Get This Party Started: RPG Character Draft

This is a head gun podcast.

All right, look.

We've got to defeat the Demon Lord.

We need to team up.

I think the three of us just need to be a party.

You mean Matt?

An RPG party?

The three of us.

Yeah, the three of us.

I think our best chance of defeating the vile demon lord and saving our realm is for all three of us

to become not just friends, but allies.

Okay.

To become party members and battle evil together.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, it seems like the only option.

It's a sacrifice, but it's one that we need to make.

Absolutely.

Great.

We need to go out there and adventure together.

I know what my role is.

I already know what my role is.

Okay.

What are you thinking about that?

I'll be the driver.

Be the driver.

Yeah, like the getaway driver.

Okay.

So you guys go in, and

I'll have the car ready.

And as soon as you're done, we get to get a car.

So we have cars.

Yeah, we have cars.

I was not clear on whether...

Okay, we have cars.

I understand now.

We have cars.

Yes, of course, there's a demon lord, but we have cars.

It kind of sounds like you're not trying to get your hands dirty.

You kind of just want to wait in the car.

Yeah.

Okay, okay.

That's fine.

But if that's okay, you know what?

every every group sort of needs like a

guy in the chair kind of thing kind of like a guy who's like looking stuff up at a computer like somewhere else.

Yeah, so like I'll be somewhere else Heather, you'll be outside in the car.

I'll be the driver and like Nick goes in.

Yeah,

well, we didn't, I mean, we haven't figured out what my role is yet, though.

Okay, okay.

We got to battle the demon lord.

Someone's got to get in there.

Someone's got to get in there and mix it up.

It's got to be balanced.

We've got movement.

We've got logistics.

Yeah.

You know what else we need?

Frontline talent.

And you know how we find frontline talent?

A talent scout.

I'm going to find

the best, strongest warrior, and I'm going to say, you're the man for the job and get him out there.

Get him out and get him out.

That's actually really, really good because, yeah, if like...

There's some strong guy walking around, doesn't necessarily know what's going on, he's not going to think, I'll just do that myself.

Somebody needs to recruit him and and like get him, you know, geared up and then

deploy him to take on the demon lord.

That makes a ton of sense.

I actually already put up some ads on social media.

We have social media too.

Oh, yeah, no, we have cars.

We have cars on social media.

I have computer.

Yeah, you have computer.

So I put some ads up on social media.

I'm just where I'm having tryouts for the hottest, strongest studs.

So they have to be hot, too.

Yeah, well, I won't look.

I mean, they got to have the right look.

Tryouts.

What is a try?

What do you have to do?

You know,

I'll try them out a little bit see if they can handle the job you have to try them out I mean I'll be the one I'm the talent scout I'll be doing the one doing the tryout sorry sorry I'm sorry you know as we're we're all on zoom because we're all this is our reality we've been doing this whole thing on zoom yeah we've been doing it on zoom

at all actually one of the one of the huds the studs is here for the tryout that sucks for me because i was also supposed to be there for this i said that i would be there you want me to tell tell them to hang out for a little bit yeah well because like we do this part on zoom but we do the tryouts in person hey what's up bro yeah you look good i was also supposed to be there for that so i'm actually really upset hey why don't you my my my buddy matt's gonna come over and and join uh in in trying you out so uh why don't you just uh grab yourself a vodka soda and just relax

the thing that about

heather i know that you seem confused about this the only reason i'm gonna be there is because like I don't want Nick to pick the wrong hottest, strongest guy.

There needs to be two eyes, sets of eyes on this, just in case that there's like a diamond in the rough that we're not seeing.

I was just on social media, which we have here in this reality, and it turns out that the Demon Lord has already annexed most of the planet.

Do you just join the Demon Lord?

I feel like we could just join.

Let's just

seem way easier than fighting against him.

Here's the thing.

I didn't want to say this because we were having the tryouts and stuff.

Have you guys seen the Demon Lord?

Yeah.

He's super buff and hot.

He looks, honestly, he looks great.

It's kind of like if I was going to pick somebody to beat the demon lord, I would beat him.

I would pick him, but he's already the demon lord.

You You know what I mean?

But like, if we can just join him, that's like we kind of, then we kind of did it and we're heroes, kind of.

Yeah.

I think we can go home thinking that about ourselves today.

We're the heroes.

Yeah, we're the heroes.

Wouldn't mind giving that demon lord a try out.

We balance DPS with support and romance co-workers as we draft our dream RPG parties this week on Get Played.

Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heatheran Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger.

That's me, Nick Tiger Weiger, along with Bat Apodaka.

Hmm.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Premiere Video Game Podcast, where this week we're talking about a party.

Yeah, and I don't think we need to be coy with this.

This episode is pre-recorded.

It's going in the backlog.

This is a thing we sometimes do.

We have an episode that's in the can, ready to deploy as needed.

So you'll be hearing this from some point in the past.

It will not be as topical topical as our normal episodes.

We don't have to be coy.

But what if I want to?

Oh, Matt, don't be coy.

I hope you're not coy.

Where's my line?

It's got to be in the neighborhood.

Might have been a record for Fastest We've Upset Heather.

Nope.

Yeah, this is

going in the.

I like that.

This is going in the backlog.

Yeah, but into the backlog.

Ed to the backlog.

Yeah, into the backlog.

I don't mind it.

No, me neither.

Ranchi, okay with that?

So, like, obviously, obviously,

this is being recorded at an earlier time to be released for later.

So, like, if, you know, there's like a gaming piece of news that we're not talking about, that's probably why.

Yeah.

You know,

isn't that crazy?

Whatever that is.

I think earliest we've upset Heather and earliest ranch has been completely jumped out.

90 seconds in.

Full disclosure, did we all just have curry?

Yeah.

We sure did.

It was really good.

Most of the time we're recording this show now.

We've just had curry.

We are having, we are, we have been going to the well, look at the curry well quite a bit.

It's a good way to live.

It's a great, great meal.

I mean, not to spend too much time on this, I kind of don't think I can get sick of it.

I think it's one of those ones that's like, this is just good.

And I could eat this probably, I could probably eat it at least every other week.

Yeah, like, could you get sick of a grilled cheese sandwich or like probably not?

Probably not.

No.

I could just keep in those fuckers forever.

Yeah.

Because there's some foods that you're sort of like, they've had this a little bit too much.

There was a year of my life where I effectively lived on grilled cheese because of budget reasons.

Yeah.

And no, I never got sick of it.

Yeah.

Great sandwich.

If anything, because this was when I was living in Amsterdam, there was a kind of cheese on the, it was like a cheap grocery store cheese, but it was in Holland.

So the cheese was a different quality.

And I still hunt for that taste.

Wow.

Hearing about some of the foods you've described from Amsterdam, I was really worried it was going to be like, yeah, this is like Amsterdam cheese.

It's like fucking

fish cheese.

I'm like god stop it's licorice fish

salty licorice fish

and it was hard

yeah

i got all veneers because i've ate so much of that cheese um but yeah heather said we're having a little bit of a party today aren't we yeah we're having a

we're having a party we're having a party bit of a party Well, we all love parties.

It kind of seems like.

We love that.

Yeah.

I mean, as a person in the world,

could not be further from the truth.

Yeah, I don't like parties.

I actually do not like attending parties.

Well, that's interesting, isn't it?

I'll go to a party.

I'll have fun.

I like to,

here's the thing.

I am kind of a party dude.

Yeah.

I like to party.

This is the thing.

You're the party animal of the podcast.

I will do it.

You honestly am Ranch.

I think Ranch is a secret party animal.

You're the Michelangelo of our Ninja.

I think that's fair.

Who's everybody?

Okay.

Donatello does machines.

That's probably me because I'm the one who's like building computers.

But you also build computers.

But I might be kind of the Leonardo, which I know is boring, but I think that.

I think you're the Leonardo.

You're the leader.

Yeah, you really, yeah.

You get us back on track.

You keep things on course.

Which means that Ranch is Raff.

That tracks sometimes.

Ranch is too nice to be Raph, is the thing.

Here's the thing.

I could see it.

I could see it.

I could see it.

I could see it happening.

I could see it for sure.

Also, you got the RA, RA thing.

That's true.

Ranch Raff.

Maps nicely.

So I'm a bit of a party animal.

I'll go, but I also now am like, I like to be invited only.

I don't want to not be in.

If I see a party happening and I'm not invited and it's people I know, I do take it maybe too personally and get sad about it.

Wow.

You're on Dracula rules.

I'm on Dracula rules, but I like, I like to be invited, but I don't feel like I have to go.

And the reason I think I don't get invited to a lot of stuff, because I just like don't show up.

I'll just like not go.

Cause I like to stay home and go to bed at like 10.30.

Yeah, me too.

When I see that I haven't been invited to a party, I'm like, oh, thank God.

It's for me, it's nice to be invited, but I'm also sort of like, I, I got everything I need at home.

I don't got to have a long conversation over a Paloma at like 11 o'clock at night.

I'm good.

I don't mind.

I like leaving the house.

I like going out and doing stuff.

I'm doing that all the time.

Like, So I don't necessarily, I'm not necessarily, I'm not like a buddy or a shedding.

Please.

Get out.

But like, specifically, like, hey, we're going to go to someone's apartment and like hang out with a bunch of people.

You know, I'm just like, I don't need to be doing this.

I can do that at home.

Yeah.

How old am I?

Unless it's built around like a, like, a super, like, you know, like the Super Bowl or something, or like, uh, I went over, like, I don't even care about this.

I went and watched like a boxing match at my friend's house because he was like, hey, we're having the fight on.

I was like, I'll go, come.

here.

Yeah, that's fun.

That's like an event.

Come and eat some wings.

There's a purpose to that.

Yeah, and then just like walk home and then

leave whenever I want.

That sounds fine.

Yeah, parties are

parties in the rear view.

But that's not the party we're talking about.

No,

this is a different

sort of grouping.

We're talking about the Libertarian Party.

More popular than ever.

All right, we're going to get into that in the body of the episode.

But right now, the question for the room is, what are you playing?

What were you playing?

Hands me the Resident Evil Merchant.

I'm here to ask you a question.

It's not, what are you playing?

What were you playing?

I want to hear about RPGs that you guys probably haven't talked to people about.

at length on the show before

wow that's a great that's a great way in, Resident Evil Murphy.

You're welcome.

So, not like a disco Elysium, which we've talked to death, but something but an RPG we played or an RPG adjacent game we played that we've enjoyed that we maybe haven't gone into any depth about.

Yeah, and I don't want any Ruth Bader Ginsburgs in here.

I don't want any.

Oh,

it's Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Did you say Ruth Pater Ginsburg?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, that's not.

Her initials are not RPG, they're RBG.

Oh, right now they're RIP, by the way.

She went the way of the dodo.

She's a freaking doorknob.

Somebody owes me money.

We had a wager on that.

Yep.

You're way late on collecting.

Yeah, you gotta

get it.

I think she died like three.

It's been a while.

You probably charge interest.

I don't think that's how bets work.

Actually, it should be.

I actually did win $30 betting on Antonin Scalia's the next Supreme Court justice to die, which was like eight years ago at this point, but it was a pretty good, that was a very satisfactory bet to pay off.

Yeah, that's probably the best $30 ever.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

Bet more.

ED is more common than you think and simpler to treat.

than ever.

Through HIMS, you can connect online with a licensed provider to access personalized treatment options discreetly on your terms.

Through HIMS, you can access personalized prescription treatment options for ED like hard mints and Sex RX Plus climax control if prescribed.

HIMS offers access to ED treatment options ranging from hard mints to trusted generics that cost 95% less than the brand names if prescribed.

Now that's quite a savings.

You shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself.

HIMS brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalized treatments that put your goals first.

This isn't a one-size-fits-all care that forgets you in the waiting room.

It's your health and goals put first, with real medical providers making sure you get what you need to get results.

Think of HIMS as your digital front door that gets you back to your old self, with simple 100% online access to trusted treatments for ED and more, all in one place.

To get simple access to personalized, affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit HIMS.com/slash get played.

That's him.com slash get played for your free online visit him.com slash get played actual price will depend on product and subscription plan featured products include compounded drug products which the fda does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality prescription required see website for details restrictions and important safety information do you struggle with procrastisaving you know when you put off uh doing something that could save you a ton i used to be a huge procrastaver until I heard about Mint Mobile's best deal of the year that's ending soon, 50% off unlimited premium wireless for new customers.

Let me tell you how I procrastisaved.

I would reuse toilet paper.

Stop overspending with big wireless and cut your wireless bill to $15 a month when you switch.

All Mint Mobile plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text on the nation.

largest 5G network.

You can use your current phone and phone number on any Mint Mobile plan and bring along all your existing contacts.

Don't miss out on three months of unlimited premium wireless from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month.

But hurry because this deal ends September 22nd.

Look, cell phones are cell phones.

What are we talking about?

Your wireless carrier isn't, it's all the finger, man.

Am I allowed to say f ⁇ during an ad?

Well, I just did.

And I told you I would reuse toilet paper to save money.

Think about how much you could be saving with Mint Mobile.

Quit stalling and start saving when you make the switch.

Shop plans at mintmobile.com/slash get played.

That's mintmobile.com/slash get played.

Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month.

Limited time, new customer offer for first three months only.

Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan.

Taxes and fees extra.

See Mint Mobile for details.

Don't want to talk to me about an OPG.

I can go because I don't have that much to

do.

I've mentioned these in passing, but I haven't spoken about them at length.

I really, really was enjoying, or I enjoyed

two South Park video games as a non-South Park enjoyer.

Okay.

I don't really like the show that much.

I was not allowed to watch it growing up.

Oh, that explains it because I was like, well, you're the perfect age for South Park, and then you're just like, Oh, if it was taboo, then maybe you just never had a chance to get in.

It was taboo, and honestly, like the times that I've seen it, uh-huh, maybe in recent years I haven't enjoyed it for different reasons.

Um, but uh, even like old episodes that I've like when I would try to watch it as a kid, uh, I would be like, I'm gonna get in trouble, I shouldn't be watching it.

So, I couldn't, I couldn't enjoy it.

I was able to watch The Simpsons and like Family Guy and like Futurama, I really liked those, um, but South Park was not never really my thing.

But for some reason, I don't even know what got me into into the games.

The Stick of Truth and the Fractured Butt Hole

are

silly titles.

And

I don't know why I played them.

I guess I must have read that somebody was like, This is like surprisingly engaging and really fun.

So I tried them out.

They were critically well regarded at the time, and

at least the first one sold pretty well.

I only played the Stick of Truth, but I did finish Stick of Truth.

Stick of Truth is really great.

And the reason I guess I'm bringing it up, these are RPGs.

They're kids, they're the south park kids not confident i know all their names i know there's cartman yeah there's kenny of course okay kyle yeah and stan you got him

wow

okay wow i guess i guess you're a freaking i guess i freaking love south park i guess respect my authoritative there you go

I will say that I laughed out loud while playing the game.

These games are actually genuinely very funny.

It's the writers of South Park writing a video game.

A lot of love filled with jokes.

And

some jokes about video games themselves.

Yeah.

And

they're in the style.

There's a new a newer game recently came out called South Park Snow Day that is more of a 3D,

I think, RPG, like, you know, action RPG.

These are...

done in the style of the show.

So it looks like you're watching the show kind of, but you're able to interact, you're able to, you know, control and interact within the world of South Park.

So that's cool, too.

But these games are RPGs.

They're like playing basically like they're LARPing.

So it's kind of like a fantasy role-playing game in that regard, but it all takes place within the within South Park.

The first game is a turn-based game, which is fun to a point because you're sort of like, gosh, like, because so many turn-based games are too long.

Like, that's like some of the stuff that's tough about revisiting the older Final Fantasy games.

You're like, gosh, like, these are really such a slog.

The correction for that in the second one, the fractured butthole, is that there is a grid-based

it's turn-based but it's also grid based so you're able to do sort of wider areas of attack uh which i found to be way more satisfying than the standard um just turn based attack a guy attack a guy attack a guy fucking love grids grids are awesome grids rule grids are how do you feel about grids heather i don't know what you're talking about grid based combat so like um it'll be like tiles you're seeing tiles yeah or not in like a final fantasy tactics oh okay yeah yeah yeah yeah okay not

You don't have to be as tactical, I guess.

He's like, what's a grid-based combat

tactics I guess?

Yeah, so it's basically like that.

So you have sort of like, if you do, you attack one guy, it might knock him back and hit another guy or something.

Or like you could have an attack that hits four guys at once, depending on where you place the attack.

And I just really, really enjoyed it.

I think those games are super funny.

I kind of wish they kept going in that style because I probably would have been more interested in a third entry in the South Park games franchise without ever watching the movie or TV show.

But yeah, if you have not played those games, I feel like they're pretty good, maybe RPG entry points even because they're sort of reduced to very basic

RPG elements where there's not like

I mean, there are a lot of menus in these games too, but

they sort of feel like RPG light kind of that, you know, if you're not messing with too much and you like South Park, it might be easy.

Like a paper Mario, It's like the mechanics are a little simplified.

The difficulty level remaining very low.

I got like super, I was playing on normal and got like super overpowered very early.

And then, yeah, it's just a high quality level of writing, a pretty compelling story.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't, it would be an interesting, I mean, that's interesting to hear that you're not a South Park guy,

but you still enjoy these games.

So I guess it is something that's, that's approachable for someone who's not

deep in the canon.

They play well and they're super funny.

And those, I mean, the thing about those kids, and I don't don't know if anybody's really talking about this, they're really rude.

They're really rude.

They're quite rude.

The thing I remember is, one of the things I remember is, is that the one, is that the game where there's an audio log joke?

Which one that is?

That sounds familiar.

But he's like,

why am I saying all this into an audio log?

Like, he's just basically going through,

you know, it's like just talking about the video game trope of audio logs of like, oh no, the experiments are going awry.

But he's just like talking about why he's doing it.

I do love that.

I could be misconflating that with something else, but I feel like this is the South Park game.

It's a good joke, either way.

The other thing I remember is the

character classes are like

fighter, mage, thief, and then Jew.

Yeah, yeah.

It's really crazy.

There's also like, there's, um, when you're creating a character in the game, you can select a skin color, and it tells you that it's going to make the game harder if you don't pick white.

Yeah,

the darker you go with your skin tone, the more difficult the game becomes.

Me, I made like

a like Latino kid, and I was like, is this game going to be hard?

It's not actually, it doesn't actually do it, it's just a joke that they did.

But if they did that, that would have...

I probably wouldn't have liked it as much.

Probably some of that's that's some of that newer South Park stuff that maybe I, you know, I don't like that.

Newer South Park stuff?

There's like sort of like newer South Park stuff that I see clips of, and I was like, so this is what South Park is doing now?

What are they doing?

Taking the piss out of the news, I'll tell you that.

Oh, having a laugh with the news.

Oh, okay.

I feel like that's what I knew that they did.

That's the whole point of this show.

Here's the thing.

They're like records every week.

They're getting crazy with it.

In what way?

They're just like going off.

I feel like the news is pretty crazy on its own.

I know.

South Park don't need to do that.

Okay.

All right.

Hell stand to stay out of it.

Okay.

Kenny's keeping his fucking mouth shut.

Okay.

Heather is exasperated.

Heather, what were you playing?

All right.

That's fine.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about a game that I think maybe I've mentioned in light passing on the show before.

It's a Sega Saturn game called Dragon Force, which is a real-time strategy and role-playing video game that came out in 1996.

And the main selling point of this game was that there were 200 soldiers fighting on screen at the same time.

You don't got to have headphones for this because I'm just going to show you a little bit of what the combat looked like.

Because you would choose, choose the way the game opened is there's a big map and you would choose one of the cities and you'd be like, okay, these are my guys.

And then

you would have like

your typical RPG battles where it was like, oh, I have a party.

Instead, you had troops and you would deploy those troops in formation.

And they would have to attack the other

troops instead of it just being like three dudes against a monster.

It,

when I, when I saw the ads for it when I was a kid, I was like blown away because this came at a time when you never saw this many moving sprites on screen at the same time.

Now, this kind of

action is really rudimentary.

But at the time, it looked crazy.

Reading from Wikipedia here,

the battle scenes were often likened to the then recent film Braveheart.

So people would be like wow, it looks like Braveheart and I want to show you just a little bit of the combat system here from Dragon Force

So you see like sprites on one end of a huge field and sprites on another end of an enormous field and you would send

your troops out onto the field and you would see them battling, sort of auto-battling against the other players' troops.

But again, a lot of bodies.

It's a ton of bodies on screen, and it seemed, it was crazy at the time to see it.

Nuts.

I was kind of prepared for it to look kind of bad, but it's kind of good.

It's pretty odd.

I love how it looks.

So the yeah,

they are sprites, and they're just scaled up or down based on where they are in relation to the pseudo-3D camera, but it's a pretty good effect in terms of like the rows of you know like like it works pretty well and this the staggered rows of combatants facing off one another and you would also have individual fighters would have special moves where they'd be able to like throw huge fireballs or they'd be able to like

fly up into the air and attack the the rear line of of the enemy troops at the time this game was the most complicated thing I had ever played in my life.

It looks like there's a lot going on.

I was like,

and it was also, it also came in a time when there weren't a ton of localized anime style games.

And so the sprites in this game and the character art were all anime style.

And I was like, wow, it's like getting to watch one of those cartoons from Blockbuster.

But yeah, it was,

it's one of those games that I kind of wish somebody would do again.

Yeah.

Because the number of sprites you could make now would be infinite.

And

the sort of walk cycle and animation cycle on those sprites could be so much more lush that it could make for a really visually compelling game.

But yeah, highly rated Sega Saturn game.

Nobody really talks about it.

I still own my copy.

And kind of a unique take on the RPG genre.

Wow.

The namesake of the band, was this the inspiration for the name Dragon Force?

Do we know?

I have no idea.

I've never even thought about that.

I've never even heard of the game.

The band is, I mean, it sounds like it could conceivably have come from, but no, it's I'm not sure.

Anyway, that was really cool, Heather.

I liked it.

There's a game I'd heard about, but I'd never actually seen footage of it in an action.

Dragon Force won Electronic Gaming Monthly Saturn Game of the Year and Strategy Game of the Year in 1996.

It was also runner-up for the All Systems Game of the Year Award.

Wow.

I thought I'd also reach back to the 90s for a JRPG

that was on a different console, the Victor in that generation, the PlayStation 1.

A square game from 1998 called Zeno Gears.

Now, I love this game, and I don't think I've talked about it much on the podcast.

It is

a heavy,

huge

plotting experience that'll probably never replay unless there's a remaster or there's a version that's heavily modded because it's famously slow text.

You're dealing with PS1 load times.

It was, it is a very like kind of a laborious experience, but also like kind of like that's part of what's fun about it is just how overwhelming it is.

And this came at me in a time in my life where I could dedicate like this amount of of mental real estate and just sheer time to an to an RPG

um

so basically what this game is is is

I and I realized this later after we covered Evangelion on get animated that it obviously owes some of its existence to it and is kind of

similarly of a piece in that it's like this this kind of a

this weird sci-fi world.

It is, it does take place on a different planet, it's not Earth, but it's like this, this sci-fi world

where there are mechs and there is mech combat, and there is like, you know, like also just general, like kind of like more melee-style active time battle combat.

But it also ties that in with all of these like

dense thematic, you know, ruminations on

religion and psychology and the internality of these characters and their history and characters with, you know, retrograde amnesia.

In fact, and I meant to bring this art up.

I'll maybe just show this.

One of the characters,

Ellie,

has kind of, it's kind of a, I'll show this to you here, kind of just Asuka's character design.

Interesting, yeah.

But the...

The backstory is more akin to Ray's.

So definitely it seems to,

you know it seems to owe some of its again some of its existence to to evangelian

i really liked this game and

i think the thing is it's a one of the things that's infamous about it is that it's pretty front-loaded like it starts off very strong it goes on a little too long In my memory, because of how huge it was, I was like, oh, yeah, this game's like four discs, right?

And then I looked it up again.

I was like, no, it's just two discs, but the second disc is

like just slows to a crawl.

And a lot of it is like just like dialogue and just text and just like, just you're sitting there just going through unending cutscenes.

Pretty light in terms of gameplay.

I believe there's some, and I don't know if this is true or not, but I believe there's some speculation that like the development team kind of ran out of resources.

And so that's part of the reason that it's not as well realized.

But it's still like cool.

And it also,

the most significant part of it is that it birthed the the Zeno franchise, which has been, so this initial game has been completely dwarfed by its successor, Zeno Saga and Zeno Blade Chronicles.

Now, as much as I love Zeno Gears, I never really got much into Zeno Saga.

Like, I messed around with it, but I was just like, it never really hooked me.

And Zeno Blade Chronicles, which I've heard is awesome.

I have not played any of those games.

Anyone played Zeno Blade Chronicles?

I only played a little bit of three, right?

Yeah, you were playing three.

Yeah, I played,

I don't remember which ones I played, but I played more than one of them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But anyway, I was just trying to think back.

I'm like, what haven't I talked about?

And I figured I'd reach back into the memory banks

for the good old Zeno gears.

Very cool game.

Isn't a huge amount of the second disc of Zeno Gears like

philosophical conversations?

It's like, it's like, again, there's a lot of stuff about

like psychology.

So like, and yeah, and philosophy is another big part of it.

So they're like just really kind of digging in deep on that.

And it's just like a lot of it is,

you know, pretty dense and exhaustive in a way where it kind of feels like this is a little bit,

I don't know who it, it's a cliche that's attributed to Mark Twain of like, I apologize for this letter being so long.

I didn't have time to make it shorter, right?

It's like, it's like, it's almost like kind of thing of like, like it feels like it needed to be edited down a little bit, but yes, it does really go deep in the same sort of way that like, you know, uh,

I don't know, like, a lot of science fiction goes into like, like, what does it mean to be alive?

What it, what is existence exactly, and that certainly ties in with the ultimate um fates of the characters.

You said that this one is called Zeno Gears, Zeno Gears, so then that one made uh Zeno Blade and Zeno Saga.

Is that what the other one was?

Zeno Saga, yes, and then Zenoblade Chronicles.

You didn't think this was responsible for the Zeno bites, do you?

You couldn't think that.

What is so?

What we're doing this week.

Could you imagine if it was responsible for such a thing?

Those guys are so bad.

I've called this Let's Get a Party Started.

What is Zenobites?

What is that?

I mean, you lost Nick.

He means the Sennobites.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Zenobites.

I mean, Zenobites.

There's Xenomorphs.

And then I got that you were getting two Sennobites.

Cennobites are the demonic figures from the Hellraiser franchise.

Jesus Christ.

But I thought you were constructing something of like a new portmanteau of Zenobites, but you were just misspeaking?

Yeah, I kind of fucked up.

Okay.

Fuck.

Guys, fall is here.

The beers are colder.

The football's back.

And the fits are getting layered.

But if you're still rocking old beat-up boxers under those flannels and jeans, we gotta talk.

It's time to upgrade to Me Undies.

These things are ridiculously soft.

Like, don't want to take them off soft, if you catch my drift.

They're made with micromodal fabric that feels like a cloud, but they still breathe when things heat up.

And just in time for spooky season, Me Undies limited edition Halloween line features festive prints, including glow-in-the-dark underwear, so you can bring the spooky vibes underneath it all, because that's what you want.

Your underwear to be scary.

Me Undies has a cut for every butt with over 20 styles in 100 different colors and prints.

Me Undies signature super soft micro-modal fabric is breathable, stretchy, and unbelievably cozy, perfect for crisp mornings, chilly nights, and everything in between.

Whether you're layering up for a hike or lounging in flannel all day, Me Undies moves with you and keeps you comfy.

Want even more seasonal comfort?

Try the Breathe Line, designed for moisture wicking and anti-odor tech to keep you fresh throughout fall workouts or just a long day of pumpkin picking.

I love it, they use sustainably sourced materials and work with partners that care for their workers.

Not happy with your first pair of undies, it's on me undies.

With more than 30 million pairs sold and 90,000 five-star reviews, me undies are an essential summer must-have for every drawer.

I've talked about the undies, okay?

I've talked about me undies, and folks,

the me stands for me, mine, me,

I, Matt.

I got the undies undies

and I loves them.

Because guess what?

The old undies, I gone back to them one time in a moment of weakness, right?

Laundry Day, all my me undies are in the freaking wash,

and I put on an old pair of undies and I'm just like, ow, ow, ah, I can't breathe.

Ah, it hurts.

Oh no, it stinks.

But with the me undies on, those are not my problem anymore.

Right now, as a listener to my show, you can get cozy and spooky for less with deals up to 50% off at meundies.com slash get played and enter promo code get played.

That's meundies.com slash get played, promo code get played for up to 50% off.

Meundies, that's comfort made for all.

This is an absolutely true story.

One time I was in Japan and I had my cell phone with me, but I was

following somebody around in the city and having a good time.

And then they locked me on a roof of a skyscraper because they were a crazy person.

That's a true story.

And my cell phone didn't have wireless access.

So this next ad is specifically something that I could have used in the past.

Because if I'd had Wi-Fi, I could have called somebody, but instead I had no cell phone service trapped on a roof in Tokyo.

If you've ever been lost abroad or badly needed an internet connection with no Wi-Fi spot in sight, you'll understand what a difference a local SIM card can make.

An e-SIM provides an internet connection wherever you travel and saves you money on roaming fees.

That's where Saley comes in.

Saley is a new e-SIM service app brought to you by the creators of NordVPN.

Here you can choose from several affordable eSIM plans in over 190 countries and eight regions.

With a Saley eSIM, you'll always have a connection when needed.

Download Saley once and you won't have to install a new e-SIM for each country.

You can avoid scammers selling fake SIM cards outside of train stations and airports.

No more wandering around looking for a public Wi-Fi spot.

With a Saley, you're always connected.

They provide 24-7 support and you get a full refund if your device isn't e-SIM compatible.

Download the Saley app in your app store.

Use code GETPLAID at checkout to get 15% off your first purchase or go to saley.com slash get played.

That's S-A-I-L-Y.com slash get played.

I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

So here's how Let's Get a Party Started works.

I think we first need to figure out the rules.

What's our roster size?

Because when we think about a good RPG party, I feel like, you know,

like RPG parties have gotten smaller over time.

They used to be bigger.

Let's do three.

You think three total?

Three.

That's a small party.

That's a tight, that's a tight party.

That's a tight party.

What the fuck are you guys talking about?

Like, on screen, how many characters are on screen when you're.

I overreacted.

It is usually three.

Sometimes it's three, yeah.

We could go four.

I'm like in like Crown of Trigger and like the Final Fantasy games that I've played, it is four, but like in

Rebirth, it's three.

In Kingdom Hearts, it's three.

Yeah.

Depends on what era of RPG and

what the combat is.

Look, if you guys want four, I'll go four.

I feel like classic is three.

I think five's too much.

We don't have to do five.

We could do five.

Okay, so we'll do it.

We'll do a roster size of four for now.

Here's a question I have for everyone.

Can we draft protagonists?

Sure.

They are on the table.

So if I was like, I want my party to have Cloud Strife, that's okay.

Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Okay, how about this?

Are we in the party?

What?

Like, is it our party?

So you're one of the four people?

Yeah, I'm like me and then it's my guys.

So then you have three kids.

It's still only only three kind of and you are the other person so like i'm kind of like joker and persona sure like i'm like the the guy who's like the lead of the party sure let's do it this is

going to really change my answers well why don't we okay we don't have to do that i'm just asking i'm going forward with my answers even though i now know that i'm in this party i'm in i'm i'm in the party as well i'm out so there's like a self-insert character that is like the player character and then there's also the protagonist and then and then you've got three other colleagues who are going to fill out your role.

So it's an RPG party of four.

We're one of the four slots that's immovable, and there are three other slots, and those are the slots that were drafted.

Yeah, we're the protagonist that cannot be swapped out of the party.

You know what?

Maybe here's what I'm going to say.

If we want to say at the end, like, hey, on our back bench, we'd have these guys.

Imagine

one of those games where you can swap out members of your party.

Yes.

Maybe in a hub world, maybe on the fly.

It just depends on its implementation.

But yeah, you can have a little bit of a bench if you want as well.

Great.

Great.

Sounds good.

Sounds great.

I'm going to say, personally,

I'm not just going for the most powerful lineup.

Okay, do whatever.

That's not my strategy.

Do whatever you want.

Because you could build the most OP.

You could just have the most OP party members.

I think we can each take an approach that we desire towards our party.

I will.

I'm just laying the groundwork for what my approach is going to be.

I'm thinking about synergy.

Okay.

And I'm also thinking about romance.

I'm in this party.

Let's mix it up.

Hey, well, yeah,

it hadn't occurred to me that I could be part of the party.

So now I'm like spiraling.

We're allowed to be part of the party.

So this whole episode has, so like Nick was like, let's just discuss the rules when we get there.

Yeah.

And now I'm realizing all of this has been

his attempt to backload us into Nick talking about girls and RPGs he wants to fuck.

Yeah, this episode's called

Let's Get This Party Star Colin Nick's Fuck Roster.

Not necessarily how I'm building my team.

I'm just saying, like, I think that

is an element, especially in more contemporary RPGs, but in a lot of RPGs, it's very often like, hey, what are my relationships between my party members?

Of course.

So I think that's a factor.

Well, then I think we should have Ranch.

Are they draft rules where if one of us picks one of the people, they can't be picked by anybody else?

Yes.

Okay, then I think Ranch needs to do a number countdown so that we know what order we're going in.

Because I do think that'll affect who I pick first.

Affect players.

I will say I'm willing to go last if that simplifies.

Of course you are.

Yeah, he's got some fucking sickos on his bone.

Also, question.

Do these characters, for the sake of the show, do these characters have to have appeared in a game where they could be party members?

Or are you just taking characters from RPGs in general?

Great question.

Like

Link from Ocarina of Time.

I think that's a cheat.

I think it should have to be a party member.

It should have to be someone who could be a party member in an existing game.

Great.

You can mash them up.

You can say, I'm taking characters from different games and putting them all into one thing.

Great, great, great.

I'm nervous now.

What are you nervous about?

Stay away from my girls.

It's my boys I'm concerned about.

Look, I will also say this.

I have organized my candidates in a way where I think I'm not going to be pulling.

Other I like I was like, I know, I think I know who some of you, like the two of you, some of the characters who the two of you want.

And I'm not trying to steal them from anybody.

Also, I got to say,

the ability at which Ranch is able to construct a wheel for us.

Yeah, we asked for a wheel live on the show as you listened.

And then suddenly there is a wheel with graphics up on the television.

Pretty good wheel.

It's a good wheel.

All right, let's spin this some bitch.

And we'll see who gets to draft their RPG party member first.

We begin with

Matt.

Wow.

Looks like Matt gets the number one pick.

Okay.

So you'll be, are we going to do snake style?

We can do it snake style.

Snake style.

I mean, yeah, we should probably do it snake style.

Okay, so you'll be the first pick, then it will be,

you know,

there'll be four more picks before you get your second pick.

Yes.

Think strategically.

All right.

Okay.

Okay.

Up next.

Is it going to be Nick or Helen?

Oh, my God.

It looks like it's just barely landing in the Nick at at the Nick.

Wow.

Wages has a second pick.

That means

Heather will have two in the row as a third pick.

Sounds good.

Okay.

All right, Matt, you're up.

Okay.

I didn't want to have to do this first.

I am drafting Tifa, and I will not be explaining.

Wow.

Wait, you won't be explaining?

What is the podcast without explanation?

I feel like I said it all when I said I'm drafting Tifa first.

That's it.

That's it.

She's everything to me.

That's interesting.

I thought I like I look Tifa love Tifa.

I don't know if Tifa would be my first pick from Final Fantasy VII,

but I do, but I'm just, we're making our own list.

I'm just, I'm just making this a conversation.

My man over here has the stones, Heather.

Do you believe this?

He's over here being like, I'm going to share my fuck list.

And then he's like, oh, you picked Tifa first.

I wouldn't have done that.

I didn't say it was, it's not a fuck list.

I said, romance is an element of building a party.

It's a consideration.

Okay.

What are my relationships going to be between these characters?

And also, it's not just romance.

It could also be bromance.

It'd also be who am I want to be friends with?

Why is your list titled The Bunker?

No, I'm just having fun.

But Tifa, Tifa is a great candidate for any RPG party.

She's an incredible fighter.

She's a very capable.

She's amazing.

She's very powerful in Remake.

I did not play Rebirth.

Does her damage really scale up in that game?

She got some really crazy punches in Rebirth.

She's fucking flying around.

Like in the same way that Cloud is flying around with a Buster Sword, she's going all over the place punching.

She's going nuts.

There she is.

Ranch is pulling up pictures of Tifa, and she leaned backwards from her computer when she saw what comes up

when you search for Tifa.

Yeah, if you look it up on the internet, it's going to be bad.

No, these are just random, regular screenshots.

None of this is pornography, and she still leaned back like it was.

This one is pretty good.

That was actually, it's that's like some deviant art with some

amazing drawing, of course.

The search looks looks like you typed in Tifa and SFW,

but it's not.

It's just the default.

Yeah.

But the thing is, Tifa is just incredible and is fun, is a fun ally to cloud.

They obviously have like a sort of,

they have a bit of a sort of, you know, there's a little bit of tension that will they won't there is what I meant to say.

Yeah.

Will they dilly?

Will they dally?

Will they?

Oh, you weren't on the phone over the weekend when I said this, Nick.

I said dilly, dally, shilly, shally out loud to my wife.

Why did you do that?

I don't know.

And she said, What the fuck are you talking about?

And I was like, It's from a Final Fantasy movie I hate.

Okay, so it's so far, my party is me and Tifa.

Wow, man.

I gotta say, Italian Parliament would be pretty happy with that photo.

All right.

That is one of the wildest things that have ever happened in history.

I think it's my favorite news story.

Repeat it for, in case people don't know.

A guy was watching, like an Italian politician was on a Zoom call, was watching

like Tifa Hentai.

You want to vote for a candidate you see yourself in?

Like an active, but like an active member of their parliament.

Not like a candidate, like a

parliamentary member.

That's so crazy.

It'd be like

peering into C-SPAN, and you see like some random dude for like the Republican from Missouri, and he's just like watching Tifa get plowed.

Oh, Maron, Maduma, Tifa.

All right, here's the thing.

I'm up.

I have too many options.

I have a character I really like that I'm not drafting because I do think

maybe this character will end up on my backbench if still available.

I do think this character is destined for Heather's party, and I think that character has a, as a, uh, as a, belongs there.

And I feel similarly about another one of my picks.

I feel like they are destined for Matt's party, and I expect to see them on the roster.

So I'm holding back on a couple of,

you know, big choices, not out of a sense of, you know, benevolence, but just because I'm thinking about like cohesion and I'm thinking about all the options that are available, and I have too many as it is.

So I think for that reason,

where I'm going, where I'm landing.

I can't believe this shit.

He's unable to stop smiling, which you can't hear, but perhaps can sense in his breath work.

I'm going to stop you right there, Heather.

You can hear it.

Here's the thing.

I need, my party needs both form and function.

I need a character to occupy the frontline fighter role, but I also want a character who has a story arc, whose character evolves over the course of our relationship in this party.

And I want a party member who I love.

And so from a game I love, Baldur's Gate 3, I am picking Bazelle Layzelle.

Wow.

That's great.

I'm really happy for you.

I'm really happy that this is your

first member of your party.

Laizelle has, I just like the way, and this is one of those things where Matt, your experience was you did not encounter this character she she was not in your party yes um in both of my playthroughs she was like consistently uh you know dealing so much damage up there with gail in terms of of raw dps

and also just like such a fun character like having like just a character with a completely different value system from a completely different culture uh who doesn't under doesn't process thoughts and emotions in the same way uh like like basically, you know,

like kind of, I mean, functionally, the character

is kind of an alien.

You know, the Gith Yankees are like just so completely removed from the rest of the realm in terms of just how they interact and

again, what they prioritize.

And Laiselle is just like a really awesome character.

And I really enjoyed

the course of, you know, both from a gameplay standpoint and from a story standpoint, my time with this character in Baldur's Gate 3.

So she belongs to my party.

She was not in my first playthrough, but I got all the way up to act three in a second playthrough that I've fell off of that I'd like to get back to.

And she was my paramour in that one.

Yeah.

And I tried to break up with her and she got really mad with me.

So I did not.

I'm remembering this now.

Yeah, I know.

She's great.

That's the other thing that I need to emphasize.

She is very mean, and I do like that.

She was mean.

And when I tried to see if she was was interested in uh being a thrupple with halson she said no and that she would kill me so i was like never mind

halson by the way very eager to be a third

yeah he's down she's not and i have to respect it she's she's my queen in this in this one this is part of the issue with balder's gate three is that that shadow heart is also very mean i was like fuck yes so many options carlack kind of mean yeah you know

you know who's not mean gail

Gail was my husband in my second playthrough.

Gail, a strong candidate.

Gail would have been my second pick for Baldur's Gate 3, but I can't go all LPG3.

I didn't get very far in this game because I had to drop it when the entire continent tried to kill me.

But I did kick Gail out of my party for being a weirdo.

Look, he is weirdox.

Yeah.

Fucking get him out.

You know who's not a weirdo?

My first pick.

Gentlemen, we had different assignments, I think.

Oh my God.

I thought that we needed to win, leading off my party that I am also a member of,

playable for short, brief windows in both Final Fantasy VII, the original, and Final Fantasy VII

Rebirth, is Sephiroth.

Wow.

Wow.

Because I want to be able to take on any challenge.

I want to be able to stop any interloper.

And so I thought, I want to put Sephiroth in my party.

Sephiroth, for those of you who are at home listening to this episode and somehow don't know who he is, is

a character from Final Fantasy VII who ultimately becomes the villain, but for a short amount of time is your friend.

He is a very handsome man who is also disgustingly tall and wears a shirt that begins to button underneath his ribcage.

He is

definitely a design that is

significantly entrenched in the 1990s.

But has become one of the most iconic video game characters of all time.

And also, I believe, has canonically killed

Mario

in the

when he joins

in Smash Brothers, yeah.

Smash Brothers.

And given how

strong, how nearly immortal Mario is,

Sephiroth's ability to slay Mario means to me that he will be able to slay anything that we come across in the party where I'm giving him orders.

Voiced by Instinct's Lance Bass in Kingdom Hearts.

Strange.

Very strange.

Very strange.

I like it.

Just to clarify the Smash Brothers lore, they are like dolls that have come to life.

It's not actually Mario.

So imagine how powerful he is that he killed a doll.

That's a great pick.

And yes, you are on your way towards being OP, which I believe is your goal.

Okay, back to me now, since we're going snake style.

Don't I go twice?

You do go twice.

Yeah, you're so excited to pick the next

role in your fucking party.

Hold on, hold your horses here.

We'll need another audio cue.

My second party member, again, didn't understand the assignment.

From Final Fantasy XV, he is the protagonist, so I'm glad that we can include them.

It's Noctis,

and I would like to choose him from Endgame when he's a 40-year-old man.

I gotta play this one.

He is,

yeah, that first, that older Noctis photo.

That's my guy.

Just beaten down by life.

He looks, yeah,

he looks a little bit like a Hideo Kojima character.

Yes.

When he's older.

Noctis can control multiple weapons that he can conjure in the air.

So, unlike most Final Fantasy protagonists or characters at large who have to physically hold their swords, he is surrounded by a ring of weapons that represent the great kings of old, and he can command them like summons to do his bidding.

I fucking loved Final Fantasy XV.

So, yeah, I got.

I've got

two dudes in my party who are both very, very strong.

Yes, I was laughing there because Ranch is making

our rosters, and she wrote Noctis, parentheses, 40 plus.

He's an older gentleman.

Looks like he's on his way to family court.

Trying to negotiate for an additional weekend.

A great pick.

A couple of characters, both for the Final Fantasy franchise.

Back to me.

Okay.

When I think of like great RPG party members,

I had to include someone from the Mass Effect franchise.

And I had a few different candidates.

But the character quests and the backstory that you get,

all the context, all the dialogue, all again, the romance options are so strong in the Mass Effect franchise.

And there's some characters characters I really, really like.

But where I ultimately landed is a character akin to Layzelle.

I'm talking, of course, of Tali Zora Naraya, aka Tally.

Ranch, if you just want a Bing T-A-L-Y-L-I,

that should bring it up.

Tally Mass Effect.

So here's the thing about Tally.

You never see her face.

She's a member of the Korian species, and their role, their lore is so cool, and her character design is so cool.

She's wearing an opaque mask throughout the game,

throughout the trilogy.

And basically, what's happening in it is

the source of that is the Quarrians are space nomads who, because they have lived for generations aboard these sterile spacecraft, their immune systems have weakened over time to where they have to wear this protective, basically biohazard, like these biohazard suits at all times

to prevent themselves from exposure to dangerous pathogens.

And so you're kind of talking to this

organic matter, but who's inside like a cybernetic shell, and that's all of your interactions.

Also, a very powerful character kind of occupies like, you know, I have ever sit in a situation where I need a, you know, a door unlocked or a computer hacked.

Yeah.

I know Tally can handle it, which you never know what might happen in an RPG.

You never know what kind of scenario we might find ourselves in.

Also, has this like, I like Lazelle because of her culture, has this unique value system, this unique culture, and just like a cool voice.

I should have, I should have pulled the name of the voice actor, but the performance is really, really good.

It's a really cool accent.

I don't know.

I mean, it's just an awesome character.

And like with Lazelle, I love her.

I think that this image that you've pulled up

is really evocative and cool.

Like her design is

kind of sterile and intimidating with the mask and the sort of like breathing apparatus or whatever

here

on her face.

I will say that it also does

sort of evoke the classic blow-up

face.

All right.

Hold on a second.

Hold on a second.

It's a breathing mask.

Also, Ranch is highlighting

one of the things that is one of the first things that pops up auto-generated in Google is hips.

Look, some people are horny.

I can't control people being horny.

Mass Effect hips.

And making mods to expand the waistline of a particular character.

That's not something I can control.

You didn't say she was.

pulling a wagon, dog.

Oh, she got that wagon.

A great pick.

You know, I got pretty into the first Mass Effect when the legendary collection came out and just kind of bounced off of it.

I should really revisit it because I was really enjoying it.

Cool ass games.

So back to me.

Now, look,

I've, in thinking about this, I, because I made a list.

And in thinking about it, I left, there was a glaring omission that I'm now about to correct.

And I don't know where this falls within the rules.

And we're just going to have to figure this out in real time.

I'm adding Charizard to my roster.

Wow.

Because in the Pokemon games, you're a player character, but you have a party of six Pokemon, which is effectively an RPG party.

Yeah.

And they all have different abilities.

They serve different purposes.

They've got hit points.

They have abilities.

It's arguable that, I mean, it's definitely an RPG.

So putting Charizard in your party is, I think, accepted by the committee.

Why do you want to fuck Charizard?

I don't want to.

I'm just like thinking, I'm just thinking about how cool it would be to have Charizard as

Charizard as like my friend and pet, and then go places on him fly around with my wife, Tifa.

I really thought we were doing a different thing today.

Yeah.

Also, Charizard's just fucking cool.

Yeah, Charizard is cool.

It's basic because he's like the number one Pokemon.

Like everybody thinks Charizard is cool.

They snapped on his design.

I don't know what you want.

He looks awesome.

He does look grass.

He gets extremely strong.

He rules.

And he's a good friend in the anime.

He's a great friend.

You're kind of...

I like your party.

You got Tifa and Charizard.

You're kind of approaching like...

Game Master Anthony territory, just like having a big birthday party and every cool character from video games is there.

But that's not wrong with that.

Something wrong with that,

I think that's great.

I love that.

He's coming from my list.

He's sitting there doing his thing.

I'm not judging.

I didn't know we could fuck our party around.

You can in certain games.

Finance is an element.

I was trying to play.

I was like, who's going to be the strongest guys?

Now, this is this next.

I think my party is still pretty, pretty strong from that standpoint.

Yeah, I was thinking, I was also thinking about.

Can you open the door for me?

I need this door open.

Well, it's not the only, there's also combat, it's another element.

That's true.

I thought we were just making fighting dudes.

There's more to role-playing than combat.

You mean to tell me I'm about to get in a fight.

My best friend, Charizard, and Tifa, my wife, have my back.

I don't have to do a goddamn thing.

You're actually, yeah, I think you're in good shape.

I think those characters are pretty good.

We're talking about who's OP.

I got Charizard.

Yeah, no, I get it.

I have a final pick as well.

And...

Can I just make the case for

four picks real quick?

You want to do a fourth?

I guess we just get one more and we close it.

All right, three is fine.

I'll just say some of my other options.

Yeah, we'll say our other options.

Okay, we're here for another two hours.

I was just going to say, like, we could,

it's fine.

Because we're the fourth.

It's fine, yeah.

We did this already.

I know, but I'm just saying we could have another member in our party.

We can maybe romance.

Oh, my God.

Well, I'm done with that part of it.

Okay.

The next starter, they're just purely functional.

Yeah.

And this is a tough because, like, there's so many characters from this game that I could pick that would be a home run in any roster.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I feel like I have to pick the strongest character in any RPG ever made.

Okay.

And that

is specifically Wizard Donald from Kingdom Heart.

Wow.

Wizard Donald Duck.

I was wondering which Kingdom Hearts poll you would have because I figured one would be in there.

It is

Wizard Donald.

Up until the recently added Final Fantasy 16 DLC,

Donald had previously cast the most powerful spell in any Square Enix game.

Wow.

And then it is now whatever the boss is in the DLC.

But yeah, look at him.

He's so freaking cute.

What was that spell that he cast?

I can't remember what it was, but

he's tough.

He won't ever heal you, but

he'll drop an enemy on their ass, certainly.

True.

That's true.

Your health meter will be low.

So

do you run any risk that Tifa is going to leave because of the way Donald acts and sounds?

Well,

I think, you know, Tifa's used to walking around with Kate Sith and Red 15.

You know, I don't think Donald's going to face her that's true.

That's true, yeah.

And he's like a, he's grumpy, but like, he's kind of fun.

He's got cool nephews.

Do you think there's any chance Charizard is like, oh no, a wild psy duck has appeared and just like starts attacking Donald?

That's pretty like Pokemon typically don't attack their fellow party members.

Right, right, right.

He would know that, like, okay, we're on the same team.

This is a friend, yeah.

So, I think, so I'm looking pretty good here.

It's me, Tifa, Charizard, and Wizard Donald Duck from Kingdom Hearts.

I think your party, Matt, I think your party is great, and you are also firmly in Game Master Anthony territory.

That's okay.

This is good.

It's gonna be,

here's the thing.

I don't know who that is.

Yeah, neither do I.

Oh, my God.

It's a guy.

I'm about to have the worst night of my life, I think.

No, this is like the most beautiful earnest meme ever.

And then there was a later

an interview with Game Master Anthony that someone tracked him down, but he had this post that is basically like, it's my birthday today.

Every character from every movie, video game and TV shoe comes in for a for a reality comes in for a huge party.

It was something like that.

That's great.

Get read verbatim.

And then

it's just like, oh, it's such a perfectly earnest post.

Oh, I see it.

It's my birthday today, and I'm 33.

That means only one thing.

Bring it in, guys.

Yeah, every character from every game, comic, cartoon, TV show, movie, and book reality come in with everything for a huge party.

And then it's like Mario, Link,

some other guy, Mega Man, and Sonic.

The fourth wall has shattered.

It's basically like...

I like it.

Because that's also like an early forum post, right?

It's like from the early 2000s or maybe from the late 90s.

I don't remember when it's like that.

It says

February 28th.

2008.

Oh, so it's it's later than I thought.

Yeah, post-subject uh-oh.

But it does kind of anticipate where culture is headed of just like, you know what,

everyone is here.

Probably loves Fortnite.

Yeah, I must.

God bless him.

Nothing wrong with it.

All right, it's back to wages.

I got so many options here.

But I think I have to think about party composition a little bit.

I've never seen an iPad that like physically unscrolls like a

like an ancient tone.

Yeah.

Somehow you've done that to your iPad.

Guys about to say scratch from Baldur's Gate 3.

It's like it's hit the floor like Santa's list.

He's going to say it like a minion from a game I made.

My battery's at 14%.

I've been podcasting for eight hours.

Lost my mind.

Okay, let's see.

First off, Matt, the character I was saving for you that I'm honestly I'm shocked you didn't draft this character.

I was certain you were going to get your little guy, Frog, from Chrono Trager.

Frog was

on the long list.

Here's the thing:

these lists were long.

You could have used a fourth slot.

If I had a fourth slot,

the best friend slot, like my guy, my ride or die, it's frog, baby.

But frog is not my pick.

And we'll see if my.

Oh my god, given the composition of your pick.

All right.

Be like that fucking video of the monkey.

Oh, good heavens.

Hold on.

The video of the monkey?

Don't look it up.

We'll see if the character that I expect Heather to draft, although now

with this strategy, I'm not sure if that's going to be taken either,

is taken with her final slot.

But the character I'm going to go with is partly functional, but partly I just have a lot of affection for this character.

Got to have a healer.

And there's a great healer who's very, very powerful from a great RPG, a classic RPG, one that recently got a remaster.

I am talking, of course, of Princess Peach from Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars.

Wow.

Peach is a cool character.

That game rips.

You thought that was going to be on my list?

No.

I have another character that I think that you might pick that

I had on my own long list, but I decided to reserve in case you took it.

In case you wanted to take it.

Princess Peach, if we look for the Super Mario RPG character model, I think Super Mario RPG, just search for that.

I like that you're being specific about the art used in an image that nobody will see.

Oh, these don't get posted.

This is just for us.

That's funny.

We could post it.

That's from the remaster, but that one will play.

But yeah, you could

play.

It's for us, dog.

All right.

Well, fuck it, whatever.

We've gone crazy.

Oh, no.

She's so cute.

Princess Peach is extremely cute.

She's great.

And

her look is so cute.

I wish they hadn't just slightly modified the dimensions of her face for the Super Mario Bros.

movie.

And on top of that, I have a bunch of other complaints about the way they've changed video game characters that we'll get into later.

Anyway, that's my pick.

That's a great Princess Peach specifically from Super Mario RPG.

I kind of thought it would be funny to draft Mario, just like plain Mario.

I thought about, if I was going to take a character from Super Mario RPG,

I was thinking of possibly picking Bowser because

it did blow my mind that you could have Bowser in your party.

And he's cool.

He is cool as hell.

But no, I went with Peach.

And I think, again, you know,

you got to think of

someone in that healer role, someone in the support role.

All right, Heather, it falls to you.

Your final pick.

Heather's assuming we have to kill God.

So

the final member of her rpg party comes from the video game final fantasy 8 by the way this game has one of the coldest openings of all time it's it's so good and it was one of those things where they released i feel like they released the movie like they released like the opening cinematic online like a pre-youtube video era and I just remember watching the shit out of that.

Yeah, it was a staggering opening of C, and it was the most realistic CG we had ever seen anywhere on planet Earth up until then.

And it was the opening of a video game.

But I'm not picking the protagonist from Final Fantasy VII 8.

Sorry, Final Fantasy VIII.

I am picking the antagonist.

I'm picking Adea, who can be in your party for a short amount of time while playing the game.

Because again, I thought we were going to have to go fight with these guys.

So I wanted strong guys.

She is pretty, at least.

She's a pretty lady.

Yeah, but Heather, that's not the exercise.

It is interesting that

they, like, because Sephiroth is such an iconic looking character, right?

Yeah.

And I don't think I've ever seen this character before in my life.

Dea?

Yeah.

But...

They snapped on this design, too.

Yeah, Final Fantasy VIII, I, look, I finished that game on PlayStation 1.

I

really like Final Fantasy VIII.

I don't think it's a perfect game, but I think it's really cool.

I think it's full of ideas.

I do think the character designs are awesome.

I think mechanically,

you know, it's got some issues,

but I do think it's a rad game.

I do think it's become a little bit underrated.

I agree.

For a

time in the 90s and early 2000s, Final Final Fantasy VIII was my favorite Final Fantasy game.

I really liked the world, which was not techno-grungy like

Final Fantasy VII.

And it wasn't specifically just high fantasy like Final Fantasy X or 9

or 9.

It was something very specific and strange and in between.

Yeah, right.

That felt a little bit like hanging out in

a European shopping mall.

Like it was like a huge Y2K aesthetic, lots of bubbly design, lots of like

soft edges.

It was like,

if it looked kind of like a Bjork album cover.

That's a good way of looking at it.

I also think it's one of Uematsu's best scores.

Like the music is so good, what you just played there,

but also like, you know, Ballum Garden and that environment also speaks to what where you're, you know, that's a great track, but the environment that it's played in like speaks to what you're talking about aesthetically.

Yeah, it's just a really, really bizarre and specific sort of

feel to the environments.

Yeah, it's, it's like kind of, it's like you can't really place it in a specific time exactly, but that's part of what's compelling about it.

Yeah, it's got like

cars in it.

Like you can, like instead of chocobos.

Yeah, you go to the moon.

Yeah.

Instead of chocobos, which you can ride in it, you can also just rent a car like a regular car and drive it around the overworld.

But yeah, between these three people, we've got,

you know, Sephiroth can

take on

anybody he wants, one of the strongest bros of all time.

Noctis is an extremely noble fellow with a command of the 12 greatest weapons of history.

And then Adea can collapse time and destroy existing reality.

So I feel like we'll be able to take down anybody, especially if it's like, you know, like a dragon or like a

orc.

Yeah, that's no problem.

I took the solo leveling approach to my RPG party.

That's a great.

I mean, look,

you're definitely just going in terms of raw horsepower.

I think

you're doing quite good there.

I don't think any of them are going to talk to me.

I think I'm having a blast with my party.

They are going to sit on opposite sides of camp.

They aren't going to talk to each other, and they are not talking to me.

At least two of them are going to be monologuing constantly.

The character I thought you might pick, and I actually kind of expected to be a lock for your roster, was Kim Kutsuragi from Disco Elysium.

I do like Kim.

I do like Kim.

I love Kim.

Such a well-written character.

I think that if Kim found out that I was the one who played Harry the way I did, Kim would leave the party

because he was so angry with me by the end of that game.

I didn't have a character from, you know, it's tough with only three slots.

I didn't have a character from an Atlas game.

I thought about a couple.

One I did think about was Borgana from Persona 5,

just who's the feline familiar who's not actually a cat, partly because just nice to have someone with a guide role, but also I just love how Morgana says, looking cool, Joker.

That is cool.

And I think about someone saying, looking cool, Weiger, and it makes me happy.

Well, they'd say Tiger now, wouldn't they?

Okay, they could.

It would be no problem with that.

Juna from Metaphor, Refantasio, Recency Bias, Ahoy.

But Juna, who is a character you get fairly late in the game, such an incredibly fun party member in the combat.

The two job classes that you primarily would occupy if you're just playing playing her quote-unquote the right way, mask dancer and faker.

The primary role is debuffing, and it's just really, really fun to just do all these things to just fuck with your enemies.

Also, a really valuable character in any combination.

Cool gear and animations, and I love her.

And then also, Lulu from Final Fantasy X was someone else I was thinking about if I wanted like a black mage sort of like, you know, DPS magic user role.

And yeah, very much the goth GF meme.

A lot of great options.

So there's just going through this.

I was like, man, it's so fucking hard to narrow it down.

I was thinking about all the great NPCs

you party up with over the years.

That's the great thing about RPGs, though, because obviously, like, there are a lot of great standalone characters that are just in solo, like, video games.

You know,

they're the sole protagonist of a video game.

But when you have an RPG party, you have so many different characters, and they all bring different dynamics to the game.

It's super, I love that.

kind of uh i guess i would call it world building who is the guy from heather from from final fantasy Tactics?

There's like a super OP

Sid.

Yeah, yeah.

Like

that's one guy I was thinking of just when I was looking at your Final Fantasy characters who are all

powerful.

I almost replaced Noctis with Sid.

Yeah.

But I was like, I really love Noctis.

I just want him around.

I can't believe you guys haven't played 15.

I love it so much.

I think I haven't installed it on my PS5.

I should see what's going on there.

Yeah, Nick, you've spent your entire life playing Final Fantasy games.

It's shocking to me that you skipped it.

Well,

I just think it kind of hit me at a time in my life when I just didn't have time for it, and then I just never came back for it.

I should have put the

motherfucker in our backlog thing we did a while back.

Backluder Dome.

Forget it.

No, I'm sure I would love it.

I'm sure it'd be right.

I've thought about playing 15 again.

Wow.

Even though it's like, you know, 120 hours or whatever all these games are.

Probably why I haven't started it.

I don't think it's actually 120 hours.

Okay, I'll probably start it tonight.

All right.

Hey, that was Let's Get a Party Started.

Matt, let's do a segment.

All right, it's time for the bargain bin.

Everybody,

here's $15,

one for you and one for you,

and none for Ranch, sorry.

Ranch, you could have $15, too.

You could have my $15.

I think that we have to address this meme of an old cowboy that was a full screen for a second.

We've lost what is going on.

Ranch has

her, she's screen sharing, and she has a text thread called Survivor is Unanimous.

And the image that is in the text thread is of an old man sitting on a barrel holding a cowboy hat and a piece of rope.

And there's no context for this image.

You guys are shocked by it for some reason.

I'm just taking this in stride.

This seems about right.

I gotta be, yeah.

I don't want to know what's going on.

I'm just enjoying it.

I don't really know what's going on either.

Really good.

Also, I mean, off of the cap with kind of a howdy partner, so it's nice.

Yeah, this cowboy, one yee-haw for you, good turret.

But this is the bargain bin.

And so everybody has $15

to spend on the following video games

as they would like it.

And these are all RPGs

from various generations.

Wow, okay.

So in the $5 tier, we have Yakuza Like a Dragon, The Witcher 3, Persona 5 Royal, and

Dragon Quest 11.

In the $4 tier, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Demon Souls,

and Fallout New Vegas.

In the $3 tier, Diablo 2, Mother 3, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Final Fantasy X

in the $2 tier.

Final Fantasy 7, System Shock 2, Pokemon Red and Blue, and Planescape Torment in the $1 tier.

Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Lunar Eternal Blue, and Heroes of Might and Magic.

Wow.

Okay.

I'll go first because I actually think this is pretty easy.

I think the biggest challenge for me is in the $1 tier.

I mean, Chrono Trigger for $1 is the bargain of a lifetime.

That's one of my favorite games of all time.

I don't think I can pass that up.

And I think I am just going to pick one from each category because I see a winner in each one.

I'll take Chrono Trigger for a dollar.

Although I do like all of those games.

And if I wanted to be pedantic about genre, I would say Heroes of Might and Magic.

More of a strategy tactical game.

I'm saying that, Matt, in case someone else says it in the comments, and I'm just saying, I already said it, so you need to say it.

You don't need to point out.

You know what, actually?

Fuck yeah.

You know what?

Keep your fucking mouth shut.

I googled RPGs, and guess what?

It came up.

It's close enough for me.

And the Might and Magic franchise is an RPG franchise.

So let's just say, that's an awesome game.

I'll take Chrono Trigger.

The $2 one is a little bit challenging just because System Shock 2 is and Final Way 7 is so great, but I got to go with Planescape Torment, one of my favorite games of all time.

$3 tier, I'm going with Diablo 2, the game I put so much countless hours into.

$4 tier, I go with Mass Effect.

And up in, although I am tempted to take Fallout New Vegas and try to actually finally get through that whole thing.

And the $5 tier, a lot of good options.

The two I finished up here are Persona 5 Royal and Dragon Quest XI.

I think I gotta go with Persona 5 Royal.

I think the game is just an absolute masterpiece, and the vibes are incredible.

So that would be my five.

Persona 5 Royal in descending order.

Persona 5 Royal, Mass Effect, Diablo 2, Planescape Torment, and Chrono Trigger.

And you know what?

I got enough game in the last 10 years right there.

Matt, do you want me to go second or do you want to go second?

Do you need a little more time?

No, I'm ready to go.

Go for it.

All right.

So I'm going to get one from each tier, just like Nick.

We're going Chrono Trigger for $1, Final Fantasy VII for $2.

Mother 3 for $3,

Demon Souls for $4, and Persona 5 Royale for $5.

Wow.

Mother 3 is

so good.

I really hope that

the Switch 2 either did or will come out close to when I hoped it did so that I can get you guys to play that game.

We either know or we don't.

Who could say?

Who knows?

Maybe we already played it.

Maybe we did.

In which case, your choices won't make any sense because you should have just bought five copies of Mother 3.

All right.

So the $5 tier actually is pretty tough because these are all, at least I've started at least three of those games a couple of times.

I got furthest in Persona 5 Royal.

I would like to finish that, but

something about Dragon Quest XI is aspirational to me.

I need to start it over again and just see it all the way through because I think it rules.

I really, really love it.

So, Dragon Quest XI from $5 tier.

I'm going Demon Souls for the $4 tier.

You know, I can't skip out on Kingdom Hearts 2 and the $3 tier.

The $2 tier, tough.

Two games in there I really, really love.

I got to go with Pokemon Red or Blue, but I had the red version, so I'm going to go with red.

Sorry, Final Fantasy 7.

You're newer to me.

And in the $1 slot, I see my boy Frog, don't I?

Chrono Trigger, baby.

The other options, sorry, dollar tier.

It's tough.

It's a tough one, but Chrono Trigger, simply one of the greatest to ever do it.

And we love to, and we love it.

Wow.

Ranch, if you had to pick some, do you want to pick?

Do you know any of these?

Do you want to pick some of these games, Ranch?

I'll give you $15.

Ranch looks both delighted and annoyed.

Tell us more about this cowboy.

Just gotta get back in a Ripper Rodeo group chat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, that's this week's Get Played.

Our producer is Rochelle Chen.

Ranch, yard underscore underscore sard.

Our music is by Ben Prunty, BenPruntyMusic.com.

Our art is by DuckBrigade Design, DuckBrigade.com.

And hey, check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash get played, where you can find our entire pre-head gum back catalog, plus ad-free main feed episodes, and also our Patreon exclusive show, Get Animated, where we dig deep on series and also watch movies.

All that stuff is real, real good.

Patreon.com/slash get played.

That's the thing that I think, yeah, we should be probably said more.

That stuff on Get Animate is real, real,

real good.

It's real, real good.

And you know what?

I think we all got played, actually.

I think we all got played because Nick had a totally different intention for this episode.

Hold on.

I definitely got played.

I'm not horny.

We lost Matt.

My chest hurts.

That was a head gum podcast.