[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am, but I have not touched Evercrisis cause I am not a fan of the whole pay to get stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I would definitely. Okay. I'm, I'm a big Zach fair crisis core fan. That is like, I will, I am ride or die. Zach fair at the end of time. If everyone's like, I love cloud. I'm like, no, you don't. You don't love cloud. You love someone else and you need to get interesting. You need to get educated. My friend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, I mean, I, when Crisis Corps got, got remade, I, I was like the one guy that was like, let's goooo!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This thing was so up my alley and then I just, I played it at Summer Games Fest and I really enjoyed it. And then I, as it got closer, I was like, this is gonna have a lot of predatory stuff that's gonna make me sad because that dumb completionist tick in me is gonna go, but what if I just spend $10 to get there? What if I just spend a little? And I, I, I had


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think they're trying really hard to go after that like apple product vibe of like, it's not just a, you're not just buying a headset, you're buying a lifestyle, you're buying-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing that I'm thinking about, the thing that I'm thinking about is you guys remember when, was it the HoloLens or Microsoft at that E3 press conference was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Solid. It looks great. I love, I love my quest. I put my quest to you almost, almost every day. I love that thing. It's great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My God, everyone, it is the week of October 17th across the internet. We've got several anniversaries of stuff that's going to make y'all feel bad. Uh, you know what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ben you're new here. What, what is your pick as to a game that, that you, that you remember fondly of and how old is it today?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's go to Ralph Ralph. What's your game of the way back this week?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, funny you say that Ralph, because my game is Sonic three and knuckles 29 years ago, the exact same thing when you compare because literally Sonic superstars just came out a couple of days ago. So they know what they're doing. They know they're there. They're paying attention. Uh, yeah. Sonic and knuckles, uh, for those of you who are uneducated,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was the part two of Sonic 3, essentially you took your Sonic 3 pack and you plugged it on top of your Sonic and Knuckles game. You unlocked Knuckles as a playable character and you can play, you can either play all of the campaign of Sonic 3 and Knuckles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or you could just play the second half of Sonic 3 aka Sonic and Knuckles and you just start from the middle of the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and you kind of were lost if you didn't, narratively speaking, if you didn't play both, but, uh, I was that guy that, uh, rented Sonic three and knuckles a billion times until I finally was like, I have to own this game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was this week in the way back and before I toss it back to you, Lucy, I do want to give a quick shout out to our homie friend of the pod, Ben star. Everyone, if you guys don't know, Ben star is a part of a D and D group.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think I got the kickstarter. You guys know what it's about. Go check it out. Uh, there at a time of us recording this, they're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Getting closer and closer to their goal. So, and they've got like 28 days left in their campaign. So if you liked Final Fantasy 16, you like Ben Starr. The Witcher 3. The Witcher 3. If you like The Witcher 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hell yea. So go check him out. Anyways, back to you Lucy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can find me at youtube.com slash that one video gamer or twitch.tv slash the completionist where next week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All kinds of hair wax off my body in pain and eating hot sauce. So it's going to be, it's what we do. We raise money for charity. Ralph's face is very funny to me. It contextually doesn't make any sense. Uh, but basically people donate money and they do painful things to me in honor of charity. So I'm a very hairy man. Ralph is a lot of hair that gets ripped off this body.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so Gabe, I am someone who's had...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To see that kind of surge of engagement kind of sweep through all what you guys are working on considering that, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You had that launch and now you're here working on 2.0. Then suddenly boom, Netflix show. You guys kind of got that, the wind back in your sales, if you will.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And chances are by the time we're talking about it, something has evolved in huge ways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, they essentially, uh, as of January 1st of next year, are updating, uh, I believe what they're calling it, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like real time. Runtime. Runtime. That's it. It's called Runtime. And they're able, and they're basically gonna charge like the average of like a percentage of 20 to 40 cents depending on the game sales and all the numbers based on everyone who installs the game on every platform. Yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, the other thing too that's uhm, that's very sketchy is that they say it's a scheduled stock thing, but it's like you schedule in advance. He and several other people at the higher executive level sold their, their stock in Unity. Like not all of it, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and then you also, I mean, not the cool thing, but the nice thing you're seeing is you're seeing the unison of all the game developers and content creators and publishers coming together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Game Maker, I think, has been making huge strides to be like, hey everyone, if you join right now, you get like three months free, and providing tons of tools on how to convert your projects to Game Maker, which is huge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Based off the update 2, or the updated update, right, for what they were saying, like, they were trying to, Unity basically was trying to go off the angle of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, so charity bundles, those won't count, we're not gonna count those. They said game pass too, right? Game pass is also not gonna count, and they also said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We made this decision because 90, that this won't affect 90% of our...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and Unity's the kind of company nowadays that like, it's kind of like shady to talk about, but like, they have like a lot of military contracts. They do a lot of business outside of games. To me, this feels like a, we're doing this on purpose to cut the fat of it being the face of the game industry, because we


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah, three of the games I'm producing are made in Unity, and uh, the dev teams have been-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeah, yeah, the dev teams are freaking out and, and the thing is that everyone is so, everyone's talking. That's the nice thing is that everyone's communicating. I, I kind of foresee that in the future as indie devs start communicating more, there is a world where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're gonna see people go, hey, I'm, I'm leaving Unity, but I'm, I wanna go to Unreal or I wanna go to, uhm, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] RPG Maker, RPG Maker, RPG Maker, and you're going to have a lot of devs bind together and be like, Hey, I specialize in this. Let's get your game over there. There are studios all over the world that specialize in console porting and, and, and even engine porting. And so like, I think we're going to see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not, I'm not like, this is good for an indie game. It's very, very bad. But I think the indie game community at large is going to come together and kind of find their own solution. Yeah. They're going to have to, right? Like it's, it's, it's almost like, Hey guys, let's, let's build our own Kazaa or Morpheus and like, let's go underground and like figure out a way to make this thing work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's like, that kind of stuff is like, it's, not that like the game would have performed better by any means in terms of like, the reviews would have been the same and, and I'm sure people would have the same gripes, but in the sea of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not to put my actually glasses on, but the reason why Sephiroth calls Cloud a puppy, and this is spoilers for Crysis Corridor, just so you know, is because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, there's a character named Zach who actually in that moment is playing the role of Cloud and Cloud's lying about what's there and they call Zach, Zach the puppy the entire game. So in that moment when you see him call him that, you know, you're just, you're, oh, you're a puppy. It's like, he's actually calling him


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The biggest thing is that, uh, now you can create, um, party build outs. Yep. So you can create an advanced, like instead of having to be like, Oh, I want to change them individually. You can have three preset parties that you are just like, okay, this is my, my cloud Tifa Barrett party, my, my cloud Aerith red 13 party or whatever, and you can just hot swap them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the battlefields, you don't have to open the menu, just press X and a button and boom you're there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This time around, they're, they're hovering around the battles. And they actually participate in the battles, but they don't do any damage. Like, you'll see, you'll see Barrett be like, you know, fight, you know, shooting his gun armor, throwing a grenade, like fire in the hole or whatever. And like, doesn't do anything to the fight, but you feel like you have a party of five. They're all weird moments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, every time you, I don't remember actually how to build the meter, because it was, it all happened really quickly, but, uh, based off of how you stagger, how you apply pressure, um, the abilities and how you use your ATB moves and all that such, you fill up your meter, and then when two party members have the meter,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can turn on a synergy ability and it's like essentially a combo team up move similar to that of like Chrono Trigger to Sea of Stars where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These two come together and do this crazy cool combat move.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, the one with Cloud and Sephiroth was like, they really wanted to show that off in, in the, in the Nibelheim portion. And it was, it was so sick. You're fighting this big boss and it comes up. It, it feels more important than Limit Break almost because it's, it's the whole cut scene and everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, uh, for Crysis Core fans who put the remake...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] version of crisis core. Zac has this new parry mechanic where like he can change stances and that kinda makes him like a slow tank and he takes damage but does like bigger moves and can block stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They showed us like a private little like cool, um, video that was like from the developer, the directors and the combat directors and so on and so forth. And they were saying their biggest thing was we want players to use the entire cast all the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't want you to be- And they're encouraging that. Yeah, and that's why synergy ability is such a core mechanic because they want you to be able to do it. And I agree, I kinda wish that you could change party members during a fight because you can't do it during a fight. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The big question mark that the demo doesn't really solve on the Junon side is what is the open world aspect completely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, cause basically, I don't know how familiar you are with Prophecy 7. Yeaah. But uhm, you know the portion where you like, you walk from the Midgar's Alum cave to like Junon? Yeaah, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's like the open world part of the game plays, and you open the map.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, and because it's a demo, obviously there are some areas that you can't go here because it's a demo. But there's not, I don't really know what it looks like. This feels like open zone-ish. Yeah, that's what I would get. To Final Fantasy 16 where you might fast travel in some other places or some areas are like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you're right Ralph, the slices they chose were not the strongest, especially the Nibelheim one, like you just walk 10 feet and then it's over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, the demo, to give you an idea, Jake, the Junon portion was like, there's four fiend hunts outside of the entrance to Junon. And that was kind of the only thing you could do. You run around and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The interesting thing was, so with these fiend hunts, there were four of them, and all three of them, or all four of them had three objectives that you had to execute based off of completing them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There you go. Uh, or, or there's a specific task that the enemy will do that you then have to perform to put it in a pressured state. So, there was one hunt where I fought this, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when you use the assessment area, it tells you in bold font, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey. Weak to this. Weak to this or this enemy, in this case this Condor thing is like, it will be in a pressured state if you dodge at the precise moment that it does a devastating attack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you piss it off, it gets mad at you, goes to attack you, you then dodge it, and then when you do that, suddenly it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Surprise that you dodge puts it in a pressured state and then you build up a stagger meter. Stagger meter is what you use to down it. That condo fight is really fun. FF7 is like my thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. I found myself getting bodied a lot despite me like using the same old tricks I've learned from rebirth. I was like, walking's not working quite as well. Dodging's not working quite as well. I couldn't tell if it was me just not playing the game in the last three years or if it was just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also, uh, shooting bullets is also red. So you're like, does parrying block bullets? No, it doesn't. Dodging does, but they're both red. So you're like- I'd like to see Spider-Man parry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The rooftop had like eight people, but I must have fought like 30 because they just kept coming and then you have the flying robots and you're constantly just whipping and pulling yourself and it's, it can be overwhelming, but it never felt unfair. It felt like once I learned it, okay, I think I got it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no, no, so, so I, I beat the demo, uh, and I noticed that everyone was gone because I was taking my time. It was like just Jake and I, me and you, Tam Lucy and, and Jeff Keighley. Everyone else was gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, what was his name? Kai, uh, K? Kaede. Kaede. Kaede. Kaede. He's a user who watches all of us and supports us. We appreciate you guys. They work at the QA team over at Insomniacs. We appreciate them. After I was done playing, he was like, do you want to go back in and play more? And I was like, what do you mean there's more to play? And he goes,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and this is like what I, well my favorite part about, my favorite parts about this demo experience was that you play as both Spider-Man obviously, but Miles is still in high school. Yeah. So like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Be a student kid. And Peters are like, you gotta be an adult and do laundry, deliver pizza, whatever it is, right? And so uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For miles, uh, the school mascot was stolen from the rival school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This like crazy hacker is like the one responsible for it and needs to be reprimanded. And as you start doing this mission, it's a cool puzzle mission where you're reflecting light and using your moves to change where it's pointed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there's like a, a cryptid message that you then use to go to a different location and it all culminates in you opening up a storage locker and inside is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The hacker, which is just a bunch of high school kids who know how to use an iPhone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was the coolest thing about it. There's this one moment where, where Peter is like fighting the crocodile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll go, I'll go first. But none of these are going to surprise anyone. Uh, back to the future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is one of the best time travel movies that has aged relatively well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It is the best video game movie that's not a video game. It elicits those feelings of it and I love Edgar Wright and how it's directed. And then, The Mummy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little indie game came and changed the world, and now we know the name Toby Fox because of it. It is Undertale.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so I can't relate to any of your guys' narrative in terms of, you know, pacing and going through this because I sped through the game. I did mostly 100% the grasslands, which is the first opening area, just because I was like, okay, I understand that this is going to be the gameplay loop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So let me start to understand what kind of quests are there. So that's why when I started doing like the fiend intels that you talked about, where you have to beat a certain enemy and stagger them the right way and beat them in a certain amount of times, I was like, you know what? I'm just not going to waste my time with those. If they're on the way, then I'll do them, but I'm not going to go out of my way to do them, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did the proto reddit quest in the grasslands and I was like, oh, that's, that was kind of fun and interesting. And the characters that they introduced were cute and everything. And then I thought, okay, maybe I can just ignore those too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I went to the second area and I did the proto reddit quest there and I was like, this is fantastic. I was like, okay, this turns out the proto reddit quests are actually basically like the, the, the, the parallel stories.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That happened in each of these regions. So you definitely should be doing the proto relic quests. They're very rewarding. I have completed those now, uh, completely. That whole quest chain is actually pretty, pretty hard to finish.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing about Charlie is that he's the game's structure. He's the entire game's structure, you know. He is the foundation of all these quests and the way the open world is structured. So it's really, really fascinating. I like him as a character and I like his new, uh, my character that he created for himself. I like when he turns


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Definitely by the time after I finished the Protorelics in Junon and I decided once I got to Koso Do Sol,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was like, I'm just gonna speedrun the rest of this game. Like I spent enough time, I understand the structure, so let me just finish the game. And part of it was because I felt like I was on a deadline and I wanted to finish it before I ran off to DICE in Vegas, which I did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also, I just really, really wanted to find out what the hell happens in the ending. I've just been dying to know what they do after the ending of Remake. And I was like, okay, well, what do you guys got planned? And so I just really, really wanted to like, it was a curiosity that really drove me, propelled me forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, Tim brings up an excellent point in what he just said last, in that it feels like it was made up for a conceit to make it work. And you hear that in interviews where they're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This story mechanic was put in place because we can make it more exciting for players. So that's why when there's a four year gap in between the games, there can be all this debate and discussion. So it really does feel like that they are just putting things into the story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, to, to incite debate and, and, and discussion, which is fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and, and, and, and, and that is, that is, uh, to the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The prerogative of the story teller if they just want to spice things up and make things more exciting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, in terms of how I felt about the ending, I have complicated feelings about the ending because I did play the original Final Fantasy VII, but I did not understand what the fuck happened at all. Because I only played it in Japanese.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This entire remake trilogy has been a chance for me to kind of like re-enjoy and re-enter the world of Final Fantasy VII in a context that is actually proper and could hit well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I was actually quite disappointed in remix ending when I realized that they were going to be changing a lot more stuff, right? And I'm going to be as vague as possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when I got to the ending of Rebirth, I now am more happy with what they're doing with the Remake Trilogy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I do think that there is so much stuff that, that, that, that, that isn't answered and like they just leave a bunch of other crap out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a whole section of the story, like throughout the entire game, like not just the ending, right? But it's a big part of the ending as well, right? There's a whole parallel story that we won't talk about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like not worry about that and just enjoy like the emotional beats and the rides that, that there, there, because this is a very, very emotionally manipulative game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That character in complete lethal danger and then they were just flying like, like, like after, after five minutes. So this is a very, very emotional, emotionally manipulative story where they're just like pulling you in all kinds of directions and they really want you to do certain things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very much like, like a, like a, like a mosaic of, of, of memories, right? Which is, which is I think what they're trying to evoke too, in the themes of this game, right? Uhm, gosh, I don't know what to say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's, it's interesting because he doesn't like the ending, but what Tam said during the giant bomb cast is the reason why I was able to like the ending. Which is that, that, that he describes how, how Final Fantasy is very similar to anime, anime storytelling, right? Where you just really, really have to get swept up in, in emotions. And that's where, where I decided throughout the story, I was like, you know what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe we're not meant to understand this right now, and maybe, like, it's clear that they're trying to leave a bunch of stupid shit left open for us to debate for part 3, and then maybe they'll answer part 3 in a satisfying way, maybe not, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna let go and like stop trying to figure this out. Because Tam is right, the more I did try to figure it out, the more I thought it was kind of stupid. Yeaah. Maybe I'll just submit to the noise and everything. And then one more point I'll make, and this is something that happened in Remake too, is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, this remake trilogy has an interesting relationship with subtlety.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In that the character work is so subtle and so beautifully subtle, you know, like you can hear it in the voice work, the changes in the tone of voice, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the, the cinematography, the, the, the facial animation, they, they do really, really good with subtle, subtle work. And then when it comes to like the big moments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They just kind of go alls, all out, like really, really loud, like it's very loud, the music is blaring, like the cinematography is like, the editing is going crazy. So one example of this happening was in Remake when the Sector 7 playfalls, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I played OG FF7 and OG FF7, the Sector 7 plate fallout has no music and it's just very, very quiet and like you even see like a news report.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then like, you see the reporter look up and then get crushed in the, in the fucking TV screen as you see the family get crushed. View, beautifully evocative, like, like, the, the cinematographer is amazing. And then the one in remake, there's literally like a J-Rock guitar, like playing the entire time, like, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now you see President Shinra's face, where as in the original one, you didn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then of course you, and then Kate says, Kate comes into fray and we get the mic, this new mic moment. Oh who the fuck is that cat? You know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there's a lot of moments like that in Rebirth too, where they, where they treat similar iconic moments similarly, where there's not a lot of room to breathe in terms of sound and like not a lot of room to think. You're just meant to kind of get emotionally overwhelmed by the sights and the audio of it, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing is, the fate of the world is not hanging in balance. Uh, the entire story of Rebirth is that, like, this is all character driven. They're going on this adventure because they want to, you know? Or because Cloud is deranged and he thinks that we gotta follow their path, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I guess spoilers for the worst gold saucer date. Uhm, it turns out that you actually end up with the goon squad of boys. Yeah. So, uh, Sid, Vincent, Kate Sith, and Red just show up at your hotel room. Are you joking? I would prefer-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Remake was a low-key, uh, Sony prestige game. It was a God of War and The Last of Us. Just with an interesting, you know, ATB style combat. But, you know, in terms of navigation and the level design, it was just The Last of Us, you know, climbing ladders and walking down the hallways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that's why it's really, really stunning. So I actually have an interview with Yoshinori Kitase coming out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what's funny is that literally, like right before I got into this podcast, I was eating a sandwich and I was on a YouTube watching the Queen's Blood tutorial. Cause I was like, you know what? Cause I actually saw a stream and I saw what happens in the Queen's Blood storyline. And I was like, you know what? I've been a fool. I should play this game. So I'm, so I'm doing it now. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause I love Fort Condor and the Gears game too that you were talking about. But I love Fort Condo. Fort Condo is my shit, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Issues are so obvious that I can't help but not hate them. You know? Because his flaws are so, so obvious. I was like, how can you guys not miss this? Okay, well whatever. You know? Yep. And where did you land on it, Tam?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The town of Calm itself, the very first town in Rebirth, is vastly more complicated than anything in Final Fantasy XVI, including your own base, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way I just, the way I thought about it is like, holy shit, this is just like Final Fantasy XIII again. Which is, Final Fantasy XIII was very puzzle-like too. It's like, you do this, you do this, you do this, and then you have your little, not gamuts, what are they called, the paradigms, you know? So you're tailoring the paradigms to fit certain, like, elements. It's kind of like a puzzle game. And so it makes sense that Naoki Hamaguchi,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So in my review I actually called this the best Square Enix game since Final Fantasy X.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, there's 14, obviously. I meant single player, but yea, 14 obviously. Yea, I get you, I get you. And under Dragon Quest 11 too, so I get it, you know, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I haven't finished Dragon Quest XI yet, so there's that, but it's great. But yea, it's a very different type game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One thing I'll say about 16 and 7 Rebirth is, uh, for me, the biggest difference and the biggest reason why I vastly prefer 7 Rebirth is the world design, the map design.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, 16, when you really were breaking down, it was also similar to Final Fantasy VII Remake. There's a lot of hallways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe there'll be a big like ocarina style, ocarina time style like hub world map or whatever and it'll just spool out into different hallways that lead into like other hallways and other towns and other types of spokes, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whereas in Seven Rebirth, this is a, like, one, I couldn't believe it when one, you can park the buggy in the gold saucer and then drive it out of the fucking gold saucer. And then you drive the buggy from the gold saucer area, the Corell Valley, into Gunghaga across the river.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that was the only section of the game where you can roam around, right? Same thing in Final Fantasy XIII, they had the Grand Impulse area, that was the only area, that's the best part of the fucking game, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then so now, what if they just made a Final Fantasy game that was just the best part of those games and it's just like the whole game? That's what Seven Rebirth is to me, you know? Like they just took the best parts of those games and they decided, hey, why don't we just make the game like this? They did it, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so, so Jeff gave my boy Jesse Cox a box and so we all got to go with him in his little box seating and one of the fun, it was so cool cause like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Half of the arena is separated by like all the fans who love the music and stuff, and the other half is like industry folks, you know, like Danny Pena and, and, uh, you know, the GameSpot crew, like all that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the funniest part about it was Crash Bandicoot was there in his big old outfit and he just walked around. He walked around getting people stoked for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was just stoically, you could see him like in his big dumb outfit, just staring and watching the concert. It was so funny. Big crash bandicoot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello everyone. How's it going? I'm excited to talk about games. We're down to Lucy today, but it's, it's only boys now. Only boys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Jake, Jake, you can say whatever I've learned on the internet. You can say whatever you want as long as it's from your chest. If you say it's right as a declarative statement, try it off for size. You think the monkey is hot. Go monkeys. The monkey's hot. I'm trying to say it from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I think it's like a platformer atmospheric horror. It's like not-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything's trying to kill you, but it's very beautiful in its presentation in that way. Right, right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very artful, uh, the first game takes place on a ship. You're like on this ship and, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just kind of like a, uh, like you just see a lot of, it's a lot of gross imagery. Like I guess the, this is a bad comparison, but I think you get the idea. Imagine if Tim Burton made a game where everything in the game is trying to kill you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're just constantly running from it, but like, there's platforming, there's sneaking, there's puzzle solving, there's like, you know, action sequences where something large will try and get you, and both games are very reflective of that. Um, cause you're a very small person in like a huge atmosphere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, the second one, I believe, I don't know if this is a spoiler or not, but I believe the second one is more of a prequel to the first game. Right. But, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The third game is obviously, but it's, it's, it's been published in the past and I think it's still going to be published by Bandai Namco.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man, I want that, I want that modded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The art styles is like really nice too. It feels very almost like claymation-y to a degree. Not claymation, like very 3D model-esque. Very cool stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm kinda getting like, refined Assassin's Creed vibes a little bit, just with how the open world stuff is looking out, like even just like- I think it looks- Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, you go, you go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You go, you go, you must go. I was just saying, uh, like, just the way that like, you attack enemies, or like, get on a horse, like, in the trailer the dude just like, climbs on a carriage and kicks the dude off and steals it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you know, I mean, I played it at, did you guys play it at Summer Games Fest, the preview stuff?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it's fun. It's very fun. Uhm, I think they're trying, this feels like a new art direction, a new gameplay focus, they're trying their best to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause look, the reality is, is that ever since Sonic Generations, there has been the debate of 2D Sonic versus 3D Sonic. That's always been the big thing. 3D Sonic, 2D Sonic, 3D Sonic, 2D Sonic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is the first 2D slash 3D aesthetic Sonic, uhm, that we've had since Generations Proper, since like an actual game that is imbued entirely in this. I'd say since Sonic 4 and episode 1 and 2 way back in the Xbox Live arcade days, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So for this, like, they're, they're really trying to hone in on the nostalgia of, of what Sonic's been working towards the last couple of years. Uhm, this is really for the fans, I feel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It kind of. What they did, they basically, what they did was they released the main Sonic collection last year, which had Sonic 1, 2, 3, and CD, and then they re-released it physically, which they had the plus, and the plus has the six, all of the 16, uh, portable Genesis games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you're getting all the Game Gear games, Portable Genesis, the Game Gear, you're getting all the Game Gear games as well as the original, uhm, Sonic stuff. And I believe if you own...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sonic, the collection, it's like a DLC add-on pack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but you get a physical now, which is what everyone's excited about, cause physical media obviously is real real important, and they obviously try and make it like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, if you're a collector of that kind of stuff, it's exciting. Uh, but as far as this new Sonic game goes, it's exciting because they're, it's not just like another 2D platformer. It's got proper multiplayer at the same time, which like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But in this case, it's proper multiplayer. Uhm, the Chaos Emeralds actually do something, which is unheard of before. Uh, usually how the Chaos Emeralds work is you get them all and then you turn into Super Sonic. Uh, in this case, like when you get a Chaos Emerald,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're given the ability to unlock a special spell or skill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, like clone a bunch of sonics or, uh, I think that's the one that we really know. There might be like another one where it's like, uh, oh, Sonic can go up waterfalls and water environments. So he like can, can vertically move up in, into like the atmosphere and appear elsewhere. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, right. Uh, so, I mean, good on them. I think, I think in the last, despite what the larger side guy says, I think Sonic fans are so happy right now just because of how


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great Sonic Mania was, the collection, despite it's like, music, Michael Jackson, whole thing about that issue. That turned out pretty solid for the most part. Uhm, and of course, a lot of the Sonic fans are happy with how Sonic Frontiers turned out. Uhm, and that's getting an expansion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In almost a year, they've released three other updates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I haven't touched the game since I completed it, just cause I don't have time to always go back and check them out. But, uh, the thing that's funny on Twitter right now is, uh, that's been trending, or sorry, X, uh, for you fans out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, Sonic, Super Sonic 2 was trending, uh, and that's because in the trailer, the Super, you know, Sonic goes Super Sonic and his eye colors change a different color. Uh, and everyone's like, oh my God, it's Super Sonic 2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and it's, it's, it's been very funny to see all the comments about that because all of Genuine fans are like, oh my god, his eyes changed color. And everyone else is like, that's supersonic again, supersonic two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just, it's just, it's just now becoming the whole tale of Super Saiyans, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On a scale of one to five, how many Bill Clintons would you, would you want to tell your rabbi about?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's one of those situations where, uh, people watched this and just kind of went, that's it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like you see that kind of behavior a lot around Nintendo directs, where it's like, I watch this Nintendo direct and they didn't announce a new Zelda game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's not, it's not like Grand Theft Auto role playing has taken over the internet or anything in that Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption 2 also has its own roleplay server thing. Like, it's not like there's, Ralph, the reason why they didn't do it is because there's no PC players playing PC games, my dude.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can we, can we just have the honest conversation? The Switch is not the Steam Deck. As the Nintendo guy, I love, I love my Switch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I agree, but also, let's take a step back, and what did we just talk about 10 seconds ago? The Red Dead Redemption barely porting things up, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There has to be, I guarantee you that some company out there could figure out how to engineer the game to run at Tandy P or


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's just release them together and just get them out the door. Personally speaking, I'm the one guy that really loved Metal Gear Solid, uh, Twin Snakes on GameCube.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would have loved it, uh, uh, like if you were like, hey, that's going to be 1080p 60 as well as you've got the classic at 720p 30 or whatever. I'd be like, you know what? I'm good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, thank you. I'd love to- I'd love to play that game again, cause it was so fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it wasn't on our topics list for today, but I do want to bring it up because it was news last week, and it kind of goes alongside with this, is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Guys, the Xbox 360 stores finally shutting down. After 18 years, it will close July 2024. And I know a lot of you at home are wondering, H or R?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you going to spend another X amount of dollars on, on buying every single 360 game?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the answer is, I'm doing the research before I decide to commit to it. Alright, fair enough, fair enough. I'm doing the math right now. Before you buy. Before I buy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it, right now, I, I, me and my, my discord mods have been going through and like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going through and categorizing everything. And, uh, there is more DLC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the 316, there was the Wii U and 3DS. A lot more. Especially if you consider rhythm games. Uhm, so much more. And so, uh, looking at it all, we're almost done categorizing it, and it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost 24,000 between both. Okay. Right, right, right. This is, this is gonna, this is gonna, I'm, we're not done and I'm, I'm well past the 24k so far.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's okay, I'm not trying to do that, right? And if I do do it once again, it's all gonna go to the BDHF someday when they want it. It's just, it's going all towards their fight, so. But it does kinda go in this, you know, the reason why I brought it up is because it aligns very much to this whole methodology of remakes and ports, right? Like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, I interviewed Frank and Kelsey, uh, for the VGF when we did that, you know, video games disappearing piece a couple of weeks ago, or I think a month ago. And the big thing they kept saying is that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Video game preservationists are not worried about the nerd to know how to use Google. They're not worried about guys like us who can literally go into Google and search for a Metal Gear Solid 1.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like, they are, I'm, I'm glad they're doing at least physical prints of, of Red Dead Redemption, and, and, uh, the, the Amalgrist Hall Collection for Switchin', whatever. If they didn't do physical, physical prints of it, I think I'd be a little more pissed off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the price tag, right? 50 bucks to not have something in your hand sucks because with no improvements, kind of a bummer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so to give you guys an idea, since, since 2015, Digital Cliffs, the company that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Worked on that. Has worked on the Mega Man legacy collection, Disney afternoon collection,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, SNK 40th, obviously the Disney Classics of Aladdin and Lion King, Samurai Showdown Neo Geo Collection, the Blizzard Arcade Collection,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, they also worked on the new Space Jam, uh, Beat'em Up that came out during, uh, a couple, couple years ago for the movie. Uh, the Disney Games Classic Collection, the Cowabunga Collection was them too. Atari 50th, they worked with Atari on that too. Like, Digital Eclipse does not mess around. These dudes work with Frank and Kelsey at the Video Game History Foundation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They all work in the same building together, cause Frank worked on the Mega Man Legacy Collection, the very first one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, these guys are all about, not only porting, but like, the idea of porting and supporting video game preservation. That's awesome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey Kojima, there's this pizza shop on the corner of 12th and Venice that serves a particular pizza that if you open, opens up an entire facility where there is a secret cyborg inside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright Caleb, I got two suggestions for you. Both are, one, one is in line with the stuff that you are into with your partner right now, and another is a one that is a bit older, but still very, very fun. It'll test your relationship. The first one is Snipperclips.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you basically play as pieces of paper that can clip together and you have to solve, uh, solve puzzles together. Very fun, very interesting. It's like basically a bunch of like one page platforming solutions. So like you load in the game and it's like, figure out the puzzle, work together. Very, very fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The next one that I feel like was a craze many many years ago, especially because of the VR craze, but it's still very fun to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the room with someone I've done it many a time and it always tests your ability of listening and reacting. And that my friends is keep talking and nobody explodes. I love this game. This is, you can, you can go into the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Essentially, if none of you've ever played it, I know most of you have, but the idea is that wearing either a VR headset or someone's had a PC, you have to defuse a bomb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the only way to defuse it is that there is a manual and the manual is given to someone else in the room with you or over discord or whatever it may be. And you have to work together to describe how to defuse the bomb. And you will learn very quickly how well you are able to articulate and how well you are able to listen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what you need to work on as a team, because as it gets harder, it only gets more and more complicated and you will really not listen to each other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, here's the thing people don't know. Charles Marnet has been going on tour for the last two decades at conventions, signing autographs and doing personal voicemails as Mario and Luigi and Wario and Waluigi. Like, he's been doing that forever. That's like what his whole


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, gig to gig thing is in between recording stuff for Mario and whatever. If anything, this sounds to me...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, which I'm sure they're gonna see this and be very happy with me. Uh, I think it's gonna be...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they can advertise to make some of that money of like, he's going away, but he's still with the Nintendo family. He's still going to make us money and he's going to your hometown so you can meet him and take a photo. And we also get a cut of you paying for that photo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what I think the Mario Ambassador program is. It's like a, it's almost like they're- We're still friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, maybe, maybe he's ready for, for doing something different in, in 25 plus years, it's that same character is a lot. It's a lot of stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not, again, I'm not trying to poke any conspiracy theory bears here, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is there also a world, I mean, I didn't, I, look, I saw Super Mario Wonder, the trailer, didn't even think twice that it was in Charles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After this, I'm gonna go watch the trailer a few times and really see if I can hear it because is it a situation where they have so many audio clips from him over the years?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they don't really need him to come in to record new stuff? Or ma- or maybe it's like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not to bring AI to flip everyone's minds, but like, did they just take all of his lines and go, and now we have the ability to get him to recreate anything we need to say without him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just very interesting because they didn't announce the new person yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They already made a Pixar movie with the two of them. Like, we already got that pair up already.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This'll be a fun one to have. Aw, that'll be awesome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It would, it would, it would be like, we, he would be the adult, and all of us would just be like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I will claim him. Guys, uh, just in case you're wondering, uhm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guys, CharlesMartinet.com is still up and it is a website that was made in 1998.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've done, I've, I, he doesn't remember me, but I have done several panels and shows with him. And we've taken photos together, but he's always, he's always like, it's good to see you again. I'm like, you too, Charles. You don't remember my name, but that's okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Looking at this. That's so good. This website is so old that he literally only lists


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is straight, I found it straight from his Wikipedia page. Amazing. Love it. Amazing. Alright, good find Joran, good find. Thank you Charles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let us know what you guys think in the comments down below. We'd love to hear your guys' first impressions on Armored Corps. For sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We, we talked about it, but I, I, for whatever reason, I used to get codes real early from Ben and Amco, but they were real quiet for Armored Core 6, and I don't know why, cause usually they're pretty, like, we got you man! Uhm, but either way, Jake, what about you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh man, I've got, I've got a fair amount, but I'm going to try and keep it, um, a mix of this year and, and old. Uh, I really want to play a game called, uh, Rockland.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, uh, and there is a sequel slash side game that came out this year called Mr. Saito. These are games that are made and produced by Laura Shigihara, who is the composer of Plants vs. Zombies. She's worked on World of Warcraft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, hoop kings, I think is what it's called. It's like a NBA jam type game. Um, she's working on a lot of great stuff and, uh, many years ago she made her first game with some friends called Rocklin and it's, it's a really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sweet and kind story that I, I, she told me about it and I was like, God, that's my kind of game. And I never got around to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, uh, this year, she announced that not only is Rocklin coming to Switch, which it already did, but she made a new game called Mr. Saito, which is a character from Rocklin getting his own game. Uh, he's a llama worm that looks really cute and really fun, and it's like a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't want to spoil too much of it, but it looks very much like a Earthbound Undertale kind of vibe. You walk around, talk to characters, and learn the world, if you will. Uhm, so that's one. Uh, I definitely want to get around to playing, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I love No More Heroes and like the over the top action and it just, it seemed like my kind of game but just never got around to it fully through. Uhm, what else? Sorry, I'm scrolling through my, through my list of, of Steam games. Yes, uh, Borderlands 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I haven't gotten to it. Oh wow, okay. I loved Borderlands 1 with all my passion. I'm gonna throw Borderlands 2 on there as well, cause I, I, I've, Borderlands 2 is the game that I've started and started over again and again and again. Oh wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The furthest we've ever gotten is when the base lifts up into the sky and then I restart the game. I don't know what happens after that moment. That's the first act of the game and I haven't like gone beyond that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it's cause I like playing that game, uh, Borderlands to me is a game you play with friends. Playing by yourself isn't nearly as fun. And so what I'll do is I'll find a group of four and then we play through it. We have a good time. And then someone's like, Oh, I can't do next week. I can't do that week. And then like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Beardblade is a game that I've been meaning to revisit. Uhm, for those of you guys who don't know, Beardblade is an indie game made by a very small team. Uhm, I feel bad for the devs over at Beardblade because uhm, the character looks like me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kick ass soundtrack. Uh, and then finally for my last game, I feel like there's gotta be a triple A game that everyone's probably, I think it's probably gonna end up being boulder escape three, but I just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna go for Starfield 3, S.R. Field, and put Boulder Escape 3 in the backburner. Sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, that's all everyone's playing. That's all everyone's ever playing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna go on Twitch right now, and all people on, yep, everyone's playing Boulder's Gate 3. Thousands of people watching Boulder's Gate 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do, I do. By the embargo, we are not allowed to talk about Sea of Stars. Not yet. Not yet. Such a rad-ass game right there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, it is the most, it is the most charade ass game on planet earth, my friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I cannot wait, uh, I just got confirmation, uh, if you want me to, to, and we can cut this if you want, uh, Ralph, but, uh, the director of Sea of Stars, Terry, has, uh, agreed to join us on the podcast. Cool. So we will have to cut that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next episode, he's coming on by to talk about Sea of Stars. Uh, Terry is such


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A kick-ass guy. I can't wait for you guys to meet him. He's just fun and full of energy. And, uh, you could tell that he had a great time making this game. Really excited about it. We're also just, overall, Sea of Stars just so pumped for everyone to play it. It's gonna be so good. Nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I was going to say is, what I was going to say is that it isn't like, like Hi-Fi Rush, right? Like you look at that game and you're like, yo, this like, this is that, that kind of fun jovial, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All right, everyone, it's time to fill all of this week in the way back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, this game is amazing for the time. It revolutionized a genre and more importantly, it made


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] James Bond, really cool on the N64. Ladies and gentlemen, GoldenEye007.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, that came out on August 23rd. Uhm, I am, I'm lucky and honored to say that I know a lot of the developers who've worked on that game. Uh, one David Doak, Dr. Doak from the game, if you remember, is a good friend of mine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just one of the nicest guys on planet earth. And you can tell that when he talks about golden night till this day that, and he also worked on, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On TimeSplitters, that's his game too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He loves those games, he's passionate about them, and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're, they're great, man. They're, they're so fun. I can't believe that they got re-released on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox stores. That's insane to, to kind of say considering the licensing issues attached to it all. But yeah, man, 26 years ago, GoldenEye007 on the N64. Jake, what's, what's, what's your game this week?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I need, I need to, I need to, I need to play it. I've been, that's, that's also my backlog. Cause my girlfriend was obsessed with the, uh, sequels, but I just never played, I never got around to them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So before we wrap this up, I gotta ask you guys, because I got criticized online for it, and while New Game Plus the series is coming to an end on my channel, I am gonna keep it open for re-reviews of games that I'm not happy with, like, the final product of the video. Bioshock 2! What's your guys' vibes regarding Bioshock 2?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, typically speaking, uh, one of my former writers, Brett, he's, he is very great at articulating how I feel and how he feels and how we both agree on things. And we'll sometimes make statements that like are really interesting and fascinating and propose questions and people listen to those statements and go,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't understand that statement, but it sounds like you fucking hated it, so shut up. Like, instead of like listening to the- Yeah, well like for instance like Resident Evil Village. I loved Village. I made a whole video about how I loved Village. But in the video, I was like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, when I thought Village would be like a metroidvania, wouldn't that be sick if it was a metroidvania? And people were like, shut up, it's not a metroidvania, stop complaining, like stop making it something you don't want it to be. And I was like, okay, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So many comments were like that, then I realized, oh, it's all about, I did a poor job framing my opinion and framing my piece. So it warrants a secondary approach. Cause when it, when it's like one people being, when it's one or two people popping off, you're like, okay, yeah, haters, right? Whatever. But when everyone is saying that kind of stuff, you're like, okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I probably should take a secondary look at how I framed things. And sure enough, my Bioshock 2 video is very similar in that vein.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I want to revisit it, because I feel like, uh, it's kind of, it's, maybe it's a Final Fantasy XIII in a way, where like, it's starting to have its, its resurgence of fan support. But.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] YouTube.com slash that one video gamer, everything else, the completionist or at completionist. Uh, this week, my video on WrestleQuest comes out. Uh, I'm going to be honest, uh, YouTube's algorithms have not been liking me lately. So if you, uh, want to check out my stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm like a boomerang. I'm like a boomerang. I throw it out there, no one watches it first, but then like, week two, week three, week four, suddenly people are like, I'll get around to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Thank you, Ralph. That's the best compliment I'll ever get. Thank you very much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Batman will show up, at least. Yes, he will. And you have to take his ass. Oh yeaah, he is an uh. We're sorry, shoot his ass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so that's why I have this color and there's nothing I could do about it. Like they just had me on the beach the whole time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, at the university I went to, which was Durham University, uhm, there was a like a little lake in one of the colleges that the rumour was that you couldn't go in there because you get tetanus if you go in there. And it was just like the rumours.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yea, it was famous for being bad and you could get something called the quadivody.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which uhm, which was, and I think you can still get it right, which was four shots of vodka, but it was two shots of vodka and orange juice, two shots of vodka and cranberry, and then you pour them into one thing, and it was like five quid, or maybe four quid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I, it's, I'm not usually, I'm not usually this color. It's just because I have been filming on a beach.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I play Clive Rossfield in Final Fantasy 16, that's basically why I'm here. Uhm, I have been a huge game in my entire life, uhm, but I'm also an actor. And I, four years ago, stumbled onto this job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, which just happens to be the lead character in my favourite ever video game franchise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and it doesn't really make sense to me. It doesn't make sense to me now. Um, and yeah, and, and then it got announced at the game awards that I was able to kind of talk about it after that point. Um, and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's crazy. Thank you. That's very welcome. I think I completely freaked out on that one episode where you mentioned that I was a fan of the show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very, very famous on TV or film in the UK. They're spread out all over, all over the world, right? You just, you don't really get that visceral feedback. I did uhm, a TV show.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember all back to yesterday when I was a bit overwhelmed and I kind of went over to you guys and I just was like, I'm just going to talk to you for a bit because I know that this is going to get a bit crazy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm not really prepared for it because I don't feel, I don't feel like I've earned it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that, and I genuinely mean that because it has been something that has been mine for so long. And the idea that people are suddenly going to take ownership of it and it's going to matter to them is very, very strange for me. And I recognize.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a big fan of this series, how much it means to have this brand new installment for the first time and people are going to want to meet me. And I, I just feel very, we've spoken about this imposter syndrome, right? I feel unworthy of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and, you know, I'm looking forward to people playing it, um, and hopefully liking Clive as a person, but it's very, it's a very surreal, it's a bit like whiplash, right? I'm getting that like, oh no, but yeah, there were, there were a lot of people and they made it known that they wanted to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, what, it would be really intense periods, so often it would be for like over multiple months I would have, I would be in every single day doing stuff because uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, based on what we did. And often like Koji said this, like in the sessions, like we would change stuff based, and they would rewrite stuff based on what I was giving them in the booth. So like Clive shifted with us. We didn't be like, he started off as one thing and, um, then we kind of developed him together and it was this mad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This mad moment where I met Yoshi P and he was just like, you are Clive. And I was like, Oh my God. Um, you know, it was, it's, it's crazy, but the pressure of that meant that like, I felt like if I wasn't able to make a session, I was letting people down because there's me and then there's all the other amazing Clives who were going to do it in all the other languages who if I'm not doing it, they don't have anything to go off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, I was like pretty dedicated to it and you know, but sometimes against my


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The betterment of my health. I'd just go and do it because I knew that I needed to get this stuff done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but yeah, I'd sometimes like have a month off, two months off and then I'd go back in for three months and my agent would just be like, yep, it's, it's up again and off we go. And my life would just be that. And it was quite nice because an actor, you don't get nine to fives, but for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I lived where we recorded it, like, uhm, the, uh, the place where we, where we did all the recording, uhm, they've done a lot of big high profile video games. It's kind of like the place where every, you know, they do Cyberpunk and Assassin's Creed and everything. And I was working out with the casting director that I think I am by quite some margin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, so what we had, what we had is Koji, who would be right there at the beginning and he would basically dictate the style of what it was. And so I'd have him over zoom, but I also had this amazing team, amazing performance directors. So I want to shout out to Morgan Rushton. I want to shout out to Ollie Chance. And I really want to shout out to Hannah Price.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had an amazing on-site UK team who are just now some of my closest friends because you just spend hours with these people and they see me at my worst. You know, it's not, I'm sitting here being like celebrating and basking in it, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things got hard, things got really hard if you're slogging away at something and you just think you're not really making any dent in anything or you, you, you beat yourself up because you're not doing a good enough job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they picked me up and, and I'm just so thankful to have them in my life. And I'm thankful to have Koji in my life, man. We were just, we were hanging out last night, just being like, Oh, look, look at us. Look at us. It was just, it was cool. And, um, I'm, they're just my really, really great friends now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now this was a much, much smaller role in the game. He was called Tristan and he was this hard taskmaster in coming in. It was 5.30 on a Friday. I'd just done, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I have like a, a production company, like a film production company, and we just had this like awful meeting. It had gone so badly. I was so tired. And I was like, I've got to do this audition at 5.30. I was really tired. I went up. I was like, I've got to audition for Tristan in this game. I'm not going to get it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and I walked into the booth, not really that prepared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, it did three lines and I was really quite bad. And then there was silence. Um, and then I heard over the tannoy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ben, would you mind reading this? And I went, yeah, sure, fine. Just thinking nothing of it. Um, and yeah, then they gave me the lines for a character called Clint Richmond.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, yeah, and I just, I looked at them and you're just thinking, well, screw it, right? I don't, I haven't seen these in advance. Let's just go for it. And they were really emotional lines, like, Clive in this game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He, he goes to some places and I just went for it. I just kind of let everything go. And I remember coming out thinking that went, that went all right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I was, and I was sitting next to Neil Dudgeon, who is the lead in Midsummer Murders, and I just got a call from my agent saying, congratulations, you've got the lead in a video game. And I'm like, oh, nice. And I'm just talking to people going, no, I've got this, I'm in a, I'm in a video game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna do like 40 hours, that's all it was. It's gonna be 40 hours of recording and I'm thinking, that's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great, that's nice. And then I got a callback saying, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Could you come back in an audition for your younger self? It'll only be like a couple of hours. We just wanna, we just wanna see if you can do it. Otherwise, we'll just get someone else to voice. It's fine. Uhm, but it would be so much easier if you could do it. And I went, sure. They went, we're gonna give you more information for the character for context. And then they gave me the more information and it had Final Fantasy written on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, and I didn't quite understand. I just was like, okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What? Uhm, and then I went in to, to my younger self audition, which was, you know, with Koji at the time, I'd already met, it was like, we're all cool, we're rubbing shoulders, we're fine, it's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and, uh, yeah, then I said, is this Final Fancy? And someone nodded and I went, is this Final Fancy 16? And then nodded again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I screamed. And I think I was just so, I was so nervous auditioning for my younger self. Um, because I just thought I just, what if I, what if I do my younger self and they realize that I'm not good enough to do this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and they fortunately said, congratulations, you're going to get to do that. Uhm, and then for the entire first month, maybe the first year, I thought I was going to get fired.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it doesn't happen, does it? That doesn't happen. I didn't know what I was going in for. I've loved these games since I was 11 years old. They have defined my life. And then someone says after one


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not that great audition followed by a good audition. You just get to, you get to do this and you're going to be the custodian of the next protagonist in the Final Fantasy franchise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is just mad. And I did an interview with the OCP and Koji earlier in the year and they said it's fate and it feels like it was fate. It feels like it was meant to be because it doesn't happen to everyone. In fact, I think it might just, it might just happen to me. You know who? Uh, but yeah, it's, it's amazing. It's mad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We spoke about this a lot and it's not really about age, it's about texture and about like, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know in other languages they've separated them, so they've got, you know, some people have not played Clive throughout the entire process, but for me, I felt like I really had to, I'm really glad they let me do it, because what happens in those, like, final moments of this, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This demo, it changes Clive's life forever and it informs every aspect of my performance going forward. Uhm, I just, I couldn't have, I don't think I could have done it well enough if had I not had those moments that happened with...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the icon of fire in Phoenix, it's, it's mad and, um, it's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've described it as, um, Clive's soul leaving his body, uh, as that's really what it was, was going every aspect of his being evacuates his body and then he has to rebuild himself for the rest of the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and so that's what informed it. It wasn't just like, I'm going to talk like this and I'm going to talk like this, but it's, it was more just like the texture of your voice. It changes, you know, there are hints of old, there are hints of older Clive when he's out in the field, when he's younger, you know, it's about playing, playing that soldier. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I was, I think I was probably the only cast member to get the entire script when I first got it. Um, and which, you know, absolutely changed throughout the process. You know, these game, game development means that things change, especially over the four years that we were there, we were there. Um, and, uh, but I got the arc and Clive's arc.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Clive's arc never changed. It never changed at all. Like it was always, it was always going to always end up in the same place and the beats were always going to hit the same. How he got there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, changed based on circumstances and then how development came along I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I always knew what was going to happen, but the team and like Morgan in the room would just, sometimes with direction would just be like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is everything that has happened. You know, they, they give me like a, like the active time law, right? They would actually give me active time law in the room. But by that point, uhm, because it goes on for so long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I would know exactly where Clive was in his life. Like I was commanding half these sessions because I'd know what had immediately happened, where I'd been, you know, where I was going. And I'm like, great, cool, got it. And we had this amazing shorthand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and that's why like we stuck with the team that we did because if we'd had other directors coming in, they would have not really understood it because this is a long game. You can't just have like a, you know, a director for hire for two days coming in and telling you what to do because they don't know what's happened up to that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it was, it was a cool process and one that I now know this game inside and out. And it's going to be weird playing it, knowing what I know about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nope. I mean, I played the, I played the demo and I played all the stuff that we played the previews, but I am, I'm excited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm, I'm such a big gamer. Like I'm going for that platinum trophy. You know, I think final fancy 13 was the first ever platinum trophy I got and I wasn't really much of a trophy hunter at that point. And then, um, it kind of changed. I think 13 and 13 to my first ever platinum trophies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you've ever tried to get the 13 platinum, uh, you know that that is RNG nightmare. Like nightmare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but I mean, some of the most recent Platinums have actually been quite fun for it, but that one I was just, I just loved it and I really wanted to do it. And they're the ones that kind of tease you, right? You think this is tangible. I've got all of them. I just need to get this last trophy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The witness is the worst tease of all time because you get a trophy for every single thing that you have to do for the story and then they go, the final trophy is very simple. It's just this procedurally generated


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like you timed to the hall of the mountain king music. So there's no timer and you've just got to get all the way through it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so the very first game I think I played was on Gameboy. So, I like, I found my old Gameboy, like, about three days ago, and I had this, like, pack that I would take around to my, uh, on holiday and stuff, and I had, uhm, I had Metroid 2,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yea, it was all like the Gameboy. And I really want to give a shout out to the 007 game on Gameboy, if you ever played it, the 007 James Bond game. It's like a, it's like a Zelda-like James Bond game. It doesn't get enough love. Classic Jimmy B. Honestly, it's a deep, it's a deep cut, but you gotta play it, man. Who made it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I don't know, but it had, you know, it had the like certified for Gameboy, um, thing on it, but I remember seeing it thinking, I love James Bond. This is awesome. But I was rubbish at games at that point. You know, I could only probably get past the first or second level, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, it was, it was the time where I break through and like get past it. I thought, oh, am I a gamer?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah, I was a, I was a Gameboy kid and then I didn't get anything until the PlayStation and it was, the first two games I got were Resident Evil 2 and Gran Turismo. And Resident Evil 2 was so scary, I had to turn it off, I actually pulled, we were, I was watching it with like three, three or four of my friends who were all coming in, we got past like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah, that's my, that's kind of my history with video games. I don't think I, I don't think I really have one, but uhm, I would say they'd probably exist in like that era, so probably Final Fantasy 8, uhm, because it was the first one I played.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got to give some 12 some love as well. I did 12 in like four weeks, uhm, in between like breaks at university and I kind of got like my PlayStation 2 and I got my TV from uni and I put it at the end of my like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The 53 million HP boss? He is Matt. And if you're playing that on PS2, anyone who defeated that on PS2, you just get a gold star. Because I think you have to save halfway through it. You're in this stadium and there is such a specific gambit set up in order to defeat it. You have to like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You do a spell whereby its attacks heal you and you also have to float the entire time. And it's just like, you are doing, you are doing straight maths when you want to defeat that thing. But yeah, I love, I love that game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yea, eight is, is my, is my boy. That's the one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I love it because the fans, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I think it's, her name is, uhm, astrellanova. So look her up on Instagram. She's amazing. And, uh, yeah, she did, she did me in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think I have the same stats as Squall in it, but yeah, me in a seed uniform.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just that is, that's cool. And what I have realized is, now that I'm part of this fandom, if I say something, people will draw it. Like that's it, like they will do an illustration of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, do it, do it, and just like, give us, give us stats, junction some stuff to us, put it in the, please, genuinely do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, uh, PlayStation 1, I was playing, like, uhm, the Tomorrow Never Dies game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bond, that was the period of time when I really loved Bond.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, like, Final Fantasy, uhm, 8.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, my dad bought it for me and uhm, I just like the cover of it. I think I got like an official PlayStation magazine. I thought it looked quite cool, but I didn't understand what it was. Like I've been like, you know, press square to shoot games and this like had like compli- complicated things in it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I remember getting it and playing it and there's that, there's the mission where you go and fight, um, ifrit as I called them back in the day, but as I've learned now it's ifrit. I know, right? I've always said ifrit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He would be, like everyone at work would just love it when he would come in because I'd just take him off the lead and he'd just potter around and he has a tiny tennis ball because he's a very small boy and he would just, just nudge it around like he's Lionel Messi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, but yeah, eight, I was rubbish at it. And then, um, I'd been playing Pokemon at the time. Cause that was like the apex of when goal, uh, red, red and blue were there. Like everyone at school was playing it. Yeah. It was mad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ifrit was Charizard, and so for the first eight


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, good, like five, 10 hours of that game, I was playing it like Pokemon, just summoning GFs the whole time. Um, and then I figured out how to play the game correctly. Um, cause like a friend at school was like, that's not how you play the game. Um, and it just, the story just took me, it was insane.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I loved it. And from then on, it was, it was Final Fantasy all the way. I played seven and then I played nine. The first, like, my dad got it for me the day it came out. Uhm, and then I got, like, the sixth PlayStation 1, uh, game because it came with a 10 demo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we had, in the UK we had, uh, the final Fancy Anthology, which was 5 and 6.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think was it, well it was four I think in the UK.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe it was, cause six came on its own and then we had Origins, which was one and two. That's right. They split it up. Yeah. Maybe it wasn't four. Maybe it was five and six. I don't remember. Like Anthology was something and I'd also get all the guides. I get all like the, in the UK, the piggyback guides. I was in Square Enix the other day and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have a wall. They have the wall of guides. They have every single Square Enix guide ever made on this wall. And I was meant to go and do this podcast interview and I was just there with Koji just looking at me. Oh my God, they've got this. And he told me about there's, um, there was a final fantasy 11 guide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Apparently it was a complete nightmare to, to translate that he had to, he was like one of the first things he ever worked on and he looked at it like I was giving him like a haunted tome. But yeah, it's, it's really cool. Those guides were, were amazing and I've still got them. Like I've lots of my old gaming stuff I don't have, but I still have on my Final Fantasy guides. I think they're really cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If it wasn't good enough, I didn't want it to be in the game, so I really didn't mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, if I was really proud of something and for a technical reason it couldn't go in, I'd be really annoyed. Yeah. Uhm, like I wouldn't make any bones about it, but like, oh, it's annoying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They realised that it didn't quite work, so things had to change, or like, uhm, you know, I mispronounced something, because there's a lot of names in this game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've always said it free. I don't know what you're talking about. Uh, yeah, that, that, so that would happen. And, um, I was, I was fine with it because often I wouldn't kind of know exactly what we're going to do that day. Um, and there is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are quite a few scenes in the game which I kind of need the context of, but uhm, often I would see a scene play out, uh, and then I would have to voice it or they'd tell me what the scene is and then they would just show me the lines that I would have to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I would watch it and then go, okay, ready to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there was, there was some scenes later on in the game, which are very, you know, it's a Final Fantasy game, uh, very emotionally charged, long sequences, which have just real complexity and, um, they would have taken hours to do. And I just said, no, let's just do it. That's cause I don't want to have to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't want to have to, um, kind of make, turn this into a technical thing because of what it requires. So I just did it in one take and, um, we did it and everyone was like, Oh no, is that the one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, for like one technical reason we couldn't take it and everyone was very nervous because it was very emotional. And I was like, guys, guys, guys, guys, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. We'll just do it again, but I'll do it, but better. And I did it again and that's the take we used. And so something that should have taken probably about four or five hours took maybe 20 minutes to do. And I still think it's my favorite. It's my, it's the most kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the thing I'm most proud of in my entire career that I've ever done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of that moment where you feel like you've done something justice, you've given your entire self to it and it just is incredibly real. It's not, it's not fake. We did it and we went all through in one go and that scene that you see is exactly as it happened. Everything we were feeling in that moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] happens and, you know, you see all the trailers, it's an emotionally charged game. There's lots of fun stuff to it, but I love that. And I'm going, yeah, that was me putting myself into that character. That isn't just me trying to bend myself up in knots. That's just raw honesty. And I was just like, Oh man, that's, that's cool that I got to do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, he's in everything, right? Uhm. A British institution. His voice, the voice as if he's been eating dirt for 20 years. It's just, he's an amazing man to be around. And we would see like some of the character models really early on, you know, there's no like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They haven't got any of the bells and whistles on, they don't look like they do now. And they were just like blank, like grey faces and hair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, Clive looked like he was made by a four-year-old Play-Doh hair, like, um, and Sid just looked very attractive from the get-go. Like Sid was always super sexy, looked incredible day one, whereas Clive looked like he'd been drawn by a four-year-old who had just like got his, her first Play-Doh set, his Play-Doh set. It was, it was very, very silly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he really is. Also, he's just very funny. I just think that, like, you, you can kind of let Clyde be really sad in that section of the game, because Cid just brings so much levity to all of it, and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being in, being in the room with Ralph when we were recording, it was just really funny because, you know, I'd, I'd say, you know, I'd say something quite sad or serious as Clive. And then he'd just come back with a funny quip and a lot of the stuff that you get in the game is just because we were in the room together when we were doing it. And I don't think you'd get that kind of same chemistry if, if we weren't there in the room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I think probably the most surprising thing is, I mean, probably not surprising, but uhm, this is the, this is the first new Final Fantasy that you've had in years, like you haven't known about, and I think that it just,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It feels very, very modern. And I don't know how to say that in any other way. Like it feels, it feels very modern, but also it still has the same kind of like Final Fantasy classic sensibilities. But I love, because we recorded it in English, I think you're going to get a style of performance that you haven't heard in a Final Fantasy game before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think a lot of the stuff is quite understated. It's not in your face. And we do go for the big bombastic moments. You've seen the trailers. It does go to some crazy, crazy places. Um, but even in that demo, right, you see just two people talking in a room, no music.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and you don't need it because you're trusting in what the story is. You're trusting in, uhm, what these performers have done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Acting alongside some people who I think are just so, so cool, like, like, I mean, the actors haven't been announced yet so I can't really talk about them, but like, the people, even in that demo who I was working with, I was just like, oh my god.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm playing your characters right now. Like I, I'm, I'm, I played games with your voices in them. It's, it's really mad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And everyone always surprised me. I'd always come in and it would just be like performances with different dynamics and different textures to kind of create a world that kind of feels really lived in. You feel like these people have lived here for hundreds and thousands of years. So yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've, I would love, I would love to do more video games. I'm currently not doing any more video games. Um, so get on it guys. What are you waiting for? But, um, I would love, I love the variation of all of it. I think it's so cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they do, they're very similar, but very, very different as well in the disciplines that they require. And I've learned a lot about myself as an actor, like taking into all my other disciplines, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I, I, I love being freelance. It's cool. It's terrifying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, I love thinking that like, oh, I can go off and shoot a film or I can go and do a TV show or I can go and do a video game. I love it all because my passion is video games and acting and they just so happen to be my job. Uhm, so yeah, I would love to do any and anything. I don't know what the future holds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, wait until 16 comes out. I could be terrible. Uhm, but I'm really excited to see what the future holds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why are people making this joke? I don't get it, but now I understand. Netflix trying to livestream a piece of content, I can definitely see how that would fuck their servers, and then everyone would complain and liken it to like a Diablo patch or whatever. That makes a lot of sense to me now, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, like, I mean, I, you know, obviously we, we here don't really know what's going on up there, right? And I think we just have our own kind of perspectives and what we read. And I think we need to like acknowledge our own, you know, dumb ass ignorance. Cause when it comes to the world of business, we don't really know much, but my understanding, yeah, we're not lawyers. We're not whatever, right? My understanding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that CMA pretty serious about the cloud thing. It's not like a fig leaf because they've got some kind of ideological grudge against Microsoft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cloud gaming is pretty important in the longer term. Like right now we look at cloud gaming and we're like, that's dumb, that's shit. We laugh at Stadia and whatever else. We're like, that's not a big thing. But the way CMA positions it, it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's an emerging technology that could have a transformative impact on the world of video games and I think they're right in many aspects because ultimately I'd be very surprised if


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A huge section of the gaming of, of like video games in the future didn't live in the cloud in some way, right? Like it's just, it's natural that that makes a lot of sense if you can do away with hardware and focus on cloud. I know a lot of people don't like that. I agree. I prefer local hardware as well, but I think it's definitely a big thing for the future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so then the CMA basically like if you get my, if Microsoft gets hold of these massive IPs and makes them exclusive to their ecosystems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then it's going to stop other cloud technologies from emerging because, you know, whoever else decides to spin up their thing, Amazon, Nvidia, whatever, they won't be able to put Call of Duty on there or World of Warcraft and whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that would therefore stifle the development of those cloud technologies and allow Microsoft to entrench its monopoly further. So whether or not you agree with that, again, I don't know. Like I think logically that makes a lot of sense. I get it. But I also understand how people can look at that now and think that's not a thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not something we should be worried about. Microsoft should be allowed to buy this company if they choose. I get that as well, I do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think this is ultimately the process of the UK government. Like, this is it.