8-4 Play: 4/1/2016: FUN AND FANCY XV

Are these guys part of Giantbomb?

Lies, the real DS3 guy would be giving a thumbs up.

No. 8-4 is a games localization company based in Japan. The reason their podcast is hosted on the site is because they're former games journalists at 1up and EGM and are friends with the GB guys. When 1up shut down the podcast needed a new home, and Giant Bomb was that.

Those Irasutoya-san hashtag(s) have been producing some really great stuff these past few weeks.

Setsuna of The Last Blade fame?

People in San Francisco were whining endlessly about Trump? In San Francisco? Shocking.

wow at 1:23:00 there are still people annoyed about FF 13 coming out on xbox 360 7 years later...

Would it surprise you that people are still mad that FF 7 came out on a Sony console?

Love these guys and this cast!

Also, question, do they all speak Japanese fluently? I would assume so since they all work for a localization company, but just curious.

Not everyone in SF hates Trump. Maybe they should step out of their bubble a little bit.

@kendoebi I believe they all do, and sometimes serve as live translators (mentioned in the episode).

The Xbox360 being responsible for FFXIII's linear design is one of the wackier theories I've heard.

is Hiroko not on the podcast anymore? Haven't heard the podcast in years and coming back for FF15 talk.

She had a kid within... I dunno, the last 6 months maybe? Something like that. Anyway, she hasn't really been on since then.

Pretty wacky when it's very clear that Square are just reactionary when it comes to their design choices even as far back as VIII. On XII they didn't get much support for the open world design so they changed it back to the X linear path although without the ability to backtrack, when they got the backlash for this they made XIII-2 which had some diverging paths. Their decisions are so transparent and reactionary that it looks so ridiculous when something else is suggested.

This.
I fell off 8-4 Play over a year ago for no real reason and this was my first one since. If I wanted to listen to people -- who don't even currently live here at that -- fanning themselves over Trump instead of discussing Japan, games, and Japanese games I'd just watch the news.

Plenty of rich candidates ran for president, but we see billionaires win elections in deeply troubled countries, like the Ukraine. Hence the worldwide concern.

There is nothing valuable or intelligent one can say about a candidate personally, it is a failure of the system that election debates are so personality driven. Aren't they merely representatives, after all? As a consequence elections are won by charismatic face-men. Interesting political discussion that deals with the intricacies of influence, economic cause and effect, solutions for the various challenges are completely drowned out by a base desire to attack candidates (ad hominem).

Even folks who know better are tempted and encouraged by the media to sink to this lowest level of discourse, judging other people.

I suspect political debate is fine (even though its often a taboo subject at family gatherings, say), as long as it isn't about personalities.

Yeah, they really went for it with the sensational theories and opinions in this episode. Maybe it's just Mark's absence making it more obvious since he's good at holding people's feet to the fire about their crazy shit.

I don't believe so. JJ and John definitely do, but I don't think Mark is fluent. On some podcasts I've heard JJ explaining what a Japanese word is for Mark.

He just wants to, like, educate the kids and, like, make them smart like their friends. Sorry, but all that and the '"well it's not really a spoiler" but of course it is because I had to preface my statements with that line' forced me to skip this episode.

what version of 'stand by me' was that at the beginning?

soundhound identified it as the original.

8-4 Drinking Game - Dante Must Die mode: Take a shot every time that one dude mentions his son by name.

FFXIII wasn't that bad guys, get over it.

@quicklier: Agreed, Mark really makes the 8-4 podcast. I like the whole crew but he really provides a sense of cohesion that is sorely missed when he's absent. I feel the same way about Jeff and the Bombcast. They both need the "Old Man's" guiding hand.