Future Resident Evil Remake Slate

el into the Aher and I'm just gonna be honest with you, my name is Ryndon Bigley.. My name is Stephven Hilger. I'm back in Chicago. Can you believe? Chag Chicag. Elliot in Chicagi. I took a quick bath in Just Melort and got a txt from Pope Leo, and I'm officially a Chicago one again Try your best JadD Vance, You'll never get to take a bath in al lot and get a prect from the home. I actually think it would boil him alive somehow. It's like holy water against him. Yeah, drinking out of the wrong holy grail. Yeah, yeah. The last crusade. But yeah, it was great being in Jersey for a couple of weeks in New York by extension. We had a lot of fun. We did some cool events that we might talk about later at some point. Yeah we're h what we were up to for a little bit, but we'll have to talk about that eventually. But it was a lot of fun but I'm happy to be back. I just I will warn you all ahead of time that I feel like I'm in sort of a to quote that half A press Maro sixty four video, a QPU misaligned mindset right now because my my my flight back was that like six thirty in the morning. So I had to get up at like a quarter to four and I got to the airport like a little bit before five. and then I got to Chicago and promptly fell asleep in my apartment. And then like I was like, oh, it's like dinner time. What a fun full day and it was one thirty. So I feel like I've had really weird like I'm slowly getting back to a QPU aligned But I think that's the perfect mindset to talk about some PS one games and the adventures of Elliot Prologue demo. I totally agree with you. Yeah. I'm also weirdly a little bit out of it. I had a boxing lesson yesterday and usually Percy and I go together, but she couldn't do it yesterday so it was like just a one on one boxing thing. and our instructor was like, todayoday is all about Like I just need you to hit me as hard as you possibly can for like straight up an hour. Yeah. And now my knuckles are all like swollen and stuff and I kept waking up in the middle of the night and being like, my hands, my hands. And honestly, we both played the Elliot demo and like even holding a controller I was like shaking holding a controller. So I might be in like movie watching mode for next couple of days. think I think I need an interactionless edia experience for a little bit. Truthfully, I think our generation makes too big a deal out of turning thirty, but what you just described is the best way to prepare for one's thirties where it's like, ye, you have enough youthful energy to learn boxing for the first time. Yes, but you will have to pay the price for a day after. Yes. L what would have been a bad morning in your twenties is now like a bad week and a half. Yes. So it's just like it's kind of like the frame rate is off for A gaming equivalent. did We did one class where the entire thing was footwork and similarly for like an hour, it was just like we were shuffling around a boxing ring for like an hour. And when I got home, no jokes, Stepeven, I like took out the thor ' I was playing, I forget what I was playing, but I was playing something. I took out the thor to play something. I immediately fell asleep and woke up at ten PM I was like, I guess that's just what my body wants me to do now. I guess that's just how I operate. I know we have a bad habit of talking about visuals through an audio medium, but I really like your shirt. I just want to say that. Thank you so much. It looks like my rug and I mean that as a compliment. It sounds bad, but like I'm looking at the pattern on my rug beneath me. Yeah. It's like this kind of blue, It's like a floral almost pattern Yeah, there's I'll at least shap the brand out is this brand called Quadro Q UAD RO that I found actually Percia found in Tokyo and was like, this is a really affordable because we were looking around at places that I really wanted to like buy new stuff for my wardrobe. We were looking around at a bunch of places and so many of them were like exorbitantly expensive. And she was like, this is one that's like Almost like normal prices is like gap prices for like really nice clothes. Yeah, it's a really nice shirt. And that's something that I would wear myself. Yeah. It's great. It's The fun thing about it is like the outside, it's like they did the patternuck backwards. So the inside is actually very vibrant and then the outside is kind of muted. Yeah, I'll find some way to incorporate the shirt pattern into the episode art so you can see. Yeah, this is not an ad placement even though What a subtle way to do that if this was. are extremely like fucked up, hiding the ad, like baiting the FTC episode of the show where we're advertising this one place in Tokyo. Yeah no one can buy it. Yeah. Like in the middle of the Elliot segment, I just want to say great job genetically modifying seeds these days, Monsanto Yeah Monsanto ourev onnce in future King. For new listeners, they're like, what was that? You've got to go back for the Monsanto L. Keep saying you gott to listen to the backlog or else the show doesn't make sense. Most of the chat in the discord these days is like Stephven in september twenty eighth of twenty twenty one said this thing that came true. I're predicting the future back Yeah, you predicted the exact price increase of the PS five As a joke also mind you,, we don't choose what comes true. We've also gotten things very wrong. I think at one point we said like Xbox is gonna crush it this generation. like wrong like morally and factually. And like it just is worth saying, we sit here every week for like two to three hours and we just speak into an MP three file that you get to download. And when you do that for eight years, you're bound to get something right every once in a while. Yeah probability wise, even if it's two percent, it will stand out. The only one that still blows my mind toortal stay though, Portal was good. That was freaky Is Dom Niro showing up on our show episodes, and in one of them being like, I predict the next Mario Kart will be called Mario Kart World. He said in my dreams, I see a game called Mario Kart Worlds that is, you basically exactly what it was. Yes. He talks about the open world concept of it and everything He just completely nails exactly what that game is. like a full four years before the Switch two was even announced. Yeah. Yeah. like obviously not that logical of a leap. Like if he predicted like Baowuss' fury, that would be a little bit scarier. But it's still just the fact that we're living in Dom Niero's dreams, we have to be a man named Elliot Yeah as an adventure Pilildia. Philildia. Oh my god. Anyway, tell me about the PS one. Quick announcement. So as many of you might already know, our next season premiere, which will probably be a little bit later than usual. We usually record them in late July and then it comes in early August. I think our plan, don we don't have a date set yet, but just to give ourselves a bit more time, I think we'll probably be recording in early August and then it might be like in the first half of August, but we'll let you know once that's more set in stone Anything could change. anythingything's possible. Anyway, for this season premiere for the PS one, we set the playlist ahead of time. So normally for basically every other console episode we've done, we've changed the format a bit over the years. We've now been doing these console episodes for five years alone, which is kind of wild. But like starting out for the DS and the Game Boy Avance one We just like played as many games as possible and then shared our ten favorites. And I think once we got to the Dreamcast, we were like, if we do our ten favorite Dreamcast games, it's gonna be like the ten Dreamcast games people talk about. you know And like we wanted to show more of that console's life. And thankfully with the Dreamcast, there aren't that many games. L it was only around for a few years. So that opened the formula up to like, okay, we'll make a playlist of like fifty to sixty games, then we'll bring like half of those to the show. And obviously like, you know, playing that many games, like we try to put as much time and everything as possible, but it's inherently kind of a bird's eye view. I think it's more interesting just getting like kind of a macro view of that era of that console. The PS one library though, is so goodood and so huge. It's massive in a way that is like basically impossible for it. Like we would have to start a whole separate podcast. Yes, where we just talked about the PS one every week for eight years to come the library. So we're like, okay, let's let's actually decide like let's have a set playlist ahead of time that people can play along alongside us and also kind of represents like broadly speaking, like different aspects of the library. We're going to have like the big hits like FF seven and Megar Solid. We're also going have like Legends of Lagaya and you know other games that are less known. I think we did a pretty good job covering a lot of bases. Obviously there are things left out, I think like from Snatcher to Cash, we kind of have like the full spectrum of PS one. And I'm really excited to do that. So obviously like, you know, I've been kind of combing through. What's nice is that a lot of the games are relatively short other than the like ten gigantic RPGs we have on there. I've committed ahead of time like which of the RPGs I like need to see through in which I feel more comfortable playing the bulk of or at least most of to speak to confidently. Xeno gears is one that I will really want to see through before we do that episode personally. But thankfully I've also played a lot of them already. so I have that in my favor. All this to say, we did swap out one game for a new one So if you're playing along, we did swap out LSD Dream Emulator for Spyro the Dragon, which is maybe the most opp basically the same gamees think one or the other. No one will be able to tell the difference. Frankly, we just couldn't really find a way to play LSD Dream Emulator. That's a really interesting game. It's worth like learning the history of that game. and there's plenty of like YouTube videos about that game. It's one of the It's kind of like the C Man of PS one in some ways. But as we've started the prep, we're also playing games that are not on our list, just kind of like soak in the PS one vibes and have more context for the console. And one of the first things that we both gravitated to was actually playing Spyro. and you specifically were like learning more about like the speedrunning scene for Spyro Yeah. I think initially the reason Spyro wasn't on there was like we felt that between Crash two, Clanoa, Parppa and on Jammer Lamy that we had like a lot of the mascot games covered. But in retrospect, I think Spyro, like when you say you're doing a Piaz one episode, I think that's going to be one of the first games people expect. Yeah. and it was one that we like s If we're playing this first unprompted, it should probably be on the episode. Yeah. So Spyro fans your patience has paid off. That's also one of the very few games. The two games people were sad that didn't make it were Spyro and FF eight. FF eight, I'm also sad didn't make it, but we already have like so many RPGs on there and like also two final fantasies, I think it's okay that FFA isn't on there, but shout out FFA. Shad out FFA. All shout out Willa over at girl mode. Like if you want to hear about FFA a lot, Willa is a big FFA fan. So like there's FFA coverage in the network. Yeah You can go listen to people wax poetic about FFA. Absolutely. And I think FFA's a weird one for me because my copy of it, this is like a very nineties kid memory, but my copy of FFA froze at the end of the first disk. So I just played the first disk of FFA over and over and over again. So I don't really have context of the full game, but like I love those opening X hours of that game. So anyway, that's an update on the PS one. We've swapped LSD for Spyro. I updated the backlog list to account for that. If you were already head first into LSD, I apologize, but I hope you enjoyed that experience. that We'll put that link in the description of the episode, by the way so can If you haven't seen it yet, you can follow along. Yeah, it's pinned in the discord as well, but we'll put in the show notes too, if you're not in the Discord. Anyway, I started PS one prep a while ago, like basically when we decided secretly that we were doing this. Yeah, same.. I started chipping away at some stuff. But I've started like in earnest spreadsheet tracking playing the stuff. Yeah. And one of the first games I played is a game that's not on our playlist It's a game that I rented and wasn't sure if I dreamt it or not, but you guess it, it's Bust a Groove, which is in a really interesting era. I feel like there's this whole pre pre end post DDR, pre guitar hero era of rhythm games on the PS one. That's really interesting. I think Prappa the rapper is the biggest one Parppa actually finished, like that was the first game I went back to when we decided to do this episode. I just played through all of Parppa. It's incomprehensible what you're doing, like how you're rapping is good or bad. You're kind of just at the game's mercy. but it's like so carried by charm and the songs are genuinely good There's five tracks and it's just like great from start to finish. And honestly, given Sony's obsession with making like movies and TV about their IP, I'm amazed there isn't like a kid show prep of the rapper cartoon. I think there was an anime like years and years ago. Oh really? kindind of came in. Yeah, I've seen the intro of it.. and they have like little cutout puppets, which is very fun. The song is good ye But I'm like the cutscenes in Parappa are genuinely funny and like it's just so heartfelt and weird in a way that like a lot of cartoonetwork, the best cartoon network in Nickelodeon shows are. And I feel like Parappa would do very well as a show if they ever wanted to do that. Yeah. But anyway, I'm Jam Milani's the Better Game Anyway, but there's all these games like that. and the other one is Bust to Groove, which is a sort of in the realm of like Jetet radio vibes and character design. Jetet Radio was way more into the Fish Islands. you would get Bust to Groove. And it's a fighting It's kind of weird that Jetset Radio is not more into the Fish Islands. Yeah, right? Maybe when the Sega Supergame version of it comes out whatever that is. There could be more of a fish islands. ye. That'd be good. people are clamoring for the fish Islands. Buster Groove is a fighting game rhythm game hybrid that's also kind of incomprehensible at first. They don't tell you how to play it. The way you play it is you see your character kind of like ambiently dancing and you see a string of directions And then either the X or the circle button, and it's flashing. And on like the fourth beat, you'll see like the X or circle button flash too. You have to input the directions in any like rhythm you want. they don't have to be on the rhythm, but you have to like successfully pull off those directions and then push x or circle on the fourth beat And doing that will like successfully pull off like a dance move that's also kind of like a fighting game combo. and the more advanced ones, you're kind of given a choice of like which one you want to do. Yeah. And if you pull off the harder ones, you like there's like a risk reward to like choosing the harder path each time. It's actually really fun. Like once you know how to play it, it's pretty clever concept for a rhythm game. I think they did make a sequel to this. I do kind of wish we saw this idea developed more because it's admittedly pretty simple by today's standards. Like once you kind of do it a few times, you like get it, there isn't really like a ton of complexity there But it's so overwhelmingly late nineties in good and bad ways. And it was I remembered there was one character named Gasso who the game introduced like Gasso whenever it was his turn. I'm like, is he a big deal? Like why are they so excited? And what I love about this game is that the characters will sing their stages theme song And because Gasso is essentially like if the Pyro from Team Fortress two was in Jetet Radio, his whole song was like, likeong that's so good. So it's a really good song. I love that. It's a really silly game. It's definitely elements of it have not aged well to be clear, but it's a really interesting rhythm game It Kind of is the type of thing I'm excited to play more of in preparing for this PS one episode is like just weird ideas where like certain genres and even just three D itself was so new that there was this willingness to like really throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Yeah. someomeone hit us up on Blue Sky or Discord or whereatever and tell us what indie game we are forgetting that is just a reincarnation of Bust to Groof. I that. Doesn't this feel like the kind of game that somebody has already made like an unbelievable spiritual successor to? I need the indndie Bust to Groove tonight Yeah I do wantan to play the sequel as well, but it was a lot of fun revisiting this. And the other game I played a lot of, I guess I was just drawn to like musically driven games, but I played a lot of Tony Hawk Prokater too. Hell yeah, dude. Which weirdly enough, despite how like ever present that game is, I don't think I've played that game since it came out because I only owned the first one had three and I played a lot of three, which is what led to one of our only like somewhat heated debates in games the decade two thousands where I was arguing for three over two Yeah overver two days. And then you know, I played the later ones. and then of course, Tony Hawk Proskor onene plus two came out. What's fascinating about going back to Tony Hawk Proskatater two is that like it for better and for worse doesn't feel that different from modern iterations of the game. Like Yeah. I feel like that's the curse of the series like they got the mechanics so perfect into that it almost doomed every entry after that because it's like, well, what do you do next? Like you already figured it out. Oh now you can hold onto the back of a car. Yeah So now you can like get off the skateboard. It's like rethink this Yeah. whyy are we playing Tony R'. Okay now fox is on a dinosaur planet Yeah and ads noa The fact that you knew I was thinking about Starbucks addventures means we've been doing this for a long time. Yeah you and I are we've what is it? We're drift compatible. We're operating the giant MX and Pacific Rom together. Yes, spiral powers within us. But yeah,'s I mean it's great. It's a great game. It is a great game. just I say this every time we talk about Tony Hawk Pro Skater two, but I played that game on PC, like first I don't know why, but my PC that I had my like gateway computer att the time could run this game. So I played through the entire thing there. and I remember getting to the point where I was like playing as Smbiote Spider Man on the moon and was like, this is the greatest game ever made. And I've never reached that point in the game again and thats that's what I'm endeavoring to do this time around. Like I'm really I'm really going to try to like unlock everything and beat everything in this game again Yeah. I love Tonyha Proroskatater two so much. I think it's wonderful. I also love I'm playing a lot of this on Steam Deck. I'm playing a lot of these games in a variety of places. like I have a lot of physical copies still. So I'm playing a good amount on my PS two. My PS one stopped working but I still have my PS two and it's backwards compatible. And then I'm also playing a lot of it on PSP Vita and Steam Deck. And playing PS one games on the Steam Deck is a lot of funks. They always plays the like load up sound. And I think I think the PS one startup sound is my favorite of all of them. It's unbelievable. It's really good. It's like up there with Windows ninety five. Yeah. Like the Brian Inno developed Windows ninety five startup sound. likeike those are they're, I think neck and neck for me. Yeah as kid PlayStation was one of my formative consoles like this and N sixty four were kind of like my first consoles. My family had an NES and a Super Nintendo, but I was a little I played a lot of Super Nintendo and NES, but like they were already kind of seen as like old retro systems by the time I had like a sentient mind. So really PS one and N sixty four The generenation after that are kind of my foundation Yeah. And growing up with these games, you would hear the boot up sound And there was the dg In the next screen And if that screen played, you knew it was gonna work. And it was always a role that especially if you rented games as often as I did. Yeah. because like if you rented something, there's like a thirty percent chance it just wouldn't work. And so to this day when I hear that second sound, part of me just subconsciously feels like a feeling of relief. It's kind of eerie It's like programmed me in that way. but I'm just so excited man. There's so much I'm looking forward to playing. I also started Brave Fencer Musashi, which was a game I didn't even know existed in game whips. You're gonna like that you already like it. Oh yeah,ah I played it. ye Yeah. It reminds me so much of Kirby sixty four. It's like sort of like mystical Ninja meets Kirby sixty four. Yeah is my pitch for that one. The one I've been playing the most recently, maybe unsurprisingly is crash team racing. Oh yeah, nice. That' I think I've talked about this in the past, but like I have very few Tue PS one experiences from the era where the console was out. Yeah. For some reason they are Jersey Devil Spyro the Dragon which I played in a hotel room once and also Crash teeam Racing, which I think I mentioned. Not a bad trio in the past, Not a bad trio. That could be the whole episode. Yeah, which I mentioned in the past. I just like knew a kid who had a PS one and every time I went over to his house, we played Crash teeam racing. So it's my first time playing that game like by myself and also in the intervening years of like one million Mario Karts between them That game still extremely holds up. Yeah the charm is there and their ability to make it feel unique from Mario Kart in an era where Mario Kart is so dominant already is like so, so, so impressive. I really like even just the tracks, I find really stunning in that game and the music is wonderful and then obviously kind of the open world Diddy Kong racing going on, you know, the like overworld part of it. I just I find that game so impressive still. Yeah, I think Didicon racing is a great comparison to that. because they both have this like racing adventure game angle that I think helps separate them from Mario Kart. Yeah, so smart. That's another game I want to play that isn't on our list, but was recommended to us is racing Lagoon, which is like Yeah. Square Enix is like racing RPG I'm very curious what that looks like. And again, like you know, as long as the show continues and as long as we're still playing video games, like even stuff that isn't on the list, I'm sure we'll get to one day. Yeah. But yeah I'm verycited. T think what else? I'm probably going just to really fully transper myself back emotionally, start a new Final Fantasy seven play through. I probably' finish it again, but I just, you know, just to have it fresh, I'll probably play through at least like the Midgar stuff again. Yeah, I think I'll probably play that much of it again Realistically because it's still been, I don't even know how many years ago we did that bonus about it. I think we did that in either twenty twenty two or twenty twenty three Yeah. It's been a few years. It's been a couple of years. Yeah. I feel like I should revisit it. But yeah that game is really like it's interesting. I think Fal Fantasis seven is such a huge game and such a disgsed game that there's an instinct to belittle it, to be like, it's actually not that good. And I do think having played a lot of other RPGs in that era, there are other RPGs in that time frame that came out in that era that I think are more interesting narratively and more fun to play. but think kind of remains like somehow still one of a kind, even though it's so influential. like there's really nothing quite like it in terms of just the feeling of playing it. And a lot of that's based on my foundational experience with it, but it's still my experience with it. And also it's remarkably breezy to play. it's a pretty easy game notot only in it's just difficulty, but also just like it's not really asking that much of you in terms of like what it expects you to know or do att least compared to other RPGs on the PS one. Yeah. You know, it's certainly not like vagrant story in terms of it's like prickliness. Yeah. Even Chronacross at times Yeah gets abstract and weird enough where like it's demanding more of you, especially in Some of the like character acquisition stuff. Yeah. ye, like knowing that you need to treat kid poorly to get the best characters is like, huh? ye. R Eactly. So bizarre. But yeah, I can't wait. I'm especially excited to hear if FF nine kind of gets its claws intoo you. That's one of the big question marks I think survey says yes, probably. Yeah I think you'll at least have a good time. I think you'll probably feel how I feel where that game, I feel almost exactly the same about FF nine as H's Moving Castle, which is funny considering they have so much in common visually. Yeah. The first act of both How's Moving Castle and FF nine is like peak Miyazaki peak Final Fantasy. It's like this is exactly like what I want and hope for and dream of. Yeah. And then it kind of goes off the rails after that FF nine gets like way too weird in a bad way. It fs the landing, but this sort of second at third action like I don't want any of this. And Howal doesn't lose me, but I no joke whenever I watch Howal, I go, am I too harsh on this? This is like so fun and I love this And it's a great movie. donon't get me wrong. L Miyazaki's worst films are still amongst the best animated films ever made. But whenever I watch Hell, the group I'm with or the theater I'm in, people laugh at the ending. L when I won't spoil it, but like there's a reveal that happens.. And it gets a laugh every time and I don't think it's supposed to be funny.. You know, like it's just so abrupt that everyone goes like, what That's how you feel while watching it, which sucks because like there's so much good stuff in there. But feel I feel similarly about FF nine where it's like both how and FF nine have some of my favorite like aesthetics and characters and moments, but the whole story is a little bit uneven, right But that's also part of the course with the Final Fantasy and part of the course with another series we'll talk about ater in this episode. Yeahes. So yeah, I'm very excited as you could tell. Yeah. Me too. Turns out the PS one is really cool. I'm glad we chose this console. I'm really glad to finally be having time with it the way I kind of always wanted to because I've said this in the past, but like growing up outside of handhelds, like I had the Sega Genesis and then the next one I had after that was the PS two. So I missed basically that whole generation for myself. And with the PS two being backward compatible, I could pick up some stuff from the backlog, but the only thing I got was Jersey Devil So I really didn't I really didn't have the experience with a lot of these games that I wish I had. So jumping into it, like I'm honestly I've been I don't know why just the past like two weeks, I've just been really focusing on Crash Bandacot, like all of those games, which has been honestly great. L. They're really good. I mean, I think there's a reason why, you know there was a lot of I remember like every game magazine at that time was like, who's Sony's mascot? Like who's the Mario for the Playsttation? Yeah Everyone needed a Mario It was always like a toss up between like Syro Crash and like maybe Parppa, but it was really Syro versus Crash. Let's be honest. Yeah. And I think Cash has the better track record of games at least on the PS one. Like I think Cash two is the best, but I think one through three and team racing are all good. Yes. I personally think after Spyro one, the series kind of loses its way But I know a lot of people who like to quite a bit. Yeah. I think that's a hot take. Yeah. That's actually one of the things I'm most interested in now that we added Spyro one to the list is you know, I'm gonna to play the other ones. I'm curious to see where I land on that because people really do go to bat for each of them for different reasons. So Yeah, specifically Rippto's Rge. I feel like it's been a long time since I played it. I remember feeling I think the last time I played them was playing in college when I revisited them. And I remember feeling like Spyro one is so fun and so transportive and kind of does like what Banjokuui does well where it's like it's just fun to be in that world. It's like so imaginative and colorful. Rptto's rage gets a little bit into the Donkey Kong sixty four problem where there's just like too much shit. L it kind of gets too busy In my opinion. but if you want more it's kind of how I feel like I feel like another hot take is that I prefer Breath of the Wild pretty strongly to Tears of the Kingdom. Yes I I think in that case, they're both excellent, but I find Tears of the Kingdom to be kind of like draining sometimes from I'm like I need more of this material so I have to go down and get this and then I have to play Minecraft for a bit. and I don't want to play Minecraft as something iss all it You know, like don I'm not interested in building this shit. That's very subjective. That Pe love that stuff and it's great, but it's not I don't want to play Minecraft. I wantan to play Zelda is maybe the perfect place to stop this conversation. Take a break and then pick up the next one. Perfect. I'm not gonna say a single thing other than the sentence. Let's move on Bye everybody. See you This week's episode of I the Aher is brought to you by Tehererss Lounge. It's a band with a new three song EP out on bandcamp called Home Entertainment stumble around S sad look on your face. Thank you so to Teacherss Loun for sponsoring this episode of the show. You can find the EP at teacherslounge. bandcamp dot com and all streaming platforms. Thank you for supporting the show. Yeah, thank you so much. If you would like to get a commercial ad read, you can find that enter the cast at online. Bye, Bye bye Stehven, great news for the listeners because you and I already know this ' we're recording this and we already talked about it. But there is a demo for the Adventures of Elliot, the Millennium Tales that is available on all platforms right now. It's the prologue demo, which in Square Enix fashion means it's just the opening a couple hours of the game They're saying two to four hours in the promotional material. You will tell me how long it took you to beat it. But it's just the beginning of the game and then your save file carries over to the full game when it comes out, which is wonderful. You and I have been playing it. And before we even talk about our experience playing it, I just need to like back up for a second and just say, you and I have been Like the proponents of Elliot, at least in my own circle and I imagine in yours as well, like I think the excitement and you that you and I share for Elliot really notot to make it a competition but like outpaces the excitement I've seen by from anyone else on the internet. Including Square. Yes. like including the marketing for this game. Yes. We've been saying Elliot summer like for months at this point. The only thing makes me think Square Enix is also excited for the adventures of Elliot is the fact that this demo exists. I also just saw like literally before we started recording, there's an interview with Asano himself on Polygon about Elliot. Oh my I want to read So I might link that in the show notes, but I want to see that to me shows excitement as well. Y L when the lead of a project is like, I'm going to sit down and do a full interview about this. Yeah, you and I played the original demo that came out last year And or maybe earlier this year, either way, we really, really was last year defly. Yeah. It might have even been longer ago, but it was definitely last year at least. That demo was very much like a catered vertical slice of the game. So it wasn't like an actual piece of the story, it just kind of gave you a little bit of what the setup of the game was going to be, but mostly involved you running around like a specially designed for this demo version of the game that gave you a bunch of upgrades and a bunch of traversal abilities and just a good idea of what the full game look look like It reminded me of the demo for Triangle Strategy, another Tumusano game where it was like, this is a mission from the middle of the game. rightight? It's a really smart idea because I feel like lately Square Enix defaults to the you can play the first two to ten hours and then that carries over. That overall works pretty well, but it really depends on the game and you risk people feeling maybe too full of the game after that opening ten hours and then just not getting the full thing. Yeah. So it's interesting that with Elliott, we get both. We do get that like here's an idea of what the middle of the game will feel like. Yeah. And then here's the actual first two to four hours of the game Yeah and this will carry over. And like triangle strategy deemo for Elliot also had like a feedback form when it was done. Like when you were done playing it, it like linked out to literally a Google form that was like, what did you think? How did you feel about this element? blah blah blah, Which I really love. I love this is the thing that I've only seen Tam Masano do in terms of you know square Eix teams and I really appreciate that they took all that feedback and been applying it. but yeah, it's funny because I went on the into the Aher bllue sky account literally yesterday morning and I was like, if anyone knows anyone at Square Enix, I can get us review code for the Adventures of Ellot, pleaseit us up at into the aher podcast at gmail d. com. I'll say into the microphone as well. If you know anyone, dear listener. Or if you are from Square Enix, dear listener Please hit us up. But I posted that yesterday and then literally like three hours later, it was like there's a deo The demo for Brennon and Steven is now available Yeah. It was like we can't give you a review code right now, but we can give you the first three hours of the video game. That's perfect because you know there's way more pressure if it's like a review versus just like we played it and here are our thoughts Anyway, I finished this in my weird misaligned day where I kept falling in and out of sleep. I'm done. I finished the pro It took me four hours. took you four hours, okay. Yeah, which I think if you stick to, they let you off the like main story path a bit. I think if you do all of these side quests and explore everywhere you possibly can, it could be maybe as long as five hours. I did like most stuff and then I saw like I got bombs and I saw like on the map all the bombles Oh yeah I'm like, okay, I'll do that when the full game is out. I just dont want to get to the ending. And so it took me four hours. I think if you stick to the main plot or the main path rather, it would probably be closer to two. because I think two to four is the perfect expectation to give. I'm about two hours in at this point. I just got to the point where there's a bunch of people in theorth like outside of the North gate of That the first like real dungeon. Y. Yeah I did like the little mini dungeon that has the boss at the end And yeah, now I'm on my way to you know the first real dungeon. I'll say for my piece, because I think you're a little bit more conflicted on it than I am. att least at this point. I adore this game so much. L even just the opening, I think it is unbelievably charming. It is. And presentationally It kind of floors me wonderful I find it and how infrequently I think I'm playing games that make me feel the way this game does. There is such a joyful air to the entire thing where I think we're in a space where a lot of people when they're making RPGs, even in like the Zelda camp, which it's worth mentioning here at least One of the things that we've been so excited about when it comes to Elliot is the fact that it is basically Square Enix's take on a top down or isometric Zelda game. Like it is kind of an old school Zelda, you with action combat and stuff. and you know, some square Enoix flare, but by and large, like it is the structure of a Zelda game in terms of like you're running around in an overworld, you're going into dungeons, you're getting new equipment like A boomerang and bombs and a bow and arrow and all the things that you would get in a Zelda game, but by Tam Assano. And that's like just an unbelievably exciting prospect, I think on the high level. But even in those styles of game, there is still this sense of like, we need to make it a little bit darker and we need to make it feel real and we need to add this level of like of grittiness to it that this game just seems to not care that much about, if I'm being honest. It is just like whimsical and fun and joyful at all times. Every character you meet is like really wonderful. Even the like stodgy, annoying general who like works for the King, like there's something funny about him too when he's like pissed off that you get hired to go explore some ruins and he can't send his army there. like it does feel to bring this name up again, but it feels like Miyazaki adjacent in terms of the way they're handling some of this stuff and obviously Miyazaki has some dark shit in there in his Uvre. But you know, I'm likening this more to like a Totoro than I am a wind rises, you know Yeah, it's interesting. Like I think about Tonally, I think Nuska is one of his most interesting movies because as a character herself, Nusica is like the closest a Ghibli heroine ever gets to a Disney princess where like I always feel like she's like close to singing in every scene she's in and she has an animal companion and she's just like relentlessly optimistic and like cares so deeply about everybody. At the same time, she's in this very cruel world and a story with serious stakes. And like that movie is so effective because of that contrast. L there's that scene where she like steps in the like acidic water and the way the voice actor like cries out in pain, it's so real with a character that feels larger than life and like it just breaks your heart. And not that like I think, you know that's the moment where she's suffering. I think what's great about Nasuka is that she is a strong character. and she also has moments where like, you know, the main antagonist of that movie is very clearly like, here's what Nasuka would be like if she fell down a more vengeful path You know, here is another red headed character who has like armor instead of limbs and is like a more ruthless leader. Yeah And there are moments where like Nasuka gives in that mindset. You know, I think Nasua and Prince Mononoke are very linked in that way where like hatred is this kind of cancer that like corrupts all life, whether it's like someone as wonderful as Nusica or like a feral wolf of some kind, you know? So anyway, I think Elliot is obviously not like incredibly deep storytelling compared to Nuska. You know, I think but Tonally it kind of goes closer to that where it's like the overall mood and the characters are like bubbly and colorful But there are these moments where're like, oh shit, that character just died or likees right. there's a real there are real stakes here. I agree. I think this game, the word that comes to mind is sincere. It is like overwhelmingly sincere in a way that carries sometimes weaker writing. Like there's a moment early on where the princess is like Let me give you a magical catchphrase that will get you home no matter where you are. And it goes, there is always hope. Yeah. like I literally said out loud like that's the best you got. L It's like your password being Nintendo or something. there's always hope. Yeah. I was floored by that moment in particular, also like Come on. Yeah it's like we can't and what's funny is that she says something after that that's like, no matter how dark times get, like we can always endure. I'm like that's the better line. Yeah. you have or there is always hope. Yeah. or no, it's hope is always hope is always there. Yeah. But that sums up like what the game is going for. It is not trying to be Anything deep. It's just this very transportive, very charming, very heartfelt thing. And I like the characters a lot. I love the thing that like I think made us like root for this game from minute one is like how excited the game is about a guy named Elliot.. like Elliot Elliot is like just fanciful enough of a name to get away. It's like a notch above the adventures of Stephven. You know, where it's like, who's what? R Stehven And the game like the first half hour of this demo is just everyone in town saying how cool Elliott is. So like, I know a guy who can help us. He has his quirks and he doesn't always play by the rules, but goddamn is he cool? Yeah. And then all the kids in the orphanage are like, Ellot we love you, We love you, we love you. And it's just like so funny because he's like Otherwise a pretty like normal guy. L he's just like a nice guy with like a red Fedora. Yes, there has not been a single moment so far where I have learned anything about what I would consider to be Elliot's quirks as a person. Like He's just like a nice. Yeah He is by and large yeah,' just like a very nice protagonist of an RPG. I like him. Like he he'sine He's likeable. it's so funny like how hard the game goes like for him. Yeah. And it's like all right. And also in a world, you know, considering this is a take on Zelda game, having a protagonist who speaks, I think is very interesting as well. Yeah. And to your point about the presentation, I love the portraits of the characters. there are kind animated full body drawings of all the characters and they're really effective. Like that's I have said many times, you know games that like should be musicals. and I think in this cases worth pointing out musicals as a reference here because that's how like earnest and direct the game is. You know I think there are some lines that might feel weak. L A one point, Elliot, without irony, says danger's my middle name. and I'm like, I gotta respect this. I cannot believe he just said that But like it has that feeling of musical storytelling where it's a character enters, proudly says who they are and then leaves. R And I think that adds to this game's whimsical feeling. And if there's anything to nail, if you're going after Zelda to the point where the first few weapons are a sword, a boomerang, a bomb and a bow And you have a fairy companion and you have breakable pots.. If you're you can pick up bushes and throw them. Yeah.. If you're going that directly after GZelda, you've got to pull off the whimsy and they do that here. Yes. And I do think that like as much as it's obviously framed like aZelda game, mechanically it's really not Other than the structure of like the world map and the sort of to and fro nature of like you go to town, you spend your rubies or tool is the money here Yeah. And you can buy like health potions and accessories and stuff. and then you go out and do a dungeon. And the dungeons are very like at least so far, they're very bite sized And they're much more about combat. The puzzles are pretty much just like push this thing. push the thing onto a switch Yeah.ly. And in that way I've seen people compare at least when the demo came out, a lot of people were comparing it to Ece. And I think that like ye the main ingredients here are like link to the past, Ece, Mana and also Tamasano's past work. R whereere like it's action combat in the realm of Zelda, but it's kind of more like East. And also you can like charge up attacks in a way that you can and like Bravely defefault and Octopath traraveler, but it's in real time, right? Which is really cool that that's like a trademark of their games and seeing how it translates here is really cool. Okay Top level thoughts because you shared, you know that you're loving this. I am loving it too. I will say, I think I'm glad I played the demo first because I don't think if this was the first demo, I don't know, I would have been excited for this, but I don't think I would have been as excited. I do think that that first demo did a better job showing off like the full scope of what this game is going for Yeah Which makes sense. This is more of a vertical slice. This is literally like this demo is essentially the play of this until it gets good part of it. You know This is opening prologue. The thing that I noticed first was like there are a lot of interesting traversal options in that first demo with the Fairy companion. and there are a lot of interesting combat options and it takes much longer to get those L It really does feel like you're just kind of a guy with a sword for the first hour or so. Yeah. Even just not having a dash at the beginning of the game, I was like, o, this killing me. not ha really feel that lack of a dash, especially considering how much like East it feels. Yeah. I think the biggest thing about this game that will strongly divide everyone who plays it and I can already see the angry YouTube videos about it is the friendly companions. Oh yeah. They do not stop talking. So the first one you get is literally the prrincess, like the Zelda equivalent character. I think it's Princess Heria, Yeah right? Yeah. I like her a lot. She like sheakes your earrings to be able to speak to you while you're out in adventuring. Yeah, love I love that decision. L it didn't bother me at all in the demo. so I don't think it's going to be a long term problem for me But because so much of this prologue is essentially a tutorial, there's a lot of like, I wonder what's in that chest. It might be gold. You can spend that in town. And like I wonder if we could push that. What does that switch do? Maybe if we put it's like so much of that And like you find the door to the ruins that you're looking for in the very beginning and she's like, I wonder if there's a way to unlock this door around here and it's like literally In the frame that you're already looking at, you can see the switch. Yeah you need to step on. It's like, I didn't need that bit of dialogue. like I can already intune. And that happens like pretty constantly in a way that like they're repeating dialogue a lot also. It's worth mentioning. That's the thing that gets me more than anything else. I like the feeling that she's with us. L I like the story beat of like this is a very like adventurous princess who basically the plot is like, in this era, she has strong magical abilities that shield this kingdom from all these like animal creatures. They're called like the Beastfolk tribes or something. And basically she keeps everybody safe in this like magical dome, but she also can't leave. So when she meets Elliot, she's like This is This is my way of like kind of voyeuristically getting to experience an adventure.. And I love that. I really like their dynamic. like they're just likeable people. I don't again, I don't have a strong sense of character. probablyrobably more going on with the princess than Elliot, being honest, but I like that she's with us. I'm someone who likes a lot of the Zeldva companions like Pi or Fi, like I love Midna. I love the King of Red Lions. I even like Navi. I like this feeling that we're like not alone on the adventure. And where it works best for me is like there's a side quest you do for this friend of yours who's like the royal scientist, who's a great character. Yi Jene. I kept to myself going, Wui this But there's a quest you can do where it's revealed that like he used to be an adventurer with you, but then kind of realize like he's kind of more bookish and more maybe fitted for a role in academia. But he has this spear on the wall that like reminds him of his more rebellious days. And you can do a quest for him where he gives you that spear, which was I like I really, really, really love that this game sprinkles in a little bit of story and character, even with the most basic fetch quest. Yeah. Like you're never just cashing in something. You're always going to get a little bit of story with it. That's where I think the writing impresses me the most. And when you get the spear, the princess says like, I can't imagine him wielding a spearook at all.'s I love that because it's like a little moment of character.. You get her observations of the world. I even like when she wass like, it's a cat, that's so cute. you know, like that's great. But Yeah, when she's repeating like, I wonder if there's like a way to open that chest like please I'veve played this old game before. I think even if they just reduced it so that you would get each voice line once and then not again, that would actually be enough for me. You can edit it. So like in the games I didn't realize this until like at the end of the demo, but like At first didn't I wasn't really bothered by it, but then it started to get it started to gr the more I played. So I went into the settings and it says, you can change the companion from talkative to reticent, which I felt bad. And even on reticcent, they talk more than you expect them to, but it's, I think, a much better balance I like them commenting on how battle is going and I like the princess like giving us more of her character. Y. I don't need to be told that a switch needs something on it. You know, That's where I draw the line a little bit. That's when it gets into talking flower territory. Yes. But I'm curious because you know, I'm worried about the princess because we know from the first demo that we actually have the fairy companion, right And I'm wondering if like we'll have the ability to either switch between them or given that she's like the obvious Zelda parallel, I'm worried that she will like either be kidnapped or be absent and the fairy will take her place. Right. Yeah. I think you mentioned this, but like she is she is the person who is protecting that castle toown, but like none of the places around the castle toown have her protection. And I think there is this Sense at least that I'm getting that because the entire burden of protecting the kingdom is on her, there is this there is this possibility that like she would be the prime target if you wanted to overthrow the kingdom in some way, shape or form. Yeah, so I won't spoil too much, but I think it is worth, I mean, this has been in the marketing of the game. This is a time travel story. Yeah, which I I totally forgot to this 'cause like it's in the title, the millennium Tales and in the marketing, it's like, you go to all these different eras over the course of two thousand years. And it's a time travel story at least so far in the style of Zelda, you know, where like you're going to and fro different eras of a place and also Chrono trigger, where it's like it feel's dealing time travel in that there are repercussions and stakes of history being changed, but it's also like more of a like romp in that like you're it's not like Stein's gate where you're like really dealing with the heavy science of time travel.. It's like, oh, we're in the past now. and like maybe if we move this boulder, it won't be there in the future or something. will say though I think where so combat is really working for me. I love the combat. I love the magisite system where like You get these gems for each weapon that like give them upgrades that are as simple as like attack plus three or like this attack now blocks enemy projectiles. There's a lot of customization. and that's where it feels like Square's take on Zelda in the best way or specifically Timasano's where it's like We're doing the bombs and the arrrow and stuff, but what if there was a material system Yes with Link's inventory, which is like my dream that I didn't realize I had for my whole life. And you have like a box of Magisite and the way it works is you can equip a certain amount in this box and over time, you'll like upgrade the size of that box, which will allow you to kind of come up with more combos. And that was where I think The original demo really shown because you had like basically a fully upgraded Magisite box that allowed you to have like five things equipped on each weapon at a time and that was really cool. Like that Yeah that really to me at least felt like I was able to build craft. And the way you unlock new Magisite is also very like like gotcha mobile game weird Wh like there's a weird merchant in town who will sell you this magisite, but you basically just like dump Magisite into into like like a like a cask being held by a cat by a cat. Yeah. And then it just kind of like poops out a bunch of Magisite stones and there's like a it literally shows you like a gotachcha game Like the percent chance of getting like better versions of different magisite. It's also interesting where like they have it so that if you make magisite you already have, it will just turn into like generic points. Yeah. that like whenever you summon more magisite, you like level up, I think it's called posture or something, but like form, I think. Yeah. form. Yes, that makes more sense. You level up your ability to summon Magictes. So like early on you can only do the random, but it what seems to be implied is that as you level up your form, you can then more specifically summon like I want to make like attack magictes or I want to make this. Yeah. And it also increases your chance of getting rarer stuff as well. But this is by like like decimal percentages. Yeah. How does that work for you overall? or does it feel kind of weird? Beause I remember like Zenablade two had a version of this where like there was a gotcha game in otherwise got your game and sometimes it can feel odd, but overall this works for me but I'm curiously you feel. I kind of love it weirdly. I was expecting to not when I saw the like when I saw the percentage modifiers in my face, I was like, uh oh. And then I don't know, I started doing it and I had a really great time. and maybe I just got some great polls. I don't know, mayaybe that's how it works. but I don't know. I think it's really fun. I think specifically Knowing that the chance of getting better stuff will increase the more of it I do. Yeah. And you'll have more of a direct say in what you're summoning as well. Yes. And then also getting the ability to summon Magisite so early in the game. It's within the first like thirty minutes of the game means I'll just be going back town and doing it a lot. And kind of like Dragon's doogma in a way. like it is continuing to incentivize going back to your hometown over and over again. Yeah, I was actually thinking that too, because there isn't like you're not leveling up by fighting monsters. You're leveling up by getting more currency from the drops too the point where like if you pull off combos, the drop bonus will increase. So enemies will drop more valuable things, including like health replenishing items and more magisite So that way like you're basically leveling up when you go back to town and you can buy more Magisite and upgrade your Magisite box. and also buy like other weapons and accessories. There's a lot of customization in a way that really excites me. Y. And that's something that Tim Asano is like uniquely gifted at is like every one of their games, specifically like Opttopath and Bravely defefult Let you min max your party in ways that are really exciting. Yeah. Yeah, the items that are available in the beginning at the town, so like the boomerang, you'll buy basically immediately because you start the game with enough money to buy the boomerang and they kind of point you in the direction of doing it. very like Twilight princess of them. But the other ones are like a one thousand dollars cape That makes it so you can like hover in the air for a little bit when you jump, which I don't know what the reason for that is yet, but I'm excited to find out. And the forget I forget what the cheapest one is, but there's one in the middle, which I'm fascinated by, which when you buy it, it just makes it so you don't slow down at all when you run into the grass. Oh, interesting. It it just makes it like if you run into the grass, like your character slows down a little bit, which like in combat can be tough because there's tall grass all over the place in most of the combat arenas and just removing that As an item that you can buy, I find very interesting. So I'm curious to see what else they start to dole out over the course of the game if we're like getting that granular in terms of thels. So I'm really loving it. It's definitely just such a fun and joyful game to experience. and like we've already said it's just so charming. just I just shout out the music in particular. I think this is like, you know, what we'll see when the full game is out, but so far this year it is the most incredible score I've heard in a video game. It's really good. I think it's remarkable. I'm not kidding I teared up a little bit when I started playing as Elliot. like they do like a classic, you know, here's what's going on in the palace kind of opening. And then as soon as they cut to Elliot talking to his other adventurer friend, I think, Oliver, like just kind of in the woods, this song starts playing that I was like, oh my go, this is some of the most beautiful music I've heard in a video game in a long time I just think it's spectacular. Yeah, I was surprised it wasn't Yasanori Nishki, who's the composer for Octopath, because it sounds a lot like his music. but I think it's two composers this time. Obviously probably like a whole team of people as well. But really great music. and that does a lot of the heavy lifting with just like the storytelling, honestly. That's something that I think is kind of a trademark of this Sper Nintendo era of RPGs where like Fall Fantasy V, for example, the song that plays when Tara first wakes up posts like the cold open where you're like a brainwashed soldier. That song is called Awakening. And like that song makes you care more about what's happening in that scene than any of the dialogue does L there's something about that song that feels like waking up from a bad dream in a comforting way That's so effective. And you know, before these games had voice acting, obviously, there's voice acting in Elliot. and it's good. It's really good. Although I love, I don't know if this is a good decision on paper, but I love it. When you talk to the cat It's just a person going meow. Oh yeah, was so funny. No ye, it's so funny. But like music was such a driving force for the emotion. It still is, but like it was sort of the only thing really directing your mood before there was like a direct ability to like make the characters emote or have the vocal performance doing that as well. So I think Tim Asano knows how important that is and the music, even when you're just like in a dungeon, it gives you this feeling of adventure that is maybe beyond what's actually happening. And that kind of brings me to my one note and this might change as I get further into the game, but I just find the dungeon designed to be like a little basic You know, I think what they're going for is more of a combat centric experience. So like I'm not expecting like super complex puzzles. But at this point I've done like a handful of dungeons and they've all basically been like, push this thing here and then maybe there's one staircase that goes to a lower level with one chest in it Yeah But otherwise, I'm more hopeful that it will get better because like I found this cave in the desert and I actually couldn't do anything. So I'm like, oh, this is probably something and that was actually where the princess was helpful. She was like, I think we've like run our course here. We should leave. I actually can't do anything here. I probably need some ability that I can circle back later. I just think it's interesting that like the game that's going after Zelda this hard And this directly is less interested in like organic discovery than Octopath two is. Like I actually think Octopath two does the like, what's that over there? significantly better than Elliot does because it's just everything is so signposted to the point where like when you look at the world map, it shows you every bombable wall that I was about to bring that up Yeah, which like it's not it's what it's a different design decision, but I could see that rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, specifically people that come to Zelda for that feeling of like untying a knot and like the more puzzle aspect of it. being like, o, I remembered that the bombable wall was there. I didn't to tell me yes. Yeah that And I think that's where like the talkative nature of the companions can like basasically solve puzzles for you. So that's one thing. The other thing is that as much as I find the story charming, I keep expecting it to be a little bit like whenever something happens, it's very clearly signposting like what the next beat is going to be, which I enjoy. it's fun and is kind of in that musical tradition. But I keep being like, oh wait, it wouldd be really cool If they went like a little off the path. if it did this slightly more interesting thing that feels like it's being set up and then it doesn't do. And that's like unfair of me to maybe expect. But like for example, it's a time traveling story, pretty much right after you're at, a character goes through that door you discover. Yes that allows you to travel in time. And so you go to your first new era And that's also I'll say this,'s not really that big of a spoiler. Like When you enter that new era, the princess is like, oh, my magic can't reach you here. So I can't heal you anymore. Okay, Which makes the game significantly harder because you have you basically are limited to two heelals. whereereas like when her magic can reach you, there's a recharging ability that you can choose. So my guess is maybe that, I mean, who knows, but my guess is Maybe your companion is dependent on which era you're in. That's an interesting ide. Like mayaybe if you're in this like it's called the era of safekeeping, I think, where we started. You had the princess and if you're in the other eras you're with the fairy companion, who I just met at the end of this. But you go to this new era, you go to a town called Little Hope Which I just I love much name. Yeah. Ellie, it's like, what manner of village is this? And someone's like, it's little hope. We don't have much of that here if you ask me. I'm like Yes, yes, yes. And you meet a girl with like tattered Mad Max wanderer clothing and goggles who's really into history And on some level in a video game, when I meet a character in tattered Mad Max clothing with goggles who's really into history, I think, oh, we're in the future. L we're in the ruined future.. So my first thought is that, oh shit, littleittle Hope is the kingdom in the future. This is our chrono trigger moment where we're going to learn that Basically like the villain of the game goes into the past to rewrite history and you pursue that. R. And I thought it would be a fun little twist. And' not I don't want to rewrite the game or anything. but like just based on what the game was showing me, I thought where it was going was, oh shit, we're actually in the future and that villain who came here is going to learn that and it's going to complicate What's happening here in some way? Yeah, but no, it's just the past. It Yeah. Yeah, like, okay. It's just like this was the past that the current king like saved the world from. the king brought the world in Yeah the's father, right? becausecause the king's father is the hero king. Yeah. so like this this is the era where the hero king like course correct. Yeah. it's like Elliot going gonna to be the hero king. That's what I keep thinking. There's all everyone's keeps bringing up like there's this person from the past who did this really cool and good thing. Yeah. And I'm like, is this all Elliot? It's not this was Elliot in every era. But did Elliot save Elliot as well Yes. Like did the guy who saveab who saved baby Elliot under the tree and name him Elliot? was that also Elliot? Oh my Godd, it's gotta all be Elliot, right? I think it's all Elliot. so sorry to future players of this game if we just somehow without having played the whole game spoiled it for you. I think that I mean or at least at least maybe it's it wasn't Elliot, but it will be and then will have been Elliot.. Like Elliot has to be like the central historical figure all. He's gonna ren he's gonna to rename himself hope later. and then when the prinor says hope is all there is. No no, no there and then no, yeah hope is always there.n is always there. Yeah So yeah, so I think like those those are the two little things that are holding me back from being like because I went I went into this to be clear. I maybe this is unfair with like very, very high expectations. I think T Masano has only gotten better at what they do. I think Octopath two is up there. I still haven't fully finished it, but like my eighty hours of Octopath two have been some of the most enjoyable I've spent with an RPG. And I fully expected this to just be like easily my favorite game of the year and it still could be, it's very much going it's going to be on our list in some capacity. I have no doubt. Yeah. But I just think that like the story being maybe a little obvious while while also having a lot of it and the dungeons being maybe a little bit too simple and too on the rails, those are the two things I'm like keeping an eye out for Even if those two things remain true, even if it's like an underwhelming story and simple dungeon design, that doesn't take away from how good the central loop is and how fun it is to just exist in this like this sincere and genuine world that's like not approaching any of this with like irony or cynicism. It's just like we love all of this stuff so much. We want it to put it all in a game. Yes. And also think about Zelda stories, like pre Breath of the Wild, Zelda stories you know, or maybe I should say like closer to like the three D S and earlier era of Zelda, you know, they are also not exactly the most like complex, breakdown twisty experiences for the most part. You know, they'reing they're trying to be mythical. I know you're thinking about Wind Waker, but I Majoras I'm I'm talking about specifically the era that this game is pulling from. No, I know what you mean. They are very comfortably pulling from myth and legend and not trying to be not trying to get too clever with it. Yes. Pret much until you get to Majora, which is the first like literal twisty game. Yeah. And even then it's like more about mood and atmosphere than like story R The thing about Ellie is that there is a lot of writing. There's like a lot of cutscenes, there's a lot of dialogue. So even if we're not playing it for a complex story, they're spending a lot of time giving us story. Yeah, that makes sense. So I think that's where like it being a little bit more interesting could elevate the whole thing. Yeah could elevate the whole thing. It's awesome. I mean, I played this in one sitting. It's so fun. Yeah, I think if we weren't recording right now, I would still be playing it and I would be done with it now. Yeah. And it didn't if it didn't say like thanks for playing the prologue demo, I would still be playing it. Yeah. So I think Elliot' summer is still very much going to happen. I do think though that like some of the decisions here and just the inherent clos this as Zelda might lead to some mixed reactions. I kind of anticipate that. If you're going into this expecting like it to be Zelda. Yeah. I think go into this more thinking like this is a Zelda flavored action RPG. Yeah. but yeah, it's an awesome time. I'm very excited. This game comes out on june eighteenth, by the way. Yeah, which is literally like a couple days before like the summer solstice Elliot Summer is quite literal It's perfect. Yeah. I actually I have a flight on the nineteenth, so like it couldn't be timed any better. Howll ye. I'm very excited. Elliot I wonder if this vehicle can go into the air and take us somewhere faster. Only one way to find out, Danger is my middle name. Yes. Let's take a break. Let's take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about a different kind of Elliot Woo. Bye bye. See ya Stephvenen we're back. I just want to say real quick, I had kind of a cursed thought, but when I ended the last section with woohoo, I was like, what if Timasano's next game is like, we're doing Mario. We're making like actually if they did like a Mario RPG, like a more colorful turn based combat game with active elements that like has a sort of that kind of aesthetic Yeah filtered through their usual art style, that would be very interesting. Mega Franco. Yeah It's like the bouncy adventures of Dario And the fungal kingdom still has magocite,. still has materia in it somehow. Yeah. I'm octotoed. Yeah Kind of a traveler Octotoad traveler is really good. I love that I want to I want to talk about someone who I think is Elliot adjacent. Yeah. I mean, who's who To be honest, who is as cool, powerful, down to earth, and nice as Elliot? It's gotta be Leon S. Kennedy. That's actually the correct answer. It The unstoppable force immovable object is Elliot Leon S Kennedy. Yes I'll start here. I finished Rinevil Requiem between the last episode of now. Thank you so much. I think that game is fascinating. I liked it a lot. I have a lot of criticism about how it wraps up as we were saying kind of I don't know, that's just the pervasive feeling about all resesident Evil games in some ways you and I are planning on doing like a CapcOom double header patreon bonus about Resinval Requium and Pragmata when you're done with Pragmata. Yeah. So I'll save most of my requiem thoughts for when we do that. I will just say, I think Rinval Requiem is a fascinating idea. that I hope they execute better next time. I hope they I hope they try to do this formula again. I like what we've talked about many times on the show and talk about Requiem of this like first person Very down to earth survival horror idea that is punctuated in moments by the resesin evil four. like I'm going to roundhouse kick a zombie in the face and take out all of the things that have been freaking you out with my shotgun of it all. I think that that balance is really great. And I just think that balance gets thrown off the further into the game that you get. Yeah, I totally agree. I think they they strike a better balance in the last third than in the middle But I think it's all in the shadow of how good that first third is. Yes. I think I liked it more than you, but I agree that like how well and how fondly we look back on Requiem, I think fully depends on what's next. I agree with you. You know think I think if they go in a more interesting direction after this, then Requiem will be the moment where like they successfully wrapped up The previous era and set up a new one. Yeah. because I think without spoiling, Requiem ends in a way where like they are un beholden to the past. L they can now do anything they want. Yes. But if it becomes MCUified, then I think Requiem will be the game we all remember as like the game that MCUified R. So I think it really depends on the path they go down that Yeah I think I would even go as far as arguing that Rinevil like in some ways, requiem is the untangling of the MCUificification of Resonevil. like Oh yeah, I see what you're saying. There's been so much of it already in terms of all the different like lore fragments that have been kind of dangling all over the place for so long Requiem story, I think wraps up some stuff that had been left open and lingered and also retc some like pretty foundational lore of Resin Evil in a way that gives them, as you were saying, completely open runway for whatever comes next. And I think that's the thing that you're connecting to and that's the thing I'm most excited about also. So I think you're right There is a version of it where Resident Evil ten comes out and just completely shifts the bed with their open runway. and then you're like, well, okay. because we've seen that happen and name your franchise, right? There's an entry where they like or like it's your turn now and then it's like you know. so ye last Jed iter rise of Skywalker. Yeah. Yeah. didn' I didn't want to be. That's exactly what I was thinking. I want more angry Spotify comments I feed off of them. The other thing I want to talk about when it comes to requium and we mentioned this last week, they added for some reason, instead of mercenaries, which everyone was expecting to come out, they added a rogue like to Resvil Requiem that's called Leon Must Die Forever. And in it, you play as Leon S. Kennedy through All of the sections of the game where you play as Leon Kennedy. So this is why they don't let you play it until you're done with the game because it constitutes like pretty heavy spoilers for almost the entire game when you start to see the different places and bosses and stuff that you're fighting. But essentially it creates this web of all of the different spots in the game that you were able to play as Leon. and you need to fight your way through them as quickly as you possibly can And there are these like big glowing doors set up in all the different areas throughout the game. So like the very this one is not a spoiler. In the very beginning of the game, there's an outbreak that starts in a city called Renwood, which we've described as basically resesident evvil Chicago. that as you're making your way through in the main story as Leon, you're just like taking out zombies as you're seeing them start to infect more and more people There's like car accidents happening all over the place. It's like a pretty harrowing scene. Yeah. in Leon Must Die forever, That's always your starting point is that scene But there are these glowing red doors placed at different intervals throughout that Renwood scene that allow you to kind of jetton yourself out of that scene and into another piece of resinvil requium. So that could be like the care center bit at the very beginning with the chainsaw. if you remember that, like the first time the chainsaw shows up whichich is like one of the easier paths that you could take and that's one of the like first red doors that you see. or you could do the part where like, as we've talked about in the past, you know you finish the first grrace sururvival horror section and then you get to go through that section again as Leon, like you could go into that section instead. So there are all these branching paths in every single spot that you go to. there's there's like multiple options for where you can go next. So you could skip like right from the Renwood City streets to like one of the later bosses of the game if you wanted to, which I find very interesting. And every single time you kill a zombie, you get a bunch of points and they will drop something, which is nice. There are also chests all over the place which will have random weapons Which is also very helpful. and the weapons will be just like rolled with various upgrades for them. So sometimes you'll just get like a shotgun with no upgradade, sometometimes you'll get like the best shotgun with all the upgrades. and it's really just up to chance. you know, it's a rogue like in that way. And then they also introduce enemies here and there that need to be killed in specific ways. So like some enemies can really only be killed in like close quarters combat by like parrying them and meleeing them. some enemies can only be killed from like long distances so you need to get as far away as possible. There's some interesting stuff there. And if you can kill those enemies, they will also usually drop something pretty good. Their idea behind this mode, I think is really sound. I think in execution, it seems to be turning a lot of people off. I'm enjoying it A lot because I like Resin Evil four and this just feels like a like a rogue like version of Resinvil four. It's pretty simple overall. you know, it does feel like something that's like, I don't want to be too too harsh on it, but it does feel a little bit like cobbled together. It's like an idea that you can tell some people within Capcom and within the Residentvil team we're very excited about and they werere like, okay, yeah, we'll say yes, go work on that and then you know, we'll see how it does As a proof of concept for how you could make this work in the future, like I would be interested to see if they wanted to expand on this in the future. Yeah, I think the benefit of mercenaries mode is that like it is in theory similar where like every level is a level from the game. Yeah. but they're also adjusted to be mercenaries mode levels. they're not exactly the same. I would also say that like the resinvel four remake Overall has much tighter combat than Requiem. Yeah. The foundation of that game seems to be the Gace sections. Yes. So like it's all kind of rooted in like that feeling of like horror and powerlessness, whereas four is more of a power fantasy. So like I think even in the Leon combat sequences, it doesn't feel quite as like tight and responsive as four does. Yeah, because I think the biggest shift in the combat of Requiem is getting rid of the ability to dodge out of the way in favor of parrying. Yeah. And making that kind of the foundational element of how you prevent yourself from getting hit by attacks in Ridentval Requium when you're playing as Leon Al also tying those parries to a object, whether that be the knife or the hatchet that has like a repairability meter, like it will eventually break if you parry too much or if you use it too much, creates this like weird imbalance where as you continue to make your way through, at least Leon must die forever, if you are playing the game the way it's intended to, you will be parrying a lot of attacks that will break your ability to parry the future and then you don't have like a dodge button. so you're just kind of screwed if you don't get a drop that will enable you to, you know, like either get a new knife or repair your knife or your hatchet or whatever. As you continue to defeat enemies, you also get you know there's that thing that like sucks up blood in requiem. They basically give Leon a version of that where every single enemy he kills like it fill up this meter that just that thing. And if you can fill it up entirely, you get an ability and those abilities will be like increased shotgun damage or increased pistol damage, but also some more interesting ones that are like if you can successfully parry and then headshot an enemy, we will refill the repair meter of your hatchet or something. So there are some things that they give you which can kind of mitigate that problem that I'm talking about But it is so up to chance. like you're being given three options. know It's a choose three options kind of video game or kind of mode. So there are a lot of instances where like you will just get horrible drops over and over again. and it will just mean that there's no way you could possibly finish a run of Leam mustie forever. I think it's really strong even with all of that. lot of fun playing it and I really do want to continue making my way through and seeing if I can beat it. There are five difficulty modes. I have not even beaten it on the first one yet, but I want to keep going and see how many of them I can get through. I will say like when I finish Resvil Requiem, it's the first time I've ever finished a reseson Evil game and not immediately thought I can't wait to do new Game plus. like I did not feel the poull to go back and do it again But I was very happy that Leon Must I forever was here because that kind of filled that spot for me. Like that became the thing that I jumped into immediately and that will be the thing that I keep revisiting. I like the tradition of adding these modes. I remember hearing that Mercenaries mode is also coming eventually. I was curious like what does a Rogueelite version of this game look like where you are playing as Grace, but she just gets more weapons over time That could be like Grace is slowly getting Leon's arsenal. Yeah Grace would be RG would be That would be a lot of fun. So so fun. Beuse I think the most fun I had in this game mechanically was looking at the map of the hospital and being like, okay, I need to get here. Yeah. I know exactly like the zombies and their personalities and behavior in these hallways I have three injectors so I can like permanently delete three zombies from this equation and just sitting there and like thinking about what is the most effective route there. Yeah, That's where I think the game felt the most fun. And then of course the Leon sections are these like cathartic breaks. But I think it's harder to like build a game mode on that break foundation Like when when it's meant to be like this is the this is the fun bit and short bursts versus like this is the full thing. I even feel that way with the game, like the more they switch the focus entirely to Leon, it loses a lot of steam. Yeah. despite how great Leon is. and you know, I think again, going back to like what they do next, I think if this is like one of the last times we see Leon I think I will think more kindly to how much Leon we got. but currently it feels like it sort of it's sort of the Final Fantasy A two equation of like, yeah, it's a really fun, great time with Leon, but we've already had so much Leon. But if this is the last time we see Leon, then it changes the whole thing. Yeah, ifree you don't see Leon for another ten years, you know Right And the next time we see him he's like old or something. Right Which I think is the wouldn't the director say something like that? likeike Jy Leon again like which you know, that's great if that's if that's true. Yeah. I think I have more thoughts, but I'll save them for our discussion when we do our Capcom double header. Yeah. I fear that episode will be Pragmata. It's fun. Okay, reseson mind. let's talk about the future of this. I think I think you will be surprised at how much That will be to talk about Pragmata when you're done with it. I was telling you off the show. I just got to the like forest level Forest temple Yeah. That boss fight was really cool. The New York City boss fight. Yes. It's a cool game. Yeah. Anyway, happy you beat Resident Evil nine. I'm excited to talk about it, but I know you've also played another Ron evvil game. Yeah, so there's a big missing link for me In terms of my resesin Evil fandom, which is that I did not play the Resin Evil two remake or the Rin Evil three remake. And I've talked about why that is in the past. You know, I think honestly, like what did Reson evil two remake come out? twenty nineteen. Yeah, it's twenty ye, twenty nineteen. I remember booting it up, starting it And there's a sequence pretty early on in Leon's story because you can play as one or two characters, which I'm saying into the microphone, but I'm sure most listeners know are Leon or Claire. Yeah. But there's a sequence pretty early on where there's a guy who has like kept this little notebook in the police station who like figures out how to solve the medallions' problem That's's how I'll put it. And you basically meet up with him as he's trying to crawl under a grate to hand it to you and you're trying to help him out. So like Leon is holding onto this guy's arms. There's a zombie on the other side and he just gets ripped in half and like all of his intestines are out and all over the floor and he like screams and wails and then dies and it's like J horrifying. And for this series, which I consider to be like more camp than horror, it was a moment where I was like, is this actually feels like a bridge too far for me in terms of like how gruesome they're willing to get on screen because there is this like suspension of disbelief kind of element to Resinevil that I've always had. And for some reason, this moment in particular was like, that's a little much for me. So I just put it down, I didn't keep playing it And when I finished Resinvil Requi, I was like, I really need to see this through. Like I really need to see the origins and the history of like Leon's first day on the job, etcetera, et cetera. play through the whole thing. So I did it. I have started playing Resinvil two rememake. I'm doing Leon's story first just because that's the one I'm most interested in right now And I'm decently far in is how Id put it. I think I'm like five or six hours into history, which It's not too long either. Yeah, they're like eight to ten from what I've heard, like each side of the story. So I'm like, I'm pretty far in. I'll say this. I've met one of everyone's favorite characters from Resinvil four is how I'll very in code tell you about it. Yeah, I'll say too like in both Leon and Claire's story, you like meet and briefly play as another character and it's a different character in each side. G. You can also, it's sort of like the Oracle games where like when you play as one character, you can then boot up the next one as like, that is now route B. And it's like it informs Yeah, like you can sort of choose like whose story happens first in a sense. I forget exactly how it changes it But it's pretty cool. like it's a very replayable game. bothoth the original two and the remake are highly replayable. That's very interesting. Yeah. So you can then just boot into players with like the save data of Leons's. Yeah. One of the things we were talking about before we started recording is just kind of like the path that everyone takes through a resinval game, which is usually you start the game Every zombie is horrifying. Every zombie can be your death. And then at the end of the game, you become a living weapon and like nothing matters anymore. You know, have you have a shotgun with unlimited ammo, you have a rocket launcher, you have a gun, just like every kind of gun you can possibly imagine, et cetera, et cetera. you just know how to handle everything and nothing poses a threat anymore, except for maybe the final boss and even then That middle portion of the game is, I think where Resin evvil thrives the most, which is when you start to get mildly aggravated at the existence of zombies because you're so invested in the puzzles that like whenever a zombie shows up, you're like, get the fuck out of my way. Like I just I'm so sick of you. It I remember I got one after two, but like the PS one era resesident evvil, I played a lot with my dad growing up. and whenever we entered a room and heard we're like, o goddamn it.actly That exact response to a zombie, I think is like where reseson evvil thrives Pally. And I think Reson Eil two, at least in my experience so far, is the best at eliciting that response and then setetting it. And I think that's the most important thing is that you know, usually the games take that arc is like the beginning is really horrifying. The middle is like, I'll get the fuck out of my way. and then the end is like, I have the shotgun with unlimited ammo And some games are better than others at like resetting that arc mid game instead of just having it be like act one , two, three. And I think Resin Eil two is exceptionally good at resetting that arc over and over again, because for example, like I'm in a portion of the game where there's like a garage that you can go visit And they introduce like zombie dogs because you're in the police station, there's like a canine unit and the dogs have been zombified. And as soon as they introduce the dogs, it's like now you have a whole new thing to be afraid of. and they move so much faster than anything else that you fought at that point. They're aggressive and they come through literally holes in the floor. So like there's really no way of predicting when and where they're going to show up and how many. L frequently it's like, oh, we're just gonna to hit you with three dogs for no reason in this hallway. And I love that I had just gotten over this portion of the game where I'm like I kind of know what to expect. Now I have these dogs. Same thing with and I guess this constitutes maybe a little bit of a spoiler, but this is where they first showed up. so maybe not, but like the liquors in this so early on like they show up like in the first hour of two. Yeah. it's amazing how quickly they show up and how quickly they lose their bite also once you realize how to deal with them which is to not Yeah, well that's such an important lesson and I think it's really interesting to see Reson evil one and Reson evvil two open in such opposite ways where one opens with, of course, the FMV like montage of all the actors playing the characters which I adore. inccredible. The guy who plays Wesker is like chewing up every like two seconds screen time he has. Anyway That game opens, you know, you go in the mansion Barry's like what the hell is this place? And like you know, it's like spooky and mysterious. And then there's that iconic shot of like Jill or Chris seeing the first zombie. It slowly turns around and it's just you and one zombie. Yes. And you're figuring out you have to kill it. It's teaching you here's how to fight zombies Yeah And Resident Evil two, Claire or Leon, you start in a burning city full of zombies. There's like eight zombies and you just have to run. like for the first half hour of both the original and the remake, you just have to run and avoid combat by all means. And like it's such a great way of teaching you that because I think a lot of people, especially when that game came out, and like your instinct in video game logic is to stay and fight every zombie on screen and then go Yeah Like if you do that you're going to run in a bullet that's literally in that screen. Yeah, they give you eight chops. or die. Yes. So you just have to run. And it's also, I mean, considering this is early PS one game, it's such a showcase, even even from the first game, which like you know was set in this one place to have this big city full of all these different camera angles and environments Walking into the police station and the game being like, this is the new mansion. Yes. I think for better and for worse, Reson Eil two is Capcom's Fall Fantasy seven in some ways where like orre specifically for Resident Evil. It is the game that like everyone can't really get over, including the characters in the world of Resident Eil, right U like, because I think and there have been other hits like four obviously, I think is probably objectively like the biggest game in the series. But for the horror centric ones and for this era of Res and Evil, two was the one. they got it so right. The jump from one to two is pretty huge. L one's a classic, but two is like so much better in my opinion And I think it was also my first Resident Evil game. and I felt while playing the remake that it was such an interesting way to remake it because it's so different. L when you go and play the PS one Resident Evil two Yeah, it feel other than it being faithful to the story and stuff, like it feels like an F of seven remake approach where it's like adapting work and like expanding on it, shutting the lights off in every room. L it's such a darker game and literally it with the light. It's a really cool remake.' another example of the Capcom remakes like existing alongside the original and not just like remaking the game with nicer graphics and deleting the prior work. Yeah. So I think I still prefer the original But I love the remake of two, and I'm glad you're finally connecting with it. I've been enjoying it a lot, especially once I kind of got over my hangups about the goryiness of it, which I've said this in the past, I'll just say this again. Like I'm not anti Gore to be clear. There was just something about that sequence in the game where I was like, I don't think I want to experience that. And once I got over that And got past it. Like I have just been having a blast with this game. I think it feels to me and I mean this lovingly to be clear, it feels so much like a parody of resesident evil at times also. Like the police station in particular, you know, they they make it diegetic. they make it like they have a story reason for why it is the way it is. It's because it used to be an art museum. So there's there's all the Zodiac stuff all over the place. There's a lot going on Even for an art museum, having a bunch of doors that are locked by keys that are represented by the four suits of a playing card deck is very silly. Like it is so funny to me. Yeah, I feel like you could kind of buy it in the Victorian mansion because like bored rich Victorian people were like, oh, this is my puzzle garden. like. But like yeah, for a museum that was repurposed to be a police station It's very funny to have like cherub keys and stuff. I mean, I think the reason it feels like a parody is because parodities are essentially riffing on like what is the recognizable foundation or silhouette of something. And this is that. Like Resident Evil two is prior to four coming out becoming the new foundation. Resident Evil two was like where they fully nailed what is a resesident Evil game? Yeah, right. It's like I remember a couple of weeks ago, I watched the Maltese Falcon and I was just like on letterbox, just like looking at people's reviews of it And so many people were like, oh, it's such a rote like film noir. And I'm like, this is the film noir. man. like this is the reason it feels rote is because it's yeah exactly. And that's I obviously recognize that's going on Resident Evil too, but it's very funny still. L there is still something like having had all of this experience with the rest of the franchise, it's so funny like the The doors with the suit combos and then also just like the notes, you know, that are like somebody left this computer key in their locker. Can you get it out? Like that that stuff is so funny. Even at the beginning of the game when you like show up in the place that would have been where you were working, like where Leon was supposed to work out of and you know, it has like the welcome Leon sign above it And the lieutenant like left you a puzzle to solve to unlock your own desk. It's like, if you're gonna to be a detective one day, you're gonna need to figure out your coworkers' names. Like that stuff is so silly. I think back to the zombie stuff too. The thing that really works for me and the big aha moment I had, which I loved that I just had this for myself like without a walkthrough or a guide or anything You know, there's that bit at the beginning that you werereking about where like it becomes very apparent that you should just run past the zombies. Like you shouldn't try to fight them. You should conserve your ammo as much as possible in this game. Realizing that you know, if I shoot a zombie in the head until it dies, quote unquote, it might just come back later and every zombie remains where it is throughout the entirety of the game, which think is brilliant decision. They will always come back in some way, shape or form. If you shoot one of their legs off, then they can just crawl around on the ground and they're so slow and so easy to maneuver around that I'm now in this moment, kind of like what you were talking about with Requum where you're thinking about when you're playing his grace, which zombies do I actually like eliminate from the map and which ones can I manage? In Resin Evil two, I'm kind of having that similar thought as Leon as like Which zombies should I actually just shoot a leg off of? and which ones are in spaces where like even if they are on two legs and can hobble towards me, like I don't need to worry about them at all. You know, like that room I was just talking about with the welcome Leon sign, like that's a room where there's one zombie. He just spawns randomly in the room every time you open the door. Sometimes he's right by the door, sometimes he's like way off in the corner and it doesn't even matter It doesn't really matter. I can always get around that zombie. So I don't need to waste any ammunition on him at any moment. And I think that's the stuff about the game that is really working for me because I'm now at a point where like I've unlocked the garage, I'm back in the police station. I have like basically the entire run of the place, and I'm just in puzzle solving mode. So it doesn't really matter what zombies are around anymore That's kind of, I think the space that I think Reivil occupies the best. I'm really, really loving it. And also just like Leon as a character, I think is really fascinating in this game too because he's so naive, you know, and is like obviously very good at keeping himself alive, which is great. And it's fun to see other characters recognizing that so early in his career as like a Zomie destroyer, but it's very fun to see him like encounter zombies for the first time be like, what's happening? He's likes guy. It reminds me of like when you go back and watch Terminator one after Terminator two and like Sarah Connor has been so hardened by it's like one of my favorite like sequel character transformations is likees just that shot of her like with the cigarette like reloading This is so fucking cool It's so fun, and that's kind of why I hope the next time we see Leon, it's like in his, you know, senior years because like it's kind of fun to get like this character in their twenties actually like in his like early twenties Yeah, then like late twenties, early thirties, I imagine he's in in four. Yeah. maybe a little younger. But then now he's like middle aged and requiem and then we can get like old Leon. Yeah. I hope we see Claire again. That's one of my B bigig notes on Requiem is it's odd that Claire is not there considering like how much about resesineval two Requiem ises. It feels like quietly and misogynistic that like we kind of swap in like another twenty year old woman to take like her place in the importance of this like I love Grace. I think Grace is a great new character But it's odd that like she is retccon to be as important as Claire was rather than just having an older Claire in the game. Yeah. I'll be interested to see what the, you know, there is a mercenaries mode that they're working on. There's also like story DLC that they're working on. and I'm curious to see what that ends up being. One fun lore note that I didn't realize until I finished the game and I was allowed I allowed myself to go to the Resinvil sububreddit again to see what was going on there Leon has a wedding band on throughout that game. and there's a lot of speculation about who he married. and I'm very interested to see if they tell us. I feel like Ada Wong is very obviously like the catwoman character to him. And I think I mean, you know, it happened I won't spoil films I think on one hand, I could see Ada seems to be the character that he has like pined after the most in the games. I think Ashley he rejects like without thinking twice about it in before and then the right decision. Grace I think Grace and Leon have chemistry, but I see it more as platonic personally. I didn't He's already married when he meets Grace Yeah, I just mean like and I've seen some people speculate that like because I think it's added after the ending or something. like the band is like in the post credits aret and they are implied to keep in touch after the game. It's not really spoiler, you know. But there's also like a pretty big age difference there. who knows? Maybe it's someone we don't know. It yeah, I just met a nice girl at a cafe. Yeah, nice. Maybe it's Barry, whoo knows? Yeah. That's where Wesker's been.. We got married. Yeah. jacket, sunglasses. Oh my god. honestly. It' a small ceremony No one was invited. No one was there. Only wereth the humans who believe in progress. Like mr. X. it's just like tyrant, mis. X and Nesis, Anyway, I'm loving Resident Evil two. I'm excited to get through it and then also do Claire's storyline so I can play Resident evvil three, which people seem to not like. And then I can just be like, I've done it all. Yeah. ye, I'm curious how you'll feel about the PS one because reson Evil two is on our playlist. sureure is. So I'm curious how that will feel after the remake. It's obviously a PS one game I do think though that that game has aged better than the first Resin Evil. like just the way the controls feel and like the gameplay, it's still very much in that tank control era, but it's a little bit better than the first game feels like very clunky. Yeah in a way that I would unless you really want to see where it started, I think that the gamecube remake of the first game is like The best way to experience the first game, whereas I think original two and rememake two are kind of side by side in my opinion. Yeah. Th is weird just across the board. like Nemesis as a game because the plan was that originally Code Veronica was going to be Resinvil three. Yes, right. And Nemesis was going to be like a spinoff with Jill, but then it ended up getting switched Treasure Planet and Lilo and Stitch Very much. And I love that we make these references that are just for us. we know the context. But Ridentil Nemesis is that's not on our playlist. just two. I figured that was the best one to do for Resident Evil. I'm really excited. spepeaking of this era of horror though, I've never played the first Silent Hill. I can't fucking wait. It's gonna be so fun But resiable three Nemmesis, I remember as a kid feeling like it just feels a little oddly paced because like whenever Nemesis shows up, it's like fight him or hide. And it's like, you can't kill him. It's like you have to it's just like, ye, stuff like that. And then also a lot of the maps are from two. So like it kind of it does feel more like a spino than true sequel And I' heard I've heard the remake is good, but I've heard it's very short. That seems to be like the main complaint about the three remake. And I also think it's hard like the back to back success of biohazard coming out and resurrecting this franchise Yeah. and then people love like the remake of two is one of the most popular games in this series. people like that's a common candidate for like just best resesident Evil game overall. I it maybe in the outlier of like I prefering the original slightly but it's also it was my first resident evil game. It's hard to separate that. It's sort of like remaking Drag Qest seven, where it's like remaking Nemesis. I don't know if there's like a remake and Nemesis that like kills it. I think it's always gonna be kind of a weird game to go back to. Yeah. And then four is four and you know, they did a great job with it. four is four. The only game I would want them to remake is Code Veronica I think they can leave five and six alone. Here' a great segue into the thing I wanted to do here, which is I want to tell you about the current rumored slate for Resinevil. Let's hear it. Are you ready? Again, these are rumors. Yeah. Maybe it's some kind of leak rumor spoiler here. I guess yeah, if you don't want to know what resesidentevil games may or may not come out At some point, But here's the stuff, Rinevil two, three and four, getting the remakes, getting native ports on Switch two. Fun, which I think maybe has happened already or hasn't happened. I'm not sure. More ammibos please. Next year, early twenty twenty seven, Resinevil code Veronica remake. I'm into that. So there you go. Bring Claire back. Ased and answered. Yeah. twenty twenty eight A remake of Resonvil Zero. Interesting. Okay. All right, you have me with that. Yeah, okay, cool. That's in like Koveronic, I think is a much better game than Zero. Zero is a really fun idea and like very poorly executed. Yes. I feel like a remake of that game could give it the life that it probably should have had. Also, Rebecca has been like gone years and I would love a Becca Rennaaissance. twenty twenty nine, resinval ten. Exciting. twenty thirty We're getting into twenty thirty. Here we are. is another remake of Resin Evil O. I hate that. I don't want that at all. I think the GameCube remake is incredible and more than modern. Like there's nothing about that remake other than the style of game it is that feels like it needs to be redone I think that's a step too far for me. Having two remakes of one game is bananas in my opinion. I would accept a light They've already done a remaster of that remake too. So yeah. yeah, don don't everything else I'm on board for, I don't need another remake of Resonueable One. I have a hunch about it, which I won't get into specifics of also for spoiler reasons But I have a hunch that they're remaking it because of what resesinvil ten is gonna be. Oh, okay, so it'll be like in whatever style that is. Yeah. you get where I'm going with that? Yeah. The nightmare scenario that I almost don't even want to say in case I predict it is it's resesinval one, but it's resinval one in a new universe and then they can just do two, three, and four again in a different way. It's like an AU of the same characters and the same shit. I was actually surprised when I read all of this stuff that that wasn't the case already and they weren't starting it earlier because now that we've gotten through the remake of four, I was kind of expecting like completely new five. Yeah. I do think though Seeing how successful the remakes of two, three, and four, specifically two and four have been. It's sort of like Atlas remaking personersa four. It' say well we might as well do all of them. Yeah. Like we might and you know, I imagine they don't want to touch five or six. So it's like, we'll remake one and that way you cleanly have zero through Code Veronica And four Yeah. So yeah, zero through four, including Co Veronica. What's funny about Zero is that that's with Bebecca and Billy, Billy's just gone. he's no other game. But Rebecca is in the first game. and the first game takes place like less than a year after the events of Zero. So like my headcon is Rebecca just like, I've done enough of this already. I'm out. Back to back, I've been the star of two Resident evvil games. Yeah. I'm not doing this again. Call me in eleven, maybe. Yeah. That's gonna be Grace after Resin E evvil ten. Yeah. I really, really hope we see Grace again. Me too. I really loved her addudition. I think it was even though I would have liked to see Claire and, you know, I'm not the first to point out that like it's weird that we get to see The older men, but not the women. Like ye, I'm hoping that we see Ada in the DLC if it's not going to be Claire. Yeah, I think if anybody, Ada will show up again But yeah, yeah, that's just a thing that bothers me, but I'm sure they will come back in some capacity. I think that that they would like as evidenced by all the like cheeky nods of the series pass, I think they would like to have everybody back. But anyway, yeah, that's interesting. I'm into most of that. V veryer curious about the Koveronica and Zero remakes because those are remakes of games that like nobody really likes that much. Yeah. Kovveronica more so than Zero, but like if you like Koeronica, your favorite Wheezer album is Maladroid. you know, it's like a very specific flavor there. Yeah. ye, this gets back to me being like Disney stop remaking, Lion King, please remake Atlantis the Lost Empire. Yeah give it its chance in the sun, please. I feel like that wayo Veronica. Well, we got the next decade of Resin Evil mapped out. I'm curious I'm curious. I'm most curious about the remix of the weird games and what ten is. Yeah. And what ten is, I think will will be the defining decision there because like if ten is still feeling a little bit stuck in the past And it's surrounded by remakes that doesn't really spell out a exciting future for the series. Right. But we'll see, we'll see what happens. I would like to see Ten chart a new path and they can have their cake and eat it too. They can have all these games like revisiting different eras and also try something new. Yeah. sick. That's Rident Eil Chat. That's resesident Evil Chat intont the mansion into the mansion. I will update as I get further in Resident evil too. I'm excited. I'm devouring it, so I'll probably it's weirdly become a great before bed game. Yeah Resident Eil is weirdly cozy. like especially the older ones. like the you'll hear a lot of the like save pointo room music and like relaxing game playlists, even though it's like Yes. A tonal and kind of creepy. Yeah. I will say some of this is also in service of me wanting to go replay eight and the four remake again. Oh yeah. because I haven't played eight since it came out and then four I played or the four remake I played all the way through immediately and then played again immediately like I did New Game Plus like immediately, which actually I think that's on our Patreon If you want to go watch that playthrough. Yeah, it is. Yeah. I've recorded the whole thing and the whole thing is available for patrons as like one long videoos. so you can go watch that. But I've been meaning to go back to those games ever since and do a new game plus all the way through eight at the very least. Yeah, I think eight was kind of one where I felt similar to how you felt at the end of Recreem where I finished and I really enjoyed that But I don't feel like some of them are more replayable than others. Yeah. I a two and four are highly replayable, some of them are like, cool. was that was good. The thing about eight that makes me want to replay it again and do New Game pllus is that it has the same style of New Game plus that four has where like you just keep everything you have in the next playthrough. and that's that's, I think the sweet spot for Resinevil New Game Plus. I also missed the Duke. He was a good guy. The Duke was fun. Yeah. he came close to matching the resesinvil four merchant. Yeah. ye. It's weird that in Resinvil Requiem, they have no merchant. It's just a box with a computer on it. Its like a call of duty like weapon acquisition system. I think it's a huge mis opportunity. It's one of the biggest mis opportunities of Requiem is not having a a weird Especially considering how campy it gets in moments., I don't think it would really be too much to have like a freaky merchant. Yeah, justust like a strange umbrella corporation employee who's like, I could put a scope on this for you, you know? Yeah Yeah, exactly. U Well, hopefully Ten has a freaky merchant. Yeah, or an umbrella corp dwb. It's me, Steve from Koveronica, everyveryone's favorite character that they totally remember. I've got some stuff to sell y. It's gonna be Ellot. What era is this, Fair maiden? Oh my God. Resident evil as the far future version of Elliot. V very interesting in that. All right, let's try take the.op let's stop it There's how every episode ends. Every single episode. We both realize how hungry and tired we are and we stop making eye contact and just sort of like say stuff Anyway, take us home. Yeah. Thank you so much for listening. Into the Cast that Online is our website. All relevant links and information are there. If you like the show, the best way to help it grow is to share it with a friend. We are fully driven by word of mouth. So all success we've had as a show is because of you. So thank you all for listening. Thank you for recommending it to your friends. I will say just because we made a big deal out of it when we hit the first metric This show has been downloaded over two million times. We hit that metric a bit ago. We did a big gigantic episode in honor of hitting a million downloads and we hit two frighteningly fast. You know, I think Brendan and I care more about like how the show feels to make and if whether or not people are sticking around than like hitting big numbers, but it's pretty amazing that we've hit that metric. So thank you all for your interest and for sticking with us through the years. Yeah, sincerely, it's pretty wild how quickly we went from one to two. And did like nothing and said nothing. I just. I mean, well we did do dare I say a pretty fun Vita episode for patrons and a pretty fun persona for Glden episode. So consider that Yeah The celebration, But thank you. You can also support us directly at patreon dot com sessions to the cast. Like we said before, I think our next patreon episode there will be the conversation about Pragmata and Requiem. I think I'm gonna to try to finish Pragmata. I might go about a third of the way through. so I think we're aiming for like early June for that, but we'll let you know when that happens And yeah, I'm just excited to get further into PS one prep. And also on Patreon, in addition to our occasional bonus or big event episode like the Viat episode, we have a weekly show called An Pcent where we are given exactly ten minutes or less to address a listener or submit a topic prompt or question. It's a lot of fun. feel like It's the short form improv version of this show. and the last prompt we got was about making Pokemon out of the Muppets. and it was actually a lot of fun. I ended up listening to that because there was an issue with the initial post. So I just listened to it once it got fixed. And I was like, this is really fun. So I'm just gonna say if I enjoyed that, which I usually hate listening to myself, it's probably a fun episode We do that every week. We also do a show called Shorelyave E everyvery mononth, which is just us talking about whatever. I want to say the last Sorelyave we did was probably the most negative we felt we ever got in a recording. And the response was pretty positive. They were like, we actually love this.. I think it's because we were talking about real stuff. L we talked about stuff that we cared about. I think there's a difference between Getting you know, covering heavy things in a way that's meaningful and that you're upset about, but it's coming from a place of care versus just like tearing something apart. Yeah. It's a very different thing. and I don't think we would really ever do the latter. otherther than maybe the gllover episode we did as a joke. That's it for now. Once again, the PS one playlist will be in the show notes here And we will be back next week until then take care yourselves and have a great rest of your day. Eat lunch, take a nap, whatever you gotta do. Yeah. T care yourself. Yeah. ce your knuckles, folks. Go into a door to the past and live your life. Bye everybody. See ya