Featured Image

First of all, we’d like to thank the amazing yurricanes for working with us to create the featured image for this episode. I think you’ll agree that it’s an amazing piece of art, and you should definitely check out their work.

We’d also like to thank Georgie (aka ChapSketch) for working with Squidge on the episode artwork for the entire New Cupboard of Shame series. Head on over to Georgie’s Etsy page to commission some work from her. You really should, as she’s blooming brilliant.

Players

Squidge

Lulu

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Content Warning

Squidge was fully in charge of hosting, producing and editing this episode. As such, he decided to leave the few swears in the episode without bleeping them. This was done for comedy reasons, as we felt that there is very little in the episode which could offend most listeners.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

Squidge wanted to take a shiny new look at The Cupboard of Shame. The difference being that he wanted to invite some familiar voices onto the show, one at a time, and discuss one game that they want to jettison into the Cupboard of Shame. For his second episode on the eponymous

and totally real cupboard

.

cupboard, he could think of none better than Lulu

As a quick reminder, Squidge describes The Cupboard of Shame as:

Squidge's Avatar Squidge

The idea behind it is games that you have bought in your past, played it, but you don’t know why you bought [them] but you did anyway.

Any complaints that you have about the game; why you want to stick it in the Cupboard of Shame. We’ll talk about the good points and the bad points [of the game], and we’ll share some fun facts about the game.

Previous Entries into the Cupboard of Shame

The Cupboard of Shame reboot has only seen one entry so far, which was when Chief Problems decided that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim needed to be stored behind the walnut doors of destiny. You can hear Chief’s reasoning behind his choice on episode 136

which you can listen to here

Prior to the Cupboard of Shame reboot, Squidge has challenged both G and himself to put some titles into the Cupboard of Shame. The titles that they chose include:

  • Iron Man the Movie Video Game
  • WET
  • Rambo: The Video Game
  • Crackdown
  • Final Fantasy XIII

You can hear their discussion on these games (and a few more) in episode 47: The Cupboard of Shame

here’s a link to that episode

Lulu’s Chosen Game

Squidge started this episode strongly:

Squidge's Avatar Squidge

Any road, we’ve gone completely off topic

And that was in the first three minutes of the episode. But very shortly after that, he asked Lulu for the title of the one game that she would like to discuss:

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

I did have a long think about this, I’ll be perfectly honest. But every time I thought about it, one game kept coming up and it was: Chaos Legion

But before they could discuss the game, Squidge needed to describe the game’s setup:

Two men, once friends, now have their fates tied together by the death of a young maiden. Each man holds the key to a sacred glyph that, when combined with the other two, can open the Gateway of Chaos and lead the people to the Red Moon.

Talk about “dun dun duuuun”

He also wanted to give a description of when he first encountered the game - you know, for science and stuff:

Squidge's Avatar Squidge

It was 2003, I was 14. It was the weekend. Reallising as I woke up, that due to exceptional circumstances I was awake, it was very real to me that for the most of the day I would be unsupervised. Anything could happen.

However, I had recently picked up a game called "Chaos Legion", and hilarity ensued. As you might imagine

But why did Lulu buy this game?

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

I just remember seeing the trailer playing a lot in [my local GAME] store. And I really, really liked the style of it. It was kind of like gothic and a little bit steampunky, and that is entirely my jam.

What’s So Bad About it?

Any discussion of a bad game needs to cover what’s so bad about the game. So Squidge asked, “what’s so bad about this game?”

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

I do remember 1) the controls being a little bit janky (and that’s being nice), and 2) the gameplay being kinda repetitive.

Naff controls and repetitive gameplay is not what you want from a

pause for effect whilst we check the box

Capcom game?! Seriously? Capcom made this?

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

I remember thinking, "haven’t I done this level already?" because they all started looking very, very samey. I know that with early Devil May Cry games they were corridor simulators. But at least with the Devil May Cry games, they had a good story. The Chaos Legion story felt a bit flat.

Another criticism was the difficulty and the repetitive nature of having to replay previous missions, multiple times in a row, in order to get the required exp level to play the next level.

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

Again, I play [Final Fantasy XIV] and that’s just grinding [for experience points]. But there comes a point where you’re just like, "I just want to progress." It doesn’t feel like there’s an end in sight.

Grab some popcorn and find your seats. Monster of the Week actual play podcast “$2 Creature Feature” returns for season two on February 22. This season will see a whole new crew of hunters confronting the mysteries at the heart of the town of Jupiter Hollow.

Megan Murphy

I’m Megan Murphy. I’m playing Zelda Wardwell, the flake. “Oh wait, I’m supposed to protect people, too.”

Nye Elder

I’m Nye Elder playing Eric Ashran, The Crooked. “let’s just say I don’t ask questions that involve textbooks. I asked questions that involve cash.”

Laura Macmillan

I’m Laura Macmillan and I’m playing Tammy Jo Marple. “I’m your home town Homefinder. I’m here to make deals with the good people of Jupiter hollow but I already made a deal of my own. Tammy Jo is the monstrous.”

Mr. Ray

And I’m Mr. Ray. I play everything that tries to kill these people. And if you enjoyed our first season, you ain’t seen nothing yet. New episodes every other Tuesday wherever podcasts are found.

What Are Some Redeeming Features?

It’s never good to focus on the negative. So what’s good about this game, or at least what redeems it slightly:

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

For the time that it was made [in], there was nothing else like it… But you still just had your gun blades and "magic" - because Devil May Cry.

It had a unique aesthetic, all told.

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

I don’t remember any other game, at that time, that looked like Chaos Legion

But that could be both a good and bad thing, as the cut scenes tended to have those very strange Shadow Hearts-style graphics: somewhere between wobbly realism and anime.

But the sound track was pretty good:

Lulu's Avatar Lulu

The soundtrack was awesome

Squidge was afraid of trying to pronounce Hideyuki Fukasawa’s name

that’s the person who wrote the soundtrack

but dropped the names of some of the other titles he has worked on, including:

  • Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny
  • Chaos Legion

    obviously

  • Monster Hunter Frontier
  • Street Fighter IV

In Closing

Squidge's Avatar Squidge

My final question to you, "in The context of The Cupboard of Shame, would you yeet/kick/throw with vigour into the cupboard, or would you delete it from existence, or keep it as a guilty pleasure to go back to it?"

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 33 games in this podcast. In the following order, those games where: