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This week we do a spoiler free deep dive into Metaphor: Fantazio, and we're lucky enough to by joined by Jess Cogswell who reviewed the game for Gamespot (scoring it a perfect 10, no less). We're also joined by the one and only Shawn Layden, former President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. Shawn is in Singapore for Gamescom Asia and shares his thoughts on not only the rapidly evolving South East Asian gaming market, but also the broader gaming industry as it confronts things like rising development costs, declining console sales and the chase for the next live service white whale.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

05:29 Ralph's TGS Wrap Up

17:27 State of the Industry Chat with Shawn Layden

38:36 AG1 (ad)

41:31 User Question

51:13 Metaphor ReFantazio Chat with Jess Cogswell of Gamespot

01:31:33 What We've Been Playing

02:12:41 Show and Tell

02:28:08 Wrap Up

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Let's meet our hosts!

- Jake Baldino (aka the Before You Buy Guy) is pretty much the most watched reviewer on YouTube across both Gameranx and his personal channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/JakeBaldino). If you're obsessed with Delorians, The Mummy and Pizza you can discuss that stuff with him directly over on Twitter: @JakeBaldino

- Lucy James is a Senior Producer at Gamespot and a Creative Producer at Giant Bomb. She's actually, like, experienced and credentialed and has real life skills and stuff, while the rest of the gang would be funemployed if the YT algorithm didn't kiss them for random, inexplicable reasons.

- Skill Up used to work at McDonalds but he got fired for skimming too many chicken nuggets. He says he regrets it since he hasn't had a better job since.

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Why Metaphor: ReFantazio is a sudden GOTY front-runner | Ep #56