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This is episode. I have no idea. I can't figure it out. I'm simply not smart enough to figure out what episode number this is.
And I'll tell you why in a second. My name is Colin Moriarty. I'm joined as always by my son, Chris Regan-Chris. How are you today, my friend?
I'm doing well. Just got back from the gym. Kind of early. So I'm feeling pretty.
I'm feeling pretty spry. So recently I started drinking coffee again. I haven't a coffee in literally probably like nine months or like 10 months, but it's been a long time because I was trying to deactivate myself to the effects of caffeine because it was getting to the point where I just didn't do anything. And a cup of coffee this morning, I'm feeling wired.
It's crazy. It's insane. I forgot what this does. I have never been a coffee guy.
I like it. Fine. I think it's fine. I like espresso and Irish coffee.
Especially when I go to a restaurant, sometimes older and espresso, sometimes older and Irish coffee, whatever. But generally speaking, because my dad's obsessed with coffee, I think my sister, Ali's really in the coffee. My best friend of mine is a huge coffee snob. It's similar to red wine, where I think red wine is gross, straight up.
I really hate it. That's a meeting. And that's the point is that I know that I see people drinking in, they're smelling it, and they're going to the vineyards. I'm sitting there drinking white wine because I'm a little girl.
And I wish that I understood it's a coffee is a very similar thing. Yeah. I kind of wish I understood why you're so obsessed with it. Yeah.
I can't relate to that. I just know it's full of caffeine and it makes me feel good. I don't know. I don't like red wine either, to be honest with you.
I'm more of a white wine person. If I was to have wine at all, wish to be honest. I alcohol in general, I don't really care for too much. Yeah, I don't drink too much these days.
I drink so much. I was bourbon soaked in my agian days. I'll tell you what, just like many writers, I guess. Dustin Furman, executive producer, good to see you today.
My friend, how are you doing? I'm great. I just want to add that I feel like coffee is probably my favorite drink overall. I think it's the purest form of water that you can have.
Water is just pre-coffee. It's fantastic. It's somewhat of a side hobby to me adjacent to video, not that it takes up as much of my time as video games, but I'm very into the different regions of growing, how it's grown, the different ways of brewing. There's a YouTuber.
I really like James Hoffman, who has all these awesome videos about nerdy coffee stuff. Chris, I'm glad to hear your back to the world of coffee. I hope you're getting some. Dude, in Los Angeles, you have plenty of great options for good roasters and stuff like that.
You better not be drinking grocery store stuff. No, Jesus. You're drinking Dunkin' Donuts. Yeah.
Whenever you say Dunkin' Donuts coffee around my dad, he flips out because he hates it. What does he like that? Does he like Starbucks? Yeah, he likes Starbucks.
Oh, I feel the opposite. Exactly. What's funny is that my dad had to, I don't know, you guys are young, so I don't know if you remember this. So my dad's a New York City firefighter, I think, the listeners know.
He's retired now. And on 9-11, there was a Starbucks near the Twin Towers that was trying to charge for bottled water to firemen or whatever, and it was just the roll-away kind of story that happened, and they apologized. They didn't really know what to do. They were like, it was fine for basically coming in and just taking everything, for people.
And my dad wouldn't drink a Starbucks for many years after that. And then he finally broke even my FDNY dad down. He was like, I gotta get the Starbucks. Jesus Christ, Dad.
People love Starbucks. I mean, it just really depends if you want dark rose stir or light rose, what type of person you are. A lot of the boomer crowd, they're into the dark rose, but it's not for me. Yeah, I don't know anything about it.
I really don't. My best friend Ramon, he has almost like a chemistry set when he makes coffee. Seriously. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Exactly. He's got the glass stems and like he's measuring. I feel like I was in chemistry lab in 11th grade again.
It's like he's cooking for something bad. Right, exactly. I don't remember it. There's a coffee method that you have like an actual burner and like a bulb.
And so when the steam goes, the water goes up through a tube and then it's a whole thing. It's a whole chemistry thing that seems very cool. I don't have one, but I'd like one. But the pour over, that's all I make coffee pretty much every day.
It's pour over. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, to each his own, I guess I felt, you know, a very, very serious way about bourbon and stuff like that. And people don't quite understand that.
They could all taste like gasoline. So I think it is just whatever you like. All right, very good. With that out of the way, the reason I told you as you may recall earlier in the episode five minutes ago, in fact, that I couldn't remember the numbers because of the episodes because we record these ahead of time.
What we like to do with sacred symbols if you're new to the show or unaware, maybe a little slow in the head. I don't know. And you don't remember the way things have been done in the past. Since we've launched the show in 2018, we never miss a week on sacred symbols or sacred symbols plus.
And that will continue, of course, this holiday season, but we'd like to pre-record a few episodes to go into those slots so we can get some time away. And so what we do every year is we do a few of these episodes where it's like most anticipated games in the next year, your biggest moments of the previous year and so on and so forth. We'll come back in 2023 through the game of the year as we do each year. And so that's where this all stands.
And so you know the episode number because it's written in the title, but I wasn't even mathematically sophisticated enough to go out like five or six weeks to figure out whatever this was. I just don't have it. I'm not built for it. I'm just not built for it.
But let's get into this because today's episode, as everyone knows, is about our most anticipated games of 2023. And I think we're finally getting into a year that I think is very promising. I was going through all these different lists. And you know, Game Informer had one, GameSpot had one, and a few others, I'm like, Jesus Christ, there's a lot of games coming out this year.
And I wrote down probably 15 that I felt like could have made my own list of most anticipated games. But what each of us have done is we've made our list of five most anticipated games for 15 total. We all have more than five choices in case there's overlap that way people can make different selections. And I'm excited to get into these and see what everyone is thinking because I think that this year, and I think we'll see towards the end of the episode this year is very strong.
And I think people will feel the same way. So you know, Dustin, you seem so happy today. You seem like you're in a good mood and you'll cancel them. And I feel like Chris, you don't like cancel them.
You definitely don't seem happy. I mean, I'm not happy. I certainly don't worry about it. But at least one of us is happy.
And we're going to go to Dustin first. I want to hear what your first game is for your most anticipated games of 2023. Let's start out strong. I didn't really order these, but I'm just going to go with my most anticipated a lot of you already know this.
It's Final Fantasy 16. And I am so incredibly excited for this game just because Final Fantasy 15, I know that there's a lot of diverse opinions about this game. And I actually, there's a lot of things that I don't like about Final Fantasy 15. But there's, I don't know, there's something about it that left me wanting more kind of annoying, but it's been a while, basically, since we've gotten a Final Fantasy game.
And also with that, a more fantasy, final fantasy, more traditional fantasy, we should say. And everything we've seen on this game looks so incredibly promising, whether it's the graphics, the storyline, which I feel like I don't know a lot about. But like I said, going back to that traditional fantasy kind of has a bit of a, every time I see a trailer, it feels kind of like a Game of Thrones type vibe, kind of a more mature story maybe in some ways for Final Fantasy 16. And then I also feel like the combat of this game looks really good.
And it's another contentious topic around this game just because they are continuing in a more action line, as opposed to a turn based game. But I'm okay with that. In fact, the past few years have really shown me that I've become more and more of a fan of action RPGs overall. I actually think I like them better than turn based, which I like both a whole lot.
So the reality is that turn based games, I'm in order to get this kind of budget, it just makes sense that they're going to go with something that's a little more broad appeal. And yeah, this game, I feel like so confident this is going to be at the very least a great game next year. And Colin, I know you are also, I'm assuming this is on your top five as well. And it's probably an interesting one for you as someone who didn't like Final Fantasy the last game at all.
Yeah, it's Final Fantasy 16 actually was in my longer list of like 15 games, but I paired it away because I assumed you were going to select it as well. And there's just when I was looking at the list, I'm like, I kind of want to talk about some other stuff. The interesting thing about Final Fantasy 16 is we know it's coming in 2023. I think that some of these games that we're going to discuss are borderline 2023 games.
A couple of them have dates. So we know that that's not the case, but Final Fantasy 16 is going to make it. So it seems like a safe bet. I agree with you that the more D&D, Renaissance, medieval, whatever, not even Renaissance, but medieval style, combat and weapons and armor and all the things that we are used to from the original Final Fantasy kind of making a comeback with also the trademarks of Final Fantasy in there.
I was reading an interview where they were talking about, yeah, they'll be chocobos. Yeah, they'll be all these different things, you know, muggles and and cactars and whatever. So they'll be all those binding elements as well. I'm sure the spell names and we already know a lot about the summons.
Final Fantasy 16 is going to be and by the way, I don't know that I agree with you. I actually think I like turn-based role-playing games more and I'm actually going to talk about one later. So sure, I will leave that for that discussion, but I also love action RPGs. And when I think I just love our role-playing mechanics, management of power, weapons and equipment, skills, upgrade trees, experience points, shit like that.
I like that stuff. And that's fun in Madden and that's fun in Final Fantasy 16. And you're right about there not being a Final Fantasy game for a while. Final Fantasy 15 is going to be eight years old by the time this game comes out, which is absolutely incredible.
Yeah, elderly. And you know, but we will be more recent with Final Fantasy VII, remake and rebirth and crisis core remake and all the rest. So hopefully people are, they're paving a nice route for this game to do well. And I imagine this game is going to be huge.
So we'll see what happens. I'm kind of on disconnect now from it. I don't really want to see or read anything else. And so I think we're going to see that game in the summer.
Good choice, Final Fantasy 16. Chris Reagan, let's go to you for your first game. Yeah, so it was actually kind of difficult deciding which ones would be my extras and which ones would be my main. So I think I'm going to go with the one that I'm most eager to talk about.
And that's a atomic heart. I think atomic heart just there's something about the way this is presenting itself, the way that this game looks. Because when we first saw a atomic heart a while back at this point, I remember thinking that the art looked great. I remember thinking that the general premise seemed really, really interesting.
And the art side was really evocative. The presentation mainly was the main thing that was kind of drawing me in. As we were close to release, we didn't really hear much of anything or as we get closer to the launch of this thing. We still haven't really heard much, but the most recent trailer we got looked like it.
It remedied a lot of the stiffness that I saw because that's my main concern. It's like, oh, this looks like it's going to be stiff. I don't know if it's going to play all that well. It looks like it plays really, really well.
And it's got this like fantastic, like Russian weird like fallout meets Bioshock kind of air about it. I think this has a potential to be something very special that remains to be seen, obviously, but nice very, very closely on the atomic heart because I'm a huge sucker for striking art design in anything. That's the easiest way to get my attention is and in fact, I think most of the games on my list kind of present that as well. But yeah, that's not a car easy, easy anticipation for me.
That one that one was on my list. And I do agree. I think it was on your suit. Number two.
Number two. Yeah. It was on my list as well. And it's a wonderful looking game.
The concept, I think, is most interesting. First of all, it's an FPS RPG. I just don't feel like we I don't feel like people think of those things going naturally together as much as they do because I think what FPS RPGs have become are open world role playing games. So you think about Fallout 4, for instance, and then you have the other style, which is kind of like Far Cry, which I actually think is an FPS RPG.
I just crack like Bobby Brady, by the way. Or no, Peter Brady wasn't going to have the crack voice. But it's again an open world game. So I think this game from what I can tell seems to embrace its mechanics a lot more than those games do.
And in that case, it reminds me of some of the great shooters, but it also reminds me a little bit of Bioshock specifically because I don't know if you guys read about the plot, but the plot is awesome. Now, Kalamwari already loves his alternate history. He fucking loves his alternate history. And especially he loves his World War II alternate history.
So in the game of atomic heart, the Soviets destroyed Nazi Germany in 1941. So what's interesting about that is 1941 is when Operation Barbarossa begins, which is in the real world, the Nazi invasion of Soviet Union, overthrowing the ribbon trough Molotov compact that would keep peace between the two sides. And that was the most brutal conflict in the history of the world, the Eastern Front in World War II. And in this history, it never happens.
And what ends up happening is that the Soviets apparently discover robotics in this alternate history and all these different things and use these robotics and these machines and their huge factories and all that to destroy the Nazis when they're kind of in the crib still. And what's interesting is it reminds me of Bioshock because there's a thing in the game called the Collective. And I don't know if you guys read about this at all, but it's this, it's this internet, basically. And there's all these different aspects of the tech that corrupts people and make them crazy.
And it sounds like slicers and all of that in Bioshock. So there's definitely that angle to it too, which is really interesting. And you play as a KGB agent. So the whole Russian angle is dope.
And I was reading a little bit about Munfish, the developer, because I always understood Munfish as being a Russian studio. And they are, but they have been working out of Cyprus. And so this is how this game is even being able to leave because there's obviously an embargo on Russia. So I'm interested to see how this game is responded to considering what I would identify as a kind of Russo file or no, now is the Russo phobic?
Not only with the Russian Ukraine thing, I understand everyone being upset about that and the Russians being the aggressors in the bag. I totally get that. But just going back to the mid 2000s that the Russians are doing this, they're doing that, they're doing this, they're doing that. I just wonder if that's going to put off people from playing this game or if they will see it for what I see it as, which is a really compelling piece of Soviet alternate history that I think is going to be really, really good.
So I'm soaked about it too. Dustin, you have anything to add? Yeah, the trailer that I recommend people check out is from Gamescom. It's called the Atomic Heart Combat Trailer, which I was already on board for this game for a while.
But that trailer is what brought my, I can actually say, I feel like I'm hyped for this game and I haven't been hyped. I feel like for a lot of stuff recently, but something about this game, if there was some kind of like Kojima level secrecy going on and eventually found out that Atomic Heart was Bioshock 4, I could believe it. This game looks like it could be a sequel to a Bioshock game between using plasmids, whatever they're called in the game, like to, you're using your left hand for kind of like a more power base ability in your right hand for a gun. Everything about this game just oozes style and just so much potential.
Really, really excited. It's not too far. This one's February 21st. February 21st.
Very immediate. Yep, it's got a date PS4 and PS5 being published by Focus Entertainment, who just brought us as the publishers of Playtail as well. So we have that. One thing worth noting, although not very important, I don't think is one of the investors in One Fish is Tencent.
So there's that, but I don't know. I've got to make an exception every once in a while. I think it's more about ringing the alarms than anything else, although they're a minority holder in this. And I'm really curious about this 1955 Soviet Union.
It feels like the Russian fall out in some way. It's the same period. Seems to invoke that strange alternate history where it's, you know, two televisions, but some sort of weird connectivity and internet. And it's going to be fun.
That's cool. Really excited about that. Great choice. All right, Dustin, let's go for you for your first one.
Wait, what about you? You should be up next, right? Oh, I'm sorry. You're right.
You got it. Yeah. I'm a dummy. You're absolutely right.
Okay. What will I go to first? You know what? Let me flip my page over because I have two pages worth of notes here.
I'm going to start with Mean of the Hollower as my most anticipated game. Oh, okay. This is a Yacht Club game. It's supposed to come out in December of 2023.
It was interesting. I was reading the Wikipedia and it claims it was not coming to PlayStation. It says it's only coming to PC and Linux or something. I'm like, that's definitely not true.
So then I went to the Kickstarter and I looked and there's literally pictures of the physical versions on PS4. So I was like, some crud, why I got across here with some people reporting information, but nonetheless, this game is coming to PS4. It's slated for December 2023. I said earlier in the show, some games are on the bubble.
This game feels like it might be one of those games. I don't know. For people that aren't unfamiliar with it, it was kickstarted. For $1.2 million.
I actually meant to kickstart it because I'm actually kind of more into doing that now than I was in my younger years, but I just totally spaced and you can't go back and do it. So I'll just buy it when it comes out. But if Shovel Knight, which was obviously Yacht Club's first project, was an O to NES games and you think of the 8-bit era, it's kind of like DuckTales, got a little bit of Zelda 2, Facts Anadou, Castlevania, whatever, this game is an old gameboy color. And when I saw it immediately, I was smitten with it because Game Boy Color is 8-bit too.
And we got some really awesome games on Game Boy Color that kind of took advantage of being a super Nintendo game. And I don't mean an SNES game. I mean like a kind of adapted NES style game. And I think specifically of Zelda Oracle of Ages and Zelda Oracle of Seasons, which were amazing Capcom developed Zelda games that were really setting a 2,000 in Game Boy Color right before Game Boy Advance came out the next year.
So, Mean of the Hollow goes back to that generation that was pretty short-lived. And that generation gave us some other stuff too that still exists in the state like Shantae and a few other series. But what's cool about it is that it's isometric. And if Shovel Knight was DuckTales plus Zelda 2 plus a little bit of Facts Anadou and Ninja Gaiden and shit like that, then I would say Mean of the Hollow is Castlevania plus Zelda 1.
And it's got that isometric pitch to the camera, the music, the color palette and design, the the sub-weapons kind of in both Castlevania. She's a Hollowware so they can go underground. They're like little mice and other creatures that go underground and then pop back up. So that's kind of the mechanic and you do that during combat.
And the story sounds really cool too because it takes place on a location called Tenebros Island. And Mina is an inventor and she has a patron that basically provides her with all the money so she can make her creations. And she's helped electrify their island and bring technology and all this stuff. And I think it's about how stuff goes awry basically.
Game looks dope. Just absolutely insanely good. And for those that have an old school spirit like I do, I feel like Mina the Hollow is an absolute godsend and it runs. Yes, it's 60 frames a second in case you're curious.
Oh, so yeah, Kickstarter for $1.2 million. Yacht Club December 2023. It'll be on PS4 and other platforms as well. Think Oracle the ages and Oracle of seasons meets Castlevania.
Yeah, that's Colin. That's where we're right there. Anyone else interested in this? Yeah, definitely.
I feel like anything if Yacht Club has earned their reputation at this point, if they release a game or they do a new Shovel Knight thing or if they publish a game, it's at the very least worth checking out because everything they've done so far has been really, really excellent. I don't know what's interesting about this game is that I'm not super into Game Boy games like this, but it's not out of not liking them. It's just that's kind of what I was playing at that time. And so kind of exciting for, I don't know, it almost feels like I'm checking out a new thing playing this game, even though it's obviously a very old type of game.
But like I said, Yacht Club, man, I'm looking at the story of the Kickstarter now and seeing the some of the pixel art. It's a lot of art at this point. Totally lost, but it's becoming less and less common to find truly excellent pixel art. And this game definitely has it.
It's gorgeous. I just, I did a, I did a, um, an appearance lately recently on an Xbox podcast to talk about Lillimo, specifically the developer I co-owned. And we do 2D games, pixel art games, doing it. And I went real deep into our philosophy behind that.
And these guys, Yacht Club, way forward and any creates, I think are the, the, the holy trinity of, I can't even believe how good this looks pixel art. And yeah, this is a month, and especially containing yourself to rulesets, like Game Boy Color style rulesets palettes. It's, it's an artificial challenge. It's pretty cool.
Chris, do you have anything you want to say? Yeah, I think I, I, I'm looking at some game play now. It definitely is, it definitely looks like a Colin game. But what I like, this mechanic of burrowing underground, it reminds me of, like, that was a mechanic that I really, really liked in this, in this ancient PS1 game.
It was, uh, it was Bugs Bunny lost in time. And you could burrow under the ground in that game. And I thought, like, this is such a cool idea. And then no one ever did that again.
So it's kind of cool to see that really, that weird mechanic that just like, spreads this like, ancient itch in my brain. But I don't know, I'm definitely more of a, I feel like when I'm playing a pixel art game or like an old style game like this, it's definitely a more, I'm more of a messenger, Celeste, cyber shadow kind of person than this. I did play a lot of Game Boy games like this, but I can't say that I loved as many of them as I loved platformers on the Super Nintendo, but, but it doesn't look really, really good. Pixel art is so difficult to, I think people understand how much harder it is to get pixel art looking good than it is to make a 3D asset look at an Unreal Engine or Unity.
And I say that as somebody who's not a game designer, but I have pretty, I wouldn't say extensive experience with game engines, but enough experience to know that you can get things looking good really, really easy on a game engine. Like it's, it's a lot simpler than you, than probably even most people think it is. So props to everybody still doing pixel art because the difficulty of that is not lost on me. Yeah, we're completely dedicated to it.
That's all we want to do. By the way, I'm looking at this footage for, there's a long play of Bugs Bunny lost in time. It's from 1999. I got to say this game, I don't know, it is any good, but it looks pretty good.
It's not bad to play, but it's, it's, it's a rough, it's rough on the eyes. I think, I think Bugs Bunny, I think the models look really good. Oh yeah, no, they're really faithful. It's just more that, it's more that like, oh that four foot draw distance, you know, that really, really does it in, but yeah, no, no textures, just colors.
That's why the model looks so good. It's because the world isn't loading. Fair enough. All right, Dustin, my happy boy, let's go to you for your second game.
My next game is a series that I've been pretty hot on because I've played through more than maybe about half of them this past year. We played the original version of this game on March 24th. It's going to be Resident Evil for remake and day in this game looks good. This game looks so fucking good.
And it's funny just because I feel like we knew it was going to look good, but it's always feels a little scary, especially when someone's going and remaking a game that people have loved for so long. But when we finally saw the gameplay of this game just a few weeks ago, it just, it blew me away in a blue way. It seems, oh, a blue way Chris as well, we talked about it. You haven't seen it yet.
And I think it's kind of cool if you can avoid it just because I was very pleasantly surprised specifically in that I think that there probably is a lot of temptation when remaking something to take out things that maybe don't, maybe come off as a little cheesy, especially in a Resident Evil game. Maybe there's probably a temptation to try to modernize some stuff. But it's clear that they knew the spirit of Resident Evil 4 when making this game and knew what direction to go in specifically, whether it's some like campy quips from Leon or doing some roundhouse kicks, stuff like that. It's all there.
And it really does feel like they're taking all of that awesome Resident Evil 2 remake goodness, applying it to Resident Evil 4. And I think what I'm most interested in from just freshly playing Resident Evil the original Resident Evil 4 is how they can expand this game and make it even better. Because I think that there's a lot of potential opportunity for that. Specifically, the original Resident Evil 4 is an extremely linear experience, which I guess Resident Evil games are somewhat linear, but there was very little backtracking in Resident Evil 4, not a lot of puzzles.
There's some in there, but it already has the template for these things, the different areas and locations you go. And so I would really love to see them expand and kind of put more traditional Resident Evil into Resident Evil 4 remake in order to make it kind of like this ultimate Resident Evil experience. So this one, again, this is a game that I feel like I have so much confidence and really excited about it and just like a ton of cart, not too far away. Yeah, well said, this was in my long list as well.
This is an obvious one Resident Evil 4. Looks great. I'm out. I'm not going to read or look at anything else for it.
I mean, I don't know how much of a spoiler would be since I'm intimately familiar with the original game on GameCube, but really excited to play it. And as I've said, and I know it's a beaten horse, a thoroughly beaten horse, is I just find that game unplayable today. I just, the rules of game of 3D movement have broken me. It's like going back to my level yourself with 3 and how difficult that was for me.
I did it, but I didn't want to. And it's nice that no longer is the Wii version of Resident Evil 4, the best one to play. It'll be this new version here as well. Dustin, do you have any, or I'm sorry, Chris, do you have anything you'd like to add before you go into your next game?
Oh, man. Well, this is obviously on my list as well. I'm so stoked about this thing. I remember being very, very worried because it's very, very easy to go back to a classic game like this and change things for the sake of changing things.
And it looks like, it looks like what changes they're making are very purposeful. And even if they're, I don't think we saw any evidence that they're necessarily modernizing it, but even in the effect that they are later down the line and stuff that we haven't seen, I have a lot more confidence in them that they're making the right choices because initially, like I was just worried that like, oh, maybe because Resident Evil 2 remake was so good. Maybe they'll try and make it a little more grounded. They'll try and like tone down the absurdity of it.
And no, that's not what they're doing. In fact, they've added, they've added to it, which is exactly, it's exactly the right attitude. I have so much faith in Capcom these days. Like, it's crazy because I remember back, not even, I guess it was long ago, but it doesn't feel that long ago when I was like, I don't know what the hell these guys are doing.
And just this, this amazing bounce back is just so, I'm so, so excited for this. I love Resident Evil 4. I still think it's very playable, but no doubt it could use some improvements. And this looks like a really, really phenomenal amount of improvements.
And I'm just totally, I'm sold. I don't need to see any more of it. Yeah. I mean, neither.
I'm a believer. And if, if Resident Evil 2 remake 2 Resident Evil 3 remake 2 Resident Evil 3 original is any indication, then we're gonna be in pretty good shape. In other words, I don't think Resident Evil 3 remake was subpar. It was actually very good remake.
I just didn't think it exposed Resident Evil 3 for not being as good as Resident Evil 2. I agree. I think it was a very good remake of the game. So we'll see.
It's exciting. Chris, I'll stay with you and go to your next game, your second game. Yeah. So I think I'm going to go with Wild Hearts, because this case is very recent.
This was not even on my radar. Oh, that is very, very recently, this camera radar, because it's recently kind of talked about a little bit more publicly. And this is a, what is it? What's the publisher?
I can't remember if it's, I know it's one of the big ones. EA is publishing. It's an EA published Monster Hunter competitor. And normally that wouldn't sound all that exciting.
It's somebody like for me who's, who couldn't really get into Monster Hunter because the tutorialization of that, those opening hours is just so intense and tedious and time consuming. And also EA not necessarily having the most sterling reputation as of late or even historically. But you know, the gameplay does everything. And what I saw from this game just looks really appealing to me.
I don't know what it is. I always wanted to get into Monster Hunter, but the way that these Monster Hunter games are designed, just something about the onboarding that really, it really puts me off. I'm a pretty impatient person when it comes to video games, because especially nowadays when video games will take 20 to 40 hours of your time, you're going to have to hook me sooner than that. You know, I'm not going to spend three hours trying to like something when there's so many other experiences that I like immediately.
You've got to use my time judiciously. And so, you know, Monster Hunter has always been something that I wanted to get to, but like that process of getting into it is so, so long. And this looks different enough, but also it looks like it's encapsulating the spirit of what Monster Hunter is, like this scale, this kind of almost shadow of the classic style boss against size itself. And this casual kind of experience that like, if the onboarding for this game is a little bit more streamlined and it's a little bit more easy for a player like me, then I can see this game being a very, very big deal for me.
And just the presentation of it looks cool. I think it looks unique. I think there's certain mechanics that were displayed in some of the gameplay shows that we've seen that I haven't seen out of Monster Hunter necessarily, granted it's not an expert. But I'm really looking forward to this.
I feel pretty confident that this is going to be something that's going to speak to me in a way that I've always wanted Monster Hunter to speak to me. So I also just, Monster Hunter could use some competition, especially with how clearly big it is. Are you looking forward to it, Dustin at all? Yeah, I know you're a Monster Hunter person, so.
Yeah, I'm a pretty fresh Monster Hunter fan being that I played through all of RISE. I didn't play through all the DLC, but I definitely can feel what Chris is saying. Getting acquainted and learning this series is very difficult. And even I have just scratched the surface because each weapon has so many different mechanics and strategies and stuff like that that I literally only know how to really play Long Sword.
Long Sword, and that's it. So their biggest challenge will be potentially trying to get new people involved or something like that. Or, well, it's the balance of creating a game that newcomers can get familiar with and be able to play, but also satisfying traditional Monster Hunter fans at the same time, since clearly they're going to try to want to hook some of them as well. But I'm really curious.
And I think one of the most interesting aspects of this game is just the partnership of EA and your Tecmo. It's such an interesting, weird thing. And I don't know, I hope that it bears good fruit because getting more great games, especially from Japan, is something I'm always interested in. Yeah, the business aspect of it is most interesting to me, no doubt.
The willingness of Koi Tecmo to lease out its studios is interesting, and I think it keeps them alive and vibrant, and they know where the money is. And I think this is a really functional, patient, and Japanese way of doing business. It's not all in. It's very risk-averse to have Omega Force, make a shit ton of Musos for Square Enix or whoever.
And then now they're making a game with EA, but they can still do their dynasty warrior stuff and publish that, sustaining with Team Ninja kind of being hawked off to do other things while making their own games too. It just seems like a very safe, sustainable thing. And that's why I think you don't hear much about the tumultuous ups and downs of Koi Tecmo. Not that they are a major publisher, but they are close.
I mean, they are certainly the A-T-R publishers. They make AAA games. They're not in that cap. Not eating cap, they're not in that.
Take two, Ubisoft EA, the first parties, all that. And then I think you have a list underneath that's kind of like Capcom Square Enix, but that used to be in that group, others. And then you have a group of that below that, and that's where I think Koi Tecmo is. Anyway, it's time for me to go.
I'm not going to forget this time. It's time for me to go this time for my second game. And the second game I want to talk about is a little game called Sea of Stars. It comes out next year.
It is a prequel to the Messenger, which of course came out in 2018 and came to PS4 in 2019. That's where I played it. And it's not like the Messenger. So people might remember the Messenger is a 2D action platformer that kind of turns into a Metroidvania.
Very playable, very good, highly recommended. This game, this prequel, it's not necessary to play one or the other. You know, you can play whatever you'd like. And I think that there's an ability for people to experience the mythos, I guess, of this universe having the taste of just one or the other.
In other words, I guess what I'm saying. So Sea of Stars is from Sabotage Studios. And it's a turn-based and this is how they describe it because this was also Kickstarter. So this is my second game, this was Kickstarter for $1.6 million, so about $400,000 more than the Holler.
And they describe it, quote, a turn-based RPG inspired by the classics, end quote. Now, that comes packing heavy expectations. It's difficult to say something like that. I think it's different than saying a game predicated on the classic FPS.
It's like, well, what does that really mean? There's a pretty quick split off. When we say classic role-playing games in our space, we don't mean Ultima or anything like that, although they're really important games too. You're typically talking about Final Fantasy Square Enix, stuff from Squaresoft and Enix, and a few other outliers as well.
This game invokes Chrono Trigger. It's clear when you look at it. And when you look at the combat as well, that's the game that it invokes. And I'm not a huge Chrono Trigger fan.
I think people know that about me. I think it's a great game, but that it's listed as perhaps the best role-playing game ever or the best game ever. I've never seen it like that. But I do think it's a really great game and one worth replicating, no doubt about it.
And people will recall that in Chrono Trigger, and this is one of the things that they say here that they take a lot of pride in, no random battles, no random encounters. Instead, you run into the enemies on the screen, which is like the thing that becomes common later in games like Tales and others. And the game doesn't split off into another screen. At that point, the game becomes the combat zone, which is exactly like Chrono Trigger.
So this is where the inspiration is drawn from. There are six playable characters in the game, which I feel like is a really containable group. I don't like when games, and Final Fantasy 6 being one of my favorite games of all time, does have an ensemble of like 16 playable characters or something. And I think that is just insane.
Of course, I'll lead somewhere with that. But having a more containable class, maybe you have a group of four or three in your party and therefore you have two parties of three, that seems more containable from a narrative perspective, from a leveling perspective, because I'm very OCD when I level my characters and role-playing games at a level level evenly, even if I don't use those characters. So you can imagine me playing games. And I mean, this tells you a lot about who I am.
The one thing that I am interested in, they say this in their Kickstarter is there's no level grinding. And I want to see how they deal with this. And that doesn't sound appealing to me. Actually, I like grinding levels.
I like knowing that you can overcome things by just becoming statistically stronger. But I'm excited about the game of stars. I think this game looks dope. And it's time for us to get sabotages new title.
They've been working on it for a long time. I was also reading a little bit about their studio that they have a open schedule concept. Like you base it's pretty similar to our company, although they do they have many more deadlines, I think, but that you just have your tasks and it's like you just to deliver this by this point. I don't really care what you do between them as long as you get it done.
I think that things happen, good things happen in creative spaces like that. So I think Sea of Stars will benefit from that non tumultuous development period as well. That I think obviously was given a very solid foundation with a $1.6 million drawn Kickstarter plus all the games are going to sell to the tune of many more millions of dollars. So they're in good shape.
Sea of Stars doesn't specifically for you. This game is interesting. Yeah, definitely. I feel like, I don't know, it's hard to say just because we only see pre-release stuff, but we're talking about beautiful pixel art.
This might be one of the most beautiful pixel art games I have ever seen just from these pre-release screenshots. The way that they're able to mix lighting in, in particular, if you look at some of the screenshots in darker segments or even in some of the trailers, just absolutely incredible stuff. And I think what's interesting too is just the fact that they have the composer from Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and see what chronicles too, working on the project as well.
And so you obviously know at that point, the music will be fantastic, which is just an essential part of any RPG game. So I'm really excited about this one as well. I'm wondering just because it's just a 2023 release, so we don't know exactly what window, right? Right, it says, I'm looking at my notes here, the window, yeah, it's just 2023.
So, and they just say console and PC, so it is worth noting, I think I have notes here from that, yeah, that they have not granularly clarified what platforms they're coming to, and it's worth noting that sabotage did make Messenger a time switch exclusive at the time. I don't know if they're gonna do the same thing here. I doubt that they will because I don't think there's anything to gain by doing that anymore. I think that the 2018 environment that I came out to on Switch is far different than the environment now where I think I'm where you pick what it's released.
I wouldn't even be surprised to see this thing pop up on Game Pass. Yeah, something like that as well. So I'm excited about this. I can't wait.
We're looking forward to it. Yeah, anything for you to ask, Chris, I didn't ask you about it because it's certainly not your style. I mean, it is and it isn't. It's obviously from the Messenger guys, and I love these.
I love what they do specifically art-wise. I think this game looks gorgeous. By the way, their initial trailer was Holly 2022, so if it did get pushed in 2023, it's probably could potentially be more imminent than we think it is. Yeah, it was announced towards the beginning of COVID, I think.
So they were working out of before that, but I think that the Kickstarter launched as I recall, like during that uncertain period promises they couldn't keep. But the announcement trailer is December 15, 2021, so. Oh, maybe not. Maybe I'm wrong there, then.
I thought I had my notes here that the Kickstarter came out. Well, you're definitely right about the Kickstarter, but like the official Nintendo of America, you know, like the actual announcement trailer. But I think it looks, I think it looks, this is one of those rare exceptions where I feel like the gameplay is not necessarily what I would consider my type of game, but I'm really captivated by this art. Like this looks so, this looks incredibly gorgeous today.
I mean, well, they have this thing. I don't know exactly how it works, just by looking at it, I'm not entirely sure that I understand like it is 2D pixel art, but they have some sort of like, there's some sort, this is what we were talking about earlier, actually, because you were bringing up with 3D modeling versus 2D, where the reason that 3D modeling is going to go easier, at least easier to get something like recognizable and good is because there's so much, there's so many tools and computers to sit stuff in middleware and everything to make yourself good. And pixel art, people don't realize when there's a flicker on a candle, those are all pixels that have to be replaced in light or whatever. And they're, they seem to be pimping some sort of tool set that allows them to have this crazy lighting.
Yeah. And so it seems like it's becoming more, not that it doesn't, it only exists in this, this is the only example, but it's a more sophisticated 2D style game. And it is beautiful. Yeah, totally beautiful.
Let's move on here. It's your turn, Dustin. Yeah, I'm changing it up because I feel like some of the stuff I have, I've been pretty predictable so far. So I want to put some shine on something so people may have forgotten about.
That is Stellar Blade, which we found out is a PlayStation 5 console exclusive now. This game used to be known as Project E before the most, I want to say, let's see, the September state of play we found out is called Stellar Blade. And I think this game looks awesome, particularly, I feel like I've more recently gotten a strong fondness for the character action games, specifically Devil May Cry, kind of the newest one really kind of lit that in me. And so this game, it feels in a lot of ways, like a game from another era, this feels like Bayonetta type, like a Bayonetta type of game.
And obviously it has a very curvy woman in it, which might have something to do with that. But overall, this game just comes off really strong. And what's interesting is that this developer is relatively unknown, shift up corporation, I was trying to Google them a little bit and they're known for doing like a Korean mobile game, which is a bit concerning. But just going off what we've actually seen what they presented before us, this game has a ton of style.
And clearly, Sony sees something in it as well as they are now doing some publishing stuff on it. So Stellar Blade, I'm very, very intrigued. Will you feel like a pervert when you play it? Maybe.
But that's okay. Sometimes sometimes that's fine. You know, just keep in check, keep in check. Yeah, I'm looking at the trailer for it now.
And I actually kind of even forgot about this game. It is very Bayonetta about it. And but I think there's multiple angles to this that are interesting, shift up is South Korean, like you said. And I think that this is a market that is going to be increasingly penetrated by console manufacturers as games.
Hey, as games come out of Seoul that are renowned and just sucking up all the oxygen in the room. And South Korea is an important current influential market. And I think having a South Korean big South Korean game will probably be a big selling point in South Korea. So why not just launch it everywhere?
And that's obviously exactly what they're going to do is naturally, but I think that's kind of what's behind it in some way, Project Eve. Good choice. Stellar Blade, forgot about that one. And yes, you will feel like a pervert when you're playing it.
Good. Yeah. Yeah. Good.
Chris, what's next for you, my friend? Yeah, I feel like I feel like I've been throwing throw in kind of a curve balls a little bit this whole time. So I'm actually going to go a little bit more predictable because why not? Dead Space.
Dead Space. Dead Space remake. I this place is such a special game to me because it's the first. Dead Space is from what I can recall the first horror game that I actually completed front to back when I finally like got the stones to just be like, all right, I'm going to play through all of Dead Space, even though it freaks me out a little bit.
I'm going to get to the end and we'll see it through. I'm so glad I did because I think for a long time, Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 were up there for me as like to the two best survival horror games. I think Dead Space easily outclasses. As far as like pure survival hargos, definitely way better than Resident Evil 4 is a really fun and action-romp, but it's going to be so interesting to see Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 remake kind of come out around the same time as each other and actually be compared on a more equal playing field than they otherwise would have been because obviously otherwise those games are an entire generation apart, at least in their base forms.
So I know what to expect from Dead Space remake already. It's not necessarily that I was like, oh, I wonder what kind of cool tricks they're going to pull out of their ass with this one. I just, I love Dead Space for everything from the UI design being like diegetic to the world and like your health being displayed on your spine and your ammo counter being a hologram and the ability to like switch the direction of your gun and dismemberment being like a huge part of it and even just the little cheeky things the game does with like the first letter of every mission being this code. It was like a lot of fun.
It's such a, it's such a great experience and I'm really excited to see what this game is going to play and look like on modern hardware. Although I imagine to be honest with you, I imagine it's not going to feel all that different because the original Dead Space holds up pretty well visually speaking, obviously resolution is a lot lower and you know frame rate and all that, but the art design of the game is already tip-top so to imagine what they can do if they just kind of translate that old art design into modern lighting, high frame rates, high resolutions, you know fewer loading screens or more seamless transitions between them. I think um I think this is going to be a really special thing if they can nail it and from from the few things that I've seen already I'm pretty convinced that it's going to be, I'm pretty sure that it's going to deliver something really cool, especially if people haven't played Dead Space before. It's an easily um something I'm really excited to see the reaction to it from people who I know for certain have not experienced the original Dead Space because it's a really special special game that I'm looking forward to re-experiencing it.
Great choice. I totally agree. I would agree that Dead Space is the strongest survival horror game ever made and I love Resident Evil 4 2 and I think that there are a few others as well and there are certainly games I've not played. Yeah, but Dead Space is a masterclass and when I went back to play it on knockback in 2020 for the first time since it came out I was like Jesus and I know Dagen was just having gone through it for the first time, was blown away by it.
I with 3D audio, haptics, no loads, all the I mean I can't imagine what the issue more is going to be like I I'm really really excited for this as well. This and Resident Evil 4 remake back to back is a dream plus a crystal protocol as a pallet cleanser before it all even begins. We're going to if I think we're going to be really in good shape as survival horror fans between while we're recording this November but between now when we're recording this end March I think we will have experienced three pretty good games. Yeah, that's a nice nice choice.
Dustin, let's go to you for your next game. If you have nothing to add about Dead Space and you're more than welcome to as well. No, I'm trying to remember the order though. Would you be next again?
One, two, three, one, two, three. I'm so stupid. I don't want to go. You're focusing on, you know, the conversation.
It's not it's no big game. Yeah, it's I am trying to be the moderator. I guess I forgot that I'm supposed to go as well. All right, well I will select next Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
Now I don't know if this game will make 2023. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it won't. I think I'm being a little fast and loose with this. It's just marked as winter.
So you can see it being February 2024, maybe something like that. But I want to keep open the possibility of a 2023 release though it is a much bigger game than then Crisis Score. Crisis Score is coming out like a week before Christmas. So who the hell knows what they would do with this game?
And when they would want to release it, Final Fantasy 16, of course, coming out in the summer, you might not want to just have all this Final Fantasy out there one after the other. But I don't know, I think you do because Final Fantasy is really strong right now. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as we know is coming to PS5 and we know that the remake trilogy of Final Fantasy 7 from 1997, the remakes beginning in 2020, this is a trilogy. So we're getting the middle game with Rebirth and we don't know what the nature is of the third game yet.
And I was watching, I went back in research and reading about the game and what we know about it, which is not very much. But there is just this really great quote in the beginning. It's Eryth. She says, on what we've done, that's set in stone, the past is forever, but the future, even if it has been written, can be changed.
End quote. And this idea, and they write it on the screen of what is fact and what is fiction. I love that Final Fantasy 7 remake seems to be playing around with clearly timelines, but specifically the nexus of when the changes occur and the representation of the changes by those ghastly whisper creatures and how we're seeing familiar events unfold in unfamiliar ways with unfamiliar characters, which is why I think Crisis Core has become newly important. And while it's obviously a way for them to get a great PSP game off of that console or off that handheld and get it out to everyone, years after it came out, it's also a way to introduce everyone to Zach and the story going back to a point that will become more relevant than it seemed in the original Final Fantasy 7 arc.
So what's cool about Final Fantasy 7 remake, I guess, is what I'm saying is that it really leaves the original Final Fantasy 7 alone. In some way, it's pretty brilliant because it basically says that happened, but this also happened. And it's kind of a Matrix-ish multi-dimensional situation. So seeing Cloud and Sephiroth walking together in the footage and going to what seems like the Northern Crater and all that and also the intermission stuff, which I have not played, and I will play Final Fantasy 7 remake on PS5, probably right before the new one comes out, play through all of it again, the intermission is the catch up.
And so that introduces Yufi and all the rest. But I just feel like, at the end of the day, Final Fantasy 7 deals with a very pressing, what I feel like is a pressing topic, the death of the Earth. And I just feel like we are in a time like that, not so urgently and not even melodramatically, but you have global warming and climate change, you have the threat of nuclear war and the uncertainty of megacorporation is doing whatever they want, just a lot of power structures, your Shinra-like power structures, and your soldier-like, remember, soldier is like a military unit of a private corporation, like PMCs, and that kind of stuff is happening around the world with private militaries and for higher contractors and all of that. And I just feel like Final Fantasy 7 has something to say.
And I'm excited. I'm looking forward to rework. I just feel like Final Fantasy 7 remake made me a believer, totally. I couldn't believe it.
I still can't believe it. And it delivered. So that's got to be the next selection for me, low as I was to go at all, apparently. That would be my third selection is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
Colin, I feel like what I'm most excited for for this game is it being, at least right, it's going to be a fully current and only game, right? Like, I don't think they've said anything about... No, yes, yes, I'm only. So I really, my biggest, not my biggest hope, but one of my biggest hopes is that they're able to, I want to coin a new term here because it's fresh on the mind is we're recording this in November.
The Kratos squeeze. And that's when you constantly have to squeeze through small sections or crawl through something in order for the next section of the game to load. And Final Fantasy 7 remake is full of those as well. And I was just, I've been thinking about this a lot lately because there's some developers that are saying, like, oh, well, that's kind of supposed to be like a funnel point in order to let you know you're going towards the right direction.
Bullshit. Like sometimes, maybe. But in particular, in God of War right now, that's, that is 100% not always the case. And I think that with Final Fantasy 7 remake or rebirth, I'm excited to see like, okay, I guess that'll be the second Final Fantasy game that's a full, full current gen only.
And so just being able to have another game like that that's fully taking advantage and hopefully getting rid of the Kratos squeeze will be very desirable. I saw some people beating up on our man Jean Park about this, as I recall, on Twitter, right? He was the one that brought up that this is why it exists and then people came in and said that's not necessarily the reason why it exists. And I'm with you, right?
I'm like, I don't come on, guys. I know that's why people are throwing up to ladders. That's why you squeeze through it. It's to give things time to buffer and load.
And if that's what you need to do to draw delineation between spaces, then I think you need to design things differently because that's not the only cue that a player would take to move towards something. You do that with color, you do that with light and all the rest. So I didn't like that because it just seemed too, it's like too smart by half. Like, just shut up.
You damn well know that that is the general reason why people are lifting things up and letting them squeeze through and all that could create a delineation. That could be a secondary or tertiary positive, but no, I didn't like that. Leave my man Jean Park alone or I'm gonna come at you. You understand?
All right. It's not my turn again now. It's Chris's turn. No, it's my turn.
Dustin, it's Dustin's turn. Dustin, it's your turn. My turn. Okay.
I'm gonna go with... Dustin, it's your turn. Yes. I'm ready.
Diablo 4. I'm very excited for this game. I was thinking, okay, because part of this list part, I want to put games that I feel somewhat confident in. And this one I'm the most shaky about, but I watched a developer commentary gameplay video today.
I'm like, this looks good. This looks really good, actually. And I, you know, we've talked about Blizzard not being the company that used to be continually fucking up over and over. And I realized, I think that this game got announced like over two years ago when we first saw gameplay from it.
Like, it's been a while two or three years ago. And so from the trailer or the commentary, I'm like, man, this has a lot of promising aspects. And I think that they are definitely running some risks with the way that some of the 4.9 changes they're doing, I think, could annoy current Diablo fans. They're adding definitely a lot of live service elements to it.
They were talking about like in Destiny, there's like live event, you know, or a public community type of them where you're walking around in the world. Big monster shows up, you all have to fight together. That's gonna be in Diablo now. It's definitely gonna have a more open world type of nature to it.
And honestly, I think that sounds really cool. With games like this, it's like, do you really just want a game like Diablo to stay the same? Do you want to put 300 hours into a game that's just more of the same of the last three? I don't.
And so I'm, I think it's worth, in my mind, to take threes. Maybe it's not a worthy risk financially for if you're a stockholder, but adding these elements into Diablo, if they're done right, I think could be really excellent. And also I'd say too, is that while I enjoy the art style of Diablo three, this one definitely is taking a more grounded or it looks much darker, it kind of reminds me more of the look of the older games. And I think that that's cool as well.
So Diablo four, that's definitely game I'm excited about. I think they're gonna have cross play in it from day one, which is great. So play wherever you want, play with your friends. And I'm just, I'm really hoping it's a game that I can get lost in like I did with Diablo three.
How are you feeling about that choice? Chris, I mean, I'm not a Diablo guy, so I have nothing to say about this at all. I do know that rumors from our friends over at Windows Central, as of the time of recording this, this might have even clarified, it says this game might come out as soon as March or April, which is sudden, but it is, it is enclosed out for like you said. Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know, like I'm, I like Diablo, but I, I've never loved it.
I enjoyed when Diablo three came to console. I did a lot of, you know, we're not split screen, but couch co-op with, with the boys. And it was cool. It was, it was really, it was a nice experience, but, and I do like the look of the older Diablos.
I really, I really liked that. I know a lot of people were like, oh, there's no look good. They're like, there's something about them that's like, it's charming is probably the right word, but I just, I just genuinely like that old style. But yeah, I don't know.
I, I'm cautiously optimistic about this one, but I'm, I'm definitely gonna wait to see, you know, I'm definitely gonna, this is, this is not a day one purchase by any means. Blizzard certainly doesn't seem to have the, the reputation it once did anymore now. So all right, Chris, let's stick with you. I am confident that it is your turn now.