Endurance Run Candidates Require More Than Just Humor Potential

PLEASE DO NOT START A FLAME WAR!  Let's discuss this topic constructively and with maturity and respect for everyone's right to express their opinion. 

First of all, the Persona 4: Endurance Run is what brought me to this website in the first place and why I stuck around to check out the other content, learn how talented and likable the Giant Bomb Crew  are, and why I eventually became a member and daily visitor.  Second, I never even knew who Atlus was before I saw Jeff and Vinny's Persona 4:Endurance Run, but now I own NINE of their games and they have become one of my favorite developers whom I watch very closely for new announcements, trailers, interviews, and game releases. 

Strong Opinion of Which Many May Disagree:

The DP:ER is not even in the same league as the Persona 4: Endurance Run for me.  The obvious reason being that Persona 4 is a great game, is hilarious on its own, has a great story, awesome characters and voice acting, awesome music, and more importantly is a blast to play, while Deadly Premonition is a pretty awful game by today's standards despite a few humorous moments which is just not enough to earn its way into my library of games.

The thing is, Deadly Premonition was presented by the same talented and funny crew times two, who did the best with the material they had to work with, but this game could in no way stand on its own and even watching the DP:ER did not make me want to play the game, even if it was free (I sampled both versions).  I simply cannot bring myself to wade through Deadly Premonition's horrible game-play just for a few funny moments. Maybe there are just too many high quality shooters out there that spoiled me.  Regardless, there is Too much time invested in Deadly Premonition's weak game-play for too little pay off.  Persona 4 received a spotlight and Atlus gained a loyal fan and enthusiastic customer, Giant Bomb gained a regular member, and Whiskey Media gained a regular visitor for this and their other websites like "Tested dot com".  On the other hand, Deadly Premonition received the same spotlight to gain a less than favorable reaction and nothing else from me.

I think that an Endurance Run Candidate needs to have more than just humor potential to be very successful, specifically, the game HAS to at least look like it's fun to play in order to get my vote, keep my interest, and eventual gaming dollars.  To elaborate, I offer the fact that a game could have no story, no relate-able characters, no voice acting, and/or no humorous moments, yet I will play or even watch for hours because it is fun (small example: Pac Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Street Fighter, Punch Out, Civilization, Sim City, their descendants and many many more).  On the other hand, if the game has very funny moments sprinkled throughout a 20 to 40 hour game, yet is NOT fun to play, I wouldn't go any where near it.  Again, too much time investment for too little pay off.  I couldn't even watch more than a few Deadly Premonition: Endurance Run episodes before losing interest and even after watching a DP:ER highlight video my opinion of the game only worsened.  The game needs to have great humor potential AND be fun to play.

In that case, the next Endurance Run should probably be Nuts & Bolts. It may not be a proper BT follow-up, but I see some potential in it for an Endurance Run.

No game, no matter what, is ever going to touch on the appeal that the original Endurance Run had. It had a sort of seat-of-your-pants, hey you guys why don't we do this crazy thing?-vibe to it. Any subsequent ER will lack that. It'll feel less like we're along for the ride and moreso like we are just spectators.

Yeah I haven't liked the new Endurance Run either tbh, but I actually do want to play Deadly Premonition. Not for the gameplay, but for the story that is the basis of the Endurance Run. I also don't think they should have two sets of people playing the same game. 
 
Either way, I've still watched about 10 episodes and at some point I'll have probably watched them all. It's just not really my cup of tea. Others seem to be really loving it though.

Hey guys let's make a list of candidates. Maybe we should give it a crazy numbers scheme too. We could make a list of maybe 108 of them?

I agree on a lot of your points. I love DP, but this ER was definitely a level below the P4 ER.

That said, I think people are looking back at the P4 ER with rose colored glasses. There were numerous episodes in the first ER that almost nothing funny happened, and they just grinded out 3 levels of a dungeon while Vinny and Jeff talked about what games they have been playing. Obviously that is something you are going to have when you are playing a game that is 100 hours long, but to counter your point, there were absolutely parts of P4 that looked like they were absolute shit to play, like the hours of grinding, aimlessly wandering around the sections of town talking to everyone, hoping to trigger the story progression. Both games have their faults.

I think the whole point of the ER is to play weird, off the beaten path, games that most people on this site would never ever see in a store, and DP fit that mold perfectly. In an ideal world the game would be a bit longer so the ER lasted more than a month or two, but I think DP wrapped up in the right amount of time.

"  @Ham08:  Wait, what? You think the guys at Whiskey Media owe you now for watching the Persona 4 endurance somehow and that now gives you the right to dictate the content? Do you even realize the enormous irony behind the Deadly Premonition Endurance Run? The guys intentionally played it so you don't have to. Not because they wanted to promote it as the best game ever, but because of the gut-busting hilarious pointlessness of it. And, funnily enough, they have actually enjoyed themselves having had no expectations other than "this game is meant to be horrendous". But wait, you don't know that because you didn't watch the episodes.And too much time invested? Ex-squeeze me, but how much time did Persona 4 eat up? Over a hundred episodes that were about an hour long, no? Whereas the Endurance Run has totaled maybe 80 episodes altogether at an average of 30/40 minutes each? Do you have a calculator there? "

You misunderstood what I was saying. I mentioned the Atlus, Giant Bomb, and Whiskey Media positive gain to support my argument that an Endurance Run Candidate requires more than just humor potential to be very successful.

Correction, I did watch a few episodes of each version of the DP:ER, until i was bored to tears and lost interest.  I wanted to love it or even just like it.

The difference between DP and P4 is that it was miserable to watch the DP game-play, while fun to watch the Persona 4 game-play.

I loved the DP ER :'(

" @dudeglove said:

"  @Ham08:  Wait, what? You think the guys at Whiskey Media owe you now for watching the Persona 4 endurance somehow and that now gives you the right to dictate the content? Do you even realize the enormous irony behind the Deadly Premonition Endurance Run? The guys intentionally played it so you don't have to. Not because they wanted to promote it as the best game ever, but because of the gut-busting hilarious pointlessness of it. And, funnily enough, they have actually enjoyed themselves having had no expectations other than "this game is meant to be horrendous". But wait, you don't know that because you didn't watch the episodes.And too much time invested? Ex-squeeze me, but how much time did Persona 4 eat up? Over a hundred episodes that were about an hour long, no? Whereas the Endurance Run has totaled maybe 80 episodes altogether at an average of 30/40 minutes each? Do you have a calculator there? "

You misunderstood what I was saying. I mentioned the Atlus, Giant Bomb, and Whiskey Media positive gain to support my argument that an Endurance Run Candidate requires more than just humor potential to be very successful.

Correction, I did watch a few episodes of each version of the DP:ER, until i was bored to tears and lost interest.  I wanted to love it or even just like it.

The difference between DP and P4 is that it was miserable to watch the DP game-play, while fun to watch the Persona 4 game-play.

"

"

I agree on a lot of your points. I love DP, but this ER was definitely a level below the P4 ER.

That said, I think people are looking back at the P4 ER with rose colored glasses. There were numerous episodes in the first ER that almost nothing funny happened, and they just grinded out 3 levels of a dungeon while Vinny and Jeff talked about what games they have been playing. Obviously that is something you are going to have when you are playing a game that is 100 hours long, but to counter your point, there were absolutely parts of P4 that looked like they were absolute shit to play, like the hours of grinding, aimlessly wandering around the sections of town talking to everyone, hoping to trigger the story progression. Both games have their faults.

I think the whole point of the ER is to play weird, off the beaten path, games that most people on this site would never ever see in a store, and DP fit that mold perfectly. In an ideal world the game would be a bit longer so the ER lasted more than a month or two, but I think DP wrapped up in the right amount of time.

"

Just want to say that I think you're completely wrong about this. Plus DP's story > P4's Story.
 
I loved both ERs for different reasons.

" @sixghost:I enjoyed the combat because of the artwork and animations of the many personas.  There were a few battles that were quite tense, including when they beat Yukiko's boss despite the enormous odds against them, or when Chie reflected almost 2000 physical damage followed by her awesome double kick critical on that high defense robot for an amazing victory. "

That's a pretty weird reason to enjoy it. The boss fights were always fun to watch, but those accounted for maybe 1% of the total dungeon gameplay. The Yukiko boss fight was awesome, but most of the other bosses, and just about every normal mob was pretty boring to watch.  That ER was still awesome though. 

I think this "problem" is inherent to what the ER is. If the game they were playing had an amazing story, awesome gameplay, etc, they wouldn't be doing an ER of it because it would be selling like crazy. 

" In that case, the next Endurance Run should probably be Nuts & Bolts. It may not be a proper BT follow-up, but I see some potential in it for an Endurance Run. "

I like how there's always a topic about the Endurance Run, about games they should do next, and people always start with suggesting games that fit the formula as mud fits a piece of bread.

To people considering gameplay bits of DP annoying - I suggest you rewatch the hilarious P4 ER episodes that consisted only of senseless grinding and (con)fusing. Like when they did that hour-long episode, just to get killed by a random Hama. That bit was funny and memorable. Only.

I'm one of those people that actually liked the Deadly Premonition endurance run, I even played the game. Deadly Premonition has a certain charm that only a select bunch of people would really appreciate. That actually goes the same for the Persona 4 endurance run, Not everybody liked it. 
 
It's an endurance run for everybody, if you pop out of it because you can't handle watching it anymore, that's your call. You shouldn't have to get worked up because They weren't convincing you to buy the game. If you watched something like Mystery science theatre 3000 how many of those movies would you actually buy for yourself?
 
You found something out of Persona 4 that you liked and you convinced yourself that Atlus was amazing. The Deadly premonition Endurance Run doesn't even break close to 50, and your this upset?
 
Not everything Giant bomb does has to be a winner for everybody. : /

Personally the story of Deadly Premonition has been better then Persona 4's story.  I think Persona 4 was easier to joke about, but not as much fun to watch the combat.

Good points, but I am not upset.  I brought the topic up in order to elicit some good discussion which might improve the next list of ER candidates and eventual choice.

On-Topic, I have to admit that I watch quite a few "Let's Play" videos even of games that I already own most recently Red Dead Redemption which has no funny moments but great game-play, mostly of games that I am undecided on, however.

Alright, you heard it here first; Pac-Man Championship Edition Endurance Run.  Confirmed.
 
 
For the record; the combat in P4 was only interesting until they figured it out.  And then only when something new would be added (Chie's Galactic Punt, bosses, a new enemy type in a new dungeon).

The Endurance Run Candidates have a very specific set of requirements:  (P4 and Deadly  Premonition Spoilers ahead)  

DP ER was good, but nothing can hope to touch the magic that was persona 4 ER. As with a lot of things the first time is always special.

I think we should wait til persona 5 for the next one, even if it means missing a year.

Good comment.  You are most probably right. Nostalgia or the proverbial "Rose Colored Glasses" have a significant impact on my opinion. 

@davidwitten22:

I agree.  They should have done two separate games.

As someone who had a blast watching through each and every Endurance Run episode that's been posted, I have to say that it's impossible to claim that the Deadly Premonition runs haven't been as good or as worthwhile as the Persona 4 run.  Sure, Deadly Premonition doesn't have any appeal for you, and you aren't going to be buying a copy for yourself or playing through, but plenty of other people watched the Endurance Run and saw a weird, clunky, oddly charming budget game with an above-par story and some great characters.
You didn't know about Atlus before you saw the first Endurance Run, and I doubt most people knew about Swery before the Deadly Premonition run.  I can't speak for them, but if I had to guess, I'd say a lot of people are going to pay attention the next time a game with his name on it is released, and as far as I'm concerned, that's as much as anyone can really ask for out of them.

" @Ham08:  And what, pray tell, counts as a 'successful' Endurance Run? How many turns a battle takes? The amount of "power of friendship!" dialogue? Or simply your opinion? If it's the latter then you've missed the point: the Endurance Runs aren't there to solely engage you, it's just to play the damn game and is part of Giant Bomb's style of content. The Deadly Premonition run was not aimed at alienating you from the site altogether, nor does GB want you to buy the game.
 
It's likely that not everyone wants to watch TANG, while others might find the QLs a waste of their time and would rather have the video reviews. In fact, TANG is a wonderful example - Ryan watches a whole bunch of shitty movies, again, so you don't have to. But you can't please everyone. I get that the intention of your thread is (I hope) trying to ask all of us that we should suggest what we think the next Endurance Run should be, but your original post was written in such a hamfisted manner that it comes off as a rant wailing against the fact that Giant Bomb allegedly invested too much time - to your mind at least - in playing Deadly Premonition. But they haven't - they literally started last month and they're already done. Persona 4 started in February of last year, and only ended in September! "

Well, that's the point of the thread. Let's discuss what makes a "successful Endurance Run". The DP:ER did not alienate me from Giant Bomb.

Anyway, Good points. But, I don't know how you took my post so negatively. I feel like it may have something to do with my writing a strong opinion that you strongly disagreed with? Maybe?

" DP ER was good, but nothing can hope to touch the magic that was persona 4 ER. As with a lot of things the first time is always special. "

I agree, whole heartedly.

@Make_Me_Mad:
Excellent comment.

" @Ham08:  
riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. 
So what you're saying is that You didn't like DP Endurance run, and couldn't watch it due to the, admittedly, bad action segments...but you loved the P4 ER because..well, because you liked the game.Thus, you've come on here to say why you didn't like it and why they should pick games more carefully next time...and then try and elicit some games. okay  thats fair enough..to a degree..but  the community has JACK SHIT to do with what game is selected for the ER. Its down to the guys of what they want to play/not want to play, and what they think has the most comic potential. All these threads about the next ER are completely pointless. If i was Jeff et al, I'd be pissed at all the people who, after just slogging through one game, want a new game...and want to tell us what we play.  They create content for the site because they want to and they enjoy it, not because users bitch about it. Just be happy (or not in your case) that they even bother to do these things, or finish them.  I swear (and its not really you I'm directing this too) that the community think that the GBers HAVE to do ERs. They don't. Its just something they do when the right game comes along. "

I only watched the P4 ER because I was undecided if I wanted to buy it. I got hooked, finished it (I came here after it was over), and bought P4.  
 
However, the DP ER literally put me to sleep on several occasions. Maybe it's the art style, maybe it's the RPG fan in me hating TPS's, or maybe it's the overall detached hatred the entire crew seems to have for the game (I dunno about Ryan or Brad actually, I didn't want to have to listen to Ryan)? I dunno, eitgher way, something sits really wrong with me the part of the DP ER.   
 
/opinion

"The Endurance Run Candidates have a very specific set of requirements:  (P4 and Deadly  Premonition Spoilers ahead)  

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

It must involve a murder investigation An other worldly being must be the main culprit behind the murders
A corrupted police officer must be manipulated into actually committing the murders to deflect any suspicion of the true mastermind. It must have women who cook poorly
And most importantly, crossdressing

 Unfortunately, it may be awhile until they find another game that meets the requirements. "

You're wrong. P4's story is far more contrived, DP's is layered. At the end of P4 they're just like "we need more levels so tweest". Not cohesive. DP has a better story and both are boring to watch during combat portions.

Another crappy JRPG.

The persona ER was great but i never finished it, i can't justify spending hours a day watching another person play a game. 

Let Jacob decide, he usually gets it right.