Podcast Questions

I think none of you guys have played Tales of Xillia, so I'll try to keep my prelude to the question brief. Basically, as I'm playing through the game for the third time and reaching the town of Xian Du, which can take at least maybe 10 hours on a typical playthrough, I was reminded of why the entire time I spent there was one of my favorite parts of the game. Essentially, a lot of reveals and foreshadowing to later developments happen there, and I got fully engrossed in the game for a third time. What I got thinking about then was how most gamers will spend only an hour or two at most to get hooked by a game and consider whether or not it is worth continuing. But I think what most of us are looking for in that time is just the hook to keep our mild interest in hopes that the experience only gets better from there. I do the same thing, but I feel like the games I love have a definitive moment much later from where the game begins that completely captures my immersion and has me put all of my faith in the game being something great. Examples some of you might understand better are Operation Mi'ihen in Final Fantasy X and escaping the suicide cult in Nier: Automata. Those are some examples of the definitive moments that made me say “I'm all in”. Do you guys have experiences like those and what might some of them be?

Drake Chandler

How do you feel about couch co-op in RPGs? Are there any games that have done it especially well? Especially poorly?

Not to leave Landon out, I'd really love to see more Lost in Translation videos! I find them incredibly interesting and informative. Is there any chance we will see them on a more regular basis?

ClankStarr

Two content update questions: (For Mike) Since you've already said that you won't review Final Fantasy XV until all of the 2018 content is finished, I was was wondering if you were planning to go back and review Final Fantasies XI and XIV in the meantime? I'm curious to see how you'll apply your detailed and unique style of reviewing to an MMO. Your reviews are the best. (For Casen) Has there been any progress made on the Kingdom Hearts lore and story video series you announced a while back? Still looking forward to it!

ClankStarr

Did you guys know that some of the scrapped ideas from Secret of Mana (due to the cancellation of the SNES CD add-on) ended up going into Chrono Trigger such as time travel and an envisioned art-style? I posted strafefox's "The making of Secret of Mana" video to your facebook page a while back but wasn't sure if you guys had gotten around to watching it yet. This was definitely news to me as the Mana Series is my favorite series of all time. Had Secret of Mana been made as intended I wonder how much different both games would have been. Curious what your thoughts are on this.

What do you think are the best examples of video games creating artificial challenge versus meaningful challenge? For example, giving enemies millions of HP isn't more challenging to me, just repetitive. Restricting where and when I can save the game to me is the most egregious example of artificial challenge - It's not harder, its just repetitive since I have to replay the exact same thing I just did if I die. A more meaningful challenge would be to make the AI adapt to your strategy or use different varied techniques. Do you agree that there is a clear distinction between different types of challenges games can offer and what are your own viewpoints on examples of each?

Edrees Hatef