Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree with Jordan Morris

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After two years of slumber, awaken once more, my hideous guardian,

bowels of despair, heathen of Masmer's intent, and bring death to the gods who besmirch the name of the chosen unrisen.

Once more to the ur tree tarnished.

Okay, how do I...

I don't remember how to...

Which one is sword?

Which one?

Okay, no.

How do I drink jug?

No, okay, that's spell.

That's jump.

Where is drink jug?

Mount your spectral steed, tarnished, and ride, ride to the ur tree.

Okay,

I put my sword away on accident.

How do I take out sword?

How do I say...

Okay, that's jump.

Where is horse?

Thou tarnished.

The land of shadow requires that that you proceed and take down all.

Who are you?

Who are you?

How do I do you know how I drink jug?

I don't know how to drink jug.

Okay, that's...

Please, Tarnish.

You're the only one that can save the land of shadow.

Fuck, I just rolled.

Okay, how do I drink jug?

Can you-

No, that thing died.

Oh no, that guy died.

Can I give you- How do I give you jug?

How do do I give jug?

Okay, that's horse.

Okay, I'm on horse.

How do- how do I- oh god, I just walked over that guy.

How do I get off horse?

Great enemy fell.

What?

Okay, I beat that guy.

I don't...

Well done, Tarnish.

I don't have any idea what I'm doing.

You have redeemed your soul.

It's been way too long.

I don't know where I am.

I don't know what this armor is.

I don't- How do I drink jug?

Drink Jug!

Cost you Toddish!

Wait, why is it?

Why is there an option for poor Jug on lap?

We collect shadow tree fragments and traverse the land of shadow as we discuss the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erd tree this week on Get Played.

Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for what?

Sorry.

God damn it.

It was so hot.

I'm really sorry.

You caught me off guard.

We're two seconds into this fucking

game.

No, we're keeping it.

We're keeping that whole thing.

I'm back.

It's a pretty on-the-nose reaction.

Just to say,

I'm going to take a sip of my hot tea real quick.

Look at mouth.

Look at mouth.

Fuck.

All right, let's try again.

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, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host,

fuck!

Hot

Nick Weiger.

I'm Nick Weiger, along with our third host, Matt Apodaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game and hot tea drinking podcast.

Look,

this may result in disaster, but I took the lid off.

What took the lid off the fucking lid off?

What are you doing?

My Yeti because it was too hot.

This tea needs to cool down more.

It had been cooling for like 10 full minutes, and it's still so fucking hot.

I can't can't even see it.

Is it possible that it's still so hot because you put it in a fucking Yeti container?

What am I supposed to do?

Put it in the cup, a regular cup.

But then it's going to not stay warm over the course of the record.

I want to be sipping this bad boy.

So you're going to wait until it achieves a certain temperature and then put the lid back on.

Yeah, that's the idea.

Okay, and then just like seal it in there.

I unfortunately have the solution.

And you're not going to like it.

What is it?

This mug that I have that has an app?

I want to get a smart mug.

Maybe download a software.

Yeah, it's good.

I got one for my mom.

She loves it.

It's a hit with people of a certain age.

And then I got one and I was like, wait, this is really, this is really good.

Look, I love the Yeti.

This is not branded content, not a sponsor.

I do really like the Yeti.

It works great for me.

It's not a smart device.

It's dishwasher safe.

It's like exactly what I need.

This tea was just a little bit too hot.

So I just should have let it cool off more.

It's going to be fine.

No, I think you should drink it in the middle of an intro.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was taking a quick sip because it was a little parched.

It seemed like you were like, you gulped it.

Like you're.

No, I just took a little, I took the littlest sip.

I took the tiniest sip, and then I heard, I just felt like liquid, like lava hitting my tongue.

You okay?

That was a little seared.

I'm cold.

It's my Diet Coke.

All right.

Hey, we're all back in the studio.

How fun is that?

Yay!

We're back.

Two weeks where Heather was out of town in Japan, and then we had a week where we just, we, we couldn't record because Heather and I separately both got COVID.

And so there was just no way for us all to get together.

But we're, and honestly, we weren't even.

COVID and I'm here.

Come on, guys.

Keep to a schedule.

Say you're going to be somewhere.

That's a good point.

That's right.

That's fair.

Jern is sweating visually.

Well,

we were really in a state where we could even record remotely was the thing.

And so we just kind of gave ourselves a week off.

But great to be back with.

It was my first bout with it.

And I hear that your first bout is your toughest bout.

It was not easy.

But we're back.

We're back.

So now that you get what the hype's about, you're not going to be a bug chaser anymore, are you, Heather?

I had to get the Japanese variant.

Extra rare.

Extra sleek.

The design on the Japanese variant.

I'm very lucky.

I got it on the way home, so it didn't ruin my trip because that would have ruined my trip.

God, what a bummer that was.

Really ruined it.

Yeah.

Ranch, you gotta COVID?

I've never technically tested positive.

Wow, okay.

But I have been sick around people who have had COVID.

Okay.

Okay.

So were you just not testing?

No, I was testing.

Okay.

Wow.

Maybe

whatever your, what's the term, your viral load, but just may not have hit the threshold.

We've got to to come up with another word for it, right?

It can't be viral load.

Isn't that what it is?

Yeah, thinking what it is, it's like it should be something else.

That sucks.

I think it makes that a little bit sexy.

I got to get rid of it.

It's a viral load.

Oh, it's huge.

I've got so much

viruses.

Deleting my search history so my wife doesn't find out if I'm a viral load.

Look, we got some business to get to, and we have a fantastic guest with us today.

From Jordan Jesse Goen, free with ads, you can also order his new graphic novel Youth Group out July 16th, our good friend Jordan Morris.

Hi, Jordan.

Hi, Jordan.

Hi, guys.

Thanks for having me back.

This is so much fun.

What a treat.

One of our favorite guests, our original guest of the podcast, episode one of our, of our, you know, our original format.

Jordan Morris was in the studio.

It was the four of us.

So it's great to have the whole crew together.

Everyone is here.

Isn't this the first time we've had you on where you haven't suffered through a Sonic game?

Mostly I suffer through terrible, unplayable Sonic games.

Balin Wonder World, not technically a Sonic game.

Sonic game.

You know, I think you got me.

Balin Wonder World, technically not a Sonic game.

So glad that guy went to fucking jail.

Balin Wonder World.

Yeah.

No, you've been nice enough to have me on.

I mean, every invitation is a nice one, and I'm happy to play the bad, unplayable sonic games but uh but it's also great to be here talking about one of my favorite games of all time we had you we had you on when we talked about the base game elden i remember

right right we did we did allow you

so it's so it's it's it's extremes with y'all you're never gonna have me on to just play a like fine farming city.

Nope.

Have you,

I can't remember if we've discussed this previously with you.

Did you mess with Sonic Frontiers at all?

I did, yeah.

So I think I played it on the show, and I think I, and I messed around with it a little bit afterwards.

It's a, you know, it's a tough game for many reasons, but it's a really compelling game, and it has a lot of cool stuff in it, and it's full of good ideas.

I think it's like, you know, hardness to play kept me from completing it, but it was like, I, yeah, I was like, I, I respect Sonic Frontiers.

I really came around on it.

I'm remembering this now, but I really came around on it after our episode, and I was just like playing it.

I was like, I think this is pretty, it's pretty damn good.

It's really playable.

It's really good.

the best 3D one they've done.

That's yes, well said.

That's basically it.

It's just like, it's the it captures the feeling of 2D Sonic in three dimensions, the best of any of it.

But why isn't he kissing humans, guys?

That's true.

I mean, maybe I just didn't get there.

Human kissing star.

If you beat the game, you're rewarded with like a 35-minute fucksy.

Oh, I'm gonna go.

Play Sonic Frontiers so I can see that scene.

Is that clear enough?

It's got like a codec in it, so it's never been uploaded to YouTube.

Like there's like grainy like signs style footage of like people trying to film it on the TV screen.

Yeah.

It's like the ring if you'd see it.

Sometimes somebody like that all scary and weird.

It's like the end of the Blair Witch.

Just saw the jacket off the corner.

How unhinged would it be if you play this?

Why does this game have an M rating?

You get to the highest point.

You get the ghost of it.

You like beat Dr.

Robotnik, and then it's just like Knuckles getting railed by Biggie the Cat.

What the fuck is this?

You beat the gay.

Well, your experience is that you went with me.

My fan fiction came to life.

I better be getting paid for this.

Directed by Nick Widener.

Supervising producer, Nick Widen.

Nick didn't tell us anything about it.

Yeah, someone had to take over for Eugene Aka.

So that's where he was for two years.

Yeah, I mean, it's,

I don't know.

I mean, the Sonic franchise is so fraught, but that was one where I was like, I feel like

they kind of figured something out here.

And I don't know if there's, I should have looked up if there's a Frontiers sequel planned, but it feels like something they could iterate on and figure out.

If there is a Sonic Frontiers sequel, can we vow to not do it on the show?

Because I didn't like it that much.

You didn't like it.

We'll promise you we will do it.

We'll definitely do do it.

I'm hearing you.

I'm here to.

I'd rather do the Sonic and Shadow 2D game that's coming out.

That looks kind of, it's going to be

no, we'll do both.

Just like you're asking.

I felt like we did all the Sonic experiences I've had have been like joke experiences, kind of, but then we did Sonic 2 on the show and I was like, okay, I get Sonic.

This is good.

And then we did Frontiers and

it just didn't connect with me at all.

And I was just like, I can't.

Now he's back

on the outs with me.

I'd play Mania.

I would play Mania.

I would like to have another good Sonic experience.

You would love Mania.

You would love it.

I thought you had played it.

I maybe played a couple of levels of it and just bounced off of it.

But it seems like it's cool.

I think I own it on multiple platforms because it's always like $5.

What was the one that came out the same week as Mario Wonder that I was playing with?

Sonic Colors.

No, it wasn't Colors.

It was something else.

Yeah.

But Colors was something else.

You were playing a different.

I was playing.

The week Mario Wonder came out.

There was also a Sonic release, and I played that, and I was like, what the?

Why would you drop this the same week?

It's so good.

It was terrible timing.

Extremely Heather moved to be playing the Sonic game of the week the Mario game.

It is.

No, it is.

Fucking Sonic is good.

It might have been Sonic Colors.

I don't.

I'm just trying to remember what the chronology is.

Sonic kind of had a big year this year.

There was like a couple of Sonic games, actually.

I think that's maybe kind of like part of why we haven't gotten a great one in a while.

It's like just crank them out.

And it's like, you know, you hate to compare it to Nintendo, but it begs the comparison.

It's like Nintendo takes so long with those Mario games.

Yes, you wish there was more of them and you wish there was more content for the Switch, but when they come out, they're fucking pristine.

Yeah.

And yeah, it seems like they just kind of like crank out a Sonic game a year and kids buy it because they like Sonic and they like the movies and that's fine for them.

I don't know.

I think, I think so.

But great question.

I have never talked to you nor seen a child.

It was Sonic Superstars.

Yes, Sonic Superstars.

That's right.

That's right.

It was so much better than it needed to be, given that it was absolutely fucking buried by Sega by releasing it that same week.

Yeah, it was released three days before 2D.

Okay.

Released three days before Super Mario Wonder.

An insane choice.

Really, really, I don't know what they were thinking.

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All right, Jordan, I feel like we've got a lot to talk about with our topic, with our main topic today.

So I'll just get to the question we ask every episode, which is, what are you playing?

What are you playing?

Hey, wow.

Breath and Evil Merchant.

I haven't seen you in a while, buddy.

Oh, my God.

I've been meaning to tax.

I'm here asking my favorite people on earth, what are you playing?

And Nick Weiger.

I just do want to point out.

That was a fun pronunciation of Nick Weiger.

We were off for two weeks.

Yeah.

And, you know, Heather was out of

out of state, out of country.

Yeah.

Resident Evil Merchant.

You?

You abandoned your post for two weeks, and that's not cool.

Just because Heather's.

I thought you all were on break.

No, no, no.

We weren't all on break.

It was just Heather was out of here.

Although, you know, it was, I will say, it...

We you with it was it was a little bit more manageable.

The show was a little less unwieldy without you.

So I don't mean that like I guess I don't mean that as a I guess that just sounds insulting.

The episodes were 20 minutes long.

They had no sauce.

I was under the impression that I did a good job when I co-hosted.

You've done you look you do a you're you're

you're good at what you do.

I'm just saying like we have a tendency to derail the show a little bit.

Not my fault.

I came in, I asked a question.

You want to strike up a conversation.

So, what are your question?

What do you want a recipe?

Well, where

actually I do want a recipe.

All right, what do you want to know how to make?

You know what?

Kentucky fried chicken, it is

so a proprietary recipe.

You know, the secretly, secretlessly, did you know?

Yeah,

the first thing you need is chicken.

Okay,

uh, easy to mistake for other birds, but you want chicken, uh, uh, you roll it in egg yolk, okay, and then flour to make that nice, that, that, that crisp, you gotta crisp it up, sure, but then you gotta roll it in the spices, yeah, there's this is the secret blend.

Yeah, this is where the proposal is: oregano, cayenne pepper, a little bit of garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric.

You want to put in a little regular black pepper, salt.

Can't forget the salt.

Yeah, you gotta have it.

What are you googling?

No, I'm keep going.

What are you googling?

I'm not binging anything.

Keep going.

You're doing something.

You're not going to turn the Resident Evil Merchant into the KFC police, are you?

On the LAPDU's website.

I'm stopping because this is such.

I'm just saying this is you.

You are.

Nick, do you have an eye message with the colonel?

You kind of went down the line pretty well.

I mean, I feel like you maybe just actually have this in your brain.

Why do you doubt me?

I don't know.

It just, like, it seems like a...

Do you remember my quiz?

I do remember your quiz.

It just seems like a pretty random bit of information for you to resonate with.

You, how hard it is to run a store out of your jacket.

I couldn't do it.

Tougher job than mine.

It's a tough job.

You got to have inventory on the top of your tip of your tongue and top of your head.

Yes.

And so sometimes you got it.

I'm not going to tell you the rest of them.

Okay.

Okay.

Take it on face.

it remains secret.

It can't be easy to wear a big coat in these summer months either.

Sucks.

Though I do have a beach body.

Oh, that's fun.

Nick Weiger!

Thank you so much for asking, Resident Evil Merchant, and great to have you back.

So, you know, we're going to be talking about the Shadow of the Erd Tree a little bit, which I have not gotten into, but I have been playing the base game of Elden Ring.

I started a new character.

I've been playing a wretch on PC.

I will say that there have been some I previously played on PlayStation.

playing in the game all right hey

you piece of shit

i will say it was fun to like because i i don't usually nick there's no cuck class

saying every every

i don't usually play like make me always with character generation sometimes but this time i decided to make me but like super old so i just look like me but if i i'm i was like a retired cop it's like a really,

a really grim vision of my future.

So, when you say you don't usually make you this time, did you just click the parser like one to the right?

You literally just go with default.

So, the wretch is the character who starts with all stats at 10 and just a club as equipment.

And

it's really fun to have a tabularasa of a character on a second playthrough.

I will say I've heard some

complaints about the performance on PC.

It's mostly been pretty good for me, although there are things where it's like, there are times when it hitches a little bit.

And I got a pretty capable gaming PC, and this is

the base game is a few years old at this point.

So it's kind of a bummer the performance isn't quite up to snuff.

And I understand that's an issue with Erdree as well.

But also just traveling in like a completely anarchic order is

just really super fun.

Just like, oh, I'll go to Kaled super early or whatever.

And just sort of

just experiencing the game in a different sequence than I did with my first playthrough.

But it also just kind of gives you a little bit of respect for extra respect, I should say, on how elegant the onboarding is without like telling you what to do over and over again, just how you're kind of like elegantly directed towards, like, oh, here's the, I just sort of naturally found my way over to get the whetstone knife, this key item, you know, like nothing explicitly told, gave me an objective to go get it.

I just sort of was guided there and ended up with, you know, like all that shit is fun.

It's also like when you know

the stuff is in your muscle memory a little bit.

And

anyone who, those of you who've replayed the game, I think, have experienced the same sort of thing, replaying any game where it's just kind of like, oh, I can, I remember how to fight this boss.

And like, I, you know, take out this tree sentinel in my first try, or taking out like a Leonide and Miss Begotten, these early game bosses, and just a couple tries.

That's all very, very satisfying.

Incredible game, obviously a masterpiece.

I won't go on about it because we're, because that's old news.

What I am going to talk about about a little bit more is Play Nice.

Uh, this is Jason Schreier's upcoming book.

This releases in October, and I got an advanced copy of it sent to me.

The publisher was very, very nice over there to bride this for me.

It is an awesome read.

It is, it is called Play Nice, the full title, The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment.

I really enjoyed Jason, friend of the show, been on the podcast, obviously a host of the great triple click podcast.

And I really enjoyed his other books, Press Reset and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, which are very very well written,

but they're more fragmented and episodic.

They talk about a bunch of different games, a bunch of different studios.

This one is a deep dive on one topic and what a topic, what a company to profile, one of the totemic, iconic American video game studios and publishers.

He actually had written about the failed Diablo 3 launch, speaking of Blizzard and its path to redemption in a previous book, and that's a really engaging read.

I mean, he's just like, he's a great journalist, but he's also just a really compelling writer, especially conveying the human side of this, of the industry, which is such a

thing that I feel like is oftentimes lost.

And

so, yeah, I won't go into spoiler country here because obviously this is a pre-release.

And also, I imagine that Jason and the publisher doesn't want any like juicy goss or

great anecdotes spoiled in advance, but it is really, really cool.

And it's an awesome read if you're interested in Blizzard at all.

I'm very much in the first third, which is like the rise portion of the book.

And that's all like the

inspiration of these these young creative people uh who are uh you know

uh

other games like kind of give them the idea for like how could i improve upon this and iterate upon it and and and create a better version of it and that's how they land on some of their uh their best designs uh like the the original warcraft uh what i haven't gotten to yet is the turn where it goes into the fall section which is the merger with activision uh and that makes it and the company obviously became activision blizzard and its public perception completely shifted in the aftermath.

So, anyway, just wanted to, on a day when we're talking, we have our buddy Jordan here, who has a great book that everyone should pre-order, a youth group.

Also, people should check out Jason Schreier's book,

Play Nice.

Pre-order that at your bookstore of choice, because I think it's going to be awesome when the final version comes out.

So, yeah, that's what I've been playing.

Wow.

I can't wait to read that.

Yeah, really exciting.

I'll say, because I've been playing so much Shadow of the Earth Tree, I've been needing something to like

sort of just take the edge off a little bit.

Something that I know is going to be a little bit more.

I don't want to rupture you.

I kind of like monologue for a while there, and I feel like there was a point where, you know, again, it's been a few weeks since Resident Eagle Merchant's been here, but I feel like Resident Evil Merchant could have been like, Matt, what are you playing?

I didn't want to, you know.

You don't note the guy to death.

I'm just like he does a great job.

I'm just like,

I don't.

I can't thread the needle with you, man.

Let him do that thing.

You don't want me out to sea, but you don't want me too close to shore either.

Yeah,

it's a tightrope walk.

I know you have the capability to pull it off.

All right.

Because when you do pull it off, it's like

a delicate, beautiful dance.

Hang you, Matt.

Matt knows how to compliment a person into a good reverse.

Well, you're a star, and I know where the money's at.

And it's like, we got to just keep, you know, keep your hack.

Do you want Abu Dhaga?

You want me to tee you up?

Please.

All right.

Matt Abu Dagu.

Brooklyn.

Thanks, Resident Evil Merchant.

So yeah,

I've been playing obviously a lot of Shadow Year Tree,

but

when I'm not playing that, when I've been frustrated to the point where I'm like, there are a couple of times playing this game where I was like, I feel like what it must feel like to want to snap a controller controller in half.

And I was like, but I don't want to do that, so I'm just going to put this down and do something else.

But nothing was really satisfying or

scratching the itch, as it were.

But I remembered, I have all these devices.

I have all these games on these devices.

What am I going to play right now?

For some reason, I've been playing, and I'm almost done with.

The original Ratchet and Clank on Vita.

Another Heather-ass move.

I did feel like I was in my Heather heather bag for sure.

And let me tell you something about the Vita.

I know I talked about the Vita when I got to it.

Playing Golden Sun on the Game Boy Micro.

Hey, that sounds like fun.

That sounds fun.

I was actually thinking about doing that.

That's why I was off the dome.

I've been pricing Game Boy Micros, and they're very excited right now.

Are they?

Yeah, I always wanted one.

I never got one at the time.

Anyway, I think about the Game Boy Micro.

If I may, if I may, the micro is too small.

It's too small.

You're mentioning Golden Sun, JRPG, a lot of text.

You don't want to be reading that that.

Yeah,

it is.

It is a conceptually wonderful unit that in execution, you're like, ah, okay.

It's a little like the screen is super sharp, but it's like if you took the Game Boy resolution and used modern pixel density,

so you're like, this is a little bit like playing on a postage stamp.

It's not quite the thing that you want.

All right.

I think I can maybe move on from coveting it now.

It's nice to know that maybe I should get one of these modern ones

that are built for it.

Anyway, I will say that the second revision of the

Advance SP,

the Game Boy Advance SP, which had, I think it had, I can't remember if it had a front light originally and then it had the back light on the revision or vice versa.

But

that's what I have and that's what I use if I want to do any

GBA gaming.

And yeah,

that's a great display.

I'd also pitch an analog pocket.

I'd also pitch

a Game Boy Advance

classic,

like the single clam, not the clamshell, but the other one.

What do you call it?

A tablet?

The Long Boy?

The Long Boy with an IPS screen.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

This is great.

Great tips.

Thank you.

Let me tell you something about Ratchet and Clank.

All right.

This is

on the Vita, they released the trilogy, right?

Yeah.

This is a compilation of the first three games.

Yes, exactly.

So I'm playing through the first one.

It's

just, it's just a good game.

It's really, really fun.

They're all really, really fun.

I haven't, I don't think I, I played through the first three and then missed some of the other like PS3 sequels and stuff like that.

But those first three were

this was playing these, playing this again was like a nice, like re like visiting an old friend.

Just felt like very nice, very like, oh, I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing.

I know exactly how to play this thing, but on the Vita,

I don't think we talked about how good the battery life on the Vita is.

The fucking Vita.

The Vita rules.

It is

unbelievable.

I've had it on sleep.

I haven't plugged it in.

I haven't turned it all the way off.

It's been on like sleep when I've been not playing it like over the last week.

It's at 77% right now.

Unbelievable.

The Vita is

baffling because

on paper,

the PSP versus the DS, the PSP should have won.

It was a gorgeous adult device that you could load music and videos on.

It could do stuff the DS couldn't do and was graphically superior.

You could watch Shrek on that fucking thing.

Yeah, by the time you could watch Shrek on the Game Boy Advance, let's let's go.

As long as that came later, they figured out how to

compress it as shit and put it on a cart.

Look, UMDs was a huge advantage.

If you could watch Shrek on something, I'm aware of it.

You must be so excited.

For sure.

We have Shrek 5 on my face.

I cannot speak about this.

What are you three?

Okay, we just thought that's a good idea.

He took off his shirt.

At my work, we have an intern who's quite young and posted it in our work Slack that he was very excited about this.

And I had to get in there and say, this is not your culture.

This is ours.

What are three things you hope happen in Shrek 5?

I mean,

one, a hope he shows whole.

Two, yeah.

Jesus.

I mean, well, here's the thing.

That's pretty quick.

It's been at the top of my list since Shrek 1.

This guy's got to show us all.

It's probably disgusting.

It was a mid-credit scene in his puss and boots sequel.

Yeah.

I hope there's a trailer with a somber version of All-Star.

Yeah.

And, you know, I hope they bring the Ginger Man Man back.

He's funny.

He's very funny.

He's very funny.

They're all, I mean, all the characters in Shrek are funny.

But anyway.

The Vita is incredible.

I've been loving Ratchet and Clank.

I don't know if I'll get to the other two in the trilogy because honestly, right now, I feel like I'm kind of burnt.

I'm kind of burnt out on games right now, if I'm being honest.

Wow.

And we'll get to why later, but that's it for me.

Yeah.

All right.

Jordan, what are you playing?

Yeah.

So I.

Oh.

So now it's okay.

No, I mean, like, it's, I, I just saw there was a window to pass the ball.

And like, you know, again, someone could stop.

Now I I will answer the question.

I was, I was going to remain mum before,

but now I will answer that I have been asked properly.

So, Shadow of the Earth tree, yes, I play it till my head hurts.

I love it.

I love it.

But, Matt, I think you mentioned like kind of wanting something to like

come down with.

Yes.

Because I, you know, I get so amped up when I play those from soft games and it affects my sleep.

Like, I play them, I start when I get done with work and I stop when I'm too too tired.

And it, you know, it's, it, it fucks with my sleep and stuff like that.

So I thought a come down game would be kind of nice, something a little, you know, less punishing, something kind of fun and light.

Illusion Island.

It's the Mickey platformer.

It is so cute.

It is so fun.

It is gentle.

I don't think I've died once playing it.

It's got gorgeous animation.

The writing's kind of funny.

It's just, it's just, it's just a blast.

It's very, yeah, it's like the closest thing I've ever enjoyed to like a cozy game.

Okay.

Not usually a genre I'm M2, but I think this, and I don't think this is it technically.

It's a platformer, but I think for me, it is doing some of the things that like Animal Crossing does for people.

Right.

There's one thing about it that kind of bugs me, and I think I might be uptight.

So you can play Mickey Minnie Donald Goofy.

Yeah.

Everybody's pretty much the same.

Cosmetic differences.

They're, you know, you don't do a lot in the game.

You jump, you double jump.

That's, you know, pretty much it.

There's some, so you pick whoever, just whoever you want to play as.

Mickey Minnow, Mickey Minnie, Donald Goofy.

There's a mechanic in it where if you're playing two players, if you hug each other, you get life back.

It's weird to see Minnie hugging people that aren't Mickey.

Because they're married, right?

Mickey and Minnie.

And to see her.

But it's a kind of a long hug.

They make noise and they give each other other little noises.

Oh, yikes.

So I don't know.

And maybe I'm uptight, but I'm like, you can't hug another band's wife when you're trying to escape Illusion Island.

Maybe Mickey's into it.

I don't know.

It's funny.

Illusion Island is clearly in the same vein as Castle of Illusion, which was like an early Genesis Mickey platformer.

that was also on the Game Gear.

And it's not a franchise that you would think of as having a franchise.

Like you wouldn't be like, oh, Mickey Mouse Games, aka the Illusion series.

Yeah.

But there it is in 2024.

I mean, it's part of why I took notice.

I love that Genesis game.

It's so much fun.

It's gorgeous.

I mean, those Disney Genesis games looked amazing.

The Aladdin game, the Lion King game, they all looked so cool on Genesis.

Yeah, so I mean, it was a thing that got me a, you know, guy in his 40s to pick up a child game because I recognized the naming convention.

So I think it's like kids are going to just buy this because it's Mickey, but also olds will remember their youth and buy it.

So kind of a

crafty call with the name, I think.

If you like Mickey in a video game, there's a whole franchise I could sell you on if you're interested in

maybe the power of friendship and

keys.

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

I'm not.

The art style in this is really,

it's very,

it's like a bold stroke, it feels like, especially for Disney.

Like, it feels like their depictions of Mickey here, it's almost like kind of looks like a, you know,

I haven't seen it in motion.

I'm just looking at screenshots, but like it, it almost kind of has like a,

almost looks like a flash game, like that like kind of like level of stylization.

It does a little bit, yeah.

And it is in the style of these new Mickey cartoons that are on Disney Plus right now, which are great.

If you ever have said to yourself, Mickey isn't funny, why do we care about Mickey?

These cartoons fix that because they're hilarious.

Such great classic cartooning.

And I think this is meant to be like a game in that world.

And in the cartoons, Minnie is hugging the appropriate character.

No, she'll hug anybody.

You know, you gotta be sex positive these days.

They woked everything up.

They have a non-traditional view of marriage.

It isn't so patriarchal.

Folks, we're gonna make Minnie hug Mickey again.

Trump, Trump, Trump, Fuck, Trump, Lightning!

She's out there looking goofy.

It's not right.

God.

Oh, no.

Unbelievable.

Oh, my God.

What's he talking about?

And then Pluto sits there like a dog.

Well, I mean, he is the more coherent of the two of them, so

she's the choice.

She's the choice.

Biden's talking about Yogi and Boo-Boo.

Since he knows them?

He fought them in high school?

This game looks rad, and

this looks like my kind of thing.

I also love

hard platformers, but I love an easy, breezy platformer, too.

I'm going to check this out.

Yeah, it's a treat.

Not for everybody, but I'm really liking it.

And I always, yeah, I love a classic platformer, and this, this really scratches that itch.

Uh, all right, that brings us to Heather Ann Campbell, our correspondent in Japan.

Uh, Heather, what have you been playing?

Japan!

Uh, you well, so here's the thing: USSR, you,

USA.

Rise, I'm gonna crazy.

Uh, well,

let's say stuff for video games.

I, I mean, I, I've been playing, um, Shadow of the Earth treat, um, but I also have been playing something else that I think I'm going to talk about next week.

Okay.

Instead, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about some of the game-related stuff that happened in my life over the last couple of weeks when I was in Japan.

And the first thing I'd like to do is start us off with a little World Warrior segment

from

Japan.

Wow.

There's a place in Japan, a sort of wonderland for the technologically inclined, where every dream gadget, every whimsical desire, finds a home under one roof.

Imagine a sprawling maze of aisles, each packed to the brim with electronics, cameras, home appliances, and even toys.

This place, get played fam, battle buds, if you will, is the Yodabashi store.

Yodabashi stores, which first opened in 1960, are not just shops, they're experiences.

Picture this.

You step off the bustling streets of Tokyo.

Sometimes you don't even have to leave the train station.

Your senses already overwhelmed by the city's vibrant energy and you walk into the towering haven of Yodabashi Camera.

Nine stories tall.

Imagine a deck of full-sized target stores stacked on top of one another.

Immediately, the hum of the outside world is replaced by the symphony of technology, the whirring of camera lenses, the chime of customer service bells, and the soft murmur of excited conversations.

In Yodabashi, time seems to stretch and bend.

Hours melt away as you wander from section to section.

You start with the latest cameras, marveling at their precision, their clarity, each more advanced than the last.

And Yodabashi has

every single camera.

You move on to smartphones, where endless rows of sleek devices beckon with promises of better connectivity, better pictures, better everything.

But then things get weird.

Imagine every ballpoint pen on earth,

every curling iron, every regular iron.

If you're looking for camping goods, Yodabashi has them.

If you're looking for a Nintendo Switch carrying case, you have your pick of 50 unique cases.

But it's not just the products, it's the atmosphere, the feeling that you've entered a world where every technological innovation is celebrated.

The staff, impeccably dressed in their uniforms, glide efficiently through the aisles, always ready to assist with a polite bow and a wealth of knowledge.

It's also the brightest store you have ever been inside, which is why when my time shifter app told me that in order to beat jet lag, I needed to see the brightest light possible, it was where I went on my first night in Tokyo.

Yodabashi, the light of a thousand suns.

And then there's the sound.

A Yodabashi store is never quiet.

It's a blend of electronic beeps, promotional jingles, and the constant background noise of excited chatter.

A song plays over and over and over again.

A corporate re-skinning, re-lyricked version of My Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord.

Let me play

a little bit for you.

That would be playing faintly in the background of a trailer for an A24 horror movie.

It plays on loop constantly in the store.

Yodabashi camera.

It's a cacophony, but one that somehow feels comforting, like the heartbeat of a place that's alive with possibility.

In Yodabashi, I saw a section called simply all the films of James Cameron.

Which I took a photo of, if you guys want to see.

Here's the films of James Cameron

section, which is just

a whole section, soundtracks and movies of James Cameron.

I saw a model kit called One to One Scale Full Action Plastic Model Kit, Chaos and Pretty Grandma.

I'll show you a photo of that,

which is here.

Chaos and Pretty Grandma.

Wow.

Don't know what the series is or what it is referencing.

I love it.

And I also saw a Nintendo game called Garden Life that I would like to immediately look up upon remembering.

The online shopping platform for Yodabashi has been developed to become the second largest in Japan, only behind Amazon.

Yodabashi stores are more than just retail spaces, they're a microcosm of modern Japan, a testament to the country's dedication to innovation and customer service.

They remind us that in a world where technology often feels isolating, there are places designed to bring us together, to spark our curiosity, and to make us feel, even for just a little moment, like kids in a candy store.

A candy store constantly playing the same song.

This is Japan through the lens of Yodabashi, and that's Yodabashi camera.

Wow.

That was awesome.

Thank you.

How long did you spend in a Yodabashi camera like total, would you think?

So I, because I, I, I, I got to Japan and I was like, I have to stay awake.

I have to stay awake.

All my body wants to do is sleep.

Um, so I was in there for two hours, nine floors divided over two hours.

Um, it is, I'm not exaggerating, it is brighter than daylight.

Wow.

It is so bright and there are no windows.

So you feel the same sort of like disorientation you feel in a casino.

Sure.

Except a casino isn't lit like a hospital.

Like it's really, really, really bright,

really, really, really loud.

I have some other audio clips that we, I think, are going to feed back into the segment.

Like, here's, I'll play one right now.

Here's a

the sound of just constant like

talking, even.

you'll still hear the song

under their tongue.

Are those like PA announcements or they're pre-recorded?

They're just pre-recorded.

It's a pre-recorded chatter that is constantly playing, like just blasting out of the speakers while the song also continues on loop over and over again.

The ingredients to Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I went with my wife, Mary, on our honeymoon when we went to Japan because I was like, there's a place you got to see called Yodabashi.

You're going to hate it more than any other place in Japan, but I have to show you because it's crazy to be in there.

And she went in and she was in there for about a half hour.

And she's like, I got to get out.

I got to get out.

I got to get out.

And I have a panic attack.

But there was a moment before that she crossed that threshold where she was like, what do you mean by every curling iron?

And I was like, every curling iron.

And we went to the floor that was all like hair and face goods.

And it was like as if you were looking at a catalog, but in real physical space,

like

no less than 300 curling irons from all these different brands.

And you're, you're like overwhelmed by capitalism, but you're also in, you marvel at it because it does feel like, oh, I really want this pen that I saw at a store.

I don't remember what shop that was, but I know where they'll have it.

And it's Yodabashi camera.

Wow.

Yeah.

So cool.

It's wild.

Did you buy anything on this trip specifically?

Like, what did you walk away?

At Yodabashi?

No, I didn't buy anything.

I was just there to stay awake.

There's also an entire floor that's food at the Yodabashi Akiba store.

The eighth floor is just restaurants so that you can like go to one floor, get a cell phone, go to another floor, get a curling iron, go to get a vacuum cleaner, buy a television, and then like take a food break and have like a full-blown sit-down meal and then continue to shop at Yodabashi.

Wow.

Yeah.

Uh, so that was what I did on my first day, but on my, I believe, fourth day,

um,

before I left for Japan, uh, I was like,

Hideo Kojima follows me on Twitter and he's followed me for a while.

And I talked to my wife and I was like, should I DM him?

Should I just like ask if he's around and wants me to stop in at Kojima Productions?

And she's like, what do you have to lose?

And I was like, I guess nothing, but it makes me weirdly nervous, like a cold call.

Right.

But I had.

Do you like have maybe like a guess as to like when he started following you?

Is he like a Rick and Morty fan?

He followed me on Christmas Day.

Okay.

But I don't remember what year.

I just remember waking up, checking my phone and seeing Kojima had followed me for Christmas.

And I was like, what the what?

But I don't remember how long ago that was.

And I don't know why either.

He obviously Rick and Morty did a Death Stranding

ad.

But this was after that ad, like, this was years after, I think it was two years, must have been 2021, right?

After the Death Stranding ad came out, and it was out of the blue.

Like, I hadn't been like interacting with him in any way.

And so, I, the only other time I had DM'd him was when Blue Sky was invite only.

I DMed him and I was like, hey, here's an invite so that you can get your name on Blue Sky before somebody else takes it.

And he was like, Thanks.

He needs to be on all social media.

He's the best at it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I, so I DM'd him and I was like, hey, I'm in Tokyo.

Let me know if you want me to come by the office and meet up.

And he wrote back within the hour and was like, absolutely.

Here are

my assistants' emails and my personal email.

Why don't we all get on a chain together?

And I was like, great.

So then I put down the phone and was like, Jesus Christ, it's happening.

It's fuck.

Okay.

So now you have to do it.

Now I have to do it.

Here,

what's funny is that I had not brought any makeup to Japan because I was just going like, to just like straight up, like, I don't give a fuck about anything.

First thing I did, I was like, I got to go get makeup.

So I went and bought some makeup.

But

the things a girl has to do.

But then I emailed,

I had my agent email with his assistance.

And then when it was clear that the time zones were just like too hard to negotiate

those emails, then we just got on a chain and it was like, yeah, can you come in today?

And I was like, sure.

So I went to Kojima Productions

and I met up with

his.

His translator was this guy named Aki, who was really cool.

This other woman, Mickey, who was also extremely cool.

We're sort of like both handlers and negotiators of like the time.

But it was not like I thought, I thought it was going to be, he comes out of a room, we shake hands, I tell him I really like Snatcher,

and then that would be it.

And then he'd probably be too busy and he'd go on his, we hung out for an hour.

Wow.

Like, he was like, let's, let me, you know, his translator was speaking the entire time.

So he was speaking Japanese.

I did my best to convey a couple of like very clumsy Japanese phrases of like gratitude.

And then he was like, let's go through the offices.

So we walk into the, like, it's the fanciest offices I've ever been in.

Like,

felt like a movie set, like the movie set of 2001.

It's not just the white room with

the Luden statue that is like.

designed like that.

Their cafeteria is also extremely sleek and futuristic.

Their offices are all behind like white glass, you know, so it's, it feels like you're inside of a Kojima game.

Um,

so uh, they walked me through the studio, they walked me, of course, through the, the white room, and, and we all took pictures.

Um, there was also a group of photographers with us the entire time documenting everything.

Wow.

So, it, there were like three photographers taking photos the entire time while we were talking.

Um,

and he also he asked me to sign the wall before we went on the tour.

And I was like, okay.

And I signed the wall and people are snapping photos the entire time.

This is a nightmare

to try and write your own name while somebody's taking constant pictures of you.

And then

I got to see like the place where they 3D scan everybody.

I got to see their sound recording booths.

He talked to me about like how they really wanted a Foley room, but they couldn't justify the cost.

But he really likes Foley in games.

And then they brought me to their mixing studio.

And boy, oh, boy, I'll tell you guys, in order to make myself feel more comfortable, my comedian brain was firing the entire time.

So every room we walked into, I had a joke about the room, which I couldn't tell if that was making people comfortable or uncomfortable.

Everybody's laughing.

There was a point of of view.

What was Drew Madiar?

Everyone's playing something.

Everyone here makes a part sound.

There was one moment where, and I'll get to it at the end, where the comedy did not work.

But then they showed me the trailers for

Death Stranding, which we'd all seen, but it was also like watching it because they had just been THX certified.

So it was like watching it in the best sound system I'd ever heard.

And then they showed me the trailer for OD,

which is a project that he's also doing with Jordan Peele.

And Jordan and I are

friends.

And then we talked about OD for probably 30 minutes.

Wow.

Where he told me about the game, and then I got to ask questions.

And then we sort of just got mutually excited about the game.

At the end of this conversation, he had to go meet with

Nick Ruffin.

And as soon as he left the room, lawyers came in

with contracts, with like documents.

And they were like,

you cannot, you have to sign these.

You're not supposed to know any of that stuff.

And I was like, oh.

I don't know if you caught it, but he read you his checking account.

I was like, oh.

And I was like, so I shouldn't have been live streaming that.

And that was the joke where I felt like I had just shot somebody in the room because the lawyer went,

What?

And then another guy goes, Comedy, comedy, comedian, comedian.

Oh, my God.

I was like,

It was a joke.

It was a joke.

I'm not live streaming.

I'm not live streaming.

Oh, thank God.

You were this close to being stuffed in that statue.

Just dragged underground by a black goo.

I could see

the stock prices, everything, like drain out of this person's face.

Was there also a language barrier here?

I mean, there was a language barrier.

Yeah, like

so that joke was translated and then

it was full panic.

But then somebody just said, comedian, comedian.

But it was, it was,

I don't know, it was, of course, a fantastic experience.

Well, like, what did he say, though?

I can't talk about it.

It's also weird knowing.

Yes.

It's also, it's weird.

It's weird knowing the things

and not, like, literally not

wanting to talk about the things, but very excited about the things.

It was, yeah, it was just, it was a, it was a fantastic experience.

And they gave me a gift bag at the end, which had a t-shirt and some, I had remarked that I really liked the death stranding tape that they had used to like tape down all of their loose wires.

So they gave me a roll of death-stranding tape.

Oh, that's awesome.

And then they gave me two

dishes, like

porcelain dishes.

Wow.

And

something, something else.

Maybe it was stickers, but it was like a really nice bag of stuff.

Wow.

Oh, and a rubber duck.

A Kojima duck.

but yeah i mean like he he

he is as excited about his projects as you want him to be that rules like he talks so he's so animated and so excited to talk about the potential of a thing um

and

it was not one of those circuit like they they say you know don't meet your heroes This wasn't one of those times.

It wasn't like I walked up and he was like a jerk.

Right.

Like he was was exactly the guy.

And that was extremely satisfying and also

made me hopeful.

You know, that there are still people out there who are,

who aren't just a facade, but are the thing that you hope that they are.

It makes you want to be, like I left wanting to be creative because I was like, oh man, he's real.

Like he's actually that guy.

It's not like he's putting on a show for cameras or for interviews.

he's actually that guy and he's really excited about the stuff that he's working on so

did you notice at all during your conversation that there was like a monitor behind you showing a movie he's always just like watching something

watching herbie the love bug in 4k

that's so cool that when that yeah that's awesome when you texted us that this was a possibility and that it was like looking like it was going to happen that that alone was very exciting yeah and then to see the pictures pictures i was like this is like better than if she had met god or something

this is way cooler viscerally remember just seeing the photos on social media and i'm like anything is possible like i could lose my virginity

someday

uh it was amazing i'm so that's so cool that yeah it was it was believe it was really cool um i um you know i i

it would be awesome to be able to collaborate with him on something in the future.

Not that that was something that we talked about at all,

but it was just like, it felt like, oh, this is a place where creative,

like, where these things are indulged and like digested and talked about.

Instead of it being like,

if I go to my,

and that isn't even the case at Rick and Morty, but I've had bosses in the past where if you go to them with like a crazy idea, it they'll laugh at you and you feel like you did when you were a kid and you had an imagination and you tried to share it with an adult.

And an adult would be like, Yeah, but that can't happen.

Right.

You know, like this, this like erosion of

potential didn't like when we were talking about stuff, it didn't feel like that was something that would happen there.

And it was really,

I don't know, it, of course, because he's the guy who tried to get a disc to smell like blood.

Yeah, made a solar-powered Game Boy game.

Yeah,

that was so you'd obviously been texting with me and Matt, and we, we, we heard about this in advance, and then as it was happening, but like you had not given us the full download of your experience yet.

This is the first we'd heard of like the rundown.

That was riveting.

That was, that was a, that was an amazing, amazing story.

Well, thanks.

There was one detail you shared with us, and if you, if you don't want to the podcast, we can edit it out, but, but I, I figured I'd bring it up, which is that kojima said he was a fan of your wife mary's work yes so um so kojima is

uh he really likes uh nick ruffin movies and my wife mary wrote the neon demon and so uh when i didn't really yeah i didn't that's amazing

yeah yeah I've casually said hello to the person who wrote the neon demon

Jesus all right cool that's a that's a wild movie that's a fantastic movie oh my god okay all right well no she's she's brilliant as man

every day i'm like holding on to her like don't go

the person who wrote the neon demon is married to the person who wrote the spaghetti episode of rick and norty

uh but yeah

i mean that in a i can't that's not a why would i meant that as a compliment i I can't believe those two people are married.

Thank you anyway.

Thank you.

I meant it the other way.

It's a great episode of TV.

It's a truly great episode.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So I knew that he was,

so at the top of our meeting,

before he comes into the room, I was talking to Aki and I was like.

He was like, oh, he's got to go at three because he's got a meeting with Nick Ruffin.

And I went, oh, my wife wrote The Neon Demon.

And

then there's like confusion, like as they're trying to wrap their heads around the information that I've just passed on because it's, it doesn't make, like, it's not, that's not what you expect me to say after that sentence.

And so the first thing that they say to

Kojima when he comes in is, you know, this is Heather, you know, she's

Rick and Morty in

some movies movies that have not been announced in the One Punch Man movie.

And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then he's like, and her wife wrote the Neon Demon.

And Kojima goes, really?

I know how he feels.

I know how he feels.

And

it was like, yeah, yeah.

And

it was like, oh, do you want to say hi to Nick?

And I was like, no, I didn't write it.

My wife did.

And he's like, no, no, no.

Do you want to say hi to Nick, though?

And I'm like, Nick doesn't know me.

I come after that story.

So, like, he doesn't, like, it won't, it won't, it would be two strangers waving, not, like, not, not any sort of like, oh, how have you been?

Uh, and he's like, oh, okay, okay, okay.

Um, but I, I do know that the next time I'm in Tokyo with Mary, I'm definitely going to introduce them.

Oh, yeah.

Uh, because he'll be so thrilled.

Um, but yeah, he

he's he's great.

And he's, she's also, Mary's great.

It's what a great, what a great time.

Wow.

Yeah.

Must be nice to know that everybody you know is great.

Everyone I know sucks.

Matt.

Matt, I know you.

Oh, hey, hey, hey, actually, wait a second.

So that's nice to me, but then I was accidentally mean to my friend.

Wow.

Wow.

Well, that delivered.

Thank you for sharing all that.

They have a cool room that I didn't talk about, which is like their

museum of their stuff.

So like they have the awards room, but they also have like, hey, we tried to make Fragil's fabric so that we could get like a physical version of the fabric so that we would have like reference material.

Or we have like wow, with the spikes coming out.

Yeah, we have like two-dimensional sketches of the characters that are then eventually rendered in 3D so that we could like get like an emotive experience.

And that was a really cool, like, it felt like the Academy Museum, like every lit case full of all their cool shit.

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I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

Well, hey, let's get into Shadow of the Erd Tree.

All right, so this came out just, what, last month at this point?

Came out on the 20th of

June.

June 20th, if you can believe it.

And I'll say,

just from the jump,

I think I'm the only one.

Have you finished it, Jordan?

No, I have not.

I think I can kind of like see the end on the horizon.

Okay, so

I've finished it, and that's the biggest shock of my life.

Yeah

It's unbelievable to me

So hard.

I don't think we'll dip too much into like story spoilers, but also I was saying in our group chat earlier that I was like I finished it and I'm reading story stuff and I'm going huh.

That's what was going on.

How do you spoil any of these?

Yeah, I don't know.

They're completely inscrutable.

Because yeah, the way I start, the way I started.

Which is great.

Well, that's part of what's good about it.

Yeah.

With a game like this, even in the base game, my thing was just find find a direction and fight.

And just go until you're done.

The fact that there's a story, I think, is a bonus in these games, but it is just like, can I do this?

And then it's either, yes, you can, or not yet.

But, you know, so the Shadow of the Earth Tree expansion,

Miyazaki's a...

Fucking liar, this guy.

Because he goes out and he says, oh, yeah, it's as big as Limgrave, like the starting area in the base game.

And it's just, it's decidedly not.

It's just, it's absolutely not.

Everything is tall.

And I think it's maybe width-wise the width of Limbrave.

Possibly.

Everything has four or five or six levels.

There's so much to do.

And like I.

Yeah, you're not saying this is a negative, like they under-delivered.

You're saying like there's so much more than we're doing.

He's a liar in the other way.

It's the opposite of those fable games.

Like you'll be on a cliff in Erdtree and you'll look down and you'll be like, okay, there's a layer clearly that I can get down to.

And then you'll see like way off in the foggy distance another layer and you're like, can I also get there?

Yeah.

And then when you get down to the second layer, that foggy layer is clear and you're like, Jesus Christ.

And then

the like the cliff's edge of those layers, what you'll also see are bloodstains of people thinking they can just jump down

and you just can't.

You just can't.

You have to find a way, find a way down.

There are some parts you can cheese your way down, but like for the most part, you have to find another way to get down there.

So I want to speak to that real quick, which is that I followed sign, like signs written in the ground.

I don't know what you call them.

Like the signs.

Like the ones that people leave?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was like, you know, this way, you know, for jump.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, shit, there's got to be a place where I can jump here to get down to another layer.

And I'm pretty sure I did accidentally cheese my way down to another layer because it's also

impossible to know what it is you're supposed to be doing.

Yes, in these games.

So, I jumped on a cliff and jumped to another cliff where there's a sign, and then end up on a roof of a castle where I'm like, oh, I'm all the enemies are facing the other direction.

So, I was not supposed to come this way.

Yeah, they want to see you coming the other way, so they can be really mad at you.

I will say too, for the most part, for some reason, I forgot this experience of playing Elden Ring.

I was scared every time I was playing.

I was just scared.

Like just an overwhelming sense of fear throughout my playthrough, even though that I knew I was strong enough for the most part.

That's part of why it is kind of an exhausting game to play is because you are just clinched up all the time.

Yeah.

Like what fucking freak is going to jump out and one-shot me?

When I have trouble beating a boss, I just turn off the sound.

Oh, interesting.

The sound design of these games is so good that it makes you upset to be hearing the sounds that they make, that the enemies make, the sound of roaring fire, the thunder of this music that they're playing the entire time.

So, if I'm like on my second or third round try of a boss, I'll just mute the screen and it becomes

so much easier to play.

Speak of the sound design, don't worry,

the sound design, which is obviously.

Is that not Robbie?

No, what I was thinking wasn't Robbie.

Oh, right.

That's Bobby McFarran.

Anyway.

What is awesome about the sound design, but also makes it jarring.

I feel like the impact sounds in particular are mixed so loud.

Like they're like, this is like a punishing

thud to a thumping sort of cadence to it.

And so, yeah, it does make those moments of, you know, impact, those just feel all that more perilous and that much more high stakes.

I briefly was playing this game with headphones on, and I quickly learned that that's not how I like to play this game.

You just have a hundred-person choir screaming at you all.

We're not actually saying that, man.

But

let me just read this little blurb real quick about what the story of the DLC even is.

And this is just like setting up what it is.

This will mean something to some people and might not mean anything to anyone.

It barely means something to me, and I did finish it.

Guided by Imperian Mikola, players are beckoned to the land of shadow, a place obscured by the Erd tree where the goddess Merika first set foot.

In these strange new lands, players discover the dark secrets of the world as they meet others who follow in Mikola's footsteps with ulterior motives.

Every NPC I have talked to in the game

has said things to me that are clearly important and I don't know what they're talking about.

They'll be like, kindly Mikola came this way only four nights earlier.

And if we do not wait, are you tarnished?

Ring the bell.

Ring the bell.

And you're like, what the?

I don't, am I, is it bad that I'm tarnished?

Is it good?

I have no idea.

Is it, have you gotten to the Egon, the guy who hates Baal?

Yeah.

Have we met that?

Have we all met that guy?

That guy.

Nick hasn't.

No.

There's a guy who hates Baal.

Baal is a dragon.

Yeah, Bale's a dragon.

And this guy has become a little bit of a meme.

The character's name is Egon.

I forget the name of the actor, but he's just like a working-ass actor who had no idea what Elden Ring was.

He talks about his recording session in an interview.

He has seven lines.

He was there for six hours.

Screaming about a dragon.

He had no idea what it was.

Yeah, this guy and those Elden Ring NPCs just like,

they all talk like this.

We have the Scarlet Rot and no one will save us.

It's all over.

And this guy is just barely

emotion out of one of these days.

And it's become a little bit of a meme, and it's so shocking and funny when it happens.

I think we, like, I think with

a light spoiler warning right here,

we should be able to play a little bit of Egon's dialogue on behalf of.

Bale!

I hereby vow you will rule this day.

Behold the true great warrior, Fanda Egon,

your

fears made flesh.

That energy was like my reaction after they closed the Hollywood Arby.

You also blamed Bale the dragon.

yeah you you you run into him a couple times before you fight Bale and he is that intense even when he's like lying in on the ground right wow yeah yeah and it's so those NPCs have such a house style and it's it's sad and on the verge of death and to have this guy emoting like this it's wild yeah And so, Jordan, I think when we did the Elden Ring episode last time, I don't think any of us had finished finished the game.

I'd assume you like had finished it at some point after that.

Yeah, I eventually beat it.

Took me a while.

And yeah, I mean, I loved it.

And I usually don't play DLC for anything.

No matter how much I love the game, I always like, I feel like when I'm done with a game, I'm done with it.

We rolled credits.

It's fun.

You know, DLC is sometimes fun, but sometimes it's a little bit of a letdown.

But this is, you know, the one, maybe the best video game of all time.

So I decided to try it.

And I'm just so fucking in.

Yeah, it's great.

I even kind of thought I forgot how to play.

I'm like, what?

Left hand, right hand, huh?

But it all came flooding back and I'm just, I'm just all about it.

It did not for me.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, it's, you really realize how weird a control scheme it is when you don't play it for a while.

Yeah.

It like I, when I booted up the game again, I was at the location where I had been just invading and murdering.

Because like after I beat the game, that's all I wanted to do was ruin other people's attempt at playing Elden Ring.

And I also should, because fuck them, right?

Yeah.

Well,

it's part of the joy of the game.

It's part of the design.

I was stunned at my level, which was 194.

Hell yeah.

So I had just been on this platform murdering people for,

I don't even remember when I got tired of it.

What are you murdering them with?

I use Radon's swords

and the Star Scourge

built-in ability.

And I'm dressed as the dung eater.

What was your,

wait, and I guess we could just go down the line here, but what was everyone's class and kind of what build were you doing?

I don't know what my class was,

but I am a strength build

and yeah, aforementioned 194 levels of it.

Yeah, I also forget my class, but I was strength faith.

So

big sword in one hand, talisman with incantations on the other.

So yeah, I was an astrologer with a high intelligence build, and then I respect to a strength faith build in the DLC because I found some incantations.

Incantations are really good.

They're really, really fun.

There's one that I got that I was just like getting griefed by until I got it.

And it was this, like, these like bugs fucking shoot like webs at you or whatever.

And I was like, I want.

that.

And I found, I found the thing for it, and I was just doing it.

And it's with the with high strength, it's very powerful, really, really good.

I've never heard of that.

That bug shooting thing, I'm like, I would love that.

It's awesome.

I can't remember what it's called.

It's called like the, it's like pest something, but it's, it's really, really good.

I, I, I love it.

And it's like, it's, it looks kind of fucking gross too, because it's great.

But then also, like, I have the, some incantations that, like, offer, like, boons or, like, um, you know, like.

minimal healing throughout a fight or whatever because sometimes I need it because I'm bad at bad at the game.

I mean, you beat the fucking thing.

I did beat it, but I will say not without help, you know, like I did, like, for the for the very final boss, which I will not spoil, I did require some summoned multiplayer, and I'll say we barely, we barely did it, but we, there was something going on where I felt, I kind of felt in sync with these guys that we did it with, because I had done it a few times with other, with other people, like that, just anybody that I could get help from, and we'd all die pretty quickly.

But there's something about the last run felt like we were going to do it, and it was because we sort of had a triangle of of aggro going where one of us would draw aggro and then the other two would like sort of like flank him.

And then he would just, you know, pick who he was focusing on.

And then we would change.

It was great.

It was a really, really good.

I love the summoning.

It's so much fun.

It really makes the game feel like, I don't know.

I don't play multiplayer games.

Like, I don't play, like, I know Heather plays Fortnite

and I have on occasion too, but I don't really play games with other people.

But like in that scenario, it really felt like we were like doing something.

It felt amazing uh it felt really really great and i switched my weapons up quite a bit to i found some new dlc weapons i found uh i had not really experimented with this before with um

ashes of war um yeah those were i mean that's like it's a big part of the game because the one of the swords that i had that i kept actually was nick's build um

i did look i did spill a little bit but this is mostly condensation from the can

unbelievable

what is what is condensed

that hot drink?

No, it's a

different drink.

The tea settled down to a reasonable temperature.

I finished the tea.

And yeah, I'm always two-handed at during a podcast recording.

So I'm going to spin drift now.

Is that you kept that drink in your pocket open?

Matt's got two drinks.

I got, yeah, but notice that there's not a, all the, all the liquid is in the cans.

This game is stuffed with a bunch of stuff.

There's over 70 new weapons, 10 new shields, 39 new talismans, all sorts of crazy new

stuff.

Yeah, are you?

Because you mentioned you switched up your weapons, Heather Jordan.

Are you using any new

gear from the DLC?

You're still kind of rolling with what you had in the basement?

Yeah, I am kind of, I'm still mainly doing my original character, my sword, the blasphemous blade, and I also have the bloodhound blade.

If I need to put effects on something, holy damage, for instance.

But yeah, I've messed around with some new Ranala swords, they are great.

They're a kind of a twin sword.

One has fire, one has uh like enchantment damage.

Um, people love in Malady.

Milady is like a swift broadsword.

It's nice because that's always what I uh comment on every woman's Instagram.

Um

I put a little ash of war on that, and I have a cold malady if I'm fighting something that's dying a week's cold.

Uh, so yeah, I have a couple that I've thrown into the mix, but uh, mostly, mostly the old blasphemous blade.

I so the thing that I've run into is because I'm still I switched out my headgear because I found a better helmet that makes my character look even more disgusting.

But I have been having trouble with the other,

the other weapons because of timing.

Like, I've become so accustomed to the delay and swing,

like, swing style of those two swords that, like, even if I switch out to a different great sword, I'm like, The timing isn't like it feels like I'm playing a rhythm game when I'm playing with the two swords that I was used to in the, in, in the in the base game yeah um so I have not yet switched up and I feel a little shitty about it because I feel like oh I'm not getting the real DLC experience but I'm still mashing my way through through these bosses so I'm not I'm not missing out on like fighting right yeah

so I guess I want to talk about like what the main I mean what the main thing you're doing in this game is and uh you I mean in the way that in the base game you sort of there are certain sites of grace that are like pointing you in the direction of like where you're supposed to go.

In this game, you follow these Mikolos crosses, and that's basically if you want to do, if you want to mainline the story, you can just kind of go in those directions and experience the game that way.

But obviously, there's plenty to do.

I found myself getting to like sort of the major story parts.

pretty quickly and feeling like I wasn't engaging with the DLC like all that much.

And I was like, there's like stuff that I want to go do.

So I would just sort of put a pin in that and then go pick a direction and explore.

There's a lot of interesting new areas in here.

Does anybody have like a favorite new area?

I really liked the Cerulean Coast.

Cerulean Coast is beautiful.

If you're a finger freak, there's a whole land of fucking

nasty ass fingers creeping around.

Nasty.

And then I will say one of the optional bosses, I think it's the grossest boss in the entire game, is,

I think, pronounced

meter, the mother of fingers, and it's fucking disgusting.

It is gross.

It's not even what you think it looks like.

It's, it's,

it's like all thumbs.

It's fucking nasty.

Oh, God.

I hate that.

Horrid.

Absolutely horrid.

I don't know where I am in the game.

Yeah.

Like, it's impossible for me to know because, like, I beat that one dude who I screenshotted and sent to you.

So I've beaten that guy who's a snake, right?

Oh, sure.

I was talking about mesmer the impaler.

Yeah, mesmer.

But then I was like,

I feel like I didn't do anything before snake guy.

So I went back into like the main area and like went down different branching paths and like killed a bunch of fucking, I guess, mini bosses or whatever.

Let's say like enemyfeld or

Legend fell.

I don't even know the language.

But I have no idea where I am or what I'm supposed to be doing i get the sense that if you just wanted to beat the main bosses you could probably have this thing over pretty quick yes like if you wanted to just like see the end and say you beat it obviously that last boss probably very very hard i have not been there yet but i think the like mandatory bosses it's i i think you could probably do it kind of quick if you wanted to but who wants to you know it's fun to see all the freaks well the

the there are

the main legacy dungeons that you have to do.

There's only three of them really, like that you have to do to experience the story, but they're massive.

Like they're huge, and you can spend a lot of time in there.

I will say that for me, the bosses were challenging, of course, but they're fun.

Like, they're always like pretty fun.

Even when I was losing, I lost a lot to Mesmer, and I was just like, you know, just really, really focused on beating him.

But

there was an area in like the, in, like, the last main legacy dungeon that was giving me, it wasn't even a boss.

It was a stretch between sites of grace that was giving me so much trouble.

Because

they had these enemies that had like

multiple enemies with multi-attacks that were just fucking me up.

And I could not, I could not do it.

It was impossible.

And I was, that was the least fun section for me in the game.

And there were bosses that I lost to more.

because I was like, you're impeding my progress.

The boss is inevitable.

You'll eventually beat a boss.

I was like, but I have to get through this.

And Nick very nicely calmed me down by text.

He said, you only had to do it one time.

And I was like, that is true.

And so, and that was the entire, and then I did it one more time, and then I was able to do it.

But it was just, I also find that complaining while playing this game makes me able to do things.

Sure.

It's part of the experience.

Because I'll complain and then I'll do it.

And I'm like, oh, I did it.

My strategy for playing was always do one thing and then sign off.

Yeah.

Because I that's great and healthy.

Yeah.

My time is,

you know, at a premium.

Like, it's, I don't have a ton of it, but I'd go, like, oh, I'm going to.

Like, the first thing I do is, like, oh, there's that fire guy walking around.

I'll go kill that fire guy.

I kill the fire guy.

I save and leave.

Like, I feel like that has kept me from getting

all all this game is a test of patience.

Yes.

And it has made me a better Fortnite player again because I'll be like, there's no point in going after a boss until you see your opening.

Like you just wait and dodge and wait and dodge.

Hit him once.

You hit him.

Don't try and hit him twice.

You're fucked.

Like the, I sent you a screenshot of the time that I like got mesmer all the way down to like less than a tenth of a hit.

Yeah.

And I was like,

if I had just listened to my fucking self and like just wait for your one hit.

And that's made me better at Fortnite because I'll see people and I'm like, nope, not yet.

Not yet.

Not yet.

Not yet.

Those moments where I get killed with when a boss has such little percentage left

in the past, maybe would have frustrated me, but that to me is like evidence that I could do it.

I was like, oh, like you can.

I was like, you're almost there.

Like you, you're getting better each time you're trying.

So just like, figure out like what you're supposed to do to get to that, that final stretch.

But because I don't know, the bosses didn't frustrate me in this, in the same way that that one section of this one area of a map.

But what you're talking about, and Jordan, I want to hear your point as well.

But like, what you're talking about is like that, that

realization, that clarifying moment I feel like you have with Fromsoft Games of like that, you know, failure is growth and

you learn through, you know, repeating these tasks and

you're improving when you're losing.

Like it's, it's,

yeah, I mean, I think that's a big part of why they're so satisfying.

Just to go off of Heather's point real quick,

what you were talking about with like, because it's a very common experience.

You get towards the very end, you think you got something beat and then you get like get a little too aggressive, you get greedy and then that's it.

Like, I, I, for me, there was something about, and I felt this with Sekiro too, of just like, I understand how teams, as, as a sports fan, as a sporto who watches the NBA a lot, I understand how teams can choke away a big lead.

I understand how a team could be like, they've won the game.

All they have to do is like execute for the final 30 seconds, and then

they're up by eight, and then they somehow completely blow it, and they, they give the game away.

Cause it's like you, when you're on the threshold, you're on the cusp of victory, it's like somehow becomes even tougher to seal the deal.

Um, but sorry, Jordan, you were about to say something.

Oh, yeah, sorry.

They, uh, uh, yeah, that, that thing that happens when the boss has the sliver of health and you die.

I'm a big rot guy.

Love putting rot on somebody.

It's a spell.

If somebody, if you rot them, they have a, you know, it's like a poison that

slowly saps their health.

There's been a couple times when I've been playing where I've died and then they've died and it counts.

You will come back to life and they'll be dead.

So you can be, you can get the you died thing and then if you hear them die from the rot, it'll count it anyway.

It's always really fun when it happens.

It's happened like three times.

That really satisfying like sword slash sound that's like a like and the little tinkles.

Yes, when you've defeated a boss

that canonically makes sense also because you're tarnished.

Right.

Sure, yes.

So they are fucked.

That's great.

It's fun.

That's cool.

I didn't, I did not know that.

And it has a kind of, yeah, and it has that kind of fun story link too.

So it all kind of like makes sense in the weirdo logic they have in this world.

So you die, you're like, ah, god damn it.

And then you hear,

no, fuck you, bam!

Okay, we're done.

And then, of course,

level scaling in the DLC is only in the DLC area, not in the

main game.

And the way that you do that is they have these fragments that

myself included.

Everybody thought that they were scattoo trees, but then I guess that was an old English pronunciation of shadow.

Yeah, it's like Gaelic or Celtic or something,

which makes sense.

S-C-A-D-U, but not shadow.

Yeah, which I love that.

I love it too.

So you get some of those, and those give you

some boons

in defense and in strength.

And then I think the other one is

what is the other one called?

They're called Revered Spirit Ashes, and they are used to boost summoned spirits and spectral steed abilities.

And they also deal and negate damage as well.

What is Spectral Steed ability?

Like when you're on Torrent.

Oh, how much damage Torrent can do?

Yeah, because sometimes if you get hit by a boss, it can one-shot Torrent, and that feels bad.

Yeah.

Or Torrent.

I know.

My Torrent went through a lot, unfortunately.

And I also, I guess I hadn't said this either.

The Land of Shadow basically exists in like a pocket dimension in the lands between because it's like it sort of sits on top of the map, but it's a separate map.

And

there are people, or you know, I don't want to spoil too much story stuff, but it exists within the lands between, but it's not in the lands between, if that makes any sense.

And I know that it doesn't.

No, it doesn't, no, I get what you're saying.

It's kind of like a message.

It all makes as much sense as everything else.

It all makes an equal amount of sense.

Yeah.

Well, it sounds like you're kind of like what you're kind of describing is

the way in like Phantom Liberty, it's like a new section of the city, but it's also kind of just walled off from everything else.

It's the old sort of biome, you know?

Well, and it's like a crazy thing that you do because you have to, and this is not a spoiler, but like you, you have to beat

Radon and Moog to even experience the DLC.

And in Moog's,

which, by the way, as a side note, is an insane barrier of entry.

Oh, yeah.

Like, you have to be good enough to get into the DLC.

Yeah.

It's like, it's also like a hundred hours of progression.

It's very deep in the game.

And it's like, it's interesting because we had a thing earlier this year with the Final Fantasy VII rebirth where that game did not sell nearly as well because people were like, well, I didn't finish remake.

I don't want to commit to full price of the game.

But it feels like this thing is selling like fucking crazy.

It's like one to one.

Yeah.

And people are just willing to get past that barrier to entry.

Yeah.

I mean, I started a new game plus, and it's thus far my single biggest regret of playing the game.

Because I finished it.

I did finish it, but it made it like 0.00, like something percent harder.

It was a little bit more challenging.

And I did

add 50 hours to my overall playtime.

My playtime before was like 183 hours, and I ended it like 200 and something odd hours, 230 hours or something.

Yeah, so this is DLC.

Like this is like a full game you're getting

as DLC.

Yeah, and you know, and

it's not even like it's like that different than the base game, it's just kind of more of it, and that's good because Elden Ring is good.

Like,

I wasn't expecting it to like reinvent the wheel or anything like that.

I know that there's like some new abilities and new, um, well, not abilities, but like new fighting styles that you can do.

I didn't mess with the hand-to-hand combat type thing, that looked really cool.

Uh, but it's so funny just to see those characters punching the giant hand monsters.

And it's wild that it works.

Yeah, like I didn't really mess with any of that type of stuff, but

and I probably honestly feel in my heart that I probably won't because I think as much as I love this game, I'm like, I think I have to be done with this.

Yeah, I don't have a second New Game Plus in me.

I don't have any desire to go through the rest of my New Game Plus and like do it again.

You know, so like, and that's, I feel

burnt out a little bit on games because it was just so much game over a I guess like over a month you know like it was a good period of time that I was playing it

but it's it was it was just a lot I'm gonna need to calm down with some

Mickey

listen if you don't mind hugging that makes you feel weird

but maybe it doesn't make you feel weird maybe you're not as uptight as I am but Matt you also like like it's a it you obviously you're exhausted you ran the marathon yeah um um and we're all we're all very proud of you because that rocks thank you so much the the the like there you still are overall like love this thing right like you have kind of like euphoric like sort of feeling towards

gonna burst into tears when I finished it like I was like and it was so funny

my fiancé was out and I was at home and I finished this and I like walked to go pick her up and she's like what have you been up to and I was like well I did finish shadow of the urgery and she gave me a hug and was like congratulations I know it's really

you were really working on that

It was very, very sweet.

Now off to my Mensa meeting.

Yeah, honestly.

It was like,

I think she was just happy that

I'm not going to be hogging the TV so much too.

Yeah.

Or my attention won't be as diverted.

But it was.

a great experience.

I did love it.

I think it's an amazing game.

I think, you know, we did our, earlier this year, we did our lists of like our top games.

Right.

I think if we did that again, I'd have a revision.

Like, I would have, like, I would have like Elden Ring would be on the list somewhere.

I don't know what it would knock out.

Certainly not Kingdom Hearts 2.

Yeah.

Maybe 2.8 Remix plus

Dream Drop Distance

0.365.

The Nokia exclusive one that was not localized.

But I mean, Matt's top 10 is all in-gage games.

God, I wanted an NGA tree.

I wanted an N-Gage so bad.

Like, it seemed like such a good idea, but then it sucked.

No one ever tried it again.

Nobody ever really.

I mean,

phones have games.

It's true, yeah.

But not buttons.

Not buttons.

I kind of wish buttons would come back on phones, if I'm being honest.

If Sony wants

my money,

if they want me to walk away from an iPhone, all they have to do is release the portal, but small.

Yeah.

Like, just put the buttons on the phone permanently.

Right.

And I will be done.

Make the, make a Vita that can make phone calls.

Just put the Vita back out.

The Vita is four V and the Player.

Vita is like a real artist.

Release like a white Vita.

I'm in.

I mean, is there anything else?

I mean, there's so much to talk about, but it also feels like you can't really talk about all of it because it's so big.

The only, you know, like meme stuff associated with it I've seen has been the guy who hates bail.

Yeah.

Are people simping for someone?

Because that was big in the last one.

You had Blade and Ronnie.

I don't know.

Is there any simping going on?

There are some new characters that I could see that it could be possible.

I will say, I'm interested in watching.

I know that you talked about the Vati Vidya lore videos last time.

And I've been watching some of them a little bit.

There is interesting lore throughout, obviously, this game.

There was stuff in this DLC that I was like, oh, this is actually new, interesting information with the jars, for example.

Yeah, you learn a lot about the jars.

The jars are fucked.

The jars are more fucked than you thought, actually.

Very, very interesting stuff.

So I guess my diet of Elden Ring will be watching these lore videos because I feel like for something that I spent 230 hours on, I don't understand it all that much.

And I'd like to know more.

So I'll be watching those videos.

Yeah, when I kill a boss and

he's like, oh,

Masmer,

if only you had known the story of America.

And I'm like, I don't know who either of those fucking people are.

Was that you?

Are you talking about yourself?

There's a uh, there's a Simpsons where Homer is watching Twin Peaks and he goes, brilliant.

I have no idea what went on.

That is me.

I just assume that it's brilliant.

Yes.

Yeah.

100%.

Yeah, it's, it's tough because

you want, like, you also, you want to know,

like, I know who everyone in a Zelda game is.

Yes.

Like, I'm like, I'm following the story in portal, you know, but like, I don't, cause I'm dumb.

Cause also, I feel like you have to pay such close attention to even what the NPCs are wearing.

Right.

Yeah.

To be like, oh, you are from the village that that character started, which was an attempt to undermine this other character's ability to become a god.

Right.

And I know that because of the stitching on your sleeves.

Yes.

And I don't, I can't, I'm never in that like mental space when playing Elden Ring.

I'm like,

what do you want?

Like, who are you?

Am I ever going to see you again?

That is what the YouTubers are for.

There are people who look at the crests on the capes and they can tell you the story of

also this time I read, every time I get like a document, I've been reading the document.

Yeah.

It's not illuminating.

No, not helpful.

I thought this would help.

This actually, it just hurts more.

I do, we'll just,

one, one thing that I will add, which is just a friend of the show, a great podcaster and zone right, Stephen Ray Morris, has been texting me because the DLC, he'd finished Years of the Kingdom, but had not played Elden Ring, and the DLC just made it in his consciousness.

And so he's playing Elden Ring for the first time now.

So I think that's one of the part of the genius of this

full game-sized expansion is that it puts this

back in the zeitgeist again.

And now people who have maybe missed this game originally are like, okay, let me see what all the fuss is about.

Hell yeah.

I hope Stephen Ray is having fun out there.

I hope you're having a blast out there, my guy.

Oh, hey, that was Shadow of the Erd Tree.

Hearing y'all talk about it.

Getting me even more jazz to get into it myself eventually.

Hey, it's time for a new character before you get to the game.

I probably 100% will.

There was that Reddit post about the guy who like he put 800 hours into the game, just starting new characters and not getting out of Limbgrave.

It was circulating.

It It's just like, yeah, it is how I play a lot of games.

I love just like start like replaying the early game and restarting and re-rolling characters endlessly before I settle on something.

I'm going to take this wretch to the end.

I'm having a blast.

Hell yeah.

All right.

Hey, we got a new segment.

We're going to taste test something.

This is Game Gruel.

And today's taste test is of McDonald's Jiu-Jitsu Kaisen special grade garlic sauce.

A tie-in with the very popular and very good anime that Jordan, I believe you are a fan of.

Oh, I love it.

Not a huge anime guy.

I kind of like sample the big animes and a lot of them bounce off me, but I was all in on jiu-jitsu Kaisen.

I call it JJK.

Wow.

I'm a true fan.

Yeah, it's such a good show.

I'll read the copy from the McDonald's website.

Inspired by the iconic black garlic sauce from McDonald's Japan, the special grade garlic sauce introduces a new arc into our sauce lineup.

Now, there are eight different, there's, there's, oh, notes of garlic and soy sauce balanced with its slight tangy sweetness.

There are eight unique designs.

We had a little bit of a, Matt, this was a little bit of a to-do, and I don't want to make everyone sit here with their nuggets for too long before we eat them.

It was, it was a whole thing.

We had to mission impossible this thing because all of the McDonald's near the studio, this is an app only thing, all the McDonald's near the studio were sold out of the sauce.

And so

I found a McDonald's near where I live that's on the complete opposite side of town that had the sauce.

So I got the sauce from that McDonald's, brought it to studio, and then while we were talking about Shadow of the Erd Tree, Matt ordered some fresh nugs for us to taste test.

And it was, it was, honestly, it worked out perfectly.

Yeah, that was like a fucking heist.

It feels like we're on a beach somewhere with a new identity and

$5 million.

I have not had a chicken nugget from McDonald's in at least

10 years.

Wow.

So this is going to be a double taste for me.

I think Nick had some earlier today.

So I went to McDonald's yesterday

and did not get the sauce.

I was like, I'm going back today.

Anyway,

let me distro these.

So, yeah, we got Nobara here.

We got

Megumi.

Jordan, you wanted Sato Rogoto.

Gojo freak.

Pass that one over.

Thank you.

Gojo, rather, sorry.

And then we got Yuji here, the main character.

I'll send that over to you, Matt.

And then Sukuna, who is voiced by a friend of the show ray chase how cool is that um ranch i'll hand that one over to you uh very fragrant i've already opened mine and the uh the smell really hit me it smells really good

i have high hopes for this

are we so how do we yeah go for it just dude feel free feel free to dip away we all have four nuggets yeah we all have four nuggets I had to, the way I did the order earlier is I got a, I, four nuggets with five extra sauces.

So the way these things

like the way these promotions work, I'm part of the problem.

Like, the reason these things are in scarce supply, I was like, I was one of the one of the people who got too many sauces, but we're all trying them.

So, whatever.

It's fine.

You're like, Do you have the special sauce?

Like, no, 10 other podcasters came in here.

10 other guys in Hawaiian shirts.

Yeah.

I made some phone calls.

They didn't have the sauce there.

I was like, don't you know I have a podcast to record later?

Oh, sorry, sir.

I'm going to try it with a little hot mustard just to kind of compare.

Oh, yeah.

Post-COVID, I have almost zero

sense of smell.

Okay.

Still.

And

I would say 20% taste.

What I am experiencing is 0% taste of nugget

and a slight

tangy spiciness from the sauce.

And that is all I'm getting from the flavor profile.

I like it okay.

It's tasty.

It's fun.

It tastes just like, you know,

ooze.

Excuse me.

Wow.

Wrong pipe.

Oh, my gosh.

Sorry.

You know, when you get just like a,

you know, a bag of like frozen dumplings at the supermarket, you'll get a little packet of sauce with it.

This kind of is that.

It's kind of a pack-in sauce.

It's fun.

It's tasty.

I'm not blown away so far.

I'll tell you what, it's not bad.

I kind of love it.

Wow.

The tang is really working for me.

It's not super, you know, it's not, it doesn't really have any spice to it, but it's like, it's got a little bit of,

you know, a little bit of sizzle.

And

it's not overly sweet.

I totally get what you're saying.

It absolutely feels like something that you get in like, you know, some

BBGo pot stickers you'd get from Costco or whatever.

But I think this is a well-executed version of this, and I think it accompanies the nuggets nicely.

And here's the other thing I like about this: it's a new sauce.

They could have just done the thing where this is the Jiu-Jitsu Kaisen, you know, whatever barbecue sauce.

They do so many of these branded tie-ins these days where it's just a reskinned existing menu item.

That was the whole thing with the IHOP Sonic the Hedgehog menu.

And so

it's great to have something new.

No, it is.

They got in the lab for this, and that's pretty exciting, actually.

Because I think, I mean,

I think a lot of the McDonald's sauces are pretty good.

I like quite a few of them.

Oh, my God, of course.

In this,

I love a McNugget.

I'm loving the sauce.

I think it's really good.

I kind of want this sauce coated on a wing.

I think it'd be a really good, great wing.

That might work.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Yeah,

I would get an order of these from Wingstop for sure.

I truly cannot speak to any of this experience.

I thought I'd be able to taste more of it.

Yeah.

Because there have been, like, I can taste citrus again.

So I'm pretty sure that whatever the tangy

taste I'm tasting is whatever citrus is in that sauce.

The nuggets were so completely flavorless that they were just texture.

And it felt like I was eating

like a very dense styrofoam packing,

like a warm styrofoam packing cube.

That's the appeal.

That's why I like them.

Like, yeah.

Rancha, how are you feeling over there?

I don't love it.

Okay.

I feel myself wanting

sour sauce.

Sure.

There's a bunch of people.

Yeah.

Let me toss it over to you.

Are you a Nuggets fan in general?

Wow, I can't believe that worked.

I can't believe it either.

I softball toss it to Rochelle and she caught it.

Yeah.

I wasn't ever doubting Rochelle's ability.

No, I thought that was going to throw it over her head and hit the head gum logo on the back wall.

Marty comes in here and kicks your ass.

I wanted it.

Hits a Sparklets bottle, spills it all over the place.

No, that happened.

I will say my pickup for this was a little bit insane.

So the way it timed out, we were out and about and

we're, Matt, and I were texting about this, like, should we just do this for the show?

And so I was like, okay, I can, I can go get the sauces there near me.

So I, I put the, I, you know, I get the order in.

I arrive at the McDonald's, but the, the timing was I was getting there during the lunch rush.

I was there at like noon sharp.

There were so many people queued up waiting to order in store and then people just like like hovering around the app pickup zone.

Yeah.

So I get up there and basically just as I arrive, like seconds after I arrive, one of the workers is like nick and holds up a pet a bag i was like okay here we go this is this this worked out beautifully sets it down an older lady in front of me picks up that same bag opens it up and immediately just starts rifling through oh my god now here's the thing like people have you set her down right

hold on

so

so you know

maybe she's hard of hearing people have the same names who know i'm getting rid of the benefit of the doubt i just i say to her firmly but politely, I say, are you Nick?

And then she.

The rudest option.

I don't think it was that rude.

That's insane.

Guess what, bitch?

I'm Nick.

You could have led with, excuse me, I'm Nick, and I believe that's my bad.

I feel like this was a plot.

This was a nice way to.

Are you Nick?

Okay, well, perhaps that might explain her reaction because I said, are you Nick?

She's looking through the bag.

She puts it down.

She looks at me and says, this isn't my Dr.

Pepper.

I ordered a bag of cola.

Have you never been to a restaurant before?

You thought your fountain drink was going to come in a brown paper bag?

Oh, my God.

That's perfect.

That's so,

God bless her.

Yeah, God bless her.

I want to say real quick about the ordering experience on the app.

It was.

The McDonald's app is

maybe in the top five apps, period.

It's a great app.

It's a good app.

I like the Taco Bell app more, but the Taco Bell app is king of the apps.

As far as like ordering for delivery, it was pretty seamless.

My one complaint is you can't schedule an order.

Yes.

You should be able to schedule an order.

It feels like they could sort that out pretty easily.

But otherwise, it came here.

I want McDonald's at 11:13 p.m.

Not a moment sooner, not a moment later.

I must eat McDonald's during a prime number.

It came pretty quickly.

It came nice and sealed in a bag.

And to my surprise, warm enough.

Yeah.

Good, serviceable.

I'd say the app's pretty good.

Yeah, no, the app's definitely not crap.

It's a good app.

I'm very, I'm bullish on the sauce.

I think it's a good sauce.

It seems like we kind of have a split verdict here, but, you know,

I think there's an effective tie-in.

I'm glad because I know that, like, and I know that you covered this on your other show, but on at KFC, they have saucy nugs.

I think Wendy's has a saucy nugget.

The saucy nugs thing is just a flawed concept.

I did the Wendy's saucy nugget recently and was like, why are these so saucy?

They should not be doing it.

The fun of the nugget is that you get to dip it yourself.

Exactly.

Yeah.

That's what's fun about it.

I don't need this pre-sauced.

It's going to

be dipped by a man I've never met.

Exactly.

I heard a story in the writer's room this week about

a dog that was

that they were that was

had, was like 15 years old and was on its way out.

And so they brought the dog to Wendy's and let it have Wendy because, like, what a fun thing for a dog.

Right.

Yeah.

But the dog did not pass away

after this meal.

And so now they've fed the dog Wendy's every day for a year.

And the dog is morbidly obese and has like a belly that drags on the ground.

Did Wendy save it?

She's getting stronger.

All the tumors are gone.

What?

Reverse squurlock.

That's why Trump is so healthy.

Yeah, truly.

Wow, that's crazy.

Yeah.

I kind of wish we had ordered some fries.

I do, you do want fries when you have the nuggets alone, four nuggets.

I was like,

I would at least want a bag of drink

or a handful of shake.

The hardest temptation while i was in japan was not going to mcdonald's because they were doing a kiki's delivery service oh that's awesome burger and they had like five different burgers that were all they all got their own original animation kiki's delivery service commercial so they're like five commercials and five burgers or something something like that this was your most recent show

just like a couple weeks ago uh and i was like i don't want to go to mcdonald's for one of them

i don't want to do it I can't, I can't, like, I'm, I'm here, I'm going to go get soba.

I'm going to, I'm here, I'll go get sushi.

I'm not going to McDonald's.

I would have went every single day.

Well, my friend Albro, who's been on the show.

Yes.

Albro was also in Tokyo at the same time and he got the shrimp burger.

And he was like, you know, very lukewarm on it on its appeal.

But yeah, they're running.

Also, the commercials are gorgeous.

They are so well animated.

You're like, if they showed this here, I'd fucking get McDonald's here.

How amazing is it that

Jiu Jutsu Kaisen, or anime, I guess, at large, has now become such a part of like the over culture in America, going from a thing that was like, had a had a small section of a of a blockbuster in the 90s to now it's like McDonald's has a tie-in with jiu-jitsu kaisen yeah it's like kind of kind of wild to watch that argument not their first uh anime tie-in of the year they have the wickdonald's as well right Right.

Yeah,

I love this sauce.

And hey, we talked about Jiu Jizu Kaisen Zero over on Get Animate if anyone wants to listen to that episode.

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 gumback catalog, plus ad-free main feed episodes, and also our Patreon exclusive show, GetAnimate, where you can listen to us talk about Jiu-Jitsu Kaisen Zero And also, Mobile Suit Gundam right now.

That's right.

Mobile Suit Gundam, the 8th MS Team.

We're back on it after a couple weeks off.

And

we're loving it.

It's such a good show.

It's such a good show.

And if you like video games and you're like, ah, you thumb your nose

at anime, at least give.

8th MS Team a try because it's such a fucking good show.

It transcends the medium to just be awesome.

Yeah, it's great.

Incredibly well animated, really well plotted.

Lots of beams.

Super compelling.

Great.

Lots of beams.

Lots of beams.

Jordan and the beams hit each other, and then the beams have to decide which is the most powerful beam.

Well, maybe, maybe next week.

No spoilers, Jordan.

Sorry.

Cut this out.

I didn't mean to suggest the beams would touch.

Jordan Morris, the book is youth group.

Tell everyone about it.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

So it is a YA horror comedy graphic novel.

The art is by a great artist named Bowen Bones McGurdy.

Kind of sounds like an Elden Ring character.

Yeah, Bowen drew the fuck out of the book as such a talented artist.

And yeah, so it's a YA horror comedy about teenage exorcists.

So they're all part of a goofy Bible study group that sings, you know, parody songs and talks about abstinence, and then they have to actually go and fight demons.

And yeah, I'm really proud of how it turned out.

It's,

yeah, I think if you like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if you you like a Sean of the Dead, that's kind of the tone.

And yeah, and if you're an occasional comics reader, you don't have to know anything going into it.

It's got a beginning, middle, and an end.

And yeah, so I think hopefully comics folks and comics occasionals will both check it out.

Yeah, there it is.

It's youth group.

Anywhere you get a book, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, better yet your local indie bookstore.

I'm doing signed copies through a great bookstore in LA called Book Soup.

So if you want a signed copy, booksoup.com.

But if you don't care about the signature, anywhere else, anywhere you get a book, youth group.

I really enjoyed Bubble, your last book, and I'm really looking forward to this.

I have a youth group pre-ordered at my local bookstore.

Oh, my God.

Indie Bookstore.

And it's out everywhere July 16th.

But if you're listening to this day and date, you can still put in a pre-order for it, which is always great for book sales.

But everyone should check it out.

One of the funniest guys around and a great writer.

And I'm really, really looking forward to this.

Excellent taste in Sonic games.

Well,

the ultimate compliments.

Well,

I guess this is the part of the show where Jordan, I know we're sitting on the same couch right now.

Nick got played.

Oh, shit.

Okay.

Wow, you've been spared.

You were about to get played, but I guess Nick got played this week.

I spilled.

You spilled right now?

Right now.

Are you fucking kidding me?

End the show.

That was a hit gum podcast.