Game Scoop! 799: The First Games We Ever Played

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 799: The First Games We Ever Played

Release Date: February 21, 2025

Hosts: Damon Hadfield, Nick Limone, Mark Medina, Sam Claiborne
Guests: Sam Claiborne joins the main hosts
Network: Geek Media, an IGN Entertainment Brand

---

Introduction and Network Update

Timestamp: [01:57] - [03:31]

Damon Hadfield opens the episode by welcoming listeners to Game Scoop!, highlighting that despite a slower news week, the show promises engaging discussions about the games they're currently playing. Nick Limone and Mark Medina join Damon in the studio, with Sam Claiborne attempting to connect remotely due to internet issues.

Damon Hadfield:
"We do have a great show for you, even though it's another slow, slow news week."
[02:08]

IGN’s New Podcast Network Announcement:
Damon shares exciting news about IGN Entertainment launching the new podcast network, Geek Media. This network consolidates favorite IGN shows and partnerships, promising new shows, live events, and scripted series.

Damon Hadfield:
"With that, let's dive into what we've been playing recently."
[02:24]

Current Games Under Discussion

Timestamp: [03:31] - [33:11]

Avowed

Timestamp: [03:31] - [14:44]

The hosts delve into Avowed, discussing its recent wide release. Damon shares his initial impressions after a few hours of gameplay, describing it as a well-put-together RPG that feels familiar without being revolutionary.

Damon Hadfield:
"It seems fun. It seems like a good, pretty, you know, they're like It's a RPG of which I've played a lot similar games in the past."
[04:05]

Nick Limone expresses strong enthusiasm for Avowed, praising its combat mechanics and the blend of traditional fantasy elements with unconventional weapons like pistols and rifles.

Nick Limone:
"The combat is so fun. And you get the blend of weapons that you don't traditionally see in these fantasy games."
[04:12]

The discussion highlights the game's immersive mechanics, including the lore integration and character interactions, which Nick finds particularly engaging. Damon mentions minor reservations about the game's writing and world-building compared to titles like Mass Effect 2.

Damon Hadfield:
"From the premise, the world building, the writing, the voice acting, it's not on the level of like a Mass Effect 2 for me."
[15:59]

Elden Ring: Night Rain

Timestamp: [21:39] - [33:11]

Sam Claiborne and Mark Medina share their experiences with the network test for Elden Ring: Night Rain. They discuss the challenges of playing with random players, noting that the multiplayer experience felt disjointed and stressful, contrasting with their usual enjoyment of the Elden Ring universe.

Sam Claiborne:
"It was a miserable experience playing with Randos."
[22:34]

Nick Limone echoes the sentiment, highlighting issues with communication and coordination during multiplayer sessions.

Nick Limone:
"I felt that the kind of multiplayer experience wasn't ideal because I had...My team failed."
[24:12]

Despite these challenges, they commend the game’s class-based character choices and combat system, appreciating the strategic depth and variety it offers.

Sam Claiborne:
"One thing that sticks out to me that I truly enjoy about this is the class based character choice."
[26:00]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Timestamp: [29:10] - [35:56]

Nick Limone provides an in-depth review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, praising its historical accuracy and immersive simulation aspects. He highlights the game’s meticulous crafting system, realistic character interactions, and the demanding nature of its gameplay, which requires players to manage various mundane tasks alongside combat.

Nick Limone:
"This is nitty gritty. This is a deep dive. This is like dishonored Deus Ex turned up to like 42."
[31:53]

Mark Medina discusses the game’s pacing and its departure from traditional RPG systems, expressing interest in the developers’ commitment to historical authenticity despite personal reservations about the combat focus.

Mark Medina:
"Everything but the combat sounds really cool about this game. It's the only thing kind of holding me back."
[34:51]

Listener Interaction and 20 Questions

Timestamp: [68:12] - [84:57]

Video Game 20 Questions: Ron from Louisville, Kentucky, suggests Golden Sun for the Game Boy Advance, sparking a lively guessing game among the hosts. After a series of questions and hints, Nick Limone correctly identifies Golden Sun as the suggested game.

Nick Limone:
"Golden sun is literally the first RPG I bought for the GBA. I'm so stupid."
[81:38]

Damon Hadfield:
"That's why we're back to Game Scoop."
[84:57]

First Games and Gaming Nostalgia

Timestamp: [41:05] - [67:17]

The hosts reminisce about the first games that made them gamers:

• Nick Limone cites Chrono Trigger and Super Mario World as pivotal games that sparked his passion for RPGs.

  Nick Limone:
  "Your mom walks in, she opens the curtains and just wake up Chrono."
  [43:45]

• Mark Medina reminisces about playing arcade classics like Pole Position and Zork on the Commodore 64, and later becoming obsessed with Super Mario Brothers 2 and other Nintendo titles.

  Mark Medina:
  "I played Pole Position and I played Donkey Kong and Congo Bongo and, you know, Space Invader, stuff like that on that Commodore 64."
  [45:22]

• Damon Hadfield shares his experience with the original Super Mario Brothers and later titles on the Atari 2600, emphasizing how these games were integral to his identity as a gamer.

  Damon Hadfield:
  "The first game you ever played is also the game that made you a gamer."
  [43:41]

• Sam Claiborne reflects on witnessing Super Mario World for the first time at daycare and later enjoying titles like Banjo Kazooie and various Final Fantasy games, which solidified his love for RPGs.

  Sam Claiborne:
  "Final Fantasy and I just was happy that I knew where to go in those games."
  [51:03]

Retro Gaming and Developer Insights

Timestamp: [56:14] - [84:57]

Discussion extends to retro gaming experiences and lesser-known titles. The hosts explore the legacy of developers like Camelot, known for Golden Sun and the Shining Force series, and reflect on the evolution of RPG mechanics over time.

Nick Limone:
"Golden sun rocks. This game, the Overworld Navigation is cool."
[82:04]

Mark Medina:
"Square Enix seems to have forgotten this and Einhander. They've never re-released Einhander."
[52:35]

Closing Remarks and Promotions

Timestamp: [84:57] - [90:39]

As the episode nears its end, the hosts briefly mention upcoming content and interact with each other humorously. Damon promotes future episodes and encourages listener engagement through email submissions.

Damon Hadfield:
"Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the address game scoop.com."
[84:39]

Notable Quotes

• Nick Limone on Avowed's Combat:
  "The combat is so fun. And you get the blend of weapons that you don't traditionally see in these fantasy games."
  [04:12]

• Damon Hadfield on First Game Impact:
  "The first game you ever played is also the game that made you a gamer."
  [43:41]

• Sam Claiborne on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Depth:
  "This is the closest you will get to time traveling back to, you know, 15th, 16th century Bohemia."
  [30:14]

• Mark Medina on Golden Sun:
  "Golden sun rocks."
  [82:04]

---

Conclusion

In this episode of Game Scoop!, the hosts delve deep into their gaming experiences, reflecting on both contemporary titles like Avowed, Elden Ring: Night Rain, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, as well as nostalgic classics that shaped their identities as gamers. Listener interactions add a personal touch, culminating in a fun and engaging 20 Questions segment. Despite navigating through multiple advertisements, the core content remains rich with insights, debates, and shared gaming passion, staying true to Game Scoop!’s reputation as a beloved video game podcast.

Transcript

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Damon Hadfield]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host Damon Hadfield and this week I'm joined in studio by Nick Limone.

[Nick Limone]

I'M back, baby.

[Damon Hadfield]

And Mark Medina joins us.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm here. Damon. Three person show.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, Sam might join us in a little bit. We'll see. Sam is supposed to be here but he's having Internet issues. He has someone at his place working on it right now. So he's gonna ping me and figure sort it out and we'll bring him on. But as of right now at the start of the show, it's a three person show this week and it's gotta. We do have a great show for you, even though it's another slow, slow news week, as we would say. But we gotta talk about the games we're playing. Avowed, Elden, Ring, Night Rain. I know Nick's playing some Kingdom Come, Deliverance two people have been wanting us to talk about that, but I haven't played that one yet. So finally get to discuss a little bit about that. And then we have a good question from one of our listeners as a good thought starter. But first, before we dive into this week's episode of gamescoop, we've got some exciting news over at IGN Entertainment. We've just launched a brand new podcast network called Geek Media. This new network brings together all your favorite shows from IGN Entertainment and our partners. So in addition to IGN Podcasts, you also get DF direct from Digital Foundry, outside Xbox's Oxventure D and D and others. This is just the beginning. In the coming months, you'll hear a lot more about Geek, including the launch of new shows, live events, and even some unique scripted series. And note for our viewers and listeners out there, nothing is changing for you. You'll still be getting all your favorite shows every week the same way you get them now. They're just under a new umbrella network called Geek Media. So stay tuned. There's a lot more to look forward to. And with that, let's dive into what we've been playing recently. Should we start? You've been playing a lot of Avowed. Should we start with Avowed or Night Rain? Night Rain.

[Nick Limone]

Let's go. Avowed. I feel like it's the talk of the town right now.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is it the talk of the town? I feel like it's very quiet.

[Nick Limone]

Well, I guess it is contemporary. It released recently?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, out this week for its wide release. I played a couple hours last night. I played the opening section when you're on the island up to where you leave the island to. Okay, so I did that and I think it seems okay. It seems fun. It seems like a good, pretty, you know, they're like It's a RPG of which I've played a lot similar games in the past. I don't think from my, from what I've played, I don't think it's doing anything particularly revolutionary or ambitious, but it seems like a put well put together RPG that I will continue to play. What do you think?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I, I think that's a pretty fair assessment for me. I, I'm really loving it. Uh, I, I was not a, a huge fan of the Outer Worlds from Obsidian, even though I, I love Obsidian dearly. I love all their RPG stuff. I'm also a huge fan of Pentiment, and this is actually my first foray into the world of Avowed. I believe it's called like Aura or something like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

But yeah, I know what pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are. So when they said that Avowed was a game set and that I was like, oh man, do. Am I gonna jump in and not really knowing what's happening? It's all fine. You don't need to play pillars of Eternity 1 or 2. I think they do a fantastic job of kind of telling you what you need to know about it. And if you want to dig more into the lore and the mythos of the series, it's all present there in a very clever and intuitive like, lore button, which again, every game needs a lore button if that's a thing. I'm a big lore bomb boy, so I need that sort of stuff. But immediately I knew I was in love with Avowed. Literally the moment it lets you touch the controller and move. Because the second you grab stuff, the way you move around, I was just like, oh, this feels, this feels right.

[Damon Hadfield]

I would say it feels good. And I like the combat.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, the combat is so fun. And you get the blend of weapons that you don't traditionally see in these fantasy games. From pistols, giant rifles, you know, you got your standard stuff. Using a wand in first person is just like, oh, that's, yeah, duh, of course that makes sense. But it's just, it all comes together to make the combat feel very refreshing. Everything feels, feels good when you hit it. And just, just a big, big fan of, of the game so far. I'm probably about six hours in. So far. I finished the first major quest where you go have to find a missing person and you, you uncover them. And that's when I think the kind of inciting incident really happens in the game where you're like, okay, I understand what this game is going to be. And again, the game has the game features Kai, who is voiced by, I forget, I don't know the voice actor's name, but previously voiced Garrus From Mass Effect 2. Who's My Homie for life.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

So I'd say this is an instant win in my book.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, you see much more positive on it than I was. But of course you played a lot more than I, than I have.

[Nick Limone]

So I also, I tend to love fantasy a little bit more in my games consumption than I do like my movie consumption. I just love swinging a sword. I love magic. I love, I love that nonsense.

[Damon Hadfield]

I would say what, what do you. Go ahead, Mark.

[Sam Claiborne]

I was just going to say like what weapons are. Did you end up using? Like, have you settled on something?

[Damon Hadfield]

I haven't settled yet because you know they let you try out all the different weapons on that, on that starting island area and it's very generous with.

[Nick Limone]

The amount of like weapons you use. But for me, like, I love the ability to hot swap between weapons on the fly, just like your weapon setup. But I'm sword and board for my like up close and personal. I haven't really played around with the spear yet, but I am curious but I think my favorite combo is a pistol with a spell book. It's just, it's just so wild to have a pistol and also fling spells, both in the same like dual wielding setup. It's just so strange to me. But I love it.

[Sam Claiborne]

So yeah, I've seen a lot of that. I was using the grimoire and the wand and I've seen on social media everyone's like, I'm using a pistol and a spell book. I'm like, okay, that's fine.

[Damon Hadfield]

So give me some live game help. Mark, would you recommend like should I, should I have a shield always? Like, should I be blocking? Because like you're saying you can do, you can do spells and, and epistol.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean you could, you could dodge if you want. You could just dual wield and, and dual wielding is really fun. You can, you can get like a sword and a, and a, a dagger and just kind of go that way. I, I do that quite a bit. But I, I'm also, I don't know, I'm more of a magic guy. I'm, I really, I'm with Nick. Like, well, I'm with both of you to be honest. Like I, I do think it is kind of just like fantas game, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that, I guess. But also the combat is really, really fun and so Any drawbacks I have where I'm just like, oh, you can't steal, you can't kill NPCs. Do my choices really matter? I'm like, it's fine because when I fight things it's really fun. And that's, that's, that's what's like kind of most important to me.

[Nick Limone]

It's, it's very focused in that regard. I think one thing I was hoping this wasn't was a Skyrim. Like you know, there is something so, I don't know, artificial to me about Skyrim's like all of its systems which I think that the game is very good, don't get me wrong. But combat never felt particularly great in something like Skyrim. And I feel like everything is just a series of well, did person see you? Did you succeed in sneak. Okay, fine. I feel like there's a lot more RPG based choices in something like Aoud where when you put points in a different like ability trees or not ability trees but your statistics or whatever, you know, your might, your constitution, your resolve, those have direct impacts on your conversations. And I think that's where a lot of Obsidian stuff truly shines. I haven't made any like gigantic moral decisions or like the game hasn't posed any outstanding questions to me the way the opening planet does in outer worlds too where you have to decide whether or not you want to union bust the local union or like side with the a corporation. Which I think is an incredible like set piece for that game. But I, I am really just enjoying a lot of the interpersonal relationship stuff that's happening here. And if I may, I feel like this game is being treated a little bit unfairly. One people are like, oh, it's just, you know, it's a fantasy thing. We've seen this before and it's like, no you haven't. You haven't seen a fantasy world that looks like this at all. Unless you played Pillars of Eternity one or two. I think people are a little bit off put. This is my hypothesis. You feel free to call me a, you know, a loco person.

[Damon Hadfield]

Loco.

[Nick Limone]

But what my theory is that people treat fantasy. If, if it is not under the umbrella of Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy world that I'm roughly familiar with, you know, you got your dragons, you got your gnomes, you got your orcs and.

[Damon Hadfield]

Stuff like Lord of the Rings, then.

[Nick Limone]

People tend to be a little bit more off put by it. Because this game is bright, it is vibrant, high saturation, lots of contrast and like your character is a God. Touched. Who is, like, full. Like, their face is just overgrown with, like, barnacles. And.

[Mark Medina]

And, well, my.

[Damon Hadfield]

I turned all that off.

[Sam Claiborne]

I turned it on.

[Nick Limone]

But everyone reacts to you, whether you have it on or.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't want to see it. I want to have a cute character because. Because they're like, your face is awful. And I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm gorgeous.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I just love a game that leans into showing me something that you haven't really seen before, where it's like, normally that would be the monster in the game, but it's like, no, this is my character. This is just how these characters look. And I think that's cool. The game is very evocative of, like, late 70s, early 80s. Like, fantasy. Dime. Like, dime. I'm sorry, like, 99 cents. Like, fantasy novels that, you know, have been forgotten and lost to time. That you can feel the felt poster that this was inspired by.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we are now joined by Sam Claiborne.

[Mark Medina]

So, Damon, I've actually been here the whole time, but I wasn't interrupting Mark, so you couldn't tell.

[Sam Claiborne]

You should have waited for me to talk and then said that.

[Mark Medina]

I just figured you were already talking. You're always talking.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

No, I was doing all the talking that time.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nick and Mark were.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's gushing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nick and Mark were saying they're going to have to tally up who got the most comments on this episode, because I don't think they've been on an episode together before. At least not in a long time.

[Nick Limone]

No matter who wins, they lose.

[Mark Medina]

After this episode, you're going to have to see who gets the most comments. You're saying this is a competition now?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, yeah, because every. We're live right now, right? I want this to be on the air every episode that I'm on. A lot of the comments are like, mark rules. Nick sucks.

[Nick Limone]

I don't remember those. What the heck?

[Sam Claiborne]

But then. But then I'm like, okay, does anybody miss me when I'm not here? And so I clicked into a Nick episode, and everyone's like, nick is the best. I love Nick. And so now we're together. I don't know. I don't know how the audience is going to handle it.

[Nick Limone]

They're gaslighting both of us.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, because me and Nick offlined about this once because we've talked about this, and I was like, nick, obviously, me and you should just start our own podcast, me and you. And I was like, except for that. The first comment is going to Be like, this is fine, but without Damon to play off of, both kind of suck. So we're just back to game, Scoob.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I like having both of you on the show.

[Nick Limone]

Thank you, Damon.

[Damon Hadfield]

Anyway, Sam, we're talking about Avowed. I played last night. I played the opening island area where you get the boat and leave the island. Yeah, that's. That's what I blame. And I was just saying that, you.

[Mark Medina]

Know, and my advice was to just get through that as fast as possible.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

To you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Before you play, when you're being interrupted by kids coming out of the bedroom who want water, who have to go potty, who can't find their binky, you. It takes a little bit longer than now.

[Mark Medina]

You know how Mark feels on podcasts.

[Sam Claiborne]

We get through the Avowed opening.

[Nick Limone]

What did you do with your prisoner?

[Damon Hadfield]

I let her out.

[Nick Limone]

You let her out?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Just because I think we talked about that last week and it sounded like something good happens later on, I think.

[Nick Limone]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. That's the first time where it's revealed to you that people are gonna have funny looking faces in this game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. But like I was saying, I turned all that off because I want to. I want to have just a cute.

[Mark Medina]

No, no, no, no. I mean. I mean, the prisoner.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just.

[Mark Medina]

Just a normal ass human looks really weird.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's true.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's true. So, Sam, my first impression is that it seems perfectly good, but maybe not exceptional. And I. We all agree the combat is super fun. Nick is really into it. He had a theory that people are turned off by the. The.

[Nick Limone]

It's. It's unusual fantasy for a lot of.

[Damon Hadfield]

People because it's not D or Lord of the Rings.

[Nick Limone]

It's so brightly colored. Your main character's covered in, like, mushrooms and tree bark and whatnot. And I think that's weird for people, but I kind of dig it.

[Damon Hadfield]

I. I really.

[Mark Medina]

I heard you. I heard that segment, so. And again, I've been here the whole time, but I haven't really. But I did hear that segment, and I. I'm right in the middle. I think there's. There's new stuff, and that's not. I like the new stuff. I want there to be new stuff. And obviously it's about spores, which are in a lot of games right now, by the way. Mushrooms are kind of everywhere. But I do think that, you know, it has. The fantasy tropes are there. It's not different enough for me. Like, it's like, what. What. What do you get at the start of the game? You're either going to be a sword, a hammer, an axe, a bow and arrow or a book.

[Nick Limone]

But what about the gun?

[Mark Medina]

Like it's not.

[Nick Limone]

You got a gun.

[Damon Hadfield]

Not, not in that opening area.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, true.

[Mark Medina]

Look at this lady. Look at this lady. But yeah, you know, you do have a blue cat guy with you, so hey, that's different. And then everybody has mushrooms on their faces and I appreciate that he has elves. Right? And yes, that's true. But yeah, you know, I don't know. Like it's, it's not. I don't. It wasn't for me, it wasn't too far off from fantasy, from what I expected. And I, and I'm comfortable with this universe. Like it was. That's not the issues I have with the game. In fact, I don't really have issues with the game. My issue is that like, I like the game now that I'm past the part that Dan's in.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, I think the hesitation for me is just that from the premise to. From just what I've experienced. Again, the premise, the world building, the writing, the voice acting, it's not on the level of like a Mass Effect too for me or even like some of the better Fallouts Fallout games, so.

[Mark Medina]

But remember when there was one of these games like every couple months there was like a giant. Yeah, not a giant necessarily, but seems.

[Damon Hadfield]

Like open world game, like a very 360 era game. Which is kind of, you know, definitely kind of nice to read it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think that I've heard some talk. Sorry, go ahead, Nick.

[Nick Limone]

No, I was just gonna say I think that I'm. I'm. I will admit fully upfront that I tend to be a sucker for just settings that once I'm into a setting then I need to know everything about it. That's the lore nerd inside of me. But I have like. Oh, once I'm done with this game, I'm just going to play pillars of Eternity 1 and 2. So well done. You did your job.

[Mark Medina]

Game nice.

[Sam Claiborne]

I. I've heard talk about like, about exactly what you're saying, like Obsidian being, you know, more of a AA studio. This game scope being a little bit smaller than what you would find in stuff like Skyrim, but like one, one very big pro to that is out of Worlds came out in 2019. This game came out in 2025 and Outer Worlds 2 is already coming out in 2025. So if you're going to compare it to something like Fallout and Skyrim, you know Skyrim, When Elder Scrolls 6 was announced, Skyrim was, you know, however, years old. Six years old. Maybe it has now been longer. The gap has now been longer to now for how long it's been since that game has been announced. And. And then when we get it, who knows when then we'll eventually get Fallout 5 when we're all. And it's like, well, I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

If you heard the rumors, Mark, but like there. Since the beginning of, you know, recorded history about, you know, I don't know, 11, 000 years until the time that Skyrim came out. We might be passing that before the next Elder Scrolls, probably so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Because they.

[Mark Medina]

They could have hit that midpoint.

[Sam Claiborne]

They just poked their heads up about some sort of like, NPC composition for Elder Scrolls 6. And this is the image they used an image from 2018. I was like, are you kidding me? And it's like, I get it. A whole space game game came out before then. But it's like, I kind of like this, like, double A. Like here's. It's not Skyrim, but it's a little bit smaller. But we can make them faster. That's their whole thing with romance. Even though this game does have this weird, like, you can romance Kai, it just adds to the endings. But it's like, I. I kind of like that they're just like, romance is too complicated. We're not going to worry about it. That's. That's not what we're here to do. We're here to do, like, smaller double A adventures. I would rather have to kill some lizards.

[Mark Medina]

That's what this game is about. Kill some lizards.

[Sam Claiborne]

I would rather have more of those than to wait a decade in between my Fallout and Skyrims.

[Mark Medina]

Hey, did you. You're both further than me. Did you ever use stealth again after they taught it to you?

[Damon Hadfield]

I was going to ask how common.

[Nick Limone]

How much I'm going to use. I think that the, like, the we God touched ability where you, like, do ton of damage. I think it looks cool.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it does look cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

But I. I'm unclear on like, what happens once you have different weapons and stuff with it because I stopped using it. I only realized it in this conversation.

[Sam Claiborne]

If you had a wand, you would still do it.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Do you want people in the back?

[Sam Claiborne]

You can. I don't. I just said I don't do stealth.

[Damon Hadfield]

How's that work?

[Nick Limone]

I use guns and they do a lot of damage. What is. What is. What is a gun if not a wand that shoots bullets?

[Mark Medina]

Well, what's the. What's the Stealth gun.

[Nick Limone]

No, you just, you get this jump.

[Sam Claiborne]

Off the wheel, you, you shoot him in the back.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. You use it like a sniper, right?

[Mark Medina]

Oh, okay.

[Nick Limone]

A stealth gun is a sniper.

[Mark Medina]

But no, no. Yeah, but so you, whenever you walk up behind somebody, you don't use your primary weapon. You're still using some kind of dagger or something like that.

[Nick Limone]

Well, the, you activate the God touched ability where it, you channel like a orb of light around your hand and then you like reach into their soul.

[Sam Claiborne]

And like so long it's misleading because the game, because you're holding a dagger at that time, it makes it look like you're using your dagger and you're not. You're using that ability and that, that's always what it will be.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, I got really excited. I was really hoping you were walking up to people with a book and just swatting them in the back of the head.

[Nick Limone]

You just closed.

[Sam Claiborne]

Making them read.

[Nick Limone]

Close each end on them.

[Mark Medina]

Close it.

[Nick Limone]

I do have one tiny complaint about the game as far as I know and I'm gonna definitely get corrected right now. I don't think you can sheath your weapons by yourself with the touch of a button. What?

[Damon Hadfield]

I couldn't figure it out.

[Nick Limone]

So how do you do it?

[Sam Claiborne]

So, so trying. Oh, sorry. Why is your to switch if you hold. Yes, okay.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, I will, I will give that a shot. I'm playing mouse and keyboard so I'll report back.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, you push parentheses.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I, I actually do like the two stance combat system because I'm just playing a character that's completely different. Like, like one is a, you know, like a, a sword stands, another is magic and like I use them both and I think that's, that's pretty great. I wish other games would do that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's got that skyrimness where it's like you can make these like really cool hybrid classes because you can put your points wherever you want. It asks you at first like do you want to be a ranger or do you want to be a fighter? That's just your first point. You can just put points wherever you want. It's great.

[Nick Limone]

And you can respect at any time.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. About is fun. I'm going to, I'm going to. That's what I will play for the time being until maybe like Assassin's Creed comes out.

[Mark Medina]

I think you're going to like it once you start clearing out that first area and you're like, whoa, this is, you know, there's just a lot to do and it's enjoyable and like I'm happy that there's three more areas after this. Like, it. It has a, it has a loop and a hook.

[Damon Hadfield]

Cool. But what of Elden Ring, Night Rain, which. The network test that we played. So you liked it a lot.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Mark, you already. You did. You, you played our preview.

[Sam Claiborne]

I played the preview, but I, I did also play last weekend. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. Yeah, well, I, I, I spent some time with it. Not for me, I don't think, but that's with the caveat that, you know, it's a, It's a test. It's not, it's not a demo or it's just, like, it's for them to test. So there's not a lot of onboarding for the player, I don't think. No, you know, what am I doing? I love Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, but here I dive into this world with Randos that I don't know, and then, okay, we all, we're all running around somewhere. Okay, here's some monsters. Let's kill them. Okay, I got some loot. I don't know what that is. Okay, where do we go next? I don't know. I'll just follow you guys. Okay, here's some more monsters. Okay, they're dead. Okay, what do we do next? Oh, there's some blue fire coming our way. Oh, run away from that. Oh, I got burned up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

That's basically my experience.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's basically my experience.

[Sam Claiborne]

When I played at the preview event, it's like, obviously I was always with people. They don't let you play alone. Like, staff will jump in. But the first half of the weekend, they disabled the multiplayer passwords, so you had to play with Randos. And I felt that it was a miserable experience playing with Randos. And that's the kind of stuff that I'm like, I wrote this whole preview, and I'm like, this game's great. And it's like. But that's the issue sometimes with preview events is I don't get to. Sometimes you don't get to play as the player would play. And I probably would have added that caveat that it's, it's quite miserable. By yourself. I did not have fun.

[Nick Limone]

I really enjoy playing by myself.

[Damon Hadfield]

See, I see how you could play. I didn't know that was an option.

[Nick Limone]

So I take that back. I didn't play by myself. I played with my mic off with other players, but just doing your own thing. They didn't talk to me. I didn't talk to them. That's My ideal multiplayer experience, as far as I'm concerned. And honestly, when you do that, it just feels like, yeah, that feels like a soulsborne, esque multiplayer where I don't get to communicate with these people. They vaguely run in a direction, I figure out. So my, my playthrough experience wasn't ideal because I had. I went away for the weekend for Valentine's Day, and then I realized that the Night Rain network test was happening. So in the back of my mind again, I. I was. We had a wonderful time on our Valentine's getaway.

[Sam Claiborne]

Terrifying.

[Nick Limone]

In the back of my mind, I'm like, I mean, I might get back in time for one Night Rain session.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, can we get the check?

[Nick Limone]

So, and it was also my brother's birthday, so it was a double whamm. I only got to enjoy one hour of the Night Rain experience. I loaded into the game twice. My first experience loading in, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew roughly what to expect. But I made it to day three before, like, my team was clearly like, oh, this guy doesn't know how to play, but he's carrying his weight. Where I messed up was I did not know how to activate my ultimate ability because that is just not a button configuration that you ever press in Elden Ring proper. So I was like, I don't understand how this works. I don't know what they do. And that's ultimately why my team failed. So apologies if you. If you paired up with me and you're watching this. But my second time through, I figured out because I was shouting at my phone like, Siri, how do I activate my ultimate ability while I'm like navigating, I'm looking at the clock, Everything's ticking down. Extra stressful. But no, I really. One thing that sticks out to me that I truly enjoy about this is the class based character choice. I love that all the classes play very differently and classes that I didn't think I would enjoy. The, you know, the, the winged Guardian. I did not think I would like playing as that. And I really loved his ultimate ability that you. You fly up and you kind of dive down and clear out an area. Or his wind ability where you kind of reduce. Whatever, like effects. Area of effect stuff is happening. And one character I didn't even get to play was the. The sword guy who has a grapple hook. I didn't know that. If I knew that he had a grapple hook, I would have chosen him immediately because he just looks like a Sekiro character combined with A Dark Souls character, which is awesome. But tldr I had a great time. It's very stressful. Usually I like to chill in these games, kind of walk around and explore. You don't really get to do that in this, which is a little bit of a bummer.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Time is your biggest enemy.

[Damon Hadfield]

And I understand by design that's not what the game is. I can't really expect it to be something else. But just. It just, it's. This just is not what I'm really looking forward to do with my evening when I'm playing games.

[Nick Limone]

It's kind of wild to be like you want to unwind with one of the most stressful things you can do.

[Sam Claiborne]

For 20 minutes and you have to have friends. Yeah, I. The last session the multiplayer was working again and I got to play with my friends on headset night. Good stuff.

[Damon Hadfield]

Good stuff. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

How is the kind of party forming matchmaking side? Because they would have had to make that from scratch, obviously. Because Elden Ring doesn't have that.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, it's actually exactly like Elden Rings. You. You set a multiplayer password and then you queue up and anybody who's using that multiplayer password will then get grouped with you. Which is exactly how it works in Elden Ring. And you could set it where it's awesome. Yeah, you could set it where it's like. Because you have to play with three people. Either one person or three people. There's. There's no two. And so you could be like multiplayer password for two people. And then it'll. It'll make it where it's like you and your friend and then the third person will just be a random person. So it works well when it works. But it's like. Yeah, the tech test, a lot of people were saying like, oh, it was a shit show. And it's like, that's the point.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's what it's for.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's exactly what it was. Like this wasn't a pre order, like.

[Damon Hadfield]

Not a beta signed up.

[Sam Claiborne]

Everybody got in and it's like it was supposed to be a mess. Now they know. But are there emotes? Yeah, there is.

[Mark Medina]

Are there dances?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, not yet.

[Nick Limone]

Not that we know of. Who knows?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, maybe it'll get super live servicey and you'll start doing like.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean there are only three classes and I think there's supposed to be eight in the final game, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, four classes.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, four class. Yeah, four classes in the preview and then. Yeah, I think eight sounds about route. One thing that Was a little surprising to me though is it looked like some of the classes might be hidden behind the deluxe edition of the game, which I'm like, that's weird.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, no.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's a bit strange to me. But maybe. Maybe I'm mistaken.

[Mark Medina]

That'd be a bummer. They did that with Spider man costumes. What about, what about bosses? Are they recycled? Are they new? Like, did you recognize everything in the game? Basically as like reused assets, like Majora's mask style.

[Nick Limone]

I think 95 of it is recycled, but I think I saw some new stuff as well. Like I think the main. The. The Night Lord boss that was present in this one. I don't remember that being in Elden Ring, but again, it's been a minute since I've played Elden Ring.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, you're talking about the Day three boss. The like Cerberus guy. Yeah, I. Him I didn't recognize, but somebody will be like, that was from a Dark Souls too.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. It also takes. It takes a lot of stuff from previous dark souls. 1, 2, 3. Like I remember seeing the. The Nameless King From Dark Souls 3, who's the optional, like, super boss in that game. So I was like, oh, that's kind of exciting. It feels like a silly little like multiverse battle royale in the Soulsborne universe.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Excuse me.

[Damon Hadfield]

And what of Kingdom Come Deliverance two?

[Nick Limone]

I'm digging it. Yeah, I'm digging it.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm on this plane.

[Nick Limone]

I think I'm a big sucker for. So Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is historical RPG slash immersive sim that is all about immersion, like to a painstaking detail. It is not for everyone. Sorry, I have a terrible. There we go. It is not for everyone. I think that there's a lot there and it is a gigantic game with a staggering amount of things to do with some incredible quest lines. Something that I was like, oh, wow, this is some truly next level next generation RPG ass video game. But when you need to, you know, grind different ingredients that you find that you pick from a flower field, grind them, simmer them in a mortal mortar and pestle, and cook them for a specific amount of time using your. Your little hourglass in order to save, that's how you save a little crazy. I kind of love it. I dig it. It does save at key points in the game automatically, but you do need to craft savior snaps in order to save whenever you want. And it is a pretty involved process where you just straight up are doing like alchemy and you are, you know, sitting in a Mortar in front of a mortar pestle, you're pouring wine in, you're boiling it over a fire, you're finding your ingredients, you're looking at a cookbook. You're not just selecting from a pre selected menu. Here you are doing everything. People. If you get dirty, if you get bloody, you get muddy, you start to get smelly, people won't talk to you, they will treat you differently. So you have to wash up at different locations scattered throughout the map. Just very involved. I think it is the closest you will get to time traveling back to, you know, 15th, 16th century Bohemia and get to experience what life is like as a blacksmith turned knights errant turned knight. It is very comprehensive and you can tell that the people at Warhorse Studio truly do care about historical authenticity. And whether or not is for you, that's for you is kind of the, the, the deal breaker. I think for a lot of people. I'm going to commit to this because I think it is a staggering achievement in rpg. Like it's. It's funny that these, this came out just before about because about is a very streamlined version of what we come to expect from RPGs like this. Whereas this is the polar opposite. This is nitty gritty. This is a deep dive. This is like dishonored Deus Ex turned up to like 42. It is, it is beyond comprehensive and I really, really dig that about it.

[Damon Hadfield]

And tell us about what is the combat like because I know very different, but Val is very fast paced.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, the combat is very different. I played KCD1 before I played KCD2 because I like to see, you know, what kind of improvements that they make on stuff like that. And it's very similar to KCD1 where you are choosing directions to swing from. So you kind of are presented with like a radial dial when you are in combat. And you can choose to swing from the right, the left up, or kind of a low blow where you kick people and that's also how you kind of block. So think the Star wars arcade game where you are holding a lightsaber in different directions. That is both how you parry and also how you attack. And one gigantic improvement is the combat from the first game. Because the first game you could target individual legs. You can go for a low blow, left or right arm. They've pared that down a little bit to be what is it, 1, 2, 3, 4 options and I'm sure more unlock. But I think paring it down has, is a nice, is the most streamlining that I think this game does is it reduced the amount of attack opportunities from six to four. But I think that's helped improve the combat pacing and makes it so that when you fight multiple people, it isn't an absolute nightmare the way it is in the original game.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's almost like I played the like first few hours of it. I don't mean this in a bad way at all, but it almost kind of feels like a VR game when you're doing the combat because like a doodle run up and it's like in a vowed right, you know, you go up, you'll start slashing a guy and like maybe he'll look at you, but you're not really like locked in unless you target them. In this game, if you see a guy, you'll kind of like. It's almost like the camera will then focus and you'll be locked in with this guy. So then if you're fighting multiple guys, you have to kind of switch between them. You're not just like, you know, slashing a sword. It's like a very like, okay, me and you are are 1v1ing and it's like. But sometimes you do have to fight more than one guy, so you'll kind of have to like switch over. Now you're one v1ing that guy. And it, it what are the tells.

[Mark Medina]

To know what stances to change and.

[Nick Limone]

How to react you? The game kind of helps kind of guide you roughly like, okay, this person's about to swing. You kind of learn to read body language as well where like oh, this person's clearly gonna swing from the right because they're holding their weapon on the right side and so on. But you can get kind of juked by enemies if they are like high skill level enough. And that's kind of what you need to do to them in order to get the advantage.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's also very like, like managing stamina and stuff like that as well. Because it's like if you're just like swinging, you'll run out of stamina quick and he does the. And it'll go like blurry. And so you kind of got to back off a bit. You can kind of dodge around, but that also uses stamina.

[Nick Limone]

So it's much.

[Sam Claiborne]

You have to choose your blows, you have to wait your turn and stuff like that.

[Damon Hadfield]

It sounds interesting. It sounds like something I should check out at some point. Sam, are you ever going to check out Kingdom Come? Deliverance two?

[Mark Medina]

I mean, honestly, everything but the combat sounds really cool about this game. It's the only thing kind of holding me back. So I hope it's not too focused on that. I it looks great. I love medieval settings like this. I mean I, I think it's, it looks really pretty and I hope it looks good on console, but I, I hear it's playable on Steam Deck, so it's like, yeah, it's definitely a game that's, that's in within the circle of games I'm interested in playing.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it looks great on console.

[Nick Limone]

And for the Lore heads, there is Lore AKA actual real history. Yeah, real that the game provides. Like real. It gives you a lot of context for things that you are seeing or experiencing and why they are the way they are. Like it's just a history lesson on this is why peasants do this. And it's like, oh, okay, time to turn a little bit about serfdom and whatnot. Cool.

[Mark Medina]

It is funny that like, you know, there's all this focus on realism, but then a big part of it is magic potions.

[Nick Limone]

These aren't magic potions though. They, they are straight up like, I mean they just have a gameplay mechanic.

[Mark Medina]

Just because it takes a long time to make and they. Yeah, they still have a gameplay mechanic. Right?

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Nick Limone]

I mostly use it to just scroll.

[Damon Hadfield]

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[Justin]

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[Damon Hadfield]

Let'S check in with the listeners. Someone has to say it. Mark, will you say hey listeners. Thank you.

[Nick Limone]

Let me do it like let me see if I can channel my inner Justin.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Hey listeners.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's pretty good.

[Sam Claiborne]

He usually sounds good.

[Damon Hadfield]

That was good under his breath a little bit. Listeners and viewers, remember you can always reach us at the email address game scoop.com Just like Tommy G did. And Tommy says recently I received some rad news. I'm going to be a sorry. Recently I received some rad news. I'm going to be a grandpa. Raising kids was the most fun I've had and it looks like I'll be moving into the cool grandpa era of my life now. I have a while to think about the appropriate fit for her will be as far as gaming goes. But I would like to know what the Scoop crew's first video games played were or maybe the game that solidified you as a gamer. The first game I ever played, this is Tommy G. Was Popeye on nes back around 87 but the first one that grabbed me was the Legend of Zelda a year or two later. I've been hooked since. I feel Popeye is a pretty good candidate for video game 20 questions. I don't know if anyone remembers if Sam remembers Popeye was video game 20 questions. Pick back in 2017 you and Justin and Brian Altano got it right. You guessed it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. When they're licensed games on the NES it's kind of fun because we can there's just a lot of movie and TV based games so you can find them pretty quickly.

[Damon Hadfield]

I had this game on NES2. I played it a whole lot.

[Mark Medina]

Great game Nick. Not necessarily great on nes but not bad on nes.

[Damon Hadfield]

First game you ever played? First game you remember playing.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. So if you can believe it or not it's got to be a tie between one of these two because truly they both stand out as like I just remember coming to one day and remembering existence and I had a super Nintendo controller in my hand and it was either Super Mario World or Chrono Trigger.

[Damon Hadfield]

The first game you ever played.

[Nick Limone]

I think it was Chrono Trigger because I have two older brothers and my oldest brother has a very whose birthday it was during my night the night Ring network test. He he I think helped instill a lot of my game taste that I, I enjoy to this day. He was a big RPG boy and so Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, and Super Mario World were the games that I remember being, like, in constant rotation. And I find myself fascinated by them. Like, I love their. The way they looked. I love the way they sounded. I had no idea what I was looking at or what even I was doing. I didn't know how to read at the time, so I had to be like four or something. But I just remember always playing new game because since I couldn't read, I didn't know how to load my game or whatever. And I just remember thinking, like, this is great. You just do the same thing over and over, exactly what my son does. You start at the beginning, but I'm pretty sure it's Chrono Trigger. And I just always remember the setup of that game where you have that, you know, Mode 7 look at the overworld, and you hear the leans bell music, the do, do, do, do, do. Your mom walks in, she opens the curtains and just wake up Chrono. And it's like, oh, I got to go to the fair today. And that will always be one of my most. Like, my favorite moment in a video game is just you wake up and your mom wakes you up in your bed, and she says, all right, time to get out of bed, you lazy bum. Go to enjoy the fair. And then adventures and hijinks ensue. And, yeah, just. I don't need to sing the praises of Chrono Trigger, literally one of the greatest games ever made. But the music of Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda, I've just, like, permeated my childhood, along with, you know, Akira Toriyama, Yuji Horii's art that would go on and be like, oh, wait, this looks like Dragon Ball. What's going on with that? And it's like, this being a very formative game that connected a lot of ideas in my head as a young, young man. And now I'm. Now I am who I am.

[Damon Hadfield]

So, yeah, the first game that you played is also the game that made you a gamer.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, 100%. When I played Chrono Sugar, I was like, I don't know what this is, but I want to always do this.

[Damon Hadfield]

Very, very cool. Sam. First game you remember playing.

[Mark Medina]

So I. So my going to my grandparents in south St. Louis, my grandfather was, like, always like a super technologically advanced grandpa. He. He worked in the nuclear plant and like Homer Simpson. Oh, wow. But built ham radios and built their first television and stuff like that. He was just super into that type of stuff. So he always had really great PCs going back to when they weren't called PCs. So he had a Commodore 128, which was basically a 64. And what he had was all his friends would make him floppy disk copies of big lists of games. You load what the disk is loading, dollar sign Kamel1 and then it would bring up this list and it would be all the arcade games that were ported to the Congress. 64. Now, this is in the late 80s, so, like, this is not when arcade games were like. I didn't play these games in the arcade, but I played Pole Position and I played Donkey Kong and Congo Bongo and, you know, Space Invader, stuff like that on that converse 64. And there's so many of those floppy disks that I played a ton of them. Like, and I think this, like, Pole Position is like. I really remember this. Well, it was all in, like, a. An Atari joystick, right? Like a single joystick with a button. So, yeah, it was that type of stuff. He also had Zork, which was really, really amazing. And definitely I, you know, my favorite game of that era. And I remember, like, a friend having, like, this was before NES was popular, or at least before it existed. Maybe I can't. I don't know what exact year. So I remember playing, like, somebody taking out their old atari and playing Ms. Pac man on that. And it was pretty bad. Mainly it was Commodore 64 that was around in 128. And I remember this. So definitely remember Pole Position and then the cut to just a few years later. I mean, the Nintendo was such a force culturally, it was unavoidable. I would say that a formative memory about really connecting to games and wanting to be, you know, playing them all the time, thinking about them, would have been Super Mario Brothers 2. I mean, I love Super Mario Brothers 1. It was a huge deal. It changed my entire outlook on, you know, life. But. But when 2 came out, Nintendo Power, kind of like the first issue, Nintendo Power like, kind of went around and at my elementary school, like, kids had it. I didn't. I didn't have it. And I remember like, sitting like, on the playground and like, looking at the levels from the side before this game came out and like, being like, wow, these are incredible. And drawing the characters and drawing the levels and like, just being obsessed with Mario in Mario 2. So you can imagine, like, that carry into Mario 3, like, I loved everything. Captain N and cartoons and everything that we're on. And, you know, it was just really like that, that square Mega man through Kid Icarus, Nintendo Generation, stuff like, that's. I was like, completely steeped in that.

[Nick Limone]

That rocks. That's really cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. That is awesome.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it was good times. And Damon, I'm sure yours is. That part of it is very similar. I think we. Our rental stores are probably identical.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, well, yeah. And I was going to say I was surprised to hear that Atari ported Pole Position to the Commodore 64, but I either didn't realize or had forgotten that Namco actually made Pole Position.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I think. And Dig Dug. I remember playing on. Speaking of Namco, that was always on those. A lot of those might not have been official. I mean, there were definitely illegal. Illegal copies. I don't know if they were cracked or if they were official or what, but they were just like. They're a pretty good arcade emulation.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

You know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, Mark, first game you remember playing?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. So let's see. When I was five years old, I lived in Iowa, and we were touring daycare centers because that was when I was in kindergarten. And I. I think. I think kindergarten would still be like this, but. But when I was in kindergarten, it was only half days, and I assume it's still like that. Okay. So. So then, like most kids, I would then have to go to a daycare after. And so I lived in Des Moines, and there was a daycare right next to my school, Joaquin Elementary. And I remember they were touring it and I saw Mario World for the first time, man. And that's the first thing I, like, remember, like, as far as video games go, was seeing Mario World. And then it was like my dad was like, okay, we're gonna go, you know, torrid and stuff like that. So you. You can. You can just kind of hang out. And I remember playing it, and that's kind of all I remember, like. So I. I can. I can like, fairly certain lock in that that was the first game I ever played. And it's great because it's one of my favorite games of all time now. But I ended up not going to that daycare. And we went to another one, and they only had a regular Nintendo. And I remember playing Mario on that and being like, this looks different, but not knowing really why, because I didn't understand. Like, one's a Super Nintendo, one's a regular Nintendo. So Mario World would be that. But, you know, when I was growing up, we got stuff like a Nintendo 64 and stuff like that. So I would play Mario Kart, and we never had Mario 64, which is crazy to think now considering I love that game so much, but we had Banjo Kazooie and I remember loving the heck out of that game. But I would say my taste in games very quickly changed when I got a PS1 and the Final Fantasy 7 through 9, Legend of Dragoon Bravest Brave Fencer Musashi. That was when I was like, yeah, video games rule and this is all I want to do forever. And that's that tasting games followed me through adulthood. Right? It was like everybody, you know, everybody. There's Brave Fencer Musashi right there. Everybody loves, you know, all kinds of games, right? But it's like the Japanese RPGs is where I spent a lot of my time. My first console that was mine was a PS2 and I got, you know, Xenosaga and, and Final Fantasy 10. Final C10. Still my favorite Final Fantasy of all time. But yeah, that style of RPG especially just like Squaresoft, Square Enix style RPGs. That's, that's when I was just like video games are really, really like, they're not just like games where you're running around collecting puzzle pieces. Like the, this is like complicated stuff. But I never, back then I didn't really think about the complexities of it all. It was just Final Fantasy. And I just was happy that I knew where to go in those games. I remember playing final C7 for the first time and being like, what the heck? Like you don't attack. You just tell this dude to attack. Why would anybody play this? Like that's, this seems so lame. And then you get past that first the, the, the core reactor in, in, in finality 7. And by then you got it and you're like, never mind. This is, this rules. This game looks great.

[Mark Medina]

I've never seen.

[Damon Hadfield]

This game is great. This is Brave Musashi.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's good.

[Nick Limone]

Brave, Brave Fencer Musashi is so good.

[Sam Claiborne]

This game was popularized because it, I, I, I want to say it was on three discs, but the fourth disc was a demo for Final Fantasy 8. And so I think a lot of people went and got it just so they could.

[Mark Medina]

So it's a Square Enix game or.

[Damon Hadfield]

A square game, I guess this was a full time for Square Enix. They were trying to break out of their jrpg, you know, wow. Try to make something new. So they had a pair of games. They had this and then they had Einhander, which is legit, one of the best shmups ever made. And it was made by Square Enix. No experience. So that was a cool time.

[Mark Medina]

Ah, the graphics are awesome. In this game, it just looks like super fun. So it's just like in kind of an action.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, like what, what's cool about it is like right now you're seeing it. It's kind of a side scroller, but it changes when you're in a town. It's full 3D with a moving camera. And then it's like. It's like it starts. If you played the demo, like it starts with you like leaving a tower. And that is. You're like spinning around the tower. But it's 2D. It just always changes. And it's great. You have two swords, Fusion and Lumen. Or it might be Luminous, I don't remember. And yeah, you just go out and it's. Man, I love this game. It's really, really cool when people also know what I'm talking about.

[Mark Medina]

Players not putting a dent in the Queen anthem here.

[Nick Limone]

It still holds up. I played. I replayed this semi recently and man, it's still very good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

But yeah, I never see this. I mean, maybe I missed it, but I've never seen this as part of a collection or as like part of a reissue that's easy to play somewhere.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's like. It was weird. They kind of. Square Enix seems to have forgotten this. And Einhander. They've never re released. Einhander.

[Mark Medina]

If there's those two, it would be so cool to get like, you know, a Final Fantasy 1 through 6 type collection. But for like the weird square 90s games. That'd be so awesome.

[Nick Limone]

The Square Anthology disc series. That'd be.

[Mark Medina]

We'll call. We'll call Digital Eclipse.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was just gonna say let's get Digital Eclipse on that.

[Sam Claiborne]

That would be so fun that. That brings up that whole argument of like, square was the best when they were soft and not Enix. You know, that's, that's, that's just. That's when. That's when they got me. You know what I'm saying? Like squares. The Square soft era.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, there's something.

[Sam Claiborne]

Before that, they were just square.

[Damon Hadfield]

Something to be said for that. So for me, the game, I would say that like made me a gamer is something I talked about recently. It'd be the original Super Mario Brothers. Just because, like I was going to arcades and then when I went to my. My grandpa took me to Showbiz Pizza one time and they had a Super Mario Brothers cabinet there and there was like a line of people to play it.

[Mark Medina]

Wow.

[Damon Hadfield]

And when I finally played it, like, I. I could tell it was Something special, something different. And then when I, you know, one day I'm just watching cartoons at home and I see a commercial for the nes, which the big selling point is it can play Super Mario Brothers exactly like it is in the arcade. So I had to get that. And I got it for Christmas the first year it was available nationwide, which I think 86. And I was a pretty early adopter. I got it before I got the enies, before anyone else that I knew. And so I kind of like, did.

[Mark Medina]

You have a Rob? Did it come with Rob?

[Damon Hadfield]

I had the Rob. So I had the package that came with Rob. And then Duck Hunt and Gyro. And then I got Super Mario Brothers separately.

[Mark Medina]

Wow. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then I kind of like became known in school as like, the guy who, like, knows a lot about Nintendo. So it was like when other kids started getting their Nintendo's, they would, like, they'd call me and say, what's that code for extra lives on Contra? And it just. They really sort of became part of my identity. So, yeah, I have to say it was the original Super Mario Brothers that did that for me. But as for the first game I ever played, it's hard to say because arcade machines were everywhere back then. They were. They were ubiquitous. They were at the. The grocery store and the. The pizza joint and the Mexican joint, and they were at the airport. I would have. I. As a kid, like, there was never a time that arcade machines weren't just everywhere. So I don't. I mean, I don't know. I. I can remember playing, you know, of course, Pac man, but also stuff like Commando. And there's a. A Taito game where, like a spinning dial before Ikari Warriors. Frontline. I remember playing that one.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, Frontline.

[Damon Hadfield]

But before we had our NES, we also had an Atari 2600. So really, the, like, the game that I probably actually spent any amount of time with and got to know was probably something on the Atari 2600, like the Defender for it or Combat, because we had Combat on there. It'd be one of those Atari 2600 games. We had Raiders of the Lost Ark, we had Pitfall, something like that also.

[Mark Medina]

You're right. I bet my parents would have set me down at like a Donkey Kong.

[Damon Hadfield]

Machine at some point, but I don't.

[Mark Medina]

I don't recall it. Yeah. As a formative memory.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I would have been 3, 4, 5, who knows?

[Nick Limone]

Same. Same deal. For me, that just evokes like, I would never want to go out to eat with my parents because I just wanted to play, like, you know, Final Fantasy or something and then be like, well, we're going to go to the Mexican restaurant. And then in my head, that's just like, oh, they have an SNK cabinet there. I can play Metal Slug 3. Hell, yeah. And so just like, dude, that. That. Shout out to all the Mexican restaurants in California that have SNK cabinets. You're changing lives.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right. That was a fun topic. Extracurricular activities. Sam, did you see Captain Brave New World?

[Mark Medina]

I did.

[Damon Hadfield]

What'd you think? I don't think any of us. The rest of us have not seen it.

[Mark Medina]

You know, I like a lot of the worst Marvel things, but I was really down on Secret Invasion. I didn't really like Echo too much, so it's like. It's been on a downturn, but I like some of the other stuff.

[Sam Claiborne]

Stuff.

[Mark Medina]

This. This is a pretty meh movie. It has a. You know, like, they spend a lot of time talking about bringing back the Avengers, so, like, they're trying to, like, set up, you know, Avengery things and everything. But, you know, ultimately, the. The movie, it's just a lot of talking about that, and then the. The actual plot points are exactly what you think they are. And, you know, there's not. There's not a lot of surprises or anything like that. You remember, a couple things set in the Captain America universe are, like, have Captain America characters in it. So it's kind of funny where you, like, have these. These. These, you know, cameos to come in, stuff like that. But this movie is about the Hulk characters even more. And I've never even seen that movie, the one with Ed Norton.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

And, like, there's, like, big plot points about. I mean, Harrison Ford is a. Is an actor that's playing a different. A role that was in that movie, that it wasn't him in it. Liv Tyler was in that movie. She's talked about. Is she in this movie, like, kind of shown. It's hard to tell. I mean, I don't know how to answer that. Like, they. They have her, like, through a foggy window at one point. It's really weird. It's. It's very strange.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, you said she was like, a voice on the phone or something.

[Mark Medina]

She's a voice on the phone for a little while. Yeah. It's not. And that's not like a big, like, spoiler plot point. They just. They just have her in the whole movie, but they don't show her for some reason. It's just a. It's just a strange thing anyway. Yeah. And then there's characters from Captain America and what's it called? The TV show.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah. Falcon and Falcon and Winter Soldier.

[Mark Medina]

Yes, yes. So they have those characters in it too. So it's like. It's like this weird, you know, tie up of a bunch of Captain America things and Hulk things and so like, I just, you know, it's just strange. It's just a strange feeling now. Like, what does it set up? Like, basically it's setting up like, you know, the end of this. This weird Covid tinged like years of TV shows, Marvel stuff, you know, it's just really strange. Yeah, it's not particularly. Well, like, you know, you're not like hooked into the plot, like the fighting and CG and stuff. Like it's not gonna. It's not. It's not super exciting. Like, I. I enjoyed that. What people say is a terrible Ant man movie more. But I like the anime movie just because it's like, you know, it's Paul Rudd set where I live. It's funny sometimes. Like this movie doesn't have humor, you know, it doesn't have any of that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, I heard. I heard it does.

[Mark Medina]

Weird, man.

[Damon Hadfield]

The Marvel humor, like, problem. Like every scene has to be like punctuated with like a quip or something.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Weed and is.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. This felt. I mean, eternals is kind of like this where it's just like, whoa, what are we doing? But yeah, you know, it does. It does try to do. It does feel. I mean, weirdly, this is how I felt about the first Captain America movie. Like, you watch that movie. Like back then I was like, why? Why would I watch a movie about Captain America? This is ridiculous now. It's really cool. It has all this context and you look back like what The MCU used to be so good. Like, no, it wasn't that first Thor movie. It's awful and. But I love them. I love them like, I love going back and watching them now all in a row. But like when you saw those at the time, it's like when Hawkeye shows up in Thor, you're like, who is this goof? He's dressed so silly and he's shooting arrows. Like all that stuff felt really strange at the time. And this kind of goes back to that where it's like, like, these are. These are, you know, kind of feels feel like C tier characters in a movie. I watched the new Spider man cartoon and it was good. I like that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Your friendly neighborhood Spider Man.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it was fun. They shuffle a bunch of things about Spidey's origin and they have a bunch of Marvel cameos in them. Like they're not shy to just throw in characters in that show, which is cool. Feels like those old 90s cartoons. What was your question?

[Nick Limone]

In the Captain America movie, do they go to Japan? I just saw a bunch of cherry blossoms.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, it's so corny. Yeah, there's like not a spoiler. There's just an ongoing theme of Harrison Ford's character's fond memories with his daughter, which is Liv Tyler of. Of Walk Like Walking through Cherry Blossom. So it's kind of like in the. The Superman, Batman, Martha stuff. Why are they using this as like a theme? You know, ever as well. He's like, don't you remember the cherry blossoms? It happens over and over. It doesn't work at all.

[Nick Limone]

I'm just dying to know if Harrison Ford's Red Hulk character is a fan of Squaresoft or Square Enix.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

If he's got taste, know.

[Mark Medina]

It's a strange one. Thunderbolts looks even weirder though. Like, what are we doing?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it does look weird.

[Damon Hadfield]

The only thing that would.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm banking every.

[Damon Hadfield]

What's that?

[Sam Claiborne]

I think we're about to say the same thing. Like I'm banking everything on Fantastic Four to bring me back to the mcu.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was going to say the only thing that get me into a theater to see an MCU movie is if everyone I know has already seen it and they all say it's amazing. Otherwise. Yeah, otherwise. No, no.

[Mark Medina]

Well, I like. I mean, Deadpool, Wolverine I thought was a great theater watch.

[Damon Hadfield]

That was. That was a great theater watch.

[Mark Medina]

I was going to. I always go to Alamo for this stuff too. So it's like, does it really matter? You're getting like a great lunch. You're getting booze. Like, it's just fun.

[Nick Limone]

It's a good experience.

[Mark Medina]

It's a fun theater going experience.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

And like it depends on how like you can drink more or less based on. So that's. And you know, they're pre featurettes and stuff for fun. But yeah, check out that Spider man thing. Check out paradise also. That's a really cool show on TV right now.

[Damon Hadfield]

Paradise is on Hulu. I've seen the first episode and it's very good. I recommend Script Nation. Watch it and try not to read anything about it. Just, just watch it.

[Mark Medina]

Don't ask Justin anything. Don't ask, don't talk to Justin.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm not even going to tell you anything about the premise or anything. You should just watch It. One more question, I think scoop facts.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, Good.

[Damon Hadfield]

One more question about Captain America. Giancarlo Esposito is in it. Nobody's talking about him at all.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, it's. Yeah, he's very reduced. You know, there's like this. This pattern in these movies of a kind of, like, there's an intro villain and set up, and, like, there's kind of this arc that happens to kind of introduce you to the action. That's kind of like what happens. He does show up a little bit against stuff, but, you know, there's. There's other villains in it. There's just, like. There's just other. Other. Other forces that are. That are messing with Captain America. So. Yeah, it's strange, you know, this movie's short, and I don't know what was cut out of it besides, like, probably Kang stuff, right. Of, you know, but, like, I don't know. There seems to be underdeveloped parts of it that are kind of played off as, like, intrigue and, like, you know, is this going to be a twist later? And it's not.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Mark, watching anything?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Paradise. I'm five episodes in. Sterling K. Brown is amazing. That's really all I want to say about the show. It really is. It's like if you watch a trailer, you're just kind of like, it looks great, but just watch it. It's really, really cool. Don't. Don't let anybody spoil anything for you. Just. Just give it a go. Also, we haven't really talked much about Severance.

[Damon Hadfield]

I haven't started. I just haven't started yet.

[Mark Medina]

Well, it's fun to go between those two weekly. Right now it covers at least two days of the week, but it's. It's good.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know, it looks like they should end about the same time. So that's. That's cool. We. We were just doing our, like, TV roadmap, and we're like, okay, we have paradise and Severance right now, and then those will end. And then everyone keeps saying that Silo's super cool. So.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, eventually.

[Sam Claiborne]

Go back and watch. Yeah, I've never watched it. And then. And then next, you know, it'll be Last of us.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's in April.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, there's a good road map right now. But, yeah, Severance is killing it so far this season. I think it's great.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. And White Lotus just started, too, which is fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

White Lotus started.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. So White Lotus. Yeah, I actually wanted to bring that.

[Nick Limone]

I watched Sunday coverage.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I watched episode already.

[Mark Medina]

Feels different as more of like kind of an action thriller start.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I love White Lotus so much, man.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

And. And SNL had their crazy three hour episode. You would watch that.

[Damon Hadfield]

I watched that. Yeah. Yeah, it was great.

[Nick Limone]

I watched the clips that and the concert were fun. Like the, the 50th anniversary concert series was fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I had to kind of quit out of that concert after a while.

[Nick Limone]

But the Lonely island, they did the medley. It was great.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, there was. There's some good highlights there. I, I recommend the document for sure.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I still need to check those out. But yeah, that episode was super fun. It was just like hard to believe they got that many people together.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

To do that show. Yeah, it was really, it was good.

[Mark Medina]

Walton Goggins British girlfriend is a very funny character in the new White Lotus. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

So, yeah, she's back to White Lotus. Yeah. Yeah. That's why they just showed her.

[Mark Medina]

That's why I said that I liked it.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't think it was. It's quite as strong a start as the first two seasons. It's lacking that character, like the hotel manager in season one who's just like, well, this character is great. I can't wait to spend, you know, every episode with this guy. It's kind of lacking that, you know, it's good. Parker Posey's great. She's always great. It's also this.

[Mark Medina]

It's got the floating body though.

[Damon Hadfield]

They do.

[Mark Medina]

Floating body. Hello, floating body there.

[Damon Hadfield]

And the show is just. It's so beautiful. Like it's so beautifully shot. It's crazy.

[Nick Limone]

Shot on location in Thailand.

[Mark Medina]

What a coup of a TV series career to settle on. And this guy wrote School of Rock, by the way. He's not always been doing stuff like this, so it's like, he's like, yeah, let's just set them in and you know, 10 star resorts, basically.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. I learned that they partnered with the Four Seasons Hotels to feature each like hotel. So you can't actually go to the, the White Lotus Hotel. It's just the Four Seasons, but oh.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's the Adams. It's the Adam Sandler method where it's just like every movie he does is just like where he feels like going on vacation.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then I have another. I have a new animation recommendation. So, you know, we're big fans of Scavengers Reign on this show. One of the creators of Scavengers Reign has a new animated series called Common side Effects and it's on Max and it's really good. And Sam in particular you gotta check this out. So great.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I can't wait.

[Damon Hadfield]

The premise is that that guy in the hat, he finds a mushroom that can cure anything. Cure anything. You eat it and whatever it is that's wrong with you is better. So the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies do not want this to get out there. So they're trying to find him. And he also re meets up with a girl that he knew in high school and they're sort of like kicking up a friendship, but she works for a pharmaceutical company. He doesn't know that. And she's trying to like maybe try and get him to bring it to the her company so she can get a raise. And then there are two DEA agents that are so great. They're so funny, so likable. It's great. Anyway, it's so good that I'm gonna stop watching it because it's coming out weekly and the episodes are really short. They're like 22 minutes long. So I'm just actually gonna wait and wait until the full episode.

[Mark Medina]

I think there are four not look like Scavengers Reign. There's some psychedelic stuff. There's some like, strange looking. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Isn't Mike Judge attached to it at this as well? I could have swore I saw something like that. But maybe I'm tripping.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

I think Mike Judge executive. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nothing looks like Scavenger's Reign.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What he did was he put in the big head mode code.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

And then walked away.

[Nick Limone]

It's a. The thing that stood out to me when I saw this, I was like, oh, this show looks interesting. Like just the. The visual style of. It's really cool. Love the art direction. You haven't really seen something that looks like this.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's very funny, very entertaining. Common side effects. I recommend that. Okay, great. That brings us to video game 20 questions. And I got a lot of suggestions this week for one game in particular.

[Nick Limone]

Interesting.

[Mark Medina]

What?

[Damon Hadfield]

Can Sam or Mark guess what that game might be? Multiple people recommended Kung Fu Master for Game Boy because. Oh, because we've mentioned that. Well now four episodes in a row, but I thought that would be too obvious to pick that one out. Since I said I hope we can work it into next show. But now it's been said four episodes in a row. So a mission accomplished suggestion this week comes from Ron, who is from Louisville, Kentucky. And Ron says, I have been listening to gamescoop for several years. I work at a bourbon distillery and I love listening to you guys while I'm Rolling barrels around like Donkey Kong. My suggestion.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, my God, that's the best job ever.

[Damon Hadfield]

My suggestion for 20 questions is redacted for the Redacted. One of my favorite games of all time, and I personally think one of the best redacted of all time. I think it's an interesting pick with Redacted having developed it, and with that, let the questioning begin with square soft shooter.

[Mark Medina]

Fill in the blanks.

[Nick Limone]

Is this made in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, no.

[Damon Hadfield]

Rephrase your question to ask if it was released.

[Nick Limone]

Was this. Okay. Was this released in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, okay. So it might have been worked on.

[Sam Claiborne]

So maybe like an early 2000s.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe like a 90s developed into 2000s release.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Was this game unreleased until very recently?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, I was gonna get Star Fox 2 and 3 questions. Oh, wouldn't that have been great? Yeah, it would have been great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this. Is this a PS2 GameCube Xbox era game?

[Damon Hadfield]

PS2? I guess. I guess. I guess it's that.

[Sam Claiborne]

I would say. I would say like 2000 to 2005.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's from that era.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, all right. All right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Questions in one.

[Nick Limone]

Now we're cooking.

[Mark Medina]

Was this published by Sony or Nintendo?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, okay.

[Mark Medina]

Is Nintendo.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is Nintendo. That's five.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. Nintendo developed early 2000s. So. GameCube.

[Sam Claiborne]

GameCube.

[Mark Medina]

No, I think it's a Game Boy advance game. That's why the. That last question was all tricky.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, cool. So is this a Game Boy advance game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

There we go. There we go.

[Nick Limone]

Is this.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Is this a platformer?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

Was this game developed by Nintendo?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, but. But published.

[Nick Limone]

Published by Nintendo. So could be like. Yeah, okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like Advanced Wars.

[Mark Medina]

There's three Zelda games that were developed by Capcom.

[Nick Limone]

Capcom.

[Sam Claiborne]

I learned that two scoops ago.

[Nick Limone]

Is this developed by a Japanese developer?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so this might be Capcom minish cap territory.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Is this a Zelda game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. That's 10.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so Japanese company published by Nintendo GBA.

[Mark Medina]

There's some. There's a mar. There's some Mario Parties that were made by other companies. There's one on jba. I don't remember its name. Mario Party. Something something.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's. Yeah. I have no idea. Not a platformer.

[Sam Claiborne]

Are any of the characters in this game on the Smash roster?

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know.

[Nick Limone]

Wait, that's not a yes or no.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

So I won't count it. I won't count it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Are the tanks from advance wars in.

[Mark Medina]

Smash Bros. Maybe it's the game and Watch collections. But he would know that Mr. Gaming watches them.

[Sam Claiborne]

Would you know that game and Watch is in smash? Not a question. Not a real question.

[Nick Limone]

Is this an rpg?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. All right, next.

[Sam Claiborne]

Thinking Fire Emblem.

[Mark Medina]

So is it like Baktai? Which. Which is the ones they probably was.

[Nick Limone]

Konami. Okay, there's.

[Mark Medina]

What is that? The daylight. The daylight one.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. The Hideo Kojima Dan light sensor.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Or I guess UV sensor.

[Mark Medina]

I don't think. I don't know if Nintendo.

[Nick Limone]

Nintendo did publish that. Yes. Let me see. I'm trying to see if I can.

[Mark Medina]

Well, that's not really an art.

[Nick Limone]

That's not really an rpg, though. That's more of a stealth game. A stealth action game. It's. It's basically Metal Gear with us. A light sensor. Is this feature Nintendo characters in it? No. Okay, so no Mario and Luigi RPG.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, yeah. Remember how BioWare made a Sonic game for Game Boy Advance? Maybe DS?

[Damon Hadfield]

That was for.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Dark Brotherhood or Dark Chronicles, something like that.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I think that was ds. What a. What a weird time.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. Okay. We're getting there. We're on our way. Let's see, there's Final Fantasy Tactics. There's, you know, Tactics, Ogre, Knights of Lotus. There's Fire Emblems.

[Mark Medina]

Advance. Advance wars type stuff.

[Nick Limone]

Advanced Wars.

[Mark Medina]

Fires Emblem.

[Nick Limone]

Could.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. What's.

[Nick Limone]

Could this be considered a strategy game? I know, it's. Okay, so it's not a. It's not a. It's not an Advanced Wars. It's not a Fire Emblem. So it is straight up an rpg. Oh, man. Well, how many questions we have.

[Damon Hadfield]

You've asked 13 questions.

[Nick Limone]

We've asked 13 questions. Is this developed by Squaresoft? No. Maybe it's Square Enix. I think they might have been Square Enix by this time. No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nick, what have you done?

[Nick Limone]

I should have said, is this made by Square rpg? Okay. This is. This is like. This should be my time to shine. And I'm dropping the ball thinking there's.

[Mark Medina]

A game that there's two. I'm still. So Bog Ties. Not an RPG for sure.

[Nick Limone]

Correct.

[Mark Medina]

There's a game that there might be two of them that I always confuse with Baktai. That's just a Straight up. It's not the world's ends with you. It's like, oh, gosh. I think there was one on GameCube also. Path.

[Nick Limone]

Path of Radiance, or that's Fire Emblem.

[Mark Medina]

That's. Yeah. Is there. There's something that's not Fire Emblem that. That I swear has, like a GameCube game and then there's also a GBA game, but I don't know. So a little bit.

[Nick Limone]

Do you play as a human in the game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes, that's 15.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. Human RPG still not getting anywhere.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's every RPG, Nick.

[Mark Medina]

What about like Mega Man Battle Networks type stuff?

[Nick Limone]

Or like that's.

[Mark Medina]

What else did Capcom do?

[Nick Limone]

Like mega. Yeah, I mean, we could just ask. I think we kind of named. There's also Breath of Fire too. I got GBA ports. There's a bunch of final fantasies. So I mean they probably weren't Squaresoft by then, so I kind of dropped the ball on that question. Is this game, Is this Nintendo to.

[Mark Medina]

Publish it is really strange though, right?

[Nick Limone]

Is this game a part of a franchise that's. Or an IP that's enjoyed to this day?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, hold on. You can enjoy things.

[Nick Limone]

Or is. Is this IP relevant today?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. So kind of an abandoned. Where?

[Nick Limone]

Abandoned rpg.

[Sam Claiborne]

So.

[Nick Limone]

Japanese developed Star. I'm like China.

[Mark Medina]

Did SEGA do stuff on the Game Boy Advance? Cuz they would have published that though.

[Nick Limone]

There's. There's Sega stuff on. On Nintendo on the G. But they.

[Mark Medina]

Would have published it. Nintendo wouldn't have published it. That's all they were at the time, a publisher. Right. I mean, I guess they would have. If they would have dealt Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, the Nintendo would have published it. Right.

[Nick Limone]

So there's that and I think there's a couple ports of like Sonic, but. But it's not a platformer.

[Mark Medina]

This is really interesting. And remember the letter writer, he says it's interesting because it's something developed by an unusual company.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

But it could just be. I mean we might not think of it as a developer that made this. We could think of this as just. It's a Nintendo rpg. So like what would that be?

[Nick Limone]

You know, is this game. I mean this, this does fly directly in the face of what you just asked Sam, but I. I feel like I need to ask for the sake of my sanity, is this Capcom or Konami developed?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Geez. Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Are there games that only came out in Japan at that time that like we just didn't really get here?

[Damon Hadfield]

Just as a side note, I would not pick a game that was not released here.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, okay. Not like Captain Rainbow, a real game from last week?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

It's irrelevant. Developed by a Japanese company rpg. Oh.

[Mark Medina]

Maybe there's like a cutesy element to it. Could it be a Draquay that was only on gba? Like the Dragon Quest slime dungeon crawler game?

[Nick Limone]

Possibly.

[Mark Medina]

What is that called?

[Nick Limone]

Rocket Slime Adventure?

[Mark Medina]

Or are we just missing the obvious here that it was game freak that developed it? It's just a Pokemon game, maybe.

[Nick Limone]

Well, it's not that I would say Pokemon's relevant, though.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Let's see. What can we do?

[Sam Claiborne]

But do you enjoy it to this day, Nick?

[Mark Medina]

Dragon Quest. Am I wrong about that? That there's a Dragon Quest, like, dungeon crawly type thing? I mean, I remember Rocket Slime. That was ds.

[Nick Limone]

That was ds. I don't. I can't. I think there had to have been some sort of the Joker, the Dragon Quest joke.

[Mark Medina]

What about Damie games like Danganronpa? Is that what it's called? Or.

[Nick Limone]

That's more. That's more visual.

[Mark Medina]

What about the ones where you.

[Nick Limone]

Sakura wars?

[Mark Medina]

Maybe? I'm thinking of something else. What's the game where you get to play as all the, you know, you. You. You play as the items in the game. The whole RPG series that Damon loves.

[Nick Limone]

You play as the items?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. I don't know anything about it. It's Damon's favorite RPG series.

[Nick Limone]

Do. Do you. What are we at? How many?

[Damon Hadfield]

You have two questions.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so there's that.

[Mark Medina]

There's. There's tons of RPGs. Like, there's also the one where you draw maps when you play their rpg.

[Nick Limone]

Like an Etrion Odyssey.

[Mark Medina]

Atrion Odyssey. Right. There's a Trian Odyssey.

[Nick Limone]

I don't think there was like any Sheeran the Wanderer type stuff, though, on the GBA or like the dungeon crawlers. Is. Is this a Davey game?

[Damon Hadfield]

It sounds like I would like this game, but I've never played it.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. All right.

[Damon Hadfield]

One question, one guess. Man, this is going to be one of those times a lot of listeners are going to be yelling at their phones.

[Mark Medina]

Damn. Okay, well, since they're all going to be there to comment on which they like better, Nick or Mark, one of you has to win this game.

[Nick Limone]

I'm not.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm no help, man. I didn't have a Game Boy advance, so I. I don't know any games that came out you can play.

[Mark Medina]

Pokemon's, like, the obvious prototype for this, right? Like, they. There's games that. That we just think of as Nintendo games, but that one obviously is not it, because for multiple reasons, it doesn't have characters in Smash or he doesn't know it has. If it has characters in Smashing it. Was there already a Final Fantasy? I mean, you said tactics.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I said tactics. There would be, like, final. There would be ports of Final Fantasy 5. 6 and yeah, 4 through 6. But it's not published by. It's not made by Squaresoft. But maybe it's because it's Square Enix. I mean, at this point, that game.

[Mark Medina]

That game, that's still a relevant series, too. That's what makes it so tough is that I don't think we've named or set. Settled on this game series or this game yet because I think it's.

[Nick Limone]

Maybe it's like meta box.

[Mark Medina]

I got. I got. I got it. Golden Sun. That's what I was trying to think of.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, my gosh. Is this. That's Camelot. Developed by Camelot, published by Nintendo.

[Mark Medina]

I was trying to think. I've had to mind palace. This one. I remember the cartridge in game stores.

[Nick Limone]

Camelot isn't Japanese, are they? Or. No, they are. Right? Because they made up the tennis games. The Mario Tennis games games.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah. I have no idea.

[Nick Limone]

Is this my best guess, Is this developed by Camelot?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Is this Golden Sun?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

No way.

[Nick Limone]

Golden sun is literally the first RPG I bought for the gba. I'm so stupid.

[Mark Medina]

Is there a sequel to this?

[Nick Limone]

There is. There's a Golden Sun 2.

[Mark Medina]

And there's a little collection out now.

[Nick Limone]

Well, and there's also a DS game called the Lost. Lost Age, I believe, but that's it. Dude.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I think I remember our, like some. The. The NBC crew lives like somebody in that.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Conversation about Rev loves Golden Sun. Yeah, I love Golden Sun. I'm an idiot.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, golden sun, developed by Camelot, who did all. Well, they did the Everybody's Golf series as well, and then did the Mario Golf games and Mario Tennis. But before that, they did Shining Forces 1 and 2.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, wow.

[Damon Hadfield]

And all the Shining Shining Force.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, okay, this is.

[Mark Medina]

Those look like this is that. Basically, this is kind of like a Shining Force.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, Shining Force is like a strategy rpg.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, it's strategy. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

This is one of those rare games that has like an option, like a dialogue choice that after a very long tutorial, if you accidentally select no where. Like, basically the Prophet is like, hey, do you take this adventure and you aren't paying attention? You accidentally hit no. It's like, are you sure? And you hit yes. It'll give you a game over and then you have to rewatch the entire intro. I love it when games do stuff like that, though. It's like unskippable. It's so silly, but I love it.

[Mark Medina]

That's a secret ending.

[Nick Limone]

The golden sun rocks. This game, the Overworld Navigation is cool. You collect these things called gins that you use to solve puzzles that are scattered throughout the map. And if you mix and match them, you get different abilities, both in combat, in overworld navigation. It's pretty interesting.

[Mark Medina]

So the reason I confuse this with Boktai is just because that they both have sun involved.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

All right. I knew that from the very start. It was like this is.

[Damon Hadfield]

It was question 13, Sam, when you knew what this game was and you're. Is it Path of Radiance you're trying.

[Mark Medina]

To get to like Radiance? Exactly, exactly. I had. It was all of these mental associations until I like saw. And the cartridge is boring too. It just says golden sun on it.

[Nick Limone]

It's a black cartridge. Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I also confused. I thought golden sun was the game that used the sun like Baktai does.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, no, this is literally the first I bought. I remember I bought the first video game console I bought with my own money was the clear purple GBA with a copy of golden sun because it was an rpg.

[Damon Hadfield]

Cool.

[Nick Limone]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Oh, and then the series I like, where you can go into every item in the game and. And grind through world is disga.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, see, see, that's the problem with 20 questions. When I'm on the spot, I can't ever think of games. But now if you tell me, oh yeah, the RPG series where you go into weapons. I was like, oh, yes, this guy. Of course I know it now.

[Mark Medina]

Damn. See, this is just stage fright. You'll get over it eventually.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Hey, we did, we won. That's all that matters.

[Damon Hadfield]

And it's always an exciting finish when you get it on the 20th question. So nicely job. So thank you for the suggestion, Ron in Louisville, Kentucky. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions.

[Mark Medina]

So what was Ron's? Hold on, what was Ron's? Fill in the blanks.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, you know them all. Golden sun for GBA.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

One of the best RPGs and interesting because developed.

[Nick Limone]

I can't because the tennis game maker made the rpg.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Sorry, go ahead.

[Damon Hadfield]

Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the address gamescoopgn.com and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. Maybe we should just set next week's cast right now because we've already got Sam and Nick lined up for next week. Mark, want to join us on Tuesday to do game scoop next week? Okay. We're going to get the Same four people again next week. Please be excited for that. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Mark. Thank you to Joburg and everyone working behind the scenes to make this episode possible in Taiyo. My name is Damon and Amir. This is Ajin Gamespoop. And we're out, ladies and gentlemen.

[Sam Claiborne]

What are you doing? What do you mean?

[Nick Limone]

Keep it simple.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm making the promo.

[Nick Limone]

Just keep it simple. Just say, hey, we're the Brav Bros. Two guys that talk about Bravo.

[Damon Hadfield]

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we're the Brav Bros. No. Ow.

[Nick Limone]

Dude, stop with the voice. Just keep it simple.

[Damon Hadfield]

I've seen promos on tv, dude. This is how you get the fans engaged.

[Nick Limone]

This is how you get listeners.

[Damon Hadfield]

We're trying to get listeners here. If we just say, oh, we're two dudes that talk about Bravo, people are get tired of it already. We need some oomph.

[Nick Limone]

All right, then, fine. Let's try to do it with your.

[Sam Claiborne]

Voice, Brav Bros. Good job.

[Damon Hadfield]

Hello, I am Kristen Russo.

[Mark Medina]

And I am Jenny Owen Youngs.

[Damon Hadfield]

We are the hosts of Buffering the Vampire Slayer. Once more with spoilers. A rewatch podcast covering all 144 episodes of. You guessed it, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[Mark Medina]

We are here to humbly invite you to join us for our fifth Buffy prom, which, if you can believe it, we are hosting at the actual Sunnydale High School. That's right. On April 4th and 5th, we will be descending upon the campus of Torrance High School, which was the filming location for Buffy's Sunnydale High, to dance the night away to 90s music in the iconic courtyard, to sip on punch right next to the Sunnydale High fountain, and to nerd out together in our prom best inside of the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[Damon Hadfield]

All information and tickets can be found at bufferingcast.com/prom. Come join us.