We Played Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Our Impressions) - Kinda Funny Games Daily 01.23.25

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Episode: We Played Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Our Impressions)
Release Date: January 23, 2025
Hosts: Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Tim Gettys, Blessing Adeoye Jr., alongside guests Barrett Courtney and others.

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1. Episode Overview

In this episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, the hosts delve deep into their recent experiences with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, discuss the disappointing news surrounding the cancellation of Earthblade by Extremely Okay Games, and analyze the underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veil Guard. Additionally, they touch upon various other industry news items, including Xbox Developer Direct highlights and updates from other game developers.

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2. Xbox Developer Direct Anticipation

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (01:52) and Greg Miller (02:16) express their excitement for the upcoming Xbox Developer Direct event. Blessing speculates about potential announcements, including the possibility of a new JRPG franchise, while Greg reminisces about the traditional E3 reveal excitement now transformed into more frequent, mini-reveals throughout the year. They emphasize their eagerness to discover new game announcements and innovations directly from developers.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (01:52): “I think there’s a question mark on there that people are saying could be some kind of like JRPG franchise...”

Greg Miller (02:16): “I'm super excited about that. So it’s good to get in here, have that vibe, have that energy to it.”

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3. In-Depth Review: Assassin’s Creed Shadows

The primary focus of the episode centers on the hosts' impressions after playing Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Joined by guest Barrett Courtney, an avid Assassin’s Creed fan, they dissect their experiences with the game’s narrative, gameplay mechanics, and overall execution.

a. Narrative and Setting

Barrett Courtney (10:32) highlights the game's setting in Feudal Japan, a long-requested environment by fans, drawing comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima. He appreciates the dual protagonist approach with Yasuke and Naoe, anticipating how their differing backgrounds will influence gameplay and story dynamics.

Barrett Courtney (10:32): “Feudal Japan has been something the fans have been asking for for a long time and that we're finally getting it, which is very exciting.”

Greg Miller (13:29) praises the game’s prologue for its engaging narrative, likening it to a samurai film, which sets a strong foundation for character development.

Greg Miller (13:29): “The prologue we played...was so engaging and so well done. It feels like a samurai film.”

b. Gameplay Mechanics

The hosts discuss the RPG elements introduced in Shadows, including distinct skill trees for each character and the ability to switch between protagonists during missions. They note that while the stealth mechanics remain true to classic Assassin’s Creed titles, the combat feels more robust and character-driven.

Barrett Courtney (19:37): “The combat feels fine. Yeah, it doesn't feel any different from...”

Greg Miller (28:03): “As somebody who loves being the assassin, how much I like being Yasuke...”

c. Criticisms and Concerns

Despite the positives, the hosts express concerns about the game’s pacing and mission design, particularly the abrupt jump to later levels without sufficient narrative buildup. Greg Miller (17:22) mentions feeling disconnected from the storyline due to this pacing.

Greg Miller (17:22): “It's Assassin's Creed. It was going and doing this thing and it was doing this thing...”

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (16:30) draws parallels to Rise of the Ronin, questioning whether Shadows will maintain narrative coherence or suffer from being "too interesting," potentially leading to a disjointed experience.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (16:30): “Sometimes you see games where it's like, this seems fresh and like different, but also kind of inspired.”

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4. Heartbreaking News: Cancellation of Earthblade

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the cancellation of Earthblade by Extremely Okay Games, the studio behind beloved titles like Celeste and Towerfall. The hosts read and react to the heartfelt cancellation announcement, highlighting the struggles the small development team faced.

Greg Miller (35:13) shares the detailed cancellation letter, explaining internal conflicts over IP rights and the immense pressure following Celeste's success. The letter emphasizes the decision to return to smaller-scale projects to regain creative joy.

Greg Miller (35:13): “We gave it all we've got and life goes on. We are happy to return to our roots and reclaim some joy in our creative process.”

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (39:30) reflects on the emotional impact of the cancellation, drawing analogies to a "sophomore slump" and applauding the team's decision to prioritize their well-being over a troubled project.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (39:30): “It's a junior jumble... They’re in a place where they're like, stop. This isn't working out.”

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5. Dragon Age: The Veil Guard’s Underperformance

The hosts analyze the disappointing sales figures for Dragon Age: The Veil Guard, which sold 1.5 million copies in its first two months, falling short of EA's expectations by nearly 50%. Rebecca Valentine from IGN reports on EA's revised fiscal outlook, attributing the slump to underperformance in both EA Sports and Dragon Age titles.

Rebecca Valentine (@ign.com) (43:06): “Dragon Age the Veil Guard has sold 1.5 million...”

Greg Miller (44:31) criticizes EA's lofty sales expectations, considering 1.5 million as respectable but insufficient for a giant like EA.

Greg Miller (44:31): “This game sold well at launch. 1.5 million. Nothing is, you know, poo poo.”

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6. Additional Industry News

a. Pocket Pair Ventures into Publishing

Ryan Dinsdale from IGN reports that Pocket Pair, known for Palworld, is expanding into the publishing sector to support new titles like Tales of Kinzera by Surgeon Studios. This move aims to provide financial backing and resources to studios facing challenges.

Ryan Dinsdale (@ign.com) (45:30): “Fueling new horror projects with fresh publishing support.”

b. Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3’s Platform Assurance

Addressing fan concerns, the producer clarifies that Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 will not be a PlayStation 6 exclusive, ensuring that the game remains accessible across multiple platforms.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (46:18): “Fans are wondering if this game is gonna be a PS6 exclusive. He was basically like, it’s not gonna be.”

c. WE News Updates

The hosts share lighter news from their WE News segment, including Kumail Nanjiani being cast in Fallout Season Two and the release date for the Pokémon Trading Card Game: Pocket Space Time Smackdown Expansion.

Blessing Adeoye Jr. (47:08): “I'm gonna unleash so many hourglasses, open up 10 packs at a time.”

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7. Closing Remarks

As the episode wraps up, the hosts briefly mention upcoming segments, including their live reactions to the Xbox Developer Direct and the post-show Gamescast where they plan to delve deeper into their opinions and additional news. They also thank their supporters and advertisers before signing off.

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Notable Quotes

• Greg Miller (13:29): “The prologue we played...was so engaging and so well done. It feels like a samurai film.”

• Barrett Courtney (10:32): “Feudal Japan has been something the fans have been asking for for a long time and that we're finally getting it.”

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. (39:30): “It's a junior jumble... They’re in a place where they're like, stop. This isn't working out.”

• Greg Miller (29:53): “I left this demo and I am not anxious for more.”

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Conclusion

This episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily offers a comprehensive look into the latest happenings in the gaming industry, from in-depth game reviews to significant company announcements. The hosts provide insightful analysis, personal reflections, and engage with notable guests to deliver a well-rounded discussion for gaming enthusiasts.

Transcript

[Greg Miller]

Shake, shake, shake. Sinora, shake it all the time. When you add a shake of Frank's Red Hot, you open a world of better. A world where wings bring out the flavor of game day any day. Where Buffalo chicken dip takes any party up a notch. And where any slice of pizza instantly becomes the world's best slice of pizza. At least until the next slice bring every bite to life with the perfect blend of flavor and heat. Frank's Red Hot. I put that shit on everything. Well, that's not right. Today in the nerdy news you need to know about, we've played Assassin's Creed Shadows, the Celeste, Dev's next game has been cancelled, and Dragon the Veil Guard didn't meet sales expectations. We'll have all this and more because this is kinda Funny Games Daily. What's up, everybody? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Thursday, January 23, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside Forbes 30 under 30, aka the okay Beast, aka Magic the Gathering. Poppy blessing at a. Oh, yay. Junior.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

My favorite thing is that I'm pretty sure Kevin was trying to catch you off guard. The cold open.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, cuz he.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

He hit the 3, 2, like out of like. Oh man. Like I'm. I'm trying to help you with your hair.

[Greg Miller]

I was like, does my hair look fine? You're like, yeah, you got one thing. He's like, three, two. Let's do it. Let's.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So I think he was trying to. He was trying to prove a point to us, but then he got himself.

[Greg Miller]

Forgot to press the.

[Barrett Courtney]

No, no.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's like all automated and for some reason the system connects to the thing.

[Barrett Courtney]

That controls the camera.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Didn't want to work, so I had to manually go and hit the button. It's working now. Hate to see.

[Greg Miller]

Hate to see. You don't want to see. Yeah, I don't like seeing that. How are we doing, Blessing?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm doing well. I'm excited for the Xbox developer, Underscore Direct. I don't have any, I guess, predictions because I know we already know the bulk of stuff they're going to talk about, but there is that question mark on there that people are saying could be some kind of like JRPG franchise, like a legendary GRPG franchise.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, they said something there, right? Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And what could that be? Who knows? But I'm excited to see what.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Are you excited? How are you feeling?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, of course. It's Xbox directs. I was thinking about this in the car ride in for so long when I started. You had to Wait for. Of course, E3. That was when you got the Christmas presents. That's when there was the big thing. That's when everybody revealed their new shit, blah, blah. So it was this huge build up to E3 and now we're so lucky. Even though we want to poo poo it all the time, be angry about it that there are so many mini Christmas, you know what I mean, where it is like, cool. For some reason today Xbox wants to talk about three or four games and then also the secret game, we don't fuck. Yeah, let's go. That'll be fun. This will be cool. I'm super excited about that. So it's good to get in here, have that vibe, have that energy to it. There's always a different energy. Of course, we're doing the show an hour early, so we can react at. Right at 10:00 to the Xbox Direct. So, yeah, there's a whole bunch of fun stuff happening on that regard. In that regard right as we're out here doing it. So, yeah, I'm stoked about it. I'm excited about it. Like, I'm not excited about it. Like, hey, we're gonna have this amazing thing, you know, that you've never seen before. You never heard. No, it's not gonna be that obviously. It's gonna be like, all right, cool. We're here about some cool games and it's gonna be fun. So it's like, all right. I'm not worried about that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think because of hype culture, right? Because of like us being about the headlines, being about the game announcements. I think oftentimes we underrate just developers talking about their video games and how enjoyable it can be to like hear people talk about the ins and outs of what makes their game work or what may or like what they're excited to reveal. What, like features that they have in their games that like they think is going to push it to the next level. Yeah, I really like the Annapurna showcases for that, for the ones that we've gotten for sure, the Inferno. But like, even though they're still around, but they're different. I got fired. It's. Never mind.

[Greg Miller]

They got a new team in there. Yeah, the old team left. Now they're over at private division. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, but they've taken over private division things.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Then laid off a bunch of people. It's weird. The whole thing is weird. Closed down.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But. But I really like those showcases for, hey, we're going to fly over to Portland.

[Greg Miller]

It's always.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's Always Portland.

[Kevin Coelho]

Always Portland.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We're going fly over and we're going to talk to these developers and like, have them talk. We might not even have a game. We're just going to watch, like, hear them talk about what their passions are.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I like pianos. I'm sure that's going to like, feed into this game that I'm making and I'm like, you know what? Cool. Yeah, I'm, I'm. I like hearing you talk about, like your creative process and all that. So I think that's going to be a lot of what this is. We're going to get some reveals. Reveals here and there. But think it is more about hearing about what developers have to say about their game, which I'm down for.

[Greg Miller]

Do you think you get a South of Midnight release date today? I'm saying take it to the bank. You do?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, you think so?

[Greg Miller]

I do. Paris was so adamant after going and playing it or I'm sorry, I think he did a hands off of watching it in Montreal that he was like, the game looks done. It looks done, blah, blah. The fact they're doing it, another one, another thing today of a double dip on it of like. Here's more from Compulsion Games. The fact that they were so adamant on social media about this is gonna be big. We're excited. I think that today you get a date for it and I say it's in the next three months.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Ooh, that'd be awesome. And I could see it. I think as Xbox, you gotta have something in the first half of the year, right?

[Greg Miller]

Well, I mean, okay, first off, that's fucking insulting to Avowed.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, here.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, you're fucking right around the corner side. And I refresh my inbox all the time. Fair enough. For Q2, I'll give you that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And so, like, I think, yeah, if we're talking about Avowed in February, a South of Midnight could fit well in like maybe April, maybe May, right around that period. Because we also know that you got Doom, the Dark Ages. You have Outer Worlds 2, which is slated, but we'll see if that really.

[Greg Miller]

Slated for 2025 or did they just say 2020?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But if the stars align and it does come out in 2025, it'll be very late 2025.

[Greg Miller]

Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So I think you need things to hit in that, like, middle period of the year. So south of Midnight I think would fit that very well.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I think it'll get in there nicely. And again, this gets back to what Matt Booty had Said wanting, you know, a tent pole or an Xbox exclusive. What, every month or every three months? I can never remember Chat. Don't think you're wrong. We just tell me what booty said over there. So, yeah, I'm excited for today. Again. Not like it isn't E3, like, in terms of like, I'm gonna expect the next unannounced Kojima game or whatever, but I'm excited to see what they are.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What are the. And I'm putting you on the spot. And I can look this up as I go. What are the games that we know slash developers that we know are gonna be there?

[Greg Miller]

South of Midnight for sure. Is it Doom? Are they doing Doom too? Doom as well? No. Is it? No. Yes. No.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I hope so because I'd be down to see some. Some Doom. Let's see. Here it is.

[Greg Miller]

Of Doom. Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm on an article that's already trying to. This is Ian Harris from four minutes ago.

[Greg Miller]

Sandfall, which I've never heard of.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't know.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, that's a developer. That's why I don't haven't heard of the game. Who's the other one? Oh, Expedition 33.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

People are very excited for. So we know Expedition 33. We know Doom, we know Compulsion. And then we have the question mark.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm excited about that.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Yeah. Expedition 33, especially where I think that one's got a lot to prove. Right. We know it's got a good cast. We've heard a little bit about it. But it's like, I don't. I don't feel like as the guy who just couldn't remember that it's part of this thing. Nor can I remember other than it's a Ben Star game what it's about.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Like, today's got to be a good day to be like, all right, here's what it is and why it matters and let's go.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's one that I'm very excited for. But I also have, like, you know, I. I'm nervous about in some regards of like, the kind of game it wants to be. And like, we'll talk about it when we get there. But I'm. It looks very interesting, but almost too interesting in a way where to interest.

[Greg Miller]

Sometimes the dreaded. Too interesting.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sometimes you see games where it's like, oh, this seems fresh and like different, but also kind of inspired.

[Greg Miller]

It is.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It is just a game. It's trying to be a JRPG slash Persona, but it has like, western development and like, I think there's a lot of promise there. But I'm also like I've seen this before where games, you know, get really creative and then you get too creative and like, oh man, this doesn't fit together. This doesn't work the way I want it to work. But we'll get there when we get there.

[Greg Miller]

We will get there when we get there. And we have a lot of getting there to get there too. Of course we only have 15 minutes with you before we start our pre show for the Xbox Direct. So let me remind you that this is Kinda Funny Games Daily. Each and every weekday on a variety of platforms, we run you through the nerdy video game news you need to know about live on YouTube.com kindafunnygames, Twitch TV, kindafunnungames and and podcast services around the globe. If you like that, we'd like you to pick up the Kind of Funny membership. Of course the Kind of Funny membership costs you $10. You support a small 11 person business. You get all of our shows ad free. You get the ability to watch our afternoon podcast lives record them you like. In today's Alien In Review you get your daily dose of Me Greg Way, which I didn't do in the car today because I was on a zoom call listening to about announcements about an unannounced game that we'll tell you about eventually. I will get to you though after Xbox of course if that wasn't enough for you, you can Support us with YouTube Super Chats. You can write in on YouTube.com kindafunnygames when we're live telling us your thoughts, your opinions and everything else under the day's news so you can be part of the show. Just like Connor Smith who says first time super chat for my favorite pod slash YouTube heart. Thank you very much, we appreciate that. Of course there's some housekeeping to get through today after Kinda Funny Games Daily. Like I said, you're getting our reaction to the Xbox Developer Direct. After the Xbox Developer Direct we we are doing a gamescast that will be the post show of the Direct Breaking it all down and eating pizza. Mark from Square Pie Guys is here to make pizzas in our parking lot once again because Square Pie Guys has brought back the Buffalo Chicken Pizza at their SF locations. And of course if you buy the SF Pizza from Square Pie Guys they make a contribution to our extra Life campaign for like five years in a row because they're amazing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Your thought? When Kevin does the smoke, it looks like both of us are passing gas at the same same Time. It's all coming out.

[Greg Miller]

No, I'm not a child. I'm not a child. Disgusting. And then after that, Mike is returning to Kingdom Hearts 2. If you're a kind of funny member, you'll get the Greg away from me later. And you can watch us do Alien in Review this afternoon. Of course, it'll be up tomorrow on YouTube and podcast services. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twining and Carl Jacobs. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays and Rocket Money. But we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin the show with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. Time for some new. We got seven items on the Roper Report.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, my God.

[Greg Miller]

Number one, ladies, gentlemen, doesn't work from that angle. We have played Assassin's Creed Shadows. When I say we, I mean myself, Greg Miller, number one Assassin's Creed Odyssey fan and the boss baby himself, Barrett Courtney, the holder of Assassin's Creed in review and ranked. Yes. Hi. How are you?

[Barrett Courtney]

Doing well, Greg, how are you?

[Greg Miller]

Good. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for coming out.

[Barrett Courtney]

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

[Greg Miller]

Have you on real content.

[Barrett Courtney]

It's weird to like, stand here. I feel powerful.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, Yeah, I like it.

[Greg Miller]

Push blessing around.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, don't know.

[Greg Miller]

Barrett. We played hours upon hours of Assassin's Creed last week.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yes, we did. We got to do a remote demo about four hours of Assassin's Creed Shadows. And it really hit me during that time of like, damn, it has been five years since Valhalla. Granted, it's been a couple of years since Mirage, right? Yeah. But like, it's been five years since we've gotten like this huge open world, Assassin's Creed type game. And honestly, at the end of it all, we're going to talk about it, maybe some of our ups and downs here, but at the end of it, I was like, I'm ready to get back into this, this world, this universe. You know, do a kind of simple yet satisfying Ubisoft open world checklist kind of thing. So, yeah, I had a really fun time with it. It is interesting thinking about Assassin's Creed Shadows today. Right. And that's more so within the context of where Ubisoft is as a company right now.

[Greg Miller]

They need a hit. They need a lot of things that go right.

[Barrett Courtney]

They need a big hit. It feels like they're playing, you know, they're. They're putting all their chips in on this one being a massive success. I feel like they're hoping that they're bringing in new people like Blessing at AOA junior Like Andy Cortez.

[Greg Miller]

I can't wait to think. I can't wait to hear if you think it'll actually do it. But yes.

[Barrett Courtney]

And my thing is like playing through it. It was like, yeah, this is another Assassin's Creed game.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

I think the setting is something that's been long overdue. Feudal Japan has been something the fans have been asking for for a long time and that we're finally getting it, which is very exciting. But I think along with that, in a post Ghost of Tsushima world, people are expecting, I think, this like big kind of either revolution or shake up of what Assassin's Creed is. And while there's definitely iterations in some of the gameplay, I don't think it's this big changing of what Assassin's Creed is. So I don't think it's going to grab people like a blessing at AOA Junior like an Andy Cortez. I am winning that bet 100% that like, y'all are going to play this for like 2 hours and be like, yeah, this is.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm gonna put that down, pick a valid back up and play more though.

[Barrett Courtney]

But for myself, someone who's a fan of Assassin's Creed. Right. I. I'm really into it and. And I think even though it definitely feels like the small little things that are being changed for this game, I'm excited.

[Greg Miller]

I'm.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'm gonna have a fun time. Will I remember it by the end of the year? Who knows? But at least at first glance, I had a good time.

[Greg Miller]

Blessing. Greg, I want you to have some says here. Okay. So you get to call it. Do you want me to start positively or negatively?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I want you to start positively.

[Greg Miller]

Positively. I thought the prologue we played no spoilers since it's narrative based. Right. Was so engaging and so well done. Where I was like, you know, the reason I think I love Odyssey so much is Cassandra is knowing her, is seeing her journey unfold and where it went. The way they told her tale to see Yasuke. And now a right. And how we start the game and see who they are, how we meet them, how we see them evolve. I was like, this is dope. And it feels like one of the notes I put down. Right. It feels like a samurai film, which I think is one of those things. Obviously there's going to be no end to the comparisons, but something Ghost of Tsushima got so right. I don't think they do it that well. Where visually and Everything else, it feels and looks like, but this was like, ooh, you've got the backbone here of a really good samurai film that I like, that I think is going to really kickstart this game for me and let me build these characters.

[Barrett Courtney]

The opening was very strong. Getting to kind of understand the context of where Yasuke and Naoe start in their journeys. I was really hooked by it and some of the kind of themes that, again, I don't want to spoil, but just Yasuke's introduction especially, I thought was very fascinating. I'm excited to see how. How they come together, how they team up, because we got to play the prologue, and then we skipped ahead. X amount.

[Greg Miller]

I don't want to. Yeah, I want to. When I'm still in my. Very much my. My. My heart. Eyes of the prologue. Right. I'm making all these notes, even though I don't want to say anything, because I don't. But then I go all caps. Oh, shit. Now he's here. Like, you know what I mean? When we switched over to her. Oh, this is cool. That was a cool way to do it, right? Yeah, they did something really nice here.

[Barrett Courtney]

The them playing around with the double protagonist thing, I. I think is really fun. This is something that they've done before with, like, Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Granted, like, the Odyssey and Valhalla, you got to pick one or the other, but it wasn't really, like a dual protagonist type of thing. But, yeah, I'm excited to see, like, how they play off of each other, how they, you know, become homies and what their adventure like kind of goes from here and whether there's friction or not, because they definitely are coming from different walks of life. And so I'm. I'm excited to see that. And yeah, I do have a question.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But I also don't want to.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because I. I don't know if this is going to, like, touch our hands together. Look at that. All germs. You know, there's a stomach bug going around in San Francisco right now.

[Greg Miller]

No robovirus? No Novo virus. Novo virus.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sounds like some animation.

[Greg Miller]

We know some people who got it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Gotta wash my hands.

[Greg Miller]

I haven't touched them. I haven't touched those people.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay, good. And maybe this will feed into your negatives or whatever, but, like, this, I think, comes back to what, Bear Stockmail? Because I'm with you, Bear. As far as I've tried multiple Assassin's Creed games, and I just. I nod off, I fall asleep early on, and I'm like, this Ain't for me. I don't like the. The Ubisoft structure doesn't work as well on me unless there is like some magic thrown on top of it. And I want to bring in Ghost of Tsushima. Right. Which is the obvious comparison. But then also Rise of the Ronin, which is a game that I thought I was going to fall in love with, given the developer, given the type of game that it was.

[Greg Miller]

Right. Like, let me crack my knuckles. I got lots to say about.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But like, I, you know, you guys know I fucking love Ghost of Tsushim. It was one of my favorite games that year. Like, absolutely fell in love with it. Rise of the Ronin thought I was going to really like and then ended up being like, ah, man, I do not care about this world. I do not like. This isn't doing it for me. My question is.

[Greg Miller]

Let me jump in on this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Where on this. I guess this is a two part question. 1 and this is one for Barret and one for Greg. The one for Barret is for. As much as you know, I love Ghost of Tsushima. And for as much of Ghost of Tsushima is that checklist open world game. Why do you think Assassin's Creed Shadows isn't going to hit on that? Not on that level, but I guess hit for me. And then to Greg, we're on the spectrum of Rise of the Ronin to Ghost of Tsushima. Would you place in a star?

[Greg Miller]

Let me start and then we'll kick it over to be. I think it's not going to hit with you because I think on that spectrum it's more towards Rise of the Ronin.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

I think that's. And this is where it's hard because of course we played four hours. Yeah. But it was the prologue where I was like, oh, this is really interesting. And then this footage you see is where we got thrown ahead to level 25. So we're deep into the game at this point. We're just doing stuff. We're talking to people that I don't know any of them. And so suddenly, like it was the wolves ripped away. And it's like, oh, this is Assassin's Creed. Like, I found it very. This is my negative part of the preview. Right. Where I find it very hard to go from what we played and tell you anything other than it's Assassin's Creed. It was going and doing this thing and it was doing this thing. And it's like, you know, when you're playing as Yasuke, there sure are a lot of doors. They Want you to run through. They. They gave this guy the ability to run through doors. So you see the door, like, you want me to run through that door? I get. It's like that kind of thing where it's like, you see the machinations, right, of what they've built here. Machinations of what they've built here. Right? And I think that was Rise of the Ronin's problem for you, where it was like, none of this matters. I'm just flying around, landing, killing the guy, doing that thing. I think with that prologue, if they keep that narrative, by the time we get to level 25, we should, knock on wood. Care a lot about these characters, care about the investments. Like, I think it was a weird mission to give us because the mission is like, oh, you got it, this kid's been kidnapped, blah, blah. And you get to the end and find out like, there's like a double cross. But it's like, I don't fucking know this guy. Like, clearly you guys have done missions for him before. Like, it should matter to you that I don't know.

[Barrett Courtney]

And just in the writing, when the kid is kidnapped, I immediately called out who it was. I was like, okay, this is. This is where it's going.

[Greg Miller]

And so that's the thing where it's like, with not having any of that goodwill built up, you get here and you're like, yup, it's a Assassin's Creed. You want me to go do this and go that and go there? Okay, cool. And like, I forgot about the fucking cool thing. She had to like, spin it. My final condition, I was like, I switched. I'm like, God damn it. Right? I could have been doing this all time. So it's going to be fun, but it's going to be fun if you want to do the mechanics and you want to crawl through this thing and you want to go get that chest and you want to go check off that thing.

[Barrett Courtney]

And I also do wonder, like, how much they're going to balance what these characters stories truly are versus, like how Assassin's Creed lore heavy it gets. And I do wonder, once you start to get into that stuff of the Assassins and possibly the Templars, they have different names. I don't know what they're called in this era. I. I do. I could see your eyes start to glaze over and stop, like starting to lose the motivation to like, really continue on.

[Greg Miller]

In a quick timeout, Kevin, if you could roll it back like four seconds as she comes up on that ladder, just like, as she walks up to the ladder. This was one of those parts where I was like, is this. It's a video game ride. It's Assassin's Creed, where you come out of this thing. You'll see in a second. Like, you have to go up this tower here, and there's this ladder. And I think from two sections below, they knew I was in the thing, so I wasn't in stealth anymore. So it was just a guy standing at the top of the ladder, which meant when I would climb up the ladder, he would knock me back down. But not in a cool way. Very much like, oh, I kind of glitched the game. So, like, the dem. Like, you know, we're doing this via remote, right? So somebody's watching us the entire time. And the guy chimed. He's like, yeah, I would use the kunai here or whatever. Like, it took me a while too. I'm like, okay, great. And then I get up here, and there's all these. I just ran past everybody and then killed them all. This thing. I'm like, yeah, this doesn't feel great. This doesn't feel like the narrative.

[Barrett Courtney]

Uh, yeah, I. I'm. I'm still into it, though. In terms of gameplay, I think it's interesting, the relationship between gameplay and story. Obviously, like I mentioned before, the dual protagonist thing we've seen before with Assassin's Creed Syndicate. And while they kind of pitch, Jacob and Eevee Fry being kind of different, Jacob being a brawler, Eevee being the stealth, they pretty much still play the same. Maybe a couple of different abilities. Whereas here with Yasuke and now, it is very much Yasuke is the brawler. Yasuke, you want to be in fights with now you want to be stealthing. And I do think it. It rides a fine line that I don't know if it's going to fully succeed or there are moments where you get to choose. Like, in big, heavy story moments. Oh, do you want to play as Yasuke or Naoe for this part? And thematically, I'm like, well, it makes sense for now to continue this story, but now I'm going to play in a section where I'm going to have to fight, like, six dudes all at once, and she should not be doing this. And like Kevin, if you want to bring up the boss fight footage that I have here, where it's like, for this story that we got of this dude who we have to fight here and everything about his son, it felt like now I had more of a connection with what was going on here. But Then we get into this boss fight that is full on combat, all of this stuff. And I was like, I wanted to play as now, but I was like, well, Yas makes more like.

[Greg Miller]

Like combat sense combat.

[Barrett Courtney]

And it's like, okay. And then you. I. I fight as Yasuke, and at the end he's still not dead. And then now he goes in for the kill and it's like, ah, this. This is like a weird balance that I don't know if I'm gonna love through the entire time.

[Greg Miller]

Something I thought was interesting though, right. Was I saw it called out there. Vil Erickson, I see you asking about immersive mode. I want to talk about that. They had cannon mode was something you could pick from the.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah. Canon mode.

[Greg Miller]

And that's where what, they choose the dialogue for you.

[Barrett Courtney]

So you get to choose a lot of dialogue.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

Oh, wow. Yeah, I chose another.

[Greg Miller]

Well, that' choose that. Yeah. Sorry, I didn't miss my own. Your own joke there. Yeah, Canon, like picking of like, oh, this is not the narrative. But then they still let you pick who you fought as. Yes. Oh, interesting. I thought they might force you into a character that way or whatever. So there's that. In terms of like, you know, to make the choices for dialogue, this is what. How it actually played out, you know, through your DNA. And then for Vil Erickson over there. Want to hear more about immersive mode? I didn't turn it on, but it was an option immersive mode this time around. Right. Where it's going to be all these native touches. So when the people who speak Portuguese show up, they're speaking Portuguese and then the rest would be in Japanese until somebody who else speaks Spanish. Like, they wouldn't dub anything. It would be the people are speaking the way they should.

[Barrett Courtney]

Which I do think probably hits a bit more in certain situations. Yeah. We won't say it, but there's a moment with Yasuke early on. We're like, hearing it all in English. It does get kind of like, oh, this is supposed to be a moment that I think, like, could have hit a bit more in actual, like, native languages and Japanese and all that stuff.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, there's two super chats at the same time. Right. Like, Colin Barry writes in and says more Assassin's Creed, like 1 through 3, or origin slash Valhalla. And then also JDUB writes in and says, does now his movement feel faster for Assassin's Creed?

[Barrett Courtney]

This is. This is another open world Assassin's Creed game. This is an rpg.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

The Mirage was Their homage to the old school Assassin's Creed. But you can see that the. The want from the Assassin's Creed teams is to keep making these open world RPG like. So if you're hoping for more of a callback, you're not getting that here. For the most part. I would still say like a lot of like now a gameplay stuff and even now a story stuff feels very etsio coded.

[Greg Miller]

It feels like. Yeah. To J's question, does it feel faster for ac? No, it feels like a. As soon as I got in as now, I was like, oh, I'm at home. I know what I'm doing in the bushes. Slinking around. Let's do that. Go prone. All the way, all the way down. Like solid snake or whatever. Yeah, yeah, this is definitely an rpg, which I think again, is something that will speak to me more upon review where again, like getting tossed in and like, oh, you've already filled out. I don't have. I didn't have a bunch of skill points to go through. So it's like what it is. And so then when I went back in there when I had time at the end of the demo and I was looking through, I'm like, oh, this would have been cool. And oh, I didn't even realize this was a movie. Could have done like building these characters piece by piece. I think unlocking that repertoire might make it more enjoyable in a sense.

[Barrett Courtney]

Kev, if you want to bring up menu stuff, just to talk about the RPG stuff, because I know a big hang up a lot of people had was Valhalla. How big Valhalla felt, how big that skill tree felt as well. Well, and you have a bunch of separated skill trees this time around.

[Greg Miller]

Over there by left, trigger right. Trigger right. We're talking about the katana right now. You can skip around other.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, you have like your weapon skill trees and then more of like your skill skill trees, like your assassin skill tree and. And stuff like that. And I think it doesn't feel. It's definitely smaller than Valhalla Skill Tree, but it still feels robust because you have these six skill trees for each character. That's my alarm.

[Greg Miller]

Your alarm to make sure you're getting the show ready.

[Barrett Courtney]

But we're an hour early today and so, yeah, I, I think because they segment it, it's a bit more. It feels like it's a bit more welcoming in terms of being a bigger RPG with a bunch of skill trees.

[Greg Miller]

I definitely appreciate the way it's separated. And then like, okay, cool. I want to commit to the Katana, I want to commit to the ball on us on the chain.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yes.

[Greg Miller]

You know, do that whole thing.

[Barrett Courtney]

And it feels like the upgrades feel a bit more significant. Whereas Valhalla, it was like plus 5 sword damage. 5% sword damage or whatever some clown.

[Greg Miller]

In the chat Paris goes. But y'all poo pooed me. Drafting AC Shadows, it ain't gonna get you at nine.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, no, like, this is the.

[Greg Miller]

And this is solid Assassin's Creed.

[Barrett Courtney]

It seems like I love Valhalla. Valhalla reviewed at like an 83 or 84. So it's like it's gonna get. Get you a good, good 10 points. Which again, yeah. In terms of combat and stealth. Stealth. Stealth is the thing that feels very iterative. I remember when they revealed this game, it was like, oh, you can, like, take out lights and, like, slink in the shadows and stuff. And like, that stuff is fun.

[Greg Miller]

The fact sheet makes a big call out of like, light. Really play. And I'm like, I'm playing the game. Like, it feels like I said, I don't know. Yeah, it feels like every other stealth of Assassin.

[Barrett Courtney]

I will say the seasons. The seasons changed at one point in my preview. I don't know if it did for you.

[Greg Miller]

It was another thing they made a big deal about, like, they could do this. And I like. And they might have. I don't. I didn't notice anything.

[Barrett Courtney]

I definitely fell at one point. It might have actually been in this zone where I. I sneak in as now a here where I think this was a season where because there's like, more wind and stuff, like, I. I forget what it was. But they make a big deal about, like, foliage changing and all that stuff. So a lot of, like, your hiding spots aren't going to be as useful. Like maybe in trees and stuff like that. And like, you see, like, that tree is dying there. And I felt in this space getting spotted a lot more even though I was high, like, up. Up above.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

So I do think there is a little bit of them wanting you to put thought into when you're going into these spaces. In terms of daytime or nighttime, it's the thing. In terms of season, they've talked about it, right.

[Greg Miller]

Like, cold weather. NPCs will be closer to heat. Will move closer to heat sources. When it's raining, they're going to be under the awnings. Like.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Again, 10 hours into the game playing. Is that as it's meant to be played? Maybe that becomes more apparent. Whereas this was.

[Barrett Courtney]

It's hard to, like, climb In I.

[Greg Miller]

Kill this dude, do that thing. Then there's some other boss guy I got to fight now, and he's got a different thing, and then he alerts all the guys, and I got to fight all these guys.

[Barrett Courtney]

I. I like the stealth. It's more Assassin's Creed stealth. I appreciate that. You know, assassinating and dude isn't, like, level locked. It seems, at least in this demo, like, it. It is just like, hey, if you can sneak up on this dude well enough, you can just assassinate them. And it's not like a weird, like, oh, they're five levels higher than you. You can't assassinate them. The combat feels fine. Yeah. It doesn't feel any different from.

[Greg Miller]

I was surprised, as somebody who loves. As somebody who loves being the assassin, how much I like being Yasuke.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Like, I was like, okay, this is cool. And I do like how big and bulky is and how strong he is, throwing people around. Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

And it is, like, it's hard to tell. Again, we played a remote demo, so we're streaming. We're streaming through, like, Ubisoft's, like, proprietary, like, parsec, essentially. And so it was hard to get a sense of, like, how satisfying that Perry actually feels.

[Greg Miller]

At the end of my demo, I did the. All right, thanks so much. He's like, yeah, no problem. Like, and by the way, like, just so you know, I've played a lot of Assassin Creed. Like, I know this probably looked like I've never played Assassin's Creed, but there was just enough, like, a lag where it's like, I got to guess if it's going to be red or white. So I'm taking blows. I shouldn't be taking, like.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah. And so I'm excited to, like, actually get the game to actually feel more what the combat feels like. But, yeah, it's not, like, the most challenging thing, but I don't think it's meant to be. Like, it's just supposed to feel solid and fun.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

One quick question to both of you guys. Are you guys gonna play it in canon mode, or are you gonna do it with more choices?

[Barrett Courtney]

I don't know. Like, how much did you feel like you in your choices? Really felt like I like being able.

[Greg Miller]

To tell people off, and, like, I don't remember any choice being like, you know, fuck you. But I want. I. I'm. I'm not gonna play in cannon mode. I'm gonna play.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Because, again, it's an rpg. I want to feel these characters.

[Barrett Courtney]

I only played in cannon mode because we had the same demos. And I asked him what you did, and I was like, I'm gonna do the opposite.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, my. We got a whole. We still got 20 minutes of show left to get through. So there's one thing I want to cap, and I'm sure most people click for this, so it's fine. My one thing I want to say that I am disheartened to say is that I left this demo and I am not anxious for more. Like, you know, how excited I am for Avowed right now and how I could tell you three other games this year I can't wait to get code for. I didn't leave this being like. Like, When I left Odyssey's demo at E3, I was like, fuck, I need more Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I can't.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm saying that, like, when both. Because Avada was slayed, slated for late last year, like Fallen, like, so was this game. And I think leading to that, I think I was more along the lines of, oh, man. Yeah, I'll probably play Assassin's Creed Shadows or Vowed right now. I think especially after this preview, I'm fully on. Yeah, I think I'll get to a Valve first, and then if I play Assassin's Creed Shadows, then great. But I think I'm prioritizing about at this point. It's a very pretty world.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'm excited to actually see more of the natural, like, finding side quests and all that stuff. It felt very weird to try to find anything outside of the main quest.

[Greg Miller]

I got a side quest and I killed 25 and then was like, you can't do that here, by the way. You got. You can't. That you. Requires you going outside of this province.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, the demo area or whatever.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

Discovering things. They want to be a bit more natural. But it's all like, you discover locations and then hopefully you can find stuff around those locations. But with it being a bunch of question marks, it's like, what is my motivation to go to these question marks? Especially when visually, when I look over here, it's not like the most engaging to actually check out this house, you know? And so I. I think that's like a weird line that I don't know if it's really going to fully work of, like, them trying to do this whole immersive, naturally find everything in the world type of thing. But we'll see. Yeah, I'm. I'm excited. As an Assassin's Creed fan, it is one of those things where I was like, man, I'm so glad they delayed it another month because I'm playing all these naughty dog games right now and I was like, I'm going to. I'm. It has inspired me to like wrap that up because I want to have the time to like fully focus on Assassin's Creed whenever we.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I forgot I got delayed. So actually that helps me out.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I was gonna say, I was like, you keep bringing up about him. You got a month in between.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I totally forgot about that.

[Greg Miller]

So yeah, March for this one. Obviously. We'll keep you posted and I am anxious to get code to see if. I hope that prologue keeps me going. I hope that they do that. And I. All right, cool. It was just the jump ahead, but we'll see.

[Barrett Courtney]

We'll see.

[Greg Miller]

Bear, thank you so much.

[Barrett Courtney]

Thank you for having me.

[Greg Miller]

Anytime. And thank you ladies, gentlemen and enbies for supporting Kinda Funny with a kinda funny membership. $10 gets you all of our shows ad free. And of course you get your daily dose of Me Greg way. But right now you're not using your membership benefits on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube.com kindafunnygames on patreon.com kindafunny so here's a word from our sponsors.

[Kevin Coelho]

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[Greg Miller]

Two on the Roper Report. Earth Blade has been canceled. We have. Oh hey. God damn it. You go to kind of funny.com I know that feels. What is a game? Lee? What is your brother kind of funny.com? okay, I don't even care about the League 2025. You do have this. It will not release but also not.

[Barrett Courtney]

To make it about the league, but just to make it about the league for a second. Bless. Like does this count as like a delayed game because it's forever delayed?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm up over this. Well for the fact that it's delayed because I was looking for this, looking forward to this game. But if you remember during the Fantasy Critic I for my counterpick, it came down for me between this and Mario Mario 3d Mario and because in my soul I was like if Earth Blade comes out and it's incredible, I'm a feel more salty than Mario if you want.

[Greg Miller]

Kevin I tossed in the YouTube trailer for Earth Blade. That was the game awards reveal two years ago. It says here on YouTube. I don't remember that right there, but here's the actual blog post. Blog post blog post from Extremely okay games. Hey everyone. I've got some sad news today to ring in 2025. Late last month, Noel and I made the difficult decision to cancel Earthblade. Yes, we are opening the year with a huge, heartbreaking and yet relieving failure. I want to outline in this post what led to this decision and what it means to the future of exoc.

[Barrett Courtney]

Extremely okay Games.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's abbreviated.

[Greg Miller]

That makes more sense. That makes more sense. I was like, I didn't read. This is weird. Before I get into it, however, I want to acknowledge that this will likely come as a shock to fans who have been eagerly anticipating the game. We made this decision in December and felt it best to wait until now to announce it for us on the inside, we've had some time to process, grieve and work towards accepting this, although that process is nonlinear and still ongoing. For those only reading this now, who might not be emotionally invested in the project we're sorry to or who might be emotionally invested project, we're sorry to disappoint you. Quick aside. Remember, if you're an audio listener, I'm sorry. The trailer would have told you. This is from the folks who made Celeste. Yes. That's why there's so much.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah. Previously, Maddie makes games. Change the company name to Extremely okay. Games. Yeah, this was gonna. This was announced.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I forget where, but it was a few game awards.

[Barrett Courtney]

It was game awards. It was a few years ago and it was just like this tease of like, all right, this is definitely looking like the Celeste art style with the platforming that you know and love, but it's a Metroidvania with really cool looking combat and enemies and all this stuff. And this is just. This is a heartbreaker. This is like, of course I was thinking about the Fantasy League, but it was like, we're never going to be able to play this. Like the fact that it wasn't just like, hey, we like lost someone who was like a major part of this project. So we're delaying it, but to straight up cancel, it's like, that is.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Well, the story.

[Greg Miller]

No, yeah. There's more to it. Of course. This is, you know, Maddie makes games, but it's like a small development team, right, who's being very open, honest about what's going on. Earlier this year, a fracture began forming in the team. Specifically, this was between us, Noelle and I, and Pedro, a founding member of Extremely OK Games, longtime friend and collaborator and the art director on Earth Blade and Pixel ui artist on Celeste and Towerfall. The conflict centered around a disagreement about the IP rights of Celeste, which we won't be detailing publicly. This was obviously a very difficult and heartbreaking process. We eventually reached a resolution, but both parties also agreed in the end that we should go our separate ways. Pedro is now working on his game Neverway, which you should check out. We've played it and it's very promising. Losing Pedro wasn't the only factor in canceling the game, but it did prompt us to take a serious look at whether fighting through to finish Earthblade was the right path forward. The project had a lot going for it, but frustratingly, it was also not as far along as one would have expected after such a protracted development process. I do believe that if we soldiered on despite it all, that Earthblade could still be a great game. But would it be worth the pain? Noel and I began to reflect on how the game has felt for us to work on day to day and realized that it has been a struggle for a long time. Sure, working on one project for so long is bound to become a slog, but this feels like a deeper problem. Celeste's success applied pressure on us to deliver something bigger and better with Earthblade. And that pressure is a large part of why working on it has become so exhausting. Pedro isn't to blame for this. In fact, the split with him has given us clarity to see we have lost our way and the opportunity to admit defeat. I feel many ways about it, but one big feeling is undoubtedly relief. While this is shaken out. While this is shaken out, other members of the team have moved on as well. Noel and I now want to take all of the parentheses many lessons we've learned from Earthblade, wipe the slate clean and refocus ourselves back to smaller scale projects. We're prototyping again and exploring at our own pace and trying to rediscover game development in a manner closer to how we approach it at Celeste's or Tower Falls. Incept scaling the core team up post Celeste has ultimately been a failure. And that's okay. We gave it all we've got and life goes on. We are happy to return to our roots and reclaim some joy in our creative process and see where it takes us.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. So this is fascinating because I think it is sad that they're canceling this because this is one that they got to reveal and like I think all of us were looking forward to because we love Celeste so much.

[Greg Miller]

Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like of Celeste is one of those ones where. And Tower Fall and Tower Fall. Right. And like there's I think a lot of different ways to view this. I think ultimately, even though this is sad news, it's also good news at the same time. Like somebody in chat had mentioned, like, so basically a sophomore slump. Right. Which is funny because this is the third thing. So it'd be like a junior slump, I guess, but I.

[Barrett Courtney]

A junior jumble.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I like that. A junior jumble, right. I think there have been. There have been, I think many cases when I think of, like, indie development even. I like, this is creative. Creatively. It's funny, I listen. I've been referencing this J. Cole podcast that I listen to where he's talking about, like, his album. Album, like Journey. And he talked about like kind of his sophomore slump and like the pressure that, you know, you. You feel when you're trying to live up to expectations and all that stuff, right? Them here, you know, talking about, you know, scaling up the core team post Celeste trying to do this, trying to make a thing that might have lived up to it, right? And like, it kind of leading into, oh, shit now. Like the saying, this isn't going to work out for us. I love that they're in a place where they're like, hey, stop. This isn't working out. We're not having fun making this. Cancel it. Let's go smaller. Like, let's make something that's going. That we're going to be happy with in the way that Tower Fall was something that we made, that was small scale that we were happy with and the way that.

[Barrett Courtney]

Excited to do.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You know, excited.

[Barrett Courtney]

Excited to do it seems like Earth Blade started to have a lot of emotional baggage for them. And so I am heartbroken. But I do very much understand discouragement creatively and how strong willed you have to be to make that decision to let that project go, especially when it was so anticipated by so many of us. So, yeah, yeah, it's. It's heartbreaking.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Heartbreaking.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah. But again, finally leave because we have 10 minutes.

[Greg Miller]

10 minutes. I was. I was hoping you go just a little bit longer. Damn it. Damn it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What are you looking for now?

[Greg Miller]

No, you'll see. Hold on. Kevin, I'm sending you a link. When you gotta just give me a full time. I can feel. Just play this music when you get a chance. No, I think again. And what a well spoken letter. What a well written letter. You know what I mean? And like, what? As somebody who's publicly broken. What it's time to go. As someone who's publicly broken up with a creative partner before, that's the toughest. No, I didn't say turn it up loud on me, Kev. That's the toughest shit you could possibly go through. So to have like this, say this while you're personally grieving the loss of a friend, like boss of the Collaborator, to do all this different stuff, like, hats off to them for handling this and more power to them for pushing through 1000 number no, keep it going. I like keeping it. We need claim. Do you think Nintendo's crazy? Don't do it. Number three, Dragon Age the Veil Guard has sold 1.5. Nope, that's all fucked up. Dragon Age of Elgard had 1.5 million players in the first two months. EA expected 3 million. This is Rebecca [e-mail] EA has announced today that it's revising its outlook for the fiscal year after a slowdown in global football net bookings growth. And Dragon Age of the Veil Guard missed the company's internal targets by nearly 50%. In a press release, the company said it was reducing its expectations for the Fiscal year ending March 2025 from mid single digit growth to mid single digit decline. The largest culprit EA says was the global football AKA esports EA Sports, which it says experienced a slowdown last year in Q3 after two consecutive fiscal years of double digit net bookings growth. In a press release, EA CEO Andrew Wilson specifically pointed to EA Sports FC 25 as underperforming.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is one of those days that I wish was a way slower news day because I would have loved to like take time to talk about some of this stuff because I think both the Dragon Age Vailgard and EA Sports FC parts of it are fascinating for different reasons. Yeah, one, because I think to EA Sports FC to be underperforming feels like a bad omen for the NFC for sure.

[Greg Miller]

We don't need FIFA. Yeah. Oh yeah, well you're saying the opposite way.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I'm saying more so of like FIFA, the thing that always performs, that's one of the highest performing games of the industry. Now of course this could come down to their projections and like what they wanted their FIFA to do in terms of growth. But even still like FIFA not being enough, it's like oh then what the is happening then if FIFA is underperforming to the Dragon Age, the Veil Guard part of it, right. Like I only played a little bit of Dragon Age Vale Guard but I heard there's a lot of woke in.

[Barrett Courtney]

It, a lot of work.

[Greg Miller]

My favorite thing of they went through here of course like Dragon Ace is a niche game how they expect to sell how much. This is such a fucking great example. Now sadly the shitty people on the Internet are only going to take that part away from it and forget of course that when Dragon Age launched it was the top of the Steam charts. It was doing great, it had all this stuff. We're back to what your expectations are. What a little bit of profit isn't enough. It needs to be a major profit and we cut the story a little bit. I don't know what they if they go into how much Dragon Age in terms of success or whatever it was financially, but this game sold well at launch. 1.5 million. Nothing is, you know, poo poo. But when you're ea and you 3 million off of Dragon Age, when you're.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

EA and you're making your one single player game a year and you're like all right, cool. Hopefully this Star wars number.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, this will be exactly come back around. It was just like man, look at this. You know, single player games are dead.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Now we look toward Mass Effect also another thing of man again, I wish we had way more time. But then we get into the bioware conversation of all right, well Mass Effect, Andromeda didn't do it. Anthem didn't do it. Dragon Age of Elgard, even though better than both those games in terms of sales expectations, isn't meeting it for EA then like where are we at with BioWare? But we can talk about that later.

[Greg Miller]

Number four power developer Pocket Pair moves into publishing to release Tales of Kinzera Dev's next game. This is Ryan Dinsdale at ign. Pal Word Pal World developer Pocket Pair is moving into the publishing business to relieve to release Tales of Kinzera Zao developer Surgeon Studios next game the newly formed Pocket Pair Publishing said on X Twitter it will support a brand new horror game from Surgeon Studios which released Zao and its debut title in April. The horror game is published by Pocket Pair. Won't be a continuation of the universe however.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Very fascinating, very exciting.

[Greg Miller]

Love it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Really love that what Insurgent studios after some, after some going through like late layoffs and like I think having kind of a tumultuous 2024 being very public.

[Greg Miller]

Of like we need money to keep doing this. Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like being able to find a publisher for the next game and like doing something fresh, doing something different for them. Looking forward to it.

[Greg Miller]

And they, you know, Abu is very public. Went through all that and the furloughs and everything else of like we have our idea for the next game. We just need someone as a publisher. So it's crazy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

In a longer, in a longer KHD we will then talk about Pocket Pair being a publisher.

[Greg Miller]

Hey, don't you love to see this when you talk about inner sloth and outer sloth games, right? Where it's like hey we made an indie that was super successful Palworld. Now we're going to pay that money back. The industry and Keep people around. Number five on the Roper Report. Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 won't be a PlayStation 6 exclusive. The producer promises. This is Chris sculling to VGC.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I can sum this one up.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Basically, fans are like wondering if this game is gonna be. I mean, because of the. The time it takes to develop these games, fans are like, oh, this is gonna be a PlayStation 6 exclusive. And he was basically like, ah, don't worry about that. It's not gonna be a PlayStation 6 exclusive. Mainly because they're like, oh, we're nine months into already developing it. More so talking about the next generation aspect of it. Maybe not the exclusivity, but okay, we'll see.

[Greg Miller]

Love that. Then number six is a WE News demotion.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, this was a full story.

[Greg Miller]

I'm. Do you want. Oh, you wanted to go to WE News then. Blessing. I'm so sick of the big news. We've had a run through today. What if we had a place to go for smaller news? What we call it?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We call it the WE News channel where we cover all the small news items you need to know about Number.

[Greg Miller]

Six, the WE News. The Game Awards Twitter account has confirmed that our friend of the show Kumail has been cast in Fallout season two as quote, a high ranking official within the Brotherhood of Steel. This is according to the Insider.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The Insider and I don't think it's a confirmation. It's more so this person's report, the insiders is.

[Greg Miller]

If the Game Awards is reporting it, that means Jeff and Kumail are sharing a cigar, talking about it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's real.

[Greg Miller]

Take it to the bank. From Variety via Wario 64, Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment president David Haddad has is exiting his role. Quote, I'm so proud of everything we've accomplished together at Warner Brothers Games during my time with the couple company. He said, bro, you fucked this shit up so bad. You fucked this shit up so fucking bad.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

As he left the front door, he let out like a large fart.

[Greg Miller]

You fucked this up so bad. Get the fuck out of here. Please, just let me get Wonder Woman before it all fucking gets sold from vgc. The Pokemon company has confirmed the release date of the second full expansion for Pokemon trading card game Pocket. The Space Time Smackdown expansion will be released on January 30th and features two separate types of booster packs featuring legendary Pokemon Dialga. Dialga.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I've saved up so many hourglasses, I can't wait. Yeah, that's all I got.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, you know, unleash them.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm gonna unleash so many hourglasses, open up 10 packs at a time.

[Greg Miller]

God damn. And believe it or not everybody, that's another episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily. We did it. We crushed it. We got there in the end. Of course if you're like man I'm sad that they sped through this episode. Remember it's because the biggest news of the day is probably the Xbox Direct that we are live reacting to momentarily. We're going to get this stream cut off so that you can get the chairs out here, the mics up here, get live for a little bit of a pre show then live react on YouTube.com kindafunnygames Twitch TV kind of funnygames. Come watch our reactions later after you watch it later if you want to and then of course stick around for a live gamescast where we do the post show breakdown with all our thoughts, opinions and more. Will I make fun of Paris at some point? I probably will. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve.