"There are amazing, wonderful things that I want to see created, that if I don't sit down and do them they will never exist in the world, and I want this wonderful thing to exist so I'm going to sit down and do it." Thank you for those words, Brandon, I'll be thinking about this a lot
Idk dude I feel just the opposite. He rarely says anything interesting and he always looks like he swallowed a lemon. At least Brandon is animated and entertaining.
I have read the Dog and the Dragon story from my copy of Rhythm of War to my daughter as a bed-time story. I absolutely would buy the crap out of an illustrated version.
The entire time you were on your mini-rant about how phone games aren’t actual games, I was simultaneously nodding my head. I’ve been trying to explain this to non-gamers for years. At the same time, I was yelling at you, “Slay the Spire!” “Slay the Spire!” I wonder how many people know that you can play it on your phone. If there is one person out there, that I can reveal that information to, I can die fulfilled. I have made the world a better place
I haven’t played it enough to have formed an opinion on it, but from what I know of it, I think it’s a legitimate question. I should probably clarify that I’m not trying to exclude anyone under the accusation of, “you are not a true gamer”. I also partake of these “not-games”.
27:17 I love how nonchalantly Brandon says "You can't even sit there and think of a book idea" as a reason he doesn't like that style of grinding. Man's got his priorities straight
My sister won best Christmas present of the year this year, by finding my 62 yr old dad a new (used) Wii. He works from home and still goes to play a round of golf on Wii sports as his breaks during the day and is the go-to activity for introverted dad plus two introverted sons-in-law. 😂
Absolutely, and the way he approaches From Software games is very applicable to Outer Wilds. Each puzzle can be seen like a boss battle where you need to go through several loops to explore and try new ideas and experiment, exactly how you also play games like Elden Ring.
I think a cool guest to have on would’ve been Mortdog (Steven Mortimer) from Riot Games. He’s a lead game designer (I believe) for Teamfight Tactics at Riot Games but worked at Nintendo since the beginning of his professional career. I love when he talks about the future of gaming and where gaming is now.
Dan I’m with you on Legends of Runeterra. Game is a masterpiece, not only does it have the fairest monetization of any card game by a long shot, but the basic rules and mechanics are so good. In my opinion the best of any CCG. It’s too bad more people don’t play the game and it is struggling. LOR needs love
Man, whenever it doesn't start with weird story idea or food heist and starts off on topic I feel like I've missed out and am starting half-way through.
Hey Dan! Not sure if you will see this. I know you are a PC gamer, there is a guitar hero clone for PC that is pretty good called Clone Hero. For fun I actually 3D print guitars (guitar hero style) that work with Clone Hero game. (this is not an ad, I don't do this for money, I just do this for fun). Anyway, I have some extra guitars and would be happy to give you one if you are looking for something to fill that Guitar Hero itch. I live in Utah not too far away if you would like one. I am not sure how well it would ship, but I could ship it to the PO box or I would be happy to drop it off anywhere if you are interested.
Bro so many songs I hear now and then I only know bc of Guitar hero. I could barely play on the difficulty where you start using your pinky but I thought I was a rock star lol
33:20 Thank you so much Brandon for avoiding spoilers!!! I’m a new fan and I just started Way of Kings, and I seriously appreciate you avoiding spoilers even tho your books are nearly 10 years old!!
I remember seeing a post on the cremposting subreddit that was Kelsier singing "(There's Always One More) Dirty Little Secret" by The All American Rejects inside Rock Band inside Fortnite. It was a trip and a half.
i played the first Sorcery! game, which is only mobile and pay once, and its amazing. Its a text based rpg with BEAUTIFUL art, and the amount of options on the adventure is amazing. Im saving up to buy Sorcery! 2, and i think there's four of them. I really recommend it. Also, Slay is a really fun computer game with an acceptable port for Android, and Alto Adventure and Alto Odyssey are delightful games which are free to play and offer almost no microtransactions (and they don't push them at all). Great episode!
My "golden god" moment was from Batman Arkham Asylum. A crazed inmate came running out of a bush at me and without breaking my slow forward walk I immediately grabbed him, threw him to the ground, one punch knock out, stood up and kept walking. And I was like "Holy Crap! I am The Batman!"
The Path of Champions portion of Legends of Runeterra is free to play and the only thing you could potentially buy is cosmetics. You don't have to even collect cards, they give you the decks. LoR is so generous, it doesn't get enough love for how awesome their business model is.
Speaking of Guitar Hero, I got my old wii with all the games, and found new third party guitars on Amazon. My girlfriend and I have been having a blast.
My favorite mobile game that you just pay once to get the whole thing is Slice and Dice. It's like if Slay the Spire were a party dungeon crawl and used dice instead of cards. It's great.
"I go into games for a challenge, a cinematic experience, or for interesting game design" 27:50 Brandon would LOVE Celeste (its truly my favourite game of all time) its a supremely well-designed puzzle platformer that is quite difficult and very satisfying, and amazing music, if anyone has heard of Pigstep, the Minecraft music disc, the music for the entire base game is done by the person who made that
Slice & Dice is an incredible mobile game. You have 5 characters you control going through 20 rounds of combat that get increasingly more difficult. You roll a d6 for each character to determine what ability they will use (their abilities are tied to the sides of a d6). The characters each have their own class tree that go through a class change every few rounds. There are a ton of different modes that completely change up the game in a refreshing way. So much replayability in the game for just a few bucks and no microtransactions.
Knights of Pen and Paper 2 is free on mobile, and has the complete game for free, with none of the dumb gimmicks. It’s really fun, though the balancing can be a bit funky at times.
My favorite mobile game was a calm city building game called Trade Nations. You could pay for magic beans (and I did a few times) to build your city faster, but it wasn't necessary. Most of the things you'd buy were just cosmetic buildings that you didn't need. Unfortunately, the developer was bought by Activision Blizzard, and it stopped being supported back in 2016. I still haven't found one that I enjoy as much as I did Trade Nations.
I'll add my case to it as well, cause I fell down some of the Pollytopia rabbit holes. It's a chesslike game, but with randomly generated terrain and different tribes with different playstyle focuses. You face off against AI (I know that's important to Brandon), that are actually pretty strong. You can pass and play with friends or children. The only purchases a different tribes for different playstyles beyond the main four given for free. They cover really all the main playstyles, with maybe two or three tribes missing. If you buy a single tribe, you also get online play with friends or random people.
@@shughes5778 should also mention the most expensive tribe is 4$, with the rest being 3$ or 2$. You only have to buy a single tribe to unlock online multiplayer, whip is the main benefit of buying anything at all. The game is very not expensive overall
The Wii is the most fun console we've had. Like sure, my favorite games were on the Playstation or now PC, but no other console managed to got the whole family in front of the tv with games even grandma could have fun with.
The Room (1,2,3, and Old Sins) by Fireproof Games are hands down the BEST mobile games that "are a game" straight up. They were designed specifically for mobile, though there is a Steam port now. They're atmospheric puzzle games with great storytelling and sound design/ music (definitely recommend using headphones while you play). They won all kinds of awards back in the day for their innovative controls and design
A little late to the party, but regarding good mobile games, I would recommend the Tower Of Fortune series by Game Stew. It’s a retro-style roguelike with all the bells and whistles you’d expect, like secrets, hundreds of items, branching story paths, and multiple endings. The gimmick, though, is that your actions in combat are determined by rolls of a slot machine. They’re really fun games, especially 1 and 3, and you just buy them and play. The 3rd game in particular encourages replayability to explore the different paths the game offers.
I legit keep my Quest 2 beside my bed, for using as a way to interact with my computer from across my room, and so it's easy to just play a thing at the drop of a hat. I'm very fond of Blade and Sorcery, physics based melee combat that is very satisfying. On the mobile games section, I would love to hear Brandon's take on the environmental storytelling in Genshin Impact. I have my qualms with the monetization, and gacha games as a whole. However, the world is so amazing, and the ability to see the history of the world, the greater forces at work forming the world is spectacular. Devil May Cry, when it clicks you feel so amazing. MMO's also repel me also, super hard. Though an mmo-lite I am fond of, Warframe. Though the lack of challenge early and the monetization would likely be a powerful repellent, but the art and story feel very nice.
Haven't played the mobile version yet and its technically endless but Brotato is one of favorite games of the year. Firmly in the genre popularized by Vampire Survivors but is unique enough to be addicting in its own right. Very entertaining if love weird character builds.
I have the same issue with mobile games as Brandon described so well here. My favorite mobile game is Kingdom Rush. You can spend a bit more money on bit, but it all seems really fair and the game is fun.
Legends of Runeterra is one of the best card games I've ever played, but the monetization for the PVE mode (the Path of Champions) did get a bit worse in the last few months (because they weren't profitable). You can still play for free but the newest system (constellations) is on a long timescale if you don't pay to win, although constellations are not required to clear any current content. They are releasing a lot more content on a good cadence now, and that's exciting, but it's certainly not as free to play as it was in the last two years where you literally never needed to buy anything. It's still one of my favorite games though, to the point that I started making content for it, and I hope it continues to succeed forever.
Brandon probably didn't get into the other Devil May Cry games because 1 has actual ambience and interesting looking levels, and it's a slow descent where the gameplay gets better but the environments look gradually worse every game. Because DMC 1 was originally a Resident Evil game, so it inherited cool environments.
I feel the same about VR. I Love it when I am playing it. However is the problem of the low-hanging fruit. I can either set up the VR and have a really good time with it or just press start on my console or phone. The console or phone usually win.
The best VR game is Half-Life: Alyx. I've never felt so immersed. I spent more time just interacting with the world than playing the game. And I never thought I'd enjoy being stalked by zombies so much even though it was genuine creepy.
VR would take survival horror to such a whole new level. Like the original Resident Evil isn't that scary to see, but playing that alone at night when you're low on healing items and ammo and don't know what could come around the next corner it's fuckin tense and gets you going. Going through that in VR would add a whole new layer to the experience and make it so much more immersive and fun
Some relatives of mine just put out their first mobile game. It's free to play, no monetization there are alot of optional ads but you could potentially play forever for free without ever watching an ad but that is how they make their money. It's on android only right now. It's called "Dam Skippy" it's a rock skipping game. I love it but I am probably biased.
Isle of arrows is great. I share your view on mobile gaming, there are several PC ports that are great on mobile (Into the breach in particluar). Outside of this, another agme I found on mobile with no micro-transactions, that I strongly recommend is "Bad North". it's like a mini RTS where you repel waves of viking invaders from your island. Its marketed as a Minimalistic, real-time tactics roguelite.
You mentioned the Pixel Remasters, but FF Tactics: War of the Lions por mobile is imo the best mobile game you can get. A PSP masterpiece masterfully translated to small touchscreens.
Of the MMO’s he might like FFXIV and GW2 are very narrative focused and have a ton of content built on challenge and learning the dances rather than any needed grinding.
A lot of these stories were almost word for word the same as the “Mobile Gaming” episode (i.e., Price of Persia, Downwell, Devil May Cry, Overwatch, etc.) 😂
I love VR but only in certain games, I really enjoyed Moss and Astro bot , but I tried SW Squadrons which you would think is amazing for VR, and it does look great, but I would last 4 minutes tops before becoming too ill to keep playing.
If there is a 2nd & Charles near you, they always have a huge been of guitar hero guitars and stuff like that. Ive traded in a ton of random old books Ive pilfered from perusing garage sales and gave them to 2nd and charles for credit to get old n64 games.
So funny you mention heavy metal - I was at wacken open air last week (that heavy metal festival in Germany) and there I met doomslug 😂🎉 a girl had the plushy with her on the holy ground, so sweet
I'm jealous of European festivals. We haven't had any real good festivals with a lot of actual big bands here in Australia for like 10 years. Slipknot didn't even play the recent Knotfest here I had tickets to Metallica with Slipknot in 2019, they cancelled cause James went back to rehab, they haven't announced anything since
As an avid player of Rockband, I'd have to say that the main reason I stopped playing was when the Xbox 360 was dropped for the Xbox One, along with my controllers wearing out.
Vampire's Fall: Origins RPG is a great free game that while it has "microtransactions" none of them are necessary to progress in the game at all. The story is enjoyable. The mechanics are interesting even if a little limited compared to "real" RPGs on a PC or console. Would love to see it get more recognition!
Yeah I don't mind the Skinner Boxes / microtransactions because I know that every purchase is basically a rip-off (occasionally there are some super-discounted introductory buys that are priced somewhat reasonably to suck you in-- the 99cent "starter pack" type thing). Usually you just have to remind yourself that the amount of content you will actually play in the game before getting walled will be about 1-10 hours, even assuming you like the game, and then you'll probably uninstall and never play it again, and budget accordingly. I've been pleasantly surprised by two games where it felt like you could get months and months of play time out of the game without having to actually purchase anything and you wouldn't get walled--you just would never make it to the top of the leaderboards because you progress more slolwly. Those two are Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius and Langrisser. For buy it and done, I'd probably just purchase mobile remasters of classic games. Final Fantasy would be on my list and so would the Dragon Warrior games. Even then, phones are designed to get replaced every couple of years, and my thought is, if I purchase them on my phone I'll probably have to re-purchase them again every time I replace my phone.
30:00 . This is exactly how I felt with Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact. It was a very dangerous thing to recognize. Like you, I uninstalled the game and vowed never to touch it again.
Civ 6 is a really good port to console and phones, which you pay once, and be done. I know the Switch and the iOS version (plus of course the PC version), and they are great.
I will second the legends of runeterra recommendation. It's a great digital card game and unlike most it does respect your time more than the others, they've unfortunatley had to downsize it a little to focus on the PVE roguelike mode because they don't make enough money from packs, since they're too generous with them.
I really enjoyed Project Highrise. It scratched the Sim Tower itch I've had since I was a kid. I think maybe there were expansions you could buy, but they weren't needed to get the full game experience.
Best worldbuilding in a video game franchise: Legend of Heroes. aka Trails series or the Japanese name: Kiseki series. Since Brandon is such a "fan" of worldbuilding, would love to hear his thoughts on this series.
Games made by "Yiotro" are insanely fun and don't have ads. There is a version of each game which is one and done to buy it but it is just an expansion of the main game.
What are the oods that the one Stormlight Chapter they bring up is the one I just read, The girl who looked up.(Best Oathbringer Chapter so far btw, Loved the Lovecraftian vibe and the story within a story within a story)
if dan still has his controllers for guitar hero you can buy a dongle that'll connect to your PC for pretty cheap. I use my PS2 guitar hero controllers that I got with guitar hero 2 back in like 2005ish and they work perfectly with a cheap dongle
@@ricebix I think you can download mods for that but im not sure. When I play i just leave everything bare bones and download charts for the songs i wanna play
Could you have the theam of an episode revolve around endings to stories? What makes a bad ending? What make a good ending? Is there an ending you think is critically good but didnt enjoy?
Guitar Hero was fun, but what killed it for me was when they removed career mode. It's a really small thing and it was super easy to enter a code and just unlock all songs for free play anyway, but having a goal other than just trying to get a higher score changed the way I played and enjoyed those games and it forced me to try out songs I might not have tried otherwise because they weren't by artist I knew or I didn't recognize the title. I only played a handfull of songs I already knew when World Tour released, I think I spent all of one weekend with the Metallica expansion and I played 5 at most a couple of times and I think there were more expansions I never got. Did try the GH Live version they did with a new guitar design, and it was fun in concept, but had the same problem of not having a career mode like the early ones and also a library of songs that just in general wasn't to my taste.
Most "real" games ive played on mobile are ports from other platforms or formats. Through the ages, Spirit Island, and Race for the Galaxy are all great board games converted into good mobile games. Other one is Into the Breach as someone else mentioned. Nice roguelite puzzle tactics-like game. Also Cultist Simulator is a great game too, but quite niche. It is a discovery tableau building time management game where your run could end due to something you werent managing correctly.
6:00 I think the Guitar Hero/Rock Band Periferal-Rhythm genre had its own little video game crash, where the market was just wildly oversaturated in a very short period of time, and the bubble burst. Between 2005 and 2010, 5 years, there were 24 games released in just the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. That's not to mention the influx of other rhythm games because of the success of those two.
Spoony bard is from 4 not 2. 4 used to be called 2 in America but now they're using the correct numbering for it since the actual 2 also exists in the US now
Clone Hero is a guitar hero clone! It works extremely well with old guitar hero guitars and such (PC only) and you can use real e-drums as well! It actually works to help you learn the drum, since many people have added songs with how you really play them on the drums, but just as a guitar hero song!
Hey Brandon, not related to video games, but I just read an article about a discovery in prime number mathematics. They used harmonic theories. Is that part of what inspired Raboniel and Navani's discoveries in Rhythm of War?
I'm doing my 2nd run through the series and just realised the Ardent that Shallan talks to in the beginning shows her something really similar to what they are doing in RoW
Hey Brandon, Dan, you should check out Exiled Kingdoms, easily the best mobile game I've played. I feel perhaps Dan would like it more with it being similar to Diablo
![Wiz Khalifa - Khalifa's Home [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wnrLCTe0Nz4/mqdefault.jpg)
"There are amazing, wonderful things that I want to see created, that if I don't sit down and do them they will never exist in the world, and I want this wonderful thing to exist so I'm going to sit down and do it."
Thank you for those words, Brandon, I'll be thinking about this a lot
Dan is such a funny guy. Glad he’s with you Brandon
Honestly as much as i love brando, and like most people i came from his books, i feel like i come back for dan and the banter between them
@@johnmartin9846banger?
@@mrsandman1000000 banter
Oh, I can hop on the Dan appreciation comment chain! Let's do this!
Idk dude I feel just the opposite. He rarely says anything interesting and he always looks like he swallowed a lemon. At least Brandon is animated and entertaining.
I have read the Dog and the Dragon story from my copy of Rhythm of War to my daughter as a bed-time story. I absolutely would buy the crap out of an illustrated version.
All of Wit's stories would be amazing illustrated. It would be awesome to have them as a collection, maybe with different artists and styles for each.
@@bbh6212great idea for something in the future.
The entire time you were on your mini-rant about how phone games aren’t actual games, I was simultaneously nodding my head. I’ve been trying to explain this to non-gamers for years. At the same time, I was yelling at you, “Slay the Spire!” “Slay the Spire!”
I wonder how many people know that you can play it on your phone. If there is one person out there, that I can reveal that information to, I can die fulfilled. I have made the world a better place
Congratulations, you revealed that info to me
@@prfctstrm this is his wife: yes, he died fulfilled. thanks
Would Genshin Impact also be a real game?
I haven’t played it enough to have formed an opinion on it, but from what I know of it, I think it’s a legitimate question.
I should probably clarify that I’m not trying to exclude anyone under the accusation of, “you are not a true gamer”. I also partake of these “not-games”.
27:17 I love how nonchalantly Brandon says "You can't even sit there and think of a book idea" as a reason he doesn't like that style of grinding. Man's got his priorities straight
My sister won best Christmas present of the year this year, by finding my 62 yr old dad a new (used) Wii. He works from home and still goes to play a round of golf on Wii sports as his breaks during the day and is the go-to activity for introverted dad plus two introverted sons-in-law. 😂
I would pay big money to watch Brandon play Outer Wilds (not to be confused with outer worlds). I just know he’d love it.
Agreed, probably one of the best videogames to take advantage of the medium completely.
This. He would love it.
Agreed. Outer Wilds is a great game, but it's also a game where it's best to go in as blind as possible, which makes it hard to sell people on it...
Every time they talk about video games I'm more convinced that Brandon would love Outer Wilds
Absolutely, and the way he approaches From Software games is very applicable to Outer Wilds. Each puzzle can be seen like a boss battle where you need to go through several loops to explore and try new ideas and experiment, exactly how you also play games like Elden Ring.
Any time Brandon talks mobile games I can’t help but think of Infinity Blade.
My thoughts exactly, especially with all the conversations of fortnite.
RIP, it was taken from us too soon
"Mostly the bowling game." So true.
I think a cool guest to have on would’ve been Mortdog (Steven Mortimer) from Riot Games. He’s a lead game designer (I believe) for Teamfight Tactics at Riot Games but worked at Nintendo since the beginning of his professional career. I love when he talks about the future of gaming and where gaming is now.
100%
Brandon your discipline is honestly inspiring!
Dan I’m with you on Legends of Runeterra. Game is a masterpiece, not only does it have the fairest monetization of any card game by a long shot, but the basic rules and mechanics are so good. In my opinion the best of any CCG. It’s too bad more people don’t play the game and it is struggling. LOR needs love
Isle of Arrows has 50k downloads on the Google Play Store as of 7/31 curious to see how it goes
It's at 100K+ now!
Man, whenever it doesn't start with weird story idea or food heist and starts off on topic I feel like I've missed out and am starting half-way through.
Hey Dan!
Not sure if you will see this.
I know you are a PC gamer, there is a guitar hero clone for PC that is pretty good called Clone Hero.
For fun I actually 3D print guitars (guitar hero style) that work with Clone Hero game.
(this is not an ad, I don't do this for money, I just do this for fun).
Anyway, I have some extra guitars and would be happy to give you one if you are looking for something to fill that Guitar Hero itch.
I live in Utah not too far away if you would like one. I am not sure how well it would ship, but I could ship it to the PO box or I would be happy to drop it off anywhere if you are interested.
Bro so many songs I hear now and then I only know bc of Guitar hero. I could barely play on the difficulty where you start using your pinky but I thought I was a rock star lol
I bet you could go to the Dragonsteel office and give them a message or drop it off. It’s in PG.
I totally fan-girled when you mentioned Devil May Cry! Never dreamed that the Brandon Sanderson played Devil May Cry!
33:20 Thank you so much Brandon for avoiding spoilers!!! I’m a new fan and I just started Way of Kings, and I seriously appreciate you avoiding spoilers even tho your books are nearly 10 years old!!
I LOVE DAN FOR HELLDIVING
SEE YOU ON THE FRONT LINES, PATRIOT!
Wingspan!! Such a good calm strategy game. It's a board game, but the mobile works well. You *can* buy the expansions but you don't need them!
I remember seeing a post on the cremposting subreddit that was Kelsier singing "(There's Always One More) Dirty Little Secret" by The All American Rejects inside Rock Band inside Fortnite. It was a trip and a half.
I love Rock band, I attended a lot of parties and it was so fun to take turns to play with
The bit about VR, walking in a circle instead of straight line, reminds me of the holodeck in StarTrek
i played the first Sorcery! game, which is only mobile and pay once, and its amazing. Its a text based rpg with BEAUTIFUL art, and the amount of options on the adventure is amazing. Im saving up to buy Sorcery! 2, and i think there's four of them. I really recommend it. Also, Slay is a really fun computer game with an acceptable port for Android, and Alto Adventure and Alto Odyssey are delightful games which are free to play and offer almost no microtransactions (and they don't push them at all). Great episode!
My "golden god" moment was from Batman Arkham Asylum. A crazed inmate came running out of a bush at me and without breaking my slow forward walk I immediately grabbed him, threw him to the ground, one punch knock out, stood up and kept walking. And I was like "Holy Crap! I am The Batman!"
The Path of Champions portion of Legends of Runeterra is free to play and the only thing you could potentially buy is cosmetics. You don't have to even collect cards, they give you the decks. LoR is so generous, it doesn't get enough love for how awesome their business model is.
Speaking of Guitar Hero, I got my old wii with all the games, and found new third party guitars on Amazon. My girlfriend and I have been having a blast.
My favorite mobile game that you just pay once to get the whole thing is Slice and Dice. It's like if Slay the Spire were a party dungeon crawl and used dice instead of cards. It's great.
"I go into games for a challenge, a cinematic experience, or for interesting game design" 27:50 Brandon would LOVE Celeste (its truly my favourite game of all time) its a supremely well-designed puzzle platformer that is quite difficult and very satisfying, and amazing music, if anyone has heard of Pigstep, the Minecraft music disc, the music for the entire base game is done by the person who made that
Slice & Dice is an incredible mobile game. You have 5 characters you control going through 20 rounds of combat that get increasingly more difficult. You roll a d6 for each character to determine what ability they will use (their abilities are tied to the sides of a d6). The characters each have their own class tree that go through a class change every few rounds. There are a ton of different modes that completely change up the game in a refreshing way. So much replayability in the game for just a few bucks and no microtransactions.
Came here to say this. My favorite mobile game of all time!
It is also now on PC!
Knights of Pen and Paper 2 is free on mobile, and has the complete game for free, with none of the dumb gimmicks. It’s really fun, though the balancing can be a bit funky at times.
My favorite mobile game was a calm city building game called Trade Nations. You could pay for magic beans (and I did a few times) to build your city faster, but it wasn't necessary. Most of the things you'd buy were just cosmetic buildings that you didn't need. Unfortunately, the developer was bought by Activision Blizzard, and it stopped being supported back in 2016. I still haven't found one that I enjoy as much as I did Trade Nations.
I still play rockband 3! Custom songs are a great workout!
polytopia is a very fun mobile strategy game that is free and the only microtransactions are special tribes that arent better than the base ones
I'll add my case to it as well, cause I fell down some of the Pollytopia rabbit holes.
It's a chesslike game, but with randomly generated terrain and different tribes with different playstyle focuses. You face off against AI (I know that's important to Brandon), that are actually pretty strong. You can pass and play with friends or children.
The only purchases a different tribes for different playstyles beyond the main four given for free. They cover really all the main playstyles, with maybe two or three tribes missing. If you buy a single tribe, you also get online play with friends or random people.
@@shughes5778 should also mention the most expensive tribe is 4$, with the rest being 3$ or 2$. You only have to buy a single tribe to unlock online multiplayer, whip is the main benefit of buying anything at all. The game is very not expensive overall
Best thing about Team Fight Tactics is that you don't have to purchase anything to play the full game.
The Wii is the most fun console we've had. Like sure, my favorite games were on the Playstation or now PC, but no other console managed to got the whole family in front of the tv with games even grandma could have fun with.
The Room (1,2,3, and Old Sins) by Fireproof Games are hands down the BEST mobile games that "are a game" straight up. They were designed specifically for mobile, though there is a Steam port now. They're atmospheric puzzle games with great storytelling and sound design/ music (definitely recommend using headphones while you play). They won all kinds of awards back in the day for their innovative controls and design
Agreed, the best game for mobile I've ever played. Admittedly, I usually laugh off mobile "games", so I haven't played a lot.
Any relation to the movie The Room?
Also love the vr one too
for a second there when Brandon said you feel like a golden god I thought he was gonna say "Because I have contained my rage for as long as possible"
Love that Brandon mentioned spelunky while I'm playing spelunky
My go to game in VR is Walkabout Mini Golf. It’s the only thing I play in VR on a regular basis. VR was made for fantastical mini-golf courses.
What Dan said about contributing to the world hit hard, it's exactly the same for me.
Vampire survivor is a real game on mobile.
The main game is completely free but there are 4 expansions for ~$3 each
A little late to the party, but regarding good mobile games, I would recommend the Tower Of Fortune series by Game Stew. It’s a retro-style roguelike with all the bells and whistles you’d expect, like secrets, hundreds of items, branching story paths, and multiple endings. The gimmick, though, is that your actions in combat are determined by rolls of a slot machine. They’re really fun games, especially 1 and 3, and you just buy them and play. The 3rd game in particular encourages replayability to explore the different paths the game offers.
I legit keep my Quest 2 beside my bed, for using as a way to interact with my computer from across my room, and so it's easy to just play a thing at the drop of a hat. I'm very fond of Blade and Sorcery, physics based melee combat that is very satisfying. On the mobile games section, I would love to hear Brandon's take on the environmental storytelling in Genshin Impact. I have my qualms with the monetization, and gacha games as a whole. However, the world is so amazing, and the ability to see the history of the world, the greater forces at work forming the world is spectacular.
Devil May Cry, when it clicks you feel so amazing. MMO's also repel me also, super hard. Though an mmo-lite I am fond of, Warframe. Though the lack of challenge early and the monetization would likely be a powerful repellent, but the art and story feel very nice.
Haven't played the mobile version yet and its technically endless but Brotato is one of favorite games of the year. Firmly in the genre popularized by Vampire Survivors but is unique enough to be addicting in its own right. Very entertaining if love weird character builds.
Just bought Isle of Arrows. Thanks!
I have the same issue with mobile games as Brandon described so well here. My favorite mobile game is Kingdom Rush. You can spend a bit more money on bit, but it all seems really fair and the game is fun.
Legends of Runeterra is one of the best card games I've ever played, but the monetization for the PVE mode (the Path of Champions) did get a bit worse in the last few months (because they weren't profitable). You can still play for free but the newest system (constellations) is on a long timescale if you don't pay to win, although constellations are not required to clear any current content. They are releasing a lot more content on a good cadence now, and that's exciting, but it's certainly not as free to play as it was in the last two years where you literally never needed to buy anything. It's still one of my favorite games though, to the point that I started making content for it, and I hope it continues to succeed forever.
Have you ever played 'The Room'? It is a fantastic mobile puzzle game! The atmosphere is impeccable and the story is fantastic.
Brandon probably didn't get into the other Devil May Cry games because 1 has actual ambience and interesting looking levels, and it's a slow descent where the gameplay gets better but the environments look gradually worse every game. Because DMC 1 was originally a Resident Evil game, so it inherited cool environments.
The room!
I feel the same about VR. I Love it when I am playing it. However is the problem of the low-hanging fruit. I can either set up the VR and have a really good time with it or just press start on my console or phone. The console or phone usually win.
The best VR game is Half-Life: Alyx. I've never felt so immersed. I spent more time just interacting with the world than playing the game. And I never thought I'd enjoy being stalked by zombies so much even though it was genuine creepy.
VR would take survival horror to such a whole new level.
Like the original Resident Evil isn't that scary to see, but playing that alone at night when you're low on healing items and ammo and don't know what could come around the next corner it's fuckin tense and gets you going.
Going through that in VR would add a whole new layer to the experience and make it so much more immersive and fun
Someone get Dan Cone Hero ASAP
Is that an ice cream scooping game?
Some relatives of mine just put out their first mobile game. It's free to play, no monetization there are alot of optional ads but you could potentially play forever for free without ever watching an ad but that is how they make their money. It's on android only right now. It's called "Dam Skippy" it's a rock skipping game. I love it but I am probably biased.
Slay the spire is on phones and amazing.
Adoooonalsium
Oh, you changed your pic!
Dang you're early!!
@@Osyrous I try to be lol
@@daem0nfaust no same pic, different name some months back tho.. took off the random numbers at the end of the name.
I have to recommend Wayward Souls for mobile. A buy-once, top-down action roguelite with the slickest touch controls I've ever used.
Meteorfall: Journey is a fun deck-builder rogue-like with Adventure Time art aesthetic.
With the talk about love for guitar hero games and VR, I wonder if Dan knows about rock band VR?
Isle of arrows is great. I share your view on mobile gaming, there are several PC ports that are great on mobile (Into the breach in particluar). Outside of this, another agme I found on mobile with no micro-transactions, that I strongly recommend is "Bad North". it's like a mini RTS where you repel waves of viking invaders from your island. Its marketed as a Minimalistic, real-time tactics roguelite.
You mentioned the Pixel Remasters, but FF Tactics: War of the Lions por mobile is imo the best mobile game you can get. A PSP masterpiece masterfully translated to small touchscreens.
I don't think brando would like old school runescape's gameplay but i bet he'd get a kick out of the quests and narratives in that mmo
Of the MMO’s he might like FFXIV and GW2 are very narrative focused and have a ton of content built on challenge and learning the dances rather than any needed grinding.
A lot of these stories were almost word for word the same as the “Mobile Gaming” episode (i.e., Price of Persia, Downwell, Devil May Cry, Overwatch, etc.) 😂
Some other fun games for mobile that offer one-off payments (if you like roguelikes) are Peglin and Slice & Dice, both offer demos too!
I love VR but only in certain games, I really enjoyed Moss and Astro bot , but I tried SW Squadrons which you would think is amazing for VR, and it does look great, but I would last 4 minutes tops before becoming too ill to keep playing.
Boom Blox was the cat's meow for Wii.
Resident Evil 4 and 007 Golden Eye forbthe Wii were great games that made an excellent use of the Wii remote.
Did it have the pause music from the n64 version
If there is a 2nd & Charles near you, they always have a huge been of guitar hero guitars and stuff like that. Ive traded in a ton of random old books Ive pilfered from perusing garage sales and gave them to 2nd and charles for credit to get old n64 games.
You should play The Room series on the mobile. Amazing puzzles.
So funny you mention heavy metal - I was at wacken open air last week (that heavy metal festival in Germany) and there I met doomslug 😂🎉 a girl had the plushy with her on the holy ground, so sweet
I'm jealous of European festivals.
We haven't had any real good festivals with a lot of actual big bands here in Australia for like 10 years.
Slipknot didn't even play the recent Knotfest here
I had tickets to Metallica with Slipknot in 2019, they cancelled cause James went back to rehab, they haven't announced anything since
As an avid player of Rockband, I'd have to say that the main reason I stopped playing was when the Xbox 360 was dropped for the Xbox One, along with my controllers wearing out.
Vampire's Fall: Origins RPG is a great free game that while it has "microtransactions" none of them are necessary to progress in the game at all. The story is enjoyable. The mechanics are interesting even if a little limited compared to "real" RPGs on a PC or console. Would love to see it get more recognition!
Yeah I don't mind the Skinner Boxes / microtransactions because I know that every purchase is basically a rip-off (occasionally there are some super-discounted introductory buys that are priced somewhat reasonably to suck you in-- the 99cent "starter pack" type thing). Usually you just have to remind yourself that the amount of content you will actually play in the game before getting walled will be about 1-10 hours, even assuming you like the game, and then you'll probably uninstall and never play it again, and budget accordingly.
I've been pleasantly surprised by two games where it felt like you could get months and months of play time out of the game without having to actually purchase anything and you wouldn't get walled--you just would never make it to the top of the leaderboards because you progress more slolwly. Those two are Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius and Langrisser.
For buy it and done, I'd probably just purchase mobile remasters of classic games. Final Fantasy would be on my list and so would the Dragon Warrior games. Even then, phones are designed to get replaced every couple of years, and my thought is, if I purchase them on my phone I'll probably have to re-purchase them again every time I replace my phone.
30:00 . This is exactly how I felt with Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact. It was a very dangerous thing to recognize. Like you, I uninstalled the game and vowed never to touch it again.
The Room are neat phone games.
Civ 6 is a really good port to console and phones, which you pay once, and be done. I know the Switch and the iOS version (plus of course the PC version), and they are great.
I will second the legends of runeterra recommendation. It's a great digital card game and unlike most it does respect your time more than the others, they've unfortunatley had to downsize it a little to focus on the PVE roguelike mode because they don't make enough money from packs, since they're too generous with them.
I feel like I should mention Peglin. It's a good port from a PC game that you buy it once and then have full access to a great game
I really enjoyed Project Highrise. It scratched the Sim Tower itch I've had since I was a kid. I think maybe there were expansions you could buy, but they weren't needed to get the full game experience.
Best worldbuilding in a video game franchise: Legend of Heroes. aka Trails series or the Japanese name: Kiseki series. Since Brandon is such a "fan" of worldbuilding, would love to hear his thoughts on this series.
Games made by "Yiotro" are insanely fun and don't have ads. There is a version of each game which is one and done to buy it but it is just an expansion of the main game.
I love monument valley. A onetime pay puzzle game that are just a few hours
Gotta checkout Animal Well. Incredibly crafted platform puzzler.
Been gaming since the '80s, never had as good an experiwith a system as I have with the Switch.
What are the oods that the one Stormlight Chapter they bring up is the one I just read, The girl who looked up.(Best Oathbringer Chapter so far btw, Loved the Lovecraftian vibe and the story within a story within a story)
A Brandon level mobile game is Inside, it is an amazing creepy vibes puzzle game
Someone tell Dan to look up Clone Hero! Also there are some fan-mande guitar controllers out there if you're willing to invest.
Was going to say the same thing. Clone hero is fantastic.
I wrote pretty much the exact same comment! Trying to use Clone Hero to learn drums atm!
if dan still has his controllers for guitar hero you can buy a dongle that'll connect to your PC for pretty cheap. I use my PS2 guitar hero controllers that I got with guitar hero 2 back in like 2005ish and they work perfectly with a cheap dongle
Is it based on GH3?
Can you play as all the characters and everything?
@@ricebix I think you can download mods for that but im not sure. When I play i just leave everything bare bones and download charts for the songs i wanna play
Assassin's creed VR is epic
Could you have the theam of an episode revolve around endings to stories? What makes a bad ending? What make a good ending? Is there an ending you think is critically good but didnt enjoy?
I can highly recommend Vampire survivors on mobile, still prefer it on the steam deck, but love it in any format, and a great developer.
Inkle has a lot of cool games, i played them on pc but they should be as fun on mobile!
I recommend the smartphone-game "Monument Valley" (and its sequels)
Guitar Hero was fun, but what killed it for me was when they removed career mode. It's a really small thing and it was super easy to enter a code and just unlock all songs for free play anyway, but having a goal other than just trying to get a higher score changed the way I played and enjoyed those games and it forced me to try out songs I might not have tried otherwise because they weren't by artist I knew or I didn't recognize the title. I only played a handfull of songs I already knew when World Tour released, I think I spent all of one weekend with the Metallica expansion and I played 5 at most a couple of times and I think there were more expansions I never got. Did try the GH Live version they did with a new guitar design, and it was fun in concept, but had the same problem of not having a career mode like the early ones and also a library of songs that just in general wasn't to my taste.
Most "real" games ive played on mobile are ports from other platforms or formats.
Through the ages, Spirit Island, and Race for the Galaxy are all great board games converted into good mobile games.
Other one is Into the Breach as someone else mentioned. Nice roguelite puzzle tactics-like game.
Also Cultist Simulator is a great game too, but quite niche. It is a discovery tableau building time management game where your run could end due to something you werent managing correctly.
6:00 I think the Guitar Hero/Rock Band Periferal-Rhythm genre had its own little video game crash, where the market was just wildly oversaturated in a very short period of time, and the bubble burst.
Between 2005 and 2010, 5 years, there were 24 games released in just the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. That's not to mention the influx of other rhythm games because of the success of those two.
Spoony bard is from 4 not 2. 4 used to be called 2 in America but now they're using the correct numbering for it since the actual 2 also exists in the US now
Clone Hero is a guitar hero clone! It works extremely well with old guitar hero guitars and such (PC only) and you can use real e-drums as well! It actually works to help you learn the drum, since many people have added songs with how you really play them on the drums, but just as a guitar hero song!
Hey Brandon, not related to video games, but I just read an article about a discovery in prime number mathematics. They used harmonic theories. Is that part of what inspired Raboniel and Navani's discoveries in Rhythm of War?
I'm doing my 2nd run through the series and just realised the Ardent that Shallan talks to in the beginning shows her something really similar to what they are doing in RoW
I'm disturbed by the lack of ice in that glass. Is that the Real Brandon, or a body double?
Hey Brandon, Dan, you should check out Exiled Kingdoms, easily the best mobile game I've played. I feel perhaps Dan would like it more with it being similar to Diablo