I'm just gonna wait by the door because he's gonna bust right through. No, let's fight them on the turrets. And yeah, they just ran past the turrets. So yeah, there's certain portions that can be updated, but uh or or you know, maybe altered. Hopefully, when they do the uh I've been you know reading up on their upcoming uh free title uh updates, which is supposed to come relatively soon and be unlocked in about a week or uh a couple weeks from now. Uh so hopefully whatever happens, whether it's the like uh Kaze said, the G-Rank or the Master Rank, a couple of new monsters, new armors, maybe even another playing style, because I love the concept of the Switch skills. It allows you to play the same weapon you've been playing for previous games in a completely different way. Um, I've never had as much fun with the Switch axe as I'm having right now with the Silk Wire bug um uh switch skills. It's absolutely phenomenal. It gives a new breath to how you're playing with these different uh uh these different weapons. Um so I think it's phenomenal. Uh the Black McCoy, the Doctor. Did you have uh I know you've heard of Monster Hunter. Um I don't know if either one of you have played. Do you have any uh input on the game or anything you've seen about it?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:45

Not really. I've never been a huge Monster Hunter fan. And the more attempted I did give is I tried playing Monster Hunter World twice, and I just it just wasn't it wasn't gonna it wasn't pulling me in, and it wasn't you know effective in doing so, so I don't really have any input.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:00

Okay. Uh the doctor?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:04

I've enjoyed watching. Um I haven't really spent enough time in it uh really good football, but I always like you know, watch the job player, watch a job play like look really fun. Um I love the environment the design too, but um aesthetically it's something I look really enjoyable. Um I like the weapon systems and whatnot and the granularity of the weapon systems. Um yeah, like it's I don't really have much personal experience in it otherwise, but you know, it definitely looks like a really enjoyable fun game.

unknown 1:20:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:38

Uh well, Kaze, as uh the only panelist on here today who has gotten all the way through the current uh storyline, um what score would you give it, Monster Hunter Rise?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:50

Uh uh I'll give Monster Hunter Rise a um as far as the current state of the game, I will give it an uh 8.5 is uh surprisingly, uh surprisingly fun. Uh uh ultimate ultimately, I'm I kind of I'm just kind of hoping they take uh they they just kind of cherry pick all the best parts of this game and they're working on putting on like whatever the actual next gen monster hunter is gonna be, like I guess whatever the spiritual success of the world's gonna be. I hope they just snatch all the good things that they learned from Rise and just throw it in there so I can have it like on my nice, like hopefully 4K, you know, whatever super pretty uh pretty version of the game I'm gonna play. Uh, you know, and and I'll and also just uh just to be more specific about the uh you know, when I was talking about the uh the the monster attacking in the air, you know, I wasn't saying that they don't attack in the air. I was I was more specifically saying that there is no the the jumping moves that monsters had, they all they all they already had.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:55

But it was I was more saying that there is uh you uh your character evolved as far as how they played and the monsters didn't uh evolve well with them. They did they do the they do the same moves they had before to to react to react to you. And and they also change hitboxes. Like there was uh like if you have an insect glaive and and a monster in the world and you was kind of dancing, uh you know, uh dancing around the monster's uh Rothalo's wing. If he started his charge attack, he wouldn't hit you because only his main only his core body would be activated as part of the charge. Now now the corner of his wing will hit you as part as part of the charge because they know you're just multiple people who's gonna be up there now. So they they just want it to be more dangerous. And and uh and I and I've had you know and I've had other real iffy hitboxes where the where the monster just kind of punches forward and I'm a and I'm in and I'm in the air above his ear, and then I get hit, and I'm like so so yeah, that's uh that's why I meant more, yeah, specifically.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:55

Gotcha. But yeah, okay. Well, if we don't have any other games, any other input, any other review points, um, we can go ahead and close out this episode. Uh, if you have any games that have come out um within the last you know six months, you know, the early part of 2021, end of 2020, uh, that you think we should review or we you think we should play, uh, feel free to send a message to our mailbox uh or mailbag, which is the blurred spectrum at umbralstarcade.com, or send us the message in um on our social medias, which is the blurred spectrum on Facebook and Instagram, Blurred Spectrum on Twitter, uh to reach out to me directly, Umbostarcade on most platforms, Instagram, sorry, Twitter, uh, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch. Uh I'm sure I'm forgetting one. Oh, and then Tuchino Shogun on Discord, the Doctor.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:47

All right, so I'm Rod RT on Facebook. I've changed it slightly to my coworkers.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:55

I was gonna ask, but there it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:57

That's real.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:58

The black McCoy.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:00

Uh the black mccoy on Instagram and the black mccoy cosplay on Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:04

Kaze Shinryyu.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:06

Kase Shinryyu on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:08

Right. Thank you everyone for listening. Uh you know participating in our game review. Uh, if as I said before, if you have any things you want to add or games you think we should play, or maybe you have a game that you want uh us to feature, uh, maybe have us demo the game for the first time. Maybe you're a game developer. Feel free to send it to us, uh DM us, and uh we'll try it out. All right. Other than that, thank you and see you next time.