A Return To Form - Dragonball Sparking Zero

Projektitachi (00:22.511)
What is up everybody? Welcome back to another week of the GZ Chop Shop podcast. I am your host, Project Hitachi, joined by my good friend, co-host, Ward Nurse. And we know it's been a few weeks since we rolled out another episode. We've been extremely busy in our personal lives and working on some projects on the side, but we were not gonna let the month go by without at least giving you guys something to tide you over until we...

can roll out some more episodes. what are we going to be talking about this week? Well, let's first say October has been jam packed with games so far. mean, gamers everywhere. I'm sure your wallets are hurting. I know mine is hurting. But the gaming lineup for October has been solid. We've had Dragon Ball Sparking Zero coming out, which brought back a 17 year sleeping franchise of Tenkaichi.

We had Silent Hill 2 remake drop, which has been doing phenomenal across the board. We've had from the persona directors and developers, metaphor, refantasio come out. And that's been doing amazing. And there's still so many games left in the month to come out. We've got romancing, saga dropping. We've got a couple of JRPGs, some sleeper ones coming out.

Daniel (01:39.084)
Neck Warrior 5 Clans for my niche BattleTech fans.

Projektitachi (01:41.959)
The Meg Warrior game for the DS for the record for for the niche fans. Yep. You got that. So October has been jam packed, which is surprising because it's before the holidays. Usually you don't see this kind of roster until November, but I'm thinking everyone's trying to steer clear of Black Ops six because usually when they drop, that's where everyone's attention goes. All the other games are trying to get their playtime in before Black Ops.

six drops, which honestly, I don't know why anyone's super excited for that game from what I've been hearing. But we'll dive into that a little further in the episode. But before we get into the episode, I just want to let you guys know if you're a fan of the show and you want to get all these episodes completely ad free and you may or may not. But you might just want the information. Be thinking about starting your own podcast. You should check out our Patreon page, Patreon dot com forward slash OSN Media.

because we will be dropping how to start your own podcast courses exclusively for our Patreon. Plus you get all of our other podcasts, all of the GZ Chop Chop episodes completely ad free, all for $5 on our one tier for $5. All that plus everything else we plan to add in the future. So go over there, check it out. Also, we're going to be dropping some new merchandise ideas where you guys are going to get to vote on what becomes our next.

merchandise design, we'll put up a bunch of designs and you guys have the voting power on what comes out on our store next. So go over there and check it out and visit our merchandise shop, gzmediashop.com. Got a lot, had to get out there before we get into the episode. So make sure you check out all those links, please, and thank you. Now, without further ado, let's get into the episode. So first, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero.

There has been so much back and forth on this game, mostly positive from the player base, mostly positive. But there have been a plethora of reviews that have said multiple things about it, good and bad. And I know we were talking about the IGN review that gave it a seven out of 10. Now I'm going to say, I think I'm well versed in the game at this point to give it.

Daniel (03:59.17)
What did they give Concord again?

Projektitachi (04:04.305)
Good question. They gave Concord a seven out of, they gave Concord seven out of 10?

Daniel (04:04.622)
7 out of 10. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, at the time, yeah. It might still be 7 out of 10 before they shut down. So I'm just saying, like, IGN historically,

Projektitachi (04:14.449)
They gave it a good? That's, okay, that's.

Daniel (04:23.4)
is very, very bad when it comes to rating good or bad games. I am convinced that very few people that write for IGN actually play the games that they're reviewing. I'm convinced that it's hearsay on their part. They're just hearing what other people have to say, or they're just reading comments underneath games and then adding it to a very poorly designed article, poorly written article.

and then putting it out there and then trying to say what they think about the game. are no, there is no way at this point that that many people, if any, for that work for IGN and I hope they hear this. I, they are not playing these games and you can tell they're not just on the way they're writing the reviews. It sounds like it sounds like a teenager that's I'm serious. It sounds like a teenager.

Projektitachi (05:13.073)
I will say that.

Daniel (05:19.606)
like either really excited or really unhappy with the game.

Projektitachi (05:23.877)
I will agree. I will say that I don't think they're playing a full game for sure. do get. Yeah, they do get review copies. The problem with the review copies are they're basically like extended demos and not every game comes up with a demo anymore like it used to do back in the old days. So they're playing versions of the game, you know, demos of the game we've never even seen. Like there was no demo for.

Daniel (05:29.934)
I'd demo it best.

Projektitachi (05:51.495)
you know, sparking zero, we all just had to wait with baited breath until the game release. And if you had the early access, which most players did, then you got to play it three days early. Everyone who's been writing reviews got access to it maybe even a week before we did. And there's a certain part of the game that I know for a fact, everyone at some point got stuck on at least once.

And it's when you fight great eight Vegeta, which anyone who's played any ten kai chi game knew that that was an unavoidable fight. It's in every ten kai chi game in some form or fashion that you had to fight great eight Vegeta. However, this one was rough. He was hard. And it seemed like what Bandai Namco was going for was making the anime realistic to show the difference in power between Goku.

and Vegeta at that time, it was meant to be hard. It was meant to be frustrating. And I think what happened is a lot of reviewers on their limited time with the game. When they got stuck, they immediately went into, this is just not fun for everyone. This is just.

Daniel (07:11.542)
Because when we grew up, we, we gained in a time where if you got stuck at a game, you would play it for like two or three hours until you got it. We, we couldn't really go online and watch like YouTube and like, like this build or use this item or try this method. Like, yeah, there were game review magazines you could get that were like walkthroughs, but that was it. You had to actually be good at a game and you had to actually put in effort, but people aren't doing that anymore.

They're giving it the good old college try. And then after a few failed attempts or maybe an hour playing, they run the TikTok and make a video and say how bad a game is because they can't play it.

Projektitachi (07:55.983)
Yeah, no, I agree. I've seen a lot of that where like, just as many people are praising it, just as many people are frustrated with it. I've even seen on like threads, someone coming in and just literally, I'm pretty sure it was rage bait, but at the same time with the way people are on social media. Yeah.

Daniel (08:10.507)
I've seen a lot of Rage Bait for Dragon Ball Sparking. That's funny.

Projektitachi (08:14.993)
that the way that some people just are on social media. I'm like, it's a 50 % chance they were rage baiting. It's a 50 % chance they were just legitimately feeling this way. They were like, I'm upset. I can't just press square and win. You know, I got either there and they're in there. They sound like one of our peers like, look, I'm a working person. I got a full time job. I just want to come home with smash X to or square to win the game. And I'm like, this is probably not the game for you. Then this is not the one.

you know, Ben, I think what happened too is they looked at the state of games and they did not want to be your other, your other generic fighter. And I think a lot of people who have just got into the Dragon Ball franchise or just got back into the games are expecting it to be street fighter, Tekken, King of Fighters. They're expecting it to be your generic fighter.

Daniel (09:12.62)
Well, you've a lot of the reviews for the game that are negative. There's two big ones that I've seen. It's this game is bland. It's made. It's it's basically just a remake of the original or the last one in like what 2006 and the other one is lacking in creativity and any real plot. And that right there tells me that anyone who is actually thinking that or feeling that way, they're not playing the game.

Projektitachi (09:25.191)
Hmm

Daniel (09:40.374)
And it's because they added something insanely cool to this version, which is the what ifs. And the what ifs are not just a couple, two or three. It is literally a what if with every decision you make for all these different characters.

Projektitachi (09:46.341)
Yeah.

Projektitachi (09:54.663)
Yeah, but happened is a lot of people got stuck on the what ifs. Now I will say some of the cons I can agree with. Dragon Ball doesn't make it sparky zero doesn't make it obvious on how to proc certain what ifs and then some of the requirements are a bit tedious if you're not dedicated to playing the game for a while.

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, unfortunately, is not a game you can play today, put down for a week and then pick right back up. You're going to get waxed by the computer all over again, especially if you didn't, you know, master the mechanics. However, everything you do need is in the game. The problem is if you're not willing to look for it, you're not going to find it. It's not in your face. It's kind of Elden Ringish in that regard.

You gotta navigate the menus, which I know some people don't like the menus.

Daniel (10:53.806)
Well, think growing up and knowing Dragon Ball Z is something that our generation got a heads up on because that makes it easier for us to do something different than what's in the original storyline and proc'd those different what-ifs.

Projektitachi (11:08.187)
Yeah, because sometimes just experimenting triggers a what if it's like, you know, the game's like, use a spirit bomb on this guy. And then you beat this person without using the spirit bomb in certain in a certain fight that triggers a what if that changes the course of history. So you get a whole different path just from not using a single attack that the game told you to use. And, know,

They're like, when they say it's bland, it's not creative, it's not adding, well, of course not. It's based off of an established universe. Why would they deviate from the storyline that it's based off of? That would make no sense. Why would you create a Dragon Ball game with Dragon Ball characters and not use the Dragon Ball story?

Daniel (11:55.851)
And it's the what ifs that I think help make it much more fun than what people are suggesting, it's bland. Well, then you're not doing the what ifs if you think it's bland.

Projektitachi (12:05.465)
If as someone who has played all the what ifs, I have done all the what ifs. You can check my trophies. I have done every single one of the what ifs are amazing. It really puts in this perspective how the slightest change to the story we know could have changed the entire course of Dragon Ball history and its direction. And it also shows because we opened up time travel in Dragon Ball.

how many different paths actually exist out there. And we're just happen to watch the prime path that we just happen to be on. But the slightest sneeze has branched off in all these different paths. And it's pretty amazing. Like, Frieza has his own path where his party in the tournament power is completely different. Gohan actually getting the due respect he was

also a little rant here. This has been bugging me for years and I'm gonna say this and I know I'm gonna probably piss off so many Dragon Ball Z fans. I do not care. Okay, y'all need to get off your high horse sometimes. Dragon Ball Z was supposed to be for Gohan. Dragon Ball was Goku's story. Dragon Ball Z was meant to be for Gohan. Akira Toriyama wanted it to be for Gohan. Only reason it didn't come from Gohan and where this rant is coming from is I always see people complain about Gohan's random power ups. It's like Goku, Vegeta, they trained.

Had to train, train, train, got stronger, power up. Gohan, I got mad for five seconds, power it up. And the fans get so annoyed by Gohan surpassing both of them with a moment of anger and rage and powering up. And they always give Gohan crap for it. And I'm like, you guys do understand Dragon Mozi was supposed to be for Gohan. Y'all are getting upset about his power ups, but this is your fault. And I'm gonna explain why. Y'all would not let...

Goku die You wouldn't let Goku die You would not let Toriyama Create his story for Gohan So he had to squeeze it in there somewhere to try to remind fans Gohan is actually the strongest But y'all won't let Goku die. So guess what? Gohan is gonna get these bullshit power-ups

Daniel (14:29.12)
Mm-hmm. Well, and even those have been explained canonically through the mangas is the human emotions that he carries exacerbates his Saiyan abilities. That's any any Dragon Ball Z fan should know that.

Projektitachi (14:39.271)
Mm-hmm.

Projektitachi (14:43.153)
Just like to prove how it was supposed to be Gohan's story even up through Super, it was not Goku who beat Clefla. It was not. It was Gohan. But in the anime, it was Goku because the majority of the Dragon Ball fans are into the anime. They don't read the manga. Even though the manga is the official, you know, canonical path,

Daniel (15:09.494)
It's crazy, like the manga is the true canon, but the manga is so much different than the anime.

Projektitachi (15:15.725)
in so many regards, like the manga explains those power ups Gohan gets. They're not just random power ups. He gets more. He gets more established in the manga. And then when I see those posts, I'm like, you don't read the manga. So that's why Gohan's power ups seem completely random to you. He did earn them. It's his story.

Daniel (15:38.636)
And that's something hopefully that we see in the future if Dragon Ball Super makes a return is that now that there's an established canonical manga that gets insane reviews, people are loving the manga and they love how much more appropriate the characters are portrayed in the manga. For instance, Goku's not a moron.

He's actually really intelligent. He's a great character. He's a leader. So hopefully when Dragon Ball Super, if Dragon Ball Super comes back, we see it follow that path more canonically.

Projektitachi (16:19.523)
It probably won't because the fans have already, they're set in their ways.

Daniel (16:24.806)
Dragon Ball is a weird man because when it comes to animes, people get so upset and understandably so when animes don't cannotically follow the path of a manga. Yet Dragon Ball is the outlier. It's the one anime nobody gets upset about that doesn't follow the manga.

Projektitachi (16:48.143)
As long as Goku is the undisputed victor. Yeah, as long as Goku is the undisputed victor, Dragon Ball fans are willing to let it deviate because, like I said, the tournament of power, who fought who is different in the manga. The reason no one is complaining that it didn't follow the manga is because Goku got to look cool in the tournament of power. That was the whole thing. It was like, well.

Daniel (16:49.568)
It teeters on it, but it hardly follows it.

Projektitachi (17:16.707)
As long as Goku's got the screen time, we're okay with it. And then that's that first half and the other half don't even read the manga, so they don't know.

Daniel (17:25.024)
Which is funny because you know, there's the whole like, well, Kenny beat Goku, Goku can take anyone. But ultimately, ultimately, and you know, we don't have to go down that rabbit hole, but ultimately, Goku gets the floor wiped with him with by his own son, canonically, the manga. Just floor wiped with them. Like, it's not even, it's not even, it's not even a fight.

Projektitachi (17:30.21)
gosh.

Projektitachi (17:42.823)
That's why I always say it shouldn't be can he beat Goku.

Projektitachi (17:48.345)
No, I always said if you're going to have the argument, it shouldn't be can he be Goku? It should be can they beat Gohan? Is the real question that we should all be asking, can they be Gohan? Now that's a conversation. There you go. Now you now you're understanding. But yeah, because that's a rabbit hole we could go down. But yeah, coming back to sparking zero, I didn't gave it a seven out of 10. I like I said, I can agree with some of the frustrations the game can be.

frustrating in terms of unfair difficulty input reading by the CPU and just When the computer wants to whoop your ass, it's going to whoop your ass Yeah, it's going to It's going to pull counters out of counters out of counters out of point blank beams to the face counters but It can be beaten and I say that as someone who is not really good at fighters. I have 90 percent

Daniel (18:28.65)
It does do some bullshit. It does some bullshit.

Projektitachi (18:47.983)
of the achievements in the game already.

So if I can do it and I am honestly without practice trash at almost every fighting game, I just enjoy them, especially anime fighters. It can be done. It just needs patience. And that's something I think a lot of gamers just don't have is patience. And I look at it like this. If you could sit down and get your ass beat in a call of duty lobby over and over and over and over.

you could probably enjoy sparking zero because in at least that's in the privacy of just you versus the CPU. No one's going to know you should get in your butt whooped except the CPU and maybe the other person you played online that whooped you.

Daniel (19:31.914)
And then well in the steam reviews that we kind of talked about this before we started the steam reviews right now Nine out of ten Mostly positive for for the game and I trust steam reviews and there's a reason why is One to leave a review on steam you have to own the game To you have to have a couple hours in the game

before you're allowed, like you can't just buy the game and then leave a review, you have to play it for a little bit. I think it's like an hour or two, not that much time, but a reasonable amount of time to at least be able to write a review. So when it comes to Steam, even though it's not a perfect model, at the very least with Steam reviews, you have to have played the game and owned it before you get to have an opinion. And the opinions you do typically see are actually,

Even if even the worst, the worst reviews that I disagree with, they're like three paragraphs long. Like I will tell you, man, when it comes to one thing I can say about PC players, man, they will leave the most thought out review, no matter how bad the review is. Like at least they put thought into it. You go to Google, you look like a review for a game for like Xbox or PlayStation. And it's like, this game, has too many.

mechanic issues I disagree with and it's not optimized. I disagree with how many characters are like, what? Some people are complaining that even though there's so many characters in the game that there's too many of them that are copy and paste. And it's like, well, one, do you really want to play with one character that has like nine power-ups in the two minute fight? How does that make sense to you?

Projektitachi (20:55.653)
Not optimized.

Daniel (21:18.158)
Two, even if you just took it down to, you got rid of all the copy and pastes, right? The additional characters and you're like, just Goku, just Vegeta. There's phenomenally more fighters in this game, released, than fighters have been doing. And they're not charging you. They could have easily, easily told you, do you want one of these other abilities? Do you want Gogeta? Do you want?

Projektitachi (21:35.492)
in general. Yeah.

Yeah.

Projektitachi (21:44.711)
$5.

Daniel (21:46.316)
Do you want a super sand for anybody? Okay. Yep. $5. They could have pulled pulled a Mortal Kombat or attack in and suddenly started charging you stupid amount of money just to have a few extra characters. And they didn't. And the fact that nobody's praising that is that right there is the problem. get people complain about the wrong things in gaming. And then when they get screwed over by these companies, then they want to complain.

Projektitachi (22:14.811)
I think people were just stuck on the fact because I'm like, they're like, it's a hundred characters, but 19 of them are Goku. That's that's ridiculous. Why are there 19 Goku's? Why couldn't it be like three Goku's? And it's a valid point you brought up because at first I was like, yeah, that's a lot of Goku's. But in the Dragon Ball universe, if you put Goku and you say, OK, we'll put three Goku's with all of him in base form, none of his transformation separate.

you are asking to not only isolate, but frustrate your fandom because some people don't want to transform. Some people just want to jump in as super and as we've been seeing ultra instinct, Goku, they just want to jump in at their favorite form and fight. There's a lot of people who probably still have probably played through the game, but still have no idea how to transform. And that takes

time enough for, and like you said, in two minute fight, if you're going against a tough CPU or veteran player, they're not giving you the time to transform, especially if they've got an advantage. By the time you pull that off, you're getting cream. So Bandai considered and said, look, we'll give you the option to just be that form, off rip. And each of them have a different move set or different abilities. their strategy involved too, because

Base form might have solar flare and super saiyan might have after image both viable moves in a fight because now I could blind you and if I've saved up my skill points now I can transform You're blind. I transform giving me the window I needed and then you try to hit me back I after image and then I follow up with my own attack. There's strategy into this Yeah, there's 19 Goku's but the point is if you learn all of their abilities all of their moves

and figure out which one has the best move set in their lineup, you can create a dastardly team. could like...

Daniel (24:17.74)
I mean, we got people running ranked, which is a whole other conversation, but people running ranked with Chao Tzu and Yajirobe. So it's not a matter of who's, it's not really a matter of necessarily just who's the most powerful. It's who understands the mechanics of the game and who, who, who's actually putting in the effort to learn the characters.

Projektitachi (24:21.883)
Yeah.

Projektitachi (24:25.595)
Yeah, because no one expects that.

Projektitachi (24:39.471)
Everyone jumps on. think what happened is everyone jumped on and they were eager to play Ultra Instinct Goku. The veteran players started learning the mechanics, getting re-familiar with the game, and they're coming in with the unsuspecting characters that are usually OP in those games, which is like Chaotsu, Herkyu, Yamcha, the slept on characters. And they're showing these players that are coming in, trying to use Ultra Instinct Goku for quick wins. That ain't how it works. You got to know the mechanics. You got to learn the game.

Yeah, there's 19 goku's but it don't mean you're going to just mop the floor with all those 19 goku's you got to know the game So, you know, there's that that that back and forth But overall everyone seems to be enjoying the game a lot of clips are people being surprised a lot of the clips are people being wowed

Daniel (25:24.406)
Yeah, it's mostly positive. I've mostly seen like, you know, satisfied like reviews and videos and clips from people. So it was wild to me to see IGN have the balls to like say it was a seven out of 10 game. I feel like I feel like it's an eight out of 10 game at the very least because

Projektitachi (25:42.885)
I will agree that it's an adult and I will agree that there are frustrating parts, extremely frustrating parts. But if they were going for how it felt in the anime, they nailed it. Last night, I dealt with the most frustrating fight I have played in that game. More frustrating than great eight Vegeta. It was a bonus mission of Vegeta going against Lord Beerus. He's a destroyer guy. He's meant to be a problem.

The problem is the game doesn't tell you, you have only 15 to 30 seconds to take a bar of health from him before he gets bored and automatically kills you. That was the hardest 15 to 30 seconds of my life per bar because your damage is minimized because his defenses are buffed. So I was trying every technique I had in the book as base Vegeta to keep bears from getting bored.

Daniel (26:22.604)
That's hilarious.

Projektitachi (26:41.543)
Took me about an hour and a half, a lot of tries. But in the end, I did it. I overcame it. My hand was cramped. But at the end, was like, he technically was a lore accurate Beerus, frustrated the hell out of me. But that was lore accurate. So I agree. I think it's an eight out of 10 game. I think if you're a Dragon Ball fan, definitely worth picking up, especially since the series has been asleep for like 17 years. It's a very good game.

You know, go, go try it. Expect to get frustrated. Also, here's a tip for you guys. When you do get the game, the Zenny shop, it's a trap. All of the stuff in the shop you can earn for free. If you just play the game and do the bonus missions, you don't have to spend that Zenny.

Daniel (27:34.68)
They were counting on people to only play ranked and not play the actual game. Spend all that and then get mad when they don't understand the game and then leave, the same people leave a bad review.

Projektitachi (27:45.029)
If you at least on PlayStation only, I think like 20, most of the people have played Goku story and stopped with that because you know how on PlayStation you can see the percentage of people who have the same trophy as you after doing Goku and Vegeta's stories, not even including the what ifs. think like 28 % of the people finish it. I think no, think Goku is 32. So almost half finished Goku story. And then that's it.

Everything else all the other trophies I've gotten have been like 10 % to 1 % Including the what-ifs So and right doesn't have a trophy. So that just tells me that mostly everyone has just Probably gone online earn. There's any by the characters and just are probably playing ranked Which is fine play the game however, however you want. do do you

Daniel (28:42.104)
But don't complain about the game if you haven't actually played the game. In my opinion, I think a lot of people agree with me, buying a game and only playing PVP, buying a game and only playing ranked does not make you, does not mean that you played the game. There's a storyline, there's other mechanics, there's things you can earn in the game. that doesn't mean, like you really shouldn't be leaving a review for a game you didn't actually play when you only played one small part of the game.

Projektitachi (28:46.938)
Yeah

Projektitachi (29:12.485)
Yeah, but what do you guys think? Are you a fan of sparking zero? Did you get sparking zero? Are you planning on getting sparking zero? Are you checking out the videos, reading the reviews? What are your thoughts on it? We'd love to hear from you guys on the case of sparking zero. But before we wrap up the episode, there was something else that we had been talking about. We mentioned earlier was black ops six and this

Basically the current state of games and you brought this to my attention about Black Ops 6 going on game pass day one.

Daniel (29:47.382)
Yeah, day one, pass. And people wonder why Xbox's game pass continues to raise its prices. And it's because these studios that are making the game, it doesn't matter that Xbox owns them. They own them, but they're not funding the studios. The studios have to make the games themselves, fund the money themselves. They're just owned by Microsoft. And instead of getting

like the full amount of money that they're owed for the effort and the work they put in to make said game. Well, now millions of people get to split, take $30 and split it between a bunch of games that are on game pass. And if you, you know, you don't even have to be good at math to see how little return that is for a single game, which is why the micro transactions are so bad.

Projektitachi (30:36.827)
Yeah.

Projektitachi (30:42.011)
Yeah, they're banking on.

Daniel (30:45.4)
Good old fashioned American capitalism right here with Microsoft is the number one reason why the gaming industry is being just beaten to the ground and shit on. And then everybody wants to complain about micro transactions, but then praise Microsoft when they're the cause of it. They're the main cause of it right here. It's a cycle that is not being broken. And I can tell by some of the

things I'm seeing people say online, especially of the past couple months, people are starting to get tired of this and they're starting to get tired of Microsoft.

Projektitachi (31:23.035)
I, we are creeping up to 2027 a lot faster than people realize. We're already about to hit 2025. I just, I'm going to keep reminding people about what good old Phil said about 2027, his very ambiguous statement. Microsoft is, it's drowning and it's willing to do anything right now to stay afloat.

And I think they're leaning in hard because they were also hyping up the Starfield DLC.

The DLC came and went. It came, it went, and people were disappointed. And I was like, I don't know what you expected from the game that was bought mid-development, meant for another console, bought mid-development, got owned, and probably had its direction completely changed. I don't know what you thought was going to happen. The DLC was supposed to save it. It didn't. Bethesda has been

regretting the deal they made. And now Microsoft is struggling to push the digital-only ecosystem and continue the formula, which historically was started by Valve, of microtransaction, loot box kind of lifestyle with Call of Duty, which that might be, may or may not be.

pocket change that they could use. Cause you know, the Call of Duty fans are loyal. They're like Dragon Ball Z loyal. So they're gonna buy the game. They're gonna buy the micro transactions. It's, it's inevitable. But I don't see as many people excited for Black Ops 6 as they were leading on. As more of the game is revealed, a lot of people are like, yeah.

Daniel (33:20.984)
Well, it's like Marvel, man, right? Like, you have comic fans that have always been comic book fans. And even those group of people are really tired of seeing a Marvel movie every few months, much less a Marvel movie that doesn't hold a candle to what they were doing originally. So anytime you're getting too much of something,

Projektitachi (33:44.081)
to the source material.

Daniel (33:49.846)
and that too much of something's watered down and not even as good as the original thing that they had presented to you, especially when the new versions of the thing that they're presenting to you are full of microtransactions and game passes that cost as much as the pass you need just to play Xbox Live, which cost half as much as the game itself if you even purchase the game, because it's on Xbox.

game pass and they're not even getting the money for that. It's just, it's such a, it's a cycle that's not working anymore. And the the only one who's winning from it is Microsoft. The studios aren't even winning. Nobody wants watered down games anymore. And that's what COD's putting out. So what they did this time was they added a couple of new mechanics, like being able to, that nobody asked for that they praised.

Projektitachi (34:43.473)
that nobody asked for.

Daniel (34:47.746)
that is sounds to me like it's mostly gonna cause a lot of toxicity in the game. I can only imagine the kind of trash talk and anger and feelings people are gonna have or streams that people are gonna so proudly put out of themselves of taking a hostage player and saying who knows what in their ear.

Projektitachi (35:10.193)
What we all know is that toxicity, not even in just gaming, but on social media in general, fuels engagement. We can't say Microsoft didn't see this coming and wasn't.

Daniel (35:18.753)
It does.

And then we turn around and complain about the wrong things.

Projektitachi (35:24.805)
Yeah, because in the most of the, unless the person's already established and very popular in what they're doing, most other people to gain engagement, especially in gaming has to do something phenomenal or just extremely toxic and toxicity gets engagement.

Daniel (35:43.246)
When you buy a new Resident Evil game, the next installment of a Resident Evil game, why do you buy it? Yeah. You love the franchise. Would you say that you buy it because new lore and a new story is going to be presented that you're going to get to go through and learn about that's going to add on to the existing story?

Projektitachi (35:51.781)
Me personally, I love the franchise.

Projektitachi (36:07.597)
Absolutely. I love the lore of Resident Evil.

Daniel (36:10.732)
When we buy Pokemon games, okay, there are new Pokemon, there's new mechanics, there's new lore, there's new stuff to it that adds to it that makes you wanna play it. It adds to the world. What is Call of Duty adding to their franchise every time a new game comes out every six months to a year? They're adding skins. The last game they came out with added what was equivalent of like, I...

Projektitachi (36:31.111)
skins.

Daniel (36:38.91)
What did old boys say at the gaming awards? I don't remember exactly what he said, but he made fun of how short it was. He was like, yeah, that was longer than the storyline of modern warfare three. And they try to they try to like, like redirect that, which was hilarious to me. You know, the fact is. Putting a game out that has it's the same concept every six months to a year.

Projektitachi (36:49.957)
his speech.

Projektitachi (36:56.213)
Christopher judge. He was making fun about this speech.

Daniel (37:05.622)
and then telling you, have to own one, two and three to be able to get onto that said service and then install the new game. And then like, what are you Blizzard? Like that's something Blizzard used to do, but at least when they did it, it was on PC and it was for a good reason. And it was for different games. It wasn't to play another add-on of the same game in the same.

franchise but you do the same thing with it but if you want to have all these different skins you can spend i don't know 50 dollars on one skin or you can spend 10 20 30 a month on top of everything else you're spending for a pass in the game it's just ridiculous they're stealing money from you to give you the same game with a couple different things in it every six months to a year it's not funny anymore

Projektitachi (37:54.673)
Well, it's a sad reality. We have to accept that we don't own our games or have as much say in the direction that a lot of them have taken. And now that we're starting to react to it, it's too little too late because the companies are willing to let the ship sink if we don't play ball.

Daniel (37:57.472)
It's a joke now, it's ridiculous.

Projektitachi (38:21.925)
because they're like, that's OK, we'll just milk you with a different game down the road. And they're not wrong. They're like, we'll let this ship sink, so you guys just forget it, and then we'll

Daniel (38:26.924)
Yeah. And you know, it's just...

Sony and Nintendo have their own issues. Like we've torn into them. But by God, does Microsoft take the cake when it comes to just screwing over its own customers and then gaslighting the customers into thinking they're not doing anything wrong and still spending money on that crap.

Projektitachi (38:48.101)
Now I will say, I will say in the chat, you guys have known this. I've been a little ticked with Sony these past few months too. So for everyone who's probably ready to type in the keyboard, we got some Sony fanboys here because we know that's the first thing you guys like to say. No, I've been ripping into Sony too. Sony has done some bull the last few months, starting with the Pro and I don't know if anyone's noticed when they first announced it, everyone was like, what the heck?

You barely have anything on the PS5. Why are we getting a pro already? Like put stuff, more stuff on the PS5 first work with what you already got. What are we getting a pro for? There's no game coming out. That's even optimized for it. Regardless of what you're saying, there's no game built for the PS5 pro. No one's getting the full bang for their buck. No one has an AKTV unless you're wealthy as heck. And you're one of those content creators that get stuff for free. No one has an AKTV.

to utilize the full power of a pro could justify it. And then now I don't know if Sony's been paying for it what, but suddenly people are like, you know, there's a big difference with the pro. I'm sorry, wasn't it a week ago, you guys said there was literally no visual difference. Y'all couldn't see a difference. Now all of a sudden you guys are like, yeah, there's a, there's actually a visual difference. I'm sorry, did Sony send you an AKTV that we just don't know about? And then suddenly you got bought, didn't you? You got.

Daniel (40:14.602)
There's no difference. The only time I see a difference in any of my games is when I play a game on my PC that's made for the monitor it's on and I crank the settings up and do what I need to do. My PS5, it looks amazing. But even with my Sony TV, it's a 2K HDR TV. It's not a bad TV for all intents and purposes.

I'm not getting the full specs out of it like I could, and I'm sure as hell not going to spend another $700 on a Pro just to see maybe a little bit clearer.

Projektitachi (40:54.265)
A digital only at mind you, which if people eat that up, which we already know that scalpers will. That just tells them, OK, we can finally do away with physical copies. Sony's been pushing for that, too. And I'm like, I don't like that. I know disks are now just glorified CD keys. They don't have the games on them anymore like they did the PS3. But I don't want an entire digital library because I'm not paying you.

Daniel (40:56.631)
and

Projektitachi (41:23.719)
$700 then 80 70 to $80 on top of that per game that at any given moment you can say You know what? We don't want to provide the game anymore. So we're gonna remove it Now that money is just gone now. I've got $700 hardware with no software for it and Sony's already started doing that because the horizon The 2020 version they pull from the scene from from Steve

to force people to buy the remaster. So if people wanted to, they're like, well, I don't want to spend that extra $10, I'll just get the 2020 version. Sony said, no, you're going to get the remaster if you haven't bought it. And they've pulled the classic version from the store and forcing people to get the remaster, which is double the price of the 2020 version.

Daniel (42:07.212)
Man.

Daniel (42:17.346)
This is what I was telling you about tubes or similar when I was telling you that that they're pulling games online that come in twos and giving you half the story for the full price and not telling you about it. It was making me mad. think they're slick. Y'all when you buy, if you are going to buy a digital game, read it, read the description of the game because it'll present to you the game in a way that makes you think you're getting something.

Projektitachi (42:30.127)
Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel (42:46.086)
certain amount of the game but in the description it might subtly vaguely tell you how you're only getting X amount of the game so if you can buy you know part one and part two of a game for we'll say 40 bucks and then they're up there trying to sell you that same game for 60 bucks

Look at what it's saying.

Projektitachi (43:13.721)
One benefit to of hard copy games was when I went on the store, I knew whenever I saw that games title back in the day, it meant that was DLC extra to the game. Now I have to sit there and read it because they've taken a hint from YouTube. People who wanted YouTube interactions, they would put these long titles to fake movie trailers. And then there would be so long that you thought it was a legit trailer. But in the long ass title at the end, then they finally said fan made.

Daniel (43:24.492)
Yeah, yeah.

Projektitachi (43:43.313)
But by then, you didn't see that. So you were clicking it. And that's how they were gauging engagement. I think they've done that with certain games and DLC. The art and the title is so similar. Some people are seeing something on sale. And they'll go to the store and they'll be like, this game is on sale for like five bucks. And it's such a long title. But it winds up being the DLC.

Daniel (44:07.693)
Yeah.

Projektitachi (44:07.803)
And they're like, wait, this wasn't the game. No, that was the DLC. It's all confusing. then, then like it, the store is just so overloaded. You really have to sit there and read to see, you said, read to see what you're getting.

Daniel (44:21.974)
Yeah, despite like, there are so many complaints with PCs and like from the console side and stuff that I totally get. But with that said, that is one of the main reasons why I do enjoy Steam over consoles is so far only because they haven't had to change leadership and they've been consistent is what we talked about with the reviews.

Like you're only allowed to make a review, you if you play it, you own the game and play it for a certain amount of time. So the reviews are more trustworthy. And when they remove games from their library, their digital games, as long as I still purchase that game, I can still download it because it's on the cloud. And they make that very clear.

whenever they remove games. They have so far. That's not to say it can't change any time. But what I'm saying is I like consistency. And when I've consistently been given something a certain way for a certain amount of time, just like all the other consumers of the same product, that's going to make it very hard for that company to suddenly take it away, which is something that Sony and

Microsoft do not have, they do not have that consistent. yeah, they don't, I neither does. my God. Nintendo's the work. I think we hesitate shitting on Nintendo and calling Nintendo out when we shouldn't. And I think it's because maybe subconsciously we know that we're all thinking the same thing. You guys are a bunch of assholes.

Projektitachi (45:44.229)
Neither does Nintendo.

Projektitachi (45:48.85)
They're the king of that.

Projektitachi (46:02.395)
Yeah, Nintendo will remove their entire library just so they can charge you to play it all over again because... Yup.

Daniel (46:08.162)
and then tell you you're wrong. And you're like, for what? They're like, you're just wrong. You're wrong.

Projektitachi (46:12.795)
You're just wrong. But who's going to argue with a hundred year old company?

Daniel (46:17.175)
Dude, they still sell like a large portion of their games from day one Switch release for $60. It's so wild.

Projektitachi (46:27.676)
Yep.

Projektitachi (46:31.375)
not even just the Switch, you find any Nintendo game that brand new, Nintendo, if they have a say in it, it's full price. To this day, I promise you, wherever you go to find a copy of Super Smash Bros Melee, anyone who knows how old that game is, unless you're at a local retro joint, it won't be less than 50 bucks.

It's like the Nintendo has people everywhere. As soon as they see their game on a shelf, they're like, you better be charged a full price for that. But it's pre-owned. We don't care. Full price.

Daniel (47:03.934)
Nintendo has some balls, man. Let me tell you, but they messed up. They made a mistake. And let me tell you the mistake they made. It doesn't seem like a mistake, but financially it is. It's going to, it's, it's, I know, I know it's come back to hurt them and they haven't admitted it yet before the switch. When you wanted to play Nintendo, what were your options?

Projektitachi (47:30.969)
emulators.

Daniel (47:32.46)
Not, not, not just the emulators. You had a console, whether it was the N 64, the Wii, you had a console, but what else did you have? The DS, the game boy, you had a game boy. You, when they put those two together, they stopped selling two products separately for, for more money. They lost out on money and you wouldn't think

Projektitachi (47:44.857)
Yeah. when they close the

Daniel (48:01.162)
that would be the case, but like really think about it. On the surface, it seems like that's not a big deal, but think about the Switch sold well, there's no denying that. And like all the equipment and accessories and stuff, like it's an amazing console. I won't lie and say Nintendo sells bad products. They're just stingy. They're stiffly and stingy about it. But...

Projektitachi (48:21.178)
They're very stingy.

Daniel (48:24.706)
There was a time for decades where they were selling a console and you wanted the console with all the games and all the accessories. And you also wanted the handheld with all the games and all the accessories. And now they're not doing that anymore. Now it's all one. Why would I get a Game Boy now? The Switch is the Game Boy and the console. It's innovative, but it's also like, it's like a double-edged sword there. Catch 22.

Projektitachi (48:32.195)
and the handheld. Yep.

Projektitachi (48:38.085)
It's all in one.

Projektitachi (48:42.949)
And they closed the store, so they could have.

Projektitachi (48:49.232)
Yeah.

If I was Nintendo, what I would have done instead of being petty and being like, we don't want to supply the store anymore and force everyone to the switch because you, you probably are right. That's why they're trying to force everyone who is still in their DS is over to the switch by closing the DS store. I would have just revamped the store to play like the old Gameboy games and then included that in the membership.

Daniel (49:08.876)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (49:18.156)
which we know that they can do because what did they do with the N64 with Pokemon Stadium? You could take your Gameboy cartridge and you could put it into your controller and you could use your Pokemon in Pokemon Stadium. Those were the days people. And when, when I tell you, when you were hanging out with, with, with your friends and y'all had your cartridges in your controller and someone busted out some rare crap that nobody else had,

Projektitachi (49:24.581)
Yeah.

Projektitachi (49:34.439)
and they did that years ago.

Daniel (49:48.182)
You know, the shit went down. People were, know, that, you know, that, that, that, that meme or that Jeff, you know, Joe Rogan, everyone's like, whoa, like that's what it was back then. But you can't do that anymore. Those days are gone, but they could do it if they wanted to. maybe not the same exact way, but the, the same process or the same, idea.

Projektitachi (49:50.64)
You

Projektitachi (49:56.367)
Yep.

Yep.

Projektitachi (50:03.281)
Yeah.

Projektitachi (50:06.747)
That's the thing, if they wanted to.

Projektitachi (50:13.891)
Yeah, they could have turned the DS into like anything they wanted, you know, bring back all the Gameboy games and slap that on there. Allow emulators for some Sega games. The sky was the limit on that, but they were like, no. Everyone's going to go to a switch, and that's that. But anyway.

Cause we could go to such a rabbit hole with all these topics, but that is all the time we have this week for this episode. So we're going to get out of here, but what are your guys's thoughts? Has Sony been rubbing you the wrong way? It sure has for us. What are your thoughts on Microsoft black ops six does Nintendo need to stop being so stingy? We love to hear your guys's thoughts. So check out our website, gzchopshoppodcast.com. Take care of yourself and each other.

we will catch all you wonderful people on the next podcast episode. Later.