Patreon/SubscribeStar Exclusive Podcast: Ep.5

Dakota Winston

Mike It’s so funny how much you dislike the Shinra connection of FFX to FFVII. I absolutely understand your argument as the deep story lover and author that you are, and I completely agree with your explanation on how it’s stupid and probably why they did it, and I’m sure you’re right. Totally respect you and that perspective completely. On the other hand, and I too am a writer of sorts and an artist in my own various mediums, as an FF fanboy I was straight up like “Oh HellyeaH that’s badass! How cool!” Hahaha….it’s nice to enjoy stuff like that too. Totally get you though and of course you are correct, there’s no thematic reasoning for it.

For me too the story and the difficulty take really off about the middle and after it accelerate a lot

Toni Gröndahl

I just watched last months podcast where you talked about movie directors. I'm not a big movie geek myself, but I really enjoy korean director Park Chan-Wook. He directed Old Boy and a few years back The Handmaiden which is my favorite movie. Any thoughts on him?

I think you can ask Casen and he will confirm: this game does have the tone and dramatic weight to it unlike other DQs. Said moments would have excelled even further had Eleven not been a silent protagonist...but the game story's tone and dramatic weight definitely came present to me once you learn about the old man. Trying not to spoil, lol. Just ask Casen. This is the only DQ game that blew me away and it was really once you get more of the full/true story of the game which is around and after that point. :p

Resonant Arc

It's hard to remember where I left off. I don't remember that much about the story, to be honest. It's a really great game but just isn't in my wheelhouse in terms of tone/nuance/dramatic weight, etc.--which is the case with all the DQ games for me. The last thing I remember is taking over a ship and sailing it around to do some exploring.

Sucks to hear that you dropped DQ11S. As I mentioned before to you it was the first time I fell in love with a DQ game. Others I saw why some people may like some of them but I was frustrated that I didn't have the same feelings; DQ11S was the breakout for me. One quick question though: did you at least get to the part where the old man joins your party? There are so many amazing scenes due to his story.

If you're looking for a really good foreign-language movie director, I really enjoy the films by Andrey Zvyagintsev. His latest films Leviathan and Loveless are outstanding (though I will warn you that they are rather depressing as well). My all-time favourite movie though is the German film, The Lives of Others. And I agree with Mike. I don't mind the fact that rewatching a film or whatever isn't the same as watching it the first time. To me, "what?" happens in a story is not as interesting as "how?" or even "why?" it happens.