Hey Friends, it is time for a bit of real talk before I get into the podcast show notes.  We had a discussion last night about whether or not we should talk about the horrific Blizzard situation on the show.  I’ve made my comments pretty clear on my blog, but it also sorta felt gross and weird to engage in a conversation without anyone other than cisgender men.  Real-world emergencies deprived us of both Ammo and Grace last night, and I hope both of those situations got better.  It might come up again in the coming weeks but only if everyone on the show is up for talking about it.

As far as the topics we did discuss we talked a bit about Monster Hunter Stories 2 on the Nintendo Switch and how I apparently completely misunderstand the genre of that game.  Tam talks a bit about returning to Star Trek Online years later and the pattern of play that the game has fallen into.  We also go down a list of games that have quietly been holding on with a steady player base but get very little fanfare.  Kodra talks about his experience streaming Celeste and invites everyone to participate in those streams.  We close out the show with a discussion about Cyberpunk 2077 because Tam decided to give it a shot and Bel feels at least partially vindicated.  It is a mixed bag of a game but an extremely interesting one.

Topics Discussed:

• Monster Hunter Stories 2
• Star Trek Online
• Quietly Successful MMORPGs
• More FFXIV Discussion
• Kodra Streams Celeste
• • Speed runs
• Cyberpunk 2077
• • Horrible Representation and Great Representation
  • Easy to bounce early
  • Extremely detailed and interesting game

This year has probably had more missing shows than pretty much any to date.  Last week storms blew through and Belghast lost internet for a good chunk of the night so we did not record.  This week however we recorded a slightly longer than average show as a result.  We start with Bel and Grace exploring Rune II and how it is a flawed game but also enjoyable.  Tam shares his experience of playing Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade and the adventures of Yuffie.  This bleeds into a discussion about Yakuza Like a Dragon and how Final Fantasy is going realtime and Yakuza is seemingly going to menu-driven combat.  Kodra and Thalen share their experiences playing the new Forgotten Realms-themed Magic the Gathering set.  Then we dive into a discussion about Final Fantasy XIV since a large number of us are active once again.

Topics Discussed

• Rune II
• Final Fantasy VII Intergrade
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon
• Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
• Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter
• • Returning to the game
  • Systems within Systems
  • Bel Breaking his Tanking Block
• Final Fantasy XI Nonsense

Hey Friends! We made it to 350 episodes!  Which seems like a big number but as Thalen puts it… it is a new record over last week's new record.  We break into a brief discussion about the era of big box games which brings us into a discussion of the era of pack in “feelies”  From there Bel talks about his return to Final Fantasy XIV and the forming of the Super Dungeon Friends community.  We also talk about the weird events this weekend happening on Cactuar the server we all play on.  We talk about the Co-Op game It Takes Two and the platformer Iconoclasts.  We also talk a bit about D&D Dark Alliance and Mario Golf Super Rush.

Topics Discussed

• Big Box PC Game Era
• • We Miss Feelies
• Returning to FFXIV
• • Super Dungeon Friends
  • Weird Weekend on Cactuar
• It Takes Two
• Iconoclasts
• D&D Dark Alliance
• Mario Golf Super Rush