Phantom Blade Zero Might Be BETTER Than Sekiro | Between Levels Podcast Ep. 18

WheelieAverage: Hello everyone, welcome back to Between Levels. I believe this is episode 18, but I've actually lost track because we're so busy lately. I am of course Wheelie Average. I am joined by Cowboy who's down below today, and finally back this week after moving for the millionth time is Sarth. Ha! How are you doing, Sarth? No, no, you you came as we finished.

Sarthe: 14. Wait, I was here. Was I not here last week? No, I missed it. I was trying to set up. Yeah. I joined. I was

FightinCowboy: Yeah, you j you Yeah, you joined as we ended it. I was like, I made it.

Sarthe: like, I just joined the call. Where is everyone? my god.

FightinCowboy: That dude's showing up late to the work meeting. Sorry, I had a complication.

Sarthe: Yeah. That was that was the final

WheelieAverage: Yeah. But yeah.

Sarthe: of the 14th. That was the move number 14. So now I'm back in my old place. It looks kind of, it looks like. I haven't left at all almost. I remember people were telling me that on stream, but like right off of camera, it's just like either nothing or boxes. Like the whole apartment is like I I have four pairs of underwear, five shirts until I went to Target a few days ago and bought a bunch of blank shirts. I have like most of the furniture and everything else is gone. So we're here. Well, at least we're we're in one place finally for a few weeks. Let's go.

WheelieAverage: Nice, nice. And we've got we've got some interesting things coming up in the next few weeks that I'm sure you'll be playing a lot. So so you know, we'll we'll talk about that when the time comes. But of course if you've seen the thumbnail and the episode title today, yes, Phantom Blade Zero has now launched to the public. I only received my access today, so I haven't actually played it yet at time of recording. but Cowboy I think you have played the most, although Sarth was up last night playing it I believe. So let's jump straight into it and talk about the game, shall we? I guess this is gonna be a first impressions episode and then once we've all finished it and everything we'll come back for a more in depth review episode in a few weeks. But yeah, Cowboy, what do you think of Phantom Blade Zero?

FightinCowboy: so far I am very, very impressed with Vantablade Zero. I'm liking it a lot. I think it What's what's interesting is initially I wasn't too sure. Like the first couple hours, I was like, is this is this enough? Like, do I enjoy this? You know, because there's some big, big changes from what we're used to in action games, namely enemies respawning. It's very different. starting a boss fight. Like if you get to phase two and you die, you resume from phase two. And so those were the things that I was like, how am I gonna feel about these after more time has passed? And now that I'm coming up on the 10 hour mark, I can say I'm beginning to appreciate them more. I think the biggest thing that is selling me on the game right now is probably the weapon variety, which is is funny because one of the complaints I'm seeing from people that clearly aren't playing the game is they're like, the the combat is just button mashing. And I'm like, maybe if you're using the the if you're in the tutorial, but once you start getting other weapons. Yeah. Yeah, the very

Sarthe: Yeah, the base weapons. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: basic weapon where they they establish this is a normal attack, this is a Sha Chi attack. But once you start getting in the other weapons, I have one where my Sha Chi attack creates a flower field that will then drain Shachi. I have another one where the attack will drain my health to empower my attack. I have another one where it's more of a finisher and after I deplete the enemy's Shachi, it's gonna do a big hit and give me a bleed buff. I have another one where I the you I you were I saw your your shirt on the the drunken sword video. you have

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: tiered drunk stances that completely changes your moveset. I got the dual blade one where it's like, you can throw it around you, or you can throw it into an enemy, or you can fight with it. Like three distinct movesets. I'm like, there is it's I I guess the best way to describe it is if you took how how each weapon and where wins meet kind of has its own thing, its own skill set, its own rotation. It's like you take that. And then you crank it up a little bit higher, because I would say there's more moveset and depth to those weapons here than there is compared to wherewinds meet. But then you add like whatever it is, 40 or 50 weapons that have this level of depth. And that shit's fun. Because I I keep, you know, I

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: keep finding new weapons and I'm like, what does this one do? And then I'm like, do I want to respect?

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Do I want to keep what I'm using? so that along with the the bosses, I don't want to say the game's a boss rush. 'Cause there's clearly side quests and open world content and whatnot. but the bosses have definitely been the highlight. I think this is possibly the closest a game has come to capturing that dance of combat that Sekiro has. And there's a lot of games that have done it really well. I think Kazan is the the first one that comes to mind, like that feel of of when you're fighting a boss, it is a a back and forth, a knowing when you have to be defensive and knowing when you need to be aggressive. but I think this does it extremely well. Like like I said, probably probably the closest I've ever played something that's like, yeah, this is the same energy I get when I'm playing Sekiro. I think this does it better than Kazan. I think it does it better than Stellar Blade. and given I'm only ten hours in, but this this might end up topping Sekiro for me by the end in terms of just how it feels overall to the combat. It's extremely satisfying.

WheelieAverage: Wow, okay, that's that is crazy to hear you say that that it might actually top Securo because, for many people, Sekiro is up there among this genre of game, right?

FightinCowboy: Well, I I think when you when you look look at Sakiro and you have your like you you're weaving in your attacks, and then obviously you have your parries, but you're also working in your Makiri counters. You have the unique abilities you could use, like being able to use high monk to dodge sweeps and get damage in. stuff like lightning reverse. So there's bunch of different defensive tools. Whereas here we have our basic attack chains. We have obviously parrying and dodging attacks that have to be parried or attacks that have to be dodged. We have our Phantom Edge follow-ups, which those can weave into the combat. You can also freely use your Phantom Edges. We're switching weapons to build up

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: your your Sha Chi. So you want to have weapons that are synergistic to play into that system. and then lastly, I keep forgetting what it's called. Is it is it the the power surge? Like essentially your your finisher for the weapons, you also

Sarthe: Yeah. Yep.

FightinCowboy: have that. So, like a good example is I was fighting one of the long bosses. Sorry, you might know what I'm talking about, the guys that are at the long

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: pillars. First one whoop

Sarthe: Yep.

FightinCowboy: ass. I found the second one and I'm like, I think I could actually do this fight. But I realized my power surge wasn't do anything to him unless I had broken his Sha Chi and broken his guard. So I would be on the defensive, and as I would parry, I would weave in certain attacks. And then finally, when I would get the attack where I would break his guard, I would then go into a fist combo, which would increase the amount of damage I was about to do, and then transition into my power surge, which would hit him for big damage, heal me in the process, and then the dance would start again. But it was a Yeah. Yeah. So, but that that feeling, I'm like, this is this is it's a very hard feeling to get right. And they got it right.

WheelieAverage: Nice, nice.

Sarthe: Yeah. The the combat I I've actually seen some complaints about like early on, people feel like the combat is like you were saying, there's like there's these button mashy elements like where you press one button and it kind of does like two attacks and and there's actually or or that it doesn't feel like visceral enough. And I I think that once people get more of the weapons and try them out, like The the flow of the combat feels so insane. And also it's missing the point. Wuja isn't supposed to feel like super heavy and weighty with your attacks. It's all about this flow. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, it's not it's not supposed to be like a souls game at all. Yeah.

Sarthe: But if you just it a a huge thing that I think people should try, if you think that like it doesn't feel like you're parrying really like powerfully or hitting really hard, go into your sound settings and you can turn the the weapon clash sound to heavy. So it's like a slider. And if you just lower it to heavy, I don't know why heavy's on the bottom side, but if you lower it that's heavy, and then there's one slider right below it, and you just up that by two or three notches, it feels so much more visceral. And you're like, my God, I'm in it right now. So, like this, this that little bit of a a change, I think, will be a big thing for people just like to feel the game more. But then once you get the weapons, the different ones, and you try things out and like learn their combos, how you can combine them together with each other, like cowboy was just saying. that's where the the bread and butter of this is. And like eventually we're gonna have just crazy builds. But like there's there's gonna be like so many more weapons that go into such crazy abilities and different things. And I I'm just hyped.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. I I th I think a big thing too

WheelieAverage: Yeah, that's fair.

FightinCowboy: is early on, the the basic enemies, the fodder, yeah, you are just you you can just mash a button and kill them. and I think if if people are are booting it up, they're doing the tutorial and then they're going through just fighting those, they're gonna feel they're you know, they're not they're not gonna feel the dance of the combat. I think the first time I really felt it was the the bride fight. Let me see what was her name.

Sarthe: Yeah. hoa. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah, huah, and that's a it it's a optional fight that you need to discover. But that was the first time

Sarthe: That you could miss.

FightinCowboy: I was like, okay, like I I I see I see what we're doing here. And then the story bosses, you know, like Peng Meng, the hunt, you know, not not bad. They didn't blow me away, but I'm like, okay, you got little something here. but but whoa, that one really got me going and then and then my first death was gravity. I tried to explore and fell off a cliff, jumped off a cliff.

Sarthe: Because

FightinCowboy: I now I now use it I use it as fast travel. If I if I go exploring and it's a dead end, I'm like, cool, I jump off the cliff to get back to the to the bell.

Sarthe: that's smart. Yeah. No, I literally was like, I'm just gonna see how far I can get without ever dying. But I I my last like preview event, I had six hours of the beginning of the game, and I I died to grab it like four times. So I knew the exact spots that I wanted to try to jump off, and like that looks

FightinCowboy: Try try and explore.

Sarthe: I could make it. Coincidentally, I found a secret way into Without having to fight the hunt into the entire main right area of the of the first. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: The next next zone.

Sarthe: because of of gravity, you're not supposed to be able to get there either. You need to get a key after fighting the hunt, beating like the main boss. And instead, I found an area that I could jump all the way off, and there was an enemy at the bottom that I could do like the above assassination that saved me. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: dude, I I tried that. There was one I found that for, but the game, as I was like right before I could hit the the execute, it would just hit me with the death screen. It was like, nah, you're falling too much. I was like, Ma.

Sarthe: Yep.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, but that that one was good. The the long battle. So I don't know if his name is Bastion of Mo or not, but like you beat it. He's Remember this. This is the name you need to remember. And I'm like, Is that you? but that fight and then by chillan, that one. Those are the three I'm like, okay, okay, we're we're I'm starting to fuck with this more. This is yeah, we're cooking.

Sarthe: We're cooking. Yeah. It's the side, the side bosses are so much more challenging.

FightinCowboy: yeah.

Sarthe: kind of on purpose. Like the other ones can be like really flashy. The main story ones are really flashy. But like if you want the challenge, you go off the beaten path. Like, did you end up beating the the long statue in the first area? That's that is a

FightinCowboy: No, not yet. I've I've I've taken a couple swings at him.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: honestly, I I think by the time I'm in like the fourth or fifth zone, maybe, I was just about to start the the third map.

Sarthe: Okay.

FightinCowboy: and so far I have I've I've almost fully cleared the first map. I went back and and the stuff I missed is now unlocked. So I was able to do most of that, but there's one more phantom edge

Sarthe: One area.

FightinCowboy: I need to explore more. And then everything in the second zone that I haven't explored is Phantom Edge Locked. So I need the ability to like light shit on fire. I need the shield. And then I think I need the hammer and then the staff. And once I get all those. So I'm just basically like, you know, you finish most zones around roughly 80%. And then you you come back Metroidvania style once you get the applicable phantom art and you can continue progressing through the zone. but it actually makes things pretty chill because you're like, you're like, okay, I like look at my map, okay. I'm done this for now. I know what weapons I need. Those are marked on the map. and then you just you know, you keep you keep going, which is it it's nice.

Sarthe: I I almost wish they weren't marked on the map because I like remembering and I like figuring that stuff out. Because.

FightinCowboy: I don't fuck that. Fuck that, dude. Tell me. Tell me every time. Tell me, tell me what I forgot. I was upset because there's one thing I found that did not get marked on the map. I need the tongue to get into Red Red Palace or Crimson Palace or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I need the

Sarthe: into the crimson Yeah. Yep.

FightinCowboy: tongue for that. And I'm like, why isn't the tongue shown on the map? But I got well, because we we got that back in the the Prince of Persia game. They added that that mechanic where you could screenshot something and it would pin it on the map. And I'm like, I love that.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah. That was really good.

Sarthe: Yeah, yeah, that's really sick.

FightinCowboy: I'm I'm I'm unk I'm unk status these days. I don't have the memory. I don't wanna have to be pausing to write shit down.

WheelieAverage: He's he's the old man, he's the old man here, as we were discussing

Sarthe: Did you get the tongue?

WheelieAverage: pre-show.

FightinCowboy: Not yet. D can you No, no, I'd I'd assume it's it's it's later, yeah, because I just got

Sarthe: Okay, I didn't get the tongue either and I was like Did I miss the tongue yet? Yeah. Me too.

FightinCowboy: into the third I just got into the third zone and I am Well, I w I got into the third zone and then I went back. Stuff in the first zone you can do after finishing the second zone. So I did that. And then I found the heart of the Banyan, the tree. That one was a that was a fight. I was like, damn, it was just fuck bullshit coming at you.

Sarthe: Sick.

WheelieAverage: So I've got I've got to bring something up 'cause obviously I haven't played it yet, but I know quite a few people that have played it and one of the the main criticism I'm really hearing seems to be from people who wanted this game to be a Souls like and they're upset that it's not a Souls like, effectively.

FightinCowboy: I think I think that's that's to me, that is not a valid criticism. Because the developers

WheelieAverage: I agree.

FightinCowboy: were clear this is not a souls like. We don't want this to be a souls like.

Sarthe: Said it every time.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah. I think I think getting getting upset that a game isn't what like like having it

WheelieAverage: I and and I completely agree, but it's like so I saw

FightinCowboy: that's that's a problem these days though. People people set expectations

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: for a game that were never I mean, a perfect example is fucking Dust Plots. There are people that were like, wait a minute,

WheelieAverage: That's true.

FightinCowboy: there's no single player. There was never gonna be single player, you fucking idiot.

WheelieAverage: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: They said outright that this was a PvPVE game. Why why did you think there was gonna be Dark Souls 4 story? And then people like

WheelieAverage: Yeah. And that's also obviously that's also obviously been delayed till next year now as well.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah, that that got delayed. Which I'm fine with. That means I don't gotta I can just focus on on wow forever, which is great.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, nice, nice. But yeah, I've heard so for example you brought it up earlier, Cowboy, but I have heard quite a few people, even reviewers, complaining that enemies don't respawn. It's like, but not every action game ever enemies respawn. Like that is

FightinCowboy: Yeah. So that

WheelieAverage: a very souls like thing.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. And that that one I've had I've had mixed feelings about 'cause on one hand, I was progressing through and then I got through all the enemies and then there was an elite and I died at the elite. But then the run back is just me running for about fifty seconds until I reach the elite.

Sarthe: And it's just the elite that time.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Which like he gets his ass beat because I have full healing and there's no challenge. which on one hand I'm like it would have been nice if there was something here to fight. But on the other, if you just if you stay very progression focused, I'm constantly moving forward. As long as you're constantly moving forward, you are gonna have a constant flow of enemies to fight. So once I shifted my thought process to that, as opposed to I need to re-fight stuff. I need to re-farm. Instead I'm just like I keep going forward. I'm always looking for yeah. Yeah, because they they get yeah. Exactly.

WheelieAverage: Mm. It's so it's almost like getting in the right mindset for what the game actually is rather than what you want the game to be.

FightinCowboy: Because if if like I I said at first I was like, well, you know, I feel like I'm just kind of running because there's I don't need to re-kill these guys. But now instead, I'm using it more for exploration. I'm like, I'm hitting a more open area and I'm like, you know, kind of curving through the map, being like, okay, I've been here. Yep, no enemies. there's enemies over there. I haven't been that way. And so I'll use

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: that to investigate a route until I find a bell or a clear dead end. And then once I can't find any more enemies, I'm like, cool. On to the next map, we're going to continue this progression. and if you're playing it like that, if you're playing it without expectations that were never going to be the case, I think you'll find it a lot more. Enjoyable. Because I I went

Sarthe: It's actually

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: the same thing, you know, I I went in with those. I was like, it's a little bit weird that things aren't respawning. And there was a couple bosses where I'm like, okay, well, you know, it's less stressful now because I'm starting at phase two. but now I'm just taking it as it is. I'm like, cool, phase one is being completed. Like for for phased bosses, even in my head, I am sectionalizing it as like two bosses. I'm like, there is the phase

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: one boss, there is the phase two boss. Cool. I have beat the phase one boss. Now I can focus on beating the phase two boss. So when I think about it like that, I'm like, this is actually a lot of fun. It's way less stressful thinking about let me perfect phase

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: one and now I can move on in perfect phase two.

Sarthe: I actually brought that

WheelieAverage: Yeah, that makes sense.

Sarthe: up to Soul Frame at the CEO at like my last preview event. I I went over and I asked him about that. I was like, because the first time I ever played two years ago in China, well, second time I ever played, the the bosses and the enemies respawned. So like you had to there is this art when that happens where you're stressed of like getting past everything without having to use a healing item to get back to the boss and fight them. And then masterfully do phase one, so then you can actually beat phase two. There is that, and and and that's like a a great thing in in in games. It was a very conscious choice to remove that. But he also said that there's like some technical, not maybe not technical limitations, but like modders will probably just add that back in. So you'll just be able if that's what you want, but that's not like part of the aspect, the core, like even themes of this game. Like you are the kung fu master, you are the the protagonist in this game. It's not s it's not a soul's like. It it is an action game completely. Yep.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. It's almost more like a it's almost more like a power fantasy, right? That's the way it appears to be to me. It's like from everything I've heard, the entire game is basically about you becoming stronger to defeat the ultimate enemy in the game, you know? And it's like so that so it should be that way. It should feel that way. And it I think I've seen some of the weapons and things and they're amazing, you know, and and you can clearly see

Sarthe: They're awesome.

WheelieAverage: it's like This team want you to have fun with the combat and it's more about having fun than it is about presenting the biggest challenge that you'll ever have. Like they want it to be challenging enough to be engaging, I would assume,

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: but they don't want it to be that you're banging your head against the wall having to try a boss twelve times to beat them, you know?

Sarthe: You also could do that, especially early on. There's there's a couple side bosses. the first boss you technically encounter for most players is is one that's sub it's kind of like your tree sentinel. It's like you're not supposed to take it out. And I would highly, highly think that almost probably every single reviewer that that even had that take of like things being easy whatsoever, like did not fight them or like just was like, all right, well, that seems like something for later. Because it is. It's it's meant for later, but you can beat it. But you can't, it's right at the beginning of the game, and you you can beat it. You just need to walk in. And then there's also Cowboys saying he thinks he's gonna go back after act four to beat this other boss that's in the first area. And but that's another one that like

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: you can lock in and beat it. I saw Game Breaker God, shout out to the legend. He beat the the really hard one I was talking about first. He beat it. It took it took a few hours, but like that's if you want. That challenge, if you want to bang your head against a really crazy hard boss, that's what you're gonna go for. Like you need to lock in and you can

FightinCowboy: I have a two I don't know.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: do it if you just don't skip it and wait. I'll come back when I'm way stronger. And then complain. What that yeah, you did that to yourself.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, you can't have it both ways. You have to choose one or the other. I do wanna

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: ask you guys a question, obviously.

FightinCowboy: What wait, what we were talking about difficulty? I had to take a phone call, so

Sarthe: I was I was I was talking about if you really wanted that challenge, there's these side bosses that you can get to right early on. And that that that first one, the three faced one too, that people I guarantee you everyone who's playing it

FightinCowboy: those side bosses will fuck you up. Yeah, they'll they'll fuck you up. Yeah. No, no nobody's no nobody's nobody's fucking beating that thing easy.

Sarthe: Yeah, no. Even one of the best players I know at at Souls games or like just games in general, this guy's amazing. Game Breaker God took him like four hours to take it out. And like Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Yeah, I was I was fucking with that. I was like, this this is clearly a like I would need to dedicate a stream to fighting this and memorize the entire fucking moveset. I'll come back to you later. You are not let's play appropriate. You are a later boss for sure.

WheelieAverage: You're not Let's Play Appropriate, brilliant.

Sarthe: Exactly.

FightinCowboy: Well, come as as

Sarthe: It's not. It's not.

FightinCowboy: if you're if you're if you're recording, the the rule I set for myself, and I half the time I break it anyway. but when I beat a boss, I give it three attempts. If after for for optional bosses. but if after three attempts, if it's clear I'm getting my ass smoked, I'm like, okay, let me move on. Now there's there's some the second long boss where I was like, I can I can see this is doable with just a little bit of lock

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: in. So I got lunch, I came back, and then I was like, I got the food buff, you're fucked idiot, and I beat it. but that's typically well, 'cause

WheelieAverage: Yeah, that's fair.

FightinCowboy: when you're recording, you don't wanna you don't want a whole episode that's called attempts against the stickhead I couldn't beat, You gotta you need to have

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: progression.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. And also you don't want things to be over edited, right? one of the things I was talking about on my channel recently that I launched is like I'm gonna have two different styles of playthrough. One will be more edited and almost like documentary style like where I'm giving impressions on the game as I'm playing it with with more editing and then One will be your more traditional, this is unedited, this is the actual experience you will have playing the game. because yeah, I think that people know when you're being fake. we know that there are creators out there in the past and they'll tell you that they

Sarthe: The past.

WheelieAverage: beat that they that they beat this boss in five tries and in reality they've edited out ten other tries that they did. You know?

Sarthe: That's all of all of Reddit or or YouTube comments or something like I took two attempts. This was the easiest bus ever. It's like what no all right, it there's like

FightinCowboy: Don't dude, I don't understand that why why people even if I have a boss that takes long, I think Nameless King in the recording I was just like, Hey, I was fighting this bitch for an hour. It was a hard fucking fight, just so y'all know. I don't get why

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: people need to just just be honest about it. It's not like someone's gonna be like, you took out an hour. I'm not watching that then okay, then fuck off. It's not a viewer you want it anyway.

WheelieAverage: And everyone and everyone is gonna have one boss that they do beat really easy. Sometimes

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

Sarthe: Yeah, yeah. One shot Melania and then I

WheelieAverage: it's just luck, sometimes it's just rrrr

Sarthe: and then I was like, No way. And then I went back. my god, it was like sixty attempts after that. I was like, no, dude.

FightinCowboy: Dude, people peop so dude dude when I so when I found Millennia, given I was playing pre patch Elden

Sarthe: God

FightinCowboy: Ring, so it was like the wild west, she didn't have the

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: the allure of being this unstoppable boss. but when I found her, you know, first time through, your boy had discovered the blasphemous blade. So I went into that fight,

Sarthe: yeah.

FightinCowboy: blasphemous blade mimicked here, and we spanked

Sarthe: Pre nerve.

FightinCowboy: her ass. I was like, damn. Demi god, more more like demi dead, you got fucked up, get out of here. And people were like maulding in the comments. They're like, I can't believe you disrespected the boss. That's so fucked up. And I'm like, What do you mean? I didn't know this was supposed to be some fucking cultural icon. this was

WheelieAverage: For you it was easy, yeah.

FightinCowboy: and now peop people were legit mad. I can I could go back to the comments on that video and there's still comments that are probably like, Fuck you. Fuck you for doing this. I was like,

WheelieAverage: That is that is hilarious. And and yeah, we've we've all had that. even me, a more a more

Sarthe: Christmas Blade Mimic Tier, what a bitch.

WheelieAverage: even me, a more average player

FightinCowboy: People get mad.

WheelieAverage: of these ty style of games, has had bosses that I've beat on the first attempt. Like that's just the way it is sometimes.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Yeah, some yeah, sometimes you lock in, sometimes you don't.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. I do wanna go back to Phantom Blade though and ask you guys because obviously I haven't played it yet, but I think A lot of people will also be playing it over the next few days when they see this episode. Are there some early game tips that you'd give to people that that, are are just

FightinCowboy: It's just I'd I'd say just play e experiment with weapons. You have you have more than enough things to to swap around in weapons in a respec. So it's like I wouldn't be too stingy about it.

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: like when you find a weapon you like, just commit to it. And then, you know, if you find something you like more, commit to that. you don't want to like switch them willy nilly, like I'm gonna use weapon one, now I'm gonna use weapon two, now I'm gonna weapon three, now I'm gonna use weapon four, like because there is a resource that you need to swap between them, but like it's it's You have a lot. I think I have six or seven of them. So I have a comfy amount to re-switch as I want without going too crazy. explore all over. If it looks like you can't do something, there's a good chance you can come back later. But I mean, this is kind of just like play the game tips. I don't think there's any like you know, I don't think there's anything that stands out like, you know, with Dark Souls, I like to tell people like, you know, hit your weapon requirements and then focus health and stamina. once you meet weapon requirements,

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: the damage comes from weapon upgrades. Don't worry about scaling till later. There's nothing like this here. It's pretty much like, yeah, go through the game, upgrade your weapon, have fun. If Sol says you can't do

WheelieAverage: Makes sense.

FightinCowboy: this right now, he's probably fucking right and you should listen to him.

Sarthe: Don't try to beat your head against it. You're realistically that you just need a different item that you're gonna get a little bit later. a lot of times when you

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

Sarthe: get a new weapon, especially from like a side boss, it probably has some sort of special uses against the main boss you're about to fight. So that's a thing that you could see a lot.

WheelieAverage: Yes, yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, I'm assuming for the the mask boss, there's probably something we find that fucks with the masks.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: there's there's also I think a thing worth mentioning is if if you're trying to do like you can't you can't progress through with a completionist mindset because there will be stuff that you just can't do at a certain point and you know you just you have to come back later. That is part of the title. like there was a

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: I guess a perfect example is right at the start, you have the quest for the the weeping. And I'm going all over, where's the weeping? Where's the weeping? The weeping wraps up at the end of chapter two, but you wouldn't fucking know that being in chapter one. You're like, Maybe if I like no, there's maybe nothing. Just keep keep playing the fucking game. even

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: when you try to track it, the game's like, You can't track this. And so that's a pretty clear, fuck off and stop worrying about it sign. But you just gotta

WheelieAverage: Do know what though, that reminds me because I always one of the things I often say in my reviews is that I recommend that people golden path lots of games until they get to a certain point and then once you get to that point, that's when you kind of have the skills or the or the things that you need to go and do a lot of the other stuff.

FightinCowboy: Well, I I think it's it's worth like it's worth it's worth doing side content as you find it, but the the game is it's pretty clear when you find something that can't be done. the three mask

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: person, very right at the start of the game, no upgrades. You discover it and you learn very quickly, like, yeah, I meant to fight this in like probably 20 hours, not right now. whereas the the bride, the bride is a hard fight. But you can move that health bar enough where it's not, it's not like the health bar moves, it can die. It's like, I did a quarter of your health. This is certainly doable if I just lock in. And then you have your normal bosses where it's a lot easier. But I think the game has that separation. It's it's well done.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah. and I'm sure and I'm sure that there are gonna be those people as well that just brute force all of these bosses.

FightinCowboy: There's there's people that are gonna try. I I wouldn't so so far at the 10 hour mark, there are only two bosses I have found that I would describe as like can't do this right now, bosses. one would be

WheelieAverage: Okay.

FightinCowboy: the the triple mask boss, and the other would be the first long pillar. Now, I'm sure if you want to spend five hours to where you flawless, no-hit those encounters, they're doable. But to me, that's that's a

Sarthe: I spent

FightinCowboy: That

Sarthe: an hour on that guy on the second or the first long pill or two.

FightinCowboy: Long.

Sarthe: And I was like, I'm so close some of these times, but it's so frustrating and I'm like, I'm getting so tired, I can't lock in. I'm not gonna beat It's just not right now.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Yeah. My thing is if if I fuck up and a single combo does seventy percent of my health, that's usually a clear sign, okay, I I need to be stronger to do this. Could I do it right now?

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, if I am locked in flawless mode, man. But I you need I I think being able to make a mistake and recover from said mistake is my metric for whether I consider something doable. And right now, the only two at the start. I would say our are first long and tri mask. Besides those, everything else I've encountered I've been able to beat. But those those two were like, Jesus, fuck, this is this is way more than I thought.

WheelieAverage: That's fair.

Sarthe: Yeah, that they're like, I've I really wasn't supposed to fight this yet. Even

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah.

Sarthe: like if you beat the Tri Mask, you get an you get something that you won't really use till later. So it's like purposefully there for for this.

FightinCowboy: Now the st down the second long, the second long you can take out, and that one I got a a thing that after a parry I get, I think it's a either a twenty or a thirty percent damage buff for a couple seconds. I was like, now that's fucking good. That's that that's stay that stays equipped. That is a good accessory right there.

Sarthe: That is c it is crazy good. Yes. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, I I mean I cannot wait to play, as you guys know, we've all been hyped for this game, right? So

Sarthe: Yep.

WheelieAverage: I can't wait to finally jump into it. I will be playing it today. so I'm sure that when we've all finished this game eventually we'll come back for a full review episode and I might even try and get my buddy Keith on the on the show, 'cause he he actually did review the game. He was He was also one of the first people to finish the game. So so yeah, so that

Sarthe: Not even the first wow Wa

WheelieAverage: So He he's gonna he watches the show, so he's probably gonna like message you now. What are you what are you talking about?

Sarthe: Keith, come on. You could have beat it's actually because like if you're the first to beat it, you would have just been like playing on the lower difficulty and rushing through. and and

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: so much of the fun of this game, in my opinion, such so much of the joy is from those side things that they the world they've built. Like those side bosses are so iconic and add the challenge. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: it certainly sounds it certainly sounds that way. I I cannot

FightinCowboy: I I think

WheelieAverage: wait.

FightinCowboy: Sarth, I'm I'm curious of of your thoughts on something though. So I was as I was playing it more yesterday,

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: I I think that when the dust settles and it's all said and done, I think people are gonna look like the way that people look at Elden Ring and then, you know, kind of just the massive spin off of souls likes that came from the the popularity of Elden Ring. I think this is gonna be the defining game for like Wooksia likes.

Sarthe: Yeah. Yeah. yeah, actually. It's crazy 'cause like

FightinCowboy: Because black black nothing, no no slander to black myth. But to me, black myth feels a lot more like like Chinese God of War. Like big, big fights, big production,

Sarthe: Yes. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: very cinematic, you know, big focus on on you know the fully animated shorts and the the storytelling. Whereas this

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: feels a lot more in that same bubble as you know, Sekiro, Onamusha, the Big focus on you came for the combat. That is what you're here for.

Sarthe: Yes. Yep. This is I I think it i it's it's gonna go down in like this iconic history kind of and I think honestly the people that want that like love challenge thing, I think there is just gonna be like mods made in the next like two days for like PC. So like which is a huge thing for Elden Ring, right? Like the Elden Ring is is timeless because there's these mods. this doesn't have that open world and that exploration that Elden Ring has, of course. This is very curated, but this is gonna yeah, set a a massive like standard. You literally couldn't have made this an open world with all of the everything is so handcrafted or like all of the animations are literally motion captured. And yeah, I think this is gonna like literally as one one people have the time. They're gonna this is gonna go down and with right now there's this people jumped on the train of seeing Fextra life or someone being like, it's too easy. It's like I you literally said in your review that you found one weapon you liked and used it the entire time you played. Maybe you you should try new things.

WheelieAverage: I mean, to be fair, Fetcher Life got called out by other reviewers for saying things that were plainly false about the game. So

FightinCowboy: yeah, I'm always up

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: for some from Fextra slander, Fextra B. We were we were talking about the other day. it's it's not even slander. Flect Fextra does they they do unethical things. They they were they were they were caught trying to manipulate SEO on Reddit for Baldur's Gate and the Baldur's Gate subreddit fucking banned them. they used to they

Sarthe: That's so funny.

FightinCowboy: used to fucking embed their their Twitch stream into their website to

Sarthe: For years.

FightinCowboy: falsely inflate their viewer numbers. the the this isn't even this isn't even talking shit. These are things they've fucking done that they've been called

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: out on by other creators. And it's it's honestly like it's not cool behavior because when they do shit like that, it reflects poorly on every other content creator. Because there are two bubbles. You you have you

Sarthe: Yes it does.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, it affects everyone else.

FightinCowboy: have content creators and you have traditional press. Wheelie is more traditional press. Me and Sarth are more traditional content creators. And when other traditional content creators do bullshit like that. or leak content that in general creates more distrust among content creators in general from a publisher perspective. And as such, content

WheelieAverage: Yes.

FightinCowboy: creators need to call out shitty behavior when they see it. I think another one was fucking Armor Core. Armor Core is when I was like, y'all are fucking stupid. Y'all are idiots. They were sitting there talking about FromSoft's artistic style really just doesn't hold up graphically. It looks dated. Shut the fuck up. Just shut the fuck up. I no.

Sarthe: Dude, art styles,

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: I I I that always triggers me when people are like, This doesn't look like I wanted it to look. I'm like, this wasn't going for a hyper realistic look. It's it's it's stylized. It's a fucking point, dude. What do you Yeah.

FightinCowboy: It's the same people that want to shove DLSS5 into everything. Look, I cooked my breakfast

WheelieAverage: Stylized. Yeah. Ha ha.

FightinCowboy: and I made it with DLSS5. Look how real the eggs look.

Sarthe: Yeah. So that's the their their wikis

WheelieAverage: I'm all for realistic looks in video games, but I think that people do have to accept that not every game, even games that are portraying human beings, aren't always trying to be photorealistic. Like

FightinCowboy: Yeah, no. If everything I don't I don't want everything to be photorealistic.

Sarthe: That doesn't make the game like if the game isn't a good game, then spending all of their resources and time just making like the characters look more photorealistic is not gonna fucking help. Like that's

FightinCowboy: Yeah, no.

Sarthe: I remember some people right when Expedition thirty three came out being like, I don't like the art style though. I'm like, Well, eventually you'll figure out that you're inside of a fucking painting the whole time.

FightinCowboy: Don't don't don't play it then. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: It was supposed to be artistic.

Sarthe: Maybe that makes sense, huh? and it's

WheelieAverage: don't get me wrong, for certain games, clearly photorealism is the right choice, right? for example, we've spoken about Hellblade before. But there's a r

Sarthe: Yes, that's but that's their whole thing.

WheelieAverage: there there's a reason that Hellblade 2 looks the way it looks, because there that was the point of the entire game. And they they were honest about that.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, but at this at the same time to to to

Sarthe: But was it a good game?

FightinCowboy: what Sarth said, them photorealistic graphics didn't save the fucking studio, bro. At at the end of the day,

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah.

FightinCowboy: game gameplay is king. That's why the every fucking review I do, the number one metric is gameplay. Gameplay matters. If it's it's in the name. Game. If the gameplay is shit,

WheelieAverage: yeah, sure.

FightinCowboy: good graphics, good music, you could have everything top tier, but if the gameplay is bad,

WheelieAverage: Pe people people love the telltale games and they have non-existent gameplay. So

FightinCowboy: No, they absolutely

Sarthe: No, no, they do. They yeah. It's good. They do a good job while telling the story.

FightinCowboy: do. They absol fucking literally do. The choose your own adventure. That is the gameplay. That is the gameplay. That is the gameplay loop.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: It's the same with dispatch. Yeah. Yeah. The story and the music is what pulls dispatch together. But the

WheelieAverage: Yeah. But that's what I'm saying, but in a but in a chore Yeah.

FightinCowboy: the way those relationships develop, the way they play out, that itself is the game. It's the same as a make your own adventure

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: Yep.

FightinCowboy: novel.

Sarthe: Yep.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, but that's what I'm saying is when people think gameplay though, they think actively what you're doing on the controller or with the keyboard and mouse, right? But there are games that can have let's call them lesser interactions and still be very good games.

FightinCowboy: It d it just depends on on the level of of meaningfulness in those interactions. I love dispatch. I played it solo and then I replayed the entire thing with with my wife.

Sarthe: Yeah. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Dispatch is amazing. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: It was an amazing title. Do you have the

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: same level of interaction as Phantom Blade Zero? No, obviously, but they are both still games.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, and you understand what they're going for as well, right? with dispatch, that okay, the writing matters, the art style matters, the music choices matter, because they are going for a visual novel style of experience. So I think you're right in that is Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, so those so those things are gonna do more work in in in that context. But I it's the same thing, like a a boss fight. I mean, Bloodborne is a great example. I love the boss fights in Bloodborne, but I think one of the reasons they're so memorable is because of the phenomenal soundtrack in those boss fights. I if I start

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: hearing the cleric beast theme out of nowhere, I'm like, is that fucking clearic beast? I call that out immediately because it brings back

WheelieAverage: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: the memories and the emotions I felt. During that fight. there's there's there's psychological proof behind this that music when combined with certain scenes, whether it's in gameplay or in TV showing or an animation, whatever it is, those songs then elicit the same feelings when you were interacting with that media. So yeah, everything is important.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, absolutely.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: but at the end of the day, going back to Hellblade, Hellblade had had yeah, it had cool fucking music and it had really pretty graphics. But the actual level of engagement in the gameplay was a lot of like you

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: you just fucking walk. And then when you when you

Sarthe: Yeah, you you're

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: you're experiencing the

WheelieAverage: I I

Sarthe: movie, not playing the movie was Hellblade.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, and it's very very much

WheelieAverage: Yeah, I

FightinCowboy: of experiencing a movie. There's there's not enough

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: I mean I always find it weird because I get what you guys are saying, but then I always think to myself, but there are walking simulators that people really like, you know?

FightinCowboy: There I there there can be. What do you so what w what would

Sarthe: But the but they're playing the walking simulator. You're walking.

FightinCowboy: be your like to you, what would be a a weak gameplay positive game? I guess that would be a good question.

Sarthe: Great question.

WheelieAverage: So obviously one of the ones people love is like What Remains of Edith Edith Inch or Everybody's Gone to the Rapture or you know there's many, there's many, many games of that style. I would say another one that I really liked, a lot of people don't like, but a lot of people love. Again, it's interesting because the gameplay in this one is more to do with systems. than it is what you're actually doing because you're mostly just walking blueprints. The majority of that gameplay is walking from room to room and the system

Sarthe: I do

WheelieAverage: is what makes the gameplay, right?

Sarthe: Puzzles.

FightinCowboy: I don't know I haven't played any of these games. I've never heard of Blueprints. I've heard of Edith Finch, but I haven't played it. blue blue prints? Prince? I thought you said blue blue blueprints.

Sarthe: Blueprints it ha has so many aspects of it. And puzzles.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Prince.

FightinCowboy: Blueprint yeah, I I don't I don't like blueprints personally. I understand the appeal of it, but yeah. Not not not for me.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. And but that but that's what I mean. What I guess what I'm trying to say is there are the games that have less gameplay that people still really like. And that's

Sarthe: But you

FightinCowboy: But in in in blueprints, I would argue that the gameplay yeah, yeah, that the the gameplay is the is the puzzle, is the presentation

Sarthe: you are still playing through it, right? you are still making choices. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: of the puzzle and solving it. I didn't personally enjoy the the roguelike aspect and how that was done. something like Outer Wilds. Outer Wilds is also a puzzle focused game, but I think it's one of the greatest games ever made just because of how you experience that story. whereas

WheelieAverage: Yeah, true. True.

FightinCowboy: blueprints, I just you know, the whole like, hey, you're like cause my my problem with blue blueprints, and I know we're getting off topic here, But because you could have runs where ultimately they just culminated in nothing, it felt like. yeah, everything is progressing, but there were some where it's like, yo, we made really big progress on this last run, and some where it's like, I'm on like day five and we're we're fucked. Okay, I guess I'll just die and start again. And and

WheelieAverage: Yeah, I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

FightinCowboy: yeah, moments like that, that just completely turned me off to the game. I was like, All right, I'm done. I'm pe I'm peaceing

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: out.

WheelieAverage: No, and I I do get it and I guess what we're ultimately saying is what we've said before, which is the most important aspects of a game depend on what the game is trying to be and what it's going for. It's like if it's if it's a narrative driven game that is that the focus is the story, then the story and the performances from the actors and the writing probably becomes the most important part of that game,

FightinCowboy: Yeah, it does.

WheelieAverage: right? So it's it so I think that's the key thing is yes gameplay is important and yes gameplay is in the name of video game, right? But it's not the be all end all for every single game. That that's kind of that's kind of my point.

FightinCowboy: Well, I think I I think to to an extent like so f if we if we look at reception and praise when it comes to these games. Something like like what remains of Edith Finch, you know, it's got great reviews. Blueprints, it's got great reviews. but at a large scale I I think of those games as more like the the indie cult classics of the gaming world.

WheelieAverage: They're like your art house games. They're the they're the ones that the people

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah. They're they're never yeah, they are never gonna get the same level of reception as any major title that's come out this year. Pragmata, Crimson Desert, Onamusha, you know, pick pick and choose. Yeah, the game gameplay heavy is gonna dominate. Now it doesn't mean

WheelieAverage: Yeah. yeah, because the ones that are more gameplay heavy will speak to a wider audience. Yeah.

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: the Edith Finch game is a bad game. It got good reviews, but you know, from a from a game perspective, people aren't, you know, like most of the time when people are talking about games. Those really aren't coming up that much in the conversations outside of if this was the indie

WheelieAverage: Yeah, absolutely.

FightinCowboy: breakout of the year.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, that is true. That is true. So it

Sarthe: Didn't that get Yeah.

FightinCowboy: It got nominated and then I I think it got

WheelieAverage: Blueprints,

FightinCowboy: I don't know if it got

WheelieAverage: I think, was the first indie to actually be nominated for Game of the Year, wasn't it? Something like that is.

FightinCowboy: But did it end up winning anything?

Sarthe: That's huge.

WheelieAverage: I think it won some awards.

Sarthe: Expedition thirty three's here.

FightinCowboy: That's my thing, when when something gets when

WheelieAverage: It's

Sarthe: Not my favorite game, my god.

FightinCowboy: something gets nominated and then it doesn't get anything, it almost feels more like a like a pity nomination at that point.

WheelieAverage: to be fair I think it depends the year it comes out in, right? there are games there are games this year, for example, that in any other year would win loads of awards and this year probably will win nothing. Y you know? So

FightinCowboy: Yeah, it's gonna be a it's gonna be a bloodbath this year. There's gonna have been a lot

Sarthe: Yeah, it is.

FightinCowboy: of good games.

WheelieAverage: So yeah, so it's one of those. But obviously we are we're pretty far into the episode now, so I guess we should do some comments from last week. W

FightinCowboy: Are we are we are we far into the episode? How long have we been going?

WheelieAverage: Well I mean considering that Sarth needs to needs to go at some point, we we we're pretty far in, but I wanna

Sarthe: It'd pretty cool of me.

FightinCowboy: How well Sarth, what's your what's your ETA looking like?

Sarthe: I have like twenty minutes.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah. So we're good, but we can we can do some we can do some comments here. Cause there was some interesting ones last week when it was just myself and cowboy here. I wanna start with this one. Dissonant Ways says I'm sorry, cowboy, although in my opinion you pull off the bold look quite well. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: The the bold the bold look? bald bald bald

Sarthe: Bold or bald.

WheelieAverage: Bold.

FightinCowboy: What's that that European accent he has fucking with his words?

WheelieAverage: It is. It is.

Sarthe: that bold accent he's got.

WheelieAverage: so that was interesting. But we've got one here from Opportunity Fishing who who says, question for next podcast. Do people who get paid to play games, even though that's debatable You know, do people who get paid to play games have backlogs like us regular Joes? For example, I

FightinCowboy: Yes. No.

Sarthe: my god, yeah.

WheelieAverage: For example, this person has control, Cyberpunk twenty seventy-seven, Doom Eternal, Space Marine Two and other games in their Steam library that they haven't actually played yet. And if we do have a backlog, which game from the backlog are we hoping to tackle next?

FightinCowboy: I I so I haven't finished Ace Combat. I did like a five, six hour stream. Probably not gonna have time to get back to it just because we have Wow Forever on deck. haven't managed to do a single stream of Belmont's Curse. there's a indie shooter souls type thing called I think it's Guns of Eshkaton. Haven't been able to boot that up and stream it. Haven't been able to stream Final Fantasy Resonance. There's tons of I think I think a backlog game is just a universal thing to all gamers.

WheelieAverage: Yeah, everybody everybody has a backlog. And I also, you know, it's it's funny that you say people who get paid. I would argue that we don't really get paid to play video games. We get paid for the content we create. It's a bit of a different thing.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. with

Sarthe: That's

FightinCowboy: a sponsored activation. I'm getting paid

Sarthe: It's like this. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: later to to play Monster Hunter

WheelieAverage: That's true.

FightinCowboy: Outlanders, but yeah. No, even even

WheelieAverage: That is true.

FightinCowboy: even content creators have backlogs unless they're the one game one game content creator.

Sarthe: Right now it's it was impossible

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: for anyone. Like I I've said this before, but like if you wanted to stay on top of games right now, I I don't think it would have been possible even if you didn't have a job, even if all you

FightinCowboy: No, there's just too much right now.

Sarthe: did was stream, there's just too many games. So like one thing that like our job is

WheelieAverage: Yeah. unless you were somehow

Sarthe: right now is to try to curate because everything is out right now, yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: I I think if I if I was if I was unmarried, no kids, full time, didn't have the day job and only did streaming and videos, I probably could have. But I also think they're

WheelieAverage: You probably could. Yeah, you probably could. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: like honestly, I don't I know extremely few creators that tackle the same amount of variety that I do. I don't know anyone that actually tackles the same level of variety that I specifically do. Because I will do fucking everything. I'll do the indie games, I'll do the the even just recently. It's it's been everything.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Speaking of indie games, there's one, just cause you're a Soulslike person, I really have to recommend to you, came out this year. It's called Tomb Water, and it's it's it's like it is that's pretty good. that

FightinCowboy: I played it. Yeah. Yep, it was I did it I did it in an indie showcase. But yeah, it was it was a cool one.

WheelieAverage: that was pretty interesting because I've not seen a Soulzlight like that before. But for me in terms of backlog, I'll be honest, right now I've sort of played everything I want to play. In terms of recent releases, I've actually I'm quite fortunate, right? Because I'm either reviewing a game, so I get it early and therefore have to play it and finish it for review within a certain period of time, which means I'm able to dedicate many, many hours to it. Or if I'm not reviewing it, I usually still get a code anyway because I've got to the point where I I do help. advise these companies on accessibility and things like that. So

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: it it's you know that is another part of my work that isn't seen by the public, but I do I do help with that stuff because it's important, right? So so I'm I'm very fortunate and I think that's the other thing to remember. Yes, we all have backlogs, but our backlogs are a little bit different because most of the time

Sarthe: Definitely.

WheelieAverage: our our backlog is Do we have time to cover this thing? Is it is it quite frankly, is it worth our time to cover this thing? And and stuff like that, right? Like, for example, a game that I wanted to play that I ended up not playing, but I probably won't play now, is Silent Hill Townfall. Right? And

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: that was just one that came out at this like it it released on the same day as Control Resonant.

FightinCowboy: Came out came out at a bad time.

WheelieAverage: It it it came out around five or six other releases, and it's just yeah, something had to drop. So so it's that one.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. No, that was me with the with the fucking Plague Tale. I loved Plague Tale one and two, but the new one I just it it came out right on top of fucking Mortal Shell, Onamusha, Domwalker.

WheelieAverage: It did.

FightinCowboy: I was like, sorry, bro. I can't I can't there's just there's

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: there is no time. I can't fit you.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. So so yeah, there's there's something I would say one game from this year that I want to go back and play that I didn't get to play. And it's gonna sound so sad, but Lego Batman. Lego Batman I do kind of wanna go and play.

Sarthe: That's not sad. That was a lot of people wanted to be able to play that actually, I feel like. So I heard really, really good things and I also

WheelieAverage: Cause 'cause that looks really cool.

Sarthe: didn't get to play 'cause it was like what was it during Crimson Desert or something? It was something was around the same time. yeah.

WheelieAverage: It was, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was around that time, yeah. So

FightinCowboy: I think I think a more more interesting question is if you weren't a content creator or a reviewer, do you think you'd still play the same volume of games, the same variety of games that you currently play? 'Cause I don't think I would.

WheelieAverage: I definitely would, but I've always been a high variety person anyway, other than

Sarthe: I would probably still be only playing WoW. Sorry for interrupting you, Wheelie. Yeah, go on.

WheelieAverage: It's all good. Like, other than in my teenage years where I was just sort of playing what my friends were playing, you know, your your ball and gun games, your Call of Duties and your and your FIFA's and things like that, other than around that time, probably since I've been Sin Since I've been 18 plus, like, I have been playing a really wide variety of genres, and I've always said the only style of game that I didn't play up until recent years was turn-based games, right? That was the only thing that I would not play. So yeah, I I don't know. I I feel like on this podcast at this point, I've explained myself quite well that I will I'm the I'm the saddo that will go and play a game where you literally just walk around, you know? but I will also play Oni Musha and the next Souls like and you know I'm just I'm I'm not gonna toot my own horn, but I honestly don't know anyone that has the level of variety that I have in terms of what they will play. I I really don't and

Sarthe: Woohoo. I'll take it. I mean, you'll y you'll you'll have a really good time with with like every different type of game from sports to to cozy to souls like to open world to shooter. Yeah, I think I think you you

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: really do.

FightinCowboy: I think if I if I

WheelieAverage: And I think

FightinCowboy: wasn't doing content, I probably wouldn't do nearly as many indie titles.

WheelieAverage: That's fair.

FightinCowboy: but I I at the same time, I think if I wasn't doing content, I wouldn't be aware of as many indie titles. I think a lot of them I only discover cause, you know, somebody slips into my inbox. Especially these days, man,

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

FightinCowboy: fuck. That was that was pretty bad this year. Looking at Steam Next fest and it's just like bounds and bounds and bounds of AI slop on there. Bunch of copy and paste games. Like

WheelieAverage: Yeah yeah

Sarthe: It was wild. That was wild.

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: I will say that th the only thing I probably wouldn't be doing if I was if I wasn't creating content in some form, like obviously 'cause I've got more into that space now, I wouldn't be playing these friends lop games. Do you know what I mean? Like as fun as they are, I think they're just things that I just wouldn't play because I wouldn't be in the circles to play them. Does that make sense?

FightinCowboy: I think it I think it depends on the game. Like a lot of them I'd agree, peak, I think I would probably still play peak. Peak is t

Sarthe: I think

FightinCowboy: to me, peak is timeless friend slot.

Sarthe: I think what what Wheelie's saying more

WheelieAverage: Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

Sarthe: so is that he wouldn't know all the people to be able to play with all the time as much, right? I think that's like a big thing also.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, but I c I think Peak I can play like there's a there's a lot, don't get me wrong. the Hunting Buddies game, it was cool. But Hunting Buddies and and Sonar and R V there yet. a lot of these games I end up playing just 'cause I have a group of friends that's like You wanna play this dumb shit? And we're like

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Well it makes for good content, right? That's why these games end up being played, is because it makes for good content. And don't get me wrong, I actually think Peak is a very fun game and Peak

Sarthe: So fun.

WheelieAverage: Peak would probably be the one exception in to that to that rule.

FightinCowboy: We do we we played last night and Mav was like, Yeah, it's the holiday stream. So I opened the lobby. It was fucking chaos. I never do open lobbies. We we had people that were joining. There was somebody, I'm pretty sure he was like 10. He was like, Can I be here? Can I be here? Can I? I'm like, How how old are you? Should you I don't think you should even be watching my content. What the fuck?

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: That's so funny.

FightinCowboy: people were people were they're like, well, because of we have a mod. So we had at one point I wanna say we had

WheelieAverage: Mm.

FightinCowboy: twelve fucking people climbing the mountain at once. It was sh chaos. It's pure fucking chaos.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: It's so funny.

WheelieAverage: H here here's another question for you though. As we you know, we were talking about if we weren't creators, would we be playing as many games and things like that? But my question is, if we weren't creators, if we weren't doing what we do, we wouldn't be getting these games for free. So if you had to pay for these games What are the ones over the last couple of months, let's say, that you would recommend that you would go? I would have actually paid for this myself.

FightinCowboy: So this is

Sarthe: Great question.

FightinCowboy: always a a interesting question because I think when it comes to paying for stuff, I think everyone is at a very it it depends. What's your income threshold, really? That's that's the

WheelieAverage: Possibly.

FightinCowboy: qualifying factor because there's a big difference in you're a broke college kid and you are literally living paycheck to paycheck, barely making rent and hoping that you can suck up to some older woman at the bar to buy you a beer and being a big boy job. comfortably clearing six figures yearly and not worrying about it. So right now, yeah, I would just buy everything I play. It doesn't fucking matter, fifth fifty dollars

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: or even sixty dollars. I can't even go out to lunch with with a friend or my wife and and spend less than that, if we go out if we plan

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: date night and we're gonna go out and I'm gonna get a a steak, you know, before alcohol is in the equation, that single dinner is gonna pass a hundred dollars.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Once you're a homeowner, you don't get to go to Home Depot and spend less than a hundred dollars. In fact, everything that that seemingly every time you leave your house, you're spending a hundred dollars. So the idea of holy shit, I can get 40 hours of entertainment and it's only 70. Yeah, that's a fucking fantastic deal. But when I was

WheelieAverage: Yeah. Yeah.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: a broke college kid, yeah, it was very different. So this this comes up a lot

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: on stream and people are like, Well, would you buy

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: it? And I'm like, Yeah, I would, I would buy it, but we're probably at two different income thresholds.

WheelieAverage: Well the r yeah. And the way

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: that I always equate it is like I think of what my income was before I was in this industry, right? And for me back then I wasn't able to work because of my disability and things like that. So I could maybe, if I was lucky, afford one game per month, right? Which is which is more than which is more than some people. But

Sarthe: Which is huge. Yeah. That's a lot.

WheelieAverage: but But I could afford maybe one game per month. And so I always look at it that way. It's like what could what would I recommend if you're someone who could only afford one game per month? So so Sarth, what if I said to you, right, you have to recommend one game from the last month for people to buy with their money, something that you would have bought if you could only afford one game, what what would it be?

Sarthe: Was thinking Blood of Dawnwalker, but that was a month away ago before that. So like it might.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. So maybe so maybe that will be your September that would be your September recommendation. It's blood of the walk.

Sarthe: Yeah. I think it I think it is. The hard thing, the crazy thing is okay, so for me it's it's comes down to like what style of game you like to play, because this last two months have had really, really good ones and everything. If you're a shooter enjoyer,

WheelieAverage: It has.

Sarthe: the new COD story is actually phenomenal. Like the new COD campaign is is mind blowingly

WheelieAverage: It is great. Yeah.

Sarthe: great. If you want to just mess around with friends and go through like a shooting experience and like have nostalgia, gears was Peak, me and Cowboy had playing Gears was one of the most fun times

FightinCowboy: Was lot of fun.

Sarthe: I've had in in years. but if you like turn-based things, there's the Star Wars Zero Company. If you like racers, there's Star Wars Galactic Racer. For me, yeah, I think there's

WheelieAverage: So there's choices for everybody right now. Yeah.

Sarthe: super good choices for everyone. And I think it it actually is like a perfect time where, like anything that's that's what you identify as, or like what you tend to like more as a gamer, there's the perfect choices for them. And the other games are so good that I'm like, I didn't expect to want to play this turn-based game or this racer and I got hooked and 60 hours later or something. So I think you have such good options. If you have one thing to pick, I mean, I would go with what what strikes to you, but like there's been just peak games like crazy. Right now, I'm

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: the games that like are my super favorite of the last two months would probably for me be Dawn Walker and Sofar Phantom Blade. But

WheelieAverage: Interesting, okay.

Sarthe: but I'm curious your guys' takes, but I just think there's literally if you could only get one, yeah.

FightinCowboy: I I think a big thing when I was on a a tighter income so the number one factor for me personally was what are my friends playing. Cause if all if all of my

Sarthe: Yeah, yeah.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: friends were getting gears, I would get gears. If they were all getting call of duty, I was gonna get call of duty. aside from that, when I was a broke college student, most of my time was just World of Warcraft. I mean y yeah, like

WheelieAverage: Fair.

Sarthe: And World of Warcraft is back November fourth.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, fifteen dollar fifteen dollar monthly subscription and that game will gladly gobble up fucking two, three hundred hours a month if you let it. So if you're if you're looking for a

Sarthe: Your next two years

WheelieAverage: Yeah. A and also fi and also fifteen dollars isn't isn't too bad, is it, in terms of affordability?

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: So

FightinCowboy: Yeah, no, for for just straight time value, an MMO is gonna

WheelieAverage: yeah.

FightinCowboy: be where you're gonna you're not gonna get better unless you you get off fucking licking rocks, you're not gonna get better entertainment per price than an MMO. Just yeah. Whether it's Final Fantasy,

WheelieAverage: Yeah, that's fair.

FightinCowboy: wow, ESO, like MMOs will endless fucking content to do.

WheelieAverage: Yeah. In terms of in terms of the games that I would have bought if I could only afford that one game per month over the last couple of months, I think that as much as I loved Dawnwalker, having played it, I think the game I would have chose to buy is probably Control Resonant. Only because Dawnwalker

Sarthe: I gonna say that's probably

WheelieAverage: brand new IP little bit there were some reservations around that game whereas I knew that I was always gonna play control if that makes sense so therefore

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: if I could only buy one game it would have been that one and I can't believe I'm saying this obviously I haven't played Phantom Blade Zero yet but I genuinely think at the moment my October game would have been Call of Duty. the the ca the campaign is brilliant

Sarthe: No, if you yeah, if you only had one. Yeah.

WheelieAverage: And also the rest of the package, in terms of you've got traditional multiplayer, you've got the DMZ mode, which is basically your extraction shooter this time around. it's

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

WheelieAverage: like they even within that one package, they're basically offering you three different kinds of games. And and therefore I think there's a lot of time value to be had from that game. and it is without question, I think everybody who's played it will tell you this, it's the best Call of Duty in a decade. And that's shown even in the reviews. They revealed yesterday that it's it's the best reviewed Call of Duty in over a decade.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. I was I was surprised. They've been they're they're usually shit in their pants.

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: August I probably would give that to Mortal Shell too. September

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

Sarthe: my god Yes.

FightinCowboy: September is hard. It's I would I would probably

WheelieAverage: September is hard.

FightinCowboy: own a musha, I think, would be my September

WheelieAverage: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: pick.

Sarthe: Good pick, good pick.

FightinCowboy: And then October I would give to Phantom Blade Zero, assuming DLCs don't count.

WheelieAverage: That's fair, that's fair. But if DLCs do count it would have been Dragon's Dogma. Yeah.

FightinCowboy: And then November would be what? Prob probably Dogma. Probably Dogma. Yeah, but Dogma was only like what, twenty or thirty bucks. Thirty, I think.

WheelieAverage: That's true. That's true. That is true.

Sarthe: Yeah, it was only eighty hours or something,

WheelieAverage: yeah, but there you go. That's that's our recommendations if you can't afford much right now. I feel like people are always asking that, right? We've we've even had a few comments of hey, I can't afford everything. What is the one thing? So you've got something from each of us there. I feel like between us we've covered a lot of different

FightinCowboy: Well just the one thing is World of World of Warcraft forever.

WheelieAverage: tastes.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Warcraft remember what's that?

WheelieAverage: I'm just reading through

Sarthe: The one thing you need forever is World of Warcraft. Forever. Just November fourth.

WheelieAverage: That's true. That is true. I mean I am excited to I am excited to jump into that. Obviously it's it's

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: I've I've been, you know, I've been mentioning it for ages, but yeah, I will be I'm gonna be recording myself playing that for the first time and then putting it up on my channel, so you can look forward to that.

FightinCowboy: We spend an a whole episode setting up fucking bars and frames.

Sarthe: Yeah, dude. Luckily I've

WheelieAverage: Probably, probably.

Sarthe: I've already ported my whole UI, so I won't have to do that.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, I I was looking at that last night. I finally sat down. Cause the so the add-on there's a lot of

Sarthe: It's just like the WTF folders that you need to were you doing it the offline setting it up with the now add on? Yeah. Yeah. Now, yeah. He's the

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah, not now. No Noah now. There well there was some stuff that I was like

Sarthe: best.

FightinCowboy: that I was because his his so his let me pull up Curseforge. We can

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: little little wow chat to close things up. because I noticed his thing his

WheelieAverage: Yeah, a little nerd out.

FightinCowboy: thing has a like a dungeon guide integrated already, but I had well I already had Dungeon Master, so I'm guessing I would drop

Sarthe: He has he has everything integrated. It's Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Dungeon Master if I keep his Here's here's here's my add-ons right now. Right now I have

Sarthe: Yeah, tell me.

FightinCowboy: DBM core. let me let me go by name. I have a Toon Auctioneer Bartender for DBM Dungeon Master Forever Talent GTFO. I can get rid of bartender because he's he has spartender. Okay.

Sarthe: Bartender not needed for one, 'cause yeah, 'cause now is doing your bars, right?

FightinCowboy: what about a tune and auctionator, probably.

Sarthe: yes, keep auctionator a tune technically I would keep because it like helps you figure out if you need to do something before

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

Sarthe: getting into a dungeon, but now is implementing all of those things because he'll he has like a dungeon journal with the quest. So like I don't think it'll be Yeah.

FightinCowboy: So I can get rid of Dungeon Master, because Dungeon Master does dungeon journal quests and loot.

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: his talents are there, so I wouldn't need forever talents.

Sarthe: Yep.

FightinCowboy: GTFO. Probably I don't know if I need GTFO. If I have Deadly Boss monster, I still need GTFO?

Sarthe: I usually have it. I don't know if it's necessary. It just yeah, that honk is like, You're in fire.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. Yeah. Healbot. Since I am fucking around with healing, I decided to have that.

Sarthe: Totally fair.

FightinCowboy: Latrix maps and and Latrix plus.

Sarthe: Yep.

FightinCowboy: now I have pawn. I don't know if I'm gonna still need pawn.

Sarthe: Get rid of pawn. Anyone who ever gets pawn, get rid of it. Get rid of that doo-doo add-on. It it just it gives you like an up arrow telling you something's better. But unless you've personally input your actual yeah,

FightinCowboy: Well yeah, you gotta put your your stat weights into it, yeah.

Sarthe: sat weights, it's not gonna d tell you the anything true. So like I feel like it's it's just so much easier to literally look at something and be like, that's some. A little more agility until level sixty, there's almost no nuance.

FightinCowboy: Yeah.

Sarthe: Is it like a a higher level and more agility or something?

FightinCowboy: plater nameplates. I feel like nameplates are probably in now's thing.

Sarthe: Nameplates are in in now and Ellesmere, yeah. So Plater is is pretty much incorporated in those.

FightinCowboy: Okay. Pratt, I do like Pratt. Customizing all the chat windows and shit is pretty nice. yeah,

Sarthe: Okay. I was like, I don't know what price. Okay.

FightinCowboy: it's it it's like it's a full super in depth chat window customization. You can copy URLs in chat, you can

Sarthe: Three.

FightinCowboy: different frames, all that shit. rare scanner, it's always good to have.

Sarthe: Yep, keep it.

FightinCowboy: scrap, it's just auto sales junk items.

Sarthe: I think that's actually not even I think. I'm pretty very confident that is

FightinCowboy: I think that's a nose.

Sarthe: imported into now. And it also is in Leatrix Plus.

FightinCowboy: Okay. I gotta decide I have threat plates and threat classic. I'm not sure which I wanna keep.

Sarthe: Threat classic two is like a a details meter that's a threat meter.

FightinCowboy: Yeah, yeah, it's a threat meter.

Sarthe: but that's also incorporated in should be incorporated in the now UI. And threat plates, it it just is the same thing. Like Plater could have done that and now UI can do that as well.

FightinCowboy: probably get rid of both of those. TomTom I had in retail. I don't know if I'm gonna want it here. It can TomTom can be nice, but it can also fuck you over because if something's like underground,

Sarthe: Yeah.

FightinCowboy: Tom Tom does a bad job of telling you that. I don't know, we'll see. And then I have Titan panel. I love Titan Panel.

Sarthe: I think you've got a solid list there, to be honest. I think that's pretty much everything.

WheelieAverage: I mean you are the expert, so

Sarthe: I'm I'm trying to think you can literally combine now UI and L asmere UI and have that covered 99.99% of everything.

FightinCowboy: Yeah. I gotta get. Well, I know there are there's some stuff because I was watching now's video, I like the the little heads up thing that covers a bunch of stuff, but I kinda

Sarthe: Mm-hmm.

FightinCowboy: get that also in in Titan Panel, but I've played with Titan Panel so long, just having that on the bottom of the screen with all of my info is just I feel at home. I feel at home having that.

Sarthe: Yeah. Some I I I also I do things like that. There's some certain UI elements that I'm like, I just I'm used to how this exactly looks. And if it's a bitch for me to make it look exactly like that through these new things, I'm just gonna do it the old way. a big thing for me, I I've I'm a huge weak auras fan. And shout out to Fogi the Legend. He apparently fully

FightinCowboy: Is that is that back? I thought that wasn't.

Sarthe: re rebuilt it for forever. I apparently.

FightinCowboy: forever auras. A weak Aura fork. Yeah, let me add that in.

Sarthe: Yeah, Forever Auras. He he it's a weak aura fork that he had to rebuild. He's like he's he's probably the like he's like the goat of weak auras for all of classic.

FightinCowboy: Well, because we we had so Blizzard added a a weak Auras bar, but it was shit. It was complete dog shit. So here's

Sarthe: Yeah, the cooldowns bar sucks.

FightinCowboy: yeah, so here's the as as a warrior, right? Overpower, it's a proc-based ability. You would think when something dodges, the light would show up for me to hit overpower. No, no. Here's how Blizzard's fucking cooldown bar worked. When something would when overpower became available, the button would just become visible instead of grayed out. So not really noticeable. And then after using it, then you would see a countdown for the cooldown before it could be used again. And then you would get the gold trailing flash, like, hey, buddy, you can overpower again if it procs, but it wouldn't inform you when it actually procs. I'm like, this is the most useless piece of shit I've ever seen. You're you're you

Sarthe: It's so annoying. It's so annoying.

FightinCowboy: are notifying me the opposite fucking scenario that I need. I need to know when I can when it's available to use, not when it's off cooldown, you stupid fucking add-on.

Sarthe: Yeah. No that it it like

WheelieAverage: Well guys.

Sarthe: things like that drive me crazy. But yeah, all right.

FightinCowboy: No, Wheelie, we're talking wow, you're not ending. We're talk you don't get to go. You get to

WheelieAverage: we have to end. I 'cause I wanna end on this really nice comment from

Sarthe: Yeah.

WheelieAverage: Tom, who says I enjoy this podcast because there are great discussions about games, gaming culture and the gaming sphere in general. The combination of your three personalities gives a dope blend of discussions, basically, and that they hope we keep doing this.

Sarthe: Let's go, Tom.

WheelieAverage: Well Tom, we are gonna carry on doing this. We'll be back next week. Maybe with some guests, maybe not. Who knows? You'll find out when you tune in. But for now, thank you for tuning in this week. We appreciate all your support and we'll see you next time. Goodbye.

Sarthe: Bye.