Ep. 344 - The Bait & Switch, with Ash Parrish

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Ep. 344 - The Bait & Switch, with Ash Parrish

Journalist Ash Parrish of The Verge joins Frank and Jaffe for Nintendo Direct thoughts, Elden Ring as a retelling of Inuyasha, and playersexual companions. Plus, why Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is so important, by Patrick Miller. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi and Ash Parrish. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

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Questions this week:

  1. Frank: Talk about video game recompilation efforts (05:58)
  2. Let’s go over the Nintendo Direct (15:39)
    Insert Credit Presents: Why Marvel vs. Capcom 2 Is So Important, by Patrick Miller (25:57)
  3. In video games with romanceable NPCs, should you as a player be unrestricted from pursuing any character regardless of gender or sexuality? (34:33)
  4. Please explain the lore of Elden Ring to me. You have 6 minutes. (41:33)
    Insert Credit Quick Break: Mannequin Deposit by The Houseflies (47:25)
  5. Aaron Pickus: If you were working in a rental store, what games would you intentionally place in the wrong cases to give renters a different experience? (48:47)
  6. Are esports good? (55:04)

LIGHTNING ROUND: New Robot Masters (01:04:56)

Recommendations and Outro (01:09:13)

A SMALL SELECTION OF THINGS REFERENCED:

Recommendations:
Ash: Fund independent news
Frank: Become a reader again, Indika
Jaffe: 52 Pickup, The House in Fata Morgana

This week’s Insert Credit Show is brought to you by Mannequin Deposit by The Houseflies, and patrons like you. Thank you.

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Episode starts at the ad on Apple Podcasts @esper

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Should be fixed now, you may need to delete and redownload it. If there’s any further issues, you can listen here or on the website, or on YouTube tomorrow. apologies, and thanks for the heads up!

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I worked at a bar in 2019, and distinctly remember an NHL Esports tournament broadcasting on cable during one of my shifts. I thought it was really cool, and was amused by the old men who were visibly annoyed by video games being on their “channel for actual sports.”

I think it was on ESPN2 or ESPN3, but I can’t say for sure!

(It’s also just as likely that whoever had the remote that day flipped to ESPN Esports, unaware of what was going to be aired on that channel.)

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Patrick Miller’s ode to MvC2 deserves a Spoken Word Grammy nomination or something.

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Elden Ring suddenly makes a lot more sense when seen as a similar plot to Inuyasha

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Really liked this episode, specially @pattheflip piece.
I don’t really play many competitive games, but i LOVE watching them, mostly fighting games!

Excited to see how the MvC2 goes!

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Thank you for bringing back Ash! Ash is the best thing since Mario 2 US.

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I stopped watching The Acolyte so my only current non-anime shows are The Boys and House of the Dragon. Both are strong candidates for worst show I’m currently watching. I’ll give the edge to dragon house because at least The Boys used to be a great show and is only recently truly mired in time wasting nonsense

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enjoyed the passionate monologue about Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Also want to point out another great thing about this collection. It includes The Punisher arcade. It’s a beat em up, not a fighitng game, and it’s fantastic. One of the best ever made. Better than Capcom’s more famous D&D and Alien vs. Predator IMO. Other than a crappy old Genesis port and being part of an Arcade1up cabinet I don’t think it’s ever seen a home release.

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when has a video game character not being technically “romanceable” ever stopped a motivated gamer?

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If you want to understand post-Demon’s Souls FromSoft just read Berserk. All the Souls stuff is there. And it’s also one of the best manga ever written, so itll be more fun than lore videos.

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I’m so glad that Ash also thought it was a Marvel Taskmaster show. Made me feel seen.

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If you decide to Read Stuff and are on an iOS device (maybe exists on other platforms but idk) I cannot overstate how essential “reader view” is. It literally rips out all this mid scroll ad bs that even a Times article will put in front of you, and just give you the text. Next to the url field on safari, many sites can be “switched to reader view.” I’m tellin you, give it a try and you won’t go back.

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I looked up some music from The House Flies and really enjoyed it. Then after about ten minutes I realized I was listening to the 1970’s folk band The Horse Flies. Autocorrect strikes again!

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Another pharmacist who loves Nier? That makes 2 of us!

I guess I’ll have to play Fata Morgana.

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Along the same lines, I would recommend anyone use the Pocket app for reading and keeping track of what you want to read. I’ve been using it for years, and it’s very handy. Sometimes it’s a little screwy with formatting, but not most of the time.

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maybe it’s because my house is too hot (it is) or maybe just because i’m a bit of a wreck lately (i am) but patrick miller brought a tear to my eye there. it was beautiful and tragic and expert. the opposite, i’m afraid, of calling dragon quest “generic.” it’s dragon quest’s genes that are in everything else!

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Dragon Quest is great. I played the original 4 “Dragon Warrior” titles on NES when I was a kid.

But it is generic. Or rather I should say it’s vanilla. All the other JRPGs build off of what Dragon Quest accomplished, but DQ itself doesn’t have a strong identity to differentiate itself from its competitors, at least in the West. DQ is almost the opposite of Final Fantasy, which is constantly innovating/changing. DQ is comfort food for people who grew up with DQ. In Japan, that’s a lot of people. In the West, it ain’t.

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