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Oh no, the hot horse man is tied up in the area where you learn to multiply and get rock hard! Whatever are we going to do? We're just a little monkey guy. The two headed rat guy has to be one of the most clever monster designs in the game. Has the fire status effect from the breath and sword, the obscuring cloud of black powder (?) and then being able to explode the cloud. It's unique, dangerous and understandable. Truly is a clever combination of mechanics for a miniboss. While they do tell you to seek out Wukong's artifacts in the starting cinematics, I think the Keepers of each area would have been a better phrasing for the quest. Something like "Seek out the five Keepers and lend them your aid as you follow in the path of the Great Sage." would have set the expectations that you'll be traveling to different areas, meeting friendly npcs and setting up a connection to Wukong.

It's so strange seeing a talk show segment and it not being hosted by Mr.Door. Know that he didn't exist yet, but he just had such a presence on screen. AW2 is open world, litering collectibles, stashes, ammo, ect across its levels, but do you think they've found a better balance? AW2 felt less aimless in how it distributed things, but I'm not at the sticks, so I could be wrong for the feel of it. Do recall there was a bug/glitch for one of the collectibles/stashes, but figure that has been patched by now. AW2 cutting out any driving sections certainly feel like a plus though.

oh god the baby cry part got me messed up when i was kid i had to stop playing the game at this point i am glad you are playing the game so i can see what happen then.

Crazy thing about that hallucinations comment is that with how fast you move through floors, you might not notice if it is just background visuals. With the 10 second timer, they really could slip things in if they wanted beyond this point and most might not even notice. Now more than ever, it feels like this game could have been called Mullet Mad Dash and it still would be a perfect name. Absolutely tearing and blitzing your way through these levels with extreme prejudice.

So the Clockwork King wasn't given the power to alter minds of others, but instead banishes things from existence while also deleting it from memory? How could they think that that was a good idea? That's such an insidious problem. Beyond just the king deleting things into non existence, this place also has a resource scarcity, an encroaching corruption and a rampant "drug" addiction with the Visions. To be put bluntly, this kingdom is fucked. This town and their quests could be a game all in their own. Know these vods are likely months old and there's likely no fixing it, but the audio does cut out occasionally for a few seconds.

I've only heard a few people talking about this game but every time I've hard about it people have only ever heaped it with praise, so I'm looking forward to where this one goes!

I gotta play this game. Also hey Toaster,I know you probably don't mind but if I seem annoying dude,uh sorry about that😅I don't mean to be,then again you probably got way more stuff to focus on that something as that. Anyways have a great day or night later!, Oh also,you also just got me into Vampire Mascarade which has been on my list of games to play for sometime but wasn't sure about. Later!. Man I love the art work of this game. I gotta play this game.

That part when the guy howls about being the wolf at her side cracks me up. 😁

This was fascinating and mysterious.

Know that they are two totally different games, but it is always a whiplash of quality when this and Wukong air on the same day. Nine Sols is just so exacting with its combat and the story that it wants to tell that it is like a balm after Wukong. Nine Sols isn't prefect, but between the two I'd rather it, even though I'd be much worse at Nine Sols. Knowing what exactly that chamber is, have to applaud the designers for that early teaser. Is easy to forget because I think there are three or four other Sols before that boss, but it is some solid foreshadowing. The Transmutational Furnace having bubbles of "air conditioning" is actually pretty funny. Its good level design but because the enemies are also effected by the radiation and heat, it is also is visual story telling with the design. Beyond just the intent as a video game, there's also just the intent of the people that use the space. Nine Sols does this in various places, but it is always interesting to see.

The headless bard is a lot of fun. He gives the new area some flavor and lore the others lack without such a colorful introduction. Plus it is also just a fun little tune. Will agree that despite the fun introduction, the sudden level shift and starting position don't help much. Yeah, Journey to the West often had a area/villain of the week energy, but it does make the already loose narrative feel less connected. A definite positive for this game has to be their motion animations, especially for animal motions. The white wolf, black bear and the toad's all move in such believably organic ways and this extends to future bosses as well. For the Tiger Vanguard, I hear they actually motion captured a cat to get its movements down so well. Unfortunately, the hit boxes for their attacks and bodies can very incoherent. Can never truly tell the spacing needed to dodge or hit them, leading to some jank on what could be some of the best looking fights in action gaming. Deserts can be very pretty or very boring to look at. Is a fine line to thread and visually I think this one mostly succeeds. Could use more colors for the sands, buildings and tree husks, but its not the most boring level to look at. Pathing around this place is pretty abysmal though. Invisible walls everywhere, with everything looping into each other it is easy to feel like you've found everything despite this maybe being the most massive level and that is a shame since there are so many things in this area. Know this is not a Souls-like, but the Elden Ring DLC spoiled me in being a master class of level design.

30:44 - I know Sanderson is openly a Mormon, but don’t think I’ve ever heard of him getting backlash about it, so I expect he doesn’t inject his religious views into his books, and if anything, I think I vaguely recall hearing that he’s pro-LGBTQ+, so he’s probably not extremist in his religious views anyway. Other than that, I’ve only heard good things in general about his work, although I haven’t looked at any reviews in specific or checked his books out for myself (no room on my book shelves for more books, and my unstarted Audible library is large enough without piling his extensive body of works on top of it 😅).

played this game years ago, got to after the first main story thing and gave up lol

"Get Thiefed on!" The raccoon cried out and then stole that man's life. Truly the crime of century. Might just be that everything seems much darker in the starting area, but the audio design of this level really stands out. All the running water, the groaning zombies as they shamble around, the chanting in the chapel really makes you feel the space. Curious to see if the "Elemental Seals" will be some greater plot point or if they'll just be treasures. Apologies if getting them is the point of this job. The time between episodes wipes the plot from my mind.

Is certainly something when you meet the interpreter and they start with "I'm so excited to meet you! Now if you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?" and then proceeded to unload about their hyper focus at you. Then there is the literal mechanist's brain surgeon and the hot mess she is. These npcs are a treasure. Know you've mentioned Brandon Sanderson and the Mistborne series in a few videos, it is always neat to hear about. Though I know someone who heavily dislikes Sanderson's Wheel of Time books. Granted, it might be that they just didn't like Wheel of Time after a dozen books.

Idk much about life in Hong Kong, but I tutored several high school students from affluent families there. They went to a super prestigious, rigorous school. They were all fluent or conversationally fluent in 4-6 languages, Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Japanese being the most common. The school in this flashback gives me some of those vibes.

the mumblecore-ness of the voice acting is so real

ugh my mom was all about that "herd immunity" when COVID happened. bad memories --- the protector's jab at Iris for convincing them of "socialized immunity" is concerning

so unsettling. the high school with makeshift barricades everywhere. I think a novel highly contagious virus that causes rapid aging broke out, and Iris is like the only human on earth found to be immune. this game is really intriguing --- and all those masked protectors have slightly to obviously "old" sounding voices

This game is so weird and it's great. It's got such a striking visual style and is voice acted very well too. Binged it on Patreon when it came out, cause I was gripped. Know next to nothing about Hong Kong and the situations around it, so just gonna focus on the game. The opening scene, the lamp posts and controlling the two Watchers! Man that hits different having seen the whole story. Blowing my mind already in these first few minutes. This really knows how to draw you in with simplistic visuals and the language. Their titles, their slang, the terminology, their tone and delivery, all of it makes you go "Huh?" and makes you want to go deeper.

Kung fu panda has never been so hot or flaming. Truly another good model for the enemy and the area is pretty cool too. Shame that the actual fight isn't half as cool. That animation after it though is beautiful. Could happily watch film with that style. While it certainly gets worse later, the pathing through these levels is odd. Don't know if the designers are new, but it seems like they're bad at communicating the paths through their levels. The consistent use of invisible walls only makes it worse. They could just shape their levels so that players don't think that can run or jump in directions. Use more actual walls and not invisible ones.

Gotta appreciate the style flex from Dracula with his boat system. It is entirely unnecessary on multiple levels, but he did it anyways. Maybe in days past, it was for Adrian and his mother to get around, because they couldn't teleport or fly. At that point though, why make water travel necessary to get through your castle. Curse seems like the worst status to have mid encounter. Making you slower and unresponsive could lead to a lot of deaths in some set ups. Granted, you do still have some mobility and once you know what to look for, you can work around it.

This dungeon is a whole lot of not fun and the boss is like all the worst parts of it rolled into one. I know that there is likely at least one more dungeon, but I really hope there isn't. If it is worse than this one, then I struggle to see the experience of going through it being nothing short of miserable.

It has been a trend that the Castlevannia games have additional character modes, but I have a feeling this one might more than one. I'd wager there will be a Richter and Maria mode, with maybe an additional surprise character included. Honestly surprised that there was a doppelganger already. Granted, this game seems to shuffle around expectations, so I guess it is in its nature. Royal Library's track is a jaunty little tune with an up beat harpsichord. Can learn and dance to it as you fight books that fly from the shelves. Underground Catacombs has a kind a chill beat to it. Just hang out with some frogs and running water while you vibe to some chill music.

Can always turn to the Lorelei notebook when ya need to take down details for a game. Wonder how many years and games from now it will last through. While not challenging in a navigation sense, this newest relic dungeon just seems annoying to deal with. Traps, flames, bleeding, death wails, random monster spawns, all of it is is just a pain.

Also this raccoon's facial expressions are so amusing and entertaining. Love the raccoon and nostalgic vibes

This series is excellent to play in the background while I study/work. Love the music and chill gaming talk

The Well-Lit Room sounds like it'd be a location in the FBC/Oldest House. Just has their kind of naming structure. Is a shame the music had to be removed. That band is always a bop, but you ripped it very well in post. Timed it perfectly from start to finish to minimize the impact. The way Cynthia talks to Alan is pretty fun. Alan over here thinking he is the protagonist while Cythina is like, "Why have you been so stupid? Do you wanna die? Cause this is how you die." Only funny because of Cape Escape season 2, but now I'm imagining Alan and Barry swatting at eye angels in the elevator. Except Alan probably wouldn't make friends with the spiders, he'd likely try to shoot em.

So Jinchi just wanted some nice new monk clothes? Not very Buddhist, but pretty silly for a reason to turn into a monster. Granted, Tang's kasya was special made in some way. It was nice to hear a story about Tang and Wukong that invloved a boss that you fight. Black Wind King's "Turn into invincible particles with a hurtbox that move across the field" needs some kind of patch to it or just to be removed. Other action games have moves you similar to it, but it is usually much shorter and the camera focuses on it so you can more easily dodge it. If you don’t like those fixes, have the fire mode spell still able to hurt BWK and do extra damage because he is made of wind. That way it becomes a specific punish state and not a fully invincible move.

Swear that the 3 Seashells will outlive Demolition Man. Still a fun popcorn flick with a weird cast of Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock and Rob Schneider. With how in your face this game is about itself, I could really see it pulling off some kind of act 3 heel turn twist. Something like "You've been an android with a sentient AI all along and humans are making you and other androids like you kill each other for their amusement," feels like the generic but expected rug pull for this setting. Would almost be a Total Recall call back, but that's a 90s film and this game seems like it stylizes itself more off the 80s.

A town full of people who have had their memories manipulated is a really good hook for a setting. It is essentially a False Hydra encounter, though a video game can't really use it on players like you can in TTRPGs. Could have the player running around the town for hours, depending on the level of mental manipulations, that will likely all lead to the same source. It's role is to be the king of this robot nation, so it's designation will be Machinus Rex/Majesty" is some classic robot logic. The description of it even shows that while it has the appearance of an individual, it is merely a figurehead that is more of an interface than anything.

The comic in the smoke shop is from a Chick Tracts comic called "The Beast"

This really interesting. I find myself plagued with ideas in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Seeing the guy in chains can also be a metaphor, of us all being prisoners of art. The owl girls in the story talk to Lorelei. (I think that is the main character you're playing as.) Because they are kids and kids trust a woman more than a man. Usually (not all the time) women are gental and easy going. While men (again not all the time) are quite brash and to the point This is usually portrayed in fictional media which now I think about it this game has a lot of media because media is just another form of art. I want to know what happened in Room 1963. How was he typing if he was dead? Was it a ghost? Did the gent that the player keeps bumping into was behind the door typing it? If so... Was the gent in one time period of the mossileum then died in another time line? Since the hotel's time intersepts and is all over the place.

The blindfold/Lamenting Visage does'nt work, because you are to Close to the Statue.

Backgrounds for this are just gorgeous with its music being simplistic and chill. Lends itself to a very pleasant experience as you immerse yourself in the combat and learn the story. Like it is always fascinating to hear about religious practices of such a hyper advanced civilization. Despite being so highly advanced and no one seeming to practice it, their is still such documentation on it and that tells you something about its people. Then you have Heng who connects the mystic and the scientific, due to some kind of innate connection to the Primordial Roots. Beyond just being Yii's sister, that view point and ability shows how different she is from her brother. It lets us see the world and setting in different ways during and after these flashbacks. It also contextualizes the "Soul Space" you meet with Lear in and how it might exist.

Whiteclad Noble is where I think your earlier skill came back to bite you. Because you hadn't had to grind up your level much, your skill options and levels were lower. Not sure if leveling effects your stats, beyond the skills, but there is still something to be gained from them. I don't think the gap of your level versus the expected one was big, but think it made a difference. Side tangent that this and the rest of the bosses of Chapter 1 got me thinking: Immobilize is bad right? "It freezes the boss in place, so how can it be bad?" I could see people saying, but I think it works more as a patch than a power. It exists to give you openings to attack, but you should be able to find those openings with dodging, so what does it cover? I think it is to patch the rhythm of combat. Attacks don't seems to have hyper armor to let you push your offensive, the heavy attack is very slow even in a combo, light or heavy attacks rarely will stagger or interrupt enemies and enemies can just run from you, so you can't build momentum. Despite having the framework, there isn't much finesse to the combat.

The idea that all of this was just a tutorial and the "real game" starts now would be bonkers. Down right boggles the brain that everything so far was considered the training wheel section. These maps are just so massive. Just so massive that it feels overwhelming, given they can tuck away things in tiny corners under invisible buttons. So much respect for being able to navigate and complete these stages. Definitely would get lost every level. Ah Kingdom Hearts, pretty fun to play, but an absolute mess of a plot. Only thing harder to pierce than the lore of KH is the joint Disney/Square copyright team. Maybe you'll be able to cover KH4 when it comes out, if they're really trying to step away from pure Disney and into the realm of "fiction". Doubt it, but can hope.

Despite having to deal with the Passports this whole time, the Royal Factor has the most bureaucracy seen so far. Feels very governmental compared to the small town scale that have been coming up so far. Is a shame there hasn't been a chance to actually forge the Passports, since every gate guard mentions it. With how important Charm has seemed to be, there really seems to be an optimal build for this RPG. Makes you wonder how much the background/starting stuff mattered, since your magical abilities don't seem that spectacular. The focus in lore hasn't seemed to come up as much as you'd expect in this lore filled world. Hard to really tell how any progression might be helping your experience, but that might be because I'm not the one on the sticks. Parrying Buckler unlocked, the game knows not what it has done. Toaster has the potential to become more powerful than even the cheesiest boss now....Then it introduces mecha-peds. Least they aren't mecha scorpion spiders.

Could emphasize with a lot of points. As someone who's fairly familiar with the source material and grew up with the tv show, the game's narrative didn't grab me and I ended up skipping a lot of it starting with the second chapter. Though the guy with the shanxi accent and the occasional iconic lines hit nostalgia hard though. There's a parry skill in this game and you already have it. It's translated to "See Through" , which I believe made Keith miss it as well. Mechanically it's exactly like the newer gen monster hunter long sword parry, but feels more like the Two Dragon Sword in lies of P cause the tight timing.

This game does certain things well, but man the level/layout design is kinda all over the place. Edit: Thanks for going through all the lore books and reading them! Was too lazy to read through on my playthrough so this was refreshing

Is the "All Your Base" meme just for Malk playthroughs?

Awesome work as always Toast. Alwahs odd to see a series youve been following end. Also query, if you ever decide to do the Deus Ex series, would you do Vanilla Deus Ex 1 or modded likle say, Revision?

Wow! Just watched Keith's play through and now I'm watching yours. Enjoyed both. But why does your play through have so MANY ads? I do not understand how RUclips works...

"Dang, Ken doll..."

25:10 - is there a reason for you not being allowed to drink from other vamps? I know there’s lore reasons why it’s a taboo in vampire society, but other than that, what’s stopping you from being able to drink from them? Is it just gameplay balance reasons?

That was weird. 😅 It looked like you were turned into a cicada.

I didn't have a ps2, so I played this game on the desktop and enjoyed it a lot. My dad also bought Deus Ex and Red Faction. This was around the end of 2001 or 2002.

Oh, the finale snuck up on me. Swore this had 35 parts, but that is likely the fever talking. Cain being the random taxi driver would a fun little twist. Feels like it'd be slightly meaningless, but I have an extremely small scale understanding of the lore of the world. There is likely some meaning to extract that the father of all vampires spends his nights taking other vampires where they want to go, while being a nonfactor in the political conflict despite it being tied back to him. After the combat gauntlet that was the Kuei-jin hide out, the LaCroix tower seemed down right peaceful. Just a little buffet for the sampling till the swat team comes in. Was not expecting early 2000s memes to be LaCroix's requiem. Did LaCroix's domination not work because you are a Malkavian or does it not matter and it is just a funny moment? Would have been silly if there was an alternate ending where you could have taken too long to get to LaCroix and he blows himself up by opening the sarcophagus. Beyond just being a teleporting big bara man with a equally big sword, what is the Sheriff? He turned into an even bigger Man-Bat. Unless that is just something people can do in this universe and it didn't come up because of the Masquerade? Flying around as a big man-bat would be a really good way to break the Masquerade after all.

Caught up to the Patreon, and the further in I got, the more I started questioning certain design decision. Gonna try to only bring up things that come up in the video, but apologies for how long these might get. Good things before I rant a bit: Character models and voice acting is really good throughout so far though. Lots of love went into them. Despite the game and the capture devouring the frame rate, the game still looks pretty good. The Frog Gui the lore told us about ahead of time actually shows up. There's so few moments of lore pay off in chapters 1 and 2 from what I've seen. While the big wolf Gui looks cool and is well animated, but the hitboxes for its attacks seem very weird. It also seems oddly passive, like it spent its time hopping around more than attacking. The combat is centered around dodging, so you'd imagine it would be faster paced. With how unreliable the dodge seems, it really feels like the game is missing a parry mechanic to back it up. The fact that the tutorial shows that there will be a parry spell is very disconcerting. Having Stance system is an ok idea in a less busy game. This has health, stamina, magic, focus, four mappable spells, four mappable consumables and a limited healing system that you have to track. Personal patch for the Stances would be to just make them abilities to alter the Heavy attack and tie them to inputs: Forward Heavy for Thrust and Back Heavy for Pillar. They still serve their purpose of extending the range for Thrust, AOE but less damage for Pillar, let you chose what you use in the moment, while not adding another system to track. Maybe keep them upgradable, but the busy skill tree is another monster to tackle. The writing feels very poor at telling its own story. Whether it be spoken dialogue or the lore diary, it feels like I'm listening to poetry and folk tales, while being left questioning what is going on. The lore diary being folklore is likely the point, but it is rarely acrually elucidates each Yaogui in context for the game. Why is the ability to turn into Yaogui introduced with the Wight when you already turn into Guangzhi as a spell? Why not have Guangzhi be mapped to the same input as the Yaogui transformation? Why does Guangzhi have a health bar when the transformation is undone by you expending all your stamina in that form?