Giant Bombcast 764: Empathy and Stuff

Love how @jeffgrubb 's daughter is playing Spider-Man in the background and just swims the whole time :D

LOL grubbs kid is obsessed with those low poly characters on boats on the outskirts of spider-man ps4 i bet

God. Xenosaga. What a fucking game. What other game can you play where reality is being destroyed by intangible monsters from the realm of imaginary numbers that can only be destroyed by robot Mary Magdalen and Space Jesus in disguise?

It's a shame that the series kind of petered out. The drop in quality from 1 to 2 was pretty extreme, not the least because they badly recast the voice of KOS-MOS. I'd love to know some of the behind-the-scenes things that went on during the development of those games.

@therealturk: I think I remember the initial goal to be a six-part series, and the first game sold nowhere near its expectations. I liked two a lot but it did feel like it had trouble getting to the fireworks factory. I was a much bigger fan of 3, which was a hyper-condensed version of the original plan for 5 and 6. I wish I could go back in time with an infinite money bag so I could let the series reach its full potential.

Danny DeVito and Jeff Bakalar CES Foot Segment

@frankiebeanz: 9 YEARS AGO

Oh man I would love a Pentiment spoiler cast. Grubb convinced me this episode to download it on game pass and I can't wait to get into it.

Can we please drop the weekly guests and have Jess and/or Dan back as permanent bombcast members?

PS2 era was when I got absolutely consumed with the MegaTen/SMT universe of games. What a crazy list of bangers:

• Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
• Persona 3 & 4
• Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2
• Devil Summoner 1 & 2

Been wanting a DDS remake for ages as I think it is quickly becoming the forgotten gem of the greater MegaTen franchise. Get on it Atlus.

I am here for Jan fighting for Immortality. My wife and I loved it and it's definitely high in my top ten for the year.

@jerf You're Dr. Hockey around here...just embrace it.

Did Jan say "We are expecting" when pressured about not bying the Espresso machine?

It would be great if Grubb didn't say stuff like "butthurt" in 2022. Frustrating pattern.

Man, Jan and Michael really seem to like Desus and Mero huh?

Does anyone at Giant Bomb know or understand that one of the main reasons the PS5 had a price hike everywhere *except* the US was currency rates? Every time they talk about it, it's framed as "Sony wants more money" which, while true because what corporation doesn't want more money, does not tell the whole story. The US Dollar has remained strong, while most other major currencies ESPECIALLY the Japanese Yen have collapsed this year. If you converted $500 USD into the other currencies at the time of the price hike, you would've seen that the new prices were pretty close to $500 USD.

@peffy: Well, it's an odd-numbered Playstation console, so that's their narrative surrounding Sony and they're sticking to it.

PS2 and PS4: "We Love Sony!"

PS3 and PS5: "Here we go again! It's arrogant, greedy Sony!"

That, or it's damning Sony with faint praise or holding them to a different standard.

Not coincidentally, I've noticed this attitude largely in North American gamers old enough to recall or have lived through the 360 / PS3 era of gaming, where the 360 was the most culturally popular console.

If Nintendo had to survive under the same scrutiny Sony gets...? "Fahgettaboudit!"

Disney *wishes* they owned people's childhood and nostalgia like Nintendo does. Nintendo could stab someone and their victim would apologize to Nintendo's knife... while asking when the next Mario, Zelda, or Pokemon game was coming out.

Re: Pentiment and Game Pass

You'd think Game Pass was the second-coming of the STEAM Press Account.

I'm sorry, Grubb, but let's not paint Microsoft as some benevolent patron of the arts with regards to Pentiment, when the truth is Game Pass is desperate for content--any content... like the gluttonous No-Face Monster from Spirited Away--to keep their subscription service from appearing stagnant.

It's fuckin' Obsidian and Josh Sawyer! The people who made Fallout: New Vegas (widely regarded as the best Fallout game, despite how Bethesda fucked them on dev time), Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds.

Obsidian is a beloved developer with generations of PC gamers and fans of "Bethesda" style games, all of whom are desperate for more of the same, as seen by how wildly successful their Kickstarters were.

At this rate, Phil Spencer needs to be sending them a dollar for every impromptu advertisement.

@herrfrog: I believe so...

I hope someone in the community makes some fanart of Jan and Jess superimposed over the bodies of Goku and Vegeta powering up, with Immortality’s title screen or something in the background.

Jan, I don't mean to shatter your dreams, but Pokemon Conquest (the Pokemon tactics game) is extremely simple and pared-back compared to other tactics games, so I dunno if it's gonna whet your whistle.

The Mystery Dungeon games, though?

@nameredacted: not to deflate your point, but Josh Sawyer himself literally stated that the only reason Pentiment exists is Game Pass. Almost precisely in those words.

"I never would have proposed making Pentiment without Game Pass. Like, I literally just wouldn't have done it. I just don't think it would have been possible."