People of Note with Jason Wishnov

This is a Head Gump podcast. Hacks is back for its fifth and final season and so is the Hacks podcast. Join the Hacks creators and showrunners Lucia and Yellow, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky as they unpack the Emmy-winning comedy series. On each episode, here's stories from the set, what goes on in the writer's room and how these beloved characters close out their final season. Watch Hacks streaming exclusively on HBO Max and listen to the Hacks podcast on HBO Max or wherever you get your podcasts. Wow, it is crazy to be back in America after just doing that trip in Japan. It's so different. It is different here. It's different here and worse. I don't know. Is it really good time? I think we saw the episode with you guys where we sort of like, I don't know, break down everything we did. Yeah, no, I had a great time. There's so much to talk about. Yeah, can't wait to unpack it all. There's so much to talk about. Yeah, but today we've got a cool guest, a cool topic. I guess we're just waiting for Nick. Yeah, I thought, huh. Also I'm still a tiny bit jet lagged because that flight was pretty recent and I know we didn't all sit next to each other. You had a screen. I didn't have a screen at my seat. Yeah, no, I had a screen. I watched Predator Badlands again. I watched it on the way there and I watched it on the way back. Sounds good. It's fucking great. Did you see what Nick was watching? Was he near you or? No, I'm just trying to actually replace, because I remember where you were on the plane, but I thought Nick was sitting with you. I mean, it was such a rush to get to the airport and now that I'm thinking about it. I mean, because we all got off. We counted everybody. We counted three people. We can't. We counted one, two. One, two. Oh my God, I counted the driver. Oh my God, I counted the driver. There's even four people. You counted the driver. I counted the driver, too. Oh my God, we left Nick in Japan. We left Nick in Japan. Nick! We're not at Kevin. You shouted Kevin like it was all alone. That was incredible. I didn't attach it to a name. I just thought that's a thing you say in a situation like this. We left Nick in Japan. You shot Kevin for real. I think we can just abandon the bid. That's it, man. I'm cooked. You're cooked with jet lag. We left Nick in Japan. So it's just you and me this week, buddy. That's right. We battle with time signatures and sing our way to success as we decide to do something that's not right. We're going to do something that's not right. We're going to do something that's not right. We're going to do something that's not right. We're going to sing our way to success as we discuss brand new RPG people of note on this week's Get Played. Welcome to Get Played, your one stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played. I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, the finisher, the franchise, Mr. Games himself, Maddapadaka. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere of Video Game Podcast. This week, Nick Weigher is out on assignment with his fellow podcast. That's right. Doe Boys. That's right. This is, of course, our first episode since we returned from Japan, and he had to be penitent to that show. Yep. Yes. And go do whatever they told him to do, which meant going to Florida. Yeah, it's good. It's a good pendulum swing. My home land. My home land. Yeah, not a great place to be. I got out of there as soon as I could, but. We have a guest in Nick's absence. Maddapadaka, why don't you intro our good man, Jason Wyshnov. Okay, I will. Okay, so spoiler alert. Oh, I fucked up. You said, oh. Our guest today is a game designer voice actor and the lead designer at Iridium Studios, whose new game, People of Note, releases tomorrow, April 7th. It's Jason Wyshnov. Jason, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Matt. Heather, it's great to be here. One day I am freaking out. One day away. It's crazy. It's nuts. You must be so excited. Well, anxiety and excitement are but two sides of the same giant coin that's dominating all of my thoughts and emotions. The coin is also very heavy. Very heavy. It's just, it's a lot. But I am so happy to be here and talk about it. And yes, it has been a long time in development. So for it to finally be here does in fact feel great. No, Jason, two questions for you. Yes. One, we've known each other for like 16 plus years. I believe literally 16 years. To the day. Happy anniversary. What the fuck? Yeah. I believe it was San Diego Comic-Con if I recall correctly. Was that where, so how did we, I know that, like I was a voice actor in one of your previous games, formally known as Sequence, now named. Before the Echo. Yeah. Before the Echo. Thanks to the lawsuit. Yikes. Yeah. There's a board game called Sequence. Oh, interesting. Don't play it. For whatever reason. But what, how did we meet? I can't remember. I actually, I do remember and it's like mildly weird, but I think, well, no, I believe you didn't know who I was and I like, you woke up and I was sleeping on the floor of your hotel room. I remember that with Leah Jackson covering something, maybe it was G4, maybe it was some kind of freelance gig, but Leah was like, yes, you know, I desperately needed somewhere to crash and she was like, let me just check with my roommate for the night and it turned out was you, you apparently said, yeah, whatever, it's fine. And then you woke up and you were like, hey, and I was like, hi, I'm like, I'm like on the floor, like, I'm like, hey, I'm Jason. You're like, okay, cool. That's funny. Yeah. So, so we met back in the games journalism days and you have now become a game developer and designer and I have become a podcast. You have become many things in the red cam. Well, every two years I see a cool thing that you're doing. I mean, I keep thinking back, didn't, what, remind me, wasn't there this thing that you were like getting going? It was a technology thing where it was like replacing the GIF. It was like a way to quickly cut videos. So that was at Fox ADHD. Yes. And that was not me personally. There was a technology that they had invented that they were trying to make it so that you could just drop in any file and immediately make it into a GIF. I desperately wanted that technology to work out. I don't think it really did. Yeah, I don't know what happened to it. Obviously, when Fox pulled the funding for all that, all of those resources and IP were thrown to the wind. If I had at my fingertips the ability to make GIFs, I'd be the happiest man on earth. Or GIFs. GIFs, depends. Yeah, I will. Who could say? Who could say? But I remember... There is a consensus and they're always very quick to tell you what's right and what's wrong, but I haven't checked in. Yeah. Like of all the things that you associate with Heather over her long and storied career, like what do you go to? Because I go to like corkscrew duck bean iss. Yeah. Yeah. What's the rating of this podcast? Well, yeah, we say it all. Gosh, what was the very first context for Heather for me was probably seeing the midnight show at UCB Of course. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. That's one of them. Probably better than corkscrew duck bean iss. Same content. It's similar line. Corkscrew duck bean iss of course is a reference to one of the Fox ADHD cartoons I made which was scientifically accurate, DuckTales, where I did a ton of research into the biological morbidity of ducks. It's not great. It's horrifying. It's really scary. It's horrifying. I think it's the same thing. It's the same. It's the same. I think ducks are among some of our cutest animals. You think that? You at first glance. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't want to. We don't have to get into the deep anatomy of ducks. Ducks are canceled. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Ducks are canceled. What's everyone's favorite duck colorway? I have an answer. Please. You've now opened the door. I've got an answer too. I like the ones that have sort of like a blue green head and then brown. A mallard. Yeah. Right. Exactly. It's like an iridescent sheen. Yeah. It has to do with like the molecular makeup of how the feathers are arranged geometrically. I like the mallard. I also really like the black duck with the red beak that looks like it's got a disease. Yeah. It's kind of like a weird like a ball. Yeah. That's a good duck. Also baby duck is also pretty good. They look completely different. They're so different. You don't even know they were the same thing. No. They're like a completely different guy. Adorable down creatures. Jason, do you have a favorite duck colorway? I do. I do love the mallard, but you already said that one. You did say it too. I mean, it's probably, you know, the name, Iridium Studios, coming from the Latin iridescent, I really do love that sort of like multicolored sheen. Jesus Christ. No, I just... The smartest thing ever said on the show. I'm a fan of it. And they're like certain, they call it like reflex purple. There's like car paint jobs that mimic that sort of. Oh, sure. Yeah. That like iridescent sheen as well. We got to check in with Ranch real quick too. Ranch favorite duck colorway. Yeah. What's up? Yellow. Yellow duck. Yellow duck. Like a bath duck. Yeah. Like a rubber. That's pretty good Ranch. Ranch might be on to something. So if you're tuning in here for the first episode after we've come back from Japan, you're probably like, why aren't they talking about Japan more? Yeah. The truth is we are going to talk about Japan when Nick comes back on the podcast, but I will say something about a duck. Oh, go on. From Japan, which is that when we visited Hideo Kojima, they gave us this lovely gift bag and in the gift bag was a bath bomb. And the bath bomb was yellow. And of course they have beautiful, incredible bathtubs in the hotels in Japan. So I'm like, well, I'm not going to have a nice bath when I return home. Yeah. So I'm going to use the bath bomb here. One, it made the color of the water into like a visually identical piss. Yeah. Which I was like, is this on purpose? Like is this a death stranding bit because there's piss in the games? And inside of the bath bomb as it dissolved was a toy. And inside of the toy capsule was a duck. Wow. Yeah. A little tiny rubber duck and it came in. Yeah. Yes. And it stunk like you. No, it's a really pleasant, almost banana smell. Yeah, it was really good. You had the same. I did it too. Yeah. And my duck was a little pink duck. And at first I was like, well, what am I going to keep this? Like what am I going to do with a duck? It's like the tip of your pinky size, very small. Yeah. And I was like, what am I going to do with this? And then I remembered that I had another Kojima Productions duck. So I brought him home and I put him next to his dad. Two Kojima Productions ducks. Yeah, one normal sized duck and then a tiny duck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That tiny little duck made it all the way back. I made sure that little duck made it all the way home. Does he have a thing for ducks? Well, it's his, one of his corporate logos is the rubber duck. I've known why I'm sure he's talked about it in an interview. I have not done the research. Yeah, we didn't ask. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Just not in. No. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yeah. Good. When did you first start Iridium Studios? And what was, like everybody has sort of a, when we started this podcast, it was sort of a lark, but also it was like, it'll be fun to do a show with our friends talking about video games. Is the starting of this project for you, was it a serious endeavor or was it like, hey, I want to see if this will work out for me. Yeah, I mean, Iridium Studios goes back to, I was making that, that first game formerly sequence now before the Echo. I was making it in 2009, 2010, but it was like very much a non serious thing. And then I won a fourth prize finish in the Microsoft Dream Build Play competition, which got me like $5,000. And I was like, this is incredible. $5,000. I need to make this a career. So I like legally formed the entity in 2011 of Iridium Studios and I was very lucky to be able to release on Steam that year. Did you know the week my game came out on Steam in 2011, four other games came out. Wow. And like I was front banner, biggest size you could get because what else was going on? It was incredible. Truly a wonder time to get into gaming. Things have become slightly more difficult these days. Four games probably come out every 30 seconds. Yeah, since we've been talking. You know, this game, People of Know, which we can get into a musical. I, this is a trite answer, but it is true. I went to see Hamilton. Everyone was talking about Hamilton. It was like 2016, 2017. Yeah, I saw it and I came out and I said, I better hurry because every game developer that sees Hamilton is going to want to make a musical. That turns out that was actually not very true. But it felt true in the zeitgeist at the time. I was like, I got to do it. So yeah. And there was, I don't know if this is a deep cut. There's a PlayStation one Japanese RPG was eventually ported to the US called Rhapsody, which was a musical, but on the PS1, they couldn't even like the vocals weren't even possible. Yeah, it was just sprites kind of dancing around. Wow. And, you know, that was like the gaming industry's only attempt at the time. So I was like, we can, we can do this justice. We can do this. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Eventually I convinced a bunch of people to give me millions of dollars to pursue this iconic idea. Wow. And Erica, she is one of the voices. She's a former guest of the show. Friend of the pod now. And she's one of the voice actresses in your game. And she's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. She was incredible when we had her here. Yeah. Let's get Erica back. Let's bring her back. And come on in. Erica plays Cynthia spelled with an S. She's an EDM DJ in the city of Lumina, the EDM city of Lumina. She, I mean, she does because you hear her perform as Cynthia, a very like non-confident person with like imposter syndrome. That's kind of her whole, whole arc. And then you listen to her as Otsu and you're like, well, that's like, you don't even know it's the same person. Yeah. That's the thing about actors, man. They really can do it. They can do that. They can do that. Yeah. Well, my tone is basically always this or yelling. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I mean, I did a cartoon that came out a couple of months ago and people were like, we knew which one it was you immediately. You were just using this voice. I just talked like this. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I do it. I can't really modulate it much beyond the volume as Heather. Yeah. And I have a trouble with the volume. You're always. Jason, I guess in general, I guess I have a question for you about Hamilton, actually. Oh, hit me. Do you want me to wrap it? Do you want me to start? Because obviously I never saw the, I never saw it live. I saw the one they put on Disney Plus and I had heard the soundtrack before. I saw the LA cast first and then I've actually, I never got to see the original New York cast except for Disney Plus. What's your favorite, what's your favorite song from Hamilton? I love right hand man. I go hard on right hand man. I can do any of the parts. Yeah. I can do it. Yeah. Are you in general a musical theater person? Yes, I believe that I am. And it's weird because as a kid, I was really put into a box, the math and science box. Yeah. But a small part of me yearned to join the theater, but I couldn't. It would have jeopardized my, my, my GPA. Wow. How could I possibly, I need to stay on the straight and narrow for being a professional mathematician or whatever. Somebody with a low GPA, let me just tell you, being in theater did impact it pretty significantly. Yeah, no, it's a significant thing. It was great. So prior to Hamilton, what was some of your other favorite musicals? I mean, it's, it's God. I mean, I love little shop of horrors. That was the one that like in my head as a kid, like, oh, Broadway, it's, it's, oh, it's too fancy. I don't like that. And then I saw the movie, Little Shop of Horrors, and I absolutely fell in love and Steve Martin. The movie Rock. It's, it's. The puppetry is insane. Yeah. Have you guys seen the original ending? Yes, I have seen it. No. There is. Okay. Wait. So there's an original ending that you can watch on YouTube that they filmed. Oh, yeah. I might not have seen this. It might be on subsequent Blu-ray releases now as well. Dude, it's fucking crazy. The plant wins. Sure. And kills everyone on earth and becomes Godzilla sized and is marching through a city. And they filmed it? They filmed the whole thing. With the effects or whatever? The giant puppets? Yeah. And, and there's like a song that I don't believe is in the actual one. It's how the stage play ends. Like the stage play is very different than the movie. I saw the, I saw the, my high school put it on the year after I graduated. Oh, dang. Absolutely furious. Yeah. And then I saw it a couple of years ago off Broadway, actually. And it's also my favorite. I think the songs are really good. The script is really funny. It's incredible. But yeah, it ends with the plants, the plant winning. Yeah. It's awesome. It's, it's really, really well done. But the, the film, the version of it looks really, really cool. Yeah. And good, but it didn't, I had read that it didn't like test people. People didn't like it. It upset people. And we're like, yeah, well, sure. It would have set me now. Yeah. But it's really, really great. My, my favorite Hamilton song. I like when King George comes in. So it's singing, you'll be back. You'll be back. It's fun. Like before. He's good. Yeah, he's great. He's funny. That's great. He's such a little bastard. He's a little bastard. He's like a piece of crap favorite. Everyone loves it when he comes on. I've only seen Hamilton once. Yeah. And it was, I think the LA like tour. Yeah. And the only, the only song I remember is the part where he was yelling, what, why do you write like you're running out of time? Yeah. Yeah. And I thought, look. I, I'm sure I've done it myself. Yeah. But when writers write about writing, I'm always like, P you buddy. That is not my favorite song. It does kind of annoy me too. Especially when it's like writing is the best. Like it's like, everyone who's a writer should fucking get mad. Yeah. For sure. My favorite quote, I did write people of note and I don't really consider myself a writer. But my favorite quote, I forget who said it. A reporter asked him, oh, do you, do you really love writing? And he goes, no, I despise writing. I like having written. Like, yeah, yeah. That's what I love. Yeah. The actual process is torture. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Matt, if you don't have any other questions. Well, I was going to ask before we get into what we were playing, just like just generally, what's what, what are your gaming like habits? Like, what are your like, what maybe give us a rundown of like some of your favorite games as a jumping off point. Yeah. So I mean, some of my favorite, so I'm a huge RPG guy. Okay. Just, I mean, that's what this game really comes from. We can get to that later. But, you know, Final Fantasy six, seven, nine and tactics are probably my top four. Those rankings. Ouch. Where do you, where do you stand on? Ouch what? You made all tactics. You skipped eight. Yeah. The bad one. Yeah. Of course I skipped it. Where were you at with tactics advanced? Did you ever mess with tactics? Yeah. The snowball fight, the classic. Unfucking real. Did you ever finish tactics? Yeah. I finished it. I'll be honest. I don't have like great memories of the second half of the game, but I remember them bringing in like the Vieira. I remember them bringing in like some of those, uh, Matsuno like races that they developed and kind of 12 and stuff like that. I asked because why would you do that? Well, it's Heather's great shame that, uh, Heather is not finished. Tactics advanced. Fancy tactics. I don't think that's a great shame. I think it's a. It is my great shame. A tiny shame. I think it's fine. I have started it infinity times. I still have my original first save that has 80. On the cartridge. Yeah. 80 some odd hours put into it. I have not finished tactics advanced. And when we were in Japan at the Nintendo museum, it, in the Game Boy section, it has like a place of honor at eye level. Wow. And you're like, why is it? You're spunting you. This game. I think you said out loud. Why are you here? Square Enix game that was just published on the Nintendo platform. There's no special reason. It's not like also a popular, it's not like everybody's like, oh, taxing. That was one of my favorite Game Boy advanced games. So for it to be like in a shining white box, eye level in the section of Game Boy games. They knew you were coming as opposed to like, I mean, Mother Three was there, but it was like in the corner. No, that should have a more. A more weird. So fucking weird. That's that. Yeah. It should be there. But I'd say beyond the RPGs, I'm a big fan of like, of puzzle slash narrative games. And I'm talking specifically about like Phoenix Wright, Ghost Trick, the 999 and I was nine persons indoors. That whole trilogy, Virtues, Last Reward. And then we kind of get into the cute name is Metroid Brainias, of which Outer Wilds would be a central example. And then you have, you know, the Return of the Overdinn and other games like that. Recently, Blueprints, my game of the year, last year. Yeah. Ours too. Yeah. Weirdly. Yeah. We didn't, we didn't love it as much as anybody. As anybody. I got obsessed. But we did, we did give it our game of the year because there was nothing else like it. It's like it's, it is incredibly unique, incredible design. Tanda's a great dude too. Yeah. Hell yeah. He's a friend. It's a shame that Nick isn't here because the categories you're listing are all of Nick's favorite games. Yeah. And it could feel, I feel like it could be the entire show. Yeah. He loves. Just vibing with Nick. Yeah. He loves Overdinn. He loves, you know, puzzle platformer, puzzle puzzles, puzzle. Yeah. He's a puzzle boy. He's a puzzle boy. Yeah. I'm a puzzle boy too. Yeah. Yeah. I totally get that. Yeah. Bobba is you. I mean, I've heard Bobba is you is great. Incredible game will destroy your mind. Yeah. Did you, did you play Animal Well at all? Yes. Absolutely. I love Animal Well. Well, besides the parts at the end that required the entire internet to collectively decipher. Yeah. That's where I jumped off as well. Of a thousand characters. Yeah. I jumped off there too. No, that's fair. But yeah, I had a great time with that game. Have they finished, have they figured out the Resident Evil puzzle that nobody could solve? Oh, they solved it in like probably after you last checked in on it, which was probably a couple of days after it came out. Yeah, they got, they got to that pretty quickly. OK. Is that a nine? Is that a... Yeah. There's a puzzle in nine. About a third of the way through spoilers on what we're playing. No, sure. Yeah. But it is like an ARG puzzle or you're sort of like trying to then figure this out. But they, they made short work of that. Yeah. I know that a lot of the press who got early access to the game were trying to sort of group solve it across different outlets and they couldn't do it on their own until the larger internet got ahold of it. I'm not pressed, but I snuck my way into the Blueprints Press Discord before public release. Oh, cool. So it was like me, Jason Schreyer, Kate Gray and a few others all going so hard on the absolute deepest levels of Blueprints. We were losing our minds that we couldn't go anywhere else because it was just us. Yeah. With access, which made it a little bit more special for me. You can't ask the internet. It was just us. Yeah. Wow. That's great. That's crazy. Did they find out that you weren't pressed? Eventually I came clean to Tonda. I was like, Hey, listen, I kind of we weaseled my way into this code, but I did find a bug. Let me make it up to you. Here's a bug report. It's very detailed. You should be able to reproduce it. And he was like, thank you. I appreciate it. I was like, great. And that's why I became friends with Tonda. That's great. Literally didn't know before that. And now we're buds. Stuck into his Discord. That's very similar to the way that I ended up writing briefly for Edge magazine. Because I snuck my way in and just like bullshitted. I don't know if I've told this story on the on the pod before. The at the time that I was a journalist, the head editor of Edge magazine was Colin Campbell. Yeah. And so I went into I was at E3 for our zine that we were writing at the time. And I went to the Edge office on site and I just was like, hey, it's Colin around. And they were like, oh, no, he's out. Do you have an appointment? And I was like, oh, no, no, no, no. Well, can you tell me stop by or I can come back when he's here. And they were like, yeah, who are you and I'm like, Heather Campbell. And I said it like, I got some related to him. Yeah, let me go get him. So then I came back when he was there and I was like, hey, and they were like, oh, he's in the back. Straight up to him. And he's like, hi. And I was like, hi. And he's like, wait, who are you? And I'm like, oh, I'm I'm applying for a job. And he went, what? And I gave him printed copies of articles. And I was like, yeah, I, you know, wanted to throw my ring in a hat here or my hat in the ring. And see if you need a freelancer for America. Please let me know. Just read my stuff. All my contact info is there. And he's like, yeah, yeah, we're not taking, we're not hiring anybody right now. And I was like, OK, and then I left. And he was aghast. Yeah. And then two months later, he called and was like, hey, I read your stuff. Would you like to freelance for us? Wow. And but it was entirely because I told whoever was at the front desk. I just said Campbell, like as if it meant something. Come on, man. I only call them Colin. I was like, Colin here. Yeah, yeah. Must have talked before. Absolutely nailed it. It must be sister brother or something. Who knows? Yeah. Much lower stakes at E3. One time at the Capcom booth, they were giving out a special limited edition T-shirt for someone who could say they brought in a professional street fighter for player at the time. I'm not that good at street fighter. There was no way I could do it. But I decided to just try lying. And I went up separately from the machine where people were lining up and I was like, hey, I just I just want a couple of matches. They said I should come over here and get a T-shirt. And she was like, you beat him? And I was like, yeah. And she's like, are you and she like flags him down? And I just kind of like wave to him and smile and he just waves back because he thinks I'm being friendly. And she's like, oh, OK, sure. And gives me this T-shirt. I think I sold it online for like three hundred dollars. It was like it was going for a lot of money at the time. Oh, man. That's great. Yeah. Hi. And she's like, OK, I guess so much of of of the those early years of like being at E3 is so much like. Gaming. It's like near lying. Yeah. I mean, that's a lie. No, that's not a near lie. But often it would just be like, yeah, I'm you have to walk in with the energy of I'm supposed to be here. Yeah. And also, I'm not I'm not here to hurt anybody. Like I'm not here to intrude on space, but I am supposed to be here. Like, is the way that you would do anything? Like, if you were trying to see a demo, you just had to go up with full confidence and be like, hey, I think 3 p.m. Or whatever. Yeah. And and then they would just be like, oh, OK, sure. And you'd walk in. But if you walked up and you were like, hey, do you have any more slots for the demo? Like you'd be done. Sorry. Yeah, we were full of. Yeah. No, that's like I've like somehow never learned this lesson. Like it. I just always just like, oh, I guess you're right. I got I. Yeah, I kind of did that with the BioShock Infinite, the legendary BioShock Infinite E3. Wow. Press conference, which like showed one of the most amazing theoretical games of all time. But that version of the game never came out. It was completely reworked. But yeah, I didn't really have an appointment there at all. I was just like, hey, here to see BioShock Infinite. I think four o'clock. Yeah. Yeah, same. Same exact. Yeah. I think everybody's happy with the version of BioShock Infinite that came out. You know, I've heard no complaints ever in the history of gaming journalism. And now that I think about it, I can't recall any of it. Yeah. Yeah. It totally it totally hit the mark and didn't end the series. And Ken Levine is doing great right now. He hasn't had any production problems at all with anything. I can if you're watching. He's a listener. Yeah, he's a he-he-he-he-he. Yeah, absolutely. Sleep is so important to me. And I did not realize how much a mattress could change how well I slept until I switched to Lisa. I got the Superior mattress, which is truly the Goldilocks of mattresses. It's a perfect mix of soft and springy. It feels so upscale that I'm always looking forward to bedtime, you know, when I'm a little kid or something. Bedtime couldn't get me there. Would not want to go to sleep. Bedtime. No way. I want to stay up. I want to play. I want to see the sun come back up. But now as an adult bedtime. Yeah, that's my favorite time of day. Put me back to sleep, especially on my Lisa mattress. Lisa has a lineup of beautifully crafted mattresses tailored to how you sleep. Each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind. 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See website for more details. That's factormeals.com slash get played 50 off. Get shredded while you're at it. Jason, we do have a question that we ask every single week on this show. And it's the question just so you know what the question is or what the what the content of the question is. Is that just asking the question? Yeah, but so you're not surprised when I asked it. I'm just letting you know what the answer. Generally, Matt will ask the question, but the host of the segment then is the official asker of the question. So like the question is about the types of games that we're playing, what we're playing currently in a segment we like to call. What do you play? What are you playing? Hi, it's me, the Richard and even Richard. And I miss my friends when they were in Japan. I see what you meant. I know what I mean. I understand that. Nobody told me that they were gone. And I just showed up here and Rance and I had a sleepover. That's alarming in several ways. Yeah. Resident Evil 4 merchant, thank you so much for being here. We missed you too. We talked about you a lot when we were gone. Yeah, yeah. You did? Yeah. I heard you played my phone call for Miyamoto. Yeah, we did. Well, we didn't play it for Miyamoto, but he did walk by when you were on the phone with us and I didn't recognize my voice from the game. He didn't recognize your voice from the GameCube, but he did look scared. He did look. He did. It's really accurate. He didn't he didn't look like he approved of what was going on exactly. But there was a secondary thing that happened was that I got to see Heather see me seeing him look in. Because you was holding the phone up. Yeah, Heather was holding the phone up and I got to see. Yeah, it was just it was just a very it felt very special. I wish I had handed him the phone. Yeah, I wish we could have handed him the phone too, because he would have loved to say hi. He was my first gig. Yeah, he was either from there. They put me in our PlayStation 2. Yeah. It's launched a career. Well, yeah. You were a merchant before. An emergent to this day. Yeah, that's normal. I'm not a co-host of comedy. That's right. You're Scott Ochman's best friend and co-host. That's right. It's not. I guess they have not recorded any other episodes since I was on. No, they've been recording weekly since then. Weird. Not to plug another podcast. Weird. That also releases on Mondays. Is that true? Yeah, they record every single week. You have Scott a phone call. And maybe he's had the wrong email. What email do you have for him? What? What email do you have for him? Huh? Did you send him any? You said you had the wrong email. I think he's got my wrong email. Oh, he's got your wrong email. I see you're OK. I'm going to make sure the paper I wrote in on was wet, so maybe it blurs. That's going to be an issue. The ink's going to... And you don't ever... You don't use like a pen. You use like a marker. Yeah. Sharpie! Yeah, they can run. They can run if they get wet. They bleed. Yeah, yeah. Well, if they bleed, you know you can kill it. Is that true? That's what they say. If it bleeds, you can kill it. That's true. So you... Yeah, like if a... If a t-shirt is in the wash and it bleeds, then you got to kill it. No, you can kill it. You can kill it. Yeah, you can kill it. That's the rule. That's what it says. And if you have emotional, you know, after effects from like a live action role playing experience, you can kill that too. Yeah, you can kill it. We're going to be hunting. Jason! Yes. Welcome to the podcast. I got one question for you on it. What are you playing? Thank you for asking. That's a good question. Thank you, Resident Evil Merchant. Yes, well done. Yeah, thank you. There are three titles that I am currently playing. I admit, you know, one day from launch, I have had limited free time. So I'm about a third of the way through Resident Evil 9, thoroughly enjoying it. Having a great time, I just, you know, got a lot going on. But the one that's been really sucking me in and I have actually completed is, of course, Pokopia. Well, you've completed Pokopia. It's possible. It is possible and I really should not have done that when I have when I did it. But I did it. Wow. I'm so excited about this because this is also the game that I'm playing, though I have not finished it. Yeah. Where are you at? Which which number? What area? We play differently. OK, you're just out here to build up and make the Pokémon happy. My well, no, it's very hard for me to go to a different area until the first area is perfect. So OK, not only minimum level 10 environment level, but you need every. I want it to be nice. Yeah, like perfect. Because otherwise I'm worried that the that I'm I'll get distracted and go into the new area and the Pokémon I've left behind. I'll be there to be like last year's Christmas. Yeah, and they they don't react that way. But I can see why emotionally it would be difficult to. Yeah, last year's Christmas is tough. That sucks. Yeah. Yeah. So but you finished. I'm finished. I like having goals presented to me concretely by the game and I do those. And a lot of my friends are like building palaces out of Jade and they they climb into the sky and I'm like, well, it told me to go get that thing. So I'm going to go do and get that thing. The show. Craig Lee Thomas sent me a video of somebody who built the police station from Resident Evil 2 also. I have also seen that video. What the fuck is wrong with you? You seen the shopping mall? No. So somebody built some Japanese player built an entire Japanese shopping mall, full, full mall inside of Pokopia. The one that blew me away was the KFC sign. Have you seen that? No. There's a way. OK, love that. So you think like how do you get a KFC sign in Pokémon? Pokopia, there's no way to do that. Right. They took the entire Palatown area, completely blank area and they built out of out of the bricks age as big as the game will allow you to go as tall as the limit out of the blocks, a KFC logo. And it took forever. And then they just stand incredibly far back and took a picture of it and then put a wall monitor up on a store and then just said, oh, display this picture. And it was so far away and so high resolution that it basically looks like a normal. Like and that's how people are making custom logos and images. So by building a massive array of blocks out of different colors to make it look like that. I was not a Minecraft person. Neither was I. I in part because I didn't like the aesthetic. Hmm. Like it was too it was too like I appreciate that it has a look and that like I wouldn't ever begrudge the Minecraft aesthetic, but it's not for me. It's a lo-fi. Pokopia. I also dabbled in Lego Fortnite, a fort, which was a Minecraft like. Yeah. Pokopia's shininess. It's got a little beveled edge. It's so sweet. Little beveled edge. That that I'm like, I'm OK with it being blocks because the blocks look good. Yeah, the blocks look good. They look really good. They look good. Man, those blocks look fucking good. The Pokemon look good too. I mean, they have a certain aesthetic to them that. But I just think it works and Ditto's adorable with the face all the time. Fucking Ditto is a hero. Ditto is a hero. You know, saving the post-apocalyptic landscape of Kanto. I am glad that they didn't for something like make a making aesthetic choice that affected the Pokemon in any sort of way. Right. They look how you would want them to look. They just look exactly how they look. It kills me that that Pokopia isn't the aesthetic of the actual mainline games. I have negative things to say about modern mainline Pokemon games. I'm sure that you'll have a good friend in Maddapadaka. Go off, King. Listen. They're not there. God, they're with the resources that you have available to one of the largest media franchises in the world, if not, maybe the leading. It is it is the most successful IP on planet Earth. And I am seeing environments and landscapes in Scarlet and Violet that if I looked at as an indie dev on my team, I would be like, this isn't even close to acceptable and that should not be how it is. No, I'm not trying to brag about people of no, it's just it's no. They look bad. A lot of the times they feel bad. They're eliminating tons of Pokemon from the Pokédex, which they say is an issue of budget, but I don't know, man, you have all the money in the world. They are not innovating in the ways that I think would be advantageous to the serious. Most of the good innovations have come from the offshoot game. Yes. Like from from Arceus or from Z to A or whatever. Exactly. And it's like, don't be afraid. You know, do put those in the real thing. Why? Like if I was the like if I was Nintendo, I would just be like, oh, the Pokopia guys get it. Yeah, let's just give them the fucking game. Game Freak would probably lose their minds. Sure. But like at what point are you as Nintendo, the company that famously wouldn't let another Mario movie happen for like 30 fucking years waiting? So do we. Waiting for the right company to take the reins and like make the shiny glossy, you know, childlike wonder of a fucking Mario thing. You know, an animated movie. Well, at what point do you need to start protecting the IP from the developers? Because yeah, I I hit a wall hard with playing Pokemon games. And it was because it felt bad to play it. It feels bad. And I want to like if you put you can convince me with Pokemon characters to play Minecraft, certainly if you make it a regular RPG, yeah, I'll play the shit out of it. But the cycle will continue once again, because when Swings and Waves comes out, there's not going to be anybody more excited about it than me. I'm going to be there. Like with my little empty bowl, please sir, can I have another? Yeah, I don't want you to be disappointed. I want you to be happy. I would love to be happy. It's just not in the cards for me. The first night we were in Tokyo, Matt and I went to a Pokemon store like looking for his guys. And yeah, we did get overwhelmed and leave pretty quickly. It was too crowded in there. And the one that we went to at the other mall that was bigger was so crowded that we left immediately. I mean, it's it's it's as popular as it's ever been. Yeah, you know, on the West Side in LA, there's a new poke like a CCG card store, real world trading. And it's like I went up there literally two nights ago and I yeah, I couldn't move. I do have a fix for the issue of excluding Pokemon. Tell me. We're done. We don't make any more new ones. We're not we're not introducing new guy. Maybe you introduce three new guys. What about forms? What about forms? All except forms. I think forms is more interesting than new types. I liked seeing a gray meowth, right? Yeah, I like seeing green grimer or whatever the hell. That's interesting. You know, brown Pikachu or whatever. Sure. They're not all just colored based. They're all like different. Some of them have different stuff. But like, I don't I don't know if we need three more. I don't know if we need more Pokemon beyond the new three starters. There are over a thousand Pokemon. Yeah, I have a different solution. Yeah, my pitch is that new Pokemon are generationally introduced in a true fashion, which is to say that it used to take 20 years in between Star Wars movies, right? And it was you see it as a kid and then you bring your nephews or whatever to the next one when the new ones come out, right? Like when Phantom Menace comes out, the dads who saw it as teenagers bring their kids. I think you introduce new Pokemon every 15 years so that when you're a kid, you play it, you play it as a kid, you play it because you're like eight or whatever. Then you play the next one because there haven't been new Pokemon and you're probably not old enough to have kids of your own yet. Yeah, you know, you don't have a family, but you play the next one because it's been that long. Then at 30 years, you have the family and you introduce your family to those Pokemon and there have only been two generations of new Pokemon in that time. That's my pitch. I think it's a treasured area. I think it should be. I think there should be games that come out constantly. Yes. But I think that it should be an event when the new 150 Pokemon are brought out each time. Yeah. And and it's been there's just the reason they have to call Pokemon appearances is because they're they they fucked up. Yeah, there's like a thousand Pokemon. I don't care about 800 of them. No, like, you know, yeah, there's a majority of them I could give two shits about. I don't care. I don't care. And they can use a popularity list. Sorry, Clefki. Yeah, no one I like fucking love Clefki. I do kind of like this because Clefki is also one I could think of. Clefki is also my the the Trubbish generation. Yeah, Trubbish generation is Trubbish is my my boy. Yeah, so you haven't met because you haven't gone to. No, I went to one here. Hold on. I did look up how to get Trubbish. Trubbish rocks. Trubbish is like maybe the best character. So I so I so I did this morning. Go to the beach. Unlock the second area for me. OK, and went straight because I was like I was like. I didn't understand the rules of how the Pokemon are like limited because I was like at what fucking point am I going to unlock Trubbish's habitat? I've unlocked all these habitats where the fuck is Trubbish? And then I finally I looked it up, which is cheating, but I had to know. And it was like, oh, no, it's one it's one area over. And I was like, I got to fucking I got to go. Did you like tell all of your Pokemon like it's I'll be right back? I'll be right back. The thing is, I went to the next area, set up his his habitat, then I went back to the first area. So he's the only guy there. Totally alone. That's horrible. No one left. So how many do I want to know this? I don't want to know this. What is your largest homemade air like building that you made in Pokopia? Do you do you want to know that? Yeah, I do. So there is a limit to a space that the game will consider a proper home. So there's actually two kinds of homes. There's the prefabs, which you use with the building kits, right? But then you can actually just make your own. Right. The maximum, I believe, footprint for that is 10 by 10. It doesn't matter, including the walls. So I have achieved that limit. But if you go beyond that, it's just it's just a space like the Pokemon aren't like, oh, I want to move into this home now. Oh, so I've made some pretty nice 10 by 10 homes. I call mansions. I think they're pretty nice. The Pokemon first couple of my favorite Pokemon, who I don't know if, you know, you haven't gotten to the areas yet that might allow those to appear. My which Pokemon, the Pokemon that you love, the Pokemon that I love, you can spoil where those you can spoil. Gardevoir is just my yeah. That's my great. So but, you know, I love Machoke is great. Machoke is good. Machoke is good because he's just like a big, strong guy. Well, if you look closely and I really started to because you always always had those like red kind of yeah, I'm like, are his muscles so intense that they're bursting out of the skin of his? I think that's actually what's happening. He's like he's like 3D is seeing him walk around. I'm like, wait a minute, this is actually really disturbing. He's like a hot dog. He put in the microwave. Oh, it's kind of messed up actually. It's pretty dark. He's obsessed with strength and training in the game. I got to get back in there because like I I I'm loving it. I'm like I'd say of the three of us on the show usually. I'm like the Pokemon guy that I'm always talking about these guys and stuff. But I I get sad, not sad, but like I get nervous when I'm in the middle of doing something in like Charmander or something. She'll be like, yeah, I actually need you real quick. I'm like, dude, like I'm already doing something like drop everything. I'm so sorry. I'm busy when they want to play a game when they come up to me. You want to play a little game? I'm just like, Pidgey, I can't do this find it thing that you're doing or whatever. I set a time limit every day. I wake up and currently instead of watching anime, I do an hour and 15 minutes of Pocopia with my coffee. That's good. I'll just I'll just sit down. I'll do all the stuff that has come up from the previous day. I finished a building. Yeah, like get my building. And held or TV? TV mode. OK, mode. Though I play with the Pro controller and it's I wish you could zoom out a little bit on the TV. So in the settings, there are a couple you can pull the camera out a little bit. The fuck? It's in the yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was the first thing I did. Literally straight up. But this camera is too close. I don't know if I can fuck with this. I didn't know this. This didn't change my excitement level. Wait, wait to it's going to change everything. Wait till you see the second distance for the camera. It is so much better than the default. It's so much better. Well, I've been liking like walking around with the guys. Well, you get a little more intimate with the actual Pokemon. I think I think that camera angle does lend itself to like connecting with them. But as far as building goes. Yeah, no. It's hard when you're pro controller and if on a TV in that first perspective, I'm like it says if I am literally inside of a house, putting a block above me. Yeah, it's so hard. Yeah, it's tough. But you said that there was a third title that you're also playing. That is correct. And this one's a deep cut. It was recommended on reset era. Whoa. Dot com forum. It's an indie visual novel called of the devil. And I heard about this. A lot of people are talking about it. The first episode is free and I'm halfway through it. Apparently there is a crazy twist. Everyone was talking about the crazy twist of the first episode of of the devil. Wow. Here's the thing about of the devil. I'm just going to tell you right now. I'm loving so many things about it. I love the vibe, the writing. It's got like hard boiled, grizzled, but cyberpunk ish characters. The music is great. Sound design UI, all of it's great. The character art is is it's tough. It's tough. It's tough art. I think I'm OK getting past it. I think I'm handling it. Everything else is really, really great. I'm kind of struggling to get past that character art. But I love a great visual novel. I love a great, like I said, ghost trick is one of my favorite games of all time. So I'm giving it a shot so far. It's very promising. Did you play the House of Fatta Morgana? OK. OK. That game got some notability because for a little while, technically, it was the highest rated game ever because it had four reviews, the minimum that Metacritic requires, and all of them were 100 percent. Yes. And I said, I got to play it. Right. I got to pull this down. Right. And I kept playing and I kept playing and I kept waiting for anything to happen. Oh, thank God. And I two hours, even three hours in, I was like, I just can't do this anymore. And I think I made a post about it. So I was like, well, you really got to get in like half the game. And I'm like, well, how long is the game? And they're like 20 hours. And I'm like, I'm not going 10 hours into this game. I had this and I did not like it. That makes me so. So I fell into the trap where we had an episode which was about. We don't have to say what the episode was about. We won't say what the episode's about. Look it up. Look it up. Audience. They do. But part of the premise of the episode was what are some other games for the switch that we haven't played yet. And so I played Fatima Morgana because it was so highly rated. Yeah. And I got in first off. I got in like many hours into the fucking game waiting for something because I was like anything. It has to be awesome at some point because the fucking reviews are so glowing. I totally agree with you. And then accidentally erased my save. No, because of the way the quicksave system would work. And I was like, I'm never. It's not worth it. I'm literally never going to know. Did you look at it? No, I didn't look it up either. I have no idea what happened. No idea why that game was so highly rated. It'd be funny to read what happens and then be like, actually, this kind of sounds good. Yeah. And then we fall in love with the Del Doron about it. Matt, what are you playing? All right. So I'm playing. I just I I'm a recent Resident Evil. Convert. Fan. Yes. I was always a Resident Evil 4 fan. Played through two, played, finished nine, absolutely loved it. I just started Resident Evil 3 remake on my on my PS5. And. I don't think people like Resident Evil 3 as much as some of the other ones. Yeah. And I'm trying not to have that color my experience of this, because I've heard that they do a nice job with the remake. I kind of don't like it as much as any of the ones that I've played so far. Two, four and nine. Right. It's a little bit different. You get these sort of like it's almost a Metroidvania where like so far my experience where I'm playing is Jill and there's sort of like a not like a completely open area, but like there's like areas that you're having to walk, weave your way through and then back to another area and then go back to another place that you missed before and stuff like that. And it's like, this is OK. I'm surprised you went to three remake instead of say eight or seven. Yeah. Well, I'm playing these in the worst way possible because I don't like I've never played all the way through the first one. Right. So I was like, oh, like I like because I keep hearing rumors that they're going to remake that one the same way they're remaking these other ones. But there is a remake of it already that it's like that plays well enough. But I'm like, I guess I could just play that. I probably should just play that. But like. I went with I just went with three because I've also heard it's short. I heard it's like five hours. Oh, wow. It's not very long. That's just another thing people don't like about it. But for me, I'm sort of like, hey, that's good news. Yeah, that's nice. I do want to get into seven. But I know that it's first person and it's going to be really scary to me. So I'm sort of putting that one off. But I do want to get to that and I do have eight as well. Looking for I'm looking forward to playing them. I'm trying to get into the ones that are available on PS5 at the very least. But while I was in Japan, I talked about this last week when we were there. I had I had a holy grail item of something I wanted to buy when I was when I was there. It was the only truly the only gaming thing that I intended to buy when I was there. Yeah. And on the last day, Heather and I walked around. Heather helped me make this happen. Another gaming thing that I bought was a Japanese copy of Kingdom Hearts 2. Because I love Kingdom Hearts and I love Kingdom Hearts 2 specifically. And was just like, I have no way to play this. I have no region specific. Yeah, I will buy this and I will have this on my shelf. And it was the final mix edition. The cover actually. But that wasn't the one. That was not the great. OK, the great item is right here. You have it. I have it here with me. The Game Boy Micro. Oh, my God, I remember those. The Famicom Edition Game Boy Micro. God, you just activated neurons that have not been activated in like 12 years. And I've threatened to buy one in the past. And I say threatened because I feel like there's a lot of, you know, this is an imperfect product. Yeah, you could hold it. Yeah, it's small. The screen is very little. Oh, it's so so imperfect. Which I take. I take a little bit of a fence at. It's adorable because it's it is perfect. It is perfect. Like you cannot improve this item. No, for what it is. No, it's almost entirely cartridge. Yeah, the entire footprint of this device is the cartridge. Yes, this is now an everyday carry. So solid. It feels like jewelry. Yes, it's very nice. Also, the colorway is really, really great. Yeah, pass it down to your kids. Yes, but it's, you know, it's tiny. It's tiny. So it's, you know, for somebody that already has some vision issues. Tough. But. This is just an everyday carry now. Like this is like this takes up no real estate in my pocket whatsoever. Have you all jumped on the crazy retro handheld train? Don't even get me started. This man has like 18 fucking. I have a retro pocket for I've got. What's the vertical? The mini me too or whatever. Yeah, I have the the. I'm Thor. I have that. That thing's expensive. I got in there before they raised the price. But I haven't. It also has not arrived yet. And I thought about canceling it. It's getting rough out there. I'm not going to send it has not changed in shipping status at all. What other ones? I have the amber neck. I have several amber nicks. I have the the one he's deep down the. The Game Boy advanced one as well. And I have a retro pocket too. And then I stopped getting retro. It's because I was like I like him. But it's kind of like, well, there were devices with more power. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, I once I was into that. And then I realized I could just put all that stuff on my steam deck. So I had a huge set up. And now my steam deck is like I'm not kidding. Seventy percent of my gaming. Yeah, is on a steam deck is really, really great. Now you can't even buy one at this point. I just re got a steam deck. Like about a month ago, maybe a month and a half ago, in part because I had no other way to play PC games. So the way I'm going to be playing your game is on the steam deck. I'm happy to let you know that I have tested extensively on the steam deck. It runs great. Use medium settings, but it runs. I love that. Great. There's an expanded UI option as well. Make sure that is on. Awesome. The thing that I love about this in particular is that I already had a Everdrive Gameboy Advance cartridge for it for everything. It fits perfectly. So now I just like have this remove it. Yeah, it's perfect. And I bought a Heather helped me source a charger because this is a proprietary. Oh, wow. That looks like a weird HDMI. Yeah. And we went to a second store that then and Heather asked the clerk behind the counter in Japanese, if there was a charger for the Gameboy Micro and he handed me a a charger, a USB charger that then had like six different heads. Oh, it's just like a Medusa. One for the game like once for a Gameboy SP, once for in original DS, I believe they use the same one. Once for like the 3DS, the Gameboy Micro, a couple other ones. Yeah, so we've all moved to USB-C as a standard. And in case you're wondering which stores those were, we went to we went to Mandarake, we went to Nakano Broadway, we went to Trader in Akihabara, we went to Hardoff, which is where you got the Gameboy Micro. And we also went to the Mandarake in Akihabara. Yes. A lot of the places had Gameboy Micro. Yes. One of them at Trader was in box. Yes. But the only one that had multiple Famicom versions was Hardoff. And this was the special. Coveted. Yeah. It's gorgeous. I love it. And it had this of the two that they had available. The screen was perfect. You must know a good amount of Japanese if you're asking for niche chargers for Gameboy Micro. I mean, that's impressive. Or I know very specific Japanese. You did say toward the end of the trip that it was like just starting to come back. I'm recognizing words that I thought I didn't know. Yeah, yeah. That's the problem is by the time I've warmed up, this is easier when I used to drink because when you drink, your inhibitions go down and you start experimenting and the language comes out faster. But I don't drink anymore. So I have to struggle through the layers of insecurity about the language. And those only start to peel away after I've been there for about a week. And this time that was when it was time to go back. Yes. But I'm going to hop back into actual lessons. Heather, what have you been playing? You talking just Po-Kopia. Po-Kopia 24 seven. And by that, I mean an hour and 15 minutes every day. And seventy five seven. Fortnite has a new season and I'm dabbling in that. There have been many articles recently about Fortnite's demise. They fired a thousand people. But also they're saying it's chopped. The player base is starting to dwindle. And I can't figure out why because the current season is so much better than the last season, like all of the complaints I had about the last season are gone. There is so much fun to be had in the current season. The rival system. All I want in Fortnite is to hunt a man. Yeah. And they have made it so that you go up to a board and a random person on the island is chosen and that person has to stay away from you and you have to hunt them. And it's the only person you can see on the mini map in like sort of a large radius of like they're in this area. Right. This is all you like if you're in a battle royale game, you can wander around willy nilly like doing dumb tasks. But what you want is an assignment and that is assignment is to kill someone for a bonus, like a specific bonus. And the more you hunt men, the more you stack bonuses for successive games. It's perfect. It is it is my fortnight. And there's nothing funnier to me than when you get assigned a person or when somebody is assigned to hunt you, their name and your name pop up at the top of the screen with whoever your player skin is. And I'm still playing as scratchy. And it is so funny to see like the rock or some shit. And then scratchy is hunting them. That's the spirit of it. But yeah, I'm having a great time. Yeah. Is there like a I mean, is there another game like that out right now that people are like switching over to? I mean, Marvel rivals are great. Like all that stuff. People like people are people are are switching over. But I would say that the atmosphere of fortnight being so fucking stupid on purpose isn't captured by those games. They're serious. Marathon is serious. ArcGraders is you know, Marathon just came out. I forgot. Yeah. Like where else can I be? Daffy Duck. Fightin' Goku. Shoot Shohei Otani in the head. Sorry Shohei. And then like hop up and down with the emote, the Daffy Duck emote. Like it's stupid. It's so stupid. But yeah, and also I love Shohei Otani. Shout out. Yeah, we all shout out. Two time. We love the guy. Two time champion. It was just the old it's he was in the store. So I've seen a lot of it. The season just started. Yeah, so Fortnight's been been tough because people are playing it last, but I'm still totally entrenched. Also playing Pokemon the card game pocket. And I'd like to say we always talk about like a gaming adjacent stuff. You and I go into the Pokemon stores, made me hungry for Pokemon. Oh, um, Chum in the water. Yeah, but Trubbish wasn't at the stores. No. So I did purchase the Trubbish sitting cutie online and he's coming to my house. Oh, that's I really like the sitting cutie. There's a little guy, little, little, little tiny guy. So I'm excited. Would you say Trubbish is your number one favorite Pokemon? Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's up there for me. Don't get me wrong. He's cute. He's adorable. And he's got personality. He's got ears. What was crazy about the Pokemon stores, because like here in the states, the Nintendo stores that I've been to have a Pokemon section, that they don't have them at the Nintendo stores there really. Like they have because they have dedicated Pokemon stores. Yeah. More plushes than you could think of for the most specific like Flygon had a plush. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's so crazy. Well, they rotate them. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So they become like limited edition. Like they'll do these and then maybe we'll get a Porygon 2 out there at some point. Porygon 2. Zee. Come on. Porygon Zee. Zee's better. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard I yell too much in the ads. I've heard that people get upset because when it's advertisement time, they have to turn down the volume in their car or they get upset. And I just want you to know that I don't always have to yell to sell you something. Like, for example, it's officially springtime. You know what that means? It's time to spring clean. It's getting warmer and it's time to rethink what's in my closet. I like my style and I'm trying to keep fewer things, but I still want an upgrade on the pieces I have now. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. The fits are thoughtful. The price actually makes sense. Quince makes high quality, everyday essentials using premium materials like 100 percent European linen and their insanely soft flow knit active wear fabric. Their linen pants and shirts are lightweight, breathable and comfortable. Basically the perfect layer for spring. The pants strike the right balance between laid back and refined. So you look put together without trying too hard. And they're flown at active wear, moisture wicking, empty odor and soft enough that you'll actually want to wear it all day. The best part is that their prices are 50 to 60 percent less than similar brands. How Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality, not a brand to mark up. Everything is designed to last and make getting dressed easy. You know what? When we do these ads, they'll send us stuff. And when my wife saw that we were getting Quince, she said, give it to me. And I went, can I maybe? And she said, no, give it to me. I went, really? And she's like, I love Quince. This is true. I'm not bullshitting here. She took all my quints and she loves it. Me, I got to wear a bag. Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to Quince.com slash get played for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada to go to Q U I N C E dot com slash get played for free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash get played. Boy, I wish I knew what he was saying. But I don't speak animal crossing. Why do most of us want to learn a new language? It's probably not about memorizing grammar tables or topping a leaderboard. 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To listen to Babel, I felt shame. There were times when Nick was talking and I was like, I don't have, I don't even, I forgot those words. And he's swimming confidently upstream into a language he had not practiced before outside of an app. And what's wrong with Heather? She can't drink and she's just in the corner of a bar crying. However you learn best by listening, speaking, reading or writing, Babel adapts to your style and keeps you motivated with personalized learning plans, real time feedback and progress tracking. Make fast lasting progress with Babel, the science backed language learning app that actually works. Every course comes with a 14 day money back guarantee. Just ask Nick Weiger. Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners. Right now, get up to 60% off your Babel subscription at Babel.com forward slash played. Get up to 60% off at Babel.com forward slash played spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com forward slash played. Rules and restrictions may apply. You're probably listening right now and you're probably thinking, I'm good. I don't need a VPN. I'm happy with only being able to watch content in my own territory. Let me just tell you something real quick. It does more than that. It's doing more than that actually. And you're making a big mistake by not having one. Because guess what? Did you know you could use it to get a better deal on a flight maybe? If you change the location, these things, these things we're paying for, they work algorithmically and you can get around that algorithm by using a VPN to your advantage. So why not use Nord VPN? If there are TV shows, films, anime that aren't available in your region, you could switch your virtual location to a country where it is available. That's your right when you use a VPN and it should be the law of the land. You shouldn't need one, but here we are. Thanks. Thanks a lot. You know who? And if you're traveling abroad, you can access your streaming services back home. And we all get a little homesick when we're out of the country. Switching your virtual location with Nord VPN can also save you money. That's what I was talking about earlier by purchasing flights and hotels from other countries at a cheaper price. I'm all about saving that money. You understand? Protecting the bag as it's known. Nord VPN can also act as an invisibility cloak for your IP address, protecting your privacy online and leaving no digital footprint, especially while you're traveling and use public Wi-Fi. For me, let me just tell you, using public Wi-Fi, the riskiest thing I do. I'm logging on to whatever I can do. So it's good that I have a VPN to help save my behind. Nord VPN protects you wherever you are in the world. Anywhere could be Los Angeles, California, could be Tokyo, Japan. Those are only two places as far as I'm concerned, but it could be anywhere else. It's super fast, no buffering while streaming, and it stops your ISP band with throttling. I hate that throttling. And you can use one account on up to 10 devices. Now, that's a value. Premium cybersecurity for the price of a cup of coffee per month. To get the best discount off your Nord VPN plan, go to NordVPN.com. Get played. Our link will also give you four extra months on the two year plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. The link is in the podcast episode description. Go save yourself some money. Jason, why don't you talk to us about people of note? OK. Why don't you talk to us first off about how long how long have you been working on this game? You told us that the inspiration was Hamilton. Yeah. And it's been 10 years since you saw Hamilton. Have you been working on the game for that whole decade? Full time development has been about six years. Holy shit. Yeah, that's yep. Didn't think it would take that long. Wow. It did. But I mean, even before that, I was prototyping ideas. You generally, you know, not to get too into the pitching process, but, you know, you kind of need to be able to demonstrate unless you're a huge, huge name, you know? So I was making, you know, prototype, experimenting with different like, you know, musical styles and how I was going to make the battle system reflect all that stuff. So like in amongst other things, I have been working on the game since 2017. Wow. Approximately. And then I got funded in late like December 2019. We're time to get funded because then I signed a two year office lease on February 27th, 2020, not a good time to sign a two year office lease. I believe that was almost the exact same week that I got my season pass to Disney land. Yeah, they must have refunded those. They refunded half of it. OK, well, I did get a passport around that same time. I was going to get on. Let's get out of here. So did you did you have to pay the lease out? Luckily, the company breather went bankrupt and I did. I did get out of the lease about 13 months into the two year lease. Wow. So I did. I had to pay it until the time. And I did go there because I was like, I have it. And it was just an empty. I just had to get out of my house. It was almost sadder being there. I was like in the space where I had imagined all this wonderful collaboration between developers and I'm just like alone and sad. Wow. OK, but you know, six years and I got to tell you this is a little cheesy, but, you know, there have been ups and downs and twists and turns. No plans to have contact with the enemy. But if I could go back in time and show Jason of six years ago, this game, he he would say you did it, dude. That's right. You I can't believe it. But you did it. That made me emotional. That's nice. Oh, it's making me emotional every day. Wow. I because you hear so many stories and they're all true about how difficult and chaotic game development can be of things reset or derailed. There's so many things that can and invariably do go wrong. And I don't know how it happened, man, but I I made the game I always wanted to make. So so it is a JRPG, but also a musical. Effectively. Yes. And I'm not allowed to say JRPG unless it means Jason RPG in which case I can't. It is a JRPG. It's a JRPG. Don't fight me on it. I mean, I've covered my bases. Yeah. It is, you know, listen, it's not a it's not a there's that game. I forget what it's called Threads of Time or something that's like just directly a Chrono Trigger knockoff. Oh, sure. And I'm going to play it obviously because it looks great. But like I just I wanted to take the best of my favorite games. And I would say even though I do love Six in Tactics so much and sorry, not eight so much, there's a lot of seven and nine. And if you play it, you'll be like, oh, I can clearly see that influence. It also has some Chrono Cross in there. Even has a little bit of the world ends with you mixed in for good flavor. Hey, yo, the world ends with you. Let's go. I love it. I love it. I'm trying to get it to play. Oh, dude, you got it. Yeah. If you went to Japan to you went to the neighborhood and I was like, you have to go with you. Guys, I'm going to do it. Fight him. Stop yelling at me. These these were just my favorite games growing up. And like, I don't know, did you ever like download RPG maker, like mess around with that? I did not. I so I was told by a teacher that I'm bad at math. Oh, no. And it permanently ruined my ability to engage with technical properties. Oh, even though I think I've demonstrated on the hardware side, a technical proficiency. I think you'd be great at it. I can't do it because I'm like, oh, it might be math and I know I'm dumb. It's it's like it is. I got this. Heather, you're dumb. Good at math. You're dumb. So no, I never I never mess with RPG maker. I've never tried designing any kind of game and any kind of gaming system previously. There is a certain type of person and that type of person is me. That was just, you know, they would we would play these games and we would we would daydream of, you know, we write our lore, our world building in our journals and we would mess with RPG maker and we would dream of making these games and like somehow I convinced Annapurna Interactive to take a chance on me and let me do that. And not only that, but to combine it with my innate theater kid energy with my immense love of theater and I and something that I actually have been like really trying to drill this hard, you know, with my marketing team is like, I think that when you like, oh, it's a musical, you think like the RPG elements are going to be like light. You're like, OK, you have HP, great, you attack them, it does five damage. No, this is a very serious RPG system I have developed. You know, there there's all these like really cool like synergies. I basically said to myself, I like materia, I think they're cool. But you know what sucks about materia? You can only attach one blue support materia to one green magic materia. And I think that could be way cooler. So instead of having a linear kind of bar like that, I decided to expand it and we have these songstones or basically materia. But now it's a linked graph and now you can put two even three support songstones that can like combine or synergize in interesting ways on the same ability. You can have one support go to two different abilities and like really trying to create these interesting builds and loadouts. What's really fun is seeing play testers get absolutely demolished by a boss to the point where they're like they get depressed and then they go into the menu, decide to change a few things based on what they just saw and then they steamroll it. Like it's a it just makes me feel great. Yeah, it's the best. It's like a rush for game designer. So when for somebody who's listening and they're like, what does it mean to be an RPG and a musical? Does it mean like, for example, in Conker's Bad Fur Day when the boss would sing a song at you or in Astro Bot when the tree would sing? Sure. Is it like that or is the song mechanic part of the fighting system? Like what does it mean? Yeah, it means two different things. OK, every so often in the game, probably once every 90 to 120 minutes, you're going to put your controller down and you're going to watch a fully animated musical number that helps tell the story. Sit back and relax because you ain't doing anything for that two to two and a half minutes at rock. No, it's like we became briefly an animation production studio. Like we were a game development studio and then we were like, no, it's incredibly difficult to make animated musical sequences. So we devoted like all of our resources for well over a year, probably closer to two, just to put these out. OK, but everything in this world is music. It's like a little bit like this came out actually after I, you know, made the World Building Bible, but Trolls World Tour where like every genre has its own nation state and fashion and culture. And artificially, they have never really interacted in the real world. Of course, these influences are all over the place, but the pop nation of Cordia, they know about the rock kingdom of Durandis, but they don't mess with it. Yeah, EDM, Luminas out there, Rap Pie or whatever. And initially we focus up on our heroine, Cadence, and she basically is trying to win Noteworthy, which is basically Eurovision in the city. And she runs into this like corrupt judge, you know, and she eventually gets it in her mind that in order to win this contest, she has to bring something that no one's ever seen before. So she begins her journey out into the wider world to form a band of different genres, but how that manifests in battle is that every battle track that we have, every combat track of which we have 13, it's dependent on the area you're in. Like let's say you're in the Celtic Forest of the Liltin Green. You have the base Celtic battle track. But then, depending on which members are in your band, we had to create 11 different remixes of that track to account for the dynamic switching for every single character's genres. So we have pop Celtic, rock Celtic, EDM Celtic, rap Celtic. But then you have basically your limit breaks, but they're called mash ups. We're not one person has to have their meter filled now, but two or more have to have their meters filled. And then when you use those, you switch the battle track to now a combination of those. So now it's like rock EDM Celtic. And we had to have, we had to compose every one of these battle tracks in unbelievable number of times. The amount of music that our composer, Jimmy Hinson, Big John circles made is unreasonable. And I feel really bad about it. And then the way that turns work at the bottom of the screen, there's a musical staff and then the time signature, let's say it's four four. What that means in the games context is that you have four actions. The enemy gets four actions. And unlike in a lot of RPGs where your turn order is decided by a speed stat, you just decide what order you want your characters to go in. But there's a lot of abilities that have situational effects depending on when you go. If you attach the Swan Song remix stone to another songstone, that means that that ability is going to do more damage as the last action of your stanza. It's a Swan Song. There's also opening act, the opposite of that. And then like a fret or rocker has an ability called 11, which boosts the effectiveness of the next action taken. So I start layering in all these different things that make it so that a certain order becomes really strategically advantageous and it creates a really, really interesting dynamic with how you're choosing to allocate your character's turns. There's the crescendo system where bosses get more powerful over time. And that's to prevent turtling strategies. Everything in the game, story, world, battle, musical numbers. It's all coming back to music. I know that you you like musicals, but would you consider yourself music forward? Like Nick plays instruments and it's strange to us. Yeah, we don't understand. It's like, what are you doing? Like it takes a certain kind of person to see Hamilton and then be like, I want to make a musical. There has to be like a door that's already open in your head, I think. What is the genre or what is the musical experience that was sort of like the turning point for you? Do you mean like musical or do you mean just with music in general? Music in general. Yeah. I mean, it's weird as that. Like, you know, I love, you know, I'm personally more like I love Porter Robinson, I love Madion, I love pendulum, RIP, pendulum. They're not dead. They just broke up. You know, so I'm like, I'm personally more of an EDM fan than. But, you know, I don't know if I listen to music necessarily more or more intensely than the average person. But I think it's just understanding that music taps in to just for me a very like primal emotional place that like, you know, my therapist couldn't get me too. But that song could. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I just like I and it's that's coming from musical theater, too. Like that feeling I get when like those instruments swell and they just hit you just the right way, I was just like, I have to find a way to bring this to the games that I always loved so much, those those Final Fantasy, you know, Square Soft titles. And the thing about the game is that like, you're not going to like some of these areas in terms of their musicality. Like you might not like rap, you might not like country, you might not like rock, whatever, but I wanted to include. I mean, obviously I couldn't include every what does that even mean? Every genre. I actually wanted to do a Bollywood area. The Bollywoods, we couldn't do it. Yeah. But I hoped that by hitting a lot of the major ones and a lot of the ones that resonate, you're going to find your place in that game. You're going to love that one area, that city, that dungeon so much because that resonates with you specifically. And if I can just tap into that feeling for everyone at least once in the game, I'll consider that a mission well served. So having never made a game. What is possible? And I never will. What does success look like for you? Like what is your hope for this? What door does it open next? Or is it just that you're like, if I sell enough copies to make enough money to make the next game, that's all I want? I you're hitting the deep, the deep questions. I've been asking myself very, very, quite a bit over the last week or two. I am a person who I have known what I've wanted to do with my life, my whole life. That is a blessing. I know a lot of people really struggle with that. Yeah. I want to make video games and even the idea of retirement is weird to me. I'm like, I'm still going to want to make video games. What are you talking about? Right. The industry is not amazing at the moment. Not as many games are being funded. The ones that are maybe for lesser amounts. I don't need to make a 50 million dollar game. I don't even need to make a five million dollar game, but I want to keep doing it. And I want to and I want to make it my primary vocation for people of note. I can't, you know, so many things determine market factors and what you're going to sell and if you get viral visibility, I want the game to resonate with an audience. I want that audience to love it and to show that they love it. I just want to see one cosplayer somewhere, one cosplayer at a convention doing people of note. And for me, yeah, like if the game bombs, if the game comes out and it's at a Metacritic 52, I will still be proud of it. No matter what, I will always be so proud of the game. It might curtail and hurt my ability to make future games, if that's true. So I am nervous about that. I'm nervous about how many steam reviews it gets and what percent that's at. I'm nervous about a lot of things, but like, I think that's just part of being an artist and part of making something like this year. Like, I think when you play the game and you know me, like the only thing you're going to be thinking the whole time is that's the most Jason shit I've ever seen. It's such a direct reflection of me and my goofiness that like it is. No matter what you say, it's such a personal thing. Right. Like I wrote it, I designed it. It's my dream game. When someone says they don't like it, I should ignore them because they're dumb. But I can't. Yeah. It still hits me and I maybe want to get better about that. But, you know, at the end of the day, I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity. And I just hope I just hope it finds its people. That's all I can say. Yeah. Yeah. So when so in the conception of this game, it was always it was always a musical like or was there ever was there ever a moment where that was like musical first musical first game? Second. I mean, I mean, currently ish. But currently. Yeah. It was like coming out of Hamilton. I was like, I got I got I got to do this. Oh, my God, I got to do it. It's just so cool because like, I don't know, like I feel like people see stuff all the time that like just hits them in such a specific way that like, you know, any art can affect you like in a multitude of ways. But it's very special when that happens to you and pushes you toward toward anything. Yeah. And so I just think it's cool that you like you've pulled this off and it seems like a really fun seems like a really fun game. I guess because it's like you're also doing something that I think hasn't really been done. Right. Like it's like you've mentioned earlier is another game that like is kind of like musical is there are music games there are gods recently. You know, a couple years ago was a musical. It was more of like a visual novel musical and you could kind of choose your way through it. But yeah, like there hasn't really been a game. I guess the closest would be Eternal Sonata. I was going to say it, but I was like, is that right? Yeah, I brought up Eternal Sonata on the show before. It's the showpon. Yes. Like well, on his deathbed, you like go into his mind, which is like a crazy. Yeah. It's a great concept for a game. That game has a lot of like DNA in common, but like it itself was not a musical. Like there was no musical. There were no musical numbers. Of course, there's like the musical sequence in Alan Wake 2 and then the one from Control as well. But like, I don't know, it's like rarefied air. So I think on that alone, what if what how exciting is that? Like that's like such a I don't know. It's so cool. Yeah, it's not like any such a unique space. It's not like you're launching a first person shooter. Right. You know, it's like it's like oh, there's a game with like a basketball. Xbox 360 game that nobody's played. That's kind of like it or this is kind of like it. And you know, when I pitched the game, the pitch, you know, when I was trying to come up with like, oh, they'll understand this was like, oh, it's I didn't even go with Hamilton. I was like frozen meets Final Fantasy. I was like, we got some alliteration there to work. Yeah, that's great. And then last year, coincidentally, and the game's like done at this point, we're in Polish mode, we're in fixing a little game called Claire Obscure Expedition 33 comes out. Sure. Reinvigorates turn based RPGs in a lot of ways. And then a little movie called K-pop Demon Hunters comes out, which itself was a massive cultural phenomenon. And I'm like, yo, I'm riding these waves. Like, let's go. Like, I'm about this. There's never been a moment more suited for a game. Right. Like, I'm like, wow, this really worked out for me in a lot of cultural ways. So yeah, like I think people, if they just give it a shot, they're going to love it. And, you know, pretty low price point, 25 bucks. That's great. 25 dollars. You said that festival. You're like an EDM guy. I'm generally. So is that your favorite area? Or is it another favorite area? Lumina is my favorite area. That's the I won't give away where it is in the story. We have, I won't tell you exactly what they are, but we have five major cities. A lot of those cities have districts like we have a J-pop and a K-pop district, which it's not Korea and Japan don't exist in this world. So that's Joy-pop and Kick-pop. Awesome. And then like different dungeons, like I mentioned, there was a Celtic, you know, forest. We have a huge 80s area, a big fan of that area, actually. 80s might be my favorite. The puzzles are never mind. I won't spoil that. But the 80s area rips. But yeah, that one, it's it's going to be like a wide variety, like I said, of music people are going to find and resonate with. And so, I mean, you also do voice acting yourself. So like when you're as the designer of this game, getting voice actors come do this, like how do you how did you like explain this to like Erica and like the other people, like, OK, so this is like what we're going for. It was like, was there like a specific direction you like you were giving? Or was it like, like you kind of trusted the cast to kind of trust them? I mean, I did tell them like, hey, this game is bold, bright. We're not I mean, I want like realistic reads, but it's it's an elevated game at the end of the day. I really kind of wanted to narcissistically cast myself in a major role. But my singing is OK. Sure. My singing is not at that level. Yeah. And I knew I wanted some great talent there. We actually did end up split casting a few of the roles. Erica is actually one of them. Right. For me personally, like I don't do much voice acting anymore. Yeah. But I did direct them all. And for me, something that always bothered me in voice acting and maybe it bothered you, too, was just the utter and absolute lack of context given in most of these scenes, at least in the video game space. So I was like, I was just their scene partner the entire time. We would just go through the scene and, you know, they'd always have the context because I literally would read them in and read the entire scene through with them. And like, yeah, largely just I got an I got an incredible cast. Shout out right now. I'm just going to shout out. Hell, yeah. Heather Gonzalez, amazing. Kate and some believable Jason Charles Miller as Fred or rocker, as noted, Erica Ishii, Cynthia, our EDM DJ, a Grammy nominated rapper who had never voice acted before in his life, came in, was not good for one hour and then was incredible for every other line for the rest of the time. Wow. We just we just reround and did the first couple of lines again. Monso Wachili, AKA Chief Wachil, shout out. That man is incredible and it sounds so authentic. We got Josieja as Councilman Sharp. We got for Martell, we got Deborah Wilson, who was incredible to work with. Yeah, the most method person I've ever met. That was a wild session. I remember that for the rest of my life. Sure. Like our voice cast is incredible. I am so it was also like during the sag strikes. So there was a lot of chaos around making sure that the interim contract was signed. There was all kinds of stuff. Shout out to Sarah Almala at SAG After for helping me navigate all that. It was all very chaotic at the time. But now all I do is I listen to the lines and I'm like, these are great. Wow. It all fades into the midst of memory. You know, at the end of the day. Wow. Who cares about all that nonsense? The lines are great now. Like you sleeping on the hotel room floor then. I don't remember. Yeah, you know, it's like, where are you at now? OK, cool. It's great. And I have, you know, a lot of I have a weird talent. And sometimes it's bad because you need to remember like bad things for, you know, so that you don't repeat them. But I tend to just really block out a lot of the negative experiences I've had, which is good because there were some like we there's just some game developments, chaos, right? Absolute chaos, right? And there were some like at one point I had to I had to let go one of my best friends in the world. Like I was working with her. She was incredible and due to circumstances beyond either of our controls. They I literally had to fire her. And it was one of the worst feelings in my life. And let me give another shout out to Coriel because she's my she was my best friend and I was I called her at six p.m. She lives 90 minutes away. She lives in south of south of Irvine and I I burst into tears. I'm letting her go. I'm crying. She just sits there and she listens and she after I'm done giving my spiel about why I had to do it. I paused or she paused for like five seconds and she said, you want me to come up? I'll pick up some Taco Bell. She knows I love Taco Bell and Baja Blast. What's up? Baja Blast. Yeah, sponsor me. And she came up. Baja Blast is a listener. She came up. She just hung out with me all night. I'm still best friends there to this day. So what's up, Coriel? Wow, you're the best. Wow. But it can be tough. It can be really tough and to be here at the finish line, it's easy. Like I want to remember the bad times because I think that gives it more weight. Like that makes it matter more. It wasn't all sunshine. It wasn't all rainbows. Yeah. And then it makes the good times stand out. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like if it's all sort of gray, you don't know how to feel about. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Pinks are lost all of Toy Story 2 during filming. Thank you. I don't remember her name, but I believe she was on pregnancy leave or maternity leave. Yeah. Yeah. And she had the whole film saved at her home computer or something. I got a couple of movies I wish they would have lost. Same more. Toy Story 4, I guess. Michael Key was on that. And Toy Story 4 is good. Yeah. The worst Toy Story is still one of the better movies. Yeah, still a good movie. Yeah. Coco's great too. People, I mean, Pixar's got it. Yeah, they got the juice. And they don't need the plug. Yeah. They're doing just fine. Yeah. Hoppers was good. Hoppers was really good. Everyone's doing great. People have note comes out tomorrow. Tomorrow, April 7th. You can wishlist it right now if you're listening, but. You just pick it up tomorrow. Pick it up tomorrow. Pick it up tomorrow. And let me give you, it's going to be out on Steam, Epic Game Store, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, all of them. Oh, well then I'm going to play it on PlayStation 5. Great. Play on PS5. Don't play on your Steam Deck, guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds like it's available on basically all platforms. We tried for Switch 1, but that thing is a potato with electricity. I don't know how any game ever ran on the Switch 1. I tried to turn on my Switch 1 pretty recently, actually. Let me tell you something. It was having a hard time. It's got a cane. It's like, it's like just take me out back and shoot me. Because it's a huge install base. Like Switch 2 is doing well, but it's still relatively early in its life cycle. So, it's like 140 million units sold. Yeah. Yeah, we couldn't make that one out. Yeah, yeah. It's at one point. I mean, we wanted the game to look great, so we had to make that decision. Yeah, of course. Coming out tomorrow. It's everywhere that's not a potato. Yeah. How about we do a quick segment before we get out of here? Oh, OK, let's do a segment. It's time for the question block. These are just questions that are asked by our listeners at our discord.gd.g. slash get played. Sure. And they're just kind of general gaming questions. For all of us? They're for all of us. Yeah, for all of us. OK. This first one is from Robot Surgeon 23. Hi, Robot Surgeon. Do you get played and ranch? What? You're in this one. Look at that. If you had to pick a video game to put your worst enemy in that isn't just an immediate death sentence, what game are you condemning them for eternity in? I think Tetris would be a hard time. Are you like dodging the blocks? Yeah, the blocks are just falling. Yeah. You got to get out of the way. Crazy Taxi would also be actually pretty unpleasant. That'd be terrifying. Just car, NPC, crazy taxi. Maybe like. I think I just dropped somebody in Grand Theft Auto 5 with the instant acceleration mod on. The 9,999 miles per hour, the guys are just flying like crazy. You're just inside your house watching cars. That's terrifying. How about Dench Attack, but they're in the train. They're in the train that's like multi-tracked, drifting at 9,000 miles per hour. That would be wild. Ranch, is there a game you think would be a tough time for your enemies? I would put them in Dead by Daylight. Oh my God, terrifying. Christ. The cycle of that is basically the survivors have to keep doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not that you don't die immediately, but you can die. Yeah, you die multiple, multiple times, forever. I've never played that game before. It's fun. I'm kind of scared. Like Hymen's Seek, basically. Uh-oh. That's a good time. Of course, Ranch would like that. What's your answer, Jason? Mine was, I thought of Dench Attack real quick inside the train. I think that Dead Space is going to be rough. Oh, God. Dead Space is going to be real rough for anyone. I mean, yeah, if you just put somebody in the last of us, it's just like... Sure. Or like Doom Eternal. I mean, you're fucking depressed. Yeah. We're looking for funny answers, not depressing ones. I kind of do think, though, Doom Eternal would be an easier time than the last of us. Right? There's something about, because the guns in Doom are so crazy. You have more ability to survive. You don't have to be stealthy or good at shooting. Find a bottle and desperately use that. Exactly. You can just be like... Yeah, use the BFG. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This next one is from Silent Martyr. Hi, Silent Martyr. They write, if you could be roommates with any Pokemon like in Pokopia, which would you choose? Oh, wow. I'm immediately, I mean, it's basic. I'm kind of just thinking Pikachu, because then I might not have to pay for electricity. I might be able to live fully off the grid with a generator powered by a Pikachu. That's your goal, it's like... You're living with Pokemon and your goal is a free electric bill? Are you like, wait, are you like hooking the Pikachu up? How are you harnessing it? This kind of gives it a little zap every now and then. Just a little zap. What does? About Pikachu. But how does the refrigerator work? Yeah, you need constant electricity. You're going to chain him to the wall. I have a meter that tells me how much I have before I eat. Okay, it's a gas tank. And he knows that he recognizes the symbology on the meter to know that I better fill that up. So you got a wall battery. A wall battery, yeah. And a big battery that has a meter on it. Okay, okay. And he zaps it for me. He's also my best friend. He's your best friend. For me, it has to be a Pokemon, and hopefully they're chill with it that I can ride and Lapras comes to mind. Oh, okay. Lapras can be cool. Lapras chilling out, taking a nice beach day with Lapras. We're out there, like not a Jetski, but a chill friend that I can just hang out with. Lazy River style. Late right, yeah. Oh, they're going on a river? That'd be great. Lapras fan here. Is Trubbish stinky? I kind of don't think so. I kind of don't think Pokemon smell like normal animals. I'm going to pull up the Pokédex entry on Trubbish. Is this guy fucking stink or what? Well, because it's important to know, because if he's not stinky, it's Trubbish. Yeah. If he's stinky, I can't do it. I'm going to have to say yes, he's made of garbage. He's made of garbage, so I can't. He's going to smell bad. Man, poor little guy. You love Trubbish so much. It's very wholesome. I love him. He's so good. He's little teeth. Sticking out. I guess it's a shame that Meowth doesn't talk, because if Meowth, if all Meowth's talked and want Meowth, because I like the way that guy sounds. Meowth. Yeah, that's right. But if it's just if it's just him saying Meowth all the time, I don't want that. Psyduck. Be good. Psyduck is so cute. Psyduck is solid. Psyduck is a great answer. Yeah. Ranched you got an answer? I would just love to have Togepi. Oh, yeah. Togepi's really cute. That's pretty good. I saw a video of Togepi. The video, the context of the video is Togepi's crying and somebody gives Togepi and Apple Togepi stop crying. Yeah. And the caption on the video was like basically like my girlfriend before I come in and fix whatever's bothering her. I said to my wife, she was like, I am just like that. I love apples. Apple's all it takes. This next one's from Funky Spore. I'm Funky Spore. Funky Spore writes, what video game characters would you invite to do an escape room with? I hate to be biased, recency bias. I'd like to see an escape room go up against the wit of a Leon S. Kennedy. I thought you were going to say that. There's no fucking way he's not making a short work of that within minutes. He's going to kick through a wall. He's not going to like solve any of the puzzles. He's just going to like, he'll like look at a box and like turn it around, examine it, press X and be like, oh, there's like a shape I could. There's like something I could put in here. He's good at recognizing shapes. Sure is. Looks like it needs a diamond. Who's a smart person in a video game? I've got a rare answer. OK. I'm one of the most resourceful video game characters that I can remember is Jade from Beyond Good and Evil. Oh, Jade. She's a photographer. She gets into places she's not supposed to be. She avoids guard. She she can do anything. I'm in with Jade. I mean, Ditto from Pocopia can become anything. Yeah. Can you come a thing or just like a like a key? Yeah. Well, I mean, it can become mush so it could get under a door. Yeah. But it can also be a person or a claff key or whatever. So Ditto could be could be a front of fun partner in an escape room. But I feel like Ditto is not smart. Like when you look at. You're dumb. But you you're there too, right? In this question. I'm also dumb. No, you're not. Yeah, no, I am. I'm bad at math. OK. Heather. Don't. Don't. So bad at math. Talk about my friend. Yeah, I'm bad at math. Who's a smart. I mean, is. Horey gone. Is. Is the blueprints. Thymine. Yeah, is is is are they smart? I if you're Simon, they're as smart as you are. Then they're dumb. Like I think Simon is a character doesn't like he doesn't have a defined personality outside of what you do. I would say Ditto also would be tough because in an escape room, you typically need like a partner you can communicate with in some way. Right. Right. Oh, I have my answer. Lara Croft. Oh, Laura Croft. Great. Yeah, rooms are basically escape rooms from 2000 years ago. Laura Croft. That's those are just ancient escape rooms. That's what they are. Grant, you have an answer for this? Um, glados. Oh, even though she's bad. Her. Yeah, I just like her. Good answer. Good answer. All three of us made the exact same sound when you said that. This next one's from Foster. Hi, Foster. Foster writes, I finally bought a PS5. Hey. What's the first game I should play on it? The first game on a new console decides the console's personality. Well, I agree with that. People of note, certainly. People of note, check it out. People of note, it's going to be a musical first in an Audi. But as far as PS5's titles go, exclusives. Look, I mean, I know we just met the guy again. I might say Death Stranding 2. Death Stranding 2 is a fucking. It's a banger. And it's also a very PS5-y game. Yes. It's available on other things now. I know, but it's a great PS5 game. But it feels PS5-y. Yeah. Like the look of the game and the look of the console are kind of in concert. He played it. Well, we'll talk about this later. But he designed it. He designed the PS5. He designed it. He showed us the, or you know, the Aki showed us the tour, gave us a tour and he showed us the PC trailer of Death Stranding 2. And maybe want to play Death Stranding 2 again because the game is so fucking good. It's really good. Death Stranding 2 could be good. I have my answer, but it's a prerequisite. There's a prerequisite. Please. I truly loved it. I don't care about the changes they made. I thought they were great. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Let's fucking go. Get in there. Hell yeah, dawg. Have you played Remake? I hope so. If not, yes, it might make sense to play Remake, but Rebirth just. I've bounced off it twice now. Where'd you get to? You got past Gangaga. That's pretty far. I think you did. After nine, I think. I don't know where the hell I am. You gotta boot that back up and let me know where you're at. I don't know where I am, but I have no one. You're in Gangaga and you're right before Gold Saucer, which is the best part of the game. The problem with Rebirth, just like the problem with Pokopia, is that I 100% each area first. That's brutal. That game is much better when you're just picking and choosing. No. Like a little buffet. I was playing like you when I started it, and I had to make a choice and be like, I'll never finish this if I do. Chadley's kind of annoying. That's true. I 100% every area until I move on. I gotta do it. But like the cinematic moments in that game, and you got to know it, you know, the end. I know, I know. I'm going to finish it. I love it. There's no world in which I let Cloud down. Yeah. You know, you gotta hope. All right. My answer, my answer, though, for PS5 game. What is it? What's the game that dictates the flavor of the system? And we're saying it has to be exclusive. Like it's for the PS5, but like, you know, like blue prints is on a bunch of stuff. Yeah, of course. 80s too. You do. Yeah, sure. Hmm. My answer is Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS5 Pro, which is just added ray tracing. So it looks better than it ever has. And it's also the best time to play it because they've finally fixed everything. Yeah, I played that at launch and it was a disaster. It was so funny. Yeah. God, it was such a funny game. At launch. I was flying through elevators. Yeah. And then we played it again after the DLC came out and they fixed everything. We were like, yeah, this is just this is just good now. Yeah, it was it was great when it was bad. Now it's good that it's good. But driving down a street and a car exploding in the sky that just rendered. I'm in T-Pos on the motorcycle. Truly memorable, really memorable experiences. Like a game can't live here and each side of the live here or here. Can't be in the middle. Yeah. And then finally from Olivia, Olivia Wright. Hi, Olivia. What's the best console mod? Shell Swaps, mod chips, custom firmware, all of the above. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I got an immediate answer for this. I knew you would. So it's an RGB mod for a Super Nintendo so that you can output RBG RGB mode to a Sony PVM. When you turn that system on, it's like you've never seen a 16 bit graphic. It is. It's like porcelain. It is so beautiful that somehow it makes the sprites look handcrafted like somebody went in and touched each individual sprite. RBG modding, RGB modding, your Super NES. That's that's the it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. Wow. I've been to the Louvre and if you were to put. I'm so what? Because the SNES was kind of built for like CRTs, right? And they had that kind of soft edge. Now if you play it today, that's gone. Yeah. Are you saying that there is an in between softness and sharpness that you get with the the RGB? I'm written this down, y'all. It is. It is. It is. So I don't know if you remember that like there used to be like GameStop or Toys Arrest, there'd be dedicated monitors for games when they come out, game systems. When they come out, 64. Yeah. There's some fancy monitor when they were demoing the PlayStation at fucking KB toys, right? And it was better than a normal television because you'd look at it and you'd be like, Oh my God, this looks incredible. And you go home, plug it in your TV and you'd be like, huh, what is not the same? So whatever the output was for the Super Nintendo at Toys Arrest when I'm a child is gorgeous and it doesn't look like it does when you get it at home. RGB modding the Super Nintendo and putting it on a PVM gives you that look, which is again, not not those hard edged pixels, but something else. It's so beautiful. I'm in. I'm sold a hundred percent. That sounds really good. I'm thinking like USB-C charging. Yes. Good answer for like a hand. Like imagine a micro. Let's see USB-C charging. It might not be number one. It might be in the top three. Yeah, you're getting points on the board. Yeah, I'll get points on the board. I mean, USB-C modded fetas are great. Yeah. Yeah. Are you going to mod the? No, no, this is as is. I couldn't I couldn't dare. Perfect machine. It's it's perfect. I don't I don't need now that I have the charger for this. I've seen like sold online like Game Boy advances with, you know, backlit screens and USB-C like charging. So yeah, it's green. There's something you I don't think they do it anymore. You spilled afterburner and before the Game Boy Advance SP came out, the game, they would like you would send in your vanilla GBA and the guy would just like take it apart and add all kinds of weird shit and you'd get it back. And it was like I brought it into school with me and I was the coolest kid in school because I had a backlit GBA and it looked great. Wow. It was vibrant. It was exciting. You could play in the dark, but you just couldn't do with an original. Yeah. I have an IPS screened 3DS and it makes the blacks like true black on the system. And the same thing. It's just like a good screen and a good image is so important. It's so shockingly important. The original Switch One just like had a horrible screen. Yeah. I had to get the it was it coughs. Yeah, it's the one you need to take out in the back. It's fucking sick. I've never really I actually personally dislike. Swapping out the shell. I agree. I like the look of the original always the original machines. They also don't ever feel 100 percent right. Yeah, they're all brand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, though, I mean, I wish there have been mods for more modern systems. I think the Switch One had it. You remember the translucent purple. Yeah, yeah, GBA and GameCube. There are like those are good. They try to get that back. Yeah. Some of them do a pretty good job. Yeah, I've seen it done for the Steam Deck. And I'm like, that's you see what I do. I'm getting two things. I get home. It's too scary to me, though. Like it's too like too precious of a device. I think to these days. Yeah, yeah, for the house. Ram prices. The board that's this week's get played. Our show is produced by our show is produced and engineered by Rochelle Chen Ranch Yard underscore underscore Sard on social media and Twitch ranch. What are you streaming? Resident Evil 9. Nice. Yeah. Are you having fun on that still? It's it's really good to you. Yeah, it's very fun. I'm really scared of the spiders upcoming. I know that that's a big part of it. Yeah, there's some spiders in that. There's a apparently a Thomas the Tank Engine mod. For those spiders where they become Thomas the Tank Engine. I might do that. I've seen that and I've seen. It doesn't make it less scary. That's more scary. Yeah. Yeah. I've also seen the chunky guy being replaced by Shrek, which is not less scary. A big Shrek coming out. Yeah, I don't want that. I don't think so. Our show's music is by Ben Prunty Ben Prunty music.com. Our show's art is by Duck Brigade. Duck Brigade Design.com and check out our merch, hat, sweatshirts and more at kinshipgoods.com and check out our Patreon. Patreon.com slash get played for ad free main feed episodes, our complete back catalog, including how to this get played and premium DLC episodes. And our exclusive show, Get Played DLC, which this week we're doing something called Game Show Review, where we review a game show, if you can believe it. And that game show is Family Feud. Show me Family Feud. Number one on the board. Good answer. Family Feud has the funniest wrong sound. It's a good one. The X that comes up. It's so abrasive. Yeah. I was hoping you'd say price is right because I was on that last year. Oh, I was on the prices right. I competed. Won some money. Holy shit. Yeah. Is this in the in the Drew era? Yeah. Wow. Got to hang out with Drew on stage. Just play a game. That's wild. That's amazing. And of course, you can join our discord discord dot gg slash get played. And if you want to leave a voicemail, that number 6162 played that 6162 752933. Or you can write us an email at getplayedpod at gmail.com. Jason, thank you so much. People of note again out tomorrow. Check it out. Looks awesome. Can't wait to can't wait to play it myself. And I do have an unfortunate task of doing this. And I'm very sorry, but you got played. Oh, yeah. Damn it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. Well, maybe next time. Yeah, maybe next time. Now, I real quick, maybe this won't make it in the episode, but I want to try. I want to give a quick shout out. Oh, sure. My art director, Tim Doolin, he's the most taciturn, stoic guy in the world. And that makes him a great art director. Yeah. One day out of the blue, he calls me. He never calls me unless he has to. And he goes, do you? Do you know Heather and Campbell? Oh, boy. I've never heard this level of emotion in his voice. Yeah, he loves you. Oh, man. So good. Absolutely listening to this right now. Wow. I want to give a shout out right now to my incredible art director, Tim Doolin. Thanks for listening, Tim. And you did such an incredible job. Thank you so much. Hi, Tim. Shout out, Tim. Shout out, Heather. Heather's the coolest of all. There is the coolest. Oh, boy. Drew, and she's great at math. I'm bad at math. So good at numbers. Like they sent me in the hall bad at math. Oh, God. We're not even going to try to teach you. That teacher demolished you. Literally, she was like, I mean, like my parents, the episode's done, but we're still talking. Yeah. And they're still listening. Teachers are most comic, like kick you out. You're like, she can't do shit. She was like, she literally put, my parents had to come in and talk to the teachers because I was in the hall for all of math class. And it was because I was disruptive because I was so bad at math. Like they'd be like, they'd be like, what's seven times three? And I'd be like, I don't know. And then they'd get mad and the other kids would laugh. And then I eventually was just in the hallway for intro to math. So I was in, I was in like advanced, like AP bio and AP English and all those AP. I was in remedial math because I didn't, they, I didn't even have access to like times tables. And later you played a math teacher and a key in P.O. Sketch. Yeah. Wild. That show. Show them. Yeah, they're not a real confused. Yeah, girl, I got some miscast. Like, I don't believe that at all. She must have learned a couple things. That was a headgum podcast. Hi, I am Mandy Moore. Sterling K. Brown. And I'm Chris Sullivan. And we host the podcast, That Was Us Now on Headgum. Each episode, we're going to go into a deep dive from our show, This Is Us. We're going to go episode by episode. We're also going to pepper in episodes with different guest stars and writers and casting directors. Are we going to cry? Yes. A little bit. Are we going to laugh? A lot. A whole lot. That's what I'm hoping, man. Listen to That Was Us on your favorite podcast app or watch full video episodes on YouTube or Spotify. New episodes every Tuesday.