PixlBit

Stage Select:

5. Cigarettes. Because if Solid Snake taught me anything, it's that you should always take these with you. You never know when you will need to see laser traps. Sure, Naomi Hunter may call you and give some science jargon about lung cancer, but what does she know?... Oh yea, she knows science... Well... Good for her.

4. A lighter. Because you will need to light the cigarettes to see the laser traps. Also a lighter is useful for starting fires and basic puzzle solving mechanics. Sometimes you're in a dungeon and you need to light a torch on fire to open a secret door, or light an animal liver on fire as a sacrifice to an ancient god. I hear ancient gods like fire and sacrifices, so probably don't leave home without it.

3. Gysahl Greens. Now listen, if you're going on a long quest, there will be a lot of walking. So maybe catch a chocobo so you can take a break. Just throw the Gysahl Greens at that chocobo's cute face and beat up it's bodyguards. It will then submit to your will, and you can ride it. People may tell you there are other types of greens, and they're right, but Gysahl Greens are the best... Probably because they're the only ones I can remember by name.

2. A picture of your beloved. Look guys, at some point in your journey, you will reach a crossroads, and ask yourself, "Why am I doing this?" And that's when this picture will inevitably fall out of your pocket and remind you that your journey is important. Then, and only then will you find the strength to keep going. May your waifu or husbando's image light your darkest hour.... Or provide you... comfort in your alone times.

1. Lotion. To help moisturize your hands on your long journey and definitely not to help comfort you in your alone times with the picture of Chun Li you have in your inventory... Definitely not that. I mean, there's a lot of desserts, and mountains and all sorts of weather that is bad for your skin. I think we can all agree with that... No?... Well... Shut up.

Episode comment: Good episode as always! I have to stick up for Octopath a bit, as I thought the sprite work was actually super well done on it. Yes they don't change looks depending on weapons, but each character has a seperate stance for each different weapon (Which is a lot of work I Imagine) and their sprites all change based on what secondary job you give them. They're all unique too, which I honestly thought was really cool personally. So if you were to make Primrose's secondary job a warrior, she dresses like Olberic (A lot more showy version of Olberic) and so on and so forth. It was actually super fun to see how each character was going to look when you changed their job class. I can't say it's super cool to everyone, and I'm sure other games have done this, but I personally liked the little touches to the sprites they added. It's a lot of animations and a lot of sprite work to do that and I while will agree it is a bit of a bummer the weapon models themselves aren't different, I hardly noticed personally.

Also I know my thoughts on VR are pretty extreme. I do not know why I feel such anger towards it. It's just not my thing. Maybe they'll figure out the technology and I'll come around on it, but right now it is just super meh to me as a platform for gaming. Oh, and thank you for mentioning telltale games in the dialogue thing. I completely forgot about those and they are some of the worst offenders of that.

OH! And beautiful description of The Witcher 3. Couldn't agree more with how that game is designed. I guess some people aren't big fans of Geralt, and I can totally get that as he's kind of a dirty old man. I personally found myself liking Ciri so much that I didn't even think about it and I found myself wanting a Witcher 4 that stars her. Also playing Geralt as a dirty old man leads to one of my favorite scenes in all of gaming. I will not spoil it in case it happens to you. It leads to a kind of bad ending, but it was very worth it. I actually stood and cheered. Keep up the good work as always!

Yep. Again, I am a coward, and I know the jump scare thing is only me. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them in games, it's just a weird personal thing I have. I went into that game thinking the scary stuff would be more trippy/creepy type of horror which doesn't bother me much, and... Well I was wrong. I did watch a let's play of the whole game after I decided I couldn't play it. I just kind of shut down when they happen. I'm the kind of person who if put in a situation like that, would curl into a ball and let the villain kill them... Again, I am a coward. I happily embrace it.

Excellent choice! That's another one I put a good 100 some hours into on release. Hope you like it! Been meaning to replay it again on PC, as I bought it during the big steam sale a little while back. And yea... That was kind of a not great revelation on Octopath. You eventually can switch them out once you get through all their chapters, but usually you end up with a really OP character and have to grind out the rest of your party. If I had better things to do, I would probably have put it down at that point too. And don't get me started on how much BS the post game boss is. One of the most unreasonable things ever... But the song he has is super cool and worth looking up.

Stage Select: (It feels good to type that again)

I'd like to start this by saying, I actually like the game that I'm going to use a lot in my examples. It's just a more recent game that seems to check a lot of my pet peeve boxes. Detroit: Become Human is a decent game that I actually enjoyed despite some weird writing that I could take or leave, and I SWEAR I'm not trying to throw it under the bus. Go play Detroit kids. It's fine. (That being said, I wish the game was just a Connor and Hank buddy cop story about solvin' robo crimes. Woulda been great!)

3. Unnecessary jump scares in non-horror games. This one probably only applies to me, but I do not like jump scares, at all. When you put them in a horror game, that's fine, because I know it's a horror game and I'm not going to play it. When you sneak it into a game where I'm not expecting it though, I am really not a fan. I've told my Batman: Arkham Knight story before where I just stopped playing the game after it did this to me (In my opinion) too many times. It makes me not want to keep pushing your narrative forward because now I have to worry about this happening to me. And I know, I KNOW, this is just me and the rest of the world doesn't care about this, but I really hate it. Stop sending screaming robo children (Or whatever that was) at me David Cage. I am a coward.

2. Unclear dialogue choices. When you're making a dialogue driven game, where I'm making choices that are actually going to matter, please show me a more clear description of what my character is going to say. This has gone on for far too long and it absolutely drives me crazy. Fallout 4 did this, and it was one of the first things I modded out, and most recently Detroit did this. Detroit just gives you "emotions" to choose from and you take your best guess as to which one you think is the right choice. It drove me crazy the entire game, and resulted in me saying some stuff I definitely would not have said had I known what the actual dialogue was. I understood what they were going for because they wanted you to react more naturally in the conversation, but I am making choices that are literally life or death, so just give me a second and show me my options. There has to be a better way for all games to handle this, and I hope developers find the solution soon.

1. Motion controls. Please stop this... Please? I hate motion controls. Can't I just be lazy and lay on my couch and use my thumb to aim the thing? Why for you make me move my arms, and look like I'm stupid Nintendo? Why for you put in the quick time events that I fail because they no trigger right David Cage? Why for you make the baby cry in my face because I can't figure out the correct rocking motion Yakuza 6? I just wish these would go away. It was a fun gimmick for a while but it's one I'm actively sick of. I realize this is the entire point of VR, and incoming hot take, VR kinda sucks. If all games in the future become VR "experiences" I'm officially quitting gaming and becoming the grumpy old man who tells the kids about how gaming was back in his day. I am not about the motion control life.

Episode comment!

I completely forgot to comment on the last episode, but once again, it is really good that you guys are back. Whoever the listener is that said Stage Select is his favorite segment in podcasting is very much right. It's probably mine too, so I'm VERY happy it's back. Also please accept my apologies for using Detroit as an example so much in my stage select, I really did like the game, it just had so many good examples of things I'm not a fan of in games overall. Hopefully my intro thing explains this well enough, I really do think people should play it as it's a prime example of how a narrative game should play out and choices actually matter. (Despite having a really awful twist and some things that I still can't make any sense of.)

Really enjoyed hearing about Octopath too! I've been playing it a lot recently, and what I mean by a lot is, I've put a good 100 plus hours into it. Every critism of it I've heard is very fair, as I don't think story is one of it's stronger points. Don't get me wrong, there are some parts of the different character's stories I really liked, so definitely give the game a few chapters for the characters to grow on you, but as far as a narrative that ties them all together, let me just say without spoiling too much, there is one there, but it's hidden in the post game content. It was a really weird way to tie it all together and I honestly can say, I wasn't a big fan of that. I honestly kept playing because the battle system was super fun and continued to get better as more options open up. It actually reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics in some of the ways you can kind of break the game. It seems they designed it to be more of a portable RPG than anything else, which works sometimes, and works against it at others. Love it, but it definitely has it's problems. I do hope it gets a sequel because I can only imagine what they would go for in a future installment. Give me this battle system with a great overarching narrative and I would be super into it. Hope that's what happens, but time will tell. (And hot damn that soundtrack is fire!)

Always great to listen to you gents and as always, keep up the good work!

Dudes... one of the most bittersweet things I've ever listened to. The wrestling themes were super fun. I had a real good time listening to it, but man... I am really gonna miss Angelo. I hope you guys continue on with the show after the hiatus. Angelo's shoes will be very VERY hard to fill, and I know you guys will miss him as well. Totally understand why he has to go though. Shit happens. Thus is life. Podcast stuff is not easy at all. I have a feeling I'm going to learn that firsthand pretty soon as my sister and I have decided to give it a go. We more or less just need an excuse to talk to each other so even if it doesn't fully work out, we'll have a good time.

As I said, really gonna miss Angelo. I always loved his opinions on stuff. Dude knows so much about so many things and I have a lot of appreciation for people like that. I could listen to him talk all day about music and I wish him the best going forward.

My other comments, Poison is super hot. I'm totally into the hair and the whip and everything. Capcom seems super wishy washy on whether or not she's a female or transgender. I don't think Japan really knows how to handle that. Also Final Fight Streetwise is an absolute mess of a game. They realy tried to be super edgy and get in on that GTA money, and failed miserably. I have done all I can to erase that game from my memory.

Also on wrestling games, I am one of those smucks that buys the stupid, terrible WWE game every year. They haven't gotten any better. But I can't help myself. I kind of find a weird zen in creating characters on those games. I don't even like playing the matches, I just like making people. I have thrown away far too many hours of my life on create a wrestler stuff. I probably have a problem.

Also still haven't played GOW yet, from what I've watched of it I'm not sure if it's my kind of game. Maybe since I have some time off this month I'll give it a shot, but I'm still not sure.

TLDR: All in all great episode as always, I will miss you guys on your break. I will miss Angelo, and I wish him all the best! Take some time and get your groove back dudes!

Come back soon! Until then, catch you later pantsless dudes!

And you like Yakuza? Hell yea we would have gotten along!

Will have to check out more in my spare time, but I did just watch Delilah Doom vs. Angelus Layne and watched a woman get DDT'd onto a Richard Simmons VHS... I loved every minute of it.

I am super jealous of this. He is a bad ass. I got turned on to him through Colt Cabana's podcast so I'm a little late to the dance. Really need to get to some indy shows, I've actually never been to one and it seems like a real good time. Thus the struggle of living in a small town and working too much. It is high on my priority list though, but for now I admire most indy stuff from Youtube. Glad I made a good choice there though. Sometimes I get things right.

Stage Select: I'm not gonna lie... I am super hyped for this... LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WELCOME TO NWPPW! We have a great show for you tonight!

Introducing first... Weighing in at... enough pounds! He is the Sound of Silence! The ultimate strategist! The thinking man of the Nerds Without Pants Podcast! Angelo Grant! ...I imagine Angelo wrestling a very European technical style like William Regal or if we want to be fancy and new school, Zack Sabre Jr. He targets a body part and doesn't let up until his opponents are defeated. He enters the ring to Schism by Tool, because Angelo Grant knows the pieces fit. Each match is a puzzle to this man. A puzzle he will inevitably solve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yNAABKD4IA

And now! Making his way to the ring! Weighing in at question mark pounds! From Chicago Illinois! The Starchild! Patrick! Kiiiiiiijek! ...I imagine Patrick wrestling a very high risk, high reward style of wrestling. He is a fan favorite underdog like Rey Mysterio or Jushin Thunder Lyger. He lays his heart and soul on the line for his fans and is not afraid to use unconventional tactics to confuse and bewilder his opponents. Patrick enters the ring to Cotopaxi by The Mars Volta. A song that I cannot fully explain... Just like I cannot fully explain Patrick, and that's why he's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpLdfCM-CWc

And last but far from least... Weighing in at... pounds! Hailing from Austin, Texas! He is! The Reigning! Defending! Undisputed! Nerds Without Pants Pro Wrestling Champion of the woooorld! Julian! The Business! Titus! ...I imagine Julian to wrestle a very smashmouth, no nonsense, in your face style of wrestling, but he can do things that other big men simply cannot do and can keep up with anyone in the ring. It's a very Keith Lee style of wrestling. Julian has seen your game. He has played your game. And he has beaten your game. And he will beat your game too. Do not step into this man's ring. This is his yard, and he's pissed you're standing on his grass. Julian Titus is hell bent. Hell bent for leather. He will retain his title, and there is nothing you can do to stop him. And that's why his theme song is Hell Bent for Leather by Judas Priest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC1RQy0bu04

Pak Watch: I really love Final Fight guys. I honestly wish capcom would ressurect this series in a cool way, but I somehow doubt that will ever happen. Instead they'll just keep throwing it's characters into Street Fighter and hoping that it will keep people like me happy. But it won't. I like my Mayor Mike Haggar to fight for Metro City one randomly named thug at a time. Mayor Mike Haggar just wants his daughter back. He is not here to get fireballed by Ryu okay? He is here to have a sweet mustache, a distaste of shirts, and to spinning lariat Mad Gear. And seriously Mad Gear!? Who steals Mayor Mike Haggar's daughter!? Do you not see that mustache!? You are asking for the troubles! ...Oh yea, there's two other guys you can pick in this game... I almost forgot. Well, if you pick Guy or Cody you are wrong... I do not apologize for this opinion. He was even in Saturday Night Slam Masters! Mike Haggar! The Mayor we all deserve!

Episode comment: As a person who has gone through that exact thing at a concert before Julian, I can confirm it is super scary to have happen to you. I actually had it happen in the front row of a mosh pit and had to be pulled out by security guards. It was pretty not fun, so I'm very sorry that it happened to you and I think it's a version of heat stroke, but I cannot confirm that as I am not a doctor. All I know is its not great, so hopefully somebody hears that and heeds your advice.

Va-11 Hall-A is a really unique game. It's not action packed at all, and it makes no apologies for it. There's a message when you start a new game that basically says "This game is made to relax and enjoy the story. So go get some snacks and some drinks and enjoy." The main gimmick is you're a bartender and you make drinks for other people using ingredients and a handbook. There's some puzzle type stuff like one guy comes in and orders a "17" and you have to figure out what the hell that means. You can add extra alcohol to drinks to open up new dialogue with characters, your day begins by loading up the jukebox with whatever songs you want to hear, just little things like that make it cool. But it's mainly about the characters. Some of them are very... anime tropey, at least at first, but I found most of them added to the game in some way and helped shape the world you're living in. The graphics are modeled after old NES style dating sims which is a neat touch. I have a few complaints here and there about some of the story and felt like some of it could have been cut but it's not too big of a thing. The main character Jill is very well written (In my opinion) and I loved her arc through the whole thing. So if you ever need a good, chill game, I recommend giving it a shot. I won't say it's going to blow you away, but it's interesting to say the least. Also it'sd made by Sukeban Games who from what I've gathered is based out of Venezuela? From what I can tell it's written by one guy and I don't know who else worked on it. If it's translated from anything, I can't tell, and I know there are posters of it in Japanese game stores... It's weird.

You did an excellent job with God of War, I sincerely apologize for being negative on it. I'm really REALLY surprised other people were down on it. Usually I'm alone in that fight. At least I made you guys laugh, that always makes me happy. You made excellent points Julian, and Angelo basically made every case I would have had against it for me. It was handled very well and I hope people get to hear it. Still haven't tried the new one yet as I'm going to finish Yakuza 6 first. Keep up the good work guys, and have fun reading my wrestling intros when the time comes! (Sorry if I went to hard on them. I was having fun)

I'm am very happy I'm not alone.