Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Review (So Far)

Date: February 2, 2026
Hosts: Snowbike Mike, Greg "GameOverGreggy" Miller, Roger Pokorny (with contributions from Andy Cortez)
Main Theme: Early review impressions of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined – an analysis of how Square Enix’s latest remake lands in 2026, through the lens of new and longtime JRPG fans.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Kinda Funny crew dives deep into their early impressions of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, focusing on their experiences with the game’s pacing, structure, visuals, and how it fits within the broader JRPG landscape.
Mike guides the discussion as Greg and Roger (with some input from Andy) share how many hours they’ve each put in, their scores so far, and dissect the pros and cons of this expansive remake. The hosts also field live audience questions about the Dragon Quest series’ appeal and where this title lands in a crowded field of modern and classic turn-based RPGs.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Where Are The Hosts In Dragon Quest VII?

• Greg: Nearly 35 hours in, mostly on Switch 2, with some early hours on Steam Deck/Rog Ally.
  • Quote: “I'm just shy of 35 hours right now… All on Switch 2 with the exception, I guess, that I did the demo on Steam as well.” (07:35)
• Roger: About 13 hours into the game, playing exclusively on Switch 2.
• Mike: Played 10 hours, 7 of them on Rog Ally (PC), and largely agrees with Greg and Roger’s experience.

2. Top-Level Impressions and Scores

Roger:

• Score: 7/10 (tentative)
• “I'm having a good time, not a great one.” (09:30)
• Feels like he’s just finished the prologue at 13 hours; wants the game to introduce more systems or variety soon.
  • “I’m really itching for some change and for some variety in this... The combat is just kind of auto-battler at this point.” (09:45)

Greg:

• Score: 6.5/10
• “It's okay... I went back and forth for a while. Is it a 7? Is it a 6.5? It is a 6.5.” (11:29)
• Newcomer to mainline Dragon Quest, finds the experience cozy but simple in structure and execution.
• Read classic reviews and forum posts to understand what series veterans want; found the series prioritizes “cozy comfort” over challenge or deep narrative twists.

Mike:

• Shares similar feelings: Enjoys the music and tone, finds it “cozy,” but doesn't have the drive to stick with it over time.
  • “The music is fantastic... There's a whimsy, there's a boat. There's something calling out an adventure.” (16:00)

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3. Discussion Highlights, Quotes, and Timestamps

On Gameplay and Structure

• Auto-Battle Dominance:

  • Greg: “I am not having to think in any of these battles... You play, you go into the tactics menu and use... ‘show no mercy’ on every character because mana is so plentiful... I've done that through 99% of the game.” (14:07)
  • Roger concurs that the game encourages setting battles on auto, with few challenging moments even in boss fights.

• Vocation System:

  • The much-hyped job/vocation system offers new skills as you progress, but Greg and Roger report it doesn’t add meaningful gameplay depth because difficulty never requires strategic use.

On Narrative and World Design

• Quaint, Episodic Pacing:

  • The story structure is repetitive: “...you go off in these quests, you get pieces of tablets, you come and put them back together. When you assemble the tablet, you go into a new world, you go into the past and help them... then you come back and go back to that world to get another piece...” (19:00)
  • The hosts note a lack of variance in NPC designs and world changes; the time travel mechanic doesn’t significantly impact the world visually or narratively.
  • Roger: “There’s one moment... they reuse that same NPC... it confused the fuck [out of me].” (21:15)
  • Greg: “I want more, and that's what I'm hoping I'll get out of 11.” (23:58)

• “Cozy, Not Grand” Adventure:

  • Sum up: It’s a “warm blanket” of a JRPG — not made for high-octane, twisty drama.

On Visuals and Style

• Roger: “I want to talk about the visual quality... I like the chibi heads of all the characters. I love that. I like the diorama vibe of it all. Like it is jumping off the screen at me. It’s got great colors, great visuals and I enjoyed everything.” (17:40)
• Both hosts note the game looks and runs great on Switch 2, often matching PS5 quality when docked.
• Monster design is consistently praised: “There are so many different monsters here... Every new area has new monsters and they all look awesome.” (34:42)
• Fun moment: Greg’s favorite boss name: Mosferatu (34:40)

On Music

• Universally praised for its whimsical, “Saturday morning cartoon” feeling.
  • Greg: “The soundtrack, excellent. ...35 hours in hearing the same four excellent tracks. I’d be annoyed by it… I’m not. It’s comforting. I love it.” (32:44)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Core Experience:

  • Reddit summary Greg read: “Dragon Quest is the anti-min-maxing, anti-ask-too-many-questions JRPG. You just sit down with a nice cup of tea, play the game, hum to the music and have a chill time.” (12:39)

• On “Reimagined” Promise:

  • Roger: “Reimagined is in the title and it just does not feel reimagined.” (26:57)
  • Both stress that this feels closer to a remaster with QOL tweaks than a ground-up rethink.

• Comparisons to Other JRPGs:

  • The crew wishes for more modern design elements, like those found in Persona, Octopath Traveler, Metaphor, or Sea of Stars.
  • Greg: “Octopath always felt so much fun to play to make... moment-to-moment decisions… there's just none of that here.” (21:49)

• On Game Flow and Accessibility:

  • “It's a very approachable JRPG... That's the big thing where me walking away from this, deleting it from my Switch 2... when the wild hair comes back, I'm like, I should finish that and I bring it back down. I'm not going to be lost.” (42:32)
  • Praise for excellent menu and quest reminders; easy to drop in/out for “comfort food” play.

• On “Cozy Comfort” Value:

  • Super Chat (“gg Ricky”): “Dragon Quest has always been a warm blanket of JRPGs. Grab a hot chocolate, bundle up and enjoy the story.” (47:21)
  • Greg: “That hits and makes sense for what this is. ... I think maybe if you were to sit there and enjoy it at your own pace and have it out there... This would be a great fit for that as I often am.” (48:28)

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Gameplay Verdict and Takeaways (50:00 – 51:30)

• Roger: 7/10
  “I would recommend it to people if that is kind of something that you’re interested in or looking for... I'm having a good time. It is something that I, I'm not going to… If I were to stop right now by the end of the year I'd be like, oh fuck, I did play that game. Like it doesn't stay in my brain. It is not something that is impactful.” (47:49)
• Greg: 6.5/10 (Unchanged)
  “Dragon Quest 7 is Dragon Quest 6.5. All right. It's an okay game. I think mileage will vary. Always does. Try the demo. I'm so glad I did, and then I'm so glad I committed to playing more of this and really getting that out.” (48:28)

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Strengths & Weaknesses Table

| Strengths | Weaknesses | |---------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | Cozy, relaxing “Saturday morning cartoon” | Very slow to introduce new systems or challenge | | Great visuals and monster designs | Highly repetitive structure and scenarios | | Excellent, whimsical soundtrack | Shallow story; little emotional pull or character development | | Easy for newcomers, non-punishing | Auto-battle dominates; rarely requires tactical decisions | | Polished Switch 2 performance | Time travel and “reimagining” feel undercooked | | Pick-up-and-play friendly | Lacks motivation/drive for players used to modern JRPGs |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 07:32 — “How Far Did You Get” (Platform/Hour count for each host)
• 09:30 — Roger’s top-level verdict (7/10)
• 11:29 — Greg’s top-level verdict (6.5/10), “cozy but shallow”
• 14:07 — “This is an auto-battler”
• 21:15 — World/structure repetition, NPC confusion
• 32:44 — Visual and audio praise, “comforting OST”
• 34:40 — “Mosferatu” boss joke, monster design chat
• 41:05 — “Reimagined” critique, quest and world-finding tools
• 47:21 — Super Chat: “Warm blanket” of a JRPG
• 48:28 — Final scores & closing thoughts

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Final Summary

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is described as a “warm blanket” RPG — a polished, charming, and accessible entry point into classic turn-based narratives, but one that feels overly safe and under-ambitious for today’s standards. The Kinda Funny crew recommends it for fans seeking comfort and familiarity over challenge or emotional punch. Try the demo, especially if you’re new to Dragon Quest or want a portable, drop-in, drop-out RPG for Switch 2.

Memorable Quote:

“Dragon Quest is the anti-min-maxing, anti-ask-too-many-questions JRPG. You just sit down with a nice cup of tea, play the game, hum to the music and have a chill time.” — Reddit/Read by Greg (12:39)

Recommended for:

• Players craving nostalgia, Saturday morning cartoon vibes, and a chill, low-pressure journey
• Not recommended for those seeking modern, innovative, or emotionally intense JRPG experiences

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To hear the full discussion and more off-topic banter, check out the full episode on Kinda Funny Gamescast.

Transcript

[A]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] go to boot.dev and use the code kinda funny to get 25 off your entire first year on the annual plan. If you want to get our shows

[B]

ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com kindafunny. What's up everybody and welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for February 2, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Snowbike Mike. And of course today I am joined by my crew.

[A]

Oh, your crew.

[B]

My cast, my party members, your homies, my Dragon Questers. Okay. My main guys, Roger McCorney and Greg Miller. Greg, I'll start with you.

[C]

Hi.

[B]

Happy Monday.

[A]

Happy Monday to you, Mike. I'm glad you're back in the office. We missed you.

[B]

I missed you.

[A]

I am upset. You set off the alarm though, on Friday night.

[B]

I did.

[C]

He did tell me this.

[B]

I was dancing to the Migos. Couldn't hear it.

[A]

I gotta check the thing. Who's breaking in? I see police are on their way. Fucking Capricious bag as he's leaving.

[B]

Press the buttons.

[A]

You know what I mean?

[B]

I'm pressing buttons. Hacking into the mainframe.

[C]

The wrong buttons.

[B]

I don't know. I don't know what happened.

[C]

I don't know what happened.

[A]

This is bad as the week before that where I was like, I was locking my house and I used the same security system. And then I was like, wait, I never saw that. This place got locked after the end and I went to the camera. See you jabronis out there watching wwe.

[C]

Yeah, we're just hanging out. Yeah, we played Deadlock.

[A]

I listened to.

[B]

Yeah, it was all right.

[C]

Well, Mike was mad. Let's be honest. Let's have a conversation.

[B]

I play at a high level, Greg.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I can't be brought down. Okay. I can't have anchors on the team. Andy's anchoring me down.

[C]

Not me. The person who has not really ever played this game. But Andy, you get the pass.

[D]

Because you learned he needed me. That's why he was trying to invite

[A]

me to play that night.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But, man, I miss you guys so much. I. I'm happy to be back. It's a new month. Can you believe January already gone? 11 months left in the year.

[A]

Oh, no pass.

[B]

It goes by. But a big month because of course, if you missed it last week, the crew did the kind of funny games cast. All the awesome games coming out in February. That's a must, listen, because there's a lot of great games coming your way.

[A]

What's your. What are you. What are you stoked about?

[B]

Oh, Resident Evil.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Mario Tennis. Going to get the boys in some short shorts live on the set. Big party mode of Mario Tennis, full motion.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

But, yeah, Greg, I missed you a ton. Yeah, I'm happy to be back. I think three days too long to be.

[A]

Can you confirm or deny where you were?

[B]

I cannot. Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But you'll find out.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

We'll find out. Watch the buzz. Watch the buzz. Everybody kept some Easter eggs.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

He was just on that carousel for three days.

[B]

I did have to do two takes on the carousel. Okay. Did one full loop. She was like, you got a little more time. And I was like, I'm gonna crush this. And then it stopped abruptly and I was like, you told me I had more time, so I had to go back.

[A]

That would have been the takeover.

[B]

Pay another $9. The lady on the front desk is like, just so you know, we're about to close, sir. I'm like, miss, it's 8:45. You close at 9:00'.

[A]

Clock. You're the only person who's come by all day.

[C]

You're like, mitch, you should have closed this place maybe four hours ago.

[B]

Three minutes. It's gonna be fine.

[C]

Nine dollars.

[B]

And so ye much to talk about. I miss you guys so much. I'm happy to be back. But I'm also happy to be talking about Dragon Quest 7. Reimagined Roger right there.

[C]

It's playing it.

[B]

You guys have a review so far that's going to be the topic of the show. But that is also one of the big releases of the month.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

As well. You guys talked about that last week. How was the vibes with that one during the podcast for the other boys? Interested at all?

[A]

No, nobody had any. Nobody said anything. But it's also, you know what the other boys. There's always the thing of when you're not reviewing a game here and you know other people are reviewing, you kind of let them lead the conversation because what can you say? What can you not say dah, dah, dah. Yeah, so I think that. But I don't think.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

I mean, Bless would be the only one. And I don't think Bless is lining up for this one now.

[B]

Okay, well, we'll find out.

[A]

Should he? You'll find out soon enough.

[B]

Roger, how are you?

[A]

I'm doing well.

[C]

Did you miss me? You said you miss Greg a lot. You didn't miss me.

[B]

I mean, I talked about you on the buzz. I did miss you. I was very jealous. And I gotta love watching you try to dap up people. It is some of the funniest stuff. If you rewind the tape, come on and watch Howard the Duck and get to see all the best friends come up and dap Roger in some of the best, best moments of my life that I'll show you. I'll show you some of the. It's a lot of. It's a lot of awkward hand moments from you.

[C]

Where are you seeing this video?

[B]

Kind of funny. Best friends on Reddit posts. A lot of awesome behind the scenes footage of you guys, of course. SF Sketch fest, big meet and greets I was jealous of. I'm not mad that I wasn't there or anything.

[A]

You had to go work. You had to go to the carousel.

[C]

I seen these video. So this just scared me. I was like, do you have just like hacking into.

[B]

I mean, I'm always aware of what's happening here. I love this to death. You know that. But there's a lot of we got to come up with one universe. It's funny because I thought about it as well while I was on assignment. Greg. We got to come up with one universal dap. There's too much Miss Dapped opportunities. And it's like we just got to come up with.

[A]

We're pretty great for a while.

[B]

Yeah, handshake is nice, but if we're going to do the daps, let's make sure we do the dap correctly. You know what I mean? A lot of missed apps, right?

[A]

It was a lot of that was

[B]

a lot of that.

[C]

Okay, but then you did that. You up there.

[B]

No, I'm showing me what you did.

[C]

You think I reach back, I'll show

[B]

you the video, we'll review the tape. It's like you skipping.

[C]

I. I dapped up Duke Dennis, though, and that was pretty sick. I killed that.

[B]

You know what? You completely switched me up you.

[C]

Yeah, you know, I. That's the coolest I could ever say. I. I dapped up Duke Dennis and it was perfect.

[B]

And Steve Aoki. Come on. And the guy from Breaking Bad, one of the twins.

[C]

I did do that.

[B]

He did. Love you.

[A]

Get through the rigmarole.

[B]

Kind of funny. Let's jump into the show. We have some fun coming at you. But of course, don't forget we are kind of funny games and you are watching live to be a part of the show. Consider super chatting on YouTube.com kind of funny games. If you're watching live and you want to get involved in the conversation, you can super chat your thoughts away and your questions about that. Just like Ken Jr did who super chatted $20 to say Mike's back. Ken Jr I'm back. I missed you all so much. I'm happy to be back with his energy days cash.

[A]

You guys ready to cause? Yeah. I'm very excited to talk Dragon Quest. What are you talking about? He just wants 35 hours into this game. I don't need you.

[B]

I can talk about it. Let me call it. Be great. Of course. Super chat away. Just like Ken Jr. Did. Of course. Don't forget, we couldn't do this without you and all of our Patreon best friends out there. Thank you to our Patreon producers who support us over on patreon.com kind of funny where you can too. Just like Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining. Guys, let's jump into it. Let's talk about topic of the show. Dragon Quest 7 reimagined the review so far from Greg Miller and Roger Pokorny. Boys, you both have been playing it. We have the so far on there. Yeah, of course. It's a big game. Lot of hours to put in. Greg, let's start off with you.

[A]

Hi.

[B]

How far did you get in? What platform did you play on?

[A]

I'm just shy of 35 hours right now. I was wrong in the meeting, by the way, so I don't think. I didn't do any work over the weekend. I was 27 in the meeting. I did put up some numbers. Good for you. But all on Switch 2 with the exception, I guess that I did the demo on Steam as well. So I done it on my Rog Ally originally there.

[B]

Didn't get that carryover, unfortunately.

[A]

Well, the problem was, you know, Jen hates the rogue. And so I knew that this was all gonna be a long game that I would need to play in the bed. So I was like, okay, you know what? I'll run it back on. If they have Switch codes, I'll run it back on Switch. And I did. Turns out. You know when you're skipping all the tutorial dialogue with it you've already done, it goes really quick to get caught up again.

[B]

I like that. Roger, how far are you into it and what did you play on?

[C]

13 hours and I played it exclusively on the Switch too.

[B]

I like that. Well, I want to hear about your top level thoughts in just a moment because of course Dragon Quest 7, coming from Square Enix, is releasing on Switch 1 and 2, PlayStation, Xbox and Steam releasing February 5th. So later this week there's a demo out right now. You can play the demo and then your save transfers over to when you start to pick it up. So you can play a little bit right now for free and then jump in. Of course it is selling for $60, so just a nice standard price of 60.

[A]

This is the There are a bunch of additions though. A bunch of $250 physical one bunch

[C]

of additions, probably less than WWE.

[B]

This is the third entry into the Dragon Quest 7 line. Now we've had a couple Dragon Quest 7 Fragments of the Forgotten Past released in 2001 in the US on PlayStation, then Dragon Quest 7 Fragments of the forgotten past on 3DS in 2016, and now you're getting a full reimagining a remake you would call it for Dragon Quest 7. Right now the open critic is sitting at 84. The Metacritic is sitting at 82 as of 11am February 2nd. Let's talk about scores and thoughts. Roger, give me your top level thoughts and and your score on the kind of funny scale.

[C]

Yeah, again, 13 hours into Dragon Quest 7 reimagined on the Switch 2, and I enjoyed my time. I think I'm going to continue to slowly play this game throughout the rest of the few months. I would say I wouldn't give it the rest of the year. I would say you have maybe three to four more play sessions out of me before I either continue it or drop it because I'm in this kind of precarious situation. Thirteen hours in, I feel like I literally have just gotten past the prologue. Like that is quite literally what it feels. There are some very fundamental things because I did a preview of this a few months ago. I played the beginning of the game and I played something later on in the game and there's some pretty mainline important things in terms of features that I have not even gotten to in terms of the vocations and changing the vocations. So the fact that I haven't even gotten there yet. I'm really itching for some change and for some variety in this because right now I'm having a good time, but I'm not having a great time. There's not much here in terms of the story that is really grabbing me. The combat is just kind of auto battler at this point, where they're not really putting something into this, where it makes me feel like, oh, man, I got to get in there and really make sure that I'm preserving mana, changing out my movesets. It is just, hey, set it and forget it and just go on with it. I think it's fun. It feels like a Saturday morning cartoon. And that's the best way that I can describe it there in terms of the story and the pacing. So I'm having a good time, not a great one. So tentatively, I would give it a 7 out of 10 right now. But again, bearing in mind this is 13 hours in, I'm sure the game. I know the game changes a lot and evolves over time, but I'm enjoying my time, especially on the switch too. It looks gorgeous and I'm excited to talk more about that.

[B]

Let's talk a little more about it right after. Greg, Greg, you said 35 hours.

[A]

Just shy.

[B]

Put a lot of time into this one. But of course, a big game. They did reduce some of the time. They made a little bit faster the pacing. I read up about the remake of this one. So, you know, how you feeling? 35 hours in and give me a score.

[A]

Yeah, for context, IGN clocked it, I think, in their review of what between 40 and 50 hours, which lines up with PR, where I asked them, hey, how long is this going to be? And I believe they said between 50 and 55 is what they were projecting. You never know with dev math. Everything Roger just said is incredibly accurate. And to Roger, I would say stop playing because it will not evolve beyond what it is right now. And the quicker you understand that, the more you can enjoy this game. I. On the kind of funny scale, I'm giving it a 6.5 and saying it's okay. However, I went back and forth for a while. Is it. Is it a 7? Is it a 6 5? Is it a 7? It is a 6 5. And as I will go on at length in this review, I think it's an okay. That's really enjoyable. I closed my computer and I brought in all sorts of sacred text. I got the EGM reviews from December 2001. But most importantly, I am new to Dragon Quest. I've never actually played a Dragon Quest before, which I think is very important. For context for the review I'll give you, especially as I compare and contrast this game to other ones. Right. And so as I waded into this and really started to delve into it, one of the questions I wanted to go ask but I couldn't show my hand was like, what is Dragon Quest to the fan? Like a Dragon Quest fan. What do you want out of it? Because once I got going with this 20 hours in or whatever, you're like, okay, this is what the game is. Do people want more than that? Over on the subreddit for Dragon Quest, someone had posted Dragon Quest newbie looking for tip slash guidance. You know, basically exactly. I'm starting for the first time. What do I need to know? Should I go back the order matter? Of course, none of the orders matter. You don't have to worry about it. But I thought this was a very interesting way to frame what this game is. Fire Blend on subreddit wrote in and said dragon Quest is the anti mid maxing anti Ask too many questions. Jrpg. You just sit down with a nice cup of tea, play the game, hum to the music and have a chill time. Don't think it's hard. Don't think too hard about it and play whatever you like because now talk about which version to play. And I thought that sums so much of it up. In perfect where this is a 6.5 out of 10. This is a review so far because I have not rolled credits on it. I will not roll credits on this. I've enjoyed my time with it. It has been an incredibly cozy experience to play and we'll go through all the reasons why and why not. But I am now sitting here going after looking at the people talking about this like shit. What I really want is Dragon Quest 11. What everybody's like. Dragon Quest 11 is the one that if you're looking for this and it's a masterpiece and 2017 came out, got amazing scores, can go between the normal thing to 2D. It's like, oh, okay, like that sound and it sounds like that one's actually pushing you.

[C]

Tim Rogers talks about that one a lot.

[A]

That sounds like the one that's pushing you to think critically and on how you play. Whereas Dragon Quest 7 reimagined is a Saturday morning cartoon, it is a auto battler, which I never do, obviously. So many of our JRPGs you can say fight for me and they go do it. But I would never do that in 90% of the JRPGs. I I guess 98% of the JRPGs I play this one when I was eight hours in, maybe even five, where I was like, man, I am not having to think in any of these battles. So I'm really just wasting time running the same moves. You do it for me. You play, you know, I mean, you go into the tactics menu and use. I said, show no mercy on every character because man is so plentiful. You can pick it up, run your things, do whatever. And I've done that through 99% of the game. There's been maybe two boss battles that they failed at that. Then I came in and did myself and then maybe one or two other ones where I saw it starting to go south and I paused and I went in and cast heels, then put them back on auto and they did it all themselves. And this isn't a knock to it. Like, I think that works for what this experience is,

[B]

boys. Sounds like some positives and some negatives began telling you just to put it down. I'm 10 hours in as well, playing on my PC and my ROG ally actually played probably about 7 hours on the Rog Ally really enjoyed my time with it. And it is cozy. The music is fantastic. I came back to work one day and I told Tim, I said, man, this team has got some killer music. I don't know who's doing this, but man, every time I turn it on, I love it. It's got a one piece vibe to it. There's a whimsy, there's a boat. There's something calling out an adventure, right? This young boy, her. His father was a fisherman. And he said, no, I want to go out on adventure with my friends. And then all of a sudden you start discovering unknown islands out there. Were we the only island out there? And I liked the story. I liked the little carrot on the stick. And I was vibing with that. It's just one of those. I don't have much time for that as I move on to other things. But I enjoyed the time. The characters, the monsters. I come from. No Dragon Quest, but I had Dragon Quest warriors or Dragon Quest Pocket.

[A]

Dragon Warrior.

[B]

Dragon Warrior. So this was the Pokemon of Dragon Quest universe. And that's what I had on my Game Boy. So all of these monsters are pretty, like really well, well known to me. I can see them and go, oh my God, what the heck is going on? So I've kind of dabbled in this universe before.

[A]

Yeah, that's what I mean. There's a lot of to unpack even there, right where I guess technically I'm lying. My first Dragon Quest game was Dragon Quest Builders. Played the shit out of that. Evito really liked it. But it wasn't a Dragon Quest game. Right. So I'm the same way of recognizing a slime or recognizing the sound or the orchestra or whatever. And then, yeah, what you call out there, of course, if you are unaware, the series in America used to be called Dragon Quest Warrior. That was something I totally forgot about. Slash probably didn't know because even to the point of like how blind my spot is on Dragon Quest. We were doing the preview when I was talking about my demo or whatever. It came up in a conversation when Tim was still here and I said something to the effect of just like, yeah, you know, but I don't even like this art style. The puppets for them, I don't even like that. And it's like this isn't a negative knock, you know, it's just a preference. But I was like coming off Octopath, I'd way prefer if they did the 2D HD sprite kind of thing. And it wasn't until like I was like, oh man, I'm deep enough in this that I want to go back and read the EGM reviews. And I went back and I was like, this was a PlayStation game. Like, I was like, this is on PS1. I was thinking I was playing an SNES whatever. Tim's like, yeah, it didn't make any sense when you're talking about you wanted to demake game look like. Even though I do think the OG art style to me personally looks better. But of course. Go play that thing, Greg. It's still out there.

[C]

You can see.

[B]

Of course. Yeah, I really vibe with the art style. I like the chibi heads of all the characters. I love that. I like the diorama vibe of it all. Like it is jumping off the screen at me. It's got great colors, great visuals and I enjoyed everything. I am playing on easy because I was just here for the story, for my little dabble.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So like I've never encountered anything crazy, but I'm there to see what's going on.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Even on normal. Yeah, normal is really easy.

[A]

Now to their credit, they do have a bunch of difficulty options. You can go in and tweak and fine tune and give yourself more xp. Less xp, whatever. I didn't do that because I like to review on just the normal base. Here's what I think a lot of people are going to jump into.

[C]

Yeah, I'm one of those people that believes that like sure, you have all the settings to make it harder. But it's like, I'm not an incredible gamer. So if like the normal is extraordinarily easy, I do think that, yeah, there needed to be a little bit more of. I don't know what that is. Maybe it is figuring out, you know, the vocation system a little bit earlier, but like it just, it becomes brain dead at a certain moment even without the auto battler.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Because it's just the reason.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

The reason I turn on the auto battler is because I was just doing the same thing every single time. So it's like, let me just let the.

[A]

I think that's such an important thing of calling because I did see earlier in the chat, we said it like, why play it at all then, right? If you're auto battling, which I, I don't never agree with because there's so many different games and so many different things. For me personally, once I, I've assembled the team and I've built the team and they have the moves that I want them to have, like, okay, cool, I'm Phil Jackson now you're the bulls. Go out there and do it. You know what I mean? But anyways, in this example, right, it is that idea of like, I'm just hitting the same thing. It was so rare even to see the thumbs up or the, you know, the little lines signifying it wasn't a good move to use. So it's like, all right, you go, do you like what, what is. What is the added thing of me doing it didn't. And it's like, there's going to be so many comparisons. I use here to talk about this, where I want to start with this conversation to jump off into a myriad of different directions. When I was on the show last week, we were talking about Witcher 3. What about Zelda? What about this? I kept saying, I'm in the mood for a grand adventure. And I said, I'll be happy to. I can't wait to talk about this next week. Because even then somebody in the chat was like, greg, Dragon Quest VII comes out. This is so not a grand adventure. This is such a quaint and small invention like this, this game, this game. And I. And I know of course that I'm talking about a reimagining of a game that's 25 years old, so they can't stray from that. But you bump up against the wall so early of what this game is and the box this game is in that again is quaint and is cozy and you kind of get the feel for it right away, but, like, it's not grand. And back to this point of like, I'm 35 hours in, I am not that far from the end. Like, the whole point, if you haven't known, of course, is that you are this little guy in green. I hate this fucking outfit for him. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. You're this dude in green. You're a fisherman's son. You and your friend run into the shrine of mysteries. You find out that you know you are on this. You knew you're on this island. No one else exists in the world. According to everybody on this island, right? You eventually through, you know, a dungeon, open up this thing, you go back in time, this is all like the original thing, to a new island that is not your island, right? When you figure that all out and you come back, that island is now in your world next to your island. And so basically the idea here throughout the game is you go off in these quests, you get pieces of tablets, you come and put them back together. When you assemble the tablet, you go into a new world, you go into the past and help them with whatever their mission was. Then you come back and go back to that world to get another piece of puzzle and yada, yada, so on, so forth. The game is so rinse and repeat in terms of objectives. The game is so rinse and repeat in terms of NPCs, back to I want a grand adventure. Like I. You. You meet the first couple worlds of people and then it's their NPC cycled through.

[C]

And it gets confusing too. There's one moment where maybe, yeah, maybe six hours, seven hours in the game where you have this big story with this one NPC and you're talking to this npc and then the next world you go to, which is supposed to be in the future or whatever, it. They reuse that same NPC with this character that you're talking to that it confused the fuck up. Because, like, I understand it works for PS1, you have to reuse the thing. But it's like when you're talking about a reimagining, like, yeah, totally, right, Greg? Like, you bump up against those walls when it comes to that, when it comes to the time travel elements of it, where it's like, man, you guys should have stretched this out a little bit more. You needed to kind of modernize it.

[A]

And so back to modernization, right? Of picking up these moves and doing all these different attacks or whatever, like to come off of Octopath, Traveler 0, which you know I'm going to bring out and beat like a dead horse throughout this entire thing, though, right? Octopath always felt so much fun to play to make those moment and moment decisions to see the battle start going south or switch somebody this way or use the boost. And I'd even toss in Expedition 33, which, of course, wasn't my jam for a couple different reasons. But alongside it, Sea of Stars. Let's have an active thing where I go and do the attack, but I, in the middle of it, have to hit a different button to parry or just enhance my attack and get a few more. Like, there's just none of that here. Back to where it's like, okay, cool. Choosing the move isn't fun, and I'm gonna go through and do this. This then I think works against the. One of the big selling points, what they previewed for you. Even going back and reading the EGM reviews where they're talking about this vocation system, right? Where you can be a priest, or you can be a major, you can be this, and then later on you can be two of them, and you can. You can trade them out at will. And basically what it is, is it's XP on top of your xp, right? So there's overall character XP that's leveling up how you know how much your basic attack does, how much health you have. Then there's this vocation you have that has its own individual thing. And as they go up in stars, you unlock new moves to then use in battle. So in some ways, if this is all Greek, which I can't imagine is to you, but imagine Persona, right? We have different Personas. You're leveling, you're unlocking new things. That sounds great. But when we're in this battle system where it just doesn't matter, like, okay, cool. Like, when I. When they open it up, like, you can change your vocation. Do you want to, like, fuck no. Like, I'm unstoppable. This kill, we're killing it right now. Why would I throw a wrench in the works? And it wasn't necessarily like, you can now equip another one. I was like, oh, okay, then do that. Which at one point, even easier.

[C]

How deep is that when you can change it?

[A]

I mean, when you can. I mean, there's lots of different.

[C]

No, when you moonlight, is that like 20 hours in, 30 hours in.

[A]

Oh, man.

[C]

Because, like, I am at the point

[A]

where I say, like, yeah, 20 to 23, where you can go and this is another thing, too, I think, where I saw somebody else ask, is it, you know, about the difficulty or it's not. No, it's. It's overall bumping into the walls of the world and what it is. And I think, you know, back to octopath. Remember I talked about Octopath where I was like, damn, I didn't die in an octopath battle till 20 hours in. And then I felt like we finally had that difficulty curve. So I was waiting for it here, where I was like, we're gonna get it. We're gonna get it. And like, I just said, like, I'm on my final slab. And I know. Thank you. GameFAQs going and reading a 2001 GameFax walkthrough. I'm like, I see how far I am from the end, so there's still more. But even at this point, like, no, it's like, it's not a no for me. Like, this game is trash. It's just like, I want more. And that's what I'm hoping I'll get out of 11. Or, you know, I'm playing this and I really downloaded Live Alive, where I was like, yeah, okay, I want that. Or it's like, I'm looking for that experience still in that chase. And I. Even when I was playing this and Barrett was asking me about it, I was like, you know what it makes me do? It just makes me so upset that I stopped See a Star so many two years ago because it was another review. And I knew you had that. You know what I mean? Like, it's that idea where it's like, this game has something to it. I understand. Especially going back and reading the reviews, right? Where we're talking about, like, this was revolutionary, right? This is John R. If you can look past dragon. Dragon Warrior 7's vintage outer shell, you'll find one of the deepest, most satisfying RPGs, right? In order to appreciate Dragon Warrior 7, you simply must look past the squatty characters in chunky dungeons. Like, it's like, infinitely complex job systems. And it's like, none of that is resonating in this version. And going. And reading the IGN review. The GameSpot review from people who have way more experience with the source material, right? They're talking about, man, they really sanded off the edges to make this one where anybody could get into it. But then it kind of loses you. These people who, because of what IGN GameSpot, both gave it sevens. We're both, like, it loses the pull of it on that level of it. And so it's. I think it's a compliment to it that coming into it I was like, damn, this is. There's something close to this. I'm going to go. I'm going to go back and play this 27 or 17 game, Dragon Quest 11. You know what I mean?

[C]

Yeah, no, it's. I'm not a JRPG historian. I have just gotten into the genre of turn based JRPGs or just RPGs that are turn based in general in the last few years. But like to me it kind of feels like now I've played so many interesting modern turn based games. Right. I've played like a Dragon, which I think is a really great turn based game. It's super fun. Metaphor. Of course, Shout out that whole turn based system is awesome. Of course Expedition right with my Jeopardy. But turn based. So now I'm in this weird place where I see this game and I'm like kind of damned if you, damned if you don't. Right? Where it's like, I'm sure that original fan base, they wanted the exact gameplay, they want that. But it's like man, comparatively to the other things around it. It's like, man, we need to do something a little bit different. Especially after metaphor, man, which is. Metaphor is so fucking good. And the way that they deal with, you know, when a character misses and then they are. They're kind of staggered and now you have something to do which is some type of interactivity of like, I need to be paying attention because again, that game also has an auto battler. Never did it.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Not even once. Not even didn't even think about it. But the fact that immediately Persona has it too.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

Yeah. So it's. That is my issue here where it's like, again, like, I understand that they have the original but reimagines in the title and it just does not feel reimagined.

[A]

And that's another big thing. Let's talk. Let's talk about how small the experience feels. I am a Back to the Future nut, as you know. You can go listen to our commentary for Back to the Future right now on Patreon. Right. The interview episode is up.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Okay, cool. I love that. And so I like. Chrono Trigger has always been such a miss for me. Like I've tried it multiple times. I just can't get it to click and stick. And I want it to. Right. Because you fucking talked to me about Ocarina of Time. Right. You know what I mean? Going from the hyrule You've been spending your time into to fucking future Hyrule. And there's a fucking Zelda mummies everywhere. I'm like, this is fucking insane.

[C]

Spoilers.

[A]

This game, when it introduced, like, oh, man, you're not alone. You're gonna go back. And then when I get back, the island appeared. I was like, oh, I can't wait to see how different it is. It is so embarrassingly same. Yeah, you go there and it's like.

[C]

It's confusing almost exactly.

[A]

I was so confused. I was like, how much time has passed? Like, 10 years and they're talking, and every time you get there, it's the same like, oh, here's this call back to the thing you just did. But we only know about the one person. There was five other people with them or four other people with them, but we can't remember you. They're lost to time. And it's like, the world, Mike, isn't the same or, I'm sorry, it hasn't changed. So it'd be akin to someone comes in here and helps us solve all these issues, then they jump ahead 200 years and we're all gone. There's new people here, but everything looks exactly the same.

[C]

The desk is here.

[A]

Nothing is dilapidated. Nothing is broken down. No, there's like. Oh, yeah, like, even the fucking bridge has this.

[D]

But there's also a dude. From the sounds of it, there's a dude who looks like Kevin, who's here,

[A]

but it isn't Kevin.

[D]

Also, really quick, when's the last time you've gone back to Chrono to Trigger?

[A]

Did I say it wrong? What was wrong?

[D]

Yeah, I'm just giving Chrono. Yeah, but when's the last time? Genuine question. When's the last time?

[A]

When I had. I mean, would have been this year on Steam Deck. No, I'm not 2025 on Steam Deck. Oh, okay. Why?

[D]

Because when you were talking about earlier, looking for a grand adventure and talking about the pitfalls of this, like, I think. I don't know how deep into it you'd need to go, but, like, I. I would give, like, more of a. I don't know how. How long you played Chrono Trigger for.

[A]

I got. So first off, I just want to say to everybody, Crano and me in the chat or whatever, fuck off. Come talk for a living. And not, like, totally not my point. I woke up this morning not expecting to talk about Crano Trigger. All right, Fuck y'.

[B]

All.

[A]

Fuck you to death. No, it's also very interesting and I think part of this conversation is last year with the Gamescast I'm done with turn based RPGs and then Octopath reawakening in that and finding that and me being like man, maybe it is that I'm really looking for these retro esque JRPGs or literally retro. So I do need to I think now go back to Chrono Sugar again. But then we just fall into the same exact problem we always have of cool. I'm so excited that tonight I can play redacted tonight I can play it because tomorrow reacted number three comes and that's when I got to start to that and I have a very tight bar going. So it's like when am I going to fit another gigantic I will say

[D]

for your next looking for that like you brought up Sea of Stars to me in the conversation. Other people in chat were talking about Sea of Stars. I for you I would prioritize Chrono Trigger over Sea of Stars or anything Cran Apple Trigger.

[A]

That's funny. I'll let you go on that one.

[D]

That's good, that's good.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, maybe I'll put that on. They must have a version on Switch. Some classic Chrono. Yeah, yeah, I don't think so.

[C]

No, really, I genuinely do not.

[A]

I already own it.

[C]

I looked this up recently.

[B]

You know what, we'll look it up right after a word from our sponsors and we'll come back with these guys and all their energy talking about Dragon Quest 7.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by boot.dev. are you ready to be a software developer? Kevin is My favorite feature is that

[C]

you could find a solution that works but then afterwards you can hit solution

[D]

and see the way that they were trying to teach you to do it. That's really cool.

[A]

Learn backend web development from start to Finish in Python SQL and go the fun way with boot.dev. it's an RPG like experience where you learn to code by building real projects, earn XP levels, achievements, complete quests and fight bosses while learning to code. All content is free to read and watch. A paid membership unlocks interactive features like hands on coding, progress tracking and game mechanics. Boot.dev has a 30 day no questions asked refund policy, a free demo of the interactive experience on every course, and a discord community with tons of real humans to help you. If you ever get stuck, go to boot.dev and use the code. Kinda funny to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual plan. That's boot.dev code. Kinda funny to get25 off your entire first year of the annual plan. Chrono Trigger. Not on Switch as the chat has.

[C]

Not on Switch.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, PlayStation, though. Okay. I don't think it's a spoiler right where I. I'd start. Well, I mean, it's the game right where I've gone back in time and back in that game. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. So, I mean, like, people are always trying to figure out how it is. And I remember one, I was like, it didn't work for me. Somebody's like, you got to get to this point. I'm like, I'm past that point. Like, I don't. But I. Again, I'm a different man now. Okay. More educated, more sexual, Got a lot of potent.

[B]

Well, boys, you've given your scores. You've got some energy now. You've talked a lot about the games and what you don't like. I want to hear a couple of things that you do like.

[A]

I love.

[B]

I love that.

[A]

Thank you.

[C]

I want to talk about the visual quality of this game. I really like it. I dig the art style. I don't think it doesn't read puppet to me as much. I understand that they're going for that, but, like, it doesn't feel puppet tea, I guess. The characters themselves, I like what they got going on there. I like the visual quality, but I think it looks great.

[A]

So visual quality, excellent.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

My problem with the puppet part of it is really just these main characters. Your team. I feel like we should have either gone more towards Team America or more like we're in the middle of this slider where I'm like, I wish you would have gone another direction. Because Kiefer in particular, he's always like, he looks like the flappy head Canadian from South Florida. Don't call me buddy guy pal. You know what I mean? That doesn't work for me. For me, she's. I love her, but it's like, haven't met her. Yeah, I know. You're still quite a ways away.

[C]

I don't know who this woman is.

[A]

Visual quality excellent. These guys hit or miss, I feel. And I really hate my dopey fucking guy. And I hate that I played the fucking demo right. This is, I swear, gonna go somewhere I like. I played the demo that gives you an outfit for Maribel that you can actually equip to change her. So now she's in this orange dress rather than this thing. Rocked it all the time. And I was like, oh, thank God there's going to be stores where I buy other outfits for these characters. No, there's. There's a DLC pack that I couldn't buy because the game isn't out yet. That'll eventually it's on this dopey looking elf that isn't an elf. Over here is the main guy. Doesn't matter though. Visual quality, excellent. As you said, Mike. The soundtrack, excellent. I'll tell you, you'd think 35 hours in hearing the same four excellent tracks. I'd be annoyed by it. I'm not. It's comforting. I love it. The one thing we haven't called out that I will in terms of NPCs redundant. I'm sick of seeing the same people do the same shit. The monster design, excellent. Oh, there are, there are so many different monsters here. Where it's like, ah, I get it. You didn't. The NPCs are all reusable. You're the guy who looks like you got electrocuted and you're bald. And then you're the guy who's the scientist who had a great story. But now every scientist looks like you. Like, whatever, but like you run. Every new area has new monsters and they all look awesome and you'll see variants of that. I was like, this is cool. I like favorite monster bosses.

[B]

Oh, everybody go around the table, give me your favorite monster. Because they have some wicked cool, fun monster design.

[C]

There's like a puppet one that like kind of falls apart that I got got pretty recently. I like that. That one.

[B]

I've always liked the rat B or the mouse bee, whatever.

[C]

Oh, I hate looking at those. Or the one with the big lips and the tongue. I hate that one. That one's disgusting. Nasty.

[A]

Okay, I don't, I don't think it's a spoiler. I won't show it. Yeah, I'm gonna show it to you. Yeah, I took a screenshot because I love this so much. There's a guy. I mean, this is just quest stuff that you do like. So this is a bigger monster, a boss you have to fight eventually, right? But there's a lot of bosses. Don't worry, I'm not ruining a lot of bosses. But eventually have to find this thing and it's been known for eating moss or whatever. And so when I finally got that down there, Chan, his name, Mosferatu, I

[B]

was like, that's fucking fun.

[A]

I like that a lot. I like that. And then of course the other, my, my normal run of the mill monsters, my Favorite the Wet Kissers. I have. Of course, I haven't figured out what the joke is yet, but there's something in there of like, okay, what Andy says when Mike and Roger show up, you know, wet kissers.

[B]

He's calling you wet kissers.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Look at them with their big.

[C]

I hate it. Disgusting. It's so fucking. And they lick you too. Yeah, and they lick you and they stun you hot. I talk about how ignorant I was of this franchise and not knowing Dragon Warriors. Yeah, I didn't. I do know the slime, but I haven't also. I should have said this. I have never played a Dragon Quest game before, so this is my first one as well. Did not know Akira Toriyama was the.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[C]

Was the designer behind all this. So that really shocked me when I opened this up and I was like, is this the. Oh, fuck, it is.

[B]

Holy shit.

[C]

And I did the whole research and that. That is really cool. Seeing his legacy live on through these games and feel you meet. I met a few characters. I met one character recently. I'm like, oh, shit. You could be straight out of Dragon Ball. Like straight up like an npc.

[B]

I'm like, oh, wow.

[C]

You could totally be out of that.

[D]

That's why for. To bring it back to that point of like the art style and the direction they went with it. I. I do like it for them adapting Toriyama's stuff into 3D because it reminds me of Sandland and playing sand that game and seeing that in. In kind of a 3D format, I really like.

[A]

We were excited for Sandman. Yeah, it was good combat.

[D]

It ran like on PC.

[C]

Played a good two hours. It was great. Yeah, no, I. That the game. I. I think the game looks great. For me, the art style works. I understand. Kiefer does look. Team America. Totally got that. But it makes me laugh, honestly, kind of. It kind of.

[A]

He's one of my favorite dudes in the game.

[C]

And it also brings this energy of like, okay, like they're different than the NPCs, but it feels like kind of bigger. Especially since they are scanned puppets or whatever. I want to specifically shout out the switch 2. I will stand by this. I think this is probably the. One of the best ports the Switch 2 has ever seen. It's so high quality when you put it up on the tv. When you play it on handheld, it does not do like the. Or at least it's not to my eyes doing the auto changing of the resolutions. It's not dynamic. It feels very set and it Feels super high quality to the point where I'm playing this on the TV. I'm like, this could be the PS5 version. I could not have told you. And I'm very sensitive to that stuff. I'm playing a redactive video game right now, which we'll talk about in a few weeks. That, you know, is really rough when you go to handheld and all that stuff and you feel it.

[A]

You told me it look good.

[C]

It did. And then I'm playing on handheld right now and I'm like, I'm doing a lot of things and it's moving a lot of things. And this one, even in the heat of the battle, when you're running around, it fucking looks gorgeous. What Square Enix is doing with this. And also the little bit that I played of Final Fantasy when they had the preview event of Final Fantasy 7, that looked awesome too. So they're doing some really good stuff. And this is Unreal Engine too. So shout out. Like, a lot of people talk about Unreal Engine. I believe It's Unreal Engine 5. Talking about how it can't go to Switch and you know it's a bad engine, yada yada. If you work hard, hard enough, and you're able to optimize, you can get that running real well.

[A]

Another thing I want to shout out, right, is so if you haven't played it before, think of every island as you set off on it as a new chapter, right? These are all very vignette of, like, okay, cool. I think a complaint I would have about this game, especially with a grand adventure, is that the grand part of it? Like, I did not think people were reacting appropriately to islands being blinked into their world.

[B]

Completely.

[A]

Completely.

[C]

There was a moment where I was like, can we only see these?

[A]

Why are we having bigger conversations about what we're doing as a whatever? And so eventually, like, I would say two thirds through, they're finally like, you know what? A lot of the shit happening has been connected to this guy. Has it? I'm like, has it? I've never heard anyone mention it except you, right? Yeah, literally. But I guess he's the big bad. So it's like that part I. The overarching. It's not that I'm not a fan of. It's just like, okay, this isn't supported. The vignettes, the chapters, you get some really good ones there, where I did show up into towns like, holy shit, this is what's going on here. And then I'm like, what is happening? Oh, oh, okay. Like, they Ha. They do a good job of giving you entertaining scenarios to go into my problem with it again, to get to that 6.5. Right. Because I am putting it over. And I do. Like, that is. It's not interesting in the way an octopath is of like, oh, my God, like, what. This is really connecting and hitting. And it's because you really don't have much to do. You are like, this is so by the books. Rinse, repeat. You show up. This is going wrong in the town. We're going to go get the MacGuffin to get this other MacGuffin to set the thing up to, then fight the big thing, and then we'll fix the whole.

[C]

Usually the big. The big thing is somebody you already know that becomes a monster or something like that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That happens early on for sure. So it's like, okay, I get in the thing and I think that's where you go back to. It's a Saturday morning cartoon. It's comfort food. You're not going to be caught off guard, at least in my 35 hours with it of what you're doing or why. But then you fall into this thing of cool. 35 hours in. I want to play a different dragon quest or a big, grander adventure. I don't need to see this through because I'm not properly motivated to save the world. Because you really haven't established that this is something other than there's a bunch of islands.

[C]

Yeah. I'm waiting for that moment, for it all to connect and have like, okay, well, this is the grander thing. Because right now I'm having a few times already because, like, I would say every scenario is maybe about two and a half hours. Two hours. It's not. It's a very pretty short, at least in the beginning ones. So there were a few of them where I'm playing and I'm like, I just want this one to be over. Since you feel the episodic nature of it. You're like, well, I just. I'm just going to not skip through it. But I'm like, I just. Let's just move through this one. I'm not invested in this one. Let's hope the next one is going to be better. So I think that's like the tug, the push and pull.

[A]

And again back to. I like this and I like what I'm doing there. And I know that we're criticizing, but I think it's so important to be, like, why I would recommend it. If it sounds interesting. Definitely play the Demo. Go get that. But why walk away, right? It never evolves on air, delivers on any of the concepts it introduces. Again, timey. Why me? We go to the. We go from the present to the past, the past to the present. Nothing changes in the areas. I mean, that sucks. It also sucks if, like, when I. I don't. I'm not a game designer. I could never design a video game. I don't know the fuck I'm doing. To be in the past and then go back to the present. And then somebody says something like, oh, I'm gonna have to go back to the past and get the code from them or move this thing. Oh, no. I just had to walk out and trigger a cutscene. And now that it's like, dude, like, you have this really cool past, present thing, let's do something with that where you. You don't. That's not what it is.

[C]

And that's what it comes down to, like, the reimagined of it all. It's just. It is. It does not feel reimagined. Does not feel like we're taking this idea and bringing it into the modern era.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

From the ground up, rewriting things, changing it around. It feels very much like, hey, we're going to bring the original version of this. We're going to cut a lot of the fat, make sure that you can fast travel everywhere. Which is, by the way, just learned that last night. What a sabio.

[A]

No, no.

[C]

I went.

[A]

Because I zoom for the first time.

[C]

I was like, what does button do? Because I thought it was zooming in on the thing. Because you press on. You go to the menu and you press zoom on, like, the little cities. And I was like, oh, zoom in on the map. Oh, fuck, I'm here already. God damn it. So. Which is great. Helps you out a lot.

[A]

And that was something I was shocked about reading both these reviews. And then even people who were talking about Dragon Quest 7, talking about that discovery and exploring, and it's like, man, I don't think the game rewards you at all for exploring. Like, I early on was like, I'll run point to point and try to. There's no offshoots, there's no side quests, there's no little thing I'm running over. Here it is. And again, this isn't bad. It's just okay that you're going from point A to point B. Do the thing, keep going. Numbers go up, I get stronger, team gets better.

[C]

But even then, like, that's something that I think the game could have Done better about is cutting out some of the fluff when you talk to somebody, right? You talk to somebody. Okay, now walk over here and talk to somebody else. You that we could have just triggered multiple. We could have traveled between the thing and then we could have saved maybe 15 minutes.

[A]

I get the little cut scene talking to grandma here and then I walk out and there's another little cutscene here. It's like.

[C]

Or you have to walk up here and do the thing and figure out the map and it's like we could have just conjoined this together and then moved on my life because it's like not like you can't go back these places. You absolutely can and you will find everything. Like we could have just kept.

[A]

So back to your point though Mike of like what do we like about this game? Because I don't want to be negative right here but again this is everything you probably love about a turn based RPG or a JRPG boiled down into something I think that's way more palatable and easy to get in and out of. That's the big thing where me walking away from this, deleting it from my switch to right when the wild hair comes back I'm like I should finish that and I bring it back down. I'm not going to be lost for the game does a great job of every time you go to the menu telling you what you need to be doing next. Especially when I started getting all these islands like oh, it's going to get confusing. No, the game does an excellent job of when you are on a quest and running off. You can hit B at any point to talk to a party member who's got something to say and they will do the thing of reminding you or pushing you somewhere or just giving you great context to the world. I thought that was a great world builder and a great team builder. I think they don't do enough with the relationships here to make me really go man, Maribel, it's us and there is a quest later on that you are that is better. But even that it's like this still.

[C]

I want.

[A]

I'm wanting this to hit octopath wise or Persona wise and it's not. But I'm willing that a little bit and giving you some credits anyways. There's that of talking to them and having them involved. It's getting in and like when you go into these places this is both a pro and a con. But for somebody who has a kid gonna put a game down, come back months later or whatever when you go to the maps, you can just click through level by level and see like, oh, there's the treasure chest I haven't opened. There is the piece of the tablet I need to go get. It's ridiculous. These tablets that are so important, the number of them, Mike, you walk in and they're just sitting on the floor in a storeroom or whatever. Like, no, they. I gotta smash a pot to grab it. It's not hidden. I know as soon as I get to that world, it's right there. But again, if I'm just trying to go do this and get the essence of a JRPG without having to spend 150 hours on it. You're getting that, right?

[C]

Yeah, no, it also has a good explainer. So. So so far every time you boot up the game, it just, I wish it was voice read and they can kind of do it like that. But yeah, you can read through exactly where your party members were to great detail. Great, great detail. And yeah, as Greg is saying, like I, this is like a Saturday Sunday morning. You have a cup of coffee, you want to start your day right, play a little bit of this game, put it down, move on from it. So yeah, I feel like I got everything so far that I'm looking out of this, but I just don't know if I can. Hey, this is the only game that I'm reviewing. Only game I'm playing. I think this is a better second to third video game that I'm also kind of juggling have in the background.

[A]

Yeah. And I think it's the same thing too to this. It's a very approachable JRPG turn based rpg. Right. Of like, okay, cool. Early on, Mike, like, you know, I upgrade my gear and I go to sell it and it's like, hey, just so you know, you may never be able to get this item back. I was like, oh, these boxer shirts are going to be important.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Hours later, it's just like none of this matters. Sell, sell, sell. Do the whole thing. And I'm not left with choice paralysis. I'm not, I'm. I'm flush with money from fighting all these monsters. So I'm able to buy the next best thing whenever I show up to a town to, you know, keep the characters going like you, it hits it, all the checkboxes and endorphins in your head to make you go, I'm enjoying this and I'm doing something. I feel the party getting stronger even if I'm not necessarily connected to them on every different level. And I Think there's again to that spectrum I'm talking about. It's that fascinating part of like when I took a break from this to start up the Witcher when I wanted that grand adventure. Eventually my responsibilities brought me back where I'm like I gotta keep going. It's just I know Roger's not playing. I gotta go back. I gotta have something to say the in this games cast like I'm now worried about going back to the Witcher and being lost. Like all right, I played two and a half nights of the Witcher. Where did I leave off and what was I doing and my curse. But is. This one is like I. This one is like I have none of those concerns. Which is nice to have a you know, game on that side of the screen.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Unironically I, if I were to kind of like do my whole like jrpg, you know, turn based kind of come up a little bit differently, I would recommend to pass Roger to pick this one up.

[A]

Oh man, that was my thing of like look when it, when, when I. It was revealed to me 2001, this is a contemporary thing that I owned this EGM and I, I read this review and again it's funny how game criticism, how far we've come of reading these three things and you read these like I have no idea what this game is based on this. You like you're even saying the same

[C]

thing I say as much as slurs or something.

[A]

Stop talking about how, how many hours it is. You're. Why did you say that? Shane? John already said that. You wasted some of your words. But it's that idea of like, damn. Like I would have loved to have been back then and jumped in and tried it and if it would have done that and it wouldn't have probably you know, every journey or whatever. Like I remember a friend tell me you got to play Final Fantasy 7. I was like absolutely. Little finger going around. I don't want to play that crap. So anyways though no, I would have loved to have done that. And I think again it's an interesting thing to be here where it's like cool. This one isn't one. I feel like I gotta go finish. But I. In 35 hours I got what I wanted out of it. And I think it's very fascinating. I'm still hungry for more. Whether it be Dragon Quest 11, whether it be Crano Trigger like that. I like Crano.

[B]

Well, let's bring in a super chat right now from gg. Ricky who writes in says Dragon Quest has Always been a warm blanket of JRPGs. Grab a hot chocolate, bundle up and enjoy the story. Guys. As we wrap up this podcast, I want to go back over and just say, hey, is there anything else that's left on the table that you want to bring up one last time? And I would love for you to repeat your score really fast and if it's changed at all during your conversation. Because I think you guys had a really good conversation of the pros and the cons of your gameplay here.

[C]

Yeah, after this conversation, I hate it actually. No, yeah, I would give it a 7 out of 10 so far. Again, I'm enjoying my time. It is something that I, I'm not going to. If I were stop right now by the end of the year I'd be like, oh fuck, I did play that game. Like it doesn't stay in my brain. It is not something that is impactful which is is interesting because I think most JRPGs, especially turn based ones that are this long that are have the crew, usually those are the most impactful video games that I play.

[A]

Right.

[C]

It's like, oh fuck, this is the crew. I don't feel that at all. But that's not a bad thing because I'm having a good time. I like the visuals. It plays great on the switch too. And it's just a good pick up and play and put down video game. So yeah, I would recommend it to people if that is kind of something that you're interested in or looking for anything.

[A]

I have not changed. Dragon Quest 7 is Dragon Quest 6.5. All right. It's an okay game. I think mileage will vary. Always does. Try the demo. I'm so glad I did. And then I'm so glad I committed to playing more of this and really getting that out. And I think, you know, for us it's always that hard thing of being a video game reviewer where there was definitely those nights where I was like, ah, all right, this fucking. This story's stale and I'm not enjoying it. I wish I was playing X, Y or Z. Right? Or the new code that just came in, da da da. But then there'd be the one of like okay, cool. Oh, and I like this threat and I like that part of it. And like again I think the cozy blankets and the hot chocolates and whatever both they're talking about from Fire Blend over on the subreddit and what the super chat saying that hits and makes sense for what this is. And I think maybe if you were to sit there and Enjoy it at your own pace and have it out there and have it when you are in that. I am brain dead and just want to play something. This would be a great fit for that as I often am.

[B]

Well let's finish the podcast with an off topic super chat that did come in from jerk face Jake who says hey, kind of funny. I usually sit here on set listening all day via Amazon Prime. Just finished the Supergirl teaser in review. Curious Greg, do you still buy comics or do you use a digital storefront?

[A]

I think I talk about in Supergirl in review. I am strictly DC Infinite now. I want to say all access but that was the old show. I have been for a while, you know. But I think it's also important to point out that I am not currently actively reading comics like I was once. Ben came around and priority shuffled every free moment outside of being a dad or a husband needs to be playing video games and so I am very very down that rabbit hole of doing it. And so when something comic does come around I do jump on it. But you know the death of Comixology from what it was was such a heartbreaker. My current not dream. I have lots of dreams but hope is that as Ben continues to show interest in comics I would love to get him on a pull list. We go we actually start buying physical again as I see how much he loves collecting Pokemon cards and monster trucks and stuff like comic collecting and having that collection was always such a big deal for me. I could see him really enjoying that. So I'm yeah strictly reading digital still, but I'm to even say I'm reading is falsifying documents. I'm when I need to grab something I'm grabbing it off of DC Infinite. Usually I don't mind being a month behind.

[B]

I love that. Well guys, that's going to be the end of today's Gamescast. But guess what? If you're watching live on twitch and on YouTube we are far from done with the day. You have a kind of feudy right around the corner asking what will the GTA 6 Metacritic score be? You'll find out and what those contestants will answer on an awesome episode. I kind of feuding. Then after that you'll have an afternoon stream with Mike and Nick playing army of Two. Wrapping that playthrough up. If you want to know what's been happening what the 411 act kind of funny throughout the week, go watch the buzz because we have a lot of big special guests throughout the week and you're going to want to know the kind of funny schedule I wasn't briefed

[A]

on this wasn't it just you on a character?

[B]

We'll see you all next time. Goodbye.

[C]

Bye, everybody.

[B]

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