Hugh and Rockin' Rob with The Moonheads (feat. Pragmata, Guilty Gear Strive, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax)

Hello and welcome to Into the Aether. It's a low key video game podcast. My name is Brendan Bigley. My name is Stephen Hilger. Wow. That felt good. Those are our names. Let's start this episode by saying thank you. Thank you to everybody who listened to the for Golden Bonus last week. Yeah, I said that felt good because I usually just go, I'm Stephen Hilger. I'm Stephen Hilger. Here's the weather. Yeah. Yeah. Traffic is crazy today. The fog is set in. Someone's gonna die. I have two eggs for breakfast and an avocado. It's like Matlib's dialogue. Yes. Thank you so much. The response has been very positive. It was really fun to record and you know, that's a very beloved game. So I think we both felt confident with it, but it's still always inherently silly to release that long of an audiophile into the wilderness. And the fact that people were just like casually referencing that they finished it and we're talking about it in the discord like within a day that coming out was really cool. Amazing. I mean, you know, take your time with it. It's also, you know, it's kind of three episodes in the sense that like if you use our chapters and show notes, like there's sort of a spoiler free opening and then there's about three hours, like largely about the game. And then the listener question segment is like 90 minutes itself. So if you want to break it up that way, that's a nice way to do it. Yeah. But yeah, just thank you so much for the kind words about that episode. Yeah, it was a fun one. It was very gratifying to finally finish that game. We opened the episode with me talking about the long history of me trying to play Persona 4 Golden. Yeah. It feels like such a weight off my shoulders to have finished it and to like have thoughts about it and be able to share them. So that was very nice. It was a nice experience. Yeah, I find there's two kinds of game bonuses. There's usually the like, what are we currently playing that we need to talk more about? And then there's the like, we've been meaning to play this forever and we finally did it. And that was actually somehow both, which I think led to a special energy for that episode. Yeah, because you had played the original, but not golden. Exactly. And we were also playing it naturally for the Vita episode. So which we're recording, actually, we will be recording it the day this episode comes out. So I'm very much looking forward to that. That is admittedly why my games for today's episode are on the lighter side because I've been playing so much Vita for the past couple weeks, but it will pay off. That episode, we want to see like, I don't want to give a concrete date for that Vita episode until we have the edit done, just to not put any pressure on AJ, but we're aiming for the latter half of April. So we'll be out this month and once we're closer to the edit, we'll let you know like what day you should expect that. But I can't wait for that too. It's gonna be a lot of fun. The Vita? Pretty cool. The Vita, it's, I can't wait for the Vita to come out. Yes. But I'm also excited to record the episode about it. Yeah. What a nice handheld that is. Dude, a back touchscreen. Dude. Yeah. One game uses. Capacitive back paddles. I just want to say real quick, it is like the most challenging thing about doing a Vita retrospective is the excitement you can feel about the Vita as a piece of hardware in the three games that came out in 2011 that is just dropped. Like it ends like playing tear away feels like going to someone's birthday party that no one else showed up for. It's like, oh my God, this is brutal. Right. And then later on in the Vita's life cycle is basically a bunch of indie developers being like, we had a premonition about what the Steam Deck will be and we're going to make it real right now. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the Vita basically like cosplays being a switch and a PlayStation portal in the second and third areas of its life. So more on that, more on that for patrons and later on in April. Yeah. But for today, for today, we're going to talk about, I think some video games was the idea this week. And yeah, there's one for once game for fucking once. I had two eggs and an avocado. There is a game that I have played past tense finished that as of the release of this episode is not out yet. I received code from Capcom for a new video game from them, a new intellectual property called Pragmata or Pragmata. I still am not totally sure how I'm supposed to pronounce it, but it is one of those two definitely. And it is a new third person shooter action adventure, like single player story video game from Capcom that I think on a high level plays weirdly similarly to Resident Evil. Like yeah, over the shoulder. Yes. Sealed to at least based on I've only seen like, you know, promo footage of like trailers and stuff. So I know almost nothing but that I cannot get over how strange it is to play this game like a month and a half after Resident Evil Requiem came out because they feel like it reminds me so much of EA launching battlefield and Titanfall two in the same week. Like there is clearly the thing that everybody will be driving towards. And then there's the other thing which is actually like probably more interesting and like a newer fresher swing that like hopefully doesn't get buried because of it. But this is dude, there's a street sweeper going by zooming by like street that they are trying to clean the whole city in one day with that. It's like matter. Anyway, hey, you with the mic, it's break matter. So this game is directed. I think it's worth mentioning at the top. It's directed by somebody who was in the art department for platinum games while they worked on both a Metal Gear game, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, which was one of the ones that Kojima Studio started. And then they were like, we cannot figure out how to make this combat work and then handed it off to platinum, who then finished that's what I'm dying to play. That's the nanomachines game where he plays Raiden. Yeah. Yeah. Who it's worth mentioning Kojima Studios did write the whole story for that game. So like the story is from the Kojima Studios development side of it. And then the gameplay is from platinum games, which is probably why people like that game so much. And he also was in the art department for near automata. Oh, wow. Okay. And I think that that is super, super important when talking about this game because near automata. Sorry. Here comes the street sweeper again. Yeah, they're backing up down the one way. But I find that those aesthetics are basically like all over the place here. Like it is very clear that this is being directed by a person whose formative work comes from the art departments of those two worlds. But in structure and in gameplay, it is this strange like amalgam of Resident Evil and Dead Space and even the Legend of Zelda. And then is also like from a story perspective pulling from, you know, the like dad game classics that we've gotten over the past couple of years, like it is trying to be the last of us and God of War. And like you are a big person, carting a child around through like a dangerous place. Like it's doing all of these things that are kind of like wrote that we've seen before. And I think somehow manages to kind of find a unique voice on top of all of that and be an absolutely stellar video game, which I was really surprised by because kind of like you, I almost knew nothing about pragmatic like I remember seeing the announcement trailer a couple of years ago, which involved like an astronaut and a little girl in a big coat in Times Square, New York, like a very sci fi future version of Times Square, New York fighting a robot with like a big baby head on it and being like, I don't know what the fuck this is. And then after that, everyone on the internet was like, it's Mega Man, they're rebooting Mega Man, it's a new Mega Man game. And then Capcom was like, it's not Mega Man, sorry to disappoint you. It is just in fact a new intellectual property, which I think is a better thing. I'm happy with that. But also it's not like Mega Man isn't getting a shitload of games all the time still like they announced a new, a new very cool looking Mega Man game that's coming out at the beginning of next year. We just got the like Star Force collection, like they, they, you know, Mega Man's still around my guys. But anyway, this game over time, the trailer started to belie that it is like basically a third person over the shoulder, like kind of survival action game. I wouldn't even call it a survival horror game. I think that's one of the more interesting things about it is it pulls so much of its DNA from the exact way you play Resident Evil, and yet is not scary at all, which I actually think is going to be such a huge plus for so many people. Yeah, because that's still such a barrier for Resident Evil, which obviously like is doing just fine. And the decision to make that series not scary would not help it. But there are a lot of people as evidenced by me, you know, streaming it, there are a lot of people who are like, I'm too scared to play this myself, but I'll watch it. You know, so there's like an interest in the gameplay, but they're, they're not willing to play it themselves. Which is fine. No judgment. I think I do that with other games too. I will not shout out this person by name because I don't know if they want this information to be public. But I was at a party recently where I was talking to somebody and you'll know who you are when you're listening, who said that they're thinking about checking out Resident Evil for the first time this year because they tend to not like scary stuff at all. But 2026 is their year of bravery. So they're going to get into Resident Evil. And I was like, hell yeah, that's sick. I love that for you. But I did hard pitch them on Pragmata in this conversation because I was like, this is maybe actually what you really want. So just to give you like a little bit of setup for what is going on in this video game, actually, there is a base on the moon that's called the cradle. It's run by some big company called Delphi. And you play as a guy named Hugh Williams, who shows up on the moon with a squad of four contractors who are there basically to just like find out why the AI that runs the moon base, it has not been responding to messages from Earth, nor have any people who live in the colony on the moon base. So you're just kind of showing up at this empty moon base being like, all right, what's going on here? And you and the three other guys are kind of moving around. This is all like the first five minutes of video game, by the way. Spoilers, you move around, you're moving around, like trying to figure out what's going on. One of the guys is like setting up like a kind of radar system to, you know, like scan the place and look for signs of life or whatever. And, you know, they're just like, oh, this is really creepy. But they're also like kind of marveling at what the cradle is because the cradle is this giant research base that is set up on the moon to look into this new element that they discovered called lunum, which they use to basically like refine into a substance that they can use to 3D print anything, like anything, anything, like down to like plant life, like, like lunum can kind of become whatever you want, as long as you like give it an image or a blueprint or something, it can turn into that, which is a cool idea. And they explore it really, really well in the visuals of the game. But, you know, because of that, it's like a very secretive, very like expensive, lucrative research base. Lunum has not made its way to earth yet because they're experimenting with all of its applications on the moon first, just to make sure like nothing goes super haywire, I think is the idea, you know, in like, you know, nukes the earth by accident with with with lunum. But anyway, they're looking around trying to find signs of life. And they decide to 3D print like a helper robot who is just like a kind of humanoid is called a walker, because there's a bunch of like pipes and stuff in the way they're like, OK, we need to get some of these pipes out of the way. So the walker starts to move these pipes out of the way. And almost immediately, the moon, I'm obsessed with this, the moon gets hit with an earthquake, which is called a moonquake, which I never would have thought of before playing this video game. More technical name, perhaps, but that rocks all three of Hughes contractor buddies die, like basically right at the beginning of the video game. Two of them get sucked out a window, one of them gets crushed by a huge beam. And when that beam falls down the floor beneath Hughes feet shatter, and he falls down this big pit into who knows where. And when he comes to there's a little girl who is the little girl on the on the box heart and in all the trailers for this game, who is just like wearing this big puffy coat. And she basically helps you come back to life by just like, you know, spraying. It's basically like, like green herb juice from residential essentially, like she sprays, she sprays him with some like weird sci fi stuff. And then he comes back to life and Ediths ID us, which is the the AI that runs the base is like, you are an unauthorized guy, and I'm going to kill you. And six, the Walker robot that was helping you move some stuff earlier on you, you have a gun that has infinite bullets in it, but they basically just bounce off the shell of this robot as you're trying to shoot it. And this girl is like, maybe I can help. And then she holds out her hand in the way that everybody thought was a Mega Man blaster. And then like a hacking grid shows up like like a literal like kind of like holographic matrix shows up, and she does some stuff. And then suddenly the robot kind of like opens up its head and its chest cavity and has all these like blue glowing weak points. And then if you shoot those weak points, you can actually do damage to the robot and kill it. And that is the like crux of basically what you will be doing for all 10 hours of this video game is you are running around facing off against a robot. And when you hold the left trigger, you're not only zooming in with your gun, but it allows you to bring up this hacking matrix simultaneously. And Diana, that's her name is Diana, helps you move around this hacking matrix and like figure out ways to damage the robot internally. This gets significantly more complex as the game goes on, which I think is really cool. It reminds me a lot of the Alan Wake system of like shoot, shoot flashlight at evil thing until you can hit it with a bullet. It's basically that, but on a much larger scale and with like a much larger range of kinds of enemies, because they have a lot of fun. Again, like this is coming from a person who was in the art department for those games, they have a lot of fun with the design of these robots, because they're coming out of from a place of like this robot is designed to like prune the plant life in the like ecological dome. It doesn't need to look like a person to be able to do that. So what does this robot look like? You know, this robot exists to basically like move big pieces of luna filament from one room to another one. Again, it doesn't really need to look like a person doesn't need to have two arms and two legs to be able to do that. So like what does this look like? So they get really experimental and weird. And that's also where the boss fights come in. And this is also where I think the game becomes the most like Zelda, because the moon base, the cradle is split up into a bunch of different sectors and zones. And they all kind of have their own vibe to them. Like the first one is just kind of a basic moon base. The second one is a it's a 3d printed recreation of Times Square on the moon, which is and that's very near-automata, the copied city. It's very near-automata. And it's so sick. Like it is so cool and so weird. And what I love about it is they do a good job of making it look off in very specific ways. Like it really does look like like a shitty like chat GPT generated image of Times Square instead of actual Times Square. Like when you go and you read the signage, it doesn't really make sense or like the letters look off like the fonts aren't right. Like there's a lot of stuff that's just like kind of off about it in the way that it probably should be if this is how you're making stuff. And the third area is called the pterodome. And it's basically like they're experimenting to see if they can use luna filament to 3d print trees out in the world and on the moon specifically. And each of these zones ends with a boss fight where you are like using a recently acquired ability or something to shoot a big glowing weak point. Like you need to hack the big robot and then it will reveal a big weak point. Like the one in the Times Square area is like, I don't even know how to describe it really. It's kind of like a big centipede with like a hammerhead shark head and like giant arms and legs. And it crawls around on all fours. And when you open it up, like it kind of separates its body from its like hind legs and has like a weak point in the back. But then also like it's whole face kind of opens up like the hammerhead shark face opens up. It's really unsettling in a cool way. And that's the closest I think this game gets to horror is sure. Yeah. In how unsettling the robots can be. Like I posted a review of the game today, the time that we're recording actually, the review just went up. But one bit that I talk about in that review is like the actual scariest the game gets is in the pterodome because the trees and the plant life have started to like overgrow because of the lack of people in the space to like prune it back. The power has gone out in a lot of the in a lot of that sector. So there are areas where like the lights are off and you're using a flashlight to shine around. And that is also where they introduce robots that can be invisible. And when you see them, they're like basically like they have like eight scorpion legs that they try to like grab around you. They're not scary. Like there isn't a single moment of this game where I was like legitimately scared in the way I have been playing like a Resident Evil game. Even like, I wouldn't even say that I felt the tension in the way that I have in a Resident Evil game. It just is like a fun puzzle to be solved. And I think that's kind of the brilliance of the hacking and shooting back and forth is like every time they introduce a new kind of enemy, it also introduces a new kind of hacking grid that you kind of need to mess around with. Like some robots will have like obstacles in their hacking grid that will make it so you can't very easily hack them and open up their weak points. But also when you introduce a bunch of robots in one area or like one field, you do need to think very strategically about like which ones you're taking out in which order. And if you can use the tools that you have at your disposal to like basically speed up the process of getting rid of them. So you know, the hacking grid is basically just like it's literally a matrix of squares and you use the the face buttons on the right side of your controller to move a cursor around. You start in one spot and you have to end on another spot. And if you can make it from beginning to end, that opens up the weak points of the enemy. But like I said, they start to introduce obstacles in there, but they also start to introduce like extra power-ups that Diana can start to use. So things like if you can pass through like a yellow node on this grid that has a lightning bolt on it, that means that it'll like freeze the robot in place. Or there's another one that you can get at some point, which will basically connect all of the robots together through like a mesh network, which makes it so if you pass through that node and you can hack one robot, it will also hack all of the robots around it simultaneously, stuff like that. Like they get very experimental. Seriously, for one by again, they get very experimental with how you start to hack over time. And I found that to basically like never, ever, ever in the entirety of the game get boring. Like there is not a single moment where I was like, I just don't want to do this anymore. You know, I think that's a big problem with a lot of games that they kind of overstay their welcome in terms of like they're one kind of gimmicky mechanic that they introduce. At a certain point, you're like, okay, maybe maybe this can't really sustain an entire video game. But in the case of Pragmata, it definitely absolutely does. And one thing that I think I'm allowed to talk about, I'll be honest, like while we're recording this, and even when this game or when this episode comes out, like there are still pieces of the game that are embargoed that people who reviewed it early can't talk about. But I think I am allowed to talk about the fact that there is like a very, very, very robust and generous post game here. The way I described it in my review was like, take every version of a post game from a Resident Evil that you've played in the past, and it's all present here in some way, shape or form. They have a lot of fun with what happens after the credits roll in this game in a way I really, really appreciate because when I was done with it, I still did want to play more. And because so much of the game is, I haven't even talked about the stuff that you're really going to love. But like so much of the game is running around and like collecting a bunch of like weird little collectibles and costumes and outfits for your characters and stuff for the shelter, which is like a place that you can return to in between missions, basically at any time to like level yourself up, where you can also give Diana gifts that are like, here's a swing set, because you've never seen a swing set before. And then like you get to watch Diana go and play on a swing set. But there's also a big robot who's like a rectangle who wears a hat named cabin, who has a big smiley face. And he sets up a bunch of like VR training missions that you can jump into at any time, which is like, you know, here's a mission where you have to speed run really quick. Here's a mission where we just give you like the basic gun and you have to kill one of the bigger bosses, like stuff like that. And if you do all of that stuff, you get these coins that you can use on a stamp rally, which gets you a bunch of extra rewards and stuff. Like there is so much of this game that is just like whipping the analog stick around looking for secret shit, which is exactly my favorite kind of video game. And it gets down to the point where each of the sectors has literally a percentage completion score on it. That's like, you know, you've found 75% of the stuff in this. It's very Metroid in that way, where it's like, it'll tell you exactly how many of the secrets you found. But so many of the secrets are just like cosmetics or things that like don't really change the game at all. They just like add more stuff to the shelter for you to hang out in. I will say, I think story wise, the game is like pretty weak. I think the relationship between Hugh and Diana is great. And that is like the emotional core of the game. And that is the thing that matters the most. I think Hugh basically has nothing going on as a character, which is actually maybe the best you can ask for in some cases, because like, I think the alternative version is you have like a Joel or a Kratos thing where it's like you just spend so much time like wallowing and how like depressed they are about, you know, whatever the fuck. And then like, you know, you get into the same story you've gotten into a million times over and over again, where it's like, that's kind of the bonanza approach where like Donkey Kong the whole time just wants bananas. Yes. Like that's his only like he clearly cares about Pauline. Like he doesn't really ever change his motivation and is a silent protagonist, whereas like Pauline is the one driving the plot forward. So that's the interesting thing is Hugh is not a silent protagonist. He is very talkative and he's very active, but he he basically is just a vessel through which to give Diana like a set of values, like he is just like a positive force in her life. But like, I don't really know anything about him or his interiority or like what his life was like before he came to this moon base or anything that I found like really substantive or interesting, which is kind of nice actually to a certain degree. Like there's something kind of nice about like he's just kind of like a pretty he's just like a pretty nice guy. Like how often you get a protagonist who's just like a guy who wants to do the right thing. Like, yeah, it's like most people you meet like, yeah, it's all right. Yeah. That's kind of huge vibe. And then Diana is, you know, like data from Star Trek kind of like, yeah, was born and raised on the cradle has never seen the earth is interested in like seeing the ocean with her own two eyes at some point in life. You know, there is this like wide eyed wonder to everything that happens with her, which is fun. And then also considering like how brutal the things are that you're going up again, she has like a remarkably like cool head about all of it. Right. Because, you know, the game can get pretty hardcore at times, but all that said, like the story doesn't really amount to anything too interesting. And like I am very curious to talk to people when they finish it about what they think the game was about and if they think the game was successful at talking about the things that it is purportedly about. Yeah. Cause I mean, even, even just the setup, like I haven't played it yet, but just the setup you explained, I already think about what you could explore thematically, especially considering like the age of AI we're in and sort of like the value of human beings and like what is lost when it's like, you know, they are removed from a place and nature is, is artificially replicated. You know, there's a lot of rich material there. Yeah. I would, I would say they don't really explore most of the stuff you just brought up, which is all stuff I kept expecting them to bring up. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that this game has been kind of in development hell. Like I think it was supposed to come out in 2022 at first was like the first release date that they announced for it. So here we are four years after it's initial release date where it's coming out. And I think there is probably a world in which it was maybe more poignant and timely when it was supposed to come out than it is now where we're, you know, we're like watching the AI wars happen between a bunch of companies simultaneously. But like there are some interesting things here and there. Like it, you know, it does the classic single player video game thing where like you're running around like finding files left over by the people who used to be on the cradle and stuff. And some of them are like legitimately interesting. There is one that I found that I keep thinking about, which is not really explored at all anywhere else in the video game, but there's one where there's a person who's talking about how fucking bored they are. Like their job, like they, you know, got their master's degree or their PhD or whatever, applied for a job on the cradle. We're really excited to be able to research Luna Filament, made their way up there and their job was to just watch a robot do a job for them. And they're like, this is not what I spent my entire life and career working towards just like watching this robot do this. And that's a really like real feeling in a lot of fields right now. And that is just one file that shows up once in the video game and then is like never addressed ever again, which, you know, how, how much credit can I give the video game for doing that? I guess is kind of my question there, you know? Yeah, it sounds like the priority was like really making like the central gameplay mechanic of like the puzzle shooting. Like it sounds disappointing that the narratives may be not up to par with the gameplay. Yeah. But you know, I mean, admittedly, like I love almost every Resident Evil game and my brain kind of glosses over once like mold is explained, you know, like it's not every game needs to have that as someone who like is interested in and looks for like interesting narrative design. I don't need every game to have that compelling of a story. Exactly. That's not why we're playing it. Yeah. Yes. I think that's the big takeaway that I have from this game is I think if you are a much more critical reviewer, you have the capacity and the game will allow you to be much harsher to it. But in my case, like I was just so locked into what it was doing mechanically. And I think the central relationship between Hugh and Diana was like compelling enough that even though I didn't really know a lot about him or really even his motivations outside of like, I got to get back to earth. I was like sold on it. Yeah. To the point again, where like, even though I am done with the game, I am considering playing it a second time and I'm doing a lot of the post game material as well. Like I'm interested enough in exploring the rest of what's on offer. And as you get further into the game, obviously you get like more abilities that allow you to backtrack and go into earlier sections and find new stuff. And like I want to do all of that in a way that I honestly haven't felt in a while. Like I feel like Resident Evil 4 remake is probably the last time I felt that way about any game. Like I'm not even just like making the Resident Evil comparison, but just like any game where I was like, I think I want 100% this, which is a cool feeling. Like I think the fact that it feels so good to play and it is such a breezy experience definitely works in its favor, you know, like a 10 hour video game, all things considered, which I should be clear, it's closer to like 15, but the in-game timer said it was 10, you know, but I think like when you pause and when you're like messing around in menus and stuff, it's not counting towards active playtime. Yeah, it's always a little bit like I just recently finished the first Gravity Rush, which I can't believe I hadn't finished considering my love for that series. I started with two, but regardless, yeah, the counter said it was nine hours. And that was definitely closer to 12, but that's just how it is. Yeah, that's how it works in Pragmato also. But all things considered, man, like this is a game that I don't want to say I had no interest in, but like I was kind of out of the corner of my curious, like this is Capcom's big year. You know, we have Resident Evil Requiem, we have Monster Hunter Stories 3, we have, you know, these Mega Man collections that are coming out, like Capcom is having a pretty banger year and Pragmato being this like new big IP that they're trying to take a big swing with, especially after like years of delays and stuff. And also years of remakes, you know, I think there was a little bit of a like, well, the last, you know, decade of Capcom games has been remarkable since Biohazard basically. There is this sense of like, okay, well, what's next? Like, you know, if Resident Evil is like maybe sticking a little bit too close to the past, like what's the next kind of landmark game? And so I think making, making any kind of new IP in this time was a smart move. I think the weird thing about it, well, I guess just to finish that first thought, like I was, I don't know how interested I was in Pragmato in terms of like picking it up and playing it, but I was kind of in a like wait for reviews mode. And I will like, if I didn't receive code, which I'm very thankful for, but if I didn't receive code, like I definitely would not have it as a priority. Like even though I will say like reviews are coming out this morning and most people are kind of on my wavelength, they're very positive about it. Like people on your wavelength. They're kind of into my a 30 days. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I think like a lot of people are really enjoying it and it's reviewing very, very well and people are very happy with it. Even still, I have this sense that like, I don't know how successful it's going to be because it's kind of hard to sell what's good about it because it does feel so much like it is pulling from other things. And it's not until you start playing it for yourself that you're like, damn, this rocks. Like this is a game I know for a fact you will, you personally, Stephen, will go to bat for very heavily. Like you, when you get your hands on this and start playing it, you're going to be like, Oh man, I fucking love Pragmato. And then in 10 years, you and I are going to be like, dude, I remember how good Pragmato was like, yeah, that's, I think like there's a place in my heart and in society at large for like the weird one off, you know, not all new IP needs to be a new series. I honestly kind of wish we saw more kind of just one off things like this. Yeah. Even if they're like iterations on established conventions. Yeah, I would be very happy to see a sequel to this game. Don't get me wrong. But like, if this was just a weird one off that had this like extremely solid single player campaign and a very, very rich post game that you could like go through if you want to be a completionist about it, like that's a cool idea in itself. And like you probably don't need to make a sequel, but there are enough good ideas here that honestly just like aren't fully explored that I feel like they could if they wanted to spin this up as a new IP. The thing that makes me so curious about it, the thing that I'm so weirded out about is that like this big new IP that they're taking a big chance on like it's a triple A Capcom game with a triple A budget with like a lot of resources and marketing put behind it. I find it so interesting that with all of that, it is still so similar to the other big IP that Capcom already has. It's tool belt like it's also in the RE engine. I imagine it is also in the RE engine. Yeah. It's I find that so fascinating that they're like, this is our big new thing. It's Resident Evil minus the horror and it's on it's on it's on the moon. It's like, that's cool. Don't get me wrong. Like great pitch for a video game, but interesting to kind of like, I don't, I'm not going to say stake their company behind because that's not what's happening at all. But I do think it's interesting that that's kind of the like, that's the big swing is just kind of like more of the thing you played a month and a half ago from the same company in like a different genre. Yeah. It feels a little bit like when metaphor and persona three reload came out the same year for Atlas where it's like, I mean, both those games sold very well, but I, it also is like, you're kind of eating each other's lunch a little bit. You do have a sense of I just did this, you know, exactly. Even though one of them is like, you know, a high school life sim and the other one is like a high fantasy still like, it's like, it's like, becoming Kingsham. You know, there is still a sense of like mechanically, they feel so similar that you do feel like you're doing the same thing twice. And to be blunt, like I haven't finished Resident Evil Requiem yet. I haven't played it since we last talked about it. I probably will. As soon as we're done with the Vita episode, that's that's first on my list of things to finish is Requiem, but it's great. I find it, I'm going to be very curious to see how I feel about Requiem, especially given the part of the game that I'm at now, which is like the Leon action part. Yeah. Having now played Pragmata, which to be clear, like the movement and the combat in Pragmata is sick. Like it feels so good. The weapons are great at any time. Well, not any time because there's a cool down on it, but you can press the right bumper and you have like thrusters that you can use to like dodge out of the way, even when you're in the air. There's a lot of the game that takes place like on the surface of the moon outside of the base. So you're in like, you know, low gravity orbit. There's a lot of really fun stuff with the movement mechanics. And then you add the hacking stuff on top of that, that adds this like other layer to it, where you need to be worrying about hacking while also having the spatial awareness to understand where robots are coming from, who's attacking you, can I dodge out of the way? Can I be shooting simultaneously? Like there's a lot to be thinking about. I'm going to find it very interesting, I think, to go back to Requiem and be like, I'm Leon as Kennedy and I have a gun and I can kick zombies. You know what I mean? Like there is, there is going to be a little bit of a step backwards there, but I'm still excited to finish that game because I love so much of what I played of it. Oh yeah, you'll have a great time. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to play this. I definitely think we'll probably talk about it again, you know, once the embargo drops and we've both, you know, I've caught up to you. It sounds like my alley. And I think it's an interesting way to utilize the hacking mini game that has become like weirdly a staple of a lot of AAA games. We're like, it's so present, but it often feels kind of like busy work. And I like this game just being like, what if it was actually fun? Yeah, like a main part of the gameplay. Yeah. Yeah. There's a real level of strategy to it that I wasn't anticipating because when you go back to the shelter and anytime you leave the shelter, you can like change your whole loadout and you can like you can use Lunafilm into 3D print, like whatever guns and stuff that you want. But you can also change the like little power up nodes that you have in the hacking mini game as well. And there have been or there were multiple moments about my playthrough where I got up to an encounter was like, I don't know about this. And then I went back to the shelter and like changed my entire loadout and then went back in like there is a level of depth and strategy to it beyond just like turn your brain off and run around and shoot gun, which I think is really nice. I really, I can't overstate this. And you know, the funny thing is I received code, I think much, much, much later than most other people, like I really got an email from Capcom completely at random that was like, Hey, just found your YouTube channel. I think you'd be interested in this game. And then I was like, all right, sure. Which meant that I had like three days to play it and make a review and post it to hit the embargo. But all of that said, like the one thing I've been most looking forward to is being on this call in this episode, just telling you, Steven, you're going to fucking love Pragmata. Like you, you and I are going to be really like weird Pragmata freaks. Weird Pragmata freaks were moonheads, whatever that means. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited to check it out. It comes out like next week, right? No, this week. Oh, this week. It's out on Thursday. Oh my God. Yeah, it comes out the day after this episode. Oh, yeah, it's Monday. Yeah, it comes out the same day as Tomodachi life. Oh, does it? That's problematic. You just got to make Hugh and Diana. I don't know what game you were talking about. Mine is significantly different. Hugh keeps delivering the news. Yeah, the moon just ran up to me in a dream and said, did you play the demo for Tomodachi life? No, I'm waiting for the full thing. I just want to fall into it. It's really good. I'm excited. The demo does carry over progress. All right, well, I'll wait till Thursday. I got a lot going for me this week. It's pretty good. It's also almost my birthday, which is kind of, I'm taking all this personally in a good way. It's all for me. You're taking all this personally. Yeah, in a good way. What's a better way of saying that I'm accepting all this? How about that? That's better. Anyway, I'm excited about this game. I'm excited to see how more people feel about it when they get their hands on it. Yeah, because, you know, at least based on the people I talked to over the weekend while I was playing it, everybody seems to really like it. The reviews are very positive. I'll be interested to see, like, if this is a huge win for Capcom. I really think this is a big Capcom year. Like, they are just crushing it. Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to eventually check out Monster Hunter Stories 3 as well. Yeah. That's a big one for me. Kind of dying to play that. Yeah. We'll get there, folks. Yeah. You'll hear about it on the show. I promise you. On that note, shall we move on to less fabricated pastures? That sounds great. Bye, everyone. Let's try it in my best. See ya. Brendan. Hello. You got your dukes up. Remember years ago when we almost named an entire season dukes up after getting into fighting games? Oh, yeah. It just didn't happen at all. Season three of Into the Acer. Season three. Because, yeah. Because season two was called, like, something quest. Oh my God. Yeah. Oh, shit. What was it? I can't remember. We literally the original idea was that each season was going to have, like, sort of an overarching thing, which kind of happens organically. It was going to have a subtitle. Yeah. The better move. But it was the quest continues. The quest continues, right? Because it was me trying to find a JRPG I liked. Yeah. And that was the year you got into Three Houses in Drangwis 11. Here we are. The third season was just going to be getting more into fighting games. And I feel like only I did. Which, I mean, that's, you know, you've gone into various fighting games in the past, but, like, much more rarely than I have. Yeah. And in recent years, in the years doing the show, obviously the first year when we started in 2018, Smash Brothers Ultimate came out, and that was, like, a big deal for a long time. But the big fighting games that have come out over the last five years that I think have stuck around for me at least have been Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter Six. And that's not a hot take. I feel like Street Fighter Six is, I'm probably not just glazing up Capcom for this episode, but, like, Street Fighter Six is literally, like, unambiguously the biggest fighting game right now. Like, if you just, like, Google, like, what is the most active player base for a fighting game right now? It's Street Fighter Six, followed by, like, Tekken 8 and then sort of a bunch of other games. Guilty Gear Strive is never going to be on that level, but it's pretty amazing how dedicated the player base has been considering it's the oldest of those three games I mentioned, like, Strive came out in 2021, and Arc System Works has just been kind of growing and growing over the years. Like, they've always been incredible at making fighting games, and they've been doing it for a very long time. But I do feel like them making Dragon Ball FighterZ really, like, blew up the awareness of them, like, beyond just sort of the fighting game community. That remains, I think, their best-selling game, which has me imagine that this upcoming Marvel game they're working on is going to be, like, a huge deal. I think it's going to be monstrous. Yeah, I think it's going to be so big. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting because, like, I do consider, in this space, I consider Arc to be, like, your favorite band's favorite band in some way. That's exactly it. But it says if your favorite band's favorite band was, like, headlining Coachella, you know? Yeah. Like, every couple of years, it's like, you know, the, like, weird underground pick is actually the most popular thing in the world. Yeah. Like, I feel like if there's a new smash, there's, like, a 90% chance SoulBadGuy is in it. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like there are certain characters in this roster that have become sort of, like, in arms reached away from, like, the Ken and Ryu staples, you know? Like, I feel like we're getting close. But Guilty Gear Strive, that was my go-to fighting game for years. I think I only really put it down when Street Fighter 6 came out because that was the game everyone was playing. And ultimately, I will play a game more when my friends are playing it. That's just how it works. Yeah. But Strive, like, that was the first time after college that I really chose a fighting game to, really get into. And I was pretty decent. I wasn't, like, going to tournaments or anything, but you can see, like, on our YouTube, I streamed Guilty Gear Strive a bunch. And initially, my goal was just to get to the 10th floor, which is how Rank used to work. You would be, like, walking around this tower. Of course, there's a level beyond the 10th floor. But for my goals, I was like, I just will be happy if I get to the 10th floor. Yeah. As a regular guy, making your way through life and not making Guilty Gear Strive your entire personality, getting to the 10th floor is like a pretty cool accomplishment. That was a big achievement. And I would like, there's a really great fighting game community in the TWG Discord, the Fighters Channel. It's awesome. Everyone there is, like, really friendly and open. There's a constantly events happening. And they're all really good, which can be intimidating. But every time I played with that group, they're all, like, very encouraging and will, like, help you learn the game. And I felt very proud that sometime in, like, 2021, 2022, I was, for a time, like, really doing well as May, who was my main and still is my main. She's canonically the Aether pick, because she can summon a giant whale and fights with a big anchor. So, you know. But loved Guilty Gear Strive. And I had played my, the only other Guilty Gear game I played before then was Guilty Gear XRD Rev 2. And the one that was on Dreamcast. I forgot which one that was. But I actually played that on Dreamcast, like, in high school. That was my introduction to this world. So I was like, what is this? This is so fun and interesting. I'm like, everyone's named after, like, an 80s hair metal band. So I played XRD Rev 2, but I played that well after the fact and kind of just played it solo and just sort of messed around in it. Didn't really know anyone else who was playing it. So when Strive came out and like, found an audience way faster and a much broader audience than Guilty Gear found previously, it was sort of like a Persona 5 moment where it was like this thing that had been kind of like an each interest for so long became mainstream, like, with the recent entry. And I think Guilty Gear Strive, while not quite as like, Street Fighter 6 has so many like, in-game onboarding tutorials, including like, an entirely different control scheme to get you to learn the game faster. Strive isn't quite at that level, but I do think just the way characters have been like, changed, like, there's way less to learn. But the game expects you at a certain point to like, have a strong knowledge of your basic toolkit. And then the game becomes less about memorizing gigantic combos and more about like, how do you use this character's like, you know, list of moves plus what every character has access to in the game. And I think where it gets really complicated is the word that always makes you dissociate. But the Roman cancel thing, which is a signature of Guilty Gear, which kind of lets... Huh? Who am I? It's Roman cancel. But basically, that's a mechanic that lets you sort of momentarily break the rules in a way that allows for a lot of creativity that could potentially be lost if you simplify the moveset. So it's kind of like, it's not anywhere near, I think, the simplicity of the basic moveset in Smash Bros. where everyone has the same like, Up B, Side B, Down B. Like, obviously there's a lot of complexity to Smash after that. But like, just sort of learning how do I do the moves? Oh, they're all done this way. It's not quite as universal as that. But I do think it's helpful for Strive and for new players picking up Strive that every character has like, I don't know, like five or six kind of moves you should know. And then it becomes more about like learning, oh, shit, this move doesn't have priority over this type of move. I shouldn't just like, charge in with this. I should maybe lead with like, an overhead attack or a low attack. And it becomes really fun. And I mean, just one of the best looking fighting games still, like I played this primarily when I had like a dying 2015 TV. I have this, I'm usually not this guy, but like having a nice TV for this game is like stunning. Like seeing this in HDR, it's so fucking pretty. And I love the character design. I just love the energy of the game. Like it's just, I think, you know, we just did it for any percent, like someone asked like, you know, if you were to do a best of the decade now, kind of what are the top five games that come to mind in the first half of the 2020s. And I think that by the end of the 2020s, this will be my favorite fighting game. Even though I love Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 and like can recognize those games, what those games do well. I can't think of another fighting game that has like this level of like personality and, you know, kind of has everything I look for in a fighting game as well. Until Super Smash Brothers, the movie, the video game comes out. Finally, Rob's back. But so anyway, he's also played by Jack Black for some reason. Yeah, right. I'm here. Oh yeah. Okay. I'm rocking Rob. Yeah. I love Jack Black. I was like, I don't want to rose up, but it is totally a role he would play at this point. Anyway, so all this to say, Goat of Gears Drive just put out like a big 2.0 update. And I haven't really played it since, probably since like 2023. So it's been a few years since I've gone back to it. And it's really amazing. Like they've, it's not fundamentally different, but like there are a lot of new characters. You know, most of them are DLC, which you know, is what it is. But like, I never felt at launch that the game was like lacking a roster. Sometimes you feel that in fighting games were like, I remember Street Fighter V when that came out, like there were like eight characters and everyone else was DLC. And it was like really disappointing. It felt kind of incomplete. This game though, like it was clear they were going to add more characters over time. But like, even if they just stuck to that roster, I think people would have been happy and maybe wouldn't have kept the community going for as long as it has. But like most of the characters they've added back are all like old favorites. Like they just added back Jam, who is a like martial artist waiter. So like, she has like all these different kind of like charge up attacks and is like very fast. But when she wins, she just like dramatically serves everyone food. It's very strange. She's awesome. She's like, people have been waiting for Jam since the game came out basically. So when I've been playing online, it's just like fighting Jams all day. I've gotten pretty good at like at first, I'm like Jam feels like completely busted. I'm like, oh, wait, I can kind of make sense of this. Yeah. That's the that's the hardest thing about Strive specifically is that because it's so over the top, it's hard to make sense of what's happening until you've like either played that character for yourself or lost like 10,000 times. Yeah, it's a really a time commitment. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I do. I mean, this is my worst trait is that I always can say everything is like a rogue like, but I think it's not your worst trait. The more that's true. I have much worse. You have no bad traits. I do. I do compare this experience to playing a rogue like I mean, you've you'll talk about it on Wednesday, but you've been playing a lot of spelunky on the PlayStation Vita. And that is the spelunky experience also is like, yeah, the I have no like when you show up in the third level, right? And it's like the ice caves and it's like slippery and there's yetis and stuff. You're like, I have no fucking idea how to make sense of this until like the 10th time you're there. And then it starts to become a little bit more manageable until until you find the UFO base. But you know, that's a whole different thing. But either way, like I imagine that's what getting into a fighting game is like, you know, it's like you just need to see every permutation of what's possible. And then you start to kind of map it all out in your head is like logic. This feels like the the word is becoming the ludonarrative dissonance of the 2020s. But what you're describing is the intrinsic motivation where it's like intrinsic motivation is basically the desire to get better at something for the sake of it rather than being rewarded with external factors. And that is at its purest, I think, in fighting games because, you know, winning as a character is not going to get even in stride. Like you're not winning any other than winning in game currency you can use to fish for like digital figures, which like is a whole other game. Yeah. Actually, you might love that because you're a photo mode guy. And the stuff you can create in the digital figures that you can just sort of like it's awesome. But basically, that's what you're describing is like that the thrill of learning something and getting better at it. And like, that's what I love fighting games is like there's not really I need to be in the mood for it. Because it's a big ask. But the payoff of like learning a character if I always describe it as like learning an instrument and the way strive works, I think the benefit like I described how like the toolkits are simplified, but each character is so distinct that like it terrifies and it's an excites me in equal measure to even think about learning a new character. Like I've given all I have to learning May and I've gotten like halfway decent with May. I'm just starting to wonder like who's my alts? Like who's the other character? Yeah, I switched to I haven't chosen yet. Can you do doubles in stride? So actually great segue, Brendan. One of the many new additions in this 2.0 update is they've added three versus three mode, which is really fascinating where it's basically like the game isn't built to be like a tag team game like Dragon Ball FighterZ or like the upcoming Marvel game will be. Yeah, it's one on one. But the way three versus three works, it kind of gives I think it's sort of built with the idea that like some people might want to play, but there may be a little bit intimidated by it because like the way it works is like someone is out fighting and then there are like cool down meters by the two other people who are on the bench. And as they fill up, they can just hop in and either do a brief attack or they can like use an attack to like heal the player character who's out or like add poison to their attack or like throw something overhead at the enemy and you can also swap out. But the person playing has to accept the tag out and for a brief time when you tag them out, you'll both be playing at the same time. I don't know if it will be a mode that like fully catches on, but I think it's a really fun addition. Because it's just a way to sort of add like, I don't want to say a party mode to belittle it, but it does feel like a sort of more chaotic multiplayer-centric way of playing stride that isn't just like, let's both go to the gym tonight. This is like kind of a lighter way to play. And they also like totally like redid the UI like ranked battles are way easier to get into. You don't have to like go to the tower and like move your avatar to a thing and wait there for someone to say yes, I can just let you train as they look for the next ranked match. It's really cool. It's really cool. I think this is if you have fallen out of stride but been wanting to get back in this feels at the perfect time. And I've just really enjoyed going back to it. And I think this is probably like this and Street Fighter 6 will be the two fighting games. I kind of keep in my rotation until we've like definitively moved on to whatever is ahead of us. But Marvel token fighting souls. Yeah. Yeah, I'll definitely play that. I don't know. I'll wait and see how that grips me. I kind of like this style of game more than the tag team frenzy games, but I am very excited to see how that game is. Yeah, I have been enjoying my Marvel free life for just about exactly a year as of the time this episode coming out. We'll play Injustice instead. How about that? Oh my, I mean, I've actually never played Injustice. I should do that. Really? Never played Injustice? Yeah. My roommates played it a lot. So I've seen it, but I haven't played it myself. I loved the Injustice games. Loved them. Yeah. But what I was going to say about fighting souls, I'll like wait for you to play it and tell me if it's good, I think is probably where I'll have no doubt it will be good. I the only doubt I expressed there is like if it will become my like main rotation, but I think it's going to be a big deal just like Dragon Ball FighterZ was. I think it's going to reach a similar size. It seems like they're doing everything right. Like every announcement is great. Obviously, like the menus and stuff, like the UI is already like exciting and weird and cool. And the stuff that they're doing with the music is really fun, you know, as Arc always does. But yeah, I'm excited about it. I think it'll be interesting at the very least. I think this update also kind of paints strife as like it feels like this is their main game for the foreseeable future. You know, like I wouldn't be, I would be surprised if there's a new guilty gear anytime soon. Because I feel like they really want to keep this game alive while they do these other games that maybe reach like a different or larger audience. They'll keep the sort of strive fan base happy. So yeah, Arc is just they're the best to ever do it. I will play any fighting game they make, including Persona 4 Arena, Ultimax, Baby. That was Arc also. Yeah. Yeah, it was a collaboration with Arc. Yeah, they, we have to rerecord the Persona 4 Golden Bonus because I now have played the real Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, which is a fighting game starring the cast of Persona 4 and 3. Which is a canon event, right? Like that. Yeah, I don't know. The story because when I was playing Dancing All Night, I googled is this canon because I was so floored by what I was seeing. Yeah, that is. They went out of their way to confirm that Dancing All Night is canon. I'm not sure since the acronym is AU for Arena, I'm not sure if this is canon. Okay, so what I read actually was that Dancing All Night is a canonical sequel to Arena Ultimax, which is a canonical sequel to the video game. The like base game. I mean, sure. Worth noting also, and I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers, I guess, but like the golden ending of Persona 4 Golden also, I think takes place like mere days before this. Before Arena. Yes. Yes. It'd be so funny if there was a teaser for like Akihiko shows up with like, yeah, fingerless gloves like, hey, punk, you want to fight? Yeah, despite the like time dilation that's happening. Right. Yeah. Well, like it is, I think the, I think like the Persona 3 cast are like older in Arena. So like time has passed for them. But like not like noticeably since they're like a year or two older. But it's funny compared to like the five spin offs. They're all kind of like stuck in time other than Strikers, which takes place like a year later. Anyway, I knew that this existed. But I sort of conflated it with another arc fighting game with Persona characters called BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Yes. That also has a few Persona 4 characters in it. So I thought that was it. I thought they just like showed up as cameos in a different fighting game. I didn't fully realize that there's like a full Persona fighting game. And our friend Matt Horan has been playing because Matt is also trying to like get more into fighting games, which has been fun to sort of, I love when anyone's trying to like find what is the game that clicks for them. And honestly, like you can talk about mechanics and talk about all this stuff, like what's simple, what's complicated. I think on a certain level, it really depends on like, are the characters appealing? Like, are you excited to play as the cast? I think that's partially why Smash Brothers is such broad appeal, because like they have these, you know, all-time or mascots from... Yeah, I gotta be Mr. Game and Watch. Yeah, I gotta be Rob, who doesn't want to be Rob, who didn't buy Rob in 1988 or whenever he came out. But like just sort of the selling point of like you are playing as the cast of three and four is a lot of fun. And so I opened the game and I played story mode first. And I, you initially are only given, there's like a 13 Sentinels like branching path, or not branching path, but there's like, you can select whose character story you want to start. And it's the protagonist of four, you, Yosuke and Chie, initially. Interesting. And I think you could go maybe as well, but it's the sort of starting four characters. So I started with you, assuming that it would be like kind of like how any fighting game story works, where like you get a little snippet of story and then you get into a fight and then it keeps going. But it's like predominantly a visual novel. You'll have like maybe a half hour of a visual novel and then like one fight. And then... See, this was also my, again, we'll talk about it in the episode, but this was also my surprise with Dancing All Night, was like... There's so much story. It takes straight up like 30 to 45 minutes to dance in a game called Dancing All Night. Yeah. That's actually the dancing games for three and five are just straight up like arcade dancing games. That's why I would say my hot take is that I'm not that into Dancing All Night and I really don't like the five of Dancing Game, but the three Dancing Game is great because the the remixes are really good. And the plot is that if they dance badly, they all go to hell, which is so funny to me. It's great. And it also just feels like you start the game, you know exactly what it is that give you a few levels that are fun and then you move on. There isn't this like never ending story that isn't that engaging in my opinion. Like I don't really like the narrative of Dancing All Night at all, to be honest. And Arena, I've heard that there is like... I heard in Arena there are some fun character moments and like, I feel like if you finish Persona for Golden and you're like dying to see more of these characters, there's like appeal there. But I've learned that I don't like hearing the Persona 4 protagonist talk. Like it's not any judgment on the voice actor. I just like it creeps me out to hear him go like, I had quite a year. Full voice dialogue to be clear. This is not like, hmm, I got it. You know, the way he does like when you're playing Persona 4, this is like a full character with like real interiority that is not yours, the players anymore. It is, he is his own guy. Yeah. Very strange. And you story in Persona 4, Arena, it blasts you with one of the worst Teddy scenes that made me rethink our whole episode where he's like, hey, Sensei, I found a magazine full of babes. And like, and then you's like, babes, huh? I can't wait to show this to you. It's gay. I'm like, what is this? Oh my God. No. This is like the worst. So I got about 20 minutes into that. And I was like, I just, I don't think I'm enjoying this at all. And I left. I'm sure there's stuff to enjoy in there. Maybe I'll check out the other storylines. I feel like it could be fun to see events from like GA or Yosuke's perspective. So maybe one day I'll go back and if you're a Arena Ultimax fan, you like think there's stuff there worth seeing. Let me know. But I pivoted pretty quickly to the arcade mode just night and day in terms of my enjoyment. Like it is so fun. First of all, it's hilarious that every character has a shadow form you can choose as well. And they look exactly the same, but they have kind of a mischievous face. So it's like, it looks like the photographer was like, give us a silly one. And I guess it's like, but a full roster of three and four plus a couple new characters, including you can play as Elizabeth from three, which is fine. Oh, that's great. Even the arcade mode has a surprising amount of story, but it's the level that I want from this game where like you see characters like talking to each other and interacting before the battle starts. And like, that's really fun. You know, just like I did the arcade mode for I guess. And seeing her like come to Kanji's defense was just like a dream. I love these two together. And the voice acting is great. And it's a really good fighting game. It's like very, it's definitely pre strive. This came out, I think in 2013 or 2014. So it was like a couple years after Golden came out, clearly percent of her golden had like reached a new audience to like warrant this kind of spin off. But it was also like the very end of the PS three in the beginning of PlayStation four, and then was only ported to modern consoles like somewhat recently. So I feel like it kind of, I think this game definitely has a following, but it's interesting when it came out. And also this idea like while you're playing it, you're like, are they going to do a three, four and five one? Because like the combination of persona being even bigger now combined with arc also being like a much more household name. If they made a new persona fighting game with the full cast of three, four and five, I think people would eat that up. Like I'm amazed that hasn't happened yet. It's pretty wild. Actually, they haven't done that yet. Yeah. Oh yeah. Maybe you're going to say the same thing. I'm about to say maybe like after six comes out, they just do like everyone. Oh, I was going to say after a percent of four revival comes out and they have like remake quality character models that they can pull from for all three games. So that's the amazing thing about arena is that it's a 2D fighting game. So they have all these unique 2D, like Marvel vs. Capcom, two adjacent 2D sprites of all the characters, and they're so good. Like there's so much personality. Like Kanji has the chair and is like load of the ground and like hulking. Great. Reset plays almost like Mr. Game and Watch where she's just like always running around with a microphone. Awesome. And like she's a lot of fun. I primarily played as I guess and she a who are both really good as you could probably guess. Yeah. Like I guess just casually pulls out like a machine gun. Yeah. Yeah. Imagine now it's also yeah. Yeah. Now toe I'm sure is fun. So I did the arcade mode a few times and then there's also another mode where you are literally the game says like, oh, you're exploring a dungeon, but just sort of a series of battles. But after every couple battles, you get to level up your character and choose like what stats to increase in addition to like who their partner is, which gives you a passive ability. So I have, I'm playing as I guess with Rese and Rese like has my health gradually restored throughout the battle. So you're leveling up, you're increasing your stats and you're also learning like persona moves that will give you like passive buffs. It's really fun. Like it's it reminds me of the stuff that Sakurai does of Smash where like there are so many modes of that game that are just like fun, weird single player experiments that I love to see in fighting games. And the way the game works, like definitely more complicated than strive. It feels like XRD Rev 2 level. Like I did the training mode and it was like now we're going to explain like cancel the vein like so much stuff. But they like you can do like an all out attack thing. The main basic mechanics are like you sort of have a week and a strong attack for the character and then a week and a strong attack for your persona. So you can like actually summon your persona out as if you're kind of like tagging someone in, but there's a risk of like your persona can also take damage and then temporarily be absent before they like respawn. So you can't do certain moves while they're gone. But like it's just, it feels like it's from a different timeline or something where I'm like, I can't believe this existed for this long. Yeah. And I never knew about it, but it's a lot of fun. I have it on Steam. So we both have it. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, I was thinking about trying it out. It's also regularly on sale for like $3. So it's a love that it's great. Like honestly, it's probably my favorite. I don't know. I'd probably put strikers as like my favorite persona spin off I've played so far. But this is up there. This is definitely up there. I think it easily beats all the dancing games and Tactica. This is because it's like a really great fighting game from one of the best fighting game teams and is like a roster of characters that I love. So it's a great time. I think I I think I do want to check this out. I will say my experience playing Dancing All Night was very funny because I remember in the bonus being like, I want more story from these characters just because I want to like make sure everyone's okay. And I was thinking specifically about like Resee because I was very critical in that bonus about the way Resee's story ends. And that is what Dancing All Night is about. And it sure does feel like a monkey's paw curling moment of me asking to see more of like what Resee's life is like after the finale of that game. I'll be interested to see what this one is like. Yeah, I found it to be kind of draining. I think I think the actual rhythm game of it is pretty fun and the remixes are fun, but it's just so much story that like isn't that compelling. So yeah. And yeah, they spend a lot of time on a lot of characters you will not really care that much about. Yeah. Can I pivot really quick before we wrap up to a game I completely forgot I played until you started talking about competitive gaming? Sure. Very quick mention of... I summon Steve Esports. Yeah, exactly. BB Sports. Yeah. I just need to talk about Pokemon Champions real quick. Oh, I've been meaning to ask you about this because I feel like you and a lot of our friends have been like cautiously curious about what this could look like. Yes. Yeah, tell me all about it. That is exactly how I would put it. It's cautiously curious. So for those of you who don't know, just a quick recap. Pokemon Champions is a new game that is currently out for Nintendo Switch only, but will be out on Android and iOS. I think this summer is the plan, but it is basically just like Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon Battling, online, against other people. Like it is a basically purported to be like the new competitive platform through which you will do all Pokemon Battling. So, you know, like when they have their big like Pokemon Championship, wherever the fuck they do that around the world every single year, and a bunch of people fly to wherever it is and they play like Scarlet and Violet, you know, but like battle competitively on a big stage in front of people. I think the idea is that in the future, the Pokemon Company would rather you be doing that in Pokemon Champions, this like... That makes sense to separate it out. I feel like it's impossible to like that is such a specific and probably small fraction of the general audience for a new mainline game. Yeah. That like keeping the sort of like competitive scene satisfied along with like most people just wanting to play a normal Pokemon game. Like and the level of intensity that like competitive Pokemon gets to is very like otherworldly. Yes. Like you wouldn't know half of it if you weren't already in the weeds. So, I think having just like a distinct platform where that is the focus makes sense. I agree. I think like in theory, this is probably the right choice. In practice, my fears mostly came down to monetization because this is like a free to play mobile game, essentially. You know, how are they monetizing it? What is the deal with like acquiring Pokemon? Because there is this weird back and forth between you, there is like a gotcha pawn element to getting new Pokemon for your team. And simultaneously, you can import your Pokemon from Pokemon home as well, which is interesting. So like if you're playing the other Pokemon games and you take your creatures and upload them into Pokemon home, hypothetically, you should be able to take them out and use them in Pokemon Champions as well. There is of course a major catch in that where like a lot of Pokemon don't qualify to be used in Pokemon Champions for reasons that seem like completely archaic. And I personally have not seen a good explanation for. So there's some kind of limitation going on there that is upsetting people. And then the monetization stuff like again, it is a gotcha pawn game. Like it is, it is a game where like you get polls from this like farm, there's like a Pokemon farm that you like go out to and they give you a selection of I think it's eight different Pokemon you can choose from. And you can either rent them or like acquire them permanently depending on how much of this in game currency you have called, I think victory points, if I'm remembering correctly. So they're obviously like going all in on that. And then you're also using that same currency to like buy new outfits and stuff for your trainers, you can customize the way you look. At the end of the day, it's not like the worst monetization in the world, but it is still, I think enough monetization and they're and they're preventing you from getting new Pokemon enough that I think it immediately falls flat on its face in terms of what they're trying to accomplish in terms of being a platform. Right. It being what we described before you, exactly. It's not it's not fulfilling that need anymore. Right. It is its own thing separate from that. And then if you if you want to judge it as its own thing separate from that, I think it's like decently fine is how I'd put it. Like I don't have anything like too exciting to say about it, except like the introductory story where they like teach you how to battle Pokemon competitively is like very silly. You show up at a gym that's run by an old guy who's like, ah, you must be the new young trainer I heard all about and requested to come visit me. I would like to hand my gym over to you. But first I need to test your abilities here. You can borrow some of my Pokemon will battle each other and see how it goes. And of course, you have eight Badoofs. He gives you a blast. Doys and he fights you with a Charizard and you use Hydra pump once and then when he's like, not once in my 80 years of living have I seen water. That was fire before it's exactly like that. And then he hands the gym over to you and then he introduces his granddaughter who is like the front desk person. And I'm like, wait, what's what's up? Does she not want to take over the gym? Like what's going on with her? And she's like, I'm just here to help you out. And I'm like, I don't know. I think you I think I might have stolen your like job and your inheritance from you. And I don't even have any Pokemon. Like I showed up at this gym with no Pokemon and immediately stole your inheritance out from under you. You just had you had the like off screen promise of real money and you stole our dreams. Yes. And then they take you out to the farm and they're like, you can choose any Pokemon once for free just this one time. And then and then this guy ends up giving you a bunch of his Pokemon as like a consolation as well. Then, you know, you're just like going and doing online battles and climbing up ranked leaderboards. And like that's basically the whole video game. They did change the way some stats and things are explained in the game, which I actually think is very interesting. And I actually I think I would like to see in the mainline Pokemon games, for example, like when you use growl against something and it lowers the attack, like you don't really have any visibility into like how much it's lower in the attack like in the game. And in Pokemon champions, they make it very explicit. Like if you use growl against an opposing Pokemon, it'll be like you lowered their attack by they call them tiers like one tier. And there are some moves which were like lower attack by three tiers. So it's like, you know, they're more successful or better at doing these kind of stat things, these stat changes, which I think actually does in some ways really literalize something that was a little bit too behind the scenes in the mainline games. And it's something I'd like to see them carry forwards. Of course, of course, of course, though, like this game is absolutely getting rocked and being called unplayable for like, you know, very silly reasons. And maybe my expectations were just really low. Like maybe at the end of the day, like I just I wasn't expecting much of this, but like people are talking about how it's only 30 frames per second and flipping out about it. I'm like, I don't care that much. It's always the case. It's like combat video game. Yeah. A lot of a lot of modern Pokemon games. It's like it's like sort of this exhausting gymnastics of like recognizing that it's not great and there's plenty to critique. Yeah. And then still feeling like the negativity is exaggerated. Yes. You know, it's like so weird. Yeah, you can't win. Yeah. And in this case in particular, I'm like, is this really the one you want to go to bat for? Like you want to die on the Hill of Pokemon champions that like hyper monetized guarantee no one will be talking about like two weeks. Yeah. But like it's decent enough for what it is. I think I'm interested to talk to like my co-host for next portable console, Federico Vetticchi, big, big, big Pokemon competitive battling guy like that, you know, in quarantine, when everyone had their hobby, it's like, I'm going to bake bread. I'm going to get into mechanical keyboards. He was like, I'm going to become a competitive Pokemon battling expert. He's like, dude, I said, I've done sparse with perfect defense ideas. Like truly. I'm really excited for him to get his hands on it and to talk to him about it. Like I'm curious what this game is like from the perspective of someone who really knows the ins and outs of this stuff. Like because as far as I can tell, like IVs and EVs are not a thing you're even thinking about in this game as well, which is a big part of that scene. You know, so like, yeah, I mean, that was that was what blew my mind about Sword and Shield is that they actually put like an in-game way to view all that stuff. Yeah. Like for the competitive scene. And that game was like universally rejected for other reasons. Like there, I thought that was cool. And that started in X and Y where you could do that weird soccer game to increase EVs, which like are basically like all the top of my head EVs are effort values, which is like depending on what Pokemon your Pokemon makes faint, the game keeps like a hidden tally of like, if you knocked out a bunch of geodudes, you would get a bunch of defense EVs. So like every Pokemon has their base stats capped at a certain amount, but you could raise what the sort of max stat is through EVs to a certain degree. And then IVs are like every individual, like if you're trying to raise a Zubat, every individual Zubat has their own randomly assigned IV. So like in the DS days, if you were trying to make a perfect team, you would either just hack your DS or you would literally just go on that one long road and breed Pokemon like all day until you got exactly what you're looking for, which like isn't fun. No, I never really got into that world, but I sounds like I'm shifting the blame. I had friends who were really into competitive Pokemon and I tried to like, I made a perfect Skarmory and I just felt so proud of that one that I called it there. I'm like, I just like knowing that I have like the best Skarmory you can make and I'm cool with that. On another note, I feel very similar about shiny hunting where I'm like, I have only ever seen two shiny Pokemon naturally in my whole life. Once was playing Let's Go EV, I ran into a shiny Digglet and the only thing that that changes is that the nose is blue instead of red, which is honestly great. And the next game I'm working on reviewing for wavelengths is Pokemon Lazarus and I started recording my playthrough of that game. Stephen, my starter Rowlet was shiny, which was amazing. Like I lost my mind when the little like, it was like you got Rowlet and then the little sprite showed up because they, you know, they follow you around in Pokemon Lazarus and Rowlet was like literally the wavelengths hex code for green. I was like, what the fuck are we talking about? It was amazing. It was an amazing experience. But those are the only two times I've ever naturally seen shinies in my entire life. Yeah. The only other than the scripted shiny Gyarados and Silver and Gold, I saw without trying to find it, I saw a shiny quillfish trying to catch a melodics prior form because melodic is, I would say, scarmory melodic and chandelure like amongst my favorite Pokemon. Cool. And I found a shiny quillfish, which I caught, but I'm like, I don't love quillfish, but it's cool that it's like a different color. And then friend of the show, Sadie, she in the days of Sword and Shield bred a shiny impedimp and the process of doing that basically like removed all interest about Pokemon from there. She made a shiny impedimp and she was just like, I think I'm good forever. Because she literally got a switch to Pokemon was like a series she got a switch for basically at that time. And I will say underrated features Sword and Shield was like hanging out at camp together. We had a lot of fun doing that with our friends. Oh my God, it's so fun. See, oh, Beware. I had a Beware named Hilda who just stared at you. But anyway, shiny impedimp, she was just like, I think I'm all right. I don't need to play this anymore. It just took so long. I tried to get a shiny chandelure, but it wasn't worth it, but it is orange, which is cool. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for nothing, Pokemon. That's video games. That's video games. Shall we wrap up? Yeah, I think we should wrap up. Hey, thank you so much for listening into the castle online is our website. All relevant links and information are there. If you like the show, the best way to help it grow is share with a friend. You can also rate and review us on your podcast app of choice. You can also support the show directly at patreon.com slash into the cast or through our merch store and to the cast online. I am really excited to play Monster Hunter Stories 3. That sounds like Capcom requested me say that to be part of this episode, but I promise they didn't. I just can't wait to play that. I'm also so excited for Tamadachi Life that I would bet anything Tamadachi Life will be most of next week's episode. I'm so excited. If not, the whole thing. It might really like destroy our reputation. Like I think our show is going to like tank, get tanked by Tamadachi Life. Yeah, we'll never survive Tamadachi Life. I think my plan is to stream it the day it comes out. I can't wait to see what that has in store for me. Yeah. So yeah, anything else you're excited about? I'm very excited to record Vita, obviously. Yeah. Then we'll be all caught up with like the big episodes we had planned. We don't really have any. I'm sure we'll do at least one or two like game specific bonuses between now and PS1, at least one if I had to guess. But yeah, I think our plan or we have a loose plan at least when I'm done with Resident Evil Requiem to do at least like a spoiler discussion for the Patreon or something. Yeah, we'll definitely do that. And maybe fingers crossed if you enjoy Pragmata as much as I did, it would be fun to talk about that because I'm dying to talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. I think we'll have like spoiler discussions. But I'm thinking like I don't we have no concrete plans for the next like big bonus. Yeah. I do think though, there's sort of the like calm before the storm of like, you know, what game does come out literally most likely between now and PS1 is the new Fire Emblem. Maybe. Yeah. So like we'll see. But we'll do something fun. I think like one thing I'll kind of materialize that I'm sure you would agree with is like, I think we have plans to do a Wind Waker bonus at some point in the near future. Yeah. So it's very much in the in the Persona 4 realm of like games. I've taken a running start at like 15 different times and just really need like a deadline to play. Yeah. I'm ready anytime you could call me tonight and I'd be like, yeah, I like the I like the Rideau design. Yeah. On that note, we'll see you all next week to K. Resolve's have a great rest of your day and I almost said keep gaming. Oh, I love it. I love it. No, you should say it. Do you want me to say it? If you won't say it, I will. Well, we say at the same time. Yeah. Okay. Three, two, one. Keep on gaming. Bye. See you next week.