214: Backlog No Densetsu Awakening

Sam.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Backlog Breakdown, a video game podcast where we seek to encourage and equip the church to engage the medium of video games wisely and responsibly. I'm one of your hosts, Nate, and with me today is my co host, my friend, my brother in Christ, Joshua. Hey, Josh.

Hello. Hello.

And we are joined by.

Wow.

Like listen, we're already sort of running in the red here as far as like sleek debt goes. So like don't make it any more

difficult bud dreaming here soon.

But we are joined. You know, you heard his last before. But we are joined by our friend and fellow Playwell Network alum alumni. I don't know, but Paul Lytle, AKA the Techno Funk boy.

Hello.

Can you be an alumni if you currently are a part of that organization?

I mean it's true.

Also it'd be alumnus.

Alumnus.

Oh, you're right. Yes. That's a single. Yeah.

Masculine, singular.

I don't know dude, I, I listen, I didn't graduate college so like

back off.

We were supposed to be joined by Wesley, really the henching dad himself, but he's got some family stuff going cooking on in the background and he did the cool thing and sort of saw fit to just, you know, deal with that. So for our listeners, you know, shoot a prayer for him. Yeah. And his, his family. Yeah. So yeah, bro, but we're here tonight to talk about the. The game the Link. I wish I could talk, man.

We're here to talk about the Legend.

The, the Link. The Legend Link's Awakening. The Legend. Legend of Zelda link's Awakening. But before we should probably, I don't know, talk about our backlog report. So Josh.

Ah, yes. So if you did not listen to our previous pwn call just to run down the what I've been playing lately. Finished up Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Great game. Get a negative one for that one. I did purchase a couple things, but they're Bravely Default hd. I already own Bravely Default, so not taking any points for that. I won't take any points when and if I beat it. Also picked up the upgrade pack for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. It's just an upgrade pack. It doesn't add any story. At least that I know of. If it doesn't, it's none of my concern. So I'm not taking points for that either. So that doesn't affect my beatdown score. Currently playing Octopath Traveler 2. I do not imagine that I will be finishing this game anytime ever. Although. Well, hopefully by the end of the year so that I can finish out my locked and loaded list, because I only have that. And then one other game, which is Spec Ops, the line that I'll play on my laptop. Did you finish at some point?

Did you finish the first one?

The first one?

Octopath.

Oh, yes.

He did the hidden boss.

The first one. Yeah, Yeah, I took down the. The dark.

I did. I did everything except that boss.

Okay. Yeah, no, it was.

That boss changed my opinion of the entire game.

I understand how you say that. I can understand how you say that.

I love that game until that boss and I will never touch it again.

Oh, man.

100%. 100%.

So actually, I think worse than the boss is the fact that there's a boss rush right before it.

That's. That is. That's really the. I. I put a mod in so I could save after the boss rush.

What? There's a PC?

Yeah.

Okay. Gotcha.

Gotcha. Pcmc. Pmr. Oh, I ruined it. Do the. Do the. Do the music again.

Yes. Otpc. Mrc.

No, no. Yeah, I. I did a mod so I could insert a save point in there.

Okay.

That. Well, I could leave and come back and the bosses would already be done. But yeah, no, that boss, she's dumb.

Yeah.

Just.

Yeah, because you can't save before it. Like, I'm fine with. With playing all the bosses again.

No, you can't save after it. That's the problem is that you do the boss rush and then you have to go. You go into that final fight and that last boss is a cheating butthead.

It does. Well, it does things that you cannot foresee, so you cannot beat it on the first time through. That said, when you do take it down, it's like Dark Souls. It's. It's like, yes, you're gonna die at this boss, but my goodness, once you overcome. Once you find the proper strategies, once you divide up your teams with the correct abilities to fight the different versions of the boss that have different, you know, break affinities. Anyways, I'm getting way too far down this road.

Sorry.

I think the boss is great. I think it's actually a lot of fun. I hate that it takes 45 minutes to try again. That sucks. That sucks. But I love Octopath Traveler, the first game. Yeah.

Yeah.

I did do all the side quests, all that stuff in order to fight that last boss. Fight the last boss. I think I ended up putting 120 hours was what my switch said. Something like that. So a ridiculous amount of time. But I loved it. I loved it. You farm the. Oh, that dancer can do some stuff. Primrose, she can do some stuff to get a ton more experience. Experience. You know, you can kind of. Yeah, anyways.

Yeah, I did. I did a bit of that.

Yeah.

I think. I think I met like 120plus hours on it too.

Yeah.

Makes me angry.

Oh, yeah. Especially if you haven't. Anyways, anyways. Playing Octopaths Traveler 2 just a few hours in. Loving that to pieces. So far, my current backlog score is at negative seven for the year, which is pretty nice. Again, haven't hit the Locked and loaded, so hoping to get some more points by the end of the year. But I imagine I will add some positive points like I said on our previous episode, because of some upcoming Switch releases as well. But that's where I'm at right now. How about you, Nate?

Yeah. Well, good for you, Negative seven. It's going to be nice.

Aren't you special?

Aren't you special? Yes, I'm just playing Destiny 2. Little bit of Returnal. You know, for this episode, I did beat Link's Awakening, so I got a negative one on that puts me at zero. I've got the goose egg. And yeah, my Locked and loaded list is on. Is over at gg. I. I need to. Yeah, I need to get. I beat a couple games off it, so whatever. But all that being said, hey, for

clarity's sake, if I could just. So this is the first time you've ever beaten Link's Awakening?

Yes.

Okay. Wow. All right. We do have a lot to talk about. Awesome. Okay, carry on.

Yeah, I mean, we'll get there, but if you gu. Wondering what the numbers are about. The Backlog Beatdown is a meta that we run all year. It just incentivizes you to play games that you already own and acts as a little bit of a break against just purchases. So, yeah, if that sounds at all interested. Interesting. Reach out to us. We'll get you a copy of the rules. It's that simple. But tonight, gentlemen, we are gathered here to talk about the. The reason we are actually gathered here tonight is that, Paul, you are a patron and you picked Link's Awakening.

Am I still. Really? I thought I canceled that like years ago.

Well,

how do I get old, stupid? I lost it.

I lost the password. I don't know.

Oh, dude, that would just.

That would be epic and tragic and hilarious.

We'll be disputing this with my credit card. Yes.

Yeah, some of. Just like for Years just had an ongoing Patreon sub to something and. Yeah, but you are one of our patrons and you picked Link's Awakening and so we're going to be talking about that tonight. So I, I think the first thing is why, why did you pick Link's Awakening? You know, I guess is like why this game?

And what's really sad is like I very specifically put in my nomination Link's Awakening. But only, only, only, only if Wes would join because we have like a whole series of these Zelda games going. We started a super early episode with Zelda 2 and, and then what was it just a couple of years ago

or something to the past, wasn't it?

Dead Link to the Past. Yeah, the four of us together and. And then Wes makes up something about his family. I don't know what is going on, but families.

Listen.

Yeah, we love, we love you, Wes. We wish you were here, but yeah,

kind of sad we had.

We have a whole thing going on and we'll continue, will continue without him. Just like Link continued without Zelda Ganon.

Well, he can, you know.

Oh,

I mean, that's harsh. But fair. But. And to be fair is like Wes could actually like, if he wanted to, he could sort of. After he listens to us and tells us about all the ways that he thinks that we didn't do it right. He can record an addendum and we'll publish it as a bite sized. So yeah, but I'm just saying, yeah, there are ways, there are ways for him to be heard. But I would also say as a bit of a change from the norm is that when we played Link, legend of Zelda 2, Link's Adventure or whatever, I did not beat that because I was like, nah. When we played a Link to the

Past, you don't have to keep harping on this. I didn't beat that, but I did beat this. And that's.

See, that's the critical piece. Well, what I was gonna say is like, I think that's actually the problem is I beat the game and that forced Wes to not be like, there was some like the cosmic ordering was like, no, Wes can't be here now. So it's my fault. It's. If you're gonna be angry at anyone, be angry at me because I actually beat the game that we all agreed to play.

So yeah, shame, shame. I feel none, you know, beating, beating. Fantastic, amazing video games. Well, how dare you.

I'll keep going. I'll keep going. Well, on this one, Nate has to keep going on the Other two.

Yeah.

Good luck with that. I mean, to be fair, I have beaten a Link to the past before. It's just been, like, many, many years now. Link's adventure. Probably not gonna happen, dude. I do think that that game is, like. I would love to see them do a remake of that anyways.

But.

Yeah. Oh.

But I did kind of want to sort of, like, talk about just, like, briefly here. And, Josh, you. You kind of. Whether you knew it or not, you kind of alluded to some of this. But, like, let's talk about baggage. Let's talk about, like, context and pretext with this game. And so, Josh, you asked early on if this is the first time I'd ever beaten it. Y. Not, however, the first time I ever played the game. So now, the Switch version, I bought pretty shortly after it came out, and I started it, and I got a ways through it, and then I just stalled out super hard on the seventh. Temple Eagle. Eagle Tower or whatever.

Okay.

And I stalled out there for a couple of years, but I actually have memories of this game from my childhood. I had a friend, a buddy of mine, John, who had a Game Boy and had this game for it, and I remember. Remember playing it on that Game Boy a little bit. Didn't beat it there. And then when I got into emulation at that point in time, there were so many other options that I was intrigued by this game. But if I'm being honest, I just had a ton of other stuff that just was way more appealing. So that's kind of my baggage. That's, like, my personal history with it, which is like. Yeah, I. I was aware of it, played some of it. I thought, oh, this is kind of interesting, but unfortunately, never really went much farther than that. But, Paul, do you have any baggage with this game?

I. I didn't play it originally, and I was sitting here actually trying to figure out why, but I. I think it. I. I think it came out in a time where I had mostly stopped playing Game Boy, but this was another reason I picked this game is Wes has been bugging me for years, going, you know. You know, dude, link to your Link to the Past is your favorite Zelda game. You need to play this one. It's basically the same thing. And I kept resisting it, and so this is the first time I've. I've. I've ever even started playing it.

Wow. Wow, man.

And West.

West, how long ago did you start it?

Like a month ago.

Okay. Okay.

Not four years.

A few weeks ago? No, no, no.

Yeah. Well, for me, it was four years ago, probably, or somewhere in that ballpark.

It was.

It was just one of those things where I stalled out pretty hard on it and then kind of just. It kept kind of getting punted down the road. And then I did, like. And to be fair, this time I was playing it on the Switch 2, which does offer, like, a locked frame rate, and on the original Switch, it could get like a little. The, The. The most recent version of the game could get, like, a little stuttery. There were some framing issues. Some. So I. I experienced none of that on my Switch too. Like, there was just, like, straight burning through it. It was pretty stinking glorious.

But yep, yeah, I played on Switch. I didn't notice any of that. But I also, like, sunk massive amounts of hours into Mega Man 3. And so I don't.

So what you're saying is framing this means nothing to you.

I picked Mega Man 3. If y' all have never played Mega Man 3 on NES, it. It just Cave goes so slow. There's so much stuff crap on the screen.

Yeah, yeah, I, you know, and that's something that I. I didn't necessarily mention earlier when I talked about echoes of wisdom is that I played all that and on Switch, too. I know that one stutters on original Switch because I remember playing the opening when my niece got it last Christmas, and it was. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty stuttery. So I played through this time, the remake on Switch, but I played it on my Switch too. Got it from the library and proceeded to beat it in the court over the course of, I want to say, two weeks, because I grew up with this game. This was actually my first Zelda game that I ever played, which if. If you played this game or if you haven't, we'll. We'll talk about this. It's very odd because this is a very unique Zelda game for a number of different reasons. Well, we've already alluded to them. There's no Princess Zelda in this game. There's no Ganon in this game. There is the shape of Ganon that shows up.

I was going to say. Well, actually, there's.

There is an illusion to Ganon, but just like there's an illusion to the Trif pieces in some of the things that you can pick up. But it's almost as if you're. It's not the real thing, and like, it's a dream or something like that. You know, it's a surreal area version of. Of these things. So anyways, I, as a child, was not Not. Not a little bit confused by the title, the Legend of Zelda, when Zelda never appears throughout the course of the game. But that said, this is one of the handful of. Of Game Boy games that I had growing up. One of the earliest Game Boy games that I had growing up. So I poured a ton of time into it. I mean, my time with video games was limited. My parents only let us play small, in small chunks at a time and. But me and my brothers, we did play through this game. There were two points in particular within the game where we got very stuck and didn't know what to do. I believe we ended up using the computer at the library, you know, after being stuck for a long time, in order to figure out how to get past certain parts. However, when you only have a few games and you love a game like this so much, you. You could find other things to do in the world, which full circle kind of comes back again. We'll get to it later. So you could. You could do some of the sort of side quests that end up becoming mandatory throughout the course of the game. I love this game. It is. Well, if you know my personal top 10, it is on my personal top 10 games of all time. Technically not my favorite Zelda game, but it is certainly up there. So anyways, my personal history with the game is that I think it's fantastic and I've beaten it now. I mean, multiple times. I did play a bit of the DX version. One of my friends had it. So I remember playing through the color dungeon. I remember thinking, oh, yeah, this game is a lot easier when you can, you know, have twice as strong attacks or twice as much defense after playing through the color dungeon because I was so used to the original version of the game. So, you know, I get it. Some people just call it quality of life, but I say get good scrub because the original game is pretty much perfect. And we'll continue. I know I've. I've already kind of put my cards on the table, but we'll.

That surprises me. Like, everyone. Everybody loves this game. And maybe the original was better, but the Switch version is pretty trash. I'm joking. I love this. 10 out of 10. It's amazing.

Yeah. I was like, I don't. I'm not. I'm not witty enough because I know you're joking. I know you cannot think that this game is trash.

I was not prepared for that.

Like, like, I believe I've said it.

Psychological damage.

Exactly.

I was like, what?

The Switch version. I really enjoyed it. Is Different. I have nostalgia for the original version, so I probably prefer the original version.

So I just.

I like original pixels in general for video games because they feel more precise.

I like the toy box style, though. I did like it.

Yes. It fits very well. And. And I think it's charming. I think it's a great game either way you play it.

Let me, let me ask you. So since you have the most experience with the game and you. You played it in its original form, the, the Pegasus boots and the shield. In the Switch version, they're assigned to like the L triggers, I think, or something.

Yeah, yeah.

But that's not the case because in the original Game Boy version, you had to assign those to slots.

Yes. Yeah. In the original Game Boy version, you only have A and B and everything you have to assign to a slot. Now. Now that I say that, actually, I'm trying to remember. No, yeah, yeah. You do have to assign even the bracelets to pick up things. Oh, wow. You have to assign.

Oh, my gosh.

So you do have to pause the game, change what you're using, and unpause the game. And that is something that does become annoying throughout the course of the game. You know, when I was younger, it was a much slower paced game. And now that I'm older and I know the game kind of in, in and out. Definitely becomes more annoying. Yeah. That you're having to pause and stop. You do come up with some fun combinations though. You know, I. I tend to have the roc's feather equipped a lot because I like jumping around all over the place. Which again, you have to equip. That has to be your B button. So you don't just automatically have a button assigned to jump.

So.

Yes. There are quality of life things with the switch. Yeah. That in particular. That's pretty nice.

Could you do the bomb arrows in the original?

You just need to have both of them equipped.

Both of them equipped. So you're not like, you can't use your sword in that instance you're using.

Right.

Bomb. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Bomb arrows, like my favorite thing. Once it was pointed out to me that you could do that, I was like, oh, this is the greatest, greatest thing ever.

It's wonderful. Did you ever. Well, no, you probably haven't gotten the. Have you resurrected the. The rooster yet?

No, not yet.

Have you gotten to that? Okay. Okay. Because you can. I didn't do it. In the Switch version, I assume you can, but in the original version, you can throw a boomerang and then grab onto the rooster. And the boomerang will just be going in circles underneath you and you can go throughout the areas and it will attack enemies. That's hilarious. While you just kind of fly over them. So there's all kinds of crazy stuff that you can do in this game. It's sort of like proto, you know, like Breath of the Wild. Just like messing with the physics of the game. With Link's awakening, you just mess with, oh, how am I gonna play around with these? Literally just two slots of things that

you can equip and I should clarify for the audience. I've told you all this. I didn't Finish. I watched H.G. bailey's Let's Play it of the, of the Final Dungeons so that I could, you know, know what happens. So you know, I like, I know what the rooster is and what it can do. I just haven't gotten there yet. So, so when, when the, when the audience, you know, hears me go, no, I haven't gotten that part yet. Yeah, I know. I, I know I could do that. They're like, wait, he's so brilliant. He just predicts everything that's going to

happen in the game. Especially for this game. This is a hard game to predict, man.

Well, it's. I, I think that's one of the, the really interesting things is that I actually walked away from this after playing the Switch version and I was just like, actually like. I love the fact that the, what's the, the Zelda game where you actually play Zelda. You're just talking about Echoes of Wisdom. Echoes of Wisdom actually takes a lot from this game. I. Low key especially. I would love to see them actually make more top down 2D Legend of Zelda style games using this framework. So sort of being able to equip a couple different puzzle pieces but still having like your sword and your shield and you know what I'm saying? Like, I actually, I think like all of that stuff is like, like fantastic. Yeah.

Yeah.

I just, I was gonna say probably later, but I did plan. Plan to say it. It's like. And I'm, I'm someone who does not typically like news about remakes and stuff, but if they wanted to do a link to the past in this engine, add some, add some of those functionalities to the.

Oh, dude.

To the. It would be. I would buy that in a second.

Have either of you guys played. Oh my goodness, why can't I think of it the 3DS game, link between Worlds.

Oh no, I have not.

That's the one that's A technically a sequel to Link to the Past. It's supposed to be excellent. I haven't played it though.

I also really, really like that game. I don't think it has quite as much charm. It's a little. It's a little bit over the top and it's in its just strict goofiness. But, like, again, we'll get to it. I feel like Link's awakening is much more heartfelt than just straight silly.

Link's awakening is actually really, really charming and it's got a really sweet story. I also, you know, and you know, we're not really into spoiler territory, but sort of as the mildest of spoilers, I actually kind of like the bittersweet overall tone of this game.

Yep.

I very much actually. I low key loved it. Like, I was like, yeah, it did something for that sad boy in me where I was like, yes.

I. Yeah, there's. There's so much to say about that. And like you said, we don't necessarily want to go into spoilers.

Dude, I just saw you. I just saw what your shirt said, Paul.

And yeah, yeah, I think I suggested the Chit show last time I was here or something. But. Yeah, yeah, you.

Yeah, one of the. The more recent times I know that you and I have sort of like been talking about it like for a while there was like. There was like a two or three week run where we were just obsessed and texting or DMing each other back and forth about it.

Y.

So it's pretty great.

So good. So good.

Back to it then.

All right, Link's awakening. Back to it.

Back to it. But yeah, so we were talking about

the, the tone of the game. Yeah. And the. The kind of melancholy nature of it. And I think it's balanced so well with some of the more heartfelt elements in it.

Yeah.

Goodness.

That surprised me like, that. I, like, I wasn't expecting that out of a Zelda game. You know, it. It had the, you know, kind of the heroic adventuring that I was expecting. It had way more weirdness and goofiness than I was expecting. But to be, I mean, just genuinely touching. It's.

Yeah.

Surprisingly touching.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I, again, it's done very well in the Switch version. In the original Game Boy version, there are. There's at least one scene that I can think of. Do you guys remember the beach scene? The scene where you have to go to Marin while she's sitting on the log on the beach and how it changes perspective in the Switch game? Yeah, yeah. So. So it does it? Because it's basically a cutscene on the Game Boy. It does that same thing, but it almost. It doesn't change art styles, but it feels completely different and it's much more cinematic. And for that time to not only for what's going on in that scene where she kind of opens up and shares some stuff with Link there. And I feel like the subtlety is just. It's just gorgeous with the game. Again, it's based on the limitations. I say again, this is a conversation we were having earlier of the limitations of the game are actually allow for and force the creators of the game to be more. More subtle. I mean, I guess you could just be straight on the nose the whole time. But I think the limitations actually make it all the more impressive, especially on that original Game Boy version.

But I have to point this out on that for that scene, because that scene was incredible. But it's not required. But you can go to a different section over there and there'll be another cutscene that you might not have seen. But Marin says a couple of things. But then it has the funniest line in the game where Marin, I took a picture just so Gab. Marin looks at you and goes, aren't you going to say anything? And of course Link is not going to say anything because that's against the rules.

Yeah, yeah.

Link, the ultimate silent protagonist. Yeah.

Even when the characters are now voice acted. Not Link, right? Nope. All you'll ever get out of him is that.

Marin's character in this was so good. Like. Like at the very beginning of like, okay, she's the annoying girl in town who sings and. But dang, she's great in this game.

So did you get to play the part? And this was actually not in my notes, but it just comes to mind is another just eccentricity of this game that I love. Did you play the part where she kind of joins you for a little bit? Oh, that's right after the beach scene, right? Yeah.

And that one was hilarious too. And I took a picture of that too, because she holds her up and says, you got marriage.

Just like an item. So good.

It's so good. And it says you got Marin. Is this your big chance? I immediately thought of, okay, we talked about this in the Link to the Past episode, but at the beginning of Link to the Past, when you find your uncle there and he gives you the sword and he goes, link, Zelda is your. And it never explains what he was going to say.

Right.

You know, like your sister, your cousin, your, you know, Your ruler over this land. What are you saying?

Yeah.

And it was like, finally. Yeah. Link finally has a girlfriend that is, you know, not illegal in most states.

Yeah, yeah. No, it's. It's great the. That portion because it. I mean, it really is. Like most of the game, it has this kind of surrealness because that almost kind of breaks the fourth wall when he holds her up like an item. You know what I mean? Like, she's gonna follow out. She's gonna follow you throughout the game, but all throughout, when you, when you have her following you, you can take the critical path if you want to and just go straight there. But if you wander around, well, even if you take the critical path, she will talk to you about some of the things that she sees because she's not an adventurer, you know, she. She doesn't know what you typically do, you know, And. And if you wander off to different parts of the island and see different things, she reacts to all different kinds of things. And it's. Yeah, it's wonderful because it's not required, but it's just that bit of flavor. Like she just really feels alive as a character.

My favorite one of those. Besides, you can torture a chicken and she tells you to stop at first, but then she kind of gets into it, which is concerning.

Yes, but.

But there's one that I didn't do, but when I was watching H.C. bailey, he pointed this out, is if you, if you go into a dungeon, she'll wait outside.

Yeah.

But if you come back with critical health, she'll. She'll. She'll say stuff like, you know, oh, no, you're hurt. You know, like she reacts to you as well. That is, I mean, just really charming. It's.

Yeah.

It's just the details they did not have to put in this game.

Right.

They did it anyways, you know, and it really fleshes Marin out to be. I just, just. I mean, one of the best characters I've seen in a Zelda game. Zelda games are not, not really well known for fully fleshed out characters. Right, but.

Right.

But. But Marin is.

Yeah. And so as. As I've been thinking about this, you know, it's hard to. To go back and think deeply about things that you've, you know, known since you're a kid. Things that are deeply affected by nostalgia as well. Although I will say in this playthrough, just a wonderful game, even playing it, you know, the last time I. I beat the game was a decade ago, you know, something like that. And it's still Just still absolutely fantastic. So while there, There's. There's that nostalgia there, definitely, I just. I think it still holds up really well. But that said, one of the things that. That I think about, I think this game allowed it to be not even necessarily more character based because there aren't a lot of characters that. That have a lot of screen time. It's really just Lincoln Marin. Outside of that. Characters are very. They. They leave an impression on you. Right. You know, there's the old man. What's his name, Ulala or something like that, who, you know, just mumbles when you go into his house. But he'll talk to you on the phone. Oh, I love your ear off.

I love. I love that detail. Just, you know, he's like, he. He wants to connect with people, but not. Not that close.

Yeah.

You know, a lot. A lot of the characters have. Have some. Something about them, some kind of quirk about them that reoccurs. That is a lot of fun and adds a lot of personality.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

I think of. I think of the ghost who goes to see his house. I think of.

Oh, that part was really cool.

The lady who's just sweeping in front of her house, she's just constantly sweeping.

The old lady out there sweeps so much she ruins her broom.

And you can.

Yeah.

Or note the.

The. Oh, oh, that. Do you. Did you ever go to the crane game when you had Marin in your party in your, you know. Oh, my goodness, she freaks out at this crane game.

Oh. She's like, I saw, I saw. I didn't do it. I saw the video. But yeah, tell about it because it's great. And.

And she's like, oh, let me try Link. Give me. Let me, you know, give me a turn. And she takes it and she goes. And she does something that you cannot do yourself, but she kind of breaks it so that the crane actually goes above the crane operator guy that you pay the rupees for and picks him up and all the while he's like freaking out, like, get me down. Get me out of here. And she is just laughing like, you know, I think of it like a. You know, like giggling and laughing to herself, like at this guy's misfortune because she's just having so much fun picking him up with his own crane. Yeah.

Her personality is. Is both reflective and playful.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

In a. Really well written in both areas.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that. Again, going back to the beach scene, which I wish there was a better way to say that because no one is in Swimming trunks. They are wearing full garb the entire game. And usually beach scene refers to different things, but they sit on a log together. Anime, right? Yeah. I can't wait to see the Netflix adaptation of this game. My goodness. But. But she talks about, you know, you're off looking into not even the sunset, but out at the. Out at the waves. And. And of course, she's talking because Link doesn't talk, which is so clever the way that they, you know, they. They do this. But to. So you get to know this character. She's talking about the seagulls and how they can. They can fly, you know, and they can go off and. And go to other places and how she wishes, like, wouldn't that be awesome if you could fly, man? And it's not in the sense that, like, oh, I want to get off this island and make something of myself. It's not. It's not that. It's not like Disney Princess, kind of like, I'm shackled down by my life and I want to go do what I want to do kind of a thing. But it's more like, I know that there's more to the world out there, and I just want to see it. You know, I want to experience something. Something more than what's here. Even though she definitely, throughout the course of the game, loves what's there. You know, you go to the animal, the town, and they all love her to pieces. You know, they're all just super excited, oh, Marin's coming to town. You know, all this stuff.

And it is hysterical when she. When. When she goes back to that town, and then you follow, and she's like. She has all the animals out of their houses and just surrounding her while she sings. And everybody's like, this is great. She attracts. I mean, she. You know, she. She attracts the attention of everybody. Yep. No matter where she goes.

Yep. Whereas, like, Link to the Past has the. I don't remember his name, but the kid where he has a flute or something like that. And there are other kind of kids, and those are mischievous. That's a totally different tone. This one is more like just happy and serene and even. Again, the Game Boy sprites are fantastic. You know, there's like a bunny that's, like, on its. Like on its belly, holding up its. Its head, kind of looking up at her, just kicking its feet on the ground. And of course, that comes right after. I believe it's right after she wakes up the walrus.

Yep, yep.

You know, because there's a walrus asleep that's gating you from going into the desert. All kinds of. All kinds of wackiness in this game. I do feel like, yeah, what were you gonna say?

Which Just because you brought it up. You can get a secret seashell from that walrus by going to play the flute, and he pops up thinking it's marin and sees you, it is pissed off, and leaves.

Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. The secret seashells are. That's a lot of fun and just weird. Like. Yeah, yeah. You find them, but then you take it to the seashell house to get these different. These different rewards.

And one thing. Just personality. The game thing. I know we haven't even gotten to the plot, and I. I do hate when. When we do that.

But

in I. I had turned in bow wow before I knew about this, but you can lead him around, and he'll. He'll sniff out the shells for you. It's real, like, really cool. And I was like. I was, like, super annoyed at that. It's like, darn it. I know you get the detector at 20 seashells, but I wasn't at 20 yet, so I was like, oh, I could have had him do half the work for me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you need it, you know, Unless you're going to dig every single solitary spot in the game. Yeah, yeah. You definitely need something.

I ended up pulling up a guide for that, so that.

Yeah, I don't blame you. Yeah, that makes sense. So let me back up for just a second here. I was talking about characterization of all the different people that populate the island, which, again, I think is fantastic. 1. Another standout to me is the kids in the. In the village.

Oh, the kids are hilarious.

Beginning of the game, you know. Did you know you can. You can pull up your equipment with the start button? What is the start button? Don't ask me. I'm just a kid.

I'm just a kid. Yeah.

You know, everyone knows what the select button is. Don't ask me. I'm just a kid. Which is just a wonderful line. I love that.

And that keeps going, even when you. Like when you get to the point where you need to go to the little dream hut thing is, like, there's something really good in there. I don't know what it is. I'm just a kid. Yeah.

I don't go into it.

Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. But one other thing that I did want to say is just touching on the characters within this game and as I reflect on the game and even just the way that it's made and how different it is from the rest of the series. Okay. Like we said, no Ganon, no Zelda, no Triforce. And even it's not in Hyrule. Right. It's Link traveling from Hyrule and getting in the shipwreck. Really, the quest in this game is not to save a kingdom from an encroaching enemy. Rather, it's just so that Link can get home, which kind of, again, as I'm reflecting, oh, that kind of sounds like, you know, more like the Odyssey than it does, you know, your standard Zelda game. But this game, even though that sounds on paper like, oh, okay, he's just trying to get home, like, that sounds kind of lame. It really kind of. The game pulls you in with all of these odd things, these surreal things that are happening, and you really get invested in, again, the characters and the island itself in a way that I don't think you could just. In a standard Zelda game. And the fact that you could have this more personal tale, I think is. I think you could only do that not as, oh, you're this chosen kid who will of the prophecy who will one day save Hyrule. I think because it is about Link's personal journey to. To get off the island and to go back home, you're able to have these more personal moments. And it doesn't encroach upon what Link is trying to do. It doesn't feel like, oh, this is just kind of a side story where you go to this weird town and you meet these weird people. Like, no, you're an. You're an alien in an alien land, and you have to kind of assess your surroundings. And I say you. Obviously, I'm talking about Link. And so these personal connections that you make in this odd place, like, there's a sense that that Link already knows a lot of Hyrule. You know, in other games, even though you're. You're adventuring, don't get me wrong. But when there's just something different about this game and the fact that it's so surreal. I mean, I didn't mention it before, but there are things from other Nintendo properties, you know, scattered throughout this game. So you see Goombas, piranha plants, chain chomps. You already talked about that. There are Kirby enemies later on. Yeah, like, what the heck, Kirby, you're a bad guy. Now there's what a jerk. A Yoshi doll really early on in the game that you can get Mr. Right from SimCity.

Oh, I love that. Like, when I walked through that door. I was like, are you kidding me? That's amazing.

And did you do his. The whole Trading Quest thing?

I haven't gotten back to him in it yet.

Okay.

So I haven't finished the Trading Quest.

Okay. Because he, you know, he writes letters to the love of his life. And did you see the picture that he got?

Oh, I didn't notice.

Okay. So he gets a picture at one point, and maybe that is. Maybe you do trade it and it's Princess Peach. But you go to. You go to Animal Village and you find out it's this goat lady who's catfishing him and sends him. It sends him this picture, but it's not actually her, which is. Oh, boy. That was. That would suck to find out the. The boss of Super Mario Brothers 2Wart is in this game as well. He is kind of towards the end in that Trading Quest, but he shows up. Prince Richard is from the team that made Link's Awakening. Before they made Link's Awakening, they made a game that is Japan only called. Yeah. The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Yes.

I haven't played it.

I've heard that game is amazing, but

I haven't played from Wes as well.

Wes. Wes swears by it.

Yes. And to be fair, I've heard outside of him as well, that it's a good.

Yeah, I've seen some. I've heard some podcasts on that game that.

Okay.

It's just great.

So you play as Prince Richard in that game, and he's. That's cool.

Okay.

As well. So there's all kinds of references that, again, I didn't necessarily pick up on all of them when I was a kid, you know.

Sure.

But as you play more video games, you know, you realize what they're doing. And so it just adds to this sense of, again, this surreal nature of. It's a Zelda game, but it's not a Zelda game. But it's also an amalgamation of these other games. And it really does feel strangely dreamlike. Huh. Funny how they do that, right?

That's so. That's so weird. That's. Yeah, that's kind of wild.

Yeah.

But, yeah, I, I, One of the things, One of the things you notice that kind of adds. That dreamlike quality is so. All right, so I pulled up the timeline. We do not need to get into Zelda timeline, because that's wild. But as I understand it, this is the same Link from Link to the Past.

Yes.

And it's after Link to the Past.

Yes.

But as you're Walking around this island. It's not Hyrule, but it's kind of Hyrule. It's.

Right.

A lot of the places are in the same place.

Yes.

And so there's a castle where Hyrule Castle should be. It's not Hyrule Castle, but the castle is there. The mountains are. Are where they are in Hyrule. You know, the. The desert's on the opposite side, but the.

Oh, yeah, you're right. You're right.

But the. The river is where it's supposed to be. It's like. There's a lot of that in this game that this. This does seem like a dreamlike reflection of what we already knew.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's. That's a great point, man. So there's another. There's another point that I want, but I do feel like I've been talking a lot. Nate, if there was anything that you wanted to kind of bring up about the game in particular.

No, not really.

That's fine.

I don't have, like, tons of deep lore or anything about this. It's just one of those things where. Sure. I'm a relative newcomer, and I did enjoy it. Yeah. And I think Marin's really charming. I think overall. Yeah, the. The. All the. The inhabitants of the island are pretty charming. And the writings. It is. You know, like you guys said, it's funny, but it's funny in a way that doesn't. Yeah, doesn't. It doesn't. It's not too. It's not. Try hard. You know, it's. It's. Yeah, it's earnest and it's charming, and it's just kind of like. Like it's irreverent enough that you're like. You can kind of laugh at it, but also, like, it's. Yeah, it's. It's a. It's a bit of a rare gem, just. I think tonally that it takes itself seriously enough for you to, like, kind of buy in, but at the same time, not seriously enough. Not too seriously. Yeah, that's. That's. Yeah. So, yeah, there's. And, yeah, there's also, like, really cool, neat little stuff like. Like, nods to other Nintendo properties. Yeah. So that stuff's fun.

I agree.

I concur. I was just kind of, like, sitting back. I wasn't. I wasn't falling asleep yet, but, yeah,

you were awakening, I will say, going

through the first dungeon, like. And they put Moldorm as the.

The.

As the boss of the first dungeon, which. Which kind of surprised me because I like Moldor from.

Okay.

Link to the past. But I think I'm the only person who does. Yeah. Everybody else kind of. Kind of hates that.

Frustrated by him. But.

But I like, I. At that point, I'm like, okay, I, I get it. The. The dungeons are linked to the past remix. No, not at all like that. That's. Yeah, that's. That's pretty much it. Like, you know, you fight the. And I forgot the name. I'm blanking on the name. But the, The.

The.

The sand worm that comes out of. Out of the sand, but not in a dungeon. That's just an Overworld boss. Yeah. You know, but there's a lot of original and really cool bosses in. In this one that I, I, I was frankly surprised at the number of bosses and mini bosses. There were not only. Not only in dungeons, but just scattered about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, The. The face on the floor. Did you like that one? I mean, yeah, there's. There's and, and goodness. I mean, all. Maybe, maybe not all of them, but a. I could be misremembering now, but they tell you, you know, you don't know what you're doing. We're trying to. We've got another, like, it's not that Ganon is. Is, you know, this evil force looking over everything and trying to stop you from saving the world. Yep. The bosses are. Are kind of like warning you. Like, hey, don't. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's the. What, the genie in the bottle or in the pot boss is another one that kind of talks to you and is like, hey, you know, if you continue down this road, then you're gonna. You're gonna mess everything up. You're gonna destroy everyone. You know, we can't continue to exist if you, if you keep doing what you're doing. And I mean, even at one point, the, the owl kind of tells you as much as. Well, even though he's kind of guiding you along. But just a, Just a quick side note, too, is that I forgot another character who's in this. Obviously, Marin's dad is just Mario. He's in. And he's. He's. My goodness. He's such a goofball. He turns into a raccoon.

Right, right. Yes.

At the beginning of the game, which,

of course, Mario would.

Yeah, right. Yes, yes, exactly.

Yeah.

And then later.

But also, he's a mushroom.

Honey, it never occurred to me that Marin is just Mario with one letter changed.

Yeah.

And not even that far. It's just one letter over. It's like you mistyped It.

Yeah, that's true.

Oh, man.

Yeah. That's awkward. No. Yeah. Yeah. So there's, there's. There's so many things. So you, you talked about the dungeons, you talked about even the. The overworld bosses that are throughout this game. This is kind of the other big thing for me is I think this game, again, original context is Game Boy. I think it is the perfect. It has the perfect scope for a game like this. I do think there are some, well, I was going to say some Zelda games that, that are too big, that take too long to traverse certain areas. I do take exception actually to the newer ones, which are the biggest ones I get. I understand that, but I think it doesn't kind of force you to kind of go everywhere. Those are kind of play at your own pace games and, and explore and. And discover at your own pace, which is, which is a diff. Gives a different feel. This game does, by the end of the game require you to finish the trading game. You have to find a lot of secrets throughout the game, but it is a manageable enough map throughout the whole game that it does not feel like it's ever going to take you a really long time to go travel to some other part. You can be familiar with the entire world. Even the map itself, when you pause, is very readable. In the original Game Boy, it's like it's in squares because the whole game is kind of shifts over kind of the. How the original Zelda games did it.

The. The use of space is fantastic in this game. And I, you know, and I'm going to keep comparing it to Link to the Past because I mean, they're directly related, but they're also side by side, you know, release and all. Link to the Past is really, really good on this. Link's awakening is better at its use of space and that's limitations thing. One of the reasons that I did not give myself enough time to finish this besides, you know, going through a couple weeks of depression there, but sure is it was like, okay, I got through the first dungeon there. There are eight of these. That's fine. You know, kind of pace it out in my head. There is a ton to do in this world. Link to the Past does this too. It's like you just don't go to the dungeon. You got to do something, something to get in and, and it's the same way here, but the tones of those are different. Link to the Past. It's like the things you have to do are mostly kind of cool and epic and you know, you have to like uncover the ancient magic of the Hylian people and.

Right.

And stuff like this here. It's. It can be silly, it can be whimsical, it in all. But there's a lot to do in a very small space. A lot. And there, there isn't, there isn't wasted screens. There's, you know, there's, there's. There's something going on. The, the traversal. It. They're very generous with, with warp points. Y. I would assume that the Game Boy version had those as well. Yes, but very generous. And it's going to get you to a place and if there's something difficult that you have to do to get to the next screen, you're going to find a warp spot somewhere over there so that you don't have to keep doing it. This is not always the case with even linked to the past. Like especially in the mountains. If you're trying to explore caves in the mountains, you know, you have, you have to walk aways and.

Yeah.

And so it's very, very easy to get anywhere you want to go. I mean, as long as you have the equipment that you could get there in the first place.

Sure.

It's very, very easy to. It's like, okay, I gotta jump over to the desert. Okay, I gotta jump over to this place. Very simple, very easy to do, very quick. I. I love that about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very dense. And like you said, I mean, we mentioned the trading quests. We've mentioned the secret seashells that are strewn throughout the game. Obviously they're pieces of heart that are, you know, all over the place depending on, on what you're doing. There's some side questy type deals. You know, there's, there's the crane game. There's the. I, I don't, I actually don't like it that much. But there's the raft game that you can play to ride the raft. So there's. Yeah, there's. There's handfuls of different things. Obviously it's a Zelda game. You open up different areas in the map. Like you said, if you have certain things, you get the flippers and you can swim and you can actually go underneath and find some hidden spaces and things like that and learn songs from different characters. And I forgot to mention one of the other I think just hilarious character moments is early on in the game. You meet this little family in the opening town. You give the baby the Yoshi doll, but you talk to the dad and he's like, oh, yeah, you should remember me because I might show up in the mountains later or you run into me in the mountains later, something like that. And sure enough, like later on in the game as you do the continue the trading quest, you meet him in the mountains and he needs food because he's famished and he needs victuals. I remember this because I was a child and I didn't know what these words meant until you know, oh, okay, I can I bring him this. And he, and that's what he. Okay, he meant food. So he can't move. And that's just, it's just hilarious. Like he tells you later on you'll meet me in the mountains.

The thing I remember about that family is that so in the crane game you can get little models of Mario enemies and there are little stands in everybody's house where you can set them. I actually don't know what this does because I didn't finish it. But the one right beside the kid's bed in that house is the. Boo. Don't be like that.

Yikes. Oh man. Yeah, that's crazy. Just to kind of mention it. Anyways, the switch version does add apparently a dungeon making minigame. I did not touch it at all. It is, it's required that you meet the person Dante who, who does it. He actually shows up in Echoes of Wisdom as well. I didn't give two rips.

No, I, I, I, I've been skipping that. Like I, I know you can get some nice stuff in there. Okay. There is a secrecy shell in there and there's a heart piece in there.

Oh, okay.

And it's like I, I, I saw the Reward for the 50 secrecy shells and I'm like, I can skip that one.

Yeah, yeah.

Like the 40, the 40 secrecy shell one is the one I want.

Sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you can, you can build custom dungeons using all the rooms you found in other dungeons and, and mix and match and put your own bosses in there. And it seems like a great way to farm rupees. The game uses rupees actually really well as well. In Link to the Past, once you get the flippers, you're pretty much done with rupees for the game and you're going to end up with 999 of them. But the, this, you know, this one, there's, throughout the game there are several points where you're going to, you know, you need to buy, you need to buy something. And, and so it's, I, I think it, I think it uses rupees.

Better

useful for more things than this one.

Yeah. Yep. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I mean, really. Yeah. The scope of the game, I feel like, is perfect.

Oh, okay. So a couple of things I want to mention. I love how useful a lot of the items were are in this. When I played a link to the past, I loved the boomerang. You know, it could grab things for you, but it's pretty terrible weapon in, you know, really arrows are where it's at. But like the boomerang's actually useful in this game. It can, it can, it can kill some enemies like the, like the anti fairies that you can't kill with a sword. The, the bomb arrows is just the coolest thing ever. Or you use both an arrow and a bomb to shoot the bomb at things. And it's, there's several, several of the items that have additional functionality from previous games that I think really work really, really well. The one, the one enemy I, I laughed at, like, and this is, I mean, pretty nerdy and esoteric, but they brought back the polls voice from Zelda 1:1 and the poles voice are the little bunny things. Now in Zelda 1, their gimmick is they, they hate sound. And in the Japanese version, Controller 2 had a little microphone and you were supposed to blow in it and it would kill them.

Oh, wow.

But we didn't have that. And so like, there's seriously an old man in the game in Zelda one that tells you like, oh, the pole's voice voice. They just, they freaking hate sound, you know, and you're like, well, what do I do with that? You know, in this game they die if you blow the flute edit. Now I just cracked up because it's like, finally we get to kill a poll's voice with sound. But I, I, I haven't gotten to the tower level so far. All the, all the dungeons that I, I've gone through, I've really enjoyed, like, really enjoyed it. The bosses I, and every, every dungeon has at least one mini boss to it. That gives you a little warp point too, which is nice. But, um, all the bosses I really liked, I watched the let's Play of the Tower and I was just sitting there just, I, I don't understand how you functionally can figure this out. It's, you know, it's that one dungeon in every Zelda game that it's just like they're on point, but then they get. Give one dungeon to the new guy who makes it too big and they're just like whatever ship it. And that seems to be that dungeon it. I, I'm, I'm. I'm definitely gonna have to have a guide going through that because I, it's like. It's like the ice cavern in, in Link to the Past. I spent like three days in that thing trying to figure out how to get to the bottom, you know, and I don't got time for that anymore, so I'm gonna use a guide on that one.

But yeah, the, the Eagle Tower, it. That was where I stalled out for the longest time and was literally using a guide. I finished it in like 15 minutes and I'd probably spent easily three or four times that like trying to just natively figure it out. And the, the, the problem is like, there's a lot of verticality in that level. And so the primary tenant is there's four pillars that are supporting the, the upper level that you need to knock all four of those pillars down, but in order to get to them, it's almost like a puzzle to get to the four pillars. And so. And there are parts where you have to drop down and then like. And it's just, it's. It's really pretty obtuse.

Like.

And that's probably the, the biggest weakness I saw. Like, and, and I don't know if you guys had talked about this, but actually I really. That that boss fight is probably my favorite boss fight in the game. Even though it's not really that hard because this. One of the things that Link's awakening does is it actually switches perspective. So instead of that top down, there are sequences where it becomes almost side scrolling.

Yeah.

And I think that's, that's brilliant and just really charming. And the way that like even like using the hook shot in, in some of those like, like sequences is. Yeah. It sort of re. Contextualizes some of the tools and everything else and, and the ways that you use them. But like, yeah, I, I actually love the fight for Eagle Tower. I hate that level. I hate it with like the burning passion of a thousand suns. And it is, it's. It's kind of like what you said though, Paul. Like every Zelda game has at least one temple or one dungeon or one like, area like Link Ocarina of Time. It's the water temple. Everybody knows it's just, it's just bad. It's just like, it's obtuse and it's kind of nonsensical and it just like, it's just one of those like where it's like. Yeah, like Everything else is like kind of a nine, but you guys just drop the ball here. And I think, like, it's just one of those things where. Yeah. Without a guide. I have to give props to people who figured out. But, like, I don't have time for that. That, like, ain't nobody got time for that. Yeah.

I, I did warn you that I was going to use this pun, but there's several sequences where it goes side scrolling. But the first boss you fight in that side view is the angler fish.

And.

And it. It. As I was typing out that I just bought Beat the Angler Fish, I realized, like, oh, they changed the camera angle on the angler fish. That's. That's pretty brilliant. Japan. And I doubt that was on purpose, but that was pretty great. And Nate just from Pennsylvania appeared at my door and hit me.

You know what we need? We need somebody to do the AI slop thing where I just kick in your door and like, run up and just like, punch you in the head.

Josh, you have the COVID for this episode.

I like it.

Yeah. The only other thing I want to mention besides the ultimate plot is just how good this game feels like playing it. And this is the thing I loved about Zelda too, is once you have the. Your abilities and sword fighting, actually dueling with enemies feels good. It feels good. This game feels. Feels good when you're. You're running around and. And you have to use different techniques to get through different enemies. You know, you have that one night guy that you actually have to block with his shield before you can hit him, unless you're coming up from behind and stuff. And having that, having that shield on. On the. On the right. On the right clicker button was so good. And this is one of the reasons I'd love to see them do link to the past in this. In this. It's. It. It was just a lot of fun running around the world, you know, killing off enemies, running through the grass and just, you know, very responsive and enjoyable to play. And so I, I was having a blast doing just moving around the world.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I will say also, I mean, I'm certainly a lot of it is nostalgia. I love the soundtrack to this game.

Oh, the soundtrack's great. I should mention that. The soundtrack's wonderful.

Yeah, yeah. It still has some of your traditional kind of Zelda themes in it. Again, because it was my first Zelda ever. This is kind of my. Where my brain goes for these. These certain, you know, melodies. So even the original Zelda, like, sounds like oh, it's doing its version of it, you know, in a number of different ways, but. But I love. I. Again, my mind goes to that original Game Boy version. Even the sound effects just all feel great. And I know a lot of that is because that's my first interaction with them, but that. Yeah, I love it. I love the way this game feels and sounds and looks and it's beautiful.

Absolutely.

All right, well, I don't know that there's too much to spoil, but we can talk spoilers and. Or if you want to jump into. I don't. I don't know. You said. You said story. Or. I don't know. I don't know that there's too much more to cover except that going into spoilers so that we can talk a little bit about where the game ultimately ends up. Is there anything we want to talk about before we go there? All right, all right.

Turn off the podcast, people. We're going to spoilers.

Play the game, because you're about to get spoiled. Okay, that's. That's enough of that. That's enough of that. Okay, so the whole game is a dream. It was a dream the whole time. It was never real.

Okay.

Link just got struck by lightning. He's out on in the water the whole time. He made all this crap up. None of it's real.

No, I reject your comments.

But also, he looks up to the sun. There's a freaking whale. Right. Well, with tiny little wings.

It's a magic wind whale. Windfish.

Wind fish.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I do think, like, it's. It's one of those things where, like. Yeah. Just to actually talk about, like, the story beats is so, like, you get through everything. And I'm glad that you guys brought up the fact, like, Josh, that you brought up the fact that, like, yes. You actually have to do the trading mini game to completion because you need the magnifying glass or the lens or whatever so that you can read the forbidden book. To read the forbidden book. That will give you the sequence. And for the switch version of the game, that sequence is like. It's unique to every playthrough.

So. Yeah.

Which I think is pretty cool. So you can't just, like, sort of like.

Yeah.

Skip out and be cheesy.

It's.

Yeah. But you get. You, like, you finally, you. You get through all the temples, you get through all the dungeons, you get all the instruments. You go. You play Marin's song in front of the egg, and it opens up to this sort of like the. The sequence, like, the, the. The. The mysterious or the magical forest sequences where it's like you get into that. Which is a staple of every. With the. A staple of every Zelda game where it's like you get into that. Where it's like if you don't know the, the ways that you need to turn. It's going to just repeat. You're just going to go back to the same. Yeah. The same screen over and over again once you get into the Windfish's egg. And so it's like even there, it's sort of like it's going back and it's hom. Homage to. There's almost. There's a sequence like that in the original Legend of Zelda. There's a sequence in a Link to the past. It's like that. I don't know about. Is there one. Is there one in Link's. Link's Adventure where like you have like.

That's what I remember.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't remember either.

It's been a long time, but I

don't remember Lost Woods.

Yeah. So like I. I thought that was kind of cool. But. But yeah, you get down there and then you get sort of a. Sort of a boss rush mode. And that's when you get like the form of Ganon. You. You play through. You get Moldorm. There's a weird bouncing blob thing, you know, and each one of them has like attack patterns. And then once you figure that out, you use the appropriate item and it's like, oh, it's not that hard. But yeah, you sort of ascend this. This. Once you defeat all the enemies, you ascend this platform and you go to the very top and you talk to the wind fish, which is this weird. Yeah, dude. It's a real. It's real dumb looking. It's real, real dumb.

It scared me as a kid because it's this massive sprite on the Game Boy and it's. I mean it's a. Whales look intimidating, you know. So.

Yeah, it's like. It's like a flying blue whale, but it's got lots of weird gems and like mandalas on it and it's. Yeah, it's. It's a little freakish looking. Like it's. It's. It's actually kind of like nightmare. I like irl. If I were to see that thing, like I wouldn't sleep for a while.

Yeah.

But you wake it up and you wake. And I think this is like the bittersweet point. Like you wake it up, the island disappears. Now I did read somewhere that if you can beat the game without dying, Marin will turn into a seagull and fly off the island. And like, you'll actually get like a, like, you can see her face. It'll show you.

You see her face at the end.

Yeah.

And at hd, Bailey clouds play through.

He.

He does that.

Yeah.

I, I think I'm already mad.

I, I died four times in my playthrough.

So, yeah, okay, I, I think I've died once. But,

so, yeah, there's, but she, she's encouraging you, like, this is the, like the bittersweet part. She's encouraging you to press on, even though I think she knows what it will lead to.

Yeah.

And this is where I was going to. I was going to ask y' all to help me out because I, I was, I was running out of time today. Day. I, I, I, I think I told y' all off camera, like, I didn't sleep at all last night. I had all I had today off. I had my thing planned that I was gonna, you know, try to get this far and then finish it off with a let's play. And then I fell asleep for three hours. And so I was, I was, I was burning through that let's play at two times speed. But she, like, do I understand it right? She tries to go to the wind fish herself.

Well, that's point. She's. She's always singing the song. Yeah. I, I think there is a sequence, if I remember right, there's a sequence where, like, she's up at the egg.

Yeah. And that's how she gets into the mountains where you have to save her.

Oh, okay.

But, yeah, but there's definitely a sense that she, she knows what's going to happen and encourages you anyways. And it's, it does. It puts that kind of melancholy tone on the whole thing where all the other Zelda games, it's like, yes, you're beating up all these people because they're evil. And this one, it's like, you know, you're beating up these people so that you can wake up in the middle of the ocean and probably die anyways. And, um, and, and this is why, like, the connection to the townspeople in particular Marin. But, but everybody in town is so important, you know, Kakariko Village and linked to the past. Some of the townspeople have a little bit of personality. You don't really get to know any of them. But, but here it. Because. Because there's so much personality there that, you know, it's does put this, like, this Whole tent to the end of.

Of.

Okay. Yeah. I'm. I. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be somewhere else. But at the same time, if I go, it all goes away.

Well.

And. Yeah. And just for clarity. Yeah. After you complete eagle tower, Marin is found in the broken bridge in Tao Tao Height heights. Tao Tao Heights. Kidnapped by the owl, the owl reveals that Marin had tried to awaken the wind fish by singing the ballad of the wind fish in front of the giant egg on Mount Tamaranch. So. Yeah.

Yeah, but.

And I think that's. That's kind of one of those things that, like, you know, just. I don't think there's a ton of, like, really profound depth. But actually, one of the things that's really admirable about Marin is that she knows that there's, like, a greater reality, a greater world beyond the.

The.

The dream of the wind fish. And she's, you know, she's pushing Link to sort of, like, do the right thing ultimately. And that's. That's actually really endearing. You know, you don't think about that. It's like. That's gonna. It's gonna be the destruction of all that she knows, all that she loves. But she knows, like, there's a part where it's like. Like she actually recognizes that it is the greater reality. Now she has a wish, you know, to. To see the world outside of her island. And again, if. If, you know, if you beat the game without dying, it is kind of implied that she does sort of escape again. What I read was that she turns into a seagull and escapes the island, you know, so.

Yeah.

Yeah. I. I don't recall that it was ever. You don't see, like, a metamorphosis happening. I just.

Right.

What I remember is that you see the seagulls, and then you see her, like, reflected in the sky. And so it. It is. It is pretty. It's heavily implied. I mean, that's what you pick up on is the fact that. Oh, okay, she is a seagull now. Yeah. And also, to be clear. Well, if you're listening to this and you've had us spoiled and we told you to go play the game. Well, I'm sorry. Because I'm sorry that you are the way that you are. Because that said, I do want to make it clear that I was just kidding when I said, oh, it's all. You know, it's all that. It's nothing. It's not real. You know, it's fake. You wake up and that's what Link's awakening is. You wake up because a dream like the.

The confirmation is that when Link's back in reality, his raft or his boat is all shipwrecked, and he's sort of sitting there bobbing along in the ocean. I don't know what he's waiting for, but then a shadow passes over him and there is the windfish irl.

Yeah.

And he's terrified.

Right, right.

Nightmare fuel.

Yeah. Yeah, because it's nightmare fuel. You know, when the movie, you know, pans from the sky and it looks down and you see, you know, the creature, the, you know, the black kind of shadow underneath the boat, kind of a deal with a huge whale. And this is like that, except, oh, the whale's in the sky instead.

And it looks like, you know, with. With tiny, tiny little wings and looks like, you know, he's been hanging out at Sedona for a while.

He just got back from burning crystals.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Man, oh, man. But, yeah, so I do. I actually do really like this ending. Yeah, it does confirm that. The surreal nature of the game, of your adventure. Throughout the game, it was surreal because it was a dream. Now, it was a dream in which it wasn't necessarily your dream, but you were participating within the dream earlier. I can't remember who said it, but kind of. It was mentioned that, you know, in. In fulfilling this quest that you're. You'll end it. It ends with the destruction of the world. I wouldn't use the word destruction. Actually, you do see in the ending cutscene, if the world fades away, so it does kind of. It dissipates. I don't know that it's Doesn't. I don't know. Destruction feels like a word that, you know, things are being torn apart. Whereas I think actually what was mentioned was that there is a more real world than that, than the dream world. You know, there is a reality to which the characters like Marin, actually find to be more compelling than this dream that. That you've been experiencing the whole life that the. Again, I mentioned earlier, the bosses throughout this game are saying, no, no, no, we want to hold on to this dream. Don't you know that, you know, all of the inhabitants are going to vanish as soon as the wind fish wakes up. So they're holding on to what they, you know, want to be true over and against the reality of the world outside of the dream. So, yeah, I suppose I. I hadn't thought about it too deeply. I guess that does have a pretty deep implications because Again, I think this is kind of a personal story that's being told. So. So not to stretch it too far, but I do think that that's important. You know, I think that that theme is important to strive for reality, even when it goes against what you want to be true. Right. And that's. That's also, you know, again, not balanced. But you also have Marin, who. Who wants to. You know, she wishes that she could see what this reality is. Eventually, she does become a part of it in the form of a seed. So it is melancholy because it does mean that this world that you've spent so much time in was never really real. It was dream. It was a dream that you were all trapped in. So there is that melancholy. But I think it ends on quite a hopeful note, because even if it wasn't as real as reality is, the experience that you had there was real in the sense that, oh, the wind fish actually exists, you know, and then again, Merrin becomes this. This seagull. And so there are real consequences, I suppose, that come out of this, and. And Link really was needed to end this dream and to provide freedom, at least for the wind fish and Marin, you know, so.

So I love it. Yeah. Which is a theme that's picked up on in a certain JRPG that I don't want to spoil on the screen, but that we were talking about, you know, talking about earlier, that I liked it more than y', all, but. Yeah, no, like, there's. I. I think there is something like that you could really sink your teeth into here, which. It was one of the things that surprised me about this game. It's an ambiguous ending that definitely has that melancholy strain, the strain of hope into it at the same time that I just think was extremely well executed. And the way they got you to care about these people in. In a fairly, you know, compact space, that. That. The. The ending really packs a punch.

Yeah.

You know, you compare it to, like, Mario's dream game, Mario 2. Right. Which. That was just a dumb ending. It was awful.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, nuts and bolts on paper, it's the same. Oh, he wakes up okay.

Yeah.

Or what? Or does he go back to sleep? I don't know.

He goes back to sleep.

Yes. It's been. It's been too long since I've actually beaten that game. Yeah. It's a. It's a fun game, don't get me wrong. But, you know, story is never Mario's strong suit anyway. And to be fair, story, like you mentioned early in this episode, is never really the strong suit of Zelda either. I would say maybe, maybe some of the more recent ones have some better.

Yeah. But I, I mean from, from that era, like, you know, I, I, I, I adore a link to the past. It's, you know, you, you get, you got some plot with Aganim there. You got.

Yeah. Twist.

Which by the way, by the way, in the final battle ago appears as well.

Yes.

Which, which, which I do think like,

yeah,

this is my conspiracy theory. A lot of this dream is being drawn from Link's mind.

Absolutely.

I think the structure of the world is being drawn from him. Ganon and Aganim are being drawn. Moldorm is being drawn from him. It makes me wonder like is if, if you know of Marin is of, of sufficient enough character that is being drawn from her too. And which, which is it makes it really interesting. And yeah. And obviously the Windfish had played NES because a lot of being drawn from Kirby, which apparently Winfish did not like that game.

Yeah, that's true.

And Mario and stuff. But it's, Yeah, I, I, yeah, I think there's it, it doesn't have it, it's far more character driven than it is plot driven. It, the plot is much like a regular Zelda game. You know that. Hey, I gotta get into this dungeon. I need a thing to get into the dungeon so I can beat the dungeon. You know, where do I find that? Who do. What do I have to give that person for that type of type thing which is not plot. It's just, you know, fetching stuff. But, but the care, you know, the characters are where are really where they put their effort. And it's, it's very effective.

Yeah. Yeah. I think if, if Sigmund Freud lived another, you know, like 60 years, he'd have a heck of a time with this game. Sometimes a whale is just a whale.

So the other, the other, I guess games that this particular Link appears in is the Oracles games. And so.

Okay.

I really, really hope that Link finds a girlfriend in those. I haven't played them. Maybe he finds a girl in those games that's not his sister or dream and that would make me happy.

I played of those. I can't remember, but let me check my Magic 8 ball. Not likely.

Poor Link.

Dude, Link is, is, is Link actually like the Peter Parker of his universe where it's like Nintendo's like, Link just will never really be allowed to be happy.

Well, okay. Okay. Yeah, I was, I was gonna say if you're, if you're going by that, like, Mario fits that bill as well. How many times has he saved Princess Peach? And they're not really together. They're sort of, I don't know, off on again, off again. Sort of a weird thing going on there, but. But he does seem like a really happy guy, so, you know, got his doctorate and everything.

Can I tell you how angry I got? I. I didn't play Odyssey, Mario Odyssey. I. I've pretty much watched all of it because I was watching all the. The streams when it came out and stuff. The ending of that game made me so mad because I. For the first time, like, I've always felt bad about Mario, but for the first time, I really wanted to sit him down as, like, mario, just go do something else. She's leading you on. She's kind of a jerk. Just. Just go on your way. Find somebody else. Yeah, it was. It was making me angry. So, yeah, I don't know why that was the game that set me off. But, you know, it's the 15th time Mario saved her, and he's like, okay, it's been like. It's been like a lot of times we need to get married. And she's like, I don't know. I just want to be by myself right now. It's like, Mario, you've been friend zoned for literally 40 years. It's time to take a hint.

Yeah.

Go your own way. Become a passport, bro. Like, head off to Asia somewhere. Just start a plumbing business there. You'll do great.

Yeah. Plumbers are always needed. That's for sure.

Exactly. They don't need saving all the time. You're not gonna get, you know, attacked by everything in the world again. Live a nice, quiet life.

Well, awesome. Well, I don't have anything else to bring up about Link's Awakening. I do have a final question, and then if you guys have anything to bring up afterwards, that's fine. But I'm curious. What. How far this game. How high this game ranks for you in terms of Zelda games? Because you guys are newer to. Whether it's newer to playing it, whether it's newer to beating it. You know, I've already said it's one of my top games of all time. You know, I do think Breath of the Wild, for absolutely different reasons, is higher on my list than Link's Awakening. However, Link's Awakening is, I think. I mean, I think it's a stellar game. I think it's 10 out of 10. So it's. It is top Zelda for me outside of Breath of The Wild. So how about you guys? Where do you think it ranks in the pantheon of Zelda?

I. This is my fifth Zelda game. And. And so that skews it a little bit.

Sure. Yeah. Top five, for sure.

It's definitely in the top five. Even the game I don't like is in the top five.

Which one's the one you don't like?

Ocarina. I hate it. I hate it.

Oh, man. Hate it. That would be a good conversation. But, yeah, I know you're not big on 3D games in general.

3D games in general. But it's just, to me, and I didn't get very far in Ocarina to, you know, straight up, I did not get very far. But Ocarina does to me. It. It, it felt to me, and, And I did not play it at the time. This is part of why I don't like it. You know, I have zero nostalgia for this game. I played it only a few years ago and was. It was the exact opposite of this. It was wide open spaces with nothing, nothing, nothing.

Okay. Yeah.

And it was just like, okay, I'm getting tired of just going, you know, and, and I, I, I like the personality of everything, you know, of, of this whole world. I like, you know, like, like I said before, every screen, there's something going on. And I did. I just didn't. It was, it wasn't happening with Ocarina, but I know, I know everybody's typing out bad reviews for your podcast right now. That punk Paul, he doesn't even. He's not even on the podcast very much, but he's such a jerk. But I love Zelda 2. I love Link to the Past. I love this game. And I think Link to the Past edges. Edges them out, but it's up there. I, I had an absolute blast with this game.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I'm gonna make a point of clarification, actually, because I went and just checked because even after I was talking, I was like, wait a second, is it. I went and checked on my top 10 list that I have published, and actually, Link's Awakening is higher than Breath of the Wild. It's a couple spaces higher. I was like, yeah, because that's why I did that bite size Breath of the Wild before I talked about this. So, yeah, this is my favorite song. Nice. Officially. Officially my favorite.

We do have Breath of the Wild, and I might play it eventually. I bought it for my son.

Yeah.

But I, I'd like to dip into it because I, I, that's another one that I watched on Stream a lot.

Okay.

And. And I just. There's a sense of wonder and adventure in that game that is very appealing to me.

Okay. Yeah. Because it is for totally different reasons that I like. I mean, the reason that this is my favorite Zelda game is I talked about Scope earlier. I think it's just. It perfectly encapsulates everything. It's not too big, it's not too small. It's super dense, like we talked about. It's. Yeah. It's emotional while also being really goofy. You know, it doesn't. At times, it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, but rides that balance to where it does. There are moments of.

Of.

Yeah. Seriousness. Like. Yeah, it's. It's great.

Yeah. I don't know, man. It's.

It. Oh, he really didn't care. Ask you a question and just leaves.

That was weird.

Can y' all still hear me?

Because that's normally when I get kicked off.

Yeah.

Ask me a question and then you just dip out.

Yeah. Right.

Well, I think. I think it actually has to do with storage on my computer, which is awesome.

I don't know. I. I liked it. It's probably. It. It's. I don't know. It might be my favorite 2D Zelda, so that puts it in, like, top five space. But it's. I don't know. I pre. Like my favorite 2D. My favorite Zelda is. Is Wind Waker, and I just don't see anything dethroning that anytime soon because that's.

That's the goat.

Wind Waker is one of the ones that I'd like to play. Like, I obviously haven't played a lot of Zelda games. I've watched through most of them, but Wind Waker. Wind Waker, to me. To me, has that same kind of feel of wonder that Breath of the Wild feels like to me when I watch it. So it is. It is one that I'd like to play.

The. One of the things I like about Wind Waker is, like, it's.

The.

The wide open spaces on the. The water is. A lot of people don't like it because there's a lot of back and forth, and it's. It's kind of tedious, but I actually kind of think it gives it sort of a very lonely vibe. And so the. The theme is, like, I like a little bit of sad in my game sometimes like this. That's a. There. There's a theme emerging here, people. But, yeah, no, I'd probably put it, like, top five I'd have to really think about it because like OG Legend of Zelda is pretty. Like that's a pretty foundational game for me. Me. So it's like. Even though I think this is a better game than that in a lot of ways, like, it's like there's. You've got the nostalgia thing there, but. Yeah. And yeah, Paul, Well, I, I agree with you that I think now Ocarina Time is really hard to play. I think at the time I was gobsmacked by the game and I'm super stoked for, for that remake as well.

If I, Yeah, if I had played it then I think I would have a completely different opinion on it because first of all, then back then I would have had more time to wander about and take a look at things. But also back then we thought N64 was a good system and we thought that that crap look good. But it. It's that era, PS1 in 64 era that's tough. It's tough to go back to those.

It's tough. It's real bad. It's not good.

And I'm the retro guy. Like you know it, but it's that, you know that, that those first steps in the 3D were, were, were rocky. They were. They were rough.

They were real rough. But yeah. Anyways, we. I. It's. It's late and we've been there. There's been a lot of talk. No, no, we did pretty good for us.

I mean, it is late, I'm tired. But. But we did good for us.

We. I think it's outstanding landing, you know, but I think it is time to kind of just, you know, to. To just lean into the bit. It's time to start landing that plane, baby. So let's kind of dip into our closing forms here. So we have shout outs sort of that we'd like to sort of go out on. Do you have any shout outs, Josh?

Oh man, that's a good question. Do I have any shout outs? Who should I be shouting out? I'm trying to think of. Of even just.

How about your co host for putting up with your nonsense.

Yeah, thank you, Paul, for being here. I really appreciate that. All the time that you've been able to. To spend with us this time, both talking about this game, making the time for this game. You're a real one, Paul. Thanks for being here. Shout out to you.

Like that, I bet you think you're clever.

How about you? Do you have any shout outs?

Well, certainly not you. You know what? I'm gonna shout out Wes and. And again, it's just sort of like, I know that he did really want to be on this episode that link's awakening. He's. He's been a huge champion. He's been in, you know, my ear about it and Paul's ear about it for years. And so, yeah, just, yeah, just. Again, sort of just want to lift him up, up, you know, prayers, people. So. But, yeah, that, that's, that's my shout out. I would also, I think, just sort of looking at personal challenges sort of going through there. Just the update on mine. As I said, I was going to take getting counseling started pretty seriously. I've made the phone call to get things started. I haven't heard back from the guy that I had reached out to. So I don't know if I have, like, a number or something, but I need to follow up on that because, like, it's. It's time to sort of just like, yeah, pull the trigger on that, but.

Gotcha.

How about you, buddy?

Yeah, I. So my last challenge was to get better at tracking. Basically just lose some weight, you know, particularly for the summer that's coming up and stuff like that. I'd been putting on a few pounds. Pounds. I've been doing well overall. The, the needle hasn't moved too much in terms of actual weight, but I can definitely tell that my body has changed a bit. And so, you know, muscle weighs more than fat.

Well, you are getting to. To an age where, like, buddy, you're gonna start experiencing some changes.

It's. It's quite a bit more difficult. Yes. In my older age, that is, you

start growing hair different places, start being interested in girls.

On top of my head, it'll finally

start growing and out of your enemies.

Yeah, that's fun. That's fun. Yeah.

So I'm gonna jump in and add one because, you know, y' all don't get challenges for me very much, but, yeah, I, I've, like, I, I'm hugely fat. For anybody watching on the videos, don't be fooled by the COVID images that I specifically asked Job Josh to make me ripped in those. But that's not true.

That's not true.

But, but I, I, I'm trying to start getting in the habit of, of, of calorie counting.

Yeah.

And on. That's gone. Okay. I'm, I, I just forget a lot. You know, it's just like, there's so. Especially when the kids are here, there's so much going on that it's so, so far, that's going well, but, you know, I. I could definitely use prayer and just remembering to. To do it.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Awesome, man. Yeah, it's. It's. Yeah, yeah, it is. It is difficult. And then, yeah, if you want to go, you know, weighing your food and how. How, how exactly like, I. Deep.

This was. This was. Yeah, this was the. This was the thing with me. Like, I'm at a weight that any change is going to make a difference.

Right?

Yeah.

You know, once you get closer to your goal weight, that's when you, you know, you really have to focus down. Exactly. But, yeah, for me, it was just like, okay, if I can get started on this, then, you know, even if it. Even if I'm guessing on portions, if I could pull that calorie thing down, it's going to make a difference right away. And. And so, yeah, it's a.

It.

It's. It's helped so far. I've got. I've got a long way. It's a long way to go, but sure. Yeah. It's a long thousand miles. Begins with a single on a rock and roll.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's even a better phrase. Like, forget single thousand miles. We got.

Yeah, man. And so. So continuing challenges over the next month is I am going to be in Texas for a little bit. And so basically that I don't go crazy there, that I kind of keep up with at least making some healthier decisions while I'm there and not just going to. Obviously it's vacation. I'm gonna eat more than I normally eat. But. Yeah, not too crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah. Cool. Yeah.

I don't need to. I don't need to grow anymore. I'm. I'm good. I'm good.

You're done. Okay.

I'm done. I just. The way I am sort of, like, looking ahead, like, just. It's. It's. It's something that, like, I. And I think we've had, like, conversations about it, but, like, I'm just based off of a conversation I actually had today. I'm. I'm thinking about, like, I want to sort of sit down and reevaluate my position on the Savage with. What does it mean? What does it look like? Okay, what. How. And I. It's sort of. Especially as far as, like, even, like, gaming. Like, how do we use it? Because, like, I. I actually do make a case that I. I think there's. That we can. That we can play video games on the Sabbath. Like, it. That it can be part of immature Christian, like, rhythm of rest, but, you know, Paul, you and I are Presbyterians. I subscribe as an officer in the church. I subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and I wrestle with some of the WCF's Sabbath language. Like. And so, so anyways, just like, I've just been kind of challenged to think through that recently based off a discussion and just like, what does that mean? What does that look like? And yeah, I have some thoughts. But yeah, so it's just like, it's. It's something that I. I honestly think that it's one of those things and I would challenge other people to like, if you haven't thought about what it means to observe the Sabbath, you probably ought to like, you know, like, I can't. I. I think we have to be really careful there because I think there are things that for some people, they. They're like, yeah, like. I'll just give you an example. It's like, for me, it's really important Saturday night to go to bed at a decent time so that I wake up the next morning, like, ready to go. Like, like, ready to be at church and not be tired and to. To sort of, you know, sit attentively under the word administration. And so it's like, for me, it's. It's not a hard and fast rule, but I'm like. I'm in bed, like, at a pretty, like, typically early, like, much earlier than, like, right now.

Well, yeah, I would hope so.

I would like. But I. I am a night owl, so I like to stay up.

Gotcha.

Even if I am sort of fading at this point in time. But it's like, But I know that, like, I, like, even when I talk to people about that, it's like, well, you know, like, hey, like, if you can go to bed late and sort of like, still sort of like, be fully engaged in the corporate worship service, that's fine. And it's like. And I don't think, like, hey, if you go to bed too late and you, you come into church sleepy, I. I'm not going to be like, oh, you're sinning. But I'm like, at the very least, I think you're like, you're. You're depriving yourself. And.

Yeah.

Yeah, we just. Yeah, I think, like I said. Go ahead, Paul.

Oh, I was gonna say that. I mean that that is a really great habit to get into and that. That's one that I. I wrestle with as well. Just because, you know, some of you know this, like, I. I live in a very small town. There is not a PCA Church here. There is not any conservative Reformed church here. The closest one is an hour away. And, and so we drive an hour, which it's, it's three through. We count horses on the way. It's through country land. It's beautiful. It's, it's never, it's never a problem. We, we have a game. We take a different route to church and coming back home and we, we guess which one, which route is going to have more horses because they're close to each other for, you know, the regular horses. And, but you know, Saturday is like, you know, my normal D and D night because it's the only time my friends can get together for that. And especially once Sunday school starts again in the fall, I'm going to have to get to church and yet an hour earlier for bad practice. And, and yeah, if there's, you know, there's, it's a great habit to get into if, if you, if you're, I assume you're like me, like on a normal Saturday night I'd, I'd be up playing video games and doing something, listening to podcasts and watching a video and then all of a sudden it's midnight and it's. I probably should have been in bed already, but to get, to get to bed early so that you're ready for worship is fantastic habit. If you can do it. It.

Yeah, yeah, well, and, and like, even like, yeah, I, I'm going to teach Sunday school for the first couple of quarters, you know, so that means like, I'm going to have to be there at 9:30, you know, versus my normal 10:45, you know, when I, I slide in for the service, you know, maybe Byron, Byron will probably sort of be at an age where maybe we can put them in some of the Sunday schools in this coming quarter. Anyways, I'm just thinking out loud there, but yeah, it's like, yeah, I need to. That means like I've got to be up because like, also like, you need to give yourself appropriate time. And so that means like, hey, I can't be getting up at like 9 and sort of like running out the door at like 20 hours. It's like I have to be up by 8, 7 o', clock, whatever, you know, and to give myself adequate time. Time because, you know, but yeah, anyways, yeah, so that's, that's, that's my challenge is that I'm going to just sort of. And like I said, just even sort of, you know, I, you know, not hold any of the, the, the sacred cows. Sacred and Just say, like, what? You know what. What does the Sabbath demand of me? Like, no. So. But all that being said, so, guys, I think we're. We're pretty much going to land the plane here at this point in time. But before we go, like so many other podcasts out there, we do have a Patreon. And in some ways, you can think of it as a tip jar, or you can look at it as a way to partner with us as we sort of seek to build out this. This platform, you know, as we sort of endeavor to encourage and equip the church to play wisely and well. But that for as little as a buck a month, you get early and uncut access to each and every episode. You get access to the bro hang, which is. We were kind of behind a little bit on that. We'll get caught up maybe someday, not tonight, because, boy howdy, we are running on vapors at this point in time. But it tends to be a little more conversational, a little free form. It's kind of whatever. Sometimes we talk about games, sometimes we, I don't know, make fart jokes, and sometimes we talk about real things that are serious and heavy. It's. It's a mixed bag. It's kind of like Mexican candy. You got some wild flavors up in there. But also our Patreon, our patrons get special roles in our discord, which gives them a little bit more access to us. And our patrons actually help us shape the future of the podcast us with. With game nominations and topic recommendations. And actually, tonight we covered one of those games. Paul is a patron. He nominated Link's Awakening, and it got through the voting, and so that's why we're here tonight. So if any of that sounds interesting or, and, or compelling, we'd love to have you join us. And Josh, where can they find that information?

Yeah, we are all over the Internet, but you can find specific links to the places where we are on the Internet on our link tree. That's just linktree.com thebacklog breakdown.

Paul, do you want to plug anything before we go here? Like any socials or any of that stuff or.

Not really. If, if you want to follow Dragon Lance podcast, that'd be great.

We're.

We're coming. We're. We're. We're finishing up. So. So. And I'm still editing through the old. The. The remaining adventures from our Star Trek podcast. So once I finish Dragon Lance, I should be able to finish up Trek or Wars. Star Wars, Sorry.

Star wars, dude. I was, I was about to, like, throw down and be like, what kind of, like, filthy nerd nonsense is this?

We tried to like, the. The same. We were gonna. We were gonna do a season two of it, and in between the seasons, we were gonna play Star Trek Adventures, a couple of sessions of Star Trek Adventures, just. Just for fun. And yeah, it didn't take.

I can't imagine as good,

But, yeah, Dragonlance, Storms of Wars currently. And as we get closer to trying LRT and Gates again, yeah, the. That book is available. The. The Quick Start guide is available with adventures in it. But once we get closer to trying to. Trying to do the launch again, we'll let y' all know.

Sounds good, man. But. Well, we've done our thing, boys. And again, for us, I think we did pretty a. Okay, but until next time. Josh, what should they do, guys?

Keep beating down your backlogs and we'll keep breaking down the benefits.

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How would you look for something that's imaginary?

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