176: Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin

Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Backlog Breakdown, a video game podcast where we seek to encourage and equip the church to engage in the medium of video games wisely and responsibly. Should I sound kind of npr? And responsibly. Anyways, I'm your host, Josh, and with me today, yeah, I've got my co host. You hear him there, Nate? And my. He's also my brother in Christ. Nate. Hey, it's.

It's me, Nate.

Yeah. You are here, Nate. Are you ready to ruin some rice?

Oh, oh, yes, yes, let's. I will eat that rice. I will put it. Yeah, I will eat all that rice you got ruined.

Not so heavenly Goon get ruined.

But I was just like Megan actually pointed out to me. I said. I said it's Sumi Nate. Like, But Mario in Mario 64 doesn't say it's a me Mario. He says it'sumi Mario. Which I think it's. I believe interesting means super.

Really?

I'm gonna. I'm gonna.

I'm gonna. Google is an interesting twist, just to.

Double check, because I'd hate to be an idiot without Itsumi. Yes. Itsumi.

I don't know, man. Because it's an English voice actor. It's not someone like. There's not a separate Japanese Mario voice, is there? Not that I know of. I'm pretty sure it was whatchamacallit.

It does not mean super.

It doesn't even mean super. Oh, debunked. Thank you, Snopes.

Yeah, what's it actually is? Snopes.

Oh, really? Oh, my gosh. And Snopes is false. I guess it's real life. Well, I'm glad they had their factory.

But no, Itsumi means something else entirely. So, of course, like, it's all like Reddit and everything, but. Yeah, Snopes is saying Nintendo's website always referred to the catchphrase as it's a me Mario. No, as it's Sumi Mario. Which is why we. Yeah, so I was wrong. Snope set us. Set us straight.

Don't worry, you'll always be Super Nate to me.

I'll always be.

If that's. If that's even your real name.

If that's really what it means. It's me, Nate.

Anyways. Anyways, how have you been since. Since we last had our little chat?

You said that wrong. I think you really want to know how it's been. It's been. Yes, that since we last talked. We had illness. Just sort of like roll through the McKeever household. Like, dude, it was like, dude, it feels like it's been like basically a month of us just kind of dealing with various illnesses, but we are kind of in a, in a place where it does feel like. It does feel like we're, we're.

On.

On the upswing. Like we're on sort of an upwards trajectory. So. Yeah, but excuse me. That was all that water.

Delicious. That's what that was.

I don't know about that. But yeah, we're kind of, we're kind of in recovery. Like, you know, I think we're, we all, we're all feeling like, better as a general rule. But yeah, it's been kind of, I don't know, like, dude, just at work. It's been pretty crazy.

Yeah. Yeah.

The other week, President Carter's like, we had the national day of mourning and so the non essential parts of the federal government shut down.

Oh, okay.

That includes the post office. And then like that follow like the, the. That following Friday was a nightmare. I think I, I worked like literally worked till 6:00. Oh yeah, it's. And it was, it was super heavy. It was not a good day. It's just been like lots of mail. Lots of mail lately and. Which is un. Is not common for this time of year. Like normally, like things. Things sort of like have died off a little bit, but whatever. I mean, I, I don't like being this busy, but it's better than not being employed, I guess.

Yeah, I guess there's that, you know.

But yeah, things are. Things are okay. Like, I have. There's. There's some stuff that I need to get put together. Like there's some, some just patron stuff that I need to get on and, and sort of get, you know, boxed up and all that. Like not. Or I need to order some things and then I need to box some other things up and I need to send some stuff out.

Yeah. So you hear that patrons? He's coming for you.

I'm coming.

So look out like, yeah, Super Nate. He's on his way.

It's suing eight. But yeah, it's. It's kind of just. It's been, it's been a couple of weeks. So. Yeah, it's not been good or bad or anything. It's just kind of been whatever. Like just.

Yeah, life, you know how it goes. It's got its ups, it's got its downs and yeah, everything in between. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. Like, so you guys just came back not too long ago from your, your Texas trip. Hey, it Sounded like you guys had. You did tell me that you smoked a. An Alec Bradley Magic toast.

Magic toast? Yes, sir, I did. And. And you know, funny enough, I brought a bunch of cigars probably. Was it. No, not quite a dozen, but anyways, I only smoked once while I was there and it was with a buddy of mine. We just got together and we were hanging out just at a park with families, with the kids and we were. We were walking around. So we're walking in the woods, smoking our cigars and had a good time with that. Yeah, I think.

You weren't walking by any eucalyptus trees, were you?

No, I'm not sure.

You didn't read this? So apparently. Oh, portrait. Portrait. Somebody shared this in the one the Discord chat with Porcho.

Okay.

It might have been Paul, but like a lot of the trees in California I think are supposed to be like, eucalyptus. And there's a thing is like eucalyptus, like, apparently takes like a really long time to mature. And then when it is mature, like it's secret oil that is highly flammable.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was just thinking like, yeah, you're just walking around in Texas and you light a. You just. Eucalyptus tree ablaze.

Okay. So here's the funny thing though, is. Is when we left to come back. So sorry, just to say, Texas trip was awesome. Holiday trip, spent tons of time with family, got to hang out. Yeah. Brothers, sisters, nieces, even my cousin for a little. Little while. Great time. It was. It was probably a bit too. You know how you, towards the end of a trip like that, you kind of start feeling like, okay, I kind of want to get back into the swing of things. Like, I want life to kind of go back to normal. And that's. That's kind of how it was. But that's not to say that I didn't enjoy any of it. Like, I enjoyed everything. It was awesome. Treated my parents to sushi. They loved it, which was crazy. I didn't quite expect that. Anyways, great time. But on the way back, funny enough is that it actually started, there was ice. There was an ice storm that. That rolled through North Texas. We missed it by a day. So, like, we. We drove through Texas, in Oklahoma and northern Oklahoma the first day that we were driving back up and in the next morning, like overnight, it was supposed to. The ice was supposed to come in, so even through some of southern and I think the middle of Oklahoma as well, so we just missed some ice. Whereas, like on the Weather channel tv, that's on in the place we're having lunch the next day in Missouri that it's just showing all the fires in California, and my sister's in California in that area. So, you know, it's just crazy, like, the difference. And then we come back here to Iowa, and it's not that bad. Like, as soon as we crossed from Missouri to Iowa, like, there was hardly any snow on the ground, and literally, like, it was overcast the whole drive through Missouri, but, like, then the sky kind of opened up, and. And the sun was already behind us, so it's not like it was super bright or anything, but you could see the sky, and it was just really funny. It's like, oh, yeah. As soon as we passed over to Iowa, like, everything's beautiful, and in the snow is beautiful in its own way. But anyways. Yeah. So we've had a great time. Unfortunately, as soon as we got back, I started getting a little tickle in my throat, and I ended up getting sick. So I might sound a little off in this recording, but a little more nasally than I usually do. But I feel so much better than I did, like, two days ago. Unfortunately, now the rest of the family seems to have gotten what I got, so that's fun, but. But I'm happy to have bounced back pretty quickly this time around, so we're doing good.

So you guys don't really have a lot of snow out there right now.

No, it did snow twice while we were in Texas. It snowed twice, but it was only like, 2 inches each time, so. So there's like.

Yeah.

Tiny patches around, but hardly anything.

It's. It's. That's kind of. That's so funny to me because, like, we had basically a week where it just, like, snowed, like, just, like, all day, like, and it wasn't, like, pounding down.

Yeah.

But we probably have a. In some places, like. And I think they. Like, today, it warmed up a little bit, and I think there was, like, a little bit of, like, you know, some melting, but it was, like, in some spots, like, foot. Foot and a half. Pretty easily.

Okay.

Like, sitting on the ground.

Wow. Yeah.

And it was like, you know, it was like one of those things were very quickly, like, I'm like, I'm done with snow. Because it very quickly, like, went from the. Like, oh, it's so pretty. And, you know, it's like.

Yeah.

And it's like. It's just like these heaps of slop and brown filth up on the side of the road, and I'm like, I hate this. I hate this.

Oh, man. Yes. No, The. The. The Lord has been good to us, and we have not seen any of that so far. It's. Yeah, it's been. It's been pretty mild.

I can respect that. Yeah, that's. That's nice. Yeah, it's. And it's not like. It's not, like, awful like we're supposed to get. It's supposed to get cold here the next couple of days, but. Yeah, well.

And that's a crazy thing. So the weather, like, dips down into single digits in a couple of days, but then a couple days after that, there's highs like the low 40s. And so I'm just like, oh, actually, that doesn't even stick around for very long at all. That's awesome.

I love this freaking weather's so. Weather's busted.

It's crazy.

I'm gonna look up. This is like, probably like the best radio in the world, but I'm gonna.

All right, Nostradamus, tell me what tomorrow's gonna be like.

So here's the thing. Tuesday and Wednesday, high of 18 with wind.

Okay. Oh, yeah, windle battle.

Thursday is 20s. Friday is a high of 34. Saturday, they're calling for a high of 39 with rain, but, yeah, that's the. That's the highest it gets. But okay. But it's gonna be a bunch of.

Snow on the ground.

I'm off this weekend, so I don't care.

Nice. Nice.

Like, let it rain.

Well, awesome. I'm sure you guys love hearing us report on the weather, like we're weather reporters. Well, we've got some other stuff to report on.

I bet they love hearing us talk about the weather. As much as I love this song, which is not at all.

But the song said that we're going to make them smile with the media that we've got.

It doesn't make me smile, Josh.

And that's what I care about, clearly. But anyways, so this is. We are. We like to report on some media that we've been into the backlog.

Report for the backlog report.

It's the best of what we've been into lately. So, Nate, do you have some media to report on before we slide into some video games?

So I've been listening to a couple books, like two in particular. And so I'm going to pull up. I'm not even going to bother with show notes because I don't. I don't trust any of it. So I've been listening to the unseen realm by Dr. Dr. Michael. Yeah. Yeah. And it's. It's Pretty interesting. Yeah, it's, it's a little scholastic. Like I would call it academic light. It's okay. Yeah, yeah, I would like, it's not textbooky, but there is like he, he does kind of treat you. He's an academic and he's, this is sort of an academic text in a lot of ways, which is, which is pretty interesting. I'm enjoying it. Not much to say. It's just, it's about Nephilim. It's about Nephilim. That's what it is. But it's, it's, it's pretty cool. And he just, he's going through and just sort of laying out a biblical and historical press, like saying like this is actually why it's, it's a significantly more viable position than the Sethite position and spoilers. I, I happen to agree with him just, you know.

But you're on board with Heiser so far?

So far, yeah. I mean, I make no bones about it that I, I have come to enjoy like the enchanted worldview kind of thing for sure. I, I, I, I just. Full disclosure, like one, I think the arguments are better. But two, I think it's just, I do think like the arguments are better like that. It's just like we're, we're not materialists and we're not mere materialists. Like, as Christians we, we believe in like the spiritual and the physical and that people especially are sort of like inhabitants of both realms to some extent. Anyways, like, I'm not gonna go down the rabbit hole. I just think it's. Yeah, yeah, it's, and it's, it's just, it's, it's a way cooler like, you know, just like it's, it's way cooler than, than the sort of like the boring, like functionally materialist worldview. I think a lot like, I do like it, but I also think it's right, you know, so. Yeah, yeah, but, but Heiser's, you know, Heiser's again, it's, it's sort of a more academic work on just sort of like examining like spiritual realities. And I'm appreciating it. The other thing that I'm reading is, and it was due to that abs like that absolutely savage dedication page that somebody shared with us to George R.R. martin. See, George, it's not that hard, but Larry Correa or Korea, it's C O R R E I A he's written a whole bunch of stuff. But there's this book called Son of the Black Sword and I think it's called the. The Saga of the Forgotten Hero. And it's like five or six books or whatever, and it's kind of cool so far. It's like it, it's doing the thing where it's like, it's got fantasy trappings, but, like, there's something about it that I'm like, I'm listening to it. It feels like there might be like some sci fi sniffing. Sniffing around the edges. Like there is a branch of like, fantasy books that are really sci fi. Because, like, what it turns out is like that, like these, that like, these people can't. Like Brandon Sanderson's stuff is like, actually his. The Stormlight Archives kind of like smack of a lot of that because, like, you find out, like. And I guess this is a spoiler, so if you, you don't want any of the Stormlight Archives spoiled for you. But the people that the, the one planet that they live on, they aren't the native inhabitants that they like, traveled through space in, in some capacity to inhabit this new planet. And so anyway, I think that's a.

Plot to a fantasy star game. I could be wrong there.

I think that's the plot to a lot of fantasy sci fi schlock.

Talking about video game Nate, but okay.

The only other piece of media that I'll. But it's, it's, it's actually like I'm really enjoying it where it's like, Remember we were talking about, like, the Red Rising stuff and I was just kind of like, what I've heard from Correa is, I think, significantly better than, okay, the red, the Red Rising stuff. Like, he's got. It's, it's actually like, yeah, like, I'm not trying to bag on the Red Rising books too hard, but like, I was in the second trilogy or Quadrology or whatever it is, and I was just like, yeah, this. Okay, whatever. Like, like it just wasn't as good. So. But I'm enjoy. I'm enjoying it. Like I said, the Son of the Black Sword. And it's kind of like, yeah, it's fantasy slop, but it's. No, it's, it's, it's like, it's like, it's well written fantasy, but it's still fantasy slop. Like, I don't know. The only other thing that I'll talk about though is like, I've kind of been. I, I, I don't watch tons of tv, but when I watch tv, I usually just, I do kind of like, try to keep up on different animes. Or whatever.

Okay.

And I had watched one. I think it's. It's like English name is Heavenly Delusion or whatever. It's fine. It's weird. Apparently he's got seconds. I was watching it, I think on Hulu or Disney plus, I can't remember. It's real weird. There's this whole like part where the one character is. It is a little boy whose brain was transplanted into his sister's body. And yes, that's a spoiler. And I'm sorry if I ruined that for anybody, but that. It's. It's real weird. I don't know how I feel about. That's not the one I want to talk about though. I started.

Is that Ranma one half. I'm kidding.

No, no, it's. It's way weirder than that.

Oh, okay.

Because there's like these weird, like, it's really.

Don't have to explain. Just keep going.

Heavenly Delusion. I couldn't explain it even if I wanted to. Yeah. I'm actually not encouraging. Like, I'm just like, I'm watching it because I'm broken in some serious ways.

Yeah, no, I, I watched like an episode or two of the Devil is a Part timer before where it's literally Satan and he transported into a body of like a teenager and he has to go find a part time job. I mean like, yeah, you don't, you don't feel like. Don't feel like you have to explain an anime. It's okay. Just let it be.

But the one that, the one that I'm watching and I think is kind of interesting so far. Like, here's the thing. Heavenly Delusion, I have no idea what the point was.

Okay.

Okay. But there's one that I'm watching now. It's called Summertime Rendering, which is. And it's also like a fairly recent one and it's like kind of a weird time loop murder mystery thing. And I'm. I'm. I'm hopeful that it will be a little more coherent and do you know what I'm saying? Like, that's the thing. Heavenly Delusion is interesting, but like, I have no idea what's going on. Like I watched the entire first season and I'm like, okay, like, I can see like there's these like two. It's. It's two narratives that are being told to you simultaneously, but they, it's like different time points or whatever. But I'm like, I also don't understand like what the point is. Whereas Summertime Rendering, it feels like, it's got this like, murder mystery and it's. So I'm hoping that it's a little more coherent. But yeah, I wouldn't recommend either one of them at this point in time. I'm just saying that's what I've been watching.

Yeah. Gotcha. It does sound like quite the bizarre adventure. So.

Yeah, dude, I had to bounce off of Jojo's, man.

Oh, okay.

Jojo's was, like, too high strung and weird for me. Like, and I. I love absurdist nonsense, but I was like, I. Like, I can only handle so much of that. I might go back and like, I think, like, just, like, watch, like, just do like a. A season at a time. Yeah. I don't know, because I was on the. The third one. Josuke Gotcha. Josuke Joestar. Not Jonathan or Joseph.

Yeah.

Cool. You just like, I don't know all of this.

No, that's not. That's not true. Yeah. I just accept that it's weird and we can move on. I don't know what else to say.

But what have you been into? That is not. Not video. Also not media. But Doritos makes these little, like, taki kind of like chip things, and they make a flaming hot quesadilla ones. Those things are delicious. That's all I'm gonna say.

Nice.

And for something that's supposed to be flaming hot, they are spicy, not flaming hot.

Okay.

It's like, I gotta be honest. Like, the. The, like the flaming hot Cheetos and stuff always scare me away because it's like, I'm like, that's. That's too hot. And I think it's like, supposed to be the same spice level. Like, this isn't that hot. Like, it's. It's spicy and it's a little Bernie, but it's not like, you know, my mouth is on fire hot. I don't know.

Yeah.

All the. This whole time I just thought people were a bunch of degenerate freaks. But I'm like, oh, it's not. It's a. It's. It's pretty spicy. But it's not like I'm dying spicy.

No, no, it's actually delicious. Now I want flaming hot Cheetos, but before I get any flaming hot Cheetos, I've got some stuff to report on. As you. As you asked. Since you started out with books, I'll start out with a book. I listened through Bram Stoker's Dracula for the first time. I had. I had listened through the first, like, section of it years and years and years ago. And I thought that was the entire book. And I'm like, oh, okay, that's weird. And I had a conversation with my older brother maybe like a year or two after I. I listen that and I was like, yeah, it ended weird. It didn't really end. And he's like, dude, that's just like the beginning of the book. You barely listen to any of it. Okay, I'm an idiot. Anyways, listen through it because I mean. So long story short is that Nosferatu just came out and it's based on Dracula. You know, I've heard it's really good. I really like the director in the movies that he's done before, but I've.

Heard that that's got one of the Skarsgard boys, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've. I've heard that it has a good amount of nudity in it. And my wife and I don't watch movies with nudity in it. So unless anything changes, I will not be watching the movie, unfortunately. Because I've heard it's good and I've heard even the way that they do. Anyways, anyways, so I was, I was interested in the story. And I know, you know, there's dozens of Dracula movies. Nosferatu itself, this is like the fourth remake or whatever. But I wanted to go back to the original, so listen through Dracula and really enjoyed it. You know, it's a little spoilers whatever for this old book, but it is a bit anticlimactic, I will say. But it was really interesting and it had me interested and it was a good listen while I was sick, just like holed up on the couch and didn't want to do anything. Just like I listen to a book.

I think that the. Was it Gary Oldman?

Yeah.

In Bram Stoker's Dracula, that's supposed to be like a really top shelf, like interpretation.

So it's one of the most faithful to the books. But it also makes Dracula a sympathetic character. So like, it adds a bunch of stuff. Even though it is more faithful to the book. It. Yeah, yeah, it has its own take on it. It's also, it's Francis Ford Coppola and it's a very like movie maker movie. They do a bunch of really crazy stuff in camera to pull off all the. A bunch of camera tricks in order to make stuff look the way it does. And. Yeah, but I've. Yeah, I've also heard there's a good amount of material in it as well. Just. Yeah, that's, that's just How. And Keanu Reeves.

So, yeah, I just don't watch. Like, like, listen, I just don't watch. I don't watch horror.

Yeah.

Like, it just like that. For some reason, like, you're like, hey, like, you know, play this game where you're like a dude stuck on a ship full of like, you know, alien demon things. I'm like, sick. Give me a gun.

Let's do it.

Let's go.

I'm on board. I'm.

I'm. Let's, let's, let's do this thing. You're like, hey, watch a movie about a bunch of like being stranded on a spaceship with a bunch of alien demon things. And I'm like, hard. No.

Nope. Getting right.

Nope. Right out there. Like, you take that and you just, you can stick it where the sun don't shine.

I'm going to go watch an anime anyways.

Ex. Gonna go watching incomprehensible anime now.

Yeah. So listen through that and enjoyed that quite a bit. Okay, so this is a lot more, you know, just fluffy fun. My sister treated us and the kiddos in their cousin, you know, our nephews and nieces and my brother and his wife. We all went out and saw Sonic 3 in the movie theater while we were in Texas. And that was just a really fun movie. So that's just something to, to report on. I probably enjoyed it more than the other two. Like, it was probably the most fun of the three. Yeah, yeah. Keanu is.

And it's got Shadow Carrie doing like the, the Eddie Murphy thing where he plays like two roles. Yes, he plays both the Robotniks.

Right. And they're, I mean, they act the same way. So there's, it's not, it's not like it's difficult, although the, like to, to react to himself. I don't know how they pulled that off because, you know, Jim Carrey acts like a clown when he does, when he does comedy and, and so like to react to that. I don't know how they managed to do that, but it was very like, it was well done. Even if it was, you know, slapsticky and over the top and just the way that Jim Carrey is. So. Yeah. No, and there were multiple times when I laughed out loud. The, the death of the antagonist, I will say primarily had me and my wife and my sister, we were laughing out loud because of what happened. So there were some genuinely funny parts. It. Yeah, it was just a fun. It was a fun movie. It's. It's more like action packed, like, simple kind of cartoony movie than I think the first two were. But yeah, it's a good time. I enjoyed it. So if they keep. Keep cranking out those movies, that's probably the best thing that Sonic's ever done. So.

That is a completely non traversal take, right?

That is the most lukewarm of takes you could have. Yeah. Lastly. So this is just a recommendation. When I would. A slight recommendation. Okay. So, you know, I dig music that's from Almost Famous, but I like. I like me some sad boy pop punk. And there's a band that I like that put out a record not too long ago, last year. Yeah, because it's already 2025. This band called Real Friends, they put out an album called Blue Hour. Now, this album does have a good amount of profanity in it. It's not all over the place, but it is. It's there. So if you don't like that, then don't listen to it. Like, fair warning. But there are moments throughout this album like. Like the. The singer likes to yell a lot, and he just gets, like. You tell. He just gets very passionate. And so there are moments where they're just lines that, like, really stuck out to me and hit pretty hard for some sad boy pop punk. Like there. I think it was one of the. The singles where the chorus. The chorus starts out and he just says, I thought that time would heal all wounds till I lost you. And he like, screams that out at you. Or I say, no, he doesn't scream it because that's a different, you know, vocal technique. But he. He yells that out and it's just like, oh, ouch. Like, dang, that. That. And I felt that, you know, it's like that meme. So anyways, Blue Hour by Real Friends is, I would say, a good time, but it's also kind of like a gut punch. But I would recommend it if you're. If you're cool with some profanity.

Well, it's. You like. You like feeling sad?

Yeah, I do. You know, it's one of my favorite feelings right up there with happy and angry. And angry. No, I don't like feeling angry.

I do.

There you go.

You could say it's the only thing I feel sometimes. I'm not emotionally stunted. The rest of you are warped sickos.

Anyways, those are. That's. That's the media that we came to report on. But this is a video game podcast and we like to talk about video games. So let's talk about some video games. Not just video game movies, but like actual video games that we played. So this is the second episode of the year. What's. What games are we reporting on, Nate? What games do you have to bring to the table?

Yeah, well, the, the reality is like, we, we, we kind of. Actually, it was like mid December when the last time we recorded together it was. Oh my goodness, a while ago. And I ended up rolling, Rolling through a few games. Well, actually, okay, wow. Not even full games, but some DLCs. And I was revisiting a bunch of old stuff. I, I fired up Borderlands 3 and I ended up going through a DLC. It was like, I have it. Blood, Sweat and something. I don't know, it was like, and it was funny because, like, I actually thought that, that, that DLC was a more interesting and compelling story than the, the main game. Like the antagonist, like your primary antagonist was pretty interesting. I can't remember her name now. It was something like Rose or, I.

Don'T know, but Sarah or Beth.

No, it was, it was something, it was some sort of like. I'm just gonna look it up. No, it was Rose something. Or was like something Rose.

Oh, gotcha. Amy.

No, not Amy. Rose, you disgusting degenerate. How dare you, sir. I know what that's a reference to and I don't like it. So it's, it was Borderlands 3, Bounty of Blood, A Fistful of Redemption. And yeah, the Butcher Rose, that's, that was the main antagonist. She was pretty interesting. Like, it was kind of like a western style world with dinosaurs. And that's always cool. Like, listen, dinosaurs are always cool. Cowboy stuff is usually pretty cool. Cowboys and dinosaurs, pretty cool. Yeah, especially when you're fighting them. I'm just saying. Yeah, so I, I played through that and I got through one of the DLCs for remnant. I, I did fire remnant two. Like Parker and I. Well, and deuce two had kind of been rolling through Revenant to a little bit. And so before the end of 2024, I managed to roll through one of the DLCs for that. Okay, I, I, I did end, end technically last year at a negative two for the Beat Down. But then this year, you know, we sort of. I, I basically rolled through. Well, what I ended up doing was there are three DLCs for remnant two and I played through all of them and then I actually rolled credits on remnant 2 this year.

Oh, wow.

So, okay, like, and I, that was all, you know, fairly quickly, like within like the first like week or so. Now I was home for a few days because I was sick basically for a Couple days I, I, I was probably sick like that Basically that, that week between Christmas and New Year's, I came down with something that kind of like wiped me out for a few days.

Yeah.

So I was home and sort of just playing video games while doing that. So that, that explains that. Like, sort of like that wicked little streak there.

Yeah.

But yeah, I played Just going to pull up GG here because that will be the easiest way for me to remember that stuff. Come on, Come on now. Technology is just the best. So I beat Remnant to The Forgotten Kingdom DLC, Remnant to the Dark Horizon DLC and then just the Remnant 2 game. So, and what I will say is like Remnant, I think it has a pretty tough difficulty curve up front. You definitely feel like more of like that souls like energy. But especially there's a lot of quality of life stuff with Remnant two that I think is pretty enjoyable. There's some multi classing, there's some streamlining that as far as like upgrading weapons and armor. Like you, you don't upgrade armor at all in Remnant two. Now you used to, you, you did that in Remnant one that I, I don't know how I feel about like. But it's, it's one of those things where there's actually kind of the armor system in Remnant kind of actually reminds me a lot of like the armor system in Destiny where it's like it's doesn't really do all that much. It's primarily aesthetic. Now there is like, depending on your armor level, there is more of like damage reduction and stuff. But it's just like, I don't know. But yeah, Remnant two is, is a really, really fun game. I really enjoy it. Like right now I have a build where I just apply like I have a gun that applies like a stat like several status effects. I have, I have two, two guns that apply several status effects and I just, I basically just pepper my enemies with status effects and I have this passive ability that makes it so that when I give enemy status effects, they give those to their friends. So I just, I'm a, I, I spread plague. It's, I shoot them with guns and then they get sick and they give that sickness to their friends and then they all die really quickly. But you know, just going back to like general thoughts is like I think it's a really great game. It's kind of venturing into should play territory. It's one, it's a really competent third person shooter. Two, it's got a pretty solid gameplay loop and I just think, I think It's. I think it's a really good game. It doesn't. It's not like great, but it's very, very good. And if. And it's. And it's scratching that Destiny 2 itch. Like it's Looter shooter adjacent. There's this kind of cool thing that they do. It's like you're. You only visit like a handful of. Of different realms or worlds, but there are these different. And this is kind of something that actually they carried over from the first one. But there will be different tile sets and different encounters on each. Like each time you go through those worlds per. There's. There's a whole bunch of different like qualifiers for all of that. But sure. Like it's. You. You can play. You can play through that game, beat the game. And in fact, unless you're. Unless you're playing with other people and sort of jumping into their games, you will not see all the content that that game has to offer on your first playthrough.

Okay.

It's really pretty interesting. It's pretty. The different biomes are pretty varied and Yeah, I just. It's a. It's a really fun game. I really enjoy. It's kind of like. It's kind of one of those things. It's like. It's a bit of a back burner slow burn for me where it's just like. It's kind of like nice to have that as an option to just hop on with other people or just even sort of like slow roll through through some of the different like options myself. So it's. It's a really good third person shooter. Really fun. The only thing that like I don't think. And again it's. It's really pretty good. It's not great. What I would say is like just. And this is a personal thing, but I think like the armor design, like, like the enemy design is pretty cool.

Okay.

But it was. Parker and I were playing and we were just sort of commenting and this is a very minor thing in the. In the bigger picture. But it's just like every armor that you get and everything else, it's just kind of like you just. It's like awesome. I'm a hobo. Like it's there, the design, the esthetic philosophy with some of their design and it's. It's makes a certain amount of sense because you're sort of survivors in a post apocalyptic kind of world thing.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

But it looks like doo doo. It's just not like I'm like Part of it is like, if you're gonna make me look at this. This character model, can we put something cool on them?

Yeah.

Instead of making them look like. Yeah, like, just like. Like trash wizards. Like, that's like. This is not awesome.

What is it? In Zoolander, Dere leaked.

Yeah. Yes. But, yeah, that's really all that I've been playing. I have fired up some other things. You know, I. I did in anticipation of our sort of the. The locked and loaded stuff. I. I sort of fleshed out a list. I had fired up some Astrobot. Okay. And, like, I played. I played a level of it the other night, and that game is excellent.

Nice. Off the crack.

I'm like, I can see. I can see why everybody is, like, just sort of, like, gaga for it. It's like. And I don't like 3D platformers. Like, so it's like. And this one's probably got me. So.

Nice. Nice.

So, yeah. You know, but not really the other thing. And I guess it's like. I don't know how seriously I am playing this, but years and years ago, I bought Marvel Puzzle Quest for. Okay, My. My. I think I bought it on PlayStation 3, and then it might have, like, Crossplay or something. I don't. I don't know how that works. I don't know if I even bought it or if it was, like, a free download kind of thing.

Okay.

But it's Puzzle Quest set in the Marvel universe. Are you familiar with the Puzzle Quest games?

I. I've seen them, and I might own 1 on DS.

Yeah, it's like a match three game, and it's got, like, sort of like this game, but it's like, I started playing that again. I was like, I don't know. I used to be obsessed with that game. I used to play it on my phone. Like, years and years ago. I started playing again, and I was like, I might. I might try to beat it just to, like, just be done. Like, just to beat it and be done. But I don't know. I don't know.

Interesting. Interesting.

It's. It's a silly game.

Yeah, but I get it. I. I finished Puzzle and Dragons in Super Mario Brothers on 3Ds. So, yeah, I know about silly games. It's just like, get it.

It's a Puzzle Quest game set in, like. And it kind of. It's telling, like, the. The Dark Avengers storyline. It's. It's playing than that, or so whatever. Like, it doesn't matter, but it's just.

You're matching Three. Come on.

It's. Yeah, it's. It's a Match three game and I like Match. I do like Match three games. So. But. But yeah, so Puzzle Marvel, Puzzle Quest. It's. It's a thing that exists and unfortunately I'm. I'm kind of playing it right now. Not. Not super seriously so. But yeah.

Well fun.

How about you? What have you been playing lately, man? Yeah, well just you know, before I forget. So my current score, my beat down score and I know we'll. We'll probably touch on this is I had a negative three and you and John and I had. There. There was actually earlier today there was a bit of a. A discussion had about like how certain. Certain re. Acquisitions might work or whatever. So I think we're still. But I had picked up the Epic Mickey rebrushed so I think. But like I did own it on. I do own it actually for. For Switch still. So.

Okay.

Not Switch. We. We.

We. Okay. Epic Mickey was on Wii and then Wii U had the second one.

The power of two. Yeah, I own both of them.

Okay. Okay.

But I bought Rebrushed because it's like. It's like hey, I kind of wanted to play this anyways. The. The opportunity actually do it without having to drag out my Wii U and hope that. Hope that it works is yeah. So nice. But I did pick that up and I think we're just kind of like I don't know that we've really finalized it so that might count for an acquisition. It might not. But yeah, so we'll just like I'm negative 3, possibly negative 2 so far for the year.

Yeah. That's pretty dang good for halfway through January. So well done. As far as the games that I've been playing so far, I did. Yeah. In this interim time I played through all of Titanfall 2 which is not a long game at all if you've ever played it. It has and I believe it still is on our top 100 games of all time list. And I owned it for a while and finally got around to playing it. And I get why people enjoy the game so much. I think it is probably one of the best first person shooters that I've played. It is non stop action a la, you know, like. Well, I was going to say all a doom 2016 except that doom, like you're constantly running around all the time and it's in arenas. This one, it is more akin to your. Till you're like Call of Duty where it's like certain areas of the map you Know, there's a firefight, then you go to the next area and there's another firefight rather than arena.

There's some really great parkour I think about like that one level towards the end where like you're jumping between like the giant moving platforms and you're like yeah, running.

Oh, it's stupid but it's so much fun.

It gave me like major anxiety, but it was also like okay. Also kind of like awesome.

Yeah, yeah. So you're running around, you jump in a mech, you fire stuff and yeah, so I had a really fun time with it. It's kind of breezy, you know, kind of a quick, I want to say five hours, you know, maybe six hour campaign. So enjoyed that I get why it's so highly praised. I think first person shooters aren't, you know, at the top of my, my favorite types of games. So it's not one. And I totally get this is a game that you're supposed to play multiplayer, you know, and figure all that stuff out too.

No, dude, I would say like I think the campaign like there's, there's okay like. And again Titanfall 2 spoilers here folks. Just that that time manipulation stage where like you're flashing in and out of like the different like time periods.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, that level. That was.

That design by like that level design by itself is single handedly one of the coolest experiences I think in a game, period. I think if I think like. And I would go so far to say I think if Titanfall 2 didn't have that sequence, that level or whatever, it would not be as strong a game. Like it's like that. That sequence pushes that game from merely really good to like mildly great. That, that. So I would just say like I, that's. That's be my like one sort of like I. I think that sequence by itself like it's just like. No, like this is. That's why it's considered one of the greatest FPSs of all time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's in.

Jumping in a giant mechanic and just.

Right.

Destroying your enemies is awesome.

Mm. Yeah, yeah. It's just. It's in, it's. And it's an action packed, you know, roller coaster ride from start to finish. You know, there's no downtime. You're always, you know, running forward and figuring stuff out and fun gunplay. Like I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's just. Yeah, like I said, just even the, the genre is not one of my favorites but. And maybe that was it Was even good like the length of it because it was snappy. You know, it was a few gaming sessions in and. And I'm down and I always had a great time when I played it. So. So I. I did like the game quite a bit. I don't know where it would sit, you know, on my own personal list of. Of favorite games ever. But it's a really good time. So I. I think I would put Doom over it.

Well, we do have something about it.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

Like, I mean doom 2016 is like the goat. Like it is the. The benchmark for like if you're going to make a first person shooter, it needs to not necessarily like be that.

Yeah.

But like again like doom 2016 is like. It is the high water mark like everything else. Like with the exception of maybe like Halo 2 or 3. Like doesn't like they like. Hey. Okay. Halo 3 is kind of like carves out its own sort of like massive thing. I prefer 2016. I pres. Prefer like the super frenetic Running Gun, kind of like the insane murder chess. But. Yeah, but yeah, Titanfall 2 though is like. It's very good.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it is. So enjoyed that game. Knocked it off my list. So I. For the beatdown for 2025, I get a negative one for that. I also played through another game. I've owned it since I was a child. Okay. Cartridge on original Nintendo Ninja Gaiden. Okay. Played this game tons of times. Never really made it too far into the game. But I. I wanted to finish it. You know, got off Mike Tyson's punch out at the end of last year and wanted to play some more nes. So played through Ninja Gaiden. I did use save states, but I use them basically as if I gave myself unlimited lives. I just didn't want to lose progress. So I would save state at the areas where if you died, you would go back to that area. I didn't. You know, in my mind that's not cheesing because I'm not using it to. Well actually I did get around the thing at the very end of the game where if you die at the final boss, it takes you all the way back to the beginning of the. The level, not the stage. I might get those terms mixed up. But anyway, it sends you ridiculously far back. Like farther back than it would have been if you would have died right before you got to the boss. Anyways, so I did finish all of Ninja Gaiden. Had a good time with that. It is crazy to see the cutscenes in that game on the original Nintendo. And. And I think the game is a classic for a reason. It's definitely a game that you need to kind of memorize to do well at and know where things are. That's just the nature of those old Nintendo games. So I had a great time with the original Ninja Gaiden. Beat that off my backlog and got another negative one. But then I did pick up a game and I actually had a little poll in our discord of which game because I got a Best Buy gift card and it was expiring. And so I was between Persona 5 Tactica or Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown and that one won out. So I picked up Prince of Persia and that is plus one for the beat down. So I'm currently sitting at a negative one for the year in the games that I've beaten so far. Continuing to play through Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Survivor 2, Record Breaker, having fun with that. Kind of taking my time. I'm probably halfway through the game, something like that. So I've still got quite a bit more to do in that. And also I started playing a little bit. My daughter has played this kind of off and on over the past year. I got it for last year and I went ahead and started a file on Pokemon Legends Arceus on Switch. And that one's been fun. It is pretty talky. It takes quite a while to kind of get into the game, unfortunately, which was quite a hindrance I remember for my daughter when she first started playing it because at the time she wasn't great at reading. So it just took a while and it was kind of boring. And especially because I had gotten Ollie Mario Wonder at the same time. And so they were like, yeah, let's just play Mario. Anyways, once you kind of get into the game, it's got an interesting. Yeah, it's an interesting game. It's different than kind of your regular Pokemon games. You're. You're doing a lot more kind of running out into the fields and sneaking up on Pokemon and catching a bunch of the same type of Pokemon and. And trying to catch them in different ways and not just kind of your standard battle and catch kind of a thing. So. So you do take on a little bit of a different mindset. It's more expansive. You know, you have to kind of pay attention to. To some different things. And so it's not. It's less action heavy, if that makes sense. So it's been a pretty cool experience. But that one again is probably going to take me a little bit to finish. So both of these, both of these games are quite a bit bigger but. But that's what I'm currently playing and probably will be playing for a bit longer. So.

Yeah, and that's, that's actually one of our patron picks too. So.

That's true.

At some point in time, I guess I'll have to pick that up and.

You will have to. Yeah, yeah. You are forced to.

I am not pleased by that.

Against your will.

It's. But we'll see. We'll see. You know, we'll. We'll give it a shake, we'll give it a fair go and we'll see what happens.

But no, no, no, no, no. You, you gotta catch them all that. That's part of the idea. Do I? Yeah, if you want the full experience. I'm not sure I want the completely Pokedex. Yeah, I'm just kidding around.

But you know, you know, obviously you guys, if you've been listening to us for any amount of time, we referenced the backlog beat down. It is a new season and I did. The other week I did an overview of the rules I introduced. We. We are introducing the Locked and Loaded special edition rule this year. We're gonna see. This is sort of a test bed. We're gonna see how this goes. So. Yeah, but you know, if you guys are interested in that, you just DM us or come check out our Discord server. We will have, we will have a formal, written, typed out version of the rules here sooner rather than later. But yeah, we have the 2024 edition rules handy. Ish. Semi adjacent. So there aren't too many changes. But yeah, it's be. You know, we just want to encourage you to play the games that you have and just maybe pump the brakes on acquisition. But yeah, but you know, in addition to that, guys, if you like what we're doing here and you like to go a little bit above and beyond, like you've done the sharing and the carrying, you've done the rating and reviewing and if you haven't done those things, please do in your podcast, your of Choice here on YouTube, all the places that'd be very helpful. But if you. Again, if you want to go a little bit above and beyond, we do have a Patreon and for as little as a buck a month you can get early and uncut access to each and every episode. There's a special Patron exclusive podcast called the Bro Hang. Although I, and I'm. I'm going to spring this on You, Josh. I was like, I was toying around with, like, should we rebrand the Bro Hang and call it Between Two Bros?

Huh?

I don't know.

I'm a little ashamed of how much I like that name.

I thought. I thought you would. You know, it. It made me laugh when I thought of it when it, when it kind of like popped into my head.

Yeah. Because at first it sounded a little awkward, like, oh, what's. What's between two guys? Like that. That sounds really weird. But then I'm like, no, no, it's like, hey, keep it between us. You know, between.

Also. It's also a bit of an oh, my gosh. Between Two ferns.

Right, right.

Which might be the greatest talk show in the history of the world with.

With Ben Affleck.

Yeah, man, that is a vehicle for mayhem and chaos and I love it. But anyways, there's, you know, early and uncut access to each and every episode. You get exclusive access to the Bro Hang. Each one of our patrons actually has the. And we referenced that a little bit earlier tonight, but has the opportunity to.

Force us to catch them all.

Force is a strong word, but they can nominate a game for us to play or a topic for us to discuss and then join us on the episode to have a conversation. So, you know, we've got probably. Was it 10. We've got 10 games this year. 10 patron nominations. So, you know, and some of those. I know about some. Some of those. I've never seen that game before in my life. It's. It's a. It's an adventure. But, yeah, so if you're interested in sort of partnering with us in that way, we'd love to have you. And yeah, just want you to. Something. Something to consider, folks. In addition to that, we are proud members of the Play playwell network alongside our friends Paul the Techno funk boy, Lytle Wesley Ray the Hench, and dad himself, and Nicholas Porch, the. The wonder from down Under. And those guys each have. They each have their own little sort of like podcast corners that they've carved out where, you know, we're all wrestling with the topic of, like, playing. Well, but we love those guys. We love what they're doing. And here's a word from one of them. Sit down, shut up and listen to this. No, you can't make me. I hate sitting down. But what is this magic I'm hearing, huh? Never heard it. You say happy nothing. You won't. The Porch, it sure is wacky kind of life changing and hardly worth taking serious. I don't really know how to describe it. Wait, are you crying? I call it beautiful. You got that right, kid. Now you stand there and listen to the beautiful, wacky and life changing show on video games, satire and theology or I'm going to keep on repeating myself and this ad won't end. I'll never stop listening to it. Okay, well, your call. Make sure to subscribe and whatever. My job is done. I'm out of here. And we're back. So tonight we're going to take a few, you know, probably more than a few minutes here to talk about a game that Josh and I both played. Well, we, we played it last year technically, but yeah, and we, we've talked about it a little bit when we did, when we covered our top 100 list. But the reality is like, we feel like there's probably a full episode, even though it didn't quite make the cut. It didn't even make the, the honorable mention, the runner ups. But we still think it's an interesting game and it's pretty good. It's pretty good. Like, I don't think we would say it's better than pretty good. It's, it's. I. The, the way it's like if you're using a number scale, I would say this is like a strong seven, but it does not break out of the sevens like the, the one thing holding it back. And we'll talk about that. Like this game could have been an 8 in my opinion. But there's one sort of issue that really I think drags the whole experience down. But so yeah, let's, let's just sort of get into it. You have, you have some like talking points here, Josh, some jumping off points. So what do you, how, where do you want to start the conversation when we're talking about, about Sakina of Rice and Ruin.

Yeah. So usually when we do these kind of episode, or. Excuse me, these game focused episodes, like when we take a look at one particular game, we like to start off with our baggage in towards the game and that, you know, obviously baggage sounds like a negative term. It's often used as a negative term. That's not necessarily what we mean when we say baggage. It might be, you know, maybe you've heard this is a bad game and you decide to play it because it's bad. That doesn't usually happen, by the way. That's why I made a weird voice when I said it. But that, yeah, that's, that's not usually the case. But we do come to these games with Kind of preconceived notions of what they may be and. Or games, you know, similar to it. Maybe it's a spiritual successor to another game. Maybe it's just a sequel to another game. So when I say baggage, it's like basically what were your impressions of the game before you played the game? Or what did you think kind of going into the game? And so for me, some of the quote unquote baggage that I had and perhaps there's a better term, if you can think of one, let us know because then it doesn't come off quite so negative. But I've played games that are similar to this one in that it has. This is one of those games that has an element of like a life sim or a farming sim type game, but it is very focused in one single thing that, that you are farming and that is rice. It's in the name. Anyways, when it comes to these types of games. I've played the original Harvest Moon, a port of it on Game Boy and I like those games. I like, you know, when I say Farming Sims nowadays we think of, you know, like farmville or maybe I'm. Maybe I'm too old and like no one even thinks of that game anymore. But there have been tons of games kind of based on. Yeah, I guess the big one is Stardew Valley. Right. But there's a lot of casual farm games and I get why, because it's, you know, it's a cozy game. It works on a. On a touch screen, something like that. I've never really played any of those type games the more, you know, sort of casual mobile games, things like that. But like, yeah, the original Harvest Moon and I've enjoyed it. Harvest Moon Back to Nature is the one on PlayStation, which remake port, whatever, whatever. That's kind of what that series is. In addition to that, I also played through Rune Factory 4, which was a spin off of the Harvest Moon series, which incorporated dungeon crawling and kind of a action RPG element that you do the. Yes. In magic and, and excuse me, the way that that interacts with kind of the stuff that you do. Farming and, and meeting the townspeople and talking to the different characters, similar to what you do in Harvest Moon as well. So all that kind of long winded way to say that. I have played other games in this genre and I knew that I liked this genre. In addition to that, I saw the art style and I thought it was fantastic. And I had heard some comparisons in different reviews of the action elements in this game. Similar to a Wii game. It was also ported to, I believe, PlayStation Vita. I don't know if it ever came to PlayStation 4, but Muramasa. Yeah, the Demon Blade. And I love that game. So I should actually probably go back and play that game because.

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. It was on Vita. I don't think it was a PSP game. I. I'm pretty sure it was a Vita game.

Did it ever make it to console though?

Like PS4 of the. The Wii? I don't believe so. Which is a shame.

Yeah.

Just because like it's. It's a really. Yeah, it's a really. It's a really. Well, it's vanilla wear, so.

Right.

It's freaking gorgeous. Yeah.

And it's vanilla wear taking on like traditional Japanese artwork. You know, it's the vanilla wear style, so it's not. And I guess. I guess there's. There's a little bit of that in. In Unicorn Overlord they go for a more anime style than some of the stuff they've done in the past, but it's not swords and sorcery. It's more traditional kind of Japanese stuff. I remember it looks really good on the Wii, but we also is not HD and so it might not, you know, hold up as wonderfully.

I'm just.

It did check in here.

Yeah, just. Just Wii and PlayStation Vita, which is.

Yeah.

Just shameful.

Yeah. You know what, Vanillaware, because I know you're listening or watching on YouTube because that's what you do with your time. You should come out with a collection of your older games. I know you like really re releasing some of your games. Collect those suckers up, throw them on a modern system. Oh, money, cash money will be thrown at you.

I mean, just honestly, I think most of their library is available on current hardware. Is it gen hardware? I think this might be the one of the only ones.

Why?

Like why? Because it's weird.

Because it was a Wii game. I don't know. It's.

It's definitely like out of all their stuff, I do think like this is one that like. Because like, yeah. Odin's Fear Life riser was a PS2 game. Which Odin Sphere is. I love that game. I just. I love Vanillaware. Like they make such like charming and visually anyways. But yeah, Sakano of Rice and Ruin does have. I. I would say I do not think the visuals are nearly on par with vanilla wear stuff, you know?

No, no, no.

But it's. It's cute. It's kind of like Chibi adjacent. It's. It's Got a, it's got like a coherent and an interesting sort of like visual aesthetic, I would say gameplay wise. Yeah, it's, it's. Well, it's just like, it's a, a fit like a, like a mid level kind of like technical, side scrolling brawler.

Yeah.

It doesn't get super crazy. Right. There's, there is a fairly fleshed out like skill tree and menu system and equipment and like you can learn different techniques and stuff like that. That. So you can sort of adapt your play style. There's some like, there's some different loadout options that you can have.

So.

Yeah. But yeah, my baggage is pretty similar to yours. I played Harvest Moon. I have played some Rune Factory stuff. I like the cozy. Like here's the thing is like. And I think. I can't remember if. I think Mark and I from Quick Play, Mark Erickson and I had a conversation. I can't remember if it made it to a podcast or not. Just about like what's so interesting about games like Stardew Valley? Like these, these games that it's like that sort of offer a facsimile of real life, of real work, of like productivity and it's like what, what is so appealing. And so there is kind of like it is a little bit of like that farm living sim kind of thing. But yeah, do your chores game. Yeah, do your chores game. But it's like fun and, and I think some of that is like the immediate feedback response. Like, you know, but yeah, I like coming into Sakana. Like for me, the, the real sort of like point was for a while I was listening to into the Aether and they did an episode where they kind of like just raved about Sakana. Oh, and Rave, I feel like, is a bit of a strong reaction. I think the game is really, really clever and really, really interesting and I think there's actually like a really. There's a narrative cohesion that Sakana presents, but it's also I think a little bit detrimental to the, the overall experience.

Yeah.

And we'll talk about that when we get there. But I would just say like my, my baggage was like I had bought it. It's like one of those games. I picked it up, I think prior to, to the. Into the Aether thing, the, the into the Aether episode. And, and again, this is it a while ago. But I had picked it up because I just thought like, oh, it looked kind of like cool. You know, I was like, I like quirky. I like, you know, that kind of like, charming vibe. And it's like, okay. And I had picked it up a few times, but it wasn't until this, this latest go around that I actually just sat down and sort of like chewed through the whole thing. And at first I was like, like, you know, just sort of looking at it. Like just spoiler free impressions kind of like, like sort of ticking along here. I was really pretty delighted by this game.

Yeah.

But. But it, you know, frankly, and this is sort of like the one major gig that I have about it. It's like the game, it's just too long. Like, I can't remember what my actual time was. But I. What I will tell you is like, it feels like it was like. And this is not. This is like, not uncommon for me to say this. Like, I feel like most games are too long, but like, I feel like most games outside of like, JRPGs overstay their welcome by like 10, maybe 15 hours. And I feel like this. I feel like Sakano was like, probably 20 hours longer than I think it should have been.

Wow.

Just.

So when you say that, what was your total play time? What is 20 hours compared to the.

So I'm gonna pull it up on my. My phone, see if the place I know that I put. I. I think it was like close to 40 or 50 hours.

Oh, wow. Okay.

Which. Okay, well, like, and. And I. The full disclosure. Like, I know that I tend to be a little slower. Like, I kind of like, I like to kick over all the rocks and like, right.

Right in. And really kind of maximize the. The things that you do or, or. Or abuse the systems in the games, for lack of a better term. I know you like to get like knee deep in all that for sure.

Yeah, I really. Yeah, I like to sort of. I'm looking here.

I want to say my in game clock was somewhere between 30 and 35 hours. But then my switch's clock says something like, you've played this for over 42 hours. And I was like, whoa, that seems way more than I thought, you know, because I didn't die all that much. Although that might be counting. Like when I paused it and put the controller down, I have no idea. But I want to say my.

I don't know how the game clock works in this. Like, I don't know where. If it pauses, I can't. I can't seem to find.

Well, and that's okay. I wasn't necessarily asking for a concrete number. It was just like when you say it's 20 hours too long, does that mean you played this for 80 hours, does it? You know, in my case I wouldn't say 20 hours too long because I put in in my mind 35 hours. I don't think this is a 15 hour game necessarily. Like it could have been 20 and that's fine.

I think I like, I think I probably put in close to 40 hours and to me this is a game that should have been no longer than 20.

Yeah. Yes, I'll agree with you there.

And so like you know, I would say like I feel like it's 15 to 20 hours too long.

Yeah.

And it's just like, and it's not like. And I think it's just what it is is that the, the loop is charming but like it does get a little tedious.

Yeah.

And so you know, I think we need to you know, but I don't, I don't have any other like spoiler free thoughts to talk like. But I just like I, I think like overall like it is really technically competent. It just overstays its welcome by entirely too much.

Yeah.

Like, like to me and I'm looking at this is like because if it's like a 40 to 45 hour experience for me like that is, it is 100% too long, you know.

Yeah, that is a big ask.

You know and I've talked 20 hours in a 130JRPG.

You're just getting started.

You're just like oh, okay, I guess. Yeah. But like 15 to 20 hours in a game that like in addition like too, too long in a game that feels like it really should have ended around like the 20, maybe 25 hour mark. Yeah. Just.

Yeah, so yeah, and yeah, yeah, that 40 hour mark, you know I've, we've talked about death stranding for quite a while. I bring it up every episode. But that's my deal with that is that it asks 40 hours of you. So yeah, for something like this, if I KNEW Going in 40 hours was what the time commitment was, I probably would have held off a bit longer. But that said like you said, I enjoyed my time with it. So I agree with that critique quite wholeheartedly. While, while I, I enjoyed it quite a bit and there's a number of different things. You know, this was developed by a double A team so it's not like a full on high production value game. But I do feel like they, for, for most of the game they invested in the right places. You know you can feel a little bit of jank in the game whether that's slow down occasionally on Switch or some of the, you know, textures overlapping or things like that, you know, it doesn't feel like a current gen game at all, but I do also at the same time in the same way that I think like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom has a very nice art style to it. While I think those games are technically better than this game, it's a similar feel where like, I just think the art style fits this game so well and the story that it tells, which is pretty simple overall. It almost, I would say it feels like, like a very classic, like old school manga in the way that the characters are written, in the way that they interact with each other. I think like, if you could, you know, bring him back, I don't think he's still alive, but like Osamu Tezuka, if you could like conscript him to make a manga on this game, I think like that would fit so very perfectly just because of the charming kind of nature and the interaction of the characters and things like that. And so I think that's another thing about this game is that it's just charming. It's not super deep. It goes. It's not surface level. Like it does get to the, you know, the character building and the interactions is good. The characters differentiate themselves.

There's some really powerful like narrative beats. Like some, some character arcs are really pretty. Surprisingly potent.

Yeah, so, yeah, so. And I think it goes together along with the story pretty well. I've talked about it when I very first started the game and kind of some impressions. The main character, Sakina, she's a brat and you kind of just accept that early on. And she does have a character arc. Yep.

It's not that she's. It's not just that she's a brat, but she like just full disclosure, like, you know, and we're probably going to start getting into like spoiler territory. So.

Okay.

Like, yeah, I don't want this game. I want to play this game. Should probably just go play it for the next 30, 40 hours and then come back and listen to what we've got to say. It's not, we're not going to get like deep into spoiler territory.

Can I put, then can I put a pin in that real quick just to talk a little bit about gameplay, then we'll loop back to spoilers because I don't feel like we've talked about that too much.

Yeah, we should. Yeah. Let's just save the story beats until we're. Yeah.

So in terms of gameplay, the farming Sim is Rice. It's. It's these rice patties that you have. Again, I've talked about this on previous episodes just from my kind of what you see is what you get, but it is very Japanese. It's not like an American farm. More like Harvest Moon feels, you know, it is rice. And. And you can tell that the creators of this game are. Are really enjoy. You know, have a. A love for Japanese culture, you know, like traditional Japanese culture and what it takes to grow rice and the different factors that are involved. You know, the level of the water that's in the rice paddy, you know, the things that you add to the soil, things like that. And. And so to me, I could just feel that the. That the creators of this game just really wanted to share their love for something traditionally Japanese do.

And there's a lot of, like, there's a way, like the growing the rice is a pretty involved process. And because of the nature of Sakura's character and this is. This is the slightest of spoilers. She's a goddess who. A Japanese sort of goddess or whatever, but she is the child of a war God and an agriculture God. And so she. She is a. And this is sort of like. This ties into sort of like the mechanical loops, but her power is directly tied to the. The yield of this crop. And so one of the. The probably honestly the most. One of the most interesting parts of the loop is like, you suck at the beginning. You suck at fighting. You don't have any. Your tools. Your tools, your weapons are kind of garbage. You don't really have many moves. It's like, it does not. Like, it's initially pretty tough. Yeah. But then. And you. But you also feel slow. Oh, yeah. You feel slow and kind of floaty. Like up front, it's. It's really not. It's pretty tough.

Like, just up front, it doesn't feel great.

No. But you also suck at farming. And so like these two things that you kind of need, like the whole game, it's like you start out really bad and then. And as you go on and you have like. Like your first couple. Your first harvest. Your first couple harvest will be not great. Like, they'll be like. It'll just be like, you know, because you. Part of it is like you don't know what you're doing, but neither does Sakana. And so the whole thing is. It's kind of this exercise and perseverance and dealing with tedium. And now. Now what is different is that instead of the seasons basically last 12 in game days but each day is broken up and there is a night cycle and a day cycle. But you're also sort of, you're doing some exploring and fighting and gathering different, different like ingredients and components. And so there's like some, some hunting and gathering and actually that will supplant you like the first probably couple of years into the winners. But because like literally you won't have much of a, a rice crop that first year.

Yeah. I will say though, it does make. Because you're, you're fighting and you're so bad at it at first, it does make a substantial difference. Like once you get a yield of rice, even though it's not that much rice, like you feel way stronger. It's like, oh, okay. This is more how it's supposed to feel. I don't know. I felt that when I yielded crop every year for the first few years.

Yeah. Those first couple of years it's really noticeable. And then, then it does kind of like it doesn't necessarily plateau but like the, it just becomes a lot harder to actually feel the, the, the, the, the, the increase and the growth.

And by that time too it adds in other elements like your food that you can prepare, which is another element. It doesn't go well. It probably goes deeper than I looked into it is probably what it was is that I didn't spend too much time with meals, only at very specific times in the game. But that's another element that you use depending on what you're trying to get done throughout the game.

Yeah. Your meals can offer power ups and buffs.

Yeah.

And so you can, you can tweak your. And like there's a character where you can just say hey you, whatever you want to cook, whatever. And she'll, she'll plan the menu and she'll take care of it.

Yep.

Or you can kind of tweak that yourself depending on your needs. Like if you know that the next day you're gonna go out and sort of do some combat stuff, you can prepare a meal that will make you tougher, make you stronger. You know, it might offer different sort of passive buffs or resistance resistance buffs because there are different like elemental damages. But yeah, like it's, it's just really kind of, it's just one of those, those games where like that cycle, those cycles really feed into each other. And it's especially when you get through those first couple of in game years, like all of a sudden like the game starts to feel a lot better.

Yeah.

You, you can explore more. You can. And you, you actually get into like a rhythm. Like you, you get up and you sort of like you bang out like your, your chores at the, at the. The homestead and then you hop on over to, you know, one of the other. Like, like if you're gonna go do gathering and then you can like send people like you. You actually, you. You get the ability to send because there's a handful of followers with you. Like, there's like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. There's five other people there with you. And you can you. Throughout the game, you can. You get the ability to send people out during the day and then. But they also have like crafts, like a couple of them. One of them becomes like a. A smith and another one a weaver and they make equipment for you. Yeah, there. It's kind of like there's a lot of these little systems and none of it is like overly complex.

Right.

Like.

Right.

Just kind of like all feeds back into itself really nicely. Yeah.

Yep. It adds those elements. So then, you know, as you're out kind of searching around trying to unlock new areas while you're trying to also yield more rice, then you start thinking about, okay, well, I'm going to need these certain ores in order to make this upgrade to this weapon, you know, and then I'm going to need to gather these ambers in order to. To put, you know, certain upgrades and, and buffs on these. This weapon that I do like. And, and also on top of that, then you go out in combat. You get a number of different special moves for Sakuna, and the more that you use them, the more that you level up those moves. And so I don't know about you, but I had a handful of just like favorite moves that I would do. And eventually you get to learn how to kind of kind of make your own combos with that, you know, so you're kind of dashing around the screen. So what felt very slow and floaty to me at first becomes this thing where no kind of in between, you know, after an attack, in between a jump, then you can dash around to the other side of the screen, then use a certain attack, and then hit someone as soon as they hit the ground or hit them back up into the air and jump and attack them while they're, you know, it becomes this thing that's. That's kind of greater than the sum of its parts. All these. All these little things kind of build towards it. So.

And just like the combat sort of opens up the stronger you get, like your options for planting and Harvesting and preparing the rice actually expand. Like new tools and techniques sort of like, the more you do this and it's. It's a game where there's again, it's that loop. It just keeps feeding into itself. And the better you get at harvesting, like, growing and harvesting rice, the stronger you become, the more techniques become available. And, like, again, it's. There's just like, really, really clean, like, feedback loop the whole way through. It's just. Yeah, but. Yeah, and it's. And there's enough. The other thing too is, like, there's enough special moves available that you can really kind of like, kit Sakuna out in a way that, like, there are very different play styles available.

Right? Yeah.

You know, I. What I did find is that I think some just. And maybe it's just me, but, like, there were some where it's like, these are very obviously better.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, and. And some of that may be, like, a play style preference. Right? Where it's just like. Like, I had a move that was meant to, like, launch people or like, you know, launch me and subsequently people around me. I had another move that was meant to, like, damage dudes right in front of me. I also had a move that was meant to, like, if I'm aerial, like, drag me down and, like, just like, punish anything below me. There's also, like, the scarf thing.

Right.

Which makes, like, especially. I didn't always understand, like, the. The grapples, because apparently, like, you could grapple with it and I just, like, you could do other, like, moves with. Instead of just use. Because I just would use it basically. Like a grappling hook.

Yes.

But you could actually do other things with it. Like, there were moves that you could assign to, and I. I never got the hang of those.

Yeah, you equip it with skills, and then you could use it. I think you could get, like, status effects on enemies, but then also, like, lowering their attack, lowering their defense. Yeah, stuff like that. Yeah, I. I could pull it off a couple times, but I never used it.

Yeah, I never got it to. There was, like, one time, I think there was a challenge, and I struggled to get that. Like, get that challenge done. And then I was like, okay, like, we're never doing this again.

Yeah, I'd rather just just beat them down.

Just.

Just.

Yeah, just zip around and just clobber the snot out of them. But. But yeah, it's like. What I would say is, like, I think the package, you know, just as far as, like, gameplay goes is really. It's A really great experience. This as combat is good. And again, it starts out really like, you suck at the beginning.

Yeah.

But it's just like anything in life, period. And this is kind of one of the things I really think is kind of special about the game is that it doesn't shy away from the fact that like, you suck like at the beginning of things and then the more you do those things, you get better at them. So. And I think in a lot of ways this game really does lean into that. And again, like we've talked about it, I just think it does so to its detriment. Like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's. There's an element that frankly will need to be talked about in the spoiler section that makes this game, that extends this game's length. And while it makes sense narratively, it does in terms of just kind of gameplay. And again, what the game asks of you, the amount of time that the game asks of you, it's. It's not a perfect experience because of that.

I mean, and again, I, I would just say like. And like, hey, it's, it's not like, oh, I hated my time with it towards the end or anything like that, but I was like, yeah, it, it just didn't need to be this long. Like, it just the, just the pacing was pretty off, especially sort of towards the, the, the mid to late game, but I don't have any other, you know. Do you think it's time to just sort of like get into spoiler territory?

The last thing I'll say before we jump into full on spoiler territory is just kind of the overall thought and you just kind of touched on it, is that I do think what. Another thing, another thing that outside of just that the game is fun to play, that makes this game special is its focus, like just this main theme throughout all of it on the value of hard work. It's not. Well, I mean, there's this American, you know, rugged individualism. I was gonna say it's not a very American concept nowadays, but it's, it's there but just that, that you will be rewarded by actually sticking with something and working hard at it. There's. There's just a very Japanese twist to it and that includes beauty in there. You know, the value of a good plate of rice, you know, and the, and the aroma of it. Not just the, not just the quantity of it, the amount, but also that element of the beauty that comes with it.

Yeah, obviously, like, you know, yeah, you want to pursue, you know, higher yields, but you Also want to. It's like, it's kind of like. Yeah, just as a, as a bit of a juxtaposition. Like, whereas in sort of like the Western sort of consumerist model, it is almost always quantity over quality. And here the game does actually put an emphasis on quality. Quality matters.

And that only the mastery to produce something of quality actually takes time. And that's played out both in the gameplay and the way that you see the characters grow throughout it as well. And so that just that narrative theme I think is actually, is actually done really well throughout the game in this little brat of a character that's, that is Sakuna and you see the way that she grows and changes throughout the game. But it's, it's just a refreshing thing that I suppose is also told in other kind of farm sim games like this. But it just feels a little different, feels a little bit more apparent, clear, you know, just, just push forward throughout this game is, is just the, the value of, I was going to say, not just a hard day's work, but a life that is dedicated towards, you know, getting better at something, you know, at mastery.

It's. And it's. Yeah, it, you know, it, it's one of those things is just sort of like this is a game about the pursuit of excellence.

Yeah.

And that's, that is, is pretty cool. Yeah. Even if it is sort of a semi botched attempt.

Sure.

You know.

Yeah, yeah. Even if it's rough around the edges.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, you know, let's just sort of jump into spoilers here. And like, I don't think, like, like to be honest, I don't know that the story. I don't know how far down the rabbit hole we need, need to go. And I don't think the story is really all that impressive. Yeah, it's interesting. It's, it's. Yeah, it's pretty basic. It, it does have charm.

Yes.

But you know, the, the this, it's not a super complex thing, but essentially the game sort of starts off and there are these five wanderers and they're walking through this bridge and, and apparently like this bridge took them to the land of the gods, a place that they, they as mere mortals were not supposed to go. And Sakina, like when you first meet her, she kind of rolls out onto this bridge. She's inebriated because she's been partying and she, she actually by accident like saves their lives because there's this, there's a sixth person who is pursuing them with intent to do harm, and she saves them through sort of just accident kind of like. But she's very. She's rude, she's very self absorbed. And ultimately what happens is like, she. She and these. These five other people are. They're basically banished to this. This island and they have to, like, they're. They're tasked with, you know, basically reclaiming this island. And this. This island had been where Sakuna's mother and father resided. And so this was like one of those things where, like, you know, she's. In a sense, she. She had never been there apparently, but in a sense she was, you know, sent back to, like, her ancestral home and told to reclaim it. And it had a bit of a demon problem. So she was also tasked with eliminating the demon problem. And so you. You go through this and, you know, at first she's very. She. She's bitter about the. The entire process and she kind of like, she blames everything on. On the humans, failing to realize that it's also her hubris and her laziness and her entitlement actually kind of got her. Landed her in this situation as well.

Oh, yeah.

And it's, it's really. And again, the. The story beats aren't really that impressive. You know, you just kind of like. I think there's some innovation, interesting individual character arcs that.

Right.

Like, each one of the. The characters has like, their own story. And, you know, it turns out that, you know, the land that they lived in had been plagued by war and they had actually all been slaves and the. They had broken free and they were running away from, you know, this. This bandit who had kidnapped them and planned to sell them into slavery. Yeah. And he. He was the one that Sakana saved them from. And it turns out that, well, he. He actually survived the fall and he became basically like he, you know, paired up with an ancient demon that had been inhabiting the island since Sakuna's parents had lived there. And. Yeah, and. Yeah, it's. It's. It's. I don't know, the story's not really that, like, the, the story beats are really interesting, but the, the actual overall story is kind of like, whatever.

Yeah, it just kind of takes you along, you know, gives you a reason for the next while to do stuff. But yeah, it's. It's nothing. It's nothing. Amazing. It is, again, rooted in kind of Japanese folklore.

Yeah, you're not gonna. Yeah, it's. And it's. Yeah, it's like lots of Japanese folklore, and it's like. I don't think that any of these are actual, like mythological beings within, you know, Japanese myth. But it's, it's got all the flavors. Like, I, I am not, I'm not familiar enough with Japanese mythology.

I'm not either.

But it's got like all the flavors and it kind of like it dips its toes into the different sort of. You know, there's that one festival that, that, that happens towards the, the end of the game where like all the different like spirits show up. And some of them are really freaky looking, but like those are rooted in Japanese. Again, rooted in Japanese mythology. Yeah, but the sort of the, the tldr is that this island that they've been sent to is. Years ago, Sakano's parents sealed away this demon and then they disappeared and nobody knew what happened to them. Like, it was like, did they. Like this. The demon was sealed, but like her mother and her father weren't there. And as you play through the game, you know, sort of like these different sequences happen. It turns out again that that bandit that you saved, that you knocked him off the bridge and you saved everybody else, it was like. And apparently there's like some sort of like spatial time warp stuff. So he'd been there for years and years and years and have forged this relationship with this, this sealed away demon and he warped all the creatures. And you know, basically he's like this bandit dude and this, his, his partnership with this demon dragon actually has like created like the demon problem on the island. Yeah. And it's just kind of like. But it ends up culminating. And again, there are some, some interesting beats. Like, you know, the fact that the youngest member of the rescue and I can't remember, I can't remember their names to save my.

Kaimaru.

Is it Kaimaru?

I'm pretty sure.

But he can't really speak. He's sort of like just babbles. But he does communicate with animals. And you know, you find out that he watched his father get cut down in front of him. His father had been the leader of the group prior. And then the, the, the bandit that enslaved all of them, like sort of led a coup or enough like a revolt, a mutiny, if you will, and butchered Kymara's father in front of him, which, you know, would create some trauma. And it's like. Yeah, and so just like that arc and just sort of getting through all of that, the, the, the, the shamed samurai who just wanted to be a rice farmer, you know, and the, the, the missionary, right, from the foreign religion and yeah, like, these all have like, and these aren't like, super. I mean, Kaimaru's story is probably the most potent, but the rest of them, like, they have like, these sort of like, little vignettes and you can sort of look in, you can, you can explore their stories and sort of get to know them a little bit better. And they're interesting and they're charming. Like, it adds to the charm. But the real root of it is what happens is you get to a certain point and you realize that the demon that your parents, that Sakuna's parents sealed away, he's breaking free. And he actually does manage to do this. And when he does, this is the part of the game that we talked about where there's just this really hard reset. Basically, he trashes the whole island, including, like, your homestead. So, like, at this point in time, like, you've, like, at this point in time in the game, you have built out this little, like, farmstead so that it's like, you've, you've got like a really sweet setup. Like, you, you have a mill and you have like a animal pen and you have like, you have like, all these different things going on, right? And the whole, and it pollutes your fields. And actually, because Sakana's stats are tied to that, like, it actually, it's a fairly significant physical debuff on all her stats.

Oh, yeah.

Like, it's pretty massive.

Yeah.

And then what happens? And, and this is the part of the game and this is like, like, it just takes entirely too long. I, I, I don't remember how long it is, but it's like a certain amount of. In game days, you have to have beaten, like these areas pop up that you have to like, purge them again to get this, like these sacred orbs. And you put that into the field to restore some of the, the fields worthwhileness. Like, you purify the field, but you also have to like, put in these special orbs that you, you find to actually, like, remove the curse. And that particular sequence takes entirely too long. I feel like it was like that sequence by itself was like five or six hours.

Oh, at least. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I, I would double that. Honestly, it's how it feels towards the game.

I would say, like, I'd say at bare minimum, six hours. Five, six hours might be even more. And this is, you're already at a point where it's like, because, like, and this is the thing, it's like you're at a point in the game where right before this happens, you feel like, okay, like, this is the end. Yeah. And that feels kind of good.

Yeah.

For that to be the end. And then it just sort of like kicks your legs out from underneath you and sets you back. And there's a part of me that really likes the lesson here. Right. That likes it, like, hey, yeah, you never really arrive. I. I like that. Right. I think that's a good thing. I think the. The actual execution. Because you had already probably spent 10 hours, 15 hours getting to that point.

Yeah.

And then to get like, sort of again. Yeah. It probably is easily another like 10, 15 hours from that point because. Yeah, it's just like. It basically kind of like kicks you not all the way back to ground zero. You're still, like. You're still really pretty strong, you know, in regard. In regards to, like, when you first came to the island.

Right. Right. Yeah. You can fight the beginning enemies pretty easily, but no, you're nowhere near strong enough to fight the enemies that you had been fighting at that point. Yeah. So you definitely feel like it's a major setback, which. Yeah, again, like you said narratively, it feels good. And it's like, oh, okay, that's kind of cool. But if you could kind of regain it quicker, then, yeah, I wouldn't fix it. Yeah.

And I do think it is, like, a pretty easy fix. It's just like. Because it's like again, like the. That. Those. Those three day, four day cycles for each season.

Yeah.

Like, it's. Is it three or four days? I'm pretty sure it's three.

It's three. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So this. But it's like you have to go through, like, basically an entire. I think it's pretty much like an entire year for one of these, like, despoiled grottoes to show up.

Yeah.

And it's like. And so, like. And while you're doing that, your rice isn't as good. Like, and the whole time, like, you're. You're re fertilizing and you're doing all this other stuff, but, like, your rice still isn't as good. It's like, it's. It just. It. It just overstays its welcome. Like, at that point in time, like, you. You're probably. By the time you get there, you're ready to be done. Yeah. The power fantasy has kind of, like, kicked in. But. And that's. That's like. Yeah. I think, like, honestly, you just make it so, like, you just have all of those areas just pop up and then, like, you're able to attack them at your leisure when you're ready, but instead they make you wait for like that. That zone to pop up and another one doesn't. And like so after you clear that you have to wait again for the next one to pop up. And it's, it's substantial and it's just like. Yeah, it probably adds, probably adds like five, six, maybe even ten or more hours.

Yeah.

To like to the game. And it's, it's really. I don't think. I just think it's like you never really recover because like you were like you're kind of like I'm ready to be done. And then all of a sudden games like. But you're not like.

Yeah. And up to that point, you know, we talked about kind of all the elements of the game, all the other things that it kind of adds that. That aren't, you know, games in. In and of themselves but add to the game that nothing else is added after that point. It's just restoration. And so yeah, you're fighting to kind of try and get back to where you were. So there doesn't it. I mean you are progressing. But it's kind of like okay, I've done something similar before now it is for a different purpose. But it doesn't. The progression is not as satisfying. And hey, you know, maybe that's the lesson is real life. It doesn't always feel satisfying to progress through real life. Yeah, okay, that's. That's a lesson. But yeah, this is a video game. Video game.

It's a video game. And again like. And sort of like it's just like that one part is such a significant drag where it's like I probably would have said this game could very. Again, I think this game could have very well easily been like sort of like in an 8ish territory. But because of that, like this pushes it down to the sevens.

Yeah.

Like, and not like high sevens, like mid to low sevens where it's like it's still a good game. It's still enjoyable. Enjoyable. But like that, that, that pacing, that. That pacing issue is just, just devastates it.

And yeah.

You know, just to sort of like go back to the story. Like it all culminates in is you. You end up fighting this demon dragon right after you've purified everything and, and you sort of. You restored your powers and that pause fight is just. It's. It's pretty anticlimactic and I'm not sure how like to be honest, I'm not sure how I would have changed it, like. But yeah.

Because in some sense, it's cool. You do gain this new ability, you know, in order to. In order for Sakuna to actually fight a demon dragon, you know, she needs to, you know, get some sort of an upgrade. And so I'm. I'm on board with that. It's cool. But it just. Yeah. It didn't necessarily feel like final boss material. And in saying that, like, I still died, I. I want to say I died twice and then beat it the third time.

Yeah.

It just didn't feel as big and bombastic and. I don't know.

I think. I think I probably did it like three or four times. Yeah. It was like you died a couple. And it was just.

It's more of just like timing.

Yeah. More than anything else. It's like I just kind of like, oh, I already got myself into a bad spot, like on the. The screen period, where it's like, oh, shoot. Like, yeah, this is not. I do not want to be in this place.

Yeah. It's like, well, as soon as you learn its moveset, it's pretty easy.

Yeah.

It's just kind of getting to that point, so. So, yeah. I liked the ending sequence. You talked about the. The festival that's going on. I thought that was cool. Even if it is you know, still charmingly low budget. I. I liked how it wraps the narrative, you know, things like that. But yeah, it's just the. The boss itself was kind of okay. You know, I had a harder time with other bosses, is what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Throughout the game than I did with the very final boss. So.

Yeah. And. And yeah, it's just like. Yeah. On top of that, like the. The just rebuilding your home and everything else, it's just like this tedium. You get to this boss fight and it just kind of like leaves you, like the tedium of the rebuild matched with this sort of like, underwhelming boss fight. Just really. The game lands on sort of like, not a sour note, but, like, it's a bit flat. It's a bit flat. So.

Yeah. Yeah.

But I don't. I mean, I. I would recommend this game. It's just like, pretty heavily. Caveat. Just saying, like, listen, don't expect it to change your life. I think it's really clever. I think it does some things and like, frankly, like, the. The rice that, like, growing the rice cycles is fun. Like, there's a part of me that just like I've toyed around with just like going back and just like, Trying to like have like a. Just a perfect yield.

Oh, man, that sounds very difficult.

Well, like, because there's like all sorts of different techniques. Like, you can like, you know, sort them with salt water and you know, and then you sort of like depending on how you seed the beds to get the sprout lanes and all the other like the placements. But it's like. And like just like I'm like, well, you know, I do like the, the, the flow of this, but it's like getting even the stats, like to like pushing out the stats to where they're all like maxed out. Yeah, it's like all of it. Like, I was like, maybe someday probably, I mean, real realistically, probably not, but.

I've probably played enough of this game.

But in theory, it's like, yeah, I could do that thing. I could do that.

Yeah. But, yeah, I know and I largely agree with you. I would recommend the game if it sounds interesting to you and if you're willing to kind of put in the time because. Yeah, so. So it really is, like you said, heavily caveated just because, yeah, you're going to start off slow. You know, it doesn't feel good in the beginning, but if you press through, that's it's kind of the point also. And I'm not saying that it necessarily has a slow start. I'm saying it gets better. It's very simple and yeah, kind of slow and floaty and okay. Kind of walking through sludge. It's not just walking simulator like a slow RPG is, you know, that the first two hours is all talking. It's not that, but it is kind of. It doesn't really show how good it is until you're kind of knee deep in it.

So, yeah, yeah, it starts off a little slow and then like, you know, and again like that sort of the mid to late game when you have to do the rebuilding and the purification and all the other stuff, it really does kind of get bogged down in that.

Yeah, yeah.

But, you know, I, I think. I don't know that there, you know, are any like major lessons or anything. Again, I would just sort of stress. I think like this game is sort of an examination in a lot of ways of like what the pursuit of excellence looks like.

Yeah.

And how like that more often than not, it is about perseverance. It's about showing up, doing the time, like, you know, putting in, putting in the work and that, you know, in and in, in the face of setbacks, continuing to persevere and do the work. So yeah, and I, I think that's in and of itself that's pretty cool. Even if it's, you know, in my opinion it's, it's not a, it's not really. Doesn't, it doesn't smash it out of the park.

Right, right.

As a whole experience.

Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's maybe not is super deep, you know, in life changing or something, but it does have a good message and I think it gets it across in a number of different ways like narratively and through the gameplay because it does get a little tedious the things that you do. But. And I'm talking about the individual like press down and press y, you know, for the next three minutes while you hold this rice kind of a thing. And that's, that's okay. Like it, it's supposed to feel a little uncomfortable and, and it gives you the option to pawn that. Work off on other people there if you want to. It just won't be as good as if you do it yourself. And so again I think it's teaching those things. So yes, I think there, there's, there's a, a charm to this game that I really appreciate. But yeah, like you said, it's nothing super deep but at the same time it's kind of, it's, it's a good lesson to learn that's going to serve you well. So there's something here that is good. It's not just mindless, you know. So. Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of a mixed bag that I enjoy quite a bit.

Yeah. I would say like if you've, you've gone all the way through this and you're kind of like that sounds enjoyable. Like check it out.

Yeah.

Like it's. Usually you can pick it up. I don't, I don't think it's like 20, maybe 30 bucks most of the time. And yeah, I've seen it go on sale frequently. So.

Was it even a full price release? I don't, I don't even know because I had got it discounted, I had gotten the, the special edition and, and I got it pretty heavily discounted. So.

Yeah, I, I don't think I, I think just like the base version is. Yeah. Like maybe 20, 30 bucks.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's, it's on sale fairly frequently and it's, it's, it's, it's a, the. Once you really open it up it's a really clever and, and, and like it's a really good brawler platformer kind of thing going on. With some really cool level design. Did you do the. The challenge cavern thing?

I did for a while. I didn't.

Yeah, you know, I didn't finish it either. I was like, I kind of got like, far enough to get the one thing I wanted and I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. Not that it was bad, but it just. It also wasn't really good. It was like, this is fun. But. Yeah, I. I guess I would just say, like, in closing. Yeah, it's like, I. I'd recommend this. It's a bit of a caveat I'd recommend, but it's like. Yeah, I think it's. I think it's a good game. I think it's worth playing. Um, it does not belong in the top 100 list and frankly does not belong even in our honorable mentions. But it is. It's like, this is a seven. That is worth your time.

Yeah, agree. And. And hopefully this has been worth your time because you're still here, listening, watching, doing all those things. But before we get going for the evening or morning or whatever time it is that you're currently listening is before we leave your ears, we do have one final form, and that is just our community shout outs. We like to give shout outs to people in our community that do cool things. We just want to give a little bit of recognition. And the community shout out that I had is for in our discord. He goes by McKelvis. He sent me a little Christmas gift. I don't know how he got my address, but he sent a couple.

Like, I may or may not have had something to do with that.

Well, there you go. Merry Christmas. Thank you so much. That was. It was so kind of you. Just the. The little letter that you sent in a few. A few books that, that, that means a lot. It's just so cool that to. To have. To have someone do that. That was just super cool. So thank you. You deserve a shout out. Merry Christmas.

Yeah, John is. Is a good dude and he's good people.

Yeah.

Yeah. I actually, I need to text him sooner rather than later, but. Yeah, and I'm. I'm just gonna echo that. Like, okay, he. He sent me a little something as well. And it's not just like the. It's. But it's the thought behind it. And yeah, he sent. He sent me this card, man, that he must have hid some ninjas in it because, like, I got like a little misty and I did not appreciate that. I'm just like. I was feeling things. I was feeling things that Were not bottomless rage. But yeah, John, good on you, bud. Yeah, well done. So thank you. But normally we have some other forms, but because this is like the rare, the very rare third episode, like middle episode of a month, like there will be three episodes this month. I think it is safe to say that we're just going to forego that stuff.

Yeah.

And we just need to, like, just land the plane.

So let's do it.

If they want to get a hold of us, how can they do that?

Oh, that's right. Yes. There's tons of ways you can get a hold of us. Even, you know, wherever you're listening to this, I'm sure there's a way to do that. But checking out, you know, show notes, descriptions, all that stuff. Commenting if you're watching on YouTube, you know, or you could just simply go to linktree.com thebacklogbreakdown and that has tons of different social media platforms that we're on in ways that you can get a whole hold of us. So go do that and talk at us. Tell us about the, the rice and the ruin in your life. Or maybe you have different thoughts. I know of one person in particular who started playing this game and did not like it at all, which is cool. That's fine.

Which I would respond get good scrub.

I did not respond that way.

But, you know, I, I, but I would. And I, I just did.

Yes. So if you want to be told to get good scrub, then go to linktree.com the backlog breakdown and, and let us know that you hate this game.

Yeah, well. Or whatever. But I think like, dude, I'm, I'm fading pretty quick. I think I've, I've seen you fight off a yawn or two as well.

Oh, no.

I think, I think we just need to land this plane and just call it a night. So we've done the thing that we, I mean, I think, and again, it's like so many of our conversations. Could we say more? Yeah, sure. We could have probably spent hours, like, really going through like, the details of all the different little character vignettes and everything else.

Like, yeah, we didn't talk about the crane. That was out of nowhere just like that mention of it. But we're not going to do that. We're not going to spend hours talking about these things.

Terrible.

So terrible.

Terrible. Just, just horrible.

But we're going to land this crane.

We're going to land this crane. There's always more to be said, but I think for what it's worth, we've done a bang up job and we've done all that we need to do tonight. So until next time. Josh, what should they do?

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

By.

It.