Exclusive Podcast Questions/Topics

What is your best moment in any game? And what is the worst moment?

Ketthefox

What upcoming games are you both looking forward to?

Ive been meaning to ask this since Im around Mike and Casen's age. But do you two find it more difficult to play and complete RPGs now that you're both older? I know Casen is married and has kids, which I assume makes it more difficult. What do you both do to get through these games?

Shane

If a game is made for some purpose (to convey a message, to educate the player on some topic, to get people into the genre. etc, and the game achieves that purpose, does that mean that game is good? Final fantasy mystic quest was the first jrpg i had played at a young age, and (obv) is got me into jrpgs, which was kind of its stated purpose. Does the fact that the game achieved what it set out to do make it good in terms of execution? How do we decide what "good" means in the context of games?

A question about storytelling techniques in JRPGs. As a storytelling technique widespread in JRPGs, what do you think about ‘information withholding’, for lack of a better word?
 In many JRPGs, information on this or that topic or mystery is withheld, or the characters don’t ask about certain key things from other - perhaps knowledgable - characters, because the plot is not “ready” to divulge the details. From a storytelling technical perspective, do you think this is an attempt to draw out the mystery, to not overwhelm the player too early, or something third? Many CRPG’s have dialogue options for questioning NPC’s. This result’s in a more transparent story and lore, but also puts potentially overwhelming pressure on the players ability to discern information. JRPG’s control the narrative flow a lot more than western rpg’s, escalating it in a matter suited for the creators or storys intent. However, we often get the infamous infodumps or “revealdumps” towards the end, and I’m sometimes thinking, couldn’t some of this have been disclosed a bit more in breadcrumbs while keeping the mystery? Or is there something vital getting lost, since creator’s avoid it so damn often? Many shounen anime are built on similar reveals as JRPG’s, is my impression, though I’m not as familiar as with JRPG’s, but they share a lot. Is Japan just too culturally enamored with the “Darth is Luke’s father” shock effect that it must penetrate everything from character development to world building and plot mysteries? The amnesia-trope is a popular sub-technique for achieving this “effect”, while not necessary. To summarize I guess there’s four angles I’m particularly interested in your reflections on: 1. Is there a narrative reason or is it laziness? 2. Is something vital (like shock value or mystery or a third) sacrificed if “reveal dumps” are sacrificed? 3. Is it a culture thing (thus being something unconscious)? 4. What do you prefer as an alternative technique, if any?

In some of those cases, it comes down to popularity. While Lucas took A TON from Dune, Star Wars was always just massively more popular. Same with Blade Runner. Blade Runner had nowhere near the impact Star Wars did. SW changed the way movies were made, and Blade Runner was only ever a cult hit. FF7 also goes in that vein, it was just so much more massively popular than just about any other game that came out around that time, and the most impactful RPG on a global scale to be made. Ironically though, a lot of these properties ARE being sequalized. Amazon just spent the most money any company has on a tv show ever to acquire and produce their LOTR tv show. Dune is now on its 3rd adaptation, Blade Runner got a sequel, and Alien keeps getting sequels when honestly...they should probably not. For Mistborn, I think it’s more of a time thing. It’s only been out...what, 15 years? It’s just not all that old. Mark my words, if the WOT and LOTR tv show do well, someone will option Mistborn (if they haven’t already.)

My gut reaction on this is that the writers are underestimating the audience/something is lost in translation, if we’re talking about Final Fantasy. We have tons of children/teen media that has loads of well crafted subtext. Basically every Pixar film, Avatar The Last Airbender, the Harry Potter books etc. So it’s definitely doable with media geared at younger audiences. However, I do think in *some* games, the writing isn’t necessarily the top priority. And in many popular RPG’s, we’re relying on a decent translation, and translations by their nature are going to dull or lose some subtext completely. Also, with earlier games, I think it often had to do with technical limitations. FF6 just didn’t have the space for long bits of dialogue, so they had to simplify it by necessity, and as someone who didn’t play it until I was in my 30s, it definitely felt overly simplistic at times, but it was kind of “you have to appreciate it for what it is/what it had to work with” kind of thing.

Please share your experience with the creative project you've done. Like, how you deal with writer's block, the idea generation, execution, iterative process, etc...

Why do certain stories/franchises get the sequel/remake/reimagining/soft reboot treatment, while others it seems the developers/studios won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Even if they're still relatively just as popular. For example, comparing Star Wars versus LOTR movies. FF7 compilation versus ICO/Shadow of the Colossus. Blade Runner versus Star Wars. Dune versus Alien. Mistborn versus The Witcher. Etc, etc.

Hunter Springate

What is the one jrpg character troupe that you can't stand?

You once tweeted a while ago about Death Stranding. I was wondering if you could elaborate. I find kojima to be a fantastic conceptualizer but a really poor writer, who overexplains his worlds and substitutes dialogue for exposition dumps. But his imagaintion and broader strokes are still too compelling to turn away. Just wondering your thoughts on him, the game, and how he writes his characters and games :)

Hi :D How the main Protagonist/Hero chose to be the main character in game, novel, anime or movies? What the main reason thats makes this character uniqe from other character in the same work? i want to know what is most liked Protagonist/Hero character for Mike and Casen from any media Game or anime or film 😊and thank you a lot 🙏

FFXIIKD

Re-post from last month: You’ve mentioned in the past that subtext is an important element of good dialogue, and that many RPG stories lack subtext, which can make character conversations feel basic or uninteresting. But at the same time, if subtext is too vague, like in certain parts of Xenogears’ dialogue, then some portion of the player base will inevitably miss certain set ups and cues, and therefore the payoffs and reveals might be unsatisfying for them later in the story. Meaning that including too much or too little subtext is a problem and you have to find a good balance. So with that in mind, given that most classic and modern RPGs are targeted at the teens to early 20’s demographic, do you think that perhaps a general lack of subtext in the dialogue could be a feature and not a bug? That the writing style is primarily a business decision rather than the writers not being talented enough to include dialogue with subtext? That the primary goal is to make sure that 99% of players “get it” in regards to the set ups and payoffs so they will feel satisfied by the story and buy more games in that series. If the story is well received by the primary demographic then the writer would get more opportunities from that company, so they could be financially incentivized to write in a way that is light on subtext. Or do you think it’s a case of the writers not knowing or respecting the audience? That the writers themselves are underestimating the average person’s ability to identify and examine good subtext in dialogue. And the business is simply unaware or doesn't care because the general gaming audience at large isn't really demanding better writing for these games in most cases.

Any thoughts on Dungeon Encounters which is directed by Hiroyuki Ito? Contrary to what you usually cover, it's a game with virtually no plot, zero dialogue, and it takes place on a generic tile map. However it ends up leaving a lot to the imagination, which is pretty refreshing for a modern game.