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Emily Bateman, host of Game of Groans joins us to talk about some of the games she's been enjoying lately. We discuss Disney Dreamlight Valley, Diablo IV, the Lies of P demo and much more!
Follow Emily's show here
https://www.gameofgroanspod.com/
What's up everybody? Welcome back to The Neighborhood and thanks for spending part of your day with us today. This episode is something we call The Neighborhood Watch. Welcome to the podcast with two longtime friends, and sometimes a guest, to talk about their favorite games from the perspective of an average player.
Speaker 2:My name is Andrew Kimball and I'm Dylan Ren, and we are your friendly neighborhood gamers.
Speaker 1:If this is your first time listening, first of all, thank you for checking out the podcast. The Neighborhood Watch is an episode format we do once a month where we can talk about all the games we're playing. That probably won't get their own dedicated deep dive, but we still want to give them some time in the spotlight. I'm very excited about this Neighborhood Watch because the time zones have kept our shows apart for too long and we're making up for that this month. Please welcome back to the show Emily Bateman. Emily, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm great, so excited to be in the same country as you guys.
Speaker 1:Yes, it makes things a lot easier for this kind of stuff, which I'm excited about?
Speaker 3:Yes, we're catching up for them, we're making up for last time.
Speaker 1:Yes, for sure, Exactly. People should know your voice by now. but for whatever reason, you host Game of Growns. You want to tell a little bit about your show on the top here and then we can get into it.
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, i have a podcast called Game of Growns. It started out it's kind of evolved, but I hosted with my sister, kate Kabala, who has also been on this and other podcasts. But the premise is that I never watched Game of Growns while it was airing for however many years, and never got into it and thought, well, what better way to get into it than to make a podcast about how ridiculous the show is and talk to my friends and family about it? So I am watching Game of Growns for the first time, chronologically spoiler free, as much as possible, and for the first couple of seasons, if you did end up starting. At the beginning I had rotating cast of friends, family and podcasters, and then, by season four, my sister joined as a co-host and quote-unquote expert, which just means she's seen the show before, and occasionally we do have guests as well that want to talk about their favorite episodes. And man, this show is wild, it's a riot, and I'm finding that I think I finally like it in season six. So I'm coming around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow Season six.
Speaker 2:Yeah, It does get pretty intense in season six, so you can understand Yeah yeah, I think so There's a lot of payoff, I guess, from things that have been set up for five seasons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome Season six. So you're on the downhill now.
Speaker 3:Yes, And I guess I'll assume it would be what some people might say the downward trend of the show, depending on who you talk to. Yeah, we're in the last. We're currently in the middle of season six, the last season, with 10 episodes. We've only got season seven and eight, which have less than 10. I think they have like eight and six or something, But yeah, I think it's like less than 20 episodes left.
Speaker 1:And then House of the Dragon.
Speaker 3:Maybe We'll see TBD on that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:I might take a break, but yeah, I'm always looking for the next thing, because this will only last me another year or so.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well. Are you excited to talk about video games?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, I told when you asked me to be on this. it's like I've actually been playing a lot of video games more than normal recently. So, yeah, I'm excited to talk.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and we are excited to. I'm excited to hear about some of these games that you've got on your list.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I always want to jump into your discord, but I feel like such an old woman because I'm just like I want to talk to people about these games, but everyone else is talking about other things And I would be like, what about this game that I'm playing? you guys? I want to talk to people And I just I feel too old for discord, so this is much more fun for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i mean this is definitely a better way to do a conversation, But you know my sister's in that discord, so if you threw in there, like what's going on with this Dream Life Valley game, i'm sure she'd be like right, i feel like I should just message Aubrey, then She and I just need to talk. That's also an option. Yes, so, like I said at the top, this episode is just like casual conversation about video games. what we've been playing for Dylan and myself, this has kind of been the season of like bigger games that we're dedicating a lot of time to. So not a lot has really changed from our last episode. We maybe have played a couple things or further into the things we were playing last time. So the stars just aligned. It's a perfect opportunity to have you on a guest so you can bring a fresh set of games, fresh perspective, fresh. You know gaming preferences to this episode And I'm excited to get into it. So I think, with that being said, i want you to kick us off. Dylan, you said you were excited to hear about some of these games, so which one should which one do you want her to start with?
Speaker 2:Well, i've definitely heard a lot about Disney Dream Life Valley, just from my sister and Aubrey, but I know there's been a ton of updates since we've heard from them, so I'm excited to hear, like what the updates are and an unbiased, in my opinion, opinion about the. Disney Dream Life Valley game. And then I've really heard a lot of good things about Cozy Grove, so I'm excited to hear about that one too.
Speaker 3:Well, i'll start with the real small one that you didn't mention first, because it's a little phone game And you guys know about this because we just did another crossover, so later this month or I don't even know, maybe around the same week, who knows. You guys were just on Game of Growns and it's a little phone app called a kinder world And it's like gamifying mental health and check ins and just like you water a little plant and you talk about like it, ask you what you're grateful for that day, and it just makes you stop for like 30 seconds and think about yourself and take a moment and just just sit for a moment. And as a person with like general anxiety and I take medication for it it's nice to just stop and think and just do something for me, even if it's just like watering a fake plant. You know So that one's just real fun and cute and it's totally free. It's in the app store.
Speaker 1:Does it do anything like you mentioned, like watering plants and stuff? Is there like any sort of like progression or gaminess to it? or is it really you just go in and kind of do like this Zen activity to just slow down?
Speaker 3:Yes, they do They. There are like rewards to it. Like once you water a plant five times, it's fully grown and you can grow a new one and you earn like their own type of currency and you have a little room You can decorate. Of course, you know you can buy things for like 99 cents for your little room, but yeah, and like the more, the more of one type of plant you grow, i think you get like a different one. I think it's kind of in its like beta, because I only just saw it recently But and there's little like characters that you can meet and I think you can eventually get like pets or something. So, yeah, there are levels to it and like the goals. Basically like it rewards you for different things. It rewards you for doing it and it's like twice a day you water the plant, so there are rewards to it. That makes you want to come back besides just the 30 seconds to to take a breather.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because I think that's a great premise for that kind of a thing, because a lot of times you might not stop for 30 seconds, but it's like oh well, i've got to. you know, water my plants I'm going to keep. if I water it one more time then I get a new plant or you know it's fully grown or whatever, and so you you make it more of a point to take that time for yourself, which is, you know, i think, probably what they're going for. But that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's fun, it's chill.
Speaker 1:Is it something that you just like you think about and you're like, oh, now's a good time for me to hop into this? Or is it like sending you notifications at certain times, being like now's a good time to check on your plant?
Speaker 3:So in the, the cool game at 7am and 7pm is when your plant needs watering, so you can do it after if you miss it. but you can also have your phone send you a notification like hey, you can, you should do this right now. Usually I end up not doing it right at that time, but I do see them.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so it kind of gives you the choice to like be reminded or yeah, you can totally turn it off, make it a part. Yeah, make it a part of like your own sort of ritual sort of situation. It's like oh. OK, before I go to bed, I'm going to water my plant and just take some time to know it makes sense And that's a kinder world.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, well, i guess we can get to the big one that you guys kind of already know about, which is Disney Dreamlike Valley. So I happened upon this game. My husband was going through Game Pass last year and I had seen an ad or something and he was like, oh, look at Disney Game. And I was like, oh yeah, you know cool. And he's like, well, why don't we just download it? It's free, like we can just check it out? I was like OK, so I started playing it and I became like obsessed with it And I was like I was not necessarily fighting him over our Xbox, but like, hey, can I play your Xbox so I can play this dumb Disney game please? So it just it had everything that I really wanted, like very little, like not necessarily action, but like nothing stressful about it. You know gathering things and it's got Disney characters, but there's an actual plot, but there's no like combat. So you can't mess it up really. And so so I was. I was pretty in in the beginning, but then, since it's still in this weird beta, i slowly went through all of the achievements and leveled out everything, and then I was like, well, there's nothing else to do, so I just stopped. So that's that's. The one issue I have is they're rolling out updates, which are great, but then I get really obsessive, compulsive about it and then finish all of them And then it's like, ok, i guess I'll wait three months for the next update. But the most recent one has been nice because it's updated the plot. Because I don't know why And I've never played a game in beta It was all very new to me. So I was like, ok, well, this is like a fully formed game, they'll just add stuff. No, it's not. The story wasn't finished, so you can only get so far in the story. And I was like I'm not done. What happens? And they were like well, just you wait and see. And I was like what So?
Speaker 1:did you not know it was in beta when you started playing?
Speaker 3:I didn't understand what that meant, gotcha. I was like, neat, it's not. Like maybe it'll look better. And I did not think like, yeah, the story is not finished yet, we're still working on it. So that was surprising to me, because I was like, oh, because it has. What I really enjoy is it has a list of like, like tasks or like quests and stuff that you can do, and it says, oh well, to unlock this one, you need to do this thing and this thing, which is awesome, and then it tracks them for you. So I was slowly going through them and they weren't populating more And I was like, well, surely by the time I finish, all of them more will populate. They didn't.
Speaker 1:And I was like oh okay neat.
Speaker 3:So it's been like every couple months once it gets an update. I'll bust through everything, because the last one before this was, i think, mirabelle from Incanto And there are some like Pixar things, but the one this one that just came out, i think June 7th is the first one for this year that has like plot progression, because the other ones have just been like little side stories and stuff like that. I'm just like we're adding more characters because we can, because we're Disney and we own everything, but I mean, i'm a sucker for it anyway. But this one has has like a real addition to the story and like things are unlocked that have just been sitting there for a while, like there's different realms and in one of the realms there's a pumpkin house and you couldn't get into the pumpkin house and it was just sitting there for, like you know however long, and you're like who's in the pumpkin house and you find out finally And it's a new character and they're part of the bigger plot and stuff. Having gotten too far into this update, because it's only been like three or four days maybe- yeah, and. I can only play it. It is, you know, during my daughter's naps and at bedtime, so but it's, and I did end up buying it for the switch and you can. I did find that you can cloud, save and Like transfer, so that was exciting to find out. So you can play it on different platforms, because I just I like the handheld and I was tired of fighting over the TV, so for sure.
Speaker 1:How does it look on the switch?
Speaker 3:I don't see much of a difference. I think Maybe before this update Trying to think maybe at the beginning of this year It was a little more glitchy and it would probably air out more, wouldn't start as much, but I think they've they've cleared a lot of the bugs that I I had issues with before.
Speaker 1:What are they charging for it on the switch, even though it's still in beta?
Speaker 3:$30?.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I know and I could be playing in a game pass, but it's like I just I can't.
Speaker 1:No, i mean, I totally understand wanting to have it handheld.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what my sister got it on like. She looked at like game pass or that and she was like, well, i could play it on game pass, but I would prefer to play it on switch. Yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, having it, having it handheld, is, it seems very much like a good cozy couch game, weird, um. The other question that kind of popped in my head as you were talking about is you've referenced this thing called a story and a plot. Oh, yes, and you need the story. Know about this game is that it's like animal crossing, but Disney characters. So, I'm like, i'm curious what. What is the story?
Speaker 3:Yes, there is a plot. So and and hopefully I remember this because it's been a while since I like started it so You were a kid and when you go to sleep, that's when you would like dream that you were with all these like Disney characters. So it's called dream like Valley because that's where you go when you're like asleep and your friends with all your Disney characters and everyone live there happily like villains and good guys and everyone just live there happily. Ever after. And at one point, something called the forgetting happened and these things called Is it like night thorns or something started growing and all the characters started forgetting about themselves and their past and their Relationships and everything like that. And so people started leaving the dream like Valley and like something, some evil thing was like taking over. And so you come back and you're like, hey, and Merlin's like you can do magic. And you're like, can I mean? he's like yeah, so now you're in charge of this place and You have to get rid of all the magic and help all the characters remember who they are and like save them, basically. So at this point you're just trying to figure out like who. Well, it depends on how far you are along in the plot, but Who started the forgetting and why and how to like solve it? because it still keeps coming up and you're saving more characters But it's not completely gone yet. So and it's all like its own lore like it's all like basically out of nowhere, like Disney Magic lore stuff about you know, when you were. It's very kind of Alice in Wonderland ish, where It's like when you were a kid you played in this world more, but now that you're older You like came back to it or something. Um, yeah, it's. It's like you're, you see the bad guy and he kind of seems like a Dark version of you and you're like what's happening? Is that me? What happened to the other me? and so it's Interesting, so that's kind of what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:You're doing all the like little side quests and stuff with the goal of trying to help the characters remember Who they are and where they fit in, like the Disney universe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and bring them back to Dreamlight Valley because there's the. The Magic Castle Has doors to every other world, like the Wally world, the, the Toy Story world, the, whatever And so you talk to them and then you end up doing like a quest in whatever world. And then you're like, hey, come back to Dreamlight Valley and help me do stuff. And they're like, okay, sure. So then you like build them a house somewhere in the world and then they live there.
Speaker 2:Now, everyone that I've talked to about this game has like a favorite character or two. Do you have favorites?
Speaker 3:I think I Really like Mirabelle. She was fun, a fun addition, but I really I really love the movie in Kanto, so that was kind of I was surprised that they put something so relevant and like so recent. I thought they were gonna go really like, oh, it's gonna take forever to put the new stuff in here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cuz that I know that was one of the things like either Aubrey or Delaney was talking about was like Yeah, they start you with like Merlin, who is like a character that like Was kind of from an older movie, like even soaring the stone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, i think they only do that because, like he Canonically in Disney movies knows about magic and can do magic. So they really needed someone like that. Because they also have like mother Gothel, who's the, the villain from Tangled, and so she does some magic too, and they're like, oh well, she does bad. And Ursula, who's a sea witch, like she talks about magic as well, she's done some, some deeds and like helped you with some magic here and stuff. But like yeah, yeah, i think I think anyone god, i would be curious to know anyone playing it today Like younger than millennial age, like did they know who Merlin is?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean not, maybe not from Disney, although you can like go back and you can watch all those. Oh yeah old movies on Disney plus and stuff. But yeah, merlin is a character from like the King Arthur story, so they may have learned about it in school.
Speaker 3:Maybe yeah, we're just like. This guy looks like a wizard. He seems legit.
Speaker 1:That's like. That's like the guy from Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's Dumbledore. Yeah, but I mean they start with the classics. They got, you know, mickey and Minnie and Goofy and Donald and Scrooge McDuck, but he runs the store, so he's like your Tom Nook guy. That makes sense who has, you know, the one store in town and once once all the money and wants you to help him make money and stuff. So I was like, okay, well, i like Moana too. She's fun.
Speaker 2:Are there characters that you're looking forward to or hoping that they like bring them into the game? because it I was looking at lists of characters for reasons and There was like this whole section of of just like references I guess that people had found in the game files and it was like longer.
Speaker 3:People are intense about this game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like hundreds of characters long of, just like these characters might be coming to the game, and I was like geez. Yeah, are there any that you're looking forward to?
Speaker 3:yes, and I think this one is actually confirmed, because they just put out a calendar of updates. It's a beauty and the beast like that, that whole story and that's, i think in the fall They reference that you're gonna go to that world or something, but also I think Milan would be really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it'd be pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, people. I'm part of like a Facebook group just because you know it can help things, and people are so intense About like. They dropped a trailer and people were like analyzing the crap out of it, like, oh, what is this thing, what do we think this is? and I was like, oh, you guys, i like this game, but I am not that deep into this. These two seconds you can see what looks like a silhouette of a.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, it looks like the cape from Incredible or I guess they didn't wear capes and Incredibles, huh.
Speaker 1:No, capes whole thing, I mean syndrome war a cape. Yeah, I guess So yeah, it's just gamers for you. They'll whatever fandom they you know overlapping with Disney adults. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, that's their own thing, that's a whole nother breed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yeah it sounds like it gives way more direction than like Animal crossing. Like animal crossing, like you had goals, but it was kind of just like yeah, we never like Yes like, whereas this is. It sounds like it helps a lot more if you're somebody that doesn't necessarily like to just be thrown in, like Likes to kind of have goals and objectives kind of in there for you to check off.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, right up my alley. I'm. I'm a list maker at heart, and so when they already have one for me and I just need to know what to do to get to these items, yes, i was like, oh, this is genius, why was this? Why is this not in every game, that where I can just, oh, this is what I need to do to get this objective check done, done, done.
Speaker 1:Nice, very cool. I think we will shake it up a little bit here So we're not just Going through like one list at a time and we'll throw it to Dylan here What, what on your list of games you've been playing? do you want to do your mention on this episode And sure I'll shout out destiny to and Marvel snap. I've never heard of him playing those Some, but couldn't play it. Today. New update came out and like locked everybody out of the game Or they were having some server issue, so that was frustrating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I play like five matches in the morning and then I don't play it again Pretty much the rest of the day. So I was able to play my matches this morning and then the update came out later today. So I was fine, but the main games that I have been playing mostly Diablo 4, but also some Diablo 3 in there as well, partially because we released a video on it, so if you're interested in knowing about it, go check that out. It's on the YouTube. But also because I misread how the playing Diablo 4 early worked. Because all of their advertisement on the front end was like pre-order the game and you can play it up to like five days earlier, whatever. And I was like, oh cool, and so I like it is in this era of games costing $70 minimum. And so I was like that's the version I'm gonna get. I'm not gonna, because they had two other versions. One was like $90 and one was like $100, and I'm like I mean, i'm a big fan of Diablo, i'm excited for this game, but I'm not paying a hundred dollars for this game. My sister got the game for me and I had the option to like do the upgrade to the $100 version for like an additional like $30 myself and I was like even that's still asking a like a hundred dollars. I remember when games were like 40. That's a hard sell for me. But I thought, because all the advertising made it look that way that you got to play like five days early, and then the day it came out, they That's when they started saying like oh, you got to have the, the ultimate edition, you've got to have the like Deluxe edition, which I'm sure was in there all always like I'm sure they didn't like swap it on me at the very last second, but the advertising made it seem like all editions came with like the play it early versus Not just like the two expensive editions. So that kind of stunk.
Speaker 1:So did you hold your ground or did you? yeah, i held my ground.
Speaker 2:Because I was just like if they had let me upgrade to the $90 edition and not the $100 edition, like if I only had to pay an additional like 20 bucks of my own, like I might have done it. But the only upgrade they would let me do was to 30 and I was like, no, i'm not, i'm not gonna. That's so weird. Yeah, so because I looked at the like bonuses of like well, what all comes with like these better version or these like more expensive versions, and you get a mountain. Wow, yeah, you get it. You get a bunch of stuff for a lot of games that I don't play. And then you get like The battle pass or whatever, which comes out in like a month or two, and I'm like okay, and then, like the ultimate edition was like you get them out, you get everything else. You get the battle pass and you get like 20 levels on it or something, and I was just like no, like that's not worth it. I don't if, if I do the battle pass, i'll just decide to get it in a month or two, like I'm not gonna, not gonna pay the money now.
Speaker 3:So anyway, I've been playing a lot of yellow for and it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:I've enjoyed it a lot. The story was really good way better than the third game, in my opinion. This one is all about Lilith and how she's coming back to Like she. She has been resurrected and she's got a plan to like end the eternal conflict between angels and demons and It's like, oh, very like that's. That's an interesting concept. I think she's a very well done villain because, like there are times where you're kind of like she has a point, which I think all of the best villains it's not just like you know, this crazy and insane person That's, you know like clearly evil, like kicking dogs and stuff. It's like the person that's got like a point I think are much more like you know, the Thanos kind of villain sometimes, where it's like he was evil and I don't agree with him, but also I can see how he got to where he got.
Speaker 1:You know You can understand his motivations, even if you don't necessarily agree.
Speaker 2:Exactly, i had a lot of fun with the story, and then you beat the story and then they just keep adding new things that you can do, and so I am currently in the part of the game where it's like, okay, now I'm trying to do all these side quests and do all the exploration and do all the dungeons and find all of these statues scattered across the map And hopefully some were in there be getting better weapons and gear and stuff so that I can have a more coherent play style, because right now I'm still kind of just using what I leveled up in. So I'm being intentionally vague about some of this, because I know you haven't beat the game yet, andrew, and I'm sure we will do a much deeper dive into the game in the weeks to come. But yeah, i had a lot of fun. It's a lot different than Diablo 3, which is probably my most played Diablo. Like I've played a little bit of one, a little bit of two and then a lot of three. Three was like. In comparison to this, i would say almost feels way more arcadey than Diablo 4. Like a lot more streamlined and simplified and a lot easier to kind of like figure out sometimes what you're supposed to do and what is, is like good armor and weapons for you versus this and like what goes together. This gives you a whole lot more customization in Diablo 4, but it's also that comes with like oh, now I've got to figure out what's the good weapon to use instead of just like oh well, this is clearly designed to go with what I am doing, you know, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've just started Diablo 4. I think I've done the first chapter or whatever, and I'm having fun with it. Diablo the changes that you're talking about that they made to this one, especially in like customization and like art style and tone and stuff or what I've pulled me in because Diablo 3 never grabbed me Yeah, but I'm excited to keep going with this one. I'm just pretty deep into Zelda right now and so I'm like still working my way through that before I like fully commit to Diablo, but I haven't enjoying it from what I've played so far. Emily, are you going to get Diablo 4?
Speaker 3:I know, probably not. Also maybe because I haven't played the first three.
Speaker 2:You don't have to. Yeah, you can definitely just jump into this one. So it's none of them. There's definitely things I'm sure that, like if you had played through some of the old ones, you'd be like, oh, that's cool, that's kind of like a callback, but it, i think, is kind of also just like each story is kind of contained in and of itself, so you don't necessarily have to know all the deep lore and stuff from these games, and they've gotten progressively more and more expansive as it's gone on. The first one, i think, just takes place in one castle. I don't think you're traveling around the globe. The second one takes place over a region and then the third one takes place in like five different regions and then this one takes place basically over the entire continent. Have you had any?
Speaker 1:issues with the like, always online aspect of it, like any disconnects or not been able to play it or anything like that.
Speaker 2:I personally really haven't. I think the most was like the night it came out, like I think it was like server queues and wait times and stuff for a little bit of it. But also I didn't really try to play it that night until like it came out at like 6 pm hour time And so like I was eating dinner and hanging out with the family and stuff And so like I don't think I really tried to play it until like nine or 10 o'clock And by that time like those issues were pretty much gone. I haven't had problems with it. So I play a ton of Destiny 2, which is an always online MMO, basically. So I'm just like, yeah, diablo 4 is fine. Like I don't, it doesn't bother me at all. Like there are people in the Diablo community that are acting as though it is the end of the world, this game is always online and there will always be those people and it's disappointing The same people that are losing their minds because it costs $20 to like buy a cosmetic set of armor for yourself in the game, And I'm like that is a completely optional purchase that you do not have to make. Just don't make it if you don't like it. I don't understand what the problem is.
Speaker 1:Like I wasn't necessarily trying to get you on a rant here. I was more thinking like I know that they got attacked but, like the Overwatch 2 launch was pretty rough as far as like connectivity and stuff like that, and that's also Blizzard. So I just wasn't sure if you had any issues or if it was a pretty smooth launch.
Speaker 2:No, i had not had any issues. I think they I didn't do it.
Speaker 1:They did a lot of stress, testing and stuff beforehand. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was going to say. I know they had like a closed beta and open beta, like weekends, and then, like maybe a couple of weeks before they launched the game, they had another like a weekend where they were just like everyone who can like download this and play it if you're planning on getting the game, just so that we can get like an idea of sort of the stress on the servers. And so I think that and even though I complained about it at the beginning because I wasn't able to play five days early, like I think some of the like sort of staggered it out a little bit staggering of like people getting access to it. Help them get an idea of like well this is. You know, this is how many people we've got getting on June 1st, and so we need to have at least this ready to go by June 5th.
Speaker 1:So cool. I'm sorry, Himalayan, my apologies. Let's talk about cozy Grove for a little bit.
Speaker 3:Okay, so so similar, Yeah, very similar.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to completely like check out. No, we're like getting into the weeds about this over here.
Speaker 3:No, no, you're fine. So and I know, dylan, you mentioned this very briefly in the the cozy games episode you had with Aubrey and Delaney and man, i was like I should have been on that episode, but if that, episode wasn't like a last minute thrown together next time
Speaker 2:you were on my list of like we should have, we should have shot her, but it was like literally we were. I texted them like one night and we're like can you record the next night? because, like Andrew was not sure if we were going to be able to make it or whatever, and so I was like I can't, i can't give Emily just one day notice. That's so unprofessional and rude.
Speaker 3:That's okay.
Speaker 1:So definitely do a sequel, we'll do the cozy game sequel episodes Yeah.
Speaker 3:But so the premise of this game, because I finished the the most recent update for for Disney and was like, okay, i need something else to like play that's similar. But I like the Indies, you know, like Spirit Fair, like Hades, that kind of just like that kind of like really pretty animation, that, that feeling that you kind of get, and so I was looking around at things that were on sale at the time and on the switch, And so I came across cozy Grove and I was like oh it was, it was on sale for like $9 or $10. And I was like okay this is very, i'm very intrigued. And so the premise is your what's called a spirit scout And your job is like you're a, you're like a Boy Scout, girl Scout, but you're sent to help spirits move on. So indie game, vaguely about death, of course, you know. the theme continues on. And so you're sent to this little island to do, to do good, and the spirits there are all like animals, they're mostly like bears, and then there's a wolf and a seagull And so and you just like help them do things like one of them's a cook and one of them's like the postmaster, and you find things for them that they lost and give them to them, or you craft something. It's it's very, again, very chill, low stakes, farming, kind of well, you don't, you don't farm, but it's like you know the inventory kind of thing. And the the more that you do for each of the the spirits, the more you learn about their backstory, because it's like they've been here so long they've all kind of like forgotten, and so you're learning like what happened to the island, why it was deserted before, as well as like some of them don't remember like who they were, what, what their life was like and stuff. So I think if you really think about it, it's probably a little deeper than than like surface level of like I'm going to go walk around and find mushrooms and cook them and do this thing. But the animation is beautiful, it's very sweet. You can like customize your character And what I like about it is that you collect what's called like spirit logs And once you've completed a task you get one, and that like furthers your progression and the more you collect of those, the more spirits appear. So like you unlock different spirits the longer that you play and the more that you do for other people, and so at a certain point you get notified like, oh well, there aren't any more. Today You can like keep grinding and do things, or you can just stop for today, so it's only meant to be played for like maybe a couple hours. So it's kind of nice that it's like, unless you want to keep playing, you don't have to. You've done all your big tasks for the day, so that's kind of been fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Kind of like the animal crossing thing, But it sounds way less frustrating than the animal crossing thing because it's like I want to do more but I can't where it sounds like this is like it gives you a nice like couple hours And if you want to keep doing it like there's still sort of progression, It's just not unlocking anymore.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, it's little. You can upgrade your campsite, you can build furniture, you can do these things. But and they also I don't know how long the game spent out, but at the same time that I was buying the game it also had an update already, and so I kind of bought the update at the same time, assuming that I would like the game and I have. So I've got like even more content than I would have with the original game. So it's been popular enough that people wanted more. So, yeah, i don't know, i don't know if it was like 20, 20, 18. I'm not, i'm not sure when it came out, but it's really, i think it came out last year. Oh gosh, really That's not very long before, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:It is, it's fairly recent. Oh, all, right, then It's post animal crossing for sure.
Speaker 3:That makes sense Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, i've definitely heard a lot of good things about it, just from like other podcasts and stuff that I listened to. Like a couple of the people on those will have like mentioned like hey, it's really good. Unlike you, i've seen it on those like random sales and I'm like, oh, that's a, that's a good price.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So I don't I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I think you're doing a good job of convincing me.
Speaker 3:So even not on sale it's. I think it's about like $20 individually And then I think that the additional, the DLC, was maybe 10. Yeah, so very reasonable in its own right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:I was talking about it and you were not kidding about the like, the art style. I think that it can't really be understated how good this looks like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The way it's drawn It's. it's really pretty.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's very pretty And in like you don't even your legs, don't even move on, it's like you just kind of bounce around as a person, but it's, it's very endearing and very sweet And yeah. And like it. just, it just works. I didn't know what to expect really, but I was like this this feels good Yeah.
Speaker 2:It gives me a very like storybook sort of vibes. Right Like, right Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it kind of helps that they're not people like they're bears. Of course you want to help bears Like it's fun.
Speaker 1:So the one game that I wanted to bring up on this episode and if you're in our discord, you got a little bit of a tease about this because I was talking about it in there a little bit But that is they released a demo for Lies of P, which is the heavily blood-borne inspired Pinocchio game. It's always hilarious every time. So like the loading screen when you die, at the bottom it says now lying, And it's like a little like red image of the like the side of Pinocchio's head and the loading bar is his nose growing. So it's just little things like that. Like I think that the twist that they're putting on kind of the Pinocchio story, it's kind of in this like Victorian steampunk setting where puppets are just a thing in this universe and Jepeto is kind of like the master puppet maker but something has gone horribly wrong and like a lot of these puppets have rebelled And so it's like you just kind of you wake up and you're supposed to, you get called by this voice to come to this hotel and like the center of town And so as the player you're playing as Pinocchio, but you don't really know what's going on in this world or why it's all gone to hell. But the I guess kind of like the narrative twist is that puppets can't lie, but you're different. So like one of the first things you have to you do that. They kind of explain this mechanic And I don't know like how impactful this actually is or if it's flavoring. But like to get into the hotel. No puppets are allowed. And so they ask you are you human? And because puppets can't lie, they would say no, I'm a puppet, and then they wouldn't let them in. But you can lie to get in And so I lied to get in. But I don't know what would happen if I didn't. So I'm not sure like how deep that mechanic goes. But it's an interesting kind of narrative twist on this because the story is much more like you're still kind of it's a mystery and it's just a weird world. But it's not doled out like just on item descriptions and stuff like from software, does it like there's actually people giving you some exposition and telling you like this character does this thing And they were involved in this before the world fell apart or whatever. So story wise, setting wise, like the game looks amazing. I'm very interested to see what happens in this world. The demo ends like right, as you reunite with Chipeto. So you don't really know like what your relationship is to him. You know from the story and because he calls you like his boy or whatever, like you're like his probably greatest creation or whatever, because you're a puppet that kind of has more humanity. And then Jiminy is like a cricket, but I don't know if he's like I don't think he's an actual cricket, but he's like in a lantern that you wear And so he kind of helps you with stuff that as you're, you know, going through the levels. It's just a really weird twist, but the gameplay is very, very blood-borne inspired, and so you're going through these levels. You have your resting points where you reset the level, the enemies come back and in some From Software games like Dark Souls or what I think probably does it like this the most is like you go through the level and as you do, you're unlocking some shortcuts and stuff, but you're finding more of these checkpoints as you go, whereas like blood-borne and demon souls were very much like you have maybe one or two of these checkpoints and you're unlocking a bunch of different shortcuts and ways to get back to that one area, and so that's kind of how the level was. The levels I played were designed in this where it's like you have one or two little checkpoints and then you're unlocking like Gates or doors or ladders or things to get you back there from wherever you might be. So I thought the level design was really good. I don't really know much about this studio, but I know it's not like a big mainstream triple-a game. So yeah, it's very impressive just coming at it from like that perspective of like this is not a massive team Making this, or at least not like a very well-known team yet. Yeah, looks really good. Character models look good, the environments look great. The bosses that there are two bosses and they were tough, they, they, they checked me the second one more than the first, but I did end up getting it. And the but compared to the bosses, i noticed that the kind of the levels were pretty easy, like the enemies, and the levels weren't all that difficult, which is Fine. I would have liked to see maybe a little bit more balance and maybe I think that's kind of why they're doing this beta, is They're getting feedback on stuff like that to tweak it before the full release. And then the other things That kind of stood out to me, i guess in a negative way, is this game is very blood-borne, inspired, like it feels like they started making this right after they played blood-borne. But since blood-borne we've gotten a few more from software games where from software has started to introduce more quality of life, things like being able to level up at any of the lanterns or bonfires or whatever. This game you have to go back to, like that hotel, it's like your hub world. You have to go talk to a person to be able to level up, which means a loading screen. It's not like a huge deal, but it's just like some of those like little inconveniences that we've kind of Gotten away from with a lot of the other games in the genre, but now this one's kind of going back to a little bit more of an old-school vibe. It's nothing that I think would make me hate the game, but it is some things It's like uh, kind of miss those quality of life features. They have what seems to be a lot of interesting ideas in in, like weapon customization and like customizing yourself as a puppet, like you can Add things to your core that will like help buff certain abilities and stats you can. You start out with the ability to choose like three different weapons. I chose the like great sword, like the heavy weapon, at the beginning, but as you unlock more weapons, every weapon is built with a handle and like a blade or you know, equivalent, it could be like a handle and like a, you know, like a mace or like a baton. You can break those apart and you can swap them out with each other and that will like affect how they Swing and work, like their move set, and it will also affect stats and stuff like that. So I think there's some interesting ideas in there that like they're not just directly copying from from software. But unfortunately a lot of that stuff was like I barely got to scratch the surface on it because I only got through like chapter 2. It was basically like the prologue and then the first little area. So I'm definitely excited to play the full game when it comes out. It's coming to game pass. I think what they said it was coming in September. Yeah, i was trying to move for September, october. So definitely what I'm gonna check out when it comes out at launch and I'm pretty excited for it, based on this demo.
Speaker 3:I can't imagine Pinocchio wielding a weapon. Number one and like I just have to ask, do you like the story of Pinocchio, like why, why, what drew you to this game?
Speaker 1:That it's a blood-borne inspired video game. Okay, cuz it just happens to be based on Pinocchio. Like I think that's a really weird property to adapt and some kind of curious to see where they go with that.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's a horrifying story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like it must be like public domain or something, and they were just like. Yeah, I'm sure rather than cuz like. To me it sounds like they created this very cool like sort of robots and Robot rebellion sort of storyline and then they were like well, we can't like, we can either just have it be its own new, unique thing. We can try to get like Isaac Asimov's like eye robot situation, like maybe the license to that or whatever, or we can go with. We can just say that they're all puppets they're puppets, Yeah and make it Pinocchio and You know, then it's a property people know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i the the enemy that was beating on the carriage that Chippeto was locked in when I, when I rescued him, was Wearing a donkey mask.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:So The boys turn into donkeys.
Speaker 1:Well, this one got dead, so Yeah.
Speaker 3:Cuz you have a sword.
Speaker 1:Yes, a great big sword.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you look?
Speaker 3:more like a puppet, or you look more like a real, a real boy.
Speaker 1:You look more like a real boy and you have like a. You have like mechanical parts, like I think one of your arms is like robotic and you can kind of like Sekiro. You get like attachments for it that do different things. So the one I had, the one they gave me, that was like a, like a grappling hook kind of thing, but it wasn't for traversals, like I could pull enemies to me or I could like pull myself to them. It didn't work super well. I didn't love it, but I'm excited to see, like what some of the other ones that they'll let you add on to are gonna be. Yeah, yeah it's. I'll probably do a video review on this one when it comes out. I'm pretty excited about it, so we'll see. But it was definitely the, the Genre and the setting first, and then the like, the property that got me into it, and also I think that the Pinocchio story. They could have done a lot better with the title than Lies of P like yeah. It just sounds. Yeah, it's not a like series of words that feel good in your mouth. They don't feel good coming out of your mouth.
Speaker 3:It's like and then, when you explain what it was, i was like this this does not connect, yeah it's, it's interesting It's, it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's gonna do pretty well just based on like it seems to be a pretty high quality Souls like and with like a weird angle, like something people will talk about, like why Pinocchio? You know it's, it's gonna get attention for that, but I am excited to kind of see if it does. Well, you know, what can this team do next? You know, if they have some, some notoriety, maybe some more budget, maybe Xbox buys them after this, like who knows. So That was really the, the big one that I wanted to dive into, i think, to kind of close this, this one out. We can talk about puzzles.
Speaker 3:Question mark. We don't have Puzzles. I just like them and that's the thing I do besides playing video games. It feels like a game to me.
Speaker 1:I mean, it kind of is a game, sure Yes, I guess I don't know a matching game.
Speaker 3:Yeah Yeah, it works your brain in different ways. I enjoy them. if anyone that follows me on social media knows that, I was gonna say that there's always.
Speaker 1:There's always some puzzle journey on.
Speaker 2:Emily's stories on Instagram Yeah, the saga of the missing piece.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yep, it came.
Speaker 1:Oh did it. Yes, i had to find.
Speaker 3:I found the piece.
Speaker 1:This will make sense when you listen to the Game of Thrones episode a couple of weeks, so just be sure to go check that out, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Yeah it came.
Speaker 3:It didn't fit exactly in there, so I had to like kind of jam it in.
Speaker 1:I don't know why sure was the right piece.
Speaker 3:Yes, i'm sure, but like I glued the back of it already, so I was like, well, this should just fit in, exactly, and it, it didn't cuz I guess it like shrink or something. So, whatever it's framed, it's up there now and it's fine, nice.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was, it's been a journey when my wife and I first got married, when we were living in our first apartment, we had this like Marvel comics puzzle That was took up like a third of our table that we would just kind of work on. That's probably the last time I've like Got into a puzzle myself, mostly cuz it was Marvel and it looked really cool. Mm-hmm, i think it would have made a really good like if we would have glued it and hung it up somewhere. I we probably still have it somewhere. We just have to put it back together. But yeah, we ended up taking it apart and putting it back in the box Cuz it lived on the table for a while. Then it was like people are coming over, we need the table, so what do we do with this thing? But it was fun to put together. I give puzzles like a, like a, b on the F and gamer scale.
Speaker 3:I'll take it awesome.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else that you did want to mention? Gaming wise, you know, get it all out of your system.
Speaker 3:No, i mean, that's the extent and if you guys know me, this, this is a lot.
Speaker 1:You're gonna you're gonna check out lies of pee when it comes out you know?
Speaker 3:no, um, that sounds creepy as hell, and I don't enjoy the story of Pinocchio already. Yeah so like I don't, i don't need creepy puppets and and Donkey boys and and no, i'm fine, but you, you enjoy it.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to hear about your review. Yes, i will. All right, great Dylan. Anything else you want to say before we move into our closing segment? I?
Speaker 2:Think that's it for me.
Speaker 1:All right, cool. Well, with that, let's go ahead and roll into our closing segment for this episode. So it has been a minute, but we are gonna play a game that, Uh, dylan has concocted. So who knows what we're gonna end up doing here. What are we doing, dylan?
Speaker 2:right so we're doing a variation on go on name them, which is Basically. I'm going to give you a category And then you guys will take turns, sort of bidding how many things you think you can name. I've never done this one In that category, the, the change I'm making because my main problem with this game is that the general strategy is it's better to not name them than to name them, because traditionally you get a point if you can name them, you loot, like everyone else gets a point if you can't. And so My, my change to this to maybe make it a little bit more fair is you get one point per thing that you can name, and then for every Wrong thing that you name, or if you just want to like give up, the other person gets a point for like the difference, and so like, let's say that Andrew is like, oh, i can name like 15 things from this, and then he names eight and Gets one wrong, names another couple and then is like you know what, oh, i'll give up. So he named 10 things, got one wrong and then there were five left, so he would get 10 points and then Emily would get Six points. To try to keep it a little bit more so.
Speaker 1:With this system, you can keep going, even if you whiff Yes, but it's kind of a but you'll be giving me used to just yeah, it used to just end, but anything that you either have already said or something That's like not Actually a thing.
Speaker 2:If you whiff it, then the other person gets a point, just so that see if it makes it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like more fun. I've always thought that's one that's needed a little bit of tweaking to the scoring to kind of pull people Out of that mindset of like what, i'm not gonna name anything because then I'll just get points when they fail.
Speaker 2:Yeah, So I've got, i I've got five categories. I figure we can do three, see how long that takes, see Kind of where the scores are at, and then do an additional one or two if we need, like a tiebreaker or something.
Speaker 3:Okay, so sounds good, all right.
Speaker 2:So the first category that I have is Disney characters, and I figured Emily has been playing a lot of Disney Dreamlight Valley, pretty well versed in in Disney characters. From that, plus, you're both parents, i assume there's probably some Disney just in your lives By nature of having children now, when you say Disney, then there are average.
Speaker 1:Is this a list of? like a star wars?
Speaker 3:No, not.
Speaker 2:Marvel, not Star Wars, just like your traditional either Disney animated movie or like Pixar. Pixar okay or Disney shows. Oh God not well, not, i guess, like you're your big four that everyone knows. Like Mickey Minnie, donald Goofy like we're in movies before.
Speaker 1:So are these animated? Did you say they were animated characters, or are they just any characters?
Speaker 2:Animated, and Pixar is the list that I'm looking at, and so there's a lot of them. I didn't bother. There's also this live action pirates of the Caribbean. That's on here, so I guess that's there too. There's like hundreds, though. Yeah, is there a cut off?
Speaker 3:This sounds insane.
Speaker 2:I didn't count. I was just going to let you guys see how, how much hubris you had. How many Disney characters do you think you can name? I feel like the, the person who goes first always has like a little bit of an advantage. So, emily, we'll let you go first.
Speaker 3:I can name 10.
Speaker 1:I can name 15.
Speaker 3:I can name 20.
Speaker 1:I can name 21.
Speaker 3:I can name 23.
Speaker 1:I can name 30.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, okay, i can name 31.
Speaker 1:Go on, name them.
Speaker 3:Okay, here we go, so am I keeping count as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to keep count, but feel free to keep count for yourself if you would like.
Speaker 3:Okay, we've got let's see Aladdin Jasmine, jeannie Jafar the Sultan, iago Magic carpet. We've got Belle the Beast, cogsworth, lumiere, mrs Potts, chip, gaston Laphoo.
Speaker 1:Ariel.
Speaker 3:Sebastian, flounder, king, triton, ursula, prince Eric I'm already lost count.
Speaker 2:I think that's 21.
Speaker 3:21? Okay, okay, i'm going to give you a number Anna, elsa, olaf, hans, sven Kristoff. Who else we got? Mulan, moana, maui, tafiti, more movies We can go flick from a bug's life. That one popped into my head randomly Lightning, mcqueen Woods, buddy, jesse, i'm buzzing, woody.
Speaker 1:Wow buzzing.
Speaker 2:Woody.
Speaker 3:Buzzing Woody Jesse and Bo Peep. Am I 31?
Speaker 2:You are like 37.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, i was going to say, you just kept going.
Speaker 3:I said I lost it. I was like my hands, yep, okay.
Speaker 2:I will give you 31 points, but if it comes down to it, that to me counts as like 37.
Speaker 3:Oh, no Sorry.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't cut you off because I was like I'll let her keep going if she can do more, why not?
Speaker 3:Oh, no, okay.
Speaker 1:When she listed every character in Aladdin, I was like, oh yeah, this is going to be pretty easy.
Speaker 2:You've lost this. So that was the first round.
Speaker 1:You didn't mention any Pinocchio characters, though.
Speaker 3:No, it's not on my top list She didn't even take my four freebies of. Mickey Minnie.
Speaker 2:Goofy and Donald Yeah.
Speaker 3:I felt cheap.
Speaker 2:Emily definitely named 31 Disney characters, more than 31. The next category that I have is another one. I don't know how familiar you'll be with this one, Emily Hopefully somewhat familiar, but it's Spidey and his amazing friends. characters.
Speaker 3:Oh, no, okay.
Speaker 2:But also, looking at the list, they're just some spider, they're the well-known Spider-Man characters for the most part, So nothing super deep in the Spider-Man lore.
Speaker 3:It's all ones that have been released.
Speaker 1:There are some extended Marvel Universe characters in there more than the Spider-Man, but yeah.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But we've got a list of characters here not as extensive as the Disney list, as you might assume. Technically, as Andrew pointed out, these are Disney characters.
Speaker 1:Yep, so it shows on Disney Plus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and Disney Junior.
Speaker 2:But so, andrew, you lost last round, so we'll let you make your bet first and let Emily counter it if she would like to.
Speaker 1:Let's see, yeah, the scoring thing does kind of, because now it's like, oh, she has 31 points, i'll start with 12.
Speaker 3:Oh, go ahead. I've only seen it a couple of times. My daughter was not interested in it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we've got Spider-Man, Miles, ghost Spider. We've got Ant May. we've got Doc Ock. we've got Green Goblin, or Gobby as they call him. Yep, we've got Miss Marvel, black Panther, incredible Hulk, what is it That's?
Speaker 2:nine, that is nine, okay.
Speaker 1:And we've got Electro, yep, ant-man and the Wasp.
Speaker 2:Man, that is 12. Yes, very good, that's extensive Ant-Man.
Speaker 1:And the Wasp can make themselves small.
Speaker 3:Wow Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've been told that a few times.
Speaker 2:I love that All right. So the score is currently 31 to 12 in Emily's favor And for the potentially final round here we may go another couple of rounds. I have a list of Game of Thrones characters up here Now. I have looked. There's only one character that appears as a new character after the season that you were doing.
Speaker 3:Got it And I went through and I checked.
Speaker 2:So Andrew will not be saying characters, and it's a character that I'm like. I have no idea who this is, and I know Andrew does not either, so no, all right Cool. So there are not spoilers in this for you. All of these characters in the list that I looked through are characters you know already, so Thank you. There are a ton of them, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, emily, i will let you you have a podcast about this, andrew, you have seen the entire show, so, in theory, kind of evenly matched. I think Emily has an advantage because she's more currently watching these episodes than we are, but She's written down the names.
Speaker 1:She yes.
Speaker 2:But yeah, Emily, I'll let you start off with your bid first.
Speaker 3:Sure, i can start with seven.
Speaker 1:Okay, i'll go 10.
Speaker 3:Okay, 13.
Speaker 1:15.
Speaker 3:I can name 18. You need 19 in order to tie her.
Speaker 2:If you can name 19 Game of Thrones characters, you can tie her. I can name 20.
Speaker 3:Okay, go ahead. All right, go through the families, yeah. My brain doesn't work as well as yours.
Speaker 1:I don't think. as far as organizing this, it's going to be pretty messy. Okay, i'll start with the best character, jon Snow.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Arguable. That's who you said the best is. But okay. Okay, arya Sansa, rob Bran Littlefinger.
Speaker 2:Just characters. You saw in the episode that we did on Emily's show.
Speaker 3:Yes, remember the show I know Tyrion, Tywin, Cersei, Joffrey.
Speaker 2:Okay, 10. Halfway there.
Speaker 1:Is it Tomlin or Tomlin? Is there an Elinot Tomlin, joffrey's brother Tomlin, okay.
Speaker 2:I was going to make him tell me He was going to get a point if he but Tomlin
Speaker 1:yes, shay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The Hound, okay, the Mountain. Robert Baratheon.
Speaker 2:That is a guy.
Speaker 1:Well, our name's so hard. Let's see What am I up to 15. 15. Okay.
Speaker 2:Tyler.
Speaker 1:Daenerys.
Speaker 3:I'm like why can I not think of her name?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like um Cal Drogo, yeah. And now I'm like what have I said, mm?
Speaker 2:hmm, Because if you double say something, points for Emily Oh really, you're just adding rules.
Speaker 1:now I see how.
Speaker 2:No, that was always. If you, if you said something you already said, you, you lost.
Speaker 1:Uh, Jorah Mascendae.
Speaker 2:OK, yeah, yeah, I thought you were talking about that's 20.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're talking about Melisandre.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nope, two different people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that's the name that I was looking at Oh, that is not right. I was like. That is not how you pronounce that. Greyworm Very good, They got Oof Yeah.
Speaker 1:I was like when I was close, when I was. I was literally sitting here thinking Blonde woman, dragons, i'm like, as soon as, like I was realizing that her name wasn't coming to me, like I am so screwed. Like she's like the, like she is game of thrones, like how.
Speaker 3:Jon Snow Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, i was surprised. I was surprised you didn't go with Yaron or Yasha or.
Speaker 3:Yara.
Speaker 2:Theon Yara, the ones that were in the episode Or Hodor. The Oh.
Speaker 3:The Yeah.
Speaker 2:The guy that was from the episode. That was like that was about him. That was the episode we just did.
Speaker 1:Dylan, you said it at the start of this game, where both parents my brain does not work like it used to There you go, yeah Battle of the parents with young kids. So, So that did that tie it. That gave me one point in the lead. You're one ahead.
Speaker 2:Yes, so 32. I've got two more categories If you'd like to try to continue.
Speaker 3:Sure Yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, the next one is Bluey characters.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, no Okay.
Speaker 2:So there are a lot less of these, so she's just going to run the score up on you, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:Does your kid watch Bluey?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we don't really watch Bluey, we've watched it but it's not like a go to.
Speaker 3:That's more go to. I mean currently she's on a baby shark kick which shoot me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i've been there Oh really Okay.
Speaker 3:How does it end?
Speaker 1:They just move on to the next thing or eventually, as a parent, you just go no, we're not watching that. again, i cannot do it. We're going to put something else on. It's all we listen to in the car.
Speaker 3:Okay, oh, no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, i couldn't do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay Cool.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go with. The category is baby shark.
Speaker 3:Daddy shark, i got this. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, all right.
Speaker 2:Emily, how many do you think you can name?
Speaker 3:I know I can name five.
Speaker 1:Name them Okay.
Speaker 3:Already Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:I don't know if they have names or if it's just like mom and dad, like I don't know, they have no names. Yeah, i don't know anything about this show.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, so I can go bandit chili and lucky.
Speaker 2:Five, because that's just what the family.
Speaker 3:That's the family, and then their neighbor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, it's hilarious. So, the, it is 36, 32,. Moving into our final category, which is paw patrol characters.
Speaker 1:Oh, back in my court. How many are we good?
Speaker 2:Now there are way less of these than any other category so far, even bluey. Yeah, bluey's pretty extended. A lot of the bluey characters like were basically like bluey's friend's mom or like bluey's friend's dad, like it was like Coco's mom, coco's dad.
Speaker 3:Like a lot of the parents did necessarily have names. Yeah, Wendy or Lucky's dad is. yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like some of them had names but a lot of them did not. We're not like fully named, so, but yes. So, andrew, you lost the last one. How many paw patrol characters do you think you can name? How many do I need to win? Six You need four to tie, five to win. I want to go for the like. technically, emily named a whole lot more than you in the original, so if you want to try to beat that, you would have to go for 10, or tie that would be 10. Beat that would be 11.
Speaker 3:Are there 11 characters in paw patrol? I think so, apparently Okay.
Speaker 2:I have never seen this. My experience with paw patrol is one time. Andrew's daughter played the paw patrol game while he and I were in the room, so Well then, I guess I will go for victory here and I'll say 11.
Speaker 3:Sure Go for it. I have no like three. It's not our family show.
Speaker 1:All right Rider.
Speaker 2:That is one.
Speaker 1:Chase Marshall Zuma, okay Liberty.
Speaker 2:This random Wikipedia list does not have Liberty.
Speaker 1:Liberty is the wiener dog. They included in the movie that went to theaters.
Speaker 2:This may just be the show, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, Sky and Everest Okay.
Speaker 2:I do see a Liberty here. It is not on, so we'll give you Okay. We'll see if Liberty is needed. But Sky and Everest Six.
Speaker 1:Rubble Seven Mayor Goodway Eight. Mayor Humdinger Nine I don't know if this counts as I guess it's a character, but Chickaletta Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is listed on here as a recurring character.
Speaker 1:That's a chicken, that's the mayor's chicken.
Speaker 2:One more for the victory.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's one of the pups that I missed. I'm trying to remember. I said Rubble. Did I say Rocky?
Speaker 2:I don't believe you said Rocky. Okay, rocky, so 11. All right, there you go. Andrew squeaks out a victory. It didn't sound like he could go much further than that.
Speaker 1:No, i mean there are some other, like human characters that I don't really know who they are.
Speaker 2:People score then with Emily's bonuses from just like naming a ton of Disney characters and Andrew 43 to 42.
Speaker 3:All right, very competitive, i'll take it Yes.
Speaker 2:And I feel like Emily probably could have kept going on the Disney characters route, I mean she'd probably still be going if we didn't stop her Cool. Yeah, congratulations to both of you Yeah, i hope it was fun.
Speaker 3:I hope you learned something, dylan, about kids shows.
Speaker 2:I did a little bit So I learned that in Spidey and his amazing friends they call the Green Goblin Gopi I didn't know that either. There are also a lot more Disney character or Marvel characters in that than I expected. I kind of just assumed it was the three spider kids.
Speaker 3:I know I've seen Black Panther and I was like what is happening here in this show.
Speaker 1:That's the MCU buffer for babies.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hey, awesome, i think your daughter would disagree.
Speaker 2:She's not a baby.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, okay, yeah, don't let her hear me say that. But thank you, emily, so much for playing along with us playing the game and for coming on and talking about games with us. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for asking again. I know it had been a while since I talked to you guys, so thank you for having me back.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We'll definitely do it again in the future, hopefully not as far between guest appearances. But you talked about your show at the beginning of the episode, but why don't you let everybody here know where they can find you and your show and plug anything that you want to plug as we wrap this thing up?
Speaker 3:Sure, the show is called Game of Thrones, hosted with my sister. We are at Game of Thrones pod on all social medias Twitter, facebook, instagram. My sister does the Twitter and I do the other two, and we also have a Patreon so you can listen to things like unedited episodes of the show, which can get a little lengthy. My sister and I like to talk. I find it entertaining. I think we're a good group, a good duo, to listen to. But also, if you're interested, you can read my notes that I read from and now Kate's notes, to see what I am truly thinking while I'm watching the show. And you can do that for $3 a month or $5 a month, and it's patreoncom slash Game of Thrones pod.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah, everybody be sure, and go check that out for sure.
Speaker 2:It's a fun show to listen to, fun show to be on.
Speaker 1:Hopefully we've got some new listeners since the last time you were on, so if you haven't had the pleasure of hearing Emily's voice-y utter hearing about her show, definitely go check it out, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you want to hear way more in depth about her and her sister, they both have interviews on this show if you scroll back far enough in the feed.
Speaker 1:So exactly, yes, you can learn about the gaming history. Dylan, do you have anything that you want to say in housekeeping? closing this thing out?
Speaker 2:Well, we have. We're doing some different things for on the YouTube, and one of those is Andrew kind of breaking down his ranking of all of the Assassin's Creed games, or at least most of them. So we're doing a little bit of experimentation And so this is like probably the first of that experimentation to come out on the YouTube this summer I think pretty much everything else has been our more traditional stuff that we've been putting up on the YouTube. So if you would check that out, let us know if you like that and want to see more of it or not. Because we're just trying some things out just to see how they go If they get picked up by the algorithm. if they, if people like them and engage with them, we'll do more. If not, we won't.
Speaker 1:So we'll never do it again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you watch it and you liked it, but you didn't leave us a like you didn't subscribe, if you're not subscribed, you didn't, you know, maybe leave a nice little comment giving us your rankings or you know saying something. Then, like, if the algorithm doesn't pick it up, if we don't know, that's on you now.
Speaker 1:So Nice, that's a new change of tactic from Dylan. I like it. Yes, guilt tripping.
Speaker 2:It's your fault. Your fault that you're not getting more of those videos because you didn't like it. You didn't leave the life.
Speaker 3:We're not success because of you.
Speaker 1:Exactly, this video was definitely a mix of something that I was very passionate and interested to make a video about, but also one of the more it was more work writing this one out and pulling it together and everything, because it is a little bit longer and a little bit more. It's talking about a bunch of games. So, yeah, yes, i did in hearing feedback as well on that one. As far as the podcast, pretty standard stuff, leave a rating, leave a review, all that kind of good stuff. It helps us out, helps us grow. We're going to have some episodes kind of coming out over the next few months about some of these bigger games that we've been playing. So I'm looking forward to diving into those. We're picking the interviews back up. We'll have some of those coming out here in the near future and we're hoping to start branching out and reaching out to maybe some bigger or more diverse kinds of guests. So I'm very excited to see where that all goes as well in the rest of this year. But, yeah, just continuing to engage and help us grow the show. We appreciate that. We appreciate everybody that's currently doing it or has done it, and we would greatly appreciate it. If you have not, if you get the chance and do With that being said. Again, emily, thanks for being here.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:And to everybody else listening. We appreciate it and we will catch you on the next episode.
Speaker 3:Theme music.
Speaker 1:We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the Friendly Neighborhood Gamers podcast. If so, we would greatly appreciate your help in growing the show and the community by giving us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, spotify and any other podcasting app that allows it.
Speaker 2:We also have some great videos on our YouTube channel, including reviews, rankings and other topics. We would really appreciate you checking it out And, if you want to keep up with everything going on in the neighborhood, follow us on Instagram and Twitter and feel free to jump in our Discord server.
Speaker 1:We hope to see you there. Links for everything are in the podcast description. Thanks again for listening and remember stay friendly, Be gamers.
Podcaster / Bookworm / Geek / Mother of one dragon
Creator, editor and host of the Game of Groans podcast. UNC Chapel Hill grad with a degree in English Literature. Living in Japan while podcasting and mom-ing.
