0:13

Hello

0:14

and welcome to Apps of the Blog God,

0:16

an RPG podcast. Both Kat and

0:18

Eric are out this week, so I, Nadia,

0:21

am hosting. I'm alone, bare-ass

0:23

naked, and crooning the summer

0:25

wind

0:26

like Martin Prince from The Simpsons. That's

0:29

a lie, actually. I'm here with some really good friends.

0:32

I've assembled a doozy of a roster for this week's

0:34

show. We are finally going to record

0:36

the quintet episode that I've been threatening you all with

0:38

for years, decades, centuries.

0:41

So let's have some introductions.

0:44

First we have chronic troublemaker

0:47

and problem, Anthony John Agnello.

0:50

Soul Blazer is better than Terranigma.

0:53

He's getting right into it from the start, folks. He's just

0:55

not taking any prisoners. How

0:57

are you doing, Anthony? I'm very good,

0:59

Nadia. I disclosed

1:03

this as we were warming up to the pre-show,

1:06

but when you contacted me,

1:08

do you want to talk about quintet games,

1:10

I was literally looking at eBay

1:13

and pricing out the memorial

1:16

CD for Terranigma, a

1:19

truly stupid object. So

1:22

yes, I love quintet. I'm happy

1:24

to be discussing these games in

1:27

the hopes that our talking

1:29

about them at all summons more

1:32

remakes like the Actraiser remake.

1:35

Yes, we will get into the reason

1:37

why that might be a little more difficult than you think

1:39

and is actually a new reason I just learned. And

1:41

I'm like, holy shit, really. But for

1:43

now, let's have our second guest introduce

1:46

himself. Scott, hi.

1:48

Hello, hello. Glad to be back. How's it going,

1:50

everybody? Good. We

1:53

should include your last name too, because Scott just

1:55

kind of like Scott from Canada, South

1:57

Park. That's what I think of. But you're

1:59

a different Scott. Scott Tenerman. Yes, Scott

2:01

White. That is awesome. How

2:04

are you doing? Thanks for coming. Doing well, doing

2:06

well. Glad it's a beautiful day

2:09

here out in the Metro Detroit area.

2:12

I love the fall, so I'm feeling good, ready to talk

2:14

about some classics, underrated

2:17

classics.

2:19

Yeah, it is actually beautiful weather

2:21

for this discussion. Actually, Anthony, you're in New

2:23

York. How are you doing? Are you swimming? Dude,

2:26

it is perfect

2:29

upstate New York fall weather

2:31

right now. It's like high 60s,

2:34

it's sunny, the leaves are turning. This

2:37

is the opening stage of

2:39

a quintech game.

2:40

It really is. Same with Toronto. It's

2:42

gorgeous today.

2:43

I should be walking to school with my books,

2:45

and then all of a sudden a door

2:47

just opens to blank space. And

2:50

they're like, hey, we'll come in here and turn into a blonde

2:52

night. And I'm like, yeah. Sounds

2:54

better than candy. I hate when that happens.

2:56

It happens more than you'd think.

3:00

Just all the time. I'm already blonde.

3:02

Can I be like a redhead night? Gosh,

3:04

come on. The

3:07

character we are talking about does have absolutely lovely

3:09

blonde locks. And we should all,

3:11

I suppose, this is something I was saying on Twitter,

3:14

but when we have beautiful weather like this,

3:16

while the rest of the world is kind of suffering under something

3:18

terrible, just praise the jet stream.

3:21

And everyone just kind of echoes praise the jet stream. It's

3:23

like in his eye or whatever they say

3:25

on the Handmaid's Tale. But yes, I

3:28

actually want to give a big, big shout out to

3:30

Lauren the Flute who wanted to be on the

3:32

show and was very, very excited to be

3:34

on the show. And I was excited to have that on the

3:36

show, but we will,

3:39

there were technical difficulties. Lauren

3:41

the Flute

3:41

will absolutely return. Keep your

3:44

ear out on retronauts. That is a promise. But

3:46

for now, we are talking Quintet

3:48

over here on Axe the Blood God, which is supported

3:51

in the most part by gender patrons like yourself. So

3:54

a shout out to our stars, Destiny, who are

3:57

within peanut throwing range of this week's festivities

3:59

and that. We have Anthrax

4:02

Bees, Drew Warlock,

4:05

JB Balamb, sorry

4:07

everyone I'm having trouble reading names. Balamb

4:10

Garden, fellow Final Fantasy VIII

4:12

fan. There we go. Calo, Mango Ulf,

4:15

Ruka, Spyrus, Teeps. Yeah, I need to

4:17

get a new prescription

4:17

for my glasses. They

4:21

tell me, oh you know, they're not bifocals.

4:23

Yeah, they're bifocals.

4:24

Anyway,

4:27

please give us money at patreon.com forward

4:29

slash bloodgodpod or else I will turn myself

4:31

into a pig and throw myself into the fire

4:34

and you will cry. So let's

4:37

start talking about Quinta.

4:40

It was a small development

4:42

studio that is gone but certainly not forgotten.

4:44

They are still fondly remembered for their RPGs

4:46

which famously tackle some pretty

4:49

hardcore topics for their time like death,

4:52

rebirth, war, slavery, colonialism. That's

4:54

just the start. It was founded in 1989

4:57

by former Falcom developers. Its president

5:00

Tomoyoshi Miyazaki was

5:02

the scenario writer for the first three Ys games.

5:05

He was joined by Masaya Hashimoto

5:08

who was the main director and the designer for

5:10

the early Ys games. They are responsible

5:12

for some 16-bit bangers that

5:14

just kind of burst out the gate with like we

5:16

got Actraiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion

5:18

of Gaia, Terra Enigma, had some lesser

5:20

known hits that we'll talk about like Robotrek

5:23

which had a town named Toronto to my very

5:26

big confusion.

5:27

So

5:29

Quintet mostly worked with Enix before the Harmonic

5:31

Convergence. The company dissolved not

5:33

too long after that after Terra Enigma

5:35

just after that its content kind of thinned out. There

5:38

were other things that we'll talk about here but

5:41

yeah many of the former members who worked

5:43

on the team like for a long time people have been saying oh Quintet

5:45

kind of vanished but no they are around

5:47

in bits and pieces minus the president

5:50

who uh um

5:52

uh

5:54

these are allegations but apparently

5:56

uh Mr. Miyazaki

6:01

did a credit card fraud thing and no,

6:03

no, sorry. He was on top of a credit card company

6:06

that kind of went bust and lost

6:09

a lot of people's money, allegedly, and

6:11

vanished, allegedly. Members

6:14

of the team, members of Quintet has said they

6:16

have not, they have no idea where he is. And

6:19

actually, I think in I watched a documentary

6:22

lately that said,

6:24

in Japan, it's quite easy to vanish

6:26

if you want to. So

6:28

that is that story.

6:31

I think maybe we should just kind

6:33

of make things a little more normal by talking about

6:35

what God is into Quintet in the first place.

6:38

Scott, you're the most behaved person here. So why don't

6:40

you go ahead and start?

6:41

I think Miyazaki, just my theory, he stumbled

6:44

into the dark space. You're right. That's

6:46

what happened. That's what happened. That's the

6:48

canon, everyone. New canon. In fact, he's

6:51

walking around right now as Fabio,

6:54

the flowing blonde locks, just

6:56

going around solving problems. Miyazaki,

6:59

though, he did have gorgeous hair.

7:01

I meant to put a picture in the notes, but he did have this long,

7:04

lovely hair. That's exactly what you think

7:07

Quintet man would look

7:08

like. I love

7:10

every picture of Miyazaki with

7:12

his like flowing long locks,

7:15

smoking a cigarette. It's like every

7:17

shot of him is just like casually

7:20

of the side taking a drag.

7:23

Has anyone thought to look for people

7:25

not smoking cigarettes with short hair? Maybe

7:28

that's how he's blended in. You know,

7:30

like how Superman just puts on some glasses

7:32

and suddenly no one knows he's

7:35

a totally different person. Have they just

7:37

looked for someone not smoking with short hair?

7:39

Yeah. I don't know.

7:41

That could be its own investigative series

7:43

on Netflix.

7:45

I mean, it's not my place to met out

7:47

justice, but I would absolutely forgive him if

7:49

he came into the dark space and said, Hello, everyone, I'm

7:52

back. Don't tell the cops and I'll make a new

7:54

I'll make a new game for you all. I'll make

7:57

a I'll make a Soul Blazer remake. Yep. Come

7:59

on. Oh, you can murder? I don't

8:01

care. Just give

8:04

me more. Why don't you talk about that murder through your

8:06

game? That would be really heartfelt. I think

8:08

that would be really good. Scott,

8:11

go ahead and tell us why you love Quintet. It.

8:15

The big thing with Quintet is I

8:17

love kind of rooting for the little guy. And

8:20

on the SNES days, granted,

8:22

I was a hooked on phonics kid. And back in those

8:25

days, I didn't really read too well. So a lot of

8:27

RPGs kind of flew over my head until I was a little

8:29

older. But I remember my brother renting

8:32

and playing Illusion of a Guy, Act Raiser

8:34

was a big one, because it was less wordy. And

8:37

it was just one of those games that had a lot of heart

8:39

a lot of. There's

8:41

just like a certain quality to it. And even

8:44

though it didn't necessarily have the

8:46

production value of the games of

8:49

like your school, your Dragon Quest,

8:51

or your Final Fantasies, they had so much heart

8:54

to them. And the

8:57

big game for me is Robotrek. And

9:00

kind of the lighthearted nature, it was just

9:04

something special and unique for the

9:06

time that I don't recall really running

9:08

into much in those days in

9:10

an RPG sense. And I think

9:12

that's what's really stuck with me with the games.

9:15

And yeah, just memorable.

9:18

I actually want to veer very quickly off

9:20

topic for a second here. You mentioned being a hooked on

9:22

phonics kid who didn't read very well. Did

9:24

video games help you with that? Or did

9:26

it have any role

9:29

in your reading education? I

9:31

don't think so. I

9:35

think like with RPGs and stuff

9:37

in video games,

9:40

I could kind of keep track better of

9:42

my progress. As

9:45

I was able to read more. I

9:48

was just battered over the head pretty much in my

9:50

classes with hooked on phonics books and having to read

9:52

box card children books.

9:54

So I don't like those books. They'll

9:57

do everything.

9:59

They sit there and live in a

10:01

train. Yeah, at this

10:03

point, in looking at it today, it's like

10:06

people, a family living in a box car, like that's

10:08

the hip thing, the tiny, box

10:10

car children brought in the tiny home

10:13

craze,

10:14

I'm convinced. Yeah, yeah. It's like

10:17

poor people have been living in like little cramped

10:19

spaces forever, but now that it's trendy, it's a,

10:22

we're box car children, please call us that.

10:25

I will say though, there was some pretty,

10:28

pretty good learn to read PC

10:30

games back in the day that I remember playing.

10:33

There was one where you're like a student running or

10:35

walking around. It was like a kind

10:38

of horror game, but it was like cartoonic graphics

10:41

and you were in a, you

10:43

were like locked in or investigating the

10:46

school you went to. You were a kid

10:48

with like a baseball cap and you

10:50

had a camera and you had to like. There

10:54

were kind of in the Five Nights of

10:56

Freddy's style thing, there were like these

10:59

evil robots that were like

11:01

hidden throughout and you, if they would counter

11:04

and true, you had to quickly read

11:06

and like type an answer out to, in order

11:08

to flash them on their camera so you could

11:11

get away or something. I can't remember

11:13

what it was, but video games definitely,

11:15

uh, aided, but not like

11:17

RPGs, I would say. Yeah.

11:19

RPGs, I could see being a little bit

11:21

complex, whereas like that game you're describing

11:23

sounds really cool. I like that, but yeah,

11:25

it's like I was one of the only things that

11:28

did really well in school was read. So I

11:30

just kind of latched on like Ramona was

11:32

my bitch because she was just like chaos

11:35

incarnate, so I loved her books. And,

11:38

uh, yeah, one of the reasons I got

11:40

into video games and got into RPGs, especially

11:42

is because I loved, as I was saying earlier, I got

11:45

this stupid orange tattoo. I love the idea

11:47

of a story that can go on and on and on.

11:50

So that was my appeal with RPGs.

11:52

And, uh, I will go into why I like Quintet

11:55

in a moment, but, uh, John, uh,

11:58

did I just call you John? Jesus Christ. I'm sorry.

11:59

Old school Nadia. John

12:02

Constantine. Why don't you

12:03

go ahead and tell us why you love Quintet.

12:05

Done and done. I came

12:07

to Quintet like so many

12:09

people who are 40. I

12:13

came to Quintet because of

12:15

the blitz around illusion of Gaia.

12:18

Yeah, there was one.

12:19

When Nintendo published Illusion

12:22

of Gaia in the US, it

12:25

was if you were like a

12:27

Super Nintendo kid, it was inescapable. It

12:29

was everywhere. There

12:31

was a huge Nintendo power push. Anytime

12:35

you went to a toy

12:37

store, there were these huge banks

12:40

of big box illusion

12:42

of Gaia with a really cool

12:44

t-shirt packed in with the game.

12:49

That shit worked on

12:51

me hard

12:55

in a way that it didn't with EarthBound. I

12:58

didn't all... Yeah, I didn't fall for

13:00

the EarthBound thing because I wasn't like...

13:02

The pukes and barfs

13:05

repelled me in the market. It was badly

13:07

timed. Yeah. It was badly timed.

13:09

RPGs were in this amazing spot then. It's

13:11

like, I don't want to play an RPG about children barfing

13:13

and puking or whatever. But it

13:15

wasn't representative of the actual thing.

13:17

If somebody was like, you want to play a weird

13:20

comedy that also mixes in Twin

13:22

Peaks shit, I would have been like, yeah, please. Illusion

13:26

of Gaia, big beautiful box

13:28

art with that planet Earth, it just seemed...

13:32

It was very alluring. I

13:35

wanted it really bad. One of my really

13:37

good friends at school got a copy of

13:40

it way before anyone else did. He

13:43

was the kid who got video games and it wasn't

13:45

a holiday or a birthday. Oh, the

13:47

everyday kid. The everyday kid. We

13:52

had a sleepover at his house.

13:55

Illusion of Gaia presents, like

13:57

all quintet games, as a normal video

13:59

game. game when you first turn on and

14:02

then it so quickly becomes batshit

14:05

insane and Weirdly

14:09

reflective and weirdly soulful

14:13

So like that by the time you're

14:15

talking to ghosts like hovering over

14:17

the Nazca lions. I was like I am And

14:20

to this hard And

14:24

it but it wasn't until much later

14:26

like, you know college

14:28

years when I You

14:31

know those early days of the internet as we were talking

14:33

in the pre-show and I you were able to More

14:36

fully read about this stuff, you

14:39

know, I found

14:41

out about Act razor like, you

14:43

know in 2002 and found

14:46

it at a garage sale for like five dollars

14:49

and right exactly like, you

14:51

know back when you could deal that Back when

14:53

that happened, right and

14:55

I you know that blew me away And

14:57

I I was the kid that read game

15:00

fan magazine at the time Oh me

15:02

too Tara Tara nigma was

15:04

not Tara nigma it was the creation

15:06

of heaven and earth and just like seeing

15:08

a little screen of the overworld and

15:11

Trying to find that later on and

15:14

so it was like sort of piecemeal playing

15:16

there through their oeuvre

15:19

throughout my 20s and 30s and You

15:23

know, like they're not games

15:24

that I replay often I would say

15:26

illusion of guy is probably the one that I've replayed

15:28

the most. Yeah, because very easy replay. It's

15:31

very linear Yeah, it's super linear. It's

15:33

super short. Like it's like a very

15:35

good like very like digestible

15:37

in the best way and but

15:40

I Don't play them a lot.

15:42

But I would say this is like one of my favorite developers

15:45

of all time just because of how Wholely

15:48

unique these games are And

15:50

I've never like there there are still like

15:52

they some of their stuff falls in that

15:54

white whale category for me Like I've never

15:56

played planet Laika, which is

15:58

I think

15:59

the last game Miyazaki ever worked

16:02

on before he you know quit smoking and cut his

16:04

hair and

16:08

Go look over there. Yeah, cuz that's not me

16:10

Not

16:12

me large man large man in

16:15

a suit everybody just keeps walking

16:17

up to Miyazaki and tearing their Their

16:20

sport jacket off That's

16:23

a real yakuza True

16:28

Before

16:28

I forget I want to kind of relay a small

16:30

story I read on the internet he Google

16:33

it you'll probably find it because it's a very

16:34

sad story and somehow very quintet

16:37

Okay, so

16:38

it was just a regular sort of I guess

16:40

the kids would call like, you know Copy pasta

16:42

by people writing whatever they want on on 4chan

16:44

or wherever and this person wrote about this

16:47

friend He had who was

16:49

being raised as really kind of conservative families of guns

16:51

guns guns guns but they happen to also

16:54

have a copy of illusion of Gaia and the

16:57

writer of the article recalls sleeping

16:59

over at this friend's house and

17:02

they're trying to beat those goddamn vampires

17:05

in moo and

17:07

It's a famously rough battle

17:09

Especially if you don't know how to change into freedom for

17:11

the battle which will make things significantly

17:13

easier for you But it's still even

17:15

hard then so apparently it

17:17

got so bad that

17:19

this kid Like basically

17:21

bashed the Nintendo off He like ripped

17:23

out the cartridge and threw it wherever

17:25

the hell and then he apparently

17:28

sold it and bought a shitload of guns And

17:30

never played a video game again And I like

17:33

that is the most quintet ass story

17:34

to happen talk about rage quitting

17:38

That is like that's the ultimate

17:40

rage

17:40

quit not only do you fling the cartridge across

17:43

the universe you buy guns with

17:45

it Christ Oh, yeah,

17:49

I love Quintet just because of stuff like that because

17:51

of feelings like that They

17:54

tackle tough subjects especially

17:57

for the time, but they don't lecture you just

18:00

there. One thing that kind of

18:02

always stood out to me is that in Illusion

18:05

of Gaia, you do come across literal

18:07

slavery and literal colonialism,

18:10

and you have Kara, the princess, whose father

18:12

is doing all this shit, and she knows it's terrible,

18:15

and she hates it. And then you also meet

18:17

Neil, who, that's

18:20

really screwed up because he's like, oh, I'm this wacky

18:22

ass adventure. Oh, actually, I have really rich parents.

18:25

Oh, actually, they're in charge of the slave trade.

18:28

And these are not bad characters.

18:30

They're great people, and they realize what's going on

18:32

is bad, but no one comforts them. It's just

18:34

like, well, this is the terrible

18:36

thing humanity visits upon them. And you bear

18:40

that burden in ways as it should. It's

18:43

just a very memorable

18:45

game in certain lines. There's

18:48

just a line where you talk to a, I remember

18:51

a child slave, and he says, I've

18:54

tried to stop thinking the more I think

18:56

the more empty I become. And I

18:58

don't believe in God. He doesn't

19:00

say God, he says spirits, because it's still kind of censored

19:02

because of the era. But

19:04

yeah, it's just children being

19:07

sold at markets and just stuff

19:10

happening all that is

19:12

meant to kind of this particular scenario

19:14

was meant to highlight good

19:17

versus evil, and which is very much a topic in

19:19

Illusion of Gaia. In the front of the town

19:21

of Frisia, it's this beautiful facade,

19:24

like, you know,

19:26

Frisia pedals everywhere, beautiful hotels

19:28

and whatnot. In the back alleys, that's where you find

19:30

the slave markets. And I know I'm just babbling

19:33

here, but there's just like,

19:34

so much to cover, because it's not just about

19:37

that. It's just about the deeper, you know,

19:39

forces behind

19:41

the universe and how life

19:43

doesn't necessarily have to be happy or sad.

19:45

Life can just be what it is. Like, I

19:48

also distinctly recall the

19:50

guy who commits suicide

19:53

so that he can, he can

19:55

raise money for his child who's not born yet,

19:57

and he's dying of terminal disease. So he's

19:59

very, very, very, every night on deadly drinks

20:01

and then when he dies and you meet him again as like

20:04

a spirit and the child of Babel he says I

20:06

just feel so dead inside now like I

20:08

feel peaceful but there's nothing going on I thought

20:10

more alive when I had a terminal disease

20:13

that is the literal quote

20:15

by God what a what a weird ass

20:18

what a weird ass game what a weird ass series

20:20

and the weird translation doesn't help

20:22

no not in video games

20:26

it's the most capital V capital

20:28

G video game stuff though I

20:31

found I like

20:33

I had to go back

20:35

and find this quote I wanted to

20:37

make sure I had it exactly right because

20:40

it is something Miyazaki said in an

20:42

interview about it

20:44

was like between the development of Soul

20:46

Blazer and Illusion of Gaia

20:48

yeah

20:49

and like this quote

20:52

sums up so distinctly

20:55

the entire quintet vibe

20:57

and exactly what you're talking about about like that

20:59

heaviness of what you encounter in Illusion of Gaia but

21:02

everything like all of the games are like that like

21:05

as you play Terranigma it's like oh I'm

21:07

opening back up the world like civilization

21:10

is returning and everyone's just constantly

21:12

reminding you that you're killing all of the

21:14

animals and everything that lives are

21:16

I've grown but

21:19

so this the Miyazaki was

21:22

asked like oh like you

21:24

know was there anything in the game that you had

21:26

to have in Soul Blazer like it just absolutely

21:28

didn't that needed to be there

21:31

but he says in response to that I

21:34

wanted to mix and present two

21:36

different perspectives the way

21:38

human beings see objects and

21:41

the way objects see human beings

21:45

and that that

21:49

is every single one of these

21:51

games you feel like you feel

21:53

like Illusion of Gaia is watching

21:55

you you do absolutely

21:58

how how are you

21:59

reacting to, you know,

22:02

being encountered with like a character

22:05

that you care about, but who is

22:07

a fucking slaver. And yeah,

22:09

that's it is all

22:12

in the guise of Scott, you said

22:14

it like video games, like it all

22:16

looks like little cartoony characters.

22:19

They're all these bright sprites. And

22:21

yeah,

22:23

but at the same time, and something I always appreciated

22:26

about quintet games like that is that yes,

22:28

it does show the slave labor, slave trade,

22:31

but it doesn't hide it. It doesn't like try to substitute

22:33

like even Final Fantasy theme was like, Hey,

22:35

we have a slave allegory. No, these are

22:37

people, these are human beings, dark skinned human

22:40

beings, no less being traded and

22:42

sold. And just it's

22:46

very much talking. Quintet,

22:48

there we go. Quintet doesn't

22:50

talk down to you. It knows the kids

22:52

are playing its games. But that's

22:54

what it wants. I want to say, Hey, kids, guess

22:57

what you're not you're sitting here in your nice house

22:59

playing this cool ass game. Whereas there's someone

23:02

thousands of miles away who was doomed to weave

23:04

carpets, because that was that was the life they were born

23:07

into like, and it's not trying to condemn

23:09

you. It's not trying to shame you. It's not trying to make you feel

23:11

bad. It's just like, why

23:13

don't you stop and think about the world around you and

23:16

maybe think a little bit about how you can improve

23:18

it? Wouldn't that be nice?

23:19

It and Anthony, to

23:22

your point and not EU as well, you

23:24

mentioned this, like with how slavery is

23:26

kind of handled also in Final Fantasy 16.

23:28

So how there's like an allegory and kind

23:30

of a, yeah, a replacement for

23:33

for it. I almost wonder

23:36

if so much of like

23:38

what you were all talking about right now with

23:40

illusion of Gaia.

23:43

I feel like back then,

23:45

not that people didn't care, but it was very

23:47

much less of

23:50

a thing to kind of brush

23:52

out on the rug. And just in terms of localization,

23:54

because they were so much more, we can't

23:56

have God imagery, we can't have like spiritual

24:00

and that sort of imagery in but

24:02

oh depictions and just blatant references

24:05

to slavery and all this I mean that

24:07

we'll leave that in but don't don't

24:09

go getting my god into your your

24:11

video games and yeah, I'd

24:14

be very curious to see how

24:16

something like if there was a Illusion

24:19

of Gaia remake or remaster or something

24:21

how that would be handled if it was Approached

24:25

a different way in a similar way that like

24:27

Final Fantasy 16 handled it yeah,

24:30

or things like that and with

24:33

with now it almost being a reverse where mention

24:36

of God or things like that is

24:39

less taboo and like don't do that

24:41

and more of the social Issues

24:44

and things like that. Right? Like

24:47

slavery is much more of a Hot

24:52

hot button or like very much

24:55

more something that provokes provokes Provocative

25:00

a topic because apparently

25:02

it's controversial to say slavery is bad

25:04

now.

25:04

Yeah, it's very funny that like

25:06

the same

25:08

like sort of hyper conservative elements

25:10

that that people Who

25:13

make these things don't want to? They

25:17

don't want the heat from them like Nintendo

25:19

being like, oh, yeah well, we don't want

25:21

churches and Dragon Quest or Having

25:24

a priest teaching the kids in

25:26

Illusion of Gaia. That's like one of the changes they made

25:28

in Illusion of Gaia That's right. It was a school. Yeah,

25:30

the school was supposed to be in a church and

25:32

they were like, well, you can't do that will

25:35

will Then there

25:37

will be people that attack us and

25:39

start to call for boycotts And

25:43

yes, God, it's like that same sort

25:45

of Hyper-aggressive

25:49

Nightmare people who like you said

25:51

Nadia are offended by the idea of like

25:54

being like his flavor is awful You

25:56

can't say that in the game

25:59

Yeah

25:59

It's very weird. I do wonder what

26:02

an Illusion of Gaia remake would

26:04

look like now.

26:06

Well, I can say that

26:08

in Actra- sorry, not Actraiser, Terra-Nigma,

26:11

which is when Nintendo pulled back most

26:14

of it, you know, can't

26:16

do things. I love the fact

26:18

that Ark rebuilds the

26:21

world, like, as Jesus, he rebuilds

26:23

civilization, and then he wakes

26:25

up in the era of humans, and the first thing you see is that huge-ass

26:28

cross that Jesus nailed to it, and it's like, oh my

26:30

god, Ark is Jesus, he's

26:32

here, he's not nailed across, is Jesus Jesus?

26:35

Did they crucify some shmo- I

26:37

mean, I'm Jewish, and that's what we

26:38

believe anyway, but oh my god. Oh, I hate cases of mistaken identity,

26:41

damn it. Everyone

26:44

has long hair and a beard and thinks they can heal

26:46

the sick. Oh, wait, sorry

26:48

guys, the Wanda poster says, man without

26:51

beard, not man with beard. Oh, I

26:53

feel awful. Man

26:55

with spiky red hair, how

26:57

do we screw this up? This dude has like,

27:00

no hair.

27:01

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27:59

Nadia, I just-

27:59

I realized I was confusing Ark

28:02

and L. Ark and L are the ones

28:04

who end up together and then have kids. That's

28:06

it. That's what happens.

28:09

Not a will and... Yeah,

28:11

they're knocking boots for sure. They're definitely knocking

28:13

boots. Yeah. And you

28:15

get the shoes if you want to go to

28:18

hell

28:18

with L or heaven

28:21

with L. That's like the big, the one

28:23

choice

28:24

that like changes the ending in...

28:27

in Terranigma.

28:29

Either way, you're with L. No matter

28:31

what, you're with L.

28:32

You made a controversial statement,

28:35

Anthony. Tell

28:36

us why Soul Blazer is better than Terranigma.

28:38

Okay. Yeah, well, I feel like we've been

28:40

so focused on Illusion of Gaia that we've given Soul

28:42

Blazer a short trip. Yeah, let's spread

28:45

out a bit.

28:45

So, okay. Soul Blazer being

28:48

the first of the heaven and earth trilogy.

28:51

There's

28:51

Soul Blazer, there's Illusion of Gaia,

28:53

and then there's Terranigma, which are basically

28:56

all predicated on the...

28:58

It's like three very different approaches to

29:00

the same idea of renewing

29:04

the world. Like bringing the true world to the locked

29:06

away. Reincarnation is a huge topic here.

29:09

Everything has been locked away and

29:11

that the true world,

29:13

like God's world, needs to be returned.

29:17

And in... You

29:20

know, Miyazaki actually talked

29:22

about this too, was that Soul

29:25

Blazer felt for as

29:28

grand as its scope was, of

29:30

like, you are literal God

29:32

going back to the world and trying to like

29:35

clear out monsters so that a town

29:38

of happy deer and dogs can open a restaurant

29:40

again. Absolutely. Because,

29:43

hell yeah. He...

29:45

Soul Blazer felt like very small

29:47

and episodic.

29:49

An Illusion of Gaia, in

29:51

turn, felt so huge

29:54

and sweeping. You've got children

29:56

going across the world.

29:59

They go to the Nazca lines, they

30:02

cross the ocean. And

30:04

he talked about how he wanted to sort of marry

30:07

the

30:08

scope

30:09

of Illusion of Gaia's story with

30:12

the world building

30:15

of Soul Blazer into something that felt much

30:17

more expansive. And I

30:19

think Terranigma is incredible. Like it's a beautiful

30:22

game. It is everything

30:24

that you would want like a late Super

30:26

Nintendo game to be.

30:30

I feel like it lacks the clarity

30:32

and focus that you get from

30:34

Soul Blazer. Soul Blazer is like

30:36

a nice edge of a game. It

30:40

is so... There is not

30:43

an extraneous piece.

30:45

It is just pure and its

30:48

vision of what it's trying

30:50

to do is so pointed and quiet.

30:53

It's very

30:53

clear, isn't it? Yeah. I

30:56

feel like if Soul Blazer was on

30:58

the Swiss, which it should be, it would

31:00

be one of those games I'd go back to if I was just like

31:02

upset or just needed something repetitive that made me

31:05

calm down. A game

31:07

like that would definitely become very special to me, I think.

31:09

Yeah, it's funny too because it's

31:12

one of the few examples where I can say nostalgia

31:14

isn't coloring my experience

31:16

of that game. That's right. It's the last

31:19

of the quintech games that I ever played. I didn't play it

31:21

until I was 33. Me too. I

31:24

actually just finally

31:26

downloaded it, oh my god, and I played

31:28

it. I'm like, this is a really just solid, competent,

31:30

good action RPG. Good story.

31:33

It doesn't go to the universe

31:35

literally the way that all

31:37

the other quintet stories do. And it has

31:39

that sweet ending where

31:42

mortal falls in love with immortal and I've always

31:44

been a sucker for that. Yeah. It

31:47

also has that weird,

31:50

almost banal presentation

31:53

of incredibly deep soulful

31:55

thoughts that you were talking about

31:57

from Illusion of Gaia.

31:59

you,

32:00

as you, you know, banter with,

32:03

there is the animal town, you bring

32:05

back, you bring back

32:08

a town and it's populated by

32:10

deer and dogs. And it's just,

32:13

it's,

32:14

you know, weird to go around and talk

32:16

to all of these cartoonishly

32:19

wrought,

32:20

you know, domesticated animals

32:22

who

32:23

just are like,

32:24

casually pontificating about understanding

32:27

like that they eat their neighbors.

32:29

That they, that they can see

32:32

each other because it is their nature.

32:35

And that's just a, it's a strange

32:37

thing to encounter in that kind of game.

32:39

But

32:39

Kara Nigma does have the goat that

32:41

you get trapped with in a landslide and her, her

32:44

mate dies in the landslide. She's trapped in his

32:46

little air pocket with the, with Ark and Ark's like, well,

32:48

I guess we're screwed. And she's like, why don't you go

32:50

ahead and eat my husband? And Ark is just like, what

32:52

are you talking about? That's your husband. He's dead. And she's

32:54

like, well, that's exactly it. He's dead.

32:57

You're alive. You can, you know,

32:59

get this energy to survive. And he doesn't eat

33:02

the goat

33:02

as far as I remember. Does he eat the goat?

33:04

Yeah, he eats the goat. Ark eats the goat. Oh crap.

33:06

Okay. Of course he does. The quintet game. So he eats the

33:08

goat. He has the strength with the

33:10

goat's help to kind of leave the little

33:12

pocket of air, go out, you know, revive the world,

33:14

blah, blah, blah. If you come back to

33:16

that spot, the goat's dead. That's

33:19

it. Oh no shit. He never got out.

33:21

Yeah. That's awesome. I

33:23

never even saw that the first time. See, that

33:25

is, that is the problem with Terranigma. You there's,

33:27

it

33:28

is big to a fault, I

33:30

think at times. Like it is. It

33:33

does do a lot. It does a lot. And

33:36

that sprawl makes it just,

33:39

it doesn't, it doesn't have that laser focus

33:41

that Soul Blazer and Gaia do or actually

33:44

for that matter.

33:44

What do you think Scott, any, any comment

33:47

on that?

33:48

Um, so I actually haven't played Terranigma

33:50

or Soul Blazer. The only one

33:53

I have really played is Illusion

33:55

of Gaia when I was younger. So

33:58

a lot of my experience with quintet is more like

34:00

Actraiser and Robotrek. But

34:03

I like I've watched speedruns and stuff

34:05

of Soul Blazer, so I get the gameplay. And

34:08

I know bits and bobs of Terran Eggman

34:10

as well. So I'm just enjoying listening and

34:14

dousing myself in the passion you do feel

34:16

for these games. So

34:18

Actraiser is actually another good example of

34:21

basically it's the very same gameplay

34:23

loop, I think, as Soul Blazer, but of course

34:25

more

34:25

action RPG versus,

34:28

well, I don't know, I guess Soul Blazer is

34:30

more action RPG and Actraiser is

34:31

more action. And of course,

34:33

that really incredible soundtrack

34:34

as well. Before we get off track

34:37

again, I want to read

34:39

Lauren's comment on why she loves

34:42

the

34:43

Quintet games.

34:45

Says I've never played Robotrek and Actraiser

34:48

is too hard for me, although the Yuzu Koshiro

34:50

OST is phenomenal. Yes, it is.

34:52

Yuzu Koshiro is on Twitter, say

34:54

hi, he's incredibly eloquent

34:56

with English. And I've talked to him a couple

34:58

times. He's awesome. I played them all out

35:00

of order, but they resonate with me because I've

35:03

always been drawn to stories about duality, darkness,

35:05

light, etc. And even as a sheltered kid,

35:07

I found out the way they juxtaposed really heavy or

35:09

brutal moments with hope and redemption made

35:12

something about them feel more real to me. Yeah, I'm

35:14

interjecting here to say I hardly agree

35:16

because I was about to I was going to say I forgot,

35:19

I feel like Miyazaki reminds me of

35:21

Yoko Taro, but a little less fatal,

35:24

little less fatalistic there,

35:26

like just a little

35:28

more hope in his in his messages.

35:30

Like he says he's like Vonnegut. He says humanity

35:33

is screwed up. But there's always hope. Go

35:36

ahead and eat your goat husband. It'll be all right. And

35:38

Lauren continues. That's what I can stories and

35:40

another thing I think that makes them stand out now

35:43

related to that is that they all they all seem

35:45

to be trying to explore a particular idea,

35:48

whether we call it a theme or a question,

35:50

they're trying to answer. They keep going

35:52

back to it the way that artists sometimes have something

35:54

they really want to say, and they keep trying to

35:56

figure out how to do it. That's absolutely true. Content

35:59

isn't like a one. Quintet isn't

36:01

like a one-person Altair situation like Kojima

36:03

etc. But their games are thematically

36:06

unified with this underlying

36:08

vision that's just not common in

36:10

games at all, let alone the SNES era. It

36:13

felt like it was getting at some greater wisdom of

36:15

life as a cycle along with death. Has

36:18

anyone else read anything by Susan Cooper

36:20

because her books are all like this including

36:22

light slash death and dark slash light

36:24

duality? Introducing again to say

36:26

I have read not Susan Cooper

36:29

but Madeline Longel

36:31

has a very very very Quintet

36:34

vibe to her. Oh my god, yeah

36:36

dude. All of Wrinkle in

36:38

Time is super Quintet-y. I

36:40

never even thought of that. That's so true. Yeah,

36:43

absolutely. I'll have to read

36:45

Susan Cooper now because I'm just like so obsessed

36:47

with my own

36:48

existence and end I suppose. She

36:52

goes on, things that really reinforce

36:54

this. Super stand out moments for me, the dolphins in

36:57

Soul Blazer, the goat in Terranigma,

36:59

we just talked about our good old goat friend, and

37:01

Hamlet in Illusion of Gaia where death is necessary

37:03

for life to go on and then of course Arc

37:06

Sacrifice and the promise of hope at the very end

37:08

where you're bawling your eyes out during those credits. I

37:10

can't handle the credits.

37:11

I just,

37:12

I lose it. I feel like Terranigma

37:14

is where they really got it out of their system and really managed

37:17

to say what they wanted to say. Even if

37:19

it's a narratively flawed game, I said I played everything

37:21

out of order so when I played Grandstream, I'd only

37:23

played Illusion of Gaia but I still like

37:25

this has to be that scene. It just

37:27

feels like them. It's dark and duality, etc. but less

37:29

focused and more anime. So

37:32

yeah, that's what Lauren had to say. I'm really sorry you

37:34

couldn't be on the show. I look

37:36

forward to talking to you about Quintet at some

37:38

point though for sure. Everything you've said

37:40

here very much resonates with how I

37:43

feel about Quintet. What do you guys think?

37:45

Oh no. I think she nailed

37:47

it on the head. The

37:51

entire idea of

37:54

the light and dark duality

37:56

and the constant

37:59

struggle.

37:59

like, you know, they, they're explicit

38:02

about that. That was another like a quote that I

38:04

wanted to dig up of

38:07

from Miyazaki talking about when they

38:09

were developing Terranigma. And

38:12

after they'd finished it, it's,

38:15

they were asked, like, yeah, so you

38:17

know, do you do you intentionally make your games

38:19

so that there's,

38:21

there's no right choice, right?

38:23

That like, you never feel like you're doing the right

38:25

thing, there's always going to be some negative

38:27

consequence to go with it. And Miyazaki

38:30

says, good and evil are two sides of the same

38:33

coin. I hope players enjoy

38:35

seeing the response to their actions after deciding

38:37

for themselves what is right and

38:40

wrong. And Lauren

38:42

perfectly encapsulated, like

38:45

all of those themes being there. I like,

38:47

you know, I, I

38:49

feel relieved that even Lauren had

38:52

the same reaction to being like, yeah, there's

38:54

like a

38:55

bit of a narrative flaw with Terranigma

38:57

compared to the others, but it's still super

38:59

powerful.

39:01

Yeah, one thing that I really like

39:04

about that whole duality of light and dark theme

39:06

is not good and evil. It is

39:08

light and dark. And that is very different. There

39:10

are two very different things, like the comet

39:13

in Ellusseigaya, we still don't really have

39:15

a full grasp of what that comet is. We just

39:17

hear about it coming into orbit

39:19

to the earth and corrupting evolution.

39:22

That's the best I can get out of it. But

39:24

it's not really presented

39:26

as a like, you have to save

39:29

the world to do this. It's just like things have to get back

39:31

on track. And you're the one who has to

39:33

do it. And that's something as well

39:35

with Terranigma and Actraiser,

39:37

of course, you're saving the world from the demon is

39:41

very much a theme of okay, dark

39:43

has, darkness has had its time.

39:46

And that's fine. Nothing really, it wasn't

39:48

bad. It was just darkness now it's time for light.

39:51

And then the cycle will repeat again and darkness

39:53

will kind of consume everything. And that's

39:55

just the way it goes. Children, if you don't

39:57

like it, go please, who are Mario World?

40:01

I mean Super Mario World

40:03

all darkness. That's just a guy Just

40:08

just he just Like takes

40:10

a baby dinosaur that's fresh out of

40:12

the egg and then he just keeps punching it in the

40:14

head and force feeding it fruit you're

40:16

feeding it and you're monster

40:19

just Yeah off it

40:21

to get off to get over pits Horrible

40:25

horrible

40:27

I do not know a whole bunch about Robo

40:29

Trek actually have not played it Can you kind of talk

40:32

about what made it so interesting and appealing to you?

40:34

Sure. So it

40:35

is so in Japan

40:38

It's

40:39

the the name of the game is Japan is

40:41

slapstick

40:43

it is a light like

40:45

the exact opposite of everything

40:47

we've been talking about so far like Interesting

40:50

battle of light and darkness and all these super

40:52

meaningful things now this is just like

40:54

a kid that wants to be

40:57

an inventor so he makes cool robots

40:59

and goes out and Take

41:01

down a terrorist organization with his his

41:04

robots like you

41:06

do and it

41:09

Like you can customize your robots with

41:11

different like it's their names their equipment

41:14

their color scheme things like that and

41:16

it's Kind of like a grid

41:18

based tactical bit of a tactic

41:21

aspect to it

41:22

And it's just a

41:24

light-hearted. It doesn't take itself seriously

41:27

it It's very

41:29

bright very vibrant

41:33

Yeah, it's just

41:34

it's a fun

41:38

Light-hearted game and I think

41:41

that's what like I really was attracted

41:43

to because it wasn't one

41:45

of those games where It

41:50

It was a much more lighter approach

41:53

to a game like robots

41:55

you work with like these two gnomes To

41:58

build all your robots and their pieces Because

42:01

like the computer

42:04

that you use to research and develop

42:06

new pieces and equipment for your

42:09

robots is in the shape of a Famicom

42:11

controller or a super Famicom controller.

42:16

It's just one of those really just charming

42:18

fun games that

42:21

you enjoy that doesn't take itself seriously

42:23

but also has a good amount of depth

42:25

and kind of customization you can

42:28

do with it.

42:28

I'm going to ask you actually what the battle system is like,

42:30

like how robots kind of factor into it. Is

42:33

it like turn

42:33

based? Is it like compared to another RPG that's

42:36

popular? It's kind of like an ATB-esque. So

42:40

you have three robots that you can you send

42:42

out one at a time in a

42:44

Pokeball-esque gizmo.

42:48

And when it's your turn,

42:51

you can maneuver your

42:52

robot in like a grid. It's

42:55

from the side so it's similar to like a Final Fantasy

42:57

in terms of presentation. But

43:00

then you move them into position,

43:02

you can do an attack but then you can move your robot

43:04

out of position. And that

43:07

would, depending on the move, can cause

43:09

enemies to miss. But

43:11

the different attacks you do will cost

43:14

different fuel. In your field, basically

43:17

your ATB gauge. So the bigger attacks you do,

43:19

the longer it'll take you to be able to act again.

43:23

But it is, it's turn based.

43:26

Yeah. As someone who was

43:28

not really huge into RPGs at the time, like you said,

43:30

what was it about Robotruck that attracted you? Was it

43:32

just those bright aesthetics and that cool robot?

43:35

The cool robots definitely

43:37

helped but a lot of it was just

43:39

because it was that kind of silly

43:42

adventure. It was like,

43:44

I feel

43:46

like I appreciated games like Final Fantasy

43:49

VI and Final Fantasy III, your

43:51

Dragon Quest and all those a bit later. So

43:53

I was born in 88. So when these games

43:55

were coming out, I was under 10. I

44:00

was young, so a lot of those

44:03

themes and the messaging,

44:06

like even when I played Illusion of Gaia

44:08

and stuff, I liked the gameplay more than

44:11

the story and all these aspects

44:13

that you were all mentioning totally went over my

44:15

head until I played them later. But that's so cool

44:18

though. Yeah.

44:20

Quintet's not just about the story, it's about they

44:22

have these really satisfying gameplay loops in

44:24

their games and they always seem to incorporate, one

44:27

thing I like that they always seem to incorporate is town

44:29

building. You're always interacting

44:31

closely with the characters and that's

44:34

really important to point out.

44:35

Yeah, so me, it was just like, I mean,

44:37

I loved Power Rangers growing up. So

44:39

I love Transformers. I love like,

44:42

oh, it's a game where I can build my own robot and

44:44

like,

44:45

like dudes?

44:46

Yeah, that's awesome.

44:50

So I would say it was the theme and kind of the more

44:52

lighthearted nature of it that

44:54

I could kind of grasp, that I could grasp

44:56

better, that really

44:59

attracted me to it. And it

45:01

was a game that I remember we had gotten

45:03

it.

45:05

I don't know, it was for some,

45:07

I think it was like an Easter present, whether it

45:09

was on sale or something that

45:12

they had surprised my brother with,

45:15

my parents had surprised my older brother with.

45:18

So it was one of those like, oh, this

45:20

like the cover you were talking about, Anthony,

45:23

where we started how kind of wild it looks

45:25

like it looks like a science fiction,

45:27

like space. Yeah, totally

45:30

different what the actual gameplay is.

45:33

But I'll remember it's like a cool game

45:35

that my parents thought my brother and I would like

45:38

and then building robots and fighting with

45:40

them. That was cool. And

45:43

the bright colors, the not

45:45

super serious and dark

45:47

story that

45:50

I could kind of grasp and just have fun with is

45:52

is what I think really drew me to Robotrack

45:55

that in having gone back, gosh,

45:57

at this point, probably seven or eight years at this

45:59

point. playing through. I mean,

46:02

the story is okay. Like, it doesn't, it's

46:05

not up to the levels of the

46:08

other quintet games by Longshot,

46:10

but it was just, it was a fun game. It's a

46:12

fun, lighthearted RPG that

46:15

is, doesn't take

46:17

itself too seriously, doesn't last too long.

46:19

And it's just a fun,

46:22

fun game to play.

46:23

So.

46:25

That's awesome. Yeah, that's really good to know. It

46:28

just kind of sprung to my mind right now that

46:30

when I first played Terranigma,

46:32

I downloaded

46:34

it again, Gasp, and I had just

46:36

gotten married. And so I had no money anyway,

46:38

I couldn't really buy any games. And my husband

46:40

had to go back to the States

46:42

shortly after I got married to, you know, take

46:44

care of some stuff there. So I was alone

46:46

for about a month and I was playing Terranigma during

46:48

that month. And during that month, a certain

46:50

event called 911 happened

46:52

while I was playing Terranigma. And

46:54

the two are now kind of intertwined

46:57

my mind, especially there

46:59

is a song in Terranigma,

47:01

if you can call it a song, I think it's

47:03

called, it's a song that

47:05

plays in the desert. It's

47:08

like really high pitched keening that kind

47:10

of undulates. And it's a

47:12

very, very terrifying

47:14

sound. And you also hear it shortly before

47:16

you enter the surface

47:19

from the underworld. I think the theme

47:21

is literally called desert like they did not name

47:23

it anything fancy, but it's just absolutely,

47:26

you

47:26

know,

47:27

gives me the chills every time I hear it. And

47:29

now I heard that when

47:31

I'm alone at home, 911 just happened.

47:34

And I'm trying to play Terranigma and everything's kind of going

47:36

crazy in my head. So that's the

47:38

opposite

47:39

of what you just told me Scott like, happy,

47:41

cool robots fun. I'm like, yay, 911. So

47:44

I'm really sorry to kind of

47:46

dump that on you. I just had to get it out of my mind

47:48

while I remembered.

47:49

No, Stromgard in

47:52

chat just reminded me yet. So

47:54

your, your main character just

47:56

wants to be a great inventor. Your dad was like

47:58

a super well known inventor. Your mom

48:00

had died so he built like a robot version

48:02

of your mom. I'd forgotten about He

48:06

built a step for life. Yeah to

48:08

help take care of you and you had a dog Dog

48:11

is it alive? Yes, okay

48:15

It's like I know it's not

48:17

a dark

48:18

story and they didn't try to make that screw it up or anything like

48:20

that I'm not I know I'm applying my own stupid psyche

48:22

to this scenario, but oh my god a robot

48:24

life like You have

48:26

a lot of questions it kind of reminds

48:28

me how in the Tears of

48:30

the kingdom slash breath of the wild universe.

48:32

There's kind of a subplot with the

48:35

Robbie the crazy like looking Sheikah

48:37

guy who has that robot

48:40

named Cherry that he named

48:42

after his ex or his first love or something and

48:44

his wife just loses her mind and there's

48:46

this whole thing going on about that and so

48:48

he's in love with a robot and

48:51

well Maybe the game was just

48:53

ahead of his time. Let's let's end it there Let's

48:57

talk about turbo. Yeah turbo the dog turbo

48:59

the dog who was in I

49:02

know I saw him as Saul Blazer. He's an illusion

49:04

a guy as well. I can't remember is he

49:06

in Terranigma He's got to be

49:08

Turbo shows up as like

49:10

it like as you bit like once you've

49:12

gotten to the air point where you're like

49:15

You

49:15

have modern cities and there are airplanes

49:17

and stuff near the end turbos in town

49:21

Robo he's in Robo Trek to

49:24

Dog named turbo on the team. They're just like I'm putting

49:26

my damn dog in every game for you

49:29

We gotta have the dog and that more

49:31

it's we got at the dog and the font it's the only

49:34

those things in every game Yeah,

49:38

what anyone know off the top of their head what is

49:40

the quintet font? That

49:43

is in every single one of

49:45

these games. It's so good. I love that font

49:47

so very very much awesome It

49:49

is an awesome secret quintet font only

49:51

they know what it is I

49:54

do I do like that in robo track there

49:56

is a character that you can talk

49:58

to who just tells you to go buy

50:00

other quintet games

50:02

please buy them like

50:06

go buy Act razor 2 and Delusion

50:09

of Gaia at your local video game

50:11

distributor like guys all right

50:13

oh Act razor 2 was

50:16

not very good

50:18

I know that I read an interview that they were

50:20

kind of forced to make it more action-heavy and take

50:23

out the gate the town elements but it's

50:25

a gorgeous game and I don't know

50:27

if Yuzu Koshiro did the soundtrack for that I think

50:29

he did just this amazing orchestrated

50:32

soundtrack on the SNES and the game

50:34

is just not fun to play and it's really a damn

50:36

shame Teep says actually I think Act

50:39

razor 2 is a decent game I do

50:41

get a lot of that but I just I have tried

50:43

and tried to like it and cuz you

50:45

look at it how could you not love it it's you

50:48

want to love it with all your being but it's just a

50:50

it's not happening it was too bad

50:52

because it has some really kick-ass physical themes going

50:54

on or like you're wake up and there's an

50:56

angel with a sword is like oh shit

50:58

cool I'm an angel of the sword too and you just go

51:00

to town it's very very hard I'm I

51:03

think it's popular with the speed running community

51:05

I guess I could see that being

51:07

the case but yeah those Matt those

51:09

masochists are the

51:11

people that love games like Act razor 2 in

51:15

the speed running world I'm more punishing

51:17

the better if they

51:19

remade Act razor to

51:21

just just take the exact same engine

51:23

for the remake of Act razor just take

51:26

the exact same like like oh let's

51:28

make a budget Saturn version

51:31

of Act razor 2 I would show

51:33

up day one yeah there's a

51:36

market for that in fact there is a market

51:38

for quintet period when I put out the call

51:40

on Twitter like cuz I want to know it's kind

51:42

of gauge the interest and and guess for the thought for

51:44

this episode so congratulations on being chosen I guess

51:48

I was like hey everyone who has

51:50

deep feelings about quintet games and I

51:52

was expecting like 50 people I got

51:55

like a thousand likes like a crap

51:57

ton of retweets and more importantly

52:00

A shitload of engagement. There are

52:02

over a hundred comments in that thread if you want to look

52:04

it up people telling me how much quintet

52:07

means to them how how like soul

52:09

felt their games were like just

52:12

so much more than just the usual RPG

52:14

story so the demand

52:17

is certainly out there and I personally really like

52:19

the Act Raiser remake I think they did a good job

52:21

with it. There are a couple of areas

52:23

where it's like okay you can tighten this up but

52:26

the spirit is there so if

52:28

they said tomorrow hey this is the same team

52:30

we're doing illusion of Gaia remake like I'm just like

52:33

I'm good I'll be right there give

52:35

it to me how much and give it to me that was that's

52:37

what I would be saying.

52:39

Here's some guy HD 2D like

52:42

visuals. Oh don't

52:44

that's the most beautiful dreams got

52:47

right I'm a firm believer that

52:50

any like 16 bit RPG

52:52

should be remade in HD 2D style.

52:55

That's the opposite of cat she's not here but if she

52:57

was she'd be throwing up all over you.

52:59

That's fine. Add

53:29

life to cart. At Kroger we

53:31

know the minute a tomato is picked off the vine

53:33

the fresh timer starts the sooner we

53:35

get our produce to you the fresher it is that's

53:38

why we've completely overhauled our process

53:40

to shorten the time from harvest to

53:42

home for our tomatoes strawberries

53:44

and salads because we know how much you

53:46

love fresh produce we give you more time

53:49

to enjoy

53:49

your tasty fruits and veggies at home. So

53:51

whether you're shopping in store picking up or

53:54

prefer delivery we're committed to bringing

53:56

you the freshest produce possible Kroger

53:58

fresh for everyone. Scott

54:00

did you did you play the Act Raiser

54:02

remake?

54:03

Yeah, I finished it. Yeah, like

54:06

it's I like that the

54:09

There's like there's like a little Robotreche

54:11

vibe added to it with

54:14

all of like the sort of like anime e Hero

54:17

characters that you get in

54:19

each in each region like there's like a little

54:21

bit it feels a little bit lighter

54:24

and more personable

54:26

In the remake I don't I

54:28

have no idea how that happened like

54:31

I don't know Anything about

54:33

the Providence that led to that remake happening.

54:36

Nadi. Did you cover that at all when it came out?

54:39

I did cover it a bit. I can't remember if the

54:41

US gamer was given us

54:43

It's death, you know his marching orders by then

54:46

but I know I I did play it

54:48

I probably did talk about it because a lot

54:50

of people were down on the graphics at first They were like,

54:52

oh, it's just a soulless cash-in. Look at the

54:55

cheap ass 2d HD graphics.

54:57

Sorry Scott But

54:59

then we played it and we're like

55:01

this is really good Like I wasn't sure at first because

55:03

still more is more of a tutorial

55:05

area now. Yeah, but once

55:07

you're done with it Everything

55:09

you're supposed to do is there for you The

55:12

thing that makes Act Raiser so appealing to me

55:14

is that you drift from town to town To

55:16

get stronger to get the powers you need to take

55:19

on other levels. This is not a linear game This

55:21

is a game where you are supposed to go out of order

55:23

and get Solutions to

55:25

problems from other people because you are God

55:28

and that is just a thing you do But yeah,

55:31

I I really liked it would love to see

55:33

them do more I'm sure they'd love to do more but from

55:35

what I hear Miyazaki being disappeared

55:37

is making rights

55:38

issues

55:40

Kind of a thing unfortunately

55:43

And the remake wasn't HD 2d.

55:45

What's it? I don't know

55:46

it was it was rendered

55:48

3d models Yeah,

55:51

I'm like 2d. Oh Okay,

55:53

it wasn't it wasn't pixel base. It's

55:55

skeleton lawyers. It's

56:01

But given the act raiser. But there's skeleton, of course there's a skeleton

56:03

warriors for the Saturn. It's a skeleton

56:05

warriors for the Saturn by Neversoft.

56:08

Pre Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Oh

56:11

my god. Endgame rules ass.

56:12

It has to rule ass

56:15

if it's a skeleton warriors game by Neversoft.

56:17

That's just the law. It rules. I'm

56:19

really sorry Scott. I got mixed up. I thought

56:21

when you said 2DHG I was thinking the rendered

56:24

sprites you were talking about used for act raiser. 2DHG

56:26

is primo, if it's done right. Like Octo-Cast 2

56:29

is absolutely blow me away gorgeous.

56:31

But yeah. That's the style I want.

56:33

But yeah. People were saying the casting. Yeah.

56:36

The

56:37

style at the time. Yeah.

56:38

So before we kind of move on because of course we've

56:40

blown an hour on Quintet like

56:42

I assumed we would. Have

56:45

either of you played Granblue? What

56:47

is it?

56:47

The Granstream Saga.

56:50

Granstream Saga. Yeah. That

56:52

passed me completely by. That's

56:55

another one that I didn't play until I was an adult.

56:58

And it is...

57:00

I mean it's very... It

57:02

very much feels like a Quintet game. But

57:04

it is also... They

57:07

did not make the transition to

57:10

PlayStation well. It is... That's

57:13

too bad. Yeah. It's just not

57:15

like... It doesn't have the pleasure

57:19

of the sort of fluid, tactile,

57:22

immediately enjoyable gameplay that

57:24

you get from their work on the Super

57:26

Nintendo. It is very interesting

57:28

visually.

57:30

I can't remember who mentioned it here

57:33

in the chat a little earlier about

57:35

all its creepy... JB Balamb

57:38

Garden World. The best Quintet game. Granstream

57:40

Saga and its faceless horrors. All

57:43

of the characters, rather

57:45

than try to get the

57:48

same anime character

57:50

vibe

57:52

with Polygons,

57:54

they made these almost impressionistic

57:57

characters.

57:59

They almost look like...

57:59

Do you guys remember that weird action RPG

58:02

for Genesis called Sword of Vermillion? Yes.

58:06

It's like low poly Sword

58:08

of Vermillion characters

58:11

and it's very

58:14

segmented and weird. If you can push

58:16

through it, it's really cool and interesting,

58:19

but it's not awesome.

58:21

It's their second

58:22

PlayStation game that did not come

58:25

out outside of Japan. It's like the super

58:27

interesting one, which is called Planet

58:29

Laika.

58:30

That one I don't know very much about. Planet

58:33

Laika is fucking crazy.

58:36

Tell me something else about

58:38

Quintet. Okay, so it's

58:40

like hard Quintet

58:42

and it's about like dog

58:45

people in space and

58:48

they're, you

58:49

know, it's like about like

58:52

surviving abuse and like

58:55

being... Alone in the

58:57

universe and like it's...

58:59

You can tell that they were going through some dark

59:02

stuff apparently. That's like

59:04

the last episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog.

59:06

His parents are launched into space and

59:09

they're trapped there. And frankly,

59:11

that terrified me even though I wasn't

59:14

even a kid when I saw that episode. And just

59:16

the idea of Courage being separated

59:18

from his parents by an evil doctor and

59:21

watching helplessly as they're like taken

59:23

away from him and shot into space and it's just

59:26

gone. They're gone forever. And...

59:28

Very upset. That sounds like something Quintet would really adapt

59:30

to well. I think Quintet maybe was like, hey,

59:33

I'm not saying that, but...

59:35

Nadia, do you know what

59:37

their last ever credit was? Like

59:39

the last work they ever did?

59:42

It was Inuyasha or something. It was

59:44

Inuyasha. They were poor

59:46

bastards just trying to save themselves. Like

59:49

God, if we could do a licensed game and

59:51

get it out there and get the money to do another fucked

59:53

up game that everyone will love and hate, I

59:55

guess it never got to that point. That's

59:58

a damn shame because that really was the end of the game. Quintet

1:00:00

just kind of fizzled out.

1:00:02

Yeah,

1:00:03

I think Grandstream's side was probably going

1:00:05

to be Lauren's specialty. And

1:00:07

unfortunately, as I said earlier, she could

1:00:09

not join us. So maybe that'll be

1:00:12

my retronaut's topic because it'd

1:00:14

be really fun to really delve into that

1:00:16

that game and their faithless

1:00:18

horrors, quote unquote. So

1:00:21

yeah, it's interesting because

1:00:23

the way to survive, I think in

1:00:25

the PlayStation era making that transition, why

1:00:28

was Mega Man Legend so successful in that regard because

1:00:30

they made him an anime character. You look at those characters

1:00:33

now, they're not

1:00:35

horrible, like the way that so many PlayStation faces

1:00:38

are. And that was the way to

1:00:40

kind of make a gay memorable back then. But yeah,

1:00:43

that's a shame. Quintet, we

1:00:46

hardly knew you. I don't think anybody could truly

1:00:48

know you. You are a great mystery. But

1:00:50

everybody loves you. And please,

1:00:53

if anyone out there from the team, from

1:00:55

Square, from anyone who has a molecule

1:00:58

of power over this series, over

1:01:00

this license, please

1:01:03

bring it back to the light because go look

1:01:05

at my Twitter before Musk nukes it

1:01:07

all, whatever his damn plan is. There are a

1:01:10

lot of people there who are all like,

1:01:11

quintet, quintet, quintet, quintet. And I

1:01:14

just want to just kind of get

1:01:17

your final thoughts on this whole thing because

1:01:19

I'm just babbling now because I'm so into

1:01:22

these damn weird people who make up this company.

1:01:28

Go ahead and just give us your final thoughts about

1:01:31

Quintet. You go ahead, Anthony.

1:01:34

My final thoughts on Quintet are,

1:01:38

number one, any remakes you guys

1:01:40

want to do, even if they look like skeleton

1:01:42

warriors for the Sega Saturn, I'm on board.

1:01:44

No, make sure they do look like skeleton warriors

1:01:46

for Sega Saturn, please. 1000% make sure they

1:01:49

look like skeleton warriors. And

1:01:52

also shout out to anybody that looked at the ActRacer

1:01:55

remake and was like, hey, skeleton warriors.

1:01:57

There are dozens of us.

1:01:59

Dozens! Dozens! It doesn't.

1:02:05

I honestly

1:02:06

this is a series

1:02:08

where I if Square

1:02:11

Enix could at the very least

1:02:14

get these games back out

1:02:16

in any way shape or form. Like

1:02:19

just make them accessible. I

1:02:21

understand that you know the juice

1:02:24

might not be worth the squeeze uh

1:02:27

like you know from a business perspective

1:02:29

but the the passion for these things is

1:02:32

there and all of these games

1:02:34

hold up miraculously. At least

1:02:36

the the Super Nintendo ones. Every

1:02:38

everything is still eminently playable.

1:02:41

Once you get past Terranigma things are a little

1:02:43

bit uh wishy-washy but I

1:02:45

think you have the power to make a good

1:02:49

grand stream

1:02:49

saga remake that looks like skeleton warrior.

1:02:51

Yeah that looks like skeleton warrior. Got

1:02:54

what about you? What do you want to

1:02:56

leave us off with?

1:02:58

So two things I want to leave off on. First

1:03:01

off like Anthony and Nadia you've

1:03:03

all said I think uh hits

1:03:05

true. Try and get these out. I

1:03:07

think these are quintet

1:03:09

games are have a very

1:03:12

passionate niche following but

1:03:15

largely are underrated and it's a shame

1:03:17

and hopefully one day they'll get the

1:03:19

the spotlight that they deserve.

1:03:22

But the main thing I want to leave off with and

1:03:24

first off I have to preface this with support. All

1:03:27

the writers and editors and

1:03:30

talented creatives out there, concept producers

1:03:32

out there, they do wonderful

1:03:34

work. But I did during the course

1:03:37

of this I was curious so I asked

1:03:39

Chat GPT to put together

1:03:41

a pitch for a Terranigma sequel

1:03:43

trilogy. So um

1:03:47

the classic action RPG Terranigma

1:03:49

left fans yearning for more and now a

1:03:51

thrilling sequel trilogy is set to transport

1:03:54

players back to the captivating

1:03:56

world of Terranigma in Terranigma

1:03:59

a new Genesis. this trilogy. It offers

1:04:01

a new epic adventure that expands upon the

1:04:03

beloved lore and introduces fresh generation

1:04:05

of heroes and villains, starting with the

1:04:07

awakening of ages, followed

1:04:10

by Requiem of Chaos, and

1:04:12

finally, the resurgence of Eden. That

1:04:17

sounds very big and important. So I think that

1:04:19

would probably work out well. That's not weird

1:04:21

enough, chat GPT.

1:04:23

Get weirder. But

1:04:26

you follow a

1:04:28

young and curious archaeologist from the

1:04:30

revived world named Aegis. Oh,

1:04:33

that's right. Pretty accurate.

1:04:35

That's

1:04:37

who you follow in this new trilogy, is

1:04:39

Aegis. Ah.

1:04:41

As boundaries between worlds of light

1:04:43

and darkness blur once more, Aegis

1:04:45

must embark on a quest to awaken the Earth's guardians

1:04:48

and uncover the truth behind the looming threat. All

1:04:52

sorts of little things.

1:04:54

Well, maybe me and Zaki will come out of hiding and give

1:04:56

us what we deserve. So

1:04:58

let's all pray to Gaia that that will

1:05:00

happen someday. And

1:05:02

in the meantime, you two

1:05:04

gentlemen have children, so I don't want to keep you up

1:05:07

for too long. So we will go ahead

1:05:09

and skip to the tavern,

1:05:12

which is a small segment where we talk about

1:05:14

what we've been playing. And I just

1:05:16

want to say I am poisoned by Baldur's

1:05:18

Gate 3. What is hilarious,

1:05:20

though, is that I got to like, I don't know,

1:05:23

let's say 16 hours into

1:05:25

gameplay, and I only just found Gale. And

1:05:28

he's like this druggy who keeps bugging me for

1:05:30

a hit with my magical items.

1:05:32

Like, dude, go into rehab. Go watch

1:05:34

Cartoon Super Heroes United,

1:05:37

where they kind of drag that kid into

1:05:39

acid trip hell. Just get help. I

1:05:41

don't have all these green and blue items that you need.

1:05:43

And you're not as good as you're

1:05:45

not as good

1:05:45

as you think you are.

1:05:47

Are you guys what are you guys playing?

1:05:50

Scott, after you. All right. All right.

1:05:53

Damn. OK, I

1:05:56

am

1:05:57

OK. RPG stuff.

1:05:59

Did just start

1:06:01

the Legend

1:06:04

of Neuta.

1:06:05

Oh, I'm playing that now. Nice. Which

1:06:08

is because somebody said

1:06:11

to me, hey, you're an East loser.

1:06:13

You need to play the Trails

1:06:15

game they made for East losers.

1:06:17

And I was like, I am an East loser. Yep, I'm in,

1:06:19

yay. And man, talk

1:06:22

about a game that is in the same

1:06:24

wheelhouse as Skeleton Warriors

1:06:26

for the sake of saying it. This

1:06:29

is- Everyone, this episode is no longer about Quintet.

1:06:31

It's just about Skeleton

1:06:31

Warriors. Just about Skeleton Warriors. This

1:06:34

is the most PSPS game

1:06:36

I think I have- Is it ever? Yeah. Ever

1:06:38

played. And it's just a delight.

1:06:42

What a fun, breezy

1:06:46

action RPG. And like,

1:06:48

man, I don't know why no one

1:06:51

makes games like this anymore.

1:06:53

Like having-

1:06:53

I'm thinking about that. It's like, I'm thinking to myself,

1:06:56

when did I last play a game like this? It

1:06:58

was like Ease 3 for the SNES

1:07:00

or Zelda 2. Yeah. It's

1:07:03

very much a game that has, it is an action

1:07:05

RPG, but it's broken up into levels. And

1:07:09

those levels have goals and that's how you

1:07:11

level up. And it's a lot of platforming.

1:07:13

It's actually exactly what I wanted in the

1:07:15

moment. Cause I've been so like angry and restless. I

1:07:18

wanted to punch something and I'm playing Persona 5.

1:07:20

I'm like, oh, this is too slow or whatever.

1:07:22

And that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted an action

1:07:25

RPG that doesn't make me think. There

1:07:27

are like combos you can do and throw

1:07:29

spells, but it's mostly chaos. You mash

1:07:32

the button, you do combos, you feel good. As

1:07:34

you get hit more

1:07:36

things, like as you build up these combos, you get more powerful.

1:07:39

It's not ridiculous. It's just ridiculous fun.

1:07:42

Scott, have you played this at

1:07:43

all? Yes, I've actually been dabbling

1:07:46

in a little bit myself. So I'm a huge Trails

1:07:49

head. Like, like, legend of Heroes

1:07:51

Trails fan. That's right. I'm a huge fan

1:07:54

of Jam. So I had to play

1:07:57

it cause I'm convinced that it's somehow

1:07:59

connected to the larger game. even

1:08:01

though they say it's not. It seems pretty

1:08:03

loose. Legend of Heroes

1:08:05

Trails. So we'll see. But

1:08:07

yeah, like you said, it's a very PSP

1:08:10

as hell, PS like game. I

1:08:13

mean, makes sense because it was a PSP game, but

1:08:16

it's good to finally have it. It is

1:08:18

just that fun, zany, kind of more

1:08:21

chill, grindy, chaotic action

1:08:23

RPG goodness. Yeah,

1:08:25

I've dabbled a little bit in it, but...

1:08:28

It's one of those games I really

1:08:30

appreciate because it is PSP as

1:08:32

hell, but when you equip your weapons

1:08:35

and armor, you change with it. And that's

1:08:37

the kind of flourish I love in an RPG,

1:08:39

especially when you have like a lower budget one and

1:08:41

you can tell they put the time and effort into doing that. And

1:08:44

you can tell it's in the Trails universe because number

1:08:46

one, you find Mishi everywhere. I

1:08:48

just kind of find him and he giggles and disappears. And

1:08:51

also, we were talking about the Quintet font.

1:08:53

There is very much a Trails font and a Trails

1:08:56

look that is like, okay, I'm playing a

1:08:58

Trails game.

1:08:59

And it is

1:08:59

for Ys Losers. That's a good way to put it. And

1:09:02

it's totally like getting me warmed

1:09:04

up for Ys X, which is not

1:09:05

out yet in North America. God damn it.

1:09:08

I want them to synchronize their translations already. I

1:09:11

always say to people, to try and get

1:09:13

them to play Ys games, that

1:09:16

imagine if

1:09:18

the Flash solo from

1:09:20

the video for Guns N' Roses November

1:09:22

Rain was turned together. Have

1:09:26

him walking out of a church and being like,

1:09:29

like, that's every second. And

1:09:31

imagine if Mayuda

1:09:32

is more like jazz guitar.

1:09:35

It's not the whole.

1:09:36

I

1:09:39

love jazz guitar as well. Way in. Yeah,

1:09:41

but that reminds me, I'm Agnello.

1:09:44

I'm really trying to find a way to justify doing

1:09:46

an episode about music videos

1:09:48

from 1993. And I got to

1:09:50

find a way to connect that to video games. I

1:09:53

want to sit there and I want to talk about November Rain.

1:09:56

I want to talk about Estranged. I want to talk about,

1:09:58

like, I Will Do Anymore. thing for love

1:10:00

god what an

1:10:01

era what an era and there you

1:10:03

go at the time there it is Nadia when

1:10:05

East 10 when Nordics comes

1:10:08

out

1:10:09

will do a full East

1:10:11

run and it's what 19 early

1:10:14

90s music video is this East game

1:10:17

yeah right like every

1:10:19

single time we're like oh that sounds like a great

1:10:22

panel to look at a patch that's

1:10:25

a good Pax panel

1:10:26

how how much is East O'Sanville

1:10:31

Ghana is totally kiss from a rose it's

1:10:33

one thousand percent power

1:10:35

ballot is this RPG yeah it's

1:10:37

an

1:10:38

awesome

1:10:41

panel

1:10:42

I actually just

1:10:43

downloaded a whole me through me kiss me

1:10:45

kill me for some reason Batman

1:10:48

soundtrack got in my in my head

1:10:51

and yeah got include that somehow

1:10:53

it's a oh man

1:10:55

it's a topic that needs to be explored and

1:10:57

but the the point is Legend of

1:10:59

Naota is is a good fun action

1:11:02

RPG it's great for the switch it's

1:11:04

a quintessential RPG are

1:11:07

either

1:11:07

of you playing Baldur's Gate 3 yeah

1:11:10

I had I am playing through with a

1:11:13

bunch of friends that we

1:11:15

played through original divinity

1:11:18

original sin 2 with the

1:11:20

past like year and a half so

1:11:22

I'm playing through with with my divinity my

1:11:25

divinity crew so that's

1:11:27

one of the games that's been playing such a fun game

1:11:30

I love plus I'm a big Dungeons and Dragons

1:11:32

player as well so it

1:11:35

just love it just love it it's great

1:11:37

it's a very interesting experience

1:11:40

for me because I don't play D&D

1:11:42

but I very often but I do know most

1:11:45

of the rule set but I didn't really

1:11:47

understand the deeper stuff and Baldur's

1:11:50

Gate is laid out really really

1:11:52

well for a person like me who kind of knows

1:11:54

vaguely what the rules are and what's going

1:11:56

on but everything is explained

1:11:58

in this game you just have to put You're I'm playing

1:12:00

on a ps5 you just put your

1:12:03

controller over it and it has an explanation

1:12:05

This is what this does what that does and

1:12:07

it's like Successful and

1:12:09

easy to understand and I still screw

1:12:12

up but the game kind of wants you to screw

1:12:14

up It's definitely a devious little DM

1:12:18

My oh shit moment was I was in

1:12:20

I'm not gonna this isn't anything too spoilery This is like

1:12:22

very early in the game their first mission

1:12:25

is trying to kind of clear a town of goblins just very

1:12:27

quintessential D&D stuff and

1:12:28

I had

1:12:32

The one of my archers up on

1:12:36

Kind of a scaffolding in a in

1:12:38

the town. I'm taking on three ogres

1:12:40

there and I'm like,

1:12:42

haha. I got the high ground Anakin I'm gonna shoot

1:12:44

you from here and I did for a while But then what the

1:12:46

ogres just kind of lumbers on over Bashes

1:12:49

the foundations of the house and sends everyone

1:12:51

tumbling. It's like oh, oh no He

1:12:53

has a brain and he literally was supposed

1:12:56

to be a smart ogre that was his whole his

1:12:58

whole thing he was very

1:12:59

eloquent, but I kill them at any rate

1:13:01

and

1:13:01

I

1:13:02

think Anthony you're asking earlier like is

1:13:04

this a game

1:13:05

that you know You

1:13:07

really will be thinking hours and hundreds of hours

1:13:09

into I want to say no Because

1:13:11

it is really laid out like a D&D

1:13:14

game where you have your individual

1:13:16

kind of Module adventures

1:13:19

and you can build up to something Greater

1:13:22

in the main story if you if you want to

1:13:24

and yes, there's a million side things But they

1:13:27

feel like their own adventures like oh, maybe

1:13:29

we'll do that someday If we don't we can't think of anything

1:13:31

for a good campaign, you know, maybe we'll go here. Maybe we'll go

1:13:33

there I feel

1:13:35

like it's much like when I got into

1:13:38

Cheers the Kingdom I just

1:13:40

just like inhaled

1:13:41

it. I could not stop playing. This is not

1:13:43

that kind of game This is a game where you play for

1:13:45

a few hours at most and you're like, oh, okay.

1:13:47

I'm good. I got a headache The

1:13:50

vampire keeps sucking my blood. I keep letting him he doesn't

1:13:52

like me anyway Shadowheart

1:13:54

likes me though shadowheart. So you

1:13:57

shadow has a little sad that I didn't kiss her

1:13:59

But

1:14:00

the problem is I'm a silver dragonborn and

1:14:03

I'm just like lit up like Christmas whenever you

1:14:05

have the scenes right in camp and I have no shirt

1:14:07

on and so it's like well I

1:14:09

could kiss you and I am

1:14:11

a weird person and Maybe

1:14:14

a little kinky, but I don't know how kinky yet So

1:14:16

yeah, you know what she's gonna kiss the dragon at the

1:14:18

end of the day because the vampire what's

1:14:20

his name? Just doesn't like me

1:14:23

and gail. I don't know what scales deal. I'm not supporting

1:14:25

him.

1:14:26

He's got a problem He's not gonna get a job. He's gonna be a druggie

1:14:28

all his life

1:14:30

And yeah, anything else you're playing or

1:14:33

you you got

1:14:33

all out of your system

1:14:39

Near Scott No,

1:14:42

no, that's fine. Uh,

1:14:43

wow, right shadow hearts approved actually

1:14:46

most of the stuff I've done shadow heart has approved I'm

1:14:50

I always play as a good person. I can't break out

1:14:52

of that trope. I'm not the kind of person who can like shoot

1:14:56

up the whole town as soon as we start because

1:14:58

it's just

1:14:59

Makes me sad can't can never can

1:15:01

never play evil I've tried so

1:15:03

many times and I always I'm like,

1:15:05

nope, I feel bad. They can't do this Yeah,

1:15:08

no can't do it

1:15:10

So that is it for the

1:15:12

tavern and we are going to move

1:15:14

on to Nadia's nostalgia Knuck, which is

1:15:17

something I'm looking at from outside and saying

1:15:19

oh shit. I get the segment I do usually

1:15:21

cat says Nadia take us home I

1:15:32

That's my trigger, but I don't have the trigger work today. So I'm

1:15:34

gonna do my best. Here's the problem. I was

1:15:37

so busy focusing on making

1:15:40

this Episode that

1:15:42

I kind of forgot to come up with a good nostalgia Nick

1:15:44

story and here's the second problem Last

1:15:47

week's nostalgia. Nook was really really it was

1:15:50

a pit. It was like me and my mother swearing

1:15:52

at a trucker

1:15:54

Please listen to that episode if you haven't it's it's

1:15:57

a really nice mother-daughter moment

1:15:59

where

1:15:59

My mother used terrible language that

1:16:02

no daughter should hear her mother say

1:16:05

even to an aggressive driver. But I

1:16:07

have a nice story. Okay, so I talked

1:16:10

most – I talked several times in the past about being

1:16:12

a custodian. I was a custodian at a mall, and

1:16:14

I usually worked the morning shift, and that was

1:16:17

like you kind of got in there. You did

1:16:19

the windows. You vacuumed the rugs or whatever. You

1:16:21

fought with the mall walkers who

1:16:24

somehow found a way in. We

1:16:26

used to shut the place down. We used to lock it down, seal

1:16:28

it down sometimes because we had to do repairs

1:16:30

or whatnot. They found a way in, and

1:16:32

security would say, how did he get in here? They would not reveal

1:16:34

their secrets. And I knew every inch of that

1:16:36

mall, and I still don't know how they did it. But anyway,

1:16:39

point is there was one morning where I was vacuuming

1:16:41

the rug,

1:16:42

and a woman comes by. I was a little tiny German Shepherd

1:16:44

puppy, like six weeks old, and it's in training

1:16:47

for being a guide dog.

1:16:48

So of course, it looks like my vacuum

1:16:50

goes – because it's

1:16:52

a little puppy dog.

1:16:54

So I got to participate in this dog's training

1:16:56

because the handler said, just keep

1:16:58

doing what you're doing. Ignore him. And

1:17:01

what she did was she kind of went back and forth and up

1:17:03

and down the stairs and came down. Eventually,

1:17:07

the dog stopped barking at the vacuum,

1:17:09

and he could go past it without even looking

1:17:11

at it. And it's like, okay, if you want a look

1:17:14

at what dog training is, there you go. It's

1:17:16

actually super, super interesting. And I

1:17:18

got to see a little six-week-old

1:17:20

German Shepherd puppy with a vest. And

1:17:23

that was pretty neat.

1:17:26

So yeah,

1:17:27

I guess that's it for this

1:17:29

episode because I don't want to hold you guys any longer.

1:17:32

You've been such excellent guests. And

1:17:35

this is a bit of a short episode. I apologize

1:17:37

for that. But we really loaded it with a quintet

1:17:40

at the content, wouldn't you say? Oh, man.

1:17:42

Heck yeah. Great to

1:17:44

be here. Yeah, yeah. So. So,

1:17:47

you know, the quintet content and the essential

1:17:49

thing. You had a good time. Skeleton

1:17:52

Warriors.

1:17:53

Skeleton Warriors. Skeleton Warriors.

1:17:54

God damn it. I

1:17:56

need Eric here.

1:17:59

so that he can join me on

1:18:02

the dumb bit where

1:18:04

we constantly talk about a game that everybody hated.

1:18:07

So Eric's not here,

1:18:10

so I will give him the

1:18:12

Shadow Madness reference in his absence.

1:18:16

Oh, there you go. Eric is so good

1:18:18

at that. Shadow Madness for life. Katie

1:18:22

was really good at that, too. Just hating

1:18:24

everything we liked and liking something, some obscure

1:18:27

thing from outer space that no one even heard of.

1:18:29

I miss

1:18:30

Katie. She was

1:18:32

so much fun

1:18:34

to work with. But that

1:18:37

is our show for now. Thank you so, so much for listening.

1:18:39

Thank you so much to our Stars of Destiny

1:18:41

for being here. Please

1:18:44

support us if you are not at patreon.com

1:18:46

forward slash blood god pod. We have so much cool

1:18:48

stuff. We have the Pantheon of the Blood Gods just coming

1:18:50

up. It's going to be Breath of Fire 3. That's

1:18:53

going to be super, super cool. Our new voting

1:18:55

just went up. Go ahead and do that. Why

1:18:58

don't you go ahead and tell

1:19:00

us what you've been up to, Anthony,

1:19:02

and where we can find you, if anywhere. My

1:19:05

public activities aren't as public

1:19:07

as they used to be. I know what that's like. I'm

1:19:11

over in IGN town doing

1:19:14

stuff. I will say that you can see

1:19:16

some of the stuff that I've been working on on IGN

1:19:19

in odd ways. I encourage

1:19:21

people to go vote in the icons program

1:19:23

over there, which was my

1:19:26

brain baby.

1:19:27

You can hear me on my other podcasts,

1:19:29

Continue and Video Game

1:19:31

Grooves. You can

1:19:33

go buy records and ship to Short Records,

1:19:36

where Nadia and I's stuff is

1:19:38

all over the place in those albums. Yes. You

1:19:41

can go

1:19:41

do that. I think they just got a new shipment

1:19:44

of Suikoden in. I talked to Aaron

1:19:46

at the Long Island Retro

1:19:49

Expo and he said that basically

1:19:52

Suikoden was sold

1:19:52

out. Everything was sold out. Yes, immediately.

1:19:55

They're doing another

1:19:55

run. The first print of Suikoden, they forgot to put

1:19:57

my notes in. So the second print,

1:19:59

which is coming. We'll have my notes. I

1:20:02

also did the text, Breath of Fire 3, so we could in

1:20:04

two. I

1:20:06

think Breath of Fire 1 and 2 as well. So yeah,

1:20:08

I'm all over the place. Anthony's all over the place. What

1:20:11

about you, Scott?

1:20:12

Yeah, you can find me over on Twitter

1:20:15

at Professor RPG. You

1:20:17

can also find me returning to my

1:20:20

RPG podcast, RPG University,

1:20:22

this upcoming week. Took a little time

1:20:25

off with having a kid. Turns

1:20:27

out that newborn makes it a little difficult

1:20:30

to record podcasts, but

1:20:32

yep, be back over there. And then

1:20:35

also you can find guides and stuff I've done

1:20:37

over on IGN as well, and

1:20:40

reviews and stuff over on RPG sites. So

1:20:42

I'm all over the place.

1:20:44

Yeehaw. As for myself, I am Nadia Oxford

1:20:47

at Twitter, or whatever you want to call it these days. I'm

1:20:50

also at Blue Sky. I'm a little more active there too,

1:20:52

so go ahead. And basically you

1:20:54

can find me almost everywhere as Nadia

1:20:55

Oxford.

1:20:57

I'm around. I'm cool. I'm hanging out. I just

1:20:59

want to add, no, Katie is not

1:21:01

dead. Katie is alive and well. Eric just recently

1:21:04

had dinner with her. She's great, but

1:21:06

she's with Apple, so she cannot be on

1:21:08

this podcast or any other podcast. And it's

1:21:10

really a damn shame because goddamn,

1:21:13

I wanted her on the Zoonoblade 3 podcast so

1:21:15

bad, but that's the way

1:21:17

the Apple rants, crumbles,

1:21:20

whatever. For now though, thank

1:21:22

you so much for listening

1:21:23

and happy adventuring.

1:21:53

An utter

1:21:54

victory. you