Loop Hero

Luke and Alex dive into the infinity loop of "Loop Hero," a uniquely designed endless RPG by the ingenious minds at Russian studio Four Quarters, and brought to life by Devolver Digital.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world that's been wiped out by an evil lich, you, the hero, are on a mission to reconstruct your reality. You're not alone though – you'll encounter survivors who'll either aid your world-building efforts or, in despair, attack you for their own survival.

But the plot thickens. The evil lich is merely a puppet. The real villain? None other than God himself, Omega, on a twisted quest for self-destruction. Can you defeat Omega and keep rebuilding in his absence? With a little help from the Goddess of Probability, you might just stand a chance.

Gameplay is where "Loop Hero" truly shines. Each expedition is a new journey on a pre-generated path, where you fight slimes, collect landscape cards, and alter the terrain around you. Equip your hero with the spoils of battle, construct new structures back at your base, and choose your path strategically to survive increasingly difficult enemies.

The game's development story is a testament to creative ingenuity, born from an idea during a game jam and polished into a gem that caught Devolver Digital's eye. Not without its challenges, the team at Four Quarters focused heavily on game balance to ensure a seamless, engaging experience for players.

Critics have showered "Loop Hero" with praise for its unique gameplay, 80's aesthetic, and deck-building mechanics, earning it an impressive score of 82 on Metacritic. It's even been nominated for awards like "Best Independent Game" and "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year."

Join us as we delve into the endless looping adventure of "Loop Hero" – a game that takes you on a hero's journey where the power to shape the world is literally in your hands.

Alex primarily played "Loop Hero" on his Xbox Series X and Steam Deck via Game Pass. He also played a little on the PC as well. Luke played the game on his Series Neither host finished the game. The Loop continues!

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by 1) Moms, and 2) Gas stations that *don't* have those annoying ass monitors that are there to scream shitty advertisements at you.

Sidequestin':

Alex: The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Tetris (movie), Inscryption, NBA 2K, Metroid Prime, The Machine

Luke: The Show, Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Transcript

Luke: 0:22

Hey everybody, welcome to Low Five Gaming. My name is Luke, and this is my brother Alex. Yo, whatever, whatever. Say some words. There we go. And uh this is our podcast on Loop Hero. Welcome. Yes, sir. Come on in.

Alex: 0:34

Episode 23. Welcome back.

Luke: 0:36

Excellent on the Michael Jordan of our podcast. Let's go.

Alex: 0:40

I was thinking about that too when I wrote it down. I was like 23, Michael Jordan. I got MBA in the mind, though. We're in the midst of playoffs right now. Overrated, am I right? The playoffs? Are you talking about Michael Jordan? Oh, get out.

Luke: 0:53

As a certified late 90s baby, like I was born early 90s, so like I was, you know, still basically learning how to poop when Jordan was doing all the cool stuff. Uh overrated. Whatever. I don't care. I've seen his propaganda film. Are you joking me? The last dance. He must have flown. They must have flown to North Korea to learn under Kim Jong-un as to how to make a proper propaganda film before they made The Last Dance. But anyway, he was average. He was pretty good. Get out of here. Are you?

Alex: 1:18

I can't even tell if you're playing or not. Jordan's the best.

Luke: 1:22

I love to piss off people whose formative years were the 90s. Whatever, bro. It's just Biggie and Tupac mid-rappers, and uh Michael Jordan was decent at basketball. Anyway, moving forward.

Alex: 1:34

Getting me ornery at the start.

Luke: 1:39

But yeah, we did loop hero and it's it's a fun time. Do you want to do the long thing? And I'll promise to not interrupt you this time around with stupid comments. We get cut for sure.

Alex: 2:19

Yeah, there's not much going around with the story. I mean, it definitely throws you into some dialogue when you first start this game. Devolver Digital's got a TD TLDR on their loop hero official website, which reads, The Lich has thrown the world into a timeless loop and plunged its inhabitants into a never-ending chaos. Wield an expanding deck of mystical cards to place enemies, buildings, and terrain along each unique expedition loop for the brave hero.

Luke: 2:44

So, yes, there's a story. I'm pretty sure I read some of the things. I'm like, uh-huh, uh-huh. Gotta save the world, got it. Video game stuff. And it definitely feels like feels like they definitely cared about the story and people probably like it, but it's not really that type of game for me. I don't know. Do you agree or were you really into the lore, my guy?

Alex: 3:01

No, it doesn't matter. It's it doesn't really matter at all. At first I thought maybe it does, because like I said, they do like kick you off with a little bit of a story, like they set the scene for you, but pretty immediately you find out that that doesn't you just like are just gonna dance jam to some like crunchy tunes and do the loot, my man.

Luke: 3:19

When you run into new enemies, they basically have this thing of like, yeah, well, this is the way it's gotta be, man, and then you fight. So once again, very video gamey. And then when you unlock new areas of your town, which we'll get into in a second, they also give you some bit of lore where you're just like, uh-huh, cool. Um, so now I get to do this on my next run, and they're like, uh-huh. And then I move on. The game self-describes itself as an endless RPG, so it's a roguelite. Because you have the I think it's a roguelike man. Or is it a roguelike? We're not gonna be able to do that. We have to do it in every show. Every show we relearn what the difference is, so it doesn't matter. Uh you carry and you progress and go further and further. It's definitely a strategy game. I think it's technically a deck building game, yeah. I would say so, yep. You're feels together in those cards. It feels to me, and this is a silly difference, but it feels to me more like a tile than a card. It feels like you're playing a little bit of an interactive board game, right? And you're laying down tiles and not playing cards, but that's who cares, right?

Alex: 4:16

Uh, you start to get under the layers of this game, though, those cards come into play pre-run, right? So you do get these cards and they matter what but what you're right in the sense that during the actual gameplay of it, they feel more like tiles, or you're laying down the cards to that become like an interactive tile almost.

Luke: 4:32

Well, it's like it matters where you lay them on the board. So it feels like you're laying a tile on the board. But essentially there is a a randomly generated loop. And the initial gameplay loop is I love how you have all these like super sick crafted sprites, or so to speak, of like the different people and characters in the game. But then when your hero's going around the loop, you're just this little white block thing going like swinging its arms up and down. Yeah. Uh, but anyway, crunchy graphics for sure, man. Yeah, it's like early SNES era. There we go. And you go in this loop and then you fight some enemies, and then you get some cards or tiles, whatever you want to say it. The game would say cards, I would say tiles from the encounter. And they are either weapons and armor for your character that you're constantly equipping or unequipping, or it's like these different cards or tiles that you play on the map. And then from those, it's like it's like things that have like benefits like it boosts your HP or it declines the HP of your enemy, or it's like different things where you actually lay down in in almost like the opposite of tower defense, instead of laying down the defenses coming around as enemies keep pouring in, it's like you go around the loop and you actually place where your enemies are gonna be. So it's kind of an interesting difference, right? You're kind of setting you're setting up your own challenge and you're trying to balance it between being difficult enough to progress, but not too difficult where you die too quickly. So that's actually a pretty, pretty interesting balance that they strike there. And I think they do that pretty well. As you lay more cards down on the map, you have this progression bar, and when that bar finally fills, you face off against a boss. Um and then Alex and I just got our ass whooped by Sedball.

Alex: 6:10

Oh man, so many times. I was like, I always get worried, man. I always get worried when I'm really bad at these games. I'm like, how can I even host a podcast about video games so I can't even play?

Luke: 6:19

Dude, I think it's actually a pretty common circumstance where people I remember some other pods that talked about this game, and they're like, I think they talked about the same type of rut that the game got us into, but we'll get that down the line. But it's got it kind of funny how like I'm like, no, it's gonna be a different experience for me. And then I was like, man, they got me. They were right. Uh but anyway, so that's the that's if you beat the boss, or if you um there's three options actually. You beat the boss, you lose to the boss, or you leave right before the boss, and you can carry back all your loop to the villages, which sets up our second loop of gameplay. You like how I'm using loops a lot, dude? This is like my 23rd podcast. You're a loop hero, my man. I'm a loop hero. This is my 23rd podcast. I'm the LeBron James in Cleveland of uh of podcasting, because he's the greatest number 23 of all time.

Alex: 7:06

But anyway.

Luke: 7:10

But anyway, the second loop is it's like this. Oh man, what's I was gonna say community building, but that's that's some teacher speak there. It's like village building, base building. There we go. It's some base building. Um resettling this town. Entirely figured that part out yet, either, dude. Like, we're gonna get rid of the grievances, Michael.

Alex: 7:31

Because you're placing your your cards or your tiles. I feel like that's even more like tiles because they're not actual cards. You're like placing these, you know, you grow your, like you said, your base building, and you're having all there's a tree there too, right? Where you can like you bring back enough resources to build out a uh, I don't know, like a blacksmith and like a farm and like other things, right? Correct. And that plays into your loops. Right, but like the placement.

Luke: 7:55

Is they try their darndest to like explain to me what I should do, but not really at all. No, man, they're just like, and then you can do these things, and I'm like, wait, what? And then like I felt like the interface was kind of whack, and I have never had an idea what I'm doing with the and then there's like some items you can equip or craft or disassemble, and I'm like, this is this is getting a lot. And then they're like, You've unlocked the encyclopedia. And I'm like, you should not have to unlock basic knowledge on how the game is played, but I digress. So that's the game. That's what we'd be playing. Keeping the knowledge of the game from us. So that's the game. This is this is the loop hero. Uh so now um the audience loop, though, man. Like it is, you know, you just gotta keep going for it. But now that we've looped in the audience and got them in the loop as to what we're doing here. I know. So why this game was chosen, why it's the pod. Does Luke regret making it the game? No, but um it wasn't as fun as the first five hours, I tell you what. The game's been talked about. It's definitely it was a heralded game that came out last year. It is very unique, it is very cool. I have become recently a very strong convert to not just roguelights, and that genre I think is like probably the coolest growth in all of video games in the last handful of years. Um if we want to get into some meta conversations, like there's the after Redfall release, there's the crashing of AAA games, and does Xbox have it? Do they have any exclusives? What's the deal? Dude, I can't handle the discourse. I know we can maybe get into that later. Uh, but anyway, the games making the most interesting progressions in the space are like roguelights, and I really like deck building ones like Slay the Spire and things. So, like, yeah, I didn't used to be a deck builder, but yeah, especially when I first started playing, I was like, I found my deck building game. Especially with a conscription. I was like, I'm so here for it. So that's why the game was played, and then it was uh it was dropped on Game Pass. So you have this unique art style, some really cool music, great word of mouth and buzz on the game, and it's coming from uh a publisher that we really admire. Um, kind of the gold standard in this space, yes, sir. I don't recall the developer of the actual game, would that be four quarters? Yes, you've got that at the top there, so they would be the ones actually making the game. Um, and then one last time, you know, it dropped on Game Pass, and like uh I'm they're not our unsanctioned sponsor, but like Game Pass, good time, all right?

Alex: 10:22

Uh so best dealing gaming, bro. Best dealing gaming, dude. Um I could put it out there. That's how I got it into it uh the first time around before you made a game for the pod. I dabbled a little bit. Yeah, yeah. So Epic always does their free game of the week, and during the holiday season, they dropped like one a day. This is one of their bigger ones about a year and a half ago, I would say, which uh I was stoked to pick up. And then uh happy, happy this on Game Pass. So I actually started on for this playthrough, I played on on Game Pass, and I I abandoned my Epic, my Epic Save file and started over. Had you had any meaningful progression? Not really. I was only like had probably put maybe two hours into it and like was just starting to learn the game. So I had to redo that, but it wasn't that big of a deal because this game is just the same loop, basically, only more intricate each time.

Luke: 11:11

Sure. You want to talk for a second about just the differences between playing it on the PC and playing it on the box? Because all I know is playing on the box and it feels pretty smooth. I can see it being really dope with a two-monitor setup. But let me I and I mean that for not the playability of the game, but passively playing the game while I watched or did something else.

Alex: 11:32

Uh sure, okay. Yeah, it's an interesting game like that, man. I know that you've mentioned a couple times that it's a perfect, and it is like the perfect game for listening to a podcast to or doing some multitasking. But like I was like the majority of the time I played this game, I was honed in on it. Like it's got some crunchy music that I enjoyed, and uh, you know, it pulls you right in. Nonetheless, the you asked the the differences between PC and Xbox. So when I was playing Epic, that was fully PC, and you know, the the point and click with the mouse and everything, and I think you had spacebar to maybe pause it or something like that. Uh, but it was really smooth, man. I couldn't imagine playing this game with a controller. Yet, the majority of the time I was playing with the Xbox controller via Game Pass this time around, and it's so smooth, man. They like really figured out that controller scheme to make it work.

Luke: 12:16

Yeah, when you said that you could never imagine playing it on PC, I actually thought it would sound kind of tedious in the sense where I'd be like locating things where I got pretty quick with the controller, so I can only imagine. So the game, it actually feels feels like grown-up tower defense.

Alex: 12:32

Yeah, I did like your I liked your when a little minute or two ago when you compared it to like the anti-tower defense, like the opposite of like you're because you are, you're setting up the bad guys instead of setting up your defense.

Luke: 12:43

Yeah, well, it's interesting because it's like an anti-tower defense, it's almost like if you're sending waves at something, but instead just like placing your enemies where you're gonna run into them, and there's different like cards or tiles that are like that are like I don't know, just like buildings or what would you like to do?

Alex: 13:02

Well, you get your towns and then like certain cards, it's kind of depends. You have different ones. So you have cards that are straight up, not they're not any enemy specific, but they're they have to do with either a town, a swamp, a graveyard. What else?

Luke: 13:14

Well, those all set up different enemies, and sometimes like if you go through ruins, you get different artifacts. But I'm talking about like the tiles that are neutral and they like have a status effect. So, for example, there's like those lightning tiles. Like the lighthouses, yes. So, like there's different things that affect.

Alex: 13:30

So, one thing I would lighthouses make you go quicker through traverse quicker through an area or whatever.

Luke: 13:35

Yeah, I think it might actually make your enemies faster too. So I was always like, is that even a benefit? But I could be wrong once again. This game isn't always straightforward with its information. Uh, one thing I would always do though is you unlock what's called the blood grove. So I'd set up a grove and I'd make in it, then you would attach the blood grove to it, which is a card, and then if your enemy got to like 20 or 15% of its health, it would finish them off for you. Right. So I would always I would always strategically place my like tougher enemies in that area, which just got to be hell later on. There's like a there's a balance, it's a it's a well-balanced game. That's definitely a quality that's uh admirable. But it is the ultimate podcast game. It does not take it is very complex, and you could get better than I am and think a whole lot about it, or you could mindlessly enter the loop and just take the highest color-coded armor and weapon sets, because that's what I would do.

Alex: 14:29

I rarely stop reading the stats, but it pays off to read the stats, typically.

Luke: 14:35

It does, but it's color-coded like a lot of games do with like the rarity of the loot. So I'll take like a lower, a lower overall, like if it's a five orange, I would take that more than a seven blue. You know what I mean? I see what you're saying, yeah. That's really easy once you know what you're doing to just kind of mindlessly go about it. So listening to pods, really nice. I also call it a rotation game. Because Game Pass shout out, you just do a few loops, it takes a decent amount of time. Then you take a few games and MLB the show, and then you just start scrimming, and then you just get burnt out from scrimming and you do some loops.

Alex: 15:10

Like some other solid, like some other solid roguelikes, dude, like Enter the Gungeon, Hades, all those games where you one loop maybe took maybe five, ten, fifteen minutes at the start, and all of a sudden you're putting in 45 minutes in each loop. That's kind of like loop heroes the same way, man. Like you you all of a sudden, you know, all of a sudden 45 minutes have passed, you're like, oh dang. Uh, but you always feel pretty good and strong at the end of that run, too. Uh you started to mention some of the other tiles that so you the types of tiles you can play on your map. And I think it's another interesting layer of this game that you can only do well, you can be to you can do seven between seven and thirteen of them, right? And you get to go in that same area where you're where you're doing the base building. You can flip over to look at, or I think it's actually when you go to start your run, you're in your planning your run, you can go and choose which of these enemy like cards or tiles you're placing, and you have to do a mix of between seven and thirteen, which is another like interesting, flavorful way of getting you to think about what your run's gonna look like because you're kind of like, I mean, you're cooking, man. You're like you decide what is what you're uh throwing in the kitchen, and then you get to watch what happens.

Luke: 16:13

Yeah, it's that's a playful way to describe it for sure. I know that I dropped on the Discord, I'm like, yeah, I uh as I continued to do some loops, I was like, turns out I should pay a little bit more attention to what cards I'm throwing in my deck because I didn't have helpful things coming up when I defeated enemies, and it was just more crap, and I'm like, I don't need this many enemies. And then what is it? Uh battlefields will drop treasure chests or whatever every couple loops or something like that, which is nice. Yeah, those are cool, but and then but if enemies spawn in there and then then you fight the enemy in that territory, it turns into a ghost, so you gotta fight it twice. That's that's an interesting little thing.

Alex: 16:47

Yeah, which you get a little later in the game, too. I I forget it's the ruins when you start playing those ruin tiles, and it's funny because you're placing these cards that are like it's weird because you start to build this excitement for like a card that's you're placing enemies, so you don't actually want to run it because it's like a pain in the ass to fight them, and you're not doing anything, it just fights by itself. It's like an auto thing. But it's funny because you like start getting like you're saying, and you get strategic about it, right? So you're placing this stuff, and you're like, or at least I was like, you know, you get kind of excited, like, oh, if I put the ruins here, like you know, maybe it'll make it so I can, and then but and then I started getting kind of aesthetic about it too on my map where I'm building stuff out, and like I'm getting symmetrical and trying to make things look cool. But then I was like, shit, man, maybe I shouldn't be doing that because I've got four ruins stacked up right in a row, right? And the ruins like spawn these snakes, and the snakes have an ability where if they're next to another ruin tile, they'll also attack you with the other fuckers that you're trying to fight, dude. And you're like, which is like cool when you beat them because you feel beastie and shit. And it's like I never knew that's what that was.

Luke: 17:43

I was like, what's going on with this?

Alex: 17:45

Uh I just figured it out after repetition. I was like, okay, I'm pretty sure this is why this is happening. But it's like that kind of stuff, just by playing with the game, you start to uncover some of this, you know, cool stuff. You start to see it, but it's interesting because it's cool because it's like difficult in a new layer, but then it also that that also means that it makes it harder for you, you know? It's like a weird balance.

Luke: 18:05

Yeah, I don't I should have been smarter the whole time. And then you lay like you lay the mountains and the groves, or not the groves, but the meadows and the desert tiles and those things off to the side. The first time I played, I didn't know that they were just like lay them anywhere and they have basically the same effects other than they stack. So I was like putting all my mountains in the middle, and that did not lead out well. You notice when you stack uh all six mountains, you get or box mountains and rocks together.

Alex: 18:33

It's nine.

Luke: 18:33

Yeah, nine in total. Yeah, and you get the mega mountain. Yeah, I tried to like set that up multiple times and it turns out you look so cool. That's what I'm saying. Like as you start to rebuild your town, yeah.

Alex: 18:42

Yeah, as you start to rebuild your, you know, every time you go out on the same loop, you're like rebuilding the structures and like this like world or whatever. And uh yeah, it's fun, man. And when you place like a meadow next to a rock, it'll make it so flowers grow on the meadow as opposed to a meadow next to a meadow. So it's like the playful, yeah. It's like a playful, like it's just you just like, I don't know, dude. It's like a weird thing that's just like a fun, fun part of this game.

Luke: 19:04

That's another reason I say they're tiles or resources cards. Yeah, that's another reason I say tiles instead of cards, because it reminds me of games like Carcassonne or whatever, where like they have like bonus buffs and whatever. So I digress. The game's really cool, you know. It's got that sick art that we're talking about where they like they show I I joked earlier about how stupid your dude is when he looks like he's just this tiny little thing going up around. Everything else looks super rad, the still shots or whatever, like when they're talking to each other. I don't know how to quite describe that, but like all the art around it looks really cool. The music's a ton of fun.

Alex: 19:42

Yeah, um it's a I I think they have a name for it now. I don't I'm not even gonna pretend to remember what it is, but it's essentially you know, it's that 16-bit era, but they brought, you know, but it's being made today. So it's like it's not like it's like an homage to that like Super Nintendo era of of you know games where we had those graphics and the same overlays and stuff like that, where you know, your chat boxes and stuff. But uh but it's a little bit polished, you know, so it's not it's not just like that, it's like polished for the you know, because it's a fucking game.

Luke: 20:09

And you can have like you can have like a picture, right? So it's just like a hand-painted or hand-drawn picture there that's there for a second, but it's not animated necessarily. Uh that looks really cool. And I'll just use my word that means nothing, but everything, it's just so crunchy. It's just such a crunchy good time. The loot is fun. That game, that like that gameplay loot of getting your different equipment, like it is addicting. It's like it's not it's not an intense like a Destiny 2 or like the or an Assassin's Creed, it's not like obsessive like those modern games, but like it's nice, it's got a nice feedback loop to it. It's layered, it's a well-balanced game, and it's low impact.

Alex: 20:49

Is it well balanced though?

Luke: 20:51

Is it well balanced, dude?

Alex: 20:52

Like, I don't know, man.

Luke: 20:55

Okay, so if we want to jump right into what kind of sucks, it's grindy as hell.

Alex: 21:00

It's so grindy, and that's just it takes way longer than it's meant to be. And that's what I was trying to like figure out as I played this game because it did it took me a long time to feel like I was getting good at this game of doing the same loop, and it's an addicting loop, and it's cool. Like, we've been talking about how like cool it looks and how addicting that loop is and how intricate it is, at the same time, also not like you can be really loose with it. But like I had to do it so many times before I was actually finally able to fight that first boss and and have any meaningful impact, you know, against him. And then like it took me a lot, like it started to break open as I was able to build out my my home base a little bit more. But even as I've done that, you still have to do so much resource collection and some of that placement of the tiles we're talking about with the meadows and the rocks and all that stuff. Like, if you do that in certain ways, it will boost the amount of resources you get from those tiles. So you start to like game the system, or you start to learn how to farm better, but even still, I'm like, I'm even still like I've only beat that boss once. I can't beat the second boss. I don't remember how many bosses are in total because I haven't seen them all. And like, I've put a good chunk of time in this game, bro. And like that's the thing. Yeah, I haven't bounced off it. I like this game, but I'm like, I think this game is making me grind. I think that's what it is. I think it's like that you had to grind. This is a grinder game, and I think people really love that. Like a lot of people like you know, a lot of people miss like some of that, like the old Final Fantasy VII grind, you know, the new remakes have like changed that gameplay a lot. And I think, you know, there's a there's a certain there's a certain uh, you know, it's cool, but it's also super frustrating.

Luke: 22:32

I find the game uh like addictive and compelling for five to fifteen minutes. That's why I said I like it in a rotation, I like it for a podcast because something else is capturing me. But I found it really hard to play more than one or two loops in a day. That's fair. So that grind over a long period of time could be really cool. I can see myself getting back into it or never leaving it, but like for this pod, I have done 10 to 12 hours total. Yeah, I have to check my time, but I would say I'm at least there uh for sure. I have not run into the second boss ever, I don't think I've made it that far. The first boss I lost to a handful of times, and then the one time I beat him, I fucked the shit out of him. So I was like really confused. Uh, which leads me into something I forgot that is really pretty cool. Is there's different play types, so there's different classes. There's your warrior, there's a rogue, and there's the necromancer. Is there another one I just don't know about yet? Dude, I don't know. I didn't research it, and I've only locked those three. Sure. Nah, research would make this professional, and I ain't about that. No, we're just letting her rip, dog. It's our experience, bro. Backlog buttons. Spoiler. Yeah, spoiler. But yeah, I just I had no I had no desire when it would just get ridiculous on me. I wasn't just like, there's stuff at that base building. The base building is so obtuse and just like I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. And there's like resources that I'm trying to farm, and I'm like, what am I how do I get this? Like, I want to get how do I like I don't even know what I need to run into to get this. Like, what's going on? I don't want to look it up.

Alex: 24:07

And the piece of that that like was frustrating for me is that I started to learn how the like the main gameplay loop map worked and how the resources, like I was talking about a little bit earlier, like if you place certain tiles next to each other, they do certain things, get you more resources. Uh I gotta throw out there too. Another fun one is when you put the a vampire mansion next to uh to a um to a town or whatever it is, uh, there's a chance that the vampire like it depends, like either like it's a percentage thing, but sometimes the vampire sometimes the villagers like will succumb to the vampire, and other times like they have a symbiotic relationship. It's it's kind of fun, man. You know, like change your loop or whatever. It's just one of those little things. But that's just getting into the weed getting into the weeds on on that. And that's but that like brings it back to this, like when you're doing the when you're doing the base building, those same like I wanted those same mechanics to apply. Does that make sense? No, I'm not sure what you're talking about. So like, okay, so I'm like talking about like in the main game loop, how there's like you start to learn how the different tiles or cards next to each other like will benefit in like you're able to like gain the system, you know, you're able to figure out how the system works to bring in more resources. So like when I go back to which is another grid system and the the base building, and I place a and I know that like placing farms next to certain things is gonna like do something. I just don't know what it is. Like, I do know that like because you start to it gives you an option of where you place your new buildings as you unlock the tree.

Luke: 25:35

I was hoping that didn't matter.

Alex: 25:36

That really I think it does though, and that's the thing. I think it benefits you to like actually have good placement there, but I can't I haven't figured out what that is yet, and I haven't looked it up. No, I was hoping it didn't, other than the farm, because I know the farm it's just like the more blank design port farm side because it'll show like how it'll when you like place something, it'll show like a certain amount of green spaces or whatever, maybe some oranges, I can't remember the exact color, but it's like it's like uh when we did um skylines or whatever, you know, city skylines. Yeah, so like certain you know, when you place certain things next to each other, everything has an impact. And I I and like some of those things will often be um signposted with like a different shading or whatever. And this might just me interjecting that and wanting it to happen that way. I can't confirm.

Luke: 26:18

I hope it doesn't, man, because I have no idea. I just place the shit and I move on.

Alex: 26:23

And you can also blow up your your whole uh base, and that's another thing that makes me worry about that because it lets you uh delete things. I can't remember if you can recollect resources from that or not, but you can like delete stuff to replay do replacement.

Luke: 26:37

Uh yeah, man. So like all of that is very confusing unless you're just really looking into how it's done, which I I mean, good for you, I guess, if you're really into it. I just think it would be intuitive. If it was more intuitive, I think that would be cool. It's not.

Alex: 26:54

Well, you're teasing it, man. I think this is a backburner game, like like keep on the back burner similar, simmering for like forever, ever. I think that's how this game should be approached.

Luke: 27:02

Yeah, I mean, I I understand how people get hot and heavy in the beginning, because it's like really fun in the beginning and it's very unique and it's very cool. And then I understand how you get to that immediate burnout, but I can kind of see how that itch will build back up. Oh, yeah. That being said, like I did have mild regrets of picking this game for the game of the month. Uh, should have just gone with Toad Treasure Tracker, my guy. Like, what am I doing? Should have done a real American inspiration. Uh but like I don't hate it, but like even uh what's the ridiculous bloodstained game we played? Uh at the end of the day. I think that game was tight. I think about the game still. I know. I do too. It's probably the game I played least for the pod for various reasons, and mostly because I sucked at it. But like I think about it more than some other ones. This one, it was hard to really get into. I played probably the same amount due to ease as I did inscription, but inscription, like even though I still have to go back, uh, that'll stick way harder with me than this one. Different vibes. Um different vibes, but also like it's way the gameplay itself.

Alex: 28:08

Like that's a good that's a really good deck builder, dude. Like, I don't think I've ever played a deck builder that's well, I mean, they're all different, I guess.

Luke: 28:14

The deck builder, the story, the intrigue, all of it was just way cooler. Heavy bottom. So like, yeah, this game was uh this game was really cool and it's awesome Game Pass game. And it's a back burner, it's a simmer, it's a it's a crock pot, just let it keep going over time. But uh it's frustrating as fuck as well.

Alex: 28:35

It can be that can be for sure. I figured out how to uh get cloud gaming to work on my or for Xbox's Game Pass or Cloud Gaming. I've I found out how to get that to work on my Steam Deck, bro. So I've been able to play Loop Hero on the Steam Deck, which is really nice. That's gotta be that's gotta be nice. I can see it as a cool handheld game. Yes, totally. So I think that's uh it just goes back to that whole like backburner game and like the handheld, like being able to set it down, that kind of thing is really nice. But I I did I've always like even on playing on the PC, playing on the Xbox, like being able to do you know, being able to do that handheld and passively is is great.

Luke: 29:12

Yeah, dude. So honestly, that's just kind of my thoughts on loop hero. It's not Deathloop. So if you got kind of far on our last spot and you're super pumped for Deathloop, and then you we use, but if you didn't stick around to hear me realize we were being fucking morons, I'm just gonna do the hometroidal or whatever in the Discord. He was like he's like, boys, I'm so excited. It's like sorry, dude. You don't you don't want to see this JV team play Deathloop, we would suck so hard. But uh yeah, it's it's tight. I recommend it to a very specific audience, mostly if you want to get through some old seasons of television and you want to really binge something, and you've already watched that show before, like I were gonna rewatch Futurama, I would want this on the side right on so there. There we are. Any any parting thoughts with the game? Anything you want to defend or maybe drag or bring back up, or is it pretty much pretty much covered?

Alex: 30:08

I mean, there's more to say. I did enjoy this game a lot. I think like as a straight on recommendation, like a straight on recommendation. Like I think it's like a very solid, like, hmm, sure. I won't stop you. No, not gonna stop you. It's tight. Uh at this time, but I'm not gonna be out on the street like spinning my loop hero sign. I'll tell you what.

Luke: 30:31

I don't think I'd buy some stickers on Redbubble. All right.

Alex: 30:34

But here's the deal, bro. This thing is on Game Pass. I also got it for free from Epic, and I bought it on Steam because I couldn't figure like I thought before I figured out how to do the uh Xbox like cloud gaming that I would long story short, like it was like two, I don't know, three bucks or something. It's always on sale, and it is like you said you put at least 10 to 15 hours in there or whatever you said earlier. Yeah, and for that price, and get out of here. Like, you know, that's like a solid send it. But you know, whatever.

Luke: 31:03

Yeah, I'm just not gonna give it like a full throated you gotta play, bro. But if someone was like, I was thinking about loop here, I'm like, dude, it's a good time. Enjoy the first five hours, uh, struggle through the next five, and then slowly play it and maybe add to it over time. I don't know.

Alex: 31:17

As you're trying to outro your fucking game of the month sad story, uh, I will say this one banger part of it, dude, is the song or the track that starts playing right as you get to that first boss, or like when no, when the first boss appears on your map as you're going through the loop, like often that music track will change. I don't remember the track name, dude, but it slaps, man.

Luke: 32:12

All the music was hard as well. There's a reason I wanted to play it. It looked cool as shit. And I at first I was like, this was the right choice, bro. And then I was like, ah, but no, I mean I had fun. It's just uh just I've said what I need to say about the loop here. I don't know. For now, we'll see if it ever shows up back in side questing. And with that, let's take a little break here from our unsatiened sponsor. I got two in this one.

Alex: 32:51

Oh, you wait, you're gonna slang two? You gotta come in with number one, two sponsors? Unsigned sponsors. One of them's one of them's serious, the other one's not. As in like giving us serious, like not money at all, and the other one also not giving us any money at all to hawk their yes, whatever this may be.

Luke: 33:09

I should say I have an earnest one and I have a rant. All right.

Alex: 33:12

There we go.

Luke: 33:14

Some fucking housekeeping for you, Al. Uh, you know, our earnest one is like, you know, moms, you know, wife to you by moms, just brought to you by moms. Literally. Dude, literally, dude, it's Mother's Day, you know. By the time you're listening to this, you got a mother. Hopefully, you called her. If you're married and you have a child, you know, be nice to your wife. She's probably a good mom. I have a great wife. She's a wonderful mom. It's her first Mother's Day. I love her. And I wanted to say that real loud so she heard it and thinks I'm awesome. But yeah, dude, moms are the best. Our moms is awesome. She's a great grandma, too. Wait. And uh it's so it's for real moms? Yeah, it's my earnest one, moms. Oh, right. It's Mother's Day. I can't just not shout out moms on the eve of Mother's Day. How does that work with that uh unofficially brought to you in part by my moms, but also officially, technically, we're the we're the what's the cereal, that garbage cereal that's sort of good, kid tested, mom approved. So we're yeah, that's our podcast is kicks. But anyway, love, love my wife, my baby.

Alex: 34:22

Bring it on the podcast.

Luke: 34:23

I love my baby mama, and I love my mama mama, and my she's a great grandma too. And uh, I love my mother-in-law as well. I shouldn't leave out any moms. You got anyone, any mom shout-outs you want to make, doc? Two dogs. Mom loves me more than to the good moms, the bad moms. This is why mom, this is why I'm mom's favorite. This is why you suck. To the hot moms. I already shouted out my baby mama. She hot mom. There we go. Yes, got a MILF in the house. Let's go. And then my other unsanctioned sponsor is every fucking gas station that doesn't have a goddamn TV at the pump. All right. There's just things, there's just things when you get older where you're like back in my day, and you just you know, you you bring the kids and you put them on your lap and you go, There's this wonderful time when uh at a gas station you didn't have a fucking lagging screen giving you a choppy commercial at full volume for no good reason. So loud.

Alex: 35:21

I did see I did see a um oh shit, what's that game that I love?

Luke: 35:27

Tetris?

Alex: 35:28

Fucking mouth breather. No. Oh Dead Cells, dude. It's I did see I did see a Dead Cells advertisement on one of those gas station TVs once, though. That was kind of tight.

Luke: 35:41

That's obscure as fuck. All I ever get it really was like all I ever get is just a laggy ass commercial just blaring at me. It's like I'm late for work, I didn't remember I needed gas, and all of a sudden I'm just sitting there at the pump. It's cold, you know, because this maybe it's not, but sometimes it's cold and it's just blaring some crap at me. It's like the word of the day. And I'm like, dude, I just want to pump gas. Like, can my life be quiet for three minutes ever?

Alex: 36:05

And I don't think I've ever been influenced by one of those. I don't know why they're doing them.

Luke: 36:09

Dude, and it's just like there's no period of my life that can be without advertisements now. And it's not like you can tell me it makes the gas cheaper because gas is really expensive.

Alex: 36:18

No, it doesn't at all, it's just an opportunity for them to make more money.

Luke: 36:22

So, uh, you know, brought to you by loving mothers and eternal angst over shitty commercials at gas stations.

Alex: 36:29

Luke's like, I just wish you someone would go and pump their gas for me, like the old days.

Luke: 36:35

No, that sounds uncomfortable. And then I gotta tip them, and I'm like, no, like I'll pump my own gas. That's fine. True.

Alex: 36:42

But like I don't think those existed. We used to have one in the Twin Cities for a while when I was there.

Luke: 36:51

Yeah, and it's like I think it's illegal in some states. Uh we're getting into some uncharted territory here, but I think it's literally illegal in some states to pump your own gas. So like it might just be one. But um, you know, hit the Discord if you know. I ain't gonna research it. But all I know is that send us an email too.

Alex: 37:10

Hello at low5gaming.com.

Luke: 37:12

We read those. If there's a guy out there that's still pumping gas and uh they put those TVs in there, he might go insane. If you own a gas station and you're like, should I put them shitty TVs out there? Please don't. Please don't. Make your money. Fuck it. Fuck whatever, you know. No, everybody gotta make their money. I'll go to a gas station that doesn't do that to me, and I'm dead ass serious.

Alex: 37:32

I'm just playing. I don't like my stuff. Quick trip doesn't do that shit to me. Wait, wait, wait. So we're brought to you unofficially in part by gas stations that do not have the TV. I do not.

Luke: 37:42

And loving mothers. And loving mothers.

Alex: 37:44

And moms.

Luke: 37:46

And baby mothers, just moms, you know.

Alex: 37:47

Baby mothers. Moms, moms, moms in general, and gas stations that don't have to be. And your baby mamas. And your baby's mamas. You fill up your tank and you're on the way to work and it's early and you're late and it's cold outside. Not those ones.

Luke: 38:02

Not those ones.

Alex: 38:04

From the holidays.

Luke: 38:05

Holidays bug his ass. They got them all the time.

Alex: 38:08

Or Speedway, whatever the fuck. That's gonna be hard to include our unsignation sponsored. My next unsexual sponsored tweet.

Luke: 38:15

I'll run out of gas. You'll figure it out. And a continuation, just sort of psychotic thread of just my rant.

Alex: 38:22

Dude, as long as we're rented gas stations, do you who was your allegiance to? You uh they change not super American, like you go B.

Luke: 38:31

First of all, BP, BP is literally toppled governments and is the shittiest corporation of all time. Destroyed oceans, made us pay for it, toppled governments. Fuck BP. It's quick trip. It's gotta be quick trip.

Alex: 38:45

Quick trip is fair, dude. That is a good one.

Luke: 38:47

I wish I had a quick trip next to me. They're building slowly, they're taking over for good reason. They do things right, they don't have TVs, they're fucking pumped. Most of the time.

Alex: 38:57

I had to say that I probably buy my most gas from holiday. Gross. Yeah, they got the TVs, but they also give you a discount if you shop at Cub Foods. Saving money. That's true. That's true. Fuck Cub Foods. You don't always shop at Cub Foods, though. That's the thing. Yeah. That's the tricky part.

Luke: 39:16

I shop at both those places. This is hyper local. Fuck both of them. Anyway, moving on. Shout out to all the moms. Thanks, moms. Thanks, moms. Love you, moms.

Alex: 39:25

Thanks, guys. The good ones.

Luke: 39:29

Thanks, guys.

Alex: 39:38

Yeah, welcome back, everybody, for some side quests. You know I got side quests, dude. I always got side quests, especially when we got a game like Loop Hero. I'm gonna be playing some other games. But I actually played like, you know, a decent amount of Loop Hero. I saw some movies, dude. I saw some cool game-related movies. You go see the Super Mario movie yet?

Luke: 39:55

No, but I think I could rent it soon. I'll be doing that. Right on. It's good, dude. It's fun. Dope. You want to say anything more about it? I haven't seen it.

Alex: 40:06

I want to talk more, but I want to give you a chance to watch it first. But then I also saw the Tetris movie, which is also dope, dude. You watch that one yet?

Luke: 40:16

Apple TV. I'll wait until another free trial of Apple TV rolls around. I heard the season three of Ted Lasso sucks. Doug, it's good. I was about to say from ground zero of Ted Lasso Thurston. Oh, it's great, man. I don't know. It's great.

Alex: 40:31

You talking about that Atlantic article? Are you talking about some other?

Luke: 40:35

I've seen a bunch of thought pieces that are just like it's all over the place, and people are just kind of butthurt about its direction and such.

Alex: 40:41

So as someone who's married to a woman that is obsessed with this show, I just don't think they did their research, man. I just don't think they did their research. This uh Ted Lasso is always meant to be three seasons long. They wrote the end before the start, and they're like working their way through it, or they have that everything in mind. And see, the thing is, is it's it came out the door as like a funny sitcom, and all these people are like, oh, so funny and fun. Uh, and now people are upset that there's like, I don't know, it's not slapstick like the office the whole time. Like they want they want the they want like a stereotypical office series, and that's not what this is, man. There's gonna be their story arcs.

Luke: 41:18

Critiques I've read is mostly just that the story arcs feel separate, so separate from each other that they're basically separate shows, and it feels kind of forced and weird. But I'm not gonna take your opinion either, because once again, this is ground zero for like Jason Sidakis thirsting.

Alex: 41:33

No, that's just it, man. If we've seen if I have to sell, I've seen uh season one and two multiple times, and I'm not like someone that watches series over again, but my wife loves this shit, and it's a good series.

Luke: 41:44

Some comfort food series Sedakus' bathwater, so I'm not gonna pay attention.

Alex: 41:49

Yes, my wife would, and I would be like that nasty. But what's up, Jason?

Luke: 41:54

Hey Jason. Uh moving on.

Alex: 41:57

But I know all the characters is my point. It's like I know all the characters, so like the whole like fractured storylines, it's not fractured to me. I understand everybody.

Luke: 42:05

I think the critics that are saying this have also watched it. I just think that I I'll watch it and form my own opinion as one does, but we'll get back to you on that one. Anyway, the Tetris movie. I'd like to see it. That's what I was saying. I was like, you tried to try to not talk about red Tetris? I'll actually watch it. I hate the games, but I'll watch the movie. It's got some Russian intrigue. It's gotta, so I'll watch it.

Alex: 42:25

It does. Dude, my boy Taryn Eagerton's in it too. He's so fun in this dude. He's he's great.

Luke: 42:30

I just want to be in the room when they greenlit some of these movies. Like they're making a what's the PlayStation 1 like cart twisted metal?

Alex: 42:38

Who yeah, twisted metal's coming out there coming out with Twisted Metal? I don't know, but I'm here for it, dude. I think that shit's on Peacock.

Luke: 42:48

Peacock were like good ideas.

Alex: 42:49

Dude, they're coming out with a Grand Charisma movie as well. Like, I don't know. Like Arsenal is like, let's just make dude, but that one, like, I'll watch like I don't know what, man. If they come to a streaming service that I have, I'll watch.

Luke: 43:00

You probably didn't watch Halo, and I heard that was cheeks, but well, I'm not really a Halo guy though. Nah, that's fair. Shouts out to land parties. Uh I mean, those were tight, but like some Mario movie, Tetris movie, what else we got?

Alex: 43:14

Yes, dude. But Tetris movie, plug that shit. Like, it's it's cool, man. It's like very spy over the top. Like, it's fun.

Luke: 43:22

All right.

Alex: 43:22

I'll allow. Continue. Uh well, we did an inscription podcast last month, man. And I've continued. I've finished act two, and I'm probably midway through act three, so I still love the game. I definitely do think that act one is the best act. I can you know, I'm not done with three, but like, you know, act one was just phenomenal. Uh so three, three, and I'm not going to talk too much about it because I don't think that you're like, I still I know you still want to plug through, so I don't want to like spoil it for you. But we will we'll return to this conversation on an inscription because I've continued to play it. It's like a cool vibe game, and uh, I do like the the gameplay of it and the story and the vibes and everything. So it's it's still there, but in the rotation. Earlier, when we were talking about the best basketball player to live, Michael Jordan, uh, I've also been playing some NBA 2K. Oh, nice. Uh yeah, dude. I always like I love playing 2K. Like I like to when I play 2K, I like to get a solid season in with the T Pups. Uh, you know, and I get kind of burnt out on it after playing however X many amount of games that is. But then I always like to come back during the playoffs and do like if I'm if I'm like looking for something to play on today, uh playing whatever the game of the day is for the NBA playoffs, because they do that in this game. That's always kind of fun because like by that time you you're playing as some good ass teams. That's right. So it's like it's fun, fun to like pick up the stakes and uh and play a little bit. That said, you're also playing against a good ass team. It's playoff basketball, bro.

Luke: 44:42

Sure.

Alex: 44:43

Get that sphere. Lakers Warriors, who you got?

Luke: 44:47

Uh, that series is over with, you know that, right? Yeah no casual. Uh Lakers won last night. And uh I would have told you that like um I'm a bitter small market sports fan, so like I should want like as a teacher, I'm just gonna say like there's two types of bandwagon fans. There's the this team has won a bunch, so the Warriors, tons of kids love Warriors, and it's just really annoying because I'm a loyal guy, you know, Tim Rolls, let's go, down years and everything. Uh and then there's the other type, which is just like it's very popular these days. There's kids are less uh committed to a team now. It's very much a continuing cultural trend to follow a player. And the NBA, no one has player movement like the NBA. So let's say that you're a Kevin Durant Stan, you were a Brooklyn fan, now you're a Phoenix fan. Sure. Uh so long story short, fuck the world. And we're tired of the fancy. And we're Lakers fans because of D'Angelo Russell. Is that what you're saying? That's the reason I can't actually like be down with the Lakers is because D'Angelo Russell uh has been traded like five times in eight years. Uh and then he's like, the Tim Rules are holding me back, man. I'm like, hey dog, it's been eight years and you've been on five teams. I think it's you. I think it's you. And then guess what? No showed the very next game after he said all that shit. The same shit he did with the Wolves. He has the same stats, the same shootings. But this is too this this isn't this type of podcast. You just got me on a rant, dog. But the homie Vando is on the team. I love Vando. He never should have been traded. It's a longer story there. And uh, I want LeBron to win, maybe, because then it's gonna get harder for the Jordan heads to say Jordan was the best ever.

Alex: 46:30

Dog.

Luke: 46:31

A dude who's been playing for 20 years straight.

Alex: 46:33

I was in the talk about Steph Curry. Uh, what's his name? Elementary.

Luke: 46:36

I'm 30 years old. I was in elementary when that dude was drafted in the league. That's fucking wild. Yeah, I remember it.

Alex: 46:42

All on his side, he's good, like for sure.

Luke: 46:44

But Jordan better, but for a shorter peek for sure.

Alex: 46:48

Dude, who's uh who's the homie? Who's the the broadcaster? Who's the broadcaster that was said that if Steph Curry wins, or wait, so you're saying they lost, so this would have been the other day. Yeah, I'm not I had to work last night, so I hadn't checked the news.

Luke: 47:00

Uh he works at a bar restaurant where there's definitely that game on the TV throughout the night, but whatever.

Alex: 47:05

Yeah, but I'm working, dog.

Luke: 47:09

That's cloud.

Alex: 47:10

Uh anyways, dude. Fucking uh somebody was talking about how they if the Warriors would have won, the discourse would have had a shift to taking LeBron off the the Mount Rushmore and putting Steph Curry up there. Uh because of the amount of rings, man. That would have assuming that they won the next game or the series rather.

Luke: 47:27

Yeah, no, I love Steph, even though I hate honest team.

Alex: 47:30

I love a bunch of the individual players, but dude, I hit you up. I hit you up earlier this month because I was playing Metroid Prime. That's another side quest.

Luke: 47:39

Yeah, how's it been?

Alex: 47:42

Uh controls are great, dude. I wish it's one of those things, man. We just have too many games, and I really want to tear through that game and like give a solid time to it, but I haven't yet. And it's just like I will because it's dope. I really enjoyed it, but um, yeah, I don't know. I like played like a solid week or two and and then I moved off of it like I did when I was like a teenager. Only I got way further this time because I understand Metroid better. I love like 2D Metroid and stuff. Uh so the the 3D one, like once you start to figure it out and everything, it is great, and it's like actually a really super awesome game. I just had other games that I was playing. Yeah, but I definitely want to go there. I'll definitely talk about it when you do, and I'm excited to return to it because it is I am really liking it. But the game that I really want to mention for my biggest side quest is this Game Boy game, Game Boy Color game, that was actually made in 2000, 2001, maybe. I want to say it came about three years ago, dude, by uh and it's called The Machine. Uh super fun game, dude.

Luke: 48:50

I thought this was like as Al watching Burt Kreiser stand-ups now. What are you talking about? He's the guy who I did not pronounce his last name correctly, but he's the guy that uh calls himself the machine, that's his nickname, and he does his stand-up shirtless. Oh, nice.

Alex: 49:06

I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Uh so the machine is made by this indie developer main name Ben. Let me pop my shirt off for you. Yeah, please. Uh pretty sure his name's Ben Jelter or something like that. Uh, but then it's distributed by Incubate Games, which is this cool distribution company that like hat does a whole bunch of like old uh that's not even old, it's new Game Boy games. So it's like new games for old hardware, which I think is super dope, dude. You know me. I'm a I'm gonna know I like love my toys, I love Game Boy, got a special spot in my heart for Game Boy. So being able to play a new game on the Game Boy in 2023, dude, is dope. And the machine is super fun. It says open adventure game. You play as this weird dude named Gert, and Gert is like dude the best way to describe his sprite. He looks like this weird, like sad potato. And like makes sense with the name Gert. And like, so it starts. This is this like supposed to be this is this triangular machine that's on wheels, it's kind of like a sand crawler, and it opens up and then Gert's in this, like, and it's it's basically that's just how it starts, and it's like supposed to be this ancient machine that's just like moving on capitalism, dude. It's it's fucking weird, man. It's such a weird game. Uh yeah, it's a Game Boy game. I mean, you could probably play the ROM. Like, no, no, it's like it's for the Game Boy. Uh so it's like not on Switch or anything like that. It's a Game Boy game. But but dude, so there's 25 different endings, and this game, like it's like so. Basically, you start, you take this test, and it's all this information that kind of gets uh fed to you as you play a game loop. And the game loops take about two hours, so it takes to start to finish is a roughly two-hour game. Uh, but there's 25 endings, so like the repayability is huge. Because so, like, you can do all these different paths, and if you don't do well on this test at the beginning, and you're not going to, uh, you don't get to go to the job fair. So you end up having to work for the police or for for the factory. And dude, I was like, and then my first playthrough, I was like, Well, I don't want to fuck with oh, and your uncle's a cop and he tries to recruit you, and then you talk to this other guy, and it's like, you want to be a cop, they suck. Like, work for the factory. So I would like work with the factory the first time through, and like, dude, you're poor and it fucking sucks. And like the minigame part of it's like kind of like it's silly, dude. You have to like sort these boxes or whatever. Uh, but then like you're dude, and uh out of you, I gotta let you borrow this game, man. So funny. And so it's all dialogue-based, right? And there's these little mini games that are involved with it or whatever, but then like as you talk to people, you make all these decisions, so they're like, everybody's pissed off because a factory sucks to work at, so they start a union, and then like they're like, You want to help us start a union? You can choose not to if you want, and I'm sure that that forks off into a different storyline or whatever. Um, so I'm like, Yeah, I'm pro-union, let's go. So Gurt like starts trying to sign up as co-workers for the union, and like you talk to them, and like they so they basically at the end of the day, like you, if you like talk enough people into it, like the union ends up um you know, forming or whatever. But then there's like, and each time you go out, like if there's a day cycle. So you go out and you do all your shit and you talk to people, you traverse to the machine in this particular playthrough. I was you know, working for the factory. You can go back home where this your roommate named Toe is hanging out, and Toe's gross and your apartment's like nasty. I'm like, I won't so I'm giving you all these details, but you like then you go to sleep, you wake up, you watch the news, it gives you the political climate because there's all this like shit going on with an election. Uh dude, this game is like it's it's really cool, and and it's like all these weird layers to it. But then you go out, um, and uh they asked me to be a uh the union president, which I accepted that deal, but then there was an assassination on the uh on the oh, and at the same time I was stumping for the political candidate that I preferred, but there was an assassination against them, and then the people were really impressed by our union work, so they wanted the union to put someone forward, and I suggested myself, and they're like, that seems pretty greedy, Gert. Like, well, that's kind of weird.

Luke: 53:08

I just I'm not even mad, but I expected you to be done like three minutes ago, and I'm like, damn, this is really sticking with them.

Alex: 53:15

This is raw to you. This is dude. Yeah, I know this is why I've been playing a lot the last couple weeks here. You must have I just wanted to give you like I just wanted to give you some flavor of like this ridiculous game. And I'm just gonna put one more little piece of seasoning on there, dude. In between at the end of each day, as my playthrough as a factory worker, I would take the two dollars that I earned at the factory that day, and I go to the racetrack and I bet on the horses, and I never won once. It was the saddest life ever. And the story like continues and it like just more and more ridiculous, dude. But uh, and then you can play again. It starts over after that. You know, it says the machine keeps on turning. Uh, and you can start over and you do something completely different, man. That's something else, man. Major side quest.

Luke: 53:59

That's uh with a man known for particularly niche tastes. This is the most niche niche ever.

Alex: 54:06

So flat, you gotta you gotta check out.

Luke: 54:09

I can't believe something so like I can't even believe that exists.

Alex: 54:14

That's that's that's why I'm like it's not on Steam. No, no, it's it's for the Game Boy. You can check it out. Maybe it is. I don't think it is, though. I think it's just straight for Game Boy. You can but the thing is, is you can pay, like you can buy the I have the physical cart and I play it on my my pocket or whatever. Um, but you can also buy the ROM for pretty cheap, five bucks or something like that. Yep, so you can buy the ROM and you can play it on uh any Game Boy emulator that you might get for free off the internet because emulation that's how it works or whatever. It's but uh but you can obtain the ROM legally, five, three bucks, whatever it is. Uh play it on your computer, playing it on your phone. But uh yeah, Game Boy.

Luke: 54:52

Eddie'd play it while you're uh trying to not trying to get by at the gas pump and it's just blaring over you, just trying to just try to try to play there.

Alex: 55:00

Dude, and just a testament to like how ridiculous the story was, like, I was obviously giving you some some strong flavor of it or whatever. But I was playing I played a lot of this game, and Anna would look over my shoulder and be like, what's going on with this? And then she would like read the dialogue like as I was traversing the machine or whatever, and she got super into it. She was like, This game is like really cool. I was like, I know, right?

Luke: 55:20

Like it's kind of funny. Uh I can't beat that, but I'll still talk about my games. I've been playing not interesting. Everybody knows it. Uh, just an absurd amount of Skyrim. I I shouldn't say absurd, but just like deeper than I thought it was gonna go. Um, goddamn, it's just comfort food.

Alex: 55:39

You gotta be because there you saw your that was your major side quest last month, dude. So you probably got another dude.

Luke: 55:44

I was throwing it in the rotation, and it's just like, especially on weekends when I'd have big chunks and like the baby was sleeping or being cool, babies, I would just, you know, I'll just be bashing things around. And it's funny how like you play the game for long enough and like you pick a specific path to go down. Like, I'm gonna specialize in this, but then once you get to a high enough level, I'm not sure if like you got into these levels, but like once you get into like the 40s, 50s, and 60s, I think I'm like on the edge of being like a level 50 overall. You can start to get like pretty damn good at almost everything. So like it kind of loses some of that specialization feel, and also you get to the point where you got the full six set of armor, six weapons. Lots of lots of sneaking, don't worry. Uh doing all the stuff, and like double-handed sneak artist. Uh and then you get to the point where you you lose the you get to that point where you lose the scariness. Each encounter you can bullshit your way out of. You don't have to cheese anything, you don't have to save scum the same amount. Like sometimes you die, and it feels good to like actually get bested. You're like, oh shit, I can't just run into every situation just bashing heads and being a big dumb thumb out there. But it's way less and less each time. Like I just fucked up to Dragon the other day where I just like knocked it out of the sky. I don't even have the shout that knocks it out of the sky, but I just like got it on the ground, did my fucking orc berserk and just bashed its head in a few times and it was dead. And I was like, this is getting a little too easy. But yeah, that's Skyrim, man. I mean, everyone's played it and should. You should scrim once again, dude, because it's I will have to pick it back up, man. Like I I definitely was loving loving it, and I know that there's so much more to explore. It's so great on Game Pass, dude, just because on the controller, I don't know, on your couch, but I didn't do like I did some missions on accident, but I really just like went and just hit up caves and different things, and I would just run into whatever trouble I could. And it's like kind of a weird way to play to have no structure, but just like be gooning around and buying property and building things. So it's been really cool. MLB the show, still awesome. Remember my second year. We lost it. I was the rookie of the year. It's hard, man. I had to turn down the difficulty to the base one, not like the absolute low one, but what the game defaults at against veteran. Uh I played at the higher one. I pitch at the higher one when I'm a pitcher, but it's just too much, man. I strike out all the time. It's like it's not fun. I don't actually strike out all the time, but like you have to move the thing around. And like I only have the reflex to go like, oh, the pitch is up. But like what they want you to do is like slightly move the joystick, like a little bit. And I'm like, I can't make a decision on a 90 mile, like 99 mile per hour fastball to just be like, oh, that's a little bit more. That's why you'll never make it to the big show, bud. God damn right. So I turned it down and it's been more fun. Uh, I was rookie of the year, which is tight, always fun. Uh, I would love to just get a call and just let them help just be an advisor to make an ultimate baseball RPG with like silly storyline stuff and like ways you can actually spend your money. Um it's a story for another day, man. Uh, the show. I love that it's on Game Pass. Um, that is dope. Because I would have had to been like waiting for a sale or like, do I actually want it this year? But the fact that it just drops day one the last few years has been really sick. So I've been loving it. Uh there's obviously some flaws and some things I don't love, but like it's just been awesome to have in the rotation. And then uh we both got Tears of the Kingdom. Yes, do you plan on keeping our conversation at the top? Do you plan on keeping that up at the top, or are you gonna like put it down here? So you can put it down here. But early impressions, probably a few hours.

Alex: 59:21

I'm not gonna like puzzle it in, but uh I might put it at the end. Who knows? Yeah, that would be literally what I just said, you dickbag. Um I mean, post our post our outro music, man. When I put a little when I put a little Easter egg.

Luke: 59:35

Sure. I mean, there's so many gems from the beginning you could put at the Easter egg. But yeah, Tears of the Kingdom has been really cool. I've been afraid that I played so much of Breath of the Wild that it would be too familiar, but I'm in the, you know, I'm in their tutorial area and it's new enough, and it's it's never gonna capture the same magic of discovering that game the first time. Dude, the building's pretty cool. No, the building's sick, but like Dog Breath of the Wild was wild. It was like the music, the sound effects. It's like it's fun to hear all those familiar things and be in that world. It is fun. You feel welcomed back in and it all comes right back to you to some degree. So we'll see.

Alex: 1:00:17

Even uh cooking and stuff, I noticed he does like he does like a little whistle and stuff like that, and just a little something. I'm I feel you, man. Like it is uh you're right. Like you I think quality of life stuff too. It's cool. I think but I think that you know it's a sequel, so keep that in mind, obviously. And it is uh so far, and I'm only maybe an hour in myself, maybe a little more, definitely still in that same area, but it's like it seems like a really nice continuation of Breath of the Wild.

Luke: 1:00:44

Yeah, I mean, I think that like some people, some reviews I was reading were like it's better. And I'm like, I don't think you can be better than something that broke so much ground, but like you can be a refined, awesome version of it, right? So like technically, yes, it's better, but like out of context. But once you put all the context in it, needless to say though, I mean it's gonna it's gonna get like 75 to 125 hours. Totally, totally, yeah. And like Nintendo, way to release a finished game.

Alex: 1:01:12

Oh man, I know. Like I didn't notice there was a day one down though, though. Okay, they patched it with something. I know, but like it's ready to go, you know what I mean? Totally, totally. It's like I and it wasn't a long download, it was it was a short one. I didn't I like blinked and it was done.

Luke: 1:01:25

So Nintendo does a bunch of crummy things to like people, the internet, but like you know what they do, you know what they do that's really dope, release finished games other than Mario Golf. You want to talk about Mario Golf? Dude, did you do Redfall? Did you try Redfall at all? No, but I think that I loaded it on the ear to the ground on it as far as um if it gets actively fixed, like some other games. But I was never the target audience, like I'm not a leap shooter, like I I don't know why they made that game. They wanted to maybe, or maybe they were shoehorned into doing some different things, but that was never my genre. But I I do occasionally like to pick up a shooter on Game Pass. So if they like really actually work on it and put meaningful improvements to the game over the next year, like I won't pick it up now, but I'm not gonna sell the Series X. So if it's to open like a year, I wonder if it's like got so much salt on the wound that like they don't be dead. Um they do, but they might not. I don't know. It'll see people's appetite for it, but I think that uh it's a shame. But also as games these days, man, they gotta I it like so the Xbox stuff is super stupid because they're like, oh, Xbox losing to PlayStation. PlayStation has like three good exclusive games, and like I'm not dying to play any of them. God of War, people loved it, but like also was the same as the first one, as far as like a cultural impact, from what I can tell. Sure.

Alex: 1:02:52

You guys uh are you you don't have a PlayStation new PlayStation anymore? They are giving away the pre they're doing like a little teaser Spider-Man for free, which is kind of tight. I do that, I do wish I could play with my Spider-Man on PlayStation.

Luke: 1:03:03

Yeah, when Spider-Man 2 comes out, that'll be like the first game I'm jealous of, right? Right. But as far as another Ghost, like I never played Ghost Shima, but okay. I'm not like a big fanboy, but I'm just like, dude, the Xbox has been it's been a good device for me. Oh Game Pass machine, it works sick, but the exclusives, so dude.

Alex: 1:03:20

Now that I know how to do the cloud gaming on on the on the Steam Deck with that too, and you can do it, dude. You can do that on your phone, or I was doing it on my tablet as well. Like, dude.

Luke: 1:03:30

I think I did it for Vampire Survivors once upon a time.

Alex: 1:03:33

But um but Tears of the Kingdom, though. Oh, Starfield.

Luke: 1:03:36

Starfield, when that comes out, I really hope it slaps and it's ready to go, or else, like, oh my god, it's the discourse is gonna be gross.

Alex: 1:03:43

Oh man, but like you know, I just don't understand that, man. There's so many games, like, why people get us so upset about delays? It's like play one of the like there's thousands of top tier games to play.

Luke: 1:03:55

They want exclusives, and like I think that it's forgiving.

Alex: 1:03:58

I know that, but I just mean in general, like fanboys need to settle the settle down and be like, who cares if it comes up?

Luke: 1:04:04

Fanboys should settle down, but that's true, you know. But all right, tears though, man. Tears is sick. You'll uh don't play anything. We're gonna be talking more about that for sure.

Alex: 1:04:16

Yeah, but that's side quest in dude. Side quest, more tears. Let's go. Thanks for uh tuning in, everybody. Number 23, Michael Jordan of the podcast, Low Five Gaming.

Luke: 1:04:31

Two Tom Googliadas out here. That's what we are of podcasts.

Alex: 1:04:38

Yes, sir. Man, I remember Gooks. Googs are good shit. All right. Until next time, everybody check us out at lowfivegaming.com. Hit us up with an email. Hello at lowfivegaming.com. We'll hit you back. We'll read it. We'll hit you back. Join the Discord if you will. It's always fun to have you jump in there for the uh game of the month discussion. Just chat about video games, life, etc. Post pictures of your puppies, whatever. If you want our ear, that's where it is. It's in the Discord. Until next time, y'all. Peace. Peace. Yeah, dog. I also am being pulled away from Tears of the Kingdom. I was getting kind of angry though. I kept dying against a couple things that shouldn't be that hard, I don't think. And I was like, fuck. Maybe for a break.

Luke: 1:05:39

I haven't died in a normal way yet. I've like just fallen off of things derpy as shit. Yeah. I spent like you not 20 minutes building a giant ladder. And then I ran into something when I was doing the tractor and it dropped and fell into the chasm. And I'm like, I just murdered a town, but also I'm really mad.

Alex: 1:05:58

Yeah. Dude, I'm kind of impressed with the uh the sky islands or whatever. It's like kind of cool.

Luke: 1:06:05

Uh yeah. It's really confusing to look at things on the map, but the sky islands are. I haven't made it down to the to the mainland yet. I don't know how far you are. No, I just I have to find like the last shrine, because you find the shrines and they're like one more shrine. Yeah. And uh I beat this giant Roblox, or not Roblox, but this giant Minecraft monster. Yeah, I think we're about the same spot. I didn't have anything cool to attach its part or fuse its part to, so that was a pretty way big waste of resources for me. I was pretty butthurt. What'd you fuse it to? Anything? I didn't have anything, and then I tried to fuse it to my glider that I got there on, and then I jumped to the pond below, but I missed it by like a foot. You didn't get a glider after that last shrine?

Alex: 1:06:51

I think we're probably doing the shrines in a different order. I don't think I haven't gotten to the last s oh I haven't gotten to the last shrine, but I fought him before that, I guess. He must have. Yeah, because there's three of them.

Luke: 1:07:02

There's three, and then there's a fourth you gotta get to. But the uh still working on my third, I think. It's it's more linear than the Great Plateau in the first one. Um but anyway, we're here for for Death Loop, otherwise to everybody else known as this loop hero. What's up?