Lumines Arise, Possessors Reviews - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast (Nov 11, 2025)

Episode Theme: Reviews and Deep-Dive Impressions of Lumines Arise & Possessors
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., Andy Cortez

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Episode Overview

This episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast focuses on in-depth reviews of two newly released games: Lumines Arise, a colorful reinvention of the classic puzzle franchise from Enhance, and Possessors, a Metroidvania with combat inspired by platform fighters from Heart Machine. The hosts dive deep into gameplay mechanics, personal experiences, visionary direction, and how these titles fit into today's gaming landscape. They also briefly touch on Hades 2 and general metroidvania discussion, making this a packed episode for fans of analytical, personality-driven game criticism.

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Lumines Arise Review & Impressions

Introduction / Setting the Stage

• [05:14] Tim Geddes introduces Lumines Arise as a new, “mind-blowing, fiendishly addictive reinvention” by the Tetris Effect team.
• The panel notes its release and set high expectations based on the franchise’s legacy.

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Early Impressions and “Definitive” Discussion

• [06:06] Blessing Adeoye Jr.: Calls it “even better than Tetris Effect,” hugely praises its music, visuals, and progression. Gives it 9/10:

  “I've played through the entire thing… this experience has been even better than Tetris Effect. And I love Tetris Effect… everything is enhanced from music to visuals and all the above.”

• [07:07] Greg Miller: A self-proclaimed lifelong Lumines fan, rates the base game 10/10, but Arise as an 8.5 due to presentation and metagame elements:

  “Luminous, period…is a 10 out of 10 game in experience unlike anything else…But [Arise’s] player progression, the new characters called Loomies, unlocking things for their bellies, faces and like bunny ears…I don't care about any of that…it’s weird and ethereal.”

Notable Quotes

• [06:22] Greg: “That’s my guy.” (Approving Blessing’s view that Arise surpasses Tetris Effect)
• [08:29] Greg: “How do you make player progression in that matter…Why are we making these new characters called Loomies and we’re unlocking things for their bellies...and it’s like, I don’t care about any of that…”

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Gameplay Discussion: Modes and Experience

• Journey/Marathon vs Multiplayer
  • Greg prefers classic survival and marathon, “how long can you stay alive,” over competitive multiplayer.
  • For Bless, the main campaign “journey” was the game.
  • Andy emphasizes how immersive the audiovisual feedback is, even as a new player:

    [12:06] “I would just get so laser focused…how awesome this experience is and how it just kind of takes over all of your senses. The soundtrack is fantastic…the way all the visuals evolve.”

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Presentation, Critique, and QoL

• [13:49] Greg: Wishes either for stripped-down menus or deeper metagame hooks/rewards:

  “For me personally…I would either strip out all the stuff surrounding it…or want a better rewards structure, a more interesting what am I doing? What ladder am I chasing? What skills am I filling in?…the main menu [feels] very bare bones.”

• [17:57] Tim: Points out Greg’s notorious D-Pad preferences and longing for the PSP/Vita controls.

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Accessibility, Visual Overload, and Audio

• Greg notes the screen can get too busy, but accessibility options allow dialing effects back (e.g., broccoli and tomato level visual clutter)
• Audio is considered essential:

  [27:34] Tim: “How much are you playing this game without any audio?”
  [27:34] Greg: “Oh, no, no, Tim, no, no. … This is earbuds in. I'm gone. …Luminous is destination viewing. That is destination listening.”

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Comparative & Nostalgic Perspective

• The hosts compare Arise to earlier Lumines games, discussing whether it’s “definitive.”

  [22:34] Tim: “Does this make this a more definitive Luminous experience, adding all of this stuff?” [22:42] Greg: “I mean, definitive? I don’t like using definitive here…”

• Music: General consensus is that the soundtrack is faithful and high-quality, but not a revolutionary leap.

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VR Mode & Bugs

• [29:34] Blessing: Played most of Arise in PlayStation VR2, elevating the sensory immersion, but notes a significant pause/unpause bug that disrupted his sessions.

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Final Thoughts and Scores

• Blessing: 9/10 (“audio visual experience…not uninstalling it, great drop-in value”)
• Greg: 8.5/10 (“Lumines period is 10/10 masterpiece…Arise stumbles on accoutrements, but gameplay is untouchable”)
• Andy: “Modern way to play it…this is the thing to show people who never played Lumines.”

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Key Lumines Arise Timestamps

• [05:00–32:47] – Main review, hosts’ experiences, accessibility, VR, and nostalgia
• [06:06] – Blessing’s review & score
• [07:07] – Greg’s top-level thoughts and score
• [13:16] – On rewards and menu design
• [17:57] – D-Pad tangent & controls
• [21:00–28:40] – Audio, visuals, nostalgia, and matrix moments

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Possessors Review & Discussion

Opening & Concept

• [35:27] Tim Geddes: Sets up Possessors as a “fast paced action side scroller with combat inspired by platform fighters,” notes Heart Machine as the developer and Devolver Digital as publisher.

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Andy’s In-Depth Review

• [35:37] Andy Cortez: Played ~12 hours, deeply let down despite early promise:

  “I have been severely let down…this is such a. I'm not gonna put a score in it, but I'd be like around 5 out of 10 right now…too many good titles to settle for something this underwhelming.”

• Praises: Art direction, character animation, moment-to-moment combat (especially after upgrades, “supposed to feel like Smash Bros.”)
• Criticisms:
  • Worst Metroidvania progression/navigation Andy’s experienced: “You’re lost, and then you finally find a room and it’s just some extra you don’t need.”
  • Unfriendly unlock system: Weapon and ability vendors are confusing, hard to find, and do not clearly map to progression.
  • Backtracking: Frustrating and unfulfilling.
  • Narrative: Strong opener with a dark protagonist-demon premise, but loses focus and impact.
  • Production values feel rushed: “Outside of those first couple hours feels very, very rushed.”

Notable Quotes

• [41:32] Andy: “The things that you are unlocking…has got to be the most frustrating thing I've ever experienced.”
• [44:38] Andy: “This game isn't doing enough to be as frustrating as it is. Like, it’s too frustrating for me to want to keep going…”

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Blessing & Tim’s Experience

• [47:17] Blessing: Played one session, bounced off:

  “I was wait to see what people see say about this, because I'm not automatically vibing with the exploration…I'm not going to uninstall it for that similar reason."

• [51:29] Tim: Had high hopes (based on initial pitch: "Metroidvania that plays like Smash Bros" + Hades/Devolver visual style). After one hour:

  “It just doesn’t feel as good as it looks to me…hoping for a Prince of Persia moment where it all clicks, but didn't find it.”

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Broader Metroidvania Reflection

• Conversation branches into what makes a successful Metroidvania: player navigation, reward structure, discovery, polish, and fun “critical path” design.
• Andy and Blessing: Compare Possessors unfavorably to Metroid Prime Remastered, Animal Well, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
• [46:07] Greg: “Your review, even if it is somebody out there has this perfect run…you play it the way you played it. That's the way the games let you play it.”

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Key Possessors Timestamps

• [35:27–54:00] – Main review discussio—Andy’s extensive critique, brief check-ins from Tim and Blessing
• [38:31] – Getting (and staying) lost, Metroidvania design flaws
• [41:52] – Shop frustration
• [44:53] – “I have to find the fun here. The fun must be here.”
• [47:46] – Blessing’s worries about genre-fatigue/metroidvania as a label

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Brief: Hades 2, Game of the Year, and Indie Talk

• [54:59] Tim: He beat Hades 2 this week; offers minor story criticism, otherwise hails it as a strong GOTY contender:

  “Just beautiful…every run, totally different loadout and be like, God, I love this.”

• Discussion drifts to their personal lists, runner-ups, and future streams (Donkey Kong Bonanza, Windblown, Blueprint, Dispatch).

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Memorable Quotes & Fun Moments

• [17:57] Greg Miller: “But I mean, like, you have to understand too, like, this is Rocky 5. I haven’t boxed in a while.”
• [27:34] Tim & Greg: On playing without audio:

  “Oh, no, no, Tim, no, no. …Luminous is destination viewing. That is destination listening.”

• [35:27] Andy Cortez: “Here are the enjoy Cons. What I enjoyed and the cons.”

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Closing Thoughts

• Lumines Arise is a celebratory, accessible yet deep puzzle experience with near-universal gameplay praise but modest criticism for its menu and metagame.
• Possessors is described as a beautiful letdown, with tedious progression, confusing unlocks, and design that discourages continued play amidst genre heavyweights.

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For Further Listening

• [05:00–32:47] Lumines Arise: Full Review
• [35:27–54:00] Possessors: Review and broader Metroidvania ecosystem discussion

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“Let us know in the comments below what you're thinking about Lumines Arise and Possessors. And stay tuned for a jam packed day of kind of funny content. Till next time. Love you all. Goodbye.” — Tim Gettys [62:08]

Transcript

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[Greg Miller]

Speak English, Mom.

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[Andy Cortez]

What is this place?

[Greg Miller]

We help you reach your true potential.

[Andy Cortez]

How are you feeling? It's good to be Hawaii. Hey, new girl.

[Greg Miller]

Hey. Look at what you've done to yourself.

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For a new plant to grow, the

[Greg Miller]

seed has to die.

[Commercial Announcer]

Slanted Rated R. Only in theaters March 13th. Side effects may occur.

[Tim Geddes]

This episode's brought to you by aura frames and shady rays. But we'll tell you about that later. What's up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, November 11, 2025. Of course. I'm your host, Tim Geddes. I am joined today by Blessing Adioea junior.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Good day, Tim.

[Tim Geddes]

Greg Miller. Hello. Timothy and Andy Cortez.

[Greg Miller]

It's him.

[Andy Cortez]

Man, this little Asus Rog Xbox Ally putting out some heat. Warming my tendrils. Yeah, right. A little bit chilly in here, but this is really hitting the spot right now. Well, the white button still get stuck.

[Greg Miller]

No, it just the way you do it. Only when you do it look fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Then you do. You come in here with your mountain Dew.

[Andy Cortez]

I have strong fingers.

[Greg Miller]

You're doing something weird. You're doing some kind of snake push on it. That's what you're doing.

[Tim Geddes]

You want a snake push. Everybody remember this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcast to get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be part of this show. YouTube Super. Chat in and we'll get to it as we go. Except we won't because this is pre recorded.

[Greg Miller]

We're pre recording this one. Ben's got the day off school and I got to be here to talk about luminous arise then PlayStation saying hey, we're going to do the state of play. That sucks. What the hell.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm excited.

[Greg Miller]

Why are they doing on a day where I got to stay home?

[Tim Geddes]

Who was on Games Daily? It wasn't, you know Roger.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, me and Rush. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Predictions

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

let.

[Andy Cortez]

We talked about possible hints to of Stellar Blade 2. Maybe like Final Fantasy Part 3. Right. We talked about like Kingdom Hearts 4, probably not gonna be there.

[Barrett]

Night Rain DLC.

[Andy Cortez]

Night Rain DLC and Phantom Blade 0 release year.

[Tim Geddes]

Release year. Yeah, they told us they're gonna tell us this year what year it'll release.

[Andy Cortez]

I haven't gotten it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I was listening to the khd. My favorite was Roger bringing up deca Police. And I was like, wow, what did like a deep poll. I've not heard deca Police in like years. That's crazy that Roger is able to remember that. And then like 30 minutes later while I'm at my desk, I look to the left and I see Roger's monitor and there's like a game rant article of like top 10 upcoming Japanese games. And DECA Police was on his screen. I was like this.

[Andy Cortez]

That's what you got to do. Snow Mike during typing in. Hello Games.

[Greg Miller]

Everything game.

[Andy Cortez]

Every no Man's sky game.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh man. A little housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business. All about live talk shows. Of course you already got an episode of Kind of Funny Games Daily talking about all the biggest stories in video games. After this we're doing a sponsored Good Night universe stream. Then we're live reacting and reviewing the PlayStation Stadium of play, which I'm very excited about. I'm not expecting Final Fantasy here only because I'm convinced it's at game Awards. But hey, I'll be pleasantly surprised if it's there tomorrow, you know, or today if you're watching.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, we were mentioning it's not it. It will always be weird until it happens. And this being like the first time this has happened. There's no precedent set. We have no idea why would they do this if not to announce some cool bangers.

[Tim Geddes]

It is weird too that not to go too far into this because that was what Games Daily. Yeah, yesterday was about. But they're calling it say to play Japan. But then in the description they're like. But we're also covering a lot of other Asian territories. So it's like, I wonder is the focus. I don't know something about that.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, that's why I'm assuming, yeah. Phantom Blade Zero and a lot of the project China Hero or whatever.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

China Hero project.

[Andy Cortez]

I got to assume there's a, you know, going to be some announcements around there as well.

[Tim Geddes]

Asia.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Why Focus on why Call of Japan.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, you're right. Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

I don't know.

[Andy Cortez]

You're not wrong.

[Tim Geddes]

Anyways, if you're a kind of funny member, today's Greg Way is a Roger joint, so you can check that out. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining for now, let's start with the topic of the show. Lumines Aries.

[Greg Miller]

That's a brand new way to say Lumines. Luminesce.

[Tim Geddes]

Lumines.

[Andy Cortez]

You're doing your best. Nick Scarpino impression.

[Tim Geddes]

Luminous Arise is a video game that you all know about. And if you don't, you better find out because the Steam description is as follows. A mind blowing, fiendishly addictive reinvention of the puzzle classic Luminous from the creators of Tetris Effect Connected, where sound pulses through your body, mind and every block you place, triggering dazzling visuals synced to the driving beat of an infectious, eclectic soundtrack. The developer and publisher is enhanced and it is out today. Greg Miller.

[Andy Cortez]

Hi.

[Tim Geddes]

I gotta start with you.

[Greg Miller]

No, but I want to start with Bless.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh, really?

[Greg Miller]

Everyone hears me yell about Luminesce all the time. I just did my top 10 or the games that define me. Luminesce is on there. Luminesce is in my gamer DNA. Guess what? I liked this one.

[Tim Geddes]

I wanna.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know much about Bless. He hasn't talked to me about it and I wanna know about Bless.

[Tim Geddes]

Andy, you didn't touch this one, right?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I played a little bit of it.

[Tim Geddes]

We'll get to you at the end. Bless. Then what are your thoughts on Luminous Arrive?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I adore this video game. I. I've played through the entire thing. I've not beaten the last level because the last level is pretty tough. So I'm still working my way through that. But I would say this experience has been even better than Tetris Effect. And I love Tetris Effect.

[Greg Miller]

That's my guy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But Luminescent Arise, I think as a video game, as an experience, is better than Tetris Effect, even though I would still say that. Well, don't clap yet because I would still say Tetris overall better than Luminesce.

[Andy Cortez]

All right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Still, Tetris is a better puzzle game, but Luminesce Arise is better than Text Arise over Effect. Arise over Effect.

[Greg Miller]

And I'll take the W. The reason

[Andy Cortez]

I say that is because a cool album Like a Linkin Park.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This feels like enhanced studio learning everything they learn or they learning everything that they could have from making Tetris effects and applying it and even a greater degree in Luminescent Rise. Everything is enhanced from music to visuals and all the above. And so I really enjoyed this one. I'll give it a 9 out of 10. On the kind of funny.

[Tim Geddes]

Wow, amazing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. On the kind of amazing video.

[Tim Geddes]

I love that. Greg, what are your top level thoughts on Luminous? Arise.

[Greg Miller]

As I've already said, I've been with Luminous as long as anybody could be with Luminous. I love this franchise, this game, this IP to start and make it clear. Luminous, period, the game of hey, we're taking, you know, these blocks of four dropping down trying to make two by twos of the same color is a 10 out of 10 game in experience unlike anything else. Again, when it comes. I love Tetris. I love Luminous more just as a base game. This is what you're doing. So when you get into, hey, there's a new Luminous come out for me, it comes down to a bunch of different stuff and it's all really wrapped up in presentation for me. I think this is an 8.5. I think this is great. I think they have and will probably always continue to struggle with making Luminesce cool outside of the game, if that makes sense when you're doing what you just saw in that game. Fantastic. Great. How do you make player progression in that matter, how do you. Why are we making these new characters called Loomies and we're unlocking things for their bellies, their faces and like bunny ears and shit. And it's like, I don't care about any of that and I don't need to care. As you see the little guy with his block over there, there's that Lumi. But it's one of those of like, okay, this is weird and ethereal. When you step onto the main menu, very empty and ethereal. But they're still trying to do stuff and have this thing when you go through, when you unlock new names and new monikers, you go in to assign them and they're not. All the new ones you've unlocked are at the top. They're just spread out between the hundred. So you're scrolling, scrolling, scrolling looking for gamer. There it is. Gamer. It's like these are all considerable nitpicks. The game of Luminous is awesome. One of my complaints, playing it or then when I, you know, you're playing, you're thinking about what you're Going to review the game, I was like, God damn. Screens busier than ever. Like, to the point of like, there's one level in this, right, of the broccolis and the tomatoes. All right, I'm matching broccolis and tomatoes, Tim. And you're chopping them up and they're exploding and they're. I was missing blocks because the effects were covering the thing and I was like. I started, you know, I'm like, maybe it'll just be an 8 then. And then of course, you can go into the accessibility settings, turn all that shit off. Like, just have it just be gameplay. If you want to be a weird psycho like me and just be gameplay and do that. Like, it's an incredible game. I think if you like Luminous or have never played it, you're in for a treat. It's just like beyond, beyond the main course of playing the game. We get into the accoutrements because we know luminous is a 10 out of 10. What does it do around that to package it? It does a great job doing that. I think could be better. I think they could streamline a bunch of things. But they have a vision of they want you to be these bunny characters or whatever you want to put on your Lumi and go out and do it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's so interesting because I never even thought about the Lumi's. Like, for me, they're just there. They're never a feature that I interacted with. And for me, this is also my first Luminesque game. And so maybe because I'm coming to it fresher, it's hitting a lot harder for me.

[Greg Miller]

I think one of the things about Luminesce in particular is when you talk to people about Luminesce, you are going to find a varied answer is, what is Luminous? What do you play Luminous for? Right? They have online, they have local multiplayer, they have online head to head multiplayer and burst mode. You have your little red face there, that on your avatar, on your little banner that tells you, like, what your battle rank is, I'm never gonna care about that. I'll go in and do the community thing. They do these weekend events where we all, like, play and like, your progress unlocks a fucking astronaut projection. I don't know. That's what it was this weekend. You know what I mean? Like, again, weird stuff to give you another reason to play in another thing. But, like, you're talking about, like, you know, the journey mode, right, of going through and playing the whole story. For me, I was like, all right, let's get it done, let's get it done. Let's get it done. Because of course, Luminous is all about how long can you go that. It's the marathon mode. That's what. That's what Luminous is limitless for me. So, like, when I got through what I consider the tutorial of the actual, like, hey, here all the things go. Then it's like, cool. Now there's the new mode of just play how long can you stay alive?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

For me, that was the game. Like, well, you're calling the tutorial. For me, that was the experience.

[Greg Miller]

But again, like. And I think there's so many people who will go at it and just, I'm here for battling and head to head in the online thing is never going to be what I want to touch. Right? So for me, it is that thing of like, what am I doing as a single player marathon mode, going through and playing that. What is it rewarding with? What is it challenging me? What's this keeping coming back for?

[Tim Geddes]

I. I want to circle back to this Greg, talking about your. The multiplayer stuff. But first I want to get Andy's thoughts on this from your limited experience.

[Andy Cortez]

I've only played two hours. I. I'm glad that I remembered that I. That we got codes for this one. I knew I wasn't really assigned to review it, but it's one that I thoroughly enjoyed the demo of during Steam Next Fest. I happen to pop into that as somebody who never, you know, I don't really play a whole lot of Tetris, even when Tetris Effect was all the rage. It's something I never really sought out to go get. And I've played it here and there, but it just doesn't hit for me the way it does for everybody else. But yeah, this game is awesome. Found, you know, while I was streaming that demo, I had to remind myself that I was trying to be entertaining and try to make content because I would just get so laser focused and in the best ways and not in a way that it's like, oh, I. I would just like lose myself in like how awesome this experience is and how it just kind of takes over all of your senses. The, the soundtrack is fantastic. The way the things. The way all the visuals evolve. I love their different interpretations for like, all right, this new level, here's what we're doing with the shapes now and maybe it's different color schemes and it's a. Just a totally different theme. In total. I. I really, really enjoy what little I've played of it. Again, I'M glad that I remember that I had a code for it because I, I think I've heard Blessing and Greg talk about. I was like, oh, I, oh my God, we have those. Let me. I definitely gotta like start that up. And I, I was reviewing Possessors at the time, so I decided to kind of like take a break from that, play a bit of Luminesce and really, really enjoy my time with it. And it's something I want to get back to. I keep on thinking of like the last name Maness and the first name Louis and it's like, hey, my name is Lou. Yeah, Louis Miness. That's all I hear right now. But yeah, super enjoyed my time with it. I, along with him, I wanted to get back to like, what would Greg improve on this to kind of make the whole experience a better package for

[Greg Miller]

me personally, I would either. I would go one of two ways and that would be to either strip out all the stuff surrounding it. The Lumi's what I'm unlocking here. Let's just make it a high scoring affair which I think does alienate then maybe be competitive people. But again, for me with Luminous, I think you're always going to be competing whether it is, hey, I'm competing head to head with somebody locally, head to head with somebody online. I'm just trying to beat my own high score. I'm just trying to last as long as you can playing it. I think that's what the meat and potatoes of Luminous is. And granted this is all parsley and set dressing, I admit that.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

But as somebody who's played every Luminous, I was excited to jump in here after, you know, it's been how many years, 20 years since I. Oh Jesus, 20 years since I played it on PSP. Right. Like I'm. I would want a better reward structure, a more interesting what am I doing? What ladder am I chasing? What skills am I filling in? What that kind of stuff, what, what set dressing am I really doing here? Then what you get here, what I think is a very bare bones main menu, right. Of playlist, your loomy pond multiplayer missions or this. And the missions are.

[Andy Cortez]

Looks like the Vita home screen sort of reminded me of.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, sure, I could see that.

[Andy Cortez]

So Sony coded like old school. So Japan 100%.

[Greg Miller]

And that's a great way of putting it. It is old school Sony Japan coded. So yeah, I either rip it away and make it just menus and text and I'm going straight to the next thing to go into it rather than feel like I Have to drift my. And again, this is nitpicky shit. The game's fucking awesome. Go buy it. I love Luminous. Float over my Lumi Pond to go do this thing.

[Tim Geddes]

So what I'm caught up on is the. The multiplayer side that. You sound not interested in one side, but interested just in the events and stuff. But, like, this is the one game I know Greg Miller's good at, right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, well, yes, Yes, I am.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

But I mean, like, you have to understand too, like, this is Rocky 5. I haven't boxed in a while. So I come back and it's like, I feel really good. No, I was just checking. I mean, this is. Whatever.

[Andy Cortez]

It's pre birthday, Polly.

[Greg Miller]

It's pre rank. Right. And like, right now. Thank you. It took me a second. You figure for the Survival marathon game, right now I'm seventh in the world. Not bad. Now that's, you know, with a limited number of viewers.

[Tim Geddes]

I have to stop the podcast just full on right now. Did you hear what Andy just did? You know what that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You mean a Rocky 5 reference?

[Tim Geddes]

Well, it was Rocky 4 reference, but. But do you know what that was?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I know. I think I know around it.

[Andy Cortez]

You probably know.

[Tim Geddes]

Would you believe that it's a. Oh, it's the robot.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

There's a robot.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Happy birthday, Polly.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What's funny is the same voice I imagine you use when you're trying to do the I'm styling friends character.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, Alan.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Anyway, so anyways, yeah, but again, to your point, like the multiplayer, like, leaderboards and stuff.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Like, that matters to me in terms of what I play it for. And again, breaking it up. Right. So the Journey survival, which is the marathon mode. Right.

[Tim Geddes]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

Now, number seven, not. I can be better than that. I need to practice.

[Tim Geddes]

Look at there.

[Greg Miller]

Who's that? Godfrey, number five, Danny Pena, right in front of me. And then look at Jesus Wario 64. Number three, Jesus Christ. Warrior 64. Post a deal. Don't be playing video games. You know what I. So anyways, like, that's John to be. Yeah, but I don't. For me, I don't. I've never had a competition aspect. Everything you ever see me get competitive about, I'm faking it because I'm just doing a character. When I yell at Tim on Showdown, Tim's way better than me at Showdown. And I don't like losing, but I lose all the time. So, like in this, it's like, okay, cool. Like, I don't go to the rankings, but I am very Much like shit, I only lasted in survival. Like this is how you know I'm out of practice. My first survival run, I finally unlock it, I jump in there. I only made it like an hour and a half. I should be doing two and a half hours of Luminous right there. All right, That's a fucking chump change. That's bullshit right there. I gotta get. I gotta get back in the gym. But there's so many goddamn redacted we have to do get in so many

[Andy Cortez]

things, you know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

But that's the, that's the excitement for me of it. Of like Luminous is a game. Arise is a game that will never leave my Steam deck. My. I have it on PlayStation as well. My laptop out there, whatever. Like that's always going to be a thing of. All right, cool, I'm doing whatever and I'm bored with it on the plane. And then it's like, wait, what if I just did a run of Luminous right now? Or I tried to go back and reset my high scores. Because in journey, there's the survival and then, yeah, there's these like pods of four as you go, like broken up things and you get rankings on those too. And it's like for those, like I said, I beat them. And I think for most of them, like seed them, you know what I mean? Maybe you got a B or whatever. And it's like it was just to get to here's journey mode of survival. Let's go. So I do need to go back to those and get those to S Rank because that's the kind of psycho I am of like how I is. But here's something else I'd like to bring up in terms of psychoses, something I roll my eyes at a lot is the one and only Forbes 30 under 30, aka second best baby lose in San Francisco. Aka expectant father Tim Gettys.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Because he's always so particular about his D pads, this D pad on the rock, just not getting it done for Luminous, you know what I mean? I miss my fucking Vita. I miss my fucking psp. I miss that detached those buttons there, you know, It's a heartbreaker out there.

[Tim Geddes]

It is. I'm sorry.

[Greg Miller]

It's okay. I make do. I make do.

[Tim Geddes]

There's the dual sense.

[Andy Cortez]

I had a. A question that may not apply as much to blessing seeing has. Like Luminous hasn't always been his sort of jam. And it may be more of a Greg question, but you saying that like this luminescent rise will never leave your devices, right? Are we kind of in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe vs Mario Kart rolled territory where it's like, this is the new jam. Mario Kart World is going to be the thing. But when Mario Kart World came out, there were still people going, well, eight Deluxe is still going to be like the one that I go to for that experience. Do you see this version taking over any other luminesce for you?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I do, I think. And that's how it really is. You know, when we did the 10 games that define you, I picked Electronic symphony from the PlayStation Vita's catalog. I like the back touch mechanic they had there for increasing your. It's. I was actually trying to Google it because I'm so rusty on it. You'd have to look it up because I'm talking about. But you tapped and I forget what it did to up your score or whatever. I liked that back in the day. And I don't love burst mode. How do you feel about burst? This is a mechanic.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Feelings about. Oh, burst isn't like the mechanic.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

So there's a new mechanic inside of it. Right. As you match your blocks and do it, your burst meter is filling it up at the top. And when. Yeah, you played. So if you don't know everybody, you're filling in this meter. You see a thing going across and it's like, you know, 5%, 10%, blah, blah, blah. When it gets to 50, you can do a short one, but they want you to get to 100. Where basically then the line keeps going, but nothing has to fall. You make it fall.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's like Tetch's effect has the same thing.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly. And so you're trying to match all the colored bricks into one giant thing to really go crazy and burst it out. I got in there, I was like, I don't fully get it. Okay. And then, like, on my first playthrough, Second World, I hit a. I popped the Steam achievement for hitting 100. And I was like, I got this shit. And I have not been able to get back to 100 in so long. You know what I mean? When I'm doing like fucking 28s, 38s. This isn't gonna get it done, Tim. You know what? I so bad this game.

[Andy Cortez]

So that's, like, really cool to me.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I, I, I want to jump in in a second after you because, like, this very much feels like I'm reviewing a different game the way you are. And it reminds me of, like, when you see people who are like, I guess the fighting game analogy for Me, when I see a fighting game professional talk about the latest Street Fighter and how they're all like. They have nitpicks on all these other things where I'm like, oh, man, I liked how the game looked in and like, I like how the game looks. I like how the game plays and I'm not thinking about it on that level. Hearing you talk about all this, where I'm like, oh, damn. I like the burst mechanic because it makes the game easy for a second because I am like, hanging in there.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, I get that. And for the record, I love that. And that's why I wanted you to go first because I know I'm gonna have such a weird old head take on the whole fucking thing versus, like, you in it and really enjoying it. And there it was. I knew I almost had it, but I didn't want to say it. So when you're tapping, each one of the different avatars in Electronic Symphony had different abilities. And so when we were tapping the back touch, you were powering them up to then unleash them.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh.

[Greg Miller]

So I thought that was a really cool thing. I forget what my piggy guy had, but I use the piggy guy a lot.

[Tim Geddes]

I want to go back to, like, talking about the actual chord game because we have. There's. There's Tetris. We all understand what Tetris is. And then Tetris effect. What is the difference there? It's the crazy visuals, it is the music. And it's kind of the tying those things together with the gameplay to create this, like, emotional sensation.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Tim Geddes]

Luminous already kind of had some of the.

[Greg Miller]

Because you like Tetris effect, you better kiss the ring of luminous. It was there first for a reason,

[Tim Geddes]

where it is, you know, combining gameplay with music in a literal way because of the. The way that the. The line moves to the speed of the BPM and all that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Tim Geddes]

So that was there in the PSP1, PS Vita1, and obviously now. So this just kind of seems like taking two great ideas and meshing them together in a way that the luminous always had cool visual effects. But this is a completely different level. Greg, you seem to not necessarily think that's the right move, though you want to wanting to turn that off. Is that ever there was a percentage of the time you want to turn

[Greg Miller]

it off or it was specific level? No, no, no. Well, first off, I didn't even bother diving into accessibility until about 10 minutes ago where I was like, until I read I was looking through the reviewers Guide and they had a thing call out of like, hey, by the way. I was like, oh, shit. So, no, it's not like it was so detrimental to the experience, but in terms of trying to figure out how do you critique something that's 20 years old and hasn't. Don't get offended. Change that much, right? If. If you played a lot of Luminous Arise and you jumped back into Luminesce psp, don't get me wrong, there'd be a big step up in visuals and. Yeah, but like, you'd know what you're doing pretty quickly in terms of what it is.

[Tim Geddes]

So. Okay, then let me.

[Greg Miller]

Sorry.

[Tim Geddes]

Put this in a more positive way. Does it add to it. Does this make this a more definitive Luminous experience, adding all of this stuff?

[Greg Miller]

I mean, definitive. I don't like using definitive here because I feel. I don't think there's been. There's been luminesses I've been disappointed in. I remember.

[Tim Geddes]

I don't.

[Greg Miller]

I didn't think Luminous 2 really pushed that far. I remember when they finally brought luminesce one to PS3 on the PSN, it was. It was a very basic port of what it was like that. So it's like.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know if we've ever searched for. And this is back to like, different kind of gamers. I've never been the gamer to sit there and be like, this was the definitive Madden. You know what I mean? I've played a lot of Maddens and there's always something I like or don't like about them, and not recently, but, you know, it's the idea of like. But you talk to Mike and Mike's like, no Madden, blah, blah, oh, seven or whatever is like, okay, shit. I don't remember what the fuck that was. It's a similar thing here where it's always learning. Luminesce is always learning from each other. And that's because Enhance has done it for so long and loves it so much. The fact that this game still exists is incredible because again, it wasn't moving millions of units anytime it's come out. So to get here, like, is it definitive? Yeah, probably. The music's fucking awesome. The visuals, I think, get in the way of the gameplay. But I think that's when you're talking to somebody like me who's like, I want to make sure I'm doing everything perfectly right. And, you know, I'm following my block mentality here. I have a game plan, Andy, you know, you got block Fundamentals you need to be using out there. So I know what I'm dropping, I'm putting there. And if something gets covered up by a piece of goddamn broccoli, you know what I mean? The lizard's tail or whatever.

[Andy Cortez]

But broccoli turns into cabbage later on.

[Tim Geddes]

It does.

[Andy Cortez]

I'll tell you what I fucking hate, man. I hate like the, the A, B, B A blocks.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You get used to them, Hate them. Because this Greg's block knowledge thing, I think that that's, that's block part, the block legend. That's a big part of my evolution with the game to where like halfway through I'm starting to see the Matrix in a way where I couldn't tell you what the strategy is with words. All I know is that if you sit me down in front of the blocks I can tell you exactly how they need to shift and like turn at the last second and like the way to organize them. It's the Tetris effect thing where you just start to see the Matrix. All of a sudden I got, I like started to scratch the Matrix a little bit in this game, which is super sad.

[Greg Miller]

Have you done the tutorials or the challenges?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I started doing the tutorials but I was like, this kind of lasted too long because they'll get you in there and they're like, drop it down. And I'm like, all right, cool. I dropped it. And they're like now match two blocks of two blocks. And I'm like, I'm not doing this

[Andy Cortez]

back that as I tim talking about definitive editions. For me, I think if anything this just feels like the, the modern way to play it.

[Greg Miller]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

This feels like the, the thing to show people who never played Luminesce in their life but want to be wowed and mesmerized by a cool sonic and visual experience. This is the thing that like, well, yeah, don't play the one on PSP or whatever console we're talking about. Play the one that just came out because it's going to kind of be a lot more visually stimulating and you know, kind of wowy. And you're going to be tapping your head to the. Be going like, holy shit, this is really good right now with the music

[Tim Geddes]

obviously being such a huge part of this.

[Greg Miller]

Like do you think, Greg, let's come back watching luminous gameplay for the psp

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

because I need it, because I need to understand, you know what I mean? Because I, for me, I'm like, it's. This is such a mind blowing experience with a game for me as far as like what it brings to the table visually and musically in a way. So I kind of want to go back and see what you want to

[Greg Miller]

throw it to assets so they can throw it up or whatever. Like, let's have a real conversation. Because I want to make sure I'm being clear and I don't think I'm being negative, nor am I being. I'm being a super fan, I guess. I don't know. Like, clearly this game Luminesce Arrives looks way better than the PSP version in terms of visual quality.

[Tim Geddes]

Different goals.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, but you also look at the PSP one and you're like, I get it. I see you see the same game you just saw. You know, I mean, that's how long I've been playing this game.

[Tim Geddes]

It's Tetris versus Tetris effect. Just the difference is the music. So do you think that this is the best music in Luminous? Does this fit the gameplay better than the other ones? Or is. Is it even different?

[Greg Miller]

No, it's not that different. This is Luminous. This is what it's always been, right where it's like, yeah, right now I couldn't say it or put it into words because I'm not you, Tim. You are so musically talented in terms of being able to hear things and talk about music. In a way, I'm just not educated enough. But like, you know, the standout track

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

for me here is I'm facing my

[Andy Cortez]

fears

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

and I'm rising.

[Greg Miller]

And it's like that you could tell me, oh, that's from Luminous one. And I'll be like, oh, man, I remember shaking about it. Shake your body, shake your body down to the ground. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I have the track, but like, this sounds just like the games I remember nothing here sounds like, oh my God. What? This is so outside. Outside of what it should have been, or blah, blah, like, this is it. And I think again, as we watch the PSP gameplay, granted their effects are just pulsating things right around the fucking ui. But you can see the DNA that becomes crazy ass shit happening on the screen. And again, works for it.

[Tim Geddes]

I think I'm about to ask you a question, Greg, that I almost don't know if I want the answer to. But I'm prepared.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Tim Geddes]

How much are you playing this game without any audio?

[Greg Miller]

Oh, no, no, Tim, no, no.

[Tim Geddes]

Thank God.

[Greg Miller]

I think there's a chance.

[Tim Geddes]

There's a chance.

[Greg Miller]

I am a complete psychopath. Everyone knows that. And I am a weirdo. And we will. There will come A day with Luminesceri's where, yes, I need to do something or I'm whatever and I don't have and I just do it. But no, no, Luminesce is destination viewing. That is destination listening. You know what I mean? This is earbuds in. I'm gone. I respect luminesce so much as, you know, like, I've been playing a lot of redacted games on the couch next to Jen while she watches stuff. Can't do luminesce. And in the same way, can't do luminesce in the bedroom either, because that fucking goddamn buttons on this thing are so fucking loud. I'm hitting my buttons way too much

[Andy Cortez]

foot CL storm away.

[Greg Miller]

So, no, no, no. Like, this has been no destination viewing. And, like, you know, I get excited, like, oh, man, I got. I'm gonna get on the peloton tonight. I'm gonna play some Luminous.

[Tim Geddes]

Hell, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

I. As somebody who never played the old Luminous, for me, it's like Tim talking about, how much does that audio really change the experience? And to me, it's like, if I can get to where the song opens up more. Oh, yeah, I know I'm making a lot of progress.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And not only is it a progress marker, but it's. It sounds and looks awesome and the visuals change. And now it's like, oh, now these instruments have joined along with, you know, now there's vocals and now there's like a. A guitar to go along with that beat, whatever it may be. That's. That's like a really awesome feeling to hit. I really wish that I could. That you could, like, maybe select different color schemes. I. I kind of hope that maybe that's something they experiment with because, you know, one of the levels I love the most is, like, where the orbs are white and purple. Like, oh, it'd be cool if you could. Once you hit a progress marker, those colors completely change to something else visually. And maybe that's just more of a customization thing, but I would love to see different kind of color schemes, mainly just from. From an. You know, like a. A visual appealing point.

[Tim Geddes]

Bless any closing words here on Luminous. Arise.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, I. You know, for me, this was such an audio visual experience. Like, it's so fascinating hearing Greg talk about it, because I think I had such the opposite thing where I busted out my PlayStation VR 2 to play this game. Like, I brought it to the office and played probably most of this game in PlayStation VR.

[Tim Geddes]

How long did it take you by the way to do the Journey mode.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, that's a good question. I kind of lost track. I want to say a five to six hours, like maybe more because I was doing. I was feeling a lot too. Like this is also a learning experience.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You know, how am I supposed to play Luminesce? It doesn't come as naturally as Tetris because Tetris is like, all right, just got to make a line. But. But to Andy's point, when you got like the A, B, A blocks and it's like, what the am I supposed to do with this? Right? Like, that was me for maybe the first couple of levels of Journey until I started to figure out how to like stack those on top of the thing so it can drop down and match perfectly.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, I almost hit you with what you hit Cool Greg with at one time that he was playing a VR game and you looked at him and you said, whoa, he's in VR. Like, we were like, oh, bless right now.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And there's a big up for this one and like a slight down here where the up is that. I do think in our. I think VR enhances the experience, right. I think VR, you get some extra effects there. You get fully submerged into the game in a way that like, for this kind of thing that is doing so much on the audio visual side, I think is additive. In this pre release review version that we have that I. I'm pretty sure they're fixing, they send like a list of bug fixes that they're doing and one of the bullet points they had seemed like it was around this issue. I would have an issue where sometimes if I'd fail if I hit pause on the game and to look at my phone or whatever, because you have these levels last a little bit long, right. I'll look at my phone between a thing before I jump back in. When I jump back in, the UI just locks and doesn't work. And it's a very obvious bug where it's like I have to restart the game every single time. So I stopped playing the game in VR after a while because of that. Again, I'm pretty sure they're fixing this in the patch notes, but like outside of that, right? Like, I just had such a good time playing this game from just the experience perspective.

[Tim Geddes]

Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I love the journey mode and I don't know if I'm going to go back to this thing for the high score chasing. But also, you know, between this and Tetris effect, like, I do like the idea of being able to hop in for one session, be like, all right, let's drop some blocks and then get out. You know, for me, I'm not going to uninstall it for that similar reason.

[Tim Geddes]

You said a lot. But any closing words, Greg?

[Greg Miller]

Great game. And again, I think that's. I'm looking back right now I'm rereading my Luminous Electronic symphony review from IGN, which I gave a 9. So we're right there. You can see how much I respect. That's my favorite Luminous of all time. To be here talking about this. I just. Yeah, again, let's. The nitpicks, right, are just like I don't love the presentation of anything outside of it. I don't love what I'm grinding for. When you look back at Electronic Symphony and you're talking about unlocking different avatar things or whatever like that. Like, like. Again, nitpicky for sure, but I think it's what makes this a weaker version in terms of a gameplay. But again, Luminesce period is a 10 out of 10 game of what you're doing. So if you've never played Illumines or you're like I played, I haven't played one in a long time. There's enough to come back for here with the new skins, the new songs, bsp.

[Tim Geddes]

So this is definitely a win or break game for sure.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean luminesce is luminesce 10 out of 10 masterpiece kind of gameplay. I think this version, Lumines arise is an 8.5 grade.

[Tim Geddes]

We will be right back talking about another game right after a quick word from our sponsor. This episode's brought to you by Aura Frames. Aura Frames are the one gift that never get old. It's the perfect gift to bring your loved ones closer and share memories every single day. No lie. Aura Frames are undeniably the best gift I have ever given families, friends, partners. Everyone loves being able to have beautiful frames showing off their loved ones and all of their favorite memories. Aura Frames are incredibly smart and easy to use, allowing you to upload unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. Plus you can order the frame online and preload it with photos and videos using the Aura app. So it's all ready to go right out of the box when you gift it to somebody named Number One by Wirecutter. You can save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes for a limited time. Listeners can get $20 off their best selling Carver Matte frame with the code Aura20. That's a U R a frames.com promo code Aura20 support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Shady Rays. Let's talk gifts. Not the kind that get tossed in a drawer, but the kind that actually get used and appreciate appreciated. The holidays are coming up fast and Shady Ray sunglasses are an easy win. You don't even need to think about it. I'm doing the work for you. Every pair is polarized, durable and lightweight. They've got a ton of great looking high performance styles that hold up no matter what you throw at them and the price way less than you would expect for the quality. And here's what sets them apart. If you lose or break your shades, Shady Rays has your back with their lost and broken protection. No hassle, just a solid guarantee. So whether you're picking up a pair for someone on your list or grabbing one for yourself, Shady Rays makes gifting simple quality built looks great and actually worth it. Start your holiday gifting early and head to shadyrays.com and use code funny for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades. Rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Shadyrays.com use code bunny and we're back everybody with the second game to talk about. Possessors. Possessors is a fast paced action side scroller with combat inspired by platform fighters. A story told through dangerous characters set in a deep interconnected world ready for exploration. The Developers Heart Machine the Publishers Devolver Digital it is out today. I played about an hour of it. Bless played about an hour of it. Andy Cortez has played a lot more. I want to hear your thoughts.

[Andy Cortez]

I have played close to 12 hours of possessors only because I kept pushing myself through.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, but you love Heart Machine.

[Andy Cortez]

I do. And I even really like Hyper Light Breaker. Even though that, you know, largely was not reviewed very well. A lot of people had plenty of issues with it, but this is one that I was really really looking forward to and have been severely let down by. Played the Steam Next Fest demo whenever that was probably several months ago and immediately saw the vision. Saw some cool moments of art direction. There's a spot where you are playing this young girl who has who's partnered up with a demon who's sort of like half kind of possessing her and the shot zooms out and it's a beautiful, cool looking landscape with awesome color schemes and visuals and you're like whoa man, they're cooking with this one. And the combat is definitely fun enough. I'm Going to introduce this little segment called. Oh, here are the enjoy Cons. What I enjoyed and the cons. I like this art design. I think the. The visual sort of identity of this game is very, very appealing. I think it has a neat kind of menu system. I like the character art, the splash art whenever you talk to characters and NPCs. Very kind of Hades inspired with, you know, here's the way the characters look, but we're also going to add little cool color highlights on everybody. I really. I also really enjoy that the main characters have a lot of different sort of like, emotive looks to them whenever they are feeling a certain way. You're not just seeing the same character grinning or whatever. It's like, here's the angry version of her. Here's the version of her who's like. Like more kind of, you know, smiling and cute or whatever. And this one, she's pissed off right now. I think the art design's awesome. I think the combat, you mentioning that it's, you know, supposed to be reminiscent of, like, platform fighters, I. I really enjoy the sort of combo nature of it. When they put out a tweet a couple weeks ago saying this combat's supposed to feel like Smash Bros. That's what we were inspired by. And yeah, I would. I would kind of agree with that. The way that, you know, juggling enemies works, when you hit somebody up against the ceiling of something, they bounce right off and you can keep on, you know, juggling them in the air, keep on attacking, keep that chain going. It's super satisfying to do once you start unlocking a lot of these moves. And that's kind of unfortunately where all of where the things that I enjoyed are. That's. That's all that there really is. Because for the rest of the experience, for this being a Metroidvania, that requires a whole lot of backtracking. I don't know if I've experienced a Metroidvania that you have been more frustrated with the direction and with the navigation for and.

[Greg Miller]

Because you're lost.

[Andy Cortez]

Because you're lost and then you finally find a room and it's just some extra that you don't need. Like, the amount that that has happened in this video game compared to other Metroidvanias, like, it's insane to me. And a lot of it is, you know, there. I think there are just so many more interesting titles to be playing right now, and that's that, like, what I would tell anybody who is interested in Possessors is like, to me, there's There are too many good titles to settle for something this underwhelming. Like, this is such a. I'm not gonna put a score in it, but I'd be like around 5 out of 10 right now if I were to give it a score. But again, I have. I've played like maybe a fourth or a third or a third.

[Greg Miller]

But you're not coming back.

[Andy Cortez]

I. Dude, like, I. I stopped around eight hours and I was like, I'm so done with this. And then I came back and played about an hour and a half more. I'm so done. And I kept on doing that. Like, there has to be some silver lining that I'm missing here. And it could be that these reviews come out and it's like, oh, shit, I must have missed something really amazing. I can't. Damn. Maybe I gotta get back to this. But like, I. I cannot see where this game is, is hiding any positives. I think it starts off with a really cool, appealing story at first of your. Your character immediately, like, this world is being invaded by demons and stuff, and she gets her legs blown off and she's like crawling and it's like this really, really kind of up scene.

[Tim Geddes]

And.

[Andy Cortez]

And she sees a demon sitting there, also hurt. And the demon's like, hey, I can get you your legs back if you help me get back home. And you're like, oh, cool. We're kind of. I guess I'm gonna team up with you. Even though you're kind of one of the bad guys and you start to kind of unlock, you know, fairly interesting character arcs between both of this young girl that you play and the sexy demon dude that you. That you unlock. Yeah, super sexy looking. And again, I. I think the game starts off super interesting and just continues to get more and more disappointing. I also think that the animations feel like, very rushed. This feels like a game that needed a lot more time and they definitely didn't have a whole lot more time because as you all know, Heart Machine had a lot of layoffs many months ago. And then a couple weeks ago they had even more layoffs. And I think whether it's their social person or their PR person, I forget. But then mentioning on Blue sky, like, I don't know if any of the. I don't know if the whole Possessors team will be around by the time this game comes out because they just laid off a lot of the Possessors team, which is super, super unfortunate. But yeah, so a lot of this game outside of those first couple hours feels very, very Rushed. And I'm trying not to be too doom and gloom and like overly mean spirited about this, but this is. This has the most worst. This has the worst progression I've ever experienced in a game like it.

[Greg Miller]

The.

[Andy Cortez]

The things that you are unlocking, you are unlocking these attacks and each attack you can eventually use your souls or whatever the. Your currency is to affix an item to it. So the weapons you're unlocking are kind of everyday items.

[Greg Miller]

You.

[Tim Geddes]

You're.

[Greg Miller]

Is that why she had a hockey stick?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Your melee weapons are like kitchen knives. Got it. And then I put my special weapon on a computer mouse and you kind of use it to like whip up and it's does a lot of damage and it like shoots enemies up into the air and it's really kind of cool to get that rhythm down. And then you could upgrade those weapons to add little affixes to the. You could affix little items to them and they're. It's. Your Elden Ring talents have been blessed.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's.

[Andy Cortez]

Now I'm gonna regenerate health slowly or now I will do more damage or I will get more health back whenever I dodge at the right time. And the way in which that you unlock these things is. Has got to be the most frustrating thing I've ever experienced where there's these little like rat dudes that are like possessed by a spirit, I guess. But they're the ones that help you unlock these items. But not all of them. They're all different shops. Not all of them sell the same thing and not all of them do the same thing. And like, one of them allows you to get more health back whenever you use your heels. And I must have found that guy a while back. I don't know where that guy is anymore.

[Greg Miller]

And I was like desperately looking for him.

[Andy Cortez]

I have gone to every vendor and every vendor, like, you know, navigation isn't great. You're early in the Metroidvania. You're not going to have fast travel. I understand that. But it still does kind of suck to kind of use this subway system. And it's. I think the game does its hardest to be original with its systems and say, like, well, that Metro Vinya does this. Our Metroidvania. We're gonna do this with progression. And I think. I don't even know if that's what the direction they were wanting. But I think trying to be original, like just copy what the other people are doing and make it works for a reason.

[Greg Miller]

It's popular for a reason.

[Andy Cortez]

Exactly make those systems a lot more appealing. Because thinking about this game reminds me a lot of when I got to check out Phantom Blade zero and how the devs were talking about how when you're not hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware you don't have the leeway that other devs have. And if you frustrate your player base they will say this isn't a fromsoft game. I'm done. Like I you know, you kind of lose. You have a lot less of a leash and I this game for me it's like in a year where we we have silksong and Hades 2 and past years of Metroidvanias thinking of how immaculately designed Prince of Persia lost Crown is.

[Tim Geddes]

It's like also a platform fighter.

[Andy Cortez]

Like this game isn't doing enough to be as frustrating as it is. Like it's too frustrating for me to want to keep going for a game that I've started up so many times to go like no, there has to be something.

[Greg Miller]

I have to find the fun here. The fun must be here.

[Andy Cortez]

I just like I don't. I think some of the boss fights can be fun with how the the combat is generated and you have a Perry and it does feel good cool to nail that every once in a while but man like I have just. I feel like I've wasted and it could just be the way that I've gone about this game in terms of how I have found every path that is not critical path that has led to. Like I was telling Tim the other day I went about three hours without ever talking to my the co star of the game huh. Because I feel like I was just finding every path and you know I talked about my experience with Dragon Age veilguard and how I feel like stuff I had the best possible experience and other people who also played the game who chose different dialogue and it's like oh that that's a worse choice of dialogue. And hearing that now I could see why you wouldn't like this game. But the stuff that I chose worked out great for me. Yeah there may be a chance of you play this and you happen to go all the right paths and it leads you like and you are finding your the progression hooks really really good and you know satisfying in that way. But for me it's like I feel like I have played this game in the exact wrong way. They don't want you to play it and because of that it has just

[Greg Miller]

led to me shouldn't let you play it that way. You Know what I mean? That's the thing, your review, even if it is somebody out there has this perfect run, it does everything or does blah, blah. Like, you play it the way you played it. That's the way the games let you play it.

[Andy Cortez]

And there's too many again, the problem is there's too many good things out right now that, yeah, Arc Raiders had just come out. It's like. Like, I don't want to play Possessors right now. Like, I wanna. And. And when I remembered the Lumen we had, the Luminesque, I was like, oh, thank God I can play luminescent. Just like, stop playing this game. That is frustrating the out of me right now. Yeah, I do not recommend this game right now. And I don't unfortunately see a whole lot of good for this game, seeing how most of the team has been laid off.

[Greg Miller]

Damn.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You describe my personal hell, by the way. Like, for me, it's somebody who talks about Metroidvanias now. Like, obviously there's some Metroidvanias I really love, but Metroidvania as a keyword doesn't necessarily make me go, oh, I gotta play that. You know, play that game. I think I get more frustrated with some of the not great elements of Metroidvania, namely being lost and hitting like, you know, dead ends and finding a new thing, being like, oh, this is the way and finding a dead end. You describing that in Possessors, like, it did something to me emotionally where I'm like, oh, man, I can't do that.

[Tim Geddes]

What was your time like though, with it? Blast. I know it was limited, but honestly,

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm actually surprised to hear Andy's review because we haven't really talked about it. I feel like the last time maybe we had checked in about it was like the day we got the code or whatever. And I think it sounded like y' all were kind of like, oh, this seems really cool, you know, because like it was. You get the first item, which is the mouse pad or whatever, and then starting to get the feel of, oh, okay. It's called Possessors because you're fighting all these items that essentially got possessed or whatever. I thought that was a cool premise. I thought visually the game is doing cool things. And then, yeah, the control wise, it having like these platform fighting controls also seemed cool. But then, yeah, I played one session, got into exploration. It was kind of like, I'm wait to see what people see say about this, because I'm not automatically vibing with the exploration and gameplay flow of it, but I also know how Much of that is usually a me thing when it comes to Metro videos versus, like, the actual quality of the game. And so, yeah, like, I was very fascinated to hear what Andy and other people had to say about it. Yeah, I kind of bounced off of it.

[Andy Cortez]

Here's another big problem, but I'm also playing a really good Metro winner called Metroid Prime Remastered. Yeah, and that's a real good Metroidvania.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Don't get me started.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, and so I'm playing that for the first time and getting even more frustrated at the lack of progress that. And. And just, like, the lack of appeal to make me want to come back to something. It's just. It's not doing enough for me to want to, like, follow the carrot at the end of the stick in the way that whenever you'd be stuck in something, like, I mean, I mentioned great Metroidvanias a little while ago, but like, something like Animal. Well, a game with no combat was so fascinating and interesting. And you want to keep on figuring out what these puzzles are and. And something even, like, I mean, Silksong, again, talking about how awesome Silksong is. Even when you would be stuck, you were still finding things that would take you to new discoveries. And, you know, again, I said the most basic take ever was like, this is the Elden Ring of Metroidvanias. And how that you kept on uncovering new things. And it always felt like there was something new there here. I just, like, it's just frustration for me at every turn.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's funny how you mentioned Metroid prime and I have, like, the opposite emotional feeling where, like, I just get happy inside. When you mentioned Metroid prime and, like, even when you said Animal. Well, right. Like, this is what I want to do in 2031. I want to do the Metroidvania. Well, it's because my years are closed.

[Andy Cortez]

He keeps booking all the years.

[Barrett]

It's tactical 2026, but also Yakuza.

[Andy Cortez]

Maybe I forget.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, I never said Yakuza. They keep trying to put words in my mouth. 2028 is something else I want. I want the year of Metroidvania Brainwashing for me, where I just play all of the best of the best Metroidvanias back to back to back until I came. I come out of the other side of it where I'm like, best genre ever.

[Andy Cortez]

Gotcha.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because I feel like, you know, between the ones that you're there, love. I need to play Prince of Persia Lost Time.

[Tim Geddes]

You do. You're so.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's all I Gotta do.

[Tim Geddes]

I get what you're saying. Yeah. But I'm also like, you're wrong. Like, you love Metroidvania. You just don't like the ones that you don't like. And I think that, like, unfortunately, I think there's been a couple of those that have soured your, your taste on it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think that's what it is. When I'm playing a Metroidvania that I'm not all the way into. I hate the experience, but I'm playing a Metroidvania that I love. I'm like, oh, great. Greatest thing of all time.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Even talking about the inconveniences that Metroid Prime Remastered has hit me with, where it being an older game and not having these modern quality of life improvements where I am adventuring and I die fully and then I have to restart at my last save, and that was an hour and a half ago because I decided not to save and there was no auto save. So it's. I lost the progress, including the last tool that I had just gotten. And it's like, oh, that's like such an old school thing.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But I realized, like, okay, that's an old school thing that, you know, modern games will likely kind of fix. And even that not being enough to make me want to stop that experience because the game is so solid and so well crafted. Yeah, this is, this goes down as like one of the bigger disappointments for me. It'd be one thing if I came into this not really with a lot of high hopes, but the, the demos felt so good to play.

[Tim Geddes]

And to me, man, I talk about disappointment. Like, you put me onto this game like many months ago. I don't remember when it was, but you see this? It's like, holy. Like, I don't think there can be anything, I think that looks cooler than this game. Like everything that I enjoy, it's there. And then you're telling me it's a Metroidvania that plays like Smash Brothers. I'm like, holy crap, this sounds like a dream. You get the Hades style art and story stuff. It's like, like every single thing was just adding up to, like, this is probably going to be a game that I'm annoying about for the rest of my life. And a little over an hour in, I'm like, oh, man. Like, it's just. It's just a little too slow and it just doesn't feel as good as it looks to me. And it's. That's something that I also said about Prince of Persia lost crown. Like, the first hour is, I think, the worst part of that game. And a lot of it's just because I'm not getting abilities fast enough. Like, this isn't. Like, I'm not able to kind of move around and get around the way I want to, like. And even if I know where I'm trying to go on the map, like, getting there was kind of getting in the way. I'm feeling that a lot here, but I was hoping that there'd be Prince of Persia moment for me where it's like, oh, it's clicking. I was wrong. This is great. And when I came into work and you told me, like, oh, man, I'm 12 hours in and I'm not. It's not. I'm like, oh, what? Like, I just. There's nothing I could have expected less from you, but it did reaffirm to me. I'm like. Like, I. Even after that conversation, I booted it up again, tried to get a little farther, and I was like, ah, I don't. I don't think this one has the stuff, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I hope. I hope. I hope we're all wrong because I do have it on my fantasy, and it's one of, like, my last hopes. My fancy critic, dude, there may be there.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, there may be a reality where everybody just played it in the right way, where they're getting all the unlocks at the right times, and they didn't. I don't think, like, I. I don't know, man. I just. I. I mean, it really bums me out, and I. I legitimately hope I'm wrong in. You know, to that people go, no, no, there. There is, dude. Just wait until this story turned to that story beat like, oh, okay, yeah, let me go revisit that. But for right now, it's like, I've never wanted to uninstall something faster, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is the last time I'm betting on indie games for my fans.

[Greg Miller]

Critic, you know, man, like me this

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

year, indie devs make the game look cool on the box and put it out, man. Yeah, I need mixtape to come out this year.

[Greg Miller]

Not looking good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm giving it up.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I need Luminesta review. Amazing.

[Greg Miller]

I don't think you'll be okay. You'll be all right there.

[Andy Cortez]

Luminous will be an 86 for you.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think I need more than that. I need like an 89. Like, it's gonna be one of those fantasy critic races where it's like, every point counts now.

[Barrett]

Do you think it reviews this Is the fun of us of like we're recording this before other reviews.

[Greg Miller]

Time Capsule.

[Barrett]

Do you think this review's worse than Tester's effects, which has a 90, I think on Open Critic.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Well after Greg talked about it because for me I'm like, oh, this is like a masterpiece. But then like hearing Greg's thoughts and then also I looked up Luminescent Electric Symphony or whatever the it's called.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, was that it?

[Greg Miller]

Electronic Symphony.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Electronic Symphony.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, you say electric.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sorry. Yeah, I looked up that and I didn't realize how much that does look like Luminosa Rise. I like, I guess for me, Luminous has always looked like the PSP version.

[Greg Miller]

But it's also that weird thing of like, I don't, I, I don't mean to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, but I mean I think there's going to be so many people reviewing this as their first Luminous game. And again, not to mention, yeah, I like the, again, I've played them all and I, I like, I gave it an 8 5. Right. Because I just think it's like, oh, I bet here done that. I, you know, I, I like the accoutrements of other games better.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Any tens though?

[Tim Geddes]

Sure. We do have just a couple more minutes, so I really thought you were

[Greg Miller]

about to say we have super chat.

[Tim Geddes]

I was like, how I do just want to slide in. I beat Hay 80s 2 this week. Roll credits, got it all. And like, my God, what a video game. I don't want to get into too much. Really didn't like the ending and that seems to kind of be a common consensus after I looked online. It doesn't affect my like thoughts on the game overall. Like, it definitely is sad to like leave on such a, like, yeah, no, just because everything else is like so incredible. But to me, the story of this game, it's the characters and the journey and all that stuff, which I do think is, is immaculate. And the end wrap up stuff. Take it or leave it. I'll leave it. But I don't think that really changes the fact that having to play the game through as many times as you did was just beautiful. Like I, I, I couldn't believe like how many times I'd beat Kronos or you know, whatever you're doing without spoiling stuff and be like, I man, I have to do that again. Like I don't know that I really want to. And I'd start the run totally different loadout and be like, God, I love this. Am I going to be able to accomplish what I'm trying to do with this totally different loadout. Yes, I am. And then you just keep going back and like, maybe you fail one of them and you're like, how did I lose? I've been destroying this time and time again.

[Andy Cortez]

And like, I was hoping for pizza, but now they're telling me I gotta like, eat a dish with shrimp in it. I'm like, all right, cool. Let's, you know, get some ship linguini.

[Greg Miller]

You love shrimp.

[Tim Geddes]

And it's, it's that. But from just pure gameplay, man. It's like literally just such a gameplay focused experience. And when there's so many variations that make you love the gameplay even more, where at the end of it I'm like, I don't have a favorite loadout. Like, I feel like I just enjoyed all of them so much and that, that's so special to me because it's the definition of, all right, one more match type thing. And when you're talking about 3040 minute runs for these things, it's like, it can kind of like be like, oh, man, am I really about to do this again? And this weekend I was like, I'm trying to plan out the rest of my year. I'm trying to like, just check these things off. And I was like, all right, I got to do some damage on Hades 2 this weekend or else it's, I'm not going to be able to. So I, I had planned to get like two more, three more max victories. I didn't play for like 12 hours and like getting it all done and that was like in like two sittings, essentially, which is very uncommon for me. But I really was like, I gotta go again. I gotta get, I gotta, man. And they just kept adding the little story beats and new things that I'm like, how am I this many runs into the game and still getting some brand new character and brand new, like, room that gives you an upgrade that I'm like, God Damn, man.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Hades 2. Game of the generation, game of the ever.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's the flexibility of like the builds that they give you and also how there are so many different builds that feel, that feel op. Right. Like every run I'm getting a new thing where I'm like, that seems really strong. All right, let me go all the way here. And it's to your point that, yeah, I don't, I don't have a favorite build either. Like, I, you know, I have like, strategies that I implement based off of what, what talisman that I want to Be or keepsake that I want to begin with. Right. But, like, even with that, there are times where I'm kind of like, all right, this small thing kind of went off as far as where. Where I was headed. So let me just shift my play style. And then I discover something completely new that I absolutely love. And so, yeah, dude, Hades 2 is a. I know we're. I know when we're barreling towards game of the Year right now, it feels like clear, obscure is the. That's the contender. I feel like that's the talk of the town as far as what's probably going to, you know, take it away. But I can see Hades, too, at least for us, for our. For the kind of funny conversation being a very big contender as far as that. Game of the year.

[Greg Miller]

What about Dispatch?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, that. What about that, too, though?

[Greg Miller]

Anything?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, I feel like me and Tim are on the donkey train.

[Greg Miller]

I love Don Kong.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, yeah? How much you love Dong Kong?

[Greg Miller]

I love it a lot.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, bet.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Don't be a coward, Tim.

[Andy Cortez]

Please mark some time on the calendar free for yourself in the next couple weeks before we eventually hit breaks for Yumi and Blessing to do a kind of funny stream for Windblown.

[Tim Geddes]

Yes.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Is that out now?

[Andy Cortez]

No, but it's just had, like, its third major massive update with, like, all sorts of big. That they're adding bot, new worlds, new. All sorts of stuff. So that's one that I have not hopped into since I played with Blessed Mike on stream. And that was, like, forever ago in. In terms of early access time. Yeah, there's been a lot of cool additions.

[Tim Geddes]

Barrett, I saw you pop up there.

[Barrett]

Oh, just talking about Donkey Kong Bonanza and it probably being the ration clank for this year, where it'll be on all of our lists, maybe some higher than others.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

See, that's how I feel about Claire.

[Andy Cortez]

That's just not gonna be on my list.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What?

[Greg Miller]

That's a pace. I won't stand for it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Damn it, dk.

[Andy Cortez]

Really? You weren't feeling it? I mean, like, not enough to. It just didn't pull me back to it. And I think this year's is way too loaded here.

[Greg Miller]

You put it in at 5, and I'll put the altars at 10.

[Andy Cortez]

Greggy, what about Citizen Secret, too?

[Barrett]

I saw you post this when you were doing your travels, and I'm just. I'm wondering this as we wrap up the show. You posted blueprints starting it up.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

Where are you at with that? In terms of.

[Greg Miller]

I played it that morning I played the two or three hours at the coffee shop with my notebook out. I gave it. It's not even that. I gave the call a try. I love blueprints. That's a great thing. It's just. It doesn't have the hooks in me that I'm like, I gotta come back. I gotta find that. I gotta finish the thing. It's just not. The mini puzzles on the way there, they aren't nearly as engaging as Escape Academy, you know. Come on. It's way better.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Escape Academy. That's crazy.

[Greg Miller]

But, yeah, say that as a joke. The puzzles are, sorry. I had a great time making my notes. And then, you know, an hour later I was like, oh, double back to that note and get that code that I'd seen that day. But it's like, I really enjoyed that morning with it and put it down and it's like, not. It hasn't called me back. That's what I got to do again. It's because that's the experience of that game. It's why telling lies works so well for me. Back in the day, the San Barlow game is. It was like I had a Saturday afternoon with a cup of coffee and just sat and played the entire game.

[Barrett]

I wouldn't brush off blueprints. Getting onto our list blessing because there have been so many games that have gotten onto our list that, like, it'll

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

be on our list.

[Andy Cortez]

It won't be high.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm just talking about our number one spot, which, like, let's not count out dispatch. I know you mentioned it, but, like,

[Greg Miller]

that's going to be the ration Wednesday, you, me, and Barrett, we're playing all day, talking all day in the afternoon, late Gamescast. Gonna be great.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I can't wait.

[Greg Miller]

I love also toss it. I put in an assets new runner up. You all want to go play these weird games? Here's a better game, but we'll talk about it when we get there.

[Andy Cortez]

Bless. Calling out Greg right there like, you can't joke about that. Reminded me of when that one dude in the Twitch chat told Mike that NBA 2K was trashed. You can't say that.

[Greg Miller]

He didn't say that.

[Andy Cortez]

You can't be saying that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like, why?

[Andy Cortez]

The weirdest take ever.

[Greg Miller]

Over on Steam. There's an animal sale and somebody on our subreddit put up my little puppy. There's a saying that when you depart this world, the dog who went ahead will warmly welcome you. While spending time in dog heaven, Bongu, the Welsh corgi, suddenly catches his dad's scent. Now he embarks on a journey to meet his dad. Will Bong Goo be able? I'm gonna play the shit out of this. Weep at my sister. Just weep at my Rog. Ally. Jen. Watch whatever garbage Netf showed. Just sobbing over this dog. It wasn't as good as my little

[Andy Cortez]

m. All right, everybody.

[Tim Geddes]

Let us know in the comments below what you're thinking about. Luminous. Arise and possessors. And stay tuned for a jam packed day of kind of funny content. Till next time. Love you all. Goodbye.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Never.