Got Podcast Questions?

Favorite examples of using gameplay to tell story: Final Fantasy VII (Nibelheim flashback), Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Last of Us, Shadow of the Colossus. The second question I've always struggled with. Novels, for example, draw a lot of their conflict from conversations (betrayal, intrigue, scheming, etc.) Films and TV series can carry that over really well, but games--not so much. Games need to be interactive and unfortunately rely so much on movement and combat to create the loop. There are probably a couple of good, rudimentary examples of how to make conversations interactive in games (LA Noir), but we probably have a long way to go with improving AI and voice commands in games before you could really make cutscenes interactive enough to justify adapting an Issac Asimov novel into a game, ya know?

Resonant Arc

This is a really hard question to answer (which means it's a very good question--very thought-provoking). I'll have to chew on this for a while before I feel like I could give an adequate answer.

Resonant Arc

I'm really getting to the point where I want to do a full video on it. I'll see what I can cook up in the next couple of weeks.

Resonant Arc

Unfortunately I haven't played any of the Borderlands games! The villain you are referencing sounds interesting though. I'd love to do videos on Silent Hill, Mass Effect, Ghost of Tsushima, and many others! I'm just totally locked in to finishing the FF series right now, but once I finish with that I'll be moving on from FF completely I think.

Resonant Arc

To be honest, my backlog has grown so large across the board that I'm not even sure I know of a single game/movie/book coming out in 2021. My eyes are now completely locked on stuff that came out in the past, haha. I'm looking backward full time!

Resonant Arc

Two potential questions What are your favourite examples of using gameplay to tell story? Where by having the gameplay to tell story and by having agency in the situation, made the story more impactful or have more of a profound impact on you where it wouldn’t have had as much of an impact otherwise. The other question is about adaptations to Game’s While there aren’t many examples of a smooth translation when it comes to turning game’s into films, is there a novel or film that hasn’t already been adapted that you think would lend itself well to being adapted into a game?

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?

I heard you say before that Ghosts of Tsushima was your personal game of the year 2020. I would love to hear your more in depth thoughts on this game, and Casen as well if he played it.

Hi! Love your content and your in-depth analysis of games, FF was very special to me growing up and I'm sad today we don't have the same "magical"/"special" feeling on any JRPG as we probably had with Sakaguchi's FFs. Sorry if dupe - and I don't know if it was talked before or if you played the game, but what are your thoughts on why Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2 worked so well as an antagonist vs. the obnoxious twins in Borderlands 3 / Exdeath in FF5? Or if you prefer - What makes a good villain? Are you planning to make plot analysis (good and bad plots) on other JRPGs/Game franchises (I don't know.. Silent Hill and its psychological horror theme, Resident Evil and its B-movie plot turned Blockbuster, Borderlands and its comical stupidity, etc.)? Keep up the good work!

What things are you looking forward to in 2021? (Videogames, books, media, etc). Also great job with the content guys looking forward to more retrospectives and continued podcasts in the future! 🙌

coltdee

A few questions on Lord of the Rings that might make for a good conversation. (Because you can only talk about FF so much lol). On a podcast in 2019, you guys addressed “The spirit” of Final Fantasy. So as a follow up to that I’ll ask, what is, in your view “The spirit” of The Lord of the Rings? Background: Earlier this week, I watched my friend play “Middle Earth: Shadow of War” on PS4. And while it looks like a fun action game, a big part of it revolves around using the main character’s mind control abilities to turn your Orc enemies into allies. You then send your Orc army recruits into battle against other Orc armies in order to gain more territory and challenge/recruit stronger Orc enemies. There is even a dueling system where you send an AI controlled Orc commander to fight 1 v 1 against enemy Orc commanders and watch them duke it out. I always thought that The Lord of the Rings had a very strong “Anti-War” message at the core of the story, and that a lot of armed conflict throughout was intended to depict the consequences of War and why it needs to be avoided. (The Scouring of the Shire, Frodo’s wound from Weathertop never fully healed, etc.) I feel like the Lord of the Rings books never really glorified war or combat in the way that the video games and parts of the films do. So, with that said, are there any LoTR video games that you think manage to capture “The spirit” of The Lord of the Rings”? Is it even possible for a LoTR video game to include graphic and satisfying action combat in it’s gameplay loop, but still carry an anti-war theme? And if it did, would a LoTR game that didn't glorify combat or war find commercial success in today’s gaming market?

Just a quick couple of ideas as I'm omw to work. 1. Have you learnt any lessons or basically taken something out of a game (doesn't have to be jrpg) and it's become a part of your identity or character/personality. 2. What are some of your favourite mini games in games and what would you like to see in future jrpgs if you have had any ideas. 3. Maybe your opinions on video games or media as escapism in a negative light. As I believe generally escapism to be a good thing. I'm slowly realising I have an addiction now and am not growing and developing my self and am instead just falling to the comfortable video games, Netflix and YouTube because I just don't have the attention span to do much anymore.

Is there a story arc you wish was expanded on? For example, when I first played FF9 I was sure there would be a quest where we would play as Freya trying to figure out what happened with Fratley. Do any games with “aborted arcs” stick out to you?

From what I've seen in recent years, Square Enix - Final Fantasy, specifically - seems to be leaning towards a more Western-style RPG storytelling, in my view. At the same time, their other major franchise, Dragon Quest, seems to stick staunchly with what I believe to be the standard for Japanese-style RPG storytelling. Final Fantasy seems to be losing traction in the West (for those who enjoy good storytelling, at least) while Dragon Quest seems to be making gains, thanks in large part to the successes of Dragon Quest VIII and Dragon Quest XI. Here's my question: from a storytelling perspective, what are the differences, if any, between JRPGs and Western RPGs?

Your thoughts and opinions on JRPG's that tackle non-conventional settings such as Earthbound, Undertale, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon

I had two quick questions. 1: Has your time with FF14 changed your anticipation for FF16? 2: What are your thoughts on hard vs. soft magic systems? Which do you prefer, and what types of stories benefit from which system?