Silent Hill and the Heir to Castle Crashers' Crown

Summary

The Besties — "Silent Hill and the Heir to Castle Crashers' Crown"

October 10, 2025
Hosts: Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick

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Episode Overview

In this episode of The Besties, the hosts dig into two games: Absalom, an ambitious roguelike beat-em-up from the creators of Streets of Rage 4, and Silent Hill F, the latest entry in the acclaimed horror franchise with a unique 1960s Japanese setting. The crew compares notes, debates what works (and doesn't), and recommends a handful of eclectic new and upcoming games and devices. Between deep game analysis and playful banter, they keep their trademark blend of humor and insight.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cold Open & Banter: Eggs, Artifacts, and Podcast Housekeeping

[00:00–05:45]

• The episode opens with a classic tangent: the size difference between large and extra-large eggs. Russ describes his confusion, prompting lively debate about yolk size, egg density, and the economics of eggs as a "declaration of power."

  • "I have compared extra large eggs to large eggs in the supermarket repeatedly... they look the fucking same to me." — Russ ([00:10])
  • "We're talking about declaration of power, right?... I'm the sort of person who can get extra large eggs." — Chris ([02:03])

• The hosts transition to showing off new gaming-themed decor and signs Justin picked up at a peddler’s mall, including a "history of PlayStation" sign and a classic "the game can't be paused" sign for parents.

  • "[Showing sign] One day my parents will understand that online games cannot be paused. That's awesome." — Griffin ([05:53])

• Russ emphasizes anything visual needs to go in their newsletter after listener feedback:

  • "Anything visual needs to go in the newsletter. So you need to take a photo..." — Russ ([04:30])

2. Game Spotlight #1: Absalom (Roguelike Beat-Em-Up)

[08:28–26:57]

Game Overview

• Absalom is from GuardCrush (Streets of Rage 4) and DotEmu, blending Hades-style roguelike meta progression with the action and co-op flow of arcade beat-em-ups like Castle Crashers or TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge.

Structure & Progression

• "Structurally... picture a Hades-like, but instead... it's a beat em up in the style of X-Men Arcade or Simpsons Arcade." — Russ ([09:17])
• Micro (per-run) and macro (permanent) progression keep the experience fresh, along with branching FTL-like paths and meaningful upgrades.
• "You’re trying to put together a synergistic sort of thing... a general strategy by enhancing yourself." — Griffin ([09:47])
• "My shortened version is Hades plus Castle Crashers." — Chris ([10:26])

What Sets It Apart

• Frequent branching paths and dynamically changing events make every run feel novel, addressing the genre’s usual repetitiveness.

  • "Usually what people don't like about these games is they're just super repetitive, right?... This game has one of the most brilliant fixes... your point A to point B branches in a variety of number ways, kind of FTL like... It makes it feel like a game game and not an arcade game." — Chris ([11:01])

• Hub world fills with NPCs (for upgrades/story), echoing Hades.

Early Game Pacing & Difficulty

• Some hosts note a slow early game and "unlocking the fun," wishing for more dynamic abilities up-front.

  • "You have to unlock the fun of the game as you go along." — Chris ([15:07])
  • "I wish they would funnel those a little bit more early on." — Justin ([17:04])

• Absalom’s build variety can make a run thrilling or bland depending on luck—some runs pop with wild synergies, others less so.

Combat & Feel

• "Moment to moment gameplay is tight as fuck and I think it is the most fun feeling beat em up that I can maybe ever remember playing..." — Griffin ([18:25])
• "The best, like, 'generous' is the word that kept coming to mind... everyone looks like a little painting. It's gorgeous." — Justin ([19:13])
• Accessibility features (tunable damage, etc.) lower barriers compared to prior DotEmu/GuardCrush games.
• The world and characters: "He-Man meets The Adventure Zone was what I kept thinking... there is a character that hugely resembles Taako from the graphic novel." — Chris/Griffin ([20:13], [20:22])
• Story/light narrative progression affects level paths and encounters, encouraging replay.

Co-op & Technical Performance

• Co-op progression cleverly balances player levels: higher-level players help but don’t blow away progression for newcomers ([12:49])
• Online and local co-op is seamless and lag-free ([26:00])

Final Thoughts on Absalom

• "This is a top fiver for me, I think, of the year." — Griffin ([26:36])
• Others are more measured but impressed by its energy and accessibility.

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3. Game Spotlight #2: Silent Hill F (Horror Adventure)

[27:57–40:51]

Game Overview & Setting

• "You are a high school student in 1960s Japan... flowers, evil flowers, red gooey flowers and monster mannequins... It is your job to figure out what happened." — Chris ([29:22])

• The game explores themes of social oppression, isolation, and horror typical of Silent Hill, but with a distinctly Japanese setting.

Gameplay Structure

• Heavy on puzzles—sometimes obscure or frustrating—with "area-wide" locks/solutions reminiscent of classic survival horror.
  • "[I] always forget about that [this] series... it's kind of a puzzle game." — Chris ([30:29])
• Offers separate difficulty for combat and puzzles. Highest puzzle difficulty can outright lie to you if you're wrong.
  • "It tells you it's wrong even if you got it right. Right. It's really twisted." — Justin ([30:53])

Combat & "Powerlessness"

• Theoretically all melee, returning to survival roots, but main character is comically powerful—able to dodge and parry with Bayonetta-like agility.
  • "This is the single most powerful teenager to have ever walked the earth. She shadow dances between realms, killing whatever gets in her way." — Chris ([31:41])
  • Justin: "She's got several classes: pen, geometry, and Bayonetta... She studied Bayonetta moves." ([32:05])
• Combat is described as the weakest element—"tedious" and not frightening, drags down tension ([33:47], [39:51]).

Visuals, Story, and Atmosphere

• The game's artful cinematography and Japanese horror influences are widely praised.
  • "The visuals... quite literally shot is stunning... There are choices with where they place the camera... unsettling and horrific." — Chris ([34:37])
• Sound design and the creeping horror "vibe" land with the cast, but thrills get undercut by rote gameplay.

Puzzles

• Varied quality: some clever, some just fetch-quests or monster dodging.
  • "I think some of the puzzles in this game are pretty bad... and sometimes they're really fucking cool. I really liked the Scarecrow puzzle..." — Griffin ([36:11])
• For some, puzzles are just obstacles to the story and aesthetics.

Big Picture Critique

• Griffin: "As much as they nail the fear with the aesthetics... it is betrayed by the actual playing of it. Because I do think it makes the game less scary when combat isn't threatening so much as it is tedious, which is not a good kind of fear." ([39:39])
• Appeal to "watching" or streaming the game rather than always playing.

4. Recommendations & Honorable Mentions

[41:00–53:10]

Reader Mail

• Follows up on the identity of house centipedes ("little cowboys"), frog fractions sequels, and more.

Game & Device Recommendations

• Clover Pit: Slot machine roguelike with strong synergy mechanics.
  • "It is really, very, very good... can't get enough of these types of games..." — Griffin ([43:10])
• Unfair Flips: Simple clicker/coin-flipping game.
• House of Necrosis: "RE1 as a Mystery Dungeon rogue"; recommended for those curious about turn-based roguelike design ([46:21])
• Anbernic RG476H: A $150 retro handheld with a 4:3 screen that plays up to PS2, praised for quality and utility ([49:38]).

Miscellaneous

• Justin discusses the stacking of shoulder buttons on retro handhelds ([49:12]).
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 is finally officially playable and is praised for its inventive, non-stop design out of the gate ([52:06]).
• Upcoming—Sonic Racing Cross Worlds: "They took the limits off... Minecraft Steve is there." — Chris ([53:10])

5. Segment: Bracket Battle — Most Practical Video Game Car

[53:13–55:17]

• Hosts tease a new Patreon episode, debating the practicality of notable video game vehicles (Half-Life tram vs. Fortnite battle bus), in an exercise of "deranged logic" and humor.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I have compared extra large eggs to large eggs in the supermarket repeatedly... they look the fucking same to me." — Russ ([00:10])
• "Hades plus Castle Crashers." — Chris ([10:26])
• "This is a top fiver for me, I think, of the year." — Griffin ([26:36])
• "She shadow dances between realms, killing whatever gets in her way. This is the single most powerful teenager to have ever walked the earth." — Chris ([31:41])
• "As much as they nail the fear with the aesthetics... it is betrayed by the actual playing of it. Because I do think it makes the game less scary when combat isn't threatening so much as it is tedious, which is not a good kind of fear." — Griffin ([39:39])
• "It is set in a single room with a slot machine and an ATM in it and a little shop..." — Griffin on Clover Pit ([43:10])
• "They took the limits off... Minecraft Steve is there... they do whatever they want over at Sega, and I love it." — Chris ([53:10])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Cold Open & Banter: [00:00–05:45]
• Absalom Discussion: [08:28–26:57]
• Silent Hill F Discussion: [27:57–40:51]
• Reader Mail/Recommendations: [41:00–53:10]
• Bracket Battle (Video Game Car): [53:13–55:17]
• Honorable Mentions/Hardware Corner: [45:25–52:51]

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Tone & Style

Lively, banter-filled, occasionally irreverent but always thoughtful. The hosts blend deep genre analysis (roguelikes, beat-em-ups, horror adventure) with jokes and personal anecdotes, making dense game discussions approachable and genuinely funny.

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For Non-Listeners

This episode is a rich blend of hands-on impressions, clever analysis, and infectious enthusiasm. Whether you care about the granular differences between Super Mario Galaxy games, niche roguelikes, or just appreciate video game humor, the Besties provide informed perspectives and big laughs — and you'll walk away knowing whether Absalom or Silent Hill F is likely to be your next obsession (or frustration).

Transcript

[Russ Frostic]

I would consider myself an egg expert. We've gone over this quite a number of times and I've spent so much fucking time on one specific topic and I don't have the answer for it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay?

[Russ Frostic]

I have compared extra large eggs to large eggs in the supermarket repeatedly.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Russ Frostic]

And they look the fucking same to me.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, okay.

[Chris Plant]

You'Re mistaken. The COVID of the book for what's inside.

[Griffin McElroy]

Exactly.

[Chris Plant]

You're on those extra large eggs. The yolk is like three times big fat yolk. It's like almost all yolk.

[Justin McElroy]

Because when you crack thick. Hard, hard.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And it's dimpled in that way that you look.

[Chris Plant]

And if you get extra, extra large, they kind of like quack at you. Like, quack, quack.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, no, that's. That's fucked up. If you're going to a grocery store that is selling you that, Chris, you need to report them to the food industry.

[Chris Plant]

I don't go to a grocery store to buy eggs. I go to the Eggman.

[Justin McElroy]

There's no.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's.

[Justin McElroy]

Why? Okay, well, no.

[Griffin McElroy]

Cause now, hold on. There's like three layers to this thing now. Cause first I want to hear about Eggman is other than Dr. Robotnik that you're going to and giving us.

[Justin McElroy]

Okay, okay, can I just take it at fit. Can we maybe just not talk about a bunch of stupid shit? Take the question.

[Chris Plant]

Please, please, please. I want to go.

[Justin McElroy]

No, can we just talk about the question at face value? Because Russ is right. Like, there's two reasons you buy eggs.

[Russ Frostic]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

Recipe.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Breakfast. That's it. Right. You either get it for a recipe, you get it for a breakfast.

[Griffin McElroy]

Principal prank. Principal Halloween prank.

[Justin McElroy]

That's the other one, I'll grant you. Prank. Prank. Third reason to buy egg. Prank. In none of those scenarios. Even in baking and cooking, it doesn't. It very rarely will say, don't get large eggs. Get extra large eggs. If you ask someone if they want eggs for breakfast, you would not say, would you like a large egg or an extra large egg? It's insane. Right? So, like, why do you even need to make the distinction when you're shopping between the two? Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Well, we're talking about declaration of power, right? You know? Yeah. Oh, I'm. I'm the sort of person who can get extra large eggs when you're, you.

[Justin McElroy]

Know, milky for a few more cents.

[Chris Plant]

I think that's right. That's why they do more cents. More like a few more dollars. In this economy with eggs. Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Especially.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Hot Topic.

[Justin McElroy]

So shopping Bitcoin.

[Russ Frostic]

No one has any Answer to my question. It's fucking horrible.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a weight thing.

[Justin McElroy]

They are.

[Russ Frostic]

Oh, it's weight.

[Griffin McElroy]

By weight. By weight.

[Justin McElroy]

It's by weight in a dozen.

[Russ Frostic]

So a denser egg will be an extra large egg. Yeah, they should go by density, not.

[Griffin McElroy]

How thick is the chicken inside of.

[Justin McElroy]

That dumb shit we said about yolks. May have been right.

[Russ Frostic]

It's not a volume thing, it's a density thing.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, the albumin can be more tightly sort of packed.

[Chris Plant]

Less porous density. Yeah.

[Russ Frostic]

Fuck, my world has changed.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, man, you're about to go on a whole new layer of your egg sandwich every single morning. Still can't believe that's good for you. Journey. And now you'll be able to tell the difference by eating them.

[Russ Frostic]

Can I launch a new tier of the Patreon just so I can have ostrich eggs every morning?

[Justin McElroy]

Tier of the Patreon? Because if so.

[Russ Frostic]

No, no, I have ostrich eggs every morning. That is my number one goal. Because I've seen them and, man, that is an ambition I want to crush.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, dude, climb. Climb. That's the last mountain for you. The last tower.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, sorry. Stefan's dropping off my breakfast.

[Griffin McElroy]

God, you gotta stop going to that guy, Chris. It's not good for your soul.

[Justin McElroy]

My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

[Griffin McElroy]

My name is Griffin McElroy. I know the best game of the week.

[Chris Plant]

My name is Chris Plant and Justin's gonna act like. I'm not gonna ask what the glowing ass controller light is.

[Justin McElroy]

I got it out of waving around. This is part of my decor. It's part of my decor.

[Chris Plant]

I can see infinity light.

[Justin McElroy]

I found it at the peddler's mall for five bucks. Dude.

[Chris Plant]

Fuck yeah, dude.

[Justin McElroy]

Sick, man. Right?

[Griffin McElroy]

This is how I'm. One second.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Justin McElroy]

I'd been trying to get it to. I guess if I placed it right here, I could get it to read on camera, but I just don't want the glare.

[Russ Frostic]

Okay, well, now you need to take another photo and put it.

[Justin McElroy]

Sorry, who are you?

[Russ Frostic]

My name is Russ Frostic. I know the best game of the week and anything visual we need to put in the newsletter. That's the rule. We had so many comments about the bug last week. We'll get to them in the reader mail section. But anything visual needs to go in the newsletter. So you need to take a photo of your.

[Justin McElroy]

Can I show you the other sign that I got? Can I get the other sign? Just go ahead and do some talk about.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, so this week we know we said we were going to talk about Silent Hill F. We are going to talk about Silent Hill F in the B segment of this show because another game scuttled along out of nowhere that we are able to talk about this week. That.

[Chris Plant]

Like a house.

[Griffin McElroy]

More sort of more energy. Like a house cinema or like a.

[Russ Frostic]

Character in Silent Hill.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes, exactly. We were a little bit more energized. And that game is Absalom, a very, very cool roguelike beat em up RPG from the creators of Streets of Rage 4. And so we're gonna talk about. Okay, so show us the other sign. Juice. We vamped as hard as we could.

[Justin McElroy]

This is the first one that I found at the peddler's mall. This is a history of PlayStation.

[Russ Frostic]

It's a history of PlayStation. It's every PlayStation Core from PS1 to PS5.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's really cool, man.

[Justin McElroy]

That's cool, right? That's not the best one. And where does that go?

[Chris Plant]

That is a visual version of We Used to Cash.

[Justin McElroy]

That was eight.

[Griffin McElroy]

For sure. For sure.

[Russ Frostic]

Where does that go, Justin? In your house, where does that go?

[Griffin McElroy]

I mean, that kind of is shot, I hope. Oh, yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And lastly, I have a dream that.

[Griffin McElroy]

One day my parents will understand that online games cannot be paused. That's awesome.

[Russ Frostic]

There's a sign that says that. That's spectacular.

[Griffin McElroy]

You gotta hang that sign up that says that and then start Airbnb ing your place. Cause I need someone to find that kind of while poking their head around in the house they're gonna be sleeping in that night and understand what it means for them.

[Justin McElroy]

We'll get it going.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

This goes in the art. I'm gonna. I need to get rid of this dumb sound. Baffling. I'm kidding myself.

[Griffin McElroy]

This doesn't do anything. All right, we're gonna take a quick break and then talk about Absalom.

[Justin McElroy]

Absolutely.

[Chris Plant]

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[Griffin McElroy]

Had you all heard of this game before we before we got code?

[Russ Frostic]

I've gotten emails about it, but I got to admit just the title alone made me seemingly not really super care. And then at one point I read in one of the emails it said hey, this is by the team that made TMNT Shredder's Revenge and a bunch of other incredible beat em ups but it's their original IP and I was like oh okay, I'm interested now.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes. So it is made by GuardCrush who worked on Streets of Rage4.emu or emu. I guess it's supposed to be like emu later.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah, I don't think it's like an.

[Griffin McElroy]

Emu like the bird maybe and Super Monks and who do you all want me to set up what the game is?

[Russ Frostic]

I can do it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay, go for it Russ.

[Russ Frostic]

Structurally the game, I'm sure there's a narrative but we're not gonna focus on that right now. Structurally the game is picture a Hades like but instead of it being a top down isometric like action kind of game, it's a beat em up in the style of X Men Arcade or Simpsons Arcade or TMNT Shredder's Revenge. It's that so you go out into the world, you do runs, you'll find currencies, you'll unlock new abilities. You're picking perks as you go through the runs and just progress in this world.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, there's a lot of really good sort of micro and macro progression hooks. Like certain things are per run. Like the rituals you find that give you special sort of abilities bound to your character's moveset. Those are like per run. So you're trying to put together a synergistic sort of thing. Like, oh, this build, when I use my heavy attack, it puts the enemies in a bubble. And then when that bubble pops because of this thing, it shoots out a wave and it increases how much water knocks people. You're trying to like, put together a general strategy by enhancing yourself, but then there's. You go back to base and you can spend your currencies to like, permanently add health to your. Your pool or unlock new moves for the characters.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I don't. My shortened version is Hades plus Castle Crashers.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's a really fucking. Yeah, pretty good, succinct version of it.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah. It seems very clear that Hades was a big inspiration specifically because not only the. The upgrade systems and all that stuff, but the idea that like, you're building up this hub world that slowly gets filled with NPCs. And the NPCs obviously have different reasons to talk to them, upgrade reasons to talk to them, but also they're also delivering narrative and the story progresses as.

[Griffin McElroy]

You go through it and sending you on quests.

[Chris Plant]

People who love these sorts of games, you just take a break. People who do not like these games, come a little closer because you're probably thinking, hey, I can skip to the Silent Hill part of this episode. Usually what people don't like about these games is they're just super repetitive, right? Like you're just doing the same thing over and over and over again. And this game has one of the most brilliant fixes for a major problem for a genre that I've ever seen, which is while you are going through these runs, not only are you incentivized to go through them over and over and again to learn story beats like you would in Hades, but then also your point A to point B branch in a variety of number ways, kind of FTL like. So you'll be seeing different spots. And when you go to those spots, new events will happen that you don't expect. You'll discover new enemies. Maybe a new branch will appear, maybe a different character will materialize, maybe an entire boss fight will happen. So you are going through. You're going from point A to point B over and over and over again, but it feels different every time to the point that you are incentivized to do it, and by a certain point you actually have quest where it's like, hey, on the next run, I really want to make sure I stop by the waterfall before I get to the end, because I want to accomplish something there. It makes it feel like a game game and not an arcade Game which is again the forever.

[Griffin McElroy]

That is a huge distinction.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

What do you think, Juice? You and I had a chance to play it a bit yesterday. Co op, which it does have two player online and local, which the online is pretty clever. If we could talk about that in a bit.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, you should probably describe like set it up. We played through a level of it. I guess we're pretty different level wise, but it still felt pretty. You had a lot more health than me and you were able to stay alive a lot longer, but it still felt like we were both doing stuff.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, it synchronizes. It doesn't synchronize your thing. It basically takes the world of the lower level player and so the higher level player, like they're not really completing quests or doing things along those lines, but like the currencies that you find and the things that you discover and unlock, those are progressive. So it's like you can play with another player and not have one of you just not be progressing in some way. Which is I think kind of how these things usually go in online, you know, multiplayer Beat Em ups especially. It's just a very, very clever fix, I think.

[Justin McElroy]

I will say I know that I'm sure that there gets to be more layers, but as you go on. But with the direct comparison to Hades, I do still feel like the. The one vestige of Beat Em Ups that this hasn't really like figured out a way to rethink is for me just the moment to moment playing of it doesn't feel quite dynamic enough. You do have like a regular attack and kind of a special attack kind of thing and then like a magic that you can build up and there are as you like unlock abilities and stuff. There's like lots of ways that those can layer on top of each other in interesting ways. But a lot of the ways they layer on top of each other are interesting in sort of a meta way, but not necessarily like I just felt like the moment to moment playing of it without the layering those things on top of it. Still a lot of time felt like I was just kind of pounding on the attack button and trying to hit as many people as possible, which I understand is every video game ever made, but well, but not right.

[Griffin McElroy]

The Hades comparison here is apt because Hades doesn't really do that to you. Hades, when you start playing, you know, you're finding all the different, you know, divinities like upgrades that you get. Like there's a huge amount there for you in this game. You start with Virtually nothing. And by going through the different routes you are like unlocking new types of rituals and new types of things because it does add those things. But you do gotta get there. And considering it's a beat em up game that you want to be pretty fun right away.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. It's also wants you to do stuff like dodge and incorporates more elements like that. And where this is early on especially like there is a dodge but it's not something you necessarily are. You don't need to do that. It's a beat em up. Like you don't need to do that a lot early on.

[Chris Plant]

The progression loop is very dead cells. And for some people that is something they love and that is for me, I think I have not liked in the past. I'm going to get to why I like it here. But basically you have to unlock the fun of the game as you go along. So Hoops is right at the very beginning. It's pretty straightforward. As you unlock all these things. You're getting all sorts of new abilities that make it, I would say much more elaborate in terms of how your combat works. But you have to get there. I think it was a pure luck situation with my interest in this game that I got an incredible build within 15 minutes. And you don't always get an incredible build, but the very first time through I had this build where my character was like sicing and dicing and every move I did would throw a character into a bubble that would make them float across the screen. Then they would splash against a wall and burst onto somebody and. And then once they popped out of the bubble, they caught on fire. And when I ran around, fire trailed me. It was all of this incredible stuff. And I spoke with Frosh and I's buddy Geo at Polygon and he's playing this game too and was like, yeah, I played like five rounds before I got a single interesting skill. Yeah. And it's like it did feel just like a.

[Russ Frostic]

To me. Like my first run that I did was with Griffin pretty much in online and because he was more powerful, we were able to get a lot further into the run.

[Griffin McElroy]

So I also just got a. For that just to. Yeah, for that run I got in a insane build where I was spawning like infinite throwable daggers. And then when Justin and I played yesterday, I got some real garbage in like all of my draws and it was. We got significantly less far.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah. So I think it turbocharging the Those early runs do really make a big difference because you get a lot more tools at your Disposal much quicker and Than you would if you. Yeah. Kind of fumbled around for the first.

[Justin McElroy]

I also wish they would funnel those a little bit more early on where like you would. It would sort of like default to some sort of interesting. Yeah Build and then you would cut it because I didn't even really understand. I feel like a lot with the success of HADES specifically and I think this is a problem for a lot of video games. But this model more than others. I feel like so many devs are. Are bringing so much of that game into their games that they don't feel the need to explain it very much. And that's tough because their Hades, you know, their power curves and their structures and their currencies and everything is. It's all just a little different. Right. And I feel like the first time I'm playing I was still trying to understand the game and you're like, you're. The gust power of this clash is double this and it's like, I don't know, like you're throwing so much at me. I'm not going to have any hope of building something.

[Chris Plant]

And they. They try to accommodate for that. There's characters that you can meet in the hub world that will explain things if you go through the menus. But even still, like there was a currency that I texted Frosh after probably two hours of playing I was like, I straight up do not know what this currency is.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a huge upgrade mechanic that really opens the game up and you do not get access to it until you beat like the first huge wall of a boss who is a real piece of shit.

[Chris Plant]

But I just sitting there the whole time.

[Griffin McElroy]

I know. I do agree that the pacing stuff is bad. I think that the moment to moment gameplay is tight as fuck and I think it is the most fun feeling beat em up that I can maybe ever remember playing. When Russ and I had our run where my build really came together. Just juggling dudes in the air for a 200 hit combo and going absolutely ham. Like it feels, it feels fucking great. And you are getting new stuff every run. You are, you know, putting together a different build that you know, if you get far enough, like really feels kind of unique by the end of the run.

[Justin McElroy]

Like I. I just too. It looks so good.

[Griffin McElroy]

It looks like so fucking good.

[Justin McElroy]

The best, like generous is the word that kept coming to mind when I was like looking at the animation. It's like so many like really lavishly animated frames that are like everyone looks like a little painting. It's gorgeous.

[Griffin McElroy]

The first time you punch a guy.

[Justin McElroy]

Amazing.

[Griffin McElroy]

The first time you punch a guy and see his, like, hit animation, it's like, oh, damn, this is going to be. This is going to be a good one.

[Russ Frostic]

It's kind of wild because Dot Emu in particular, they've made such a name out of these, like, IP centric titles, humanity being probably the biggest one. And this feels like just another level of quality layered on top of what they're already known for, which is kind of wild because they're known for some incredibly high quality. And I was wondering, like, a lot of that is just like, hey, we don't have to adhere to the limitations that an IP might have. We don't have to give them a chunk of our end revenue. Like, this is all on us and our. The other teams that are working on this. And it just feels like they just took the governor off and went kind of wild.

[Chris Plant]

The aesthetic is. Let me know if I'm wrong here. But he. Man meets the Adventure Zone was what I kept thinking. Like, I thought of y'.

[Russ Frostic]

All's.

[Griffin McElroy]

There is a character that hugely resembles Taako from the graphic novel.

[Justin McElroy]

From the graphic novel design, I will say maybe Carrie Peach's work on the Adventure Zone, I don't know. Maybe it is somewhat.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think it looks really terrific. And the world is really strange and kind of rich. Like, the respawn loop happens because you guys. Your characters are.

[Justin McElroy]

Luke's. Not in it. That would be.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, that would be too. Your characters are like worshipers of this pregnant goddess who grants you the gift of rebirth every time you die. It's wild and there's a lot of story. Apparently they have already licensed out doing an animated series based on it, which I think could be.

[Justin McElroy]

I still don't understand sometimes when people start attacking you, why.

[Griffin McElroy]

But, like, there's humans sometimes who are like, hey, fuck these guys. And then there's humans who are like, hey, come on into our tavern. We're gonna.

[Justin McElroy]

It's always a crapshoot. It's like, look at this guy. I wonder what his story is. Let's find out. Oh, okay, cool. You're gonna sell me a potion.

[Chris Plant]

I do love that. Using the 2D plane of like, oh, you are going always left to right. It's a classic arcade game of. The first world you're in is a feud between the humans and goblins, I guess. Yeah, yeah, right. And you will have these situations where you are literally just in the middle at the wrong time. You are moving left to right. You're trying to get Past a castle, the goblins come in from behind you and suddenly you're caught in the middle of a battle and you just have to take everyone out. And that feeling of it's just like the lightest bit of story, but it's very cool. But you're right.

[Griffin McElroy]

So a lot of times when you.

[Chris Plant]

Find a camp and it's like, why are you giving me free beer? I don't know what the thing is here.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think it's important though that it is a light bit of story. But you get it every run. And things will happen where it's like if you go down the route that takes you to fight the goblin boss a bunch of times, then the humans will be able to sort of regroup and build a bridge that you can then go on the next time you run. But if you build that bridge now, they're gonna start kicking the goblins asses. And like you're going to keep getting updates every time you go through the run. Like when you hit these certain hub spots, like hey, you fucked us over big time. Because now the sea tribe is coming to beat the shit out of us. It is not like rich sort of lengthy exposition and stuff like that. But I think given the short run nature of the game, that kind of like peppered on storytelling I think goes a long way.

[Chris Plant]

I just have one quick small game design thing. Cause I can't tell if I'm in my own head on this, if this is even happening. There's something about the juggling that I love in this game and I don't know how they pull it off. So if you knock characters against a wall in this game, like you'll knock them, they'll hit the wall, they'll take some damage, they'll fly up into the air. The invisible wall feels like it is inconsistent in a really good way. Like if you just.

[Griffin McElroy]

You want them to hit the wall.

[Chris Plant]

Yes, you want them to hit the wall. And it's like as long as you knock them a certain distance away from the king, an invisible wall will basically appear to deal them damage, bounce them out. And I don't know exactly how it's working, but it is so intuitive. I very quickly realized, oh, this is how far I need to hit people to kind of smash them up into the air and do all this extra damage.

[Griffin McElroy]

The boss fights are also really great, which is not something I could say about a lot of beat em ups. Like a lot of beat em ups, you're just doing the same thing you're doing to the standard Grunts that come your way. But they have a million times more health in this one. Almost all the bosses have some sort of sh that you need to break with like enough pressure. And once you have done that, they will become like pretty combo able for a short amount of time. So like there's a rhythm to it of getting in there, dodging a few attacks, deflecting a few attacks, punishing a few attacks. There's like three different ways to like counter in this game.

[Russ Frostic]

Absurdly complex. Once you like start reading the tooltips of like the different damage types that you can deal to enemies and how they like combo into your build, pressure versus launch versus break versus whatever. And so yeah, if you want to get crazy with it, I would also add like I've been pretty intimidated by some of their games in the past. Like they. I thought Streets of Rage 4 was that the one four. Yeah, Streets Rage 4 definitely got very difficult. But what's cool about all of these games is that they have accessibility features in them. So if you feel like you're struggling or whatever, you can dial down like the amount of damage you take, amount of damage you're giving out just to see more of the story. And that could actually probably smooth over some of the rough edges you might have on the early runs.

[Chris Plant]

It also rewards you for being creative in how you handle things. It's not cheating because it's what the game can do. But this final boss of the first stage is not easy and it wants you to learn how to do the dodge, to do all these different things. Or you can do what I did, which is you collected 16 axes over the course of your run, went into the boss very pissed off at it and just spammed it. Knocked him down just one shot. He didn't even have a chance.

[Griffin McElroy]

You can break it. It is hard, but it gets easier once you unlock more of those different types of rituals. But you can really break this thing right open. You can really, really fuck it up in some pretty major ways. I'm crazy about it. I can't stop playing it. I'm excited for it to come out on Switch so Henry and I can play it. He loves beat em ups and this is a really good one. That is not like super gory or. Or mature in a way that I think would be too much for him.

[Russ Frostic]

Justin, did you run into any like lag issues or anything like that when you played?

[Justin McElroy]

No. That's pretty smooth. Yeah, I could not have any problems.

[Russ Frostic]

I mean, I'm farther away from Griffin and I Couldn't notice this thing. Like it was like.

[Justin McElroy]

It was also very streamlined. Like just like getting in. I didn't even like. Like I just started the game and we were.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Together playing in a lobby. Like it was. No preamble or anything.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah, yeah. Having to like use the invite system or whatever reminded me more.

[Justin McElroy]

You know, it felt like Castle Crashers in that sense. Like, it remind me that XBL license, like jump in, jump out. It was very streamlined in that sense.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah. Yeah, agreed.

[Chris Plant]

This is a. This is a.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a top fiver for me. I think of. Of the year a lot lately, Griff.

[Justin McElroy]

I feel like.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I've been pretty. I've been pretty good about it lately, actually.

[Justin McElroy]

This plot, it's out a lot.

[Chris Plant]

Been a real plant over here.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's been a real fucking bonkers year.

[Russ Frostic]

It's been some good stuff.

[Chris Plant]

Hey, who's ready for some Silent Hill?

[Russ Frostic]

Me. This episode of the Besties is sponsored by Alienware. You know, a new era of power has arrived with the Alienware Area 51 gaming laptops, intentionally engineered to push more power to the CPU and the GPU for maximum performance. Combined with Intel Core Ultra 9 processors merging CPU, NPU and integrated GPU into one AI optimized chip, it delivers fast, smart and seamless performance across everything you do. So no matter what you're playing, Alienware ensures every game runs precisely as the developers intended. A new era of power is here. And all you have to do is take it. Discover Area51 [e-mail] Area51 laptops. That's Alienware.com Area51 laptops.

[Griffin McElroy]

Does F stand for 5?

[Justin McElroy]

F stands for fun.

[Griffin McElroy]

Silent Hill. Fun is the new twist.

[Justin McElroy]

Silent Hill.

[Chris Plant]

Fear.

[Russ Frostic]

Oh, I like fear.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's cool.

[Russ Frostic]

But it's a lowercase fear. It's like a chill fear.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. No, it's Silent Hill.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fuck Silent Hill.

[Chris Plant]

Fucks.

[Russ Frostic]

I asked Google and Google said it was forte, like the. Like the musical.

[Griffin McElroy]

Like loud. It's not even, I think, a loud. Of the Silent Hill games, I think it is among the quieter ones.

[Justin McElroy]

Well, but compared to Fortissimo or Fortitissimo. That's true.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's a fair point. Who wants to set it up?

[Russ Frostic]

I mean, Plant, this is your dream game. Here we have a. What is it? Mid 60s Japan game. It's set in Japan in a small village featuring classic horror tropes. Silent Hill game like this seems like right up Chris Plant's alley.

[Griffin McElroy]

Sure. Is it right up your alley, Chris?

[Russ Frostic]

No.

[Chris Plant]

I mean, yes and no.

[Russ Frostic]

Sure.

[Chris Plant]

So yes. It doesn't look like your average Silent Hill game, but let me tell you, it is because there is fog and there is a story about how terrible men are and how hard it is to be a woman in modern society, which is a theme of Silent Hill games. You're a high schooler in this one. Am I doing just kind of a full RE intro of what this game is? What do you mean?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I think that would be good.

[Russ Frostic]

I think it would be helpful.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. So you are a high school student in 1960s Japan. And as a young woman in this culture in this small town, life is pretty hard. Your dad is a tremendous asshole. It seems like a lot of things are going bad, but then they get worse when the fog comes and practically everybody in town disappears except for your friends. But you know what is still around. Like flowers, like evil flowers, red gooey flowers and monster mannequins that bend in all sorts of uncomfortable waves and often have knives. And it is your job to figure out what happened. Where did all the adults go? How do you protect your friends? Spoilers? You don't because a lot of people die in this game and it happens pretty early. And then you solve a lot of puzzles. So yes, in theory. I should be really into this because I do like horror. I do love Japanese horror. Where I bounce off a little bit is it's kind of a puzzle game. My friends and I always forget about that with this series until I start playing it and then I'm like, oh yeah, this game's a puzzle game series.

[Griffin McElroy]

When you start the game, you pick your difficulty for combat and puzzles separately. The difficulties are story hard and then Lost in the Fog, I think, which is like super duper hard.

[Justin McElroy]

It's like that tells you it's wrong even if you get it right. Right. It's really twisted.

[Chris Plant]

It's really fucked up.

[Griffin McElroy]

So it is structurally like Silent Hill where you are usually you'll have some area wide puzzle, like you're looking for the password for this door and you will find it in these different locations across this map. And you will have to find them while you are pursued by fog monsters. Timeless.

[Chris Plant]

Classic.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can't beat it.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah, I think this is the first one. And Silent Hill fans can correct me if this is incorrect, but I think this is the first one that only has melee combat.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know. I think the first one maybe did. This was definitely a talking point about this game is like we're going back to this kind of feeling of powerlessness in tight quarters that is sort of a staple of older games.

[Chris Plant]

Which is hilarious because there is one thing this game is not about and that is being powerless. You are a cold blooded killer. This is the single most powerful teenager to have ever walked the earth. She shadow dances between realms, killing whatever gets in her way.

[Griffin McElroy]

Your dodge in this game is crazy.

[Justin McElroy]

The dodge was the most confusing thing about the entire dance. Me literally, like, I don't know why. She's like. She's got several classes, Pen. She's got geometry and bayonetta and those are the three classes she has. So she has to like. At school she studied bayonetta moves. You don't have to get hit if you don't want to, I guess. I mean, I don't know. What difficulty did you guys play at?

[Griffin McElroy]

I played on story combat, hard puzzles.

[Russ Frostic]

Oh, I did story story just to see as much as I could.

[Chris Plant]

I will say this is the entire reputation that this game. People are drawing fan fiction of this main character as a like pure muscle beast. It is. Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

I'll take an example. It's the kind of. It's the kind of thing where you can hold in left trigger to go into like a slow, slow time focus mode and there's a frame signal that you see where you can combo this attack. If you hit the dodge, if you hit the counter at the right time.

[Griffin McElroy]

They try to do something interesting with it, which is that you have your health meter, which you know what that does. But then you also have a sanity meter, which I'm always excited to see one of those in a horror game because I think we're in for, you know, some. What was it? Sanity's Requiem, Eternal Darkness Shit. This doesn't really get into that quite as much, but you can use this focus power which will slow down time just a little bit and let you spot those frames where you can counter a little bit easier. But if you get hit while you're doing that, then your max sanity will decrease. So it's like looping in that element into it as well. But it's. It's just kind of weird because sometimes they'll do an attack that's counterable and sometimes they'll do an attack that's not.

[Justin McElroy]

And you don't really realize that until.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, it doesn't feel good ever. I have not had a fight that felt great in the game yet.

[Chris Plant]

I am not excusing the combat. I'm more saying this to put it on the side. The combat is by far the least interesting part of the game. It. I don't know why it's there. Every time I was doing it, I wanted to be doing something else. It feels to me like the whole hook of this game is the story, the visuals of it and in the puzzles. So just very quickly on the story and the visuals of it. Not only is this game influenced by, you know, Japanese cinema and Japanese horror, the way it is, like, quite literally shot is stunning. And there's a thing that happens in a lot of video games where it's like, at most they figure out their camera position, and that's it. There are choices with where they place the camera here that are so interesting. There are entire sequences where you will only see a character's legs, as if everything above that is missing. Which one is kind of unsettling and horrific, but two is.

[Russ Frostic]

It's Muppet Babies. I get it.

[Chris Plant]

It's the nanny treatment, the leering nature of the game. It also gets like you are kind of being infantilized. It is doing so much with its visual storytelling that the script isn't even there for. So I really appreciate it for that. I am curious what people thought of the puzzles, because I'm just not at puzzle person.

[Russ Frostic]

I've never really enjoyed the puzzles in any Silent Hill games. And this was sort of the. Like, I don't get satisfaction out of it. It's just like, oh, I figured out the trick to flipping the. The things around or whatever it is.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Russ Frostic]

And that's just par for the course for me. Not only Silent Hill, like Resident Evil, whenever they did puzzles, it was like, okay, I got to get through this before I get through this.

[Griffin McElroy]

You use that term pretty liberally because that term is sometimes used to describe, like, you have to go find the token for the machine at the hotel. And that's not really a puzzle so much. Maybe you have to decide, like, you have to read a poem and interpret it. It's really uneven. I think some of the puzzles in this game are pretty bad and are just designed to make you run around a scary area and get jumped by monsters a dozen times. And sometimes they're really fucking cool. I really liked the Scarecrow puzzle in this game that you hit sort of towards the end of, I don't know, act three or something like that.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah. But it's like, a long time.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's a long time to get there.

[Russ Frostic]

Absolutely.

[Justin McElroy]

It was really hard for me to shake the feeling while I'm playing this. Like, last last week, we talked about Ghost of Yote and Ghosta Gote. One of the things that, as I've Continued to play. It is really cool is the way it is that used mechanics to like, get across a story and they used game mechanics to like, make you feel stuff narratively. And I'm. I'm always knocked out when that happens. This feels to me like someone who is deeply inspired by the aesthetics of Japanese horror cinema, but didn't necessarily have a lot of interesting ideas about how to make that a gameplay experience. Instead, try to capture like, the aesthetics of it to give you to like, the idea that the thing that is scary in this game or the elements that I have to overcome are just like the same mob type that is introduced early on is such a retrograde sort of way of approaching. It's a very like PS1 era idea of horror where, like, there is this type of bad guy and they're free roaming around this area and you go and attack them with your pipe. It's like you. I don't feel like a lot of thought has been given to the way you make the game feel interesting or like the. The sort of Japanese horror cinema that you're trying to capture. And instead it's just kind of like the aesthetics are doing a lot of the work and it's kind of laid over a formula that like, I mean, feels very late 90s.

[Russ Frostic]

If anything, it feels like it would have been supported more by like, way fewer but more deadly enemies in the way that like retro Silent Hill relied on like the pyramid Head man or whatever. And that was like a really scary moment. But here you're constantly facing people and yeah, you have like a lot of combat maneuvers, but your weapons are all. They break after a certain amount of time. You can dodge out of the way, but you're not getting anything from killing anyone. So there's really no reason to actually fight a lot of these people unless you're forced in like a boss fight or like a. There's like, you know, blood gating stuff later on. But it just.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, that's when it. That's when it hit a point for me where. That's about where I stopped, where I was like, okay, I actually can't play more of the game until you force me to fight like two to three guys at once.

[Russ Frostic]

It just feels like two different faces of like. I don't understand how these two merged because they feel like so dichotomous to one another. Did I make that word up?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't think so.

[Justin McElroy]

I want to diametrically oppose.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I agree with what Chris said. Like, there is so much this game is doing that I am fully fucking vibing with. I was really excited when I started playing it because I think it starts really strong and the way that it kind of like introduces the creepy supernatural element into the world. Like it fucking hits. And I was like, hell yeah, man. This is going to be, this is going to be a really scary game. And I do think that as much as they nail the fear with the aesthetics and the cinematography and the storytelling and the writing and the sound design. Jesus Christ. The sound of the monsters as they get close to you is of course good because that's what like Silent Hill sort of has to nail. It is betrayed, I think pretty completely by the actual, the actual playing of it. Because I do think it makes the game less scary when combat isn't threatening so much as it is sort of tedious, which is not a good kind of fear.

[Justin McElroy]

I don't think I was.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And to be clear, like I had it set on story difficulty for the combat. Like I was not disliking. I mean it was like. It felt kind of weird to be walking around with like 11 or you know, 11 red pills and three bandages to heal myself with. Like I'm fully ready for whatever's happening. I don't feel really under threat. Like it wasn't. I wasn't hating it. I just didn't like feel a lot in between those areas where I wasn't doing some sort of like puzzle thing.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, I think it will be a great game to watch. I. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the game.

[Griffin McElroy]

I bet there's going to be a cut scene, a two hour long cut scene. Super cut. You'll be able to watch. That'll be fucking really, really good.

[Russ Frostic]

I will say I skipped ahead and watched like some later game moments and there is one of the grisliest moments I've ever seen in a video game in this game. So if you're squeamish maybe.

[Chris Plant]

No, what it does with little worms that can come out of your skin is. Yep, it'll stick.

[Griffin McElroy]

Say no more. Talk less chef.

[Chris Plant]

That's good.

[Russ Frostic]

We have some reader mail if we want to jump into that.

[Griffin McElroy]

Would love to.

[Russ Frostic]

First one comes from Kel. Justin's bug is a house centipede. I think we expected that but I'm glad it was confirmed by of our readers. I know they look scary but they're actually nice friends to have around the house. They are completely harmless to humans and eat bugs you don't want like roaches and even wasps. They use their long legs to capture Prey in a technique called lassoing so that you can think of them as little cowboys. Does that help?

[Griffin McElroy]

I really. I really do.

[Justin McElroy]

Sure. I feel a lot better.

[Russ Frostic]

I saw one in my lobby a day later, so they might be invading.

[Griffin McElroy]

They're everywhere. But. But they're little cowboys now in my mind.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah, I know. I like them. I like them. We got another letter. This one comes from Chris. Thanks for the Heads up on Queue Up. That was the game, the. The coin flipping game that Chris Plant mentioned. Hell yeah. There is another recent indie release that's all about coin flipping and I recommend it as a very simple clicker game. It's called Unfair Flips. The goal is to flip heads 10 times in a row. If that's compelling to you.

[Griffin McElroy]

I've actually seen some streamers playing that one and I'm. I have put it on the list.

[Russ Frostic]

And then this last letter comes from Sean. You all might be surprised to learn that not only is there frog fractions three, there is a frog fractions four.

[Griffin McElroy]

We were just saying it. There's also a frog fractions 5.

[Russ Frostic]

Is there?

[Griffin McElroy]

And a frog fractions 6. You just say whatever.

[Justin McElroy]

You can say whatever shit you want.

[Chris Plant]

You can just say anything.

[Russ Frostic]

Do we know if.

[Justin McElroy]

I would know if Twain Beard had released Frog Factions 4, I would know personally.

[Griffin McElroy]

Frag, do we have any honorable mentions here at the end of our program? Because I've been playing one that's really got stuck in my craw. It was suggested to us last week in an email and I'd seen some streamers playing it. Clover Pit. Clover Pit. The slot machine. Roguelike. And it is. I mean, it's got all this stuff. I feel like it is lazy perhaps to say it does a lot of the roguelike stuff that you would see in a Slay the Spire or a Luck Be a Landlord or a. What's the one that came out?

[Russ Frostic]

That inscription?

[Griffin McElroy]

Merge Maestro. Inscription. Absolutely. It is set in a single room with a slot machine and an ATM in it and a little shop. And you go and you place slots and then between rounds you go to the shop and you will purchase little upgrades. And those upgrades will be things like now cherries, when they spawn, they'll be 20% likely to have a buff on them. That permanently increases how much you get for cherries or a special ability. That's whenever you press this button, it increases the odds that cherries are going to spawn in and you get both those at the same time. And now you're building synergies and stuff like that. So as you are playing through these runs. You are getting ways to affect the. The rate at which the different symbols appear, how much money they give you, how much money you get from the different patterns you could get on the slot machine, trying to reach these deadlines in a certain number of spins. And if you don't, you die. That's Cloverpit, and it's really very, very good. I got through it. Maybe not, like the true, true ending, but I got through a couple of endings on it and have beaten quite a few runs. I think I probably only played, like, eight or nine hours or so, so I'm not sure how much staying power it's gonna have. But, like, I can't get enough of these types of games. And this one does some.

[Justin McElroy]

It's got a really good. It really. At first, it feels like Cheetos. Like, it feels like, oh, this is just. This is dumb. I'm gonna burn. Like, I'm addicted, but it's gonna last 30 minutes.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

And what you really do is, like, it is actually a lot more nuanced and dynamic than it seems. Like you really do have to have. Like, it rewards a pretty active strategy for, like, how you. How you approach each run. And it's really dynamic. Like, you'll end up with really interesting choices that make it a lot of fun. It's also. It's also got that, like, dopamine hit.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, it feels really, really good when the stars align and you get a run where you start getting that balatro. Like, the machine is just making the same noise 100 million times as your points reach into, like, exponential scientific notation. Like, yeah, it does that. And it feels quite good to pull that off. Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

I wanted to clarify something. I went to the Hit Polygon story about this question. Apparently, Jim Crawford, the creator of frog fractions, would classify Frog Fractions 1 as Frog Fractions, Frog Fractions 2 as the Search for Frog Fractions 2. Glitter Mitten Grove is Frog Fractions 3.

[Griffin McElroy]

And the.

[Justin McElroy]

The DLC for Frog Fractions hops iconic hat as Frog Fractions 4.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

Everyone's okay if you want to listen. If the creator of the game says that wild stuff, then that's his.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Justin McElroy]

He's the boss.

[Chris Plant]

True.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Justin McElroy]

Good, Jim.

[Chris Plant]

I love it.

[Justin McElroy]

In charge.

[Chris Plant]

I have the entry point for our friend Russ, fresh into the world of mystery dungeon games. I think I found it.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, boy.

[Russ Frostic]

That seems really unlikely.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm excited to hear this, too. I like a mystery dungeon game.

[Chris Plant]

It's called House of Necrosis, and it is Resident Evil 1, the Mystery Dungeon game to the point that I'm a little worried about a lawsuit.

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh my God.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, dudes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, man.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. But if you have ever been curious about the mystery dungeon genre, which is one of the earliest forms of kind of like a rogue game, this is it. This is it. It's something if you also just like Resident Evil 1 and you miss that aesthetic, hop into this and then don't even ask yourself what is mystery dungeon? Just let yourself sink into it. Because it is both one of the most challenging genres and also one of the most rewarding if you are able to get past that barrier.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's got a demo on Steam.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's got big demo in it.

[Russ Frostic]

Represent it. Is there more to like. The core gameplay of Mystery Dungeon has never appealed to me because it is that like turn based rogue style gameplay. It just hasn't clicked for me. Is there anything this game is doing apart from the art style to make it more approachable?

[Chris Plant]

It's doing that really well. The reason that I think you will eventually change your mind on all of this is because you love rogue designs other than the moment to moment. And these games do that. Top level. Oh, I am great at this. I am learning to get better.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah. Player empowerment.

[Chris Plant]

Me knowing this world. Yeah, it does that very, very well. But I mean, then again, so does Shiren the Wanderer. The only problem is you have to play like 100 hours of those games before you understand how to play them.

[Russ Frostic]

Yeah. Interesting.

[Griffin McElroy]

This looks cool.

[Russ Frostic]

It does look cool. Justin, you got anything?

[Justin McElroy]

I got in my RG476H this week.

[Russ Frostic]

I'll see if I can figure it out. Okay, it's an Amber.

[Justin McElroy]

Go for it. Let's do your best. Let's see what you got.

[Russ Frostic]

RG is an anbernic device.

[Justin McElroy]

No. What does RG mean?

[Russ Frostic]

I don't remember.

[Justin McElroy]

Retro game always means retro.

[Russ Frostic]

But it. But it usually means it's made by Anbernic. Correct.

[Justin McElroy]

It means retro game.

[Griffin McElroy]

But it also means that Amber Nick made it. Yes, correct.

[Russ Frostic]

And then what are the other numbers?

[Justin McElroy]

4, 7, 6, H. Okay, so the.

[Russ Frostic]

47 is the size of the screen. 4.7 inches.

[Justin McElroy]

That's my man.

[Russ Frostic]

And the H is a horizontal form factor.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Russ Frostic]

So that the 6 and what?

[Justin McElroy]

What's the 6?

[Russ Frostic]

Oh, there was a 6, 6H. Oh, 6 model.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yes.

[Justin McElroy]

It's of the 6th generation. Exactly right.

[Griffin McElroy]

Crushed it.

[Russ Frostic]

You know what, it's all very logical once you.

[Justin McElroy]

This is, this is very similar to something they released a while back, the 477. But that is a same form factor but it has. Do you guys have a preference on stacked shoulder buttons or inline shoulder buttons?

[Russ Frostic]

I like stacked.

[Justin McElroy]

I like stacked too.

[Russ Frostic]

Stacked is like when you're holding like a PlayStation controller where the triggers are.

[Griffin McElroy]

Like behind one another on a really thin device. They have to be in line. There's not as much real estate back there.

[Justin McElroy]

So that's the. That's the trade off you're making. Right. If you want the stacked then you're gonna have something that's a little less pocketable. Yeah, this is stacked compared to the 477 which is in line. So I like that a little better. It is a less powerful processor. It's.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's the.

[Justin McElroy]

But it is capable of playing pretty much up through like PS2 at like regular emulation speed and it can play stuff all the older stuff with like shaders or what have you. I think this is a great. And it's a great. The screen is the great. A great form factor for like playing older stuff. I think.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is it like a budget, Like a budget price?

[Justin McElroy]

150. So that's the thing, right? For 150 bucks. If you don't want to do a bunch of stuff beyond PlayStation. If you want to just do like PlayStation before, I would say this is a great place to start. This may be the new like best place to start. It's 150. It feels great. It looks great. It's got this glass front. I think it's really slick. All the controls feel good. It feels a lot pricier than it is. I think it's a great place if you just want something to play a bunch of older games on.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a great device.

[Russ Frostic]

But you would say it's okay for PlayStation 2.

[Justin McElroy]

You could. Okay.

[Russ Frostic]

So this is like hit or miss for me personally.

[Justin McElroy]

I don't like to play stuff that is. I want to play stuff in the best form factor for it.

[Russ Frostic]

Sure.

[Justin McElroy]

And so I wouldn't play PS2 or PSP or Vita stuff on a 4 by 3 or 1 by 1 device. I only play it on like a widescreen.

[Russ Frostic]

I guess what I would say is like there are like cheaper device like the brick and things like that that can handle PS1 and before pretty handily. Right.

[Justin McElroy]

If you want. I mean. Yeah, you're always talking about the metaphor here. Right. So like with a brick you don't have the thumbsticks. So like you. So for me that limits the library a lot. And the screen's not as good like 4.7 inch 4 by 3 screen is going to make like your Game Boy, GBA, GBC. Like all those games are going to look amazing, like better than you've ever seen them. And I just think it's a really great stage for everything before that. Once you're into stuff where like, even PS2 games that weren't innately widescreen, a lot of them have widescreen hacks that have been developed by the community that are a lot of fun to play with if you're already going to have the juice to do it. Right. So for me, I would stick to widescreen devices if I'm going to be doing anything after PlayStation.

[Russ Frostic]

That makes sense.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah, I think it's cool. It's a really cool. And for 150 bucks, I think it's. And if that's where your interests are at, I think it's a great, like, great advice.

[Chris Plant]

Midline.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Russ, did you go?

[Russ Frostic]

I didn't go. I played a little bit of Super Mario Super Mario Galaxy 2, which we're going to talk more extensively on Rusty's about. But there is for the first time in like 15 years, an official playable version of Super Mario Galaxy 2.

[Griffin McElroy]

It just.

[Russ Frostic]

Just starting that up and reminding myself like, oh, fuck. This was like where they really took the limits off of their game design stuff that they introduced in the original Mario Galaxy, which I think kind of takes some time get going. Whereas this is like bam. You're like fucking in it, minute one. So if you're looking for a fucking great 3D Mario game and you haven't played Galaxy 2 because it kind of came at the end of the Wii's life cycle.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Speaking of taking the the limits off, you'll also want to listen to that episode Arrestes, because we're talking about sonic racing, cross worlds. Let me tell you, these people took the limits off. They did Minecraft. Steve is there. I mean, they're doing Hatsune Miku. They do whatever they want over at sega.

[Griffin McElroy]

And I love it.

[Russ Frostic]

I think we did it. I want to thank some member, actually before I thank the members, even though I love them very much. I wanted to throw out. We have a new episode of the Bracket Battle series that we do. This one was most practical car in video games, not counting racing games. So there's not a lot of Honda Civics and things like that. But we had a lot of fun with this one. I will ask our great editor Rachel to drop a clip in here.

[Chris Plant]

We have the tram from Half Life versus Battle Bus.

[Justin McElroy]

I gotta record this. This is too funny not to record, guys. I gotta record this conversation. Okay, now I'm recording. Started.

[Griffin McElroy]

Wait, wait, really? Yeah, Griff, really?

[Justin McElroy]

Let's go on.

[Chris Plant]

Okay, so these are just, you know, we don't get to drive these in either of the games. They're amazing.

[Russ Frostic]

And the beginning of each game is the tram and Half Life and the battle bus of Fortnite. Both games begin with both vehicles.

[Chris Plant]

But again, it's not about the games. So what was I thinking?

[Russ Frostic]

That's true.

[Chris Plant]

It's about what they would do for me in real life. A tram would do jack shit. Because I don't.

[Griffin McElroy]

I'm not doing the airboat from Half.

[Russ Frostic]

Life because we're doing the tram.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Russ Frostic]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

Now it should be Half Life 2 has a fucking kick ass vehicle in it. And we're picking the one that you.

[Justin McElroy]

Start the game in that exists at the airport.

[Griffin McElroy]

No fucking.

[Justin McElroy]

That you can ride at the ATL airport. Here at the Kelley Blue Book, we're.

[Griffin McElroy]

Excited to announce 2025's vehicle of the year is the Tomorrowland People Mover.

[Justin McElroy]

A ride that can't even jet up.

[Russ Frostic]

A 20 minute wait for you could move the tram such that it would solve child transport issues for one location.

[Chris Plant]

Sure.

[Justin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I get. Yeah, that's cool. That's great. My kids are gonna go to several schools, so like that's gonna. I will age out of that at some point.

[Russ Frostic]

We had a lot of fun. That was.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think it was a great episode. I think it's some of our most deranged logic. Just like really, really, really bad faith argument. We had a good time, but really fun stuff.

[Russ Frostic]

We have some members to thank as well. Over at the Patreon, we have Graham S, we have Brandon B. We have Joshua S. And we have the Dankest Mike. Thank you for being members of the Besties Patreon. Thank you to everyone else who supported us. We really appreciate it and I think we can recap what games we talked about. Plant.

[Chris Plant]

We talked about Silent Hill, F, Absolum Clover, Pit, Queue Up, Unfair Flips, House of Necrosis and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Along with the Anbernic RG476H. You can get links to all of those things and so much more. And photos of stuff that hoops showed at one point in this show at the newsletter that is @Besties Fan.

[Griffin McElroy]

What are we doing next week, guys?

[Russ Frostic]

Next week we're playing Ball Pit, which.

[Griffin McElroy]

Has an X in there.

[Russ Frostic]

There's an X in there.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's wild to not include it, you.

[Russ Frostic]

Know, but yeah, I think you pronounce it. Ball pit. And so that's happening next week. Might. Might be some other stuff, but I think that's going to be the key focus there.

[Justin McElroy]

All right. Well, I'm looking forward to that, and I'm looking forward to spending that time with you, our beloved listener. Be sure to join us again next week for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games.

[Griffin McElroy]

Besties?