Ep. 330 - Squadala

show
1

Ep. 330 - Squadala

Frank, Tim and Brandon share their thoughts on Akira Toriyama, the genres that defined consoles, and CD-i memories. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Tim Rogers, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

P1wxfk0
P1wxfk01400×1400 185 KB

Questions this week:
1. Let’s discuss Akira Toriyama’s impact on art, culture, video games, and us personally (08:03)
2. What’s the most common misconception about video games in 2024? (23:05)
3. Based on a dream I had, should I learn magic, or Magic: the Gathering? (31:04)
4. LeFish: Are there any videogames based on works in other media that have been led by their original creators? (37:10)
5. Which game consoles do you most closely associate with particular video game genres? (43:51)

Recommendations and Outro (01:02:04)

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:
Brandon: if you thought the pontification on religion and human nature in Prometheus (2012) was bad check out the deleted scenes to see how much worse it could have been, DAFENCII
Frank: Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

This week’s Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you.

Subscribe: RSS, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and more!

2

{“sticky”:true}

3

The Wachowskis picked the developer for Enter the Matrix, conceptualised the broad direction of the game and wrote the story, filmed a ton of footage on the set with actors from the movies and opened their own motion capture studios and actors to the developers; it’s about as close as someone from a different medium could reasonably get to “leading” a game of that scale, I suppose.

The sequel, Path of Neo, was basically just a greatest-hits of scenes from the movies, but it does include a lot of silly and on-the-nose deviations specifically written and/or insisted upon by the Wachowskis.

4

Brandon's audio is crackling in the recording. Thought my speakers were goin bad.

5

Harlan Ellison was heavily involved with the development of ”I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”. He is credited as a designer. He wrote the game’s script and all. As I understand it, David Sears took that script and translated those characters’ stories for their respective levels.

Serendipitously, the game is currently on sale for $1.49 until March 21st on Steam.

6

and he did the VO for AM too

7

Definitely the argument could be made that, however late in the life it came, Gameboy is the ubiquitous Pokémon Machine

Was Tim’s purposeful mistake this episode saying that there’s only One 3D Zelda on Gameuhcube?

8

@zako the heck?? Is it? I used the same setup as always. Uh oh.

9

@exodus maybe crackling is not the right term but it’s like… high frequency clicking? You can hear it at the start of 3:15 for example.

10

@zako yeah, I hear it. it’s bad!! what the heck is up with that.

11

I like the “follow instructions while having fun” definition of video games. It does make them sound kind of like building Lego sets from instructions. I like that connection.

I wonder if something like Steven Spielberg’s Director’s Chair (1996) qualifies in one of two ways:
1. Spielberg made a film for a game, and they adapted the film to work with the game.
2. The game focuses on the act, similar to the Penn and Teller game being focused on an act. The act here is making a film.

12

Good episode!

My Akira Toriyama with games moment was when i used to play M.U.G.E.N. with lots of Dragon Ball characters
usually against another anime series.

Thanks to Dragon Ball i learned how to make my own mixtapes with a tape recorder, download M.U.G.E.N. characters, what a GIF is, bootleg anime VHS, fanfic, fanart, got into anime as todler and so many things.

13

@treefroggy To give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he sees Twilight Princess as a Wii game.

Video Game misconception: Video games are made by men for men and boys

14

Regarding my audio, apparently I need to get a new cable, maybe? Will do some testing when I'm not at GDC anymore. sorry about the crackling everyone!

15

Make sure you get a good one, gold makes it sound better, especially if it’s a fiber optics cable

16

@Gaagaagiins If you would like us to get gold cables please consider increasing your donation to patreon.com/insertcredit

17

when i was a little kid and saw how krillin learned to fly by channeling his ki, i legitimately thought i could do it too if i tried hard enough so i would sit outside in meditation.

this is also around the age i thought i could make a marshmallow by feeling a glass of milk before microwaving it.

18

don’t fall for Tim’s propaganda

19

the squadala bit is perfect, because I was getting steadily more irrationally angry at the weird sound I couldn‘t identify, then right at the end I get blasted with the full context to close the gestalt.

This also gives you a freebie for next week’s apology.

20

I don’t know if he’s on the money in saying Horii will/should retire following Dragon Quest XII, but Tim’s idea to get a new mangaka-in-residence for the Dragon Quest series is what I think they should do, too.

Although, I don’t know if this is what he was thinking of exactly, but, I really think what Dragon Quest really deserves is a complete visual aesthetic overhaul. Even if arguably they’ve already kinda been doing this in a lot of ways and in even more places than Dragon Quest, and even though the team and style guide he left behind are probably capable of doing this pretty convincingly, it would be really sad if all they did for the future of Dragon Quest was keep making the games in a Zombie Toriyama style. I mean, lots of famous artists who don’t seem to work in collaborative media, and not even just including those whose style is found across many different artistic and entertainment media, have assistants and production teams and whatnot. I would guess that perhaps even most “non-collaborative” artists who are household names probably do. But, yeah. They don’t usually die in the middle of continuing to leave their mark on culture… which is perhaps why it would be so sad for them to keep doing it just like they have been.

So, why not something at least more or less new? There are surely a handful of mangaka who would be more than capable of taking on that particular honour, someone who could thread a delicate balance between paying homage to the original design sensibilities, while bringing a fresh and new visual style to the entire universe of Dragon Quest. And, I mean, wouldn’t it honour his legacy even more for there to be a new artist in the seat, able to make a name for themselves in the same way Toriyama did when lending his style to Dragon Quest? I doubt anyone expects anyone to do as iconic a leap in quality and charm as Toriyama did when he first designed the Slime monster, but, hey, you never know!

I do disagree with Tim on the pick, though. Oda is an incredible talent but I think his style is a bit too madcap. Dragon Quest has a bit too much focus–a focus I think I’ll identify as fluffy high-ish fantasy–and I think it would mean confining him too much for the results to be interesting. But, maybe Dragon Quest doesn’t need to have as much focus, visually speaking, to be good. I just don’t know…

I wonder who would be the ideal candidate? I’ll admit to falling for recency bias here, but I can’t help but imagine a Dragon Quest game brought to life by Ryoko Kui of Delicious in Dungeon. She’s certainly got the high fantasy chops, and is quite capable of getting fluffy too.