Transcript

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog book club. We are here to chat about files 4 and 5 of Astral Chain.

Reminder, we do go into spoilers here and there, so if you want to avoid that, start at a previous episode, play along and come back to this one once you’re caught up. So Alex file 4 kicks off with some ominous conversation between the commander Joseph and three voices on a screen in a weird, dark, isolated room.

So I would say Yosef has more to him than meets the eye.

[00:00:30] Speaker B: Yes, I think you’re right. I think there is definitely more to him. More of maybe a sinister background and he’s holding out on it.

[00:00:40] Speaker A: When you have a mad scientist or a scientist, I’ll say we didn’t know he was mad yet. When you have a scientist in a dark room talking to faceless and nameless people away from everyone else, seemingly in secret, there’s not much good that can come out of that.

Yeah, yeah. He, in this moment says that plan B in case we can’t recover all the legions, is we can become as gods. So he’s clearly lost it or has like some weird scientific understanding of how to control things.

[00:01:13] Speaker B: Who knows, we’ll have to continue on to find out.

[00:01:18] Speaker A: And dude. And then we go to the emergency briefing and Josef talks about his old assistant who just stole 20 legions legionis cores. So now we’re on the hunt for Jenna Anderson.

[00:01:33] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:01:35] Speaker A: Gotta love that they use that name because I. We will talk about it later. But I did see some parallels to the Matrix here in other ways as well.

And. But yes, okay, you kick off the mission, you have to go to the garage to continue here. And I was actually quite bummed out that they didn’t let you do another motorcycle sequence. They just show you leaving the garage and then arriving at your destination.

[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have been. It definitely would have been fun to ride and do a little bit of a sequence on the motorcycle even if you weren’t attacking anything, just to just ride up to the scene.

[00:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I’m really hoping it’s the same as at some point we’ll get another motorcycle sort of sequence. Because of that very first thing to kick off the game before you even start walking around that you get to do that. It was a lot of fun and could go for a longer version of that. Did you, after arriving, did you do the quick side quest to help another officer catch a guy in an orange jacket and a black hat?

[00:02:28] Speaker B: I did. Yes, I did.

[00:02:31] Speaker A: Yeah. He. So once you catch him, he keeps referring to this.

And while he was in the car as well. He keeps referring to this ominous group without really saying any details.

And then the fact that the car. He was being brought back to the station and was attacked and destroyed adds kind of a layer of intrigue that I’m really hoping they explore in more depth, which they haven’t yet in this episode. Unless it’s sort of connected to the overall plot. My guess is there’s some kind of mole or entire segment of corruption in the police force or government somewhere.

[00:03:05] Speaker B: Yes, I agree.

I’m sure there is.

[00:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah. There’s not much more than that to go on at this point, but I hope we keep pulling on that thread.

I also think here the little touches are fun within this game. Even though you’re a cop, you still get fined for crossing the street when it’s red.

Did that happen to you at all? Yeah, in that first kind of investigation section in the downtown there. Yeah. I accidentally. I was like, oh, I got to go over there. So I just ran through the crosswalk and it was red. By the time I got to the other side, I had a fine. It like removed some of my money.

[00:03:40] Speaker B: No, I never have. I just waited for.

[00:03:43] Speaker A: It’s not a recommended thing to do because our money is valuable, obviously, but it was cool to see it, see that detail in there. And also, you’re such an upstanding member of society that picking up and throwing away cans is something that you can actually do in this game. They coded that mechanic into here.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen a real life police officer do that in person. Maybe it’s Japan thing.

This neighborhood, though, was packed with street cans.

[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. I actually had a lot of fun just running around finding all of them, and then you kind of can just. You just throw them in coulee into the trash cans.

So I don’t know. I just. I found I was kicking one around for a little while and then.

And then I picked up all the ones that I could find. I threw away a lot.

[00:04:32] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I.

I was getting distracted by them and running off into the corner to pick up cans when someone was trying to talk to me.

Good time, you know, Just want clean streets around here.

[00:04:43] Speaker B: I know.

[00:04:44] Speaker A: Nothing wrong with that. People got to stop throwing their cans around, though. There’s trash cans everywhere.

[00:04:49] Speaker B: I know.

[00:04:52] Speaker A: Did you also do the bomb defusing sidequest file?

[00:04:58] Speaker B: Yes. Why am I trying to. Yes.

[00:05:00] Speaker A: You, like, crawl under. You crawl under some scaffolding and then climb up the stairs and then you kind of zoom over to the Side zoom over.

[00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:05:09] Speaker A: So maybe it’s just the most memorable of all the bomb sequences I’ve seen in movies, but it felt like a futuristic version of the end of Rush Hour, just with a very sad lack of Chris Tucker freaking out.

Except he would have absolutely, actually freaked out in my case, just like I did, because there were those three colored signal lines going to the bomb, and the bomb squad guy said to cut the red one first. So I ran over to the one I saw as red with the naked eye, pulled up that manual sword Legion slicing mechanic really quickly and really quickly triggered it as well. But after it was too late, I hit the button already. I realized that with the Legion out there, the signal wasn’t red anymore, it was blue.

So I had this, like, split second of intense worry that I was about to blow up and possibly lose a bunch of progress and have to go pick up a million cans again.

But it was a prank.

What a gotcha. You know, the. The streamers and confetti launching out were a great touch, though.

[00:06:08] Speaker B: Yes, it was. It was.

That happened to you too? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a. I got them all right, too. Like, I line through the right colors all quickly.

It was definitely a prank. But when it happened and it, like all the confetti and everything, and it jumps out and shoots as a prank, and I was. There was a part of me in my brain that’s just expecting little teeth chattering to go around and then the Joker to come over to camera and be like, I gotcha, bats.

[00:06:39] Speaker A: It was, I don’t know, too much Arkham. Too much time in the Arkham world, huh?

[00:06:44] Speaker B: Too much time in Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. It’s just. It was a flashback to. To all that thinking that the Joker was. Was now an astral chain.

[00:06:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that’d be a one hell of a jump there.

But I’ll welcome Mark Hamill anywhere. You know, probably a great voiceover.

I did also buy the comically extra large ice cream cone with, like, six scoops stacked on it.

[00:07:10] Speaker B: Yep, same.

[00:07:11] Speaker A: Do you got the extra large one too? Yeah, yeah. Why? Why not? Um, why not? And then the game had the audacity to not allow photo mode in that moment.

[00:07:21] Speaker B: Oh, I didn’t even.

[00:07:22] Speaker A: I wanted to take a picture of my giant ice cream, and it wouldn’t let me because the only option was to eat it.

[00:07:27] Speaker B: To eat it.

[00:07:28] Speaker A: I guess that’s normal. I guess that’s normal now. Okay, so on to Jenna. Something’s certainly not right with her since she goes Freely between the real world and the astral plane and basically just lures you over there to set you up with a wave boss fight.

Mm. And then once you get past that, you go over to investigating the Ark Mall, which we already knew from the first part of the investigation was where we needed to look anyway. Because you go through all these side quests and conversations in that downtown part of the city and you know everyone’s talking about the mall. We already know we’re going to the mall. We already do that. Kind of like that gameplay moment where you. Someone’s asking you questions and you have to answer correctly. So we already know where we’re going. But I don’t know why they had all the loop around.

But yeah, off. Off to go on a shopping spree or I guess for a crazy ghost lady.

[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah, she’s a.

Yeah. Or what they were calling her earlier was just the woman in white or ghost in white or whatever. Yeah.

[00:08:29] Speaker A: Right.

But she’s certainly got. I mean, I would say when I saw her up close for the first time, it reminded me of Kerrigan from Starcraft.

[00:08:38] Speaker B: Yep, I can see that.

[00:08:40] Speaker A: Just less bug like, I suppose. But she has that kind of typical idealistic viewpoint that developed after seeing the overly ambitious or ominous scientist Joseph doing his thing. And so I guess kind of defected over to the astral plane people. But yeah, very much seems like a Kerrigan type where she’s either partially corrupted or just convinced in the other direction.

[00:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:09:04] Speaker A: Ready to betray humanity.

Kerrigan became part of a hive mind. So I guess it’s a little different. But anyway.

Yeah, so you’re wandering through. Right. The mall has winding staircases, tight corridors, and then there’s that mini boss fight to capture the arm Legion gave me a surprisingly difficult time.

[00:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it wasn’t.

It wasn’t as easy as I. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. But you are. Yeah. You’re right though. It was definitely a little more difficult.

[00:09:34] Speaker A: It was more tricky to maneuver, I guess. Is that like I. I didn’t die to it, but the fact that it was that really kind of narrow like balcony looking area and then it had all those stun puddles all over the place. Andy had the heat seeking missiles attacking you. None of that helped. And then also on top of. Because of the narrow space, it was a lot harder to wrap our legion around.

Bind him up.

[00:09:56] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, that was a.

That was hard because I was trying to do. I like that move.

[00:10:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned it was.

[00:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it was hard to use that. So I think I used a lot of like, I would do like sort of the jump through of him where I’d have my legion on the one side and then use it as like the hop.

[00:10:14] Speaker A: The jump. Yeah. Flying.

Yeah.

[00:10:17] Speaker B: And then with my legion, the sword legion, I had out. I had the spinning.

Spinning blades.

[00:10:22] Speaker A: Oh, the spinning blades thing. Yeah, yeah, that’s. That’s a solid, solid option there. Yeah. I was using a bit of the bow or the arrow legion and a bit of the sword and kind of just mixed it up. I mean, basically it was just a long, drawn out fight for me and I kept. I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have to the. To those stun points. So I just kept walking into them and.

But you know, eventually just whittle them down and knock him out. It was kind of funny though, because he was it Jin that he picked up.

He just kind of like you don’t see it in detail, but absorbs a person and then you got the legs hanging out and I was like, man, that person’s not going to be having a good day after this if it, if he survives.

[00:11:02] Speaker B: No, not at all.

[00:11:05] Speaker A: But yeah, anyway.

And then. Okay, so you finally track down.

You track down Akira, right? Or Jenna over to the homunculus boss monster that Jenna summons. It actually did kind of remind me of the Homunculi in Fullmetal Alchemist, the anime somewhat. It has that kind of. It also has that phase where it shoots a giant laser at you out of its mouth like Godzilla and tracks you around. And then Brenda, the doctor mentions a little later that it’s not a Chimera, but something completely unheard of.

So it sounds like Jenna’s either experimenting and creating these monstrosities, or she found them in the depths of the astral plane and then tamed them somehow and tamed them.

All of this, of course, being after you see Jenna impale Akira on a giant sword and then somehow ends up surviving that.

[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yeah, not sure how he. How he survived that, but he’s alive. Yeah.

[00:12:10] Speaker A: It also.

She kind of threw him off of the sword and then he fell somewhere and I thought he just kind of like disintegrated or was sent to the astral plane. And that was like a weird astral plane, like connection sword. Anyway, he’s fine, I guess, because the next scene shows him in one of those sci fi liquid gel pods that you see in so many movies.

And then Josef and Brenda watching over him and just vaguely insinuating that they’ll be doing some experiments.

[00:12:40] Speaker B: Oh, I’m sure they’re all good experiments.

[00:12:43] Speaker A: They’re just. They gotta be great. That’s the only option, right? Only good things happen in liquid pods. And being stabbed.

Did you do the Lappy sidequest case?

[00:12:59] Speaker B: Yes, I did.

[00:13:03] Speaker A: So goofy. Just.

[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:13:07] Speaker A: Wandering around being some. Everyone’s silent therapist that doesn’t actually say anything. And then Jin takes.

[00:13:13] Speaker B: But they all act like they’re having a conversation and they understand you.

[00:13:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Which part of me thinks it’s like, yeah, that’s your character, obviously. But then at the same time, like that’s kind of how a conversation with the therapist goes sometimes. You know, it’s more listening on their end.

But yeah, they’re all like feeling like a million bucks after they have their conversation. Their one sided conversation.

Oh, well, Lapis just that infectious.

And then Jin, when you get to see Jin as Lappy down in the training room talking literally about you and Akira, but he thinks he’s talking to Marie, so he just lays it all out there about how he kind of feels incompetent and you didn’t do enough training now that your dad is gone, you know, and your character doesn’t have any reaction to it at all. Just stares blankly. But I think the best part though of this side quest was sparring with Jyn as Lappy and just slapping the dude with giant mascot hands.

[00:14:11] Speaker B: Yep. That was a lot of fun.

Yeah. Did you get him up to. I think it said like a hundred.

[00:14:19] Speaker A: No, I just didn’t think badly, to be honest. I was. I thought I was gonna have to read. I thought I was gonna have to redo it and no, it just kind of moved on. I got him to like 36 something.

It was certainly entertaining because I’m doing like these backflip. I never knew that mascot suits had so much mobility. I was doing backflips and cartwheels to dodge out of the way and then you slap them.

But yes, no, I did not win the fight. But it was super entertaining nonetheless.

[00:14:48] Speaker B: I know, I know.

Fact, like the mascot. The mascot brand, just mascots overall in Japan are such a huge thing.

Like mascots and costumes, like people wearing costumes, like, they really go all out, make them super detailed. They have like a whole.

There’s like a whole council or whatever and other steps that you have to go through. I remember seeing this on.

What was the gentleman’s name? It was a travel show in Japan with. It was on Amazon.

You know, the guy from.

He was in yes Man.

He’s in the new Jumanji movies.

He’s A redheaded guy. And if you ever saw yes man with Jim Carrey, he was Jim Carrey’s boss.

Oh, my God.

[00:15:33] Speaker A: What’s Yes Man? Are you talking about Rhys Darby?

[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yes, Rhys Darby.

[00:15:39] Speaker A: I know him from Flight of the Concords. He’s their agent. He’s hilarious.

[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yes, yes, he’s hilarious. He did a show on Amazon like years ago called Reese Darby. Does Japan or goes to Japan or something. But he does a whole episode on mascots and he makes his own mascot for New Zealand.

It’s really good.

But he does like the whole. He, like talks about the mascot culture. Yeah, it’s really funny. It’s really good. Yeah, he’s such a funny dude.

[00:16:07] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah, I’m a big fan of that guy. He was also in a bit of.

What’s it called? What we do? In the Shadows, the original mockumentary movie, not the TV series, which. Which is also great.

So if you haven’t watched the series, I absolutely recommend it.

[00:16:21] Speaker B: I need to. Yeah. The series I need to watch. I’ve seen the movie. The movie’s awesome.

[00:16:26] Speaker A: And I know you’re a fan of the IT crowd, like I am. And Matt Berry is in the TV series and he’s so good.

[00:16:33] Speaker B: Matt Berry. I know. I always see that. The way he says things, his clips and everything.

[00:16:38] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there are many seasons.

[00:16:41] Speaker B: Boston in New York City. So exciting.

[00:16:45] Speaker A: So funny. Gotta get on that. Yeah, yeah. There was one that we just couldn’t stop repeating after we saw. It was just. He was just really into his own zone and trying to ignore everyone and just says, yes, yes, very good. Thank you.

He’s such a. Yeah, yeah, he’s great. He’s also not in this game, though.

[00:17:06] Speaker B: No, I know that’s unfortunate.

[00:17:09] Speaker A: But yeah, you know, lappy side quest. Give me some more. I want to slap some people. Actually. Let me.

[00:17:14] Speaker B: Let.

[00:17:14] Speaker A: Let me take it out into the field.

[00:17:17] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, that would be fun. Actually, I. That would be.

I wonder if, like, if you beat the game, you know, like one of

[00:17:25] Speaker A: the unlocks like that unlocks an armor set that’s lappy.

[00:17:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Of lappy. And you can wear it out and

[00:17:30] Speaker A: about doing it and you don’t get to use your. Your weapons and whatnot. So. Yeah, it’s probably like a hard mode. Like a.

Or joke hard mode.

[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s like your weapons are equipped, but instead it just like. It’s like if it’s on the pistol, it’s like just shooting out of your paw.

Like you don’t see the weapon itself,

[00:17:50] Speaker A: but it’s just some people already know this. If it doesn’t exist, we should petition to Platinum Games.

[00:17:57] Speaker B: Yeah, they make a second one.

[00:17:58] Speaker A: Definitely have Lappy actually make the sequel entirely playing as Lappy.

Yeah, these are great ideas. This will definitely. The Lappy Diaries.

Yeah, I was going to say the Lappy Chronicles. So we’re on.

[00:18:11] Speaker B: Oh, the Lappy Chronicles. That works too. Yeah.

[00:18:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Good luck. Not happening.

So, okay, so you move on to the next file after this. And you arrive at the super futuristic Aegis Research Institute where Brenda is letting you visit Akira.

Not entirely sure how your twin survived that giant sword still, but. Oh, well, you just got to kind of suspend disbelief for this one, I guess.

And after seeing him, we have to deal with a couple fetch quests before we get the urgent call to help Alicia at Harmony Square with an unexpected chimera problem. If you ask me, most of these chimera problems are very expected considering the world we’re living in here. But, you know, no one’s ever ready, I guess.

[00:18:56] Speaker B: No, the. The. The Aegis Research Institute. When we went in there, for some reason, I just was getting little flashbacks of the asylum and other things in Silent Hill. I was like thinking like, the future

[00:19:09] Speaker A: asylum, you know, like, yeah, maybe this is the origin point that then becomes the futuristic Silent Hill, which I don’t think is a thing they’re ever going to explore because they’ve nailed their market

[00:19:22] Speaker B: with anything of those, like, research institute type things. It’s. It gives me Silent Hill slash Resident Evil vibes.

[00:19:30] Speaker A: Creepy hospital, creepy large building with lots of.

[00:19:32] Speaker B: Even though everyone’s. It’s. The lights are on, everyone seems fine and normal, except for a couple people who had.

[00:19:39] Speaker A: Today. You know, when you’ve got Josef at the helm, you never know.

[00:19:44] Speaker B: Who knows?

[00:19:45] Speaker A: Maybe tomorrow. It is Silent hill, Silent Hill 10 Astral Plane.

But yeah, so, you know, you hop on the helicopter and head back.

[00:19:57] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:19:58] Speaker A: And I think there’s a couple things you can do. There’s like a drone, you know, getting. There’s a couple side quests that are inconsequential. I just do them anyway for the extra experience.

[00:20:10] Speaker B: I did something with the drone. I, like, just took out the drone immediately. Now I can’t remember how I did it.

[00:20:15] Speaker A: Well, there’s. So there’s the drone. It was a drone.

[00:20:18] Speaker B: I don’t think.

[00:20:18] Speaker A: I don’t know if you destroyed. There’s a drone where the guy is not supposed to be taking photos or something, but he wants to be famous. And there was another guy that, like, stole someone’s Purse. I don’t know, nothing important.

But you go down into the subway, and despite the fact that kind of saving the civilians in the subway is basically an escort quest, the fact that we have our legions and we can use them to fight outside of our own attacks and control them while they do, it creates a really nice twist on the types of situations in other games where you have to fend off enemies to protect someone. Bravo there, Platinum. It really actually was like, I’m enjoying an escort quest. It’s very brief.

[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:20:57] Speaker A: So that’s fine. But it kind of. It puts a little handcuff on you not being able to attack with your own weapons. So you just kind of flex your Legion abilities at this point. And it was fun. It was cool. It was different.

But just don’t overstay your welcome, please. Like, you walk really slow when you got someone over your shoulder.

[00:21:15] Speaker B: Yeah, you do. There. There was a part when those. They first started with the escort quest, like, and I start walking and I’m like, I can’t drop this person. And my brain didn’t even think about my Legion for a second. I’m like, how am I supposed to attack? Like, I can’t. I highly doubt you can, like, walk in a pattern to, like, make them miss you. And then I was like, oh, wait. And then, yeah, I threw my Legion out and I just kind of.

This is where I was trying to get better with using the two sticks of controlling me walking and the Legion at a time. And I was trying to.

[00:21:44] Speaker A: Great moment for the Legion. Almost a forced moment for it where

[00:21:48] Speaker B: I could get the legion to wrap up multiple enemies and then attack while I was like, sort of walking away,

[00:21:55] Speaker A: it was a little bit harder to control. Have you unlocked on any of your legions the skill that lets you auto wrap all the enemies?

[00:22:03] Speaker B: I had just unlocked it at the end of this.

[00:22:09] Speaker A: Ah, okay.

[00:22:10] Speaker B: So I’m. I’m. I don’t know. I’m bad. I know you can probably do it midway through, like a mission. I’m bad. I like. Once I finish the file, I go in and I do all the adjustments.

[00:22:20] Speaker A: All your adjustments? Yeah, Yeah. I also had that kind of memory block or mental block on thinking, like, because I think, like, okay, HQ is where I, like, upgrade my weapons and change the outfit and kind of just set up for the next file.

So I absolutely get where you’re coming from there. But then when I was in the. What was it, the Research Institute, and I was like, wait a minute, I’m not actually fighting anything. I forgot that I didn’t do this after the last one. And I went and pumped all the points across the three legions at a time so that that skill comes. Will come in handy if you haven’t used it much.

[00:22:55] Speaker B: I think I have it on too. I think I have it on. I have it on the sword and I threw it on. I might have thrown it on the arms armor as well.

[00:23:04] Speaker A: Yeah, so.

And yeah, so, like, once you. Once you save the civilians from the smoke in the subway tunnels, and then, you know Alicia’s been pinned down by some of the dog enemies, you finally, like, free her and then continue working through your way through the subway, and then you have to chase down Deimos the skull fireball through the subway and then fight him in a big room.

And like, just, wow. I could not get up close to this guy to save my life.

[00:23:34] Speaker B: No, neither could I. I actually almost died. I came very close to dying a couple times on this one. I had to really use some. Some medic.

[00:23:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I keep forgetting that I didn’t use medicine, so I. Yeah, I didn’t die either. But yeah, I got to, like, I don’t know, a third of my health left, and I was like, oh, yeah, all right, let me heal.

[00:23:54] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:23:56] Speaker A: But yeah, it was just.

It was too close. Like, if I was trying to fight him, melee, he would either run away or it was too close to read his attack cues well enough to not get scorched.

So I. After banging my head against the wall and having to heal, I just decided, all right, time for the Arrow Legion and the gun.

[00:24:17] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:24:18] Speaker A: Despite the fact that the gun really doesn’t do that much damage. But I just fought him long range the whole time, so. But I did, as a boss, I really enjoyed it. It was a really cool design, and it had a. Interesting attack pattern. You know, it had lots of almost what I would call called bullet hell dodging to perform, which I always tend to enjoy.

So, like, the boss fight itself was great, once you figure out what you need to do to take him down.

[00:24:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it was.

[00:24:49] Speaker A: And then almost immediately, right, you, the beast Nemesis shows up and tackles you and drags you into the astral plane for a boss fight, which was literally

[00:25:00] Speaker B: like, back to back.

[00:25:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a no breather. You get a tiny cutscene, time to fight again. And it’s not just a normal enemy, it’s a boss with minions. So he’s got his minion dogs. Makes it more complicated, but I guess I dispatched them fairly easily. I was using the Arm Legion kind of as that bruiser of swords to fight him. I was like, I should probably use the sword just because it’s so fast. But I just thought, there’s so many guys. I’m just going to wail on him with a giant set of fifth.

[00:25:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s not bad. I used. I used definitely the sword. I used the bow a bit to kind of.

Because it could either be one shot or pretty much two shots. Like the little.

Yeah. His little sidekicks. And then for him. Yeah, for him, I definitely use more the sword of. Again, the flailing sword. And then for the arrow, I have whatever it is where he unattaches and he does, like, a massive.

[00:25:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I haven’t that one. I got one where you can. Where he’ll launch arrows along the entire line of your chain, which is. Yeah, cool for groups, but not all that useful in most situations, especially if they’re moving around.

[00:26:12] Speaker B: Exactly. It’s hard to, like, get it perfectly right.

[00:26:15] Speaker A: I’m gonna unequip that and swap it out for something else at some point.

But, yeah, so you gotta chain up the Beast and get a new Legion and gotta love it just for the ability to ride it.

[00:26:28] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:26:30] Speaker A: So cool. And so much faster than the relatively slow sprint that your character has.

And yeah, on top of that, I did find it interesting. This is the only of the four that we have, this is the first Legion that isn’t floating.

[00:26:47] Speaker B: True. Yeah.

[00:26:50] Speaker A: I was like, okay, there’s some of those floating red matters to clean up. I’m just gonna, you know, put the Legion out there and pick him up. And then it kind of, like falls off the edge and I. Oh, I gotta swap. I also did find, though, in some of those kind of sprinting across the red tiles, segments of the astral plane here, that he runs so fast that, like, pulling corners is fine. He runs so fast, though, and doesn’t stop on a dime.

[00:27:15] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:27:15] Speaker A: And so I fell off, like, five times.

[00:27:17] Speaker B: Oh, I fell off a lot. Especially right when I first got on him. It is very sensitive. The sensitivity of, like, turning slightly or just moving one way. Yeah, it was extremely sensitive. And I found myself. I fell off a few times also with, like, dodging across. There were times where, like, I’d try and dodge one way, but it didn’t dodge that way. And then I just fell through because of the platform. Yeah, but. Yeah, but it took me a little bit to get used to it.

[00:27:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I’m still not fully used to it. The ringer right after you get this thing. But I think it will become pretty useful overall. And Almost like as an extra dodge mechanic. In some ways, not as good as your actual dodge, but you can run away from something if it’s about to hit you with a big attack.

Yeah.

And then. Yeah. Okay, so after this, you know, you. You catch up to Jenna after you do another fetch quest for the drone, who you find out is named Hal and is actually part of the hacking team, the technology team of the police force.

[00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah, he just. He’s a work from home guy.

[00:28:22] Speaker A: Yeah, he’s a work from home, always guy, which just like me. Yeah. And you go through that whatever fetch quest.

Then Jenna reveals that everything in the astral plane is actually something from our normal world.

People, animals, buildings, things, et cetera. Reformatted for whatever this weird entity’s purpose is. It’s just a storage unit. She says they just want to recycle our world and make us extinct in order to do some spring cleaning.

Very matrixy. You know, not that exact application, but the fact that it’s all, you know, taking something and making fake out of something, fake out of it. She also says that, you know, your power is not the blessing that we think it is and to be careful around Yosef. Our suspicions are becoming more and more interesting. And while I don’t think we’ll end up having Jenna as an ally necessarily, I wouldn’t be surprised if we kind of at least slightly veer in. In the direction of, I don’t know, uncovering more of the mystery, at least.

Especially with how hacking the card that she gave us and we’ll see.

[00:29:29] Speaker B: Yeah.

But, yeah, very randomly, Jenna is. She’s a pop singer, right?

Was that her background?

[00:29:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I suppose. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t know what that connection was there. Was that. That. Whether it was a side quest or someone that saw her that thought she was a pop singer, but then also she worked for Yosef for a long time, so I don’t know. I don’t know where the connection is. Like, if she just looks like a pop singer or if she’s done both and has, like a dual life or. Beats me.

[00:30:00] Speaker B: It just came up. It came up a couple times and, like, yeah, I’m just remembering conversations.

[00:30:04] Speaker A: I am curious about that, too. Is that actually true or is it just people making things up?

But, yeah, you know, Josef is definitely a mad scientist. Just wants to experiment and probably couldn’t care less what happens at the end of the day. As long as he has more knowledge or power. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s. If not the final boss, but one of the final kind of rounds of bosses before the ending.

Or it could be Jenna. I don’t know.

There’s. There’s lots of options here.

[00:30:36] Speaker B: Yeah, there could be another option, but

[00:30:39] Speaker A: I think maybe there’s something even more celestial, astral or that’s kind of pulling the strings in the background, which is probably true too. But yeah, I’m really curious about the truth bombs that are going to come out of that kind of digital card that she handed to you, which I guess we’ll find out about next time.

[00:30:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we will.

I hope so in file six and six.

[00:31:01] Speaker A: And I hope so. And if not, we’ll find it out hopefully by the end of the game. Maybe they just. Just gave you a cliffhanger with nothing to go on, but yeah. So now that we have four legions and a fifth slot left to unlock, do you have any favorites forming or are you more situational?

[00:31:22] Speaker B: Probably more situational. I mean, I usually have my Sword Legion out mainly when I’m running around. Like, I think he’s. Because I know he’s the one I have more upgraded.

So yeah, the Sword Legion is definitely the one I have out more and like, I use more. He also is the only one that can do like, you know, you see the people who are affected by the astral plane.

So he can do like the.

Whatever they can pull it off of them and make them feel better.

I don’t know. I will say probably out of the four right now, I. I definitely think the first two, I haven’t used the Arm Legion as much.

I like the bow a lot, but I, I definitely. And the dog will be useful. I just got to get used to riding and dodging.

[00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Figuring out how to control.

[00:32:17] Speaker B: But yeah, I think the. The sword for me is. Yeah, it’s still my top legion because I like the special attack of the flinging around with the blades out.

[00:32:25] Speaker A: And yeah, the other thing too is that, you know, obviously it was the first one you get, so most likely it’s more advanced in the skill tree because it had more money to spend on just that one for a while.

So that’s the case for me at least. But I’ve been trying to just force myself to use other ones a lot too. I think this play session, I’ve used the arm a lot ever since I unlocked him and then the arrow. Like I. I like bows in video games, so I like using the, you know, the L.

The L button, kind of pull up a bow and manually aim thing. So I suppose I’ve used a bit of that, but he’s seems like he’s a little less powerful in the general attack, like when he’s attacking by himself.

[00:33:05] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:33:07] Speaker A: But yeah, I think it’s probably just a matter of like, how much can you expand out each character’s. Each Legion’s skill tree and then, you know, at that point really define a favorite.

[00:33:16] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And after last time you said just money wise, like I sold a whole bunch of the junk stuff and I always now sell the junk stuff and I’ve upgraded both the Legionitis or whatever it is.

[00:33:29] Speaker A: I don’t know.

[00:33:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Legionis and never pay attention to

[00:33:33] Speaker A: that when I read it.

[00:33:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they’re either, both level four or one’s level four and five. Or both five. Yeah. Like I have. I’ve leveled them up a good amount to do more attack power and then be able to have my Legion out for a longer period of time and faster re. Recharges faster as well. So.

[00:33:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, you know, I guess so. Yeah, I know already. Obviously at this point, because we saw in the intro area where your dad was using the. I think it’s the axe. It looks like a giant sword in the icon that it gives you, but I think it’s called the Axe.

I’m. I think that might end up being my favorite as a giant heavy weapon, but I guess we’ll see what the kind of additional skill sets it gives you are.

[00:34:20] Speaker B: That’ll be interesting to see when we

[00:34:21] Speaker A: get that one, which I’m presuming is going to be either in, you know, one of the next few files, if not the next one, just because it seems they’ve been seen to be unlocking them at a set Eclipse for us, which at that point, I guess it’s just mastering the skills and not. Not so much like, oh, here’s a new toy to play with. Here’s a new toy to play with.

[00:34:41] Speaker B: Exactly.

[00:34:45] Speaker A: Well, listeners, we are curious about what your favorite legions are as well, and what your suggested or favorite skill sets are like, which skills have you unlocked and are they useful?

[00:34:57] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.

Definitely want to know.

[00:35:02] Speaker A: So for next time, our goal is to play through files six and seven, so knock those out and obviously complete as many blue and red cases as you feel like while you’re going through it. Save and quit and hang on for the next time. Just don’t start up file 8 yet.

[00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I will say quickly, I. I actually got a lot of. I think I got all the blue like files or cases done for both. I think I did.

[00:35:31] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, you know, I. Oh, I don’t know. I don’t remember file four, but for file five, I did all of it.

[00:35:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I did for file 4 as well. And then for file for the red cases, I missed a few, but not nearly as many as I’d missed in a previous one.

I was definitely more.

[00:35:48] Speaker A: Yeah, no, more like thorough in the investigation.

[00:35:51] Speaker B: Yeah, more thorough, I think, because I figured it out.

[00:35:54] Speaker A: You know what, though? I think. I think part of it too, though, I think in some of the older ones, actually. I don’t know. I’m curious if the ability that getting all the legions unlocked and then going back and replaying levels allows you to get to the full cases set and like, we just haven’t had access to the areas before.

[00:36:15] Speaker B: True. Yeah.

[00:36:16] Speaker A: Don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, maybe they did have access and I just didn’t look around enough, but I guess we’ll find out.

I mean, I’m not trying to be a completionist in this game, but I do enjoy, you know, having more money basically, to unlock more things. So.

[00:36:28] Speaker B: Unlock more skills.

[00:36:30] Speaker A: That just means your combat skill set expands and all that. So, yeah. Enjoying it so far?

[00:36:36] Speaker B: Yes, definitely. So, yeah. So thank you everyone for listening. Yeah. Follow us along on the next section of files 6 and 7. And yeah, can’t wait to talk to you guys about it then. So enjoy. Thanks.

If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of native games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club Podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music, or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram account under the same name. Thanks.