Revenge of the French RPG!

This week, the boys have two new games to share with you. First, Griffin and Plante go deep into the wilderness of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, an exceptional RPG. Then, Hoops and Frush report on their journey in Revenge of the Savage Planet.

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

• 0:00Russ Frushtick?

  Do you guys think I could start saying capiche and get away with it?

• 0:02Speaker 01

  Try it. Let's hear it.

• 0:04Russ Frushtick?

  Well, you gotta say something. Oh, wait, no, I have to say something.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  No, no, I'll say something and then you just append capiche at the end.

• 0:09Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  Hey, how do you, uh, how do you like your steak?

• 0:15Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, well, you know, I gotta go medium rare capiche.

• 0:18Griffin McElroy?

  I don't actually think that that's a good use of capiche. I don't think you would use capiche to mean like-

• 0:23Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I think it needs to be like a-

• 0:24Chris Plante?

  Yeah, you need a second level dialogue, right? It's like, it's like, hey, uh, would be a shame if something ever happened to your puppy. I'm gonna go play, uh, some tennis.

• 0:33Griffin McElroy?

  I'm gonna draw a line here. I'm gonna say you can say capiche if you say it right, but you can't do the voice. The voice is no good, Russ.

• 0:40Chris Plante?

  No?

• 0:40Griffin McElroy?

  No.

• 0:41Chris Plante?

  Is that not, you can't do like, uh, "Ay, I'm gonna go get a big oggie." Like, that's not my-

• 0:47Speaker 01

  This is really interesting.

• 0:48Russ Frushtick?

  Ogie?

• 0:48Griffin McElroy?

  This is really, really-

• 0:49Chris Plante?

  Is that not okay anymore?

• 0:50Russ Frushtick?

  Say oggie?

• 0:51Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, so threaten me, Russ. Threaten me and put a capiche on it.

• 0:55Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, Griffin, you're gonna sweep, you're gonna sweep with the fishes, capiche?

• 1:00Griffin McElroy?

  I'm gonna say no, Russ, you can't do it. Maybe practice and check in again next year, um, but you, what you just said was the least intimidating thing I've ever heard.

• 1:10Russ Frushtick?

  It said sweep with the fishes, first of all.

• 1:11Griffin McElroy?

  You said sweep with the fishes, which now it sounds like a baby mobster is threatening me.

• 1:20Russ Frushtick?

  Capiche?

• 1:22Speaker 01

  Just throw it in once per episode. We'll get there.

• 1:43Speaker 01

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

• 1:46Griffin McElroy?

  Bonjour, this is Griffin McElroy. I know the best game of the week.

• 1:49Speaker 01

  Merde! Just, du m'appelle Christophe.

• 1:54Chris Plante?

  Get video game.

• 1:56Griffin McElroy?

  Are you doing the French? I thought I was the only one doing the French game.

• 2:00Chris Plante?

  No, I, I, I, I, no, I'm doing some Claire Obscura.

• 2:03Griffin McElroy?

  Okay, fantastic. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

• 2:04Chris Plante?

  And I'm doing, well, we can't talk about it.

• 2:06Griffin McElroy?

  Russ, what's your, Russ?

• 2:06Russ Frushtick?

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

• 2:09Speaker 01

  Welcome to the besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. This week, we're going to be talking about Claire Obscura, two games that really challenged one's ability to recall names of games. We're talking about Claire Obscura Expedition 33 and Revenge of the Savage Planet?

• 2:29Griffin McElroy?

  That sounds good to me, man. Yeah, dude.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, but before we get into that, Chris Plant, anything in the headlines you want to mention?

• 2:38Chris Plante?

  Hey, um, we got some news that we want to talk about real quick. So Polygon got sold and there's a whole bunch of stuff that happened. Um, a number of people, uh, lost their jobs. I'm no longer at Polygon. Uh, and that is okay for me. I'm much worried about everybody else. Um, but there are still people there. It's still alive. Our beloved Russ Frushtick is there. You should still go and visit. It does not need a protest if you're not going to Polygon.com. It is a wonderful spot still. There's one thing that I do want to be like super clear on though. Besties did start at Polygon a long, long time ago. We straight up own this thing.

• 3:19Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 3:20Chris Plante?

  We got, we took this thing back. We said, no, no, no, no, that's, that, that pie is too tasty.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  The writing was, the writing was on the wall.

• 3:28Chris Plante?

  Yeah, we knew.

• 3:30Russ Frushtick?

  Five years ago.

• 3:32Chris Plante?

  And, and we, and we got it back. So this thing, we-

• 3:36Russ Frushtick?

  Basically during the Spotify era.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Tried to buy, buy, ladies Spotify tried to lay down quite a few ducats to, to buy this show, but we said not for sale.

• 3:46Russ Frushtick?

  No, no, no, no.

• 3:46Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no. No more seasons of this show for you.

• 3:51Chris Plante?

  And then a year later, they said, ooh, dodged a bullet on that one.

• 3:54Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  And then we said, we'll buy this show back for you. And they said, that won't be necessary.

• 3:59Russ Frushtick?

  Have it.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Check the trunk of your car. We've loaded it up for you and strapped it in already. Start driving. Jet clamp it.

• 4:08Chris Plante?

  You, you don't need to worry about this thing. This thing, it's all ours. It is, you are stuck with us.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 4:14Russ Frushtick?

  That's right.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  So let's take a break and then we'll talk about video games.

• 4:21Griffin McElroy?

  Okay, we're gonna be talking about Clear Obscure and I want to make-

• 4:24Russ Frushtick?

  Before we do, let me just say, when I was trying to, we were talking about games you can't remember the names of. The way I remembered it as I was filling in the rundown was I typed into Google, "French JRPG."

• 4:34Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, that'll do it. I mean, French JRPG is, I mean, you're literally saying French-Japanese role-playing game.

• 4:41Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 4:42Griffin McElroy?

  So you can see how that is a confusing-

• 4:43Speaker 01

  It's a darker French near. It's near noir.

• 4:48Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, wow. That's pretty good, Juice. I'm like, "You fucking stinker."

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Starring Daniel Radcliffe.

• 4:55Griffin McElroy?

  This one is, it gets the, it gets the old seal of approval from yours truly. "I am very much enjoying Clear Obscure Expedition 33." I'm excited to talk about it.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  All right. Ah, here, let me lay it out for you, everybody. There is this, there's this world where when you get to a certain age, it's a number, you die.

• 5:18Griffin McElroy?

  Any number?

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Any number that, no, it's a number that's on a big rock.

• 5:21Griffin McElroy?

  Painted there by the-

• 5:22Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, but like, if you were to pick any number, just, I'm gonna pull one out from the, 33.

• 5:27Speaker 01

  Let's say, for example, 33, and that's as long-

• 5:29Griffin McElroy?

  It's so funny that you picked that number, because that is the exact number.

• 5:32Speaker 01

  And here, here's the deal, right? This sucks. Everybody hates this. And they hate the lady that does this to them, and they're mad at her. So they send people over to the island where they see the big rock. Every once in a while, they send an expedition over there to basically ask her to cut it out. Because we do not like it, okay? There's not that many people. Some people don't think the expeditions are a good idea anymore, because there have not been successful to this point. But everybody agrees, like, or at least a lot of people think that we should keep trying. And it's, uh, the psychology of this world-

• 6:04Russ Frushtick?

  And are they, like, debating her, or what is the methodology for getting her to cut it out?

• 6:08Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, no one's really been particularly successful, so there may be debate, there may be, um-

• 6:13Russ Frushtick?

  They just leave and they're sad, or?

• 6:15Griffin McElroy?

  They are killed, uh, on the way by the many, many monsters.

• 6:18Russ Frushtick?

  Got it, got it.

• 6:19Griffin McElroy?

  Right. Yeah, it's, it is a really, it's a heavy setup for a game, I will say. The first hour and a half, two hours of this thing are a rough ride. Thematically, I do thi- I, I really enjoy-

• 6:33Speaker 01

  And fun, funatically, just from a fun ga- like reviewers till interactivity perspective, it's a little bit-

• 6:39Griffin McElroy?

  It is on the light side, for sure. Uh, I do think that it is a really, really fascinating setup for a game because it does this cool thing that happens in like sort of apocalyptic fiction sometimes. Where, uh, like humanity's relationship with death has changed to a degree where, uh, like sacrifice and duty and purpose become like sort of de rigueur. And so you have basically a team of hard asses who have been training their whole life to sacrifice their lives to try and stop this, uh, you know, unfair thing from, from happening every year.

• 7:16Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, and it really makes the characters pop, I feel like. And then of course, as soon as the expedition sets off and things go really fucking sideways really fast, then they have to struggle with like, okay, now is that all just kind of a bunch of talk? Or are we actually gonna try and push through this thing? Um, I, I think the writing and acting and everything have been, uh, I've played about 15, 20 hours so far and it has been superb.

• 7:40Russ Frushtick?

  And, and would you describe, I mean, JRPG description notwithstanding, like, is it the turn-based, like, traditional Final Fantasy?

• 7:48Griffin McElroy?

  But it has big Final Fantasy, big Persona vibes, just in terms of like, uh, how it, how it controls, how it feels, how combat flows and-

• 7:56Speaker 01

  And big Mario RPG vibes.

• 7:58Griffin McElroy?

  Absolutely. There's a lot, a lot, a lot of emphasis placed on, on timing. You can do the thing where like you come up on an enemy in the overworld and hit it to like get a jump start on the battle. And then there's constant sort of opportunities to, um, influence-

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Dodge or parry.

• 8:14Griffin McElroy?

  Dodge or parry or do like, uh, QTEs with your special attacks to like maximize how much damage that they do.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  Some smart ways to make that, that more dynamic too, like the aiming and stuff, things like that, that are a little bit more like fidelity, I think, in the more turn-based, uh, structure.

• 8:30Griffin McElroy?

  The, a complaint I've seen, uh, a lot about the game, I, it is pretty, there's difficulty settings, but I mean, on the standard difficulty, which is what I'm playing on, it is pretty hard. It is not a, if you, uh, if you don't do a good enough job with these like, uh, QTE things or the dodging and parrying, like you're gonna have a hard time making progress in this one.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  In 2025, I find that when I like have a wipe in a game like this, which happened to me pretty early on, there is a little bit of like, oh, this doesn't seem right. Like- Like, I've lost. Guys, we're not supposed to let this happen. This should have been focused tested out. I've, I've lost the game.

• 9:05Griffin McElroy?

  I kinda like it. Like, if you die, it starts you off like five seconds before you got into the fight. So death is not like a super punishing thing. Uh, but it does set a sort of stakes where when you are able to parry an enemy's attacks, it feels like Sekiro good. Like, it feels, you do a counterattack, you earn this, uh, you earn AP, which is kinda like the currency you spend to do your, uh, your, your special attacks in the game. It's a really important resource and you get more of it by parrying. Uh, dodging is a little bit easier than parrying, but you don't necessarily get that extra resource or do like counterattacks for, for, for doing it. So you kinda have options, uh, in battle. And then each character that you play as has their own sort

• 9:45Griffin McElroy?

  of like mechanic that you are managing, uh, to, to like, you know, maximize their effectiveness in battle. Gustav is the first character you pick and as he attacks, he builds up this charge that he can release in this one like super attack. And then there's Lunay who can cast spells to earn these elemental, uh, like points that she can spend to like influence her attacks. Every character has like their own thing going. So there's like, combat is fun. And I think for me, if in a big RPG like this, like if the combat is enjoyable and you want to do it, that is a huge credit to, you know, the design of the game and, you know, probably means I'm gonna stick with it a lot longer than I would normally.

• 10:24Chris Plante?

  It keeps layering on, on top of that. So not only does each character play quite differently, there is this painting system where you are like effectively painting elements onto your enemies and you can spend points both to paint onto them, but then you can consume them with other moves to deal extra damage. So you're basically like, oh, I'm layering on lightning and fire and then I have a move that I know that is going to really be powerful when it pulls from that. And also that move is even more powerful if it is like charged up and I can have another character feed into that charge. So I'm basically creating like this massive explosion of damage.

• 11:07Griffin McElroy?

  It's all about sort of synergizing the character's different abilities to build up to one massive fucking hit. And it feels really, really good every time you do it.

• 11:17Chris Plante?

  I will say for people who hear the Sekiro comparison, and that does not sound ideal. Hey, welcome. You're a lot like me. I was really struggling with this game. I got into it. I like completely fell head over heels at the start. The music is incredible. The story is heavy, but as y'all said, the writing and performances are quite beautiful and subtle and delicate in a way that you don't see very often in any video games, not just this genre. But then to go from that into, I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, and it's gonna be timing based. And it sounds like there might have even been, I don't know if there still are, issues with that timing depending on the frame rate that you were

• 12:00Chris Plante?

  at. I've heard people saying like, make sure that you're locked at 60, because it can be off.

• 12:05Griffin McElroy?

  I've heard people say like, don't use a Bluetooth controller, because it's like-

• 12:09Chris Plante?

  It's like all of that, yeah. So I finally, I made a few changes. I switched to story mode, which is still challenging.

• 12:17Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, right.

• 12:17Chris Plante?

  It's like, you can do that and still have a nice time. You're not like depriving yourself of the game, which is great. The other tips are, the dodge that Griffin mentioned is a great way of learning the parry.

• 12:31Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 12:31Chris Plante?

  So like, when you go into a fight and you aren't familiar with an enemy yet, just always start with a dodge to learn how the tempo works.

• 12:40Russ Frushtick?

  Kind of Dark Souls-y.

• 12:41Chris Plante?

  Yeah, pretty forgiving. And then once you've learned it, you will just instinctively, at least in my case, I was like, oh damn, okay, I'm just ready to parry.

• 12:48Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. It also actually sounds like Lies of P, which is funny, because they're both like, aesthetically inspired by the same era.

• 12:56Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. A lot of really good progression hooks, too. Like, you find these, they're called piktos, and they're just like little modifiers for your character that make it like, so if you do a parry, you earn an additional AP. And then you kind of master those as you equip them, so that you can keep their abilities like equipped even when you don't have that particular thing. You earn attribute points, and there's different weapons you can upgrade, and there's, there's different skills that you can spend points on to learn. Like, there's a lot, a lot going on here, but I mean- It it's all works to it's so cohesive in a way that like, I don't know, man, I I am enjoying this much more than the past few Final Fantasies, which I think is a fair comparison, given that that is sort of a core, a core inspiration for for what they did here.

• 13:41Russ Frushtick?

  So this all sounds like incredibly my shit, which is rare, because I don't generally like turn-based RPGs, but the ones that I do like are the action combat ones, and this certainly checks that box. The the question I have, which is the whole other half of the game, is do you do you find the like writing narrative to be like?

• 14:03Speaker 01

  That actually ties in.

• 14:04Russ Frushtick?

  Pulling you along.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  Can I say that ties in to actually what I was gonna say, right? Because like, normally, I don't like a lot of, I can get bummed out if there's too much talking and not enough action.

• 14:16Russ Frushtick?

  And even talking is fine if it's, as long as it's not like, the crystals need to blah, blah, blah.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  So this is the thing, right? It's the the issue that I have with video games is that you're a video game. And if you want to communicate a story like a movie, then you gotta be at least as good as a bad movie. You know what I mean? Which a lot of games don't reach that standard.

• 14:32Russ Frushtick?

  Straight to Netflix quality.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  Yes. And but this exceeds that. For me, I found all the acting, writing, just the world being in the world like very engrossing. And like, by the time that you had like are ready for this expedition, I think it absolutely does its job of making you feel like I actually am gonna go put a stop to this. I think I'm actually gonna go.

• 14:55Griffin McElroy?

  They set it up. They set it up real nice for you. The whole thing, I also think there's something really unique about a a French developer, Sandfall, first project, apparently like a miraculous sort of like coming together of just kind of random people. The the composer they found on SoundCloud, the writer, I think, like auditioned to do voice acting for it and then just ended up like being brought on as a writer. It's sort of like this wild story of.

• 15:29Russ Frushtick?

  He was like, one more thing, I also can write English. And they're like, amazing.

• 15:32Griffin McElroy?

  You're on.

• 15:33Russ Frushtick?

  You're hired.

• 15:33Griffin McElroy?

  But like, all of them come together to make this game in Unreal Engine 5, and it looks and feels and sounds fucking fantastic. And I feel like that is not. That is not particularly common. And this whole thing is also, you know, dripping with like French culture and aesthetic, which is not something I'm particularly versed in at all. French folklore too, like things I do not, straight up do not know about because I have not played a game sort of inspired by this setting. And that is very, very cool.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  It's also cool. Like it just looks cool, man. Like, and it's like, that's rare because I feel like so many games try to be cool. You know, they're trying to attain that or trying to get you in gross. It's, it's sort of like you were talking about how the world has been affected by the, this, like, everybody dies at this, this point.

• 16:23Speaker 04

  The gamage.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  There's gamage. And you see that the, the way that they have like accepted this. And it's interesting because I think seeing characters in that, in that way, and sort of like accepting that fate, rather than a lot of like wailing and gnashing of teeth and being told how tragic this story is and being told how like, how terrible this is. By seeing their resignation, I think as a player, it leaves room for you to be like, well, if they're not going to be angry, I'm going to be angry about it. This sucks. Let's go fix it. And by leaving you room, I think that it leaves you room to get invested rather than telling you why you should be invested.

• 16:59Chris Plante?

  I, it reminds me a lot of Children of Men and Annihilation.

• 17:05Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. Annihilation is the, is the thing I kept coming back to.

• 17:07Chris Plante?

  Yes. And, and what, what both of those do quite well is they put you in media res, which is like, you come into it and everybody else is way ahead of you. And exactly like you said, hoops, like you're having to emotionally catch up, which actually pulls you in. You are like leaning in to be like, why are they not feeling like I am? Why, why am I not that? You are filling in those emotional blanks. I think the other thing that does well with the movie comparison to hoops is By being in meteorite, you aren't getting the traditional exposition dump that so many video games have. I, again, I'm going to talk about in the, at the end of this is 100

• 17:48Chris Plante?

  line, which is awesome. But you don't even get the ability to like save the game until two hours in because you have to meet every single character and get the entire, you know, premise of the story.

• 18:00Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. What's brilliant about this setup is that, you know, they live in this last city, which is basically Paris, that has been destroyed, but the rest of the world is kind of gone as far as they know. And so when these expeditions go out, they do not come back. So as soon as you leave on the expedition, you are, the characters are learning things about the world as you are learning about them. So this feeling of like, this world's so strange. There's so much going on here that I don't understand. As soon as you set off on the expedition, now the characters are feeling that way, too. And it really, it really pulls the whole thing together.

• 18:31Chris Plante?

  It is cool on that, like, early on, you go to an area of the world that's just underwater.

• 18:37Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 18:38Chris Plante?

  And people are just like, but nobody really mentions it. You're just kind of like...

• 18:42Griffin McElroy?

  There's fish swimming through the air and no one says shit. You're like, okay, cool. How strange.

• 18:48Chris Plante?

  Yeah. It's like, yeah, you've seen so much crazy shit at this point that it's like, ah, whatever, man. Like, we just need to keep moving. We need to go find our friends.

• 18:56Griffin McElroy?

  It's also funny. Like, there's a lot of humor in, in the game that, that shockingly hits. And a lot of it is like, pretty absurdist. You meet this giant character named Esquie eventually, who is just this giant who wants you to save his, rescue his precious stones from his shithead neighbor. And he has like, all of these incredible powers, but he won't use them to help you out because he gets too tired. Like, and that is also happening while you're trying to stop everyone on earth from dying when they turn 33 years old. Like, it's, it's really, it's a really great contrast. I'm, I'm loving this game, man. I cannot, I cannot put it down. Mostly because mechanically, I think the hooks are just so strong.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  Let me know when you guys are, I'd like to say something at the end of the conversation.

• 19:46Griffin McElroy?

  No, I'm done. I'm done. I want to hear it.

• 19:50Speaker 01

  What's up, David Cage? It's me, Justin McRoy. Listen, man.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  The game has changed, brother.

• 19:58Griffin McElroy?

  The bar is much higher now.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  The bar is much higher now, David. You can't just release a game. You can't just release a game now, David, because we know some French people know how to talk. You know, I'm saying, brother, you gotta get some localization assistance, buddy. You got to. You got to. It's not a French thing. It's a David Cage thing.

• 20:19Griffin McElroy?

  It's a David Cage issue.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  Game is over.

• 20:21Griffin McElroy?

  Je suis l'assassin.

• 20:24Speaker 01

  No, that's Muzzy, not David Cage. I keep telling you. Sorry, I got them mixed up. All right, let's take a break. We'll come back. We're gonna head on over to the Savage Planet and let it enact its revenge.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  So, uh, Revenge of the Savage Planet is the sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet, which was, I really, I completely forgot existed, and I really enjoyed it. We talked about it on the show.

• 20:55Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it's a fun, like-

• 20:56Speaker 01

  It was five years ago.

• 20:57Griffin McElroy?

  It's like a fun double A sort of, uh, metroidvania. I feel, I feel it slots into that.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  First light crafting, yeah. Yeah, light crafting and a lot of stuff. Yes. Um, Revenge of the Savage Planet is a, uh, I would say probably sillier, lighter, a little bit goofier, uh, but not completely reinvented take on a similar idea where you are blasted off to a really strange, very, um, physically, uh, uh, Tactile. tactile world, very colorful world. Uh, you are supposed to set up a colony there, but you have, uh, you know, classic, you know, none of your tools and none of your equipment made it, and you gotta start rebuilding stuff with the 3D printer that you have and just

• 21:45Speaker 01

  sort of like scavenging this planet for, uh, resources, uh, but the, the corporate overlords that sent you have kind of like abandoned you. So your only assistance is an AI buddy named Echo that you can kind of customize with like the voice or how often they speak, et cetera. So pretty quickly, you're blasted off with like- Uh, very little in the way of equipment and you start getting a scanner and then you start getting the ability to capture animals and send them back to base to study them.

• 22:16Russ Frushtick?

  You did skip over the one big, probably the biggest change between this and the first game was that it's a third person.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, that's true. I kept looking for a way to fix that, but they meant to do it. It is a third, it is a third person game. It is a lot more about the like, I think silliness of like running around this world. It feels, I thought at least pretty good to run around, but it is a, it's a big playground. Like, and, and even when you go to the door of your habitat to leave, it says that the prompt is go play outside. Like it's, it's, they, they want this to be a big fun world. The story, well, and, and stuff such as it is. Well, we can talk about that a little bit later, but that's the general pitch. Russ, what did you think?

• 23:00Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I, I think for what it's, it sounds like you did not care for the switch to third person, whereas I thought it was actually a big improvement.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  No, I don't, I don't know. I just prefer first person, you know, I, you know, I thought that it was like a, I didn't know if it was an option, I guess, at the beginning. I got used to it and I think it makes more sense.

• 23:17Russ Frushtick?

  There was actually a joke at the beginning of the game. I put that in quotes, but uh, where the, you fall out of your spaceship, whatever it is. And like, they say a line about like change in perspect, you know, falls like this can result in a change in perspective. And then the camera pulls back.

• 23:33Speaker 01

  I think that they're really intending that people remember that five-year-old dusty double A video game.

• 23:38Russ Frushtick?

  Somehow I did.

• 23:38Speaker 01

  Well, good, Russ. You host a video game podcast. I'm glad to hear it. And your retention from video game minutias off the charts.

• 23:48Russ Frushtick?

  That's true. What I would say is I think for me, I found the third person to be better because first like, does a better job of putting you in the world itself.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  It would be a lot harder to do a lot of this platforming.

• 24:01Russ Frushtick?

  And there's also like, they added a bunch of stuff where you can like slide and then do like jumping slides and double jumps and things like that. And it just makes the whole thing feel closer to what I think they were going for, which is like a Mario sixty-four kind of vibes of just like fucking around in a 3D environment.

• 24:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I was gonna push back against that, but it's actually pretty close. I mean, there's like giant mushrooms. You're running or you're getting a good head and steam, throwing yourself around like it's, yeah.

• 24:29Russ Frushtick?

  The jump feels fucking great. Like there are aspects of this that I think feel great. There are aspects that I don't think feel great, but just like the mobility stuff I think feels really, really good.

• 24:37Speaker 01

  What do you think does not feel great?

• 24:39Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, gunplay, shooting things. I mean, this gets a little easier as you get more upgrades. It just didn't feel very impactful to me.

• 24:49Russ Frushtick?

  And also just the like, I mean, I would say my biggest complaint with it is the way it handles gating of like progression is oftentimes like, complete this fucking meaningless side quest.

• 25:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're talking about the biggest bummer I had with this thing.

• 25:05Russ Frushtick?

  Yes.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  So the, the, the voice, your echo, your assistant, a lot of the ways in which like you relate to it is like, and I mean, by a lot, I mean, like a lot, a lot is you go to a quest marker and then it will show you the thing that you cannot interact with. And then it'll say, okay, well, you can't do this. And here's the next quest that you need to go get the thing that you need to come back here to do this thing. And it's like, it's, and it basically lays it out to you like that. I mean, it's like, it is aware of the fact that it is giving you a fetch quest to do, like it's, it's very cognizant of that.

• 25:46Russ Frushtick?

  A quest that you can't do yet.

• 25:47Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:48Russ Frushtick?

  Which is honestly just a positioning issue. Like if you, if you framed it as just like, let's go here and get this upgrade. I would be fine with it, even if it took the same exact amount of time. But because they're giving you a nested series of quests to get to the end. It feels like not good. It feels like you're checking off the list.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  And it gets confusing too, because it'll like start giving you like your quests indicator will change to like from the thing you're actually trying to do to like the nearest teleporter. And it'll just kind of like update that. So it's kind of hard to track like what you're doing, but the just that sense of like, um, it's a real old lady who swallowed a fly kind of thing. Where it's like, well, you need the grapple, but to get the grapple, you gotta get the whip. But to get it, get the whip, you gotta capture this, this creature. And to capture this creature, you gotta get this other thing from over there. And it's like, by the end of it, you're like, I don't even remember what I was doing. Like it's, uh, for a game that seems to really want to emphasize

• 26:46Speaker 01

  play and exploration and stuff, it the structurally, it feels very guided.

• 26:53Russ Frushtick?

  It didn't feel like they knew how to, uh, fill out the length of the game. Up once they like nailed the sandbox of like how it feels to move around the world. They didn't necessarily know like, how do we use this in a big way that isn't going to feel like chores? And like, it's not even like the main quests, like some of the side quests that you eventually get, which unlock valuable resources and some of them are even required are like electrocute five whiz bugs. I don't know where the fuck a whiz bug is.

• 27:24Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, and that's just, that's just the drag. So it's this weird dichotomy of like, it's really hard to make a third person game feel great to move around in the world. It's really rare to do that. And so that part of it feels great. And then you pair it with, I think, just like they didn't necessarily know how to scale that up. But Justin, there's another thing you have not mentioned.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Shocking that we've gone this long without you.

• 27:46Russ Frushtick?

  Shocking that we've gone this long.

• 27:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, uh, the way that the messages from your like corporate overlords and former corporate overlords and even like commercials and stuff like that are like communicated to you is, uh, through, uh, FMV sort of cut scenes that are like highly, highly like, uh, how do you say, kind of filtered to make them look like it's, it's right of the line between.

• 28:13Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, they're actors.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  They are, they are actors. It's like.

• 28:15Russ Frushtick?

  Live actors performing these scenes.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  No, it's definitely, I'm not making like a distinction. I'm saying they're trying to blend it into the world. It's not this thing of like, it's not completely, uh, uh, uh, an aesthetic shift. They're, they're trying to incorporate it into the world. Um. I mean, I really love FMV and games. I think it always like kind of ropes ropes me in. I have to say that for this, I just feel like all of the stuff that, man, I really don't want to, I don't mean this to sound mean. I think it's gonna sound mean, but the stuff that is humor in this game, or it just feels very Tim and Eric from like eight or nine years ago, like this like leaning on absurdism

• 28:59Speaker 01

  for like the the jokes and like the grotesque rather than it being like actually humorous. There is a, your boss, uh, your former boss's character is like in a fat suit. And where the joke is that they eat a lot of food and that's disgusting and bad. And it's like so out of step with, it's not like not PC. It's just not funny, man. It's like these played old fat shaming, like it's not jokes. It's just like, it really is. When I say Tim and Eric, I don't mean like it's kind of a set it like, like it, it just feels like cast offs from, you know, we have Glurp and it's the food stuff that makes old people go crazy. And then you have old people squishing the Glurp and they're like, yeah, I love Glurp too.

• 29:42Speaker 01

  Um, it feels also like the performers, and maybe this is wrong, but are just like the developers in makeup or people the developers knew. They're not like great performers or anything. Um, and I just feel like they really, I don't know. I was just really unimpressed and the stuff with like, uh, some of the, I don't know. It's just none of it's funny. I don't know.

• 30:02Russ Frushtick?

  I, I, yeah, it didn't land for me either. I was kind of blown away by like, they clearly spent a lot of production time.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:10Russ Frushtick?

  They did like set deck and like costumes and which is, yeah, just a lot of commitment. And I guess, but, but we've talked about this before, like humor is really fucking hard to do in video games. It really anywhere. It's hard. Uh, but I agree. In this case, uh, I, the other, the other, uh, parallel I would make is like, kind of early Saints Row. Like that, that kind of like tone.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  Early Saints Row, and it's also like, uh,

• 30:41Speaker 01

  Lifted straight like this is like this sort of like uh mocking mega corporations is like, I mean, obviously.

• 30:50Chris Plante?

  Fair game.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Fair game. Obviously, absolutely. But they're like, it's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's like, um, you know, so many other properties of like.

• 30:59Russ Frushtick?

  Very worn territory.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  It's very, yeah, it's very worn and this and this, uh, uh, it just does not ring as like particularly funny, just because it's been so like it's Rick and Morty. It has done this to death. Like it's, it's really well covered at this point. It's where.

• 31:15Russ Frushtick?

  It will actually be interesting because Outer Wild, Outer Worlds two is coming out later this year. And that also had like a similar tone, but not quite as like, again grotesque and goofy as this. But it does lean on that, like corporations do.

• 31:31Chris Plante?

  Well, that in the first game, you know, first Outer Worlds came out, I feel like a while ago. And it wasn't quite as sort of played out at that point, but yeah, I, I'm also a bit nervous about that. I, I don't run out of a little tummy issue. Maybe you already talked about.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  So crazy to, to secretly do that. And then at the comeback afterwards and say like, I snuck out.

• 31:54Chris Plante?

  Did you all say the thing about Google Stadia? No. What? Oh, so that's, that's the important part here, right? This developer, they made the first game in this series. As part of the Google Stadia deal, they basically like got pulled in, Google Stadia gets blown up immediately. And they're like ejected out into the universe and they make this thing. So I think this is a little bit of, um, therapy, you know, happening here.

• 32:24Russ Frushtick?

  Well, the first game had this stuff.

• 32:26Chris Plante?

  It did for sure. But I think, I think this game is like really in it, but I do agree that it is worn. I also think on top of all the fiction that you mentioned, just being on like blue sky for an hour, um, will mean that you see like a lot of these jokes. It's just kind of like, it's a certain type of online humor that it's not bad. It's just, well, it's, well, I would say it's, I'm not giving a judgment here. I'm saying it's ever present. And to then hop into a video game and get more of it is like.

• 33:01Speaker 01

  I think my operating, and this is not my. Maybe my language, not my idea, the humor is the truth delivered in a surprising way. And I just don't feel like any of this is surprising. And maybe there's a truth to it. Corporations are evil for sure, but like it's not communicated in a surprising way. I think Outer Wilds is smarter about how it delivers.

• 33:25Russ Frushtick?

  Outer Worlds.

• 33:26Speaker 01

  I know. Outer Worlds is smarter too. I mean, to be fair, Outer Worlds is smarter, but yes, I'm at Outer Worlds.

• 33:31Russ Frushtick?

  No corporations at Outer Worlds.

• 33:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. But yeah, I just think it's a little bit more. And I mean, again, like, I don't want to keep harping on it, but like Fallout is, is very much this kind of, you know? It's like, I don't know.

• 33:44Russ Frushtick?

  I, there are aspects of the, it just, it feels like it needed a rethink. I could ignore the narrative stuff if, if I thought every aspect of the gameplay was like really hitting on all cylinders. But I do think that like that kind of both aspects needed a bit of a rethink.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  If you're just, if you're gonna encourage people to get out there and explore and have fun, then you gotta make a, a structure that encourages that. I mean, you can't just say it. You gotta, you gotta actually like invest people in that. And I just, there's so many ha- guide rails, you know? There's so many handrails on the thing. You don't really get a chance to do it.

• 34:19Chris Plante?

  Uh, Elon, Elon Musk, uh, do you know why Elon Musk needs a driverless car? Why, why is that, Chris? Cause he doesn't know where he's going. So that's the kind of, that's good shit, man.

• 34:33Chris Plante?

  That's actually really good shit.

• 34:34Russ Frushtick?

  That's actually good.

• 34:35Chris Plante?

  It's thoughtful and poignant. That's a thinker.

• 34:37Russ Frushtick?

  Surprising.

• 34:38Chris Plante?

  Uh, do we want to do some honorable mentions?

• 34:41Russ Frushtick?

  Sure.

• 34:42Chris Plante?

  I say that, I don't really have. Yeah, no, can I talk, can I talk about my thing? Yeah. Hundred Line, the most mean shit. I kinda want to talk about that in a big, in a big way, in a full epi. How about we do, I, I would be very down to do a full epi. I just so people know what it is so they can get into it. The people, uh, the, the two of the creative leads on Danganronpa and Zero Escape, got together with a larger team and they made a new video game. It's called The Hundred Line. It is, would you believe it? Students have gotten caught inside of a high school at the end of the world, and they need to figure out some mysteries, also tactic RPG.

• 35:27Chris Plante?

  It's sick. One word of warning, which I already said earlier. You do have to like really barrel through the first hour or two. Quite literally, you, there is not a pause menu. It does auto-save, as I found out, thank God. But you need to get through it. Once you do, there's a whole game waiting for you on the other side. But it's, it is, it is a rough.

• 35:51Griffin McElroy?

  It is, um, it is really hard for me having this, uh, massive, original RPG that I have been completely consumed by. While also over there in the corner of the room is the new game from the Danganronpa and Zero Escape team. Like, hey, we got 100 endings. You wanna get, you wanna get lost in a flowchart, pal? Like, it's tough. It's really tough. I can't possibly play both of those at the same time. But man almighty, I am really, really excited to play. It's 100-line Last Defense Academy.

• 36:22Chris Plante?

  Yeah, let's probably maybe do it like later in June and then we can really dig through it.

• 36:27Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 36:27Russ Frushtick?

  I, I do have a request though for game developers that are listening to this.

• 36:30Griffin McElroy?

  Sure, sure.

• 36:30Russ Frushtick?

  We might have a couple. Maybe have an option to just be like, hey, do you wanna gist this?

• 36:35Griffin McElroy?

  Okay, cool. What's that look like?

• 36:37Russ Frushtick?

  Do you wanna gist the first hour? Just gist it. If you wanna gist it, you could gist it. Just select the gist button and we'll gist it for you and then we'll get into the fun stuff.

• 36:44Griffin McElroy?

  Can, can you just tell me, Chris, uh, I'm sure, I know, just this for me. No, I know, uh, I feel pretty confident in like, I know what the writing and vibe and all that jazz is going to be like. Is the tactics side of the game also like enjoyable enough?

• 37:05Chris Plante?

  It, it's enjoyable in a give your hand something to do sort of way. Kind of like, um, I enjoyed the tactics in 13 Sentinels. It's very different.

• 37:13Griffin McElroy?

  Okay.

• 37:14Chris Plante?

  But it's also just very easy. The way that it works is you're on a big grid board. Eh, you know what? Let's just save this.

• 37:20Griffin McElroy?

  We'll save it, save it.

• 37:21Speaker 05

  No, no, no, guys, I'm on the edge of my seat.

• 37:23Chris Plante?

  No, no, no, no, don't make me do that.

• 37:25Speaker 05

  No, no, no, wait, hold on. Tell me again. If I get through all two hours of the boring stuff, it will let me play the easy tactics game, right? You promise? You promise it'll let me play?

• 37:36Chris Plante?

  What if I told you, you don't even get to the flowchart until hour forty?

• 37:40Russ Frushtick?

  Let me dist it for you. Okay, it's disted.

• 37:43Griffin McElroy?

  God, I love a, God, I love a visual novel flowchart. God, I'm a sicko for that shit.

• 37:48Chris Plante?

  Ah, video games.

• 37:50Griffin McElroy?

  Um, I did, I'm still working on optimizing the Retroid Flip 2. It's the most time I think I've spent actually playing one of these retro handhelds that I've set up. Uh, I got Persona 4 Golden working on it, which is very exciting, but I've honestly, the thing I have been coming back to is playing like Game Boy Color and NES and SNES games with like the different, uh, like CRT, like, uh, shaders and filters turned on. I just played through all of Shadowgate Classic on the Game Boy Color, uh, just because it looks fucking rad.

• 38:30Russ Frushtick?

  How do you get that key from that skeleton? He's all the way over in the lake.

• 38:33Griffin McElroy?

  How do you get the key from the skeleton in the lake? Well, do you have the sphere, you dummy?

• 38:37Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, gotta get the sphere.

• 38:39Chris Plante?

  That's unnecessary.

• 38:41Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, it's Shadowgate. I like coming back to Shadowgate because it's like, I feel like I know almost how to do that thing in my sleep. Like I've, I've done it and it's, if you remember the steps, you can just go through it. Uh, and I, I really enjoy the vibe of that game. Um, also now that the hockey season is over for everyone, um, I, we've been getting caught up on some of our shows and, uh, this season of The Amazing Race has really slapped. It's been really, uh, it's been, it's been a good one. It's been a banner year.

• 39:12Russ Frushtick?

  Did you see that story about Val Kilmer and, uh, Will, who's it, McGruber?

• 39:17Griffin McElroy?

  Will Forte.

• 39:18Russ Frushtick?

  Will Forte. Will Forte, at one point were like really into the idea of doing a season of that and it would have been the best one.

• 39:24Griffin McElroy?

  It would have been really, very, very good.

• 39:25Russ Frushtick?

  I'm so disappointed.

• 39:26Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, yeah, this one's great. The budget, I think, has, that, that show got, that show has always been kind of like, uh, a side piece to Survivor. Like, we will watch Survivor every time and then like Amazing Race, we'll give it a shot and maybe we'll stick with it and maybe we won't. Uh, and that got especially weird during the COVID season because there was a season where like that, after a few legs, Phil got everybody together like, listen, everyone, we have to stop. For a while and they stopped for a while and then they had to come back and start the race back up and there were like a couple of teams who didn't come back. And it was really weird and the budget and like plotting has been kind of strange since then, but.

• 40:07Russ Frushtick?

  Mr. Beast would have just bought them all.

• 40:09Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 40:09Russ Frushtick?

  And then put them all in the mall and had them race around that.

• 40:12Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I think that that is a different scale than we're used to watching the show. But really good casting this year and beautiful, beautiful locales. It's just enjoyable. It's a fun watch.

• 40:25Russ Frushtick?

  I've been watching season two of the rehearsal.

• 40:27Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:28Russ Frushtick?

  Which is.

• 40:29Griffin McElroy?

  I've not watched the most recent episode, but the.

• 40:31Russ Frushtick?

  Episode three, I think is the most recent. It's might be my favorite episode of the rehearsal I've ever witnessed. I lost my fucking mind watching that episode.

• 40:42Russ Frushtick?

  I don't even know. I guess if you haven't watched this season, the premise is Nathan Fielder is trying to address serious issues with the airline industry and pilots in particular to minimize the amount of crashes that happen. And he thinks the core issue is communication within the cockpit. And everything goes from there. It is.

• 41:07Griffin McElroy?

  He spends the whole first episode saying like, can I, a clown man, possibly address this serious issue of how power dynamics between a pilot and copilot in the cockpit of a commercial airliner can lead to miscommunication and pilot error and plane crashes? Can I possibly, possibly overcome my like persona of being a comedian jokester to address this actual real issue with the ambitious conceit of this entire show?

• 41:39Russ Frushtick?

  While also getting money from HBO because they are expecting.

• 41:42Griffin McElroy?

  A comedy show, right? Like it's the first, man, the first episode starts with about 15 minutes of simulations of actual plane crashes.

• 41:52Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 41:52Griffin McElroy?

  And black box recordings of actors playing out black box recordings of actual plane crashes. It is a rough fucking ride.

• 42:01Russ Frushtick?

  I guess trigger warning.

• 42:02Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, for sure. You could probably skip the first 15 minutes of that pilot, uh, no pun intended, episode of the, of the season.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Be a crazy place for a pun, by the way. Don't think you need to clarify.

• 42:13Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. But yeah, man, it is, uh, it.

• 42:16Russ Frushtick?

  It just, it's clear, cause the first season of the rehearsal was also interrupted by COVID.

• 42:20Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 42:21Russ Frushtick?

  And, uh, they really had to do like a huge left turn in terms of what they were touching on. And this is like clearly where his ambition was with something as pretty bizarre as this.

• 42:31Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 42:32Russ Frushtick?

  And again, uh, I thought episode two was very good. Episode three of this season is like.

• 42:38Griffin McElroy?

  Can't wait.

• 42:39Russ Frushtick?

  Really spectacular. I'm very excited.

• 42:42Griffin McElroy?

  Juice.

• 42:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, man. Here's what I would recommend, guys. Here's what I've been spending a lot of my time with this week. Uh, if you get onto YouTube, you can watch, uh, the electronics 102 course from Lake Washington Technical College.

• 42:57Griffin McElroy?

  Fuck, yeah.

• 42:58Speaker 01

  It's, uh, instructed by, uh, a man named Joe Griniuk, uh, who, the first part is 10 hours long. And I'm at about hour four and a half right now, and the thing has been gripping. And if you want to learn the basics, fundamentals of electronics, this course is only 17 hours long. And the entirety of it is available to you on YouTube. Just start watching this thing and you're gonna emerge, if your brain is wired a certain way. I, I mean, you could just watch the whole thing and learn a lot about electronics. And that is my recommendation to you is you go watch the video titled, uh, Basic Electronics Part One on YouTube.

• 43:41Griffin McElroy?

  I visited Justin's house this past weekend and saw, I saw your setup in your office and you're.

• 43:47Russ Frushtick?

  How much does it look like Beekman's World?

• 43:48Griffin McElroy?

  It's a, I don't know if it's at Beekman's World level, but it, it, it, there's a lot of tinkerer's toys. A lot of tinker toys in there.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  I expressly forbade you from going into the lab.

• 44:00Griffin McElroy?

  A lot of clips and lenses.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  I trust that none of them will be out of place when I return.

• 44:07Chris Plante?

  I'm adding this to the newsletter. This is Nerds Lesson.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:13Chris Plante?

  Okay.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  It's a, I mean, the video is Basic Electronics Part One. The channel is Nerds Lesson. I, now, listen, I'm only four and a half hours in, so it may get boring later. I don't know. But the first four and a half hours, I'm to resistance right now, and I, hey, listen.

• 44:30Russ Frushtick?

  You didn't need to gist it, is what you're saying.

• 44:31Speaker 01

  Listen, no gisting required.

• 44:33Chris Plante?

  Yeah, do not gist that.

• 44:36Speaker 01

  Let's just say this, people in my life have been hearing a lot about batteries.

• 44:42Russ Frushtick?

  Have they covered the water being bad part of it?

• 44:45Speaker 01

  Sorry, what?

• 44:46Russ Frushtick?

  Have they covered water being bad for electronics?

• 44:50Speaker 01

  So, interesting. Water, conductor or insulator?

• 44:54Russ Frushtick?

  Both.

• 44:56Chris Plante?

  Wow. Makes you think. I guess it depends on how much water and how much electricity.

• 44:59Speaker 01

  Pure H2O is an insulator. So, when they're treating water to a water treatment plant, they'll actually measure the conductivity of the water to see how much junk is left in it, because pure water, not conductive. So, if you, like, in theory, if you're in a hot tub and someone chucks an electrical appliance in there.

• 45:21Russ Frushtick?

  Don't do that.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  Shouldn't do that. Now, you will die, but if, but if there was nothing in the water.

• 45:26Russ Frushtick?

  If there was a new hot tub.

• 45:27Speaker 01

  A new hot tub, but also you didn't have oils and everything, because you can throw off the chemistry very easily, but.

• 45:32Russ Frushtick?

  I don't. My skin is great.

• 45:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, but water, I didn't know this, pure water, it's an insulator. Fascinating. Thanks, Joe.

• 45:38Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, I think we did it. Thank you to everyone over there at the Patreon and everyone else listening that isn't a Patreon member. Maybe you will become one. You could go over to patreon.com/thebesties and join. You could also get a gift for people of a subscription, if you wanted to get a gift for a friend or loved one that loves the besties. Patreon.com/thebesties/gift. Some new members that I want to thank to the Patreon. We have DTX, we have Aaron, we have Ben, and we have Ram. Thank you for being members of the Patreon. We have a new Resties coming to you on Tuesday. We have that bracket episode, which went up a little early. That was a nice, special, early gift for y'all. So, lots of good stuff over there on the Patreon.

• 46:24Speaker 01

  All right. And next week?

• 46:27Russ Frushtick?

  We are doing Doom, Doom the Dark Ages.

• 46:29Speaker 01

  Doom the Dark Ages.

• 46:30Russ Frushtick?

  That Doom guy is going back in time.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  Going back in time, but he's passing the original Doom guy to even before the first Doom guy. Think about that.

• 46:39Russ Frushtick?

  Wow.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  Whoa, whoa. That's gonna do it for this week on the Besties. Be sure to join us again next time for the Besties because should the world's best friends pick the world's best games?