# Cronos Review: "Solid Survival Horror", Trails In The Sky FC, & HUGE Deadlock Update

An episode of [The Game Informer Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/335246945), 9 Sep 2025, 1 h 03 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/67682674/732_audio.mp3

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, we dive deep into the past to save the future with Cronos: The New Dawn, which sounds cool, but is ultimately fine. It's a solid survival horror game from Bloober Team. We also dive into the latest major update for Deadlock, the new multiplayer game from Valve, discuss why the Trails In The Sky FC remake could similarly popularize the role-playing games like Yakuza 0 did for its respective series in 2017, and talk about Kirby and the Forgotten Land's Star-Crossed World DLC on Switch 2. The Game Informer Show is a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Thursday for chats about your favorite titles – past and present – alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry. Subscribe to Game Informer Magazine: https://www.gameinformer.com/subscribe Follow our hosts on social media: • Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken) • Kyle Hilliard (@KyleHilliard) • Eric Van Allen (@seamoosi) Jump to a specific discussion using these timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 04:09 - Cronos: The New Dawn Review 14:40 - Borderlands 4 Final Preview Impressions 20:45 - Trails in the Sky FC Remake 33:40 - Valve Introduces 6 New Characters in Deadlock Update 51:51 - Kirby Star-Crossed World DLC

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: This week on the game and former show, cal Hilliard
[0:02] Speaker 1: gets into the nitty gritty of survival horror action game
[0:05] Speaker 1: Kronos the New Dawn.
[0:07] Speaker 2: Silent Hill two is still its best game, I think
[0:10] Speaker 2: pretty easily, which is like they were working with the
[0:14] Speaker 2: template of an already successful game and then they just
[0:17] Speaker 2: did a really good job with it. Where this is
[0:19] Speaker 2: like they were doing something wholly original and overall's pretty good,
[0:24] Speaker 2: but there are still some like pain points along the way.
[0:28] Speaker 1: Alex van Aken and I break down the big updates
[0:30] Speaker 1: coming to Valves. Third person shooter Moba Deadlock. I look
[0:33] Speaker 1: at a Moba nowadays, I'm like, okay, here's here's a Winston.
[0:37] Speaker 1: You know here it's it's the same with the Overwatch games,
[0:40] Speaker 1: where I'm like, you kind of made the archetypes.
[0:42] Speaker 3: There, there's our trade existing, yeah.
[0:44] Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. Or you play in Moba, it's like, Okay,
[0:47] Speaker 1: here's our ash, here's our team. Oh, here's our ari, Like,
[0:51] Speaker 1: these are our characters, and I like that. So far Deadlock,
[0:55] Speaker 1: the characters have felt wildly their own. We talk about
[0:59] Speaker 1: the recent trails in the sky FC demo and whether
[1:01] Speaker 1: this is the place to start with the Giant RPG
[1:04] Speaker 1: series and we catch up with Kirby in the Forgotten
[1:07] Speaker 1: Lands latest switch to DLC Star Crossed World. The show
[1:11] Speaker 1: is about to start, but please consider subscribing to the channel,
[1:13] Speaker 1: liking the video, and consider picking up a physical magazine subscription.
[1:24] Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to The Game Informer Show, a weekly
[1:27] Speaker 3: podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every week
[1:30] Speaker 3: for a discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and
[1:33] Speaker 3: exclusive reveals, alongside Game of Former staff and special guests
[1:37] Speaker 3: from around the industry. I'm one of your hosts today,
[1:40] Speaker 3: Alex van Aiken Theay. I'm joined by Kyle Hilliard. Hey
[1:44] Speaker 3: you know Kyle.
[1:45] Speaker 2: Hey, what's up. I'm doing good?
[1:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, it's it's it's Silk Song week. We are
[1:51] Speaker 3: recording this before Silk Song, but there's a lot happening
[1:55] Speaker 3: behind the scenes, and thankfully we've got Eric Van Allen
[1:58] Speaker 3: here with us to help us get through all the topics. Today.
[2:02] Speaker 1: We're we're alive, we're awake, we're doing things this morning.
[2:05] Speaker 1: It's yes, this is a.
[2:08] Speaker 3: Very early morning recording for us, so apologies if you know,
[2:12] Speaker 3: my voice is extra sultry today. Listener. Today we're gonna
[2:17] Speaker 3: be talking about Cronos, the new Dawn. We've got our
[2:20] Speaker 3: review by Kyle. I'm gonna be talking a very small
[2:23] Speaker 3: amount about Borderlands four Trails in the Sky first chapter.
[2:27] Speaker 3: Eric's been playing that a bit Deadlock Kirby on switch.
[2:32] Speaker 1: To and more.
[2:34] Speaker 3: Guys, welcome to the show. How are we doing.
[2:37] Speaker 2: Good? I'm so old because you're like, sorry, this is
[2:40] Speaker 2: so early for me. I've been up for like four hours.
[2:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, you're old. See, I'm not old enough.
[2:45] Speaker 3: I can still sleep through the night, you know, whereas
[2:49] Speaker 3: I know, you know, people cut from your cloth are
[2:52] Speaker 3: a little more, you know, every two hours. You know.
[2:56] Speaker 2: Okay, I'm not I'm going on gam almost there, you know,
[2:59] Speaker 2: looking knock on right, But no, I just at a
[3:02] Speaker 2: certain point in the last year it's been like, yeah,
[3:04] Speaker 2: six thirty wake ups for me. It's been good though.
[3:06] Speaker 2: It feels good.
[3:07] Speaker 3: Love it. Well, let's get into the show proper. Of course,
[3:10] Speaker 3: if you want to support Game Informer, head over to
[3:13] Speaker 3: gameminformer dot com, slash subscribe and consider picking up a
[3:17] Speaker 3: print or digital magazine subscription. That's the best way to
[3:21] Speaker 3: support us. Second best way is to share the show
[3:23] Speaker 3: with a friend, whether you're watching on YouTube or on
[3:26] Speaker 3: a podcast app of your choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, really
[3:30] Speaker 3: whatever pocket casts were there, We'd love it if you
[3:34] Speaker 3: shared the show with a friend. That really helps us out.
[3:37] Speaker 3: Let's waste no more time, though, Kyle, you've been playing
[3:41] Speaker 3: Kronos the New Dawn, the next game from Blooper after
[3:47] Speaker 3: they put out the Silent Hill two remake. I feel
[3:49] Speaker 3: like there's a lot of eyes on this game. You know,
[3:52] Speaker 3: they put out in recent years, The Medium, which was
[3:55] Speaker 3: kind of released a mixed reception, and then obviously Silent
[3:59] Speaker 3: Hill two make really well received I think by players
[4:03] Speaker 3: and press alike, and now this is their next game,
[4:07] Speaker 3: and I think there's a lot of eyes on it. So, yeah,
[4:10] Speaker 3: what did you think about Chronos? And can you kind
[4:12] Speaker 3: of give us a primer?
[4:14] Speaker 2: Yeah? Have you guys seen Twelve Monkeys, the Terry Gilliam
[4:19] Speaker 2: film of Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. I haven't seen it,
[4:22] Speaker 2: but I'm aware of it, Okay. Yeah, It's a great,
[4:25] Speaker 2: great movie about a pandemic that happens, and there's like
[4:29] Speaker 2: time travelers who keep going back in time to try
[4:31] Speaker 2: to figure out what happened and hopefully prevent it. And
[4:34] Speaker 2: that's basically what Chronos is. I think they have mentioned
[4:38] Speaker 2: twelve Monkeys in like talking about the game as like inspiration,
[4:41] Speaker 2: but it's like it is one of those things where
[4:43] Speaker 2: it's like playing it, I was like, this looks like
[4:46] Speaker 2: twelve Monkeys. This is like clearly inspired by twelve Monkeys.
[4:49] Speaker 2: And I say that in a complimentary way, because it
[4:51] Speaker 2: is a cool movie that has a lot of interesting
[4:55] Speaker 2: stuff in it that hasn't been like used a lot
[4:58] Speaker 2: recently that makes sense. Like when it came out, it
[5:00] Speaker 2: was like, I think really appreciated and loved and they
[5:03] Speaker 2: did do it like a show adaptation like I don't know,
[5:06] Speaker 2: six or seven years ago or something like that. I
[5:08] Speaker 2: didn't watch the show, but anyway, it's it's kind of
[5:10] Speaker 2: mood if you haven't seen the movie. But the premise
[5:13] Speaker 2: of the game is there was this insane pandemic that
[5:16] Speaker 2: happened and this sort of like time traveling religious cult
[5:21] Speaker 2: formed that is obsessed with going back in time to
[5:24] Speaker 2: try and figure out what happened and how to prevent it.
[5:27] Speaker 2: And they do this by like fire, like like pinpointing
[5:31] Speaker 2: important people who might have known something, and like literally
[5:35] Speaker 2: going back in time and stealing their memories and like
[5:37] Speaker 2: bringing them to the future. Like it's a cool sci fi. Yes,
[5:41] Speaker 2: Like I like the idea of it a lot. I
[5:45] Speaker 2: ended up giving the game a seven seven five, which
[5:48] Speaker 2: is like a solid it's a solid score, Like my
[5:52] Speaker 2: headline is like solid survival horror, and like the shortcomings
[5:56] Speaker 2: are that you start with that premise, which is a
[5:58] Speaker 2: really cool idea, but by the end I was just
[6:00] Speaker 2: kind of like lost, kind of confused and just not
[6:04] Speaker 2: that emotionally engaged with what was happening. Like it's just
[6:07] Speaker 2: a little too heady weird. It's not the right word.
[6:11] Speaker 2: Was that it's not heady, Like I actually would have
[6:15] Speaker 2: liked it if it was more heavy and more sort
[6:17] Speaker 2: of like maybe even ambiguous, but it's just ended up
[6:20] Speaker 2: kind of being like delivering like twists that I just
[6:24] Speaker 2: liked weren't landing for me at the end. And like sure,
[6:27] Speaker 2: the characters, like the primary characters, like the character you
[6:30] Speaker 2: play as in one other character. They're part of the collective.
[6:33] Speaker 2: They're travelers who are the ones who go through time.
[6:35] Speaker 2: They they're like wearing diving suits basically the whole game
[6:39] Speaker 2: now not even basically they are like they and they
[6:42] Speaker 2: and you can't see their faces, like and so the
[6:44] Speaker 2: primary characters like do a lot of like hand acting,
[6:50] Speaker 2: so it's like it's just hard to get emotionally engaged
[6:52] Speaker 2: when you never see these characters faces and stuff, and
[6:55] Speaker 2: then the humans that you do interact with, I mean,
[6:58] Speaker 2: the performances are kind of they're like fine, you know,
[7:01] Speaker 2: like it's it's kind of where I'm at with it
[7:03] Speaker 2: with So that's kind of the story and the concept,
[7:05] Speaker 2: which is like cool concept doesn't fully deliver on it,
[7:09] Speaker 2: but but there is there's like there's heavy like Resonubal
[7:14] Speaker 2: four and specifically like dead Space inspiration here that I
[7:18] Speaker 2: think shines through like structurally, mechanically, balance wise, I think
[7:24] Speaker 2: it is a good survival horror game. Like it's you
[7:28] Speaker 2: if you've if you've played and enjoyed those games, like
[7:30] Speaker 2: you kind of know what to expect. Sure, you're counting
[7:32] Speaker 2: your bullets, You're making sure to save at the right places.
[7:36] Speaker 2: You have to manage your inventory. You have to choose
[7:38] Speaker 2: whether you want to have a more inventory slots or
[7:40] Speaker 2: if you want like a stronger suit, or if you
[7:43] Speaker 2: want like better guns and stuff like that, and that
[7:45] Speaker 2: stuff I think is good. Like that stuff works well.
[7:47] Speaker 2: It's very familiar, it's not particularly innovative, sure, but It's
[7:51] Speaker 2: like I was in the mood for that, right. It's
[7:54] Speaker 2: like it's been a while since I feel like I've
[7:55] Speaker 2: played like other than like you know, the Resume four
[7:58] Speaker 2: remake and the Dead Space remake. It's been a while
[8:00] Speaker 2: since I've played like an original survival horror game that
[8:05] Speaker 2: like that feels good mechanically, right, Like there's we we
[8:08] Speaker 2: wanted that from the from Crystal Protocol, but it just
[8:12] Speaker 2: didn't really pan out, you know, it just wasn't that great.
[8:14] Speaker 2: A game like this I like more than Crystal Protocol,
[8:16] Speaker 2: you know. And it also has a thing where like
[8:19] Speaker 2: you can hold down the trigger on all your weapons
[8:22] Speaker 2: to get a stronger shot that doesn't use extra AMMO,
[8:28] Speaker 2: and in the context of like a horror game, that
[8:30] Speaker 2: works really well because like I really maxed out the
[8:33] Speaker 2: starting pistol. I really liked using that pistol a lot.
[8:36] Speaker 2: And you have a lot of moments where these monsters
[8:38] Speaker 2: are like, you know, ambling towards you like a zombie,
[8:41] Speaker 2: and you're holding down the trigger just like hoping that
[8:43] Speaker 2: they don't attack you before it goes off, and that
[8:46] Speaker 2: kind of stuff is cool, And that's like a cool
[8:48] Speaker 2: mechanic that I wouldn't mind seeing in other like horror games.
[8:51] Speaker 3: That's cool.
[8:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, I I would. I would say it's Blueber's second
[8:57] Speaker 2: best game, Okay, and it is. It is it is
[8:59] Speaker 2: blue because.
[9:02] Speaker 1: Blooper Alex said that earlier and I was like, not
[9:05] Speaker 1: gonna stop you because you were on a roll, but
[9:07] Speaker 1: I was like, it's it's blueberr.
[9:10] Speaker 2: Well. The reason I even mentioned it all is because
[9:13] Speaker 2: my opening sentence in my review is like they kind
[9:15] Speaker 2: of have a weird name. It's almost sounds like the
[9:18] Speaker 2: Mario Squid enemy the Blooper. Yeah, you know, but but
[9:21] Speaker 2: like they've almost they've made exclusively horror games for like
[9:24] Speaker 2: the last ten years or something like that, like they
[9:26] Speaker 2: are a horror studio. But I think Silent Hill two
[9:30] Speaker 2: is still its best game, I think pretty easily, which
[9:33] Speaker 2: is like they were working with the template of an
[9:36] Speaker 2: already successful game and then they just did a really
[9:39] Speaker 2: good job with it, where this is like they were
[9:41] Speaker 2: doing something wholly original and overall it's pretty good, but
[9:46] Speaker 2: there are still some like pain points along the way.
[9:49] Speaker 2: So it's like I would, I would like I said,
[9:52] Speaker 2: I think it's Blueber's second best game, but it is
[9:55] Speaker 2: it it's kind of far behind Silent Hill two, I think,
[9:58] Speaker 2: you know, but still better. I still enjoyed it more.
[10:02] Speaker 1: You know.
[10:02] Speaker 2: I didn't play a ton of Layers of Fear. I
[10:03] Speaker 2: didn't play a ton of the Medium because I just
[10:06] Speaker 2: wasn't really engaged in any of those games, Like I
[10:08] Speaker 2: just sort of lost interest pretty quickly, where this one
[10:10] Speaker 2: I was like, oh yeah, I Even if I wasn't
[10:12] Speaker 2: on the review, I think I would have seen it
[10:13] Speaker 2: to the end because I just like it was like
[10:16] Speaker 2: fun to move through the world, and it was like, oh,
[10:18] Speaker 2: this is I haven't had a resonual for experience like
[10:20] Speaker 2: this in a while. That wasn't a remake of something
[10:23] Speaker 2: that I already liked.
[10:24] Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, the concept seems cool. The I do like
[10:29] Speaker 3: the character design, although I totally get why you wouldn't
[10:33] Speaker 3: really be able to resonate with like just it's a
[10:37] Speaker 3: cool like a hulky, you know, mechanical dude.
[10:42] Speaker 2: It is a cool design. I agree with you there,
[10:45] Speaker 2: you know, like it looks cool and and I would
[10:49] Speaker 2: have been fine with that, except that they do try
[10:52] Speaker 2: to have moments where it's like, let's have empathy for
[10:55] Speaker 2: this for these characters of what's going on, and like
[10:58] Speaker 2: they're saying something really intense. It's about themselves, and it
[11:01] Speaker 2: just cuts to like you know, a big metal globe
[11:04] Speaker 2: and like they're just kind of like doing this and
[11:06] Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm sorry, it's it's just not working for me,
[11:10] Speaker 2: Like Isaac takes his mask off and dead space when
[11:12] Speaker 2: it's time to like feel something.
[11:14] Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, totally, yeah, yeah, I always. I don't
[11:18] Speaker 3: know why. I just envisioned it like kind of opening,
[11:21] Speaker 3: like it's kind of a scene that goes down the helmet. Yeah,
[11:25] Speaker 3: and it's like, oh, I just thought it was like,
[11:27] Speaker 3: you know, cracking a pistachio. Eventually that'll open.
[11:31] Speaker 2: Crack it, you know, honestly, maybe maybe there's like if
[11:35] Speaker 2: you new Game Plus it there and there is New
[11:37] Speaker 2: Game Plus by the way, which is I know some
[11:39] Speaker 2: people like to know that, but if you new Game
[11:41] Speaker 2: Plus It on like the harder difficulty, maybe there's like
[11:42] Speaker 2: a secret ending or something where it's a she by
[11:45] Speaker 2: the way, it's a woman. She takes off the you know,
[11:48] Speaker 2: it opens like a pistachio terminology.
[11:50] Speaker 1: It just cracks. It opens the Metroid ending. It's like surprise,
[11:54] Speaker 1: there was a person inside Metroid all along?
[11:57] Speaker 2: Yeah, where the except here is from the moment she speaks,
[12:01] Speaker 2: You're like, Oh, that's so it's not like a twist.
[12:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's cool though, I mean I this is you know,
[12:09] Speaker 3: the set design and like the character design like that.
[12:11] Speaker 3: It's kind of like definitely had it on my radar
[12:16] Speaker 3: for those reasons. I think the vibe and the atmosphere
[12:18] Speaker 3: looks really neat and to hear that it kind of
[12:20] Speaker 3: hits some of those those survival horror highs, well not
[12:27] Speaker 3: all of that, Yeah, it does. It's appealing to me,
[12:31] Speaker 3: for sure.
[12:31] Speaker 2: It's a statement I really try to avoid in writing
[12:34] Speaker 2: reviews because it's like you could say it about literally
[12:37] Speaker 2: any game. But it's like, if you're a fan of
[12:39] Speaker 2: the genre, you would like this, sure, you know, like
[12:42] Speaker 2: that's like it's there's that that statement doesn't really add
[12:45] Speaker 2: anything for anybody. Ultimately, is kind of how I feel like.
[12:48] Speaker 3: It's not a bad survival horror game.
[12:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, but let me use that statement here and say that, like,
[12:53] Speaker 2: if you like survival horror and you it's and you
[12:55] Speaker 2: like are in the mood for one as we're approaching October,
[12:58] Speaker 2: here like this it's solid, you know, like you will
[13:02] Speaker 2: you will, It's it's it's a very it's a it's
[13:04] Speaker 2: an execution on a genre that's pretty good, but it
[13:07] Speaker 2: has its shortcomings. Sure if that makes sense, you know,
[13:10] Speaker 2: but if you want to, like, you know, have scary
[13:12] Speaker 2: monsters ambling towards you while you like count your bullets like,
[13:16] Speaker 2: it executes on that, well, it does do that well.
[13:18] Speaker 3: Nice? Yeah, Eric, are you? Are you surviving horror guy?
[13:23] Speaker 1: I really like some survival horror, but I'm very picky
[13:27] Speaker 1: about it. Yeah. I found that I never really grew
[13:30] Speaker 1: up playing Resident Evil or anything. They just weren't games
[13:33] Speaker 1: that were on my radar, So I've never really sat
[13:35] Speaker 1: down and played a lot of those games. But oddly enough,
[13:39] Speaker 1: games like Signalis and.
[13:41] Speaker 3: House Washing Good all.
[13:44] Speaker 1: Kind of opened my eyes a little bit to especially
[13:47] Speaker 1: the indie horror scene and a lot of really cool
[13:49] Speaker 1: stuff that's being done there.
[13:50] Speaker 2: Crow Country is another one to crow Country is great,
[13:53] Speaker 2: and oddly enough, in college, I have very specific memories
[13:56] Speaker 2: of playing Dead Space one and two over and over again.
[13:59] Speaker 2: It was a game that you could, if you're good
[14:01] Speaker 2: at it, and you could, you know, play it pretty fast.
[14:03] Speaker 2: You could get through it in a weekend maybe, And
[14:05] Speaker 2: so there were a lot of weekends where somebody was
[14:07] Speaker 2: just playing through dead Space or I was playing through
[14:10] Speaker 2: dead Space. I've probably beaten that game maybe four or
[14:12] Speaker 2: five times at least. Uh And I love Dead Space,
[14:15] Speaker 2: Wanted two, very fond.
[14:17] Speaker 1: Of those games. So yeah, yeah.
[14:20] Speaker 2: You're like if you're like, gosh, I missed dead Space,
[14:22] Speaker 2: like this is h this will this will scratch that itch,
[14:25] Speaker 2: you know, click dead Space is the one I think
[14:27] Speaker 2: they most pulled from in terms of like their inspiration.
[14:31] Speaker 1: Stomp is there a stomp button? Good? Good? Okay?
[14:36] Speaker 3: Well cool? That is Chronos the New Dawn. Thanks for
[14:40] Speaker 3: sharing your review thoughts, Kyle. I can very briefly talk
[14:45] Speaker 3: about Borderlands four. I have the game, and there is
[14:51] Speaker 3: a very specific part we'll talk about in the preview
[14:55] Speaker 3: the final preview section of this game, and that is
[14:58] Speaker 3: the the interior of Fortress and Domeda, which you might
[15:03] Speaker 3: have seen in some of our cover story content if
[15:07] Speaker 3: you were if you saw like a pretty towering, white
[15:10] Speaker 3: walled fortress in our in our cover story gameplay that
[15:14] Speaker 3: we were showing off. That's this this section. And I'm
[15:19] Speaker 3: not really going to get into the content of that
[15:21] Speaker 3: section because I'd rather just talk about what I think about,
[15:24] Speaker 3: like the mechanics of the game and how it feels.
[15:27] Speaker 3: I'm really enjoying Borderlands for so far. It's it feels
[15:33] Speaker 3: fun to play, it feels the the weapon in the
[15:37] Speaker 3: gun play feels similar to Destiny to me, and a
[15:40] Speaker 3: very I'm in the very complimentary. There's a certain yeah,
[15:46] Speaker 3: just gun feel that it has that is really satisfied.
[15:49] Speaker 3: I'm really enjoying kind of finding new weapons and kind
[15:54] Speaker 3: of getting back into that Borderlands loop after not playing
[15:58] Speaker 3: the series for so long. You know, I skipped on three,
[16:02] Speaker 3: but I played the hell out of one and two
[16:04] Speaker 3: and played some of the presequel, which I didn't love.
[16:07] Speaker 3: But it feels good to have this loop back and
[16:13] Speaker 3: and very much like the Borderlands style. And I and
[16:19] Speaker 3: I kind of mean that in terms of like all
[16:22] Speaker 3: encompassing the writing of course, the art style, that sort
[16:26] Speaker 3: of thing. I think this Borderlands game within the Fortress
[16:32] Speaker 3: of Endomeda, it feels like a there's higher stakes. I
[16:39] Speaker 3: feel like in this Borderlands that you kind of feel
[16:42] Speaker 3: even in these this early section that I really really like. Uh,
[16:51] Speaker 3: it's so far in this area there's been like a
[16:55] Speaker 3: good sense of like equips and humor, but also like, oh,
[16:58] Speaker 3: you're like fighting.
[16:59] Speaker 2: I was going to ask if you're laughing, like, is
[17:01] Speaker 2: it is funny? Does it feel you know?
[17:03] Speaker 1: Uh?
[17:04] Speaker 3: In this preview section, it's more more combat forward, but
[17:09] Speaker 3: there are equips here and there from the characters that
[17:11] Speaker 3: I do enjoy. I have to be careful about what
[17:13] Speaker 3: I can what I can and can't say because I
[17:16] Speaker 3: agreed to it embargo for this.
[17:17] Speaker 1: But yeah, Bargo jokes is crazy and Bargo.
[17:22] Speaker 3: Jokes, Yeah, I can tell you the setup, but no
[17:24] Speaker 3: punch lines. Imagine that was in the margins. But yeah,
[17:29] Speaker 3: it's I'm I'm really excited to talk about the full
[17:31] Speaker 3: game because I have a lot of thoughts, but I
[17:34] Speaker 3: just wanted to quickly check in and kind of say
[17:36] Speaker 3: that out of this section that I can talk about,
[17:39] Speaker 3: I'm really enjoying it.
[17:41] Speaker 1: And.
[17:43] Speaker 3: I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited to play more. I'm excited
[17:45] Speaker 3: to talk more, and I'm excited for you guys to
[17:48] Speaker 3: to kind of get your hands on it hopefully, and
[17:52] Speaker 3: and I want to have a bigger conversation once once
[17:54] Speaker 3: this thing launches.
[17:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, I played one and enjoyed it right like I played,
[17:59] Speaker 2: I definitely be one and had a good time with it.
[18:01] Speaker 2: And then two came out and I only dabbled with it,
[18:05] Speaker 2: and it was also like my daughter had just been born,
[18:07] Speaker 2: so I was like busy, sure. And then and then
[18:11] Speaker 2: every every other one I've like just kind of totally
[18:14] Speaker 2: has flown by me, even the Tiny Tino one a
[18:17] Speaker 2: couple of years ago, which was basically Borderlands game. But yeah,
[18:21] Speaker 2: something about this one, I think I'm gonna at least
[18:23] Speaker 2: like engage with it and start it and and and
[18:25] Speaker 2: see see if it hooks me in, you know, because
[18:28] Speaker 2: it's been a while since I've I've gotten into that
[18:30] Speaker 2: loop with Borderlands really since the first one.
[18:32] Speaker 3: I'm playing as the Gravitar Can't Harlow I think it's
[18:37] Speaker 3: her name, and she kind of like saw like a
[18:39] Speaker 3: dry guitar exactly. Yeah, Okay, she's she's essentially like I
[18:43] Speaker 3: think in our cover story content they described Harlow as
[18:47] Speaker 3: this uh space Jedi sort of character. And so I'm
[18:52] Speaker 3: playing part of her spec that has these gravity orbs
[18:57] Speaker 3: that you can trap people in and like fling them
[19:00] Speaker 3: around if you just like so, you press I'm playing
[19:03] Speaker 3: a keyboarder mouse. You press F and it used your
[19:06] Speaker 3: skill and you kind of trap them in this floating
[19:08] Speaker 3: orb and they're up in space and you can aim
[19:11] Speaker 3: around and press F again multiple times, like slam them
[19:14] Speaker 3: into other people, into environmental hazards. You can even like
[19:20] Speaker 3: fling them off cliffs in certain cases. So it's I'm
[19:24] Speaker 3: really enjoying it. I want to go back and play
[19:25] Speaker 3: some of the I think they've got like a really
[19:28] Speaker 3: good set of Vault Hunters based on kind of what
[19:31] Speaker 3: I've seen, and I'm excited to kind of do that
[19:34] Speaker 3: Borderlands loop of making multiple characters. You know. I think
[19:38] Speaker 3: Amon is the guy who has the two big axes
[19:42] Speaker 3: and he's kind of like the big bruiser of this game.
[19:44] Speaker 3: I think he's called a forge Night in this game.
[19:46] Speaker 3: That's his archetype. But yeah, I can't wait to play
[19:51] Speaker 3: this with Frands. I'm just playing solo right now. So yeah,
[19:55] Speaker 3: a lot more thoughts once we can kind of talk
[19:57] Speaker 3: about the full game. But that is Borderlands four so far.
[20:02] Speaker 3: It's coming out very soon. Cool. Yeah, I mean everything's
[20:07] Speaker 3: coming out very soon.
[20:07] Speaker 2: If we work at least, I will look it up.
[20:09] Speaker 2: If you don't have it on hand.
[20:12] Speaker 3: I can. I can if you happen to get it
[20:13] Speaker 3: before me, they'd be great.
[20:15] Speaker 2: September twelfth.
[20:16] Speaker 3: There you go.
[20:16] Speaker 1: Oh, that's really soon yeah.
[20:19] Speaker 2: Yeah, too soon.
[20:21] Speaker 3: But yeah, I'm really looking forward to talking about this more.
[20:25] Speaker 3: It's gonna be good. It's gonna be very good.
[20:27] Speaker 2: October third for Switch To which, if it runs well,
[20:30] Speaker 2: switch to a good Switch To game.
[20:31] Speaker 3: I feel like, yeah, I don't know. I have no
[20:36] Speaker 3: knowledge about the switch to port at all. I wish
[20:40] Speaker 3: it could be more helpful with that, but but yeah, well, Eric,
[20:43] Speaker 3: speaking of games that are coming up in this September
[20:47] Speaker 3: time frame, Trails in the Sky first chapter. You've been
[20:52] Speaker 3: playing the demo, is that correct?
[20:54] Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, I've just been playing the publicly available demo.
[20:57] Speaker 1: Figured we should probably say something about it on the
[20:59] Speaker 1: pop podcast at some point because I, for those who
[21:03] Speaker 1: might know me from outside venues, you know, I'm a
[21:06] Speaker 1: bit of a an RPG sicco. I enjoy playing the
[21:09] Speaker 1: RPG from time to time, and Trails has always been
[21:14] Speaker 1: a series that seemed a bit unapproachable, is maybe the
[21:18] Speaker 1: best way to say it. There's so many of them,
[21:21] Speaker 1: and there's so many different arcs, and they're all distinct,
[21:24] Speaker 1: but then they all link together and they all ultimately
[21:28] Speaker 1: culminate in an even larger thing. And I've always liked
[21:32] Speaker 1: the idea of playing Trails the thought of playing Trails,
[21:36] Speaker 1: but the actual inroads to doing it up to this
[21:40] Speaker 1: point have been, well, you should probably go start at
[21:43] Speaker 1: the beginning, you should go all the way back. And
[21:46] Speaker 1: I think this is much in the way that Yakuza
[21:49] Speaker 1: Zero ended up bringing Yakuza to a wider audience here
[21:52] Speaker 1: in the West. That's I feel like Trails in this SKYFC,
[21:59] Speaker 1: or it should be called Trails in this guy, first chapter, remake,
[22:02] Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it.
[22:04] Speaker 2: To back up just a little bit, Eric, this is
[22:06] Speaker 2: a remake of.
[22:07] Speaker 1: The first Trail, this very first Trails game, Yes, okay,
[22:10] Speaker 1: got it, which is basically the starting point if you
[22:15] Speaker 1: want to get really technical, if you want to you know,
[22:18] Speaker 1: appreciate the series the way it came out, you know,
[22:20] Speaker 1: chronologically and all that. Uh, this is where it started
[22:24] Speaker 1: is Trails f C and then s C, which I
[22:27] Speaker 1: believe the deep lore is that the it was supposed
[22:30] Speaker 1: to be one big game and then they broke it
[22:32] Speaker 1: up into two. My understanding after talking to some people
[22:35] Speaker 1: who have played the series and have seen that stuff,
[22:38] Speaker 1: is that basically it is one big contiguous story that
[22:43] Speaker 1: got broken up into kind of two parts, and that
[22:46] Speaker 1: makes up the start of the larger trails Saga so
[22:50] Speaker 1: trails in this guy. I'm really really enjoying it. I
[22:55] Speaker 1: did not think I would enjoy it as much as
[22:57] Speaker 1: I am right now, But it became this thing where
[23:00] Speaker 1: every night I would kind of you know, oh, I'm
[23:03] Speaker 1: going to play half an hour, going to play an hour.
[23:05] Speaker 1: It's my little treat to myself before I go to sleep.
[23:07] Speaker 1: I'm going to go put another hour into the demo.
[23:10] Speaker 1: And I got a surprising amount of the way I
[23:13] Speaker 1: finished the demo, but I did all of the side quests,
[23:16] Speaker 1: I leveled all my characters up. I was fiddling with
[23:18] Speaker 1: the orb Mince, which is this game's skill system that's
[23:22] Speaker 1: all about kind of laying these orbs out and then
[23:24] Speaker 1: getting bonuses for how you've laid them out. You know,
[23:27] Speaker 1: if you lay out a certain number of fire ones
[23:29] Speaker 1: in certain order, you get better fire stuff and all that.
[23:33] Speaker 1: But I think what really does it for me is
[23:35] Speaker 1: that the scale of it is really appealing. You play
[23:40] Speaker 1: as a Stelle Bright, who is this young trainee bracer.
[23:46] Speaker 1: An A bracer is kind of a mercenary for hire
[23:49] Speaker 1: that works for the people. If you've ever seen the
[23:54] Speaker 1: anime Hunter X Hunter, Hunter, cross Hunter or just hunter, hunter,
[23:58] Speaker 1: you know, whatever you want to call it. It's kind
[24:01] Speaker 1: of like being a hunter in the Hunter's Guild. There, Hi,
[24:05] Speaker 1: say hello to my cat. He decided he wanted to Hi. Yeah,
[24:09] Speaker 1: that's po. So a bracer kind of does odd jobs,
[24:15] Speaker 1: which usually involves some level of danger taking on monsters,
[24:19] Speaker 1: you know, doing something that your average seison might not
[24:23] Speaker 1: be able to do. And so Estelle wants to be
[24:26] Speaker 1: just like her father, Cassius, who is a renowned Bracer.
[24:31] Speaker 1: She also has an adoptive brother, Joshua, who you meet
[24:34] Speaker 1: at the start of this whole thing, and it follows
[24:39] Speaker 1: their journey to kind of become Bracers, but also they
[24:45] Speaker 1: gradually get wrapped up in a much broader story. But
[24:49] Speaker 1: the thing I like about Trails, at least so far,
[24:52] Speaker 1: in the prologue, which is the extent of the demo,
[24:54] Speaker 1: and the demo does carry save data forward, so you
[24:56] Speaker 1: basically start the game and it carries forward into the game.
[25:00] Speaker 1: Love that when an RPTR does that, it's the best
[25:03] Speaker 1: thing ever. It does a really good job of making
[25:08] Speaker 1: it feel like this is a small town of Rolans
[25:11] Speaker 1: that you are getting to know the people in You're
[25:14] Speaker 1: doing side quests for all them, you're talking to them,
[25:16] Speaker 1: you're learning about their troubles or their little kind of
[25:20] Speaker 1: beefs that they might have with each other, or just
[25:22] Speaker 1: little quirks, and then you're helping them solve things. You're
[25:27] Speaker 1: taking care of things. You're finding a lost cat. Some
[25:31] Speaker 1: kid dropped a shiny stone somewhere and you need to
[25:34] Speaker 1: go find where he dropped it. And that might sound
[25:37] Speaker 1: like really irritating to some people, but the combination of
[25:42] Speaker 1: it being so charming and also everything kind of having
[25:46] Speaker 1: that feeling of feeding a broader narrative that you're kind
[25:50] Speaker 1: of learning something about the world that you're building up
[25:54] Speaker 1: this place, that this place feels a little bit more
[25:56] Speaker 1: lived in. I think one of my main issues when
[26:00] Speaker 1: I look at something like Final Fantasy seven or Rebirth
[26:03] Speaker 1: is that it's a really big game that you don't
[26:06] Speaker 1: always get to spend a lot of time getting to
[26:09] Speaker 1: know each area, especially when you get into like the
[26:11] Speaker 1: Gongaga parts of that game and stuff like that. You're
[26:15] Speaker 1: kind of moving through story beats at a very rapid
[26:17] Speaker 1: pace and all of the side quests kind of get
[26:22] Speaker 1: sequestered away, and it reminds me of when I was
[26:25] Speaker 1: playing through Final Fantasy fourteen and doing some of the
[26:28] Speaker 1: expansion stuff there. You kind of go through, you do
[26:30] Speaker 1: your MSQ, you play all the main story quests, but
[26:33] Speaker 1: then there's so many little side quests that you add
[26:37] Speaker 1: bits of story that tell you about the people there
[26:39] Speaker 1: that give you something to latch onto, and Trails is
[26:43] Speaker 1: doing that for me. I really like when an RPG
[26:46] Speaker 1: finds that space to do that sort of thing. Zenoblade
[26:49] Speaker 1: three is another great example of a game that really
[26:52] Speaker 1: gives you room to get to know each area if
[26:55] Speaker 1: you want to, and so far, Trails is doing that
[26:58] Speaker 1: for me. And I love the characters. I think the
[27:01] Speaker 1: combat's really fun, really interesting. If you want good turn
[27:04] Speaker 1: based combat, It's got some really cool interesting ideas there.
[27:09] Speaker 1: It is the original system. There is an action combat system,
[27:13] Speaker 1: which is kind of it's a little bit like metaphor
[27:15] Speaker 1: where you can bonk things on the head in the
[27:17] Speaker 1: old world, yeah, and dodge out of the way of them.
[27:21] Speaker 1: And then if you build up the stunt meter, you
[27:24] Speaker 1: can launch into turn based combat with an advantage. So
[27:28] Speaker 1: maybe you get a follow up attack, or all of
[27:31] Speaker 1: your turns line up and stuff like that, you get
[27:34] Speaker 1: a good advantage to start off. I think that is
[27:37] Speaker 1: the one part of the game that doesn't feel as
[27:41] Speaker 1: great for me, oddly enough, and it's one of the
[27:43] Speaker 1: larger additions to this game that did not exist in
[27:46] Speaker 1: the original outside of the new graphics and stuff like that,
[27:50] Speaker 1: but having an action combat system is something that later
[27:53] Speaker 1: Trails games, I understand, have done. It doesn't always feel great.
[28:00] Speaker 1: It's a very kind of hit hit role, hit hit role,
[28:07] Speaker 1: and you do this over and over and over again.
[28:09] Speaker 1: I kind of wish that felt just a little bit
[28:11] Speaker 1: more varied and interesting, but that's like my only complaint.
[28:15] Speaker 1: In eight hours of a prologue demo and really taking
[28:21] Speaker 1: my time and running around and doing stuff and really
[28:24] Speaker 1: enjoying it. It's a good time. And I think if
[28:27] Speaker 1: you're an RPG fan that has wanted to play Trails
[28:31] Speaker 1: for a while, I can only speak from a Trail's
[28:34] Speaker 1: newbie standpoint, but this feels like I'm getting a really good,
[28:37] Speaker 1: solid intro into what these games are and what this
[28:41] Speaker 1: world is, so I'm happy. I think again, this reminds
[28:47] Speaker 1: me a lot of Yakas Zero, where a series is
[28:50] Speaker 1: getting its kind of moment to break through in the
[28:54] Speaker 1: mainstream consciousness, and I hope it pans out that's.
[28:58] Speaker 3: Awesome, Kyle. Have you ever checked out the that series trails?
[29:04] Speaker 1: No.
[29:05] Speaker 2: I mean I've always been intimidated the sort of the
[29:07] Speaker 2: reception has always been like these are really good, but
[29:11] Speaker 2: like they're really good because there's a lot here and
[29:13] Speaker 2: you got to start from the beginning, right, Like that's
[29:15] Speaker 2: how you get the full experience. It's always been kind
[29:17] Speaker 2: of like what I would hear from, like like Kim Wallace,
[29:20] Speaker 2: you know, our former yeah, sort of our PG specialist
[29:24] Speaker 2: year at game and former those sort of always her
[29:26] Speaker 2: pitch for that series. It's like it's really great. I
[29:28] Speaker 2: give him great review scores, but like I'm like, yeah,
[29:30] Speaker 2: I just I don't have the time to invest in that.
[29:32] Speaker 2: But it's like, yeah, like the Yakuza zero sort of
[29:35] Speaker 2: angle I think is interesting of like this is a
[29:38] Speaker 2: way to get into it and see if it's worth
[29:40] Speaker 2: worth your time.
[29:40] Speaker 1: You know, yeah, it do all. I feel like that's
[29:43] Speaker 1: always a fallacy sometimes when people recommend games because I've
[29:49] Speaker 1: heard it before, and I've even been guilty of this myself.
[29:51] Speaker 1: And that's why I pointed out, is you talk about
[29:54] Speaker 1: a series like yak is A or Final Fantasy fourteen,
[29:56] Speaker 1: those are kind of the two touchstones that I think
[29:58] Speaker 1: are very close to to trail in that people speak
[30:02] Speaker 1: from I have invested this amount of time, I've played
[30:05] Speaker 1: this many games, and they keep building on themselves, they
[30:08] Speaker 1: keep growing, and so you end up recommending from a
[30:11] Speaker 1: point of oh, you won't believe how it all gets here,
[30:14] Speaker 1: but then to a newcomer that can make it suddenly
[30:17] Speaker 1: feel like there's a lot of required reading before you
[30:20] Speaker 1: get to the good parts. So if you take something
[30:22] Speaker 1: away from my recommendation today, it's that you don't really
[30:27] Speaker 1: have to wait for the good parts and trails FC.
[30:30] Speaker 1: I think if the idea of a Hunter Hunter RPG,
[30:34] Speaker 1: of the idea of a smaller scale, quaint, charming thing
[30:39] Speaker 1: that's going to grow over time is appealing to you,
[30:42] Speaker 1: then that is something that's worth it, because I do
[30:44] Speaker 1: think it's not a case of you have to play
[30:47] Speaker 1: these games for it to get good. It's that these
[30:50] Speaker 1: games will just get increasingly good the more you play them.
[30:53] Speaker 1: It's like reading a long book series, like if you
[30:56] Speaker 1: picked up Miss Born or something like that, or a
[30:58] Speaker 1: Wheel of Time and you start reading, it's like, oh,
[31:01] Speaker 1: the actual book is good, and the further in I get,
[31:04] Speaker 1: the more it's building on itself and picking up steam
[31:07] Speaker 1: from the good stuff. So yeah, I definitely recommend it
[31:12] Speaker 1: in that light if you if you want something like that.
[31:14] Speaker 1: The flip side of this is there there was a
[31:18] Speaker 1: quote going around from the president of Falcom basically saying, well,
[31:25] Speaker 1: we kind of have to do SC like there's it
[31:28] Speaker 1: doesn't make sense for us to do FC and not SC.
[31:32] Speaker 1: Everything beyond that sounds like it's going to be in
[31:34] Speaker 1: response to fan recept. I should be clear FC stands
[31:42] Speaker 1: for first chapter. SC stands for second chapter. And then
[31:46] Speaker 1: there is TC Slash three C, which is third chapter
[31:51] Speaker 1: and that kind of completes the Trails in the Sky arc,
[31:56] Speaker 1: and and there are also other arcs. There's the I'm
[31:59] Speaker 1: sorry Trails fans get some of this wrong. There's the
[32:01] Speaker 1: Crossbell arc, which I like to refer to as the
[32:04] Speaker 1: cop arc because you play characters in that region and
[32:08] Speaker 1: I believe you play essentially fantasy cops in that one.
[32:12] Speaker 1: And then there's Cold Steel, which is almost like Persona
[32:16] Speaker 1: esque and I think you go to like an academy
[32:20] Speaker 1: or something. And then there are some other games that
[32:23] Speaker 1: take place after all three of those that kind of
[32:27] Speaker 1: wrap the whole thing up bring all their regions together
[32:30] Speaker 1: and then do these big story beats out of that.
[32:34] Speaker 1: But that's like big picture stuff. Way down at the
[32:38] Speaker 1: bottom at the foundation, there is Trails in the Sky
[32:42] Speaker 1: and then FCSC three C I don't know, and that's
[32:48] Speaker 1: first chapter, second chapter, third chapter. So yeah, that's I
[32:52] Speaker 1: think this is a good starting place and it sounds
[32:55] Speaker 1: like you're going to get a pretty good experience if
[32:59] Speaker 1: you just been here, and I think this series has
[33:02] Speaker 1: needed that for a while because up to this point
[33:04] Speaker 1: as well, you kind of had to play it on PC.
[33:07] Speaker 1: I don't think Trails in the Sky. I think it
[33:10] Speaker 1: was on Vita through the PSP stuff that you could
[33:14] Speaker 1: do maybe, but PC was always the way I was told,
[33:17] Speaker 1: like you kind of got to play it on steam
[33:19] Speaker 1: Deck or something, and it was it was a pretty
[33:21] Speaker 1: solid steam Deck game. But I think this coming out,
[33:23] Speaker 1: and again like Yacuz zero, is the easy comparison, establishing
[33:28] Speaker 1: an easy way to say this is the one you
[33:30] Speaker 1: go play, this is where you start, and then you
[33:33] Speaker 1: just go numbered after that. I think that's a great thing.
[33:37] Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm really happy for.
[33:39] Speaker 3: This awesome well, wildly shifting gears, pivoting, very hard.
[33:50] Speaker 1: Switching lanes, is switching lanes?
[33:53] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, are switching a midlane or.
[33:57] Speaker 1: I don't know. I saw a victor in a b
[33:59] Speaker 1: bop there, so I don't know if we want to
[34:00] Speaker 1: go there?
[34:01] Speaker 3: Maybe not time. Yeah, Kyle, you've heard of Deadlock?
[34:08] Speaker 2: Sorry, I had already started my nap.
[34:10] Speaker 1: You already started tuning out?
[34:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yep, you've heard of Deadlock, right, I yeah,
[34:16] Speaker 3: I played very very little of it its first like beta.
[34:20] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[34:20] Speaker 2: I think I played like the tutorial and like a match.
[34:23] Speaker 2: Yeah cool, and I was done and you're done.
[34:26] Speaker 3: Yes, this is very much not a Kyle game. This
[34:29] Speaker 3: is very much a Eric and Alex game though, Deadlock
[34:34] Speaker 3: van game, if you will, a van game.
[34:36] Speaker 1: Yes.
[34:38] Speaker 3: Deadlock is a third person shooter mobile from Valve directly,
[34:46] Speaker 3: and this is it's been in development for a while.
[34:52] Speaker 3: There was like the whole sort of debacle when it
[34:56] Speaker 3: first came out, where like people were kind of just
[35:02] Speaker 3: like sharing a lot about the game because of like
[35:05] Speaker 3: a very poorly worded kind of embargo.
[35:10] Speaker 1: Thing in the game is not so secret secret that
[35:13] Speaker 1: Deadlock existed, and basically it as things do, as you
[35:20] Speaker 1: add more people to something, eventually it's going to leak.
[35:23] Speaker 1: And it did and there was a whole controversy over oh,
[35:28] Speaker 1: were you supposed to say that Deadlock was a thing
[35:30] Speaker 1: and not say Deadlock was a thing that was That
[35:32] Speaker 1: was a whole weird period. But yes, Deadlock was something
[35:35] Speaker 1: that was supposed to kind of gradually expand in the background,
[35:40] Speaker 1: I guess, and then got the light shone on it,
[35:42] Speaker 1: and now everyone is aware that Deadlock is a alpha
[35:47] Speaker 1: beta type thing that Valve is working on. That's basically
[35:50] Speaker 1: it's new mobile.
[35:53] Speaker 3: Yeah. And and to the point where, like you still
[35:56] Speaker 3: if you want to play the friends have to invite them.
[35:59] Speaker 3: Active user has to invite another active user to play
[36:03] Speaker 3: the game.
[36:04] Speaker 2: But not in the Doda universe, right, like not in
[36:07] Speaker 2: the Dota original.
[36:08] Speaker 1: They finally I say, this is a Doda fan. They
[36:12] Speaker 1: finally stopped trying to make a new multiplayer game in
[36:15] Speaker 1: the Doda universe.
[36:17] Speaker 3: Yeah. This is set in a sort of like alternate
[36:22] Speaker 3: timeline of New York, filled with demons and ghosts and
[36:27] Speaker 3: that sort of thing and spirits, and there there was
[36:33] Speaker 3: a big update. That's where we're talking about it today.
[36:36] Speaker 3: Eric and I kind of play It's a mover, Kyle.
[36:38] Speaker 3: We played it when it first came out, so very
[36:42] Speaker 3: early on and it's development and now what a year
[36:46] Speaker 3: later or so roughly roughly, Yeah, there was a big
[36:50] Speaker 3: new update this this past month where they dropped six
[36:54] Speaker 3: new characters. Earlier in the year, they had kind of
[36:57] Speaker 3: changed up the structure of the map in a big way.
[37:01] Speaker 3: This this update also refreshed like the item shop and
[37:04] Speaker 3: such in a way that actually makes sense now. But yeah,
[37:09] Speaker 3: Eric and I have been playing a lot of Deadlock.
[37:11] Speaker 3: It's kind of been our primary driver for like what
[37:13] Speaker 3: the last two weeks or.
[37:15] Speaker 1: So, yes, week and a half, you know, Yeah, it's
[37:17] Speaker 1: been something that you know, we log on and someone
[37:20] Speaker 1: on Discord says, hey, I want to push some lanes,
[37:23] Speaker 1: and we're like, yeah, all right, all right. I think
[37:27] Speaker 1: it's really interesting to see this because I had been
[37:31] Speaker 1: playing Deadlock, like you said, and I think I was
[37:33] Speaker 1: at a point where, so I'm coming from a Team
[37:36] Speaker 1: Fortress too and Doda two background. I love Team Fortress two.
[37:40] Speaker 1: I love Doda two. I think they're both really really
[37:43] Speaker 1: good games. I think Valve has an incredible capacity for
[37:47] Speaker 1: making just really compelling multiplayer experiences. I've always enjoyed counter Strike,
[37:52] Speaker 1: probably more than I actually enjoyed playing Counterstrike I don't
[37:55] Speaker 1: know why, it just it never has fully clicked for me.
[37:59] Speaker 1: But uh, when I first played Deadlock, I said, uh,
[38:04] Speaker 1: it's an interesting idea. There's something here. It's definitely not nothing.
[38:10] Speaker 1: But I think for the longest time, a lot of
[38:12] Speaker 1: developers have been chasing the idea of a shooter mobia
[38:16] Speaker 1: because it's on paper. It sounds great. Right on paper,
[38:19] Speaker 1: you go, yeah, yeah, shooter good mobia good chocolate peanut butter.
[38:25] Speaker 1: It should mix, right.
[38:26] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[38:26] Speaker 2: What was the epic one that just sort of like Fortnite,
[38:29] Speaker 2: just Paragon? Uh, because Paragon died and then Predecessors is
[38:37] Speaker 2: now the new one because they kind of made the
[38:40] Speaker 2: assets and tools of that available to people who wanted
[38:42] Speaker 2: to do stuff with it. But there was Super Monday
[38:45] Speaker 2: Night Combat.
[38:46] Speaker 1: There was. Uh. Battle Born is arguably a mobile. There
[38:52] Speaker 1: are a lot of ones actually liked Battleborn quite a bit,
[38:55] Speaker 1: but that.
[38:56] Speaker 3: Night is a mobile.
[38:58] Speaker 1: Yes. Oh, if you want to name MOBAs, I can
[39:01] Speaker 1: sit here and name MOBAs. You want to talk about
[39:03] Speaker 1: Dawn Gates Arts, Yeah, awesome. Not so that's a good one.
[39:08] Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings, Guardians of Middle Earth. Most people
[39:12] Speaker 1: probably forgot that one, but I still remember it. Yeah,
[39:17] Speaker 1: So I went into Deadlock with too much Moba experience,
[39:21] Speaker 1: and I thought it was interesting, but overwhelming and kind
[39:25] Speaker 1: of scattered, And so coming back for this update, I
[39:29] Speaker 1: was really excited because it had been a while. I
[39:31] Speaker 1: wanted to see, Okay, they went from four lanes down
[39:34] Speaker 1: to three, they've got new characters, they've kind of redone
[39:38] Speaker 1: a lot of things. What does it look like now?
[39:41] Speaker 1: And the answer is it actually is really good now.
[39:45] Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's the level of, oh my gosh,
[39:48] Speaker 1: you need to run out and play this at this moment,
[39:51] Speaker 1: but I think if the idea of a shooter mobi
[39:53] Speaker 1: has ever appealed to you, this is probably the best
[39:57] Speaker 1: implementation of that idea that I've seen so far. I
[40:01] Speaker 1: think the combat feels just right. It is very punishing
[40:06] Speaker 1: as a game, and the way that I personally like
[40:10] Speaker 1: coming from Doda, I do like it when you have
[40:13] Speaker 1: a lot of power. They have a lot of power,
[40:16] Speaker 1: and it's easy for you to like get the upper
[40:18] Speaker 1: hand if you have played right, if you have thought correctly,
[40:21] Speaker 1: if you built correctly, you can kind of get the
[40:23] Speaker 1: upper hand. But conversely, that means that if a bebop
[40:26] Speaker 1: is you know, just bawling out of control and running
[40:32] Speaker 1: the game. Then you can't poke your head out because
[40:35] Speaker 1: he's gonna hook you, he's going to put a bomb
[40:36] Speaker 1: on you, he's going to uppercut you, and then you're
[40:38] Speaker 1: going to explode. And that's just how the game goes.
[40:43] Speaker 1: And I think it's been really enjoyable to see this
[40:47] Speaker 1: game evolve, not just from when I first played it
[40:50] Speaker 1: to this, but even how the game has evolved within
[40:52] Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks as they've rolled out these heroes,
[40:55] Speaker 1: which there were six heroes, and they said, okay, Mina
[40:57] Speaker 1: the Vampire is the first one out for the next five.
[41:01] Speaker 1: Everybody gets to vote. Every time you finish a match,
[41:04] Speaker 1: you get a vote and you can vote on who
[41:07] Speaker 1: the next one is. So it stirred up some community
[41:09] Speaker 1: stuff of people campaigning. There's a huge campaign for the
[41:13] Speaker 1: Doorman because everybody loves the Doorman. And then he came out,
[41:16] Speaker 1: and the Doorman might be one of the coolest designs
[41:19] Speaker 1: of a MOBI hero that I've seen in a while.
[41:22] Speaker 1: He literally has portals from Foul Game portal where he
[41:28] Speaker 1: opens a door and then can put a second door up,
[41:31] Speaker 1: and it does the portal thing where projectiles abilities all
[41:35] Speaker 1: kinds of crazy stuff can go through the doors, and
[41:38] Speaker 1: he even has an ability that throws a luggage cart
[41:42] Speaker 1: that carries people with it, and you can luggage cart
[41:45] Speaker 1: people through the door and send them out the other side.
[41:50] Speaker 1: And his ultimate literally locks you in a jumping puzzle
[41:53] Speaker 1: that you have to beat to not die. And it's
[41:57] Speaker 1: stuff like that that feels wildly invented and fresh and
[42:01] Speaker 1: new and interesting. But the actual game itself is not
[42:05] Speaker 1: just novelty. It's a surprisingly well balanced experience. The lanes
[42:10] Speaker 1: feel good. I think three lanes is ultimately the right
[42:12] Speaker 1: choice for this game. Everything kind of feels very balanced
[42:15] Speaker 1: with three lanes, whereas you kind of had some weird
[42:18] Speaker 1: when it was four and you have six players on
[42:20] Speaker 1: each team, how do you divvy that up? Yeah, solo,
[42:23] Speaker 1: who's duo? That sort of thing. There's not really a jungle. Yeah, yeah,
[42:29] Speaker 1: I think this makes more sense for a game and
[42:32] Speaker 1: just kind of makes it easier to approach. You say, okay, too,
[42:36] Speaker 1: per lane, easy enough, but there's the earn. There's a
[42:39] Speaker 1: lot of objectives to control. I still wish the mini
[42:42] Speaker 1: map was a little bit more clear and easier to read, but.
[42:45] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm learning it. But yeah, it could be more intuitive.
[42:49] Speaker 1: I even find the character design, something that did not
[42:53] Speaker 1: initially resonate with me when the game first came out,
[42:57] Speaker 1: is now really working for me. I love this sort
[42:59] Speaker 1: of like pop art horror that it's got going, where
[43:04] Speaker 1: you have all of these kind of throwback horror designs.
[43:07] Speaker 1: Some of the new characters that came out are very
[43:09] Speaker 1: you know, here's a vampire with this parasol and she
[43:14] Speaker 1: kind of floats in the air and throws bats down.
[43:16] Speaker 1: And then here's this. I love Victor, who's the newest character.
[43:20] Speaker 1: He was the last.
[43:22] Speaker 3: I call him Lazarus.
[43:24] Speaker 1: Yeah, you kept calling him Lazarus, which was the craziest poll.
[43:28] Speaker 1: But he is a Frankenstein monster who hurts himself to
[43:34] Speaker 1: hurt others and can resurrect and and has this whole
[43:37] Speaker 1: animation where when he dies, his limbs go everywhere, and
[43:40] Speaker 1: then they slowly reassemble and build him back up. And
[43:43] Speaker 1: there's really cool inventive things like that that feel really fresh.
[43:47] Speaker 1: I think it's easy for a lot of I look
[43:49] Speaker 1: at Amoba nowadays, I'm like, Okay, here's here's a Winston.
[43:53] Speaker 1: You know. Here. It's the same with the Overwatch games,
[43:56] Speaker 1: where I'm like you've kind of made the archetypes. There's
[43:58] Speaker 1: our trade existing, yeah yeah, or you play in mobile,
[44:02] Speaker 1: it's like, okay, here's our ash, here's our temo, here's
[44:05] Speaker 1: our ari, Like, these are our characters, and I like that.
[44:10] Speaker 1: So far Deadlock, the characters have felt wildly their own.
[44:14] Speaker 1: Maybe the most familiar are the ones like McInnis, who
[44:18] Speaker 1: is kind of the TF two engineer of this game,
[44:21] Speaker 1: but even she has a little bit more flavor, a
[44:23] Speaker 1: little bit more style to her than just being the engineer.
[44:29] Speaker 3: I really like. And Furnace, who you play a lot.
[44:32] Speaker 1: This is really cool.
[44:33] Speaker 3: I like he is a he's rocking. He's a skinny
[44:37] Speaker 3: dude rocking a fedora. He looks like he's about to
[44:39] Speaker 3: say hello, kitten, welcome to This is way No this
[44:45] Speaker 3: is That's why Eric love.
[44:48] Speaker 1: No no, no, no, this is in Furnace slander this.
[44:51] Speaker 1: This guy looks like the bartender at a CD underground
[44:55] Speaker 1: bar where like vampires and werewolves drink like please.
[44:59] Speaker 3: But he like his whole thing is like he shoots
[45:02] Speaker 3: flames from his finger guns.
[45:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, he like finger guns that he shoots fire out
[45:06] Speaker 1: of which and then he like reloads his arm like
[45:09] Speaker 1: Henry Cavillan in Mission Impossible. It's awesome.
[45:13] Speaker 3: Uh, there's just like a lot of really fun character designs.
[45:17] Speaker 3: There's a new One of the new characters that they
[45:20] Speaker 3: just introduced is Page and she's this support character who
[45:24] Speaker 3: she's obsessed like fantasy books and that sort of thing,
[45:27] Speaker 3: and so she's like reading this big tome. She has
[45:30] Speaker 3: a big She's like a very small character but carrying
[45:32] Speaker 3: this massive tome around that's like half her size and
[45:35] Speaker 3: like summoning dragons.
[45:36] Speaker 1: And him the animation with the sword, because there's an
[45:42] Speaker 1: ability she has that puts a circle on the ground
[45:44] Speaker 1: where this sword in the stone rises up and then
[45:46] Speaker 1: slams in. If you if you watch her animations while
[45:50] Speaker 1: she's doing it, if you don't start like shooting and
[45:53] Speaker 1: stuff while you're doing it, she actually like reaches down
[45:55] Speaker 1: to the book and pulls the sword up and slams
[45:57] Speaker 1: it back in, So she is like physically manipulating it,
[46:00] Speaker 1: which looks just really cool. And is that thing that
[46:04] Speaker 1: I do think Valve is incredibly good at is those
[46:08] Speaker 1: little kind of touches of character that really do sell
[46:12] Speaker 1: the you know, in a multiplayer game, that sell the
[46:16] Speaker 1: idea of this is a unique character that has very
[46:19] Speaker 1: you know, characteristics and defining things in like charm to
[46:22] Speaker 1: them that I think works super well. I personally, I
[46:27] Speaker 1: love Hayes. I think Hayes is probably my favorite to play.
[46:31] Speaker 1: She's maybe the most you know what this character does
[46:34] Speaker 1: because she has the sleep dart, she has a cloak,
[46:37] Speaker 1: and then her ultimate is just she dances around and
[46:39] Speaker 1: shoots bullets everywhere and they ricochet off of everybody, and
[46:42] Speaker 1: so you build she's kind of a yeah, she's got
[46:45] Speaker 1: a reburl, which you kind of know what that does.
[46:49] Speaker 1: But then the actual playing of her ends up being
[46:52] Speaker 1: very squirrellly because you almost are playing a bit like
[46:55] Speaker 1: Tracer where you're trying to move fast and kind of
[46:58] Speaker 1: pick off people that are straggling because you can sleep
[47:01] Speaker 1: dart them and run up and just kind of tommy
[47:03] Speaker 1: gun them down and then dart back out because you
[47:06] Speaker 1: can't really fight. You know, if a bebop or a
[47:10] Speaker 1: moan krill gets in your face like big beefy tanky dudes,
[47:14] Speaker 1: it's going to be hard for you to handle that
[47:16] Speaker 1: if there's multiple in front of you. But if there's
[47:18] Speaker 1: if it's one on one and you've got a good
[47:19] Speaker 1: angle and you've got the jump on them, just mow
[47:22] Speaker 1: them down, get out, And it's really really interesting. It's
[47:26] Speaker 1: a fun game, and I found it's got quite a
[47:30] Speaker 1: bit of charm identity. I like seeing Valve create this
[47:36] Speaker 1: new ip and really flesh it out like this. So
[47:39] Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that Deadlock picks up some steam, especially because
[47:43] Speaker 1: as a Doda fan like Doda has definitely fallen off
[47:46] Speaker 1: over the years. I don't think that's strange for anyone
[47:49] Speaker 1: to say at this point. I think even most Doda
[47:51] Speaker 1: players would say it that it feels like Doda has
[47:55] Speaker 1: lost the you know, the shining mandate and is not
[48:00] Speaker 1: the favorite child anymore. So Yeah, I hope the Deadlock
[48:04] Speaker 1: picks up some steam and and kind of raises the
[48:07] Speaker 1: tide in the process.
[48:09] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I'm really enjoying the new characters. Meana the batgirl,
[48:15] Speaker 3: Billy the Goat, who is just the goat goat with
[48:19] Speaker 3: a giant bat and he just like gets in your
[48:21] Speaker 3: face and rams you.
[48:22] Speaker 1: Spider Punk if he was a goat.
[48:24] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Yeah. We talked about the Doorman and Victor Drifter,
[48:29] Speaker 3: who folks watching the video version of this podcast will
[48:32] Speaker 3: be seeing Drifter gameplay. He's like, yeah, he's like the
[48:36] Speaker 3: vampire dude, and he can like he can mark, he
[48:39] Speaker 3: can throw like a dart that does damage over time,
[48:42] Speaker 3: then marks people, and he can retrigger the ability to
[48:45] Speaker 3: teleport behind them and then do a lot of damage,
[48:49] Speaker 3: especially if you have there's certain items you can build
[48:51] Speaker 3: that allow you to do more damage from behind and
[48:54] Speaker 3: like PROCs things when you are attacking from behind. So
[48:58] Speaker 3: it works really well with him, and he's got this
[49:00] Speaker 3: cool ability is ultimate. He like and shrouds this He
[49:04] Speaker 3: essentially like blocks the vision of other players by like
[49:07] Speaker 3: shrouding them in darkness. And when you're on the other
[49:10] Speaker 3: side of that, it is like really frightening because you
[49:13] Speaker 3: can only see like a little bit in front of you,
[49:15] Speaker 3: and there's just still bullets flying around you and you
[49:19] Speaker 3: don't really know where they're coming from. There's it's Deadlock's
[49:23] Speaker 3: really in a good place right now. I think it
[49:26] Speaker 3: feels great. I'm excited to see how they continue to
[49:29] Speaker 3: overhaul and iterate on the game as it gets, you know,
[49:34] Speaker 3: closer and closer to launch. I think we're still probably
[49:37] Speaker 3: a ways out, Like it's still very much feels I
[49:39] Speaker 3: think like it said Alpha Beta, know.
[49:41] Speaker 1: What they're I don't know what their plan is. That's
[49:43] Speaker 1: that's the weirder part is that Valve is kind of
[49:46] Speaker 1: just doing this based off vibes, which I guess like
[49:48] Speaker 1: Valve is allowed to do if they want to, but
[49:51] Speaker 1: it is weird.
[49:52] Speaker 2: It's kind of always how they've done it to be fair,
[49:55] Speaker 2: you know. I mean, even like I remember there's stories
[49:58] Speaker 2: about Left for Dead coming along and Gabe just kind
[50:00] Speaker 2: of being like, let's just release this thing, let's just
[50:02] Speaker 2: put it out there, and the internal team you know,
[50:05] Speaker 2: who now became was Eternal tur turtal Rock. Yeah, like
[50:09] Speaker 2: they were like, no, we would like to work on
[50:11] Speaker 2: this for a while, please, mister nole, Like we're not
[50:14] Speaker 2: ready to just like put this out in the world,
[50:16] Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, they're just sure experimental over there.
[50:19] Speaker 1: It's it's interesting watching it come along, and I am
[50:22] Speaker 1: curious to see what the release ends up being, because yeah,
[50:26] Speaker 1: it's it's whether they end up just letting this cook
[50:29] Speaker 1: in alpha, beta whatever for however long, or if they
[50:32] Speaker 1: start deciding that hey, you know, it's basically out there now,
[50:37] Speaker 1: like we just turn off the invite thing and then
[50:39] Speaker 1: just let everybody start playing it. That could happen one
[50:41] Speaker 1: day too, and it could happen like tomorrow and it
[50:44] Speaker 1: would just be like, Oh, we decided things are good,
[50:47] Speaker 1: I'm just gonna flip it open now. And Valve can
[50:50] Speaker 1: just do that. They're one of the few companies that
[50:51] Speaker 1: can just do that without much, you know, pre release
[50:55] Speaker 1: hype or anything like that. But I do think Deadlock
[50:57] Speaker 1: maybe needs a little bit more of a carry just
[50:59] Speaker 1: because it's new IP, it's a new franchise. People aren't
[51:04] Speaker 1: going to know it, even like Deadlock doesn't seem like
[51:08] Speaker 1: it's pierced the mainstream yet. You know, like the kind
[51:12] Speaker 1: of person who might play League of Legends or Dota
[51:15] Speaker 1: might have occasionally heard about Deadlock, but it might not
[51:18] Speaker 1: be something that they're intimately familiar with, so maybe there
[51:20] Speaker 1: doesn't need to be a little bit of fanfare for it.
[51:23] Speaker 1: But I think this update kind of helped with that,
[51:25] Speaker 1: because if you play one of those games, or even
[51:27] Speaker 1: something like Overwatch and you start hearing, hey, there's this
[51:30] Speaker 1: game and they're releasing six heroes over the course of
[51:33] Speaker 1: two weeks and you get to vote on who's next
[51:35] Speaker 1: every day, like, oh, that sounds interesting, I should check
[51:39] Speaker 1: that out. So worked, I guess, But yeah, well, we'll
[51:42] Speaker 1: see what the launch timeline ends up being. They'll probably
[51:45] Speaker 1: just roll it out on a Tuesday, you.
[51:47] Speaker 3: Know, yeah, the valveo.
[51:49] Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Yeah.
[51:50] Speaker 3: Well let's head into our final topic of the show. Kyle,
[51:55] Speaker 3: you've had a chance to briefly play Kirby the new
[51:59] Speaker 3: expansion on switch To for curbing the Forgotten Land. Is
[52:03] Speaker 3: it the Crystal something Crystal Lands?
[52:07] Speaker 2: Great question. I don't know the answer to.
[52:10] Speaker 3: It's kind of a little bit.
[52:12] Speaker 2: I think it is out. I don't we didn't get
[52:14] Speaker 2: early access or anything. What is it? It's this is
[52:17] Speaker 2: the switch to content, So like.
[52:19] Speaker 3: Starcross the World.
[52:22] Speaker 2: Worlds.
[52:25] Speaker 3: I don't know why I was thinking that.
[52:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, but if you look at like the art, it's
[52:28] Speaker 2: all crystals and it is like Crystal Base. It's like
[52:30] Speaker 2: a meteor hits the world and it's like you got
[52:33] Speaker 2: to recover the crystals or something, you know, all that
[52:35] Speaker 2: important narrative setup that I always pay really close attention
[52:39] Speaker 2: to Curby games. Yeah, So it's like this is kind
[52:43] Speaker 2: of like kind of the Mario party approach recently, where
[52:46] Speaker 2: it's like if you don't own this game on switch to,
[52:49] Speaker 2: you can or on Switch one you can buy it
[52:52] Speaker 2: wholesale and you get like the full game, and then
[52:55] Speaker 2: it includes this extra content or you can put what
[52:59] Speaker 2: I had to do is I, you know, had to
[53:00] Speaker 2: go find my carby in the Forgotten Land switch cartridge
[53:03] Speaker 2: and then you know, you can we got a code
[53:06] Speaker 2: from Nintendo, but you can optionally buy the you know,
[53:10] Speaker 2: the upgrade to make the switch to version and then
[53:12] Speaker 2: it adds a bunch of content and basically what it
[53:17] Speaker 2: is because I was I was kind of wasn't sure
[53:19] Speaker 2: how it worked, whereas like, is this like DLC that
[53:22] Speaker 2: just adds a whole new world or something like that.
[53:25] Speaker 1: But what it.
[53:25] Speaker 2: Is is it's like you boot up the game and
[53:29] Speaker 2: meteor lands in the world and it like spreads these
[53:32] Speaker 2: crystals around. And so what you do is you actually
[53:35] Speaker 2: go to each of the areas from the Forgotten Land
[53:38] Speaker 2: and there's like two new levels in each area, which
[53:42] Speaker 2: are like heavily heavily remixed versions of previous levels to
[53:48] Speaker 2: the point where they feel totally new. Like remix makes
[53:50] Speaker 2: it sound like simple, but it's like no, and it's
[53:52] Speaker 2: been so long since I played Forgotten Land that I, like,
[53:54] Speaker 2: I don't it feels I might as well be playing
[53:57] Speaker 2: something entirely new, you know, so it kind of gets
[54:00] Speaker 2: like mixed into the larger game. But yeah, I really
[54:04] Speaker 2: love Forgotten Land. I think it's like easily my favorite
[54:08] Speaker 2: Kirby game. I don't think there's like any competition really.
[54:10] Speaker 2: I think Forgotten Land is just a really charming, cute, fun,
[54:14] Speaker 2: surprising game throughout. And so it's it's more of it,
[54:21] Speaker 2: which is kind of a boring offer in terms of
[54:24] Speaker 2: like what is this thing? But it's like, yeah, it's
[54:26] Speaker 2: like I don't know, ten or so new levels for
[54:29] Speaker 2: this great Kirby game, and it's been fun to kind
[54:32] Speaker 2: of go back and like, you know, play that game
[54:35] Speaker 2: that I really like with new levels. But it does
[54:38] Speaker 2: feel like it's like that larger question of like is
[54:40] Speaker 2: it worth it, because I think it's like twenty dollars
[54:43] Speaker 2: to upgrade the game or something like that. Actually I
[54:47] Speaker 2: would like to know.
[54:48] Speaker 3: I can look that up.
[54:49] Speaker 2: I look it up, and it's like the answer to
[54:51] Speaker 2: that question is like, you know, I'm not sure. You know,
[54:54] Speaker 2: it's it's kind of a big price to like revisit
[54:57] Speaker 2: this game that you've probably already played and get like
[55:00] Speaker 2: new levels. It's Kirby's not a challenging game until the
[55:03] Speaker 2: last level. It's always how it is, like the final
[55:06] Speaker 2: pause of Kirby games are always like we're just gonna
[55:09] Speaker 2: make it really hard all of a sudden, which I
[55:10] Speaker 2: actually kind of like because it really adds this like
[55:13] Speaker 2: weird level of intensity that you're building towards over the
[55:15] Speaker 2: course of a Kirby game. And I haven't finished it,
[55:17] Speaker 2: so maybe the last couple levels are really challenging, but
[55:19] Speaker 2: it has been fun to kind of revisit those levels.
[55:22] Speaker 2: But I don't know if it's like it's not like
[55:23] Speaker 2: an automatic recommendation.
[55:25] Speaker 1: Sure, you know, it's.
[55:26] Speaker 2: Not like it's like one of those things with like
[55:29] Speaker 2: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, like
[55:30] Speaker 2: especially if you haven't especially if you haven't played those games,
[55:33] Speaker 2: like the switch To versions like immediately feel better and
[55:36] Speaker 2: look better, and it's like, oh, I wish, I wish
[55:39] Speaker 2: I could have played the game like this, And I'm
[55:40] Speaker 2: jealous of everyone who's playing you know, Breath of the
[55:43] Speaker 2: Wild for the first time on switch To. That's like
[55:45] Speaker 2: a good position to be in. I don't feel that
[55:47] Speaker 2: way about this game. Like this game ran great on
[55:49] Speaker 2: Switch one and looked great on Switch one. It still
[55:51] Speaker 2: runs great and looks great on Switch too, and the
[55:53] Speaker 2: new levels are cool, but you know, I don't I
[55:56] Speaker 2: don't know if it's like you got to drop everything
[55:59] Speaker 2: to play new Curve be in the Forgotten Land line.
[56:01] Speaker 3: Yes, it is twenty dollars by the way for the DLC.
[56:03] Speaker 2: Okay confirm, So it's twenty dollars. Yeah, But like if
[56:06] Speaker 2: you if you like skipped the Switch one generation for
[56:09] Speaker 2: some reason and you're jumping into Switch too, like Kirby
[56:12] Speaker 2: and the Forgotten Land, in my opinion, is the best
[56:14] Speaker 2: Kirby game that Nintendo's ever released. So like, high recommendation
[56:19] Speaker 2: to play Kirby in the Forgotten Land. And then also
[56:21] Speaker 2: you get a bunch of extra levels that are good,
[56:23] Speaker 2: they're fun to play, Like that's an easy recommendation.
[56:26] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that was gonna be. My question was I
[56:29] Speaker 1: I love two D Kirby, but I never really got
[56:31] Speaker 1: into Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It just passed me by,
[56:34] Speaker 1: and so I was like, oh, switch to you know,
[56:36] Speaker 1: this might be the time to pick it up. So
[56:38] Speaker 1: this is like a good just altogether jump in now,
[56:41] Speaker 1: It's it's all great.
[56:43] Speaker 3: You should borrow my coat when you move here, and yeah, yeah,
[56:47] Speaker 3: and I like I like two D Kirby as well.
[56:50] Speaker 2: I think, like I reviewed Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot
[56:53] Speaker 2: and I like those games.
[56:54] Speaker 1: But it was really fun.
[56:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but there's this one. Just like the mood
[56:57] Speaker 2: of it. It is like it's a weird thing to
[56:59] Speaker 2: say about a Curve game, but it's it's basically like
[57:01] Speaker 2: a post apocalyptic Kirby game that just feels really good
[57:05] Speaker 2: to play.
[57:06] Speaker 3: Like it's I really enjoy the level, like the biomes
[57:09] Speaker 3: and stuff that they take you through as.
[57:10] Speaker 2: Well, and then also like the the gosh, what is
[57:14] Speaker 2: it where you you know, where you can turn into
[57:16] Speaker 2: a car and.
[57:17] Speaker 3: So mouthful mouthful, mouthful.
[57:19] Speaker 2: Look, those are always fun, Like those are significant and
[57:21] Speaker 2: they do change. They like it just gives you a
[57:23] Speaker 2: little pocket of a level every now and then. That's
[57:25] Speaker 2: like this whole section is going to feel a lot
[57:27] Speaker 2: different and it's going to be cool. You know. It's
[57:29] Speaker 2: like great, I'm always excited when I when I hit
[57:31] Speaker 2: a mouthful mode moment. But yeah, Eric, if you didn't
[57:35] Speaker 2: play it, but you like Kirby, like there's yeah, absolutely
[57:38] Speaker 2: you should steal Alex's guy doesn't like, you should pay through.
[57:41] Speaker 1: It if you don't like Kirby. That's that's something to
[57:43] Speaker 1: take up between yourself and someone who will listen to you,
[57:47] Speaker 1: but not mean.
[57:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there are Kirby's I don't like. I
[57:50] Speaker 2: don't really like. I mean the character Kirby, Like, yeah,
[57:54] Speaker 2: that's a good point. It's like the most powerful character
[57:58] Speaker 2: in all of fiction, according to Smash Brothers Ultimate.
[58:01] Speaker 1: But he's also just a little guys, a little guy.
[58:03] Speaker 3: He turns into a little bolder, fantastic design.
[58:06] Speaker 2: He makes funny faces.
[58:08] Speaker 1: He's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's good. You're right.
[58:12] Speaker 2: What was I thinking?
[58:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, he does the little dance when you finished the stages.
[58:16] Speaker 3: The There has never been a game that is bad.
[58:23] Speaker 3: We'll say that here, ficial, we'll say that here officially.
[58:26] Speaker 2: I just mentioned one. Yeah, it's called epic Yard. I
[58:29] Speaker 2: didn't really I didn't really like e bick Yard very much.
[58:31] Speaker 2: I love the way it looked.
[58:33] Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I love Kirby and I haven't DLC so
[58:38] Speaker 3: I think.
[58:39] Speaker 2: I also reviewed that Claymation one that was like and
[58:42] Speaker 2: where you draw the platform on the wi U screen
[58:46] Speaker 2: and there was like a three D S. There was
[58:47] Speaker 2: a d S version that I don't love those he doesn't.
[58:50] Speaker 2: He's not he doesn't have one hundred percent hit rate,
[58:52] Speaker 2: but you know, personality wise, he's got one hundred percent
[58:55] Speaker 2: saying he's.
[58:56] Speaker 1: Got all the little characters too. He's got Ben to Night,
[58:59] Speaker 1: He's got Wattle d He's got all the little fun
[59:01] Speaker 1: guys with him. Yeah.
[59:03] Speaker 3: Yeah, I love Kirby. I want to get a Kirby
[59:05] Speaker 3: tattoo actually soon. I feel like it's only right.
[59:10] Speaker 1: I feel like it's like three circles You're good sleeve
[59:13] Speaker 1: of Kirby's.
[59:15] Speaker 3: I don't see go hard.
[59:17] Speaker 1: What what if it was like all the Kirby's from Smash.
[59:20] Speaker 1: It's just all those different variations of Kirby all in one.
[59:23] Speaker 3: Sleeve that I like that. Now I'm looking up Kirby's
[59:25] Speaker 3: sleeve tattoo. Oh yeah, there's some good stuff out there. Yeah.
[59:30] Speaker 2: What's the Kirby game where you like controlled like hundreds
[59:33] Speaker 2: of Kirby's.
[59:34] Speaker 3: Oh what's that? Was it?
[59:37] Speaker 2: Who's like a DS game or was it Game Boy Advance?
[59:41] Speaker 1: I can get it. There's too many.
[59:43] Speaker 3: There are a lot of Derby games. Yeah, also a
[59:46] Speaker 3: Cowboy Kirby. Maybe that'll be one too. I love I
[59:50] Speaker 3: love Cowboy.
[59:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Forgotten Land truly. I think it's the best
[59:55] Speaker 2: Kirby game. I'm I think that's and I don't think
[59:58] Speaker 2: that's like a controversial opinion. Really, I think it's the
[1:00:00] Speaker 2: best Carby game.
[1:00:01] Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like it, I think. I mean, yeah,
[1:00:04] Speaker 3: I love air Ride, I love some of those old
[1:00:08] Speaker 3: GBA games.
[1:00:10] Speaker 1: Say that the Ness era games were where I got
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: in because I was playing them on the Nest Classic. Yeah,
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: I think there was that collection of It's like a
[1:00:19] Speaker 1: bunch of different ones like Meta Night's Revenge and stuff
[1:00:22] Speaker 1: like that that you just kind of played through. And
[1:00:24] Speaker 1: those have always kind of been re released over the years,
[1:00:27] Speaker 1: but I always find those are really fun to go
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: back to Kirby.
[1:00:31] Speaker 3: And The Amazing Mirror might actually be my favorite Kirby game.
[1:00:34] Speaker 3: There's just something about.
[1:00:36] Speaker 2: It that game Boy Advance.
[1:00:37] Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, but Forgotten Land is probably better, or at
[1:00:44] Speaker 3: least like the most fully fledged Kirby game out there.
[1:00:49] Speaker 2: I think the one that's the most fun to play
[1:00:51] Speaker 2: like today today.
[1:00:53] Speaker 3: Yeah, I do have a big soft spot for The
[1:00:55] Speaker 3: Amazing Mirror. And I don't know that's a that's one
[1:00:58] Speaker 3: of the usually it's pretty high in the ranked list
[1:01:01] Speaker 3: of Kirby games.
[1:01:03] Speaker 2: But oh and that's on Switch online. I don't think
[1:01:05] Speaker 2: I've played Amazing Mirror.
[1:01:06] Speaker 3: You should. I love the art in an Amazing Mirror.
[1:01:09] Speaker 3: It's it's got that great GBA pixel art and it
[1:01:13] Speaker 3: looks great today on those screens.
[1:01:15] Speaker 2: I do love that era.
[1:01:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, I love Amazing Mirror. Well cool, I think that's
[1:01:20] Speaker 3: gonna be it for the show this week a little
[1:01:22] Speaker 3: bit shorter. We've got a busy week over here at
[1:01:25] Speaker 3: Game Informer, and yeah, but we appreciate you taking time
[1:01:30] Speaker 3: out of your week to to listen to this roughly
[1:01:32] Speaker 3: hour episode. Hour long episode. We are very thankful to
[1:01:37] Speaker 3: be in your ears for that amount of time. So
[1:01:40] Speaker 3: thank you for listening and for your support. Don't forget.
[1:01:44] Speaker 3: If you do want to help us keep the lights on,
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[1:01:54] Speaker 3: issues a year we're going to be having we're kind
[1:01:58] Speaker 3: of internally a little inside Baseball planning our our cool
[1:02:02] Speaker 3: end of year issue that's gonna be celebrating the biggest
[1:02:05] Speaker 3: games of the year. But we got a few more
[1:02:08] Speaker 3: cover stories in between now and then that are I
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[1:02:53] Speaker 3: Silk Song.

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