Players

Squidge

Jay

Lulu

Chief

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Content Warning

Just like last time, I’ve bleeped all of the swears

there are only a few

bar one, which is in the intro sequence. It’s an instance of “bastard” and really fit with the nature of the sketch we were going for. But if this is a problem, skip ahead by 30 seconds as soon as the episode starts to play, and you’ll skip right past it.

Notes

We’d had a lot of fun talking to Lulu and Chief Problems, so we took some time going through some questions brought to by way of one of the many Discord servers that Lulu hangs out in

we’re always open to questions, so send them in and we’ll answer them

The first one was:

I always like hearing people’s opinion on why they think that the voiceless hero of the earlier games seem to resonate more with fans than the voice acted ones of the later games.

Which starts us down a conversation on how Vivi in FFIX could be Scottish – just like Cait Sith in Final Fantasy Advent Children. Whereas I take it to mean the voiceless protagonists of games like Half Life.

The second question sparks a much longer discussion:

Besides the long anticipated remake for Final Fantasy VII, which game do each of you think will be the next to be remade?

But because it’s a Twofer, the question continued:

Additionally, how have games differed over the years from when you first played them? i.e. eariler titles vs now in your adulthood. Do you feel your perspective has changed?

There’s an old trope that video games used to be hard, but I’m convinced that it’s actually true. Games used to be harder because they were designed to last, there was no Internet

sure, there were BBS services

and you had to rely on magazines or your friends to figure out how to beat the hard bosses.

And I challenge listeners to prove me wrong by firing up a NES emulator and playing the OG TMNT game on it

here are my thoughts on that amazing game

I then go into the genius of Miyamoto, and how he designs his games and levels.

Which naturally brings us to a conversation about Final Fantasy VI, and how Chief has never played it. And I talk about how FFVII shouldn’t really be getting a remake, whereas VI should

send us your opinions in the comments, or via Twitter or Facebook

We also talk about how Square-Enix said diddly-squat about Final Fantasy VIII’s 20 anniversary – which had happened a few days before we recorded. But we do discus the ballroom scene:

A close up of the graphics of the PlayStation title: Final Fantasy VIII showing them to not be very clear. One of the character is saying, 'You're the best looking guy here'

Squidgey then talks about how difficult it is to play games on the NES with the Advantage stick

which he has written about before

especially when he was younger and had much smaller hands.

Squidge's Avatar Squidge:

But his one true love (and by that, I mean “game he wants to see remade”) is Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. Also, not many fans of the series have play that one. What’s up with that?

We all talk about the problems that we had with Final Fantasy XII

well, everyone other than me

especially the final boss, and how when you beat it, you’re left with a feeling of “is that it?!”

We get a minor amount of controversy when Chief brings up Dragon Age: Origins, and Lulu points out that you could leave the game to play itself. Which brings us on to a discussion of Final Fantasy XII’s Fran and her backside

which was started by Lulu, by the way

Lulu's Avatar Lulu:

Literally my thoughts are the same thing: ‘I love Balthier’s voice, and Fran’s backside is a sight to behold,’ and that’s literally it

We then talk about politics in video games, and how the politics in FFXII completely passed Chief by when he first played it. Perhaps it was because the politics in FFXII was too complex.

Chief promises that he will answer any question that you are willing to send in

Twitter, Facebook, or comments

which (naturally, apparently) brings us back to an earlier part of our conversation all about pies:

Chief's Avatar Chief:

My favourite pie is chicken and mushroom

Which won’t make sense to many of our American listeners, as they don’t tend to have savoury pies.

Also, let us know what your favourite pie is. Or, indeed, send us pictures of pies?

Chief and I then argue about which is better: VHS or BetaMax

it’s not really an argument, though

Also, check out Jay & Jay Media

check the External Links of Interest section

and learn all about what they (we?) do, and how they can help folks get started with Podcasting.

One last thing before I end the show notes: we’re taking a little break in April. Essentially, both Squidgey and myself are going on vacations. Squidge is having a staycation

as far as I know, anyway

and I’m jetting off to Japan for a little while. Because of this we’re not going to release anything in April, so this will be the penultimate episode until May.

But I’m going to be recording some stuff while I’m out in Japan, and will make those recordings into an episode when I get back – so keep an ear open for them, I guess.

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

All copyrighted material contained within this podcast is the property of their respective rights owners. Please see the above list for copyright details pertaining to music used.

Games Covered

We mentioned 13 games in this podcast. In the following order, those games where: