We pulled this episode directly from our livestream over on YouTube. Come check us out!
The following description was written by A.I.
Ever found yourself laughing through technical snafus in an epic game? That's exactly where this episode starts, recalling our raucous journey in the unfinished yet utterly charming world of Baldur's Gate 3. We further explore the delicate balance of gaming commitments, weighing the merits of setting aside specific playtimes against the risk of burnout. Join us for a candid chat filled with personal anecdotes and strategies that promise to rekindle your love for gaming and maybe even inspire you to set a new routine.
This week's session isn't all about the laughs; it's also about the love - our love for the top-notch video game expansions that have captivated our hearts and gamepads. We give a special shoutout to 'Blood and Wine' from The Witcher series and 'Citadel' for Mass Effect, discussing the richness these expansions add to their universes. From narrative depth to tough boss fights, we break down what makes these downloadable masterpieces stand out. So whether you're a fan of narrative-driven content or the thrill of a good battle, this episode has got you covered.
Wrapping up with a blend of nostalgia and anticipation, this episode ventures from the evolving dynamics of MMORPGs to the latest buzz around "Shadow of the Earth Tree." We dissect the complexities of Elden Ring's bosses, builds, and lore, sharing some hearty laughs over our in-game blunders and achievements. Get ready for a journey through gaming's past, present, and future as we discuss everything from game expansions to collector's editions with a touch of whimsy and a ton of insight.
If you enjoy our episode's content, come check us out on twitter @KDratiopodcast, YouTube as The KD Ratio Podcast! or on Instagram KDratiopodcast
We pulled this episode directly from our livestream over on YouTube. Come check us out!
The following description was written by A.I.
Ever found yourself laughing through technical snafus in an epic game? That's exactly where this episode starts, recalling our raucous journey in the unfinished yet utterly charming world of Baldur's Gate 3. We further explore the delicate balance of gaming commitments, weighing the merits of setting aside specific playtimes against the risk of burnout. Join us for a candid chat filled with personal anecdotes and strategies that promise to rekindle your love for gaming and maybe even inspire you to set a new routine.
This week's session isn't all about the laughs; it's also about the love - our love for the top-notch video game expansions that have captivated our hearts and gamepads. We give a special shoutout to 'Blood and Wine' from The Witcher series and 'Citadel' for Mass Effect, discussing the richness these expansions add to their universes. From narrative depth to tough boss fights, we break down what makes these downloadable masterpieces stand out. So whether you're a fan of narrative-driven content or the thrill of a good battle, this episode has got you covered.
Wrapping up with a blend of nostalgia and anticipation, this episode ventures from the evolving dynamics of MMORPGs to the latest buzz around "Shadow of the Earth Tree." We dissect the complexities of Elden Ring's bosses, builds, and lore, sharing some hearty laughs over our in-game blunders and achievements. Get ready for a journey through gaming's past, present, and future as we discuss everything from game expansions to collector's editions with a touch of whimsy and a ton of insight.
If you enjoy our episode's content, come check us out on twitter @KDratiopodcast, YouTube as The KD Ratio Podcast! or on Instagram KDratiopodcast
And we are live. Gentlemen, welcome back to a normal scream Normal. We're following it up from our legendary Performance as seen on Baldur's Gate 3. My favorite part was especially like the first half hour.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, that's deleted. We got rid of all that footage.
Speaker 1:That was my favorite part, you know, getting this set up, trying to test audio and Dylan failing. You know every audio check.
Speaker 3:I had the most generic character ever because I didn't spend any time on character creator this time. And then Dylan did knows like.
Speaker 4:Maybe I should have had a lot of time to wait before we could actually.
Speaker 3:We figured out in the end and let's just say it has tens of views right now. Yeah, it doesn't it's almost two dozen, if I remember it's impressive it's pretty crazy, but it was fun.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed watching it. I wasn't able to join, but you guys did a great job. I thought it was really fun. It was a lot of light-hearted, want to do some other games like that.
Speaker 3:I know we could we try and beat the game. Well that's a lot. See, the thing is is.
Speaker 4:If we do that, I would want to do the one with Billy. I think we would all need to stream.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but then I'm not on PlayStation.
Speaker 3:Well, no, we have to start over PC and we'd have to stream from our PC.
Speaker 1:Well, see, so this is why I was bitching to you guys, is you were sitting there giving me hard time saying that I was the one Holding you guys back.
Speaker 3:I thought you're just bitching, because that's what you do.
Speaker 1:That's what you do In particular I said you great job guys. Start the one playthrough that you know I can never join.
Speaker 3:That was big brain, you guys. Hey, we've been trying to get you to play Baldur's Gate for like.
Speaker 1:I don't have not done anything to hold it back you haven't done anything to try. I just want you to say I have not done that.
Speaker 4:What I just want you to say. Hey guys, you want to play Baldur's Gate?
Speaker 1:I'm not driving that bus.
Speaker 3:I would like I got like 50 hours in the game and I was satisfied.
Speaker 1:I was happy with what. My purchase didn't even make a tech 3. I did not make it to actually no, you know what I kind of act. Three is when the meat of the, he said like, it's like half the game, it's like half the game is actually I.
Speaker 3:Did drive, in fact, a lot of people get drained and they never beat the game because of how meaty act three is well. Because it's like so much that like it burns the player out. I wonder at least if you're a completionist.
Speaker 1:I wonder why yeah, I wonder why that I feel like this game or this type of style of game or genre Lends itself to that. Because I have plenty of friends who have played Divinity and and they never even made it anywhere in like act two or three. They loved act one so much and they would replay it and it was like I Don't know why, but it's almost like you know, like in other games, if you don't beat it you feel like you're missing out on something. But I feel like I got the Baldur's Gate experience of of playing at least act one and Like the majority of act two, I felt like I kind of experienced it. And same thing with Divinity we really only went through act one. I still feel like I played that game and got a ton of enjoyment out of it.
Speaker 4:I don't think it's. It's one like With the people that you're talking about. I think it might be different from what you're experiencing, because at least with me, like with Divinity and with Baldur's Gate, it's not that I feel like I have.
Speaker 3:How you're reaching.
Speaker 1:Okay, talk to me, baby. I.
Speaker 4:It's not that I have like I feel, like I've experienced it, it's that I know it's a huge time commitment and, unless I put that aside, it's are you ready?
Speaker 4:My brain has a really hard time sinking into it. Like I also have this problem with like any like the persona game, and Like I need to. If I start it, I need to know I'm gonna dedicate, like I'm gonna dedicate a part of my life to that until I beat it. And I feel it's the same with Baldur's Gate. It's like first act. You don't necessarily need to dedicate part of your life yet Once you get past the first.
Speaker 1:Beautiful how long we go well, cut out Dylan's parts, so that's good, that's fine, yeah.
Speaker 3:I think it's all about structuring. It's all about structuring your life. So, like victory if you can, if you can tell yourself I'm gonna play this game every Thursday between 8 and 11 and then you stick to that. Then you might beat it a lot slower than you would, but I feel like you won't get burned out either, if you just Like have a scheduled time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've never once been able to do that in my life, like I'll get way into a game play for fucking 12 hours a day and then play one hour the next day.
Speaker 3:I've been able to do that with games that I've already Beaten and suck a lot of time into. Like anytime I go in to play Mass Effect, I don't just go through and I like, I'll be like, oh, mass.
Speaker 3:Effect Monday you know, like, but only because I've already sunk all that time into it beforehand. But what I mean by that is if we play it together if we tell ourselves every whatever there's there every Thursday's Baldur's Gate Day Between this time and this time and maybe go over it's set and then you're. You're not only holding yourself accountable, you're holding the people you play with accountable as well. Yeah, and I think it makes it easier.
Speaker 1:Am. I able to join a PlayStation chat group like what do they call them? Like PS party or something like that. Yeah, I think you can't do the an app as well. I was gonna say can I do it through my phone? I think you can, yeah, so maybe I can live commentate. Here's Dylan's going in for the Dylan with the execution.
Speaker 3:Oh my you can, we should alternate. If we do, you should be the commentator and then we should alternate POVs weekly oh.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know, I do like that looking at.
Speaker 4:Dillon's. As you can see, dylan is a horrible Baldur's Gate player.
Speaker 1:He wasted this room Okay.
Speaker 3:That was another thing. I wish that you can put both of our perspectives on screen somehow.
Speaker 4:I would have been cool like a split screen.
Speaker 1:I don't we need like a massive production company to pick us up, doctor. Just most of this is of the you know. Actually all of what we're talking about here is available through PC.
Speaker 4:That's why I'm saying we start the Baldur's Gate playthrough, I'm just or heck, we could do hell divers. You stream it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was thinking about that too. I'm like okay, well, wait a minute, thought well, cuz I can't join. You're on PlayStation, nice, like we couldn't play together anyway.
Speaker 4:But on hell.
Speaker 1:Divers, we could Suicide squad. It's weird with my ultra wide, super ultra wide monitor Because the resolution gets wonky, so I'd have to do some changes there, you just had to throw that in there.
Speaker 4:Oh, my super ultra wide, super sexy, ultra wide.
Speaker 3:I paid a lot of money for this.
Speaker 1:And the resolution is all here. Oh my god, it'll make you, I guess. Okay, well, tonight we're talking about top five expansions of all thank you, and you won't guess what's number one. You will not. You won't guess what is number one. I want to go last on this category. Dylan, you brought it up. Okay, you go first you.
Speaker 4:Um, I Know Billy has some guesses. Do we want to let him like guess?
Speaker 1:blood and wine.
Speaker 3:Is that in your top five?
Speaker 1:That's what I'm just throwing out.
Speaker 3:top five probably in both years I was surprised, it wasn't even a top five. I was like what?
Speaker 1:no, it's in my top five. It's in my top five, okay, citadel.
Speaker 4:Yep. I think we can guess all but two.
Speaker 1:Oh. Oh. Phantom Liberty. You got a bit. Is that in both years? Phantom Liberty, I mean.
Speaker 3:This is where we might, might die okay, so that's three of them.
Speaker 4:These last two, I don't think you'll get can I share one that's on my list?
Speaker 1:I guess now your guys are gonna be blown away, matt pack huge season three. Huge disclaimer on this. I am not a DLC expansion guy. It's just, it's not what I. I don't really ever buy them or play them. But and I surprise alert, I don't have a top five, I just have one. And but I want, I want to make a shout out to this one because, as I thought back through the list, so this isn't your number one.
Speaker 1:This is not my number one, but this is a shout out. I thought about the Citadel one, which is so funny because it's so not what I'm typically into, but I did have fun with it. But it's not. It's not that one, it's a shadow broker, the shadow, okay, and let me tell you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I felt like that storyline Really.
Speaker 4:I don't girl, what best girl we are yes, so We'll talk about.
Speaker 1:You said yeah feel like Like how much you guys love we are. I know you know.
Speaker 3:I get it, but like.
Speaker 1:Liara is this character that's beloved by the franchise. There's no doubt about it. I feel like you don't. She doesn't really get like full service as a character without that DLC and. Because like basically the second game, she's like not even.
Speaker 3:I mean, if it were for that, she literally has maybe like 20 minutes of screen time.
Speaker 1:Yeah and and so like, and then you kind of she's like what the fuck is this shadow broker shit, you know? And then you go through that whole. First off, the gameplay Experience of that DLC is actually really fun. I love the dynamic where I like you, like you have to like board a ship or something like that and you have to like make your way and go and kill like a it's going to like yeah, what?
Speaker 4:no, never mind, that's the wrong name. Yeah, it's like the mole guy or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a shadow broker and I think you know how it that mission starts. Yet like kind of make your way to like shepherd punches him.
Speaker 3:All of our projectiles are Deflecting off of them. I guess we're doing this. The old passion.
Speaker 1:So I, like, I enjoyed that, that gameplay experience, and I also thought from a storytelling perspective, it was delivered through Through quality gameplay with great story, yeah, and I enjoyed it so it definitely was funny that that one.
Speaker 3:It was actually the one that came to mind. It had some fan-servicing moments, but it wasn't like how Citadel DLC was all. Yeah, so like it definitely was still like a driving force in the story. It had some pretty epic set pieces as well, like that whole battle on the top of the shadow broker ship. When you're on that, that's the one.
Speaker 4:I was referencing. Yeah, the planet that is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you have to stay in the perfect spot like it's constantly inside the eye of the storm, basically like Jupiter.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like it in order to survive, because otherwise it would be destroyed.
Speaker 3:And that was some of the most fun and a gameplay in all three games in my opinion, was that DLC and it's, it's like, has just the right amount of cheese, but it's like the Like the good hero type of cheese like I, we, we memed it. But I love that when he's like all our projectiles have no effect, the energy is absorbing it, and then shepherd cracks his knuckles or her knuckles, defending it, like guess, we're doing this the old-fashioned way and it's this giant, it's like basically like Captain America, fist-fighting Hulk.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it works Shepherd wins. I love it.
Speaker 1:So anyway, that was my that's I didn't think you guys would have ever thought a million years. That's a great one, I think, but I enjoyed that a lot.
Speaker 3:So, I actually had a hard time narrowing down because I only chose one from Mass Effect the same.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you wasn't Citadel actually. Oh, interesting. I want to make one last Guess here. Is it the, the Skyrim one?
Speaker 3:No, I love Skyrim, what was it? But that's not in my top five.
Speaker 4:There's Dragonborn and Dragonborn and oh don't, oh yeah, that was that one.
Speaker 1:Okay then, I don't have any guesses. So you're right, I got three, but not two.
Speaker 4:All right so number one, let's start with five, build up number five. Okay, undead, nightmare, oh. Man okay, throwing it way back.
Speaker 1:You guys are very similar.
Speaker 4:Watch it be the same one that I know you didn't pick, um, but yeah, undead nightmare, I love four of the five. My god dude, I'm pretty sure he picked the other ones.
Speaker 4:That's I mean now I know he didn't pick One and well, I'll get there, but yeah, undead nightmare. I love that expansion and I remember having so much fun with it and I wish I Should go back and replay it. But from what I remember, when I played it originally they added so much content to the game that like was Optional. Like I remember collecting all the the horses of. You know, death, war all fan and yeah, and how fun that was killing the jackrabbit and the Chupacabra, and the unicorn they find in Mexico and so like.
Speaker 4:It added so much just fun, wacky stuff and the story itself was great as long to.
Speaker 3:It was long, yeah, if I remember right, it takes like it's like at least 10 hours of gameplay and it's not a. It was by today's standards. It was a fairly cheap DLC. If I remember right, it was like 15 bucks. Yeah, it was cheap.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I would say Undead nightmare was my number five. I do like don guard from Skyrim that was. I was almost had that for my number five. No, no, but don guard, I have a lot of fun with that one. The vampires were wolves and you know all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Number four Citadel now, I know that's different. That's that for me. I thought would be higher on your list. I Shocked. It's that for.
Speaker 4:I do like it, I the sheer reverence.
Speaker 1:You both speak of that. The LC for the series as a whole.
Speaker 3:But I mean, if you're really comparing it to the quality that some expansions yeah, that's what. I'm basically a party, yeah.
Speaker 4:It's a smaller expansion versus some of these other ones that I'm that I'm gonna go over are huge. Yeah, like like I mean I don't need to talk about Citadel much because we've talked about it enough, so I'll just move on. But Old World Blues from New Vegas yeah, that one is amazing.
Speaker 3:I almost you know he doesn't have I. That's what I almost put that. I Would put that at like six or seven.
Speaker 4:I love that is full of Comedy and just weird sci-fi, but it's so fun. Like, have you ever, did you ever play New Vegas? No, the whole plot is you. There's this, this brain think tank like that survived of like five scientists out in the desert and the scientists got put into robots and like they have been doing experiments for like how many years, since the bombs dropped hundreds hundred and for hundred years they just been doing random, crazy ass experiments and you are pretty much.
Speaker 4:You go out to where they tried all these experiments and it's like what? They tried to shrink a death claw. They One of them is like obsessed with teddy bears and and then there's you meet this fifth or the sixth doctor. It's like evil, but he's like just pretending to be evil so that they don't escape and it's, it's hilarious, it's a great, the DLC or expansion, and it's huge. You it's, it's in Montana, I think, actually sitting in its prime, yep, and so that one would be my number three love it. Number two would be blood and wine. Hmm, I Thought long and hard about this one on. I can't believe Phantom Liberty beats out blood and wine for me.
Speaker 1:Wow, is that a recency bias?
Speaker 4:No, I, it's story, I straight up says no, no you're wrong. I'm more of a sci-fi guy. Yeah, that's just who I am, and so it's gonna win.
Speaker 4:It's gonna win out for me Because it's sci-fi and and the story of it, blood and wine, has a great story. But Phantom Liberty, that story is, so I love it so much. With the whole spy thriller I wish they did another expansion in Cyberpunk just because of the potential they had. But like so me, or songbird, I love the whole multiple layers of each character you meet. Like you meet Idris Elba's character read and he he's all nice to you, but it's like after you play it the first time you know it's bunch of bullshit. Like you can, you can see, you can read him for it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that you. He got you the first time and then like they both they both did yeah. Songbird. Songbird also lied her ass.
Speaker 3:She's the lesser of it's. Either you're a corporate shill working for the man who fucks you over, or you're Getting fucked over by this one individual that did it because she was desperate. Yeah so it's like who do you really want to help at the end of the day?
Speaker 4:And I mean it's. I just love the, the choice at the end, like blood and wine, great choices throughout. But I feel like the, the gray area of, of Phantom Liberty, is so poignant in in that moment it's really you have to think about it. One read Like especially I do the songbird ending. I don't, I don't ever want to side with read and do all that. I don't like him, but like he comes out and it's your time to make these decisions because it's on a little timer bar.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it's like, if you don't, he kills you. Yeah, and you have to start over, and so it's like, in the end, there's nothing you can do to save him or to convince him not to die, but it's, it's beautiful writing so cyberpunk what CD project read?
Speaker 3:what they got good at by the time they did cyberpunk was their writing abilities and like how they can really make you sit and soak in and feel a decision.
Speaker 4:Well, and I feel like it, especially in Phantom Liberty, it feels like you can. Your V has a lot more freedom in how he approaches situations like, like Choice situations, because it's like you know you have Geralt and you have Geralt who's good, you have Geralt who's Like withdrawn and like there's a problem.
Speaker 3:Not that Witcher is a problem, yeah. But the issue that they run into with Witcher is it's a, it's a character that existed before the game, yeah. So every decision that they include in the Witcher, they have to make it make sense in Canon with how he was written before the games even came out.
Speaker 3:Yeah and so with cyberpunk, there's a lot more freedom on like how you can approach and behave and act and it's not like you know You're. It's not drastic in the terms of like fallout were involved three within 30 minutes. You could blow up a city, yeah, but like it's still. There's much more freedom on how your V behaves and reacts to the world.
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, and like, for example, in Phantom Liberty, spoiler for the end you take we already talked about you take spoiler for the end, but you take songbird to the rocket right and on the way there she tells you she's lied to you this whole time and like, and then she, she goes unconscious, like that's her last thing she says before she passes out. And the way you can Talk about it with Johnny, and first off I want to shout out Johnny, that's an amazing. I realized what that is like as a writing device. He's a way for the character to to think of, like, to think out loud, yeah, and it's like that's beautiful, like it allows it to be almost like a book.
Speaker 4:But anyways, the way you can talk with Johnny about it, your V can be pissed and like, just, you know, despise songbird for what she did. Your V can be pissed but like you know I'm already this far might as well, they can also be understanding or they can be like, I Don't know the four choice, but they can be understanding, like. I love that approach to it that you could, because for me my V that I play as In that moment he is upset but he understands that this person, like they're desperate and that's the only reason they did what they did, and it's like, yeah, it's fucked up and V isn't gonna get cured, but you know, you already helped him this far. Yeah, I'm gonna stick to my guns. So I just love, I love the, the range in it and I felt like in blood and wine. Blood and wine is bigger as far as stuff you can do or I think blood and wine is meteor for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's in the. The whole map itself is bigger than dogtown. Yeah, it's a much more.
Speaker 1:Grossing. So CG project read just the goat at expansion. So they are, they are.
Speaker 3:They're up there for sure they haven't. I don't think they've released enough to call themselves like the goat of expansions, but like from the two well, technically hard of stone hard of stone, blood and wine and Phantom Liberty have all been exceptionally good. But I would say that Phantom Liberty is more in line with hearts of stone. Heart of stone, yeah, rather than blood and wine. Blood and wine was like a whole new game. Heart of stone was like a Medium-sized expansion.
Speaker 4:That's kind of how Phantom kind of like and like the only reason or why I put Phantom Liberty above it is, you know it's sci-fi, but also I just feel like the story itself. It hit me harder and I feel like heart of stone Hit me harder than blood and wine. I do like blood and wine but looking back at it, like heart of stone and Phantom Liberty those stories are. I consider them above blood and wine.
Speaker 3:Do hearts of stone has, I think, the best villain.
Speaker 4:Gontro dim or.
Speaker 3:Gontro dim and probably I mean it's such a bold claim but, like One of the best villains in video game history, is in hearts of stone in an expansion in an expansion and they first introduce him in the main game too, but it's he's so good just because he kind of represents like that, that's sort of evil, that you feel hopeless to the bad guy in hearts of stone, where, like I Think one of the the best moments in that game that really Signifies like oh shit, I don't know if I should be fucking with this guy is he freezes time.
Speaker 3:When you walk into like a tavern and Geralt's like talking to him, and Then there's like this drunkard that was like kind of annoying Geralt when you walked in and Geralt was like yeah, I'm away. And then at the end of the conversation Gontro dim goes up to him. He's frozen in time. He goes up to him and he's like that was the last time he's interrupted me and just put a spoon through his head Just, and then he claps and then time comes back on and the guy just falls dead and it's like that's the first time we were like, oh shit, let's maybe not fuck with this guy and he is like an all-powerful evil being that they never even really explained. Like what?
Speaker 3:he is what he is other than this one scholar that like researched him. It was like trying to figure out who he was. He was on the verge of figuring it out and gone through a dim like made him blind and then drew a circle and said you'll live forever as long as you never leave this circle. So it was like a more of like a torture than anything. And then fucking Geralt accidentally like Like Moose is how? Like breaks the foundation in his house so the guy falls outside of the circle and then like breaks his neck and dies. Oh no, yeah, but anyways. So yeah, hearts of stone. Ah man, I don't know. Now I'm like, do I like that one more than blood and wine? Like it just story wise.
Speaker 4:I do. I think it's better. I mean, blood and wine has a great story, but hearts of stone, I mean. And there's so many good moments in hearts of stone, like with the, the wife I forget her name.
Speaker 3:Yeah, though I figured it in, tube it like the emo. Yeah, you go into this. Did you play you?
Speaker 4:didn't play the.
Speaker 3:Well, you go into this painting to save his or like Jennifer right no.
Speaker 4:Yeah it's this guy's wife that you're helping and he she's kept alive in a painting and like she's basically being tortured. She or is she like relives her worst Memories, memories there, and you can choose whether she continues to live in there or if she just dies. And that's like the last thing you have to decide when at that mission You're like they do a good job with old geared to because at first he seems like he's the primary antagonist and then it slowly shifts away from him being the primary antagonist.
Speaker 3:And Gontro Dim is, and old geared. The reason he behaves the way he behaves is because he made a pact with Gontro dim. I can't get hurt to where like Heart of stone, right, yeah, I forget why, but like, as a result of the pact, he made All of his emotions. Oh, he made a pact, they can't die is what it was. But then, as a result of it, he no longer felt any emotion Towards anything, and so, like, the woman he loved and he did this for he ended up not loving anymore, he ended up having no regard for anybody. And then so, like, once you start to see his story play out, you you become more sympathetic towards him.
Speaker 3:That's that one does have a pretty wild choice at the end too, because at the end of hearts of stone, you could either take on Gontro dim, and the only way to beat him is to like Solve a riddle, because that's got her dim one weakness to see likes games of, like wits, and so if you could beat him at a game of wits he'll Let you go, or whatever. So you can make a deal with him that way, or you could straight up, just give him the soul of whole geared, and he literally like Sucks the soul out of this guy and leaves him nothing but like a skeleton Falls on the ground, and then he's like All right, you fulfilled your pact, and that's that could be how it hits Jesus. It's wild. So I think I might actually, man, I don't know. Blood and wine is really good, though too it is, but to me fam liberating parts of stone stories tops it. So you're switching, not blood and wine, then.
Speaker 4:No, I still have blood. Wine is my second. No, yeah, just the whole story, because it's, and it's just a whole story because it's and how big it is and the expansion like the amount of stuff you can do in blood and wine and just blood wine was also first right, there's second.
Speaker 1:Oh, what's second? I do, man, I do love the whole vampire story in blood wine?
Speaker 3:Yeah as well. So what's your list? I'm like getting hype talking about other.
Speaker 1:I know you're like is it gonna convert to everything with a witcher?
Speaker 3:never did one of my favorite like. Like epic villain quotes, is in blood wine. When what's his name? The vampire, the main vampire, bad guy. Why am I forgetting his name?
Speaker 4:Not Regis. Regis is good, regis is your friend. Forget his name.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but anyways, when he turns into his like beast form, he like jumps up into the air and he looks at you and he says, if you submit to any God's praise, no, he like flies in. And there's all this lore about how higher vampires are unbeatable. You can't kill them. They can only be killed by other higher vampires. So when that happens, it's definitely an epic moment because, like, geralt is just a badass, that's like I'll take him on anyways after learning all that. Okay. So my list Number one no number five is Undead nightmare. Same as villains, I really like undead nightmare. I like it because it's an alternate reality red dead and zombies. It's a. It's like if night of the living dead, that kind of campy zombie type story, happened in the old west. That's what it is and it's a lot of fun, that's a lot of kookiness, it's just a good time all around and it's pretty lengthy, for I think I paid like $10 for it. Yeah, it wasn't expensive and you're basically at that point.
Speaker 3:You're kind of like a dollar an hour because you get at least that's a 10 hours of gameplay out of that. So that was a lot of fun. Number four this one is probably it's a mass effect one and it's probably gonna surprise you, but the reason I like this is because of the lore implications it adds. Oh is the.
Speaker 4:Leviathan deal. Okay, I love the Leviathan deal.
Speaker 3:see, I was gonna joke and say Javik From ashes, the 32nd. The one mission I love the Leviathan deal, see no it didn't.
Speaker 4:No, it was. It was originally a part of the game that they removed from the game to make day one deal see right day one deal see.
Speaker 3:So you bought the game.
Speaker 1:You got that right. No, you have to pay for that, oh my god, seriously. But it was an expansion you could buy on launch day.
Speaker 3:The one fucking mission and he's super important.
Speaker 1:Like without that you don't have Javik.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah it's like EA was like well, we need to make some more money somehow, so take this character out and make him day one deal, see, do you really need him? Yeah, um, but yeah no. I love the Leviathan deal, see. I love the lore implications it adds. I like the kind of creepiness and almost like borderline suspense thriller aspect of it. I like the idea of people like these Leviathans being so powerful. They can control you with these orbs from light years away.
Speaker 1:I do have been hiding for, yeah, and I do like many cycles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it finally, after, like you know, two and a half very long games, it finally gave you an answer on to like how the reapers came to be, why they look the way they look, who designed them, what was their purpose? Yeah, and so I. I like that one a lot so.
Speaker 3:Leviathan is probably my favorite from that one. So that's number four. Number three for me is Phantom Liberty. I love Phantom Liberty. Don't need to talk about any further because we spent a lot of time on that. Number two Is actually going to be the old hunters DLC from blood or okay.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 3:Figured that love, love, love, love that one that the old hunters DLC is actually almost as fun as the game itself for me. And add some of the most memorable fun boss fights of any from software game I've ever played. Again, I like the lore that it adds. But Ludwig Maria of the astral clock tower and Orphan costs are Like the three main bosses in that that DLC and they all are just like Punishing. They're punishing. Their memorable, they're fun. It never felt like I Was raging because even if I was dying over and over again, it was always a fun time. So that's, that's my number two, and I think my number one is blood wine. Okay, blood wine is just. It really set the bar for expansions for me because like it wasn't that much, it was like $20. I think, and it was basically a full game.
Speaker 1:Yeah it was like it was longer.
Speaker 3:It was longer than most triple-a games now. Yeah, you can get easily get 30 plus hours out of this with like not even hundred percenting it.
Speaker 3:It adds so much Like. There's so many side quests, there's the main quests. It has all these fun Easter eggs, it's just all around. It's a really good time and I love the closure. It adds to Geralt's story. I like that. You could just end it where he you know he's, depending on your choices. He just retires to the countryside with Yennefer and, like they finally get to just have their moment, you know, doesn't have to worry about anything anymore. It's a very definitive end to To his story. So I don't know what they're gonna do if they create another Witcher game, because it said they are going to. But All in all, I think blood wine is probably the the gold standard for for expansions.
Speaker 4:That's why it's number two for me. Just the story and sci-fi Are the reasons that's the knock. Huh yeah, no recency bias, these problems no reasons, even though I just beat fan liberty like two days yeah.
Speaker 1:If he goes back and plays blood wine, he'll be like guys. I was so wrong. I.
Speaker 3:Will say I just completed a playthrough, a fresh start of a Messenger. Well let.
Speaker 4:Before we go into that, let's get his number one here.
Speaker 3:He said he only had one. No, no, no, no. He didn't say is number one teaser.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought that was your lunch. No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 4:But after we do that. We got it.
Speaker 3:We didn't talk about the other day, or just my transitioning, but we might be, all of ours.
Speaker 1:Shadow of the Erd tree might, might take all our number one spots. Not really. I don't get out of Kenis Souls game like. Let's say it's as awesome as Elden Ring was and added if it was Elden Ring to.
Speaker 3:Be my number one. Would it yes, hundred percent if they released the expansion that was Just as good as the main game. How could that not be?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess you're right. Well, just because, like I'm thinking of, like all the stuff that you loved about the other things, and it was because they iterated on there like formula and then I think, like Elden Ring, they're not gonna iterate anything. It's just gonna be a cool, new, exciting world and it is what it is. And yeah, boss fights, you know.
Speaker 3:But well, number two for me was the old hunters, and that's a front software.
Speaker 1:Oh, I guess you're absolutely true. Yeah, I guess I didn't think about that.
Speaker 4:I don't know if I mean I'm sure I'm gonna love it. I don't know if it could be number one Cuz the cuz it's missing the the story yeah sci-fi and like that hit like the story to Octavati Vidya.
Speaker 3:He's gonna be a story that you don't need to learn through reading item descriptions?
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it actually hits me and I'm like most of Not.
Speaker 3:at the end I'm like All right not just the other green story is bad, but they definitely just don't hold your hand in any way whatsoever you can walk by a bush and not realize there's a guy in there and, yeah, he missed a whole laugh.
Speaker 1:Of the damn story, my number one is Heart of thorns, guild Wars 2.
Speaker 3:Heart of thorns heart of thorns.
Speaker 1:This came out in 2015, three years after like three, three and a half years after the original release of the game, and it Set the future of what Guild Wars was going to become. It took the Best parts of the game and iterated on them in terms of so Guild Wars one or Guild Wars 2 left the game. Like when you beat the game, people were sort of lost with, okay, like what do I do now? What is what's the true end game? And there was like living world stuff and their pace of creation at the beginning of the game was insane. It was crazy fast and it was really exciting world to be a part of for the first few months. But Once they kind of realized that they couldn't keep up with that pace anymore, the game kind of fell flat and it was.
Speaker 1:There really wasn't an end game per se, it was just go and do dungeon content, basically. And once you got really good at that, it was kind of like all right, what am I? What am I doing? Now? Guild Wars 2, heart of thorns drops three years after the fact, and it kind of cements a lot of like the future of where they're gonna come out of the game. They introduce a mastery system. They introduce specialization for each class. They introduce raids, 10 man content. They introduce guild halls. I got a bulk of end game.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, huge chunk of end game, yes, and new crafting classes. And the content was some of the hardest in the game. They nerfed it like so many times because it was so overtuned. But there was like these little raptors that were five times faster than your character and if you like walked near them they would collapse on you and one shot you like literally kill you and and Like you had to be very, very skilled to like venture in there. And I just remember at launch how jazzed up and hyped I was and that was some of the best times I've ever had in a video game was going through.
Speaker 1:And then when raids came out I don't think raids draw, I think they drop like a month after the games. So they allowed you to play them, get all the stuff you need, and then 10 man content came out and 10 man content totally changed the formula. Everything had been five man content to that point and now it changed with switch to 10 man and changed how a lot of people Saw things, changed how buffs were shared, teen comps like the average. The player base was terrible at the game Wait before hardathorns came down. And then raids were introduced and everyone realized how bad they were at the game, and so it was this massive learning curve that the audience was like pushed into if you wanted to pursue that new end game Content, and none of this was done through gear progression. There's no gear progression in the game. It's not like they came out the new hire tier and like you had to play expansion to be better. No, it's not how goers works, which is one thing that I love about it. It's all just skill based and understanding the mechanics. And this introduced the, the mechanics of the game that Everyone was like oh, now we have to think about buffs. It's not just about might and fury uptime. It's like how do we, you know, have protection uptime because you're gonna take a lot of damage? How are we gonna have Lackardy and swiftness and all these other mechanics?
Speaker 1:Because in Dungeons, you basically would speck out your team comp to smack, like you would stun the boss and then every player would run this gear. That would basically you do like 20% more damage when a boss is stunned, so you would stun as fast as you could and then you would just out DP. You would just smash, smack the hammer down and DPS to hell of a boss and basically your longest encounters before Heart of Thorns came out With a good team lasted less than five seconds, whereas you were just smashing through these bosses. That's no more with raid content. These fights are 10 minutes long and now you have a whole new set of things to think about and care about and it was really interesting and it was like a fun dynamic.
Speaker 1:It was a really exciting part of the time to be a part of the game. They also came out with these cool little like challenge Modes. So like throughout the world, there was like these little competitions with daily, weekly and month and all-time leaderboards. I think is how it worked. But like they would be like super quirky games like One you get a rifle and it puts you in first-person mode and you have like shoot these targets.
Speaker 3:You ever get the most targets?
Speaker 1:Yeah, literally it turns it and you're like, wow, I'm fucking using a rifle and Guild Wars right now.
Speaker 1:I go down and then person shoot other game modes, you like become a roller beetle and you have to like be, like, do this timed race and get down like to a short, short time and and If you, you know, you got to get gold or whatever, and so like there was all these new forms of content to like be had to end play and it was just so such an ex, just exciting time to be a part of the game.
Speaker 3:I loved it so much so no wonder you didn't play the Witcher expansion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, too busy, came out at the same 20.
Speaker 3:October 2015. That's when Hearts of Stone came out. Yeah, Blood wine came out in May of 2016. Oh yeah, so I was still heavily it came out the years later. The summer before I was working at my last job, because I broke my collarbone and I remember I did nothing but play Witcher Like three weeks while I was healing.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah but yeah, there you go. Yeah, no I. I grinded the hell out of it, had an absolute fucking blast, loved it, so that would have to be my number one. I mean, I could list other ones that were, like you know others, a part of the Guild Wars franchise, but all the ones that you guys listed, all the ones in your top five, other than the Leviathan and Citadel, I never played, so I never even downloaded.
Speaker 3:So I was like you never played Leviathan, or no? Those are the two. I know I flipped it.
Speaker 1:But never did, never even played cyberpunk, just watched it.
Speaker 3:Why not just basically playing for him? So?
Speaker 1:So I like for whatever reason I so I don't really pre-order games and Cyberpunk came out and it had like the disastrous lumps that.
Speaker 4:I might not get it now.
Speaker 1:You know, I have it wish listed on steam and it drops to 30 bucks regularly and I've thought about playing it but I'm like yeah, it's not interested. I don't know, it's just there's not any energy around the game anymore. I would. I wouldn't enjoy it. I don't know, like, if so for me? I know you guys laughed at this because I brought this up before, but like you know, you go and you watch. Like how many people are watching it on Twitch or whatever? That's like a barrier for it's a single player game.
Speaker 3:What is that?
Speaker 1:Well, I know, so like, but I like to be a part of a. I like to be a part of. If I'm gonna go to a game years later. I want to be a part of a game that, like, is kind of evolving or like this did evolved.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know point. Oh, it's already Settle, but it's done what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's already settled.
Speaker 3:You should have played it with Phantom Liberty dropped. I probably should have, and I.
Speaker 1:That's what I actually I thought about it because it dropped to 30 bucks like a couple months before Phantom Liberty was Announced and that was the closest I was to pulling the trigger on it. But at the end of the day, I don't. I don't know, it's just. I watched it live streamed a couple times, you know, at launch basically played it I.
Speaker 1:Will never, you guys you have to you have to it's part of the show basically it's part of the show. I've watched people played, so I got like 40 hours so I can comment on whether or not the story is good yeah that's fair.
Speaker 3:You can comment on the story, I guess, but gameplay is such a huge part of.
Speaker 1:Actually like. But I like to be like, if I'm gonna play an older game, I like there to be Like a re, like a I don't know. I kind of like being a part of like oh, there's new builds being discovered, or that's new. Techniques and it's just to me it's like, it's like a settled science, it's like it is what it is. Just go have fun, and I'm like I don't play games.
Speaker 3:have fun Like oh, I can't play this amazing game because only 15 people are playing.
Speaker 4:And the thing is Billy out of out of us. When cyberpunk edge runners came out, you watched it twice.
Speaker 1:I know me and Kyle. I watched it once. That's it. I know, Dude, I don't understand me. Help me Okay. I don't get it. I don't know what it is. I like I don't. Here's the thing I know. If I bought a Cyberpunk I would probably really enjoy it. It would probably be a lot of fun. I Just, I just won't click that button. I don't know what it is. I don't know.
Speaker 1:If yeah, I don't know. I'm excited for their next project, so I'm right to. Cyberpunk 2 in Unreal Engine or whatever I think they're Is it a riot. That's what is it project, right? I don't think they're, are they?
Speaker 3:Immediately going to cyberpunk or they're going back to Witcher for a game, I think they're going back to which it's like called witcher, like links or something like that.
Speaker 4:I would play that I think I Would play that, but I like to witcher a lot.
Speaker 1:Cyberpunk was a new IP. It wasn't really on the risk it and honestly, the launch burden me, I think is what it is, but the launch it was a nine at launch On ps4 on ps4 Okay. I know that's it, guys. You know, like all the shit that we memed on for, like how the fuck could these review agencies give it a nine on a? Hey, I gave it a seven on PC and a four or I was gonna say that you gave it a four yeah.
Speaker 3:For one of my favorite games of all time. I think that was. I think the game in Witcher though.
Speaker 1:The gameplay is better in cyberpunk is it you would say, I would which?
Speaker 3:are the gameplay is well, it's completely different.
Speaker 1:It's also separated by about eight years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's completely different but I actually don't think as far as like third-person Sword fighting games, I don't think that Witcher is actually that strong in that regard today, or because I remember that launch Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, think about this is. I thought it was. This is after the time when games like Arkham asylum had come out, and that's true, you know, we're like they really redefined like third-person combat. Witcher I always felt was Not quite there for me, and this might have been because, I don't wrong, I love Witcher, but this might have been because I was really heavy into from software.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I was just gonna ask. Did Witcher 3 come out before Dark Souls 2?
Speaker 3:Dark Souls 2 came out before Witcher 3, so we played Dark Souls 2 before Dark Souls 2 came out in 2013, 2014, but, like early 2014 and it Witcher didn't come out till 2015, so it's almost a year later, okay.
Speaker 1:Interesting that because I remember playing. I remember the first fight in a Witcher 3 very well whatever the Griffin, yeah, like almost a tutorial boss or whatever you want to call it and I remember sitting there with like the different you know Svarrard and Ard and whatever the fuck though the different yeah, those are whatever, and I remember thinking like oh man, this gameplay is. I'm really liking all the different styles that this have has, but you see, I think it was. Maybe, yet maybe I think it was deep I agree with Kyle.
Speaker 3:I just think that it wasn't like it was. There was emphasis on strategy and approach, but not as much on just just raw fun just yeah like you, go play cyberpunk. That gameplay is fun like cyberpunk is almost in, especially after Phantom Liberty, and they added all these extra mods. Like the fluidity of movement is fun, in the same way that like it's fun just to play spider-man to swing around. Yeah, it's just fun to get from point A to point B it's fun to get in combat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you can get really wild with it and parkour and speed, jump and fly and like. When you look at someone playing cyberpunk that like, has put a lot of hours into it, it looks fun, it looks like a fun way to game, whereas Witcher it's an amazing game but it it's Limited, unlike they can really go all out in cyberpunk with the character and the builds and all the different weapons you can use. At the end of the day you have a steel sword, a silver sword in Witcher, ones for monsters, ones for humans, you know, and like every, you could throw in some bombs and some things. But also I do feel like Witcher, you can only really play one way Effectively. There are other ways you can do it. You can add oils and stuff, but, like, at the end of the day, there really is only one way to play cyberpunk there's a.
Speaker 3:It has a very multifaceted approach to how you can handle things especially with the 1.2 patch or whatever, not patch, but this when Phantom Liberty came out and they redesigned everything. Although the only thing I'm salty about that is I had to change my build completely because they Reallocated what level up handguns. Oh it's so like I had to switch to a blades build because that was already leveled up.
Speaker 4:Which is fine you know, I do a blades and pistol build and I'm like slow down time, just saying divison.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know yeah you know we could. I was just thinking this. You know we could scream you play in Cyberpunk. No held in rink co-op.
Speaker 3:We could. We could Now that but be wary it's gonna take an hour to get your settings right again.
Speaker 1:Because we all have PCs. It's a lot of work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I kept playing that. Where's just turning it on PCS swear what the elderly lot? Yeah, so you see a little, you download it and you put save the files in the folder and then you gotta make special folders for and you gotta make sure that you're on the right patch and you gotta make sure that the modern you definitely a patch. Um, you don't just put it in and play. One is not simply.
Speaker 4:So I looked it up Polaris is the next mainline witcher game and that's supposedly the one that'll be next.
Speaker 1:And they said Carol was just the universe right.
Speaker 4:Yeah they said. Cdpr Previously mentioned that players will release no earlier than 2025. So, if anything, we might get an announcement trailer, but it sounds like that's the next one and they, they say they plan to have it be a new trilogy.
Speaker 3:You didn't believe me.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just trying to remember what, because I remember I bought a lot of games at this time in 2014. Sorry, it wasn't, I didn't mean to. I wasn't cutting anybody off here, you were.
Speaker 3:He's looking at release dates for Dark Souls 2 and Witcher.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what you're three.
Speaker 3:Basically exactly what I said, but just unbelievable shit like that. It's unbelievable Well you know why Shall we has no effect or bearing on my life.
Speaker 1:How good are those.
Speaker 3:These are amazing, fucking yeah.
Speaker 4:But don't eat it. You told us to promise you all these gummy bears.
Speaker 1:I know we're sponsored by Ziploc Johnson and I Cracked those open on a flight and it just you wrote like a romanated, whatever the word is. A romanated Is that the word I think it is like Aromatically in fear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it aromatically infused.
Speaker 1:The plane with the most fruity scent of all time it was. I was almost embarrassed, but I was just fucking fist in hand.
Speaker 3:Eating this. You know that there's one person on the plane that was like I'm gonna throw up. This is so gross.
Speaker 1:I can't this artificially sweetened gummy bears over there like absolutely not. I like my real sugar, I like my real shit. I Make homemade gummy bears.
Speaker 4:Just super stick.
Speaker 3:Bear mold.
Speaker 1:Literally like an ice cube, because it doesn't actually hold a shape.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you have to eat it cold.
Speaker 3:How do you, how's it? Are you holding it together? It's cornstarch. It's like organic cornstarch.
Speaker 4:Well a terrible way to make gumming. Shall we move on? Shadow, there a tree.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it. Shadow the earth tree, let's be about it. Let's talk about it. Let's be about trailer drop. Let's break down frame by frame. I don't give a fuck super. At this point it does look like we're gonna touch a hand, we're gonna get dittled it'll, and then we're not Presumably, we're not changing, we're not going forward or backward in time.
Speaker 4:We're just going to a different land of the shadow.
Speaker 3:Like, where is this going to be? It's literally, it says it in description. It's obscured by the earth tree, the shadow of the earth tree.
Speaker 1:Obscured by the earth tree with the verbiage, the underground area like I don't think it'll be underground. I think it's gonna be like alternate.
Speaker 3:Maybe there's a huge area that's untouched on the cliff side of mountaintop, of the joints and that happens to be right behind the earth tree. There's a lot of area they could tap there. I. Think it'd be a different dimension. Did you see what? Miyazaki, I'd be a little disappointed.
Speaker 4:I mean gonna be in Micola's dreams, or?
Speaker 3:that's very likely considering how they've done expansions in the past.
Speaker 1:But did you see what Miyazaki said around the size of it? He said a lot.
Speaker 3:He said he estimates it'll be about the size of limb grave, but everyone's making also comments, for like this is the guy that said I estimate it'll probably take you about 30 hours to beat the game. Yeah so everyone's like he's kind of notorious for underselling, because that way you can be even more appreciative when it comes out.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna lie. When I first heard that quote of him saying his size of limb grave, I was disappointed.
Speaker 3:You wanted to be the size of all of Lernia or a lanes between them graves, huge too lit.
Speaker 4:See I don't first portion of the map.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's that big, though I Really it is big. But think about how many fucking areas are in that game. How much time do you realistically spend on a playthrough in Lernia? No, no, limb grave or, I'm sorry, like 20 hours.
Speaker 3:Limgrave is a pretty decent size too. I, you, you could fit a whole game in that and they don't really put it's pretty, it's pretty input.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying, yeah so that's what I'm basing it on. I guess geographic size, what I don't want it, it's gonna be fucking awesome. What am I bitching on? It's gonna be fucking awesome so you seen some of these bosses they look epic mesmer the impaler.
Speaker 3:I just the giant my build today basket on fire boss, fire basket man, fire basket man line dancer. Yeah, I don't even know what it is, but it's a. It's like five times the size of fire giant and it's. It's huge. He's literally fit him in your screen a walking basket that's on fire, that has, like all these dead bodies inside of it and he's bigger than fire time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you didn't see the trailer. I did but like that shit, I doesn't.
Speaker 1:It doesn't register. Like I don't need to remember eyes as fucking details of a trailer. Wow, I'll play the game.
Speaker 3:What is wrong with this man? I know guys so wild about the lion dancer.
Speaker 4:You. I know you saw that one. You commented on it. It's one that spews.
Speaker 1:The stone stuff.
Speaker 4:No idea what you're talking about it's, you know, the, the guys with the big eyes. They Spit the gray death bite. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They do that, but now with stone stuff.
Speaker 4:No, that's death play and I just it looks like concrete, looks like they're blowing concrete at you.
Speaker 1:They're blowing death at you.
Speaker 4:Okay, but that's black you commented, in the trailer there's a boss that blows concrete at you. Oh yeah, I do remember that now, yeah, okay, you know what boss actually looks.
Speaker 3:The most intriguing to me is that, that red sword maiden, that Purple field.
Speaker 3:Okay with the sword super quick little yeah but like I love those that's just a regular enemy maybe it could be, but I hope it's an actual and like a boss, because those are always my favorite types of bosses in from software games. Like is the human size. Just wickedly good with the blade boss. Those ones are always the most fun for me, rather than be they're usually the hardest to, which is you know kind of funny thing about struggle the bigger the boss, the less intimidating it is to me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, from software, easier it is to read their their telegraph. Hello, slow Except for Malakit Malakit isn't fast. Yeah, it's not that big, but he for a big guy, he's fast. Yeah, did you guys see the whole power scaling, though?
Speaker 3:They're how that's gonna work reworking it so that you can't go into it being over leveled.
Speaker 4:It's Sekiro. They're taking Sekiro's level system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was wondering how they're gonna do that, because I'm like there's a farm in that game that gets you 20 million runes an hour.
Speaker 3:They literally give you the most OP farm in the game, so they had no choice but cuz I'm like you could go in hundreds of level levels over leveled and you're fucking.
Speaker 1:I think you're gonna be fucked.
Speaker 3:You're in new game plus seven.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna play it on that character. No, I'm playing on my new character. I'm a co level hundred and thirty, five hundred, fifty or whatever. Okay, and I already know exactly what build I'm gonna run. I'm gonna farm, for I never used these before but I'm gonna farm these up. Blood boil, aromatics those thing are fucking ranked dude. They require some rare materials so they're kind of hard to. They're kind of a bitch to farm. But they give you 30% damage buff and Like you take 25% less damage. So I'm gonna fucking farm like a couple dozen of those up, just so I have them for boss fights. And then I I need to get. I got my new character. I actually your guys are gonna laugh. So I've sped run this. I haven't used summons or anything like that. I Can't beat Gideon. Yeah, you just run in while he's talking. I'm dead serious, I can't be. I knew you'd come. I can't beat him because I don't have. I have like, because I'm trying to just rush the game still and I don't have no.
Speaker 1:So here's the, here's the thing.
Speaker 3:I'm using a little.
Speaker 1:I don't have a Web leveled up weapons because I just, I'm literally just speedrunning.
Speaker 3:Why are you playing?
Speaker 1:So I have two ruins great swords.
Speaker 4:How'd you get to?
Speaker 1:I, I gave my character some Start, some weapons from my main guy. I transferred them, I dropped them and then fucking moved them over. Use the mule, so but I have to paint somebody no use the drug. I'm on a Elden Ring discord. Oh, I'll help like I'm on the discord, like I help actually is like hey, can you help me on this Sure? Exactly, I can help people kill boss, and then he paid $60.
Speaker 1:No, that's how I leveled the guy too, because I just gave him I have some heroes runes. I gave him those.
Speaker 3:Oh consumed those so you did Pam here.
Speaker 1:I am.
Speaker 2:I didn't pay him anything. I paid him game from my main help out this character.
Speaker 3:Oh holy, I'm surprised he didn't steal it.
Speaker 1:To be honest, I don't think they care how to you and they're on an Elden Ring discord, like you'd have to be a real cock Plus, like people like just trade, like you don't give you items for free or whatever. But anyway, I know what build. I'm gonna use a twin gargoyle blade, a pole blade. I really like the attack set and I'm gonna go back to a bleed build because I I've done the bonk now probably more than I did the bleed build on my main guy and I want to go back to the bleeds.
Speaker 1:I really okay so I want to get back to that. Have you beaten Moog? Not on this guy yet.
Speaker 3:You have. I literally have just cleared the map. The two main required bosses is red on and Moog. For some reason, we're done is required.
Speaker 1:I don't know why you'll see yeah. Why are people saying that?
Speaker 4:That's what that's what he announced.
Speaker 3:You have to have beaten both we're done and moke to be able to play this DLC, and so now there's all the speculation as to why is we're done? You know, one of the required bosses interesting.
Speaker 1:That's good. Thanks for letting me know. So I want to get. So I want to get him set up. I have, like I can't be giddy in it's actually a meme. I went in and I double bonked him. I literally have like I have been fucking tickling bosses Because I just don't want to level up my, my shit. I'm literally just trying to beat the game. So I have the map unlocked and then I'm gonna get all the items and I go and I double hand bonk him and it does like 10% of his damage and then he goes fucking super Saiyan, my shit's so slow, like he's actually living up to his name.
Speaker 3:So you're not here.
Speaker 1:The all-knowing he has like a. He has this one thing that I hit him like with any, it shatters. Like like the first time you hit him like it shatters or whatever it almost one shots me. I Don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm like twice and I'm like well, I'm gonna call it here because I pretty much have all. I mean I have all the map unlocked at this point.
Speaker 4:So I twice and he considers I can't beat him ever.
Speaker 1:Well, I just I've never died to him. Not only yeah, I.
Speaker 3:Did a legit playthrough. I played through once where I, I Bum, rushed every boss and a fresh playthrough. I got all the items I wanted. I didn't really do anything story-wise, didn't do any side quests, I just got everything that I wanted. And then I just did a full, complete like lore playthrough on New Game Plus. And then this is the character I'm gonna take with me into the DLC. I did all of the side quests, I beat all of the bosses and I I did Dylan's build, but with an emphasis on jump attacks.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I got the always done.
Speaker 3:I got the talisman that gives you the jump attack talisman, and the the feather cape cape that gives you jump attack bonus as well. And For the first time not that I've ever tried, but I was like you know what, I'm gonna just try and beat millennial without summoning, because I normally always use mimic as bait in that fight I fucked her up with this build like once you stunlock her, that's it. She can't even like escape it, mm-hmm. So if you're doing it right, that jump dual colossal build is pretty OP.
Speaker 1:I don't even have. I have a single talisman. So I have like three of the slots or for the slots unlocked, but I don't even have like anything slotted into them. I do know what I'm doing wrong. It's just a really rushing through it. So good, actually, got to get in in about two hours of gameplay, which I was actually pretty happy with. I mean, obviously I started at level 130, whatever it was, but but believe it or not? The. That doesn't really help you that much, not having leveled up weapons, yeah big fucking deal.
Speaker 1:But you could be high level. But if you have a level one or two weapon, good luck.
Speaker 3:I am. I actually did a. I have a lot of stats invested into intelligence, and then I made my greatsword Um ash of war a magic based one, so that's scaled off of intelligence as well. So both of them base without any buffs do at least a thousand damage.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I the you use a dark one great sword at all, did you try that one?
Speaker 3:I did, but it's not so it's not colossal. So it's not colossal, so it doesn't have a paired move set with another great sword.
Speaker 4:You have to get um Like a minor great. So I don't know. They have a different name.
Speaker 3:It's great sword and colossal sword. Yeah, the, the sword that's called great sword is actually a colossal sword, um, so if you want to use it with, uh, if you want to use the dark moon I wish it was, but it's it's not on the same level, so I think malakas is not a colossal right, Maybe yeah, so you could probably use it without one and dark moon but um, in order for that build to be effective at least for me, because I actually don't I don't use um Bloodhound step.
Speaker 1:I think you think it may be more gods. I think now this is I don't step.
Speaker 3:I don't. I don't use bloodhound step, I just have a shit ton invested in dirt. So I can still so I can still light roll um, because I'd rather use uh, I like the ash of war that the royal greatsword has the jump up in the air slash and then the aoe um.
Speaker 1:So that one. So what's the name of that one? Lions claw wolf, oh, wolf like uh, wolf spain Okay so that's, I want to use the twin gargoyle set because I've always used, like, weapons that have weapon are on them and you're dedicated to that. So I want to use the twin gargoyle because, first off, I haven't really used pull blades before or special blades.
Speaker 1:No, it's not, and I I really want to try out different Ash's award, because it's a whole part of the game that I've never really experienced and there's a lot of really cool ones on there, like the royal knights, resolve or whatever. That boosts the damage of your next outgoing attack by 80 percent, which is just cracked and then, um, I really like the lions.
Speaker 1:Uh, lions claw you do like a front, flip forward and slam down and it's like this big bonk, um, so I want to try out a couple of them with the with the twin blades.
Speaker 3:On this last play through, build for sure. On this last playthrough I actually, for the very first time ever, um fought fortis axe in the deep root depths.
Speaker 4:You never fought him.
Speaker 3:I've never done fias questline, I've done her questline, but I always like stop giving a fuck about this, just goes on and Get on.
Speaker 3:I like I would give a shit about these brother and like all this random, and so I've never finished your questline and I've looked it up. The rewards that you get from fortis axe never really were that interesting to me and uh, so I'd never even this in this playthrough. That was the first time I ever even um Beat fortis axe and I was a little underwhelmed because fortis axe isn't nearly as cool as like placidus axe.
Speaker 3:Yeah uh, placidus axe is way better and I thought it was gonna be on that level and it wasn't. I was like, oh, it's just kind of like a normal dragon.
Speaker 1:Have I seen it like a like the half fully grown beast? Whatever it's like Levels of evolution and fortis axe was like the mid tier and plus city x. Whatever is the final boss.
Speaker 3:But I was like really soaking in the lore this time because I wanted to be like ready for the expansion.
Speaker 3:And like there's all these things that like I thought that I knew a lot of the lore and then I'm like dude, I didn't really know anything. This is I always wondered, like like for one, like why was uh, uh, um, godwin? Like why was he like so big, like when he died and stuff. And then like when you read item descriptions, like he died normally but then like he became, like he started getting possessed by the urd tree and that's always face comes up in storm veil, and also why it's in deep root depths and Like he starts like it. Just things like that like you just don't pay attention to when you're because it it's like work. I don't like understand, kind of what's going on and I don't think anyone really ever truly understands what's going on but, like vike, I love his story and.
Speaker 3:I'm super interested into like Not that we ever will, but like for one. Like who were the two short like great ruin holders that he killed to even Get as far as he did? Like who were they? Um, and then for two, I would love to see more about his weird romance with the dragon. Like that is, that's pretty wild. I know that they say the dragon can take human form, but still this that's pretty bold of vike to. And then, why did he become so obsessed with randomly wanting to save his maiden? Like, where did that come into play? Why did he decide to go down below?
Speaker 1:He was a man of bitches. He is not made less. He has a dragon.
Speaker 3:He was not made less. He had all the means but I would love to see, even if it was like just some kind of something on vike, uh, other than what we got, if there ever was like an anime.
Speaker 1:If there ever so how are they neutralizing, like the level? So how does that work? Are they gonna scale you down? No, I like, oh, I know I got it All right, you know because they.
Speaker 4:They've confirmed it works exactly like Sekiro. So Sekiro it wasn't like. Your attack power was no longer something you leveled up. Your attack power increased when you beat a boss, and so you got stronger the more bosses you beat, and therefore that's that's how you increase your strength. That was it so. That way, that's how they're preventing you from being over leveled, because you're going to go in with one attack power.
Speaker 3:You need to beat the bosses to increase your strength so basically Every, no matter what level you are, when you go into this expansion area um you all start.
Speaker 1:Attack power one attack power, but you still like your weapons are going to scale off of.
Speaker 4:I think they still scale off that, but I think it's.
Speaker 3:It's just what the level 10 weapons still going to be starting at level one?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so like it's just a matter of your effectiveness in there is going to be scaled off of these bosses interesting.
Speaker 3:And they also said I guess we'll never know.
Speaker 1:I was like, yes, they also said that Slyce and Dice Killer is the greatest from a software player.
Speaker 3:The final boss is going to be. Let Me Solo Her.
Speaker 1:Dude, that would be so much fun if, like in, like a dungeon or something like that, they had to him as a boss.
Speaker 3:Like Let Me Solo Her like a dungeon boss and it was kind of like a meme yeah.
Speaker 1:You like one shot at an honor. What an honor that would be.
Speaker 3:That'd be cool, you know one of the hardest bosses in the game, because the humanoid ones are always super hard.
Speaker 4:So what do we do? We think Mesmer is I'm guessing he's like the middle boss. I don't think he's the big boss.
Speaker 3:Who's Mesmer? Related to.
Speaker 4:He is supposedly like people think he's like the third of.
Speaker 3:Nicola, melania and Mesmer, all the M's or they think it's more God mode, who aren't. So I guess the M's aren't the weird uncle.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so they think it's one of them. They think it's like an outcast child or something, because there's the banished catacombs and there's like this hope. They have a theory but they don't know. But do you guys think he's the big boss?
Speaker 3:I think there's going to be one after, because if it follows how other from software expansions have been in the past, the boss they advertise the most is never the final boss, like in the old hunters DLC. Lady Maria was the one that was in all the promotional material. She's even on the cover of the cover art. But orphan of cost was actually the final boss, and so I think that there's going to be one final, like America Well kind of already did with Rattagon.
Speaker 1:Reborn into her form. They merged into the same person, right Well?
Speaker 3:so I actually was looking into that and they never were two separate people to start, so America she separated herself somehow and Rattagon is America, but he kind of has his own free will.
Speaker 1:So that's why he went to Rinala to fight her bang her, had kids.
Speaker 3:And then America was like what the fuck? You can have kids in that form. And then summoned Rattagon back and was like you're going to have kids with me, because imagine how powerful our kids would be, because I'm a God, You're me, you're a God, and that's why Melania and Micola are both fucked up, because they're inbred. That's why Melania has the rot and that's why Micola was cursed with forever child, because they're inbred Imperians inbred of like the same person.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And and then, realizing what happened, they merged back into one person, but their conscience, their consciousness, never went back together fully and that's the whole. That's so weird America Rattagon thing, which is like insane. Who thinks of this? Martin?
Speaker 4:Margett is who's child?
Speaker 3:Margett is.
Speaker 1:George R R Martin is incest love for incest. More, god, let's see.
Speaker 4:He's an omen. Is that also an incest child?
Speaker 3:I believe he's Rinala's kid. But let me look at the America family tree real quick.
Speaker 4:Pull up the.
Speaker 3:America, america. Okay, no more God and Moog. They're the son of America and Godfrey. More God and Moog are omens, meaning that they were kind of like the shun children.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because they have the horns.
Speaker 3:And Godwin was like the perfect child.
Speaker 4:He's also the son of.
Speaker 3:Godfrey America, and he was the one that was murdered. Micola America are both sons of Rattagon America. And then Rinala's kids is Ronnie, rikard and Radon.
Speaker 4:There we go. So America got around, america got around.
Speaker 1:Maybe Rinala breaks out of her trance and she becomes the mesmer that's her. This is wild?
Speaker 4:I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Billy, hey, man, she kind of looks like her, to be honest, but the idea is like Rinala she snaps out of her trance whatever.
Speaker 1:We've seen gender swaps happen, no problem in this game. So Rinala breaks out of her trance, right, because she's smitten right now or lonely and sad. She breaks out of that trance, reunites the fucking what is the royal knight's her academy, right, and then the final boss area is like you have to work your way through the upgraded carrion manner, like carrion manner with the elite soldiers, because the academy is back and running. I don't think so.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you're participating.
Speaker 2:Because I think this is all going to do with Micola.
Speaker 4:I think we're working with Micola.
Speaker 3:I think, mesmer must be one of.
Speaker 4:Melania and Micola's brother. I think we're going to be working with Micola maybe, or trying to save him or something, and the final boss is going to be him for some reason. Is going to be like a corrupt, evil version of him or something.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 4:Can you look at Goldwyn Goldwyn? The golden.
Speaker 3:Goldwyn the golden. Of course I misspelled the god one. These characters names got confusing. Yeah, I don't. It's weird that Godwin was like the one perfect child and he's the one that they killed. Lore wise.
Speaker 4:And I guess Ronnie and then Melania is rumored. Theorized to be a child of Rathagon America.
Speaker 3:In some of the lore drops she talks about how her mother brought her to the foot of the urge and it just lines up with how America might be Melania's mom who the fuck is Godwin. Godwin is the son of Godfrey America, no, that line goes.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see, I see.
Speaker 3:And Godwin was the one that was killed in the Night of Black Knives. That started the whole Shattering War.
Speaker 1:So we haven't fought him yet.
Speaker 3:No, he's dead by the time.
Speaker 4:This thing's all off. Look, they put Blayth and Ronnie as siblings. See, I don't think they know what the fuck.
Speaker 1:And then who is the?
Speaker 4:unicorn or no? The unborn, I thought that said unicorn.
Speaker 3:No, Blayth is not. Oh Jesus, Blayth is not a he's a shadow he's assigned to her.
Speaker 4:It's like Malakas.
Speaker 3:The Felly Lou is somehow related to.
Speaker 4:Horlou. That makes sense. Maybe it's like oh, you're learning how to make a, how to draw a family tree, the Elden.
Speaker 1:Ring.
Speaker 2:Family Tree. What the fuck, oh here we go this one, this one's real basic.
Speaker 1:The one great. It's called the greater will, not the one great.
Speaker 3:It's translated.
Speaker 1:okay, the two fingers, the three fingers. Hey, it's gonna come out with the four fingers.
Speaker 4:Oh, it's talking about the fingers.
Speaker 1:And then no, no, it's the next thing you'll see is the four fingers and the thumb, the thumb, the thumb. The thumb. The thumb. The thumb the one fucking thumb Unnamed Wolf.
Speaker 4:He's not connected to anything. He's just up there. You guys can't see what we're looking at here. I think Mesmer is gonna be related to American Rattagon and Mesmer is I. Do you guys get? I think he looks ugly. They're selling his collector statue, like with the collector's edition.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't think he looks that cool. I have no interest in getting a statue of him, in my opinion.
Speaker 3:There's something like a collector's edition of this yeah look at that, it's like $200.
Speaker 1:Might be worth it. We could For the collection here Let us know what do you think you wanna see, mesmer?
Speaker 4:No that's.
Speaker 3:That's it. No, that's a helmet. They sell a helmet. I don't think you can wear that one.
Speaker 1:I think that's like for looks.
Speaker 4:Looks kinda dumb anyway to be honest, right Go, look at the other collector's edition. I guess they are just selling a helmet one.
Speaker 3:Is this it right here? No, well, that's not a collector's edition, that's literally just that helmet for like almost $200.
Speaker 1:I've never been to their website here. How does this work Um exclusive editions?
Speaker 4:maybe Collector's editions.
Speaker 3:Are we on just me?
Speaker 4:Right there, there you go.
Speaker 3:Comes with a statue of Mesmer the Impaler. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:It's a great game. But yeah, does that look Seriously? Enter your birthday.
Speaker 1:What the fuck $11.
Speaker 3:$00.
Speaker 4:$19.90. Does that look interesting at all the ability?
Speaker 1:That's the photo we have to operate from.
Speaker 4:You can probably full zoom it with that icon on the top right.
Speaker 3:There was a zoom icon on top.
Speaker 1:The image didn't have to zoom it when Up, hold the image. Hold on, let me get this. Right there, this isn't. No, this is a visual search. If we click that, it searches Google for similar photos. Oh well, Well well.
Speaker 3:I thought, we were cool for a second.
Speaker 1:It's alright.
Speaker 4:Does that look?
Speaker 1:cool to you at all, Billy Like too skinny.
Speaker 3:I think it'll be a fun boss, but it's not like.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you that's Rinala, what that's Rinala.
Speaker 4:Watch him be right.
Speaker 3:The base game is not even included.
Speaker 4:Base game not included, so I hope you got the base game. Can you pre-order?
Speaker 1:now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's $40.
Speaker 1:Like all-in.
Speaker 3:I mean this is not like Before, there'd be the risk of not getting it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Now it's like the risk of downloading it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could buy it day of, it doesn't matter. Watch this be received is like, unincorporately, the worst expansion of all time and it ruins Elden Ring Dude, it makes it a terrible game, turns it into a dating simulator.
Speaker 3:The expansion comes with the patch that completely changes the base game. It makes it garbage Everyone turns to stick figures.
Speaker 4:It makes it a racing simulator.
Speaker 3:There's no way to change it.
Speaker 4:Racing the lands between. Introducing seasons Okay, I'm not interested in that at all. That collector's edition.
Speaker 1:Let me just share the screen here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, look at him.
Speaker 1:Mesmer Not feeling it. I mean, he looks alright, but not like if I'm going to get a statue from Elden Ring.
Speaker 4:There's much cooler looking NPCs and bosses I'd want like Glythe.
Speaker 1:Ronnie, I want his weapon.
Speaker 3:I would even like Elden Beast.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Elden Beast would be kind of cool. Imagine if he was like kind of see-through yeah.
Speaker 1:And every time you go to like.
Speaker 3:It was a lava lamp. Can you imagine Elden Beast lava lamp.
Speaker 1:Every time you go to like grab him, like move around, and he fucking runs away. He shows up on a different part.
Speaker 4:Yeah, fuck the Elden Beast, or even Radagon breaking the Elden Ring.
Speaker 3:That'd be a freeze frame.
Speaker 4:Sand up.
Speaker 1:Actually, I think, like the weapon art for the spell, art for the moon spell that Rinaldo cast would be hella cool that animation is so sick, she curls up into a ball. Yeah, and then she shatters and the moon comes flying at you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so what do you want? The?
Speaker 1:The ball, just the animation like the weapon art.
Speaker 4:Yeah, be kind of cool, but what would you want is the statue just curled up in a ball, just a ball floating and it's like the moon. Just the moon.
Speaker 3:It's like one of those magnet floating things, you kind of cool man You're like.
Speaker 4:Rinaldo is like a Balled up inside of it You're like no, I don't want the moon, I want the moon from Elden Ring, from when they do this spell and you hold them next to each other. It's like the same thing.
Speaker 3:You know what would be cool A statue of Melania versus Radon.
Speaker 4:I I do really like the collector's edition. They had.
Speaker 1:Like this right here, man, Right here. How sick would that be? And yeah, that would be.
Speaker 3:But in order to add some substance to it like your tarnish would have to be underneath it or something. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Don't even need a tarnish.
Speaker 1:Just the moon. That's so basic.
Speaker 4:Self for 20 bucks. But the collector's edition of the main game had Melania's helmet, yeah, and that's a cool helmet, in my opinion that's cool. I never wear it, though I don't like George RR Martin wore it.
Speaker 3:I don't like any helmet items that add hair. I know I hate that. I would like Melania's helmet, but with the hair my character has. Yeah. That's why I don't like. I wish that the Elden Lord's crown was just the crown. Why does that have to be his whole braided?
Speaker 4:hair. You know, I guess for people who want to role play it's HORLU.
Speaker 1:HORLU $250.
Speaker 4:Yeah, For that mesmer you want him. The expansion is how much Kyle? 30? 40. So that means $210. $200.
Speaker 1:$210. Oh, I guess it does come with the expansion code.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Base games included.
Speaker 1:That would make sense.
Speaker 4:Physical art book 40 pages, and the ring of Mykola.
Speaker 3:Bonus gesture. You know what I seriously thought about by Fatih Video and his lore book Not his lore book, but in it's not really him, but he's the one that orchestrated everything Is that Soul Arts book when it's all the different. I guess fan art. Really it's not canon, but it looks legit.
Speaker 4:I thought about buying it and it's really thick there with Melania's helmet.
Speaker 1:Right there.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 1:Looks like one of those pop things.
Speaker 3:It looks like the puppet thing that you can Like. The pops, pop funk.
Speaker 1:Pop, funk, pop.
Speaker 3:No, I mean like in-game the puppets Like Celevis.
Speaker 4:Like Ronnie, yeah, like Ronnie. And you put her in a jar.
Speaker 3:And you put her in. You have to talk to her like three times and she's like oh fine, I guess I'm actually. We can have Blythe.
Speaker 4:It's another Funko Pop of Blythe when? Go down Right there See, blythe's outfit is my favorite, hands bar none.
Speaker 3:I'm not a huge fan of the big flowy capes on outfits, but it is alright.
Speaker 1:That's not what his mask looks like at all.
Speaker 3:Well, that's him. He's not wearing a mask.
Speaker 4:That's his face.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I guess you get his helmet though, right, you can get his mask.
Speaker 4:It's like an imposter mask though.
Speaker 3:But him, he just is half wolf. He ain't that dark. This is very dark.
Speaker 4:That doesn't look quite right.
Speaker 3:His sword doesn't look like that, either the hilt of it.
Speaker 4:Asterian Do you guys like him?
Speaker 1:No, he kills us. Are you talking about from?
Speaker 4:Baldur's. Gate. No, no. Who's the Sif's owner? What From?
Speaker 3:Dark Souls owner. Who the fuck is.
Speaker 1:Sif Artorias. No idea who that is.
Speaker 3:Artorias is one of the best bosses in the game. I love Souls games.
Speaker 4:I love his design.
Speaker 1:Oh, this guy. Yeah.
Speaker 3:He's legit, too legit.
Speaker 4:Right. And he is Sif's owner.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm. Another example of he was like dead in the main game and you like go into like a memory of her and facing. That was the first ever from soft, like DLC, that like really set the pace on like this is what this company does.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, and then there was the another announcement in regards to from software, where they said that Dark Souls two was like their best. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, he didn't say it was their best game.
Speaker 1:It's a game he most like that.
Speaker 3:Miyazaki. He said well, for two reasons. One, he was a supervisor on that project. He wasn't the game director, so he oversaw it, and but at that time he was working heavily on Bloodborne so he didn't, he wasn't involved as much as he normally is. But he said that he doesn't believe that they would have Elden Ring without Dark Souls two, because Dark Souls two was the first time that they like broke through the mainstream.
Speaker 3:Well, not not that, but like gameplay wise they weren't. It wasn't linear, it was very open ended, it was quasi open world where, like you, can approach it in different ways. And that was not the structure of Dark Souls one or three. And he said that they drew a lot of inspiration from Dark Souls two. That made them understand, like how can they get away with doing this type of game but in an open world environment?
Speaker 3:And a lot of like Dark Souls two fans were like, finally, like yes, because Dark Souls two has always been like the black sheep of the front software and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it was the only one that he didn't personally direct himself. He just oversaw and supervised, and so the fan base is always like it's not a true Souls game, shut the fuck up. But he talked very highly of that game and he said it benefited from fresh and different perspectives and I think that you and I will have a soft spot for that game forever because it's the one that got us into the from software universe.
Speaker 1:I've talked to a couple of Souls fans. I work with one now and he's at the same thing like two is probably his favorite of the series, besides the Eldering, of course, but which is, I feel like it does get a lot of public hate, which is interesting.
Speaker 3:It's like I said, it's just because it's the only one that Miyazaki didn't personally oversee and I think that, lore wise and story wise, it was like almost completely separate from Dark Souls one and three. Dark Souls one and three were interconnected in a lot of ways. The same story in Dark Souls two is kind of its own thing, story wise. But I mean, how many people are like I? Really play like.
Speaker 3:I'm playing this for the story man. I went back and played Dark Souls two couple days ago and, dear God, we are spoiled, spoiled by Elden Ring. God, yes.
Speaker 1:Dark Souls two is so unforgiving. It's so unforgiving Like five minute boss run backs.
Speaker 3:Fighting in it is tough, jumping is not. It's so bad Like I'm full sprint jump. I'm like first off, I'm like clicking, like extra jump, and I'm like, why am I not jumping? I'm like, oh my God, I forget. Yes, you got a double tap circle If you're playing on console or on PlayStation and your character I kid you not gets like two inches off the ground, he goes a little buggy because you have like momentum and you're like it's so bad and making jumps in that game is like a skill in itself.
Speaker 3:If you can make a good jump in that game, it's extremely surprising if you pull it off. But man, I forgot like Elden Ring can be the hardest game in the From Software series. But there's so many ways to make that game way easier that you forget like what the true Souls experience was. It was just brutal.
Speaker 4:The verticality.
Speaker 1:No, elden Ring yeah.
Speaker 4:Sekiro Sucks Was the grandfather.
Speaker 1:Oh sorry.
Speaker 4:You need to play Sekiro.
Speaker 3:Elden Ring kind of took bits and pieces from. Like you definitely can tell, it was the game that stood on shoulders of giants like it, like GTA 5.
Speaker 1:It really drew inspiration, yeah.
Speaker 4:Especially GTA Online. Yeah, but like.
Speaker 3:Elden Ring, all the From Software games that they had like learned. It's almost like every game they developed was like so that they can make Elden Ring.
Speaker 4:Yeah, if that culminated in that.
Speaker 3:And now they're going to make the worst expansion that's ever been released.
Speaker 1:Why don't you be one boss? And it's Gideon.
Speaker 3:He's just giving a speech and then every other thing we saw in the trailer is all just a cinematic cut scene that lasts like 10 minutes, and the final boss is Gideon too.
Speaker 1:Gideon one shots Mesmer then turns to you to fight you.
Speaker 3:I knew you'd come.
Speaker 1:I know in my bones, then I can kill you a second time. Bitch A ton ish to cannot become. Don't work if you find us.
Speaker 4:They can find us on YouTube, instagram, spotify, any major podcast listening platform, as well as YouTube, right here, where hopefully you're watching us live every Tuesday at 7 PM Pacific time, and come join us for a lot of fun. And, you know, remember, with a good KD you get the entirephone device and then the YouTube is gonna take it.
Speaker 3:Always watch out.