2 Player Cupboard of Shame: Ginger

Featured Image

Players

Squidge

Ginger

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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. This being the fourth episode in the new series, he invited GingersChocobo42 cast Cupboard of Shame on something, which will transport it to the

totally real cupboard

cupboard.

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

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 three entries so far:

• Chief Problems decided that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim needed to be stored behind the walnut doors of destiny in episode 136
• Lulu wanted to jettison Chaos Legion to the nether realms of the electronically challenged cupboard in episode 138
• Sean wanted to yeet Risk of Rain 2 into the underbelly of the cupboard in episode 139

You can read about the New Cupboard of Shame series at our page dedicated to all of the episodes: here.

Prior to the Cupboard of Shame reboot, Squidge had 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

All of the “classic” Cupboard of Shame episodes

aka before Squidge’s 2022 sexy reboot

can be found here.

Ginger’s Chosen Game

Wasting almost no time at all, Squidge leapt in with the all-important question: which game are we yeeting into the Cupboard of shame?

Ginger

Final Fantasy X-2. Where do I even begin with this game?

…It’s shameful for me to actually admit that I’ve never been able to beat [this game], honestly, because it made me so damned mad.

And, as Squidge said:

Squidge

Unless you put in the time to 100% it, the payoff isn’t worth it

maybe Lulu will have something to say about that

We’re convinced that Ginger’s initial thoughts are shared by a lot of people:

Ginger

When X-2 first came out, I was super excited. I was like, "hell yeah! Girl power!" There’s an all female lead. I was stoked. I was super stoked.

And then I played it.

… it’s a beautiful game, like you said. It comes right off of, like, when graphics were finally getting good for video games.

… and here’s why I always talk $h!t about this game: why do I need [the strategy guide] to actually beat the game?

Squidge’s detailed description of Final Fantasy X-2 (for those who haven’t played it) is:

Squidge

Final Fantasy X-2 is the first direct sequel in the renowned RPG series. X-2 highlights a cast of returning characters and features mission-based gameplay. An all female lead cast, unique job classes, and dynamic battle system.

It doesn’t stop there, there’s more

The story takes place two years after Yuna defeats Sin in Final Fantasy X, and follows Yuna’s journey to find her lost love. Scattered across the land are spheres which show visual recordings of historical events or open up different types of job classes to use in battle.

As Ginger points out, the game doesn’t pass the Bechdel test because Yuna is looking for Tidus, and all of her conversations with other female characters revolve around Tidus.

And no discussion of Final Fantasy X-2 can be complete without Jay’s description of it:

Jay

Let’s play dress-up

When asked for comments, resident expert in all things Final Fantasy Lulu had the following to say:

Lulu

I remember two things:

1. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is best described as "Lightning raising her wardrobe"

2. I remember final beating Final Fantasy XIII. I was sitting on the living room floor crying. Not because of the ending, but because I’d finally beaten it. And Jay told me that I should list "Beat Final Fantasy XIII" on my résumé.

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?” before visibly recoiling.

Ginger

Unless you have the strategy guide, you’re literally not going to beat it. Unless you basically have read the strategy guide and played it over and over, and know it by memory, and know exactly who you’ve got to talk to and that’s kind of me with VII - the original one.

Like, Sephiroth is an easy boss. And III - talk about a hard game - III, once it got released here, I still beat that one. But I didn’t beat X-2

Add to that the fact that you can’t possibly 100% the game in a single playthrough, and you have a strange setup. To the point where certain parts of the game were based entirely on luck, and one guide states

If you don’t get it this time, try rebooting your console and try again

And PS2s weren’t fans of being rebooted constantly, as Squidge pointed out:

Squidge

[resetting your PS2 constantly] made it sound like the DreamCast calling it’s people

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:

Ginger

The graphics are beautiful. And even though I slightly despise this game, I still love that there’s a female lead.

Squidge and Ginger both agree that the music is also a great feature of the game:

Squidge

The music is banging.

And the outfits (which set the classes of the characters) are unique for each character.

Ginger

You can have the three White Mages, but their outfits are so different. It’s so cool how [the character designers] go into such small details.

Even though the story is a little weak, the characterisations are quite strong. And Squidge brought that up with a story about Rikku:

Squidge

Like, Rikku was scared of thunder, but then camped out in the Thunder Plains for a week and was then ok with it.

In Closing

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?"

External Links of Interest

• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Georgie’s (aka ChapSketch) links:
  • Instagram
  • Etsy
• The Cupboard of Shame series
• Grand Rapidians Plays Video Games
  • on Twitter
  • on LinkTree
  • on Anchor
• The Bechdel Test
• Squidge’s appearance on Grand Rapidians Plays Video Games

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.

• Intro music is Abstract Vision #6, from the Big Casual & Arcade Game Music Bundle by Muz Station Productions
• Creepy Background Music For Retro Gaming Videos
• Hero Dance Party - Chiptune/8-bit
• Epic Victory Music - MUSIC4VIDEO
• Retro Gaming Rock Background Music For Content Creators
• Funny Quirky Comedy by Redafs.com, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
• Outro Music is I N e e d Y o u 私の側て by G.H (removed from BandCamp)