Podcast Questions!

I might add Rumble to the mix of Youtube alternatives to look into.

Probably not a question you need to cover on the Patreon exclusive, but have you considered looking into the “Tales of” Franchise? Taking out all of the obvious anime tropes and clichés, the series dives into pretty dark territories. Symphonia - my personal favorite - covers slavery, racism, blind faith, etc. just to name a few. Even their current mobile game, of all things, dives deep into sin, redemption, forgiveness, and blind faith. I believe much like killing “god,” blind faith is another anime cliché. Just a thought, I suppose. Either way, I am loving this new format. Keep up the excellent work, gentlemen.

I'm a big fan of TMP as well, especially the Director's Cut. I like all of the TOS movies (5 more for being a campy TOS episode). TWOK and UDC are probably tied as my favorite.

It's certainly not as hard as it might first seem. I would suggest going to the site and just taking a look first though.

I wish I had a better answer to this, but I think it really all depends on the execution. I think if the intent is to be as faithful to the true story as possible, then no, magic would not work. However, if the idea is to lean hard on the functionalization of the true event, maybe Nioh is a good example, then it can totally work to ramp up the fantasy elements!

Resonant Arc

I have never heard of odysee, but I am totally open to posting on competitors to youtube. I just have no understanding of the world of cryptocurrency. Given how slammed I am with my schedule right now, the prospect of having to look into exchanging crypto is unappealing, but I won't say it's impossible to convince me.

Resonant Arc

This is SOOOOO tough! I would say that TNG and DS9 are the two best series and it's very difficult to pick a favorite between them. DS9 did a lot of things that felt fresh for Trek and really gave the series a heavier, more impactful story--but TNG's cast and charm are impossible to beat. As for the movies, I think the original series wins easily here. There were some big hits and misses, but I really enjoyed The Undiscovered Country because of how it handled Kirk's prejudice against Klingons as the Federation pursues peace with the Empire. Of course, The Wrath of Khan is a classic as well. Also, while it's not a very popular opinion, I actually REALLY enjoyed The Motion Picture!

Resonant Arc

Very possibly, yes! I'm hard-pressed to think of a game that handles villains better than Xenogears.

Resonant Arc

This may seem odd, but I'm a new patreon subscriber and I'm wondering what the chances are you could duplicate your YouTube channel on odysee.com? (They make it very easy to do.) I've been into Cryptocurrencies for years, and at this point I prefer watching videos on that platform because it's matured enough, and I don't have to deal with annoying adds. (It also pays content creators better, but you have to deal with exchanging the crypto for USD, so I know that's not as convenient.) Are you open to having your content posted on YouTube competitor sites, or is there a reason you want to stay on YouTube alone? (I'll keep watching either way, but with all the censorship on YouTube nowadays, seems like it might be good to hedge your bets.)

I was watching some older eps of the podcast and Mike brought up being a Star Trek fan. I grew up watching the original movies and TNG and just did a watch through of TNG and am now onto DS9. My question is: favorite Star Trek series and favorite Star Trek movie? Also, what do you think of the newer shows and movies?

I know I asked this question on one of the earlier posts, but I thought it'd be worth pasting here just for good measure/convenience: It's often the case that horror fiction best thrives on subtlety--the less you show the threat/monster (or the less you explain about it), the scarier it becomes, since nothing can beat the unlimited reaches of human imagination. This leads me to wonder however, if horror can only TRULY work in short, small-scale stories wherein the threat doesn't have to be explained, and if any horror work looking to span a long story or series is doomed to lose its fear factor as the audience becomes increasingly familiarized with it? Is it even WORTH the artist's time and effort to create mysterious horror entities (e.g., Alien, Terminator, Sephiroth) when--if the work becomes successful--the publisher is almost certainly going to build a franchise out of it and gradually ruin all of the horror-mystery which the author had initially sought so hard to create? Is the term "horror icon" itself inherently oxymoronic? I ask this because I recently played Alien: Isolation and it was by far one of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had, which surprised me given the fact that we already know what a Xenomorph is and what it does.

Is there a question you wish someone would have asked in this thread? If so let's have some fun, suspend our disbelief, and say that I asked it so we can hear your thoughts on whatever it is. Also congrats on hitting the mark and moving to a weekly podcast!

Should stories based on real life events include “magic”? I’ve been wondering if “magic” would take away from the drama or impact of real life events like Ww2 and the like since magic is pretty much OP when compared to guns and swords.

JackTheFool

Is there a particular piece (or pieces/songs) of music, video game related or not, that you find you can always return to and appreciate as much or better than the first time you heard it? Music that gives you that feeling of satisfaction, not sure how to explain it, maybe like a sigh of relief whenever you hear it. I get that sense with certain pieces, some partially due to nostalgia but others just from how excellent I think the music is.

Luciano D'Amico

I recently was listening to another video game podcast [:p oh no] and one of the hosts had played a couple of hours of Nier and was explaining what it is to the other 2 hosts. Said host had played and finished the original Nier when it was release so he was pretty familiar with it. He had some interesting points that made me think about how remakes should be made. He was saying that this game while it is for people who missed out on Nier originally, it still feels like an old game for the most part and was hard to recommend to someone who doesnt have the patience for older style games [even with improved combat] the game just feels old. So that got me thinking is this game mostly for the fans of the original? Which is kind of why remakes are made for people who want the same game with just upgraded graphics. Even the added content feels very much like it was meant to be in it. There was no overhaul of the story or how it played and was imo kind of a perfect Remake/Remaster. What i think a lot of people wanted from ff7R. Upgraded graphics, Same Story, Refined [but not overhauled] mechanics and systems and anything added should feel like it was meant to be there in the 1st place My 3 kids have finished ff7R which i think was meant to be for new people and have just about finished ff7o and they all exclaim hands down ff7 just feels better the story keeps moving in interesting ways the combat while not action is still fun and they get excited when they get limits and new materia there is so much intrigue, like "oooh whats this materia do etc". Basically even between my kids they all said the only thing the remake did better was have better graphics and everything in between feels a little less interesting and honestly flat out confusing. I guess i'm basically asking is how Nier did it's Remakes the standard for how to do remakes? thanks

So with playing Nier, the wife and I we're having a conversation about language and such and being fascinated by the idea that some languages may have limitations within it's contructs and therefore have to supplement it with other languages usually we've found [English]. Then imagining all the scenario's in which it must be incredibly frustrating to have something in you that you just can't express or explain. So we would say most if not all language is limited in some way correct? But what if someone knew all human language perhaps all modern human language or perhaps all human language of all time could it be possible to have limitless potential to express and explain every feeling, thought, theory, ideology etc. that we are just not able to do?

(This is a repost of a question I asked back in January where you responded by saying you'd take some time to think about it. If you need some more time, that's okay - The question is just really tough!) Question is about a video games art style and the effect that art style has on story: Lately, it's been pretty common for a type of scene that worked fine when the game (or series) was sprite based or cartoonish (abstracted is the general term I want to use) to not work in a style that is more realistic, and vice versa. So we've definitely seen chosen art styles backfire when it comes to the details of a story. My question is: in your opinion, does this generalize? Does the art style you choose have a shaping effect on the type of story you want to tell and impact you want to have, or do you think its a pure execution deal and that (for example) a dev could totally find a way to tell xenogears with stick figures and maintain the tone?

Do you think Xenogears has the best cast of villains in any game?

Zack Thornhill