The Besties Besty of the Year 2024, part 1

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The Besties have places 16 games in their annual bracket. By the end of this extra meaty episode, eight will remain. Will your favorite make the cut? Listen to find out.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Holy crap, guys. This is the cold open, but sometimes we're all so bad at counting our sync to sync the show. I don't think we should do a podcast anymore. Like, I don't think we were meant to podcast. I think we should get into like visual arts or something like a sculpture.

• 0:17Chris Plante?

  Especially not a podcast that has counting in it.

• 0:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, because the besties be a sculpture, is what I'm saying. Could it be a visual arts project?

• 0:24Griffin McElroy?

  Now, hold on.

• 0:24Speaker 00

  Instead of audio, we're locked into the audio.

• 0:27Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 0:27Speaker 00

  Project the besties.

• 0:29Griffin McElroy?

  Russ has just raised a really interesting question, which is can you do a goatee list without numbers and counting in it?

• 0:36Speaker 00

  Oh, man.

• 0:37Griffin McElroy?

  And so it's more of a sort of free form.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 0:40Griffin McElroy?

  All the games land instead of on a line, a sort of sphere.

• 0:44Chris Plante?

  A palette.

• 0:45Griffin McElroy?

  Sure. Where they place on the sphere.

• 0:46Speaker 00

  I like to think of video games as a palette, and we're all just artists with our brush, and we're just dabbing it in the Elden Ring.

• 0:53Griffin McElroy?

  That's cool.

• 0:54Speaker 00

  Dragon Dogma, and then we paint it. And that's the goatee. The painting is the goatee.

• 0:59Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, and maybe there's not a goatee. Maybe it's just, you look at the sphere.

• 1:03Chris Plante?

  No, there is. We don't, yeah, there's gonna be one. People are gonna be fucking pissed.

• 1:07Speaker 00

  The thing that is, there is still a number one best game. That's the only thing that's different about it.

• 1:13Griffin McElroy?

  But if we can get this sphere idea going, then I think people could just look at the sphere when we're done with it.

• 1:19Speaker 00

  You will clearly be able to discern a numeral sign, and then a one, and then a a AAA video game released in the year 2024 in it. Like, that's the only thing.

• 1:29Griffin McElroy?

  Y'all.

• 1:30Speaker 00

  Is the year will be a clear number one best game.

• 1:32Chris Plante?

  This is literally the plot of Metaphory Phantasia. You have stumbled backward into it.

• 1:41Griffin McElroy?

  Spoilers.

• 1:42Speaker 00

  Hey, seriously, Plant? No, no kidding. That is the B O, B J O T Y, the besties joke of the year. You will not make a more besties joke.

• 1:53Griffin McElroy?

  So glad that's what that stood for, J-Dog.

• 1:59Speaker 00

  No, Griffin, no, that's the B J O T Y. Congrats. Late, late year entry. Griffin swoops Plant with the BJ of the year. Unless there's some more great BJ's than this one.

• 2:14Griffin McElroy?

  We'll see, baby. We only just begun.

• 2:34Chris Plante?

  Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba besties. We are back here with the besties awards. Yeah.

• 2:41Griffin McElroy?

  We do this every year. You got Justin and Russ look surprised, but this happens every year.

• 2:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, plan always seems the cold theme, the cold. That is the famous, the world famous besties. Game of the year theme opening. Welcome. That tune can only mean one thing and it's time for everyone's favorite time of year where the besties finally make it come due.

• 3:02Griffin McElroy?

  We're not gonna fucking start the show with us saying our names.

• 3:05Speaker 00

  No, not this time. It's a special. Mine is Justin MacRae and I know the best game of the year.

• 3:09Griffin McElroy?

  I'm Griffin MacRae. I know the best game of the week. You know who we are. You're here for our game of the year show.

• 3:13Chris Plante?

  My name is Chris Plant and I know the best game of the year.

• 3:16Russ Frushtick?

  My name is Ross Rush and I know this game of the week.

• 3:19Speaker 00

  My name is Justin MacRae and I know the best game of the year. We're choosing it this time with the besties. This is how many years of how many years of excellence?

• 3:30Griffin McElroy?

  It feels like 11.

• 3:32Russ Frushtick?

  11 or 12, something like that.

• 3:34Speaker 00

  We started, we founded in 2012. This is 12th, our 12th year of excellence. Uh, we are going to be picking the best game of this year.

• 3:41Russ Frushtick?

  I think we might've missed a couple of years in there, by the way. It should be noted. I think.

• 3:44Speaker 00

  I always know, we've always picked the best game of the year.

• 3:47Chris Plante?

  Always.

• 3:48Speaker 00

  There's a full list you can review.

• 3:51Griffin McElroy?

  I'm so glad.

• 3:52Chris Plante?

  We, there were times where we picked multiple games and there were times where we deferred to, I think, the Chris Grant bot.

• 3:58Griffin McElroy?

  The Chris Grantatron. Yeah.

• 3:59Chris Plante?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 4:00Griffin McElroy?

  An unfeeling sentient, uh, video game criticizing device.

• 4:05Speaker 00

  Which is honestly less funny in this world of AI now where we could create a Chris Grantatron.

• 4:11Griffin McElroy?

  Very easily. Yeah. Um, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a neat one, I think. No, no clear frontrunners, no Eldon's Rings, which was a pretty anticlimactic episode if memory serves.

• 4:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:26Griffin McElroy?

  No, no, no Breath of the Wilds to breathe in. We got a, we got a clean slate.

• 4:32Speaker 00

  If I could just ask, just as a thought experiment, if you guys could look at the list of 16 games that we have.

• 4:37Griffin McElroy?

  Sure.

• 4:38Speaker 00

  And tell me how many games you would feel comfortable. Being number one.

• 4:43Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, interesting.

• 4:44Speaker 00

  How many, when you look at this, how many different number ones? Cause I don't have one number one where I could be like, yeah, that's mine. I have.

• 4:52Griffin McElroy?

  I got five.

• 4:54Chris Plante?

  I have nine. I have nine this year.

• 4:57Speaker 00

  Nine?

• 4:58Chris Plante?

  Nine.

• 4:59Speaker 00

  Nine where you're like, if we pick the best, if we're get number one, you're like, yeah, it sounds about right.

• 5:05Chris Plante?

  Comfortably nine and I.

• 5:07Speaker 00

  Comfortably nine.

• 5:08Chris Plante?

  Could go.

• 5:09Speaker 00

  What a year.

• 5:10Griffin McElroy?

  What a year.

• 5:10Speaker 00

  What a year, guys. I got at least six. It's a good year.

• 5:14Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it's a good year.

• 5:15Griffin McElroy?

  All right, so give me that structure, Chris.

• 5:18Chris Plante?

  Here's how it works. We do a bracket of 16 games. 12 of those games have been picked by us, the besties.

• 5:25Speaker 00

  The experts.

• 5:26Chris Plante?

  Four of those games.

• 5:27Speaker 00

  We don't say it enough, but okay, experts.

• 5:30Chris Plante?

  Four of those games have been picked by you, the besties listeners. We, they showdown and one V one matchups. We do this in two episodes. The first episode is eight matchups. That will fill up the entirety of the episode, all of round one. The next episode, we will be actually whittling down to the true bestie of the year. We'll also be handing out some superlative awards, which is new this year. And we're really excited for you to hear more about that. But first we gotta work our way through this.

• 6:01Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 6:02Chris Plante?

  Beginning with round one. What a year for video games. Astro Bot, also known as Rust Rushik says it's the best platformer of all time, better than Mario and certainly better than Sonic.

• 6:17Speaker 00

  Whoa.

• 6:19Chris Plante?

  Rise of the Golden Idol.

• 6:21Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, this is, uh, what, you want me to start on my?

• 6:24Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, let's, let's get some Astro Bot knowledge from you, Russ.

• 6:27Russ Frushtick?

  Baby boy. Look, back then, this is a few months ago when Astro Bot came out. Actually, we're, we're gonna take even, go even further back and say how excited I was after Astro's Playroom came out. And I was like, damn, I would hope they give them a full on platformer to do. And they've done it. Astro Bot comes out and there is not a single game on this list that was so. Consistently joyful and fun throughout the entire start to finish experience. I fucking loved every minute of this game, the music, the graphics, the art design, playing it, the actual platforming of it.

• 7:08Speaker 00

  Can I ask a question?

• 7:09Russ Frushtick?

  Fucking rules.

• 7:10Speaker 00

  Yeah. Clear, to, to zero in on what you are saying about it because I, I trust you as we've established an expert.

• 7:17Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 7:18Speaker 00

  If you, when you say it's the best platformer.

• 7:20Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 7:20Speaker 00

  Are you saying that like, this is the best game that you would put into the genre of platforming? Or if you divorce all aesthetics and other like, non gameplay elements?

• 7:32Russ Frushtick?

  No, I, no, I add, I add it all together. I think they're all together. So like, there's probably a better feeling. Let me just, yeah. There's probably a better fee, whatever, like, jumping from platform to platform, there might be a better game than that. I think as a whole, as a cohesive experience, no platforming has done platforming better than Astro Bot has.

• 7:53Griffin McElroy?

  That's so fascinating. That's so, that's really interesting. I, I, I don't know that I agree with that.

• 8:00Speaker 00

  Being wrong? Do you have a sense that you're wrong? Like when you think, I'm just, that's a, an obvious question. I feel like.

• 8:06Russ Frushtick?

  That wasn't.

• 8:06Speaker 00

  I'm saying, how do you, kidding aside, how do you, how do you say that over like, when you're adding a superlative like that, I'm not disagreeing, I'm like, trying to think about it. Like, how do you weigh that against like?

• 8:20Griffin McElroy?

  Mario Odyssey.

• 8:21Speaker 00

  Mario, sixty-four Mario Odyssey.

• 8:23Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. Oh, I mean, a lot of it has to do with consistency. I think all of the Mario games, and there's a lot that are fucking amazing. We'll look at like Mario Odyssey, which was mentioned, and yet all of them have excess at times. Things that you don't necessarily want to do, but you have to continue doing because whatever, you need to find a moon or whatever you gotta do. It's not all fucking straight bangers as much as I wish it was.

• 8:49Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 8:50Speaker 00

  And that I think really, for me, I always prioritize like, give me the purest experience of this thing, which is why I always blanch at, oh, you need to play 15 hours before it gets good. That is like the biggest curse to me. Cause it's like, just put, give me the good shit. Don't, don't hold it back.

• 9:07Griffin McElroy?

  I'm so into this argument, Russ. I genuinely am. Cause I agree with you wholeheartedly. For me, what this game accomplishes, that is, I think, almost impossible to, to define, is a, is a vibe and a tone that is so pleasant and good and silly and clever in a way that I feel like when games try to go for, it gets a little too like twee for, for my tastes.

• 9:34Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 9:34Griffin McElroy?

  But this, this game feels so authentically joyful. Uh, and I, I, I, I think that that is absolutely like, it stands head and shoulders above certainly anything else that came out this year. Uh, but I think I would agree with you that I can't think of a platform that is this, that makes me feel this good from a visual and an audio and a sort of mechanical kind of standpoint.

• 9:59Speaker 00

  Uh, meanwhile, over at Rise of the Golden Idol.

• 10:03Griffin McElroy?

  This is a late one. Did, did, did you finish it? Has everyone, or I guess who played it?

• 10:09Speaker 00

  I have not finished it. I, uh, I am like halfway through the fourth of five, like, acts?

• 10:17Griffin McElroy?

  Okay.

• 10:17Speaker 00

  Case groupings, however you want to say it. Uh, Rise of the Golden Idol is, uh, I think you could most accurately, accurately describe it as like a point and click puzzle game where you are, it is taking point and click adventure mechanics, but distilling them to, uh, uh, single like situations where everything's contextual. And rather than how, uh, items in the environment interact, it's much more about like how the ideas represented by those items interact. So you're looking at a sort of tableau that's lightly animated. You are digging through all the clues and all the, everything that you can find. And then like, that's like one

• 10:59Speaker 00

  And as you play the game, what you're really collecting is is words and ideas. So as you explore the world, you might find like a test tube and you collect the word test tube. And then to solve the scenario, you'll get basically what's like a Mad Libs where it lays out the story for you and you have to pull in the clues that you have collected in the world to lay out what actually happened in this story. And as the the situations get more and more complex, there's more and more sort of like lateral thinking required that gets you to and sort of like less initial context presented where you are really having to establish a lot in order. Pretty much every scenario will

• 11:39Speaker 00

  also have like a one or two sort of like smaller bite sized puzzles that you're trying to solve. Like a lot of times it's like pairing names to faces. That's a pretty common one. In some you'll have to like pair, for example, like you'll have a diagram of different symbols and then you'll have to write what each one of those symbols means. And sometimes it's a clarifying thing of helping you to understand what's happening. Yeah, sometimes it's a way of like you proving that you understand what's happening without necessarily brute forcing it. But all these different like cases are telling a cogent super story across all the different cases and scenarios that are

• 12:21Speaker 00

  all these people interweaving and like the story such as it is, is like unfurls over the different cases. And as you're playing them, you're seeing how they like jump around in time, how the stories interact, where the different layers of the the story are. Sidney doesn't play a lot of video games with me, but I downloaded this on my the surface studio that I have that folds into an iPad. And we did that with like a stylus and we played the whole thing together on a recent trip. And for somebody that doesn't play a lot of video games, but does love like puzzles and mysteries, it was fantastic. It's like such a good game to play together that way. And we had like a fantastic time. It's

• 13:07Speaker 00

  It's kind of its own genre at this point, heavily inspired by like

• 13:12Griffin McElroy?

  Overdame.

• 13:13Speaker 00

  The Return of the Overdame and things like that, but like it really does with this one feels like an even more sort of like self-assured, like this is what a Golden Idol game is. And I think it's just fantastic. The music is great. It looks great. It's so fun. It is so cogent and fair. By the, by the time you get to the end of it, it, it almost, you don't even remember what the puzzle was. It's so clear what happened. That it like, it, it doesn't even feel like a puzzle. It's just like, oh yeah, I just sort of like, yeah, I understand this completely.

• 13:45Griffin McElroy?

  I, I just want to hammer home. I think the story of this game is one of my favorite, like pieces of storytelling this year. You will do a standalone little mystery and think like, there's a mystery where, uh, someone has been killed in an aviary by a bunch of birds. And you're like, what does this have to do with any, like, what does this have to do with anything? There's a lot of those that just come completely out of left field. And then two chapters later, you figure out like, oh my God, like, oh, that was telling me this. That was telling me this. You'll see a character watching this like TV talent show that had nothing to do with anything. And you realize like, oh, that's what that was doing.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  The dance.

• 14:23Griffin McElroy?

  The dance. Yeah. The whole story of this game really, really stuck with me. And I think it's fantastic. And I think it's free if you have a Netflix subscription. I think that's right. I think they have both of the Golden Idol games. I, I, these are two completely different kind of like things, right?

• 14:40Speaker 00

  To do these. But one's better than the other. That's the besties, baby.

• 14:47Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, I, I guess the question I had, cause, cause, so I played a ton of the original Golden Idol, but didn't finish it. And I was like intimidated to start the new one. Cause I wanted to see the end of the story of the first one. Mechanically speaking, are there substantial changes to the second one? Or is it kind of more of the same great puzzle stuff?

• 15:04Griffin McElroy?

  Definitely more of the same. I would say the place where it kind of stands apart is each chapter has like four mysteries in it usually. And then once you're done with those four mysteries, there will be like a. Little booklet that is like, here is everything that happened in this chapter. I think that stuff is a lot more fleshed out and that is good because it really helps you to start putting the pieces together of like what this entire story is all about. And it is, it is such a story that I kind of have been tempted to go back and replay it already. Just now knowing kind of like what was actually happening the whole time.

• 15:41Speaker 00

  I think that Sid and I will probably go back and play one together after we finish this one, which would be

• 15:47Griffin McElroy?

  Did you do the DLC for one?

• 15:48Speaker 00

  No, I didn't do that.

• 15:49Griffin McElroy?

  Some of it's really, really good.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  The, I, what I, what I would say about the, what I think is so cool about what, what Griffin is saying about the story is like, it is, it is layered onto you in a way that is not like literally told. It is, it is something that you almost sort of like absorb and find yourself understanding. As you're playing through these levels, you're like, something in this is sticking in my mind. Like I remember it. This game, I think compared to the last one for me, as somebody who like bailed on the first one, I think that while the basic mechanics are the same, the like connective tissue between the different levels, there's like little, like extra bits that you get outside of the, the quests themselves that are like little bits of information that contextualize on what you just saw.

• 16:34Speaker 00

  But I think it's much better at like pulling you into the next mystery. Rather than the other one, kind of felt like, once I finished one, I often felt like.

• 16:43Russ Frushtick?

  You didn't have the momentum.

• 16:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, there's a loss of momentum. I think this one keeps the momentum and I don't know how they're doing it like without like directly like looking at the UI, but I feel much more compelled to keep moving forward in this one.

• 16:56Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. Is there anyone here that thinks, uh, Astro Bot shouldn't move forward in this matchup?

• 17:04Griffin McElroy?

  I, it's, it's asking me like what I think is more important, right? Cause I think Rise has a, I mean Astro Bot doesn't have a story per se.

• 17:14Russ Frushtick?

  The PlayStation 5 gets stolen by aliens and you have to repair it.

• 17:18Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, so that's, I, I think Astro Bot is more of an accomplishment from an artistic and like, I don't know, just ambition standpoint, maybe, but, uh, so, so I do think in my mind, it is, it goes a little bit higher. But I do like Rise.

• 17:36Speaker 00

  Plant?

• 17:37Griffin McElroy?

  I won a million of these games. And so if that means we have to give them the goatee to get there.

• 17:42Speaker 00

  So that's the price you gotta pay?

• 17:44Griffin McElroy?

  Yep. Plant, where are you at?

• 17:46Chris Plante?

  Oh, I'm, I mean, I'm Astro Bot. It's no fault of Golden Idol, a recurring thing I notice when people really like Golden Idol. Is they say exactly what you said, hoops. I love it. I was playing with somebody else.

• 17:59Speaker 00

  I do think it's better that way.

• 18:01Chris Plante?

  I think it is such a game changer and that I played both these games solo. And especially the second time around, I found myself a lot more frustrated. I don't think that's a knock on the game. I think it is a game meant to be played with another person the same way that when you watch a detective movie, there's always like Sherlock and Watson. I almost said Sherlock and Holmes. But yeah, I, I think that is the missing piece for me. Um, so it's purely on personal preference. Uh, it's Astro Bot. Um, yeah.

• 18:35Speaker 00

  We don't have a good way of talking about games like that. I think that like ostensibly, single player games that are really better, like as a shared experience, you know what I mean? It's not strictly a multiplayer thing, but I, I'm, I'm fine with Astro Bot. I think this game, I think Rise of the Golden Idol is frigging fantastic. I really, really like Astro Bot a lot. I could see where in terms of like, if you gotta pick one, in terms of what's doing something that you wanna like, celebrate and honor, uh, Astro Bot feels a little bit more of like a, a high watermark. Achievement is a good, a really good way of putting it.

• 19:08Griffin McElroy?

  All right, Astro Bot, bump it. Bump it up.

• 19:10Chris Plante?

  Boom. Next up, we have Animal Well and Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown.

• 19:19Griffin McElroy?

  Shit, yeah, man. Uh, I'll talk Animal Well. Is that all right?

• 19:23Chris Plante?

  Go for it.

• 19:24Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, Animal Well is, uh, I mean, I follow video game donkey on YouTube. Enjoy his stuff quite a bit and we knew they announced, you know, he was opening his own publisher and this was going to be the game that came out of it. It immediately, I think, just seized my attention just from a visual kind of. Standpoint because the game looks kind of unlike anything I've ever seen before.

• 19:50Russ Frushtick?

  It looks like a light bright video game.

• 19:52Griffin McElroy?

  It looks like a light bright video game. Yeah, like a super low, low, uh, lofi neon kind of gritty animal platformer. I, I have talked about this a lot when we talked about the, the game the first time around. The experience of playing this game at launch, before launch, like in a, a group of, in a discord of fellow reviewers was truly unforgettable. Uh, and I think the game definitely stands on its own apart from that. Uh, as evidenced by the fact that it's pretty widely renowned, uh, even outside of that, that discord.

• 20:30Griffin McElroy?

  It is just a, a platformer with a few ideas that it explores to the, to the like molecular level. To a degree where, uh, you know, some of the basic puzzles, you solve them, you're like, okay, I get it. I kind of get what this game is serving up. And then down the road, you realize like, oh my God, like this is the smartest, this is the smartest thing ever. I still feel uncomfortable talking about some of the stuff because I think those moments of discovery are so important. And Russ will certainly bang this drum louder than I will. But I like having a moment, I'll say one, I realized at one point, hey, that bush looks weird.

• 21:11Griffin McElroy?

  And then I got a barcode scanner app. I downloaded it on my iPhone and scanned the bush. And it turned out that it was a barcode with like a secret in the game for it. That is one of 50, like really, really, really neat things that this game does. It has multiple sort of like strata that you can go into if you want to just play it like a platformer with some like kind of neat metroidvania-esque mechanics and exploration. That's cool. If you want to get deeper into it and, you know, try to find all the secrets, that's cool. If you want to find all the secret secrets. That are like really crazy universe brain stuff like you can also go that far into it.

• 21:53Griffin McElroy?

  I, there's no game that came out this year like it. There's no game I can really think of maybe that have ever come out like Animal Well. And I think it's just a-

• 22:01Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I think Fez is like in the ballpark, but I think Animal Well is doing-

• 22:04Griffin McElroy?

  Fez is certainly in the ballpark. Yeah, I would grant that.

• 22:06Russ Frushtick?

  But I think Animal Well is doing that idea in a much more thoughtful and cohesive way.

• 22:14Griffin McElroy?

  Also just such a labor of love and that comes through in like every aspect of it, including if you find the developer notes. Just like, just like incredible. I, I, I think the story about this game is really, really fantastic.

• 22:28Chris Plante?

  Earlier Hoops mentioned, uh, you know, like, how many games could you see getting our game of the year? Animal Well is not even on my top 10, maybe not my top 20. But I'm thinking about a game that I would be happy to like literally take that crown as like what it represents for like the besties. And what it represents for a game of the year and where I really admire a game. Animal Well is that. And I think that's a testament to something as a, I don't know, a object of creativity. That it's not really for me. I didn't really enjoy my time with it. I admire the shit out of it and I probably watched five hours of videos about it.

• 23:07Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 23:07Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it's the epitome of my like no guides thing is animal like that is the core of that. Only because it, it goes to the point of like, I think the best things for me when I'm playing video games is the feeling of ownership. I made a choice or I discovered something and it wasn't like external force or whatever it is. And Animal Well is a game about having ownership over like the things you discover. And some of them are like very well curated and obvious and some of them are really, really, uh, hard to spot. And some of them you absolutely need to team up with a group of a dozen people to solve.

• 23:43Griffin McElroy?

  But-

• 23:44Russ Frushtick?

  Is a lot of dope shit.

• 23:46Griffin McElroy?

  But-

• 23:46Russ Frushtick?

  But-

• 23:47Griffin McElroy?

  Prince of the Purge of the Lost Crown, you can shoot-

• 23:49Speaker 00

  Five arrows, which is way more than at any point in Animal Well. Let me tell you.

• 23:55Russ Frushtick?

  This is, I'm so glad.

• 23:56Speaker 00

  If you wanna slide underneath an enemy and stab him in the back, you can't even do it in Animal Well. Until you've played for like 10 or 11 hours, you can get the sliding gem. And the murder frisbee. I don't know.

• 24:09Russ Frushtick?

  Um, I'm, uh, murder frisbee is from, uh, Animal Well, for what it's worth.

• 24:12Speaker 00

  Okay, but there is also murder frisbee. Sorry, they both have murder frisbees, to be clear.

• 24:17Russ Frushtick?

  Um, it's, I'm glad this matchup, I mean, I made the matchup, so I'm glad it worked out nicely.

• 24:24Russ Frushtick?

  These are totally interesting approaches to the same genre. And I love both of them, like, these are both.

• 24:32Speaker 00

  Right. I didn't even really think of them being the same genre, but they are, aren't they?

• 24:36Russ Frushtick?

  Effectively, and they're, but they're like, coming at it from two completely different directions. Prince of Persia is a much more guided, directed, um, experience. It borrows a lot of the same tropes and unlocks and map discovery, things like that.

• 24:50Speaker 00

  I, I do wanna say, like, I don't want it to become like, I don't wanna cheapen Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown through the comparison, because there is an amazing amount of work that has clearly gone into the flow of this game, and making each like little tiny scrap of it feel like cogent and fun to get around. Like, especially once you've gotten through a lot of unlocks, like, getting through this world and the different number of ways you can like, approach like traversal and combat and like, there are so many different, like, completely valid, uh, ways to, to go at it. And it's like, uh, uh, there's a lot of love, especially for a game that like,

• 25:33Speaker 00

  you could see a world in which a Prince of Persia game doesn't need to be, doesn't get that amount of TLC, because they're relying on, you know, whatever power the brand has to keep it going. But, uh, I, it is really well balanced. It's a lot of just pure fun. I actually finished it just because it was like, uh, that enjoyable to, to play and stick with. But it is like, it is not. Breaking a lot of new ground.

• 25:58Russ Frushtick?

  It's familiar. It's definitely familiar for the genre. And I don't think that's a bad thing to Justin's point.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  It's probably, combat wise, I think it's a lot more fully fleshed out than a lot of search action games.

• 26:10Griffin McElroy?

  Absolutely.

• 26:11Speaker 00

  It's a lot more about like building your skill set and finding combos that work together, stuff like that, rather than finding a super weapon that like lets you blow through stuff.

• 26:22Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, no, I think the boss fights were fantastic. There's great puzzles in this game. Animal Well is like you're learning a new language from scratch. This is not that. But I do think this game takes a lot of swings that it didn't have to take in really smart ways. There's like amazing, like you're making clones of yourself to like weigh down switches and spin around whatever other puzzles. The, almost all the powers do something like interesting that I've never ever seen before. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's fucking spectacular.

• 26:52Griffin McElroy?

  Also like refreshing when it came out, I was not expecting, it was one of those games that I feel like it happens a few times a year on Besties, where it's like, what are we talking about next week? It's like, oh, Prince of Persia, The Lost Crown. And I'm like, I don't know, I've never heard of that. I don't know what that is, but it's probably not going to be very good because it's a Prince of Persia game and those have a pretty mixed track record in my book. And then it blew my ass away at how fun it was. And I don't know, I feel like it was just what I wanted right when I wanted it.

• 27:18Speaker 00

  If you didn't expect that Prince of Persia game, I bet you super duper didn't expect another one three months later. That was, that was the real twist that kept you guessing. Um, can we get that one into contention here? Uh, just real quick, throw it in, cause it was also really the rogue Prince of Persia. The Rogue Prince of Persia is also very fun. It's surprisingly also weirdly good.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  I gotta get out of Animal Well though, right? I mean, it's, it's Animal Well. I think Animal Well is, is pretty genius. Even if I'm kinda closer to plant than you two, uh, I, I definitely dig, dig it.

• 27:54Griffin McElroy?

  All right.

• 27:55Chris Plante?

  Next up, we have UFO 50 versus Fields of Mistrya.

• 28:03Griffin McElroy?

  Ooh, is this our first audience pick in Fields of Mistrya?

• 28:08Chris Plante?

  Yeah, and I think the only, like, in-progress game on the list.

• 28:14Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, early access.

• 28:16Chris Plante?

  Early access.

• 28:16Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, right, right.

• 28:17Griffin McElroy?

  Yes. Can I be honest? That's kind of, I really, really like Fields of Mistrya. I think what they're going for kicks ass, and the game definitely got a tux in me. It is hard for me with a game that is like a life sim, like Stardew Valley. Like, I know I'm going to put a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of time into this. And so there was part of me that felt like I should just wait for full release, which is not fair, I think, when it comes to talking about these games. But I did put, I mean, probably 20, 30 hours into Mistrya.

• 28:51Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 28:51Russ Frushtick?

  It shows a lot, yeah.

• 28:53Chris Plante?

  And Fields of Mistrya, I think, will come back next year or the year after and be pretty, it'll make it far in the bracket. I don't think this year is that year. I will say, for folks who are thinking about trying it, if you are looking for a Stardew Valley-like game that I think has a lot of the rough edges polished off, which is wild to say about a game that is one of the most successful of all time.

• 29:15Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 29:16Chris Plante?

  You can start playing it right now, and they've added updates even since we talked about it on the show. It is a very complete game, but it almost hurts knowing what they have yet to add, right? They have been clear about saying, "This game is going to be that much better." So I'm really glad it made our Sweet 16. I think it certainly already earns a spot there, but I agree that... It has a little bit more time to cook.

• 29:49Speaker 00

  I do, I do, I do want to mention at this point because we are having the early access conversation. There is a notable absence from this list, I think, in the, in the place of Hades 2. That's a game that I've been playing a lot because I, I continue to want to keep up with it. But I think that is a game that from talking to the other three, definitely something that we're going to return to. Once it's a little closer to like done, done. From what I understand, the mystery is a little closer to what it, well, you know, feature complete than, than Hades 2. But we will definitely be returning to Hades 2. I don't think Hades 2 won GOTY the year it was released, did it?

• 30:29Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I think Hades 2.

• 30:31Speaker 00

  It couldn't have.

• 30:32Griffin McElroy?

  But was it 1.0 Hades or was it the early access?

• 30:34Speaker 00

  It was released, it was, no, it couldn't have been because it was released during the game awards.

• 30:39Chris Plante?

  You're right. Yeah, it was released on Epic Game Store during the game awards.

• 30:42Speaker 00

  Epic Game Store during the game awards. So it would have been the following year.

• 30:45Chris Plante?

  Early access, yeah.

• 30:46Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 30:48Griffin McElroy?

  I, can I talk about UFO 50?

• 30:50Chris Plante?

  Yes, do.

• 30:53Speaker 00

  You like it too much. We all agree.

• 30:57Griffin McElroy?

  Maybe harder than any game I've ever talked about on the besties or maybe ever played before. I fucking slingshotted around the circumference of this one and came back so, so hard.

• 31:11Chris Plante?

  Are you saying the besties got it wrong, Griffin? Are you saying on this one, the besties got it wrong?

• 31:16Griffin McElroy?

  I'm not saying the besties got it wrong. I am saying that this is a game that more than any game I've probably ever played before. It will sink its teeth into you if you, if you approach it with curiosity. If you approach it with like an open mind and you approach it with sort of like a faith in the game's like ability to have kind of innovative ideas in all of these really ancient looking packages. UFO 50 is 50 games, not many games, pretty much full size, full size games.

• 31:55Griffin McElroy?

  NES era games and that is like, I think the reason I was pretty quickly turned off by it is that I don't actually have that much affinity for NES games. I think that most of them aren't particularly fun to play. I think a lot of them have not held up especially well and lean on like difficulty curves that are like insane as opposed to meaningful ideas that, you know, would keep you coming back for the length of a full game. I think UFO 50 at first blush does that stuff too. But also I am now, I have chair, I've gotten the cherry on 31 of these bad boys now and I just kind of keep coming back for more.

• 32:36Griffin McElroy?

  It has gotten me to play genres of games I don't like, I'm not interested in, that I get into very, very deeply. Because they are pretty approachable here. Once you kind of give them a chance and try to learn it. Once I sort of shed the idea of like, this is too complicated for me. This is too hard for me. Putting that idea out of mind and thinking like, this game was designed. And there are ideas that I can, I can approach it with that will help me succeed at this game. Has been like a truly exciting and like empowering journey that I have gone on with this game. And I could, I could speak about each of the 31 games that I have gotten the cherry on so far and why they all kick ass.

• 33:21Griffin McElroy?

  But I, I think that this game is a genuine mind boggling accomplishment in game design, games design. And I just like it so much.

• 33:35Chris Plante?

  I hate to take away more UFO 50 conversation, especially from Russ Rushdick. But I think we're going to be talking about this game quite a bit more in the next episode. So how about we give UFO 50 the old congratulations and move it on to the next round?

• 33:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, I will also say it's 50 games. So good luck, everybody.

• 34:00Griffin McElroy?

  Good luck, everyone else.

• 34:01Speaker 00

  Cause it's got 50. That's when Wario needs to pop up like, wow.

• 34:07Speaker 00

  I got 69.

• 34:14Speaker 00

  Fuck, I love Wario so much.

• 34:15Griffin McElroy?

  What if the next, uh, micro games, uh, what I think of WarioWare game is, is just called Y69? And it's 69 awesome micro games.

• 34:25Speaker 00

  That is so funny. Uh, what's the next matchup?

• 34:30Russ Frushtick?

  We have Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth versus 1000x Resist. Can you confirm if it's 1000x Resist or Times Resist? Cause I've heard both.

• 34:41Chris Plante?

  So often the X in these things is just silent. So it'd be like 1000 Resist, like Spy Family. So it might be 1000 Resist.

• 34:50Griffin McElroy?

  You're telling me the name of that animated show is Spy Family and not Spy X Family?

• 34:54Chris Plante?

  Correct.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:55Griffin McElroy?

  Shit, man.

• 34:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, and Godzilla Kong. That's the name of that movie is Godzilla Kong.

• 34:59Chris Plante?

  Godzilla Kong.

• 35:00Speaker 00

  Can I say a quick word about Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth?

• 35:05Chris Plante?

  Please.

• 35:07Speaker 00

  I, I didn't ever finish one of these guys before. I've played like four of these guys and I get like 10 hours into it and I'm like, this is cool, but it's just like, I don't know, man.

• 35:18Russ Frushtick?

  What do you mean by these guys?

• 35:20Speaker 00

  These Yakuza games, formerly Yakuza games, now Like a Dragon. These are these fellows that I keep playing them and, cause like, there's a lot of things I like. I love the idea of virtual tourism, you know what I mean? Like, I like the idea of being in another environment and exploring it and like, picking up some cultural stuff and it's a, it's a cool environment to be in. Um, but I eventually just kinda get overwhelmed, um, by the amount of stuff that is in these games and the idea of like missing certain things and the idea of like, uh, I think being overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that you need to keep track of, uh, especially when it's like a culture separate from yours, I think gets kinda overwhelming. They also can get pretty talky, et cetera, et cetera.

• 36:04Speaker 00

  Um, this is the first one that I've finished and I've, I've finished it, uh, a lot.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  I finished a lot of parts of it that you didn't need to finish, but I did finish those. Uh, I think that- Once I sort of got into the wavelength of this thing, I will say, one, it is really generous and open-hearted in the way that it designs games and mini-games and combat and all of it really. It's a, it's a very player positive, like wants you to have fun, wants you to be engaged, doesn't want you to like. I don't know. It's very open-hearted and generous in the way that like it'll lay out entire stories that it didn't really need to give you, but it will give complete stories.

• 36:56Speaker 00

  Where one was not required, right? Like nice stories. It'll, it'll make complete games like the, I'm thinking of the Dandoku Island, like complete games inside the game where you really could have gotten away with something that was a lot more bare. In the same way, it's got a protagonist who is genuinely one of the like best heroes I think we've had in games in a long time. It is so nice to play a character who is not an anti-hero. And it's not cynical. cynical or, or any of it. And it's like, really like someone who genuinely has morals and ethics and just wants to do the right thing. And it feels good

• 37:41Speaker 00

  to be in a game and be able to be a person like that. It feels nice to be in a world where people are like happy to see you and where you are not like the most important person in the world, you know, like the world does not hinge on Ichiban. He is pursuing his morals and what he thinks is right because they are his morals and what he thinks is right. Not because destiny has told him he needs to do it. He's just a good person. And I think that's a really powerful message and a really engaging message. And I just loved it builds to, I think, one of the most moving. Like endings to a video game I've ever seen. I adore this game.

• 38:26Speaker 00

  Um, I adore it and I, by the way, like, I don't know that I'm necessarily gonna play the next Like a Dragon game to come like, I don't, I'm not like, now I get it. You know what I mean? Like I, I, but this one, I got a lot and I think is really lovely.

• 38:41Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I, I feel like, um, Ichiban and kind of the Like a Dragon games in general are about a great community organizer, more than like a superhero. He has this kind of gravity well that just pulls people toward him. And so much of the solutions are not, I solved it, but like, oh, I brought the other people involved who could help solve this problem. And that is such a refreshing change of pace and such a better use.

• 39:08Speaker 00

  It's kind of like a Ted Lasso.

• 39:10Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 39:10Speaker 00

  Open world RPGs in a lot of, in a real sense.

• 39:13Chris Plante?

  It's so smart for open world game though, because you're gonna have all of these people. The whole point of open world is that you're in this space with a ton of people and a ton of community. So whenever you make it about one person, it just feels so, it's seeing this huge world through a pinhole.

• 39:27Russ Frushtick?

  And you compare it to GTA where everyone around you tends to either like double cross you or is trying to screw you, you know, you're trying to screw them over and you compare that tone to this and it's really nice.

• 39:39Speaker 00

  This game, people try to screw you over and you refuse to accept it.

• 39:42Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 39:43Speaker 00

  Because you know that deep down, they're actually a pretty good dude. And then they think about it for 10 fucking hours and you go off to your own island and you come back later and they're like, hey, you're right. I am a good dude. I came to give you this back. It's on fire.

• 40:00Chris Plante?

  I'm gonna turn some diapers into snow and change the lives of the people around me.

• 40:05Speaker 00

  Hey, PS, how's your pervert collection coming? That's pretty good.

• 40:10Chris Plante?

  Depends on which pervert collection you're talking about. The one that fights or the one that farms?

• 40:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:17Griffin McElroy?

  Or the one you take photographs of. There's a lot of different types of perverts.

• 40:21Chris Plante?

  Um, hey, 1000X resist. Thank you so much.

• 40:26Griffin McElroy?

  Actually, Chris, the X is silent sometimes.

• 40:29Chris Plante?

  Oh, thank you. Sorry. I'm glad that we have somebody who's an expert on the show. Um, thank you to everybody who voted for this to get into the 16. Once again, a game that I am so glad is on the 16. Once again, not a game I can recommend go any further as the biggest fan of the game on the show. For people who are unfamiliar with it, it is an absolutely stellar narrative game. Maybe the best story I played in a game this year. I think I compared it at the halfway point to the works of Ted Cheng, who wrote the story that would be Arrival, the movie. These are sci-fi stories that are much more about people and the decisions that we make

• 41:11Chris Plante?

  and how the big questions of sci-fi force us to like reckon with uncomfortable truths about our behavior. And this one, the best way I could summarize the premise without spoiling too much is, imagine if COVID had happened, but it killed or was set to kill everyone except for one person. And what would it be like to be that person and all the responsibility that comes with it? And now more so worse, what if that person was a teenage girl? And all of where your brain is at when you're a teenager, that that suddenly comes into conflict with something that is so greater than you and kind of where your ego is a teen as a teenager.

• 41:57Chris Plante?

  It's a really good question and where they go with it with the game is wild. Um, it's also dealing with a whole bunch of other things. Like immigration and protest and really the past five years of kind of global culture. So much to put into one video game.

• 42:18Chris Plante?

  Caveat, or not caveat, I would say bonus, real anime vibes. Um, and I think this is what often intimidates people or scares people away. The trailers for this game, I think are a little intimidating. You want to say what just happened?

• 42:34Griffin McElroy?

  Sorry.

• 42:34Chris Plante?

  No, go ahead.

• 42:35Griffin McElroy?

  The listener at home won't appreciate this.

• 42:41Speaker 00

  The moment Plant said "real anime vibes", Griffin literally stood up from his chair, spun around,

• 42:50Speaker 00

  and sprang out the door. I think he's answering his front door.

• 42:53Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it has nothing to do with it.

• 42:54Chris Plante?

  I think he's spamming preorder. He's like, "Oh, I need a new, I need a new pillowcase."

• 42:59Speaker 00

  In the inner, "I'm going to GameStop. I'm gonna run, don't walk to my local GameStop."

• 43:04Russ Frushtick?

  It is, it's worth considering about a month ago, uh, cause I knew how highly Chris Plant loved 1000 Resist. Uh, I asked him, I was like, "Hey, so I have to play this game, right?" And I wasn't super eager, mostly because it's really rare that visual novels ever clicked with me. Um, and he specifically told me, "You probably shouldn't." And I appreciate that for him, and I also appreciate how much everyone who voted loves this game. And I, probably in a different time and a different space where I had a lot of time and a lot of reading time, I would take the time to do it, but this is not one of them.

• 43:40Chris Plante?

  How long, how long are, that's, I always hate that.

• 43:43Russ Frushtick?

  I think it's 12 hours.

• 43:44Chris Plante?

  Yeah, yeah, and it plays well on Steam Deck. I think this is just the difference between like where we were when we started The Besties and where we are now. We always believed in subjectivity, but I think there was like, deep down, a part of us that believed whatever our favorite game was, was objectively the best. And now I, I, I am at a point where I can realize, I can really love this thing, knowing it is a relatively small portion of the audience that will love it as much as I do. Um, where there are games on this list, like the one that this one's up against, that are on the flip side, I actually think it's a crime if you do not play Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, even if it is not my favorite game of the year, maybe it is. To not play it, I don't know what, I don't know what's up.

• 44:28Chris Plante?

  Like, yeah, it's, there's something there for everybody, in my opinion.

• 44:31Griffin McElroy?

  You have sold me on 1000 Exorcist. I have it downloaded on my Steam Deck. I've not dipped into it, because I don't know what kind of mood I should be in to approach this game.

• 44:40Russ Frushtick?

  That seemed depressing.

• 44:41Chris Plante?

  It's a good winter season game. I think it would be great for us to revisit, maybe, in the slower January. If folks are want, no, there's no such thing as slow. We have like, five games that we could be talking about right now that we're gonna have to talk about January 1st.

• 44:55Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 44:56Chris Plante?

  Anyway, let's move, um, Like a Dragon forward.

• 45:00Chris Plante?

  Listeners, please play both these games. They're fucking excellent.

• 45:04Russ Frushtick?

  So, okay, so those are the first four matches. We've got four more matchups coming after the break. Stay tuned.

• 45:14Griffin McElroy?

  I see four different cursors in this fucking Google right now.

• 45:17Chris Plante?

  That is a sign that it is time for water.

• 45:20Speaker 00

  They're all gone now. All the games are gone.

• 45:22Chris Plante?

  More?

• 45:23Russ Frushtick?

  More games? More games? Yeah.

• 45:26Chris Plante?

  You boy! Get me the finest game! The finest game, sir! That'll be fifty fins! You heard me, the finest game!

• 45:34Speaker 00

  Well, as you started inhabiting both of those characters' plant, you really weren't leaving a lot of meat on the bone for the rest of us. You were both Scrooge and the little boy. It was impossible. For I was trying to get in there, it's just no room on the wall. I guess I could be like, yes, I still have that bird! I'll open up my shop on Christmas Day!

• 45:52Griffin McElroy?

  We got Tactical Breach Wizards and we have Steam World Heist 2.

• 45:56Chris Plante?

  Shit.

• 45:57Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 45:59Griffin McElroy?

  Good, man. Good matchup.

• 46:01Chris Plante?

  Yeah, for a genre that does not get maybe as much love as some people would love in the besties, it doesn't matter when games this good come out because hot damn.

• 46:13Speaker 00

  Steam World Heist 2, I know this isn't the order we have them written on here in.

• 46:18Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 46:18Speaker 00

  But I'll say that that's another one that's exactly like Infinite Wealth where I've played, I think, almost every Steam World game, which is across many, many genres, right? And this one is so good that I just didn't want, I got it and I understood what was happening and I just couldn't stop playing it. It's just that, it's just so fun.

• 46:40Griffin McElroy?

  I didn't really care. Can you, can you put a, like a, a name on that, Juice? Like, can you figure out what it is?

• 46:45Speaker 00

  Steam World Heist 2.

• 46:47Griffin McElroy?

  What is it that Steam World Heist 2 does? Cause I also know this is not like a genre you particularly love.

• 46:53Speaker 00

  Yes, okay, so Steam World Heist 2, I think, uh...

• 46:58Speaker 00

  A lot of tactical games are very much about like running math and doing equations. I feel like in terms of I've got to figure out a really smart way of doing this. And if I don't do it a smart way, it'll fall apart quickly enough that it's not going to be fun anymore.

• 47:19Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 47:19Speaker 00

  For me, this game felt a little bit more like worms.

• 47:25Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 47:26Speaker 00

  Where even when the things didn't pan out, right? Like if I miss a shot with a laser, that's a bummer. But maybe my laser went and hit a gas tank that's behind another guy. And that exploded and blew this other guy to hell. And all the characters in this, you know, if you don't, if you don't haven't played what the, the specific subgenre of Steam World. It's a 2D tactics where you are going into a mission and usually stealing something and then exfiltrating or like killing something and exfiltrating. Turn based, you go in with a crew of usually like, I think one to four, four is about as big, I think, as you ever go in with. And you.

• 48:06Russ Frushtick?

  Sort of a platformer perspective.

• 48:08Speaker 00

  Platform perspective and each person, member of your crew, there's like sort of different roles that they can play. That they can pick up skills from the different jobs and sort of like blend them together as they become more advanced. So you're going in with like, uh, you know, a close up weapons expert and you know, somebody who's a little bit more about explosives and, and somebody who's more of a sniper. And then they can cross train in the different ones.

• 48:34Russ Frushtick?

  The cross training shit in this game is outrageous. The fact that you can pull any skill from any other character and spend resources to like, make any character a part sniper, part dasher, part whatever melee guy. Like all that stuff is so smart.

• 48:51Speaker 00

  And it didn't feel like you had to, um, when you would get a character to a certain point, you didn't feel like you had to like ditch them and start playing someone else to level them up. Because you could just sort of like. Start pushing them in a different direction. What the real limiting cap is the gear that you have, right? For like, how many, uh, how many shotgun guys is not about like, how many characters you have, but more like, how many good shotguns do you have that you could send them in with, you know?

• 49:16Griffin McElroy?

  Well, and that the, the structure of the game also incentivizes you to use everyone.

• 49:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:21Griffin McElroy?

  Because if you can go out and beat a bunch of missions without having to go home to home base, like you get this streak multiplier. And so you want to use everyone you have. And so you gotta, but it's so quick and so easy to make each character what you want them to be and, and play the game how you want to play it. Uh, and, and I think that is really the, the accomplishment of this.

• 49:41Speaker 00

  That's also got great, great, great music. I don't know the game this year, the music I've enjoyed more. Um, although there's a lot of really good contenders on this list. Um, I, uh, I think the story, it's like all, all pretty sharply written. It's pleasant. All the character designs are really good. And like, like they, they are evocative. Like you know what character you're looking at almost instantly. Like you get their whole vibe, um, from the design. Uh, I just think, I, I think it's fantastic.

• 50:09Chris Plante?

  That last bit, um, that Griffin said about the streak multiplier, I think is the kind of star of the game for me and the year for me of getting me interested in things that I normally wouldn't, which is I was motivated to learn why the game is actually fun and try all the things where I feel like often in games like this, we could talk about with metaphor and RPGs or same with like a dragon. I find a solution that works well enough and it gets me through a chunk of the game. And eventually I hit a barrier and during that time I never learned the rest of the game. So suddenly I just don't like the game anymore because it's not working how I thought it was. When in reality, the game's like, well, why aren't you doing blank, blank and blank? This teaching you to try so many things

• 50:52Chris Plante?

  early on, I think is what saves you later in the game. And again, the same thing with metaphors, job class and infinite wells, character progressions.

• 51:02Speaker 00

  I think this game does a really good job of letting you get super duper comfortable with one or two characters and then nudging you to try others.

• 51:09Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 51:10Speaker 00

  Because like, you can never get too frustrated because in the back of your head are like, well, I could bring in my guy. I got this one guy who's a level five sniper that could just come in and level this entire fucking board. Like, so, but I'll let him sit on the bench while I level up these other dudes.

• 51:23Griffin McElroy?

  Let's, let's hear about tactical breach wizards.

• 51:26Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I can speak to it.

• 51:27Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 51:29Russ Frushtick?

  You know, I was talking earlier about holistic games, games that kind of cross shut every angle. And I think there aren't many games that do it as well as Tactical Breach Wizards on our list this year. In addition to being like a really excellent isometric tactical game, which has elements of like Into the Breach, it has that vibe to it. It's also just so smartly written. It was the narrative that clicked most with me for the entire year. I was so invested in the small number of characters that you're interacting with, because they are written humanistically, they're funny, they're like deeply depressing at times,

• 52:09Russ Frushtick?

  but in like a very kind of welcoming way. They're very like exposed, I would say. And all of this is happening among missions that are like interesting and thoughtful. Like, how am I gonna overcome this unstoppable force of like 60 enemy guys in two turns, using all the powers that I have at my disposal? It is really quite a feat. I adored this game.

• 52:36Chris Plante?

  Great defenestration, right? A lot of defenestration in that game.

• 52:40Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, you do knock a lot of people out of windows.

• 52:42Chris Plante?

  Yeah. I think the writing is what stood out to me with this game. I mean, the puzzle solving and the combat is great. You're right. It's hard to pick anything that's like not working. But the writing has really stayed with me and what has me wanting to go back to finish it. I made it probably like three quarters of the way through.

• 53:02Russ Frushtick?

  And I think it's a good example of how a game can introduce very complicated concepts throughout and still make you, make sure that you're not losing the thread. Because you literally at times are connecting threads of all the different plot points using this like giant board.

• 53:17Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 53:18Russ Frushtick?

  Which has been used in a couple of games recently, and I think it's a really smart solution.

• 53:22Chris Plante?

  Yeah, there's both that.

• 53:23Speaker 00

  We should have had a best, we need to get that.

• 53:26Russ Frushtick?

  Best murder board.

• 53:27Speaker 00

  Yes, best murder board.

• 53:28Chris Plante?

  That can be one of our superlatives next week.

• 53:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, right.

• 53:30Chris Plante?

  And I thought the moment to moment dialogue is really good in that it is a move away from the Whedon-esque kind of like cheeky action dialogue. And I don't want to dunk on that too hard. There was a moment where everybody loved that, and I'm sure all of us briefly were into it. But The times have changed and this reminds me of like a return to the um, y'all remember that movie The Rock? And like that era of Jerry Bruckheimer?

• 53:59Russ Frushtick?

  This movie's way more, this game's way more self-aware than The Rock is.

• 54:04Chris Plante?

  Uh, I don't, I don't know about that. You have Nick Cage playing an action star at the time, which he had like never done. Or Con Air. My point is it's movies where they are being earnest with their story, but the characters have this kind of like laissez faire attitude that makes them seem like both funny and cool and approachable and likeable. While still being somehow grounded and not like, oh, these people don't actually even exist in this world.

• 54:31Speaker 00

  It's, it's really nice to have a game that has like this where it doesn't feel like it needs to jump out and punch you in the nose and say, this is what the tone of this thing is. Because like, it doesn't, it doesn't immediately say like, this is all a joke. Like this is a goofy thing that you can dismiss. Cause Tactical Breach Wizards is obviously like kind of tongue in cheek a little bit. And I think the tone is similar and then it lets you kind of decide like, I don't know. How, how much of a joke do you think it is? We're taking it pretty seriously. I don't know.

• 55:00Russ Frushtick?

  And eventually the, this narrative goes to places that are like really tackling incredibly heavy themes of religion and totalitarian regimes and you know, refugees and things like that.

• 55:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's, it's really, it's very impressive. I, I, yeah.

• 55:16Griffin McElroy?

  I really like both of these games. I, for, for me, Steam World, I think does enough kind of uh, different stuff. I, I'm very, very big into like progression systems in, in games and I think the way Steam World handles it is truly, truly genius. Uh, and so that, that kind of like kindling kept me coming back. Uh, you know, a bit more than I think Tactical Breach Wizards did, but I, I imagine this will be a pretty split vote.

• 55:43Speaker 00

  It's so hard. I, I know that we don't want to, I don't want to get into denigrating either of these games. I will say for myself personally, I know that I would have loved, I was loving like all of the narrative aspects of Tactical Breach Wizards. And I think that like, had I pushed on through, I probably would have really, um, I think I really would have clicked with that a lot. So I'm having to kind of get, do a little guesswork here just because I, the, the mechanically it just didn't grab me in the same way that, that Steam World did.

• 56:14Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, I, between these, I love both these games too. So it's incredibly difficult for me. Between these games of the ones that, of the one that'll probably like stick in my memory the longest, it's probably Tactical Breach Wizards because of the narrative. I didn't think the narrative in, uh, I didn't like the net personally, like the narrative in Steam World. I thought it was a little eh. But, um, I do like the gameplay probably more in Steam World. So it really is just, it's kind of arbitrary. I love both of these games, but I guess I'll.

• 56:44Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I, I, I would lean Tactical Breach Wizards, but my, I'm so close and the love, the arguments here are so strong and passionate for Steam World that I, I think we move it along to the next round.

• 56:58Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I would probably feel differently. I'm fine with that. Uh, I would probably feel differently if I had like, finished the narrative in Tactical Breach Wizards, which again, to, to Justin's point, I really want to do, but I haven't finished it yet. And it probably could have used a few more like progression hooks to carry people along. So I'm cool with Steam World being the.

• 57:18Chris Plante?

  I do hope that we get a sequel to Tactical Breach Wizards. Not that everything needs a sequel, but it feels like a game that, similar to Steam World Heist 1, you know, where it just a little bit more is gonna like, take it over that edge.

• 57:33Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 57:33Chris Plante?

  What a game though.

• 57:34Griffin McElroy?

  Um, good game.

• 57:36Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, we have another very thematic matchup here. We have Crow Country, which was a reader pick, and the Elden Ring DLC Shadows of the Erd Tree.

• 57:46Griffin McElroy?

  I'll hit Crow Country.

• 57:48Russ Frushtick?

  Cool.

• 57:49Griffin McElroy?

  That shit rules, man. I forgot that game came out this year. I didn't actually. I think it was in the top 10 that I submitted for our own sort of like perusal. Uh, but it did come out, I think, pretty early in the year. Uh, man, Crow Country is a, it is a.

• 58:05Griffin McElroy?

  PS1 inspired Resident Evil inspired survival horror game set in an amusement park where something absolutely horrible has happened and it is kind of up to you to figure out.

• 58:20Speaker 00

  Is it tank controls? It looks like tank controls.

• 58:23Griffin McElroy?

  No, you can change it. You can make it tank controls if you want it to be. There's several different control schemes. It is set in an amusement park called Crow Country and I mean, when you start the game, you know, nothing. You know that something, something bad has happened. There was an accident and you are there as a, a, an officer of the law and you are there to find somebody. That's about it. That's about all they give you. And as you go through the game, it makes you second guess basically everything. I think the narrative of this game is very, very cool. I think the, the way this game kind of like suspends you in a state of unease the whole time is, is a, is a really, really cool kind of vibe

• 59:08Griffin McElroy?

  that it accomplishes. I really love this genre of games and I think that Crow Country doesn't just like, you know, really nail what made Resident Evil one and two feel like as revolutionary as it did when those games first came out. I think it does like a better job in, in some cases. Really great writing, really great puzzles, a lot of really great like secrets and hidden things to go around and collect that, you know, make your character that small percentage stronger that they need to kind of like balance out the economy of the, of this survival horror genre.

• 59:48Russ Frushtick?

  Just visually, I don't think it looks like anything else that I've, I mean, I guess it kind of looks like Final Fantasy VII.

• 59:54Griffin McElroy?

  Yes, that's, I think the, the comparison I made is it, it feels like the ghost sector of the gold, the gold saucer in Final Fantasy VII a little bit. But at the same time, like it does get genuinely quite scary at times, which I appreciate. And the story takes all All kinds of twists and turns. I, I, I think this game flew way, way, way under the radar for some folks. Uh, I think it, it kicks ass and I think it is one of the, one of the more memorable games that I played this year. But again, like it also kind of hit me right in my, like right in the sweet spot of like the exact genre I like executed to the top of its, the top of its form while

• 1:00:39Griffin McElroy?

  also kind of like doing this PS1 era stuff better than a lot of other games that I've seen. Attempted.

• 1:00:46Russ Frushtick?

  Something interesting, just for people that should be aware, if you like the puzzles of these sorts of games, but don't like the combat, there is an option to play through this game without any combat at all and just puzzles, which is kind of an interesting approach.

• 1:01:02Russ Frushtick?

  It just removes enemies from the game. So it's, you're just left with like exploration.

• 1:01:07Speaker 00

  So it's just like a house, just like somebody's house.

• 1:01:08Russ Frushtick?

  It's like someone's house.

• 1:01:09Speaker 00

  It's like your house. Like my house has no enemies. It's like my house.

• 1:01:13Chris Plante?

  I'll add that where I think Tunic was a game that was trying to recreate the feeling of importing a game and also going through an instruction manual. This feels like a game about what it was like to see and read about and see the guides for games like Resident Evil back in the day. So the actual visual of the game, yeah, it looks like a game from the nineties, but on top of that, it has kind of visual artifacting layers that look like screenshots of a game from the nineties. So it doesn't, it looks like it is being almost filmed off of a crappy nineties TV or a photo had been taken of that screen. There are actual like guides, items placed throughout the game.

• 1:01:59Chris Plante?

  That feel like stuff you would see in the pages of those sorts of magazines. I think it just does a great job of creating a holistic experience of playing this sort of game or really remembering the experience of this sort of game. Versus, you know, when you go back and you play Resident Evil one and while it's still fun, it is not your memory of sitting down with a game pro next to you and a bottle of cherry Coke, um, when you're a kid.

• 1:02:26Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. No, it's very much hitting that for me. I don't know if somebody who was born after, who was not of gaming age in the year 1997, may not, like, it might not hit with them as well, but it really, really, it felt like a game that was made for me. And I like, it's, it's, I mean, yep, you got me. It's, you, you hit my goody list for that very reason, Crow Country. Well done.

• 1:02:50Russ Frushtick?

  We also have in this category, we have for this matchup, we have Elden Ring Shadow of the Erd Tree, which was the DLC to Elden Ring. It is the only DLC that we have in our bracket. I think that's okay. I played a ton of this DLC. I have 50 hours of the deal, something like that. I think when it first came out, there were very reasonable critiques about the structure of this DLC, specifically the idea that you had to find these esoteric items to make yourself arbitrarily powerful enough to fight the boss. And good for From Software, because they heard that note very loud and clear, and rebalanced a lot of that stuff such that you only have to

• 1:03:33Russ Frushtick?

  find a couple of the items, which if you're playing the game, you will just kind of stumble upon as a matter of course.

• 1:03:38Speaker 00

  But if you bought it on the disc.

• 1:03:40Russ Frushtick?

  But if you bought it on the disc, you're fucked. I don't even know if they'd had a disc for this game.

• 1:03:45Griffin McElroy?

  Probably not.

• 1:03:46Speaker 00

  Can't imagine, right?

• 1:03:48Russ Frushtick?

  This game is granted, it's a lot more Elden Ring. If you played Elden Ring, a lot of this is going to feel familiar to you, but it is also at times a refinement of what Elden Ring was doing. There are moments in this game that hit harder than anything that happened in Elden Ring. There is a-

• 1:04:04Griffin McElroy?

  Can you give me an example of one of those moments without spoiling it?

• 1:04:07Speaker 00

  Curse you, Bale!

• 1:04:11Russ Frushtick?

  There's a moment where you fight a dragon on top of a mountain. That is the coolest fucking thing I've ever done.

• 1:04:16Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, yeah, you do fight. Yeah, that dragon fight is pretty kick ass. Yeah.

• 1:04:19Russ Frushtick?

  I apologize for the attempt at the best voiceover performance I've heard all year was from the guy who says, curse you, Bale. I hereby vow, you will rue this day. Behold, a true Drake Warrior. So fucking cool.

• 1:04:34Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:35Russ Frushtick?

  The, the game is filled with like, really, really cool moments that do dope shit, to the point where I really do kind of wish that it was just released as a standalone, because I think it has a weird relationship with the main game and the baggage that, like, your character brings from the main game. I just, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to make people go through a very esoteric process of accessing the DLC and kind of juggling through every, all the gear that you've already found. When, I don't know, I feel like it would have been a better experience to have a standalone. But as a game, it, it rules. I had a blast.

• 1:05:13Griffin McElroy?

  I, I asked you that, Russ, because I genuinely, you know, as we got closer to this, this episode and, you know, it hit the VGA Gaudi like nomination. Like, I started to think about it and I, I feel like I can't remember that much about, I beat it. I like played through all of it. I did all the bosses. I, I explored the hell out of it. And I feel like I don't remember a ton about it. And I don't know if maybe that's, maybe I rushed it? Maybe if I rushed through playing it?

• 1:05:41Russ Frushtick?

  I think it might be also a consequence of like, it melds with your memory of Elden Ring.

• 1:05:47Griffin McElroy?

  Well, I don't know, maybe, but I remember a lot about Elden Ring. Of course, I did replay Elden Ring to get ready for this DLC.

• 1:05:54Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:55Griffin McElroy?

  I remember some of the bosses being very, very cool. For me, it, it, I feel like unfortunately, like the things that stick out in my memory are the things that I did not like about it.

• 1:06:06Speaker 00

  Well, we don't need to get into that.

• 1:06:07Griffin McElroy?

  No, I'm, yeah, I'm not saying I, yeah, I'm not gonna.

• 1:06:09Speaker 00

  I don't like either of these, but you don't hear me going, no, I didn't, I didn't like Cro Country. I might have liked it. I don't know. For those of you who have played, where are you leaning with these?

• 1:06:20Griffin McElroy?

  I would honestly go Crow Country. I, I, I have just so many, there are so many things that the Elden Ring DLC did that I wish they had done pretty differently. And these are two different things, completely different scale, different ideas, but I, I don't know. I feel like Crow Country hit more, more often than it missed.

• 1:06:42Russ Frushtick?

  As someone who played the, some of the Elden Ring DLC and also didn't play any of Crow Country, I will, and also doesn't want to say negative stuff, I would say that Crow Country should probably go on through. I'm cool with that. I loved Elden Ring, but I would agree. I don't think it did enough differently from the original Elden Ring to justify like a repeated presence.

• 1:07:10Speaker 00

  Now, Russ, if we're gonna start talking about negative stuff about it, you want to open those doors. Allow me. I got lots of stuff if you want to.

• 1:07:17Griffin McElroy?

  Okay, let's keep going. Let's keep rocking.

• 1:07:19Russ Frushtick?

  Congrats, by the way, to the readers for pushing Crow Country.

• 1:07:22Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, maybe before next episode, you guys could try Crow Country a little bit.

• 1:07:26Speaker 00

  Good. Oh, that's a really good idea. I will play it. I will play it.

• 1:07:30Chris Plante?

  Okay, next up, we have two twos. We have Dragon's Dogma 2 and we have Helldivers 2. Dragon's Dogma 2, what a game if you like living the D and D experience. And by living, I mean you like to go to shops and not always have money for what you need. You like to go on a quest and actually have to walk every step of it.

• 1:07:55Speaker 00

  You want to go adventure? You can't right now. You're too tired. You just walk the whole way to be a venture. You gotta lay down.

• 1:08:01Chris Plante?

  Take this horse cart. That'll get you there faster, except while you're asleep, you were attacked and everybody you know and love was killed.

• 1:08:10Griffin McElroy?

  It's fucking, it's like.

• 1:08:11Speaker 00

  You should have taken your horse's road. Why didn't you take a cart?

• 1:08:14Griffin McElroy?

  It's like the Oregon Trail. It very much is, there's a lot of stuff that happens between leaving and getting rich.

• 1:08:22Chris Plante?

  I love this game so much. I love how many memories I have of this game and how often I felt like a true hero in that like I got by by the skin of my teeth, quite literally. It was dark out. I thought that I had finally reached sanctuary after just the most brutal slog towards a glowing castle. And only when I got to the front of the castle did I realize, oh, it was glowing because it's infested with skeletons. What a gift this game. I love it. It is going up against Helldivers 2, and I would love somebody else to honor this game, which I also liked a lot.

• 1:09:05Griffin McElroy?

  I, I stand by this. They're gonna come out with a Dragon's Dogma 2 Darker Risen. Like, they're gonna, I pray to Christ they will come out with an enhanced version of this game.

• 1:09:15Speaker 00

  Or they'll make an Oregon Trail game. I actually want that now. Imagine, it's like, well, nope, you died again. Back to Boston.

• 1:09:23Griffin McElroy?

  Helldivers 2, I can't think of a lot of like, big multiplayer zeitgeist that I got swept up in at least, and Helldivers 2 is probably the peak of that. What, it came out like in February, right? This was like, pretty, pretty early on. Uh, I loved the original Helldivers. I didn't play a ton of it, but it was so madcap and so silly. It was, uh, like if Overcooked was a twin stick shooter, uh, and when I found out that this was going to be like a over the shoulder third person shooter, I was like, ah, I don't know how, I don't know how those ideas translate.

• 1:09:55Chris Plante?

  I think we were both kind of bummed, right?

• 1:09:57Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, right.

• 1:09:58Chris Plante?

  Played it a fair bit together in Austin, really got into the first one.

• 1:10:01Griffin McElroy?

  The idea of like, I have this Gatling gun and I turn around in a circle and I gotta dive under it every time. How is that gonna work in three dimension? Well, it does, cuz there's so many ways you could kill yourself and other people with Helldivers 2, and it is, uh,

• 1:10:15Russ Frushtick?

  It's so much funnier than the first game.

• 1:10:17Griffin McElroy?

  So, so, so fucking funny. Uh, I, I, I don't know why I bounced off. I guess, I played it for a couple of weeks, right? And with games like this, I have this unfair expectation of like, if it doesn't sink its teeth into me for two to three months like a Destiny does, like, it's maybe I didn't like-

• 1:10:35Russ Frushtick?

  I looked at my play clock for Helldivers 2. People talk about the fact that, oh, Helldivers 2 was a moment, flash in the pan, whatever. I looked at my play clock. I had 75 hours played in Helldivers 2.

• 1:10:45Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, that's wild. I'm checking my own-

• 1:10:46Chris Plante?

  You play Metaphor Refentazio in Helldivers 2. I love this. That rules.

• 1:10:51Russ Frushtick?

  And, and it's just, cuz that experience of like, the, that 30 minute, however long a mission takes somewhere, that loop- You know, Point, you were just talking about that like feeling of like surviving by the skin of your teeth. The entire game is designed around that same mentality and you're constantly doing that loop over and over again. Cause you're fucking out of ammo and a giant fucking pterodactyl appears out of nowhere. And you have to shoot it with a rocket launcher and it's your last shot before you die. And you do a crazy diving move, like those experiences happen time and time and time again. And it was so great to get people together again. It felt like a throwback to like my college days when I was actually playing multiplayer on a regular basis.

• 1:11:35Russ Frushtick?

  It was just such a delight.

• 1:11:37Speaker 00

  You mentioned the loop and I, and I think that that's actually one of the things that I thought was really cool about this game is that you, for me, at least for the amount I played it, I'd never really got the sense of the loop. It feels so dynamic that you're constantly sort of swinging. It never feels, to me at least, it, it never got like mechanical. It always felt like the situation was always sort of spinning wildly out of control. And you're just barely kind of keeping up with it. But if, it would, I always felt dynamic, you know what I mean? Like things were shifting so quick. The weapons that you have access to feel like such momentum shifters. That it's very cool to have the ability in a game to know like, I'm going to input one sequence and I'm going to turn this entire thing around.

• 1:12:21Speaker 00

  If we could just hold on for, you know, a few more seconds.

• 1:12:24Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it has that D and D feeling of like, if I can make this roll, even though you're not making rolls, you're actually aiming. Like I can be the hero of the moment and if I don't, we're all fucked. Like we all.

• 1:12:35Chris Plante?

  Yeah. Fresh, you did a good job here with this, this matchup because they both are kind of chasing similar things in terms of creating a story that you are telling yourself.

• 1:12:45Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:46Chris Plante?

  I do think Helldivers 2 is much better at getting to that with more players and faster. Dragon's Dogma 2.

• 1:12:58Chris Plante?

  I mean, yeah, we joke, but like, I, I wouldn't be surprised. You're right. There probably will be a better version of this game released in the next year or two. Um, I, I would not be surprised at all if we got that.

• 1:13:09Speaker 00

  There will be a, okay.

• 1:13:11Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:11Speaker 00

  There might be a version of this game released of Dragon's Dogma 2 that we would say is better to play. I guarantee there is this tiny sliver of Dragon's Dogma 2 perverts. Excuse my language. Who are getting exactamente what they want from Dragon's Dogma 2. And if you change a stitch of it, they're gonna go soft. Every single one of them, a guarantee. They, they, they're, they're getting it exactly how they like it.

• 1:13:39Chris Plante?

  Yeah, sure. Can, can I spoil where Dragon's Dogma 2 goes at the end? Absolutely not. Don't you dare.

• 1:13:45Speaker 00

  Please.

• 1:13:46Chris Plante?

  I will play this game someday. Don't you dare.

• 1:13:48Speaker 00

  They're gonna fix it. Like Griffin said, they're gonna fix it.

• 1:13:50Chris Plante?

  Okay, okay.

• 1:13:52Speaker 00

  Yeah. And I'm sorry to advance the nasty dogs. It'll be left cold.

• 1:13:55Chris Plante?

  Let's advance Helldivers 2 and get to the next one, because this next one's gonna fucking suck. Oh, no. I don't know how this happened.

• 1:14:03Speaker 00

  This sucks.

• 1:14:05Chris Plante?

  This.

• 1:14:05Speaker 00

  Okay, this one sucks.

• 1:14:07Russ Frushtick?

  I ran out of games.

• 1:14:08Chris Plante?

  I can't believe I praised you. Okay.

• 1:14:11Speaker 00

  This is.

• 1:14:12Chris Plante?

  Go ahead.

• 1:14:13Speaker 00

  Bellatro versus Metaphor Refontazio.

• 1:14:15Chris Plante?

  This fucking sucks. This is like, this could be the final round.

• 1:14:18Speaker 00

  Two more similar games that you can't really come up with.

• 1:14:22Russ Frushtick?

  Are there clowns in Metaphor Refontazio?

• 1:14:25Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:25Russ Frushtick?

  That's the closest I can think.

• 1:14:27Chris Plante?

  You're the clown.

• 1:14:27Speaker 00

  I'll do Metaphor Refontazio, you guys do.

• 1:14:29Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, God.

• 1:14:33Speaker 00

  Bellatro, I, I, let me start with Bellatro.

• 1:14:36Chris Plante?

  Please.

• 1:14:37Speaker 00

  Okay, because I've been playing Bellatro again on my phone.

• 1:14:41Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:41Speaker 00

  For no reason. I don't have any reason to play it. I've done the things I've done before in Bellatro. I'm doing them again on my phone. Guys, I'm probably playing hands. I've done exactly before. I don't care. Bellatro i-is.

• 1:14:59Speaker 00

  In 20 years, we will have conversations about the best games of all time. Bellatro should be rushed into that conversation. Bellatro should be in the Smithsonian. Bellatro is a game where you play poker and you collect incredibly powerful jokers and enchanted cards to play the devil's poker and you play poker with gods. You go up to the cosmos and you play poker so hard, you're not even using cards anymore. And I'm not really joking. You go beyond cards at a certain point, but it is also a poker game that your grandpa could

• 1:15:40Speaker 00

  maybe get at first until it makes him insane from all the numbers that it has in it.

• 1:15:46Russ Frushtick?

  It's the only poker game that'll make you worse at poker. If the more you play it, you get actively worse at poker.

• 1:15:52Speaker 00

  It'll make you, it'll make you better at poker until you start saying like, so Five of a Kind beats, no? How many points is Flush House? What do you mean I can't get a Flush House?

• 1:16:02Griffin McElroy?

  I, I am reminded of the conversation we had about Hades when it first came out, which is what that game did great. It's that it's fun instantly. And the first time you do the tutorial of Bellatro and then it's like, okay, um, you know how to play now, so go for it.

• 1:16:18Speaker 00

  Do you want to do this for a million years?

• 1:16:19Griffin McElroy?

  Do you want to do this forever and ever and ever? The answer then is yes. And then also you keep unlocking shit. And everything you unlock, like you see these, these different avenues that you could take a run down. And then you get excited about like, oh shit, can you imagine if I ever got those two jokers in my hand at the same time? And then you do. And then all of a sudden, just Hulkamania runs wild.

• 1:16:45Speaker 00

  And you have these, there, there are these revelations that you have about how Bellatro works that are as much a like unlockable item as you would find in any search action game. And you'll have these realizations as you're playing. And it's like, for example, there is a card, this is going to seem very obvious, but I'm using obvious example. There is a joker where, uh,

• 1:17:09Speaker 00

  Clubs and spades are counted as the same suit and hearts and diamonds. So it's basically reduces it to red and black. And you're like, well, wouldn't that make it too easy to get flushes? It's like, yeah, it does. So you should probably do that. And then the game, a little bit later is like, oh, by the way, if you play any flushes right now, I'm gonna fucking kill you.

• 1:17:31Speaker 00

  But wait, you told me flushes were like so easy, remember? It's like, yeah, I tricked you into just doing flushes. And now you're sunk.

• 1:17:38Russ Frushtick?

  And you should have read ahead.

• 1:17:40Speaker 00

  You should have read ahead and seen what was happening. Cause of course I was, and you forgot again, didn't you? That you can look at what the, the last blind is. You forgot again to check. Stupid.

• 1:17:51Russ Frushtick?

  What's great about Bellatro is that it is the first time there's been a game that other people, normies can play, that explains why I love Binding of Isaac without making them having to learn Binding of Isaac.

• 1:18:03Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, that's a really good point, Russ.

• 1:18:05Russ Frushtick?

  It is an onboarding for this genre in ways that no other rogue-like has ever been able to accomplish.

• 1:18:11Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 1:18:12Chris Plante?

  All right. What do you think is better? Moby Dick or chess?

• 1:18:19Chris Plante?

  You know, I think, I think it's, I think it's, it's a good question, you know? This is the worst possible showdown. Lays bare the broadness of video games and how absolutely silly.

• 1:18:32Speaker 00

  The futility of the exercise.

• 1:18:34Chris Plante?

  We have a game that is probably the best mechanical. If you made a fine machine game of the year, maybe of even more than that, as Hoops is getting to, versus a game that is about feelings and stories and characters and ideas. Not to say it doesn't have mechanics. It does, and I think they're quite good. But what makes Metaphor Refontazio special?

• 1:19:03Chris Plante?

  Is the people you meet along the way, right? And I think that makes it damn near impossible to talk through.

• 1:19:12Speaker 00

  If we had any integrity, this is the exact point where we would retire the exercise. Like, this is the exact point where we would retire. If we had any integrity as, like, creators, we understand the dissonance. Like, we get it.

• 1:19:25Chris Plante?

  Let me be clear.

• 1:19:26Speaker 00

  If we had any integrity, this is why we would say, like, we shouldn't do thi- We should open up the vault door, walk outside, see the daylight.

• 1:19:33Chris Plante?

  And we don't have the integrity.

• 1:19:35Speaker 00

  We don't. We won't do that.

• 1:19:37Chris Plante?

  Yeah, that, that won't happen.

• 1:19:39Speaker 00

  But we're acknowledging the dissonance. We're looking at it.

• 1:19:42Griffin McElroy?

  Can I just lay out Metaphor Refentazio?

• 1:19:44Chris Plante?

  Please.

• 1:19:44Griffin McElroy?

  Just to make a case for it. I think Atlas has done this type of game a lot of times now, right? Like, all the Persona games, um, I think of some of the Shin Megami Tensei games, like, this formula is something they've messed with a lot. I feel like Metaphor Refentazio is as close to nailing it as they have ever gotten. Um, Persona 4 Golden's probably my favorite game of all time. Other entries in this franchise are in my top 10. Um, I think the way that Metaphor Refentazio allows you to, you know, customize your characters to the nth degree and build a party and engage in combat in ways that feel meaningful to you.

• 1:20:28Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, I think the, the stories that it tells with each of its characters, I think the, uh, options that it gives you on how to spend your time, all of this stuff is literally firing on all cylinders better than they've ever, ever, ever done it before. And they do it in a, an original fantasy world that tackles, uh, really heavy real-world concepts, and the story is also about that, uh, pretty explicitly. It, it, it is a game in conversation with itself, which is a really annoying way to describe a game, I understand. But the fact that they were able to accomplish that much narratively in this enormous fucking framework is, I, I think, uh, a, a stack-

• 1:21:13Griffin McElroy?

  Accomplishment. This was a year of RPGs for like, I can't believe how many great RPGs we got this year.

• 1:21:23Griffin McElroy?

  And this was kind of the the the pinnacle for me. I keep I have trouble kind of like comparing it to Infinite Wealth.

• 1:21:32Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:32Griffin McElroy?

  Which is maybe not a super fair comparison because they are like about as diametrically opposed as two games in the same genre could be. I I I feel like there's some pacing issues with the game that hit pretty hard when you spend 80 hours with a thing.

• 1:21:55Griffin McElroy?

  But I think that what this game does right is is really, really fucking spectacular.

• 1:22:01Chris Plante?

  I think there are a number of people too who maybe have held off on this game because they know it's about like democracy or racism or other complex issues and avoided it under the assumption that it would not handle those things well. And what really knocked me over with this game is that it does raise questions like, hey, you know, like, what is the point of a democracy? How can it be used? And it doesn't come away with like easy answers. A big part of the game is there's a setup of a book in the game, a novel that two of the main characters return to again and again. And this idea of like can fiction and can art improve or change the world?

• 1:22:46Chris Plante?

  And it's so easy to imagine the most facile, annoying, you know, RPG ass conclusion from that and the game resisted at every turn. And that that's what will stick with me. This is a game where I will remember every character. I will remember every town I visited. I will remember every beat of the story. The problem-

• 1:23:09Griffin McElroy?

  It is also it is also a game that I feel like will have its own atlas. You know, side sequel, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal. And that will probably fix some of the, there are parts of this game that feel like they ran out of time and so they omitted like an entire dungeon. Like, there's some pretty, there's some gaps that, and I adore this game, but there are some parts of it that made me very, very frustrated.

• 1:23:34Speaker 00

  So wait, you're telling me that in this 80 hour game, there are parts where you're like, why all the rush?

• 1:23:39Griffin McElroy?

  Honest to God, Justin.

• 1:23:40Speaker 00

  Slow down.

• 1:23:41Griffin McElroy?

  The midpoint of this game, I was-

• 1:23:43Speaker 00

  This thing is hurtling out of control.

• 1:23:44Griffin McElroy?

  At the midpoint of this game, I would stick with it for as long as it would, as long as it would have me. Absolutely.

• 1:23:50Chris Plante?

  I, we always adjust the rules in situations like this. I think this would be a good situation where we could pick a winner or whatever, but I really think both these games are gonna be in the top 5. It feels really, really weird to force a decision now and not say that for the top 5 thing. I also think the really challenging part for us as a group to like make that decision, and it'll be easier when we're slotting it into the top 5 is the dark side of this conversation is if you are not the type of person who can invest, who invests yourself in this. So for me, like Bellatro, I admire it. When I am playing it, I'm so locked into it.

• 1:24:33Chris Plante?

  And then I feel just like, almost gross afterwards, because it feels like it literally is like a parasite that takes over my mind. I feel a loss of control when I play that game.

• 1:24:45Speaker 00

  Are you saying you have Pac-Man fever?

• 1:24:47Chris Plante?

  I'm saying, I have a case of Pac-Man fever. It's hard, it's hard for me to do that. And I know the same thing goes probably for some of us with Metaphor, where it's like, this is a waste of my time.

• 1:24:57Speaker 00

  Uh, yeah, the, yeah, so we can't do that. So Bellatro is better than Metaphor Refrontazio, so it goes through. I mean, we're not gonna, we're not gonna send it through with a pat on the back, cuz you guys like it. It's not as good as Bellatro, that's not how this works. It's a system, we have a, we have a system of laws.

• 1:25:19Chris Plante?

  I think the problem is the system would be a tie.

• 1:25:22Speaker 00

  But, no, it's not. One of them, one of us didn't like it all, and we all like Bellatro, so Bellatro-

• 1:25:28Chris Plante?

  I-

• 1:25:29Speaker 00

  Goes on through, right?

• 1:25:30Griffin McElroy?

  I, I feel.

• 1:25:32Speaker 00

  I'll even let Bellatro lose, but I'm not gonna send him two games through, guys. Come on.

• 1:25:37Russ Frushtick?

  Well, we've done that in the bonus bracket episodes. We do carry stuff forward.

• 1:25:42Griffin McElroy?

  We could drop.

• 1:25:43Speaker 00

  Not from 16 to five, guys.

• 1:25:45Russ Frushtick?

  That's true. That, we've never done that.

• 1:25:47Speaker 00

  That don't work.

• 1:25:48Russ Frushtick?

  You know, I think the, the argument, here's the argument. My brain, and I think Hoops' brain to some extent, is not the proper shape and size to absorb a game in a fun way. Like Metaphor Refontazio. To the same token, like, I also struggled with Infinite Wealth, which is a game I think we all loved, but like, didn't click with me in the way that everyone's here did. The question, I think, is, is the Besties Game of the Year list the Besties Game of the Year list? Or is it, you know what I mean? Is there like a?

• 1:26:18Griffin McElroy?

  A bigger, a bigger, broader thing. Yeah, no, that's always the thing. I am fine with Bellatro. I'm fine with Bellatro moving forward and Metaphor not moving forward. I'm uncomfortable with Metaphor Refontazio coming in 16th place or whatever. I don't think it deserves that, but it's also not my favorite game like this this year.

• 1:26:37Speaker 00

  Can we, can we, can we make a, can we make a, uh, like a concession here? The, if we get to the end and we still feel this way, then we can absolutely.

• 1:26:50Griffin McElroy?

  Sure.

• 1:26:50Speaker 00

  Bump it up. I don't think it, I don't feel good about saying right now it gets a stay of execution. If it wants to come back from Exile Island.

• 1:26:59Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:59Speaker 00

  After it's been, but it does have to die here.

• 1:27:01Russ Frushtick?

  Is not where it should be. I think, yeah, that makes sense.

• 1:27:04Griffin McElroy?

  Get down to four and then there's always adding one more.

• 1:27:07Speaker 00

  There's just, here's what I'm saying is, there is a lot of really good games on this list and I am uncomfortable saying it is in the top five.

• 1:27:14Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:14Speaker 00

  Right now, at this point.

• 1:27:15Griffin McElroy?

  That's fine.

• 1:27:16Speaker 00

  Because it isn't. That's the only reason, though. Other than that, there's no other reason.

• 1:27:19Griffin McElroy?

  Looking at my shared playtime at Bellatro across the three platforms I have played it on now, uh, it's, yeah, like, yeah, let's do Bellatro too. I'm fine with that. That's a good fucking game, man.

• 1:27:30Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. Bellatro, congratulations.

• 1:27:33Griffin McElroy?

  All right, top eight, we got Astro Bot, we got Animal Well, we got UFO 50, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Steam World Heist 2, Crow Country, Helldivers 2, and Bellatro.

• 1:27:43Russ Frushtick?

  Wow. Heavy hitters.

• 1:27:46Griffin McElroy?

  And we're gonna pit them all against each other next time. I can't wait.

• 1:27:49Speaker 00

  Let's try to play, I will, I'm, I wanna try to, I feel like I've spent a good amount of time with all these in the top eight. I probably need to go accept Crow Country.

• 1:27:59Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:59Speaker 00

  I'm gonna try to spend some time. That is a, that is an audience selection that I can cop to, but it did get through, so I'm gonna give it, I'm gonna give it a shot.

• 1:28:06Griffin McElroy?

  We should revisit Helldivers 2 to see where it's at.

• 1:28:09Speaker 00

  That's actually a pretty fucking good idea too, Plan, because it was marred early on by a lot of technical, technical hiccups for me. And the fact that there wasn't, is there transportation now? I understand there's bikes. That's all I ever wanted.

• 1:28:21Griffin McElroy?

  There are mechs.

• 1:28:22Speaker 00

  Mechs, fucking great, dude. What? Yeah, game of the year. Easy. Okay.

• 1:28:28Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, so we have our top eight. We're gonna be doing part two next week, which is very exciting. I'm pumped to narrow it down further. To that end, I wanted to thank the patrons who have been with us through the year. Thank you so much. We have a new Bracket Battles episode, which is live currently. But I wanted to thank these patrons. We have Killer Andreas, we have Kevin, we have Matt, and we have Holly. Thanks, y'all. We really appreciate you. You can go to patreon.com/thebesties and sign up if you haven't yet. We're a ton of great content there waiting for you. And I think that's gonna do it.

• 1:29:06Griffin McElroy?

  Yes, Justin had to leave to go pick up his kids because this episode is ungodly long. So join us again next week for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?