Resident Evil: Requiem is Two Games in One!

Resident Evil Requiem has the misfortune of following Resident Evil: Village, one of our favorite games of all time. How does a game live up to that high bar? It becomes more than just one game. This week, to avoid major spoilers, we talk about the first act of Requiem, roughly the first 5-7 hours set in a classic Resident Evil-style location. We also chat about the top-level shifts in tone and pacing. In the coming weeks, we’ll do a “full spoilers” segment digging into the unusual, lore-soaked places the game goes in its second and third acts. I suppose you could say it’s like a book club, but for video games.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Griffin McElroy?

  We might need to stage an intervention with Leon on his quips and when it is appropriate to bust one, to bust one out.

• 0:11Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. I didn't like bust one as you first phrased it, so I'm glad you adjusted yourself.

• 0:16Griffin McElroy?

  That's why, yeah, I wanted to definitely sort of expand on that. If he kill, if he blows up a zombie, if he blows up like a big monster squid, attack him in the sewers and he blows up the squid and the squid explodes and he's like, anyone for calamari?

• 0:33Russ Frushtick?

  Sure.

• 0:33Griffin McElroy?

  That's okay.

• 0:34Russ Frushtick?

  Great.

• 0:35Griffin McElroy?

  If a woman is just, is torn in half in front of him by a big zombie and then he's, and then, and the zombie is like a big doctor and he's like, I guess she should have eaten more apples a day. It's like, that's a, that's sad. Don't do that one.

• 0:49Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 0:49Griffin McElroy?

  That one, you just saw a woman get killed in front of you and then you were like, uh, good, looks, yeah, it looks like the doctor is in. And it's like, you don't do one for, don't do one for that, I think.

• 1:01Russ Frushtick?

  He should be alone, is what you're saying. It should just be him and a zombie. There shouldn't be like another person that's suffering and he's sort of like a...

• 1:07Chris Plante?

  I feel like I'm just like struggling with like when's the right time. So like, he needs to do a number two. I'm being, I'm being courteous here. He goes into the bathroom. He discovers that the toilet is full of zombie guts.

• 1:21Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, yeah. That's fine. Yeah, no, that's fine. Again, he's by himself and no one's being hurt, but like, if he goes out and then he, he like sees a man and his daughter's a zombie and the zombie daughter eats him and then he says, he's like, boy, kids, kids today. You know what I mean? Like that's sad. Like, don't do it for a sad, like a real sad one that's happened.

• 1:44Chris Plante?

  What if he is taking a number two?

• 1:48Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 1:48Chris Plante?

  When this is happening?

• 1:51Griffin McElroy?

  Is if there's a person being hurt, then that's not a good time for equip Leon. Any other time I think is okay.

• 1:58Russ Frushtick?

  Mm hmm. How much time after the person turns into a zombie is it okay? Because once the, you know, once the guy is eaten, can he?

• 2:05Griffin McElroy?

  And he smokes the zombie, then he can, then he can be like, yeah, once he smokes the zombie, if the zombie comes for him and then he wants to say something like.

• 2:13Russ Frushtick?

  Is there like a 10 second window?

• 2:16Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, there's a 10 second.

• 2:17Russ Frushtick?

  You have to see like the light go out of their eyes.

• 2:19Griffin McElroy?

  And he blasts them and then he's like, you're ground, you're grounded.

• 2:22Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 2:23Griffin McElroy?

  Like that's.

• 2:23Speaker 03

  And I need to take a shit.

• 2:26Griffin McElroy?

  I don't know why that's so, why you're so hung up on Leon using the bathroom.

• 2:30Russ Frushtick?

  Do you need to see a doctor?

• 2:32Speaker 03

  You know, I've never believed those who say they are. Brain rotting properties to video games, but now that I am two weeks from my last play, to hear you chaps speak, I'm afraid they may be on to something.

• 2:44Speaker 04

  Really, chaps? This is the best you've got?

• 2:47Russ Frushtick?

  Oh no, Dustin's a genius now.

• 2:50Griffin McElroy?

  Wesker.

• 3:09Speaker 04

  My name is Justin McElroy and I love to read.

• 3:12Chris Plante?

  My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week.

• 3:18Russ Frushtick?

  My name is Russ Fraschik. I know the best game of the week.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  Welcome to the besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club and just by listening, you are a member officially, just like that. This week, we're going to be talking about Resident Evil Requiem, which is Resident Evil nine. Also, but you shouldn't, but it's.

• 3:42Griffin McElroy?

  Did they get, did they get a nine in there?

• 3:44Russ Frushtick?

  I don't think they did.

• 3:45Speaker 03

  Sneaky nine, if you tilt it, I can't, is, I want somebody to finish it. So you could tell me if at the end, the logo tilts and there's a nine and you've like the FedEx.

• 3:53Griffin McElroy?

  The Q, the Q. I finished it. There is no tilting there. No, there's no secret reveal.

• 3:58Russ Frushtick?

  The Q kind of looks like a nine.

• 4:00Chris Plante?

  The Q is that what it is?

• 4:01Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, I'm just saying a Q is a letter. Yeah.

• 4:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. Okay. Fine. Fire. Fair enough. Chris, what's is, I was gonna ask you what it is, but I feel like that whole riff really summed it up.

• 4:11Chris Plante?

  It's the first mainline Resident Evil in like four years or something and the ninth in like 30 years. They don't make the mainline as often as the other games. They've made 30 Resident Evil games in 30 years. Can you believe that?

• 4:23Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 4:24Chris Plante?

  Anyway, we're gonna talk.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  100%. We're gonna talk about that more right after the break.

• 4:30Russ Frushtick?

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• 5:12Russ Frushtick?

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• 5:52Speaker 03

  It's funny, man. We, we, we talked and played about RE8 for so long, about Village for so long. I, it feels more recent than that. When you said it had been that long, it doesn't feel, I, in my head, like, they just came out with Resident Evil 8.

• 6:06Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it was also during COVID. It was a COVID weird time thing. This does feel like-

• 6:09Griffin McElroy?

  Well, and they re-released the old ones too, which has the brain distorting properties.

• 6:14Russ Frushtick?

  This feels like this. Tell me if you think this is crazy. This feels like the sequel to Resident Evil 5 or 4, like that era of Resident Evil. This does not feel like the sequel to Village. It doesn't feel like the sequel to 7.

• 6:28Griffin McElroy?

  No.

• 6:28Russ Frushtick?

  It feels like a sequel to the core, almost a sequel to the remakes.

• 6:33Griffin McElroy?

  It definitely, definitely felt to me the whole time that I played it and I finished it. Like, there was a concerted effort to step away from the just wackiness of Resident Evil Village.

• 6:48Speaker 03

  Alright, please, please.

• 6:50Griffin McElroy?

  What's wrong?

• 6:50Speaker 03

  I can't play video games. I don't know if you know this, but I can't play video games, right? Who is even in it? You know what I mean? Like, what are you even doing in it? You know what I mean? You've skipped right ahead. I don't even-

• 7:03Griffin McElroy?

  You're right.

• 7:04Speaker 03

  I'm looking around in the dark like, "Whom am I in this game?" You know what I mean? Are there power-ups? Are there points? I don't know.

• 7:09Russ Frushtick?

  Oh my god, so many points, so many power-ups.

• 7:11Griffin McElroy?

  There are points and power-ups. So, it's, you have two main characters, which is not unheard of in a Resident Evil game. In fact, I would say that's more often than not the case. Uh, you have Leon Kennedy returning. He is older. He is sick. He's got some sort of infection that I bet is in his body.

• 7:27Russ Frushtick?

  He's broken down. He's tired. He sleeps.

• 7:30Griffin McElroy?

  No, I mean, he's not. I mean, he's sick, but he also is like driving a sick fucking Porsche. Like, he's like living actually his best life.

• 7:35Russ Frushtick?

  He is closing in on 50, and I think canonically speaking.

• 7:39Griffin McElroy?

  Rounding 50. You are also, the Leon sections, close your eyes, imagine what they're like. Yes, that's right. It's Leon, and he's got 100 guns, and he gets in chainsaw fights and like-

• 7:48Speaker 03

  And a big axe.

• 7:49Griffin McElroy?

  Big axe, and he just fucks shit up, and he's like, he's constantly saying stuff.

• 7:53Russ Frushtick?

  Let me just say something. If people are imagining a Leon section, they wouldn't necessarily assume he's gonna be rock'em, sock'em robots killing everybody. Cause if you think about RE4, which is the last time Leon was like a major role in, we're not counting Six.

• 8:06Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 8:07Russ Frushtick?

  You know, it's a survival horror game. He's like, pretty weak.

• 8:08Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, until the end when you have a fucking rocket launcher and a shotgun that like rips people, yeah, no. I, that is what Leon sections are. Leon sections are much more action-oriented. And then you are also playing as Grace Ashcroft, an FBI investigator and daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft. Raccoon City journalist, survivor of the Raccoon City outbreak events. And her sections are presented in first person. Leon's are presented in third person. You can toggle those, I believe, based in the menu, but the game encourages you when you start out like, you know, these sections were designed for Grace to be played in first person and Leon's to be played in third person.

• 8:48Griffin McElroy?

  So they're kind of like mashing up what they did with, you know, Resident Evil 7 in the gray sections, where it's first person and very claustrophobic and very atmospheric and sort of spooky in that way, with the more Resident Evil 4 stuff that Leon does. And that is the sort of like main, main structure of the game is hopping between those two kind of.

• 9:16Speaker 03

  I got stuck, actually. This is why I didn't play the game, because I got stuck in that second person mode. Where it's about Cliff Riddles. Yeah, he's an agent, Cliff Riddles, and he talks to you. To you, the entire game. It's like you turn left and he's like, okay, now I'm looking left. Now I'm looking left.

• 9:34Russ Frushtick?

  You're looking left.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  There's more puzzles and zombies. What should I do?

• 9:38Russ Frushtick?

  The other important thing to note, structurally speaking, the game follows much closer to like Resident Evil 2, or even Resident Evil 2 Remake, where you're in like a big house and there's a lot of rooms and doors and puzzles and things like that. For the most part. We'll, we'll get to the other parts in a second. But the majority of your time for a large chunk of the beginning of the game is spent in a large environment, solving puzzles and running from zombies.

• 10:05Speaker 03

  How often are you like switching back and forth between the two? Is it like you finish one and then do the other? Or is it chapter by chapter? What's the deal?

• 10:12Griffin McElroy?

  So let's also one ground rule for people who are listening, because I know there are going to be people who don't want major spoilers for like basically the second half of the game. There's a huge, huge change in the second half of the game. We will talk about that in another episode. In this first core act, Grace is the main character. Grace is, I actually don't think it's that different than.

• 10:34Chris Plante?

  Resident Evil Village in that this is the manner that you play through in the first three or four hours of Resident Evil Village Expanded. It's like a seven hour huge chunk now, where you are in this wellness center, old fashioned wellness center, and you are coming across like the doctor who works there who has been performing experiments. And as most of that time, you're playing as Grace and you are doing the slow, "Hey, I need to go to this area to get the crank that will help me open the door here." And then when I open that, I will get the jewel which will help me open the door here. Very traditional Resident Evil.

• 11:09Russ Frushtick?

  It's like 90% Grace and then every once in a while you'll pop in as Leon and fuck shit up.

• 11:14Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. Now, I do want to say, not spoiling any like major events or locations from the back half of the game, but Grace is not in the back half of the game very much. You will have a pretty, pretty huge chunk of the game. I played for maybe about five hours straight as Leon.

• 11:35Chris Plante?

  And the gameplay is fundamentally different.

• 11:38Griffin McElroy?

  The gameplay, well-

• 11:39Russ Frushtick?

  We're not gonna, we're not gonna dive too deeply into the specifics of that.

• 11:42Griffin McElroy?

  No, but we gotta talk about it. The pacing of this game is fucking bonkers. It's bonkers. It is absolutely wild, right? I think it works in the first half of the game. I think the Grace stuff is really good. Resident Evil 7 and Village are a couple of my, my, my favorites, especially those sections where, you know, you're tiptoeing around a place in first person and a big scary thing's chasing you and every little like thing you find that is going to help you survive in there feels like kind of meaningful. Um, and then like it is fun hopping in with Leon and coming across the stuff that you fought as Grace and just like going beast mode on it. Like that's, that is great. And then just like for whatever reason, they're like, "Actually, you know what? Let's just do Leon for quite a long time."

• 12:28Griffin McElroy?

  And I don't know, I got, I, as much as I enjoyed all the like, the distributing violence as Leon Kennedy, uh, it, it, it did get a little bit, I don't know, stale. There's not like a ton of enemy variety. There's not like a ton of exciting weapons in, in sort of his part of the game. So, I don't know. I, I wish they had stuck with the formula that I felt like was working really, really well with the first, with the first part of the game because I, I do think I enjoyed the Grace sections, uh, a little bit more.

• 12:59Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, that's, I think, a fair critique. I am not finished with the game. I know that you are. And I really was, I think, pretty over the moon about the first half. And I've been enjoying the second half, but it doesn't feel quite as special. It feels closer to like the final acts of what you would see in another Resident Evil game, but spread out over a longer period of time.

• 13:19Griffin McElroy?

  My, my big problem is that like, there's not that much exciting stuff in terms of like weapons, right? There's a system for like, when you're playing as Leon, you can like customize your weapons. You get to a point where you start getting points for killing zombies and then you can spend those points to like upgrade your weapons.

• 13:39Russ Frushtick?

  No.

• 13:40Griffin McElroy?

  But it's never in like a way that feels like especially meaningful. And so this feeling of like, well, I got this crank. I have to go back and open up this door that I found a while ago and maybe I'll find some cool thing. Like, I don't know, this stuff never felt so meaningful or exciting that I felt like the exploration was necessarily like worth the, the juice wasn't necessarily worth the squeeze for, for parts of the game.

• 14:02Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it should be noted though, that the, the beginning part, the first section, I don't know about you, Griffin, you're pro league gamer. Took me about eight hours to get through the first sections. You've got like, you know, I was looking at completion rates of previous games. Village was like a 10 to 12 hour game. RE Remake was like an eight to 10 hour game. So you've kind of got like a whole Resident Evil game set in this hospital-y type area. And then it, it feels like this extra part, which again, I don't want to like go too deeply into.

• 14:36Griffin McElroy?

  No.

• 14:36Russ Frushtick?

  Is, I'm not saying, like, it just feels a little bit like a bonus.

• 14:41Griffin McElroy?

  It's gonna be different for everyone. I finished the game in 11 hours playing on standard difficulty and I, I don't know. The breakdown was, was a little bit different for me.

• 14:52Russ Frushtick?

  I think some of this is just maybe this being the last thing that you played might be impacting the overall feelings of the experience.

• 15:00Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, for sure. Absolutely, it does. Yeah, I think so.

• 15:04Russ Frushtick?

  I think the good for me, you know, has vastly outweighed like I am pretty over the moon about

• 15:10Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 15:10Russ Frushtick?

  a very large chunk of this game personally.

• 15:13Speaker 03

  To exit the second person segments, you actually have to maintain unbroken eye contact for a straight hour.

• 15:19Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 15:19Speaker 03

  You have to look him right in the eye.

• 15:21Griffin McElroy?

  Yes, so that pads it out. That does pad it out a little bit.

• 15:23Speaker 03

  It's tough.

• 15:24Chris Plante?

  It's really incredible. Um, I, I want to talk about more of the first. I will say I, I love all of it. I think when the game changes into Sega's forgotten hit, The Club, that is wonderful. But the first half is, I think, like the like obvious showpiece. What did you all think of new character and the story and the setting of this?

• 15:53Russ Frushtick?

  I think the setting is fine. I think the setting is like an obvious throwback to Resident Evil 2. Like it looks like the fucking police station layout almost shot for shot.

• 16:02Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 16:03Russ Frushtick?

  I think narratively, what I've learned, historically speaking, you can basically not give a fuck about the Resident Evil story and be fine. Like largely speaking, it's all kind of gobbledygook and a justification for why you're in this scary place with zombies. I think character wise, Grace is like maybe the worst FBI agent I've ever seen. Uh, she's just like very not into being there. Um, but I mean, I don't know.

• 16:34Griffin McElroy?

  It's not good.

• 16:35Russ Frushtick?

  They're all very archetypal, like they don't feel grounded in any way.

• 16:39Griffin McElroy?

  The story's bad, but if you are a fan, if you've played these games a bunch, like this game dishes out so much, uh, I wouldn't call it fan service, but like a lot of nostalgia plays and a lot of that comes towards the back half, right? A lot of that comes in that huge unbroken Leon part. Uh, and that stuff is a kind of a mixed bag, but like I feel like, uh, Someone who's played all these games and loves most of them. That stuff did do it for me more than like the story. I was not hanging on what's gonna, what's gonna happen next? I was more curious, like, what is the next area? What's the next boss fight? Is this character going to like, from past games going to show up? I feel like they deal in that stuff so much.

• 17:24Griffin McElroy?

  In places where they could have developed Grace out more or like, a lot of the game Grace is trying to save a little girl that she, that she finds in this facility. And like, they don't do a ton to like, build their relationship. But then they expect you to care a lot about that relationship at certain parts of the story. So yeah, I mean, the story is not, the story is not like that spectacular, but the, I don't know, callbacks and the reverence that this game has for like the past Resident Evil games. I, that is, that is kind of the narrative hook for me that, that did end up working.

• 18:03Chris Plante?

  What I like is all of these games are like pick, it feels like three or four movies that they really want to be riffing off of. Like Seven obviously was really influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Eight was really influenced by like Grimm's Fairy Tales. The Gray stuff here is really influenced by Silence of the Lambs. And it feels like Long Legs, which I don't know how that's possible because this game was surely in development before that movie came out. But it's definitely playing with that kind of Clarice FBI agent who's relatively new to the force. And is coming up against this like very eccentric doctor type who is trying to control her every move.

• 18:48Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I think that's probably, I just was a little bummed to see Grace being like basically from the jump, terrified out of her brain. Like there was no like, I didn't get a sense that she was capable in any way. Apart from the fact that like you do control her as she's killing zombies, cool. But as a character, when she's in cutscenes, she's just like very scared frequently. Which I get it, I would be scared too, but yeah, right. I didn't get a Clarice like quiet power vibe from her necessarily.

• 19:19Griffin McElroy?

  Juice, you were not able to play much of this because of your recovery from the surgery.

• 19:24Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, any of it?

• 19:25Griffin McElroy?

  Is there?

• 19:26Russ Frushtick?

  I didn't expect you to play that.

• 19:27Griffin McElroy?

  Is there any sort of lingering, because you've played most of these games before, is there any?

• 19:31Speaker 03

  I would like, here's my question for you guys, because I've been listening to all this and trying to ingest it. I like all the Resident Evil games, but I don't like love any of them. But it feels to me a little bit like seven and eight have both

• 19:48Speaker 03

  kind of expanded the idea of what a Resident Evil game is. Like, they're both kind of expansive titles, right? Like, seven, I know, is traditional, but there's a lot it's doing that it has not tried to do before. And I think much more so with Village. This feels, to hear you guys talk about it, it feels a little bit regressive. Is that, is that fair to say?

• 20:08Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I mean, we played Resident Evil 2 Remake, and I think that is incredibly similar.

• 20:14Griffin McElroy?

  Way closer.

• 20:15Russ Frushtick?

  To this.

• 20:15Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 20:16Russ Frushtick?

  Like, that's what this feels like, is Resident Evil 2 Remake. Not only in terms of gameplay, but in terms of just like narrative beats.

• 20:24Russ Frushtick?

  So it is regressive in that sense. It's like, it is kind of going back to something that they've done before, whereas Village and Seven felt very, very, very new.

• 20:33Chris Plante?

  I also think that these games, seven, eight, and nine, are an Evangelion 2.0 style remake project of one through six. Like, I think Resident Evil 7 is conceptually, thematically, playing with the same things that happened in Resident Evil 1 and 2. I think that eight is very clearly inspired by Resident Evil 4 and going to that Village. And I think this game is very, very inspired by five and six. Those are.

• 21:07Griffin McElroy?

  Only it's good. Only this game is.

• 21:09Speaker 03

  This game's much better. People forget, five and six were bad.

• 21:12Griffin McElroy?

  Really, really, very, very bad.

• 21:14Speaker 03

  Quite bad.

• 21:15Griffin McElroy?

  Um, I think there's probably a pretty big contingent of fans of this franchise that are excited for that. I think that they would not consider it regressive to move away from the more expansive and experimental, you know, nature of, of seven and eight. For my, for my money, it is not as fun as those games because it is, because it, uh, there are certainly sequences in this game that are like fucking bonkers and they like, jack up the like Leon Kennedy, uh, you know, himbo action star shit to, uh, 11 and, and tear off the knob. But I don't, I did not find it as kind of like, I don't know, surprising, uh, as those two games.

• 22:01Griffin McElroy?

  And I also like, I have, I think for the past few Resident Evil games, especially, uh, the remake of four, like, immediately as soon as I finished it, I'm like, I want to play new game plus. I want to go in. There's like, unlockables I want to fucking go for. I want the infinite ammo rocket launcher. I want, I do not feel that compulsion here for, for nine. And there's a few reasons for that. The, my biggest issue is just like, I don't feel like there's enough stuff to explore for to like be, feel like you are getting stronger or have some like enhanced ability to kill zombies more. But I, I think it's mostly just that like, I don't know, it's, it's a bit more predictable because it is returning to that, to that more classic kind of Resident Evil format.

• 22:45Chris Plante?

  I, I feel like if you, um, played Metal Gear Solid four and Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengeance, then you have an idea of what this experience is like in its two halves. And that it's literally like, what if you got a complete loyal throwback to the series, which is the Metal Gear Solid four part, and then what if you've got the full, we are breaking this all apart into full tilt, absurdity, chaos, like the revengeance part. And what's weird is they happen to both be in the exact same game. You are buying two games.

• 23:22Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, in that way, yeah.

• 23:25Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it's an interesting title. I, currently where I'm at, which is not completed, but feels like I'm getting pretty close, I would be like, pretty jazzed to start another playthrough. So contrary to what Griffin was saying, I feel differently. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see how I feel when the game actually ends if, if.

• 23:40Griffin McElroy?

  Knowing where you're at, you are not close to the, there is still a whole big chunk waiting for you.

• 23:46Russ Frushtick?

  How did you beat this game in 10 hours?

• 23:48Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, I beat it in like 11 hours. Uh, and I'm a fucking elite gamer.

• 23:51Russ Frushtick?

  Fucking elite, man.

• 23:53Griffin McElroy?

  I, yeah. I, I think I collected all the shit. I completed most of the challenges.

• 23:57Russ Frushtick?

  Settle down.

• 23:59Griffin McElroy?

  I'm just fucking good at these games, guys. And you know why? Cause I'm not scared of the zombies. That's the secret.

• 24:03Russ Frushtick?

  I'm so scared. That's the, oh, I should mention, we talked about it earlier. The Grace sections are in first person, the Leon sections are in third person. I turned off the first person stuff for Grace.

• 24:14Griffin McElroy?

  Did you? Okay, how was that?

• 24:15Chris Plante?

  So you did play in second person?

• 24:17Griffin McElroy?

  No.

• 24:18Russ Frushtick?

  No, third person sadly. Uh, so the reason I turned it off was twofold. One, first person's very scary. Just is. Two, uh, I was having some motion sickness issues with first person. It's been something that has been an issue in basically all the games since seven, when they started introducing first person. They've gotten better over time at adding accessibility features to make things not quite as bad. Like they have a permanent reticle you can have on the screen, things like that. But it was enough that I was like, why am I forcing myself to do this? They put this feature in anyway. I might as well play it anyway. Loved it. Generally, super fun to play in third person is Grace. Uh, it gives me more visibility. I don't feel quite as scared.

• 24:58Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, you can see all of the animations that they actually bothered to give her during all the sequences that you wouldn't ordinarily see when you were in first person.

• 25:05Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 25:05Russ Frushtick?

  So, uh, it feels, it doesn't feel like an add-on. Uh, I understand from a pacing and tone standpoint, probably scarier and more tense when you're in first person, but for those like me that prefers it, it's nice.

• 25:18Griffin McElroy?

  It's, I think it is for the like claustrophobia of it.

• 25:21Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 25:21Griffin McElroy?

  Because Grace's sections are a lot more about like, there's a big thing pursuing you, and if it gets its hands on you, you're pretty much dead. And that, I think, the, the sort of jumpscaring. Nature of that, I think is why they, you know, made that, made that stuff.

• 25:35Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, you still have some of that stuff. Like, I definitely still had.

• 25:38Chris Plante?

  Josh sent me a video of him getting very badly jumpscared.

• 25:41Russ Frushtick?

  Pretty funny. Uh, you still, you still have that stuff, but you don't have the like, the only way I can see around this corner is by going around the corner. Uh, which is a nice benefit, uh, especially since there are some like stealth sequences.

• 25:53Chris Plante?

  Um, I, I wanna do a spoiler B segment maybe in a couple of weeks so we can get into all that stuff.

• 26:01Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, that'd be fun.

• 26:02Chris Plante?

  And like what's going on in the story twists and turns. Um, but until then, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I really dig it. I do think Justin is on to something. I think it would just be much cheaper to make this game, uh, with second person. He could just say, you're scared and then you're kind of done.

• 26:19Griffin McElroy?

  You're scared. Yeah, you find a green.

• 26:22Speaker 03

  Do you all feel disappointed at all as people who really like seven and eight, that this isn't more of a direct continuation of like that storyline? I know there was some DLC after eight that kind of continued it, but.

• 26:33Russ Frushtick?

  What's funny is like to, to echo what I said earlier about narrative, like I do not give a, like, do not give a fuck about what the T virus and the S virus and the whatever virus is doing.

• 26:42Griffin McElroy?

  There's a G virus.

• 26:43Russ Frushtick?

  There's a G virus. I don't care. Uh, what I do feel slightly disappointed about is I like the curveballs. I like the, this feels like totally outside of the realm of anything we've seen before. And you do kind of get that a little bit in terms of the gameplay of the second half, but just like the fact that Village had a fucking ancient castle with a vampire in it. And also had like a fucking metal Mad Max style factory filled with crazy people in the same game. Like that variety was pretty fucking dope. Um, so I'm a little bummed on that side, but from a gameplay standpoint, I, I love it. Like, I think it's been a lot of fun.

• 27:18Griffin McElroy?

  That's, that's the stuff that's missing for me. That's the, that, and, and there is like, this game lets its hair down at, at, at certain points. I mean, only, sorry, Leon is the only one who lets his hair down, uh, at certain points of the game and they do like some zany shit in there. But I, I, I was disappointed that that stuff was, there's also like. Um, mercenaries mode's not in here. There's not like a, you know, shooting range mini game thing that you do. There's no gosh upon machines where you're getting like little trinkets that like boosts certain thing like, uh, there is a, a

• 27:51Russ Frushtick?

  There are trinkets.

• 27:52Griffin McElroy?

  There are. Okay. Yeah. But those are, they're so, they're almost too a T all pretty like disappointing. Um, they're just, I, it felt like there's a lack of, of surprise, uh, in, in general.

• 28:05Russ Frushtick?

  I think from an ambition standpoint, it's definitely not as ambitious as the whole package of RE4 remake was, which was like, that was like pretty through the roof, like a big, big thing. Uh, mostly because they had to remake a game that came out 20 years ago when it was okay to make 20 hour Resident Evil games. Um, so there's that, but yeah, uh, you know, I, I, this is not an excuse. I think, uh, Village added mercenaries mode as DLC after the fact.

• 28:34Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I think so.

• 28:35Russ Frushtick?

  So I'm sure they were planning on DLC for this. Again, not an excuse, but

• 28:39Chris Plante?

  Also Justin to answer your question, as someone who does like the story in these games and cares about it, fucking love this game. It's a heavy metal butt rock album, uh, of Resident Evil. For, for people who like good video games, let me be clear, Griffin and Freshy are right. For people who are looking for pure butt rock Resident Evil who say, you know what? I wish this were a little bit more like that animated film I saw on Netflix. You man, you're, you're living the dream.

• 29:05Speaker 03

  What was the Final Fantasy game that was similar to, there's a parallel of this in the Final Fantasy universe that I'm trying to remember.

• 29:11Griffin McElroy?

  Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy.

• 29:13Chris Plante?

  Oh, yeah. Yes. Oh, very good.

• 29:17Griffin McElroy?

  I don't know that it goes quite that, it does go quite that far at certain points. There's a sequence in this game that I'm so fucking excited to talk about. It is the thing that people are going to talk about and remember from this game, you know, years, years down the line when like the next Resident Evil stuff comes out, uh, that fucking rules. Uh, Russ, I think you've already, I think maybe you just did this sequence, uh, if you are at the point in the game that I think you're at.

• 29:40Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about.

• 29:42Griffin McElroy?

  Man, I wish there was, honestly, I wish there was more of that stuff.

• 29:45Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 29:45Griffin McElroy?

  I think, I think it is a, I think it's a good Resident Evil game. I think Capcom makes fucking great games in this franchise that are sort of like mechanically very sound, atmospheric, the detail in, in the world is like really, really, really bonkers. It falls a bit short of some of the last like few games that they have come out with in this franchise, in, in my opinion, but I do still think it's, it's, it is totally worth playing if you are a fan of the Resident Evil.

• 30:12Chris Plante?

  Can you imagine having to make a game after Resident Evil 8? Where it's like, oh, we made a game where you fight Dracula, Frankenstein, Pinocchio, and the creature from the Black Lagoon.

• 30:22Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 30:22Chris Plante?

  In Eastern Europe. And you have to make something after that.

• 30:25Speaker 03

  I think it's also hindered a little bit because I really dug Silent Hill F a lot.

• 30:30Griffin McElroy?

  Hmm, yeah. A very different, super different.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  Very different, but like I, this, this spot in my brain has been tickled recently.

• 30:37Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 30:37Speaker 03

  In a, in a way that sticks in my memory really well because it had such a distinct sort of like look and aesthetic to it.

• 30:43Russ Frushtick?

  I think, I think RE2 Remake is the template, and if you like that game, you will really enjoy this game, in my opinion.

• 30:50Speaker 03

  Um, let's take a break. We'll come back and with more right after this.

• 30:56Chris Plante?

  I used to recommend a VPN to like anybody who is traveling because you'll be, I don't know, in Paris or Tokyo. Look at you, big shot. And you'll want to watch your shows and you won't be able to. You'll need a VPN. But now I recommend a VPN for everybody, whether it is your security or whether it is you live in a state where maybe you can't have access to pretty basic websites without weird security checks and all sorts of other headaches. Proton VPN is a secure VPN service designed for people who want to prioritize their digital privacy and security. It keeps what you do online private and lets you access the internet like it should work. Open, secure, and on your terms.

• 31:39Chris Plante?

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• 32:15Chris Plante?

  P-R-O-T-O-N-V-P-N dot com slash besties for 70% off your two-year plan. That's protonvpn.com/besties.

• 32:31Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, we have some reader mail that we want to jump into. Just for people that are unaware, if you want to send reader mail, the best way to do it is probably through the newsletter, which is at besties.fan. You can drop a comment in the last, this episode of the newsletter, and that's a good place to drop some reader mail.

• 32:53Chris Plante?

  Or, or you can go to patreon.com/thewesties and leave a comment there.

• 33:01Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 33:01Chris Plante?

  And that would also-

• 33:02Russ Frushtick?

  I was gonna, that was the other thing that I was gonna say.

• 33:04Chris Plante?

  Okay.

• 33:04Russ Frushtick?

  But for people that-

• 33:05Chris Plante?

  I just want to make sure.

• 33:06Russ Frushtick?

  For people that are not subscribed already, the only way, because you can't, I think, leave comments if you're not subscribed. So, for people that are not currently paying, and you want to drop us some mail, you can do it at the newsletter. Otherwise, Patreon's a great place to do it. This first one comes from Will, talking about Metal Gear Solid 4.

• 33:24Chris Plante?

  Metal Gear?

• 33:25Russ Frushtick?

  So, thank you. I appreciate it. For those that aren't aware, Metal Gear Solid 4 is returning to us in the form of a, what is it called, Metal Gear Solid, Volume 2 collection of games that includes Peacemaker and all sorts of stuff.

• 33:39Chris Plante?

  Peace Walker.

• 33:40Russ Frushtick?

  Peace Walker, thank you. Will writes, "Metal Gear Solid 4's controls are so clunky and awful, but as a visual novel, the game is legit art. I was in grad school when the game came out, and I wrote a whole paper about how it engages with memory and identity when your growth over time isn't aging, but also progressing through technological milestones. For my money, the themes it explores, and the way it explores them, are as interesting, if not more, than what we get in Death Stranding. I get not being able to cover it on Besties, we'll see, maybe we will, but it seems like a great candidate for Plant and Post Games." Chris Plant, you could cover it.

• 34:15Chris Plante?

  Pass that buck, pass that buck on over Plant's way.

• 34:17Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, it does do some interesting things narratively. I just wish that-

• 34:20Griffin McElroy?

  I have a fond place in my heart for that game that I played once fucking 20 years ago, or whatever. Whether that stuff holds up or not, I don't know, but it does do a lot of Metal Gear Solid ass stuff, uh, pretty much all throughout the, the, the span of the game.

• 34:38Russ Frushtick?

  Justin, you weren't here when the collection was announced and we sort of talked a little bit about Metal Gear Solid 4. Um, what do you think of it returning? And would you want to replay it?

• 34:48Speaker 03

  I like Metal Gear Solid 4. Um, that was the one that I, I didn't finish Snake Eater because I disliked it so much. 4 was the first one for me that was like just the right balance of playability and nonsense to where, uh, but that was, I mean, that was one of the first examples I could think of of like a game being intentionally unpleasant for a section, but that being like narratively important, you know? Like I, I think that it does cool stuff like that. I really almost never replay anything, but I love the idea that, that it is, I think it's an important series. I think that anytime anyone's like trying to be revisionist about Metal Gear and like actually to, to be an apologist for the mechanics

• 35:29Speaker 03

  of Metal Gear, I, I tend to take a pretty hard line there because the greatest script in the world doesn't do you any favors if it's not an enjoyable gameplay experience. That's my point of view as like a, a video game critic. So I, I don't think it's worth being like, well, you know, it's, it's actually a great game because the story is great because it's still like, there's the failings are the failings.

• 35:51Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. I don't think Will is saying that per se for what it's-

• 35:53Speaker 03

  No, I'm saying that about 3 personally, but yeah.

• 35:57Chris Plante?

  Yeah. No, also for post games, I probably shouldn't say it here, but it is going to be a three hour long episode, uh, exclusively focused on the compiling shader screen with, uh, guest Mark Maron. So-

• 36:08Griffin McElroy?

  Awesome. I can't wait, man.

• 36:10Speaker 03

  I know you and Mark have been looking for-

• 36:13Chris Plante?

  We, you know, we've been trying to find something to get together on, you know, a lot of lunches. Um, it's just time to unlock the gates.

• 36:22Russ Frushtick?

  That's my favorite, but that's my favorite joke. And one of my favorites is this joke is when Barney has the Mr. Plow theme song and Barbara Mandrell sings the theme. He's like, yeah, we were looking for something to work on together.

• 36:36Russ Frushtick?

  This next question comes from Big Five, and this is for Justin.

• 36:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, hit me.

• 36:43Russ Frushtick?

  Last year, you mentioned your carpal tunnel was severe enough that it was impacting your enjoyment of some more extraneous and reflex necessary games, leading you to trend toward slower-paced and turn-based strategy options. With this surgery, do you expect to be able to return to these other games in the future with more ease? Are there any specifically you are looking forward to giving another try with more physical accessibility?

• 37:06Speaker 03

  Okay. This is a complicated answer, but it's actually not that interesting, so I'm gonna try to get through it as quick as I can. I had the surgery on my left hand, on my left wrist. It was a carpal tunnel release and a cubital tunnel surgery, where they do it on your shoulder and your wrist. And so that was on my left hand. I started this as my non-dominant hand. So the right hand still has those issues. The recovery for this, I'm two weeks out today as we're recording this, and I can use it basically, but I still can't lift things, really.

• 37:38Russ Frushtick?

  So no "we" for you?

• 37:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, no "we." No, you'd be surprised how often the left hand comes in as like a support buddy. You don't really appreciate old lefty, so you really can't use it. Like, think about opening a jar, right? It's wow, you need that left hand. But I'm going to have to get the right hand done before I would actually see an improvement. At this point currently, it still hurts quite a bit from the swelling of surgery or whatever. I've got another couple weeks to four weeks before it's like fully recovered. So it's a long process, by which I mean, I don't know when I'm gonna get the right one done, but I know I need to, but this has been a big, huge pain in the ass. I'm not in a hurry to. What I will say is this, and I think this is really important and not a joke,

• 38:22Speaker 03

  and I know it makes me sound old, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I've been playing video games my entire life, and I have never taken the time to do proper stretches afterwards, to take breaks, to stretch your wrists out, to shake it out, to... Please do that because in between the gaming and the computer use and later on the woodworking, but really it's the lifetime of video games and typing. I did not take the time to do those stretches and if I had taken better care of my, my wrists, I might not be in this exact scenario. So kids, don't be like me. This sucks. Do your stretches. Google, Google how to do stretches after you get your game on.

• 39:05Speaker 03

  Uh, cause it's, it's, it's not a joke.

• 39:08Russ Frushtick?

  I'm going to do all the stretches now instead.

• 39:11Speaker 03

  You can catch up. A lot of people won't admit this, but if you have never stretched, if you stretch for like seven hours straight, you will catch up.

• 39:21Griffin McElroy?

  Awesome. The besties are going to start hosting stretching retreats for gamers.

• 39:26Russ Frushtick?

  I love it.

• 39:26Speaker 03

  For gamers only.

• 39:28Griffin McElroy?

  You will come and we will, there's a lot of very, uh, sort of, uh, you know, fish oil, just to sort of lubricate the, the pipes in there. And then it's just a lot of stretching guys. Uh, seven, seven or so hours of it.

• 39:42Speaker 03

  I, I tried to play Resident Evil Requiem because I thought that I could, I mean, I have the ability to use the thumb, you know, but the moment I was like holding the thumb stick for more than like 30 seconds in a direction, you know? It started to like really ache and throb and I was looking down at my hands and I was just thinking like, I can't, I can't play this game. I can't do it. And I told my wife, I thought she would cry.

• 40:13Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 40:15Speaker 03

  But she acted like, she was so brave. Can I just say, I want to take this one to congratulate her. Not a crack. Like she did not let it show. That must've been so hard for her to see her big, strong hero can't even pilot around the Resident Evil lady, you know? And she did it. Not a hint. Like I would, if I didn't know any better, I would think she didn't give a shit that I couldn't play Resident Evil.

• 40:40Speaker 03

  But I know that can't be the case. I mean, hearing it out loud, guys, I know how crazy it sounds.

• 40:45Russ Frushtick?

  Legion's hand is pretty fucked up in this game, so it might just be, you know, immersive.

• 40:50Speaker 03

  This has given me, I will say this, it has given me such appreciation for in every action movie, when you see the hero get like, beat up real bad, and it's like, they're cut all the ribbons, and it's like, they're still kinda chugging on through. I had two small incisions in my wrist and elbow, and for two weeks I have been tired. Like, how are these guys recovering from this? It's impossible.

• 41:13Russ Frushtick?

  They might have left a spoon in you. Did you check?

• 41:16Speaker 03

  I have not checked for a spoon. I have staples in my elbow, though. Isn't that wild?

• 41:20Russ Frushtick?

  Gross.

• 41:23Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, I think we have some honorable mentions that we wanted to talk through. Thank you for the reader mail, folks. I have a bunch. Should I go first?

• 41:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, please.

• 41:31Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. Steam Next Fest is happening right now, so there's a ton of demos on Steam Next Fest worth checking out. I did play briefly the Vampire Crawlers demo. This is the game from the Vampire Survivors team, Ponkle. They are making a card-based game set in the Vampire Survivors IP. It's pretty fucking fun, y'all.

• 41:55Speaker 03

  I'm terrified of it. I'm so scared.

• 41:57Russ Frushtick?

  I played for like 15 minutes just to see what was going on, and I was like, I can't play anymore of this demo, because I'm gonna play a lot more of the actual thing. But they basically made like, an incredibly fast card game. Like incredibly fast. Like, you just blaze fucking through it. And it's got all the like crazy like graphics and pixel chaos that goes on in the normal Vampire Survivors thing, where like, shit is flying at you. So, it feels really good.

• 42:23Speaker 03

  You're fucked, dude. You know how sometimes the TikTok algorithm gets you with ones so good that it feels like a divine presence? This is like that for me. It scares me a little bit. Like, I feel like, I'm cooked with this. It's out. I'm done.

• 42:34Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. Yeah. The two other things I want to call out, I've been watching Pokemon Season 1, that's the Indigo League episodes with my son. He was a little scared starting off with, because he doesn't watch a lot of narrative television. He mostly watches documentaries about the zoo. But it finally did click with him, and we had a snow day the other day, which does not happen in New York City very often. And he had a little bit of a fever, and we were like, fuck it, TV time. And I think he absorbed like 12 episodes. I think that show, it's hard for me to divorce nostalgia from it. I think it's like pretty fucking good.

• 43:10Griffin McElroy?

  It's fun. It's fun, especially that those early seasons are, uh, they're just, they're just kind of a hoot.

• 43:17Russ Frushtick?

  Do you watch?

• 43:18Griffin McElroy?

  There's a reason why it is the biggest sort of media property on earth and it is because they have done all the different ones. Henry's been reading the Pokemon Adventures manga. Uh, that's what he's moved on to now that he finished all the Zelda ones and, uh, doesn't follow the plot of the games, doesn't do any of that shit, but like if you like Pokemon stuff, they do a lot with that in there. Uh, and I, I remember the anime doing a great job with that as well.

• 43:45Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, the other thing I want to call out is Little Gator Game, uh, which was another snow day activity. Uh, we played for like an hour of Little Gator Game, a great open world game. We've talked about it on the show before. No fall damage, no enemies to really worry about. You're just sort of exploring this big, open area. Uh, great for kids. Uh, it's so much so because the game is about creating these characters on there on this island and they create their own interactive game using like cardboard and to create monsters, things like that. And after an hour, he was like, I want to make my own monsters. And then we spent an hour like-

• 44:19Griffin McElroy?

  Quiet. Be quiet. Daddy is gaming. Be quiet and look at the screen, son.

• 44:26Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, and then we went and, uh, made cardboard monsters, which was lovely. Uh, there is DLC. It's out. I have not gotten to the DLC yet.

• 44:34Griffin McElroy?

  Is that Cave Story? Is it something like that?

• 44:36Russ Frushtick?

  It's called In The Dark. It is set underneath all of the, in the caves underneath the island that you see in the first game. Apparently it like is basically as long as the main game. Uh, so, uh, if you loved Gator Game or haven't played it and you want someone to play with kids, fucking spectacular. Great. Excellent writing. Just through the roof. So good.

• 44:56Griffin McElroy?

  I haven't been playing much else other than Resident Evil. Uh, I just finished it yesterday and, and sort of spent all my time on that. I just started playing Eugenics again. Um, while we await the next besties game. Uh, I did the other day, watch Rental Family, uh, with my wife, uh, on, I think it's on Disney Plus now streaming. It is the Brendan Fraser picture where he is a sort of unsuccessful actor living in Japan, living in Tokyo.

• 45:25Griffin McElroy?

  And he gets hired by this company who basically clients hire actors to come in and play people who are not really in their lives anymore. So there's like, uh, there's a woman who hires Brendan Fraser to be a journalist to interview her dad, who's an actor and author, uh, who's struggling with dementia. And there is a woman who hires Brendan Fraser to pretend to be her fiancee so that she can stage a wedding and move, move to Canada. And it is a pretty far-fetched, I would say, plot for a film. And, uh, it

• 46:08Griffin McElroy?

  is extremely like, uh, you know, feel-good movie stuff from basically from start to finish. But, uh, for what it is, it is an immensely charming, uh, feature film. Uh, and it is also, I learned while watching it, the first Brendan Fraser picture that my wife had seen.

• 46:28Speaker 03

  Which is the most shocking?

• 46:30Griffin McElroy?

  I had the same reaction.

• 46:32Speaker 03

  Griffin, what's the most shocking omission in her?

• 46:37Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, mommy is the most, obviously the most shocking omission. Like, I haven't seen mommy.

• 46:40Speaker 03

  Not Encino Man? Because I think culturally.

• 46:43Griffin McElroy?

  Encino Man is culturally important. That's why it is at the Library of Congress. Um, but yeah, imagine hopping on the fucking Fraser train now. Like, can you imagine? What a world of, what a wealth of opportunities exists before her.

• 46:59Russ Frushtick?

  It's like starting with a PS5 and you've never played video games before.

• 47:03Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. Uh, Brendan Fraser does a great job in this, in this movie. He is, uh, uh, he plays a very, very sad sort of role and he does it with, with a lot of, uh, a lot of appeal. And I don't know, it's not a great, it's not a great flick, but it is, uh, it makes you feel real good throughout, uh, almost its whole runtime.

• 47:23Russ Frushtick?

  That sounds like a great flick, Griffin. I gotta be honest. Low bar.

• 47:26Griffin McElroy?

  That's a good point. I guess that's, I guess that is true.

• 47:28Russ Frushtick?

  What do they say? Three good scenes and no bad scenes? That's the rule.

• 47:31Griffin McElroy?

  There's some bad scenes. There are some, there are some bad scenes.

• 47:35Speaker 03

  How many? What's the percentage?

• 47:39Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it's, it's just a, it's if you vibe with it, if you're willing to kind of like get on its, its level, it is, uh, it is, it's a, it's a feel-good flick. Um, and a lot of, you know, beautiful, beautiful Japanese scenery and stuff like that. So that, that was, that was my other sort of not Resident Evil thing, uh, for this past week.

• 48:01Speaker 03

  I'd like to tell you about a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms if I could. Uh, it is a new Game of Thrones spinoff. I say new, just in comparison to the other Game of Thrones spinoff, which I tried to wa- House of Dragons, I tried to watch maybe three or four, and I found that just kind of like a pale imitation of Game of Thrones. It felt like they're trying to recapture the magic a little bit in a way that was kind of dour. I heard that it picked up eventually, but I just couldn't again with that. There's too many machinations and stuff, and I don't really like prequels to begin with. But my in-law said, Justin, you gotta try Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. You got to, trust me. And it took a lot of pushing because I was kind of like, oh, Game of Thrones. I only kind of finished Game of Thrones out of like obligation a little bit, you know?

• 48:43Griffin McElroy?

  That's how we all did it. Yeah.

• 48:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, cultural moment. Okay. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is, takes place, sort of splits the uprights, splits the difference between, um, uh, House of Dragons and Game of Thrones. It takes place like a hundred years before, uh, Game of Thrones, I believe. And it follows one guy named Sir Dunk the Tall, or at least that's what he calls himself. He's a squire of a knight named Sir Arlyn, who was kind of a, a, a knight for hire, which people call a hedge knight in, in this world. And, uh, the, the hedge knights would go around and just work for whoever would have them. And Dunk was the squire of a knight like that, and who always promised that he would make Dunk his, a knight

• 49:25Speaker 03

  someday. And anyway, this knight dies, and Dunk hears about a, uh, a knight tournament happening nearby and feels that if he can win the tournament, that he'll be taken seriously as a knight. On the way to take on this fairly quixotic task, he meets a little boy named Egg, who is, he takes on as his squire, who Egg sees something in Dunk that he respects and he wants to serve him. So the two of them set off together to this Knights Tournament. It is a really constrained story. It is very much just this one cat. And the scenes that are not about this guy are informing

• 50:08Speaker 03

  his story in some way. It is not expansive. The episodes are like 40 minutes long and there's six of them. So to give you, it's very much feels like the, this is like, it's like the Mandalorian of Game of Thrones, if that makes sense, right? We're following one guy in a universe we like, but we're just kind of following this one story.

• 50:30Russ Frushtick?

  It's not a Wikipedia, like dictionary that you have to follow to understand.

• 50:35Griffin McElroy?

  Well, it's not like Game of Thrones, which had, you know, two dozen storylines that it was following at any given time.

• 50:41Speaker 03

  It's one, it's one tall dude who is so affable and lovable and the relationship he has with the kid is great. And it, it is a show about like the one, it's one of the, it's a show about one decent person in an, in an era where that didn't mean anything. And if this, and it's kind of a show about if this guy believing in the precepts of knighthood strongly enough is enough to sort of like change the people around him and the kingdom around him, if his, if his will is enough to sort of like shift that and rebuild that tradition. It's pretty lighthearted. It's funny. It's, I, it's, it's, it's feels very real. I don't know. I really love it. It's, it's great. It's, it's like I said.

• 51:26Griffin McElroy?

  I heard it has a big, cool fight scene. I heard it has a fight scene that's like big and cool in like a whole episode.

• 51:31Speaker 03

  It, it, I will say this, it is, it also in some ways reminds me of Band of Brothers in the way that it brings you into what like the frontline experience of that would be like, or like the sort of like. The real like what it would feel like on like a daily basis to be this person. Um, I think that is, it is fascinating. Yes. The battles are great, but the, it is, I'll tell you, it is, it's interesting. People got really amped about the, the big contest that everything's building to. But I found it so tense. I was like, my heart was in my throat the entire time. It wasn't one of those where you're watching the hero like, and you're certain that he's going to go and beat everybody's ass.

• 52:13Speaker 03

  It's more like, oh, man, if he, I hope he doesn't die because this guy has really, this is not done well so far. It's great. It's great.

• 52:20Chris Plante?

  Cool.

• 52:21Speaker 03

  This guy works really hard for every inch and that's really satisfying to watch, but it can also be very, very tense. But I, it's a, it's a great counterpoint to a lot of the other, uh, Game of Thrones stuff and it's, it's, I loved it. So check it out. Check it.

• 52:35Chris Plante?

  I have been hesitant because I don't know if I need another lone wolf and cub story. But this sounds like it's more than just doing that thing. Is that fair to say?

• 52:45Speaker 03

  Yeah. The, the, um, the, their relationship is nice, but it's not a case where he is like learning how to care from this kid. It's like they kind of need each other a little bit more, if that makes sense. Like they're, it's, it's a solid, healthy relationship from the beginning, really.

• 53:03Chris Plante?

  Yeah. Not just like stoic guy and cute, small thing.

• 53:06Speaker 03

  But there's a lot of visual parallels between him as a young boy, being a squire for Sir Arlen and Egg being his squire. They parallel those scenes a lot. And I, and it's very much a story about that, that like cyclical nature of what you learn and what you pass on to the next person and what you keep and what doesn't carry on. And like, once you've seen the entire cycle play out as Dunk has now, at this point, he's followed, he was a squire and he followed Sir Arlen to his death. And now he has begun that cycle. It's sort of like you're watching him decide what that means for him and like what, and, and everyone is, is asking that in the kingdom. Like, what am I going to do differently than the person? Who came before me. A lot of people are thinking about like legacy and change in that sense.

• 53:49Chris Plante?

  That sounds good. That sounds very good. I got one very quick thing. Super Battle Golf? We all need to be playing.

• 53:55Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, fuck yeah, dude. I'm so eager to play this game with you.

• 53:59Chris Plante?

  It's so good. It is the latest, whether or not you like the term friend slop, it is golf with friends and you and up to three other friends go golfing on a course and it's I kind of fastest to the hole, though also you get graded on the number of strokes that you take. You hit the ball and then you just sprint towards the hole. It is riffing on that Mario Golf mode that I liked quite a bit, except for unlike in Mario Golf here, you can shoot other characters with a variety of weapons. You can lay landmines right where their golf ball is. You can fire an air horn that forces them to hit it like a trillion

• 54:44Chris Plante?

  yards in the wrong direction. It is, it's pure trolling the golf game and it is a delight. The controls are a bit fussy right now. Also, the game costs $8. So it's not a huge investment for you to have a whole bunch of fun with buddies, knowing that like, yeah, it's a little a little rough around the edges, but not enough to be a deal breaker.

• 55:14Speaker 03

  Cool. I'm gonna download that now.

• 55:16Russ Frushtick?

  Awesome. Thank you, everyone, but especially thank you to the Patreon backers over at patreon.com/thebesties. New Resties episode up as of this past Tuesday. We also have a new Bracket Battles episode coming up beginning of March, which will be really super duper fun. Some recent subscribers include Matt O, Ashley A, Nicholas E, and Zorak. Thank you for being subscribers.

• 55:40Speaker 03

  Wow, that's huge.

• 55:41Russ Frushtick?

  Thank you to everyone else for being backers and supporters of the show. We love you.

• 55:46Chris Plante?

  I prefer Giant Bomb. I'm a Rock fan.

• 55:51Griffin McElroy?

  That's really good, actually.

• 55:57Speaker 03

  Brack is way harder. Zorak's fun.

• 55:59Russ Frushtick?

  Next week, I believe we're doing Scott Pilgrim EX, which is a beat'em up. It is not a remaster, it is not a remake of the other Scott Pilgrim game. It is a new beat'em up.

• 56:12Speaker 03

  A two would have been, wouldn't a two? Like, I feel like a two.

• 56:16Griffin McElroy?

  Well, the EX is like.

• 56:18Speaker 03

  EX just feels so much like a, yeah.

• 56:20Griffin McElroy?

  But it's like ex, like your ex, like your ex-girlfriend.

• 56:23Speaker 03

  I guess making it an ex is a new, I don't know.

• 56:25Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, but they're doing a pawn, they're doing like a pawn.

• 56:27Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, it's ex.

• 56:28Griffin McElroy?

  Somebody use EX.

• 56:29Russ Frushtick?

  I see.

• 56:30Speaker 03

  Oh, is it like, okay?

• 56:32Russ Frushtick?

  Cause the evil exes.

• 56:34Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 56:35Griffin McElroy?

  You can play as some of the evil exes.

• 56:36Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 56:37Russ Frushtick?

  He chose cleverness over charity.

• 56:39Speaker 03

  It also means 10, though. It's extremely confusing.

• 56:41Griffin McElroy?

  EX, EX.

• 56:43Speaker 03

  But X.

• 56:43Griffin McElroy?

  EX.

• 56:45Russ Frushtick?

  Anyway, that's what we're doing next week.

• 56:47Griffin McElroy?

  Scott Pilgrim EX.

• 56:48Russ Frushtick?

  Let's end the show.

• 56:49Speaker 03

  Is, is he in it?

• 56:52Griffin McElroy?

  Yes.

• 56:52Russ Frushtick?

  Yes.

• 56:53Speaker 03

  Is, is Michael in it? Is he doing the voice?

• 56:55Griffin McElroy?

  Michael Sarah?

• 56:56Speaker 03

  Michael Sarah, is he doing the voice? The famous voice?

• 56:58Griffin McElroy?

  Nah, man.

• 57:00Speaker 03

  Then what's the point of the game if it doesn't have Michael Sarah doing his famous voice?

• 57:03Griffin McElroy?

  I wish you would stop saying that about every game we talk about. We had to cut it out of the Resident Evil Requiem discussion.

• 57:10Speaker 03

  What, just cause it doesn't make sense? That sucks, Griffin. That sucks. The show used to mean something.

• 57:18Speaker 03

  Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. I'm sorry things got like they did. Again.

• 57:25Speaker 03

  Be sure to join us again next week for the besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?

• 57:59Speaker 04

  Besties.